And after Apple announced that the iPhone 4S was going to be available on the Sprint Network. Boom, Sprints Phone page crashes… and it’s been crashed for about 2 hours now.

EDIT: 4:41pm CST, Sprint phones site back up. Still doesn’t have any marketing pertaining to iPhone 4S.

Nice work, Apple and Sprint. You took a potentially huge moment and took a poop all over it. I bet Steve Jobs would be rolling over in his grave, if he was already dead.

But, it wouldn’t surprise me if Steve Jobs is out of retirement as soon as Wednesday morning.

EDIT: 5:53pm 10-05-11. Steve Jobs passed away this morning on October 5th, 2011. So, this original post joke seems kind of assholeish. No disrespect was meant.

Siri Search, makes use of Yelp’s business ratings, thus this makes instantly makes Yelp a strong local competitor to Google Places.

The understated thing for small businesses, is to make sure that you nurture your Yelp business profile page. You need to claim your listing, and encourage happy customers to leave their happy thoughts on your profile link.

Yelp is now very relevant to your small business rankings. Google Places has been the big dog in local optimization or as I call it, Local Awesomeization…. And your places ranking and profile completion has become very important for your local marketing.

Now, Siri, which is a virtual assistant will be able to find you anything you want… and it is using the Yelp Reviews to rank therecommendations.

Apple just entered Local Search in a big way. This is the key take away from this event, not that the iPhone 5 isn’t here, but that the iPhone 4S with Siri is going to revolutionize how Apple iPhone users find local information.

HUUUUUUUGE.

Siri used over 35 APIs to find what its users were requesting, including one to translate speech to text. In April, 2010, Apple bought Siri before it could expand to Android. Over a year later, the app has been built into the next generation iPhone software. The fact that Siri uses Yelp, instantly gives them importance, and even more importance, when the Siri service launches on some of the other iOS versions.

Nuture your Yelp account now.  Claim it, and begin getting good reviews.  Local search is a science, and you have to get that information out there.

Now, what you may want to do, is to connect with and nurture relationships with people on Yelp… the people who leave reviews for your business.  Look at this message that I recently got via Yelp.

Yelp has re-entered the local search fray, folks.  Pay attention.

I help businesses be found online. I need to know what in the hell Google is doing with Local SEO and Google Places. Local marketing changes monthly. So, I have a Google Android phone, an iPad, an iPod and a couple Windows PCs. This is so I can keep up with and learn about each specific OS and what it has to offer. We can then figure out how it can be used to optimize local businesses marketing dollars.

A Foot in the Android World: Samsung Charge

I just upgraded my phone with Verizon. And my first choice was the Droid X2. I had it for 24 hours and hated it. So, I took it back to the store. Verizon has a 14 day return policy. $35 fee. So, I went with the Samsung Charge. I would have preferred the LG Optimus 2x… but Verizon doesn’t have that one. And the Revolution doesn’t quite measure up.

Anyway, The Motorola Droid was my first real “smartphone”. I had a Blackberry 3300 but that was more of a feature phone. I consider a smartphone, one that has a cool app store. And let’s face it. Blackberry sucks. Unless you really, really like the keyboard of the BB. But, I digress.

iOS iAWESOME.

My first Apple device that I ever played on was in 5th grade in 1985 on an Apple 2c. We played Oregon Trail and Lenonade stand on it. After my school responsibilities as one of “the safety patrol”, I logged onto one, and thought I was hacking into Russia on the Apple 2c that wasn’t connected to any network. #winning.

Fast forward to high school, I used a Mac to construct the monthly newspaper. Then, no more Apples for me… until the iPod classic came out. I still have it, and it has tons of good educational stuff on it. I listen to little music, I prefer the humming of the sounds of my own #awesome #thoughts to be distracted by music or TV… although sometimes, I do love to jam. I play the guitar and the drums at very mediocre level, as well. #nottryingtobrag

Then, I got an iPod Touch around the time that I got the Motorola Droid. I wanted to know what was going on over there with that cool Apple OS, but I needed the SEO knowledge of Android. Then, I got an iPad… soon, I’ll get an iPad 2. I love them. The iPad has only crashed a couple of times, but that is normally because of some faulty app. And it seems just as fast today, as it was the day that I got it. I’d recommend one to anyone. The iPad2 is very thin. Gotta love that.

Windows 7 PC Comfortability

I’ve had a windows PC since the mid-90s. It’s difficult to get off of it completely. I’d probably already have a Mac PC if they weren’t sofa king expensive. But, technically, my PC that I bought in the mid 90s are about as much as a MacBook today. Maybe I will someday… but $500 PC sounds so much more reasonable. And with tablets now, I find myself using PC’s less and less.

It would probably be more convenient in some ways if I were totally compatible with all of my media operating systems, but for now, I like to keep my feet in all of the worlds, because I can learn about them, and look for opportunities within those ecosystems.

It seems most likely that Apple is building a geo location-based social network to compete with Foursquare, GoWalla, Google’s Latitude, Facebook Places and the million other startups in the mobile, local, social space.

So far, when Apple has made a step into social networking, it has seemed to be within a vertical niche, such as Ping for music and the GameCenter for gaming. Perhaps location is a “vertical” as well, but if so it’s a pretty big vertical. And so far, Apple’s attempt at social networking, Ping , has been a colossal fail, worthy of a hundred facepalms.

What is more important, perhaps, is that other mobile, local, social networks like Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places are cross-platform, meaning you don’t need to have a specific device to be able to use it. If Apple wants you to use their new “find my friends” feature, do you think there will be a RIM Blackberry or Android version for you to use? Doubtful. Thus, in my opinion, any attempt to create a device specific will have as much clout as facetime has. I have an android device, so I’ll never use facetime… same will most likely be said about any “Find My Friends” feature. Most of my friends DON’T have iOS devices.

The new friends feature is connected to MobileMe, Apple’s online services service which is largely lagging behind the competition. Steve Jobs wrote in an email to a customer that MobileMe will “get a lot better in 2011.”

If the new MobileMe comes with a mobile social network, which sounds like a probability, it could certainly be something worth paying attention to. Until then, I’m not holding my breath for the success of this feature.

I heard of some rumblings that Skype was going to release this but to wait until CES next week to look behind the wizards curtain.

Skype’s official iOS client finally has the ability to make video calls, allowing it on:

• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4
• 4th-gen iPod touch

iOS Skype allows users to have real-time video amongst together iPhone to iPhone, but also with users of Skype’s Windows, Mac, and Linux clients along with the ASUS Videophone.

3GS phones obviously don’t have the convenience of a front-facing camera, but they can still broadcast video from the rear-facing camera.

Additionally, if you have an iPad or 3rd-gen iPod Touch, you’ll be able to receive video from others and broadcast audio only. The service is free and works over both WiFi and 3G. Skype has a huge PC presence, so this Skype iOS functionality may put a pinch on FaceTime usage.

No word on when Android, Blackberry and other mobile OS’s will be video-capable for Skype.

There will be “plenty more” announcements in Vegas next week, Skype promised, so who really knows. But, iOS Skype is available in the iTunes Store, go grab it. [I'm gonna get it on my iPad, immediately after I hit Publish.]

The reason is, AT&T’s customer experience is consistently bad. Worse than bad. Actually WORST.

Take a look at this. If I were head of AT&T, heads would roll over this.

AT&T has the WORST Customer service by far, according to the new Consumer Reports magazine coming out Jan 2011.

I’m more of a tech “outsider” than insider, hanging out here in Kansas City, Mo. But it just seems the writing is on the wall for AT&T. Once the iPhone is announced on Verizon, I’d bet that ATT takes a hit on Wall Street.

Steve Jobs was willing to partner with Verizon on the iPad charger deal. And they’ve been advertising together. This was logically the next step.

Apple is wise to not lean too much on AT&T now, and go to a competing service. Then, open it up to Sprint. Quit being a stingy bastard and open up this bad boy and see what it can do.

In my opinion, just to ornery, I’d like to see Apple release the mysterious white iPhone on Verizon first. That would make me chuckle.  Maybe we should start a rumor?

Then I read about how he tweeted his “phone number” out, but the number was actually 15-year-old fan’s, Kevin Kristopik. Apparently, Kevin used Google to track down one of Bieber’s friends and eventually got Biebers number and texted him.

“I kind of meddled into his life a little bit,” Kevin said. “He decided to take revenge on me.”

The revenge yielded over 26,000 text messages to Kevin’s iPhone before he had to get a new phone number. The comment posted on Bieber’s verified account asked followers to call the star at a number with a 248 area code. Kevin confirmed that was his number. Bieber has more than 4.5 million followers.

So, this Bieber kid retailiates by tweeting, to text or call him… and this other kid gets bombarded with texts and phonecalls. Kinda funny.

After watching about 10 seconds of that, I typed in “Justin Bieber” into the search box to see why in the hell this Bieber douche has 4.5 million followers.

I click on the first video and watch a small portion of it, when Google Chrome crashed… and told me to “kill them”.

Yes, master.

I found the whole ordeal rather humorous.

The decision to allow the practice commonly known as “jailbreaking” is one of a handful of new exemptions from a 1998 federal law that prohibits people from bypassing technical measures that companies put on their products to prevent unauthorized uses. The Library of Congress, which oversees the Copyright Office, reviews and authorizes exemptions every three years to ensure that the law does not prevent certain non-infringing uses of copyright-protected material.

Unless users unlock their devices, they can only download apps from Apple’s iTunes store. Software developers must get such apps pre-approved by Apple, which sometimes demands changes or rejects programs for what the developers say are vague reasons.

The new government rules, however, won’t stop Apple from continuing its practice of disabling jailbroken phones with software upgrades. That means owners of such phones might not be able to take advantage of software improvements, and they still run the risk of voiding their warranty. All the new rules do is exempt the user from legal liability — something Apple does not appear to be pursuing anyway. Apple did not return messages for comment Monday.

In addition to jailbreaking, other exemptions announced Monday would:
• allow owners of used cell phones to break access controls on their phones in order to switch wireless carriers.
• allow people to break technical protections on video games to investigate or correct security flaws.
• allow college professors, film students and documentary filmmakers to break copy-protection measures on DVDs so they can embed clips for educational purposes, criticism, commentary and noncommercial videos.
• allow computer owners to bypass the need for external security devices called dongles if the dongle no longer works and cannot be replaced.
• allow blind people to break locks on electronic books so that they can use them with read-aloud software and similar aides.

Although the jailbreaking exemption is new, all the others are similar to the last set of exemptions, which were announced in November 2006. The new rules take effect Tuesday and are expected to last a few years.

The exceptions are a big victory for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which had urged the Library of Congress to legalize several of them, including the two regarding cell phones.

Jennifer Stisa Granick, EFF’s civil liberties director, said the rules are based on an important principle: Consumers should be allowed to use and modify the devices that they purchase the way they want. “If you bought it, you own it,” she said.

[via Yahoo ]

One of the solutions to the antenna fix?  Well, just watch the video.

Via Gizmodo.

What are you going to do about it?

Are you going to cancel your service (and pay the ETF)? Are you going to NOT buy an iPhone or an iPad? Or are you going to whine about AT&T and try to console yourself with the false hope that a global corporation will go out of business overnight because some people got bad customer service? Whining on blogs is not a viable solution to your complaints with AT&T.

For every person convinced that these problems will be the death of AT&T, remember this:

AT&T is the exclusive provider of service for the iPhone and the iPad.

In other words, it is a license to print money. Complain and gripe and whine all you want. AT&T’s rebuttal to your complaints will be lined up bright and early tomorrow, hoping to buy more products with a two-year AT&T contract.

My prediction: the iPhone and iPad will continue to give AT&T what’s known in the business as “Fuck You Money”.

As in, “Your complaints are noted. While we will give lip service, no we won’t be doing anything substantive to fix any of your concerns. It would be nice if we did but we like making money more than making you happy. Besides, you’ll be back. And even if you won’t be back, your friends will. So fuck you and have a nice day.”

My point is that sitting on your duff and grousing about AT&T is dumb.

AT&T is in the business of making money; it is not in the business of making people happy with its service.

If AT&T can generate more net revenue with unsatisfied customers than with satisfied customers, all whining will continue to go into a circular bin. This is the present situation.

As for Apple sticking with AT&T, I don’t see how it’s a bad thing for Apple. AT&T shoulders the blame for iPhone problems. On top of that, because the iPhone is the central pillar of AT&T’s wireless division, AT&T spends money to promote the iPhone. And every dollar that AT&T spends on saturating the airwaves and street corners and the internet with iPhone ads is a dollar that Apple doesn’t have to spend.

I don’t see anything wrong with either AT&T’s or Apple’s business strategy as far as the iPhone is concerned.

So what will I be doing about AT&T’s crummy service?

Nothing.

I have better things to do. I’ll be buying a new iPhone and signing up for a new 2-year contract with AT&T.

Upon further debate, I was told that Chuck Klosterman originally posited such a thought.  And it turns out, the American-flavored pop culture obsession with these supernatural blood-friendly fiends has some major symbolic plasma to it.  Terms like “life-drainer” and “sex-crazed” were thrown out, Edward was defended (not Edward!) and suffice it to say, the vampire thoughts did not end there.

Well to get me thinking, I decided I would list the things that ARE wrong with America and see how our Twilight’s and True Blood’s stack up.  So here goes:

#1 thing wrong with America: Our dependence on non-renewable energy.

America: Um, well.
Vampires: Subsist off of human blood and there are upwards of 6.7 billion humans circa 2008 (a.k.a. True Blood Season 1).  Seems to be pretty darn renewable to me, I mean geez that’s a lot of humans!

#2 thing wrong with America: We’re kinda bullies, sometimes.

America: BP is from England—duh, (P.S. follow @BPGlobalPR for a laugh).  And war(s), what war(s)?  Did you see Kate Hudson’s boob job? Who is she kidding anyway?
Vampires: The Cullens live off of animal blood and Bill is mainstreaming TruBlood-style.  While the majority of the two vampire worlds might be seen as less than peaceful, these two figureheads are held up as proof of politically correct blood-flavored sustenance for all.

#3 thing wrong with America: We still don’t have affordable universal healthcare.

America: We’re working on it man, give us some time, like a handful of years or so.
Vampires: Heal themselves.  Stupid self-healing vampires.

#4 thing wrong with America: We’re a lethargic, politically impotent, narcissistic bunch.

America: Quiet, Glee’s about to start.
Vampires: Way faster/stronger/quicker than humans, politics vary by vampire mainstay, and why yes, vampires are quite narcissistic.  Hey you probably would be too if you possessed eternal youth (@MrsKutcher I’m looking at you).

#5 thing wrong with America: We boast an untenable consumerist lifestyle.

America: Haven’t you heard of the Green Movement?  And what about the new iPhone, makes me want to toss my old one in the toilet just so I can get a new one!
Vampires: Some of us have been around and under the radar since before Jesus.  That has to say something.

#6 thing wrong with America: We idolize Paris Hilton instead of Toni Morrison.

America: Toni who?
Vampires: Have become an object of idolization, distracting our already ADHD-prone population even further (Edward!).  But in their own little vampire-written worlds, vampires are worldly fellows, (mostly because they’ve had centuries to become worldly, but worldly nonetheless).

And so as I near the end of my list of things that are wrong with America (obviously I could go on), I realize that vampires, at best, are a self-consciously constructed foil for ourselves.  American culture is still breaking out of slash feeling guilty for our Puritan roots; vampires are hedonists to a T.  And therefore, perhaps the way in which we portray these demons of the night heavily correlates to the way our own demons would like to act in the night (or day for that matter).  Other times, we hold our vampire figments up to a pedestal longingly gazing at them as they drain/glamour/suck whatever it is we constructed them to drain in the first place.  Sometimes I wonder if the vampires are having identity issues; good vampire one second, bad vampire the next.  Luckily, most of them are pretty good actors.

And so there you have it.  Vampires represent all that is evil about America?  Kind of.  Pop culture oozing all that is socially repressed into your favorite fad-of-the-moment fantasy box set?  On sale now.

World Wide Developer Conference 2010 will be joined by different tech savvies and Apple fanboys from different corners of the world – either live at the event of via live stream.

At this year’s WWDC event, Steve Jobs is expected to unveil the next iPhone -which apparently, leaked on the web before the real launching. He is also expected to unveil the new refresh of the Apple TV and the just-leaked Magic Trackpad. There are many speculations about this famous Apple event right now but we still need to watch it to find out more.

You can watch WWDC 2010 live stream in different live streaming sites. WWDC 2010 live stream will also be available in different tech blogs that will cover the whole Apple Event which will be held at Moscone West, San Francisco.

Get your Tweetdeck fired up and listen to #wwdc for the latest… and MobLoSo will recap the highlights of the event later today!

Party time!

AT&T, in a move that people could see a mile away, is going to upgrade away the Unlimited Data plans through upgrade pricing for the iPhone 4G.   If you go to AT&T.com and check your wireless account, you can find out if you are upgrade eligible and if so, at New Customer rate or discount rate.  Please note, this is canceling your old contract and beginning a new 2-year contract.  Not only that, your new commitment will have the $350 Early Termination Fee instead of the old ETF.

YOU WILL LOSE YOUR UNLIMITED DATA PLAN.

If you want, you can ask, cajole, plead, or pray for your Unlimited Data Plan to be grandfathered in.  It will do no good.

YOU WILL LOSE YOUR UNLIMITED DATA PLAN.

Still, you will be getting an iPhone 4G at the New Customer rate.  Honestly, this gambit is obvious.  If AT&T wants to get rid of Unlimited Data, it is going to have to offer people something in return – cheap new iPhones.

Will you trade your Unlimited Plan and a lower ETF for a new iPhone 4G?

Check out this and rockstar billing:

• Tim Armstrong | Chairman and CEO of AOL
• Steve Ballmer | CEO of Microsoft
• Steve Burke | COO of Comcast
• James Cameron | Director, Producer, Writer
• Steve Case | Chairman and CEO of Revolution
• Peter Chou | CEO of HTC
• John Donahoe | President and CEO of eBay
• Julius Genachowski | Chairman of the FCC
• Steve Jobs | CEO of Apple
• Jeffrey Katzenberg | CEO of Dreamworks Animation SKG
• Alan Mulally | CEO of Ford
• Ray Ozzie | Chief Software Architect of Microsoft
• Vivian Schiller | President and CEO of NPR
• Mark Zuckerberg | Founder and CEO of Facebook

Look at this list, it’s a veritiable who’s-who of technology executives. I think it may just be missing a twitter c-level.

So, Steve Jobs took the stage tonight with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg and was asked a ton of questions about the State of Apple, the genesis of  iPad & iPhone, Gizmodo, Foxconn suicides, the death of the PC, Future of TV and much more goodness.

There was so much talked about, where do you begin?

According to Jobs, the iPad was thought of before the iPhone.  He envision a glass tablet and had his top UI guy develop something for it, and he thought, “holy shitballs!”  This could become a phone.  The rest is history.

He also mentioned that they reimagined the tablet, whereas Microsoft tried to put the Windows OS on the tablet.   It had the battery life, the weight, but it needed a cursor like a PC. Without a stylus, you have no precision with your finger, so you really can’t use a PC OS. Thus, Apple created a new mobile OS from scratch.

These conversations are amazing.  They are candid and very informative.  In my opinion, the Wall Street Journal should make All Things D, a Pay Per View event… Certainly, Ruppert Murdoch could find some way to stream this great content and charge for it.  Seems like a wasted capitalistic opportunity.

I’d love to watch this conference.  It’s sold out, but you could have made tons of money by offering this to the public.  If this were on television, the ratings would have been through the roof.

They should stream the keynotes like Google did for their I/O conference, but I digress.  Once these videos are out in the next few days/months… check them out.  They will still be relevant.

In parting, here is Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg at All Things D 5 in 2007.

Who is left to compete with the iPad?

With Apples’ multitasking O/S 4.0, Android’s Flash playing 2.2 and HP purchasing webOS as well as the introduction of Windows 7 phones, Symbian 3, and Blackberry 6.0, we have a fierce competition brewing in the consumer market for smart device O/Ses that can only benefit us all.  But who will come out on top?

Tech Crunch has posted a rumor that they believe is legitimate.  The HP Slate is no more.

“Hewlett-Packard has killed off its much ballyhooed Windows 7 tablet computer, says a source who’s been briefed on the matter.

The device was first unveiled by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at CES 2010 in January and was supposed to hit the market in mid 2010. But our source tells us that HP is not satisfied with Windows 7 as a tablet operating system and has terminated the project (something CrunchGear mentioned months ago).”

Obviously since the acquisition of Palm, it would be easy for HP to revise the Slate concept yet with webOS rather than Windows 7.

Then Gizmodo reported the next shell shocker. Microsoft has cancelled the Courier.

“According to sources familiar with the matter, Microsoft has cancelled Courier, the folding, two-screen prototype tablet that was first uncovered by Gizmodo.

We’re told that on Wednesday, Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer Microsoft execs informed the internal team that had been working on the tablet device that the project would no longer be supported. Courier had never been publicly announced or acknowledged as a Microsoft product.

It appeared from the leaked information last year that a Courier prototype was probably near to completion. The combination of both touch- and pen-based computing was compelling. Perhaps the strong launch of Apple’s iPad, currently the only available “mobile tablet” from a major vendor, caused Ballmer to reassess the commitment of Microsoft in a soon-to-be-crowded market.”

But wait, within the same general time Adobe had decided to throw in the towel regarding Apple support in the future.  I would assume that they will continue to make their Creative Suite’s but not include Flash dev in the package for Apple.  Here is the Dear John letter to Apple.

Moving Forward

This morning Apple posted some thoughts about Flash on their web site.
The primary issue at hand is that Apple is choosing to block Adobe’s
widely used runtimes as well as a variety of technologies from other
providers.

Clearly, a lot of people are passionate about both Apple and Adobe and
our technologies. We feel confident that were Apple and Adobe to work
together as we are with a number of other partners, we could provide a
terrific experience with Flash on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

However, as we posted last week, given the legal terms Apple has
imposed on developers, we have already decided to shift our focus away
from Apple devices for both Flash Player and AIR. We are working to
bring Flash Player and AIR to all the other major participants in the
mobile ecosystem, including Google, RIM, Palm (soon to be HP),
Microsoft, Nokia and others.

We look forward to delivering Flash Player 10.1 for Android
smartphones as a public preview at Google I/O in May, and then a
general release in June. From that point on, an ever increasing number
and variety of powerful, Flash-enabled devices will be arriving which
we hope will provide a great landscape of choice.

So, what are our device choices for a tablet/slate type of tool at this point?

According to  the Apple Blog:

“Worldwide, the iPhone accounts for more than half of the total overall smartphone usage. It’s worth noting that doesn’t necessarily mean that the iPhone’s actual market share is double that of all other companies combined, only that iPhone owners use their devices much more than the owners of any of its competitors do.

Still, it’s definitely good news for Apple. High device usage means iPhone owners are obviously, for the most part, enjoying their smartphones, which in turn means that they will be more likely to speak well of the iPhone to others and to purchase another Apple product in the future. It also means Apple’s revenue from iPhone app sales will likely remain very healthy for the foreseeable future.

Symbian had the next strongest showing, with 21 percent of the overall usage share. But geographically, Nokia’s OS only leads in Africa and Asia now, while the iPhone has surged ahead into the lead position in both North America and Western Europe, two very lucrative mobile markets. 54 percent of smartphone usage in North America was on an iPhone, and in Western Europe 78 percent occurred on Apple’s device. More than half the OS share in Eastern Europe belonged to Apple, too.”

King of the Hill:

Apple iPhone/iPad O/S 4.0 – The current heavyweight and O/S to beat. This is amazing considering it’s not even out yet! Since all eyes are on Apple, competitors already know most of what O/S 4.0 is going to bring to the table and therefore what they will need to compete with.

Pro’s: With 1,000,000 iPads sold and approximately 200,000 apps in the Apple store and a projected 300,000 by Dec of 2010, this is the top dog of the tablet computing devices.  Granted, the Apple gear are entertainment driven devices but you can still be productive with an iPhone or 3G enabled iPad as well a wireless iPad because of access to many business oriented applications and all of the WiFi hotspots littered everywhere.  With O/S 4.0, many of the annoyances will be removed (see folders & multi-tasking). Also, the addition of a keyboard for the iPad and apps like iDisplay give Apple another push when they are already in the lead. Rated Pg-13 only.

Here is a quick overview of some of the new features of O/S 4.0 (nicely done, young YouTube man)

Con’s: The operating system is very closed. No Flash, Dev tools Apple only. Rated Pg-13 only

# of Apps- almost 200,000

The Competition:

1.  Android O/S 2.2 (Froyo)

2.  Windows 7 Desktop O/S

3.  webOS (If HP decides to use it in their tablets)

Possibly:  Windows 7 Phone O/S (It could happen) , Symbian 3,  Blackberry O/S 6.0

The Pro’s and Con’s:

1.  Android 2.2-

Pro’s: Let’s just knock this one out right away. Android is amazing.  Especially the potential of version 2.2, also know as Froyo which is short for Frozen Yogurt because of the incrementing O/S nickname conventions; cupcake, donut, eclair, etc.  Due to the open nature (to a degree) of the software, many of the more hackery apt folks have dug in and created applications that multitask, file share, tether, etc. The possibilities are huge when developers have access to the API’s created by Google to design functionality directly into the system. And interestingly enough genius Google developers have included many of the hacked options users had created using rooting, in Android 2.2, such as tethering.

John Mahoney of Gizmodo said: “It’s not about pretty icons, Apple fanboys, and its not about business use, Windows Mobile Nerds: its about giving people the true tools to build whatever they want without lame App Store limitations and OS handcuffs. It’s about giving phone makers shackled to Symbian and Microsoft’s phone OS the chance to build with something different and better and free. And who’s going to complain about that?

The most humorous part of this statement is that with companies making the Sense UI overlay for Android Devices like the Sprint HTC Evo and Free Exchange Server Apps, Android is a pretty little business machine that guns with the best of them now.

Android usage is on the rapid rise as well with the stats recently overtaking iPhone usage in the US according to Tech Crunch.

Products:

ICD Gemini -

Engadget states: “Built around the 1GHz Tegra 2 SOC, the 11.2-inch ICD Gemini should provide comparable endurance to Apple’s A4-sporting iPad, while besting it in the grunt stakes with its glorious ability to chew through 1080p video when required. If that wasn’t enough, the rest of this thing’s spec sheet reads like a wishlist. Headlined by a 3G connection that allows cellular voice calls (crazy, we know!), it also includes a user-replaceable 40Wh battery, an SD card reader, FM radio, GPS, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, MicroUSB connectivity to PCs and USB peripherals, stereo speakers, and dual webcams — a 2 megapixel front-facing unit and a 5 megapixel autofocusing snapper on the back. Multitouch displays will be available in both resistive and capacitive flavors, with the 1,366 x 768 resolution being filled by Google’s snappy Android OS.“

Notion Ink Adam

The list of advantages is growing, starting with the Pixel Qi display, which allows the screen to turn into an Ebook power saver instantly granting up to a claimed 160 hours of battery usage, moving on to 1080P HDMI output, an Nvidia Tegra 2 GPU, roughly double the battery life (or more) of the iPad, multitasking, multitouch, Wi-Fi N, 3G, a front facing OR rear facing camera on a patented swivel mount,  and ending with Flash 10.1 support.

Speaking of Flash support, The Android Police have a couple articles about the performance (+450% over 2.1 !?!)  of new O/S Android 2.2 and how fast it seems to be after the re-visioning Google has done to prepare for Flash 10.1 to be utilized without affecting the speed of system operation negatively.

Rumor has it that Froyo (Android 2.2) will be released at the Google I/O conference, most likely on its second day – May 20th.

The new acquisition of BumpTop 3D by Google should fit well with tablet interaction. With the advent of a new multi-touch version of the software, it shouldn’t be too long before we see this being implemented in phones, tablets, and anything else Android.

Con’s: Android isn’t perfect. There are issues with video codec support that may or may not be dealt with in 2.2. But over all any negatives have been overcome by excellent development revisions.

# of Apps- Ove 50,000 as of May 2010

2. Windows 7. Anything you can do on your PC you could do on this tablet.

Pro’s: This is verily the most difficult and probably the most promising of third place competitors to discuss.  Since there is a multitude of software available for Windows 7,  the world seems to be at a user’s fingertips.  Or is it?  Part of the problem here is that even though a Windows operating system can play any game, any type of video, any type of music and well, basically anything, this freedom comes at a price.  Why should consumers buy an App?

Without app sales to drive the community of developers productivity (see pay me) and consumers expanding the usage of inexpensive and quick fixes for our entertainment and productivity needs via the “app”, the market for developers will become dry and consumers will return to the normal software titles available. And when I say available I mean rampant file sharing makes everything available for everyone, for free, harming developers in the long run.

MSI Slatebook

Digitimes reports:  “Micro-Star International (MSI) will showcase a tablet PC, the MSI Slatebook, based on Intel’s mobile Internet device (MID) platform at Computex 2010, which will be held from June 1-6 in Taipei, Taiwan, according to sources from notebook players.

MSI’s Slatebook tablet PC will adopt Windows 7 with Intel’s latest Atom Zxx series processor (Menlow), a 10-inch display, and built-in 3G and Wi-Fi modules. The unit will be priced below US$500, the sources noted.”

Pegatron Windows 7 Slate PC :   Pegratron slate has an 11.6-inch touchscreen and runs Windows 7 Home Premium on an Intel Atom CPU.  There’s also 1GB of RAM and a 32GB SSD, along with a webcam and HDMI connectivity.

Con’s: Unfortunately, the Windows 7 operating system requires an Intel/AMD based CPU such as the Atom or Athalon series.  While Intel has stated that they will be getting into tablet and phone sectors with the Atom Z6, but with Android and other comparable software only.  Windows still requires a meatier CPU.  Additionally, the idea of an Aps store for windows users is an odd and tricky sell point.  Not only do Windows users have most of the “Apps” they need already in the form of software, they also aren’t in the market for entertainment/media consumption in the way an Apple iPhad user has proven to be.

Although it is obvious that Android has broken into the Apps market successfully which drives sales of the device as well as development of more entertainment software, Windows users may not be as easily swayed to concentrate on a specific allotment of applications when they are more used to full software programs to use in their environment.

# of Aps-  None yet. Unless you count Windows Marketplace Apps, of which there are around 1K and all are created for Windows Mobile 6.5 users.  But these will eventually be updated for use on Windows 7 Phones which may be another reason why a “giant” version of Windows 7 Phone O/s on a table might be  an appropriate competitor.

Software?-  Unlimited.  There is so many programs on Windows you won’t know where to begin.

3. webOS also known as Palm is now owned by HP.

Pro’s: The latest version 1.4 seems to be a decent performer in the multitasking environment and has much of the functionality minus the popularity of Android. Can this O/S be recreated to run an HP Slate device in the future or will HP release a Windows 7 tablet of some sort? Stay tuned.

Con’s: Being sort of the underdog of phone operating systems that has evolved from the popular Palm handlheld is sort of a con by itself.  Due to it’s lesser known hardware, the Palm Pre & Pixi, along with far less applications being made for the system is a hurdle that HP will need to overcome with serious concentrated efforts.  This will be especially necessary to keep users up to date with the latest innovations, which may end up being hand-me-downs from Apple and Google devices.

# of Aps – approx. 2100

Extras:

Windows 7 Phones O/S

Gizmodo stated:

“Windows Phone 7 is connected in the same sense as Palm’s {now HP} webOS and Android, with live, real-time data seamlessly integrated, though it’s even smoother and more natural. Live tiles on the Start screen, which you can totally customize, are updated dynamically with fresh content, like weather, or if you’ve pinned a person to your Start screen, their latest status updates and photos.

The meat of the phone is organized around a set of hubs: People, Pictures, Games, Music + Video, Marketplace, and Office. They’re kind of like uber-applications, in a sense. Massive panoramas with multiple screens that are each kind of like individual apps. People, for instance, isn’t just your contacts, but it’s also where social networking happens, with a real-time stream of updates pulled in from like Facebook and Windows Live. (No Twitter support announced yet, it appears—a kind of serious deficiency, but one we’re sure will be remedied by ship date.)

As another example, Music + Video is essentially the entirety of Zune HD’s software, tucked inside of Windows Phone 7.”

Windows Marketplace for mobile has around 1000 apps in the store right now.

Symbian 3

While the US favors iPhone, Android, and RIM (Blackberry) phones, it seems that the rest of the planet has not yet caught up. Many countries still favor the Symbian 2 phone O/S.  Symbian 3 is now on its way.  Symbian has approximately 3400 apps in its marketplace.

“Introduction of the Symbian Signed system in which application developers need to pay in order to use some of the more attractive smartphone features (as contrasted to platforms like Palm OS and Windows Mobile) is making it an increasingly unpopular platform for Open Source projects, independent developers and small startups. This situation is worsened by the fragmentation of user interface systems (UIQ vs S60 vs MOAP), meaning that developers need to build and maintain multiple incompatible versions of their software if they want to target multiple devices which use the same underlying Symbian OS version.”

Blackberry 6.0

While RIM enjoys some fairly effective business minded markets, the use of push/pull with email and exchange servers on Apple and Google smart phones along with the more robust multimedia environment and social networking apps has created pressure for RIM.  The result?  The new Blackberry O/S 6.0.  Blackberry’s App world has around 6500 apps currently. And rumors of a RIM tablet device have been floating around for a bit already.

Of course this is claimed to be only for cell phones right now. But the market is young so who knows what the future holds.

What is the hold up already?

Apple beat everyone to the punch, this is true.  Apple also easily has the most successful app store thus far with Google catching up quickly.  Just like with the first iPhone successor, the next iteration of the iPad will be that much better, and even before the release of the second iPad version, the 4.0 version of the Apple O/S will be available.  So what is the hold up you ask?

First, Android isn’t ready to be a tablet without being competitive.  The first few versions of Android were a work in progress.  Android 2.2 (Froyo) is a flash enabled speed king.  If it has the additional multimedia codec and external device via USB/Bluetooth support (bluetooth dial hasn’t been enabled up to now) consumers are asking for then it will be a viable competitor.  Until then a pre-release of an unfinished tablet will be compared to Apple’s social powerhouse and easily be dismissed by the self proclaimed sexy Appleonian’s which as we all know, is the crowd Google really wants to capture.

Second, Microsoft’s Windows 7 requires a powerful hardware configuration to be useful and even then it is not designed for touchscreen use only, instead that is an afterthought.  Once the right hardware comes out with a CPU/GPU (graphics card) that doesn’t crush it’s battery life, it will definitely take a piece of the pie.  Most likely from the netbook sector that already runs Windows 7.  Remember, “there’s an App for that” has become a recognized saying that won’t be in the mouths of many Windows users. Well, may be the Windows Phone 7 users if Microsoft drastically improves app support for their new Windows 7 Phone O/S.

Third, HP may or may not have canceled the Slate.  Most likely it has, due to the silence on the subject.  Although HP is unofficial at this time,  its very recent acquisition of webOS means they will need time to redesign webOS for tablet use. IF that is the real plan.

What will I do you ask? Even if you didn’t I will tell you anyway.  Wait.  By Christmas this year or possibly even earlier,  we will have some of these devices and updated operating systems in hand.  Or at least major reviewers will.  We will also know who is trending upwards on app development and what the final version of Apple O/S 4.0 will bring to the table as we move into 2011.   Around September of this year the Notion Ink Adam (a potential fav of mine) will release.  Android 2.2, and Apple 4.0 should both be available.  Additionally, some variation of a Windows 7 slate device may be on the market.

As a very wise man once said, “patience young Padawan…”.  Later a Sith stabbed that master in the heart killing him.  Then with a vengeance and zero patience the master’s disciple rushed in frantically, filled with anger and cut the Sith in half completely disregarding this adv…oh nevermind.

Email me with any questions and I will be happy to attempt an answer. djbrady@mobilelocalsocial.com