R2D2 and Roy Batty, both created as androids but with wildly divergent results. One a trusted side-kick, with all the answers. The other the intelligent psycho android played by Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner, who kills his maker. Which one will Google’s Android be?After speaking with some folks, lets clear up some confusion, the G-Phone is not a phone like iPhone, but rather an operating system. Google at this point will not be making the phone, they are partnering with manufacturers to use their operating system. It appears that Google has and continues to benefit from this confusion which it helped create.

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer called the Android platform “a mere press release,” which is correct. Understanding the impact on the mobile industry, be it a benevolent “open” platform that helps the consumer or not, is not possible at this point.

Only time will tell. But the new $10 million Android developer competition should help Google’s cause.

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Roy Batty

Blade Runner

Star Wars

R2D2

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Steve Ballmer comments

Where is Steve Case? AOL’s new beta mobile search product knows and it found him 8 seconds (using a Motorola Q). The product is fast and simple to use, although it doesn’t match the screen capture on the site promoting the product.

Also, you would think the search process would be the same on different phones, it wasn’t. The option to select the search category was not present on one phone and it was on another.

Google’s mobile search product well too, but didn’t perform as well as AOL. Curiously, using the Motorola Q, Google misidentified the phone as a Sony Ericsson P990i. I am not sure why they presented the information upfront, it was the first thing presented – even before the search box.

I did test both services from a Samsung Synch and the both worked well even though some are reporting it only works on true smartphones.

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AOL Mobile Search
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