You've already seen our hands-on review of Google's new mobile operating system, Android—so now it's time to take a look at what kinds of apps third-party developers have made available for the platform. The first phone running Android has been out in the wild for two weeks now, and every day new applications have appeared in the Android Market that add fun and functionality to your handset. Best of all, most of them are free. Let's take a look at our favourite free apps (so far) that make working and living a lot easier in Android. (Yes, we know the Android hasn't hit the local market yet, but think of it as a useful reference for when it does (assuming some of the apps get internationalised), and a handy guide for anyone who's gone nuts and bought one on eBay.

As an open source advocate and developer with a serious love/hate relationship with my iPhone, I couldn't wait to get my paws on a device running Google's brand spankin' new open-source mobile phone operating system, Android—and I haven't been disappointed. I've spent the last four days using an HTC G1 phone running the first release of Android, and while it is not an iPhone-killer, it is a killer device for heavy Google users (like you and me). Let's take a look at why Android does—and doesn't—live up to its hype.

Today marked the launch of the first phone that runs Android, an open-source, Google-designed operating system that runs web-savvy applications on a touchscreen-based phone. We didn't have an agent at today's launch of T-Mobile's G1, but luckily our brothers-in-arms Gizmodo are all over it. We had some pretty high expectations for Android, and it seems to deliver on most of them, with a few caveats. Let's take a look at what Android can do, and what it might mean for your phone when (or if) it arrives down under.

Doc Searls blogs over at Linux Journal that Google's Chrome browser is more than just an attention-grabbing software app. Combined with Gears functionality and the upcoming Android release, it delivers on Netscape's promise of the browser as operating system, with online-and-off webapps replacing desktop workhorses. Over-ambitious forecasting, or do you also see Google as up to more than just browser polishing?