When I first started visiting Europe about 15 years ago Europeans used to love taunting me with their wonderful new phones that were, back then, years ahead of the devices we’d get in the United States. It was a point of regional pride that even though Silicon Valley and Microsoft had thoroughly run away with the technology industry that Europe still had one industry that they could point to and say “you can’t take it all.” Today that no longer is true and, worse, Europe is stuck in a texting rut.

A fascinating soap opera of video format wars precedes us and one has to wonder why exactly Adobe’s Flash format is not supported on the iPhone. Microsoft came out with an ad and PR campaign recently which focused on the excessive amount of money being spent on Apple products and services – they call this the ” Apple Tax .” The idea is you can get equivalent products from Microsoft at a fraction of the price.

Google ’s decision to create a new Internet-centric OS for netbooks shows the limitations of the Android mobile OS for netbooks and raises questions about its future on those devices, developers and analysts said. While Google is adamant that Chrome OS is a separate project with a separate design goal and not meant to replace Android, observers have wondered why Google would choose to form two OS projects for netbooks rather than adapt Android for netbooks and PCs, especially while some developers already have ported the OS to netbooks.

At the most recent COMPUTEX, there was a chorus of buzz generated by Qualcomm, Acer, and ASUS around the possibility of using Google Android as a netbook OS. Qualcomm and ASUS in particular were talking up Android as an OS for so-called “smartbooks,” which are netbooks that use ARM processors instead of Intel’s Atom, whereas Acer seemed to be looking to an x86 port of Android so that it could run the OS on Atom-based netbooks.

(Credit: Coroflot/Tryi Yeh) (Credit: Coroflot/Tryi Yeh) Here’s a concept phone based on the Google Android OS. Designed by Tryi Yeh from Taiwan, the Google-G0 is a touch-screen phone with a slider. There doesn’t seem to be a keyboard under it, but sliding it does reveal a … Orginal post by John Chan Phones

Wondering about Android but not got a phone yet? LiveDroid is a LiveCD disc image of the Google Android operating system. You can burn the image to a CD and reboot to get a feel for Android… or you could just download the SDK .

At the most recent COMPUTEX, there was a chorus of buzz generated by Qualcomm, Acer, and ASUS around the possibility of using Google Android as a netbook OS. Qualcomm and ASUS in particular were talking up Android as an OS for so-called “smartbooks,” which are netbooks that use ARM processors instead of Intel’s Atom, whereas Acer seemed to be looking to an x86 port of Android so that it could run the OS on Atom-based netbooks.

The biggest piece of hard news out of the ” T-Mobile myTouch 3G with Google Media Event ” July 8 was that existing T-Mobile customers could begin pre-ordering the myTouch 3G , the second U.S. smartphone based on Google’s Android open source operating system. See great pics of the gadget here on Eweek . Customers can order the device now through T-Mobile until July 28 to get it before the device becomes available nationally August 5.

T-Mobile USA is betting big on its second Android smartphone, the MyTouch 3G, as it officially launches the device making it its flagship smartphone to compete against Apple’s iPhone on AT&T. T-Mobile myTouch The company announced the MyTouch 3G, which is essentially the same phone as the Google Ion or the HTC Magic, last month. And on Wednesday T-Mobile made the device available for pre-orders to its existing customers. The device will be generally available starting August 5.

T-mobile launches myTouch3G — Preview The wait comes to an end as T-mobile launches its second Google Android phone. T-Mobile has christened the new Android handset as myTouch3G. This phone is pitted directly against the iPhone from its adversary AT&T. This new phone from the T-Mobile reflects not only slimmer looks but it is also lighter than many other smartphones in the market. The new T-mobile myTouch 3G doesn’t come with a QWERTY keyboard, yet it is loaded with an upgraded interface.