I asked Andy about the Cliq, and whether its heavy-emphasis on social networking would make its way into the core Android OS. He said yes, that Google likes the idea of say, Facebook or Twitter being a part of the core functionality rather than having to open a separate app to get to where you want to be.

Andy also said that there wasn't a huge differentiation between in-house and third-party when it's an open source, open platform effort like Android, so he wasn't sure who would be the team that would make something like Facebook integration happen—be it Google or Facebook.

Also interesting is his views on the Cliq as a whole. He said that he considers this something he would be happy launching as a 1.0 product—the point being that the bugs were worked out, and the extras like the social networking were there. The original Android launch, he says, was more like a 0.8 release.

The bit that's interesting to Android developers is that Rubin doesn't consider the Marketplace done, as in, they're still working on optimizing and making the experience better for both the consumer and the app maker. One of the complaints that paid apps had was that they didn't sell as much as say, a paid app on the iPhone App Store. Andy said they've been working gradually and iteratively, first separating paid apps from free apps, and then working on improving visibility of the apps themselves. So it's something they're aware of, and the fact that the "best" selling apps are only doing somewhere along the lines of 1000s of sales isn't going ignored among the Android people.

As for future Android OS development, Andy claims that you can expect more of the type of things Motorola has done, that is, replacing some of the core apps and core functionality the default Android offers with customized ones like the Cliq's social network streaming and integration.

The Android user interface, like any other mobile phone's, has an information bar at the top which tells you how much battery you have left, which network you're on and what time it is. The main screen area is a blank slate much like the desktop space on a PC. Swiping the finger at the sides of the screen will move this desktop around as it is larger than the actual resolution of the LCD. As expected, there are many Google applications by default, 20 in total, according to Rubin. These include a YouTube program with which you can search and view all YouTube clips, a Gmail app and Google Maps.

An exclamation mark appears in the corner of the screen when the phone wants to tell you something—new mail, warnings and system errors. Click on the exclamation mark and a menu drops down with the information.

Chan also says that you can run multiple apps pretty smoothly. He witnessed Google Maps running at the same time as a photo and music application, and says that this works because Android "freeze dries" the apps that are running in the background, so they don't drain the system resources. [hardwarezone.com and CNET Asia via Engadget]

The NYT is confident referring to the gPhone as a "software" package, rumors of which we have heard countless times. According to the extensive report, the gPhone will be made available by the middle of 2008 and is being produced by Google's partners (HTC, among others?) Google's contribution will be an open OS that shall be distributed freely and will earn revenue via advertising links. Interestingly, the model of bundling free software has been pretty successful in the past, as exemplified by Internet Explorer.

It seems Mr. Rubin is the right man for the project, as one of the founders of Danger Inc., the company behind the excellent Sidekick smartphone series, he seems well qualified to deal in the competitive market. That is not the only experience he is bringing to the game either; back in 1990 Mr. Rubin worked with Apple on a project called Magic Cap, which focused on a groundbreaking platform for portable devices. The venture fell through, as it was apparently too far ahead of its time. (Is this how the gPhone and the iPhone inadvertently cross development paths?) Mr. Rubin went it alone, he blew his entire savings on producing his vision of a mobile platform that would be open to all software developers. The name of Mr. Rubin's project? Yup, you guessed it—Android.

Whatever the gPhone is officially confirmed to be—phone/software suite or both—the potential impact Google will make to the way we communicate will be definitively game changing, if successful. With all this information seeping through, it is only a matter of time before the covers are dropped on the big G's big plans. For now, the wait goes on. [Valleywag]