By The rumor mill is pumping at a furious pace. Not an hour after we learned the T-Mobile G1 Bigfoot might be manufactured by Motorola rather than HTC, we come across a slew of rumors on the well-respected Russian website Mobile-Review suggesting the Bigfoot is a Samsung species. Sorting it all out is going to be difficult, but we can try.
Please keep in mind that not only are these rumors, but they were Russian rumors translated into English and then went through my rough deciphering capabilities after a spin through the Google Translate machine. That being said…
Android 2.0 “Donut”
According to the article, Google is already at work on Android 2.0 which is codenamed “Donut”. This would be hilarious if true considering the current version (1.5) has gained incredible popularity with the Cupcake name.
What’s the difference Samsung i7500 and the two subsequent models? The radical difference, which is why everything is silent, that the new machines are built on the Android OS 2.0 code-named Donut. Update version 1.5 to 2.0 would probably not be available in all vehicles, it is given entirely at the mercy of the operator and / or manufacturer.The basic functionality of the platform differences are very noticeable, but this story is not about that, so I will not pay much attention to this aspect.
It appears Android Developers are already talking about the “Donut” branch in Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/group/android-platform/browse_thread/thread/185e5feabf4b0851
Samsung G1 Bigfoot ?
We assumed the G1 version 2 would be made by HTC but BGR just told us it was made by Motorola. Now we’re seeing a new picture claiming it is the Samsung Bigfoot. Below see the new picture from Mobile-Review followed by the original BGR leak of the Bigfoot:
First of all it is important to notice that there are KEY DIFFERENCES between the two pictures. The above version certainly seems like a poor photoshopped number as the lower portion of the phone has a transparent area that just looks like rumor mongering laziness – but hey, don’t shoot the messenger! There are also different keys and the keyboards themselves are of different sizes. Plus a number of other things but the point is – they are incredibly similar on the surface and easily mistaken for one another.
I probably wouldn’t have posted this rumor if Mobile-Review didn’t have a decent track record at getting this stuff right. Because the language barrier is a big issue, I initially assumed the Samsung model seen above was the “Spica”, also mentioned in the article. But when I went to “save” the image the file was already named Bigfoot, clearing up the initial Russian intent of the article.
UPDATE: If you compare the “Samsung Bigfoot” and “Motorola Bigfoot” to the image initially leaked in the T-Mobile Roadmap, you’ll find that the SAMSUNG BIGFOOT is actually a closer match! You can see the picture in the roadmap in the original article! I cropped it and that is the image you see on the left… notice where the keyboard lines up with the curved edges?
Samsung Spica
The Samsung Spica is also mentioned but it doesn’t appear as though the phone runs Android when reading the translated paragraph:
In late September, the market is hot offers from very similar models of different companies, and then make the crown in the Samsung way.Thus, the model Spica is not a Google experience-machine, and already offers standard TouchWiz-interface. In doing so, the company plans to make the massive machine, which is immediately to gain dominance in the segment of Android-smartphone for the cost. Interface, price, brand Android. Not a bad mix, which can attract and sophisticated users, and those who have heard about Android, but wants to explore its intricacies. The table shows the characteristics of devices:
On the surface it sounds like the Samsung Spica will not run Android, but the table they show says otherwise:
And upon further inspection, the below image is named Spica so although it looks JUST like the i7500… it apparently/supposedly/rumoredly isn’t:
So correct me if I’m wrong, but this seems to suggest that the Samsung Spica will run the Android OS while integrating the Samsung Touch-Wiz UI?!?!? Three “screenshots” of the Samsung Spica running Android 2.0 Donut are provided, which also will be the first to offer WVGA-support:
I realize this is a lot to sort out, especially considering back-to-back articles are chalk full of rumors that totally contradict eachother. Believe me when I say I am as dumbfounded as you… it is Monday and I’m already exhausted from this week’s rumors! Hopefully some of this gets sorted out this week because my oversized head is about to explode.
Oh yeah, forgot to point out that “Acer” is mentioned as launching a Donut based Android Phone.
Alright English-speaking Russian Phandroids… help us sort out this mess!
[Via Mobile-Review (translated), Thanks Jeff, Cheers AndroidForums.ru!]
Screenshots are definetly photoshopped
please tell me that if you get the htc mytouch/ magic/ g2 your going to be able to get “donut” without getting a completely new phone????
Hey guys. If you check out the original TMO roadmap where we first learnt about Bigfoot, it looks very much like the Samsung Bigfoot and not much like the Motorola Bigfoot…
Yup… just noticing that now Jame – Great Find!
Wow, now we have rumors about TWO phones that suck! Looks like I’ll be waiting for Q1 next year to upgrade my G1. Not that I want to, it’s a rock solid phone (esp once I do some haxorz to free up my on-board memory) Hopefully they get something good to the market by then I guess.
Oh and I don’t care what anyone says, Android 2.0/Donut better not look like those screen shots. If that’s what we’re headed towards it’s certainly a step in the reverse from where we’re going.
TouchWiz replacing Android home screen = do not want.
The “Donut” name was spotted three months ago by Reddit user Miserlou who submitted the following link:
http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/system/core.git;a=summary
The page has changed since the initial submission, but “Donut” is mentioned toward the bottom. It didn’t seem so noteworthy at the time because the whole cupcake thing was just taking off.
If the “motorola” version of the Bigfoot comes out i will get it for sure, even though that keyboard does seem like a HTC keyboard on the supposed Motorola (i’ll believe it when i see it). If the Bigfoot is that POS UGLY ASS HELIO OCEAN looking shit I’m gonna have my G1 for a while until they come out with another badass Android phone that actually has a keyboard. Dont get me wrong the new samsung i7500 or whatever number it is looks sexy but I need a keyboard.
The first “pic” is Cover Flow from the iPhone/iPod touch and the last pic is TouchWiz running on S60v5 on the Omnia HD.
Anyone else notice that we had rumors of the i7500 in November but the table on this page appears to say ‘09.05 implying this month??? Also, if it is not out until November why are there now two hardware video demos of it? I think the i7500 is going to hit the market soon just not in the US. ugh!
Hi. I’m not from androidforums but from linuxphone.ru. So…
Mobile-review doesn’t say Spica will be Bigfoot. They say these phones are different.
However, I can confirm they say that Samsung Spica will have TouchWiz interface on Android 2.0.
3,0 touchscreen is to small… i am waiting for a omnia hd like phone with android
I could be wrong. But that last Android screenshot looks like WinMo on an Omnia or something.
As far as I know, the Donut branch is similar to the Cupcake branch of the source. Cupcake was a branch that was private for Google engineers until near its release. I saw both cupcake and donut in the git for several months, but they are kept pretty quiet.
Actually… now that I navigate through the source.android.com site, I can’t find the link anymore. But I did do a “repo sync” and found the branch still, so it does exist.
btw, the expression is “chock full”, not “chalk full” :)
C’mon Samsung! PULL IT TOGETHER MAHN!
BigFoot look like Neo FreeRunner With keyboard added :)
From what I’ve read, no changes have been made to donut yet, and the only changes that have been planned so far deal with supporting smaller screen resolutions(ie QVGA) which would explain why these 2 phones won’t be released until 2.0 is out. I don’t think we have to worry about the standard android build looking like the Samsung Touch-Wiz UI.
Let’s get real now. There is no way that TMO will make a version 2 of something when the specs are better on the original. Also, those screen shots are from Tocco Ultra. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!
: )
Looking at the pics on spica, i do notice on the top right corner of the phone, something that looks like a front camera or what usually called a video call camera.
are we going to get that function soon with android?
Ew, i really hope that the phone looks more like the Motorola Bigfoot than the Samsung one.
the motorola phone is clearly the Motorola Morrison. idk about the samsung bigfoot
The coverflow screenshot is definetely the ipod toich, plus you can see the “ipod” on the status bar was hiden with a black stripe, but it wasn’t well hiden as you can see a white dot there on the left of the status. So fake! At least that screenshot.