IDC released their quarterly report on worldwide smartphone market share by operating system today, and the chart looks more or less as you'd expect: Android has kept ballooning (59% market share), while iOS maintained a respectable second place (23%), while Symbian (6.8%) and BlackBerry (6.4%) continued their downward spirals. Windows Phone growth saw decent 26.9% growth since last year, but that still only amounts to 2.2% market share. All in all, 152.3 million smartphones were shipped in Q1 2012, which is 49.9% more than the same quarter in 2011.

With these trends continuing, it won't be long before BlackBerry and Symbian barely even show up on the radar and the smartphone game becomes a two-horse race - some would argue it already is. Between Apple and Google's operating systems, 80% of the world's smartphones are accounted for. I'm really curious to see if Windows Phone can manage to claw enough mindshare to become a viable third option, but it seems more likely that it will be a bit player just like RIM. It's interesting to see that even after a year of Nokia announcing its retirement Symbian it's still commanding the market share that it is. Despite the nosedive, BlackBerry hasn't managed to squeak up over Symbian market share, and at the going rate, they probably won't be able to swing it next quarter either. IDC actually had some advice for those lower on the food chain.

In order for operating system challengers to gain share, their creators and hardware partners need to secure developer loyalty. This is true because developer intentions or enthusiasm for a particular operating system is typically a leading indicator of hardware sales success.

Source: IDC

Word has it that Samsung and Apple's mediated settlement talks were not fruitful, and that their patent dispute will be ongoing. This outcome probably seems a little obvious after Apple filed to ban the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from being imported to the U.S. the day the negotiations kicked off.  Samsung nor Apple have detailed exactly how the settlement talks panned out, but Samsung's CEO returns to Korea on Friday, at which point we can expect to hear a bit more on what's going on.

Samsung and Apple's patent disputes are extensive enough that the courts had to ask them to trim down the list of complaints so that there was actually a hope that they could resolve everything.  While I'll leave it to the judge and to figure out the technical merits of either side's complaints, this case is very likely to drag out as one side demands that another side's experts be banned from testifying, or claims that evidence is being spoiled, or any number of complaints that involve anything other than comparing patents and looking at prior art.

There is a definite sense of animosity between the two tech giants, which is to be expected considering how often Apple flat-out calls Samsung a copycat (which is funny considering Steve Jobs openly admitted to stealing great ideas himself). That said, I can't see Apple and Samsung settling out of court any time soon, nevermind wrapping up the case in a timely manner. How long do you guys think this patent dispute will last? Will it be worth the hassle for either party, or is this all just an extension of Steve Jobs' blood feud with Android? Can a patent case like this actually put a serious and lasting dent into Android? Anyway, I'm certainly curious to see what new evidence is brought to light throughout the case.

Source: Korea Times

After getting regulatory approval in China, Google today wrapped up its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, signalling their entry into the hardware world. As a part of the deal closing, Motorola's CEO Sanjay Jha has stepped down to make way for Google's Dennis Woodside.

If you've ever peeked your head into our sibling site, Android Central, you might know Motorola basically bet the farm on Android. Given, HTC was the launch partner for Android over three years ago, it wasn't soon thereafter that Motorola gave up Windows Mobile and ditched their dumbphone business to focus exclusively on Android, and arguably helped launch Android into the stratosphere with Verizon's Droid line. However, Motorola gradually lost its financial footing, split the company up into infrastructure and handset businesses, and then, last August, Google announced its intention to acquire Motorola Mobility. Since then, there have been a lot of legal hoops to jump through, but now the deal is done.

So what does this all mean for Apple? Well, Google, traditionally a software and web services company, is moving aggressively into the realm of hardware, where it will compete even more directly with the iPhone and iPad. If you need further proof of that, it's worth noting that Google has also recently picked up the industrial design company that designed the Nexus One, Mike and Maaike.

Before Android launched, rumors swirled about a Google-made "gPhone", but the closest to that Google has ever been are tight partnerships with outside manufacturers to create the Nexus lineup. Now Google have sworn that the bidding process will remain as open as ever. If it doesn't, Google stands to estrange top-tier partners like Samsung, push them right into the arms of Windows Phone, and further fragment Apple's competition into nice bite-sized chunks. That might be why Google has been making noise about having multiple Nexus partners next time around.

It's hard not to be skeptical about Google's success on the device front, however. Their attempts at selling Nexus devices through Google's own online retail storefront haven't done particularly well, and the Chromebook project was an unmitigated flop. Elsewhere, Microsoft's Zune has shown just how dicey it can be for a software specialist to get into the hardware biz. There's something to be said for offering a complete end-to-end solution -- that's Apple's strategy, after all. Then again, it's also RIM's.

If Motorola continues to sink, will Google be able to resist giving them a first-party Android boost? If competition heats up, if companies like Amazon and potentially Facebook field forked versions of Android, would Google never consider going head-to-head with them using more streamlined, unified, and competitive to the iOS hardware, with code linked to the device more tightly than ever? Or will Google be more interested in juggling their manufacturer relationships and keep Samsung, HTC, LG, and other partners happy by not playing favorites?

Source: Google, Motorola, via AndroidCentral

NPD and comScore released quarterly research figures over the last few days which suggested that Android was beating out iPhone in the U.S. marketshare. However, some digging into the numbers show that might not be the case. According to the financial results directly from the major carriers, AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint (who account for 80% of all U.S. smartphone sales according to Yankee Group), iPhone should have around 50% of the pie, not 29% as NPD suggested, or 30.7% by comScore's calculations. In light of the questioning, comScore commented that among the top three carriers, iPhone growth beat Android's (13% versus 11%) but sales from regional carriers and T-Mobile closed the gap. NPD meanwhile explained that they track sales, which is separate from activations reported from carriers, and can include prepaid and refurbished phones. Plus, NPD figures Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint account for 60% together, not 80%, and "significantly below 90%".

All of that said, there's significant debate as to who's in the lead in the U.S. Internationally, IDC reported that Samsung claimed 29.1% of all smartphones last quarter compared to 24.2% from Apple. Unless IDC's numbers are skewed too, it's hard to imagine the U.S. iPhone market share being twice that of the global rate, but really, it's hard to know who to believe at this point. One thing is for sure though -- Apple is still the most profitable of all of the smartphone manufacturers, and that's a significant measure of success. The latest numbers from Asymco suggest Apple snagged 73% of the smartphone market's total profits, followed by Samsung with 26%. HTC was the only other company to show a profit, at 1%. Everyone else lost money, some by staggering amounts.

Do you see more iPhone or Android devices out in the wild? Is it a overwhelmingly one way or the other? Do you see Android taking up a significant bite of the U.S. market share as NPD and comScore are suggesting, or is it more of an even split with iPhone?

Source: TechCrunch, BusinessInsider, Asymco

Okay, it's not that big of a surprise, but Good Technology's latest data from their enterprise customers confirm that yes, iOS is killing Android in the business world. In the first quarter of the year, the iPhone 4S accounted for 37% of Good's activations, followed by the iPad 2 with 17.7%, while the new iPad is already claiming 12.1%. The iPhone 4, original iPad, and iPhone 3GS occupy other top spots before Android devices start making the list. By comparison, they scored only 26.1% smartphone penetration and 2.7% tablet presentation. These stats continue the trend initially identified by Good in January.

Of course, Good is often the go-to solution for companies wanting to roll out and manage something other than BlackBerry, which means we don't have too much context on how well the traditional enterprise leader is faring by comparison, but we've seen lots of studies detailing RIM's downward spiral, and plenty of others corroborating the growing popularity of iOS devices in the enterprise market.

Part of the reason for the Apple's success relative to Android is the uniformity of the devices. Like BlackBerry, iPhones and iPads come from one end-to-end vendor and so, while they have their own benefits and drawbacks, those benefits and drawbacks are a constant. Once you know how iOS works on ActiveSync or Good, you know how all the iPhones and iPads deployed in your enterprise will work on ActiveSync or Good. It makes everything from rollout to support easier.

With Android, Google has left a lot of the implementation details up to the individual manufacturers and carriers, and so ActiveSync and app compatibility can vary from line to line or even device to device. Having that many more targets drastically increases complexity for both deployment and support.

Apple has also been making it a point to focus on enterprise-friendly features and to tout business adoption figures in their conference calls. Obviously, it's paying off.

Has your boss issued you an iPhone? How many corporate Android handsets have you seen around the office?

Source: Network World

Kevin, Phil, Derek, Simon, Jay, and Rene talk BlackBerry 10, HTC One, Nokia Lumia 900, the new iPad, something something webOS, and Google Drive. This is Mobile Nations!

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Instagram's developers hinted their new Android app might be better than their existing iPhone app. So is it, and if so, how?

While over 15 Million iPhone users have enjoyed the social photo sharing app, Instagram, for quite some time, just today Instagram for Android hit the Google Play Store. Over 430,000 Android users had registered to be notified about the app's release, and the developers even hinted it might back a few features iPhone users were without. So does it?

First off, a few tabs look a little different between the Android and iPhone versions of Instagram, and the layout has been adopted to fit the Android screen format, but noticeably missing are the tilt shift and circle blur options. Some social features are missing as well, namely Flickr and Posterous.

There has been some reports of the Android version being slower than that of the iPhone version but, realistically that all depends on which Android device and which version of the Android OS it's being run on. For what it's worth, Instagram on Android is optimized to run best on Google's Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich builds, but it will run on anything Android 2.2 and above, though results may vary. Although there have been some compatibility problems, Instagram for Android has already been updated to address a few of them, though not the HTC One X.

Overall, the Instagram team did a great job of keeping mostly everything intact for their new found Android base and it will no doubt, become one of the top download in the Google Play Store despite the fact that Google and various other Android OEM's have been adding built-in filtering options to the Android camera application for quite some time now.

So what exactly were/are those features that would make the Android version of Instagram better than the iPhone version? No idea. The feature that makes both versions better is finally having a bigger device footprint for Instagram -- iPhone and Android users can share and like and comment on way more photos by way more mobile photographers than ever before. And that's a win for both platforms!

Nielsen has wrapped up their latest market research data, and in the three months leading up to February, 43% of U.S. smartphone buyers got an iPhone. By comparison, 48% bought an Android phone, and 5% picked up a BlackBerry. Nielsen has also concluded that smartphone penetration in the U.S. has reached 49.7%, nearly overtaking feature phones. At the same time last year, smartphone penetration was still at 36%. Woo, progress.

I would be curious to see these kinds of figures for other major international markets. I can only imagine that feature phones are still huge in India, and most Japanese "feature" phones have specs comparable to our smartphones. At least for Android handsets, cost is becoming less of a barrier in emerging markets, but I have a hard time imagining Apple offering an affordable entry-level iPhone to displace feature phone usage.

Quick show of hands - how many of you still have friends with feature phones? Have you tried convincing them to upgrade? Why are they holding out? And then, just for fun, jump into our forums and let us know what phone you had before making the switch to iPhone.

Source: Nielsen

Marc, Rene, and Seth iterate about the new iPad Retina display, Photoshop touch, Jonathan Ive, the Android UI template, Android Niceties, and the Google Play rebranding, and interrogate Sebastiaan de With. This is Iterate!

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• iPad Retina display macro photos
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If you're one of the best-of-the-best-of-the-best in mobile design for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, or Windows Phone, we'd love to get you on the show, or if you've found a drop-dead gorgeous app on any platform and really want us to talk about it, contact us and let us know.

A U.S. judge in Chicago has just ruled that information about Google's acquisition of Motorola is a key part of Apple's claims against Motorola in their ongoing patent disputes and legal battles. The ruling means that Apple will get some key information about the development of Android, and potentially find other cases of infringement there. As you might expect, Motorola isn't thrilled about this, and claims “Google’s employees and documents are not within the ‘possession, custody, or control’ of Motorola, and Motorola cannot force Google to produce documents or witnesses over Google’s objections.”

It's a little funny that Google acquired Motorola as a patent safety net, and now it's actually proving to be more of a liability. There's been some contention as to whether or not Google should be involved in Motorola lawsuits at all, since the acquisition is still in-progress. Of course, if Motorola can stand its ground against Apple in this case, it could set a strong defensive precedent for Android as a whole against future lawsuits. Details are skimpy on exactly how much access Apple will have to Google and Motorola's files; what are the odds that seeing them will provide Apple with any significant competitive advantage outside the court?

[via Bloomberg]

Apple's iPhone has always led the industry in mobile HTML5 support and a new study suggests they're even further ahead of Google and their Android operating system when it comes to HTML5 gaming in particular. Using their benchmark system called PerfMarks, spaceport.io put iOS and Android through a number of tests, with one of those tests being how well the operating systems could animate image movement. The ability to animate image movement is important to HTML5 testing as it gives a visual representation to users as to how fast or slow a game is working and ultimately, is a clear indication of performance.

According to the information, the iPhone 4S scored 252 PerfMarks and the iPad 2 scores 327, which is up from 2009 when the iPhone 3GS scored only 53. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone, by comparison, scored 147 and the Kindle Fire scored only 25. The iPad 2 beat all Android devices, even those with better specs such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 which came in with a score of 65.

“HTML5 is getting faster over time, as seen in the latest OS updates across Android and iOS. Although this is a welcome trend, there is still a long way to go,” said Spaceport.io founder Ben Savage. “We hope the spaceport.io PerfMarks report will act as a bellwether for mobile browser and operating system creators who hope to better serve the HTML5 game development community.”

Spaceport.io hasn't as of yet published the PerfMarks documentation but it is noted they will do so at the second annual HTML5 Game Developer Conference on May 21 in San Francisco. Overall, iOS and Android have shown great improvements as a whole with a 100 percent increase in HTML5 compatibility for gaming but when broken down, iOS leads the way.

Source: VentureBeat

Phil, Simon, and Alex have splashed down in Barcelona and are ready to assault Mobile World Congress 2012, Mobile Nations style, and bring you back absolutely everything Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, (and even iPhone and iPad if they can find it!). Listen in!

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For a few years every hot new hero phone that hit the market was dubbed "iPhone killer" and lavished with link-bait praise for a week or so, until users hit usability walls, and the link-baiters were on to the next, hot new "iPhone killer".

Nothing killed the iPhone, of course. It couldn't be killed. It wasn't only a smart phone, it was a great phone that was smartly conceived and executed.

Nothing makes that more clear that the fact that it's gone on to sell more in each incarnation than all incarnations before, and it's spread from a single U.S. carrier, AT&T, to become the best selling device on all 3 of the major U.S. carriers, including Verizon and Sprint. (And to be blamed for the misfortunes of the 4th largest, T-Mobile, the only major carrier without an iPhone in their lineup.)

Gimmicks like screens-as-buttons, sliding keyboards, Adobe Flash support, "openy" ecosystems, etc. didn't work. Not for the BlackBerry Storm or the Palm Pre or any individual Nexus or Droids. Competing based on feature lists and spec sheets, in any form, didn't work.

The Pepsi challenge

So now we're on to the "Pepsi challenge" phase of counter-programming. It's a classic bit, where you define the terms of the comparison to get the result you need. Pepsi is sweeter so in small amounts, like taste tests, more people will choose it. You put a sprinter in a marathon, or vice versa, and you pretty much know how it will net out.

Samsung is the obvious place to start. They're absolutely the smartest of Apple's competitors at the moment. They realized there would be a market for people who wanted an iPhone or iPad, but not from Apple, or not running iOS. So they made their products look as close to iPhones and iPads as possible, and made as many of them as possible to fit that segment. Too many, perhaps. (Motorola, who makes decidedly not-iPhones that are also not-iPhone looking, hasn't fared as well in the market.)

The latest Samsung commercial, for the Galaxy Note, puts it head-to-head in challenges against a hapless iPhone user who sadly, doesn't seem to have an app handy for any of that.

The Galaxy Note has a huge screen with a stylus, and comes packaged with software to support just the kind of map-annotating, head-cutting-off tasks requested by the host. (You can download apps and buy a stylus for the iPhone, but the average user probably won't have either immediately available.)

Microsoft's recent "Smoked by Windows Phone" series is similar.

Windows Phone has excellent Facebook integration (and damn fine camera software); iPhone has none. You can get a Facebook app but the iPhone's built-in social sharing options are limited to Twitter (and iMessage if you want to count that).

Both of these campaigns are designed to get potential Apple customers to at least consider getting something other than the iPhone. To try Pepsi instead of buying coke by default. They're not aimed at Apple Store shoppers -- you can't buy and Android or Windows Phone there -- but carrier store and big box store shoppers, who they're hoping will at least consider alternatives before walking out with an iPhone.

And that's an important battle for individual Android device makers, and Windows Phone in general to make. Especially as they increasingly battle each other for unit share.

While Android collectively is the market leader, there are so many Android devices on the market that it's hard for any individual one to stand out, or to stand out for more than a couple weeks. (The top 3 selling smartphones in the U.S. are iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS -- the latter of which is only available on AT&T)

Also, the obsolescence curve for Android devices is brutal, and that's not good for the profitability of each individual phone and the manufacturer who makes it. (Making 10 million of the exact same phone is typically a lot cheaper, per unit, than 10 thousand.)

Samsung is far better when it comes to obsolescence than Motorola has been of late, but their totally undisciplined when it comes to dilution. Instead of releasing only one or two carefully planned, carefully marketed devices, intended to sell in those tens of millions, they're putting out up to a dozen devices, at quarter-inch screen intervals, some like the Note that may not sell more than the tens of thousands.

Who does number 3 work for?

Microsoft's problem is even worse.

Carriers have to carry the iPhone. Dealing with Apple, who won't give them any control, is a huge pain in the ass, but they simply have to do it if they want sales and profitability. Sprint mortgaged the company to get it, customers demand it, Apple still can't make it fast enough. It's a given.

Carriers want to sell Android. Google lets them do almost anything with it, including integrating all their value-added features and services, and while it doesn't make as much money for them as the iPhone, it's nowhere near as expensive either, and satisfies the not-iPhone market almost completely.

Where does Windows Phone fit in? The carriers don't need to sell it because there's nowhere near iPhone level customer demand. They don't want to carry it because Microsoft won't give them anywhere near Google levels of control. So Android remains their preference.

What's the market for the number three cola company?

There's probably a hope inside Microsoft that there will be a large enough segment of not-iPhone customers who either also don't want Android, or try Android, are dissatisfied, and want a not-iPhone not-Android phone. They might also hope carriers want to hedge against Google and, rather than simply fork Android the way Amazon has done -- Verizon vOS DROID KRAZR MAXX! -- they'll come to Windows Phone.

The chances of any of that happening are slim. The Galaxy Note is interesting but ultimately a niche product; like Schrodinger's device, neither tablet nor phone, with no clear market. Windows Phone, especially the Nokia Lumia 800 and 900, are absolutely gorgeous but are caught between the customer-favorite iPhone and carrier-favorite Android with not much space left on the shelf. (Especially given Microsoft's continued, flabbergasting desire to pin their mobile brand to Windows and not just release it as Xphone 720, Halo Edition.)

A piece of the iPhone

We'll probably see more of these commercials for a while, especially when the inevitable Galaxy S III comes to market and Microsoft revs up the Windows 8 machine later this year.

But here's the thing -- none of these marketing ploys, none of these devices will matter unless and until Samsung, Microsoft, and any other would be competitor does what Apple did:

Make a great phone that's smartly conceived and executed.

When we start seeing these commercials, and it's the Lumia 1000 that Samsung is gunning for, or the Nexus Megatron that Microsoft is playing catch-up to, that's when the market will have changed.

Until then, we'll just keep seeing everyone and their phablet desperately trying to get a piece of the iPhone.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will soon be ditching their BlackBerrys in favor of iPhones and iPads. We've seen several examples recently of large enterprises, even major multinationals like Halliiburton, going all-in on iOS, and it's interesting to see the other half of BlackBerry's traditional base, government, do likewise.

According to Joseph F. Klimavicz, NOAA Chief Information Officer and Director for High Performance Computing and Communications, they will support the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 running iOS 5 and above.

Going forward employees will no longer be supplied with BlackBerrys but iPhones and iPads instead, though it's not specified when employees would the change over would begin.

Good enough used to be a mantra for both government and enterprise, and it used to mean user experience. Sure, the software wasn't the best, but it was good enough, cheap enough, and ubiquitous enough that no one would ever get fired for buying more of it. But that's begun to change, and Apple, with very little in the way of a business sales force, seems to be instigating that change.

I remember a few years back when I was working in a corporate environment that supplied BlackBerry, we weren't allowed to use our iPhones even if we purchased them ourselves. RIM had a stronghold when it came to corporate clients. Now those same companies are looking for alternatives, testing iOS and Android and more often than not choosing iPhones and iPads.

Predictability and security are still big for government and enterprise.

Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10 devices will certainly have something to say about that in the future, but with almost all of the Fortune 500 companies already testing or deploying iOS devices in one manner or another, momentum is certainly in Apple's favor right now.

When you look around the desks and conference tables at your place of business, what devices are you seeing most often?

Source: The Loop

Google has just released the too-long-in-coming Chrome for Android browser, and Phil from Android Central wasted no time loading it up on his Galaxy Nexus, and putting it up against an iPhone 4S running Safari, for a classic head-to-head, phono-e-phono, Mobile Nations browser showdown video.

Both browsers are based on WebKit, the project Apple adapted from the old Linux KHTML Konquerer browser and has been sharing back with the open source community ever since. So it's no surprise both score 100/100 on the Acid3 rendering test. Safari makes use of Apple's Nitro JavaScript engine, however, while Chrome has Google's V8 under the hood. That let Chrome edge out Safari in the SunSpider JavaScript benchmarks.

Safari and iOS in general still offer smoother, more closely-tracked multitouch scrolling, panning, and zooming. (No doubt due to iOS placing priority on interface rendering tasks, while they're left to fight as equals on Android.)

Interestingly, Chrome, like Safari, offers no support for Adobe's Flash player, or any other internet plugin.

Chrome is still in beta and only available for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich right now. No doubt the release version will be even better still.

Likewise, Apple isn't slowing down. With iOS 5.1 on the horizon, Safari will improve as well.

Heck, now that BlackBerry has their new WebKit-based Torch browser, and Microsoft has embraced modern Internet Explorer builds on Windows Phone, it's getting harder to find a bad browser out there.

Check out the video below for full out web rendering showdown.

Source: Android Central

Yahoo has announced that they're canceling some of their mobile apps in an effort to -- wait for it -- keep moving and keep innovating. Some of the apps that will be discontinued include:

• Yahoo! Meme (iPad and iPhone)
• Yahoo! Mim (iPad)
• Yahoo! Answers (Android)
• Yahoo! AppSpot (Android and iPhone)
• Yahoo! Deals (iPhone)
• Yahoo! Finance (BlackBerry)
• Yahoo! Movies (Android)
• Yahoo! News (Android)
• Yahoo! Shopping (iPhone)
• Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search (iPad and iPhone)

Yahoo has been in the mobile space for quite some time and managed to amass a good amount of apps so looking to cut some of their weight and move on isn't necessarily a bad thing. The decommissioning of these apps, as Yahoo noted, will allow them to put more effort into creating other applications, like LiveStand in the mobile space. Of course, the apps that Yahoo! cut weren't really up there in terms of usage and it's hard to imagine anyone will be sad to see any of them go.

Source: Yahoo via: Android Central

Many big-name companies are switching to the iPhone, and though BlackBerry is the biggest competition in the enterprise arena, iOS is doing a great job of cutting Android out of the picture. According to the latest data from Good Technology,  the iPhone 4S was just as popular new device among businesses as it was among consumers in the last quarter, commanding 31% of enterprise activations. The iPhone 4 has had a bit of a head start, but even then, only accounted for 17.6%, followed by the iPad 2 with 14.9% share. The top Android phone was the Samsung Galaxy S II, which only accounted for 1.7% of Good's business customers. The data spanned October 1 through to December 31, and included thousands of companies that had at least 5 activated devices.

The Good data also broke down smartphone activity by sector, which showed that 35% of all mobile activations in the last quarter were in financial services, followed by business and professional services at 16.2%. The iPhone 4S specifically managed to be fairly popular in the business and professional services market, snagging 25.7% of all corporate iPhone 4S activations. Unfortunately, Good didn't have any metrics on BlackBerry activations, but seeing as they're essentially the alternative to RIM's enterprise server software, I would wager their BlackBerry activation data would be lower than average anyway.

While Android smartphones were still pulling in more interest than iPads, it was a pretty close race, and combined with the massive popularity of iPhone activations, iOS is firmly planting itself in businesses. I'd love to see some more large-scale studies comparing iOS penetration in enterprise compared to BlackBerry, especially internationally, since RIM claims much of their popularity abroad. Data from November (PDF) suggests iPhone is leading BlackBerry in businesses, but there haven't been a lot of other studies backing up that research.

How many iPhones are you guys seeing around the office? Is it a common sight, or does BlackBerry still reign supreme? Maybe Android has started to make some inroads...?

Source: Good

Distimo released an interesting report today that examined the overall effects of different app promotions across the iPhone and iPad App Store, as well as the Android Market. One of the most striking stats from the report was that "44% of the iPhone applications that have been on sale lost revenue during the sale, and 23% saw a decline in revenue by more than 20%".

Distimo factored in how much of a price cut each app received, and put it into the above graph. As you might expect, the sharper the price cut, the greater the revenue. The graph shows that, among those that cut their price by 80%,  just as many apps lost 20% or more revenue as gained more than 100% revenue.  On the whole, putting apps on sale is still a good thing, though; the average iPhone app increased revenue by 22%, iPad apps increased by 19%, and Android app revenue went up by 29%. As you might expect, all three categories see a significant spike on the first day.

The report also examined the effects of having apps being featured. As it turns out, Android apps see a much higher boost in rank from being feature than on the iPhone or iPad. On average, an iPhone app has its rank bumped up 15 spots in the first three days of being featured, while iPad apps go up 27. Android apps? They climb 42 spots, on average. Only 11% of featured iPhone apps climbed more than 50 ranks, compared to 26% of featured Android apps.

Any app developers in the house reconsidering putting their app on sale now? I'm definitely more inclined to do my app shopping when cuts are down at the $0.99 range, but what about you guys?

Source: Distimo

While Apple CEO Tim Cook had a lot to say during the Apple Q1 2012 conference call, when asked about 4G LTE, bigger screen, and whether or not the mobile market had become a two-horse race between Android and iOS, Cook played his cards close to his chest.

Cook said he didn't think the mobile market was like Mac vs. Windows, where despite 20 quarters of consecutive growth, Apple's share remained in the single digits. In mobile, citing recent metrics reports, Cook said Apple and Google's Android remained in a tight race. Further, he wouldn't discount Microsoft either, saying that there was a horse in Redmond that always suits up and always runs, and will keep running.

We'll ignore how many other horses there are, we just want to be the lead one. 

Cook also managed to skirt question about Apple's LTE future and larger displays for iPhone, saying that with 37 million iPhones sold last quarter, customers appear happy with the current product.

Personally, we're just waiting to see what iPhone 5 is packing later this year.

Marc, Seth, and Rene iterate about the iPhone mute switch (sigh), Android interface guidelines, Windows Phone at CES 2012, and PNG compression redux, and interrogate Mike Rundle of Flyosity. Plus, we sneak a question to Joe Belfiore of Windows Phone. This is Iterate!

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• Google's Android Design site... user interface guidelines for Android 4.0
  • Don't make your apps look like iOS or Windows Phone 7 on Android
  • The Verge interview with Matias Duarte
  • Khoi Vinh on Android Design guidelines
  • Recap of the Windows Phone $100 "smoked" challenge at CES
• PNG compression and iOS apps

• Mike Rundle of Flyosity
• Joe Belfiore of Microsoft
  • Complete interview with Microsoft and Nokia at CES 2012

Hosts

• Marc Edwards (@marcedwards) of Bjango
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford) of Nickelfish
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) of TiPb.com

Feedback

• Email: podcast@iterate.tv
• Twitter: @iteratetv
• Facebook: Iterate page

If you're one of the best-of-the-best-of-the-best in mobile design for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, or Windows Phone, we'd love to get you on the show, or if you've found a drop-dead gorgeous app on any platform and really want us to talk about it, contact us and let us know.

Apple has snuck a couple of new features into their apps pages in iTunes, specifically an information popup with tabbed content remarkably similar to how Google presents Android Market details. We know that in the past Android has been accused of copying Apple, but like Notification Center this time it looks like Apple is the one caught with their fingers in the copy jar.

The iTunes pop-up windows are activated by a new information icon which will appear when hovering over an app icon. The purpose of this is to make things easier -- the information appears right in front of you now without having to click through and load a new page. Movies and TV shows are also getting in on the action, although they'll have a play button to preview a clip of the video instead.

Source: MacRumors; @sdw

Apple has apparently sent a few high-level employees to CES to scout out the competition and see how other companies present future products.

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) famously avoids the biggest event on the tech industry calendar, and given the traffic on Paradise Road this morning you can’t exactly blame them. But that doesn’t mean Apple isn’t scouting the competition in person at CES 2012.

A reporter from PaidContent says he ran into Greg Joswiak, head of iOS product marketing for Apple, who answered a few questions as to why he was there. Apple is interested in learning more about presentation techniques from competitors, including the layout, aesthetics and which products are at the forefront.

Source: Paid Content

TechCrunch is helping shed light on an iMessage bug that's causing problems for iOS users trying to send SMS messages to ex-iPhone users who have switched to another platform, such as Android.

What happens is, the iPhone attempts to send the SMS to the ex-iPhone user as an iMessage -- just like it always did before the recipient switched devices. But since Android doesn't support iMessage, the text ultimately fails.

Simple, if naive solution:

1. Don't let your friends switch away from iPhones.

Complicated, if realistic solution:

1. Tell them to go to: https://supportprofile.apple.com/MySupportProfile.do
2. Log in with their Apple ID.
3. Click on “edit products”
4. Click on the “x” to the right of the product.
5. Click “unregister”

According to a tipster in Apple's support forums, this should resolve the issue entirely. Unfortunately, this is just one of several iMessage related bugs we've been tracking lately. New service or not, Apple needs to get on top of this so users don't have to go through steps they ought not have to go through.

Source: Apple Support Communities via TechCrunch

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Chris, Ed, and Rene talk Apple value, RIM's latest results, the uptake of Android, webOS going open source, Microsoft's mobile chances, HTML5 platforms, the future of LTE, and the year ahead. This is Mobile Nations Stock Talk.

Hosts

• Chris Umiastowski
• Edward Zabitsky
• Rene Ritchie

Feedback

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Credits

Thanks to the Mobile Nations network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

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Kevin, Phil, Derek, Daniel, Georgia, and Rene take at look at the year in mobile, from BlackBerry to Android, webOS to Windows Phone, iPad to iPhone. Highs, lows, great new devices, frustrating delays, devastating losses, and a look ahead to 2012. This is Mobile Nations!

Hosts

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• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
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Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Mobile Nations network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

Two robbers on Columbia's campus apparently only fancy robbing iPhone users. If you have a BlackBerry or Droid, they'd rather take your cash instead. In three separate incidents on 114th Street the men repeatedly asked victims to fork over their iPhones. While the first victim handed them an iPhone, the second victim handed them a Droid. They apparently aren't Android fans and opted to take his cash instead. When the third victim stated she didn't have an iPhone, they refused to believe her and pushed her into a fence and searched her.

So far the suspects haven't been apprehended or identified but new security footage has been released that will hopefully help ID the two iPhone snatchers. One student apparently thinks it has to do with the high resale value of the iPhone -

"I think it speaks to the resale value of an iPhone,"

While the resale value of the iPhone may be higher than other devices, isn't it just easier to steal cash than go through the trouble of hacking these things on eBay or Craigslist?

Source: NBC New York

Fairly or unfairly, Google's Android often gets knocked for having a lagging or stuttering user interface when compared to Apple's iOS on iPhone and iPad. TiPb's previously guessed that this stemmed from very early architectural decisions made by Apple, who had a full screen, multi-touch UI -- albeit it a highly limited one -- in mind from the outset, as opposed to Google who originally had Android set up as a BlackBerry, Windows Mobile Standard, and Nokia competitor that had no need for high performance, sophisticated UI rendering.

That might turn out to be pretty much the case. In response to a Google+ post about hardware acceleration by Android engineer Dianne Hackborn, ex-Google intern Andrew Munn breaks down why Android's way of handling graphics and event processing hinders the OS from offering users a more fluid, lag-free UI.

Android UI will never be completely smooth because of the design constraints I discussed at the beginning:

• UI rendering occurs on the main thread of an app
• UI rendering has normal priority

The iPhone changed things by introducing a dedicated thread with high priority for handling UI rendering, redirecting all power (CPU and GPU) to handling UI element rendering in realtime based on touch input. The result? Smooth-as-butter UI elements, transitions and animations as soon as you touch the screen -- even on older hardware when paired with the latest iOS 5 software. The drawback: everything else, from app downloads to content rendering will pause so the UI can keep that high frame rate, high quality redraw pace.

Munn does disclose that he was only an intern with Google's Android team and never actually got his hands on the raw Android source code, so this could be taken as supposition.

Indeed, our own resident Mobile Nations Android guru, Jerry Hildenbrand from Android Central says there might be a bit more to it:

The way it stands now, as long as you have free resources to run multiple UI threads [in Android] the UI is amazingly smooth -- easily as smooth as the iPhone or WP7 phones. Problem is that nobody sets resource management up in a way to keep them free. A simple customization to the linux lowmemkiller kernel parameter fixes it, at the expense of huge memory hogs like Facebook or HTC applications. One day, when we have Octocore 12NM Cpu's, DDR3 RAM, and huge batteries this way will prove better. For now, you have to hack at it.

So Android can be set up to prioritize UI, if that's what's wanted, but it's not automatic like iOS. That might annoy user experience snobs, like our friends on the Iterate podcast but it might be a fine tradeoff for those with other priorities, like the big screens, different skins, and high customizability that Android's design does allow.

Hit the source for a full technical breakdown.

Source: Dianne Hackborn, Andrew Munn

Rather than just throwing up a quick "#BREAKSCLUSIVE: Cluzee brings Siri to Android!" post, Android Central's Phil Nickinson actually took the time to test out the new virtual assistant, and while it shows potential, it doesn't yet show anywhere near Siri's polish on the iPhone 4S.

• It's not quick to launch
• It's crash prone
• It's still struggling to parse voice
• It's not quick to respond

Apple's had more than their share of downtime even in Siri's current, carefully caveated "beta" state, but inarguably they've gotten the basics right.

The one nice things about Cluzee, however, is that rather than simply being dismissive in monotone corporate-speak the way Google and Microsoft officials have been, they're recognizing the future of this technology and making a play for it. Maybe they'll nail it in a future update, maybe not, but they're trying. Let's see if Jellybean/Klondike Bar and Tango/Apollo follow suit.

Source: Android Central

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Kevin, Phil, Derek, Dan, and Rene discuss the future of phone fashion, how to pick a tablet for the holidays, and what happens when all phones are smart. Plus, our holiday gift guide! This is Mobile Nations!

Hosts

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• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
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Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Mobile Nations network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

In a new survey conducted by ChangeWave, consumers polled over which tablet they'll be purchasing this holiday season showed heavy demand for the Apple iPad over competing Android tablets and the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Apple continues to show enormous strength in the tablet market, where it’s enjoying the best quarter in its history, according to the survey. But while two-out-of-every-three future buyers plan on purchasing an Apple iPad (65%), for the first time since the launch of the original model, there is a double-digit contender for the number two spot. Better than one-in-five planned purchasers (22%) say they’ll buy a Kindle Fire.

Interestingly, it looks like the Kindle Fire may be eating away at Android tablet demand even though Android tablets have been on the market for some time now, which could be an added boon for Apple.

In addition, 74 percent of iPad owners are "Very Satisfied" compared to 49 percent for all other tablet makers combined. Looking at the market overall, demand for tablets in general has seen a large increase over the past few months, jumping from 6 percent of respondents to 14 percent.

With the majority of demand siding with Apple's iPad, paired with general tablet interest more than doubling in the past 90 days, it's easy to guess that Apple shouldn't have too much difficulty holding a strong position in the market through 2012.

Source: ChangeWave

Alex Dobie over at Android Central has put together a complete review of the Galaxy Nexus, Google's third superphone and the second by Samsung. While the internet often jokes about "another day, another baddest Android phone on the planet", the Galaxy Nexus seems intent on taking that crown and holding it for more than just a few weeks this time. What does that mean for Apple and the iPhone 4S?

That's an interesting question. The two devices are in some ways a study in contrasts. iPhone 4S retains a 3.5-inch 960x640 Retina display while the Galaxy Nexus is a huge 4.3-inches, 1280x720 PenTile monster. iPhone 4S has one of the best cameras to ever grace a mobile device while Galaxy Nexus' shooter is decidedly un-great. iPhone 4S has Siri, the intelligent voice-control assistant, and Galaxy Nexus has Face unlock and Android Beam. iPhone nailed user experience out the gate and has been slowly adding functionality over the years while Google has jam-packd Android with features but had a harder time nailing usability and consistency. But these are both mature, stable, enjoyable devices now with large enough App Stores and Markets to fit almost anyone's needs.

Galaxy Nexus doesn't seem quite the leap forward the Nexus One was, but certainly a far greater leap than the Nexus S delivered. Mobile Nations will put it head-to-head against the iPhone 4S soon enough, but for now check out Alex's review and let us know what you think -- tempted much?

Source: Android Central

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Phil, Adam, Derek, Jay, and Rene talk Amazon Kindle Fire pros and cons, Porsche's BlackBerry and phones as fashion, webOS indecisions, and Google Music vs. iTunes Match vs. Amazon Cloud vs. Zune Pass and more! This is Mobile Nations!

Agenda

• Amazon Kindle Fire
• Google Music
• Porsche Design P'9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry Video Unboxing!
• HP still not sure what to do with webOS, will take three-to-four weeks to decide
• iTunes Match

Hosts

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don't just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
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• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Mobile Nations network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

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Phil Nickinson, Rene Ritchie, and special guest Michael DeGusta talk about fragmentation, legacy, forks, and flexibility and how they challenge developers, designers, but most importantly -- consumers. This is a Mobile Nations Special Edition!

Agenda

• Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
• Editorial: Fun with ‘fragmentation’ charts (or, why you shouldn’t be distracted by shiny objects)
• Android 'fragmentation' -- why it really matters to you and me
• Forked up
• Everything is a grid

Hosts

• Phil Nickinson of Android Central
• Rene Ritchie of TiPb
• Michael DeGusta of The Understatement

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don't just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
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• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Credits

Thanks to the Mobile Nations network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

Designing for television UI, can hardware influence the look of software, everything is a grid, that Gmail app, how to handle PNG files in Xcode, and Jeff Broderick talks to Marc, Rene, and Seth about freelancing. This is Iterate!

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• Mobile Nations rebrand
• Google television 2.0, Apple Television rumors and designing for 10 foot applications
• Motorola Xoom 2, Droid RAZR, and can exterior industrial design influence the look of apps?
• Everything is a grid: How scaling to different sizes works, numerically

• Gmail app for iOS and thinly native web apps

• Jeff Broderick of Jeff Broderick UI/Visual Design

• What Xcode does to PNG images

Hosts

• Marc Edwards (@marcedwards) of Bjango
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford) of Nickelfish
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) of TiPb.com

Feedback

• Email: podcast@iterate.tv
• Twitter: @iteratetv
• Facebook: Iterate page

If you're one of the best-of-the-best-of-the-best in mobile design for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, or Windows Phone, we'd love to get you on the show, or if you've found a drop-dead gorgeous app on any platform and really want us to talk about it, contact us and let us know.

Former Apple board member and current Google Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, has denied that Android is a "stolen product", charges levied by the late Steve Jobs in his biography.

"I've decided not to comment on what's been written on a book after his death. Steve is a fantastic human being and someone who I miss very dearly. As a general comment, I think most people would agree that Google is a great innovator and I would also point out that the Android effort started before the iPhone effort," Schmidt said.

Apple announced the original iPhone in January 2007, saying it had taken 2.5 years of work. That places iPhone development (or iPad/iPhone development as it started off as Safari Pad) somewhere around July 2004. Schmidt joined Apple's board in late August, 2006.

Android was founded in 2003 by Andy Rubin, formerly of Danger (who made Sidekick, which was subsequently bought by Microsoft, and abandoned as the Kin) Google purchased Android in 2005 and showed it off for the first time in November, 2007.

The huge however in all this -- and something everyone but Eric Schmidt and Google seems to remember, and point out whenever they fail to remember it -- Android was originally designed to look like and compete with BlackBerry and Windows Mobile Standard. It was a front-facing QWERTY device with none of the full screen, multitouch, app-centric trappings... until iPhone came around.

Just like Apple and iPhone built on what came before with Palm and Treo, Google and Android built on what Apple brought to market. Google was smart enough to buy Android in 2005 and skate to where that mobile puck was absolutely going to be by 2010.

Whether Schmidt -- who reportedly recused himself from Apple board discussions about the iPhone and was deliberately kept in the dark about the iPad -- engaged in questionable ethics to get that positioning, that fast, and whether or not Google and their ODM partners violated any Apple intellectual property to implement it is a question for the courts and the bank accounts to decide.

Jobs was obvious livid at his perceived betrayal by Google, no doubt informed by his relationship with Microsoft over GUI interfaces on computers in the 1990s, and his desire to go "thermonuclear" highlights those feelings. While Schmidt and Google aren't (yet) involved in direct litigation with Apple, their ODM partners are, so he's presenting the facts as best suits their, and perhaps one days his, case. Apple is doing likewise.

But it remains that, absent iPhone, all our Droid and Galaxy and Nexus loving friends would be typing -- not tapping -- their their little thumbs off on tiny tictac keyboards to this day. Much like, without Google, all us iOS users would be searching Alta Vista and complaining about it over Yahoo! mail...

Source: Reuters

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Georgia and Ashley Esqueda talk Android Xoom 2, geek dating dos and don'ts, how to rock (and not rock) your BlackBerry, advice for celebrity sexters, iHelicopters and Whale Trail for iPhone and iPad, and the next creepy step towards robot apocalypse. This is Girls Gone Gadgets! [NSFW-L]

Spotlight

• Motorola Xoom II

Girl eyes for the gadget guys

• Smartphone dating dos and don'ts

We've got mail!

• "What are some killer tips for how to wear your BlackBerry? Hip holster hot or not? Playbook on a gold chain? Come on girls, we guys need all the help we can get!" - Kevin from Winnipeg

Techs and Apps

• Whale Trail - App Store link
• iHelicopter - Amazon link

Grab bag

• Scarlett Johansson on Those Nude Photos She Sent to Ryan Reynolds: “I Know My Best Angles”
• Makers of infamous BigDog robot unveil human version - PETMAN (w/ video)

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don't just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Hosts

• Georgia (@GeorgiaTiPb) of ZENandTECH
• Ashley Esqueda (@ashleyesqueda) of Techfoolery

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

Phil Nickinson over at Android Central got his hands on some pre-release info about Barnes and Noble's next great iPad competitor, the Nook Tablet.

Let's start with the obvious: Even in a photocopied black-and-white image, it looks like the Nook Color, no? And it retains many of the same features. Same retangular design, same rounded corners, same hook in the lower left. The display is unchanged as well -- a 7-inch VividView IPS display at 1024x600 resolution and 169 pixels per inch. But inside. Man, this thing's been beefed up.

He's talking 1.2GHz TI OMAP, 16GB of storage, 4hrs. of video playback, 802.11 b/g/n, Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, and while there's no mention of Android, much like the soon-to-be-released -- and no doubt aimed-squarely-at -- Amazon Kindle Fire doesn't do much to point out the little robot behind the curtains either. And while they don't have Amazon's online muscle, BN does have retail stores to show off their wares.

Hits November 16 for $249. Anyone getting that instead of a Kindle Fire? Instead of an iPad? No, seriously?

Source: Android Central

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Marc, Seth, and Rene iterate through Adobe Un-blur and CSS Shaders, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, TAT's Cascade, interrogate webOS developer Zhephree with the help of PreCentral's Derek, and answer questions on backups. This is Iterate!

• Photoshop un-blur demo
• Adobe CSS shaders
• Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• TAT's Cascade frameworks for BBX
• Official Usability, User Experience & User Interface Guidelines From Companies

• Roboto vs. Helvetica

• Geoff Gauchet of Zhephree

Hosts

• Marc Edwards (@marcedwards) of Bjango
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford) of Nickelfish
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) of TiPb.com
• Derek Kessler (@dkdsgn) of PreCentral.net

Feedback

• Email: podcast@iterate.tv
• Twitter: @iteratetv
• Facebook: Iterate page

If you're one of the best-of-the-best-of-the-best in mobile design for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, or Windows Phone, we'd love to get you on the show, or if you've found a drop-dead gorgeous app on any platform and really want us to talk about it, contact us and let us know.

Michael Degusta from the understatement did a tremendous job putting together a breakdown on iPhone vs. Android phone device update and support history. [Click/tap on the thumbnail above to go to his site and see it in full.]

Just as LTE-support, user-changeable batteries, different form factors, etc. are legitimate points of consideration when it comes to choosing beteen iPhone 4S and the various Android phones, so is vendor support and their history of OS updates. Not just for consumers, but for developers as well.

Even if you upgrade your phone every year, it will influence your ability to repurpose an old device, hand it down, or sell it.

Check out Degusta's full chart and highly detailed post via the link below.

Source: the understatement

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Rene, Georgia, and Seth talk using iPhones at work, what apps make the home screen, the Siri ad, iCloud and battery life issues, camera improvements, celebrating Steve Jobs, and Hal 9000. This is iPhone Live!

Meta

• iPad Live 79: 4 geeks and a beard
• Iterate 9: Zhephree
• ZENandTECH 20: Communication
• TiPb Asks: What apps are on your main iPhone 4S home screen?
• Seth: How I use my iPhone as CIO of a web and app development company
• Ally: How I use my iPhone to run a small iOS device repair, development and consulting business

iOS 5, iPhone 4S, and iCloud

• Apple airs first iPhone 4S commercial, focuses on Siri
• How to fix battery life problems with iOS 5 or iPhone 4S
• Poll: How’s iCloud working for you?
• How much has the iPhone camera improved over the years?
• Sprint working to fix slow iPhone 4S data speeds?
• T-Mobile US says they’re waiting on Apple, AWS-capable iPhone

News

• Apple posts Celebrating Steve video from October 19 Event.
• 60 Minutes: Steve Jobs [Videos]
• Aaron Sorkin being courted for Steve Jobs biography, the movie?
• iCloud data center to be powered by the sun?

The competition

• 2009 iPhone 3GS gets iOS 5, 2010 Nexus One doesn’t get Android 4.0
• Can Nokia + Microsoft’s new Lumia give iPhone a run for its money?

Accessories

• Nest learning thermostat helps iPhone users save energy
• IRIS 9000 lets you use Siri from across the room, HAL 9000 style

Hosts

Credits

Our music comes from the following sources:

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

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Kevin, Phil, Derek, Dan, and Rene talk Windows Phone from Mango to Tango (and Nokia!), BlackBerry DevCon and BBX superphones, Android's Ice Cream Sandwich and Galaxy Nexus, webOS and the road ahead, and iPhone 4S and Siri. This is Mobile Nations!

Agenda

• Happy 1st Birthday Windows Phone!
• CrackBerry at BlackBerry DevCon 2011 -Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• http://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus
• HP leaning towards un-spinning-off PSG
• HP using TouchPad to test Windows 8, meeting with webOS buyers? [rumor]
• Apple iPhone 4S and Siri Review
• iOS 5 Review

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don't just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Hosts

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

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Georgia, Seth, and Rene are joined by Jim Dalrymple of The Loop to talk Steve Jobs biography, sneak in some iPhone 4S, and dig through iOS 5, battery life, PlayBook 2.0, Ice Cream Sammich tablets, and more. This is iPad Live!

Steve Jobs

• Steve Jobs biography now on sale
• ‘My boss is calling’
• Steve Jobs considered Android “grand theft” of iPhone ideas

iPhone 4S

• The Loop's iPhone 4S review
• The Loop's iPhone 4S review redux
• TiPb's iPhone 4S review

iOS 5

• iOS 5 Newsstand’s impact is significant
• How to fix battery life problems with iOS 5 or iPhone 4S
• Apple announces iOS 5 Tech Talk World Tour 2011

Music

• Hanging out with BAMM.tv

The competition

• Sweet Jesus, RIM announced another operating system
• Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Galaxy Nexus, RAZR, PlayBook 2.0 come gunning for iPhone and iPad

Apps

• Apps should seem almost magical
• Top 5 iOS 5 apps for iPhone and iPad

Contest

• We're giving stuff away!

Hosts

• Georgia (@GeorgiaTiPb)
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford)
• Jim Dalrymple (@jdalrymple of The Loop

Credits

Thanks to the TiPb iPad Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Music Hear me Roar by iPad Live theme song contest winner, DieselJesus!

It is 46mm square and powered by Android. It features a GPS system, heart rate monitor and wait for it.... Bluetooth so you can use it with wireless headphones; of course it is an MP3 player too. It can also pair with your phone and you can then read text messages and other alerts as well as answer calls using the 1.6-inch touchscreen.

So, a lot of what TiPb has been asking for in an iPod nano watch, only delivered by Moto for Android. And yes, it stings.

The MOTOACTV will be available in early November and comes in two flavors, an 8GB version for $249 and a 16GB version at $299. Apple could do so much more with that iPod nano, what a shame!

Source: Android Central

Apple had their big Let's talk iPhone event a couple of weeks ago and have now released [iOS 5](http://www.imore.com/iOS 5) and iCloud, and launched the iPhone 4S -- now it's RIM's and Google's turn.

Kevin and Adam from CrackBerry.com are live at BlackBerry Dev Con 2011, hoping to get their keyboard-crunching hands on a next generation BBX (QNX) based superphone and Playbook OS 2.0.

• Full BlackBerry Dev Con 2011 coverage

Phil and the gang over at Android Central are waiting for the big Ice Cream Sandwich and Galaxy Nexus (Prime) reveal from Google and Samsung tonight.

• Full Ice Cream Sandwich and Galaxy Nexus coverage

Keep an eye on both, then run -- don't walk! -- back here and tell us how you think they compete with iOS 5, iCloud, and iPhone 4S. Did they raise the stakes?

Switching to an iPhone 4S from BlackBerry, webOS or Android phone and curious how to transfer your data over? We've already told you how to transfer data from an existing iPhone to the 4S, but crossing platforms can seem like a bigger headache. It doesn't have to be. There's lots of services available to help you transfer data from one device to another. Keep reading for some simple suggestions that can make the process of going from BlackBerry or Android to iPhone and iOS 5 just a little easier for you.

There are two main ways to move all your data over to iPhone: desktop sync via iTunes and cloud sync via Google, Yahoo!, Exchange, etc.

iTunes

If you want to move your music, TV shows, movies, photos, and other media over to your new iPhone and you already use iTunes on Mac or Windows PC then it's pretty easy.

1. Just plug the dock cable into your iPhone and into your PC and your iPhone will show up in iTunes.
2. Go through the tabs and choose what information, media, and photos you want to sync.
3. Press sync

You can sync multiple iOS devices (if you already have an iPad or iPod touch) with one iTunes library or set up multiple iTunes libraries to keep things extra neat and tidy.

Google Sync

Here is a way to use Gmail or Google Sync to transfer your data. If you're already using a Gmail or Google Account to sync your mail, contacts, and calendars, this process is dead simple. Just make sure you've done a sync on your current BlackBerry, webOS or Android device.

1. On your new iPhone tap Settings and go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

2. You'll need to add your new account to your iPhone. Simply tap the new account and then Gmail option.
3. If you want full push, you can also set Gmail up as Exchange as well. Visit Google's Exchange page for instructions on setting up this way.
4. After your account is verified, you can simply choose to sync what items you would like to sync by turning those options On.

5. If a message pops up asking what you'd like to do with the data, choose to replace your iPhone data or merge data. Whichever is appropriate to your situation.

After you've done this you can continue using Google Sync if you'd like or disable it and use iCloud going forward. Just delete the Gmail account or disable it. If asked what to do with the data on your iPhone, just choose to keep it on your device. Then sign in with iCloud and it will now sync everything up and everything new from here on out.

Note: One of our readers has pointed out that Google may have issues syncing your contacts unless they are in the "My Contacts" category in Google. He had some contacts listed in other groups and they wouldn't come down. So make sure all your contacts are filed under the general "My Contacts" group if you're having issues with your iPhone syncing into your Contacts app from Google. Thanks for the tip, Will!

Yahoo! Sync

To perform a sync with Yahoo!, you are essentially going to repeat the same steps you would for Google sync (see above), except you'll choose Yahoo when you choose your new account type. All the options should be identical when it comes to syncing contacts, calendars, and email accounts. And again, when you're done you can choose to continue using Yahoo! Sync or use iCloud.

Exchange and Hotmail

If you're using Exchange at work, and/or Windows Live Hotmail at home, again the instructions are the same as above just choose Exchange ActiveSync as your account type, or hit the new iOS 5 Hotmail button and you're set. (If you have problems with a work Exchange account, check with your IT department for the proper settings)

Transferring contacts and calendars from your computer with iTunes

If you don't use any Google, Yahoo!, Exchange or any online service and you're just looking to transfer your contacts to your iPhone, you can do that too. Whether you have Windows or Mac, you can transfer contacts from your current smartphone to your iPhone pretty easily.

1. Plug your old device into the computer and sync them with either Outlook, Exchange, or Mac Address book. This process is pretty easy but varies from device to device, so you may need to refer to your specific device instructions in order to do this. If you still have an issue doing this, head on over to the TiPb Forums for some expert switcher advice and help.
2. Once your contacts are already on your computer, you can plug your new iPhone into your computer.
3. Open iTunes and click the Info tab under your iPhone sync settings.
4. You will see a Contacts option. Select that and choose what contacts you would like to be synced to your phone.

5. Click sync and wait for iTunes to do its thing. When complete, your contacts should now be on your new iPhone.

Note: You may have noticed iTunes has native options to configure Yahoo! or Gmail sync. You are more than welcome to use these options as well. They are just as easy. You can also choose to sync calendars via iTunes as well. Use whatever process is going to be more convenient for you on an ongoing basis.

Transferring photos from your old device to your new iPhone [PC users]

1. Simply sync or transfer the photos from your old device into your photos on your Windows PC. Whether you choose to do this with your actual device, or from removable storage like an SD card is your choice.
2. Plug your new iPhone into the computer and open iTunes and navigate to the Photos tab.
3. Navigate your way to where you save your photos to your PC when choosing what photos to sync and make sure to choose the pictures you'd like on your phone.
4. Click sync and wait for iTunes to finish. Your photos should now show up in the Photos app on your iPhone.

Transferring photos from your old device to your new iPhone [Mac users]

1. Plug your old device into your Mac and open iPhoto. (If iPhoto doesn't recognize your Android, webOS, or Blackberry phone, simply transfer the pictures from the removable storage in your device, if you have that option.)
2. Your device should show up in the left navigation pane of iPhoto.
3. Name your album and import the photos. Alternately, you could select just the photos you'd like on your new device if you want.

4. Open iTunes and go to the Photos tab. Select the albums or events you'd like to sync to your new iPhone.

5. Click sync and wait for iTunes. After the sync is complete, you should see your new Photos in your Photo app on your iPhone.

Next steps

The iPhone is a pretty easy device to transfer data to. Once you've gotten all your data from your other device into a cloud service or on your computer, it should be easy as pie. If you guys have any issues doing any of this, feel free to check out the TiPb Forums for answers to many questions.

For more on using your new iPhone 4S check out our iPhone Starters Guide, and then dive into our iPhone 4S Forums for help and community!

Daily Tips range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

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Phil, Kevin, Derek, and Rene discuss Apple's iPhone 4S event, the Nexus Prime, BlackBerry BBX and superphones, the Amazon Kindle Fire, and Amazon webOS rumors, and the hierarchy of tablet needs. This is MobileNations!

Agenda

• Let's Talk iPhone event coverage
• Did Samsung just tease us all with a glimpse of the Nexus Prime?
• Exclusive: Research In Motion set to announce BlackBerry X (BBX) Platform at Developer Conference this month?!!
• HP looking to sell webOS, Amazon looking to buy?
• Amazon Kindle Fire

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Hosts

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

There are hundreds of thousands of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps for just about everything -- so how come the one you need, the one you know just has to be there, is so hard to find? Enter TiPb's new weekly feature where staff and readers alike sort through the App Store and help you find just the right App for That. This week, Jo asks:

I'm searching for a cross-platform Instant Messaging app that can employ a passcode. I need to be able to communicate with a BlackBerry user. And, I'd like to be able to passcode lock just that IM app, without passcode protecting my full phone. Any ideas?

To see what we found for Jo, follow along after the break!

KakaoTalk Messenger [Free - App Store link] is an SMS alternative for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. One of it's distinguishing features from similar apps is that it allows you to set a passcode on the app that must be entered every time you open KakaoTalk.

Some other features include group messaging, multimedia sharing, English, Spanish, Japanese and Korean support, and custom backgrounds.

As of now, the BlackBerry version for KakaoTalk is under beta, but it's a public beta, so anyone can download it. Just keep in mind that there are probably some kinks that are still being worked out.

To learn more about KakaoTalk and to download for Android and BlackBerry, head on over to Kakao's website.

Anyone else have any App for That suggestions for Jo? Let him -- and all of us -- know.

Having trouble finding what you need in the app store? Head on over to our App and Game Feature Forum and let us know what you're looking for. The TiPb community will do our best to find you just the right App for That!

In a company blog post earlier today, Cole Brodman, Chief Marketing Officer for T-Mobile USA, told customers that they were interested in offering a "no-compromise iPhone experience" on their network, but offered little details on the negotiations between the carrier and Apple.

We’ve heard from many customers who love their T-Mobile service, but are disappointed that we don’t carry the iPhone. To these customers, first, thank you for your business. Please know that we think the iPhone is a great device and Apple knows that we’d like to add it to our line-up. Today, there are over a million T-Mobile customers using unlocked iPhones on our network. We are interested in offering all of our customers a no-compromise iPhone experience on our network.

One interesting takeaway is the current amount T-Mobile customers using an unlocked iPhone on the service. Although T-Mobile has never offered the iPhone to its customers, over a million users have been able to unlock the iPhone to run on the network.

Funny, though, that Brodman went into how T-Mobile offers a plethora of Android devices to cull would-be iPhone users until they're officially under the Apple umbrella. Given recent surveys suggesting roughly 31 percent of current Android device owners are planning on jumping ship to the iPhone as their next purchase, this doesn't bode well for T-Mobile who currently has the lowest number of US customers (around 32 million).

It will be interesting to see how the AT&T/T-Mobile merger plays out and if that will have any impact on T-Mobile finally offering the iPhone to its customers.

Source: T-Mobile via AndroidCentral

Amazon is sending out invites for a press conference on Wednesday September 28 in New York. The word on the street is that Amazon will finally make one of the worst kept tech secrets official and announce its iPad competitor. The invite gives nothing away; it’s just a text based invite with no clues at all.

Rumors have always pointed to Amazon launching a tablet around the October timeframe so this announcement would fit in nicely with that. The tablet in case you haven’t heard yet will be a 7-inch full color affair, built on a heavily customized version of Android and should be available for as little as $250.

One thing is now for sure, we will not have to wait much longer to see exactly how Amazon plans on taking on Apple and the iPad in particular. The next few weeks should be some of the most interesting of the year!

[This is my next]

A new UBS survey suggests Apple currently holds the top spot in smartphone retention rates by a long shot, holding a strong 89% rating over the nearest hardware competitor HTC at just 39%. Apple also had no trouble beating out the Android platform in general, although being a platform gave Google an added "stickiness" of around 60% retention among consumers.

Despite Android holding a higher rate than most other hardware manufacturers in this space, roughly 31 percent of current Android device owners are planning on jumping ship to the iPhone as their next purchase.

UBS also noted that the app catalog for platforms has had limited importance in the determining factors involved when consumers choose their next smartphone. That really says something about the iPhone 4 specifically, of which the hardware is over a year old yet still continues to beat out the newest, cutting edge smarthphone offerings.

[AppleInsider]

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Phil, Kevin, and Rene beta test a new video rig, survive technical problems, and talk RIM results, BlackBerry striking back, next generation Android phones, Windows 8 tablets, and a tale of two iPhones. This is Mobile Nations!

Agenda

• Research In Motion Reports Second Quarter Fiscal 2012 Results
• Thoughts from RIM's Q2 Financial Results Conference Call
• Samsung Galaxy S II Sprint Epic 4G Touch now available online from Sprint
• Motorola Droid Bionic review
• Windows 8 Developer Preview now available
• Two new iPhones to be announced this month, iPhone 5 may be in short supply

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don't just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

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Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

The especially awesome Phil Nickinson from Android Central went hands on with the Android powered Samsung Vitality on Cricket, and I have to say I liked what he saw quite a bit -- namely:

As you'll see in the video above, Muve is an easy-to-use music service. But what really makes it shine is that Cricket's made the billing process as simple as can be. Actually, there is no billing. No per-song fee. You pay $65 a month for unlimited voice calls. And unlimited data. And unlimited Muve Music. And for our money, it doesn't get much better than that.

Now TiPb's heard going back to WWDC 2011 that Apple has an iPhone nano (or budget iPhone) type device pretty much done and ready to go, and TiPb's since heard that it may not be getting the traditional plans on traditional carriers either (or at least that we might be surprised where it ends up.)

A stripped down, low cost iPhone is one thing when it still requires $100+ on monthly voice and data charges, but a low cost iPhone with a low cost plan like $65 a month to go with it? Super. Sweet.

Apple doesn't compete in the bargain basement computer business. They kick it in the head with something like iPad or the new MacBook Air. But Apple does compete in the lower end MP3 player market with iPod shuffle and iPod nano, so they do understand the market for smaller, less expensive consumer electronics that still tie (not going to say seamlessly!) into their ecosystem.

Whether they ultimately pull the trigger on this, only Tim Cook now knows for sure, but again -- inexpensive iPhone nano with a cheap $65 all-you-can eat service plan? That'll bring a lot of young, mainstream more price sensitive, first phone and feature phone users into the Apple fold, wouldn't it?

Check out Phil's full hand's on via the link below and then come back and tell me what you think -- will we get an iPhone nano version of this deal?

[Android Central]

According to Bloomberg, Google -- who previously never missed an occasion to whine about patents and patent litigation -- seems to have been quietly buying patents of its very own from Palm, Motorola, and Openwave Systems, then sold them to HTC so HTC to use them to sue Apple. Pretty slick.

The lawsuit contends the Mac computer, iPhone, iPod, iPad, iCloud and iTunes are infringing patents for a way to upgrade software wirelessly; a way to transfer data between a microprocessor and a support chip; a method to store user preferences, and a way to provide consistent contact between application software and a radio modem.

HTC also amended a complaint with the International Trade Commission today, adding five of the former Google patents to a case that targets many of the same products. Three of those patents Google bought from Openwave and two others had been owned by Palm, which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) last year.

Apple originally sued HTC, and HTC has countersued before. The part that caught my eye is that HTC says they "will continue to protect its patented inventions" when Google just bought said inventions for HTC last week? Apple buys patents as well, from Fingerworks for multitouch to Nortel for LTE, and no doubt won't waste any time asserting them, it's just interesting wording on HTC's part.

With Apple still suing Android manufacturers instead of Google directly, and Google now supplying arms to those manufacturers instead of going after Apple directly, one thing is for certain -- we're going to need a lot of popcorn.

[Bloomberg]

They've just proven they have more Photoshop licenses than gadget sense.

[Thanks Greg!]

Long title, longer legal filing, but the gist is Apple seems to be claiming Android founder Andy Rubin was working for Apple and reporting to the man who filed for a patent on Apple's behalf that Apple is now suing HTC for violating in their Android phones. Even longer:

Android and Mr. Rubin's relevant background does not start, as HTC would like the Commission to believe, with his work at General Magic or Danger in the mid-1990s. In reality, as the evidence revealed at the hearing, Mr. Rubin began his career at Apple in the early 1990s and worked as a low-level engineer specifically reporting to the inventors of the '263 [realtime API] patent at the exact time their invention was being conceived and developed. [...] It is thus no wonder that the infringing Android platform used the claimed subsystem approach of the '263 patent that allows for flexibility of design and enables the platform to be "highly customizable and expandable" as HTC touts. [...] While Mr. Rubin's inspiration for the Android framework may not be directly relevant to the pending petitions for review, that HTC felt compelled to distort this history is illustrative of the liberties it takes in attacking the ALJ's [initial determination] and the substantial evidence supporting the ALJ's findings.

FOSS Patents Florian Mueler says that since Rubin works for Google, not HTC, this would be far more meaningful if Apple eventually sues Google directly, or if/when Google's Motorola purchase goes through.

Google (or a Google subsidiary like [Motorola Mobility) would almost certainly be found to infringe the relevant patent intentionally, and willful infringement would greatly increase Apple's chances of obtaining an injunction as well as triple damages.

Mueler also points out Rubin and co. may have willfully infringed Oracle (formerly Sun) Java patents in Android as well.

Regardless of where you fall on the whole Apple vs. Android and patent system issues, right now it's just more fuel for the legal soap opera.

[FOSS Patents]

M.G. Siegler from TechCrunch claims he's gone hands-on with the future of iPad competition, and the future of Amazon's Kindle line -- a 7-inch full color, touchscreen tablet built on an Android core but entirely Amazon at the interface level. All for $250. If you think it sounds like the Nook Color, you're not wrong, it just trades the B&N brick-and-mortar shelves for Amazon's hugely popular homepage.

The interface is all Amazon and Kindle. It’s black, dark blue, and a bunch of orange. The main screen is a carousel that looks like Cover Flow in iTunes which displays all the content you have on the device. This includes books, apps, movies, etc. Below the main carousel is a dock to pin your favorite items in one easy-to-access place. When you turn the device horizontally, the dock disappears below the fold. [...] But the key for Amazon is just how deeply integrated all of their services are. Amazon’s content store is always just one click away. The book reader is a Kindle app (which looks similar to how it does on Android and iOS now). The music player is Amazon’s Cloud Player. The movie player is Amazon’s Instant Video player. The app store is Amazon’s Android Appstore.

With nary a Google app in sight. Phil Nickinson from Android Central says:

It'll still be interesting to see how a post-Nook Color Amazon tablet will compete. The Kindle's no longer the only game in town, and Barnes & Noble has a pretty good leg up by being a brick-and-mortar organization as well, plus it's got its excellent in-store customer training, which has to take a lot of the scare factor out of using the Nook. (One could argue that a proper tablet UI doesn't need any sort of training, but we digress.)

Everyone and their comment thread seems to be thinking this will be the first real competition to iPad (which is what they said about Xoom, PlayBook, TouchPad... you get the idea.) It well might. It'll be small. It'll be light. Amazon has a great checkout system and a compelling content story in the US (international is, as with every platform, a mixed bag of hurt.) Their hardware has never been great, however, and international sales have become increasingly important to Apple and iPad.

People like cheap, but cost and value aren't always the same thing -- as Apple has proven time and again. (Apple's competition hasn't, however, so maybe they'll be in even more danger from the KindleDroid?)

One thing is for certain -- Android is the new Linux.

[TechCrunch via Android Central]

A Dutch court today issued a European Union-wide injunction against the sale of Samsung Galaxy S, Galaxy S II, and Galaxy Ace phones, due to violation of an Apple patent involving swiping between photos in a gallery. The injunction would start taking effect in mid-October (around the time of iPhone 5 release).

However, it sounds like the impact might be mitigated somewhat by Apple's failure to file all the proper paperwork for their patents in all the proper countries. Also, the court disregarded most of Apple's other patent claims, focusing their ruling on this one, single area of infringement.

According to FOSS Patents:

Samsung may be able to work around that particular patent without a huge degradation of the usability of its devices because it appears to relate to the way users flip through the pictures in a photo gallery. However, regardless of how Samsung may be able to work around this decision in Europe, it's a setback for Android, a platform that is at issue in more than 50 lawsuits worldwide. In all likelihood, the winning patent is infringed by Android itself -- not the operating system per se, but by one or more of the applications that ship with Android and without which the usefulness of Android would be impaired in one particular area (photo viewing). Apple has now obtained the first enforceable court decision (out of many lawsuits going on around the world) that finds Android to infringe an Apple patent -- and there will definitely be many more to come.

In other words, the Imperial Fleet might have come out of hyperspace too close to this system, but all sides better prepare for ground assault.

[FOSSPatents]

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Mobile Nations 5: A wedding and a funeral Phil, Kevin, Derek, Dan, Georgia, and Rene talk HP dumping webOS hardware, Google picking up Motorola Mobility, RIM's new BlackBerrys reviewed, and what it means for Microsoft and Apple. This is MobileNations!

Agenda

• BREAKING: HP shutting down webOS device operations, will "continue to explore options"
• Could there be a suitor for webOS?
• Did iPad kill HP’s hardware business?
• Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility: Complete coverage
• Google’s $12.5 billion dollar Motorola insurance policy
• MSFT and Nokia stocks get a boost from Google's deal
• BlackBerry Bold 9900 Review
• BlackBerry Torch 9860 Review
• BlackBerry Torch 9810 Review

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don't just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

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Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

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[Android Central]

Google has just announced that they're buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in an attempt to supercharge the Android platform. While the move will bring Google into the handset manufacturing business for the first time, potentially setting them up to deliver the same type of unified, integrated experience Apple is famous for, Google maintains they'll be running Motorola as a separate business. Which raises some important questions:

1. How will the play out for other Android licensees like HTC and Samsung? (Microsoft making the Zune killed the PlaysForSure alliance.)
2. Will all future Nexus-type devices come from Motorola going forward?
3. Will all future Motorola phones run stock Android going forward? (no more Blur.)
4. Is Motorola's patent portfolio strong enough to provide cover against Microsoft and Apple lawsuits?

Quotes from Larry Page and Sanjay Jha after the break.

[Google PR, Google Blog, Android Central coverage]

Larry Page, CEO of Google, said, “Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.”

Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility, said, “This transaction offers significant value for Motorola Mobility’s stockholders and provides compelling new opportunities for our employees, customers, and partners around the world. We have shared a productive partnership with Google to advance the Android platform, and now through this combination we will be able to do even more to innovate and deliver outstanding mobility solutions across our mobile devices and home businesses.”

Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, said, “We expect that this combination will enable us to break new ground for the Android ecosystem. However, our vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform and a vibrant open source community. We will continue to work with all of our valued Android partners to develop and distribute innovative Android-powered devices.”

Just to remind us that Google will still be Google -- unabashedly hypocritical to the last -- Page added the following by way of the Official Google Blog:

We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community” and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction. Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.

Are "anti-competitive patent attacks" worse than "anti-competitive patent violations"? Google's a big boy company now, facing regulatory scrutiny and lawsuits over their own practices, including their treatment of rival SkyHook, so how about we can the rhetoric and just make us some great new Googlerola phones, would you please?

UDPATE 1: Google's ODM partners have responded to the news... in a way that makes us suspect Google snuck into their houses late last night and replaced them all with Android-powered Replicants. [Android Central]

Peter Chou, CEO, HTC:

“We welcome the news of today‘s acquisition, which demonstrates that Google is deeply committed to defending Android, its partners, and the entire ecosystem.”

Bert Nordberg, President & CEO, Sony Ericsson:

“I welcome Google‘s commitment to defending Android and its partners.”

Jong-Seok Park, Ph.D, President & CEO, LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company:

“We welcome Google‘s commitment to defending Android and its partners.”

J.K. Shin, President, Samsung, Mobile Communications Division:

"We welcome today’s news, which demonstrates Google’s deep commitment to defending Android, its partners, and the ecosystem."

Yeah, like Georgia said, "we welcome our new Motogoog overlords..."

Update 2: GigaOm is reporting that Microsoft wanted to buy Motorola first, to use their patents to further sink Android, which is what brought Google to the table. [GigaOm

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Phil, Kevin, Tim, Dan, and Rene talk Google vs. Microsoft patent slap-fight, new BlackBerrys (new BlackBerrys!!), waiting on Pre 3 and the TouchPad 3.0.2 update, and Apple eating all the mobile profits. This is Mobile Nations!

Agenda

• Google to Microsoft: 'We didn't fall for it' [updated with Microsoft's retort]
• Google responds to Microsoft and vice-versa
• Research In Motion Introduces New BlackBerry 7 Smartphones
• Hands on with webOS 3.0.2 [video]
• Apple now owns 66% of mobile profits

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don't just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
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Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

Paul Thurrott of Windows Super Site is never one to let a good piece of anti-Apple link bait go by, but this time he's turned his attention towards Google's Android, and how Google "dumping" it on the market for free could be a greater anticompetitive act than Microsoft or Apple patent litigation.

Arguably, by "dumping" Android in the market at no cost, Google--which has unlimited cash and can afford to do such a thing--is behaving in an anticompetitive fashion. In fact, one could argue that Google is using its dominance in search advertising to unfairly gain entry into another market by giving that new product, Android, away for free. Does this remind you of any famous antitrust case?

From which, 10 years later, Microsoft is arguably still reeling. Thurrott's point, and it's worth noting, is that no one is innocent here.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball raises a similar point.

Google supporters claim that Google only wants to use patents defensively. But what exactly does Google need to defend against, if not actual patents Android actually violates? How is Google’s argument here different than simply demanding that Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, et al should simply sit back and let Google do whatever it wants with Android, regardless of the patents they hold? And, let’s not forget, give Android away for free.

Which Gruber boils down to hypocrisy, a theme increasingly present in Google coverage.

Which is not to say Google is doing anything different than any other public company seeing to it's own self-interests (and I'll repeat -- any company sufficiently large is indistinguishable from evil). It's just that Google feels so smug about it right now, which is ironic given smugness is usually a quality ascribed to Apple.

In Apple's case, the smugness comes from their sense that they know better than us, that they have better taste, and that we'll take what they tell us to take. In Google's case, however, the smugness now seems to come from a feeling that they think we're too dumb to see the hypocrisy. It's as if they think they can shout "open" and "free" and not actually be open or free (or be open and free on the backs of manufacturers and developers), and everyone from FOSS faithful to Google fanatics will rally to support them, no questions asked. It's as if they think they can shout "un-fair" and "anti-competitive" when faced with trademark and patent litigation from authors and rivals, while continuing to file their own trademarks and patents.

But user trust is a currency and a finite one. You can't spend more than you earn. It's not our job to blindly support companies; it's their job to support us.

That's a lesson Apple's learned painfully with everything from MobileMe to Steve Jobs' health to location-gate and antenna-gate. It will be interesting to see how Google learns it and addresses it.

[WinSuperSite, Daring Fireball]

Microsoft General Council, Brad Smith tweeted out a response today to Google's open letter on an alleged anti-Android patent conspiracy, basically calling shenanigans on their whole patent conspiracy act:

Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no.

Which makes very little sense, given how angry Google reportedly was about not winning the bidding (regardless of the silly way they went about it), and their interest in having the DoJ investigate Microsoft, Apple, et. al on anti-competiveness grounds.

Jon Fingas at Electronista hypothesizes that:

His remarks if accurate imply that the bidding group, which named itself Rockstar BidCo and also included companies like RIM and Sony, is primarily intended as a defensive mechanism to prevent lawsuits from patent trolls and other, usually smaller firms from suing anyone involved in the coalition. Many have presumed that the group was united with the aim of further suing Google and slowing down the adoption of Android.

UPDATE: Frank X. Shaw, from Microsoft Communications has posted a copy of the email to Brad Smith of Microsoft from Kent Walker, Google's General Counsel. Along with this sharply worded tweet:

Free advice for David Drummond – next time check with Kent Walker before you blog. http://t.co/PfKle9H

[@BradSmi via Electronista, @xfshaw via WPCentral]

Google SVP and Senior Legal Officer, David Drummond has blogged about the recent trouble Google and their manufacturing partners have had over patents with the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle.

Android’s success has yielded something else: a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents.

He also complained about Apple and Microsoft teaming up to out-bid Google for Novell and Nortel patents and calls for a Justice Department investigation into anti-competitive behavior while at the same time indicating Google would beef up their own patent portfolio.

He didn't seem to indicate Google would be filing to intervene in the Lodsys lawsuits against developers, which Apple has done. With Samsung delaying the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia due to litigation with Apple, and HTC paying Microsoft $5 per Android handset in licensing fees, Google does have a lot to worry about.

While Android is fast approaching majority share of the smartphone market, Apple enjoys 66% of the profits, and as we've said before, while Apple seems content at making Android uglier, Microsoft wants to make an already less-profitable Android platform even costlier.

We called our most recent podcast with FOSS Patent's Florian Mueller, World War Patents for a reason, and it seems the battles are just beginning.

[Google Blog via Android Central]

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Phil, Kevin, Derek, Dan, and Rene talk Netflix on Android, media on Mobile, the RIM-pire striking back, news execs at webOS, Nokia Windows Phones, 20 million iPhones, and hitting the budget buyer sweet spot. Bringing together the heads of state of Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, and Windows Mobile for full on round-table action. This is Mobile Nations!

Agenda

• Netflix's Android rollout an example of a good thing done badly
• CrackBerry Kevin goes to Waterloo
• HP's move puts Rubinstein in Rahul Sood's old shoes, an operations guy in charge of webOS
• New video of Nokia Sea Ray prototype running WP7
• Apple Q3 2011 results: 20.34 million iPhones, 9.25 million iPads, 7.54 million iPods, $7.31 billion in profit
• Mobile Technology and Automobiles... it's an exciting future, and QNX is at the heart of it
• Apple’s layered user experience approach

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don't just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Hosts

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

Former Google CEO, current Google Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, had this to say about Apple patent infringement suits against Android manufacturers.

"We have seen an explosion of Android devices entering the market and, because of our successes, competitors are responding with lawsuits as they cannot respond through innovations. I’m not too worried about this.”

Because a) he's not the one being sued and b) it's nonsense.

Google and Android ODMs problem isn't that Microsoft and Apple are suing instead of innovating. It's that they're doing both. And given Google's lack of a similar patent portfolio, and lack of public stance on the issue, their manufacturers are handicapped, which is likely why HTC is already paying Microsoft $5 for every Android phone they ship.

As mentioned yesterday, Microsoft's strategy is to make Android more expensive, Apple's to make it less usable.

Google might have some genius master plan ready and waiting in their other trousers, but in the meantime they should either keep Schmidt and Larry Page off the mic, or let them say something substantive to ODMs and developers.

[ZDNet Asia via Android Central]

An administrative judge at the International Trade Commission (ITC) has issued an initial determination that HTC is infringing on 2 Apple patents, which -- in a worst case scenario -- could result in an import ban of iPhone-competing HTC Android smartphones. HTC's stock has taken a hit since the ruling, obviously, but it's important to remember it's an initial ruling and a lot can change between now and any final decision, including an agreement between HTC and Apple, similar to HTC's existing agreement with Microsoft.

Florian Mueller from FOSS Patents doesn't think that's likely, however.

For Apple this is not just about money. They're not going to let HTC build fully functional smartphones and tablets in exchange for $10 or $20 per device unless HTC owns patents that Apple absolutely needs to license.

It's a fallacy to assume that Apple v. HTC is just the usual patent dispute between two large players, and therefore going to have the same kind of happy end. This one is different. From a shareholder value point of view, what Apple needs to achieve -- even if it costs a lot of time and money -- is as much of a technological gap as possible between its own products and the Android-based products offered by HTC and other vendors.

In other words, as Florian discussed in our World War Patents podcast, while Microsoft seems to want to make Android more expensive (through licensing fees), Apple wants to make it less usable.

HTC meanwhile, could be fighting back using a company called S3 as a proxy. HTC's chairwoman is a major S3 shareholder, but S3 has to do what's best for S3 and that could end up being a licensing agreement with Apple that doesn't end up providing any cover for HTC.

I could imagine a situation in which Apple might agree on a partial cross-license that would grant Apple access to all of HTC's and S3's patents while HTC would get access to only some of Apple's patents: maybe just enough so that HTC can at least continue to sell Android-based products of some kind, but those products could be limited and there might be substantial degradations of the user experience.

Google, for their part, is continuing it's terrifying silence on all things patent related, including a remarkable non-answer by Larry Page during the latest financial results conference call. This probably means they're either playing their cards very close to their ninja vests, or they're just not concerned with how this might play out, including the unlikely possibility of HTC switching to Windows Phone exclusively, just to avoid any more patent-related headaches.

Check the link below for Florian's full rundown and his excellent "battlemap" visualization of the dispute.

[FOSSPatents]

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Kevin, Phil, and Rene discuss whether or not Google should buy RIM, how BlackBerry can fight back, is Google MIA in the patent wars, Google+ is here, the TouchPad has landed, and will there be a second new iPad this year? Bringing together the heads of state of Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, and Windows Mobile for full on round-table action. This is Mobile Nations!

Show notes after the break!

Agenda

• 10 Reasons why Google will buy Research In Motion
• The Way I See It CrackBerry Nation, We've Only Just Begun...
• Editorial: How long can Google and Android afford to remain silent on patents?
• http://www.androidcentral.com/android-app-review-google
• HP TouchPad
• Could 5 new iOS devices make up Apple’s fall family?

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don't just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Hosts

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

Some more information has come to light about the Nortel patent auction, which saw a consortium that included Apple win big, and Google get frozen out. According to Reuters, however, Google had some fun along the way:

"It became clear that they were bidding with the distance between the earth and the sun. One was the sum of a famous mathematical constant, and then when it got to $3 billion, they bid pi," the source said, adding the bid was $3.14159 billion.

"Either they were supremely confident or they were bored."

Brun's and Meissel-Mertens constants aside, it came down the the Apple "Rockstar" team, which included RIM, Microsoft, and others, and Google's Rangers. Google stayed in until the price rose above $4 billion. While they won't say much on the record, Google is privately furious according to TechCrunch's MG Siegler. Compared to Apple and the other mobile platforms, Google has an incredibly weak mobile patent portfolio and, if the Nortel deal goes through, this puts them in an even more vulnerable position.

Robert Cringely thinks Google will try to stall the deal through litigation and anti-trust complaints, and while citing anonymous sources, says:

Apple put up $2 billion for outright ownership of Nortel’s Long Term Evolution (4G) patents as well as another package of patents supposedly intended to hobble Android.

FOSSpatents reminded me that there's a hearing scheduled for July 11, and it's possible more solid information will become available at that time.

[Reuters, TechCrunch, Cringely, @asymco @FOSSpatents]

There are hundreds of thousands of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps for just about everything -- so how come the one you need, the one you know just has to be there, is so hard to find? Enter TiPb's new weekly feature where staff and readers alike sort through the App Store and help you find just the right App for That. This week, Jeremy asks:

Is there an app that would allow me, an iPhone 4 user, and my wife, an Android user, to share a task list? Help!

To see our solution for Jeremy, follow along after the break!

Wunderlist [Free - iTunes link] is a task management app that syncs between iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, and Windows. Syncing is seamless and in the cloud. If you're concerned about security, Wunderlist has got you covered with SSL 128 bit encryption over HTTPS.

Once you sign up with a free account and download the apps onto your desired devices, you're ready to start sharing lists - and with push notifications, you'll never forget what you need to do.

Not only does Wunderlist have great functionality, but it looks good at the same time. You can even choose between different backgrounds to customize the app to fit your personality. Perhaps shopping is a chore, but you'll love crossing things off your Wunderlist!

Anyone else have any App for That suggestions for Jeremy? Let him -- and all of us -- know in the comments.

[wunderkinder]

Having trouble finding what you need in the app store? Send us an email to iosapps@tipb.com and let us know what you're looking for, and we'll do our best to find you just the right App for That!

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Mobile Nations is our brand new podcast, bringing together the heads of state from Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, and Windows Phone for full on round-table action. This week Phil, Kevin, Dan and Rene discuss Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, the new Verizon data caps, and the state of the BlackBerry. This is Mobile Nations!

Topics

• WPCentral Review: Windows Phone "Mango" (preview release)
• Verizon's new data plans broken down in complete detail
• RIM results and what's next for BlackBerry?

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don't just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Hosts

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

With the release of the iPhone on the Verizon network just a few months ago, analyst reports are saying it might just have slowed the previously runaway Android market growth. TechCrunch is even conjecturing the upcoming iPhone 5 could stop or even reverse it completely.

For much of last year iPhone was tied to one US carrier, AT&T. Now it's on AT&T and Verizon, but it's still essentially one device (though AT&T still has the bargain-priced iPhone 3GS), made by one manufacturer. Usually that one device is on a once-a-year cycle, but this year it might be closer to 15 months. Android on the other hand is on every network, and has hundreds of devices with new releases every few weeks. Given the greater carrier footprint and greater choice in models, all Android devices together should absolutely be outselling the 1 or 2 iPhones on 2 carriers in the US.

However, reports from NPD from April say that the iPhone market grew while Android's declined. About a month later, Nielsen said Android was indeed leveling off. Just a few days ago Needham was reporting from the use of IDC data that Android's share of the market hit its peak in March and is now declining, where Apple's share is once again on the rise. This is the first quarterly decrease that Android has ever seen. Yesterday, BTIG released a report saying iPhone is outselling Android in the majority of US AT&T and Verizon stores. And Verizon reported it had sold 2.2 million iPhones on its network in just two months.

That's probably not a coincidence. The Verizon iPhone could just be the reason the Android market is leveling off and, in some reports, declining. With iPhone 5 on the way, and the usually media and hype cycles that surround it, it's not unreasonable to think Apple can keep that momentum going. Add rumors of T-Mobile, perhaps even Sprint support in the future, and it gets very interesting very fast.

What do you think, will Android kick it back into gear and keep growing, or does Apple have a real chance to take the lead here?

[ NDP data, Nielsen data, TechCrunch]

Needham analyst Charlie Wolf thinks most Verizon Android users have been holding out for the iPhone 5, and once it's released, a mass exodus from the Android platform will ensue.

Verizon’s Android users are waiting for the iPhone 5. And when it arrives this fall, they’ll make the switch en masse.

Wolf suspects some Verizon subscribers chose not to pick up the Verizon iPhone after it debuted last February, some 8 months later than the iPhone 4 on AT&T.

“It’s reasonable to assume that a material percentage of Verizon subscribers who plan to switch were content to wait until the iPhone 5 arrived later this year,” says Wolf. “One reason Apple delayed the launch of iPhone 5 until September is that it reportedly plans to coordinate the launch of the GSM and CDMA versions of the phone. To do so in June would likely have upset Verizon subscribers who purchased iPhone 4 in the preceding months. It’s our expectation, then, that the anticipated surge in iPhone sales on the Verizon network is likely to occur this fall after Apple launches iPhone 5.”

TiPb has heard that the Verizon deal was a factor in Apple not launching iPhone 5 in June. However, it's just as likely that Verizon users are on contracts with a wide range of end dates, and would be penalized for switching outside their renewal window. If they want a full subsidy, especially for a device that's been on the market since June 2010, they'd wait for it. That means, rather than a sudden rush last February or this fall, we could see a slow, steady transition over time as contracts come up for renewal, and those Verizon users who want an iPhone make the switch.

Of course, not everyone is going to want an iPhone either. By fall there will no doubt be new Verizon Android devices out as well, including those with LTE data speeds -- something iPhone isn't suspected to match until 2012. That could make the decision more difficult and more complicated.

What do you think? Will Verizon Android users be switching en masse come iPhone 5 this fall?

[AllThingsD]

Iterate is a new, mobile design focused podcast coming soon from Marc Edwards of Bjango, Seth Clifford of Nickelfish, and yours truly.

For more information and updates, follow @iteratetv on Twitter.

Loop until done.

Apple will be announcing iOS 5 on Monday and if the rumors are to be believed it will do pretty much everything from notifications to make you a tasty vanilla latte (okay, not really.) But it does beg the question -- if you're an Android or BlackBerry user, or a Windows Phone, webOS, or fan of any other platform, what would Apple have to do to win you over to iPhone and iPad?

Rene's posted his want list. What's yours? What would you need to see from Steve Jobs and Apple to make you switch (or switch back?)

While rumors have been swirling for months that Apple was going to strap NFC (near field communications) to the iTunes cash register and boldly take iPhone 5 into the mobile payments future, Google is already there with the announcement last week of Google Wallet.

Teaming up with MasterCard, Sprint and Citi -- and using MasterCard's PayPass system -- Google Wallet is being put into beta mode starting in San Francisco and is scheduled for full launch later this summer.

But is it safe to turn your mobile device into money machine?

If the phone's screen is turned off, NFC is turned off. And NFC also is inactive until the Google Wallet App is launched. It's got a tamper sensor as well, and will withstand laser attacks. Really. Google said so.

Apparently, even fricken sharks with fricken laser beams. They kid us not!

I very much like the idea of ditching my cards and simply using my iPhone to pay as I go. Will Apple announce the same type of service at WWDC 2011 or at their annual fall event later this year? They could want to enter the race and make iTunes the next great payment system, or they could decide to wait until NFC-equipped point-of-sales are more mainstream.

My question to you -- do you want it?

[Android Central]

Google had their big, ice cream sandwich filled I/O developer conference Android keynote yesterday, and with Apple's own WWDC just a month away, what they chose to announce -- and maybe not announce -- definitely helps sets the stage.

To keep up with the competition, and our sibling site Android Central's complete coverage, follow on after the break!

In previous years Google has showcased everything from hardware to software to sneak peaks to technology previews in volumes we haven't seen since the great Bill Gates CES keynotes of yore. This year was no exception... unless you were hoping for a Nexus 3 (or Nexus M or H2 or S2) -- but hey, we're probably not getting an iPhone 5 until fall so there's plenty of time still for that.

Sure, as usual a lot of Google's announcements this year look like Apple's announcements from previous years, what with music and movie rentals and accessory integration for the SDK, but WWDC will likely have some Apple announcements -- perhaps including system-level voice control -- that Google announced at their previous shows as well. It's all about seeing and raising now. And sure, some of this won't ship, or will stall (Google TV), or falter (Wave), but a lot of it will. And it will push Apple to keep raising the stakes. And that's good for all of us.

• Google I/O podcast day 1
• Google IO Keynote Day 1 liveblog
• Ice Cream Sandwich officially announced, coming in Q4
• Android Honeycomb to get updated to 3.1, will bring Google TV support and much more
• Android Honeycomb to get updated to 3.1, will bring Google TV support and much more
• Android 3.1 rolling out today to Verizon Xoom owners
• First Look at Google Music Beta
• Music Beta video posted by Google, reminds us that no cables are needed
• Movies now available to rent from Android Market
• Google announces Android at Home, functionality ideas seem endless
• Google announces a team that will create guidelines for device updates
• Google announces Android Open Accessory
• Google IO post-keynote press briefing
• Samsung passes out 5,000 Galaxy Tab 10.1s to I/O attendees
• Hands-on with the Google IO special-edition Galaxy Tab 10.1
• Return of the crazy dancing Android: Google IO Edition
• Google I/O day one keynote video now available
• Android 3.1 update now rolling out to Verizon Xoom 3G owners
• Android Honeycomb 3.1 SDK add-on now available
• The new Android ADK sure can play a sweet tune
• Google: More than 400,000 Android devices activated everyday

Phew! And that's just day 1! What do you think? Anything really compelling? Truly tempting? Anything Apple absolutely has to match at WWDC next month?

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already, head on over and register now!

• Top 10 signs of cell phone addiction

• How many of you have made the switch from Android to iOS?

• iOS 4.3.3/4.2.8 jailbreak with sn0wbreez 2.7 step by step guide

• Were you disappointed in the iPad 2?

See you in the forums!

This year is turning out to be a big one for Apple. They recently passed Microsoft in net income earnings at $5.99 billion compared to $5.23 billion from Microsoft -- mainly due to iOS devices like the iPad 2 and iPhone 4 driving sales and raising profit margins. The iPhone, iPad and iPod touch currently represent roughly 65% of overall sales for Apple, with the Verizon iPhone helping push demand even further as Android growth seems to be at a plateau.

Apple and Verizon had a very successful launch of the iPhone 4, which allowed the iPhone to expand its market share that was previously held back by its prolonged carrier exclusivity with AT&T [...] some of that growth came at the expense of Android operating system

Apple has now edged out HTC, Motorola and RIM as the third-largest smartphone maker in the US with a 14% share of sales, and they don't appear to be slowing down anytime soon. They just released the white iPhone 4 with reports of lines forming at Apple Stores -- all for a device that's already been on the market for 10 months, just in a different color. And with WWDC 2011 just around the corner for Apple to reveal iOS 5 to the masses, it seems they have nowhere to go but up from here.

But can the iPhone and iPad help sustain Apple's growth given how determined the competition is at beating them in the smartphone and tablet markets? Sound off in the comments below!

[NPD, TechCrunch, Asymco]

Turns out when you stop the ridiculous practice of comparing Android (an OS) to iPhone (a phone), and compare Android to iOS (another OS), Apple's operating system outreaches Google's by 59% in the US, or 37,868 phones to 23,763.

Now Android growth is still accelerating faster than iOS, and if nothing changes, Android will eventually eclipse iOS, but this remains a far better, saner, and more sensible comparison than the previously, convenient to the point of manipulative "phones that run Android vs. phones that run iOS" numbers we've been subjected to in the past. This is "devices that run most Android apps vs. devices that run most iOS apps". It's far more meaningful to everyone, from Apple and Google to developers.

“These data clearly illustrate the Apple ecosystem extends far beyond the iPhone,” added Donovan. “Though it’s frequently assumed that the Apple user base is composed of dedicated Apple ‘fanboys’, there’s not a tremendous amount of overlapping mobile device access among these users. This of course has significant implications for the developer community as they consider the market potential in developing applications for different mobile platforms.”

There are some other interesting numbers, like the percentage of smartphone to iPad owners. These results aren't surprising. What's surprising is that it took this long to see them reported.

[ComScore]

Nilay Patel, formerly of Engadget writes on his personal blog that, according to Steven Levy's new book, The Plex, after believing Google copied the iPhone with Android, they hid iPad development from Google CEO and former Apple board member Eric Schmidt.

The acrimony was so deep, we’re told, that Jobs kept the iPad a secret from Eric Schmidt even though Schmidt was still on Apple’s board of directors while it was being developed. (Schmidt would later step down, of course.) It’s juicy stuff, and it nicely feeds right into the current iOS vs. Android narrative of the day.

Prior to the iPhone's introduction, Android more closely copied the BlackBerry or Windows Mobile Standard look and front-facing QWERTY feel but by the time it launched, post-iPhone, it was a full screen capacitive touch device. What's not clear is that Apple began work on iPad (reportedly as Safari Pad) prior to iPhone before deciding a smartphone was the better product to introduce first. If Eric Schmidt was in on iPhone, how could he have not been briefed on the Safari Pad/iPad that preceded it?

Patel also delves into the "murky" issues surrounding Google's strange journey towards multitouch support:

• Did the first build of Android Steve Jobs saw actually have multitouch frameworks and pinch-to-zoom? The answer, according to Levy, is yes.1

• What happened during the development of Android 2.0 and the original Droid that made Google think shipping multitouch frameworks was okay?

• Similarly, what happened on or around February 2010 that made Google decide that shipping pinch-to-zoom in Android was okay? Did Andy Rubin suddenly decide that using a phone with two hands was cool, or was there a legal reason?

Interesting stuff to say the least. Maybe Steven Levy could write a sequel called "The *Droid"?

[Nilay Patel]

Android Gripes, which I'm guessing is an homage to the terrific Adobe UI Gripes blog, has posted up some screenshots of iPhone apps side by side with their Android counterparts.

When I use an iPhone and an Android phone at the same time, I often find that apps from the same company look a lot different on these two platforms - the ones on Android usually look much worse.

There are without a doubt some well designed, great looking Android apps (Google makes a lot of them) but it is strange to see the same apps from the same developers simply not as well rendered for Android as they are for iPhone. Either Interface Builder in Xcode is even more magical than the iPad, there's some constraint in the Android development tools, or Android users simply aren't demanding the design level they deserve.

(There's a joke that if an app has an ugly icon, iPhone users won't download it. That same joke should exist on Android.)

Check out some more example via the link below.

[Android Gripes via @mdflores]

Our sister site, Android Central has received a document showing that from April 3, AT&T will be increasing the early pricing for iPhone. There is no mention specifically of AT&T in the document however Android Central know their stuff and identified it via the abbreviations and wording used.

Looking at the screenshot, the price to get an early upgrade to any of the current iPhones will increase by $50. That means you’re looking at $299 for the 8GB iPhone 3GS, $449 for the 16GB iPhone 4 and $549 for the 32GB iPhone 4.

Any price increase is hard to swallow but if you take into account other smartphone’s such as Android and Windows Phone will be hit by $150 increases, it makes it a little easier!

Does this change anyone's upgrade plans?

[Android Central]

Amazon surprised the tech world last night by announcing Cloud Drive and Cloud Player services for streaming music to various platforms. Amazon has stolen a march on Apple after we heard the other day that Apple was supposedly planning to launch a similar service very soon.

The Amazon service will allow you to upload your existing music collection, as well as tracks purchased through Apple’s iTunes or any other medium to the “Cloud Locker.” All Amazon account holders will automatically be given 5GB of online storage which can be increased to 20GB either by paying for more storage or buying an MP3 album from Amazon. Music purchased through Amazon will be automatically added to the Cloud Locker and will not count towards your storage quota. Music can be stored as either MP3 or AAC and in its original bitrate; so there will be no loss in quality. The service also allows you to store other media such as photographs, videos and documents.

The Cloud Player, the playback part of the service, is available either through a desktop web browser such as Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer, or as part of the Amazon MP3 application on Android phones.

Amazon Cloud Drive seems to be accessible internationally while Cloud Player is currently blocked outside the US. (This is likely due to licensing issues and may take a long time to resolve -- they've barely expanded Amazon MP3 in the last 3 years.)

Amazon does not appear to be allowing access through iPhone, iPod touch or iPad Safari at the moment either. (Some readers are saying you can hit the download link to stream the music via Safari's built-in QuickTime X player, just like any MP3 link but we can't confirm that yet -- let us know in comments!). Whether Amazon chooses to properly open up access to Mobile Safari, or whether they'll try to include Cloud Player into an iOS app is unknown. Even if Amazon makes an app, would Apple allow it into the App Store or would it be seen as a direct competitor to iTunes?

What do you think of the Amazon Cloud Locker? Do you think Apple will announce a service as flexible as this? Let us know in the comments!

[Amazon PR]

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Georgia and Rene are joined by CrackBerry.com's Kevin and AndroidCentral.com's Phil for a tablet round table featuring PlayBook, Android, and iPad 2. Also, iOS 4.3.1 goes live, will iOS 5 be delayed, and is old media afraid of new technology? This is iPad Live!

Complete show notes for the week in iPad after the break!

[Apologies for the clicking sound in the video, we'll make sure that doesn't happen again. #stupidchatroll]

Announcements

• iPad 2 tourist photoshop giveaway

iOS News

• Apple releases iOS 4.3.1 for iPhone, iPad
• Could iOS 5 only be coming this fall?

iPad 2 international launch

• Ordering an international iPad 2 this morning? Standing in line this evening?
• Just get a new international iPad 2? Here’s what you need next!
• With US iPad 2 stocks still low, should Apple be going ahead with the international roll-out?

Tablet round table

• iPad 2 competition heats up: BlackBerry PlayBook, new Samsung Galaxy Tabs get priced -Regarding an Amazon tablet (or, bringing content to an experience fight)
• Time Warner Cable receiving cease and desist orders for its iPad App?
• The New York Times raises pay wall, launches digital subscriptions

Hosts

• Georgia (@GeorgiaTiPb)
• Kevin (@CrackBerry Kevin)
• Phil (@philnickinson)
• Rene (@reneritchie)

Credits

Thanks to the TiPb iPad Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Google won't be releasing the source code for Android 3.0 Honeycomb any time soon. (For an excellent overview of why that is and what it means, see Jerry Hildenbrand's article over at our sibling site, Android Central.) What makes this interesting for TiPb is that, for a while now, Google has used the term "open" as a hammer to differentiate themselves from Apple, iOS, and the iPhone. From Eric Schmidt's "completely open" quips to Vic Gundotra I/O smack-talk to Andy Rubin's now-ironic tweet, it's been clear from the start that "open" wasn't a development philosophy for Google so much as a business and marketing strategy. It was a brilliant if disingenuous move that rallied many hardcore free and open-source software advocates to their cause (and platform) and got a bevy of tech writers to skewer Apple for being equally and oppositely "closed".

That it was business and marketing rather than philosophy was fairly clear from the start -- "open" is such a nebulous term to begin with. Open to whom and in what way? Even if we restrict ourselves to open-source, Android was never Stallman-class open, GPL licensed and patent unencumbered. It was never even Mozilla-class open, where the source was freely available even during development phases (most of us couldn't download, compile, and contribute back to Gingerbread before the Nexus S debuted). It was Google-class open, which meant it was only released when it benefitted Google, and only really meant for manufacturers and carriers. We've spoken about it plenty of times here at TiPb, and so has Android Central. (Phil Nickinson and I even did a special podcast on it back in October.)

It's kind of like that popsicle you get at the corner store -- it's not chocolate, it's chocolaty. Android was never open. It was openy.

That's fine. It's even good. It let Google make the arrangements they needed to make with manufacturers and carriers to get Android accepted and deployed at the scale it enjoys today. An Android that didn't let manufacturers lock down bootloaders and carriers lock out sideloaders, that didn't allow for bloatware and feature removal, wouldn't be the number one fastest growing phone OS on the planet. (webOS, though proprietary, is arguably far more meaningfully open to developers and users than Android, but didn't get anywhere near the carrier support.)

Likewise, if Google has open-sourced their search algorithms, AdWords and AdSense code, and internal infrastructure programming it would likely have been bought by Oracle instead of being sued by them.

Apple's the same way. They protect their revenue streams -- their interfaces and designs, products and presentations, and they open source WebKit and a large number of other ancillary projects. Both are for-profit companies after all, tightly controlling the areas they dominate with proprietary code and fragmenting those they don't with free software. Google simply chose to deliberately use (is mis-used) the term "open" as a way to counter-program Apple...

And because of Honeycomb it's come back to bite them in the @$$ this week.

That's too bad. Android is a fantastic OS and is getting better and better with each iteration. It's powerful, customizable, and functional in ways iOS simply can't be at the moment. (Hopefully Matias Duarte will soon give it an interface to match, if Google can get those 40 shades of blue out of his way.)

It's just not now nor has it ever been "open" -- it has been and remains "openy".

Now that Schmidt can't get away with "completely open", Gundotra needs to fear for a future of his own creation, and Rubin's make command will error out with file not found, maybe we'll get less rhetoric from Google and Apple both. Ultimately I don't care who's more open or more integrated -- I just care who makes me the better phone and tablet.

BlackBerry maker RIM has just announced that they'll be providing a way for developers to package, sign, and distribute Android apps for the upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook. (They'll also be able to develop BlackBerry Java and, soon, C/C++ apps). iPad has a huge head start, but this could prove an interesting way to mitigate that lead:

"The BlackBerry PlayBook is an amazing tablet. The power that we have embedded creates one of the most compelling app experiences available in a mobile computing device today," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. "The upcoming addition of BlackBerry Java and Android apps for the BlackBerry PlayBook on BlackBerry App World will provide our users with an even greater choice of apps and will also showcase the versatility of the platform."

Support will be provided for Android 2.3 apps, so more Galaxy Tab 7-inch style big phone apps than Android 3.0 Honeycomb-style tablet apps on something like the Xoom, but it does immediately skyrocket the potential number of apps available for the PlayBook.

"Potential" because that devs have to choose on a individual basis to submit their apps to BlackBerry App world. It doesn't look like PlayBook is getting the Android Market (or Amazon Appstore), or that all Android 2.3 apps can just be sideloaded and run on the PlayBook. I'm guessing if the process is easy -- there will be some porting involved and the apps will run in a "player" on the PlayBook -- and the money there -- if PlayBook sells well -- devs might just jump on the extra customer pool.

So does this change anything on the competitive landscape? Could it make PlayBook one of the strongest Android tablet alternatives in addition to its BlackBerry foundation? Could it pose even more of a threat to Apple's iPad 2? Or do too many development choices harm the overall experience?

[CrackBerry and Android Central... sitting in a tree...]

There's been talk of an Amazon super-Kindle running Android OS since... about 5 minutes after Steve Jobs left the stage following the original iPad introduction. Now that Amazon has launched their Appstore (TM in contention), that talk is heating up again. And why not? It's an obvious play. I'd be surprised if Amazon hasn't had one in the labs for a while now (just like I would have been surprised if Facebook hadn't been working on a phone...)

Amazon has content like iTunes, including (in the US at least -- and more on that in a moment), ebooks, movies, TV shows, music, and now apps. They've made hardware before with the Kindle line.

But they're hardly the only one.

Sony makes phones, owns a movie studio and record label, and almost everything else in place to launch a similarly competitive offering but they've been struggling of late and don't seem to be that Walkman strutting, Trinitron innovating Sony of old. Samsung, however, is coming on strongly with their Galaxy S range of devices in assorted sizes and their Hub media services.

What Amazon has is a single login, credit card holding advantage. Both Google and Facebook could probably match Amazon on logins but they're internet based advertising companies (what they sell is users' attention). Amazon is an internet based commerce company (what they sell are goods). That's an important difference. Most importantly, Amazon has the only checkout system in the world to rival iTunes, in terms of both one-click ease of use (Amazon actually patented one-click) and sheer number of credit cards on file.

Even so, they will be "just another Android tablet". It's no coincidence all these competitors -- real and rumored -- are being built on Android. Google has done to mobile what Microsoft did to PCs -- make an OS that's so great OEMs and VARs can't justify the effort, investment, and resources necessary to make their own mobile OS anymore. (That's a good sign for the maturity of the space, though a loss for those of us still hoping to see more innovation like a true Facebook or Mozilla mobile OS.) That means that market, skin, and branding aside, Amazon (and others) will benefit from huge economies of ecosystem but will also have to face competition within their own platform and struggle for differentiation and attention in the market. (They'll also be facing internal tension since they're providing Kindle and other apps for their competition -- Apple doesn't make iBooks or GarageBand for Android.)

Let's say for the sake of argument Amazon's brand is big and strong enough to really stand out from the pack --it still only gives Amazon some pieces of the puzzle.

Apple is offering an almost 360-degrees of integration. Everyone else has some part of that same story but no one else has all of it yet. RIM and HP/Palm have integrated hardware/software but lack the global checkout system of Apple or Amazon. Google has great services but their checkout is lackluster, their content still in process, and they're almost always at the mercy of their hardware and carrier partners. Microsoft also has a desktop OS and previous consumer electronics like Xbox that could help with a halo effect, but none of them provided the existing accessory base and upgrade path iPod did, and Microsoft's entire mobile strategy has been slow to the point of abdication. And almost no one else has anything like Apple's retail stores.

So while upcoming mobile competitors will be bringing specs to an experience fight, Amazon and their hugely successful ecomm business will at least be bringing content as well. But it's still an experience fight.

At the end of the day -- or more appropriately at the moment of consumer decision making -- you can't match Apple on content any more than you can match them on specs. You have to match them on the feeling of the person in the Apple Store, hands-on with the device, absent any distracting logos on the bezel, easily obtaining and joyously not only using apps, but having the device become the app.

It's a visceral response from mainstream consumers, an ability to engage with technology in a new, more understandable and incredibly intimate way that's selling iPads, and that's what needs to be competed against.

While we were busy getting our big iPad 2 review posted, Android Central was knocking it out the park with a complete Android 3.0 Honeycomb-powered Motorola Xoom review. It's bigger, it's Google-ier, and it certainly has more logos on the bezel, but what did our sibling site think about it?

Android's Honeycomb branch has some serious potential. But Android 3.0 is very much a Version 1.0 as far as its tablet OS is concerned. But the hardware Motorola has provided here is powerful (even with quad-core devices waiting in the wings), and we're pretty sure the Xoom won't die as a platform in a month or two. It's solid, and Google's going to use it to improve the Honeycomb experience.

If a 10-inch tablet's the size for you, and you can put up with the weight, and the headaches Android apps catching up to the Honeycomb universe, and the Xoom's LTE radio not yet working, and making do with the 32GB of internal storage while you wait for the microSD card to be activated, and can afford the price, by all means, purchase. You'll be among the first in exciting new world of Android tablets, and the Xoom's not likely to let you down. But if you're looking for something a little more polished, lighter and (eventually) cheaper, you might just want to hold off a bit.

If you want the promise of LTE, an app marketplace not curated by Apple, a more desktop-like OS, and a tablet big enough to beat down an alien invasion, the Motoral Xoom might be a good alternative to iPad 2. Otherwise you might want to wait for an Ice Cream (or... Jello?) based tablet on 2nd generation hardware because you know it's already in the pipeline (Google iterates faster than anyone else in the business right now.)

Check out the whole Motorola Xoom review and Phil Nickinson's hands-on video at the link below!

[Android Central]

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already, head on over and register now!

• Many users are reporting that their new iPads have a bad case of light leak, most notable with a dark background. Does your iPad suffer from this screen defect?

• Disappointed with the iPad 2's camera quality? You are not alone.

• If you've made the switch from a Android device to a iPhone, congratulations on the upgrade! Tell us how your experience is going!

• One of the most popular topics within our forums is Jailbreaking so be sure to visit our Jailbreak and Unlock forum!

See you in the forums!

Apple announced the iPad 2 today so -- of course -- the first thing we did was drag in our friends from PreCentral.net, Android Central, and CrackBerry.com and get them to spec up with the Android 3.0 Honeycomb-running Motorola Xoom, LG Optimus Pad, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10, and the HP TouchPad and BlackBerry Playbook.

The results are above, and all we can say is -- what a great time to be a consumer! Also, given the hardware being thrown around Apple's going to have to work hard on their integrated software model -- that means iOS 5 -- to keep the lion's share of the market. The space is literally exploding with new, compelling devices.

Except from Microsoft and Nokia. Will they field something in 2011 or will we have to wait until iPad 3 or iPad 4 to add them to the spec wars?

Apple's Steve Jobs took the stage immediately today as part of the iPad 2 event with 15 million sold and 90% market share. That's more than every tablet PC ever sold.

Jobs said it "flummoxed" competitors. While some made fun of Jobs calling iPad magical, and others complained about the price, Jobs said to "ask our competitors now". (Referring to the difficulty in matching iPad's price point.)

Jobs showed off 65,000 apps for iPad and 100 -- and they were being generous, he says -- for Android 3.0 Honeycomb and then went into a video of Apple execs, users, educators, professionals, and others proclaiming 2010 the year of the iPad.

As a final shot, Jobs asked if 2011 would be the year of the copycats. With more Honeycomb tablets, HP's TouchPad, and RIM's Playbook all on their way it will be interesting to see how Apple's iPad 2 holds up in 2011.

One of the most persistent complaints levied against the iPhone and iPad were/are the lack of multitasking. This, of course, has always been silly. However, now that BlackBerry QNX PlayBook>, Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets like Xoom, and HP webOS 3.0's TouchPad are set to launch, "true multitasking" is again finding its way into the bullet points of competitively positioned slide decks and ad campaigns. It's still silly but it's also more complicated now.

Does iOS offer "true multitasking", does its competitors? Let's take a look, after the break.

The no iOS multitasking myth

Going back to the original iPhone's introduction in 2007, Steve Jobs' demonstration clearly showed music fading out as a call came in, staying on a call while browsing the web or sending email, and music fading back in as a call ended. Those of us who had Treo's at the time were astounded at how smooth iPhone multitasking was, and how it didn't crash or reboot the phone once.

From launch, the iPhone had great multitasking. It just didn't have 3rd party apps. Fast forward to 2008 and iOS 2, the App Store launched and while Apple's own apps continued to enjoy great multitasking, 3rd party App Store apps weren't allowed any background processes at all. This kept things nice and simple and stable for a certain group of consumers but frustrated power users to no end.

Fast forward again to 2010 and iOS 4 (specifically 4.2 for iPad) and Apple set up a system to allow App Store apps limited multitasking. Not fake multitasking. Not untrue multitasking. But limited multitasking. Apps that were transferring data could keep the connection alive in the background for a short length of time after exit to finish the transfer (like a photo upload or status stream download). Music apps like Pandora could be streamed in the background. VoIP (Voice over IP) apps like Skype to keep a process in the background to receive or continue calls. Turn-by-turn navigation apps like TomTom could keep giving voice directions in the background. True multitasking all, it addressed a huge percentage of mainstream needs. (Not all needs mind you, persistent internet connections for SSH, etc. would have been nice for power users...)

In addition Apple added a few others things to enhance the "appearance" of multitasking from a user perspective. Instead of just leaving apps running forever in the background, using battery power and system resources and requiring user intervention to manage, Apple created a way to "save state" on exit. So, the next time an app launches it's in the same place it was when last it was used. They also (re-)set double click on Home to launch a fast app switcher dock. Hidden behind the regular dock, invisible to users who don't need or want it, it can be called up to quickly jump between recently used apps (or to expose controls for audio, brightness, etc). Not at all "true" multitasking but important when it comes to the perception of multitasking.

It's a compromise solution, one that tries to address the aforementioned battery life and resource issues with ease of use and convenience and while it's not perfect and could use some improvement, it's pretty good. (Especially when you see how fast some competing devices chew through battery life.)

It's also something that might be addressed further when iPad 2 -- with more RAM and processing power -- and iOS 5 are shown off sometime this spring.

Competitive multitasking

RIM's QNX-powered BlackBerry Playbook, HP's webOS 3.0-powered TouchPad, and the slew of Google's upcoming Android 3.0-powered tablets, spearheaded by the Motorola Xoom, are all more or less touting "true multitasking" as a competitive advantage over the iPad. These are the same companies and campaigns touting Flash as the "whole internet/web" and both statements are, ironically, untrue. (We won't touch on Flash here but suffice it to say that while Flash is the most popular plugin on the web, it's far from the only plugin on the web.)

Lest you think this partisan or apologist, Kevin from CrackBerry.com was quick to point this out back during CES when RIM first spoke about true multitasking -- what functionality does it provide to the end user?

Having a movie or video game continue to animate while in card view (webOS or Playbook variety) is great eye candy but isn't functionally any better or truer multitasking than having it save state or pause and then resume when brought back to the foreground. You can't interact with it when in background and more importantly -- you can't interact with multiple cards the way you can with multiple windows on a PC which really does offer true pre-emptive multitasking. To the best of my knowledge you can't watch a movie and play a game at the same time, or drag and drop content between browsers and document editors, for example.

Cards (again webOS or Playbook) are a brilliant and elegant way to visualize multitasking for end users but until you can start dragging and dropping data between them the way you can on a Mac or Windows they're functionally no better than the fast app switcher on iOS.

iOS, in fact, used card view before either webOS or PlayBook -- Pages in Mobile Safari date way back to the original iPhone -- Apple simply lacked the vision to (or chose not to) exploit them throughout the OS. (Even in Safari on iPad I'd argue a tabbing system would be more functional than the grid of pages we now enjoy.)

So while I'd dearly love for Apple repatriate cards/page to the iPad multitasking OS, I'd really only love it if it came with that multiple usage functionality. And when/if that comes, I hope Apple can figure out a way that isn't at the expense of mainstream usability. (If part of the success of iOS is attributable to Apple ruthlessly cutting away everything and anything that wasn't simple and easy for consumers to use, is complexity creep -- while desirable to power users -- the best thing for the platform as a whole?)

Android 3.0 Honeycomb seems to be bringing more of the desktop metaphor to the tablet space, including more multitasking. Their user interface and user experience, however, still seem to be on the back-burner. (Apple's priorities are almost directly inverse to Google's in that regard.)

The truth about true

The iPad multitasks fine. webOS and the strikingly similar BlackBerry tablet OS multitask with better visualization but it's arguable about whether or not that's "truer" and I'd argue it isn't. Further, I'd argue that at this point it really doesn't matter in terms of end user functionality. Android 3.0 Honeycomb may multitask more like a desktop but that's neither more true nor proven better for a wide swath of users. Buried in all that, however, are a few important truths. The pad/tablet industry is still in its infancy and Apple, Google, HP, and RIM aren't anywhere near done exploring interactions and interfaces on their devices. They're all getting better. And since there are a few really strong players (and perhaps Microsoft one day as well), consumers get choice and the competition drives all of them to get better so we consumers choose them.

While Apple -- and hence TiPb -- has no presence at Mobile World Congress, the might Smartphone Experts Network is there in full force to bring back all the Android, HP/Palm, and Windows Phone(/Nokia!) news that's fit to post. Here's where it's all going down:

• Android Central Mobile World Congress coverage
• Windows Phone Mobile World Congress coverage

And who knows, they may even be able to snag some stories for PreCentral.net, CrackBerry.com, and TiPb.com as well. Meanwhile you'll likely be able to catch most of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans Twitter, which typically includes @philnickinson losing every bit of luggage he owns -- twice -- while @backlon (Dieter) comes down with some heretofore undiscovered European flu and @malatesta77 (Dan) attends the Ballmernote in full motorcylce helmet (to protect against sweat and flying developers, no doubt).

If there's anything at MWC 2011 you want us (meaning them!) to keep an eye out for, let us know!

Switching to the Verizon iPhone, or any iPhone, from BlackBerry or Droid (or another Android phone) and curious how to transfer your data over? We've already told you how to switch from AT&T iPhone to Verizon iPhone, but crossing platforms can seem like a bigger headache. It isn't. There's lots of services available to help you transfer data from one device to another. Keep reading for some simple suggestions that can make the process of going from BlackBerry or Droid/Android to the iPhone just a little easier for you.

There are two main ways to move all your data over to iPhone: desktop sync via iTunes and cloud sync via Google, Yahoo!, Exchange, etc.

iTunes

If you want to move your music, TV shows, movies, photos, and other media over to your new iPhone and you already use iTunes on Mac or Windows PC then it's pretty easy.

1. Just plug the dock cable into your iPhone and into your PC and your iPhone will show up in iTunes.
2. Go through the tabs and choose what information, media, and photos you want to sync.
3. Press sync

You can sync multiple iOS devices (if you already have an iPad or iPod touch) with one iTunes library or set up multiple iTunes libraries to keep things extra neat and tidy.

Google Sync

Here is a way to use Gmail or Google Sync to transfer your data. If you're already using a Gmail or Google Account to sync your mail, contacts, and calendars, this process is dead simple. Just make sure you've done a sync on your current BlackBerry or Android device.

1. On your new iPhone tap Settings and go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

2. You'll need to add your new account to your iPhone. Simply tap the new account and then Gmail option.
3. If you want full push, you can also set Gmail up as Exchange as well. Visit Google's Exchange page for instructions on setting up this way.
4. After your account is verified, you can simply choose to sync what items you would like to sync by turning those options On.

5. If a message pops up asking what you'd like to do with the data, choose to replace your iPhone data.

Yahoo! Sync

To perform a sync with Yahoo!, you are essentially going to repeat the same steps you would for Google sync (see above), except you'll choose Yahoo when you choose your new account type. All the options should be identical when it comes to syncing contacts, calendars, and email accounts.

Exchange and Hotmail

If you're using Exchange at work, and/or Windows Live Hotmail at home, again the instructions are the same as above just choose Exchange ActiveSync as your account type. (If you have problems with a work account, check with your IT department for the proper settings)

Transferring contacts and calendars from your computer with iTunes

If you don't use any Google, Yahoo!, Exchange or any online service and you're just looking to transfer your contacts to your iPhone, you can do that too. Whether you have Windows or Mac, you can transfer contacts from your current smartphone to your iPhone pretty easily.

1. Plug your old device into the computer and sync them with either Outlook, Exchange, or Mac Address book. This process is pretty easy but varies from device to device, so you may need to refer to your specific device instructions in order to do this. If you still have an issue doing this, head on over to the Verizon iPhone Forum for some expert switcher advice and help.
2. Once your contacts are already on your computer, you can plug your new iPhone into your computer.
3. Open iTunes and click the Info tab under your iPhone sync settings.
4. You will see a Contacts option. Select that and choose what contacts you would like to be synced to your phone.

5. Click sync and wait for iTunes to do its thing. When complete, your contacts should now be on your new iPhone.

Note: You may have noticed iTunes has native options to configure Yahoo! or Gmail sync. You are more than welcome to use these options as well. They are just as easy. You can also choose to sync calendars via iTunes as well. Use whatever process is going to be more convenient for you on an ongoing basis.

Transferring photos from your old device to your new iPhone [PC users]

1. Simply sync or transfer the photos from your old device into your photos on your Windows PC. Whether you choose to do this with your actual device, or from removable storage like an SD card is your choice.
2. Plug your new iPhone into the computer and open iTunes and navigate to the Photos tab.
3. Navigate your way to where you save your photos to your PC when choosing what photos to sync and make sure to choose the pictures you'd like on your phone.
4. Click sync and wait for iTunes to finish. Your photos should now show up in the Photos app on your iPhone.

Transferring photos from your old device to your new iPhone [Mac users]

1. Plug your old device into your Mac and open iPhoto. (If iPhoto doesn't recognize your Android or Blackberry, simply transfer the pictures from the removable storage in your device, if you have that option.)
2. Your device should show up in the left navigation pane of iPhoto.
3. Name your album and import the photos. Alternately, you could select just the photos you'd like on your new device if you want.

4. Open iTunes and go to the Photos tab. Select the albums or events you'd like to sync to your new iPhone.

5. Click sync and wait for iTunes. After the sync is complete, you should see your new Photos in your Photo app on your iPhone.

Next steps

The iPhone is a pretty easy device to transfer data to. Once you've gotten all your data from your other device into a cloud service or on your computer, it should be easy as pie. If you guys have any issues doing any of this, feel free to check out the TiPb Verizon iPhone Forums for answers to many questions.

For more on using your new Verizon iPhone, check out our iPhone Starters Guide.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you'd like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to news@tipb.com. (If it's especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we'll even give ya a reward...)

Switching from Droid or another Android device like the Samsung Facinate to the iPhone -- maybe the new Verizon iPhone? -- and curious which are the best, most must-have apps you need to make yourself feel at home? Well read on for TiPb’s top 5 most recommended, most must-have apps to get your Android experience maximized on iPhone.

Google Mobile (Voice search + Google Goggles)

Unlike Android, iPhone doesn't (yet) have broad and deeply integrated voice features in iOS. While there's some Voice Control commands for making calls and playing music, that's about it. Enter Google Mobile which not only adds voice search but also bundles in Google Goggles functionality. From location and maps to contacts and the web to most anything you can say or point your iPhone 4 camera at, Google Mobile gets you answers and fast. [Free - iTunes link]

Also check out:

• Siri was bought by Apple for a reason. If you're in the US, Siri is your voice-activated artificially intelligent assistant. [Free - iTunes link]
• Vlingo not only lets you use your voice to call or search but tweet on Twitter and update your status on Facebook. [Free with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

Google Voice

Yes Google Voice is finally available for the iPhone. MInd you, it's still US only but if you want the app you probably have an account already. It's not as deeply integrated as Android but it has all the features you know and love, including push notifications for new SMS text and voicemail messages, listen and/or read voicemail, Google Voice number displayed as Caller ID, access to your iPhone contacts, and it will run in the background under iOS 4 or later. [Free - iTunes link]

Also check out:

• Line2 isn't free but it is business-centric with full on VoIP functionality, cheap rates, and international availability. [Subscription - iTunes Link]
• Skype lets you make free VoIP calls between devices/computers -- including video calls! -- and cheap calls to landline. Free/credits - iTunes link]

Mailroom (Gmail)

You can access your Gmail account via IMAP or with full push via ActiveSync right from Apple's built-in Mail app and while you'll get unified inbox and threaded messages you won't get Stars and you won't get labels. Likewise Gmail.com won't give you the ability to access contacts or view attachments. Enter Mailroom, essential the Gmail.com webapp inside a native iPhone app wrapper that gives you most of the best of both worlds. (See our tip on using Mailroom for a better iPhone Gmail experience.) [$2.99 - iTunes link]

Also check out:

• Google Mobile, mentioned above, gives you push notification for your Gmail. [Free - iTunes link]
• Boxcar not only gives you push notification for Gmail but will open it for you in Mailroom. [Free - iTunes link]

Waze (Google Navigation)

Google hasn't yet made a version of their free Google Navigation app for iPhone but Waze provides a free crowd-sourced alternative. It's full on voice, turn-by-turn directions that learns as you drive and will even let you munch tokens and reward you for your contributions. Yes, it's navigation gone social. [Free - iTunes link]

Also check out:

• NAVIGON MobileNavigator if you want to go up to a premium navigation experience with all the onboard maps and bells and whistles that come with it. [$39.99 - iTunes link]
• AT&T Navigator, powered by TeleNav, keeps your maps online, your downloads small, and is subscription based so your upfront costs are much less. [Subscription - iTunes link]

Safari (Porn and everything else)

Apple's iTunes App Store is curated and Steve Jobs says that's to protect you from porn. He also says the Android Market is a porn store. He neglects to mention iPhone has pretty much the best browser in the mobile space (Flash aside) and the web, it be filled with porn. It also be filled with pretty much everything else, including many awesome Google web apps like Google Docs that work just great in Safari. If you can't find something on the App Store, launch Safari, hit the Google search box (irony!) and chances are you'll find it on the web. [Built in]

Also check out:

• Skyfire is a browser that does server-side translation of Flash to iPhone-friendly H.264 so if you ever think you're missing your favorite Flash video, this could fix you up. [$2.99 - iTunes link]
• Apple's iPhone web app directory has a great list of web apps should you want to find a bunch more. [Web link]

More Google

Google has a bunch of apps in the App Store, including Google Places, Google Latitude, Google Authenticator, Panoramio, and Google Earth. If you really miss your Google fix, check them out. [Free - iTunes link]

More iPhone apps and games

Once you've gotten that Google fix and you're ready for the best of the rest, check out TiPb's Top 10 iPhone apps where we list off some of the best, most must-have social networking, communications/IM, productivity, music/internet radio, photography, utility, and location apps, along with casual, time management, and hard core games. We've also got an ongoing series of top app lists in different categories and we're adding more all the time, so keep your eyes peeled!

Bonus: Jailbreak

If you've been rooting your Droid or Android and don't want Apple telling you which apps and hacks you can install on your device, allow us to introduce you to the wonderful world of Jailbreak. We're talking the Cydia Store, themes and customizations, notifications and easy settings access, and pretty much everything else you can think of and Apple would never approve. Check out our Jailbreak Starters Guide to get you going, our Top 5 Jailbreak apps and Top 5 Jailbreak themes for some of our favorites, and head on over to the Jailbreak Forum for expert help and discussion.

Your top apps?

So there you have them, our top 5 best iPhone apps for Droid/Android switchers. Be sure to check out our Picks of the Week and iPhone App and Games Forum for more recommendations, and if we missed any of your favorites leave them in the comments below!

On the same day Apple and News Corp debuted The Daily, Google held their own event to once again show off Android 3.0 Honeycomb, a tablet-centric version of their mobile OS that Motorola, HTC, Samsung and others will use to compete with iPad 2.

Android Central has literally a ton of coverage up and from the looks of it Google is trying to be a little more desktop about the tablet than Apple has thus far. We'll see Android 3.0 Honeycomb on the Motorola Xoom and no doubt a plethora of other tablets this year. We'll see iPad 2 this spring and just as certainly an iOS 5 event soon as well.

Check out the Honeycomb event video after the break and let us know what you think. Anything Apple needs to pay particular attention to come iPad 2?

[Android Central Android 3.0 Honeycomb event recap]

The Verizon iPhone is almost upon us and it looks like many of you are making the big switch! Whether you're leaving the AT&T iPhone or moving from BlackBerry or Droid, you'll have to move your data over and maybe look for ways to keep some of the functionality you're used to. That's the topic for this episode of TiPb TV!

Sure the iPhone is popular and famous for being easy to use but It can be stressful to leave a network or device you're used to and comfortable with and pick up something new. The good news is if you're going from the AT&T iPhone to the Verizon iPhone you're just an iTunes backup and restore away from the simplest switch imaginable. If you're going from BlackBerry or Droid, however, the differences will be more pronounced.

Rene and I go over how cloud services like Gmail can help you get your contacts over (and provide push email, contacts, and calendars!) and App Store apps like Kik Free - (iTunes link], Waze [Free - iTunes link] and others can help replace things like BBM and Google Navigation.

If you're used to rooting on Android or themes on BlackBerry we'll also introduce you to Jailbreak and the new ThemeIt store for iPhone. And if you need any extra help we have Verizon iPhone Forums just waiting for you as well as our TiPb Guides and TiPb Tips and How-to sections with tons more info.

So are you ready to make the switch? Watch the video above and let us know how it's going for you in the comments!

It appears as if Netgear's CEO is trying to back peddle his way out of those harsh words he had for Steve Jobs and Apple yesterday. In an email, Patrick Lo says he still feels the same towards Apple keeping iOS closed but says he does apologize for the remarks he made about Apple's CEO Steve Jobs.

Hi. As many of you know I spoke in Sydney on Monday, at a lunch with more than a half dozen of Australia’s leading technology and business journalists. We covered a wide range of topics including the emergence of new IP protocols, cloud computing, wireless routers/repeaters in the home, the National Broadband Network (a current major Government project in Australia) and much more. During the course of the discussion, I shared my views about the future of Apple and Microsoft, as well as the surge of Android. Some of my comments were covered by the media who attended, and were reported more broadly outside Australia by media and bloggers who picked up on the story.

I stand by the opinions I stated on the business issues. Supporting open standards and environments in order to ease seamless networking integration of multimedia content is good for the consumer and good for content providers.

However, I deeply regret the choice of words I used in relation to business decisions Apple must grapple with in the future in relation to open vs. closed systems, which have been construed by some to be references to Steve Jobs’ health and which was never my intention. I sincerely apologize that what I said was interpreted this way, and I wish Steve only the very best.

Patrick Lo, NETGEAR Chairman and CEO

Many people were fired up by his harsh words towards Jobs so now that he's apologized does he get let off the hook or was this just PR recovery?

[ MacDailyNews ]

According to Android Central this is Motorola's big Superbowl commercial for their new Android 3.0 Honeycomb-running Xoom tablet, and it's targeting Apple's iPad by once again trotting out the old canard of Apple fascism. I'm glad AC managed to sleuth that out because I'm not sure many mainstream football viewers are going to have any idea at all what this thing is about.

It sure would be fun to guess though. I'm going for Spaceballs sequel. Leave your funniest answer in the comments!

[Android Central]