It’s just the nerdiest geekiest phone ever. The operating is open source plus check out the cool logo. I just have to get one.

Sadly it’s not available in Ireland. People who have imported the phones and unlocked them have reported some problems when trying to get the full use from the network. So I don’t think I will chance doing this.

I read today however, that there is an “Android Dev Phone 1″ available “outside of T-Mobile geographies”. It’s currently available in 18 countries, Ireland is not mentioned yet but it looks more likely to be available here than from one of the Irish phone companies.

Now it doesn’t actually say that it is the same hardware as the T-Mobile G1 but the specs look similar and other blogs are saying it’s the same. It’s available from the Android Market so I went for a closer look.

The Android Market is not as open as I was expecting. It cost me 20 euros just to take a peek at “more information about obtaining an Android Dev Phone 1 device”. Plus the only way to pay was via google checkout, no pay-pal option.

So what did I find out from the Android Market, well nothing. “Your Registration to the Android Market is still being processed”. Looks like the only thing that’s open is the Operating system, everything else is locked tight. I’ll keep you updated as I find out more.

BTW, Google had a little UI blunder in their checkout form. When you select Ireland they have a drop down list of the counties which I thought was quite nice. Normally when I see a list of counties I just type L-I to bring to me Limerick, very easy. But this time it didn’t work, I had to type C-O-DOT-SPACE-L-I as in “Co. Limerick”. Some times attention to detail can be a bad thing.