General Mobile is showing off their latest Android handset called the DSTL1. The company is known for it’s dual-SIM handsets, so it’s no surprise that the DSTL1 can take two different SIM cards. It also sports a 3-inch touch screen, 5 megapixel camera, 4GB of storage, WiFi, and a 624MHz Marvell processor.

The picture above is a render, but it’s what they envision the final product looking like. The phone should be released in the third quarter of this year. An Android handset like this one with the dual-SIM feature definitely has us drooling.

We weren’t sure what would happen to Ruslan Kogan’s dream of building his own Android phone after Google apparently told him the Agora’s design wasn’t up to it. We were a little bummed, to be honest. Well, there’s a new model in the pipeline, and according to Kogan, his company is in the process of redesigning and launching an improved Kogan Agora.

This new phone will overcome the app compatibility issues that kept the original model from launching. Who knows how long it will take, but judging by how quickly he was able to get the first one out, it may just be a few months.

We don’t know what to make of this, but here’s the deal. A “Shining” phone (No, no pictures of Jack Nicholson on it saying HERE’S JOHNNY.) that looks almost exactly like the original version of the Kogan Agora Android phone just showed up on Alibaba with a three-day delivery time and a 100-unit wholesale price of $240.

Of course, the Agora was just delayed indefinitely or aborted depending on your point of view, so this could be nothing. It could just be contracting design and development out to Chinese manufacturers. Those are renders on the site, not actual pictures. Asian copies or no, it’s still a damn cool phone.

Back in December we told you about the Kogan Agora, a very promising Google smartphone. Well, we have some bad news for those that were hoping to lay hands on the inexpensive Google phone.

The Kogan Agora Android release has been postponed indefinitely. The move presumably followed a meeting with Google, with Ruslan Kogan pulling out of the launch citing that it needed to be redesigned in order “to ensure its compatibility with all future Android applications.” Full refunds are being offered to anyone that has already bought the device.

It used to be that bar codes were just for use in grocery stores. That’s not the case anymore. Grocery cashiers have hogged all of that swiping bar code glory for long enough. Personal bar code readers, like ScanLife’s latest for Android phones, allows you to quickly visit Web sites, phone numbers or videos.

It’s a shortcut for typing on your keypad or browsing. You can even create your own bar code on ScanLife’s Web site for quick access to functions that you use on a daily basis. The software has been available as a free iPhone app since August, but now you can download it for Android phones as well.

Here’s another rumor regarding android. According to digitimes, Sciphone from China is going to sell the Android-powered Dream G2 handset very soon (within 10-15 days)with a price tag of $179. There’s no word on whether this phone is going to be available outside China or if it’s exclusive to communist countries.

The Sciphone Dream G2 apparently runs on Android Home edition V1.0 and comes with GSM/EDGE support, 16GB flash memory, and Google Maps, Gmail and YouTube applications and will not include a physical keyboard. That’s about all we have on this one. We’ll let you know.

Google’s open-source Android cell phone operating system can be found on the T-Mobile G1, but soon the G1 will no longer be alone. The Agora from Australian cell phone maker Kogan will be the next to feature Android.

Sure, it looks like the lovechild of a Blackberry Bold, and a Samsung Blackjack, but that just means that phones are getting smart enough to mate and swap good genes. It will feature a 2.5-inch touchscreen, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G, and a nice Qwerty keyboard.

The G1′s battery life isn’t as great as we would like, which is an issue with smartphones in general. That’s why this $17 device is a great idea. It will come in very handy for keeping your Android G1 powered at all times. It will charge your G1, plus there’s an extra dock to power a second battery, making it perfect for travelers who carry a spare battery. It’s a cheap way to make sure you always have some precious juice.

You might expect the second Android cellphone to come from Motorola or Nokia, but according to John Biggs over at Crunchgear, it’s the Zzzphone, a full-QWERTY keyboard Chinese slider which apparently runs the Android operating system. It’s tauted as the world’s first unlocked quad-band mobile featuring the Google Android Operating System.

It seems to do everything you could ever want it to do as well. It works everywhere in the world and can be built and personalized per your custom requirements with GPS, Wi-Fi, even your choice of seven colors for cases, and 15 other options. Up to 32GB of memory, they are also claiming to be the world’s first phone with snap on modular accessories, like a full QWERTY keyboard, mini boom box, projector and more. Damn. John says that he has ordered one and it should be arriving in ten days. It’s only $119.

In a surprising move, Facebook won’t be creating an application to run on T-Mobile’s G1 Android-powered smartphone, even though it is available for the iPhone and BlackBerry. Considering this, Facebook fans who are in the market for a new phone will probably pass on the G1.

Facebook commented that Google or another third party will have to develop the application for them, as they don’t want to dedicate any resources toward developing an app for Android. If you want to take a paranoid look at the situation, consider this. Facebook is ad-served and invested in by Microsoft. Make of that what you will, but just because your paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to deny you a phone app.

While people love the G1 and it has an excellent keyboard…and it’s only been available for about a day, many users are already complaining that they cannot type in landscape mode.

Never fear, according to the Android development roadmap, we’ll be getting a touchscreen keyboard in Q1 2009 that features “a dictionary of suggestions and a suggestion algorithm.” So it will basically work like the iPhone keyboard. Great news as many find it annoying, having to slide open the G1 every time they want to enter some data.

According to some recently discovered fine print in the Android Market terms of service, it appears Apple is not the only one implementing a remote kill switch for applications on their phone. In this case however Google has openly stated that they may “discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement”, and in such cases they reserve the right to “…remotely remove those applications from your device at its sole discretion”.

This all comes after somewhat of an uproar when a developer happened upon a feature that allows Apple to remotely remove applications from the iPhone. This type of remote kill feature is meant to help with security and privacy in the event that some malicious application finds its way onto your mobile device, but many find it a little intrusive since it certainly does not give you free reign to run whatever applications you would like on your Google phone with Android.

There have been lots of rumors about the highly anticipated Android-powered, HTC Dream phone. Now it’s official. T-Mobile confirmed today that it plans to launch an Android mobile phone made by HTC. They are hoping to make it a direct threat to Apple’s popular iPhone.

A spokesman for Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s parent company gave no details on the launch date, but according to the New York Times, the phone will hit stores in the United States before Christmas. Maybe even as early as October. Apparently the device will have a touch screen and will slide out to reveal a full five-row keyboard.

This morning Google had a phone open phone conference and made the much anticipated announcement that they along with 33 other companies are starting the Open Handset Alliance. The first and main project of the newly formed alliance is called Android, an open development platform for mobile handsets. The ultimate goal for Google with this is to overall make a better, more usable phone with more features where consumers will benefit, and of course to show advertisements on it where Google will also benefit.

Eric Schmidt was present on the call leading things off, with a number of other captains of industry including Paul Jacobs of Qualcomm, Peter Chou from HTC and Ed Zander from Motorola. The members of the Open Handset Alliance include some big names like Google, HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sprint, T-Mobile, eBay, Intel, NVIDIA and many others. Some notable big names we’re not seeing on the member list are Microsoft, Apple, AT&T and Verizon.