There's really no denying it -- T-Mobile's G1 and Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1 are two of the hottest mobiles around right now, and as predicted, all sorts of sparks flew when the two sat down for a side-by-side photo session. In a Dutch comparison of the two handsets, reviewers pointed out that the G1 was "significantly larger" than the SE counterpart, and while it's completely subjective, they also asserted that the X1 was a "true piece of art in comparison to the dusty look of the G1 [nice one, Google Translator]." Do yourself a favor and check out the whole thing in the read link.

[Via CoolSmartphone]

It's been nearly a year since Parrot announced its DF7700 GPRS-endowed picture frame, said to possess the mystical ability to pull photographs straight out of the ether. Now T-Mobile has pledged to bring Parrot's magic frame to the US as the CAMEO, a $100 device that, when coupled with a $10/month service fee, can be the recipient of picture-bearing messages. When you get bored with that feature (or that fee), there's a mini-USB port plus slots for SD/MMC cards that will enable it to accept pics in a more traditional manner. Its 7-inch screen has a 720 x 480 resolution and is surrounded by an interchangeable leather border guaranteed to look cheap in any decor -- not just those with golden mirrors astride a marble mantelpieces.

[Thanks, Mark]

There's no telling what sort of crazy behind-the-scenes negotiations had to take place in order for our good friend Boy Genius to get his hands on the very first retail T-Mobile-branded BlackBerry 8220 we've seen in the wild -- and let's be honest, the whole unboxing takes on a sexier tone when there's an element of intrigue to it, doesn't it? Mr. Genius flatly pans the thing for having a pair of awful screens and a prototype feel (despite the fact that he's got a final production unit), so odds are the Bold owners out there aren't going to be throwing fits of jealousy any time soon. To top it off, the contents of the box are about as exciting as flannel underwear (we guess it's cool that RIM saw fit to throw in a pair of headphones), so don't expect too much. At least it'll be available in a few colors, right?

Yeah, the wait for October 22 (or after) is absolutely excruciating; trust us, we know. We'll take every scrap of information and imagery we can to hold us over until G1s start showing up on doorsteps in a few weeks, but T-Mobile's really gone above and beyond the call of duty here by setting up a surprisingly functional and feature-complete emulator to satisfy our urges to touch icons and click buttons. Obviously, you're not going to get a GPS lock, so don't get your hopes up that you're going to be playing around with Street View or anything wild like that -- in fact, most apps lead you to a "this screen is not fully functional" message -- but it's got more goodies than the Android SDK's emulator, and it's just enough to get you acquainted with the phone's personality by the time it's actually in your paws.

[Via Cell Phone Signal]

So the good news is that T-Mobile has decided to keep right on taking pre-orders for the G1 through October 21, just one day before the handset's official launch. The bad news, though, is that it doesn't mean you'll be getting your Android on come October 22. Turns out that the initial allotment of G1s set aside for pre-orders is now sold out completely, and any names taken between now and launch will be allotted phones being shipped "at a later date." It's not clear if a "later date" means a week, a month, or a decade after the 22nd, but for the sake of everyone involved, we hope its the former.

Update: T-Mobile's site says that pre-orders taken from here on out will be delivered "as early as November 10," so it looks like you early birds are going to have a nice little period of exclusivity. Thanks, everyone!

Apple's App Store, with its millions of downloads, is clearly a hit with consumers. But with developers? Not so much. Like a dashing hero to a scorned mistress, Google's Andy Rubin is pledging a different, more loving and respectful relationship with those who would fill his company's Android Market with selections -- and his pockets with royalties. He indicates that the Market will enable free downloadable trials, something that Apple is stubbornly refusing to add, and that those downloads would not be subject to any arbitrary bandwidth caps. Meanwhile, T-Mobile at least will be levying a $2/month fee on developers of free apps expected to use more than the (somewhat arbitrary) amount of 15MB of data per user per month, though how they'll be keeping track of that data outside of their own content stack is unclear -- our guess is that they can't.

Well we see where this is headed. It was nice to catch a few of those quasi-unboxing pics of the T-Mobile G1 the other day, but now the cats and kittens at TmoNews have gone and gotten pretty much the full monty. If you want to get a taste of what's to come, here's the perfect chance. You can check out photos of the Android device being wrenched from its packaging, as well as some glamour shots of the bundled accessories -- including a bizarrely retro remote on the earbuds and "handsome" carrying pouch. October 22nd, you can't come soon enough.

Ruggedized handsets are all the rage at the moment, and T-Mobile's the latest carrier to bow to the trend with the MOTOACTV W450 from (who else?) Motorola. Moto's advertising the colorful flip by saying that it's ready for "the great outdoors or the corporate jungle" thanks to a rubberized coating, chin bar for clipping the thing to your carabiner as you're rappelling some sheer cliff in Tasmania, and Mayo Clinic's In Touch software built-in for learning how to treat your life-threatening injuries when you fall off. It's got a 1.3-megapixel camera, quadband EDGE, stereo Bluetooth, and microSD expansion up to 2GB -- not massive, but probably enough for a jog, unless you're some insane endurance runner. Look for the W450 today in your choice of alpine white / canary yellow or black slate / mandarin.

Ah yes, the natural progression of a release. First comes the hands-on at the introduction, then comes the leaked user manual, then comes the pre-order fiasco -- now, it's time for those always titillating in the wild shots. The box and handset are nothing out of the ordinary / surprising (respectively), but at least you now know that bona fide unboxing images are just around the bend.

This could've come straight out of Germany where the BlackBerry Bold is already alive and well on T-Mobile's airwaves, but let's pretend for a moment that it didn't. Instead, let's assume that there are a select few copies of T-Mobile USA's Bold floating around in the wild, and one such example just happened to turn up at the Democratic National Convention a few weeks ago. We're not saying that's what's going on here, but... hey, are those beads of sweat forming on your forehead there, AT&T?

[Thanks, Vince C. and goke]

If you're a T-Mobile customer who's been dozing off for the past few days, you've already missed your chance to pre-order yourself a G1. With any luck, that won't be a problem and you'll just be able to march into a store on or around October 22 and pick one up the old-fashioned way, but the window of opportunity for an utterly stress-free Android buying experience is closed. We don't have hard numbers on just how many units were being offered through the pre-order program, but 60,000 is getting tossed around as a rumor, which would work out to about 10 percent of the total outlay HTC is said to be aiming for by year's end. Of course, if you're not a T-Mobile customer, this is all business as usual and you're just chuckling under your breath that everyone's stuck in the same boat now, aren't you, you sick puppy?

[Via TmoNews]

Update: Well, that was quick -- the "Log in to order" button is working once again. Any bets on how long until they're out a second time?

It's going to be a few weeks yet until your unwashed hands are touching an actual G1, so how'd you like some reading material to pass the days in the meantime? T-Mobile has trotted out its first Android phone's user's manual -- probably not on purpose, if we had to guess -- and there are some interesting little morsels in there that'd be even more interesting if you actually had the phone in front of you. For example, did you know the G1 had a status light? Don't see those too often these days. You've also got a full rundown of the notification icons, apps (including the Android flavor of T-Mobile's myFaves app), and -- get this -- procedure for battery removal. Fancy that! [Warning: PDF link]

[Via TmoNews, thanks Jose]

It looks like T-Mobile is listening folks -- and they appear to be responding. In a statement we've just received from the company, they tell us that they're killing the hard-line approach to data capping, saying instead they'll reserve the right to cap a "small fraction" of users who abuse the network. In their words:

"Our goal, when the T-Mobile G1 becomes available in October, is to provide affordable, high-speed data service allowing customers to experience the full data capabilities of the device and our 3G network. At the same time, we have a responsibility to provide the best network experience for all of our customers so we reserve the right to temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of our customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes with our network performance or our ability to provide quality service to all of our customers.

We removed the 1GB soft limit from our policy statement, and we are confident that T-Mobile G1 customers will enjoy the high speed of data access over our 3G network. The specific terms for our new data plans are still being reviewed and once they are final we will be certain to share this broadly with current customers and potential new customers."

Psst, heads up: word on the street is that Google and T-Mobile launched the world's first Android handset today, the G1. No, seriously! In fact, we were there covering every last detail -- so we thought we'd take this opportunity to cobble together all our live action into one place so we can all relive the emotional rollercoaster one last time. Shall we?

Read - T-Mobile G1 video hands-on
Read - T-Mobile's CTO on G1 unlocking and tethering -- plus a few details you might have missed
Read - T-Mobile G1 first hands-on (updated)
Read - Live from T-Mobile's Android event in New York City

Caps are nothing new to the world's 3G networks, but T-Mobile's being particularly stingy with the bytes -- 1GB is all you get. Well, technically you can get more than that, but our friends in magenta are reserving the right to throttle you back to a stifling 50Kbps -- virtually useless by smartphone standards, and less than what even a good EDGE network is capable of providing. That's going to be sour news to heavy G1 users, especially as Android touts its stellar connectivity, world-class browser, and a full suite of data-gorging apps. For now, we're going to cut T-Mob some slack on this since the threat is purely theoretical, but if they start enforcing this little stipulation with a heavy hand, the G1 is going to have to stay in the pocket a little more than we'd like.

[Thanks, Emmanuel C.]