On his blog, Freitas writes, "We have successfully ported the native C Tor app to Android and built an Android application bundle that installs, runs and provides the glue needed to make it useful to end users.... secure, anonymous access to the web via Tor on Android is now a reality."

However, the developers who are currently preparing anonymous mobile browsing for its premiere are seeking volunteers for the app and for preparing the privacy-focused Android browser, Shadow. Interested parties should contact Freitas.

The first phones using Google's Android platform were meant to go to market by the second half of this year. According to the Wall Street Journal, however, Google is facing some major setbacks thanks to the intricacies of the cell phone business.

In the international market, Google is also facing a number of problems. China Mobile apparently has problems translating the Android software into Chinese characters.

Unlike Apple, which put a lot of pressure on AT&T to retain control of both the hardware and software, Google is pursuing a different strategy by just providing the software platform and leaving everything else to the hardware manufacturers and network providers.

This news is definitely coming at a bad time for Google. Apple is set to release the next version of its iPhone on July 11th and a lot of buyers who were in the market for a modern smartphone and considered waiting for an Android phone might now move to an Apple or Blackberry device instead.

Based on the performance of iPhone apps, it's highly likely that we'll see more applications aiming for the lower end of that pricing spectrum than the upper end. But it will be interesting to see if any developers choose to charge a premium price - which isn't nearly as ridiculous as the App Store's $999.99 threshold - for their development efforts. Thankfully, according to the Market, "Once you've set a price for an application, you may choose to change it at any time."

The option of listing priced applications is currently only available to developers in the US and the UK. However, developers from Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, and Spain are slated to be allowed access to sell applications before April 2009. The Android Market hints at additional countries being added before the end of Q1, as well.

In related news, Australia developers just gained the opportunity to upload free applications. Singapore developers will soon have similar options.

For more information on uploading priced apps or purchasing them, visit Android Market support.

The launch partners for the Android platform include AccuWeather, TapJoy, and Jirbo. According to AdMob, the new advertising units will also be able to use Android's GPS to deliver location based advertising.

What About Google?

Google has shown relatively little interest in doing advertising for mobile applications so far. It will be interesting to see if the advertising giant is going to hand this market over to other providers, or if Google will release its own solution in the near future. So far, Google only lets advertisers target AdWord ads on mobile sites for the iPhone and G1, but doesn't provide a solution for mobile apps yet.

The application is also available in white-label OEM form and LouderVoice thinks it might be ideal pre-install for many networks. According to the company, "if you don't have an Android phone, trust us, you're going to want one, it's a fantastic system, particularly if you use GMail, GCal, GTalk etc. This will be the biggest mobile platform ever released".

If you want to see this new application "in the wild", check out this video review we've uncovered and keep an eye out for LouderVoice's own screencast coming soon on its blog.

So what draws developers like Nicolas Gramlich to Android? Gramlich says that "Android's main attraction is its simplicity" and that this enables the rapid development of "feature-rich applications".

Asked by Steve O'Hear what kind of apps we can expect from Android, Gramlich replied that "we will definitely see a lot of location-aware and social-networking applications, that will try to be the social app for Android. I've seen so many that I cannot even count them." He noted that integration with Google Maps is especially tight, which he says doesn't currently exist on other mobile platforms. Indeed his own Android app is a free navigation app called AndNav! (screenshot below).

Despite all the positive attributes of Android, currently it is vaporware (no commercial phones running Android yet exist) and there has also been developer unrest because the SDK hasn't been updated for some time. Gramlich admits that "the next SDK has to be overwhelming to get Android back on track".

For the full interview, hop over to last100. Also see last100's recent interview with the zintin CEO talking iPhone, Android and mobile future.

If you're a service like Web-based IM leader Meebo, you build an app to enhance the functionality of the Web-based service. And that's exactly what they've done with Meebo for Android.

Even more importantly, Android allows Meebo to deliver an application that can't live on the iPhone platform today. Why? Because of the iPhone's inability to run multiple applications simultaneously. "Running another iPhone application in the background" is a foreign concept - unless you're the owner of a jailbroken phone.

While glimpses of the Meebo app have been available for months, today marks the first opportunity for G1 users to download the app to their handset from the Android Market.

Meebo - which boasts traffic of more than 5 billion messages per month - continues to advance their service. This mobile offering marks another step forward in their continuing efforts to make the service more accessible to more people. The Android release follows closely on the heels of their Community IM partnership announcement which promises exponential growth in the number of Meebo users over the coming months.

And while the Android app might not increase the user base as drastically as Community IM, it's still a significant step in taking advantage of Android features that its closest competitor currently lacks.

These days, a number of developers seem to be building mobile apps simply because they can. Meebo for Android, however, avoids the pitfall of simply "reiterating existing services" by taking a step forward in augmenting Meebo's functionality using the Android platform.

As of October 29, 2008, the Market offered 167 applications, the vast majority of which were categorized as tools or games. Of those apps, roughly a quarter garner the lion's share of the downloads.

So what types of apps are Android users downloading? Turns out the most popular Android apps, so far, are very similar to those that tend to lead the iPhone market: entertainment and reference.

Pac-Man and the Weather Channel lead all apps. Ringdroid - an app that allows users to record and edit sounds - and iPhone-favorite Shazam - an app that can "listen" to a song and help users identify the name and artist - are also among the top downloads. Yes, there's also a flashlight app.

How does Android Market traffic compare with the Apple App Store? At this point, it's difficult to tell. Based on the initial metrics, VentureBeat offers estimates that the Android Market downloads may reach "58 million after 100 days." For comparison, the Apple App Store reached 100 million downloads in 60 days.

While the Android Market numbers aren't earth shattering or record breaking, they are respectable. Given the current trends, the number of downloads should climb steadily, as should the number of applications available for download.

We're sure to see more and more happening with the Market and the handset it supports - even though Google is currently in the position of following a path established by Apple. Lest we forget, this isn't the first market Google has entered in this position. And they seem to have done fairly well for themselves in those markets. Will Android prove to be a similar win? That remains to be seen.

Apache License

The Apache License allows developers to distribute and modify the source code in any way they want, and developers are not required to distribute the new code under the same license. The new license does not even have to be an open-source license, which will give companies the option to develop their own, proprietary platforms on the basis of Android.

iPhone and Android Compete for Developers

It will be interesting to see where developers will take the Android platform now that they have full access to it. We have already seen the release of quite a few very interesting programs for Android in anticipation of the G1 launch.

This announcement also sets Google apart from Apple, which is trying to keep complete control over its iPhone platform. While most users probably don't care about the politics behind the scenes, the Android platform might siphon off quite a few developers from the iPhone - especially given Apple's erratic behavior around including applications in the iTunes store lately.

CEO Bill Stone stated that:

"Handango is now offering developers the opportunity to sell the paid apps they create for the Android platform as well as offer any free apps when the first Android device launches. Customers can purchase apps via the Web and then download them to their device."

Handango will provide this golden opportunity to developers looking to profit from their apps on October 22, the anticipated launch date of the G1. Developers will be given several options for selling their app:

• Sell an app for a one-time purchase fee
• Sell an app for a monthly, quarterly or annual subscription fee

The plus side for Google and Handango is that App Store developers don't receive this many options to sell their apps. It could tempt a nice portion of developers to port their apps over to Android if the G1's launch is successful enough.

How Long Will it Last?

A small selection of apps have already been announced for Handango's catalog including Monopoly, The Weather Channel, Voice on the Go, EzQuote, and FitSync. Unfortunately, Google already has plans to allow developers to charge users to download an app. What will happen to Handango? If developers are smart, they'll offer their apps in both marketplaces if possible. Unless Google takes too long to implement the same payment options, Handango may have a little trouble in the future catering to developers trying to sell their apps.

According to a report from CNET, Mozilla is considering the possibilities. "I think our community would be interested in doing it, because Android will be appearing on more smartphones with the capabilities to provide a good browsing experience," said Jay Sullivan, Mozilla's vice president of mobile.

The only question now is whether or not Fennec will ever have a shot at becoming a popular mobile browser. Although development is moving along at a reasonable pace, it's certainly had its setbacks along the way...and it's nowhere near a version 1.0 yet. Meanwhile, WebKit is taking the lead when it comes to browsers on many of today's hottest smartphone platforms. The open-source WebKit code currently powers a lot of the newest browsers on the market including the one that ships on Android, iPhone's Safari browser, and the browser on the Palm Pre. Where does that leave Fennec? Apparently, it leaves it competing against Opera, which already has a solid foothold on the other mobile platforms lacking a decent mobile browser - Opera even became the top mobile browser recently.

Hopefully with the new NDK from Google, Fennec will be able to make its way onto at least one of the top smarthphone platforms out there. But we wonder: will anyone care when it arrives?

Earlier this fall, Google dedicated $30 million to the X Prize to get to the moon. Today's Android announcement may be more modest, but it's exciting none the less.

Read on for details and a video with a demo of some in-house developed Android apps.

The contest will run in two parts. In part 1, the 50 most promising applications submitted between January and the third of March 2008 will receive $25,000 to fund further development. Top applications from that list of winners will then receive 10 prizes of $100,000 and 10 prizes at $250,000. Those are not insignificant sums.

The list of topics Google says it is interested in seeing apps developed for include: * Social networking * Media consumption, management, editing, or sharing, e.g., photos * Productivity and collaboration such as email, IM, calendar, etc. * Gaming * News and information * Rethinking of traditional user interfaces * Use of mash-up functionality * Use of location-based services * Humanitarian benefits * Applications in service of global economic development * Whatever you're excited about!

Apparently "ad serving" is one part of Android that Google can take care of on its own.

The company announced details of the contest on its new Android Developers blog (zero subscribers as of today, that's an unusual sight on a Google blog!).

There's also an already active Google Group dedicated to discussing the challenge.

The G1 is set to take the world by storm at the end of this month. It may also take Apple's iPhone down a notch or two. Early adopters and those left out of the loop with the release of the iPhone 3G are making their way to the G1. Just days after going on pre-sale the G1 sold out fast, which sent T-Mobile scrambling to place more orders. T-Mobile tripled their original number of orders to HTC for G1 devices. Since then, all of those orders have been pre-sold. The amount of units pre-sold is reported to be around 1.5 million! That figure doesn't even include the number of pre-sale orders placed in T-mobile retail stores. It is being reported that about 1 million units have been pre-ordered from T-Mobile retail stores.

Is the G1 Set to Overthrow the iPhone?

At the moment, we don't think so. However, we're excited about all that Android will offer on the G1. T-Mobile is off to a great start with the number of G1 units pre-sold. Anticipation for both the device and the Android OS is higher than initial reactions led us to believe. It will be up to the performance of Google's Android mobile OS from this point forward to determine whether it's a worthy competitor to the iPhone. Be sure to cast your prediction on Google's Android versus Apple's iPhone and check out our top 10 picks of Android apps that we can't wait to use.

Although Chrome and Android weren't developed together, there's already been a lot of speculation that the new browser would soon make its way to the Google OS, code-named "Android," which is coming soon to a T-Mobile HTC Dream near you.

Will the lightweight browser have as big of an impact on the mobile world as here on the desktop? It's possible that it might even have more of an impact over there. We think the iPhone is great, but it's a closed platform. Like Android, Google Chrome, on the other hand, can be licensed to any carrier that wants to do business. It can also run on numerous types of handsets.

If Google can make web apps work on the mobile device as well as on the desktop, then they will have truly made a giant step forward to making the cloud a real computing platform for the future: Build with App Engine, use in Chrome on desktop or mobile, go offline with Gears. Not a bad strategy.

"I wouldn't say that at all. I think the iPhone is just a world-class device with a great Web browser that delivers in many respects on one of Google's key goals: to bring the Web to the mobile device. We wish every mobile device was as good as the iPhone."

Some people think the comparison to the iPhone is unfair. Noted Jawad Shuaib in the last100 comments:

"The comparison between Android and the iPhone is unfair. The iPhone, with all its glorious UI experience, is a very closed and tightly controlled platform. The promise of Android is not a better user experience but rather an open experience - the sort of stuff that the mobile web really requires at this stage."

And open is where Google is headed, or at least that is their stated goal.

However Google won't be able to avoid comparisons with the iPhone that easily. Apple really did take the Mobile Web up another notch with its superb user experience and ability to run web apps in the Safari browser, due to Apple using its OS X operating system in the iPhone.

As last100 editor Steve O'Hear noted in reply to Jawad, "in terms of UI and the Web browser (WebKit), the two platforms have a lot of common ground, so comparisons are inevitable." Steve also pointed out that we'll need to wait and see "how open the iPhone actually feels to end consumers, and what restrictions carriers / handset manufacturers put on so-called Gphones -- they will be free to alter the Android experience as they please, so it could lead to a lot of fragmentation, leading to mixed user experiences and expectations."

Check out AndroidCommunity.com for pics and video. I think Android is looking very good so far, and we've already seen that there are a bunch of innovative apps being built for Android. Check out ReadWriteWeb's picks of promising Android apps.

That is where Android has a very good chance of usurping Apple -- web apps. Right now I use just a select few web apps on iPhone: RSS Reader, email of course, twitter... not a lot of truly mobile native apps (partly that's because of the network operators here in NZ, which still have high pricing and slow speeds). But if Android comes out with some new innovative Mobile Web apps, I'll be pretty tempted to switch -- well, maybe just buy another phone! I still love the iPhone :-)