Google No Longer Selling Nexus One Online

What you need to know:
• When the Nexus One launched, they were poised to revolutionize the mobile industry by offering the device independent from carriers, shifting the attention to which device you wanted, not which carrier had the device you wanted.
• This would then drive carriers to step up their game, because customers could get the device they wanted, and pick the carrier that was best.
• Unfortunately, Google consistently delivered poor numbers on the Nexus One.
• Now, Google is pulling the online Nexus One store, and sending customers to carriers to sign up for service just as we're all used to.

I'm pretty upset this didn't take. It had a lot of potential, and I feel like it's one of those things that just needed more time. The phone didn't even launch with all the carriers available. By the time they did, they replaced the Nexus One with the Droid Incredible on Verizon, and the EVO 4G on Sprint. Eventually, if they had launched with every carrier available, carriers would have realized that they had to step it up in order not to lose business, but unfortunately, that just wasn't the case. Hopefully we'll see some kind of resurgence soon, otherwise we're all stuck in the carrier's stranglehold for the foreseeable future.

Full post from the Google Blog after the jump.

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Droid Incredibile Replaces Nexus One In Google's Verizon Offering

When Google announced the Nexus One, few folks weren't wondering when it might be coming to other carriers, specifically Verizon. Google announced shortly afterward that they would indeed be supporting US AT&T 3G bands in addition to T-Mobile 3G support. But, all those folks waiting for the Verizon version of the Nexus One are still left high and dry. Until now, that is.

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Android 2.1 Hitting The Droid This Week

Motorola has announced via Facebook that they will be rolling out Android 2.1 to the Droid this week. Here’s what the build has to offer (via Engadget):

It's based on Android 2.1. The build currently being circulated is identified as 2.1 version 1, mirroring the update just pushed to the Nexus One last week.

Google Goggles is now pre-installed.

The browser's now multitouch enabled. No Flash though.

No active wallpapers.

The news and weather widgets introduced on the Nexus One are included. Maybe certain capabilities of 2.1 are going to be restricted to devices with minimum performance benchmarks?

The most exciting upgrade, though, is probably the browser’s new multitouch capabilities. The Droid saw multitouch earlier this week in an update to the Google Maps app, and now it's coming to the browser, too.

The update will not be offering are the animated backgrounds and 3D launcher, as apposed to the drawer launcher in the current software, that we've seen on the Nexus One. Very well may be that the flashier features are being quarantined to more brawny processors. There's also no word on whether or not there will be an increased number of home screens just yet. If the build passes all of Verizon’s testing department’s requirements, we should be seeing updates hit devices this week.

Update on Friday, February 12, 2010 by Mark Burstiner

Woops! Looks like Motorola was feeling a little hasty. Seems as though the update will not be pushing this week. It will be coming, but not quite so soon. Thanks, Engadget!

iPhone and Multitouch Nexus One Updates, On The Same Day!

iPhone OS 3.1.3 dropped yesterday coupled with an update to iTunes. Both updates are minor, but you'll want to get your hands on the iTunes update asap, because it fixes the password saving bug. Last version broke password saving for the iTunes store, but version 9.0.3 fixes that issue. iPhone OS 3.1.3 is totally minor, and includes:

• Improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS
• Resolves issue where third-party apps would not launch in some instances
• Fixes bud that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard 

But Apple wasn't the only one to push a mobile update yesterday. Google pushed an update to the Nexus One giving it native support for multitouch in Maps, Gallery, and the Browser. Google has been pretty adamant about not having multitouch because "they didn't care much for the feature", but obviously something must have changed. Apple has patents on mutitouch, but they haven't gone after Palm for including it in every iteration of their WebOS devices. This might be one of those times that it's better to just let it go. Just like other iPhone apps are now adopting the "pull down to refresh" gesture from Tweetie 2, it's best to acknowledge you did it first than hoard the rights and not let it get the exposure it merits.

Check out a video from Engadget of multitouch on the Nexus One in action after the jump.

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Doubletwist Catches A Ride On The Nexus One

Remember Doubletwist? I'm sure you do. They're the killer cross-platform app to sync your iTunes library to non-iDevices. They just struck a deal with T-Mobile to be the flagship syncing program for Android users. And they did it with good reason, too. Doubletwist, while not entirely perfect is easily the best iTunes surrogate if you're not using and iPhone or iPod, touch or otherwise.

Doubletwist is what I use to sync my Droid and they make the process painless. This is a great move for them especially since they also support a myriad of other devices, not just Android, including WebOS, Blackberry and even PSP. You can check out a whole list here.