OStatic

With January nearly gone, I've been somewhat surprised not to see more announcements on the software and hardware fronts for Google's Android platform. I've been using the T-Mobile G1 phone, and like it very much, but I still think next-generation Android devices running better applications will make a big difference for Android's market potential. Our sister blog JKOnTheRun is now noting a couple of significant advancements on these fronts. First, the arrival of the Opera Mini 4.2 browser for Android is great news, and the upcoming General Mobile DSTL1 Android phone looks good on the outside and on the inside.

The T-Mobile G1 Android phone was missing one key ability that iPhone competitors are expected to have: multi-touch, reports JKOnTheRun.? The hardware is capable of supporting multi-touch features like the famous ?zoom pinch? but it was missing from the phone when it was released. Android is an open source platform, though, and, sure enough, a developer has tapped into the OS kernel to get multi-touch enabled. You can see video of it working here, and I expect we'll see several multi-touch Android phones arrive this year. Check out more thoughts from JKOnTheRun.

T-Mobile is bringing the Android-based G1 phone to five territories in the European Union, reports JKOntheRun, and there may be subsidies offered. Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Poland are reportedly on tap, with a deal in Germany that will get users a G1 phone for only one Euro if they agree to a two-year service contract. Check out JKOnTheRun's thoughts on whether subsidies for these open source phones are a good thing.