Google phone

A month ago, we wrote about how Google was going to launch its own smart phone: now here's the evidence. The Nexus One runs on Android 2.1, and will be sold online by Google (although other retailers, including Best Buy, according to Boy Genius, will be flogging it) and will come unlocked, meaning you can choose your own network provider. More juice on the phone below.






The gallery comes courtesy of Engadget, who also captured a sweet shot of the smart phone's backside, (with a cute little tramp stamp of an otherworldly being) revealing that, beneath the ripped-off Post-It fragment is a QR code — useful, since the Nexus One will be running Google Goggles, an app that takes photos and then generates search results once it's worked out what the image is of. No need for the Mountain View campus to install a photocopier for its Christmas party, then, as using this phone to take rude pictures will be a million times more interesting.

The Nexus One's OS boasts 3D-style elements to its app tray, and there's a grid icon that previews all your homescreen pages. There are four touch-sensitive buttons below the screen, and a volume control on the side of the device. So, let's pose the same question that we ask whenever an innovative new smartphone rears its pretty little head: is this going to be the phone that lands a blow on Apple? We'll find out next year, I guess.