Google and Cellphones: Let Freedom Ring

GOOGLE AND CELLPHONES: LET FREEDOM RING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Rob Pegoraro]
[Commentary] Google might save the cellphone from its miserable self. In a year. If wireless carriers stop acting like, well, wireless carriers. This technological salvation could come from software called Android that Google has developed with outside help. It plans to give it to manufacturers for use on hundreds of different phones -- then let users tinker with the software all they want. That last bit makes Android special. With this operating system, Google aims to give wireless users three freedoms routinely denied in the United States. 1) The most basic one is the freedom to use the Web as you want. 2) The freedom to add the programs you want. 3) The liberty to change your phone's underlying software to add new capabilities, change unwanted behaviors or fix flaws.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/07/AR2007110702441.html
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* The Google phone
Raising the bar for the industry, Google promises to create cellphone programs that will let other companies add applications.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-google8nov08,1,4068207.story?coll=la-news-comment
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