Gphone Revealed! But Not To You (GOOG)
Still, NPR's Andrea Seabrook says Google's Andy Rubin has given her a glimpse of Android running on a handset that "Google has not shown... to anyone before." Cool! What's it like? She won't tell you, she says. That's the deal she's struck with Google.
Embargoes and sneak peeks are (unfortunately) standard operating procedure in gadgetland, so hard to fault Andrea for playing along. Still, it means she can't do much in this report other than recycle old news: Android will run lots of apps! It will let you make phone calls -- while using the apps! It will run on a 3G network! It will feature a version of Google Street View! (Referred to here by Rubin as Google "Street Feet".)
And, Andrea says, Android will let you play video games: "Not just the dinky ones either, but the really cool ones, with lots of fancy graphics." Intrigued? Listen in here.
The real story is that Google has lost the interest of developers who are now flocking to the iPhone SDK. Rubin (the guy who runs Android at Google) is smart enough to see this and is turning up the "we are an open platform" rhetoric. It is the only card he has to play. A consumer listening to Rubin's description of Android will just yawn (or laugh). Nothing new or exciting. And fighting MSFT, RIMM, AAPL while attempting to run on hardware and networks it has no control over....yeah that is going to work. It is fascinating to watch Google as it realizes its entry into the mobile market will be a flop.
The other story here is Alleyinsider. Again they create a deceptive headline to lure readership. Guess they have to to get paid.