AndroidGuys

Time for the latest installment of Hey ‘Guys where we answer your emails and respond to your comments. If you’ve got a question you’d like to ask us, send it to androidguys @ gmail . com and we’ll use the next time around! Let’s get to it…

Hey Guys,
I currently have an iPhone but I’m really looking forward to an Android device. I’m wondering how much is known about the Google services integration. I use quite a few Google services, putting the most mileage on Gmail, Maps, Calendar, and Reader. I’m curious to know if there’s going to be any data synchronizing to a native application on the phone. It’d be a real bummer if I had to use the web interfaces for them, especially Gmail and Calendar (we’ve already seen Google Maps on phones as a native app so I’m not worried about that). Let me know what you know! Thanks, keep up the good work.

- Ron

So far, what we can tell you is this - What you see available for the iPhone has been developed by Google. There’s a separate team dedicated to creating mobile applications who has nothing to do with Android. In fact, they (Google Mobile Team) actually treat Android like it’s any other platform, without favor. Currently, you can point your browser to Google.com and pull up quick access to all your favorite services. Of course, these are still web-based applications.

You might be interested in what Funambol is doing. They’ve got a program called “myFUNAMBOL Portal” that includes an address book and calendar for synchronizing contact and calendar data from popular email clients such as Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird, as well as over-the-air with mobile handsets. It’s an open source alternative to the MobileMe that Apple just announced last week. Hope that helps, or at least gets you in the right direction.

Hey AndroidGuys,

Why do you write about the Samsung Instinct and other non-Android phones? SO much?

- JOOC

Oh, that’s an easy one! We dedicate our site to not only Google Android, but also to the founding members of the Open Handset Alliance. Since Sprint and Samsung are both involved in the OHA, we’ve decided to cover them. We feel like they give us Android fans a glimpse into what might be coming from either company. Besides that, that particular phone kicks ass. Wouldn’t you agree?

As far as the “so much” part goes, there’s not a ton to report on in Android news. There are days that go by without attention grabbing stories. It gives us a little something to keep an eye on while we pass the time.

Guys,

Where do you get your news?

- Helfur Koz

Most of what we get comes from RSS feeds to some of the premier electronics sites. We monitor a couple dozen news sources and tech bloggers. We can’t tell you what’s in the ’special sauce’ because you wouldn’t come back. Let’s say this - it’s a mixture of sites and alerts that get checked around 2-3 times an hour. In order to break news and score interviews, you gotta get up early and start looking.