September 16th, 2008 by Chris Moor

Android Handset Shown In London

Google's Developer Day event earlier today saw the first working demonstration of an Android handset in Europe.

The event which took place in London's Wembley Stadium was a chance for engineers, managers and developers to meet and discuss the future of web application development.

The event also saw a presentation from Google's Mike Jennings who demonstrated the Google Maps feature on an Android powered handset. The device was heavily masked and covered, although the resemblance with what we've seen so far of the HTC Dream was strong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmniBnVB6wA

"The cool stuff is running your own apps!" said Jennings. "I spent two hours writing my own apps using a background thread and surface view to access the hardware buffer."

"Manufacturers are not going to be charged for putting this on their phones. Lots of people use mobile phones. Lots of people in Europe have two," said Jennings. "We wanted to get into that. We're really hoping the mobile community comes round this and continues to bring it forward. We think it's cool. You'll be able to write apps and distribute them to friends very easily."

"I can't show it off any more, I'll be out of a job," added Jennings when he was asked to make a call on Android. He confessed that he uses one of the handsets already, but not in public.

[via TechRadar.com]