Good news for WordPress bloggers with an Android mobile device, a new version of wpToGo has been released. The latest version allows for multiple accounts as well as photo uploading. Great work from the author who had announced that he did not have the time to maintain it, but managed to make some time in his busy schedule to help the Android/WordPress community. Kudos to Dan Roundhill.

I was planning to write up a new article this lunch hour for my health and fitness blog, but a painfully slow internet prevented me from doing anything for the first 40 minutes. So now I have time just for a brief rant, and a warning to fellow mobile bloggers. As good as the Google phone is, the 3G network is far from ideal. I am based in the centre of London, so really should have the best 3G connections available. However I just experienced half an hour of ‘page not found’ errors, which were due to slack internet connections. I am writing furiously now (which proves than the small keyboard on the G1 is adequate) but this does not make up for the fact that MotleyHealth.com has missed out on an article today. I was going to blog about the renewed warnings about saturated fat, but my readers will miss out on this story, and their longterm health could suffer as a result.

Hopefully the technology and infrastructure still has plenty of room for improvement, otherwise 3G may turn out to be a bit of an anticlimax for me. Saying that, I have managed to write this post, so am starting to feel a little more optimistic once again.

Last week Google launched their first mobile phone. Named the Google G1, it is positioned to compete with Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry. It will be available exclusively from T-Mobile during the initial phase. The handset is the first of several expected to use Google’s phone operating system, called Android. It is thought that Android may also be part of a future project which is aiming to create a new PC operating system to rival Microsoft’s Windows and the open source Linux distributions, which are growing in popularity.

The G1 will allow users to access webmail (Google’s Gmail) and surf the net. This will allow Google to increase advertising revenues, as it could potentially start to dominate the mobile advertising market in the same way that its Adwords program dominates internet advertising.

Unlike the iPhone, Google has allowed developers to create free software for the handset. Although Apple does let consumers download extra software, it is tightly controlled and many applications must be paid for.
The Gl will be available free to customers signing up for T-Mobile’s £40 plus tariffs, which include unlimited data for web surfing.

Some mobile phone experts think that the G1 will struggle to compete with the iPhone. Ernest Doku, of mobile phone comparison site, Omio.com said: “Despite the popularity of the Google brand, the Gl’s design lacks the inherent cool factor that made the iPhone 3G such a mass market success.”

Ernest Doku believes Google could tarnish its brand if the phone fails: “The launch of the Gl is important not only because it is Google’s first foray into the mobile market, but because it’s also the launch of an entirely new mobile phone operating system. Android is the equivalent of releasing an alternative to Microsoft’s Windows — and equally as risky.”

We do not agree with this. In the last few years, Linux distributions have become more popular, by proving to be more accessible to mainstream web users. The Ubuntu distribution of Linux is the most popular version, with an estimated 8 million users. PC manufacturers such as Dell and Asus, makers of the Eee PC, are now supplying their computers with Linux pre-installed.

Google recently launched its own web browser, Chrome. It is not aiming to rival Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox initially, which is why some people predict that Google is looking at the bigger picture with respect to the evolving internet. Current browser platforms such as Firefox and IE may not be able to display and manage the next generation of the internet. Google appears to be positioning itself to ensure that it is the market leader once the “Web3.0″ revolution hits.

There are signs that mobile phones are starting to account for a larger share of web search queries on mobile-phones, and the trend is growing faster that analysts predicted. Tomorrow the first “Google phone” is being released, which means a phone with the Google Android operating system installed.

Google’s Android operating system allows developers to create programs for mobile phones. T-Mobile USA Inc., a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG, will release the first Android-powered phone, the G1, on Oct. 22 in the U.S.

[Google I/O] The Android demo/presentation by Steve Horowitz

According to a M:Metrics, a company which tracks use of the mobile internet, 62 per cent of search queries by UK mobiles are performed by Google, compared with 7 per cent by Microsoft.

Android is also an open-source operating system, meaning that developers can access the code and create software that works with the device. Apple has announced a similar initiative which allows developers to create software for the iPhone.