Android picking up speed, and various other phone news

Google's own phone OS, called Android (?) is now picking up speed, with another Android phone released recently (built by a no-name Taiwanese company) to arrive in Australia soon. Remember this is just weeks after its release, and there are already HTC phones to add to the other two Android handsets, and the new Lenovo-badged OPhone up against the mammoth Windows Mobile OS. Yeah okay, this isn't Google's first time taking large bites out of Microsoft, but it's like opening up the Twenty-Sixth Front...

Also making noises in the phone area is Palm (yes, remember them) who are set to unveil their new 'Nova' OS on January 8. Unfortunately, we won't see customer products until mid-2009

And now Garmin has jumped on the Smartphone bandwagon. Yes, it's a satnav maker, building phones. Their nuvifone is still coming, but has just passed FCC testing, so it's getting closer, (and we're all holding our breath, yawn!).

And to add to this huge pile of phone news, the rumours about the iPhone nano have resurfaced with possible case sizes surfacing on Crave showing a smaller iPhone in basic dimensions., which is to be expected, and apparently accessory brand XSKN has already produced a silicon style case for a shorter thicker iPhone. One month until MacWorld. Hmmmm...

And if you thought of the one country that would embrace phones and technology into every part of their life, it probably wouldn't be Estonia would it? They have decided to allow citizens to vote in their 2011 parliamentary elections on their cell phones! They buy a special chip for their phones that verifies their identity, then once installed, Estonians can use their phones to vote, without going to a ballot. Genius! From Estonia!??