Google has announced, not the much anticipated and speculated “Google phone” or “GPhone” but instead an open source platform, Android. From the official Google Blog:

Despite all of the very interesting speculation over the last few months, we’re not announcing a Gphone. However, we think what we are announcing — the Open Handset Alliance and Android — is more significant and ambitious than a single phone. In fact, through the joint efforts of the members of the Open Handset Alliance, we hope Android will be the foundation for many new phones and will create an entirely new mobile experience for users, with new applications and new capabilities we can’t imagine today.

Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications — all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation. We have developed Android in cooperation with the Open Handset Alliance, which consists of more than 30 technology and mobile leaders including Motorola, Qualcomm, HTC and T-Mobile. Through deep partnerships with carriers, device manufacturers, developers, and others, we hope to enable an open ecosystem for the mobile world by creating a standard, open mobile software platform. We think the result will ultimately be a better and faster pace for innovation that will give mobile customers unforeseen applications and capabilities.

Of course the speculation now is only beginning. And, as there is no cellphone yet developed with Android, but as Forbes reports there are some prototypes:

Google likes software, particularly the kind that puts ads on Web pages, making Google rich. The realities of a phone business–running a supply chain, keeping inventory and managing distribution–were never something Google wanted from its phone initiative. But it has built about five prototype phones based on the Open Handset Alliance software kit that it has used to demonstrate what an open-source phone could do–and to woo companies to join its team.

The phone, code-named “Dream” inside Google (nasdaq: GOOG – news – people ), looks somewhat like Apple’s (nasdaq: AAPL – news – people ) iPhone: It is thin, about 3 inches wide and 5 inches long, and features a touch-sensitive, rectangular screen. Unlike the iPhone, the screen is also time-sensitive: Hold down your finger longer, and the area you’re controlling expands. The bottom end of the handset, near the navigational controls, is slightly beveled so it nestles in the palm. The screen also swivels to one side, revealing a full keyboard beneath. (The screen display changes from a vertical portrait mode to a horizontal display when someone uses the keyboard.)

There is a great deal of commentary and discussion of the Google Android platform on GigaOm. Endgadget offered live coverage of the announcement.

Android co-founder, Nick Sears, and other Android developers explain the platform in this brief video.

The Wall Street Journal reports on Google’s solicitation of advertisers. And with that, arise concerns about the privacy of users. Unanswered questions arise, such as how will ad content be determined and delivered?

Google Inc. is trying to shake up the wireless industry by helping to create cheaper phones that can access advanced Internet services — and carry its lucrative advertising. Now that the Internet giant has cemented an alliance with 33 partners, the question is whether they will follow through on its attempt to change the rules of the game.

After months of anticipation, a group including Google and a number of mobile-handset makers, cellular carriers and other technology companies plans to make new software available — free of charge — to power mobile phones that will start hitting the market in the second half of 2008. The move paves the way for mass-market cellphones that will bring consumers’ experience on the mobile Web closer to that of personal computers. And Google is betting that its ad revenue will surge as a result.

Android is a bid to change how the wireless industry operates. Carriers traditionally have decided what applications most consumers see on their cellphones, setting rules and negotiating fees for software developers to gain access. Google has struggled at times in recent years to get its products — including Google Maps, Gmail email and its search engine — onto mobile phones in a way that’s easy for people to use. With Android, software makers can theoretically write applications that run on any user’s phone — and consumers can freely browse the Web.

But until new handsets based on Android come to market, it won’t be clear how far operators have gone to satisfy Google’s desire for open mobile software. Some carriers have said they still want to make sure Android doesn’t allow sensitive user information to fall into the hands of rogue third-party developers, leading to invasions of privacy and security risks. Those issues partly explain why large U.S. operators such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, have yet to sign on to Google’s initiative.

[...]

Google won’t make money on Android itself, but the company believes it will create new opportunities for Google to sell ads on mobile phones, something executives have characterized as the company’s biggest business opportunity. Google is betting that easier access to the Internet from mobile phones will lead people to use its services more, as has been the case with Web access on the personal computer. Google’s Mr. Rubin said ads will appear on the phones as they normally do when a user surfs the Web. The company may also sell ads for some developers of applications that run on the phones. (The name of the new platform stems from Google’s 2005 purchase of Android Inc., a Silicon Valley startup co-founded by Mr. Rubin.)

Google said it would likely share revenue from ads with wireless carriers; the carriers then could reduce the cost of handsets or wireless fees for consumers. Google also could make money in other ways, possibly by getting a share of monthly revenue from carriers or selling a rate plan for a package of applications.

And thus the speculation continues….

Cell phone etiquette seems a quaint and unknown refinement in our era. We have all experienced the intrusiveness of cell phone users who have no regard for their unwilling audience. Perhaps we have also wished we could somehow put an end to the intrusion. Yes, there is a way, and, yes, it is illegal. The New York Times reports on cellphone jammers, a new technology which can be obtained for as little as $50.

One afternoon in early September, an architect boarded his commuter train and became a cellphone vigilante. He sat down next to a 20-something woman who he said was “blabbing away” into her phone.

“She was using the word ‘like’ all the time. She sounded like a Valley Girl,” said the architect, Andrew, who declined to give his last name because what he did next was illegal.

Andrew reached into his shirt pocket and pushed a button on a black device the size of a cigarette pack. It sent out a powerful radio signal that cut off the chatterer’s cellphone transmission — and any others in a 30-foot radius.

“She kept talking into her phone for about 30 seconds before she realized there was no one listening on the other end,” he said. His reaction when he first discovered he could wield such power? “Oh, holy moly! Deliverance.”

As cellphone use has skyrocketed, making it hard to avoid hearing half a conversation in many public places, a small but growing band of rebels is turning to a blunt countermeasure: the cellphone jammer, a gadget that renders nearby mobile devices impotent.

The technology is not new, but overseas exporters of jammers say demand is rising and they are sending hundreds of them a month into the United States — prompting scrutiny from federal regulators and new concern last week from the cellphone industry. The buyers include owners of cafes and hair salons, hoteliers, public speakers, theater operators, bus drivers and, increasingly, commuters on public transportation.

The development is creating a battle for control of the airspace within earshot. And the damage is collateral. Insensitive talkers impose their racket on the defenseless, while jammers punish not just the offender, but also more discreet chatterers.

“If anything characterizes the 21st century, it’s our inability to restrain ourselves for the benefit of other people,” said James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University. “The cellphone talker thinks his rights go above that of people around him, and the jammer thinks his are the more important rights.”

The jamming technology works by sending out a radio signal so powerful that phones are overwhelmed and cannot communicate with cell towers. The range varies from several feet to several yards, and the devices cost from $50 to several hundred dollars. Larger models can be left on to create a no-call zone.

Using the jammers is illegal in the United States. The radio frequencies used by cellphone carriers are protected, just like those used by television and radio broadcasters.

The article continues and discusses at length this nexus of privacy rights; the right of the cellphone user to talk unfettered in public places and the right of those to not be forced to eavesdrop.

Business owners, feeling they have no other recourse have also resorted to cellphone jammers:

The Federal Communication Commission says people who use cellphone jammers could be fined up to $11,000 for a first offense. Its enforcement bureau has prosecuted a handful of American companies for distributing the gadgets — and it also pursues their users.

Investigators from the F.C.C. and Verizon Wireless visited an upscale restaurant in Maryland over the last year, the restaurant owner said. The owner, who declined to be named, said he bought a powerful jammer for $1,000 because he was tired of his employees focusing on their phones rather than customers.

“I told them: put away your phones, put away your phones, put away your phones,” he said. They ignored him.

The owner said the F.C.C. investigator hung around for a week, using special equipment designed to detect jammers. But the owner had turned his off.

[...]

Gary, a therapist in Ohio who also declined to give his last name, citing the illegality of the devices, says jamming is necessary to do his job effectively. He runs group therapy sessions for sufferers of eating disorders. In one session, a woman’s confession was rudely interrupted.

“She was talking about sexual abuse,” Gary said. “Someone’s cellphone went off and they carried on a conversation.”

“There’s no etiquette,” he said. “It’s a pandemic.”

Gary said phone calls interrupted therapy all the time, despite a no-phones policy. Four months ago, he paid $200 for a jammer, which he placed surreptitiously on one side of the room. He tells patients that if they are expecting an emergency call, they should give out the front desk’s number. He has not told them about the jammer.

The announcement is on the way, according to The Wall Street Journal:

Google Inc. is close to unveiling its long-planned strategy to shake up the wireless market, people familiar with the matter say. The Web giant’s ambitious goal: to make applications and services as accessible on cellphones as they are on the Internet.

In a move likely to kick off an intense debate about the future shape of the cellphone industry, Google wants to make it easier for cellphone customers to get a variety of extra services on their phones — from maps to social-networking features to video-sharing. To get its way, however, the search giant will have to overcome resistance from wireless carriers and deal with potentially thorny security and privacy issues.

The article continues, and discusses anticipated features of the phone. But we are still awaiting the “official announcement.”

As reported widely today, Apple founder, Steve Jobs, unveiled details of the new iPod Touch:

Jobs revealed a new iPod model that looks exactly like the iPhone, but without the ear speaker slit. It’s the same size as the iPhone, but 8mm thinner, according to Jobs, who said, “We think it’s one of the Seven Wonders of the World.”

The iPod Touch sports a 3.5-inch widescreen display, and along its bottom run music, video and photo icons. “Just like the iPhone, this is the best way to share photos on a portable device ever,” said Jobs proudly.

The iPod Touch’s button-driven interface also showed icons for a calculator, contacts, clock, calendar and settings icons. What’s more, the new device has Wi-Fi — the iPod Touch is the first iPod to feature wireless networking capabilities, with support for 802.11 b and g networks.

In recent months, less widely known or reported are the problems with iPhone’s security.

The iPhone lacks encryption, robust central management capabilities and the ability to integrate with localized infrastructure making it an unlikely choice for most businesses, according to analysts at Midvale, Utah-based research firm, the Burton Group.

The iPhone was released in June and since then security researchers have been clamoring to crack the smartphone’s security features. Since then, flaws were discovered in the Safari browser, used by the iPhone. In July, a team of security pros at Baltimore-based Independent Security Evaluators discovered simple ways of taking complete control of the Apple iPhone. Other security experts said that iPhone popularity could increase mobile phone attacks.