SmartPhones

Wednesday, July 8 smartphone lovers got our first glimpse of the successor to the G1, the second phone by T-Mobile to be powered by the Google Android operating system. The T-Mobile myTouch 3G is pretty much the same product as Canada and Europe's HTC Magic; but this one's coming to the states.

Yes, the myTouch 3G is, like the G1, manufactured by HTC. Similarities between this model (which we're surprised to find no one's yet called the "G2") and its predecessor, the Google G1 smartphone,  are apparent from the outset: the myTouch 3G also has the status & notifications bar at the top of the screen, live application widgets, and multiple home screens. As it does a 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and stereo Bluetooth, a built-in GPS, and of course, T-Mobile 3G network support. It also has a microSD card slot for expandable memory, and comes with a 4 GB card.

One of the starkest differences between this phone and the G1 is the absence of the slide-out QWERTY keyboard in place of an on-screen keyboard (dare we say: a la' the iPhone?). This new on-screen keyboard is extremely versatile, allowing both portrait and landscape mode operation, near-instant error correcting, and lightning-fast registering of tags.

The myTouch 3G comes in a choice of three colors: white/silver, black, or red--with a slew of personalized shells and designs to make your phone more outstanding (and make it stand out). Speaking of personalization, the myTouch 3G has got more personalization features than any HTC phone to date. It also includes customization features like the ability to add shortcuts and widgets to your home and menu screens. The 3.2 mp camera includes video recording with the ability to easily upload videos to YouTube and pictures to Google's Picasa. The phone has full Google integration, including total access to the thousands of apps on the Google Android Market.

Speaking of apps, the myTouch 3G comes with Sherpa built-in, a program tied-in with your GPS that literally gets to know you and your preferences the more that you utilize your smartphone.

Running on Google's fully touch-based Android OS 1.5 Cupcake, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G is scheduled to hit stores on August 5 for a price of $199 with a two-year contract. Pre-orders are being taken now.

And by the way: another Android-based smartphone from HTC is coming out soon too--the HTC Hero--although it is not expected to come to T-Mobile.