Google and T-Mobile used a September 23 New York event to unveil the G1 phone – the search engine giant's long-awaited rival to Apple's iPhone – which will debut October 22. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page emphasized the device's open-source nature to reporters in attendance.

However, the long anticipated device failed to win rave reviews. The New York Times' Saul Hansel commented that his “initial take is that the G1 is the PC to the iPhone's Macintosh,” and Wired called the phone “neither open nor exciting.” Techdirt also panned T-Mobile's $25 “unlimited” data plan.

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