>> The time problem has also nixed any comprehensive Bluetooth support - Android phones

>> will be able to use a Bluetooth headset, but that's all. There'll be no file exchange or

>> keyboard support, making it much like the iPhone in that respect.

As I understand it, Bluetooth support will not be missing from the phones, only the API. So it will be possible to transfer files using Bluetooth, however not via third party apps.

it will be interesting to see if we see the same level of bitching and moaning about the lack of bluetooth support on Android as we did about the iPhone

i suspect we won't because you El Reg readers are a fickle bunch

Hype it up then pull the best stuff. Ran out of time...that excuse never gets old.

As steogede says, you've completely nerfed this up. The two features in question will be missing from the *developer API*, not the phone itself. This story has no implications for the actual functionality of the phone. Please fix it.

Whenever I hear the term "android" I think "paranoid" and "Marvin".

Marvin phone? DO NOT WANT.

The Linux is incidental. It's just there to run Google's proprietary version of Java.

This a Google version of iPhone. More closed than Nokia Series 60 Symbian. It's a closed proprietary Java phone. No Thanks.

I'd rather have a decent extendable WinMo or Symbian phone.

One has to wonder whether the US mobile networks have, yet again, insisted on a crippled Bluetooth.

You say the article is wrong. Does that mean it will include GTalk?

The Linux Penguin because this phone will work as well as and be as popular as Linspire.

"These limitations aren't likely to stop anyone buying an Android-based handset"

In fact it'll be the major reason not to buy the thing.

As to the apple fanboy whimpering isn't there some way to filter them out?

Not all US carriers sell phones with crippled Bluetooth functionality. I use T-mobile for example and Bluetooth functionality works fine.

On the other hand, Verizon cripples Bluetooth on their phones. Despite having specifically asked if I could sync my phone contacts with my PC contacts via Bluetooth (and having been told yes), I found out, after much trial/error and web searching that I couldn't. Verizon then wanted to sell me a $20/month 'data transfer' service that went out to the network to do the same thing as a local sync via Bluetooth! That's why I dumped Verizon within the 14-day trial period.

So, the answer is, greed. Bastards.

I was lambasted by some git (anonymous coward) in a previous post for mentioning that it was going to be hard (though not impossible) for the Android to catch up with the iPhone.

And so it begins.

It amazes me that there are still people in the world that think R&D can be fast-tracked... that Google or Microsoft or HTC or Nokia or whoever can "skip over" the time and resource that, in this case, Apple have put into the iPhone.

Even Apple can't - and they went from NeXT to OS X via an aborted Copeland to prove it.

Coming up with good stuff takes time - debugging, refining, testing things for security and stability (as is the case here and as was, and still is, the case with the iPhone).

I'm really excited by the prospect of a really, really cool new phone to rival or even "beat" the iPhone - and there are great, stylish, easy to use handsets out there already.

But by taking the fight directly to the iPhone (proprietary OS and all - as Mage points out above) it means you're not trying to target a different market (ie folk who love to tinker with their toys at a low level or people who just want to make calls and can't be arsed with all the bells & whistles) but you're going after a, rapidly expanding, installed user-base who appreciates the whole iTunes end-to-end user experience, the silky interface and, yes, even the hype around Apple products. How many iPods have Apple sold to date..??

It's a tough gig - and anybody who thinks otherwise either has no idea of the history of computing... or a time machine.

>you're going after a, rapidly expanding, installed user-base who appreciates the whole iTunes end-to-end user experience, the silky interface and, yes, even the hype around Apple products

Ahh, you mean the sheeple

Sorry, couldnt resist :)

From what I've seen, the press is who keeps bringing this up with some trolls following that lead. IIRC, Google brought out Android to open up the mobile phone market to all developers and to open up the networks to those applications. From what I saw, it was about an open platform for developers and they did say they would open up the entire stack IIRC.

So, because they have not flushed out what the published API's will be for Bluetooth, they are still shipping but going to have to do so without a public API. I've not seen anywhere where it said the installed applications will have no Bluetooth capabilities or that an update won't provide public API specs when they are finished. Big deal, it is still 95% the open platform and open network Android was designed to be.

the more retarded android is, the closer it comes to being the iphone killer.

Or do they not officially exist until they have a physical device to masterbate about?

would spell masturbate wrong..

"...Google brought out Android to open up the mobile phone market to all developers and to open up the networks to those applications."

And then restricted the developers that could actually get the SDK necessary for the first phone release to a chosen 50.

Paris, because she knows about being open.