HTC's Android-driven Dream revealed in glorious spy photos
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Aug 30th 2008 12:25PM
posted Aug 30th 2008 12:25PM
[Thanks, Michael]
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I'm kind of on the fence on this one, but I think I'd like it better in black.
What about the obligatory thickness shot?
As oppose to the obligatory "zomg comparison to iPhone wtfbbq!!1!111!!!"
mmm...I hope to be having some wtfbbq this weekend, in fact....yummy grilled wtf...
It'll be in white black and brown if the rumors are correct. Also from the fcc specs, people have estimated it'll be around 16mm compared to 12.3mm for the iPhone 3G
I don't care how it looks, but I wish people would stop telling me that Android is going to cure cancer. No one has answered how Google is going to keep apps that border on malware from getting into their store. Apps that phone home or give away your GPS location. And what happens when something malicious gets loose on the phone networks?
And I just can't believe that the cell phone providers are so desperate to beat AT&T that they would give up all their bandwidth to Android. I think if you have an app that sucks up just a little bandwidth, they'll make you pay for it. It's not going to be this open source utopia that everyone dreams about.
question: why do they show a T mobile phone right next to a Japanese mobile phone (Softbank). That does not make sense, I would have guessed that the comparison shot would be a Korean carrier phone or a North American.
Are we sure about the authenticity of this ?
Hmm, it looks like a bit of a chunky fella to me. Suppose that's the price you pay for a slide-out keyboard. I guess I just imagined something more light and thin when I heard that they decided to call it the "Dream". Looks more like the 'HTC Lump'.
Mr. blurry-cam died...
@Paul, S60v3 has a good solution, apps that can "call home", get network info, and use other possibly bad features, need to be Signed by Symbian (they check that if the app is legit, and doesn't do bad stuff).
And you can do the signing yourself if you trust the unsigned app.
Also, like always, don't ever install stuff without looking up about it.
I absolutely love the rad warning on this one.
WOW that is one ugly ass phone..... i really prefer my dreams to be nice ones.
this should be called the HTC Nightmare....
I have to agree... black would've been much better. White is always a poor choice. I love the idea of Android, but that is one ugly phone, IMO. Black definitely would've helped. And the keyboard leaves much to be desired.
I also don't understand why they have an "Alt" button, but no "Fn" and "Ctrl" buttons like we see on the HTC Touch Pro. Seems those additional buttons would also help and add functionality to the phone. Maybe they're not as necessary because it's running Android as opposed to WM - who knows? (But I doubt it).
The OS is really slick from what I've seen so far, but that phone isn't enough to make me sign a contract with T-Mo. My experiences with this phone are most likely to remain in the "vicarious" file.
Anyone thinking Symbian Signed is a good thing needs to remember that it's practically killed small-scale 3rd party developers for the platform (not only open source but one-man-band style developers) by including this costly and annoying step for any non-trivial applications. This is the same problem Java ME has.
As history has shown repeatedly, the less control the manufacturer (or the telecom company) has over the device and its software, the better for everyone. Just compare the number of applications for Win Mobile and those for J2ME and Symbian. The same situation was with Palm with their original PalmOS where there was a huge community hacking away on it without anyone interfering (there are many PalmOS applications people want to run even today, thus the many emulators out there).
The act of "signing" is silly too. I find it utterly incredulous that we've had an impenetrable security system since at least the 70s (read up on "object capability" systems) that we continue to ignore as though it doesn't exist. Meanwhile, we're all just sitting ducks, waiting for the next virus to infect the device, so that someone, somewhere, can make a few bucks on anti-virus software or an OS upgrade.
No thanks, I'll wait for a better looking Android OS running phone. WTF HTC?
It looks like it could be a serious device. Problem is, sidekick buyers won't switch to it unless theey stop making Sidekicks.
What they should probably do is use the Sidekick 3 or Slide's body and add the components neccessary to run Android.
This thing is just downright ugly. Looks like a doctor's tool.
I agree. It would be nice to bring out Android on a High end phone just so we can see more of it's potential. Touch Pro w/ Android would have been a good choice.
i'm a sidekick user, and i am going to switch to this phone when it comes out. the sidekick is nice but it's just kind of junky. and the battery life sucks so bad.
My kid has a cheap little handheld device she got from her grandma for Christmas - I think it came from Toys-R-Us. It looks a lot like this thing - no lie.
This turd is no way to welcome Android to the party.
i agree. this looks like an iPhone with a slider.
the iphone does look a lot like the Dell Axim 5Xv
it is not good looking.
It really is fugly, but then again, it's ANDROID!
Hoping for more, cheaper, diverse android phones in the near future
That's what i said. How about a HTC touch pro android phone. WTF?
i think the best phone to suit the android in is a helio ocean with a scroll wheel, better screen, touch "sensitive gaming butons" + a sidekick os-like version of android, making it easier to navigate, + a 5mp camera
This phone suffers from a severe case of mingingitis.
I like it. I think it will look great in black. cant wait for it to come out in a month!
rendered in black:
http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/45/fdc41tmobiledreamuv8.jpg
Looks far better in black, but im still waitin for somethin better
Grey???
Specs list so far, courtesy of Androidguys.com:
# 528Mhz Qualcomm 7201 processor
# Data kit for USB connectivity in the box
# 64MB Internal RAM
# 128MB Internal ROM
# 1GB MicroSD card
# 5 Row QWERTY keypad
# Trackball
# Dedicated camera button
# 3.1MP camera (no flash) 2048 x 1536
# Video playback files - H.264, streaming, 3GPP, MPEG4, and Codec 3GP
# Dedicated YouTube Player
# Audio playback files - MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, MPEG4, WAV, MIDI, REAL AUDIO, OGG
# Wallpaper supports JPG, BMP, PNG, and GIF
# Speakerphone (mono, natch)
# Ringtones (MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA)
# HTTP, WAP Push, xHTML
# Bluetooth (class 1)
# Picture Caller ID
# SMS and MMS support (Take that Apple!)
# POP, IMAP, and SMTP, AOL, and GMAIL email
# AIM, MSN, YAHOO, and GTALK messaging
# Quad Band (850, 900, 1800, 1900)
# 3G
# aGPS
# 802.11b & 802.11g
# UMTS (1,4), HSDPA, SUPL
# 1150mAh battery
# Screen size is 3.17″ with HVGA (480 x 320)
# Handset 117 x 55 x 16mm
# 5.6 oz weight
# Sync capable with Google Calendar
# Downloadable content via Android Marketplace
# Google Streetview with built-in compass
Sorry I forgot to correct something:
# 128MB RAM
# 256MB ROM
...and not 64/128.
Sorry I forgot to correct something:
# 128MB RAM
# 256MB ROM
...and not 64/128.
Is the keyboard anything like the Sidekick?
i just looked at the picture next to my sidekick and it looks EXACTLY the same. im not sure ab the placement of the symbols but it looks very very similar
Sorry this has nothing to do with your post, but everything to do with my dream yesterday - HTC Dream was actually in my dream. But this is not a dream design. I will continue to dream on!
Who cares about the thickness when it has a such a nice keyboard.
I think the Touch Pro keyboard is better than this
They also need a great, trendy street name for the phone.
"Sidekick"
"iphone"
those are great names which immediately present images in the mind of exactly what the device is when you say it to others. That's an element of marketing.
They should call it "Hipster" or "Slidekick"
I rated you down because your suggestions are horrible.
I also rated you down because the current name (or, at least, the name we know this device as) is already so epic and kickass that no other name could compare.
"Hey, what kind of phone is that?!"
"It's the Dream."
"Dude, that's badass. I want one!"
...or...
"Hey, what kind of phone is that!?"
"It's the Slidekick."
"Dude, you're a tool."
obviously the sarcasm went over alex and khris's heads
Dunno 'bout the phone, but I do know what they shall call you. And I'm afraid it is'nt flattering in the least.
I'm afraid it's going to be called the G1. Not exactly the coolest name out there...
Even if it's not very pretty, there's more to it than the looks.
I still like Android and I think that - in a few years - it will kick ass.
The first WM was bad.... it evolved really slowly into something usable.
The first S60 was ugly.... it hardly evolved.
The first iPhone was.... well in Andy Rubin's words: "A magnificent 1.0 device, I own one myself".
Now the first Android, well it looks lacking. I'm not talking function here. You Android will get better in a few years? I say make that a few months. It was designed to evolve.
The hardware, however, is a disappointment in design. It looks like Andy Rubin (a self confessed robo geek) designed it, and HTC just "built" it in the midst of its busy Diamond season.
Now i understand what Peter Chou meant when he said, "The Diamond is our most important device this year"...
i really like the design of that, i hope it comes to t-mobile uk as im due an upgrade soon..white looks a bit old hat tho
shyman
Right now, the iPhone has probably the most powerful CPU on the phone market. They should test Android on a phone with specs like those. That is, unless they custom build CPU's to take full advantage of Android and go even further by giving it things the compeition doesn't have.
those devices indeed has some hardware acceleration for the Java based applications, see http://www.arm.com/products/multimedia/java/jazelle.html
The iPhone probably has the highest clockable CPU, but it does keep it at 400Mhz. The Touch Pro is clocked at 528Mhz by standard. There is also the fact that the Touch Pro has more memory which is likely to be more important to Android which is Java based. So Android would very well likely run better on a Touch Pro then the iPhone.
Jazelle would be very useful for Android, especially Jazelle DBX. The problem is that ARM is very protective over the initialization code for Jazelle DBX. So, although Android would benefit greatly from Jazelle DBX, it is unlikely to get it because it's open source nature would make it difficult for ARM to protect their code. That being said the new Cortex generation of ARM cores includes Thumb EE aka Jazelle RCT which does help a bit with things like null pointer checks but does not run byte code directly on the core.
This is not what i pictured when i thought ANDROID....
The Touch Diamond completely trumps the G1 in the comparison shot. The G1 just looks like too much of a toy, despite its obvious perks.
man i want one, i was thinking of getting the shadow soon but i want to wait for a higher end phone with more features.
it must be the slide mechanism. if it was controlled by the accelerometer you'd get a lot of unwanted screen switching.
I'm dying to know is the screen orientation controlled by accelerometer, or the slide mechanism itself ?
I hope its both
I asked this same question the other week. I believe the majority of people said it was controlled by the slide mechanism but that the phone also has accelerometers in it.
This has to be the ugliest phone I've seen in years. Good luck getting girls walking around with the original gameboy up to your ear.
If you are depending on your phone to impress girls you are doing it wrong
gold diggers totally dig guys with iphones... he might be on to something.
If a girl likes me because I'm holding an iPhone, then I know how mentally deficient she is.
On the other hand, if a girl walks to me with my Dream and says, "Is that running Android?", I hear wedding bells.
@ TareX
if a girl walks to me with my Dream and says, "Is that running Android?" I'll wake up!
are you even kind of implying that the original gameboy isnt totally badass?
"What game are you playing?"
"Tetris"
"I can get a hundred lines easy"
At long last! =]
Hopefully it'll appear working properly on the HTC Kaiser soon.
Cant say the looks of that device floats my boat, and T-Mobile aren't the best provider for mobile services, most people i know with t-mobiles have to hang out the window of there houses or stand out in the street to get signals.
O2 are good, but iPhone has really screwed there pay&go services up by blocking the ports that allow messengers/weather updates etc.
Orange are the best now id say, if a half decent android handset came to orange id be interested.
I hope they also get a better carrier.
Like AT&T? Wait...no.
Anyone else think Google has their hand in too many pots?
They have our email
They have our search history
they have our browsing history
they have our photos (picasa)
They have where we go (google maps)
They ahve our documents (google docs)
and now they want to run our mobile phone OS
More and more lately I'm really considering getting away from google's services and back onto computer based programs. and my own email server.
Anyone ever stop and think that's just too much information to give ONE company?
Here, this'll help you out.
http://www.restockit.com/Extra-Heavy-Foil-Rolls---18-x-25--(672REYN)---ON-SALE-TODAY!.html
apple has our computers
they have our OS
they have our phones
they have our phone OS
they have our PMPs
they have our music purchases
they have our movie purchases
email-yahoo, aol
search- ask, altavista, yahoo
photos- tinypic, photobucket, flickr
docs- microsoft office word
@Xenoterranos....
:D I voted that up.
james,
try giving your information to your bank. they will keep it really safe fore you.
why don't you switch search engines to say, Safari. If you don't have an Apple, then get one. You belong in their club, I think.
There ARE alternatives you know. Some are really great alternatives, some aren't that good.
- I use Live Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail
- I have private browsing enabled
- I use Flickr, WLPG, and other social networking sites
- I use Live Maps, and it's much better in it's own way
- I still use Office for docs, and SkyDrive for personal upload
I'd probably only use Google for maybe a search, their maps, or ads. That's about it.
You fool! Don't you realize that it isn't as though they are giving this to marketing companies, or even the government? They use it to make our experience on Google better.
However, I just use the "Customize Google" addon for FireFox 3 and block all cookies being sent to Google about my usage. Simple as that! Try it sometime, and stop complaining about THE BEST COMPANY EVER -- GOOGLE!
It is a free market society, if you don't like having all you eggs in one basket the solution is simple. Don't have all your eggs in one basket. Then again, I would think you're info is safer with Google (A large multinational corporation, with deep pockets and legal cojones) than on yoru own hardware which he FBI can just look through anyway.
yep.
Google can have all my information, so when i get a brain damage, they can implant my clone's brains into my head.
ps. G1 is not the best looking device, but I'm getting it anyway just to show not everybody is crazy about iphone
it looks kinda chubby. how thick is it?
Guess what major advantage this one has over the iphone?
Physical keys limitlessly expands the scope of the number of playable games which can be made.
I think (hope) this is a "proof of concept" phone, so that the final one won't look so cheesy. Since this has been so built up, I would say they are going to make it much smoother and appealing for final production. This should just show its functionality.
Bill
I'm sorry to tell you and all the others thinking this isn't the final draft, but it very likely is seeing the announcement will happen soon. I have a hard time believing it will change. The shape i'd say will def stay the same. Maybe a tweak in the color arrangement will take place though.
Perhaps a black one might look better. It's not really that ugly, just doesn't look anywhere as good compared to the Touch Diamond. I wasn't planning to buy the first gen anyways so this doesn't concern me. Still excited about Android.
It doesn't look very comfortable typing with your right hand.
Exactly what I was thinking. I imagine it would be pretty annoying having to reach across that section with your right thumb, and one might hit that menu button my mistake at times.
Still, looks like it could be good. Hell of a lot better than my Tytn II anyway...
It may be an issue on this phone because there's not the space on each side... but having typed over the space on a sidekick for years i can assure you that the space hinders in no way at all.
- Anyone else think Google has their hand in too many pots?
- They have our email
- They have our search history
- they have our browsing history
- they have our photos (picasa)
- They have where we go (google maps)
- They ahve our documents (google docs)
- and now they want to run our mobile phone OS
- More and more lately I'm really considering getting away from google's services and back onto computer based - - programs. and my own email server.
- Anyone ever stop and think that's just too much information to give ONE company?
Nope. Google is a brilliant and unique business model. They give us our email, photo storage, maps, docs and searching for FREE. Why do we all use them? Because they are not only free, but the BEST! And they are more than welcome to use my search patterns and generic information to make the internet more user-friendly to me. I believe that they have done amazing things with the internet and welcome their open platform into the phone market. I'm an avid iphone user, and its usage has been immeasureably increased by the addition of the app store. The Android platform is taking all of that and putting their Google genius on it. I'm really looking forward to seeing what they have to offer.
Bill
James, remember Google's motto is "Do no evil". Now, doesn't that make you feel all better about it? :-)
I'm still hoping for Android on a CDMA phone. GSM coverage is an oxymoron where I live.
This looks ugly with that curved plastic at the end. why have touch screen and the buttons too?
this phone will be out in 2-3 weeks for tmobile
yuck
Can`t see the pictures, can you give me another link?
doh. surprisingly unsightly for HTC. how is one to to thumb-type with that massive button console on the right-hand side of the keyboard? maybe i'm just oaf-handed, but i can't imagine how that's going to work...
Why are they INSISTING on leaking the ugly white version's images? The black one would look a LOT better.
So it's not exactly the "pinnacle of HTC designs" that I was expecting... but it's OK. I still hope the screen tilts.
The screen looks great, lower chin needs to be CUT IN HALF.
With a lot of developer fanbase customization, the software could potentially make up for the mediocre hardware design. I trust the internet population.
After staring at these leaked images for the past hour, the white is starting to grow on me. It looks really "Googlish". Like a white, plain, bland, Google page that does exactly what you want. Especially with the Blue, Green and Red drawings all over it.
Black is starting to sound so conventional.
I'm gonna have to go with the crowwn and say. YAAAAAHHOOOOO, Android is on the way....ZZZZZ thats one boring looking phone. The only thing that could change it all, is if the snozzer specs we say earlier are wrong, and this guy is packing serious heat. OTHERWISE, ill wait for the guys over at XDA Forums to hack android onto a stock HTC phone like a Touch or 8525 even. They already have it running on some build, so it will be fun to see what happens in those forums when the final version is released. A second hand HTC Touch running android would be a seriously sexy device IMHO.
Here's the black one, MILES better:
http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/45/fdc41tmobiledreamuv8.jpg
Certainly is...
Another thought would be Treo + Android....very nice indeed. Palm make great devices, the os just feels dated. Android slapped on top of the Palm hardware would make for a great budget device.
I have used ANDROID regularly as my main handset OS for the past couple of weeks (can't say how or why), and I have to say that I am not as impressed as I was expecting to be. The top-level interface is like WinMob's Today screen combined with the iPhone top-level launcher. Which is nice, but not innovative.
As an aside, the iPhone SDK is much nicer.
ANDROID appears to be a middle-of-the-road effort. Hopefully the applications which will be available soon will make it worthwhile.
Yah because Apple's iPhone SDK was so polished when the iHype launched....oh wait. There was none because Apple wanted everyone to run their shit through webkit. The damn thing hasn't even hit 1.0 yet and you are complaining. I smell fanboi funk in the guise of a rational post. If you were truly on the level you would have mention that this is still a beta that even Google themselves have stated may change before the final version is released next month. At the end of the day Google is going to win this. I don't see Apple offering up 10 million to developers to develop innovative apps. No they sit back and expect that because its IPHONE BITCH! People will come running. Arrogant pricks.
ok,strait up and not comparing this to anything, who else things this software isn't ready to be in our pocket?
Yes low rank me for saying what everyone else is thinking
That thing is fugly. It also seems to be a poor ergonomic design, you'd have to reach around much more with your right hand to reach the keyboard, risking dropping the thing as you type. HTC should have just used the touch pro hardware.