Earlier this month, Google announced Froyo. Yes, you heard it here first! Google is getting into the frozen yogurt industry, but I kid. Froyo is the codename for Google's forthcoming update to their Android mobile operating system. This will be version 2.2. Before I get into the potential groundbreaking this update could bring, let me bring you up to speed with Google and its mobile products.
Android was first announced on November 5, 2007, alongside the founding of the Open Handset Alliance - a coalition of 65 hardware, software, and telecom companies, all with the goal of advancing open standards for mobile devices. Less than a year after that first announcement, the first phone to run Android was released. The day preceding the hardware's release, Google made the system's code available as open source, and has been available since then.
Google's Android is often compared to Apple's iPhone. One of Android's first major carriers in the US was Verizon, and their teaser ad at the time of the first release was actually a parody of Apple ads. The two companies differ in their approaches, however.
Apple, as is their way, designs both hardware and software. Their software is not open source. And it has rules that limit content in their App Store, the one place to get apps unless your iPhone is jailbroken (hacked).
Google, for the most part, designs software, a la Microsoft, and then sells the software to a variety of third party hardware companies. They have made their own Google-branded handset, known as the Google Nexus One, but it did not enjoy the success hoped for. A second Google Nexus phone has been discussed and rumored but not revealed.
Both companies have been very successful with their efforts on the mobile front. Apple has a strong product line ranging from the iPhone to iPod Touch to iPad. And Google meanwhile, has been making headlines. It started first with a report by NPD that gave Fortune Magazine motivation to entitle an article, "Android demolishing iPhone in sales." Then, it held it's Google I/O conference in San Francisco, and announced a few things: the creation of a new open-source, royalty-free video file format, known as the WebM Project; plans to work with Sony to bring Google to TV; and of course, Android 2.2, Froyo.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
