The New Google Phone: Blazing Fast

The age of the Google(GOOG Quote - Cramer on GOOG - Stock Picks) phone officially begins. You need to know that it's extremely fast -- and could save you big bucks over an Apple(AAPL Quote - Cramer on AAPL - Stock Picks) iPhone.

On Tuesday, Deutsche Telekom's (DT Quote - Cramer on DT - Stock Picks) T-Mobile threw a huge bash on Manhattan's Upper East Side, complete with hundreds of technology journalists and worldwide satellite TV coverage to proudly introduce the G-1 handset -- the first smartphone to run on Google's Android operating system. (Here's a photo gallery of the new phone.)

Let's take that one step at a time. Google has been working on and touting Android as an open-source alternative to the products from Apple (iPhone), Microsoft(MSFT Quote - Cramer on MSFT - Stock Picks) (Windows Mobile), Nokia(NOK Quote - Cramer on NOK - Stock Picks) (Symbian) and others. Open-source means that it's based on a free Unix/Linux system that anyone can use and modify as long as they also share those changes/improvements. For the record, Nokia recently purchased Symbian and announced that it too would now be an open-source OS.

First Look: TMobile's G1 Google Phone

The G-1, made by HTC for T-Mobile, is the first of what could be many portable devices to run on the Android OS. As you might expect, the G-1 sports a number of Google favorite features including gmail as the standard email system offering, and Google Maps, along with built-in GPS, to help get you where you're going.

Actually, the Google Maps/GPS system is pretty amazing. I was lucky enough to get my hands on an early G-1 test handset a while back and was amazed to see that not only was it able to find where I was standing on a map, but when I pressed the Street View button it actually showed me where I was standing and what I was standing in front of and facing. The view actually moved when I did. I was able to see -- in real time -- what my surroundings look like as I head in the proper direction. How cool is that?

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