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Google demos Android phone at developer day

Search giant Google has shown off its new "Google phone" operating system ahead of the device's official launch in New York next Tuesday.

Mike Jennings, one of the development team behind the Android operating system, gave attendees at a Google Developer Day conference a glimpse of how to design software for the device.

He created a simple game showing a blue dot bouncing around the phone's screen, which moved as the handset was tilted.

Although the phone was obscured by masking tape, it is reported to have looked like the Dream, a handset developed by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC, which is expected to be the first commercially available mobile phone to run Android.

Google and T-Mobile are holding a joint press conference in New York next Tuesday, at which they are expected to confirm the launch of the HTC Dream and reveal further pricing information as well as details about the phone's final operating system.

It is thought the phone will go on sale in the UK early next month, and HTC has said that it expects to ship around 600,000 to 700,000 units of the Dream by the end of this year.

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Android, the Google-backed operating system that will run on the device, is designed to bring the desktop computing experience to mobile devices, by allowing people to surf the internet and carry out everyday tasks on the go.

It will provide easy access to Google's web-based email service, Gmail, as well as a host of other Google products, including Docs, its productivity suite, and Google Maps.

The Dream is expected to contain a GPS chip, allowing it to double as a mobile sat-nav, and Google may also provide additional tools for the device to help push location-specific information to the phone's owner, such as weather forecasts, travel updates and restaurant recommendations.

The launch of the so-called "Google phone" will pit the search giant in direct competition with the likes of Apple's popular iPhone and the BlackBerry mobile email device.

It will also compete with other mobile phone operating systems, such as Symbian, widely used on Nokia devices, and Windows Mobile, which is available on many other handsets made by HTC.

Users of Android phones will also be able to download additional software and programs for their device, in a similar way to that in which iPhone users can add extra applications to their handset.

The Android operating system is open source, which means that anyone can build software to run on the device.

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