Which isn't to say I won't totally do this when I have a few spare minutes, because when you get to thinking about it, this is pretty great: our host in the video doesn't show off anything more than Google Street View. But imagine using this hobo helmet with camera-based apps like Wikitude or Layar, or replacing the Magic with an iPhone and loading up the new version of Yelp? Excellent. [Twitter via Slashgear]

To be fair, we should have expected this: Back in June, there were reports that HTC representatives had been talking about a licensing issue that would keep any proprietary modifications off of phones with "With Google" branding. Sense is all HTC, and the MyTouch 3G is slapped with a Google logo, so this forthcoming update, which was announced at a press conference in Taiwan and will be available from HTC's website at some point in the near future, sounds like a distinctly foreign interest.

It's worth holding out for possible "clarifications" on this one—please, HTC, Google, or both, say something! Soothe us!—but this hemisphere's outlook isn't so great. Enjoy turning your Magics into Heroes for free, Eurojerks. At least we've got our homebrew.

Update: Another possible issue: The MyTouch 3G and Vodafone-labeled Magics have slightly less RAM than their HTC-branded counterparts, which means even the best hacked Hero ROMs don't run especially well. Yeah, not looking so great for ol' MyTouch here. [ePrice—Thanks, Taknarosh and Nick!]

The Wall Street Journal, which we'd say is a reasonably respectable publication, has it on good authority that the newest Android handset to hit our shores will be announced next week. This lines up nicely with what we've heard from T-Mobile's CTO, so we think it's pretty credible. Of course, who knows what "this summer" means; it could be next month, or it could be late September. We'll find out more from the rumored announcement next week. You can check out our review of the variably-named phone here if you want to find out the ins and outs of this latest Android offering. [Wall Street Journal]

We've selected the five phones that most feel like modern handsets to us—the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, the Palm Pre, the HTC Magic (or, as we soon expect, the T-Mobile G2) and the BlackBerry Storm—and broken them down by hardware, software and cost. This is a guide in the strictest sense, meaning we aren't declaring winners or losers, just giving you the information you need to make your own choice. So! On with the matrices. Phones' hardware specs tend to dominate carriers' marketing, but in many cases they just don't mean much, with a few exceptions: screens, storage, graphics performance and input.

The iPhones and Pre hold a sizable advantage in the screen department, trumping the G2, which doesn't have multitouch, and the Storm, which has an ill-conceived pseudo-multitouch clickscreen that left most reviewers at best underwhelmed, and at worst downright frustrated.

In terms of storage, our phones take two fundamentally different approaches. The iPhone and Pre include healthy amounts of nonremovable storage—in the case of the iPhone 3G S, up to 32GB—which makes sense: if we're going to use our phones as they're marketed (as multimedia devices), we need space. The G2, like the G1 before it, depends on a removable microSD card for file storage, since its inbuilt memory is measured in megabytes. So does the Storm. This is fine if the carrier bundles the handset with a capacious card; Verizon is good about this. T-Mobile, on the other hand, shipped the G1 with a pitifully small 1GB card, so we'll just have to hope they're more generous with the G2.

Technical 3D ability is actually fairly uniform across this hardware, with the exception of the iPhone 3G S, which is, in this area, a next-gen product. Only Apple and HTC, though, give developers any meaningful kind of access to their handsets' graphics accelerators, meaning the G2 and iPhones (particularly the bulked-up 3G S) will be the sole options for would-be gamers. And of the two platforms, iPhone OS has amassed plenty of serious gaming titles, while Android, let's be honest, hasn't.

The Pre is an obvious standout in that it has a hardware keyboard in addition to its touchscreen. The hardware QWERTY/onscreen keyboard debate is all about personal preference, so whether this is a boon or a burden is up to you. Typing on a screen is an acquired skill—but much more so on the Storm than the iPhone or G2.

Battery life would seem to be a valuable metric; it's not. The differences in capacity and claimed endurance don't really matter much, since realistically, they all need to be charged nightly.

Note: the Storm is due a minor hardware refresh, possibly quite soon. The main change, it's been rumored, is a different touchscreen.
The greatest hardware in the world couldn't save a phone with shitty software, and your handset's OS is the single largest determining factor in how you'll enjoy your phone. We've explored the differences between the major smartphone platforms at length here, and there's no point getting too far into the specific differences right now.

To summarize: iPhone OS claims advantages in ease of use, its burgeoning App Store, and a respectable core feature set, but falters on multitasking and its lack of ability to install unsanctioned apps. The Pre's WebOS is extremely slick and friendly to multitasking, but its App Catalog is light on content, and its development SDK is somewhat restrictive. Android and BlackBerry OS are both more laissez-faire, letting users install apps from whatever source they choose. Neither of their app stores is spectacular, but Android's is markedly less anemic. More on app stores here.

Carrier preferences will often override prices, but here they are anyway. The Pre and G2 are the most economic options, and the Storm roughly ties the 3G S as the most expensive. (It's easy to underestimate how much a small monthly cost difference can add up over two years.) But again, carrier loyalty (or more likely, disloyalty) and coverage quality is as important as cost. If Sprint's killing your Pre buzz, it could be worth waiting until next year, when Verizon is rumored to pick it up. Likewise, if T-Mobile coverage in your area is patchy, don't worry: by the time T-Mobile actually offers the G2, we'll probably have at least another functionally identical handset lined up for release elsewhere.

So there you have it: everything you need to know about the latest crop of consumer smartphones. Go forth, and be gouged.

Note: This isn't technically the G2 since it hasn't been officially released here yet, but the T-Mobile G2 will have the same hardware and the same software—the same, essentially, as the HTC Magic in Europe—so this is as close to the G2 as you're going to get until T-Mo ships their own.

Hardware:
Let me repeat that nationally-televised ad and get this out of the way first: The screen is still fantastic. If you place the G1 and the G2 side by side, the G2 has a more blue-ish tint while the G1 is more purple. The G2 produces whiter whites than the G1. It doesn't seem any brighter—it's just nicer.

The generously curved shell is thicker than the iPhone, but less wide, which actually makes it feel better in the hand. It weighs 4.09 ounces compared to the G1's 5.60 ounces, but somehow manages to feel even lighter, like half as heavy. That curved chin that caused such a nuisance when typing on the G1 is no longer a problem, due to the fact that there's no actual slide-out hardware keyboard. Face buttons are now smaller and shiny and raised, which makes them easier to locate and press. There's also one extra button: Search. This pops up a context-related search menu for apps like contacts, email and the browser.

It's also improved internally. A2DP Bluetooth stereo support comes standard (it was enabled for the G1 in the 1.5 Cupcake update), and the slimmer body houses a 1340mAh battery (the G1 had a meager 1150mAh pack). A battery test is coming later, but HTC's specs rate this as 400 minutes talk time compared to 350 for the G1.

The camera is the same 3.2-megapixel, and as of the 1.5 update, both the G1 and the G2 can both record video adequately. Not great, just adequate. Still pictures are as passable as the G1's in sunlight, and still not great in low light.

What you'll feel most often is the increased ROM and RAM: 512MB and 288MB, respectively. The beefed up hardware makes a noticeable difference in speed when launching and using apps.

Unfortunately, there's still no 3.5mm headphone jack, and you still need to use an adapter if you want to use your own headphones. The microSD memory slot is also hidden underneath the back battery cover, but thankfully not underneath the battery itself.

The hardware has been improved in just about every respect, minus the fact that you no longer have a physical keyboard to bang out emails and texts quickly. But fortunately the software keyboard actually makes the loss bearable.

Software
The G2 comes with the same Android 1.5 OS that just rolled out to G1s—the same update we've been tracking over and over through its long development cycle—so none of this will be a huge surprise. The key difference is that you have to use the software keyboard now.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Also, instead of switching to and from landscape view when the keyboard is extended, the G2 uses the accelerometer to detect transitions. It works well, and uses a fade-out fade-in effect. It's not a speedy transition, but it's not too slow either. And the landscape keyboard works in all the apps and all the fields we tested.

But the keyboard itself? It falls just slightly short of the iPhone's. Like the iPhone (and the G1), it's got a capacitive screen. Pressing a key makes the key pop up above, so you can see what you're typing. Google thankfully decided against the goofy other-side-of-the-keyboard solution they had before.

Although the letter recognition is accurate, and is intuitive if you've ever typed on an iPhone, it just needs its sensitivity cranked up another 20%. Occasionally you'll press a key and the phone will sit there staring back at you blankly. More often than not it's the space key that refuses to detect, makingyourwordsruntogether. This mostly happens when you type really fast, so it seems like the hardware isn't quite fast enough to keep up with your taps.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.What's nice is that the phone displays multiple word guesses (like so many other phones) for autocomplete, which may save you key presses on longer words. And as far as we can tell from blasting out a bunch of emails and texts from it, the dictionary is quite accurate at detecting what you're typing.

It's still no hardware keyboard, but it's at least as good as typing on the iPhone, with the slightly worse sensitivity (and thus slower typing speeds) being made up for by the better auto-complete.

Verdict
Although the T-Mobile G2/Google Ion/HTC Magic has still has its flaws, it's essentially better than the G1 in every way. It's lighter, faster, better and supposedly lasts longer on a charge. Unless you absolutely need to have a hardware keyboard for massive text entry, there's no real reason why Android seekers shouldn't get the G2 when it debuts on T-Mobile soon.

It's lighter, thinner and faster than the G1

Software keyboard actually works

No more physical keyboard

Exactly the same OS as the G1, so there's not a lot of reason to upgrade if you already own the predecessor

The Magic's going to go onsale in June, but one analyst says it'll be lucky to crack 100,000 units by the end of year—the G1 has sold over a million units in the US and UK. There's plenty more bashing on the iPhone's inadequacies compared to Japan's mightily superior phones waiting for you over at Bloomberg (though you can read why it's somewhat BS at Wired): [Bloomberg]

Of course, given the ambiguous language of the post (or my poor Spanish comprehension), they could be jerking everyone around a little bit, promoting the opening of pre-orders as actual availability. That they explicitly tout their release as earlier than the previous May 5th date, though, seems to indicate that they'll actually start shipping today. Happy crazy Android surprise day, Spain!

Update: Our resident Spaniard has confirmed that the post implies it'll ship today from the online store, but that brick-and-mortar stores will have to wait until next week. [Phandroid —Thanks, Rob!]

We still have no idea when the supposed T-Mobile US release is coming, or if their pricing will bear any resemblance to Voda's. I somehow doubt it will, because this price structure is crazy: Free on select (£35 and £30, depending on contract length) plans, £195 ($285) on an 18-month, £30 tariff, and £293 ($431) for £15, £20 and £25/mo tariffs. [Vodaphone via Pocket Lint]

Our money is on the successor to the T-Mobile G1 (also announced in NYC at a T-Mo event), which will almost certainly be the HTC Magic we've seen announced in Europe.

We can also expect that a major Android update will come along with it, since the only place we've seen a soft keyboard, which is necessary for the touchscreen-only Magic, is in the Cupcake development distribution. We'll keep you posted as we know more.

There are no other details about the delay or even if this will effect the launch of the handset on other carriers, but we can only speculate that the delays now could ultimately lead up to many more delays later. May 1st, eh? I'll see your Pre and raise you a new iPhone. [Engadget]

Unlike Samsung, with their similar "at least three" announcement a few months back, HTC has a track record here, but considering how short their Android line is now a redundant Magic/G1-esque handset seems unlikely. The most obvious new direction to take would be a BlackBerry-esque QWERTY phone, something that the OS is more or less ready to handle, and that desperately needs to be explored.

HTC hasn't dropped any real hints as to what these new phones will be, but the two month announcement-to-shipment precedent they've set with the G1 and G2, the number of promised handsets and this self-imposed nine month deadline means that we might find out sooner rather than later. The biggest question, of course: Will there be chins?[PCWorld]

Engadget noticed this as well, and notes that the T-Mobile logo on this particular handset is a uniquely US one. While it is true that the American T-Mobile logo has one less dot left of the T than in the rest of the world, this isn't definitive evidence. That this handset is a complimentary successor to the G1, which T-Mobile exclusively carries, is as strong an indicator as any that the Magic will probably eventually show up on Ole' Magenta (people should call them this, by the way). For T-Mobile not to release this as their G2 would be more surprising than anything else. The thing we're really waiting for is us a release date—by the dictates of T-Mobile or not—and this doesn't really help us much there. —Thanks, robkonz!

The string of comments following the post indicate that most users won't be able to throw their money at fart apps just yet (there are fart apps, RIGHT!?), but gradual, trickling OTA G1 updates are par for the course. The first (small) batch of apps will look familiar to users of Apple's App Store—Unit converters! Breakout games! One dollar clocks!—though it is conspicuously (and unexpectedly) lacking of any marquee titles. It's far too early to judge, and baby steps are fine, I guess, as long as I know I'm getting my Guitar Hero someday. G1ers, let us know what you find—good and bad—in the comments. [BGR]

According to HTC: Personality. The Androids are like people, they have chins, they have personality. The other reason: They also have protruding nippleballs: Having a chin allows the HTC engineers to pull the trackballs out more than competing devices, making them easier to use while protecting them with the chin.

There you have it. Now you'll be able to sleep tonight.

The bad news first: Apart from my gripes about the user interface—which are still there—there is one but. A big BUT, bigger than Ramona's, the planetary lady with accidental moustache who serves the bocadillos down at one of the fair's restaurants: The software keyboard. On this first touch, the keyboard felt cramped, probably a result of the screen size, which is smaller than the iPhone's—which is the obvious soft keyboard reference, since it was the first one to implement a finger-touch software keyboard.

In addition to that, there's an additional user interface problem, this time having to do with perception: Instead of popping up above your finger—like in the iPhone so you can clearly see what you pressed—the keys appear on the sides. They flash quickly as you press them, and I found it extremely distracting. They said that they put them on the sides not to obstruct the view, but knowing the over-the-key implementation in the iPhone's software keyboard, it doesn't make much sense. Furthermore, when you are typing with one finger only—like I often do—you will be obstructing the view of the flashing key with your finger. The reason: When you type on the right side of the keyboard, the flashing keys appear on the left. When you click on the right, they pop out on the left.

Other than this, the rest is great. There's a new Google Mail feature to delete or classify mail in bulk, as well as a faster camera, which now can take video—which obviously means you can play back video as well. The rest of the interface and features is what you already have in the Android G1. However, what really steals the show here is the hardware itself.

HTC has got a very smooth phone, which feels great on your hands and in your pants' pockets. While it's sightly thicker than the iPhone, the narrower, rounded body, and weight makes it feel the same size. For sure, a lot less bulky than the G1, which looks like a brick next to this. And as you have seen in the shots, the final HTC Magic is quite pretty. Have no doubt: This thing alone will make many consumers put up with the less-than-ideal software keyboard.

Overall, the first feeling is that we got a potential winner here. If they can manage to make the software keyboard better, Apple will definitely have a formidable enemy in the Android G2.

For sure, it is lot prettier that T-Mobile's G1. Here are the specs:

Processor
Qualcomm® MSM7201a™, 528 MHz

Operating System
Android

Memory ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 192 MB

Dimensions 113 x 55 x 13.65 mm ( 4.45 x 2.17 x 0.54 inches)
Weight 118.5 grams ( 4.18 ounces) with battery
Display 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320x480 HVGA resolution
Network HSDPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz, Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
(Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent.)

Device Control Trackball with Enter button

GPS Internal GPS antenna

Connectivity Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)

Camera
3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus

Audio supported formats AAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC-LC, MIDI, OGG
Video supported formats MP4, 3GP

Battery Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
Capacity: 1340 mAh

Talk time:
Up to 400 minutes for WCDMA
Up to 450 minutes for GSM

Standby time:
Up to 660 hours for WCDMA
Up to 420 hours for GSM
(The above are subject to network and phone usage.)

Expansion Slot microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
AC Adapter Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 47/63 Hz
DC output: 5V and 1A
Special Features G-sensor
Digital Compass

Beyond that, details are thin. BG is claiming a flashless 3.2 megapixel camera (same as the G1), and all the expected connectivity (3G, wi-fi). They're also claiming it will be loaded with Cupcake, the supposed next version of the Android OS, even though confusion abounds over exactly what Cupcake itself is-a development tool, or an eventual update? The NYT has it on record that Cupcake is simply a dev release, but we have seen features in said release that aren't in the G1's recent 1.1 update, like the soft keyboard. And there's still no beauty shot of the G2/Magic in pop-out QWERTY mode, we might add...

So, haze is still strong here, and HTC did not unveil anything like this at their MWC press conference, but hopefully this Euro-only teasing is just the prelude to a wider release, because the hardware is certainly sexy. Hit up Boy Genius for more shots: [BG]