Google Android and the iPhone Mac OS

Industry watchers are unanimous in their verdict that Google's entry into the cellular world with its own operating system, Android, will be marked as a turning point for mobile phones in the history books of future generations.

I still remember when the announcement of the operating system was first made by the Open Handset Alliance (OHA). Andy Rubin, the chief architect of Android, unveiled the mobile device platform while announcing that a "few friends" would be helping in its development. The few friends were the OHA, a consortium of companies that currently includes names such as Intel, HTC, Asus, Motorola, Vodaphone, Sony Ericsson, Nvidia, Texas Instruments and LG, apart from Google. The world was abuzz with the news of 'The Google Phone'.

And in a move that took everyone by surprise, they announced that the android would be a completely open source project. The biggest problem with Linux, the popular open source operating platform for computers, is that it does not have the backing of any major companies to take on the likes of Microsoft and Apple. Android has not only Microsoft's biggest rivals, but also some of its friends!

Then, in October last year, Sergey Brin and Larry Page rolled out the first device running the Operating System Android - literally, as they addressed a press conference while skating around. The T-Mobile G1, built by HTC, has since gone on to be criticised for its shoddy hardware: but Android has been loved by one and all. While the iPhone has got good looks in terms of both hardware and software. The beauty of iPhone's operating system just can't be denied.

Mashup - The Mashup technology lets you take the elements from one application and quickly use then in another. Assume you're playing a song in a music player application. You can click and hold the song name or artist name and it'll quickly bring up options for jumping into other applications such as search. Saw you're searching for a particular location on Maps, you can quickly add it as an element to your contacts. This provides you with a much more integrated experience which the iPhone lacks.