Not very much of a surprise, but a T-Mobile representative told me this morning that the carrier would have a follow-up to the G1 in early summer. While the company did not say what handset they would be carrying I have a good idea of what it will be.T-Mobile said they would give more details on the device later this month, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that it's a carrier-branded HTC Magic, which has already got the okay from the FCC. This was essentially the same phone Google gave away to attendees at the I/O conference last week, and it's very similar to the G1 except it lacks a physical keyboard.

I've had a chance to play around with the Magic/G2/Ion (whatever you want to call it) and I'm very impressed. Losing the keyboard gives it a very sleek and slim build, and the touch screen is wonderfully responsive. I'm a mobile messaging guy and I generally hate virtual keyboards, but the Magic has a decent software solution. It needs to be sped up by about 15%, and the predictive software is not quite as good as the iPhone, but it is still very usable.

Also, Android 1.5 adds a bunch of features and polish that the G1 sorely needed. The big things like the virtual keyboard, video recording and YouTube uploader are very cool, but I dig the little things as well. The transitions are smoother and lead to a better overall user experience, and the Web browser has been improved by leaps and bounds. I also really dig the home-screen widgets and can't wait for the developers to go to town with that.

It's a good time if you're an Android fan, as there could be up to 20 handsets running the Linux-based operating system. Leaks also suggest the Google-backed OS will wind up on AT&T and Verizon Wireless as well.