After the American regulatory institutions approved the deal for Oracle to aquire SUN last summer, the European commission did the same, about 9 months after the deal was announced:
However, the saga does not seem to end – now it appears that the deal should be approved by the competition authorities in Russia and China.
P.S. The image is taken from James Gosling’s blog.
The rumors about the Google phone turned out to be true. Google released official announcement and a dedicated site, http://www.google.com/phone.
Actually the device is not manufactured by Google, but by HTC (just like the first Android phone, the G1), comes with the full set of Google applications (just like the first Android phone, the G1) and initially will be offered with a T-Mobile contract (just like the first Android phone, the G1). The question is obvious – what the heck is different about the Nexus One ?!
It is very likely that the answer resides in this announcement, from the official Google blog. Google are actually trying to create a distribution channel for Google-branded phones over the internet – with or without contract. And it sounds reasonable – several companies (including Vodafone) that announced to produce/distribute Android cell-phones shared concerns about the strong presence of Google applications in Android, and some even created their own interface (like the HTC’s Sense UI).
Through this channel Google actually protect the Android as a platform to access their services from mobile devices. Besides, the App Store’s success proved, that such a marketing channel can generate solid revenue – if they attract user’s attention, of course.
The interesting thing in this case is, how along the “Google phone” buzz, Google managed to attract a lot of attention for the premier of something quite different than a new type of mobile phone. Almost like Apple are doing it.
At some point I realized, that the browser of my HTC Magic does not open pages, accessible over HTTPS (like the login screens for most web sites, for example). I was surprised, because I remembered that I have been able to open the same pages before, on the same device. I tried to delete cookies and clear the cache of the browser with no luck – those pages did not load. The browser seemed to be trying to load them, but it was only displaying a blank screen – no error messages or other pointers that there is a problem.
I wondered what was going on for awhile, and then it occurred to me. I was using internet over WiFi intensively before, and lately (since I have a “fat” data plan) I am mainly using the mobile network. I tried the same pages over WiFi and they loaded perfectly fine. It was obvious that the problem had something to do with the mobile network connection.
I googled the problem and almost immediately came across this link: SSL web sites fail to load in browser application when not connected via Wi-Fi. The problem resided in the configuration for the mobile network data connection. The solution turned out to be pretty simple – from the Access Point configuration (on Android go to Settings -> Wireless Controls -> Mobile Networks -> Access Point Names) clear the fields Proxy and Port, and the problem is resolved.
So keep this in mind, if you experience similar problem – I guess it probably could occur on non-Android devices, as well.
After some puzzling around and reading (specifications and reviews), I bought an HTC Magic.
At some point I was quite keen on buying an iPhone (and if you followed the blog, you probably noticed it). The main reason was, that the iPhone was offered by the mobile provider, which I am a customer of, Globul, and it was offered with pretty decent (for Bulgaria) data plans, which for such a device is extremely important. I had almost given up on the HTC Magic, since it was announced as a device to be distributed by Vodafone (even now, it is still listed as HTC Magic (Vodafone) on the HTC website), and the Vodafone partner in Bulgaria is Mtel. To my great surprise, however (and not only mine, I guess), Globul were the first company to announce HTC Magic in Bulgaria, about ten days before they were to offer the new iPhone 3GS. When they announced the prices for the iPhone 3GS the choice became even harder, as they were pretty decent (for Bulgaria). At the end, I decided that we should all support open platforms and I bought the Magic.
I am using the phone for more than a month already, here are my first impressions:
Internet connectivity
This device (like the iPhone) demands connectivity. If you decided to buy it, think about a good data plan, as well. I personally believe that it is required. I took a 750 MB per month package and I can say, that this is much more than you would need, especially since the phone provides a WiFi at your disposal. For the first month I had used only 35 MB, and I suspect that the second month would not be much different. So a data plan of about 150-200 MB (just in case) should be more than enough, even if you don’t use the WiFi (which reduces the battery life).
Hardware
The hardware design of the phone is quite good – clean and comfortable. The device is smaller than the iPhone (in width and length) and is lighter. It feels good in the hand and I don’t feel like I will drop it by mistake.
I find the buttons to be a little bit too many (6 in total), but I got used to it. The Menu and the Back buttons, in combination with the trackball, are probably supposed to attract BlackBerry users – those are present on each BlackBerry device. If I have to be honest, however, I am pretty disappointed with the trackball. I fully support the idea for a trackball, but the one on the Magic is too “slow” – you have to spin it pretty intensively in order to get a decent scroll. I couldn’t find a way to speed it up.
Telephony
The phone calls are with excellent quality – as expected from a company like HTC, that manufactures mobile handsets for quite some time already.
Battery
What would you think of a company, if you see a spelling error on the front page of their website?
Update: The error is already fixed.
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