Give me Android, dammit!

I need a new phone.

Okay, I don't need a new phone like others in the world need clean water or toilets or the chance to grow up without being shot and/or blown-up. I know this: it's really a want, and one I could definitely do without -- there's probably a spare ancient Nokia brick in a drawer somewhere that would let me receive and make calls -- but in order to participate in the digital culture of our age I need a portal, and my crappy LG Viewty KU990 just isn't cutting the mustard any more.

I used to love LG. Loved their televisions, loved their Korean ingenuity, their attention to detail and friendly persona. The Viewty changed all that, and highlighted why we (as a suprasociety) need (see caveat above) an open-source mobile phone OS like Android. In short, the firmware that came with my Viewty was extremely poor (crappy photos despite a decent lens, thanks to over-zealous compression when JPEGing; missing an apostrophe on the on-screen keyboard when in landscape mode) -- and LG refused to provide firmware updates to fix the myriad of niggles! Despite frequent calls from a growing Viewty community that could've done wonders for LG's street cred, as well as providing free support and advice to would-be Viewty owners. Instead, LG released a new handset with a slightly improved (but incompatible with the Viewty) version of the firmware.

So screw you LG. I'll never buy your shit again.

Instead, I'm hanging out for an Android phone. It kind of seems like people don't quite "get" the Android's "paradigm-change" potential -- it's not about what your phone can do now, but about what it may one day be capable of, as the entire platform is upgradable. Further, the power of open-source is massive.

Seriously, think about it. When was the last time you could get entirely new functionality without buying a new handset? The networks have had it too easy for too long, in my opinion -- they could mete out slow improvements by choosing which handsets to offer, making us buy new equipment (and sign on to lengthy contracts) just to get, say, MP3 playback. Fuck that for a joke, the networks should compete on tariffs and data-plans, leave the innovation to handset manufacturers and give the freedom of choice back to us, the consumers.

So, an Android handset then? I've got my eye on the Samsung "Galaxy" i7500, mostly due to it's 1500mAh battery and OLED screen (can you say, "battery life"?). The only problem is the waiting! After rumours suggested it would be available in July, I held off buying one of HTC's many wonders -- now it's August and it's still not available in the UK.

According to the forums it will launch with O2 next week, but who knows? Depending on the price -- I want to buy the handset outright, and get a decent data plan I think -- I may end up buying it from Germany for about £350 ... even if I have to travel over there and walk into a shop!

Hopefully I'll find out on Monday.