Back in May we brought you news of the round 1 winners of the Android Developer Challenge, and now the coding-fest has come to an end, and the winners have been announced. Of our five favourites from round 1, none made it to the 10 top finalists (each earning US$275,000 for the developing team) but there's nevertheless a common theme in these 10: location-based services. Four of the ten make some use of your location, for shopping or other reasons and several of the second-place US$100,000 reward winners do too. Check out the Developers blog link for the full list—it makes for interesting reading. I bet you find yourself comparing the list to Apple's App Store offerings. [Developers.blogspot]

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The Android Dev Blog today released some shots and details on the Android Market--the Android version of the iPhone's App Store. Stressing that it's a "market" (free, open, etc) rather than a "store," the Google folks have decided to not require an approval process for devs to have their applications listed, unlike Apple's mysterious black box of approval that even the developers still don't fully understand. Which is great news for Android devs, but could be quite a handful for Google.

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Over on the official Android Developers Blog, Googler Dan Morrill has news of what won't be making it into Android 1.0--a full featured-Bluetooth stack and data messaging via Google Talk API. Android 1.0 will work with Bluetooth headsets, but won't do other things like send files or link up to a PoGo printer, just like the iPhone. Google Talk will be missing completely. Thankfully, the reasoning behind both decisions seems to make sense: Google Talk's security is nowhere near where it needs to be in order to function as the core IM service for a huge mobile platform as intended, and a full Bluetooth API simply isn't done yet, but both should show up in future iterations. Apparently any frameworks in the 1.0 SDK would be impossible to greatly change down the road, so it sounds like Google's taking the smart route and not rushing out inferior code. [Android Developers Blog via PC Mag]

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Android Guys has an as-of-yet unconfirmed spec sheet on the HTC Dream (which they say is called the T1 on T-Mobile), supposedly one of the first Android phones to hit the market later this year. The most notable specs are the 528MHz Qualcomm 7201 CPU, which is a fairly decent processor as long as it's powering an OS that's not too bloated, 64MB RAM (kinda dinky), 1GB microSD card, 3.1-megapixel camera with no flash, decent audio and video codec support 3G, Quad-Band GSM, 802.11b/g, a 3.17-inch screen with 480x320 resolution and AIM/MSN/Yahoo/GTalk.

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The WSJ is reporting on a deal that's close to completion between Google and Verizon Wireless, our second-largest mobile carrier, to become the exclusive search tech across all of their phones--potentially bringing a Google search bar to the homescreen of every VZW piece. Aside from the obvious web and local searching, the Google engine would replace Verizon's proprietary content search for ringtones, apps, and the like. Both parties would split ad revenues, which Google is extra excited about for the location-based ad serving capabilities. If the deal reaches completion, look for a decidedly more elegant search on Verizon's phones, from top to bottom. [WSJ]

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Sort of like the hacked Wii Balance Board that'll surf Google Earth, but a little more down to earth, this mod will let you act like you're strolling through town with Google Street View. You walk to move forward or lean on one foot to turn--it actually seems to work pretty well. With a giant display, you could visit New York and walk around without suffering from the gross and smelly summer, or you know, just use it as another excuse to never leave the massive pillow fort you've converted your living room into. [blog.katsuma.tv via Balanceboarding - Thanks Mark!]

Earlier today Google released the Android 0.9 SDK r1 Beta, boasting of a pile of API updates and a visual refresh that moves it one solid step closer to actually, you know, showing up on a phone. A long changelog and a few screenshots are great, but we've fired up the SDK's emulator for a guided tour of Android's salient features.

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The Android 0.9 SDK r1 Beta represents the first formal release on the path to Android 1.0 and it is available now for download. Outside of the normal bug fixes, users will notice some major UI updates--including a new widget-enhanced home screen, a tab to pull up apps, a camera and a media player. There are also a whole slew of API upgrades that should significantly enhance usability. Any further changes between this version and the final release version are expected to be small, but keep in mind that apps created with this version may not be compatible with 1.0. UPDATE: Screenshots of the new UI added.

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T-Mobile has confirmed that the first Android phone (dubbed HTC Dream) would be released before Christmas. While they did not give an exact date, all signs are pointing to October as the most likely month for a rollout to begin. [Yahoo]

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For those of you keeping score at home, HTC's Dream, due to hit T-Mobile in October as the first Android phone, just got tapped by the FCC's rubber stamp. Unfortunately there aren't any of those h-o-t product shots that the FCC is usually known for to give us a better look at the device, just a lot of black and white. But it does confirm the Dream moniker, that it's got a jog ball, Wi-Fi and it's running on the 850/1700/1900MHz bands. Very exciting! [FCC via Engadget]

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