Google has announced that its Nexus One smartphone will be up-graded.

The new up-grade will include multi-touch capabilities, enabling the phone to work in a similar way to Apple’s iPhone, in that users can pinch their fingers to zoom in and out. A feature that other smartphones such as the Palm Pre already came installed with.

The new up-grade will also include additional software improvements and fixes to technical bugs. It will tackle some of the commonly complained about 3G problems.

One of the software improvements is to the Maps application, making it a lot easier for users to save places of interest and revisit them at a later date. The maps application will also be enriched with a night mode, which will automatically adjust the users screen if they are viewing maps in the dark.

The up-dates can be downloaded directly onto the Nexus One via the phone’s internet, without having to go into a store or onto a computer.

Source: Fresh Business Thinking

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Tom’s Guide has a review of the Google Nexus One. Here are some of the highlights:
Today, the Nexus One is readily available in the US for T-Mobile, and in the spring of this year will be available on Verizon and Vodafone (Europe). While the price is good for a device meant to compete with today’s best smartphones, the Nexus One does not deliver the same quality and finish as other models, both on the hardware and software fronts.
Hardware letdowns: the trackball is useless and shouldn’t be there in the first place. The glass is not properly aligned with the screen, which makes it easy to accidentally press outside of the touch-sensitive parts of the glass.

Yet, the hardware in the Nexus One is also one of the best designs of an Android model to date. While the Droid is bulkier and larger-than-life, the Nexus One is subtle yet powerful. The lack of video playback greatly limits the extraordinary screen quality, though Google has made sure that there are enough gimmicky graphical additions to soothe concerned customers.

Because of the current faulty network, we can’t recommend the Nexus One currently for professionals, who cannot afford drop calls. This may change, as Google has officially stated they are now looking into fixing the problem. The Nexus One is also set to release in the US on Verizon’s network, which according to Consumer Reports is the top carrier nationwide.

As far as Android devices go, the Nexus One is definitely the best. Its speed and general use, as well as the fast growing number of available applications, makes the device an adept competitor to today’s smartphones. It doesn’t beat today’s standard, the iPhone, or some of its better competitors like the Palm Pre, but it can certainly take third place.

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