Google announces their first mobile phone platform

Google has announced their first commercial handset running their own operating system, Android. The phone, named the G1 (aka HTC Dream) will be available on T-Mobile in late October for $179 with a two year contract, but click here to check out the pre-sale.  The phone boasts a 3-inch touchscreen, full QUERTY keypad, 3.1MP camera, comes pre-loaded with Amazon’s MP3 store, in addition to giving you access to YouTube, GPS, and Google’s programs – Gmail, Google Maps, GCalendar, etc. There will also be an online store where a variety of applications can be downloaded, much like Apple’s iPhone mobile App store.