According to this article from ElectricPig, T-Mobile initially had plans of upgrading the OS for its lineup of Android phones by May. And it is already June, and we have no signs of it at all. The initial plans read:-

The HTC Hero / T-Mobile G2 was supposed to get the Android roll out by end of April to beginning of May, which is yet to happen. The T-mobile pulse mini gets the Android 2.1 flavour on April 23 expectedly, and Samsung Galaxy Portal in late May.

Now since, Hero is still yet to see the Eclair roll-out, are we expecting Galaxy Portal’s rollout to be postponed till eternity as well? Also, 3′s launched Galaxy Portal as well in the UK, and from what I’ve heard, all of them run Android 2.1 out of the box.

And seriously, why not let us jump to Froyo straightaway. By the time we are trying to catch up with 2.1, feels like we are obsolete all over again. Thanks T-Mobile, much love.

[ P.S. I tweeted T-Mobile UK asking about the Eclair rollout, no replies yet, and I am sure they will not be replying either].

I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Portal with T-Mobile UK. This is a pretty decent smartphone and is known as the Galaxy Spica worldwide. Now, like other Android phones that Samsung has released so far, this one also sports Android 1.5 Cupcake. While, we keep waiting for the OS to be updated to the now-so-popular Android 2.1 Eclair as seen on the Nexus One, some bloggers have released some scoop on the hacked upgrade to Android 2.1

Whilst this may not be truly official, the results are more than welcome. But then again, would I want to go that route. Still waiting with bated breathe over the official upgrade news. Samsung did release a press release stating that Germany will be getting an official upgrade to 2.1 for the Galaxy Spica, and the rest of Europe will follow soon.

There’s something bugging me in the press release though. It mentions that the official update can be done from Samsung’s New PC Studio 7. I have searched and searched and then some more for the software. The version of the PC Studio that came with my phone is 1.3. And all I could find on Samsung’s mobile website is Kies, or an older version of the PC Studio. This is no good.

It is already the end of March, and no websites or blogs have any news from Germany being able to upgrade their Galaxy Spica to the latest version.

If you have a Galaxy Spica, have you got your OS upgraded to 2.1 yet? Please comment.

The 30 odd minutes or so that I got to play around with the Google Nexus One of a friend were one of the fastest 30 minutes on earth. I spent those most precious 30 minutes having a proper run-through the UI, the phones hardware and software and most importantly comparing it with the market leader and benchmark -iPhone 3GS. In this post, we’ll just keep it to what we thought of the Google Nexus One as a phone which stands up for itself.

Screen: Awesome and bright OLED capacitive touchscreen flaunting a 800X480 resolution. The size of the screen is 3.5″ which is a bit smaller than the Droid’s 3.7″. But the OLED means brighter pictures and lesser power consuming – hence longer battery life.

Although the overall design is essentially HTC, the aesthetics of the hardware are appealing. Very curvy and smoothened edges and the back feels non-plasticky, which is always a plus point.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz Processor which translates to smooth transitions in browsing through apps on the phone, better handling of any app and overall smooth experience.

The 5MP camera is not a perfect one, certainly not a replacement for your point-and-shoot camera. The LED Flash is handy for taking images under dark light, but do not expect excellent picture quality. But to be fair, we have not seen any mobile phone camera powerful enough to replicate the picture quality of a dedicated camera. Under proper lighted conditions, the camera performed well.

The latest Android 2.1 on the Nexus One hasn’t been seen on any other Android based phone, and would require much more exploring to find out its full potential.

We’ll be comparing the Nexus One with the Apple iPhone very soon in a future post. Until then,  shout out in the comments what you think about the Nexus One.

For all the people who have craving for an Android Phone, but still holding back due to unwilligness to shell out megabucks on the Motorola Milestone or the new Google Nexus One, here’s some good news. Unlike HTC’s smaller screen HTC Tatoo, or T-mobile Pulse, LG’s newly launched LG InTouch GW620 is just right for your pocket. Similar to other smartphones of the Android genre, it has a 3 inch touchscreen with QWERTY keyboard.

The customised Android interface sports a social-networking app called Linkbook, which integrates Facebook and Twitter accounts. The Android build is an earlier one [possibly Android 1.5 or 1.6] and hence, does not support Flash [but well, you can root it]. Other goodies included are the 3.5mm jack, Wi-Fi, 5MP camera and Micro-SD slot to increase the storage space and most importantly, an HSDPA internet.

The pricing revealed are quite attractive too. The phone comes for free with T-mobile 24 month contract at £20 a month -unlimited data. But the best deal is with Virgin Media -18 month contract at £18 a month -unlimited text and data.

Certainly a good buy for entry-level smartphone buyers. No news on the specifications of the phone such as screen type -capacitive or resistive and Android Marketplace support.

On the pro side, this phone has some awesome features of its own which is completely different from the Android 2.0 version it houses. The UI is absolutely different, and on-screen widgets and a very Palm Pre Web-OS-esque card view task manager. The applications menu is definitely inspired by the Apple iPhone, although the icons are all circular.

The homescreen brings forward an array of options for contacting your contacts – via. a mobile call, email, IM or text in a pretty flower design.

The accessory that houses the keyboard is a dock for charging and is ideal for making conference calls. It has dual cameras ideal for video chats, and the rear one is a 3mp.

It also has a Snapdragon Processor similar to the Google Nexus One.

On the down side, this phone does not support Android’s marketplace.

No news about the international date of launch in the US,UK or anywhere else. Currently, Lenovo plans to launch it first in China.

Have a look at the Crunchgear CES hands on video after the jump and get ready to be impressed. And also a bonus video courtesy Mobileburn. Also lots of LePhone glamour photos for your viewing pleasure.

CrunchGear Hands On Video:

Mobileburn: Lenovo LePhone demo:

Glamour Shots of the Lenovo LePhone: