HTC Passion (Dragon) may be due out on Verizon pre-xmas

So it's allegedly coming (could be fake) and here are some specs. So let's line them up with their distinguishing features.

• Motorola Milestone - Android 2.0, Keyboard, Led Flash, good feedback from users.  €500
  
• Acer Liquid - Android 1.6, No Keyboard, No Led Flash, released (dec 7th) - pre-release reviews positive, but no real-world feeback. No official statement from Acer on Android 2.0 support. €380
• HTC Passion - (stupid name - Dragon was much better), Android 2.0, No Keyboard, HTC Sense UI nice,  HTC good with ROM updates. Price unknown, unreleased - so no feedback at all.
  

So if the price of the HTC Passion was reasonable in Europe this would look like a bit of a winner. But it would be a close thing with the Liquid. Once Dec 7th comes we will get some real-world feedback which is really necessary given the lack of rep Acer has in the phone market and hopefully some support statement on Android 2.0 from Acer. Lack of Android 2.0 in phones being released is really a deal-breaker - all the new apps are going to target it (multitouch support at the OS level).

Closures in for Java 7

The debate over closures in Java 7 is over-ish. Over in the sense that it is going into Java 7 (now the deadline is revised  - now back to Sept 2010). Not over, in the any sense because none of the current three proposals are deemed wholly adequate. See InfoQ: Mark Reinhold on Closures for Java.  What we need is a "simple" closures. Well who can argue with "simple". From the people who brought you Java 5 generics.....

Bob Lee thinks that it may have something to do with Java 7's focus on parallelism (fork/join/current-work). Adding closure support would sure reduce the boiler-plate.

Less borked AWS simple calc

Amazon has updated their monthly calculator to be less broken. Actually seems to work now (with a little prodding of some of the fields - I'm looking at you EC Usage dropdown).

Check out the Droid usage vs the Hero in the US

Droid on top (in terms of requests) - that was fast.

See bottom of Gizmodo article:  iPhone and Android Are Taking Over the (Mobile) Internet

Also look at the iPhone vs Android split in US, doesn't make sense to me (seeing as the number of iPhone handsets is orders of magnitude greater than android).

Acer A1 available in days

Yet Another Android Phone available to pre-order from Clove Technology for €370 - sim free - similar price to sim-free HTC Hero.

• 1Gz Snapdragon - cortex A8 ?  - that's soooo last summer. 
• 800 x400 pixels
  
• 5 mp camera
• Android 1.6 - hmmm.
  

So similar-ish specs to Sony X10 - but less Rachely. Still it's a good price (if it's true).
No reviews yet.

Sony Android X10 phone in Feb 2010

Pre-order page reveals Sony Ericsson Android arrival date and it's February 2010. Just to remind you.

• 1Ghz snapdragon processor which is a kind of evolution of the Cortex A8 processor used in the iPhone, Pre and Droid, whereas the HTC uses the older ARM 11 - see architecture). I think that means it should be nippier / better power consumption vis a vis cortex A8. However, that's pretty meaningless, since both of those things are strongly determined by what the mobile OS on top of them decides to do. For example the HTC Hero was deemed slow or laggy on release, but a ROM-update has sorted that out.
  
• 854 x 480 pixels - twice the iPhone 3GS resolution  - similar to Droid. 
• 8mp camera
  

but neither of those two things are the real reason to want one - it is all about the Rachel UI. Slick multimedia handling- oh Android may play more media types than the iPhone (not hard), but Rachel UI makes it appear less linux-y and can teach the iPhone a trick or two.  

No access to paid apps the Android App market for Ireland

Em seriously lame. You can't access Android Market paid apps from Ireland - even though one of the three main operators now offers it.
Here's google's android market support page.

Presumably whenever money changes hands - there are legal issues. However, it should be possible to incorporate it in one EU market and sell the services to all EU markets, surely that is the point of the single-market.

You can get around it by rooting your phone (allegedly).

HTC Hero is on Meteor

Meteor has silently let put the HTC hero subsidised from €99 - Available on their €25 plan (€20 if you sign up for 18 months) - take that O2.

So less than 50% of the monthly O2 cost for an iPhone and it half the upfront cost.
You could buy 2 and still be cheaper than a single iPhone.

The HTC Hero may have been surpassed technically by the (unreleased) Droid / Milestone which sports the spiffy new Android 2.0 w/ multitouch (at least in Europe), but with new ROM update it's fast and HTC have formally announced they'll support Android 2.0 on the HTC hero.

This Xmas thing isn't getting any easier.

Sony Android Xperia - long rumoured and teased it's now official. Sony releases an Android powered X10 (wait a minute what happened to X3-X9?) for the discerning buyer who walks straight past the dumphone with apps Satio. But not in time for Xmas - grr.

I like Sony phones - the call quality is excellent and the hardware is usually pretty slick and reasonably rugged. Now it's Hero vs Milestone vs X10!!

Xmas Androidicus

With Hallow'een over the thinking turns to xmas pressies and finally a decent Android 2.0 phone arrives (Nov 9) in Europe Motorola MILESTONE (SlashGear).
Terrible name (I suppose it's better than calling it 'RC1') - and it is replacing my current bias towards the HTC Hero. 

Yes I know HTC has announced the HTC Hero will support Android 2.0 and that the ROM update improved the original slowness.
HTC either put a faster processor and bigger screen in the Hero or drop the price in Europe (a la $99 Droid Eris) and we'll talk, k.

Can't wait to see some real reviews of this thing and the unlocked pricing.