It looks like Google may be finally getting some respect for Android. Some, that is.

If you have been following the Google Phone, then you know that the very first one is supposed to debut on the T-Mobile network. The press conference showing off the new device was last week. This device is designed by HTC, one of the bigger risk takers among the cell phone manufacturers. But it may have been enough to convince other manufacturers to jump into the Google pool.

If you believe the gossip, Motorola is supposedly hiring engineers to put together some of their own Android phones. Sony Ericsson is still on the fence testing the OS but is very interested.

Apple seems to have taken notice. It has introduced another game changer in this wild smartphone world. Geeks around the world can finally rejoice. Apple is selling unlocked iPhones in Hong Kong. You can use one of these iPhones on any network that you have an acount (and that matches the technology of the network of course). Sure it costs at least $700 for the 8G version, but it takes that network operators completely out of the profit equation for Apple.

The music industry rues the day that Apple launched iTunes and iPods. Will AT&T look back at the iPhone and feel the same way? My bet is yes, but this day has been coming for a long time.

Speaking of music, everyone uses MP3 files, but you may not be aware that companies actually have to pay royalties to use the format because it is patented. Alcatel-Lucent thought that they were going to get a $1.5 billion from Microsoft for their use of MP3 in their products. But a judge has just squashed that old ruling. And this has nothing to do with the $16 million that Microsoft has already paid to another organization that claims to hold the patents on MP3.

Busy week in the browser world. Google shocked the world with the beta introduction of their browser called Chrome. Its claim to potential success is that it is supposed to be much fast to load pages.

MIcrosoft is also talking about a new way to load web pages that has the advertising people nervous. Their solution is to block third party sites from loading content on a page. When you are loading a page at some site, like Geogad, you also load content from other companies like Google. In the case of Geogad,  we use both Google Adwords to place some ads and Google Analytics to keep track of the numbers of visitors to the site. There is very little info in the article above, but it suggests that these types of third party software would be stripped from the web page before it is loaded. It would certainly speed things up since you would not have to wait for ads to load, but it would really mess up free software additions like Google Analytics.

Microsoft says that their solution gives people back their privacy. As far as the advertisers, there is nothing that would stop Geogad from displaying its own ads with this new system. The new system will prevent people from being tracked as they go from site to site. It also would be tougher for Google and other advertisers to keep its revenue growing if they lose the ability to serve and track ads. But it may be the only way that Microsoft, with its very popular browser, has to slow down Google.

It looks like Google released their new browser just in time.

Sometimes it is just amazing to hear the things that come out of the mouths of Microsoft marketers. It seems that the spotlight on the new iPhone is making Microsoft cranky. Since Microsoft Windows Mobile is already on so many phones (no mention of how hard these phones and their special features are for people to use), Microsoft does not see any need to try to create their own phone.

For just one minute, let’s try to forget all about Microsoft’s effort in the MP3 market with Zune and how that has turned out.

So officially, Microsoft is not creating a phone because they are focused on making quality proprietary software since the money in mobile is in software. Meanwhile, Nokia has just paid a fortune to open source Symbian - because the money in mobile is in software. And Google is creating their own open source mobile OS called Android - because the money in mobile is in software. And J2ME is already open sourced by Sun ages ago - because the money in mobile is in software. And Apple has just broken its usual rules by providing a free SDK for the iPhone - because the money in mobile is in software.

OK. Whatever.

Does anyone get the feeling that Microsoft is a little confused? The best line from the entire story which really shows how confused Microsoft seems to be is the quote from Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business senior vice president Andrew Lees:

We want to give our customers choice.

Microsoft….giving the customer choices….

OK. Whatever.

I think what he really means is that Microsoft has no choice but to let the customer chose.

Nokia has purchased the last part of Symbian that they did not own and are going to make it open source. I guess it just shows that many big companies are realizing that they just can’t put together a really good piece of software on their own. Or maybe they realize that it really does take a village. But maybe what they are really realizing is that they will make more money if they focused on the part of the business chain that they excel in and that brings them the most revenues, not the most headaches like maintaining a complex OS.

So … Microsoft, is it time to open source Windows yet? If you have finally seen the light, please open Windows XP. Then let’s really think long and hard if we want anything from Vista bolted on.

One of the premiere opportunities to present to VCs is happening tomorrow at the Microsoft campus. The event is called Under the Radar and happens every year. I had considered applying Geogad for the event until I looked at the application form. It looked like they were looking for startup companies that were more developed than Geogad.

The list of companies that have been accepted and are going to present is on the Under the Radar web site. The startup cover many areas and are based on several interesting ideas. It may be professional bias, but I still think that the Geogad business model is better than most of the ones that the startups will be presenting.

Maybe next year after Geogad grows up a bit more.