The touch screen, the keyboard, the hotness, the open source. My long wait for a hot phone may be nearly over. CrunchGear is reporting that the video below of the alleged HTC Dream running Android may be the actual phone after all. So much for the haters.

Wired is reporting that according to an unofficial T-Mobile blog:

“…the first version of the multimedia Google Phone will be released by HTC starting on September 17 for one week, for T-Mobile customers only. This offer will be immediately followed by a general release a week later. It will be called, ostensibly, the G1.”

T-Mobile offering a special early release to their current customers, with or without discount, would play perfectly into their customer base who tend to be faithful and loyal to the cellular provider.

While some may be wary of being an early adopter for a brand new mobile interface, I for one look at the potential of being able to work with something that isn’t locked down and closed source as the iPhone is. At least I won’t have to modify firmware to make it work.

Regardless as how it plays out, I am saving my lunch money in anticipation for the Android phone. Now I can stop scouring the market for an old beat up, overpriced iPhone to jailbreak & unlock while I wait for T-Mobile to release something better than their current Sidekick 2008 dud.

I have been anxiously awaiting the latest OpenMoko phone and have been excited about it’s ongoing development. If you are unfamiliar with OpenMoko, it is a company developing open source hardware & software for mobile phones. Around before the Google Android project, it has been striving to get it’s product out as a stable release. The first shipments to North America went out just a short time ago and the device has been selling out from the direct store. Just think, an open source phone that you can take with you to other cellular providers and you are *allowed* to do what you want with. In fact, you are *encouraged*.

An OpenMoko distrubutor, Koolu, is offering a free phone for Google Apps referrals. Basically I can earn my own free OpenMoko FreeRunner by referring 25 people to register for the Premier Edition of Google Apps (pay for service) or 100 people to sign up for FREE Google Apps through the Koolu web site. The sign up process for Google Apps only takes 3 minutes and requires no purchase, registration or verifying of a domain (web site).

In other words, you don’t have to buy anything or even own a domain name to help me earn one of these delicious phones.

Just use this link to sign up and help me earn a free open phone:

http://apps.koolu.com/google-apps-referral/google-apps-signup.php?r=1000277

or the TinyURL if you would rather: http://tinyurl.com/openmoko

Please pass this link on. I will post the progress here.

The keyboard shortcut skins from Photojojo make working in Photoshop and other apps a breeze. Custom-fitted and color-coded, these key skins help you learn keyboard shortcuts for a variety of applications including Photoshop, Aperture, Final Cut Pro, Pro Tools, After Effects and Logic Pro. The skins work on a variety of Apple keyboards and will make you look like a veteran. Prices are reasonable starting at just $30 for a laptop skin and $40 for a desktop skin.

It’s a shame these are only available for a Mac. 

My family has been passing the flu bug around to each other so I have been mostly offline and playing nurse Mom as well as patient the last several days. Making sure I am not totally out of the loop, my phone lit up like crazy yesterday as I started getting SMS messages and direct Twitters from friends making sure I knew about the deal with Microsoft and Danger Inc. This one plays a little close to my heart as I not only have a Sidekick3 (we actually have several in our house) but I have a developers SDK for the Danger OS.

Danger, Inc. is the company behind the T-Mobile Sidekick smartphone platform. While they don’t make the hardware (the SK3, ID, and previous models were produced by Sharp and the current Sidekick Slide is being manufactured by Motorola) they are the company behind the OS that runs the devices and manage the closed software/ringtone catalog for the smartphones sold only through T-Mobile. Although the Sidekick is in the smartphone category it is more a consumer driven device than a business class phone. Prominent features of the Sidekick devices are instant messaging (MSN, AIM, and Yahoo IM), email (t-mobile branded email addresses as well as the ability to add external accounts with POP), a web browser, a camera, and the ability to purchase themes and customize the phone. It has been marketed to the younger (hipper?) crowd whereas smartphones such as the Blackberry have been prominently used by professional business people.

As a Sidekick 3 owner, one of my favorite features of the Danger OS has been the fact that it is constantly synchronized with the (T-Mobile/Danger) server. As long as there is a data connection available my Sidekick keeps my address book, my calendar, my notepad items, my email, my SMS messages (and my pictures if I am storing them locally rather than on a SD card supported by the device) syncronized. Should my phone be broken, replaced, lost, or whatever the circumstance, I can sign on to My T-Mobile and view my device through a web browser and if I get a replacement SK all my data is retrieved once I insert my SIMM card. I never lose my data. The major downside to the Danger OS is that is an extremely restrictive platform and is not friendly to developers. I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get the SDK and the only way I can get my apps in the download catalog is if they are completely my own, there is no open source build ups allowed. I have purchased a few apps for my SK3 including the Terminal app that lets me SSH in to servers and manage my systems remotely from my phone (although not the fastest method going across the EDGE network). Most apps are more consumer driven including a lot of games, audio mixers, theme modifiers, and diet apps. Besides selling third-party software, Danger’s primary source of income is the recurring Sidekick subscription plan on the T-Mobile network.

According to GigaOM Microsoft shelled out a whopping $500 million for Danger, Inc. My guess is that they want to use Danger’s OS mobile service platform to integrate and deliver Microsoft branded services perhaps in competition with the Google Android platform. While I am sure there are a lot of financial reasons Microsoft purchased Danger, Inc. I am really not surprised that they did from a platform perspective. Microsoft is closed source (even if they have been trying to jump on the open source bandwagon) and Danger is as well. Due to that, I don’t see them as any threat to Android even though we have yet to see the fruits of Google’s labor. Taking two companies that have always done business on a closed platform it takes reworking not only on the business side but also on the software side to open the platform up. I don’t see that happening any time soon but I think if they hope to really compete they would be wise to open it up.

Another aspect to the purchase shows that Microsoft is making a move towards the consumer smartphone marketplace. While they have the Windows Mobile platform it has been primarily in the business smartphone class. With the recent Zune changes, the Zune marketplace, and the continued success of the XBox platform, I would not be surprised to see a continued move towards the consumer market with modifications in the smartphone platform area. Hopefully they don’t try to make the Sidekick into a Zune phone any time soon but no matter, with all the smartphones integrating full keyboards like the SK3 has and even the Blackberry now including a camera, I am moving out of my SK3 within six months or so anyway. Microsoft can have it.

I would have to say that the pictures on this post at pingdom have to include some of the most elegant cabling jobs I have ever seen. I have witnessed many an ugly server rack in my time in IT (I have probably created a few as well) and there are few things that I find more beautiful as a sysadmin than a well organized datacenter. Now, go feast your eyes on the artful cabling then challenge yourself to make your own beauty.

Link: pingdom: When data center cabling becomes art