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How Google’s smartphones have evolved since 2007
Google is expected to show off a ton of new hardware at a press event in San Francisco this week, and -- as expected -- most of the hype is centered around a pair of new Pixel phones. Now, the Pixel line itself is only a year old, but Google's smartphone ambitions have been part of the company's vision for over a decade now, and we felt that was worth celebrating ahead of Wednesday's big reveal. Join us as we take a look at Google's surprisingly long history in smartphones, starting with a device many of us had forgotten about completely.
Infant version of Android gets a walkthrough on Google's Sooner development phone
No, that's not a QWERTY feature phone you're looking at -- it's Google's earliest Android development device, the Sooner. While the HTC-sourced phone itself hasn't been a secret, the build of Android on this particular specimen, obtained by Steven Troughton-Smith, is something few eyes outside of Mountain View have seen. As Mr. Smith notes, this isn't the first public build of Android that was detailed in November 2007 (M3), but rather an earlier version from May of that same year. The non-touch UI is almost totally unlike what eventually shipped with the touch-friendly HTC Dream, aside from obviously housing Android's basic framework and apps including G Talk and the like. We won't spoil it for you, though, so hit up the source link below to see Smith's full walkthrough and analysis of the device that once served as the initial development vehicle for Android.
