I’m a big fan of the Apple iPhone 3G. We had bought the first generation iPhone which, as many know, had a few issues that led me to ultimately run back to my trusty Blackberry. Shortly thereafter, the iPhone 3G was released. This seemed much smoother and faster and I now find myself very fond of the iPhone and multitouch experience.

Last weekend, a colleague of mine in the US passed me a link that was relevant to multitouch and it was pretty cool so I thought I would share. As I spoke about in an earlier post, the T-Mobile G1 / HTC Dream was released, and it claimed to only supported single-touch rather than the iPhone style multitouch. Dan Morrill, a Google developer advocate for Android made statements that the device was multitouch and had no support for it yet. Eventually even one of HTC’s chiefs chimed in that the Dream was only ever designed to be a single-touch device. However once the source of the Android stack was released, Pandora’s box was opened and the developers rushed to the playground. This video is awesome and shows the T-Mobile G1 phone using multitouch.

As mentioned in the video, it isn’t ready for end users but this is a great ‘no bull’ demo of the potential capabilities. The general assumption is that the multitouch functionality was not built into the release of the T-Mobile G1 probably because it wasn’t in the design specs as a feature for the 1st release and as such, was not ready and not central to the core mission that ANDROID was trying to accomplish. Pretty great stuff nonetheless!

Toshiba, Vodafone and Sony Ericsson are among 14 companies that have shown their support for the Android platform by joining the Open Handset Alliance. The other new members are: AKM Semiconductor, ARM, ASUSTek Computer, Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International, Huawei Technologies, Omron Software Co, Softbank Mobile Corporation, and Teleca AB. They joing the founding members, who include Google, T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm and Motorola.

Alliance members will either deploy compatible Android devices, contribute significant code to the Android Open Source Project, or support the ecosystem through products and services that will accelerate the availability of Android-based devices. With these commitments, the Open Handset Alliance says it will continue to drive greater and faster innovation for the benefit of mobile users and everyone in the industry.

The new members will add to the momentum of Android device availability, it says, providing developers with an even greater opportunity to deploy compelling applications that will reach a global audience. As a result, consumers around the world will benefit from a superior mobile experience that features less expensive devices, more compelling services, rich Internet applications, and easier-to-use interfaces.

Can you get an Android handset in Canada?  Not as of yet, but apparently the T-Mobile G1 handset can be used in Canada if you don’t want to wait.  You would have to get it unlocked, put a Rogers SIM card in it, and use an iphone/data plan from Rogers.  After that you have to modify the APN settings and you are off to the races!  These are some exciting times in the mobile space and we are set for accelerated growth.