After Nokia X6, there is also going to be another high-class smartphone available in South Korea soon. KT, the second largest phone carrier in South Korea, will sell the phone, but unfortunately we do not know anything about the price yet. KT says Nexus One will be available both online and through various retailers.

KT also offers iPhone in South Korea, so it's not an untested market. Since November 2009, it sold an incredible 732.000 units of iPhones. Comparing the sales in the US, Nexus One will probably not be so popular in the Asian country, but you never know what can happen.

You probably already know Nexus One runs Android 2.2 (and it's the first smartphone out there which got it), is powered up by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, packs 512 MB DRAM and has an 800x480 display. The storage capacity is big, 512 MB internal memory and 4 GB included on slot, expandable until 32.

Via 

After Google announced they will close their online store, we didn't heard too much about when Nexus One will be available, but the smartphone may be available at a third-party store, T-Mobile partner, called iWireless. This seems to be one of the first outlets in US selling Nexus One. The price is $299.95 after a rebate and a two-year deal. This is a good deal in my opinion, deal in which you can also purchase the T-Mobile compatible device and use it however you want.

We don't know if AT&T or T-Mobile will sell the phone on their own websites too, but at least now we're sure Google will shut down the online store for sure. 

Source: PhAndroid

Today Google announced they will offer the same free turn-by-turn Google Maps in more countries from now on. If you want to use it outside UK or US, now you can if you live in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. That's more than only two countries, isn't it?

Google Maps Navigation is an online GPS navigation system with voice output and is available starting Androi 1.6. The application uses the smartphone's internet connection to get accurate turn-by-turn indications. Many shops and different places were updated, petrol stations are also on the maps and there's also street view available. There's also car dock available for various handsets. 

Some of the countries will also have voice search available, such as Germany, Canada, France, Italy and Spain. Other developments are expected soon, with Google declaring more than once they want to fully cover the whole Europe (with street view too) in a two-year time. Half of it already passed and as we can see, Google continued the good work they've started with Google Maps. Let's see which are the next countries that will get the Google Maps activation.

Via Engadget

We announced some time ago that Google Nexus One will be available in South Korea soon. The Android 2.2 powered device is now available through KT, the second largest mobile phone carrier in Korea. By giving Android 2.2 a go, they allowed every user to enjoy the latest features, including Adobe Flash 10.1 support, a faster web browser and enhanced voice recognition, which is available in many languages, including Korean.

Starting from today there are going to be 4000 devices available at the carrier. This doesn't seem to be too much, but the online retailers will also sell Google Nexus through their stores starting Monday and will offer the phone with around $577 off-contract. Anyway, it's weird Android 2.2 is available in a country like Korea when the newest operating system is not available in bigger consumer countries. Google announced there will not be too much to wait for the update to come in most of the countries. Maybe all of them?

Via Unwired View

TELUS, the Canadian phone carrier, will release the Nexus One soon. Tipsters say that there will be a promo offer Nexus One will be offered with. The promotional price plan will offer the phone with less money than the $529 we heard about when the phone was released back in March. After Google announced they will stop selling Nexus One online many carriers wanted to sell their mobile, including TELUS. The smartphone will probably be available in more plans. If the official price of Google is $529, then the price at TELUS for the off-contract version is probably being around the same fee.

Buying the phone with a three-year deal will be $99.99. With the two-year contract there will be around $250 and with the one-year contract there will be a $499.99 fee.

Google Nexus One is Google's first smartphone, running Android 2.1 Eclair and manufactured by HTC Corporation. It is powered up by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon ARM processor, has a 512MB flash memory on a microSD card with a 4GB card included. It can hold up to 32GB. It packs 512MB DRAM, has a 800x480 pixels display, 3.7 inchWVGA with AMOLED screen. The camera is a 5.0MP with video capabilities and packs Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi and aGPS.

Via MobileSyrup

Google's answer to Apple's iTunes isn't tipped to be as succesful as Jobs' online market, but it can create a bit of competitiveness. Google Music may actually be released soon, by this fall. The service was shown off at Google G/O. It supports Android integration and will be able to send songs directly to you handset. Google Music will also allow users to stream stored media libraries to their devices. Not impressive. Well, they will be able to do that without even syncing between devices. That's another thing. Impressive!

Google is looking beyond smartphones to create a music retails outlet. I am sure the music industry is pleased with Google's move, because the domination of iTunes stagnated in the marketplace. We now want to see if Google will also launch a software for desktop of this Google Music, as iTunes already is, and it remains to be seen if Google willl be able to stop iTunes' domination.

Via PhAndroid

Google Nexus One was pretty catchy since its release, but it seems this is going to be the last device from Google, as the American giant isn't planning on releasing another smartphone. Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, announced today they've decided not to produce the rumored Google Nexus Two. The reason? Well, they said they have achieved everything they wanted with the first Nexus, so that's why there isn't going to be a second one. 

"The idea a year and a half ago was to do the Nexus One to try to move the phone platform hardware business forward. It clearly did. It was so successful, we didn't have to do a second one", stated Schmidt. They congratulated themselves and stopped the possibility to release a Nexus Two.

Anyway, there are many users out there who think sooner or later there is going to be another Android device from Google, but they can't say anything about it. If it's going to be another device from Google, then they really know how to keep a secret.

Via MobileCrunch

We talked about Google shutting down their online store but they do not stop pushing for it yet. The Android based smartphone will be available in France at SFR, which is a division of Vodafone. The smartphone can be bought in France from their website. You will have to pay around 130 euro on a one-year contract. If you want the smartphone to be able to use any network you will have to spend around 420 euro.

The handheld device will be available from 25th May at SFR and is suggested Vodafone's franchise will be the only one able to sell Nexus One in France for half a year.

Source: PhAndroid

The conflict between Apple and Adobe is well known in the world of online & IT. Well, it seems Adobe didn't accepted to be thrown out from the stage and allied with Google to take on Steve Jobs' success. The next version of Android, 2.2, will also offer Flash support. After the update, many spreaded smartphones will run Android 2.2, as HTC Evo, Droid, Nexus One, and this may be a hit for Apple's business. At the upgrade the user will be welcomed by a link where he can find all the websites that are featuring Flash 10.1. South Park Studios, BBC, Google Finance and Miniclip are among them.

Android 2.2, codename "Froyo", is based on Linux Kernel 2.6.32 and is said it will improve a lot the machine's speed, will introduce USB tethering and WiFi hotspot functionality and will also have support of Application Installation to Memory Card. It's not known yet the official date of the release, but we think it will appear in the third or fourth quarter of this year. 

Source: TechCrunch

This January, when Google released Nexus One, they've also introduced to the market a mobile phone store, where you could have buyed this smartphone from. You could have picked the phone, the plan and mix between every option. The user didn't had to do many things for buying the Nexus One. It seems now the phone was not such a revolution because many producers preffered other models, as HTC or iPhone.

Producers as Verizon Communications didn't liked to give up control and decided not to sell Google's smartphone. Because of this and other companies, the mobile phone seems more a flop than a market-breaking release. It's obvious users like to see and control the phone by hand before buying it. When you buy a book or an HDD you don't need to, but buying a mobile phone (especially one that can cost more than $500 unlocked) is an important investition and you may need to research and compare a lot before taking a decision. 

Google's online mobile store was not a good idea and they know it. Maybe know more companies will agree to sell Nexus One and the phone will spread around, but I've never seen Google as a good mobile phone producer. I don't really think they can match Sony Ericsson, Blackberry or Nokia and this is definitely in their disadvantage.

Source: TechCrunch

At the start of the year Eric Schmidt (CEO Google Inc.) announced that his company alongside its hardware partners reached the 60.000 milestone of daily shipments. This doesn't sound too bad, does it? This month the chairman declared at the shareholders meeting that Android is getting way better in charts, by impressingly growing with 8% in three months. Google and Android are shipping now around units 65.000 per day. Their growth is good, but the question is if when will Google be able to ship per day as much as Apple does (around 96.000 units per day).

Eric Schmidt didn't declared what shipped means, as shipped could mean sold, but could also mean built and distributed in stores. Anyway, even if he would have meant the second, this is still very good for Android because distributors don't buy if they don't sell. Probably most of those 65.000 units are also sold.

Source: MobileCrunch

If you don't have a device using Android 2.2 and use Google Chrome on your computer (exactly my situation), then Chrome-to-phone is a cool application that you would like to use. This is actually a feature of the Android 2.2 more than an application, but for older operating system it will be an application developed by LinkPush. The app lets you introduce on your phone what you're viewing on your computer using Chrome.  

For the application to work you will have to install a Chrome Extension and an Android Application. LinkPush is the combination of those two and, in order to work, as I said before, both of them have to be installed.

There are also some bugs on the application, unfortunately. The app only takes the current URL and directs it to your phone, so don't expect to go exactly in the place you've been on your computer. There are also some issues with Google Maps. The app wasn't able to open the same map viewed on the computer, giving an error saying: "Unable to load the URL".

Via MobileCrunch

Google held an event today at their headquarters to show off the new Android operating system, codenamed Honeycomb 3.0. Few demos on the stage for the new OS were not enough for the guests, as Android engineering director Chris Yerga walks on the stage to show another new feature: the Android Market Webstore, which can be easily found here.

Android applications can now be purchased from the Android Market Webstore, while up to now the applications could only have been bought via a mobile phone running Google's operating system.

Social media integration works well with the new Android Market, with users being able to share links to apps on Twitter. The market is now fully live, though in the beginning users could not log in. If you're running Android you should take a look at it.