by Jason Salas

Guam - There's a major battle brewin' for supremacy of the mobile market, with a new player having come to Guam, which may make you think twice before becoming an Apple fanboy. Android-based devices, which are digital appliances running Google's mobile OS, the make for the ultimate smartphone if everything you do hinges on constant connectivity with the cloud.

And Android 2.2 - codenamed "Froyo", is the latest innovation to come out of Mountain View.

The first time you sign-on to your Android-powered smartphone, Android synchs seamlessly with all your Google services over the air. I've never needed a USB cable once since I started using it.

It's based on the Linux 2.6 kernel, so it yields great performance and reliability. As such, the entire OS is predicated on openness - developers can extend any component of the core system, or develop custom apps in Java or do scripting in Python. But since nothing's perfect, Froyo gracefully recovers from app crashes; in most cases the runtime will self-heal and automatically restart borked services, eliminating the need for you to yank out the battery or reboot the device. This is really nice.

The on-board browser is lightning fast, using Google Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. Even the most data-intensive pages load really quickly. And, the kicker: Android 2.2 fully supports Flash 10.1 right out of the box, so any embedded streaming video players and non-HTML UIs function exactly as they do on your desktop.

The voice recognition service integrates with all applications, so you can compose or respond to e-mail, text messages, tweets, Facebook posts and other types of communication simply by talking into your phone. And it's stunningly accurate.

The notification bar makes sure you're aware of updates from your favorite services, which works in tandem with the live widgets you can create on your desktop, conveniently pushing the latest alerts to you. And true multitasking ensures you can run several services in tandem without painfully jumping in and out apps.

Now for the killer apps - the features that make Android really stand out: first, there's tethering. With just a couple of taps, you can run your phone as a mobile hotspot, feeding other devices without connectivity and eliminating the need for multiple bills. My personal favorite feature is silent updating. Any app you download from the Android Marketplace (Google's app store) has an option to automatically apply any program updates without requiring you to navigate to an app or confirm the changes - all over the air. For me, this makes for a real game-changer.

As far as the phone's physical characteristics, the housing is lightweight while sturdy, with a solid shell and comfortable feel. The buttons and hotkeys are intelligently laid out for rapid, convenient access to launch services. The 5-megapixel camera's clarity is remarkable for both still images and video, which can be pushed directly to your favorite social services or to contacts. And the OLED screen makes for a beautiful display, handles 2D and 3D graphics insanely well.

As for the inevitable downside - the Nexus One's power management could be better. The device has a tendency to heat up really quickly. I've only gotten about 7 hours' standby time with average use of the battery at full charge; when drained, it takes about 3 hours to recharge.

That said, Froyo is an amazing mobile OS, and the Nexus One is a beautifully designed smartphone. Head on down to your nearest DOCOMO Pacific office and take on for a testdrive and join the Droid Guam Group on Facebook.