G1 appears on T-Mobile's site

Snap -- looks like the Android-powered T-Mobile G1 is peeking out a little early in the form of a non-working pre-registration link on the my.t-mobile.com customer portal. No specs or info, but if you had any doubt this thing was coming on Tuesday we'd say it just got cleared up. Get ready for the Googlephone, kids.

[Thanks, RionSTL and Mike]

[chefgon_ign @ Sep 19th 2008 2:58PM]

And in black! Looking nice.

[namtastic @ Sep 19th 2008 3:03PM]

(Only if you log into the system, apparently)

[BluesK1d @ Sep 19th 2008 3:56PM]

Yes it appears to be looking good! Can someone please post the full size picture, not the resized screenshot of the whole page? Possibly the information from within the "Learn more" link as well?

[kccboy2004 @ Sep 19th 2008 5:12PM]

I gotta tell you that, having had another really good look at this phone, I don't think that this is aimed at us in the western world, I think that this is aimed at Asia. I have spent some time in Asia, and their use of cell phones is quite different from ours; they really use them intensively for messaging. We don't really. We think tat we do, but until you have seen an asian type with logograms, you haven't really seen typing.

The main point is that they do this with one hand, the other holding on to the handlebars of their bike, or the rail on the subway, etc.

I think that you will find that Android will be set up as a default is accommodate the Asians. I say this with a view to the Sidekick and all the other keyboard-included devices; they are not the same as this (in terms of thickness). This is the market that everyone wants to get into.

That is not to say that they don't car about our money, but we are not the big target.... but in the words of Carly Simon, we're ' so vain '....

[fistpittingnork @ Sep 19th 2008 6:49PM]

Uh, what?

[JerseyBricklayer @ Sep 19th 2008 2:59PM]

cue the iphone killer comments

[Flashpoint @ Sep 19th 2008 3:12PM]

This thing isn't killing anything.
In fact, I don't think its even competition for the new Sidekicks.

What's worse, its on T-Mobile who has probably the crappiest voice clraity on the US market.

[Hardknock @ Sep 19th 2008 5:32PM]

@Flashpoint

Actually T-Mobile was ranked number 2 (behind Verizon) with the JD Power awards for Voice quality.

[Maciek @ Sep 19th 2008 5:42PM]

Flashpoint...because it's better to have three dropped calls out of five than lower voice quality (whatever you mean by that). All GSM carriers use GSM HR codecs (half rate) vs EFR (enhanced full rate) to preserve the bandwidth so don't say a crap that the voice quality is different. Which carrier do you use? CDMA??? If so - I feel sorry if you're comparing CDMA to GSM...

[Mike @ Sep 20th 2008 6:31PM]

I work on Nokia base stations for AT&T and I can tell you they do not ALL use HR GSM. They only use it when needed (high traffic cells).

[Malikye @ Sep 19th 2008 3:02PM]

i would like Android on my HTC Trinity because this phone (HTC Dream) doesn't look all that appealing. I'll wait till windows mobile 7 comes out next year before buying a new phone.

[HAZE @ Sep 19th 2008 3:58PM]

If you head over to the XDA forums, I'm sure they're working on that phone also. They almost have it ready to run on the HTC Kaiser (Tilt). So I think eventually, it will running on many HTC devices.

[Nal @ Sep 19th 2008 3:03PM]

G1?! OH MY GOD. The name Android sounds farrrrrrrrrrrrr better. I guess they wanted a simple short name like Wii or iPhone, but G1? AH! Where was T-Mobile's marketing consultant? I fail this name.

[Hellaphunt @ Sep 19th 2008 3:05PM]

Why would Google want the name Android attached to a piece of hardware and not their OS?

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Sep 19th 2008 3:10PM]

Android is the name of the os. G! the name of the phone.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Sep 19th 2008 3:11PM]

G1, sorry

[DonatoM3 @ Sep 19th 2008 3:32PM]

Exactly G1, as in Google One aka first google mobile phone.

[Hellaphunt @ Sep 19th 2008 3:04PM]

Jeez. Black makes all the difference in aesthetics.

[TareX @ Sep 19th 2008 5:18PM]

Yeah. And the G1 needs the black effect to hide the uninspiring design.

I guess all the speculation could stop now. It was NOT a prototype, and T-mo will NOT unveil a work of art on Tuesday. I hope ENKIN ("Live Mode" on Google Maps) is previewed, at least.

[Nal @ Sep 19th 2008 3:06PM]

Ah, G1? Seriously? Where was T-Mobile's consultant when they made this decision? That name is horrendous. FAIL! I mean, sure they were going after a short name. But even the word "Wii" is far catchier than that. G1 sounds like some 1990's attempt at a name for some crappy construction gear.

[offroadering @ Sep 19th 2008 3:13PM]

?

[Jack Storm @ Sep 19th 2008 3:22PM]

LOL @ so much real FAIL in your own comment.

[mcatrage @ Sep 19th 2008 3:35PM]

Whenever people use the term fail in all caps I just want to punch them in the face.

[Nal @ Sep 19th 2008 3:07PM]

Oh oops, my bad for the second post. And it doesn't just come in black, but white and brown as well.

[schtum @ Sep 19th 2008 3:20PM]

How is it possible that you're familiar with the colors being released, but you had no idea it was going to be called the G1?

[Nal @ Sep 19th 2008 3:23PM]

Because I read the news? Do I really have to explain that to you? Okay, you do realize that products are sometimes shown to the public before they're named, right? And if that wasn't obvious enough, it was announced HERE on Engadget that there were going to be three colors for the phone. And in addition to that, G1 has always been a nickname for this phone, along with several others. Nothing has been settled yet until today. Doh?

[Abuzar Baloach @ Sep 19th 2008 3:47PM]

GTFO my internets. You read engadget, and you know how many colours this thing will come in but you don't know that Android is the OS this thing runs, not the actual phone itself?

Classic retard.

[Homeboy @ Sep 19th 2008 3:11PM]

How come the phone is so damn ugly? I'm holding out for G1 version 2.0. HTC HD FTW!

[MastrCake @ Sep 19th 2008 3:21PM]

Oh, you mean the G2?

[Pikl @ Sep 19th 2008 3:17PM]

I see SOMEONE hasn't upgraded to Firefox 3.0 (or Vista) yet...

[drumdbeat @ Sep 19th 2008 8:07PM]

Exactly what i was thinking...

[schtum @ Sep 19th 2008 3:17PM]

Confirmed. The "learn more" link is to www.t-mobileg1.com, but it's not live yet.

[fistpittingnork @ Sep 19th 2008 3:18PM]

After logging in and clicking on the "Learn More" button, I'm redirected to the non-working Http://www.t-mobileg1.com ..

I'll keep trying to see if this ever opens up before the 23rd.

[Geoff Gibson @ Sep 19th 2008 3:21PM]

Android: CHECK
Touch Screen: CHECK
QWERTY keyboard: CHECK
T-Mobile Service: CHECK

This phone will be mine on day one. :D

[thrasher @ Sep 19th 2008 3:32PM]

agreed, I cant wait!!!! full touch screen, accelerometer, compass, qwerty AND free apps. mmmm mmmm good!! I have been with t mobil for years and i have yet to run into any problems with the service or voice clarity. and they have always been very helpful when i call cust service

[--------- @ Sep 19th 2008 3:51PM]

I wonder if it will allow teathering like T-Mo's WinMo devices, and I wonder if I'll be able to drag and drop (or otherwise load) my own ringtones like I can with my current Wing...

[eXeL @ Sep 19th 2008 6:41PM]

same here :)

[TareX @ Sep 19th 2008 3:21PM]

Can't anyone save and display the images??? For us, non-subscribers?

[fistpittingnork @ Sep 19th 2008 3:34PM]

All we can see right now is what you see in the screenshot. Clicking "Learn More" takes us to a non-working www.t-mobileg1.com link.

More specifically, http://www.t-mobileg1.com/?WT.mc_t=CM&WT.mc_n=g1_WelcomeReg

[telepheedian @ Sep 19th 2008 3:39PM]

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/446/g1ws5.gif

[--------- @ Sep 19th 2008 3:58PM]

http://androidcommunity.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/t-mobile-dream-g1-

[7on @ Sep 19th 2008 3:26PM]

Aye' so 't does

Apparently T-Mobile dasn't like namin' things normal English words. yarrr

[voltwagon @ Sep 19th 2008 4:21PM]

Aye matey, tis a fine piece of booty from the google.

[hyoomen @ Sep 19th 2008 3:28PM]

G1 isn't the worst name in the world, though TMobile does seem to have a knack for tragic names of their rebranded handsets. I'd rather have seen something that rolls off the tongue like GMo or A51 or frigginawesomeportableadvertisingdevice.

FWIW, the only being able to see the page once logged in would go hand in hand with the information that preorders will be available to current TMo customers only. The page has a link to a popup for the registration, which does not go anywhere.

Popup URL is http://www.t-mobileg1.com/?WT.mc_t=CM&WT.mc_n=g1_WelcomeReg which is fake (it seems), and t-mobileg1.com is registered to Mark Monitor, the leader in online brand protection.

Who cares. I'm ordering my phone soon unless info comes out about an HTC Touch HD w/ Android. The Android SDK/emulator is exciting in the mean time.

[hyoomen @ Sep 19th 2008 3:33PM]

Just to verify for readers, you're currently looking at the ONLY image/indicator of the G1 at the top of the page. The link goes to an empty page that is on a domain (t-mobileg1.com) owned by TMo: http://phandroid.com/2008/08/26/htc-dream-vs-t-mobile-g1/

[joymonkey @ Sep 19th 2008 3:39PM]

Looks like the initial pricing/preordering info has been leaked too...
http://androidcommunity.com/t-mobile-g1-preorder-details-leak-htc-dream-launch-october-13th-20080821/

[frank @ Sep 19th 2008 4:46PM]

That androidcommunity post says that a Gmail account will be required to "set up the phone", which I find difficult to believe. For a supposedly open source operating system, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[Rob Bourne @ Sep 19th 2008 3:43PM]

Argh, November for the UK!

Oh how I weep.

[fistpittingnork @ Sep 19th 2008 3:46PM]

So about 5 minutes after this article was posted and I verified seeing the same thing, I decided to play dumb and call a T-Mobile CSR and tell them I'm trying to click the Learn More button I found on the promotions site. The CSR told me the typical "That shouldn't be there" and despite trying to verbally shine his knob over the phone, he wouldn't give up any information, only "This is going to be a really awesome phone".

2 minutes ago he just called me back asking for the T-Mobile link where I saw the promotions ad for it, and again, despite a verbal knob polishing, he wouldn't give it up, babe.

[p3ngwin @ Sep 20th 2008 2:00AM]

Dugg, for verbal knob-shining



......wait,
where am i again ??