Bellevue, Wash. — Taking a cue from the marketing departments of Apple and Microsoft, T-Mobile is slowly releasing incomplete details in dribs and drabs about its second-generation Android-based smartphone, the MyTouch 3G.
As a follow-up to the T-Mobile G1, the world’s first Android OS device, the MyTouch will be available for
pre-order by current T-Mobile subscribers on July 8 at $199 with a two-year contract. Pre-ordered devices will ship to consumers in late July, followed by retail availability nationwide in early August.
Both models are made by HTC.
Like its predecessor, the MyTouch features a touchscreen but lacks a hard QWERTY keyboard; instead it offers a virtual touchscreen keyboard. Also like before, the device will feature deep integration with Google services, but it will add additional customizability to give users the “ability to richly customize” menus, wallpapers, icons and the like on top of “thousands” of Android Market applications, themes and skins, the company said.
For further customization, the MyTouch comes with Geodelic’s Sherpa application, which features GENIE (Geodelic ENgine for Interest Evaluation) technology to automatically customize location-relevant recommendations of nearby retailers, restaurants and attractions based on a user’s likes and dislikes.
The device also features multitasking, a 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen display and virtual keyboard, which orients automatically from portrait to landscape mode in most applications. It also
comes with 3.2-megapixel camera/camcorder; music player with preinstalled 4GB MicroSD memory card; and one-touch access to such Google services as Google Search by voice, Google Maps with Street View, YouTube and Picasa. It also accesses personal and corporate email, supports Exchange, Gmail and most other POP3 and IMAP e-mail services, and synchronizes with Google contacts and calendars. It features such instant-messaging services as Google Talk, AOL, Yahoo! Messenger, and Windows Live Messenger.
The carrier said it would release additional details when the product is available.
