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Can Androids think and can they think BIG? Would you like a smart-phone heavyweight in your pocket this Christmas? How about having the might of the Google mobile operating system (OS) as your personal assistant and window on the information universe?

Well, the outcome is not clear yet on the omnipotence or otherwise of Google or its rapid rise to information society behemoth and how things will unfold in the coming years. What is clear though is that we are on the cusp of rapid change in the smartphone market. And Google is at the heart of it.

A range of new hardware providing access to the emerging Google mobile OS, ‘Android’ has arrived… It’s time to arm yourself with the latest next big thing as you strike a blow against the dominance of the major players in the coming smartphone wars. But what weapon to choose?

Choose your weapon…

Prime candidate is the latest HTC Magic, a second generation Android handset just released with much improvement on the original G1 device. Now sporting the latest Android Cupcake 1.5 release of the Android operating system. The physical keyboard has been replaced by a virtual one and the size form has been dramatically reduced. Specs include a 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 480×320 HVGA resolution. A Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz, 288 MB RAM, 512 MB Flash ROM, a 3.2 MP camera, 2 to 16 GB memory. On top of this the HTC Magic offers GPS and e-Compass. Battery life is important if you fancy doing smartphone battle all day via Wifi or 3G. A constantly available connection to the Internet and access to the info universe requires decent battery life – and here we have it with a big 4.5 hours of talk time and 450 hrs of standby. This device can go 12 hours on heavy application use and connectivity – not taking into account voice use. Other enhanced features include Wi-Fi, Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. HSDPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz

The HTC Magic offers the ability to sync with Microsoft Outlook and also of course seamless integration with Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, Google Talk, You Tube and more. Microsoft Office and Excel documents can be viewed along with PDFs using the supplied Quick Office suite of tools. There’s an accelerometer (for GPS navigation, games and input).

Form factor is small and neat easily fitting into the palm of your hand, with a jogwheel just below the display. Android performance is fast and zippy. Native Flash 5.0 is now included in the latest releases which is a major boost for much web content.

But what of the new Android OS and its intelligent offerings? What can we expect from an information ally such as this and how might we dare square up in a top-tier smartphone showdown with a view to victory?

All about the Apps…

The Android platform is Open Source and therefore is being contributed to and enhanced on a minute-by-minute basis across the world by thousands of developers. It also offers access to the free Android Market where there are already thousands of available apps for our tech savvy info warriors to get there hands on… A fully equipped HTC Magic can in the right hands easily compete with the top touch screen smart-phones from the big players. The device offers a very well designed user interface as well as fast and unique applications to assist the user with a multitude if daily tasks and activities. And what about the Google element? Well, being aligned to and a product of the biggest player in the world of Internet search, advertising and cloud computing you can expect of course that Google’s armory of online resources and services merge seamlessly with the Android OS. We have immediate and real-time access to offerings such as Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps, Facebook, Twitter, stocks, weather and more. The always-on functionality can be used with GPRS, 3G and Wi-fi providing the user with a fantastic user experience as well as super slick and customizable touch-screen interface features.

Ultimately you have in hand an operating system which seeks to give back control and customization to the user. Multiple ‘desktops’ and full personalization all round off an operating system already in its second generation after only 12 months on the market with a range of hardware from a variety of manufacturers on the way and multiple price entry points to suit.

With the understanding that there are only a few – albeit well resourced and designed – hardware options currently competing in this market it can perhaps safely be assumed that a real challenger in the form of the HTC Magic has truly arrived.

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