Preview: Lastminute Labs ‘Nru’ Andoid App

News just in from the clever-types at Lastminute Labs (the team behind FoneFood, which we rather like) – they’ve also been trying out development on the Android platform and have released this video preview of their forthcoming application ‘Nru’ (pronounced ‘near you’).

Building on the search feature of FoneFood this application takes advantage of the magnetometer (compass to you and me) and GPS built into the G1 to locate entertainment venues, restaurants, landmarks and other stuff on a radar-like interface.  At last!  A way to find the nearest Pizza Express wherever you are without relying on Ewan’s legendary instinct.

We’re going to try it out as soon as we can.

Check it out:

£90 Android handset by Christmas

As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald Kogan Technologies, a small Australian discount electronics manufacturer, has announced it will launch a $199 handset by December 15th.  Details are a little thin on the ground, but owner Rusian Kogan told the Herald:

…[the] phone would look similar to the iPhone in that it would be a touch-screen device with no built-in keyboard. He said it would include WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and a trackball to aid in navigation.

“We’ve got a few designs that we can easily choose from. We know the components that’s going to go into the phone,” he said.

“It’s a matter of loading the Android system on to the phone, configuring it, making sure it works very well and then the manufacturing of the few thousands phones that we need to launch it is just a matter of a day or two.”

Although it sounds a nice idea – an Android handset pulled together in a few days from on stock hardware – there’s a few too many buzzwords and little enough detail to start popping the champagne corks yet on this one.  However, we have our fingers crossed that Android is a platform that allows smaller manufacturers to enter the market and develop products more quickly.

Can it really be that simple?

G1 to be available unlocked?

Play.com are already showing the ‘HTC G1′ (that’s the T-Mobile G1 to the rest of us) available SIM-free, available from mid-November.  The details and pictures look right, with a prominent HTC logo on the side in lieu of the T-Mobile one,  but this seems a bit soon after the launch to be officially sanctioned…

At £599.99 you’re still better-off buying a T-Mobile unit and unlocking (if you’re into that kind of thing).  As we posted earlier, the cheapest tariff including service from T-Mobile offers the handset for £490.