Hasta La Gadget!

The big surprise at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco on Wednesday? Not Google’s push for HTML 5.0, but the fact that the company gave out over 4,000 HTC Magic phones (AKA the “G2”) to every conference attendee.

In doing so, Google also allowed us to clear up some questions concerning the 1.5 “Cupcake” release and the HTC Magic, as well. But some others remain unanswered, such as the carrier (if there is one) and the price of the phone. Google gave them out to seed the Android operating system, and not the hardware.

Sascha Segan was given some hands-on time with a Cupcake-enabled Magic at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, where he was assured that its 3G radio absolutely does not work in North America.

Given that the phone came with a one-month SIM card from T-Mobile good for one month of unlimited voice calls and data, I can assure you that the phone does indeed place calls, and it’s a good bet that T-Mobile will in fact be supporting the phone. It’s not a sure thing, but as Sascha notes, there’s now enough data points to suspect a conspiracy.

Incidentally, Eric Chu, Google’s mobile program manager, claimed that “we expect that by the end of the year many of the major carriers around the world will be deploying Android devices”.

If you’re interested, the official specs of the HTC Magic are here. A quick recap: the phone uses a a 3.2-inch, 320×480 touchscreen, and includes GPS, 3G, and Wi-Fi.  The box also includes stereo headphones (the phone supports stereo Bluetooth, as well) as well as an audio headset. Both the headset and headphones use a miniUSB connection, however.