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Google continues to maintain the mystery on the launch of its France Nexus One phone. The search engine giant refuses to give a price and a date of availability for the device, which is currently accessible only in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore. However, it is likely that the device will be available in late March, probably in SFR. As in the US, it will be sold directly on the Google site. In the meantime, since last week, Google begins to test its "smartphone". The opportunity to take stock of what he really brings on a market dominated by Apple iPhone.

The design. At first glance, the Nexus One is nothing revolutionary. It is distinguished primarily by its very bright, a little higher than that of the iPhone and screen with better resolution. No keyboard (everything is done on-screen or by voice), but four small icons (to return to the previous page, call a menu, return to the home screen or search). Application selection and scrolling of pages is done with the touch screen, either with a small white ball placed at the bottom of the device. It is based on another model, the Taiwanese manufacturer HTC Hero - what is logical, because he who manufactures the Nexus One.

A particular effort been made to the photo, with a sensor of 5 million pixels and a small led flash, can be used also to take videos. Finally, the aircraft is equipped with two microphones: one is used to speak, the other to capture the ambient noise to mitigate with a special algorithm. Small flat, the touch screen is not multi-touch: unable to enlarge an image or a text with two fingers, as on the iPhone.

The operating system. Unlike the Apple, Nokia and RIM (the manufacturer of the BlackBerry), its operating system, Android, Google gives different constructors. He however reserved the last version (2.1) to introduce a few new features. In this sense, the Nexus One foreshadows the wave of Android equipped phones announced for 2010. And as the device is associated with a fast processor (1 gigahertz), presented in demonstration was particularly swift.

The new version of Android is also the voice card. Speech recognition allows to fly the aircraft to call a correspondent, which is classic among its competitors, but also to perform a search on the Internet or dictate a message. For the moment, this recognition is possible only in English, Chinese or Japanese, but the version which will be launched here should also accept the French. Speech synthesis, which allows to read messages and guide drivers with GPS is not, it no more, available in French for the moment.

Applications. With Android, each manufacturer chooses what programs he wishes to put forward. If most of the applications by Google are classic (geolocation, social networks, etc.), the most promising is undoubtedly Goggles ("glasses" in English), launched in December. It combines the shooting and Google search capabilities: an object or photographed table is automatically recognized and the corresponding search results are displayed immediately. Combined with GPS of the apparatus, Goggles is used to identify a building in the street and to identify the area. Impressive, even though it is probably faster to type a search directly. Finally, if you photograph a business card, Goggles automatically recognizes characters and creates a contact card - but the recognition quality depends greatly on lighting conditions

The strategy. Google does cache: the main innovation of the Nexus One is... his way of direct sales, good way to highlight the Android platform - even if in the United States, unable to call a customer service has been the object of criticism. With this model, Google shows that its operating system continues to improve, and can compete with the iPhone in terms of function and ergonomics. Is to adopt a maximum Builder... and customers.

Find the presentation of the Nexus One on