T-Mobile Thursday announced the G2, its HTC produced successor to the first Android-powered phone, the G1. PC Mag calls T-Mobile's device, "the first phone designed for its high-speed HSPA+ network and possibly the Googliest phone ever." The G2 has a mini slide-out keyboard and comes equipped with Google Voice built in and the ability to convert the user's current mobile number to Google Voice. But the draw is the high-speed connectivity. "As the first HSPA+ phone, the G2 can download at speeds of up to 14.4 megabits per sec on T-Mobile's network. That's double the speed of …

Best Buy will begin selling the Amazon Kindle at its retail locations beginning this fall, joining Staples (which will also start carrying the e-readers this fall) and Target (which has offered them since June). The Kindle is by far the best-selling ereader, but faces competition from Barnes and Noble's Nook, and three models from Sony, as well as the iPad, which comes with a built-in bookstore. The Nook is spotlighted in so-called "shrines" in B&N brick and mortar locations, as the company calls them in New York magazine's recent feature on the battle for control …

Wired's Gadget Lab is less enthused about the immediate implications of Google Instant and its ability to save 350 million man-hours a year than some, saying, "Its real-use cases are still on the way: local, mobile, and video search." And those real-use cases, as proposed here, are people not on laptops, but those using tiny keypads in low light: those searching for a show or movie on TV. "Anything a company can do to minimize the number of keystrokes and make that process as painless as possible is going to be a tremendous usability boon to its …

Scrap the fart apps, but break out the Flash: In a surprise move (and one which has stolen some of Google Instant's media thunder) Apple has relaxed its restrictions on app code, opening the door to previously outlawed analytics. Those restrictions, first beefed up upon the bbeta release of OS4, previously disallowed certain types of code for programming, and strictly limited the analytics third party ad nets could collect, strengthening its own iAd's position. "Apple said Thursday morning that feedback from developers led to relaxing restrictions from these sections of the developer agreement, though it's hard to …

One NYC burger place thinks it has a handle on this whole new media marketing thing. The fast food concept 4food allows customers to invent their own burgers either online or on a screen at the restaurant, and then share the creation via Twitter, Facebook and Fourquare (a 22-foot screen at the shop displays relevant social media chatter). If someone else orders your custom burger you get a credit toward your next meal. "We have not spent one cent on advertising,"Andrew Kidron, the man behind 4food tells Marketing magazine. "If a customer sells one burger, that's money …

Remember Clippy, that annoying paperclip who bothered you every time you used Microsoft Office? Well, before Microsoft killed him it made a real effort to make him lovable, or at least less annoying. Gizmodo has an excerpt from the book "The Man Who Lied To His Laptop," by Stanford professor Clifford Nass (who'll be responding to comments), in which Nass recounts his efforts to make Clippy useful. This included Clippy urging users to bash Microsoft when he did something they didn't like. But, perhaps, more intriguing than Clippy's death, is his birth. "For many years, licensing …

Analyst Maynard Um with UBS Investment Research predicted in a note to investors this week, that Apple would sell 28 million iPads in 2011. "Sales of traditional notebooks appear to be feeling pressure from the iPad, causing a scramble by vendors to launch iPad-like tablets," Maynard wrote, calling the estimate "conservative." Though he cautioned that he was not convinced the iPad was "purely cannibalizing" notebook market share. No sooner had Maynard issued his note, than panting began over the Android-powered Folio 100 Tablet from Toshiba, and the promise that the market is about to get very …

RIM, in a likely attempt to show it still means business, has acquired the mobile office suite Documents to Go from DataViz. The deal had first been reported Friday by Crackberry.com, which had the terms at $50 million in cash, but RIM confirmed the acquisition Tuesday. "Having Documents To Go in-house offers RIM terrific leverage," writes Wired. "They can use its InTact cloud-syncing software for all media files on the Blackberry; offer the premium version for free to enterprise customers; and package a new suite of productivity and enterprise apps for its forthcoming BlackPad tablet."

None other then Wired editor Chris Anderson noted on his Twitter feed that "A T-Mobile manager casually mentioned to me that they're going to get the iPhone 3GS (but not 4, oddly) later this year," setting the rumor mill a-churning. "It's hard not to be jaded about all these iPhone rumors after seeing more flip-flopping headlines than a John Kerry campaign," wryly notes TG Daily. What TG considers seriously though is the fact that the 3G and not 4G is the phone mentioned. The question of what device T-Mobile or Verizon (or Sprint, for that matter) may …

Eric Schmidt's remarks Tuesday in Berlin about automating search might hint at what the company is set to announce with Marisa Mayer, Ben Gomes and others speaking at MOMA in San Francisco Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. ET. And there is no end to the guessing games being played this morning, most of them attempting to read the tea leaves of the past two interactive Google Doodles. "Another day, another animated Google logo -- and with it, a big question: What will Google announce Wednesday to improve the way people use its engine to search the Web?"