It's official: Google launches the Nexus One

Just minutes ago, Google officially christened the Nexus One with a list of the phone's features. The Nexus One is the company's first foray into the Android hardware market, and Google is hailing its handset — which it built with HTC — as the "next evolution of Android," and is categorizing it as a "superphone." Up front, we'd say the craziest thing the Nexus One has going for it is the fact that Google has enabled voice control for any text field. That means, if you want, you could forgo the virtual keyboard for a 'voice keyboard,' which will allow you to dictate to the phone, perform searches and give commands.

The Nexus One has an 3.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels (which is plenty crisp for a screen of that size), a speedy 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a 5MP camera with an LED flash and it's got two mics: one on the front and another on the back, which work together to eliminate background noise. It's also got plenty of bells and whistles under the hood that app developers will be able to take advantage of, such as light and proximity sensors, a compass, GPS and an accelerometer.

It's running Eclair, Android 2.1, the latest version of the mobile OS, so it'll be able to take advantage of all the apps and widgets you'd enjoy on another handset such as the Droid. Google has beefed up the phone's interface, though. You'll control it with a multicolor virtual trackpad, and the Nexus One will offer 3D, interactive wallpapers and an improved app store interface. Google Earth is also on the phone — and compatible with the voice search functionality — and thanks to the Nexus One's 3D framework, you can perform fly-arounds, as if you're flying over the three-dimensional terrain.

So is it an iPhone-killer as Google hopes? Only sales will tell. Here's something Google has on Apple, however: you can buy a $530 unlocked Nexus One straight from Google's new webstore, which the company plans to expand to include other Android handsets. Or you can get the Nexus One for $180 with a T-Mobile contract today, with Verizon and Vodafone planning to carry the phone later this spring.

[DVICE via Nexus One, via Gizmodo and Engadget]

Nexus One support site at Google is up, sorta [Nexus One]

On a daily test of the GPhone support site at Google I just noticed something changed. It's not the same as yesterAny, it's not nice looking as well. I guess Nexus One is officially starting to start today.

Go to http://www.google.com/support/phone to see for yourselves. The Logo links to a not yet implemented Android site.

Couple new Google Phone Nexus One photos

Ah, crisp, high resolution display.

Thin is in, compared to what seems like the G1.

[BGR]

Gallery of Nexus One Pics Arrives

Engadget scored themselves a nice bounty this morning with nearly a dozen photos of the Nexus One standing still. Nothing too super new here, just more confirmation of what we’ve already heard. You’ll see that the background appears to be dynamic with moving colors that move around. A button at the bottom of the screen brings previews of all (5) home screens in a look that mimics Palm’s webOS cards. The app tray also picks up a 3D effect which is definitely the attention to detail that we like!

[AndroidGuys via Engadget]

LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty" [Rumors]

According to a trusted source who's seen it with their own eyes, the Google Phone 'is a certainty.'
And by 'Google Phone' we don't simply mean another Android headset. We're talking about Google-branded hardware running a version of Android we haven't yet seen.
Over the next few weeks, Google Phones (most probably in early, prototype form) will flood the Mountain View campus. They'll don large LCDs while running a new version of Android—either Flan or the version of Android beyond it—which our source spotted running on Google's handset as well as a laptop. (Whatever the software was, it most certainly wasn't Chrome OS, we were assured.)
But maybe the most intriguing bit is what someone said to our source offhandedly, that the current Android, the we all know and love, is not the 'real' Android. So what makes for a 'real' version of Android?
Our best guess is an Android OS with Google Voice at its heart.
[Gizmodo]