Samsung has aired another of their good-natured iPhone attack ads, which should be an occasion for merriment and ego-deflating good fun. Yet once again the commercial feels like it missed it’s mark. Rather, the whole series of commercials still seem awkwardly in search of a mark. This one stars the latest in Samsung’s broad-range of devices, each separate by a different Galaxy monicker and roughly 0.25-inches of screen size, the Galaxy Note. It’s something that can’t quite make up it’s mind between being a phone and a tablet — I’m not going to call it a phablet — and that’s either the best of both worlds… or the worst. The jury is still out. How big is it? 5.3-inches of HD Super AMOLED big, baby. (Yes, that’s exactly inverse the iPhone’s traditional 3.5-inches.)

It’s also got a stylus.

Now, I’m not religiously opposed to a stylus — I’m an artist by trade and I’ve used several types of stylus on the iPad since it came out. However, a stylus by itself is not a differentiator. It’s what you can do with it that’s a differentiator. It’s all about the software. I’m also not going to deny that, for some things, a bigger screen is not just bigger, it’s better. Hey, I’ve got a 9.7-inch iPad and Steve Jobs spent over an hour in 2010 telling us what that meant in terms of the type of apps it could run.

But Samsung never makes the case for either in their Galaxy Note commercial. They never show off a lick of innovative, compelling software in the whole damn ad. They’re too busy, once again, making fun of iPhone users. (Not iPhones, mind you. iPhone users.)

This time we’re giddily missing the Super Bowl (presumably on the west coast because it’s still light outside) by standing in line for an iPhone launch (which never happens any time near Super Bowl time), and the massive size and pen-ly charm of the Galaxy Note makes us break out into the worst Van Halen-meets-the-Simpsons-style tribute number. Ever.

They’re copying the spirit of the old Get a Mac ads without any of the substance. Shocking, really, given their history.

Samsung couldn’t have used any of those multi-million dollar minutes to show us the advantages of the Galaxy Note having such a big screen? To show us how absolutely killer a stylus makes the mobile experience? They flashed some photos, doodled on the screen, and did the equivalent of a FaceTime call. The motorcycle jump got almost as much screen time as the software.

And that’s disappointing. Google’s Galaxy Nexus commercial showed you can highlight Android hardware and software features in a compelling way. Samsung shows you can mock iPhone users, call us baristas, and convert us to the world’s biggest ass phone just by waving it at us.

The girl in the commercial sums it up best when she says, “I don’t know what to believe anymore.” As much as Samsung bashes the iPhone, they give no reason to believe in the Galaxy Note.

If you want to court iPhone users, don’t do it by making fun of us or insulting our intelligence. Do it by making us jealous of your phone… er… tablet… er… phone.

Phil Nickinson, my counterpart over at sibling site Android Central has just posted his AT&T Android Captivate review and T-Mobile Android Vibrant review, the latest, greatest US GSM competition to our own iPhone 4. They’re both Galaxy S-class devices, but one of the strengths of Android is the ability for manufacturers like Samsung and carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile (and Verizon and Sprint when their versions launch) to modify and customize the hardware and software to make their devices distinct.

Ally already posted her thoughts on the AT&T Captivate vs. iPhone 4, so if you’re trying to decide between the two, or between them and the T-Mobile Vibrant, give Phil’s a read to and then come back here and let us know what you think.

iPhone 4 with its 960×640 retina display, easy-peasy FaceTime video calling, high quality 5 megapixel, back-illuminated camera that shoots 720p 30fps video, and the silky smoothness of iOS 4 convincing you to switch from Google’s Android to Apple’s newest handset? Worried about moving over your personal data like contacts, finding apps, getting used to the differences? Wondering where to get help?

Relax. You’re in the the right place. Follow along after the break for everything you need to know (more properly, everything the TiPb iPhone Forums have taught us) about switching from Android to iPhone 4 and iOS 4.

(And yes, we’ve done webOS, Windows PhoneBlackBerry switcher guides as well).

Android to iPhone – or there and back again

Maybe you used to have an iPhone but after several months the luster wore off and Google’s relentless march of new devices — Droid, Nexus One, Incredible, Evo 4G, Droid 2, Droid x… stop us any time! — got you itching to try life on the Android side, and now you’re back? Maybe the previous lack of multitasking made you wait until now to try iPhone for the first time? It doesn’t matter. The past is the past and this is about the future — your future with iPhone 4 and iOS 4. This is about getting you from Android to 100mph on the iPhone as fast as possible.

Moving over contacts, calendars, and email

Here’s the good news: if you’re using Android chances are you’re using Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts for your personal information, and those all work really well on the iPhone. You can set them up either as an Exchange account (which uses Google Sync’s ActiveSync license) to push everything straight from the mothership to your iPhone.

Since iOS 4 can handle multiple ActiveSync accounts, that’s the way we recommend you go. Just tap the Settings icon on the Home Screen, tap Mail, Contacts, and Calendars, choose Exchange, and enter your credentials. Google even has a help page [link] if you’re not sure just what exactly to put where.

About the only things you’ll miss — and we miss them too — is a more Gmail-like mail app. iPhone Mail is a great IMAP client but Gmail does things their own way, with threads and labels and stars. You’ll get threads, but the other two just aren’t there.

If it bothers you enough, you can load up gmail.com right in the Safari web browser. Google makes the best web apps in the business and they work great in Safari (which shares the same WebKit root as Google’s own Chrome). Once you’ve logged in to Gmail, Safari will ask you to cache a few megs of mail on your iPhone — HTML5 and SQLite power! — and then you’re good to go.

On the off chance you don’t like ActiveSync you can hit the handy Gmail button instead in Mail Settings and go the IMAP route. If you don’t even use Gmail, you can setup MobileMe (Apple’s expensive push service), Exchange, or pretty much any POP3 or IMAP service you have via the Other button.

What to do about Google Voice and Google Navigation

YouTube, Google-powered Maps, and Google search are built right into the iPhone. Enjoy. Google Voice and Google Navigation… those are harder to replace.

If you’re not in the US, you probably don’t have to worry about Google Voice since it’s not international yet, and Google Navigation is just starting to spread so you may not have to worry about that either. If you are in the US and are a big Google Voice and Google Navigation user, here’s where things get sticky — Apple hasn’t allowed Google Voice into the App Store and Google hasn’t made Google Navigation for the iPhone yet.

It’s like when mom and dad fight and the kids suffer, right? There’s a couple alternatives you can check out for each, though none are ideal — and most aren’t free.

For Google Voice you can use Google’s own web app. It’s pretty good, though obviously more limited than a native app would be. There are also 3rd party Google Voice web apps like Black Swan and rival services like Line2.

For Google Navigation, you have the previously mentioned, though much more limited Google Maps built in. It lacks turn by turn and voice directions but is free and useful in a pinch. There are a variety of cheap and/or crowd-sourced navigation apps as well. The cheap ones are a mixed bag. The crowd-sourced ones make us worry that Stephen Colbert’s viewers will one day move the Empire State Building to the Cleve just for lulz (joking!), but they’re worth checking out. Motion X GPS Drive is $0.99 right now, for example [iTunes]. If you prefer to navigate with the big boys, you can also find everything from TeleNav‘s online maps in AT&T and Rogers Navigator to NAVIGON‘s on-board maps in MobileNavigator, to TomTom which owns their own maps. They’re all great — but they come at a price.

And in iOS 4, navigation, VoIP, and — yes — streaming music Pandora or Slacker-style can all multitask away blissfully in the background.

Finding other apps (and games).

Sure Apple doesn’t allow endless keyboards, task killers, and pinup girls into the App Store, but there are 200,000 apps anyway and almost certainly any big ticket ones you’ve come to rely on in the Android Market are there, ready and waiting for download. There are also tons of games, from the casual farmers to full-on 3D shooters. TiPb reviews several a week and we’ve got a whole iPhone Apps and Games Forum ready to help you out as well.

Root meet Jailbreak

Forget the words root and ROM. Remember the words Jailbreak and Cydia. Okay, iPhone 4 probably won’t be Jailbroken (root jail broken open to allow side-loading of unsigned apps — if you don’t know what that means, skip this section) on launch day but it probably will eventually, maybe even soon. If you’re a diehard tweaker and customizer, you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled to our Jailbreak coverage, and more importantly — our Jailbreak Help Forum, and Jailbreak Apps, Games, and Themes Forum.

Say farewell to fracture

Seriously, you don’t have to worry much if at all about versions and hardware compatibility any more. With very few exception, iPhone apps past, present, and future will just work on your iPhone 4. Sure the screen is bigger but it’s exactly 4 times bigger at the same physical size so existing (pre-iOS 4) apps will look the same and new (post iOS 4) apps will, frankly, blow your eyeballs out the back of your head.

Apple is all about user experience and they’re doing a lot of abstraction behind the scenes to make sure things look great in front of them. Enjoy.

Say hello to iTunes

A mixed blessing if ever there was one, iTunes runs okay on Mac, kludgy on Windows, but is the local sync client required to activate your iPhone 4 and to transfer large media and document files from your computer to your phone.

You can do a lot of things OTA (over the air), including syncing all your personal data via ActiveSync (including Google Sync) or MobileMe, download apps, and buy or rent iTunes music, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. (20MB or under over 3G, any size over Wi-Fi). You can find apps that let you access your Google Docs, DropBox, Box.net, and other online storage. You can even convert and stream content on the fly with apps like AirSharing [iTunes]. But at some point, be it to install a software update like iOS 4.1 (probably due this fall) or backup your data, you’re going to need to plug in to iTunes. So 2007, we know. If it’s any consolation, Apple should release iTunes.com at some point…

Say WTH to interruptive notifications and lack of widgets

For all the huge usability advantages iOS 4 has over Android 2.2 — and make no mistake they really are huge — notifications and widgets are sorely lacking.

You get one notification popup at a time that you have to view or close before you can resume what you were doing (or about to do) and once you close it — or another notification pops up on top of it — it’s gone forever.

Likewise, aside from the orientation lock and music controls in the fast app switcher UI, there’s not widgets. None for the lock screen, none for the home screen.

Hopefully Apple will fix these omissions in a future update. (Because we know Google’s planning on fixing the usability.)

More Android to iPhone help and information

If you haven’t already, check out our complete iOS 4 feature walkthrough. There’s an incredible amount of stuff in iOS 4 and you can save yourself some serious time cribbing off of us.

If you need help, or have a story to share, check out TiPb’s iPhone forum — we’ve got a special switching from Android to iPhone 4 thread going just for you!

And if we forgot anything or just plain got something wrong, let us know and we’ll add it or fix it.

We’ve all heard huge numbers thrown around as measures of iPhone and iPad App Store success — over 200,000 apps and 5 billion downloads being some of the most recent and most impressive. There’s a couple of other numbers that are even more interesting when it comes to iPhone and iPad development: 100, 100 million, and 1 billion.

Roughly 100 million iOS devices have been sold to data and they are all broadly software compatible. There’s some fragmentation to be sure — older devices are slower, there’s no cameras (yet) on the iPod touch and iPad, no GPS in iPod touch, iPad Wi-Fi, and the iPhone 2G. Apple mitigates this somewhat by offering services such as CoreLocation where, if no GPS is found, it gracefully degrades down to cell tower triangulation or Wi-Fi router mapping. Even the iPad with its odd-device-out 1024×768 display will frame iPhone apps or pixel double them, which is awkward but still workable, still compatible. When iPhone 4 ships, it will be precisely double the vertical and horizontal pixel count of previous generations, meaning older apps will simply look the same as they did before (using 4 pixels in the space they used to use 1).

Likewise, most iOS devices tend to get updated to the latest version of the OS, or at least fairly recent versions. While iOS 4 will drop compatibility for iPhone 2G and iPod touch G1, it will also be free for all other devices for the first time, ensuring iPod touch G2 and G3 owners are more likely to update.

Everything isn’t perfect, but for a vast majority of apps it doesn’t need to be. They just work.

The sheer size of that install base is stunning. Code an app once and deploy it to a theoretical 100 million devices — and growing — all with a drop-dead-easy to use icon on the home screen to help them get your apps?

That’s where the 100 comes in. One of the single biggest advantages Apple had going into the App Store was iTunes and the ability to process credit cards and handle transaction at an international scale. There are App Stores now in almost 100 countries (could be 100 or more now, I lost count at 96). Making an app for 100 milion devices — even if they were broadly compatible — wouldn’t be anywhere near as enticing if a developer couldn’t sell them to more than 1 or 2 countries (especially for the many, many developers who live in those unserviced countries). Again, the App Store isn’t literally everywhere, and due to local laws and ratings requirements they can’t sell games in in a couple places, or have other restrictions, but also again, for the majority of apps it’s an unmatched opportunity. When you consider Apple does all the processing and delivery heavy lifting for a 30% cut of paid apps, and 0% of free apps, allowing developers to develop and not spend time on managing that themselves, it’s easy to see why many of them jump at the chance.

1 billion dollars paid out to developers, as mentioned in the comments below, makes manifest the potential market size of those 100 million devices in about 100 countries. At day’s end — and financial year’s end — many developers will go where the money is.

There’s one last set of numbers to touch on as well. The iOS SDK frameworks. They provide an incredibly rich set of functionality developers get “for free” when making apps for the iPhone and they don’t exist (as directly portable options) on other platforms. Accelerate alone offers 2000 hardware-powered math API for games. Never mind CoreAnimation, CoreData, Game Center, the UI elements, and everything else that rounds out the kit. If portability isn’t the prime concern, they greatly enhance ease of development.

Apple isn’t wasting the chance to show that off. They just posted a video showcasing developers for developers [QuickTime link -- tip of the hat to 9to5Mac]

The flip side of that, of course, is the trade off in control made for convenience and opportunity. There are certain apps Apple won’t let into their store, and no guarantee they won’t pull an app (or whole class of them) even after they’re in the store. Having humans review apps makes app review subject to human error. Also, for every hit-it-rich app in the store there will be many, many times more that don’t break even.

For developers writing mainstream apps, nowhere near the edge-cases, it will probably never be an issue. Edge-cases, however, are often where some of the most interesting developments come from. Further, if you do use a lot of those API and you want to move to other or multiple platforms, you’re likely in for a lot of recoding, including a lot from scratch.

Palm, with parties, cross-compilers, and the chance for a nice payday, and Google with factually challenged trash-talk at I/O and a lightning fast JIT (just-in-time compiler) and Flash support, aren’t wasting the chance to show that off either.

Apple restricting third-party advertisers from collecting personal data if they are owned by another platform vendor could be a way of preventing Google’s AdMob from competing directly on the iPhone with Apple’s iAd, but it could also be a sign that Apple, cranky after leaked iPhone prototypes and iPad analytics, is determined to take back control of user data.

Steve Jobs was nothing if not heated at the D8 conference about the leaked iPhone prototype, and perhaps even more so about in-app analytics taking user data, including device and location, and using that to reveal details about the iPad long before it was announced. Imagining Apple’s subsequent reaction to the thought of now-rival Google having early access to such detailed information not only about unreleased Apple devices, but about which devices iOS users have, at what location, and their app usage patterns probably sent a chill down their collective spines.

App Cubby‘s David Barnard put together an excellent post about it earlier today:

When you use Google search and other Google products, they collect a tremendous amount of information and use that information to customize and better serve the ads that are the core of their business. Many users don’t even realize this is happening, others are comfortable with it and have some level of trust for Google’s intent in using that data.

Well, Apple doesn’t trust the benevolence of Google, developers, and other third parties involved in the iOS platform. Apple wants to control the flow of user information.

Barnard also points out Apple primarily makes their money off hardware sales, not the brokering of user information the way Google or Facebook do. He also suggests part of AdMob’s $700 million value to Google was exactly the type of data they could pull off iOS devices:

[David Barnard / App Cubby]

Steve Jobs doesn’t see platform wars (maybe that’s why they lost to Microsoft over PCs!), they just want to make the best products. Google has decided to compete with Apple. Apple took a tiny open source browser (he means KHTML/Konquerer) and made WebKit and left it open source, which is unusual for Apple. Now competitors use it too, WebKit is leading in mobile.

Nokia is still number one in smartphone, RIM number two. Apple still has Google services on iPhone and iPad. Just because they’re competing with someone doesn’t mean they have to be rude. (Wait, was that a zing at Adobe’s ads or Google’s I/O trash-talk… or both?)

Video after the break!

There’s a legitimate argument to be made for leaving the iPhone and going to Android, but Newsweek‘s Dan Lyons (aka Fake Steve Jobs) utterly, bitterly failed to make it last week in his column on switching from Apple to Google’s mobile platform.

It was so outlandish I wrote most of this up and then decided not to use it, but a combination of slow news day (US holiday) and some of the switcher and technorati commentary that’s followed made me reconsider reconsidering. So here it is. And before you start calling me an “Apple fanboy” or apologist, I’d preface it by saying we have one heck of an Android team here at SPE, led by Phil Nickinson, and each and every one of them could have nailed a switcher article with style and grace — what Newsweek ran did just as much a disservice to Android as it did the iPhone.

Okay, so Lyons feels the new version of Android 2.2, Froyo, “blows the doors” off the iPhone OS. Only Froyo hasn’t shipped to consumers yet, just like Apple’s next generation operating system, iPhone OS 4, hasn’t shipped to consumers yet. (We’ll see the final version of iPhone OS 4 at WWDC next Monday.)

Flash is one of the first things Lyons mentions. Froyo will support it, Apple has said it will decidedly not. Apple’s point is at least understandable given their usual behavior. Google’s reeks of being reactionary and tactical. Apple is a controlling company exerting control by not allowing Flash. Google is a company that has championed open web standards suddenly throwing full throated support behind a proprietary plug-in which is not open. If anything, I’d of expected Google (and even more so Palm) to take the lead against Flash and towards HTML5.

But politics makes strange bedfellows.

Lyons says Froyo beats OS 4 because it supports tethering (which he lumps in with the separate but admittedly far more interesting mobile hotspot service), and Apple and AT&T do not. He’s halfway right there. Somewhat. The iPhone has supported tethering for almost a year, since iPhone OS 3.0 shipped in June 2009. AT&T has chosen not to offer it. And guess what? AT&T could easily choose not to offer Android 2.2 tethering either and just strip it out. Or they could choose to offer it and charge for it. So could any other carrier. Case in point, mobile hotspot for the EVO 4G on Sprint will cost you. The pipes belong to the carrier, you can’t complain bitterly about Apple’s penchant for control when one of the issues you’re complaining about involves an area where users suffer due to the lack of Apple control.

I use free iPhone tethering on Rogers HSPA 7.2 all the time. It’s fantastic.

Froyo’s ability to let you buy songs over the air (OTA) and download them directly to your phone is likely awesome. It’s been awesome on the iPhone since OS 3.0 as well. Tap iTunes Store, tap the song you want, and it downloads directly. Apple thought it was important enough to give up the $0.99 price point for and it’s nice Lyons finally learns about it via Google I/O nearly a year later. Streaming songs from your music library is also great in Froyo, and something iPhone OS leaves for 3rd party apps, which previously included Simplify, and app bought by Google, likely to power their streaming. Smart move.

Why doesn’t Apple do this directly? I’d like them too as well. Now that Google has removed Simplify from the App Store, maybe they will. Maybe it will involve the iTunes.com service they’re rumored to be working on. Either way, right now it’s not there. Fair point.

Lyons lauds Google’s tone towards Apple at Google I/O. The tone where Andy Rubin likened Apple to North Korea. The tone where Vic Dundotra said Google developed Android because they “faced a draconian future where one man, one company, one carrier would be our future.” — which was utterly laughable considering Google bought (not developed) Android 2 years before Apple announced the iPhone and 3 years before Apple announced the App Store (which Google CEO Eric Schmidt was on Apple’s board of directors!). Never mind Google’s position in search and online advertising is far, far scarier than Apple’s tiny share of the smartphone market.

Google didn’t come off as mature or professional in any of those statements. They came off as frightened and duplicitous, and it was disappointing given the strength and growth of Android.

A proud, straightforward Google would have admitted that both open and closed models have their good and bad points. Apple’s control gives them a remarkable user experience but results in frustration for segment of their developer community and user base. Google’s open platform gives them amazing diversity but results in fragmentation (not legacy) that also frustrates a segment of their developer community and user base. There’s no magic model. Everything is about making choices. If that makes Apple North Korea it makes Google any of a number anarchistic, warlord-strewn territories. Hyperbole is unfortunately just another double-edged sword.

He also trots out the Q1 results of Android outselling iPhone in the US. Where the iPhone is on one carrier and Android is on almost 4 (we don’t really count that AT&T Backflip, do we?). Where the iPhone has been on the market since the previous summer and Verizon had just given the then-brand-new Droid a huge marketing push. Where users on Verizon desperate for an iPhone that still hadn’t gone CDMA, and not willing to go Storm, had not competent touch-screen rival other than Android. In markets like Canada and the UK where the Droid (Motorola Milestone) competes directly against the iPhone on the same carriers, the results haven’t been the same. That’s another difference between Apple’s “one phone” and Google’s “many phones” model — there’s no direct comparison.

Lyons finishes with a bizarre diatribe against Apple and Steve Jobs and another conflation of AT&T into his argument against the iPhone.

The reality is Apple and Google (and others) are giant corporations who keep control over what makes them money (Apple hardware and ecosystem, Google search and advertising) and use open, free offerings to compete in areas that don’t make them money. Neither are good or evil, neither are better than the other.

There’s a legitimate case to be made for someone switching from iPhone to Android — deep integration of Google services, especially in the US where Navigation and Voice are included, CDMA options in the US, a less regulated application market, form factors that include a keyboard, etc.

Lyons just doesn’t make that argument. He doesn’t even try.

[Newsweek]

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Steve Jobs keynoting WWDC 2010, White iPhone HD faceplates, more on iChat video, iPhone vs. Android, $97 iPhone 3GS, how do you push, iPhone at work, SSH tutorial, AT&T locks and etf, Chirpy, Bix, Groupon, and LinkedIn. Listen in!

Credits

Thanks to the TiPb iPhone accessory store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

The pace of mobile is increasing and with new Google Android hero handsets dropping at an almost comedic every couple of months, can Apple afford to keep releasing only one new iPhone a year?

The iPhone 2G was a revolution in 2007, entering a market of stale Treo, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry devices, and an almost non-present Nokia in the US. Then came Google’s Android, brief flares of Palm webOS and Windows Phone 7, but mostly Android. Initial devices weren’t perfect but they kept pushing and iterating, releasing new devices on new carriers with new manufactures. They commissioned their own hardware. They got specced out chassises that were previously Windows Mobile. They hit Verizon.

And they never stopped pushing. Diversity, multi-carrier, great hardware, and an ever-improving OS now means that while Apple only gets a huge spotlight rush and hero release once a year, Google is getting them every month or so. And they can use that to counter-program Apple.

The Palm Pre launched on Sprint amid the iPhone 3GS launch and was overwhelmed. The Droid, the Nexus One, the Incredible were all released when the iPhone 3GS had been on the market a while and was approaching the apex and now end of its product cycle. They hit when users, especially geek users, influential techies, were hungry for new, shiny toys.

Of course, they then face having the exhaustive pace of the next new Android, and the next new Android after that… almost instant obsoletion to the iPhone’s more predictable, and reassuring, annual cycle.

Apple will have that luster again in June with iPhone HD/iPhone 4G and iPhone OS 4, and they’ll enjoy owning the market and mindshare for the month or two that follow. But as the year wears on they’ll be victim again to Google (and maybe Microsoft and Palm if they can pull it together and time it right) having the new, shiny toys.

Apple will have iPod touch G4 in September and maybe iPhone OS 4.1, and iPad G2 and maybe iPhone OS 5 beta in March, but if we stick to pure phone goodness, that’s a lot of time for Google to counter program and up the feature and spec sheets. We saw at Google I/O, with the way Android chose to vocally, and crassly go after the iPhone that they fear WWDC and the next iPhone, but that currently only happens every June.

Does Apple need to consider releasing new iPhone hardware more than once a year?

Android 2.2 Froyo updates started going live yesterday for the unsubsidized, unlocked, once-upon-a-time sold directly by Google Nexus One, and it seems to include not only tethering but mobile hotspot (think MiFi, or mobile Wi-Fi router to share your 3G with multiple other devices), usable right now on AT&T — just about the only carrier in the world that doesn’t allow iPhone tethering.

Sure, AT&T is likely running tens of millions of iPhones and only a relative handful of Nexus Ones, but that’s not the point. Apple introduced seamless, elegant tethering in iPhone OS 3.0 in June 2009, and while it looks like US iPhone users may finally get it in iPhone OS 4 in June 2010, that’s a year after the rest of the world and now — it’s even after Android.

The iPhone is popular, we get it. AT&T’s network probably couldn’t handle that many people trying to use their “unlimited” plans on tethered devices, we have no doubt. The situations are completely different, we grant the point.

But it’s so beyond ridiculous now that it can’t — and shouldn’t — escape mention.

(We’ll also note for the record we don’t know how long this will last, as AT&T may figure out a way to block it on unlocked devices and carrier-branded devices may remove it entirely or just bolt on a surcharge).

Video after the break.

YouTube link

Google CEO Eric Schmidt schmoozed some news about the next business of Apple’s they’re about to get all up in — an Android-based tablet competitor for the iPad. As reported in the New York Times [via Gizmodo]:

Eric E. Schmidt, chief executive of Google, told friends at a recent party in Los Angeles about the new device, which would exclusively run the Android operating system. People with direct knowledge of the project — who did not want to be named because they said they were unauthorized to speak publicly about the device — said the company had been experimenting in “stealth mode” with a few publishers to explore delivery of books, magazines and other content on a tablet.

Cue gPad jokes in 3… 2… Interestingly, Apple’s public frenemy number 1 — and occasional Steve Jobs coffee date — revealed right there that it won’t be running Google’s ChromeOS as anticipated, so the cloud-future once again suffers for the local, app-rich present. Given that Apple is closing the functionality gap with iPhone OS 4 (see our complete preview), and Google is closing the usability gap with Android 2.1 and FroYo, its going to a tight race. iPad a head-start, but so did iPhone…

Either way, we can’t wait to see what Apple introduces next February so we can see what Google will compete against next September! (We kid! We love the competition!)

Literally right after I finished my 2009 Smartphone Round Robin week with Google’s Android platform, represented by the HTC Hero and Motorola Droid, Google went and brought in a ringer — the HTC-built, Android 2.1 sporting Nexus One.

Android Central‘s is still en-route but our Editor-in-Chief, Dieter Bohn has been using the Nexus One all through CES so we grabbed him — literally — and got him to very quickly put it one-on-one with the great one — the iPhone 3GS.

Does it change things from our previous hands-on-Android video, and my “power but no passion” full review? Like I said when I posted our iPhone vs. Nexus One gallery, my first impressions are that the Nexus One is top notch when it comes to Google services and hardware specs, but the iPhone is still the king of media and it’s user interface remains unequalled. Am I right? Watch the video below and tell me in the comments!

[Note: No, I didn't slam it in the video or try to make the iPhone look better -- that's not the point of the Round Robin. Ultimately the more, better devices that hit the market, the more, better iPhones Apple will have to make for us here at TiPb.]

[YouTube link]

Google’s Android was last year’s “new thing”, and while Palm’s webOS takes that place this year, Android Central brings us their second generation hardware with the likes of the HTC Hero, and the 2.0 version of its OS with the Motorola Droid. That Google enjoys massive tech-geek cachet while at the same time maturing into two such different (potentially fractured?) sets of hardware and software, while being the cloud company and yet not enjoying the most cloud-centric OS in the 2009 Smartphone Round Robin are what make it potentially the most interesting platform this year.

To help me figure it all out, Casey Chan went over the finer points for me and the Android Central Forum members provided tons of great feedback. Thanks to all the ‘droidekas!

(And just a reminder, every day you post on my Android Central thread, or any of the official Round Robin threads, is another day you’re entered to win one of six (6!) new smartphones!)

Okay, time to get Androidy with it… after the break!

Android: Take Two

First, here’s the Droid and Hero tour I got, courtesy of Casey.

[YouTube Video link]

And here are the rest of the contextual links:

• Android Central’s Phil Nickinson, Keith Newman, and Rene on the iPhone Live! podcast.
• Android Central Motorola Droid review.
• Android Central HTC Hero review.
• 2008 TiPb Smartphone Round Robin Android G1 video
• 2008 TiPb Smartphone Round Robin Android G1 review

Hardware Design

Android’s two entries in the 2009 Smartphone Round Robin couldn’t be any more different. One is made my Motorola, the other by HTC. One runs on Verizon, the other on Sprint (or also on Verizon under the name Droid Eris — more on that later). One is vanilla Android 2.0, the other is HTC’s Sense UI. One is an HD slider, the other an SD slab. One’s design harkens to the hard edges of the Millennium Falcon (if MC Hammer had repainted it), and the other the softer lines of the princess (if that irony isn’t too rich).

Droid

More specifically, the Droid is a well built slider, impossibly thin — iPhone thin — for a device with that type of keyboard. However, that type of keyboard is woefully inadequate on the Droid. It’s so flat and so lacking in separation, it really feels like little more than the stick-on it is. If having a better keyboard would have meant having a thicker Droid, I would have been fine with that. Oh, and that 5-way? Yeah, it’s a 5-way. It confused all of us. It looks like the chip on our new credit cards, feels like it should be a a touch pad, but it seems to be a 5-way. I’m still not sure though. All I know is that it shoves an already poor keyboard all the way to the even-less functional left.

Again, the irony of mocking Apple as having form over function should not be lost. Other than that — and it’s a big “that” for the hardware keyboard set — the build quality here is top notch. (Okay, maybe the camera is disappointing given its specs, but like others I hold hope for a software fix).

The screen is fantastic, however. Big and bright and 16:9, it’s very much what the next generation of smartphones should be.

Hero

The Hero is just as well built. Depending on what version you get, it can be chinned or chinless, but the basic clean curves and clear screen is the same. It isn’t the monster the Droid is — it doesn’t have the huge keyboard or screen or camera, but that’s the point. Not everyone wants a monster, and for those who want more of (I’ll say it!) an iPhone form-factor, the Hero might just be the better Android hardware.

Software Experience

Where to start? Android is now on version 1.5. Or 1.6. Or 2.0. Or maybe 2.1 in beta. And its UI is the Google Experience. Or HTC Sense UI. Or MotoBlur. Or some other stuff like Samsung or Sony are spinning. Is that a software experience or software schism? More on that later.

Droid/with Google Software

The Motorola Droid runs a Google version of Android 2.0. Compared to previous “with Google” devices, it’s good if not great, powerful if not polished. Lightyears ahead of the G1 I tried last year (where it would ask for input when none was possible), but it’s still not the iPhone US. It’s still inconsistent, and for whatever reason, even though Android 2.0 supports multi-touch, the Google apps on the Droid don’t. (And yes that makes a difference on a capacitive device).

If you’re heavily invested in Google services (like I am, and like most geeks are), you won’t find a better shipping device that supports those services. From a real, honest-to-threads-and-labels Gmail app, to free Google Maps Navigation in the US, if you’ve decided Google’s convenience is worth more than your privacy (and it’s a very convenient convenience, which is why most of us have), then deciding Google’s own platform best leverages that isn’t a hard second step.

As to the rest of the OS, it’s pretty much what we saw last year. It’s got multitasking but not as well visually represented as Palm’s webOS. It’s got far better notifications than the iPhone, even if again they may not be as well handled by the UI as webOS. It’s also got apps. Not as many as the iPhone, of course, but building quickly and given the open nature of the Android Market, while the apps may not be as many or as polished as the iPhone, they have apps Apple won’t even let in the store. (Not coincidentally Google’s own Latitude and Voice.

Hero Sense UI

Unlike the Google experience on the Droid, HTC has wrapped up the Hero in Sense UI, an evolution of the TouchFlo UI they previously lacquered on top of Windows Mobile (and will be using going forward on that platform as well).

It’s widgety and beautiful, and works much better on the Hero’s capacitive screen than its predecessor did on the Touch Pro in last year’s Round Robin. The weather animation is still something I unabashedly hope Apple somehow integrates into the iPhone OS. It’s still slightly less intuitive and consistent to me than the iPhone UI — but the eye candy alone balances the scales.

The tradeoff — and there’s always a tradeoff — is that it takes time for HTC to spin their Sense UI on top of Android updates, so while “with Google” devices might go to 2.0 sooner, HTC might only get a Sense UI version out later.

And This is Where it Gets Interesting

To recap: Google offers Android on a liberal, open-source license. Motorola makes MotoBlur for their Android devices, but not for the Droid which uses the Google experience. Actually, Verizon owns the Droid trademark and they also offer a Droid Eris, but that’s made by HTC and is otherwise called the Hero and runs Sense UI. HTC also made the G1 and myTouch which don’t run Sense UI. Oh, and the Droid off Verizon will be called the Milestone.

Apple has the iPhone.

Brand-aid

Contrast those two paragraphs. As a consumer, if you want an iPhone you get an iPhone. As a consumer, I’m not even sure if you know what an Android device is. I’ve seen Droid commercials here in Canada, but that device won’t exist in Canada. I go to my local carrier and try to buy one and get what… confused? And if HTC runs Sense UI on top of Android and Windows Mobile, do I buy an HTC device and not even notice what’s running underneath? Or do I just get a Verizon device like Droid or Eris and never know they’re Android or are the Milestone and Hero?

What I’m getting to there is branding. Apple offers a single, consistent brand. Google’s Android is sundered amid who knows how many brands and while that doesn’t hurt individual devices, could it hurt the platform as a whole? (We’ll be covering Windows Phone next week, which Micrsoft is now calling Windows Phone because it seems many people who had Windows Mobile devices had no idea what platform they actually had — does that answer the question? We’ll see.)

Frak-ture

So the Droid outside Verizon will be the Milestone. And the G1/myTouch off T-Mobile are the Magic/Dream, and on my carrier they might be stuck on Android 1.5 forever, because Google only updates “with Google” devices and HTC may only be updating Sense UI devices, and Rogers certainly doesn’t seem to care. These are devices sold in 2009.

To contrast again, even an iPhone 2G from 2007 is currently running the latest iPhone 3.1.2 software.

I’m tempted to say for an average consumer it won’t matter because they won’t even be aware of updates. They’ll buy the device they want and when and if it doesn’t update (if they even know it didn’t update) they’ll just buy the next device. But I don’t think many average consumers buy Android devices yet (possibly with the exception of the much-hyped Droid on Verizon, who had a paucity of smartphone selection previous to its release).

In general, I think more savvy, geeky users seek out Android, and seek it out specifically, and they’re exactly the type of user who will and should care.

And not just because they may not get the latest Android OS, but because the breadth of Android platforms out there, from 1.5 to beta 2.1 makes a huge target for developers, and not in the good sense of the term. With the iPhone (and iPod touch) there are 50+ million users most of whom updated to 3.x at some point when they plugged into iTunes (and we won’t get into Google still lacking an offline sync/backup/media management tool like iTunes). So the choice for developers is targeting tens of millions of almost identical Apple devices, or nearly a dozen Google phones on 4 different versions of the OS, running one of 3 different UI layers, with at least two different screen resolutions and an odd assortment of input methods (touch only, touch and keyboard, touch and keyboard and trackball/trackpad/etc.)

To put that in some form of end-user perspective, when I first got the G1 last year I went to Android Market and downloaded a Snake game and was told to “push up to start”, and it took forever for me to figure out what “up” they meant. (The screen, the keyboard, the trackball?)

When one of our writers got the Droid, she tweeted exactly the same problem.

It’s hard enough to make a truly spectacular app. It’s harder still to make it when you can’t count on consistent hardware specs or software implementations. Users may not know or notice this, but they feel the lack of great user experience it can lead to.

(Apple needs to pay attention to at least part of this as well if they intend to compete in screen resolution this year).

That Android Thing

Let’s be clear — as much as Apple runs iTunes on low-margins to promote the sale of iPods (including the iPhone), Google gives away web services to promote the attraction of our eyeballs to their advertising. They’re just as happy if those eyeballs are looking at Google services on an Apple or Microsoft or Rim or Palm or whatever platform, but if Microsoft or Apple (for example) ever locked Google out to promote their own services (like Bing or MobileMe), Google would have a problem. (Just look at how Facebook locks out Google for an example).

Enter Android. By having their own platform on the market, Google knows there’s one place from which they can never be locked out. And more than that, they can use it as a lever to promote the technologies that best serve Google services — things that make the web, and hence WebApps run faster and more reliably. That’s good for everybody, but make no mistake — Google does it because it’s good for Google first and foremost.

I state all this not because that makes Google any different from any other for-profit company — or platform in the Round Robin — but because it makes it the same, and for some reason the technorati often likes to assume Google is different. No company is. I’m not sure any company can realistically afford to be.

Which brings us back to Android. Google’s current Mobile OS is a conundrum. It’s a traditional platform OS from the company that’s usually anything but. I still half-suspect Android was acquired solely for the reason stated above — to guarantee Google couldn’t be locked out of the mobile space. Then when Palm released webOS, Google smacked their head and Chrome OS was born. That the most traditional of all smartphone companies beat the new kid, Google to the web-ification of mobile is amazing, and it raises some interesting questions and concerns about the Android platform.

Apple made the iPhone because Steve Jobs wanted an iPhone. Yeah they figured they could sell 50 million of them, but primarily Jobs is a diva who wanted to dent the universe one more time. I’m guessing RIM makes BlackBerrys because they’re just as passionate about that pushy little platform. Elevation Partners may be sinking money into Palm in a bet to get a part of the huge mobile pot of the future, but if Rubinstein hadn’t have wanted it he could have stayed retired on his giant pile of Apple-bucks and let Palm churn out the Treo 900. And Microsoft… well I don’t really get the feeling Ballmer cares about Windows Mobile any further than he thinks Microsoft needs that screen in its collection, and I think that’s part of their core problem (but we’ll get to that next week).

Google has much the same problem as Microsoft — the people at the top don’t seem to be, and really don’t need to be, as passionate about their platform, and that shows. Now I’m not saying Andy Rubin, who founded Android isn’t passionate, and I’m sure many of the Googlers are deeply passionate about Android, but at the top Android doesn’t exist because Eric or Sergey or Larry just had to have that phone. It exists, like I said, so that Google can’t get shut off from mobile eyeballs by a competitor.

And that’s what the Android thing feels like to me. Not the product Google wants themselves (that might be Chrome OS), but a strategic move they decided to make.

Conclusion

Yes, Android offers killer Google services integration. If Google is your life, Android is clearly the OS for you. If you don’t use Google, I’m not sure there’s any reason to get Android over another device. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good at everything, but unlike the other devices, it’s not killer at any of them.

It doesn’t have the UI or handle media as well as the iPhone, it’s not the communications monster BlackBerry is, it’s not full-on Linux like Nokia’s Maemo, and it doesn’t make the web manifest, nor handle multitasking or notifications as elegantly as Palm’s webOS.

If you’re on Verizon or T-Mobile or Sprint and want something iPhone-like. If you can’t stand Apple’s dictatorial control over the iPhone app ecosystem. If you want a hardware option other than the full-screen slab. If there’s some dealbreaker for you about the iPhone then Android is a good alternative.

Which is crazy when you think Google makes this OS. They’re the megacorp of the 21st century. They’re a verb. They have more money and talent and reach than almost any other company. They make Android… but I think the problem is they don’t champion it. Again, their ultimate C-level goal isn’t to make the best smartphone on the planet, they’re goal is to get the most eyeballs on the planet, and that means making great stuff for every platform.

Now it’s quite possible that Google will keep iterating and by this time next year it could be head and shoulders above everyone else. It could be the “iPhone killer”, swarming over Apple’s device with a hive of Android-powered alternatives, some of which are clearly better in many or most ways. Anything is possible when it comes to Google. (Though people used to say that about Microsoft as well, but again we’ll visit that next week).

In the end, this is a very different review than I expected to write, and I think that’s because of how much I expected from Google this year. Arguably Android has as much if not more potential than any other platform, yet now in year two it still doesn’t seem to fully realize it. It doesn’t seem as ground-breaking as it should. Just look at how far Palm has come with webOS out of almost nowhere. Google’s had longer than that with Android and far more resources than Palm. That makes no sense to me, except that it’s exactly how Google has positioned it. For now.

Next year Google might just announce free cell service for everyone in the US. Then it’s game over.

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Join Rene and special guests Phil Nickinson of Android Central and WMExperts and Keith Newman of the PreCentral.net PalmCast Round Robin Android Droid and Hero vs. iPhone and Windows Phone HD2 and Touch Pro2 vs. iPhone, more iTablet, iPhone HD, and iPhone 4.0 rumors, and all the week’s news and opinions. Listen in!

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Week 3 the 2009 Smartphone Round Robin serves me up on a princess-splattered platter for Google’s Android platform with the equally pretty HTC Hero and the red-eyed macho-mech, Motorola’s DROID.

Our ace Android Central expert, the generally non-grievous Casey Chan is helping me out in the video below the fold, and I’ve also headed over to AC’s cantina to mind-trick me some answers.

Remember, every day you post on my Android Central Forums thread, you’re entered for a chance to win the Android of your choice. (And there’s a total of 6 smartphones up for grabs — one per SPE site — so check them all out!)

And since turn-about is fair play, the aforementioned Casey has returned from the Dark Droid Side to once again wield the iPhone, and you can now be his Yodas in the TiPb Forums! (And win an iPhone 3GS!)

Now brace yourselves for the jump to lightspeed (and a week of poor Star Wars puns!) because Casey’s about to show me everything new and hopeful about Hero’s Sense UI and Droid’s Android 2.0!

[YouTube Video link]

So the oldest 2007 iPhone 2G can easily download and run (most of) iPhone OS 3.1 while the current 2009 crop of HTC Dream and Magic devices on Rogers will officially be stuck on Android 1.5? According to sibling site AndroidCentral.com:

“HTC is not currently planning any Android 1.6 upgrades for Rogers Dream or Magic. Android 1.6 was only made available for “Google”-branded devices such as the G1. It is not available for HTC-branded products such as the Dream or Magic, which use Android 1.5. We believe that Android 1.5 is a stable and reliable software platform that delivers a terrific user experience.”

Google explains this is a consequence of being not evil “open”, again via AndroidCentral.com:

When we open source our code we use standard, open Apache 2.0 licensing, which means we don’t control the code. Others can take our open source code, modify it, close it up and ship it as their own. Android is a classic example of this, as several OEMs have already taken the code and done great things with it. There are risks to this approach, however, as the software can fragment into different branches which don’t work well together (remember how Unix for workstations devolved into various flavors — Apollo, Sun, HP, etc.). This is something we are working hard to avoid with Android.

Working well together isn’t the problem. Rogers, HTC, and Google ignoring an entire country full of early adopters — the very users that help drive a platform — is the problem. How many Dream and Magic owners, likely geeks who form the loving core of Google and Android’s user base, will be happy to here they’re “stable* with 1.5 and don’t need and won’t be getting 1.6 (and who knows about 2.x?) while seeing the Motorola Droid and upcoming Hero updates, never mind Nexus One, splashed all over their interwebs.

There are pros and cons to both the integrated hardware/software/benevolent dictatorship model of Apple and the licensed hardware/software/wild west model of Google, to be sure. Buyers should beware of Apple control over the App Store and ecosystem, but they should also beware of hardware fracture from the hands-off overlords.

Sure, one day Apple will kill backwards compatibility as well, iPhone 2G first, then subsequent devices over time. If you’d bought an iPhone 3G earlier this year, however, how happy would you be if Apple and Rogers announced 2.0 was “stable” and that you don’t need and won’t be getting iPhone 2.x? 3.0? Would you be enjoying all the iPhone 3GS cut and paste and video commercials then? How happy would you were told your brand new iPhone 3GS wouldn’t be getting 4.0 next year?

Gameloft — and other developers according to Gameloft — are cutting back on development for Google’s Android platform due to the “weakness” of the Android Market. According to Reuters, Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort said:

We have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like … many others. [The Android Market] is not as neatly done as on the iPhone. Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue.”

Ouch. Harsh words. Meanwhile, with iPhone generating 13% of Gameloft’s revenue (400 times more than Android), we’ll no doubt see plenty more on the iTunes App Store.

While we’ve heard developers and pundits talk about the business advantage of the iPhone before, and while Android’s numbers may be rising and soon, in the short term the bigger houses like Gameloft might just stick with where the money is.

[Thanks to the Reptile for the tip!]

Instapaper and Tumblr developer Marco Arment riffs on the NYT‘s article on Palm webOS’ trouble wooing developers, and it’s predictably good stuff.

His major point is that with its huge install base (which topped 50 million iPhones and iPod touches months ago), it makes more financial sense to develop for Apple’s platform, rather than Google’s Android or Palm’s webOS which might have on 5% to 10% as many devices on the market.

Giving developers an app store is the easy part. The hard part is bringing us enough customers. The iPhone is so good that it built up a huge installed base without any third-party apps, but no Android or webOS devices can say that yet.

Arment points out that the iPod touch makes a huge difference as well, giving developers a similar device to work on without the need for an expensive cell phone contract. He also echoes Fake Steve’s comments on different hardware complicating development, though he thinks if Android popularity continues to grow, the platform might justify the investment one day.

Is the Android Marketplace a more open alternative for developers compared to the iPhone App Store, or does the growing diversity of hardware, software, and overlays make it just as frustrating in its own way? Okay, so Fake Steve is likely to be more pro-Apple than a Fake Eric would be, fair enough. And, yes, some high-profile developers have taken issue with Apple’s draconian incompetent App Store approval process, well taken. But as much as Fake Steve is funny, the real Dan Lyons (of Newsweek) behind him is an equal opportunity offender, happy to take the p*ss out of Apple at any opportunity, often anti-Linux, and just as often insightful when it comes to things like Old Media and, yes, competing platforms. So take this with a giant-sized fake grain of salt, but take it:

There are just a bunch of different devices that have a lot in common with each other but aren’t quite the same. Trying to turn that into a “platform” is like trying to build a porch using three hundred pieces of wood, none of which are the same size. From the [Gadget Labs] story:

A slew of problems have made managing Android apps a “nightmare,” they say, including three versions of the OS (Android 1.5, 1.6 and 2.0), custom firmware on many phones, and hardware differences between different models.

Dear friends, this is only going to get worse, not better. Think about it. Every handset maker wants its device to be different. And special. So they intentionally tweak the OS to give themselves what they think of as an “advantage,” when really it’s nothing of the sort, because all it does is prevent ISVs from writing apps for them. Even if the handset makers weren’t totally short-sighted and evil, there’s the competency issue.

No doubt Apple’s App Store can make developers tear their flesh off in frustration, and GPS/CPU/GPU/Camera/etc. issues fragment the iPhone/iPod platform as well, but at the end of the day, does 50+ million “compatible enough” iDevices that are gate-keeper’ed still offer developers a better experience than a wide range of quasi-competitive, free’er devices?

(Yes, Google is closed as well, just not as closed…)

We’ve heard whispers relating to this one for a while, but now VentureBeat (via MacRumors) is putting text-to-screen about it:

Apple, which of course makes the signature multi-touch mobile device, the iPhone, apparently asked Google not to implement it, and Google agreed, an Android team member tells us.

Apparently, Google didn’t want to risk their relationship with Apple or the iPhone. Google’s CEO is on Apple’s board, and Google has been releasing iPhone initiative after iPhone initiative these days.

Same Android team members is said to pleased at how this has turned out, given the recent legal noise around the Palm Pre, which decidedly does use multi-touch in almost identical — perhaps infringing-ly identical — manner to the iPhone. Though many behind the Palm Pre, like former iPod czar Jon Rubinstein came from Apple, their relationship is not said to still be as strong.

Check out the full article for more.

So, should Google have agreed to Apple’s request to remove multi-touch from the Android? Should Palm? We still don’t know the strength of Apple’s multi-touch patent portfolio, or portfolio’s lined up against it in defense, but if the Pre suddenly ships without the functionality shown in the CES Keynote, will it be a deal breaker for anyone?

Christina Warren from TUAW wrote on Twitter that Google recently dumped the iPhone optimized version of iGoogle and now simply redirects users to a generic mobile version instead.

Update: Here’s Christina’s story on DownloadSquad.

What in Google’s green earth could they be thinking? One of our readers, Jesse, wrote in to share this forum post from Google employee, Paul:

“Hey everyone, I have an update for you. We’ve decided to direct iPhone users to the standard mobile iGoogle page. We’ve found that people hit iGoogle from lots of different phones — we want to ensure you’ll all see the same version.

Most or all of your existing content should translate over to the standard mobile version. The only exception would be any gadgets that aren’t compatible with most mobile browsers.

We’ve got several articles in our Help Center about the mobile experience on iGoogle, which you can find in our Help Center [link].”

Lowest common denominator much?

Jesse also let us know that Jailbreak users have a workaround: spoofing their browser via the Cydia app, Useragent Faker.

So is this Google playing it fair, playing favorites for Android (which still has functioning Gmail in its iGoogle mobile according to Christina, unlike the iPhone or BlackBerry), or just doing the mobile equivalent of re-coding all sites to standardize on the original version of Netscape?

Android Central got their mechanical pincers on a fresh new T-Mobile Android G1 un-boxing today, and what’s the first thing they go and do? Measure it up against an iPhone 3G, of course.

Not that we can blame them. While Android’s rugged R2D2-esque looks might not make for an obvious point of comparison, they are currently the only two devices on the North American market with capacitive touch screens, and both are game-changers when it comes to the mobile platform space.

For good measure, Dieter throws it up against a bunch of other smartphones as well, including the Windows Mobile Wing and Shadow, Blackberry Pearl Flip, Blackberry Bold, the Palm Treo Pro, and the Instinct.

Unfortunately, there’s no OS showdown yet, as the G1 won’t work without a data plan, period. [Digg that!]

Still, lots more goodness to come over at Android Central, so keep a feed scanning unit at the ready!

Title says it all, and you know what? Good for Google. While the holier-than-geek community criticizes Apple’s admittedly adamantium grip on the iPhone App Store while raving about the “open platform” of Google’s Android, the harsh realities of internet existence — including malicious code and apps — means that no playground can be entirely free of adult supervision, lest it quickly degenerate into Lord of the Flies land. Says Computerworld (via Macrumors):

In the Android Market terms of service, Google expressly says that it might remotely remove an application from user phones. “Google may discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement … in such an instance, Google retains the right to remotely remove those applications from your device at its sole discretion,” the terms, linked to from the phone, read.

Allowing all sorts of background and music/media Apps that Apple would never allow is a great move for consumers — and for putting competitive pressure on Apple to do likewise. Making sure they have some precautions in place, however, is a responsible move on Google’s part.

Okay, phew, it’s not just us. Seems everyone is being swept up in the iPhone vs. Android hype, including the fun(nerer)-loving folks over at College Humor, who wrote in to tell us:

Yesterday, Google introduced their new Android cell phone platform, which is expected to bring big competition to the iPhone, but people are already starting to notice a few glitches with the new phone’s features. Specifically the Did-You-Mean feature.

Visual hilarity ensues, so be sure to go check it out!

Yeah, A-Day — it’s like that. No sooner did Apple announce the iPod Touch as the “funnest” ever (yet apparently didn’t tell OS X’s built in dictionary not to take issue with that obscure, yet valid usage…), then Google and T-Mobile decided to have a little, er, “fun” with it themselves:

The friendly feel of Google but funnerer, smarterer, and conecteder

No enough they’re undercutting the iPhone’s price by $20 ($179 vs. $199, though there are reports some would be buyers are getting it for up to $350!), and breaking out innovative features like sliding alerts and pattern, almost game-like unlock screen, and even advertising it in Google white.

No, they have to go and get with the Funnererer…er…

Well, with Windows Mobile 7 delayed until late 2009, which may be before Palm OS 2.0 even sees the light of day, and Blackberry still not even on the next generation OS radar, it’s nice to see someone taking it to Apple (even if they, with a CEO on the board of Apple, and services linked to the iPhone, may be more about complementing than competing at the moment).

Still, when the dust settles, and Steve takes the stage at Macworld 2009, we’ll just see who’s the Funnererer…est!