Siri, Apple’s digital assistant technology exclusive to the iPhone 4S, currently accounts for nearly 25 percent of all search queries conducted through the Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine. According to The New York Times:

Less than three years ago, Dr. Wolfram created a new kind of search engine, called Wolfram Alpha . Unlike Google or Microsoft’s Bing, Wolfram Alpha does not forage the Web. It culls its own painstakingly curated database to find answers. [...] the technology has come a long way, including delivering many answers for Siri, the question-answering personal assistant in the Apple iPhone 4S.

Originally geared towards math and science queries, Wolfram Alpha has expanded functionality to cover tasks like unit conversions, statistical data aggregation, and consumer-oriented activies such as displaying local show times or calculating distances. This has made it far more useful to mainstream consumers — the kind likely to have an iPhone 4S and Siri.

Apple sold over 37 million iPhones last quarter and the iPhone 4S took the top spot in terms of smartphone popularity, so it’s no surprise that a full quarter of searches on the service are from Apple’s digital assistant. And with smartphone adoption hitting massive growth — paired with speculation that Apple has plans to bring Siri to future iOS devices — it doesn’t seem all that far-fetched to imagine Wolfram working overtime just to provide curated results for Apple products.

Source: NYT

Probably like many of you, I received my new Google Privacy Policy via email this week, and while couched in language about creating a more “beautiful” experience for us, the users — read: products — it’s also clearly about Google leveraging their popular services like Search and Gmail to help their new services, like Google+, become competitive with Facebook and Twitter.

Because Facebook and Twitter scare the shit out of Google and when companies, like people, are scared they do dumb things.

Google in particular, once the brash, brazen upstart that gave the proverbial middle finger to old, portal-style search sites and promised to always deliver the best results, not just the best Google-owned results, is struggling with their inner demons now. They don’t want to be replaced by social search the way their authoritative search replaced Yahoo! and Alta Vistas of old.

I’ve riffed before that any company sufficiently large is indistinguishable from evil. As they grow, as they face competitive pressures, the interests and agendas of their shareholders, stakeholders, and executives increasingly and more noticeably diverge from the interests of their users. From us.

They, like many of us, become the parents they used to despise.

Why does this matter to me and why am I posting it on iMore, an iPhone and iPad focused site? Because I’m a huge user of Google services and iPhone and iPad users in general are huge users of Google’s services. We use Google Search, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and other services every day. We give Google massive amounts of personal information. We give them our trust. And that absolutely means we have both the right and obligation to hold them to that trust.

According to Sarah Lacey at PandoDaily, Google’s new, “don’t be don’t be evil” direction has become a concern even for many Googlers past and present, and the silence surrounding it is stymying even internal PR.

Good. This shouldn’t be easy. It should be messy and public and painful, and if Google wants to keep getting and using our data, they should keep earning that privilege.

Hopefully the rumors of Larry Page not wanting to hear any opposition to their new Google+ strategy are false, and like Apple and Facebook have sometimes done in the past, Google’s more unpopular new policies will be reversed, and soon.

Check the source link below for more on the issues surrounding Google’s new, more publicly evil direction, and read on for the new privacy policy in full.

More: Page Rage Escalates As Google Cancels Twitter Android Meeting

Dear Google user,

We’re getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.

We believe this stuff matters, so please take a few minutes to read our updated Privacy Policy and Terms of Service at http://www.google.com/policies. These changes will take effect on March 1, 2012.

One policy, one Google experience

Easy to work across Google

Our new policy reflects a single product experience that does what you need, when you want it to. Whether you’re reading an email that reminds you to schedule a family get-together or finding a favorite video that you want to share, we want to ensure you can move across Gmail, Calendar, Search, YouTube, or whatever your life calls for with ease.

Tailored for you

If you’re signed into Google, we can do things like suggest search queries – or tailor your search results – based on the interests you’ve expressed in Google+, Gmail, and YouTube. We’ll better understand which version of Pink or Jaguar you’re searching for and get you those results faster.

Easy to share and collaborate

When you post or create a document online, you often want others to see and contribute. By remembering the contact information of the people you want to share with, we make it easy for you to share in any Google product or service with minimal clicks and errors.

Protecting your privacy hasn’t changed

Our goal is to provide you with as much transparency and choice as possible, through products like Google Dashboard and Ads Preferences Manager, alongside other tools. Our privacy principles remain unchanged. And we’ll never sell your personal information or share it without your permission (other than rare circumstances like valid legal requests).

Got questions?

We’ve got answers.

Visit our FAQ at http://www.google.com/policies/faq to read more about the changes. (We figured our users might have a question or twenty-two.)

Notice of Change

March 1, 2012 is when the new Privacy Policy and Terms will come into effect. If you choose to keep using Google once the change occurs, you will be doing so under the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Please do not reply to this email. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered. Also, never enter your Google Account password after following a link in an email or chat to an untrusted site. Instead, go directly to the site, such as mail.google.com or www.google.com/accounts. Google will never email you to ask for your password or other sensitive information.

Motorola has filed an injunction against Apple, claiming the iPhone 4S and iCloud infringe on six different patents. The six patents included in the suit are:

• U.S. Patent No. 5,710,987 on a “receiver having concealed external antenna”
• U.S. Patent No. 5,754,119 on a “multiple pager status synchronization system and method”; Motorola is asserting the European equivalent of this patent against Apple in Mannheim, with a decision (that will likely be favorable for Motorola) scheduled for Friday of next week (February 3, 2012)
• U.S. Patent No. 5,958,006 on a “method and apparatus for communicating summarized data”
• U.S. Patent No. 6,101,531 on a “system for communicating user-selected criteria filter prepared at wireless client to communication server for filtering data transferred from host to said wireless client”
• U.S. Patent No. 6,008,737 on an “apparatus for controlling utilization of software added to a portable communication device”
• U.S. Patent No. 6,377,161 on a “method and apparatus in a wireless messaging system for facilitating an exchange of address information”

Motorola already has a suit against Apple from the fall of 2010 that’s still on-going in the Florida court system. It was too late in the process for them to add these patents to the current case. They’ve instead opted to file it as a separate case. Since these new filings occurred following Google’s purchase of Motorola Mobility, it probably means that Google authorized Motorola to go ahead with the litigation. Since there’s already a suit pending on some of these patents, the second trial may move quicker unless new claims are made. It seems typical for companies to go after patents they’ve already filed for infringement on as the process moves along a lot faster.

All of the above patents are being asserted against the iPhone 4S while two of them are also being asserted upon iCloud.

For more information, follow the source link below.

Source: Foss Patents

Google has officially launched its Orkut app for iPhone, letting users of Brazil and India’s favorite social network access the service on-the-go.

The official Orkut app for iOS connects you to your friends and family. Now you can send scraps, see your friends updates, upload photos and browse your friends albums anywhere you go. Never miss a conversation again because you are not in front of your computer: get the free Orkut app and stay connected.

• Update your status
• Check your scraps and messages
• Reply to your friends birthdays
• Check your friends updates
• Browse your friends profiles, scraps and photos
• Take new photos and upload them directly to your Orkut albums
• Share your life anywhere, anytime with the people you care about

Although Orkut isn’t as popular as Facebook in most parts of the world, the Google-owned social network that’s not Google+ has gained popularity in Brazil and India, where roughly 80 percent of its active user base resides.

Orkut is available now in the App Store and is compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch.

• Free — App Store Link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Google+ has been updated with the ability to start video Hangouts from Messenger as well as a new UI for photos and mysterious bug fixes.

• Start a video Hangout from Messenger
• New photos UI
• Bug fixes

I’m not a big Google+ user, but to those of you who are – let us know what you think of this update!

Google+ is available on the iPhone for free.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

What better New Year’s resolution to start with than to check out all your in-app privacy settings, especially where Google, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks are concerned? We know how it goes; you get a shiny new iPhone or iPad app and you just want to use it so you log in through Twitter of Facebook or Google because it’s easy, quickly tap through all the set up pages, granting who knows what permissions and for how long, and then forget about it the moment the next shiny app comes along.

MyPermissions.org thinks you should take a few moments to review your settings, revoke or reduce access for those apps that no longer need full, free access to your personal, sometimes private data, and get 2012 off on a saner, more socially secure start.

(I just did mine and I was startled how many old apps still had access to my stuff.)

Source: MyPermission.org

If you ever wondered how to share your current location or any particular location you fancy when using the Maps app, it is very easy to do. It can also be a very powerful way to help your friends find you or find a location that interests them that you want to share.

• Open the Maps app
• Let it locate you or if you want to share a different location, search for it in the top right corner search box
• Once your location is shown on the map, click on the push pin

• A box should open with a red circle on the left and a blue arrow on the right
• The circle on the left is for street view; the arrow on the right is for more information
• Click the arrow on the right, it will open an information page on the location selected

• You now have a few options, Directions to Here, Directions from Here, Add to Contacts, Share Location and Add to Bookmarks
• We want Share Location

• You then have three options, Email, Message, Tweet
• Select whichever method you want to send the location by, in this example we are using Email
• This opens up the email send box, you will see an attachment already there ending in .vcf.

• Fill in the recipients address and that’s it
• When the recipient receives the file, they can open it on their iOS device and it will show them the same info page

• The link to the map will show the exact location and from there, you can get navigation details from your current location.

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 dailytips@tipb.com.

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Rene, Seth, and Jim Dalrymple talk Apple’s endgame, 7-inch challenges, putting the user first, the problem with Newsstand, Google Currents, and more. This is iPad Live!

Hosts

• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford)

Special Guest

• Jim Dalrymple 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!

Google has revamped Google Image search results on the iPad (and other tablets) and implemented a new carousel style user interface making it much easier to navigate. Gone are the days of viewing the full resolution image and having to go back to the results to see the next one; here are the days of simply swiping to the next full resolution image! Need more information on a particular image? Not a problem as all you have to do is tap the link in the lower left corner and the site begins to load. From the outside it looks exactly the same, but the new functionality is another page in Google’s redesign book.

Source: Google Mobile Blog

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

According to 9to5Google, the reason Google Wallet is nowhere to be found on the upcoming Android Samsung Galaxy Nexus is because… wait for it… Verizon has blocked it. That’s worth repeating. Google has allowed a carrier to prevent users from having a Google app on a platform marketed as being open, on a device meant to be the very flagship, the beacon of that openness.

If this story turns out to be accurate, it wouldn’t be the first time Google has caved to Verizon. They’ve turned their backs on the net neutrality principles they previously held dear, for Verizon. They’ve betrayed their users by allowing crapware to be indelibly pre-installed on Android, for Verizon and other carrier partners. They even allowed the delay of Galaxy Nexus in the country in which they’re headquartered, more than likely for Verizon.

And none of that would be a problem, none of it would even be noteworthy except that Google has used openness — complete openness — time and again as a weapon against Apple — a way to turn users away from iOS and rally them to Android. And now, as then, it’s deliberately misleading at best and a flat out lie at worst. It’s said in a way that suggests it’s better for end users when it’s not. It’s said in a way that suggests it puts control in the end user’s hands when it doesn’t. It puts in back in the carrier’s hands. It’s better for the carriers.

With the corruption of the Nexus line, it’s not even “openy” any more. It’s less than openy.

If you use Android rather than iOS because you like a choice of hardware form factors, or prefer the deep integration of Google services, or its UI better fits the way your brain works, or you just flat out think it’s better on any or many levels, that’s fantastic. If you use Android for philosophical reasons and a fundamental belief in it being nobler and more open, you’ve been bamboozled. Again.

Update 1: Google has confirmed that Verizon asked for Google Wallet to be excluded from the Galaxy Nexus [CNet]

Update 2: Verizon says they’re not blocking Google Wallet, they’re just not letting it on the Galaxy Nexus. Wait, what? [Android Central]

Source: 9to5 Google via Android Central

Google+ updated to support full resolution photo uploads as well as the ability to add a +1 on photos and search. Here’s the release notes:

• full resolution photo uploads
• search
• photo +1
• bug fixes and performance improvements

It’s not mentioned in the notes, but the icon was also updated to reflect Google’s new favicon logo.

Now, who’s waiting for the update that turns Google+ into a universal application for both iPhone and iPad?

Google+ is available on the iPhone for free.

[App Store link]

We’ve kicked off another week here at TiPb so you’ll want to make sure you stay tuned, not only to the blogs for all the latest and greatest news, help and how-to’s but also the TiPb forums as well. Have some questions? Need some help? Or maybe you just want to chat — either way, the TiPb forums is where you’ll want to be. You can register now for the forums and get started today! Check out some of the threads below:

• iPhone 4S Forum: iPhone 4 vs. iPhone 4S – Which to choose?
• iOS5 Forum: Safari not remembering passwords, anyone else?
• iPad Forum: Risk in buying a jailbroken iPad 2 — is there any?
• iPhone Apps and Games Forum Another native Google+ app

If you’re not already a member of the TiPb Forums, register now!

Google is collecting information from Wi-Fi access points from all over the world  to enable it to speed up location services. Unfortunately it is gathering this information and maybe more, without the consent of the owners of the access point.

What’s more, Google is not only gathering data from public Wi-Fi access points but also from home and business users too. If you value your privacy, there is a way to stop Google recording your Wi-Fi access point’s location information. It’s reasonably straight forward to implement.

• Log in to your routers home page; usually this is done via an IP address similar to 192.168.0.1 if you don’t know, consult your router instruction manual
• Once you are logged in, go to the routers Wireless Settings

• Find the name or SSID of your Wi-Fi access point

• Add _nomap to the end o the the SSID

• Make sure to Apply or Save the changes
• That’s it, Google will no longer have your Wi-Fi router in its database.

Source: Google via Android Central

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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
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• 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!

While the big news yesterday was Adobe putting a bullet in the head of Flash Player for mobile, Ryan Lawler over a *GigaOm” noted a similar end for Flash for TV.

Adobe will continue to support existing licensees who are planning on supporting Flash Player for web browsing on digital home devices and are using the Flash Player Porting Kit to do so. However we believe the right approach to deliver content on televisions is through applications, not a web browsing experience, and we will continue to encourage the device and content publishing community down that path.

Apple TV, of course, never supported Flash Player, instead creating apps for YouTube, and a long while later, Vimeo and other web-based video sites. Google, however, decided to go all in with Flash — effectively turning their backs on a tradition of open, standards based web support — just to have a checkbox they thought would hurt Apple and help their ODM‘s compete.

Hopefully now, with all giant ships pointing in the same HTML 5 direction, users on all major platforms will get better technology, faster.

Source GigaOm

As promised — or at least as constantly talked about — Google+ has been opened up to businesses and brands so everyone and their enterprise can now get in on the social sharing action:

Google+ has always been a place for real-life sharing, and Google+ Pages is no exception. After all: behind every page (or storefront, or four-door sedan) is a passionate group of individuals, and we think you should able to connect with them too.

For you and me, this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world. And by adding them to circles, we can create lasting bonds with the pages (and people) that matter most.

The Muppets, Anderson Cooper 360, Macy's, BurBerry, Angry Birds and more are already up and waiting for you, and thanks to Direct Connect, your searches can take you right to Google + Pages now as well. Hit the link below for all the details.

Source: Official Google Blog

Google released their new Gmail for iPhone and iPad app today and due to some launch-time bugs involving push notifications, TiPb’s getting a lot of questions about Notification Error “no valid ‘aps-environment’ entitlement string found for application, what it means, and what can be done about it.

Short answer: It means Google messed up Push Notifications and there’s nothing you can do about it until Google fixes it and Apple pushes out that fix.

Long answer: We reached out to Paul Haddad of Tapbots and Tweetbot fame to get a better informed idea of what’s going on, and this is what he was kind enough to share:

In the iOS Provisioning Portal you need to various different certificates. For all apps you’ll normally generate a Development, AdHoc distribution and Store distribution certificates. For push enabled apps you also need to generate Development and Production Push certificates.

What I think happens is that most people start by generating and downloading the 3 standard certificates and at some later point generate the Push certificates. However when you create the Push certificates it modifies the standard certificates in some way that tells the OS that it can be used for push notifications. You’ll often re-generate/download the Development and AdHoc certificates as you add new devices for testing, but you only have to re-genrate the Store certificates once a year when renewing with Apple.

So again what Google probably did is create the standard certificates, then create the Push certificates and didn’t re-generate/download the Store certificate. It’s a really easy mistake to make and there’s no indication of a problem anywhere within the submission process to Apple. It’s also a pretty trivial thing to fix and I’d expect Google to re-submit and Apple to expedite the release pretty quickly.

It does make me wonder why Apple didn’t catch this issue, my guess is something about the way they run apps prevents this error from showing up.

As far as I know the only way to see if this is a problem or not is to run the following command

codesign -dvvvv –entitlements – .app

and look for the following two lines in the output

aps-environment production

Thanks Paul!

Google has officially announced a native Gmail app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Yes, you read that right. No, this isn’t a dream. You finally — finally — have native Gmail, stars, labels, attachments, and all, on iOS.

[Google] has created a new Gmail app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. We’ve combined your favorite features from the Gmail mobile web app and iOS into one app so you can be more productive on the go. It’s designed to be fast, efficient and take full advantage of the touchscreen and notification capabilities of your device. And it’s one more reason to switch to Gmail.

Google says Gmail for iOS has been optimized for speed, efficiency, and touch, and includes nice little iOS-nods like “pull down to refresh”. It might be so good even I won’t mind having two separate apps for email…

Go grab it and let us know what you think, and if you don’t see it in the App Store yet, hang tight. It takes a while to propagate through Apple’s servers, but it should be any time now. (One down, 4 to go, 2 months left…)

Free – App Store link

Update 1: Push notification broken, app disappointing

Looks like it’s a thin app wrapper around a WebView with push notification already broken. Hopefully a fix is on the way, not to mention a major update to include features like multiple account support.

Update 2: Google pulls Gmail for iOS

Google has pulled the app to fix the error. If you’re curious about the error, here’s an explanation.

Less than a week since Google Voice voluntarily pulled their iPhone app from the App Store, it has already returned and is ready for iOS 5.

Google removed the the app earlier this week because of an incompatibility issue that was causing Google Voice to crash at sign in.

Google Voice is available on the iPhone for free.

[App Store link]

Source: @googlevoice

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

Google has voluntarily pulled its Google Voice application from the App Store due to an incompatibility with the just released iOS 5 software.  If you search for Google Voice it can no longer be found in the App Store.

Vincent Paquet, Senior Product Manager for Google Voice confirmed that the app had been pulled, explaining “our last update of this week had a bug that caused the app to crash at sign in. We removed it so it did not affect additional users until the fix gets published.”

Source: Engadget

Facebook Photo Importer is an app that lets you import your photos from Picasa (Google+), Instagram, Flickr, and Photobucket to Facebook. It’s fast, easy, and doesn’t use up your data because you’re not uploading the photos from your device.

Facebook Photo Importer lets you import 100 photos in less than a minute, straight to your Facebook profile from Picasa (Google+), Instagram, Flickr and Photobucket.

• Access your Picasa, Flickr, Instagram and Photobucket photo albums.
• Copy 100 photos in less than a minute.
• Imports your photo’s Metadata – Titles, Descriptions.
• Built on Cloud to Cloud technology: Easily import dozens of photos in seconds.
• Does not affect bandwidth or data usage “Cloud based transfers”.
• Select multiple or all photos in your albums – transfer with a single tap.
• Save a lot of time and hassle.

Facebook Photo Importer is available on the iPhone for $1.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Siri isn’t a voice control system. Nobody uses those, and Apple wants something everybody will use. First, they value user experience, second they value differentiation from other platforms, and third, certain business models are predicated on having very large user bases. That’s where the revenue streams become complex and the profit becomes really interesting.

Let’s say iPhone 4S has Siri and it looks cool and it makes people want to buy it. Apple, being well managed and having good hardware margins, makes money on the sale. Then people start using Siri and feeding it incredible amounts of demographic and behavioral data. Apple, being smart, can use all that demographic and behavioral data to develop a high level of customer insight, allowing them to make better and better selling products and services.

But there’s more. If Apple chooses to adopt a Google-style business model, they can aggregate and anonymize that data and sell it to advertisers and marketers. That turns the customers into products, something they tried — and have thus far failed — to do with iAds in apps. Siri moves it to the OS level and while it won’t display ads, it will collect data that can be fed back into iAds, or other advertising and marketing platforms.

Google already pays Apple to be the default search engine on iOS for that very reason — to sell ads against search results. The App Store, however, reduced the amount of searches being conducted on mobile. (As Apple has proudly announced during their events — unlike desktop, people aren’t spending their time in search, they’re spending it in apps.) That started to cut out Google but didn’t cut in Apple.

Siri cuts in Apple. Queries issued through Siri go to Apple’s servers. Apple gets the data on who’s issuing them, when, where, and in relation to what else. Without building a search engine of their own, Apple steals away what makes search so valuable. And because they’re doing much more than search, they can monetize against much more than just search results.

But there’s yet more. Because Apple becomes the intermediary — the walled gate — between their customers and the internet, traditional internet services lose all visibility into their customers. They don’t see iOS users running queries, they see Apple running queries on behalf of iOS users. Tons and tons of them. That loss of visibility means internet services lose the very customer insight Apple has gained — they lose the ability to make better and better selling products, and to monetize individual users.

Apple has already done this with the App Store and iOS subscriptions. App Store developers often don’t know who their end users are, and traditional print media was livid when Apple made the sharing of demographic data opt-in for end users. Sure, account logins can mitigate this somewhat but often make for a worse user experience and there’s no guarantee end users will make accounts for every app that wants them. (Just like not everyone sends in the warranty card for that printer they just bought at Best Buy or Staples.)

With Siri, that extends Apple’s intermediation to internet services as well. So, increasingly, if companies want to get customer insight back, it will become easier to just go to Apple and get it — meaning buy it. To the best of my knowledge Apple doesn’t offer that now for App Store developers and they may never offer it for internet services tied to Siri, but it’s a business model they could choose to explore. It turns the partners and suppliers into customers, and again opens the door to yet another entirely new business.

But there’s even more. With Apple as intermediary, they don’t just get the customer insight for one service, they get them for every service that goes through their system. That includes both complementary and competing services. If visibility into your own users is valuable, how valuable is visibility into your competitors’ users, and their demographics and behavior?

To make it more tangible, Coke has no idea who buys a can of their tasty beverage at the local QuickyMart. But QuickyMart does, with ever-increasing granularity. And if they choose to, and they know how to derive proper customer insight from it, they can use it to better stock their shelves and increase their profits. And they can sell it to advertisers who want to reach their customers. And they can sell it to Coke, who wants to better understand the end consumer to improve their own profitability. And they can sell it to Doritos who wants to be bought alongside Coke, and they can sell it to Pepsi who wants those customers to buy their tasty beverage instead.

Again, Apple may never choose to get into this type of business, or like iAds they may not do it well, or they may get into some or all of it in a very different way. Customer insight, however, opens the door to an increasingly important and valuable revenue source, and Siri opens the door to customer insight.

Disclosure: My previous job was at a cutting edge customer insight analytics company.

Google and Samsung are delaying their CTIA launch event, widely expected to involve the introduction of their next generation Ice Cream Sandwich Android OS, and Nexus Prime handset, in deference to the recent passing of Steve Jobs.

“We believe this is not the right time to announce a new product as the world expresses tribute to Steve Jobs’s passing.”

Classy.



Source: Android Central

Google+ has been updated and brings many new improvements and changes including turning Huddle into Messenger. Another welcomed feature is the ability to +1 on comments.

Here’s the full list changes:

• Join Hangouts from the mobile app
• Huddle is now Messenger
• Send photos in Messenger
• +1 on comments
• Reliability improvements in Messenger
• Granular push notification settings
• Map view in profile for places you’ve lived
• Improved +mention support
• Share a post with individuals
• Improved public search for people
• Various bug and performance improvements

Google+ is available on the iPhone for free.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

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]

Let’s be blunt — if you’re not in the TiPb Forums you’re missing out on the best darn discussion in iPhone and iPad today, so head on over and register now!

• iOS 5 beta 8 to be released this Friday?

• If you’d like to connect with some TiPb forum members on Twitter, Google+, and/or Facebook hit up the links and share your user names.

• iPhone 5 pricing

• iPhone 5 not seeing a redesign?

See you in the forums!

Google has announced via twitter that it now has an HTML 5 iOS optimized web app for its Google Music service. Google Music is currently a beta only service available solely in the U.S. If you already have an account, you can try it out and get access to all your content in this well designed web app. The web app works on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch running iOS 4.

Music Beta users – try the new mobile web app for iOS4 and listen to your music on the go: http://music.google.com

Do any of our readers use Google Music? Have you tried out the HTML 5 web app? Let us know what you think!

[The Next Web]

Google has released an official iPhone app for their blogging platform, Blogger. It supports multiple accounts and location information.

It’s great too see Google offering a native application for Blogger, but it irks me that in Google’s announcement, they refer to the app as Blogger for iOS. This implies that it is for all iOS platforms – but it does not have a universal binary. This is technically an iPhone app. Sure, the iPad has the ability to run iPhone apps, but you have to either run it all tiny in the center of the screen or hit that dreaded 2x button.

So, since Google says that you can now access Blogger from “your iOS device”, does this mean that Google is not planning on making it a universal app? Do they actually think this is good enough for iPad users?

With Blogger app for iPhone and iPod touch, you can easily publish posts with pictures, labels and location information. Also, you can view the list of posts and if you have multiple accounts or blogs, you can easily switch between them.

• Select account/blog if you have more than 1.
• Include pictures from the gallery or by taking a picture directly from the app
• Add labels
• Add location information
• Save as draft or immediately publish
• View list of saved/published posts

Blogger is available on the iPhone for free.

[App Store link] [Google]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Google+ received an update, today, that includes the ability to reshare posts.

Resharing is easy. Simply tap on a post (like you would to +1 it). At the bottom near the comment box, you’ll see a small arrow. Click it and you’ll see the option to “Share this post”. Just choose your audience, add a comment if you like, and hit “Post”.

• Support for reshare
• Bug fixes and performance improvements

Google+ is available on the iPhone for free.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Google Plus Photo Importer is a new iPhone app that allows you to import photos from Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and Photobucket directly into your Google+ profile.

I tried this out real quick with my Instagram photos and it worked like a charm! Importing 60 photos took approximately 30 seconds.

Google Plus Photo Importer lets you Import 100 photos in less than a minute, straight to your Google+ profile from Facebook, Instagram, Flickr and Photobucket.

• Access your Facebook, Flickr, Instagram and Photobucket photo albums.
• Copy 100 photos in less than a minute.
• Built on Cloud to Cloud technology: Easily import dozens of photos in seconds.
• Does not affect bandwidth or data usage “Cloud based transfers”.
• Select multiple or all photos in your albums – transfer with a single tap.
• Imports your photo’s Metadata – Titles, Descriptions.
• Save a lot of time and hassle.

Google Plus Photo Importer is available on the iPhone for $0.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Starting with iPhone 3GS, Apple began including compasses (technically magnometers) in their iOS devices. To activate the compass and get directions that actually have a sense of direction:

• Open up Google Maps
• Double tap the location button in the bottom left corner of the screen

This enables the digital compass, and while active it will rotate the onscreen map to match the direction you’re facing. Again, this tip will only work with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and all iPads, as these models have a built-in magnometer.

Have any other tips or tricks for getting better navigation? Let us know!

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…)

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]

Let’s be blunt — if you’re not in the TiPb Forums you’re missing out on the best darn discussion in iPhone and iPad today, so head on over and register now!

• Get your Google+ invites here. And if you need people in your circles feel free to add myself or Rene and the rest of the TiPb crew!

• iPhone 5 design

• Will the iPhone actually land on Sprint?

• Who will introduce the next generation iPhone?

See you in the forums!

Steve Jobs called up Google’s Vic Gundotra on a Sunday morning to get an urgent fix for something they were working on, and Gundotra was gracious enough to share the story on Google+.

“So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I’ve already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow” said Steve.

“I’ve been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I’m not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn’t have the right yellow gradient. It’s just wrong and I’m going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?”

Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject “Icon Ambulance”. The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon.

These are the eyes, and the attention to detail, Apple needs to fight to keep in place moving forward.

[+Vic Gundotra, MacRumors]

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Rene, Seth, and Georgia discuss iPhone 5 launch dates, LTE 4G rumors, the Grid 4 JooJoo phone, Google buying Motorola, LinkedIn, and Dropbox vs. iCloud. This is iPhone Live!

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

Our music comes from the following sources:

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

Why would Google pay $12.5 billion for Motorola? It cost them 18 months of their profits. It’s 3 times what Apple, Microsoft, and a consortium of others paid for Nortel’s patents. It’s 10 times what HP paid for Palm. Hell, Google is guaranteeing twice as much in break-up penalty alone as HP paid for Palm. Why would a smart company like Google, one that’s already sunk untold resources into an OS they essentially give away for free, spend so much of their capital on a single Android licensee for whom profitability is a somewhat distant memory?

Patents is the throw away line, the canard Larry Page foisted at the end of his blog post and the sound bite rival Android ODMs repeated, Stepford-like when welcoming Motorola’s new overlord to the Open Handset Alliance table. Were Motorola’s patents worth 3 times Nortel’s? Were they worth 10 times Palm’s? (Especially considering Apple and Microsoft are already suing Motorola and Palm’s patents are such that there hasn’t even been a whisper of patent-suit in their general direction?)

Likewise set top boxes. Apple calls Apple TV a hobby. Google TV could, perhaps, charitably fall into that category as well. Granted, getting Android software onto the actual cable box is more compelling than an iOS box in addition to a cable box, but the key word in all these equations is “cable”. Both traditional land-based cable companies (most of which are monopolies) and satellite companies, (which are duopolies or oligopolies), have vested interests in control and content and they’re the ultimate arbiter in which boxes they offer and to whom. (TiVo and Windows Media Centers with cable cards haven’t fought their way out of that paper bag yet either.) Is that business worth $12.5 billion?

Let’s get Oliver Stone about this for a minute and look at a) where Google makes their money, and b) the historical reason for Androids existence and continued development.

Google makes their money from advertising — monetize eyeballs and attention — traditionally off desktop web based search using their AdSense and AdWords engines. The world is moving to mobile, however, and Google being the brilliant company they are, and a one-trick pony being the danger that it is, they’ve expanded into email based advertising (Gmail), bought into video based advertising (YouTube), finally made a credible beachhead into social networks which could be advertised to (Google+), and have previously bought a leading mobile advertising company (AdMob) to help diversify and position themselves for the future. It’s still one pony, but it’s learning more tricks.

Android was created by Andy Rubin and team — the folks who originally brought you the Sidekick — and bought by Google in a move somewhat at odds with Google’s previously web philosophies (which likely accounts for the parallel existence of ChromeOS). While Android doesn’t directly allow Google to make money in their traditional way, it provides a platform where Google can do just that. Historically that’s important because pre-2007, mobile was owned by RIM’s BlackBerry, Palm’s (and PalmOS’) Treo, and by Google’s rival, Microsoft and their licensed Windows Mobile platform. Those, mostly front-facing QWERTY devices with incredibly bad browsers (Blazer, Pocket IE, etc.), defined the industry so much that early Android devices looked exactly like them. And intentionally so. Someone familiar with a Treo or BlackBerry or Windows Mobile Standard device could put one down, pick up an Android, and push aside (no NOC or ActiveSync), get a familiar mobile experience.

That was important to Google because, while they owned advertising, they had no control over the screen needed to display those ads. Conceivably, at some point, Palm or RIM or Microsoft could pull a switch, wall a garden, and lock Google out of a mobile OS as quickly and completely as Facebook has locked them out of a growing portion of the web. (This was never as much of a concern on Windows, which owns most of the desktop market, as it’s been subject to such regulatory scrutiny that Microsoft likely couldn’t ever do wall up IE, much less Firefox, Opera, or other alternatives.)

Android gave Google a mobile insurance policy — if any of those then-dominant companies cut them off, Google could pour ad-bucks into replacing them with Android.

Then the iPhone happened, and not only did it revolutionize the smartphone market, it put a useable browser in a smartphone for the first time. Google was so into this idea that then Google CEO and Apple board member, Eric Schmidt, briefly took the stage with Steve Jobs at the iPhone introduction to show Google properties would be right there with it.

Google also immediately stopped efforts at launching a BlackBerry or Windows Mobile Standard clone and began work on iPhone clones. (Much to their credit — it took most competitors years to come to that realization.) They did that because, once again, regardless of how good a browsing (and advertising) experience iPhone (and subsequent devices like iPod touch and iPad) were, Google didn’t own them, and that meant they were now one exclusive search deal with Yahoo! or Bing away from being marginalized from the biggest thing in mobile.

Then, even though Apple owned mobile browsing, Apple introduced the App Store which repackaged the web from browser-centric to app-centric, and into a place much more difficult for Google to present the traditional ads that made up most of their revenue. (Buying AdMob helped, though Apple’s back-and-forth policies on what data could be collected and shared didn’t.) It wasn’t Facebook bad for Google, but it wasn’t good.

So Android became even more important, though at equal and opposite cost. To drive adoption and win market share, Google gave Android away for free, under a very manufacturer- and carrier-friendly Apache license. Verizon licensed “Droid” from George Lucas, put together a great ad campaign with some well differentiated hardware from Motorola, while HTC and Google collaborated on the Nexus One, and suddenly Google was back in the mainstream and geek-centric mobile games. (Honeycomb, not so much as it is but as it will be after a few more iterations, was a very similar response to iPad and its share of mobile web traffic.)

But manufacturer- and carrier-friendly Apache licenses are bastards to deal with in the real world. Verizon put out a phone with Google stripped out and Bing stripped in, destroying the very reason for Android’s existence in the first place. AT&T locked out sideloading. Manufacturers secured bootloaders. Carriers everywhere began pre-installing crapware. China forked Android. Could Verizon one day do the same? Could Amazon? vOS or AmazonOS with Bing everywhere, and Google forced to bid for placement on the very platform they’d spent their resources developing and promoting? (Hey, the JooJoo2 — sorry, Grid 10 — reduces Android to a kernel with Amazon appstore and Bing search sitting on top of the revenue layer.) Companies like Skyhook even tried to take Google out of the data collection loop, resulting in the first real, public example of Google retaliating with what Android power they still had left (and also resulting in a lawsuit from Skyhook questioning how Google wields that power.)

At the same time, Samsung started to grow their own OS with Bada, HTC was making Windows Phones, and Motorola bought a company that could, conceivably, give them their own version of webOS one day. (While HP made some noise about licensing webOS itself.)

Meanwhile Microsoft and Apple began suing Android ODMs, Microsoft in an effort to make Android more expensive and Apple in an effort to make it less usable. HTC agreed to pay Microsoft $5 a unit, making it a credible threat. Apple hasn’t achieved much of anything other than temporary — and overturned — sales injunctions but that could change. While Google makes little off Android handsets today (conversely, Apple owns 66% of mobile profits), making nothing is much, much worse. The idea of losing “free” and losing the UI candy and UX touches that make iPhone so popular once again showed Google that even with Android it still wasn’t in control of its own destiny.

Google still lacked a manufacturing arm that could, if everyone and everything else turned against them — if Samsung forked Android or went all in on Bada, if HTC switched to Windows Phone, if LG inked an exclusive deal with webOS or rebuilt it themselves — produce mobile products that still offered great value and great experience and did so with Google’s software and services inextricably and irremovably backed in.

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Motorola.

Sure, there’s some risk that, with the Motorola deal, Google will alienate licensees and, ironically, drive them exactly where Google was afraid of — Bada and Windows Phone and webOS, etc. But Google has shown time and time again they’d rather be secure in and of themselves even if it costs them a partner (like Apple on iOS, Skyhook and mapping companies, etc.)

Motorola brings a second pony to Google’s show, a gateway to potentially Apple-like hardware profits in both mobile and set top boxes that also happens to have some patents. But most importantly –

Like Android has been from the beginning, it remains today — insurance for Google, and in that regard, Google just doubled down and upped their policy by $12.5 billion.

Apple Chief Financial Officer, Peter Oppenheimer, was asked what he thought about Android maker Google’s intent to purchase handset maker Motorola Mobility during a Gleacher & Company conference call. Oppenhemier’s response?

“$12.5 billion is a lot of money.”

Indeed.

[Cult of Mac]

Google has released their newest app, Google Catalogs, for the iPad. It features digital versions of catalogs across many popular categories, including fashion and apparel, beauty, jewelry, home, kids and gifts.

Details, screenshots, and video after the break.

[App Store link]

A new, rich, and engaging way to interact with all your favorite catalogs. Flip through pages of beautiful catalogs, discover inspiring photos and videos, save products that catch your eye, and create collages to share with your friends.

• Catalogs for everyone: Apparel & fashion for men, women, and children; beauty; jewelry; home goods; gifts; and more to come!
• Rich media: View products up close, tap tags for price and details, view additional product photos and videos.
• Easy purchasing: A single tap lets you find a product nearby or visit a merchant’s website to make a purchase.
• Get notified of new issues: Favorite the catalogs you love and get notified when new issues arrive.
• Get creative: Create collages of products you’ve saved from different catalogs. View other collages for inspiration.
• Share with friends: Email a product or collage to your friends.

Some of the names you’ll find are: Anthropologie, Bare Escentuals, Bergdorf Goodman, Crate and Barrel, L.L. Bean, Lands’ End, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Pottery Barn, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sephora, Sundance, Tea Collection, Urban Outfitters and Williams-Sonoma.

Google Catalogs is available on the iPad for free.

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

• Download it directly with this link
• Subscribe directly to the Podcast feed with your favorite Podcatcher here
• How to subscribe in Google Listen (YouTube link)
• Subscribe in iTunes
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[Android Central]

Holy heck! Waking up to the news of Google buying Motorola Mobility just shows you how fast our industry is moving and changing. But what does it mean for Apple, iPhone and iPad? Will Google really continue to run Motorola “as is” without much change, and Droids and Xooms will just come out again as they came out before? Or will Google start to copy the Apple model more and give Motorola exclusive Nexus handsets with much better, and even more competitive integration? Or will HTC, Samsung, and other Android OEMs feel screwed by this whole deal and start looking more seriously at Windows Phone or maybe even webOS, resulting in less choice for consumers on the Android side?

What do you think, TiPb Nation? Will Motorola for one welcome their new overlords and remain status quo, or is this the beginning of a new galactic order when it comes to iPhone and iPad competition? Vote in the poll above and give me your analysis in the comments below!

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

Google has filed a request with the United States Patent on Trademark Office (USPTO), asking that 2 of the patents Lodsys is using the troll iOS and Android developers be re-examined.

“We’ve asked the US Patent Office to reexamine two Lodsys patents that we believe should never have been issued,” Google senior vice president and general counsel Kent Walker told Wired.com in a statement. “Developers play a critical part in the Android ecosystem and Google will continue to support them.”

While re-examination could get the patents thrown out, the more common result seems to be a narrowing of focus. Likewise, while the ongoing Lodsys lawsuits could be paused pending the re-examination, there’s no guarantee of that either.

It’s nice to finally see Google take some action, though Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents seems non-plussed:

While I agree with Google’s senior vice president and general counsel Kent Walker that those patents should never have been issued, I don’t consider those reexamination requests — unless they will be accompanied by more forceful and useful measures very soon — a serious commitment to supporting Android app developers against trolls. If this is all that Google does, it’s too little, too late, and calling it “half-hearted” would be an overstatement.

Apple, by contrast, has filed a motion to intervene in the cases. Apple, Google, Microsoft and others are already licensed under an agreement with previous patent holder, Intellectual Ventures. There was a theory that the Intellectual Ventures license might prevent Apple et al from trying to invalidate the patents, so either that’s not the case or Google is going for it anyway.

Meanwhile, the whole situation continues to cost developers time, money, attention, and sanity. (Which is part of why this matters.

[Wired, FOSS Patents]

Every week a few of us from team TiPb will bring you our current favorite, most fun and useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch related, they’re fair game.

To see what we picked, and to tell us your pick, follow on after the break!

Especially with school starting back tomorrow, I figured it would be smart to get it in early. Now put it somewhere safe!!!

Google+ – @Alli_Flowers

I jumped on the Google+ bandwagon early. I never liked Facebook, and I was tiring of Twitter. If you haven’t already tried Google+, there’s a great forum thread where you can get an invite, if you can’t already get yourself in there.

The app works a lot like the web client, only it provides notifications. So the real question is – why do I like Google+. And the answer is simple: it’s like having any of your other social networks mixed with a forum, and real time updates. Take away the games from Facebook, take away the spam from Twitter – that’s Google+.

Now that you have a working iOS app for Google+, there’s really no reason NOT to try it. Right?!

[Free - App Store link]

Screens – @sethclifford

I’m away at the beach this week, so I thought it only right that my pick be something super-useful when you’re away from home. Screens is a VNC client for iOS that works as a universal app on all your devices. What sets it apart from the many other apps that do the same thing in the App Store is that it was designed from the ground up with touch devices in mind. Where other VNC clients try to emulate your desktop exactly as a traditional client would, Screens makes excellent use of multi-touch gestures and different touch patterns to provide a really seamless remote experience.

The other feature I really like is the super easy and fast setup for connection using Screens Connect, a server assistant app you download and run from the computer you wish to control. In doing this, you’re able to assign the computer a dedicated name instead of having to remember a long IP address (which may be changed without you realizing it by your ISP) and you also gain some more specific controls that make the app even more useful. Since I stream all my media now, it’s invaluable for monitoring those server apps that sit on my Mac mini, and I can restart or tweak them if need be, from wherever I am.

It’s a bit on the pricey side, if you’re one of those people who balk at anything over $.99, but if you’re a fan of solid, functional software that makes your life easier (as I am), it’s worth a look.

[$19.99 - App Store link]

LiveScore – @chrisoldroyd

LiveScore is a fantastic free app that provides real time scores from many sporting events around the world; with a particular emphasis on soccer scores. As the English Premier League Football Season starts again this Saturday. The timing of this weeks pick of the week is perfect!

Every match in the UK league is covered along with most other countries. With this app you will know about goals, yellow cards, red cards, substitutions, you name it, seconds after they happen.

There are no push notifications, which is a shame however the app does auto-refresh when open. The application comes directly from LiveScore Ltd., the inventors of real-time delivery of live sport data and owners of the no.1 ranked football / soccer web site globally. No country restrictions either! Fast access and my app of choice for keeping in touch with the games that matter to me. Come on Newcastle United!

[Free - App Store link]

RedLaser – @iMuggle

QR codes are extremely convenient for many business owners, especially small businesses. We just started utilizing it for our business as well as some of our local organizations we are a part of in our community. There are several apps available for all platforms. For iOS, my favorite is RedLaser. It’s simple to use and best of all, it’s free. Simply open the app, tap the lightning bolt at the bottom to scan a code, and place the code between the lines.

Not only does it read them, it’ll save all QR codes you scan. This is convenient for when you want to go back and view information from a code you previously scanned.

So if you live in an area where QR codes are starting to crop up, give RedLaser a spin and start scanning!

[Free - App Store Link]

Tiny Tower – @skeetobite

My pick of the week is Tiny Tower. This is one of those free games, where you spend time trying to build/earn/make something. In this case, you are building a tower, and trying to populate it with a series of stores, entertainment, services, and restaurants. All this is done to make your “bitizens” happy. As with all these games, if you get tired of waiting you can buy some additional “Tower Bux” to help speed the process along, but that isn’t much fun! Right now my tower is 34 floors tall, and slowly building up. The nice thing here is that you can check back periodically and just make sure things are progressing smoothly in your tower. It does require some attention (for example, moving bitizens in the apartments must be done manually) but it doesn’t take a huge amount of time.

[Free - App Store link]

Screens for Mac – @reneritchie

I’ve been using Edovia’s excellent Screens for iPhone and iPad since it was in beta and still find it to be the best looking, best feeling VNC client for iOS in the App Store. So when developer Luc Vandal told me they were doing Screens for Mac, I was thrilled.

I’d been using a combination of Back to my Mac for OS X and Microsoft’s Remote Desktop for Windows, but Screens puts everything — including Linux — in one beautifully styled, well thought out, buttery smooth place. And for OS X Lion users, you get full screen mode and a ton of multi-touch gesture support.

It works so well, in fact, a couple times I’ve sat down on my laptop and worked for a few minutes before realizing I was actually using my desktop via Screens. No better praise than that.

If you want the same great Screens experience from iOS on OS X, go grab Screens now.

[$19.99 - Mac App Store link]

Your pick?

You’re part of the team as well, so we will be choosing one reader to make a submission each week! Just look for the announcement on [twitter](http://www.twitter.com/llofte] or our Facebook page each weekend for a chance to be picked! In the meantime, jump into the comments and let us know your pick of the week!

Google has just updated its Google+ iOS app, claiming it now supports the iPad and iPod touch. Sure it works fine on the iPod touch but incredibly Google’s “iPad support” comes not in the form of a universal binary with proper, native iPad UI, but simply the ability to now install the Google+ iPhone app on the iPad and run it either windowed or in fuzzy 2x mode. Such a disappointment! On a brighter note, if you’re a developer, it does now work with the iOS 5 beta!

Other new features in the update are improved Huddle settings and aggregated circle notifications.

[iTunes link]

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]

Google has updated its web app for Gmail with the inclusion of pull down to refresh, new transitions and updated icons to take advantage of the Retina display of the iPhone 4.

• You can now pull down to refresh your message list and conversation on all iOS devices. To refresh, simply touch the message list, drag downwards and release.
• For those of you using Gmail for mobile on an iPhone 4 Retina display, the icons and graphics are now at a higher resolution, making Gmail for mobile sharper.
• When you tap on a conversation, tap back to the inbox, go to the menu or go back, the view will slide left or right. This new transition animation is a quick, small indication that makes the view change feel smoother.

[The Official Gmail Blog]

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]

Annoyed by Google+’s constant stream of email notifications and wondering where and how to turn them off? It’s amazing how the next generation of social network feels the need to pollute our inboxes with massive amounts of old school email, but not to worry — it’s easy to shut off. We’ll show you how after the break.

Here’s how to de-clutter your inbox from the deluge of Google+ emails.

1. Log into your Google/gmail account.

2. Hit the gear icon at the top right and choose Google+ Settings from the drop down

3. Uncheck everything imaginable (or at least everything you find annoying.)
4. That’s it, you’re done.

If you have any other Google+ tips, or tips for avoiding email “bacon”, let us know!

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 dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Google is continuing their bold new design initiative, tweaking the search experience on iPad for web results, image results, and more.

The search button located below the search box provides quick access to specific types of results like Images, Videos, Places, Shopping and more. Just tap to open the search menu and select an option to see results in one category.

For image results, we focused on improvements that enhance the viewing experience such as enlarged image previews, continuous scroll, and faster loading of image thumbnails.

Looks good.

[Google Mobile Blog]

Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners — who previously made headlines before they sold Palm to HP — is back with some interesting views on how Apple’s App Store might have already killed Google’s open web.

McNamee asserts that search, which makes Google billions in advertising revenue on the desktop, has been reduced to 1% of mobile activity, effectively obliterating it as a business. He blames/credits that to Apple and their App Store model, where they present the internet not in open, standards based web pages but closed, proprietary native applications.

The open web was too wild for the mainstream, MacNamee says, which makes Apple’s iPhone and iPad far more accessible, approachable, and comfortable. (He also thinks iPad is the most important device since the IBM PC and urges everyone to get one.)

McNamee doesn’t seem to be casting Apple as the villain of the open web, or the hero of the app mainstream, but rather both, or rather still commenting on the re-closing of the web.

That’s something we’ve been speaking about a lot on our podcasts lately. Compuserve, Prodigy, AOL, etc. all started as mainstream-friendly, walled-gardens built on top of the internet. Eventually, they had to give users real email and real web access, and the walled gardens fell.

Now, however, the App Store has repackaged it again. And Facebook has erected a new, more social, but just as walled a garden. And Google is having to walk the line with Android and Plus and other services to provide a good experience while still staying as open as their original philosophy allowed.

MacNamee thinks it’s done in Mobile. Google’s model lost. I’m not so sure. “It is what it is” is far too easy and final for the turbulence we’re still undergoing. Apple is all in on open HTML5 as a second development platform, for example, so just like Google they’re embracing/hedging what they feel is the best of both models. That might be the new normal. We might finally be recognizing one model doesn’t work for everyone, and a combination of the two is more than the sum of it’s parts — or its soundbites.

Video after the break.

[Fortune via Android Central]

From the Forums is a great way to see what all of the current hot topics are on the TiPb forums. In order to create any new threads of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now!

• The official Google+ application finally landed in the App Store, share your experiences with it here in this thread. And if you’d like to add yours truly, you can find me here.

• If you own a Mac chances are you’ve heard Apple’s new OS Lion has been released. Have you taken the dive and upgraded yet? Discuss that and many other topics in our Mac OS X forum.

• So you installed iOS 5 beta 3 and you want to back track to iOS 4.3, it’s not as simple as an easy restore via iTunes. If you’d like to know how to do so be sure to check out the iOS 5 beta 3 downgrade thread.

• If you’d like to talk about the iPhone 5 in any way, shape or form then our iPhone 5 forum is the place to visit.

See you in the forums!

Google+ for iPhone, the official app of Google’s new social network has just hit the App Store.

Google+ for mobile makes sharing the right things with the right people a lot simpler. Huddle lets you send super-fast messages to the people you care about most. And no matter where you are, the stream lets you stay in the loop about what your friends are sharing and where they’re checking in.

Features:

• Circles let you share the right things with just the right people.
• Stream is where you can get updates from your circles or see what people are saying about things nearby.
• Huddle is super-fast group messaging for everyone in your circles.

Google+ is only available for users 13 and older.

Overall the app is clean and crisp, fully in keeping with Google’s new interest in design. The login experience, however, which throws you back to the terrible Google web page, burned my eyes. Hopefully they can fix that in an update. Soon.

It’s very Facebook for iPhone-like, which is good or bad depending on your stance re: consistency vs. innovation, but it works well and moves smoothly for the most part (I wish that hadn’t copied some of the more crashes…). The home screen isn’t full yet, with Stream (which apparently isn’t iOS 5 friendly), Huddle, Photos, Profile (Lion style circled avatar — who thought that was a good idea?), and Circles.

No iPad support yet, and strangely it doesn’t support iPod touch either.

If you’ve tried it out, let me know what you think. And if you want to get plussy with me, you can circle me up here: https://plus.google.com/117367428086027724173/posts

UPDATE: Google+ has already been updated to version 1.0.1. Is that a record? If you got it before, go re-get it. Again. Here’s the explanation: [Google+]

We discovered an issue with the version of the iPhone Google+ App that was on the App Store. When we launched, the App Store started serving a previous test version of the App which didn’t have the stability and fixes that the latest version had. It started serving the correct version a little later. If you downloaded within the first 1 hour 40 mins, you may have downloaded the older test version.

To check:

• Click on the gear icon on the top left of your App’s homescreen and look right above the Help button, the version number of the App should be: 1.0.1.1809

• If that is not the version number, then please uninstall and reinstall

[Free - iTunes link]

Google has released another photo sharing app for the iPhone, this one called Photovine and actually made by Slide. Slide was acquired by Google some time last year.

Watching the video it appears that it is aimed at some sort of photo word association type game. One person starts the photo conversation with a picture then friends add other photos with a similar theme. It is all a little bit strange if you ask me!

What’s also hard to figure out is where it fits in with Google’s other photo sharing services, like Picasa, Google+, and Pool Party. When do you use one rather than the other? Is it variety or lack of focus?

[Free - iTunes link, Photovine]

From the Forums is a great way to see what all of the current hot topics are on the TiPb forums. In order to create any new threads of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now!

New personalizations!

You may have noticed our new and improved forums, we’ve gone and added yet another little feature many of you have asked for, postbits. In your user control panel simply go “edit your details” and you now have the ability to add your carrier, devices and so on so it is shown for all users to see.

New threads

• Do you need some people to add to your Google+ circles? If so visit the Google+ thread and you’ll find plenty of people to add! And as a shameless plug if you’d like to add yours truly you can find me here.

• iOS 5 beta 3

• How many new iPhones do you think we will see this fall?

• Fall will be here before you know it along with a possible iPad HD?

Is there something you’d like to see added to the forums? Jump in the Feedback Forum and let us know!

See you in the forums!

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Rene and Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents discuss Apple vs. Samsung, HTC, and Motorola, Microsoft licensing fees for Android, Nortel auction, Oracle vs. Google, and Lodsys vs. iOS developers. This is a special edition of iPhone Live!

Background

• FOSS Patents blog
• Editorial: How long can Google and Android afford to remain silent on patents?
• iPhone Live 151 – The Lodsys Letters

Hosts

Credits

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

Our music comes from the following sources:

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

Every week a few of us from team TiPb will bring you our current favorite, most fun and useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch related, they’re fair game.

To see what we picked, and to tell us your pick, follow on after the break!

Wunderlist – @chrisoldroyd

This app was inspired by Leanna’s App for That post last week and I can see why she chose it. This app is superb for creating, sharing and syncing lists of to do items between users.

My wife and I share the grocery shopping in our home. We now make lists which are synced between out iPhones automatically. Once we have a list, either of us can add to it and it always stays in sync across our devices.

When you are in the store you can open the list and check off the items as you get them; and it works perfectly. I have been looking for an app like this for some time and now I have it. What’s even better is that it is multi-platform and free! Now the wife nags me silently with Wunderlist so my ears are saved! (Hope she doesn’t read this)

Wunderlist 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 too.

[Free - iTunes link]

Day One – @sethclifford

I love, love, LOVE apps that hook into Dropbox, because it means that I don’t have to worry about re-syncing data when I restore devices (and lately, that’s often, since it’s beta season). I’ve got all kinds of note-taking apps, but I decided I wanted a different way to capture thoughts and little things that happen on a daily basis; more of a journal/diary type of app that I could look through by date and just recall the events of the day. I found Day One recently, and it’s wonderful. It’s a universal iOS app that not only syncs with Dropbox, but also has a companion Mac app that is available in the Mac App Store. It’s an elegantly designed system that is simple enough to quickly jot down what’s on your mind, and the fact that it’s on all three platforms makes it very easy to capture items before you forget them. You’ve got a passcode lock, so your more private thoughts are protected, and with TextExpander support, you can save even more time. It’s just text for now, but iCloud sync, tags, and photos are coming soon, and the developer was very responsive to my questions about future features. If you’re looking for a nice little way to log some ideas, Day One is a contender.

[$1.99 - iTunes link]

Google+ web app – @iMuggle

Ok, it isn’t an official App Store app (yet), but it’s still implemented a lot better than that “other” social network’s default iPhone app that constantly crashes or fails to push me notifications. To be honest, I use the web app version of Facebook more than the native app. Google+ is still one of the better mobile web apps I’ve seen.

I may not have push notifications (yet) but the layout is clean and easy to navigate. You can easily create a Google+ shortcut on your homescreen for easy access as well. While we all wait for Google+ to go public and for the native app to appear, the web app has managed to keep me entertained and meets my needs just fine for now. I actually find it quite enjoyable to browse and use.

Procreate – @reneritchie

Savage Interactive is going to be our guest on this Monday’s episode of Iterate, our new mobile design podcast, and so I’ve been spending some time this week using the app as preparation. And loving it. There’s such a visceral thrill that comes from finger painting with digital ink, with pushing colored pixels around an iPad canvas, from layering, from smudging, from bending it to your will until it realizes your imagination.

There are a lot of bitmap painting apps in the App Store, but Procreate offers all the power you’d expect in a UI that’s both apparent and approachable. Your tools are all neatly laid out around your canvas, they quickly come up when you call them, and they quietly go away when you tap out of them. No fuss, no muss. Just fun.

And I do mean fun. There’s something incredibly liberating about having the grid and the mouse and the pixel precision of Photoshop taken away from you. You’re left to explore the touch and the color and the spaces negative and positive, and the feel of the medium. Cool screen, hot results. Just ask my little friend, the dragon….

[$4.99 - iTunes link]

Camera – @Alli_Flowers

More and more I use the iPhone’s camera, not just for taking video or photos, but as a document camera. I realized how dependent I had become on this feature during a recent visit to relatives.

Both my nephews received shiny new laptops from their doting grandfather, and his first recommendation was to register them. I could barely contain the laughter watching these two boys tipping their laptops up so they could copy the registration number from the bottom into the form on the screen. Both of them have smartphones with cameras, so I showed them how I deal with this kind of issue. Tilt the laptop once, snap a picture of the serial number tag from the bottom – return to productivity. Not only can you now comfortably copy the serial number (and enlarge it with a simple pinch if the numbers are too tiny to read), but by saving that .jpg, you now have a permanent record in case of loss or theft.

I do this in my classroom as well. Best idea I ever had, since the person responsible for inventory loses her database at least twice a year, causing us to have to send her serial numbers for our computers, printers, smartboards, etc. I now have a file with photos. Every time she requests serial numbers, I just email her the whole folder (which, yes, I have backed up in multiple locations).

Your iPhone’s camera can be your ticket to replacements with your insurance company. In case of theft or fire, they want a list of your losses – along with serial numbers. Start now!

Numbers – @llofte

As many of you know, I am a math instructor and part of being a teacher is keeping track of grades. Numbers on my iPad is perfect for this. I have my spreadsheets set up to find the totals of each grade category and calculate their final grade. I even specifically designed them so that they determine the students’ current grades so when I’m inevitably asked “what’s my grade in the class right now”, I can whip out my iPad and give them an immediate answer.

Students (even college students) also occasionally forget to put their names on their quizzes. So while I’m returning the graded quizzes, someone ends up claiming the unnamed quiz. Before, this would be a pain for me because I’d have to write down who gets the score and remember to add it to my spreadsheet at home. Now I just pull out my iPad during class and update their grade right there.

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

Flipboard – @Moe_NYC (Reader’s Choice)

My pick of the week is Flipboard. It is the best way to access news, magazines and your social networks in a gorgeous magazine-style interface. You can add your networks and your desired content which will be added to the app desktop into tiles that look great.

In addition to the most popular social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, etc.), you have access to ever increasing content from news sources, magazines, editor’s picks and much more. The new update provides an always accessible red ribbon which you can tap to access content broken down into categories.

Flipboard is the way I would like to see online news (CNN, NYT, WSJ) done on the iPad. This is just perfect.

Your pick?

You’re part of the team as well, so we will be choosing one reader to make a submission each week! Just look for the announcement on twitter or our Facebook page each weekend for a chance to be picked! In the meantime, let us know your pick of the week!

From the Forums is a great way to see what all of the current hot topics are on the TiPb forums. In order to create any new threads of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now!

• Going Google free

• Is it worth installing iOS 5 even though I am not a developer?

• What will you use instead of iDisk?

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

See you in the forums!

Google employee Erica Joy has revealed that the official Google+ app has been submitted to the App Store and is currently going through the approval process.

For my iPhone using friends: the Google+ iPhone app has been submitted to the App Store (no not today, sometime prior to today) and is awaiting approval

For anyone worried about iPad support, Joy seemingly clarified that it was also on its way:

Sorry, even though I have an iPad and not an iPhone, I always call iOS apps “iPhone apps”. I’m sure its something to do with conditioning.

How long it takes to be released is anyone’s guess but wouldn’t it be interesting (and embarrassing) if Google beat Facebook to iPad support?

Google+ is still in a limited beta right now but can be accessed via a web app for iPhone. I have used it for a few days now but am still not sure it is going to offer anything compelling enough to challenge Facebook and Twitter.

[24100 via Mashable]

If you were lucky enough to get a beta invitation for Google+ and have an iPhone, you can already post updates and browse your Google+ streams quickly and easily. In just a few steps you’ll be posting updates, checking out your friends’ streams, adding them to circles, and more!

As a side note, this tip only works if you already accepted an invitation into the beta, otherwise you won’t be able to access Google+.

1. First go to www.google.com from Safari on your iPhone and sign into your Google account with your Gmail address.

2. Next tap more at the top right and you’ll see a few tabs. Tap the Apps tab.

3. Click the Google+ app and you’ll be taken into the main feed.

4. Next, create a bookmark on your home screen. Simply tap the arrow on the bottom of your browser and tap Add to home screen.



5. Now all you have to do to access Google+ is to tap that bookmark!

As a side note, if you have to sign in every time, you can remedy that by simply choosing to stay signed into your Google account. If you’ve been using Google+ let us know what you think. Do you expect more than the web app if and when they release an iPhone app?

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…)

The LA Times is reporting that Google is in preliminary talks to acquire none other than Hulu. The information comes from anonymous sources close to the situation. Google is supposedly interested in buying Hulu due to the huge potential for advertising revenue. The report also claims that Google will face stiff competition from Yahoo and Microsoft.

Hulu has content from a number of current TV shows and has apps available for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad that are based on a monthly subscription model, though it is currently US only.

If Google does buy Hulu,maybe it would even improve things? Google does tend to give content away for free in return for a user’s personal data!

[Los Angeles Times via Android Central]

Pool Party is a photo sharing from the brains behind the recently-aquired Slide. Like Google+, it’s an invite-only beta right now, and like Google+, and Picasa, it allows you to quickly and easily share pictures with people you know who are also members. Why Google feels they need to be positively Microsoft-ian about the sheer number of overlapping image sharing services they offer right now, I don’t know, but here’s how they bill this one:

Instant photo fun

Pool Party is a simple, free photo sharing app. Create group albums and see your friends’ photos as they happen in real-time.

Pool Party is invite-only at the moment, so you’ll be asked to enter your email address after installing the app. If you haven’t already been invited to Pool Party by a friend, you can visit our website at poolpartyapp.com to request an invitation.

I’ve been testing Pool Party for iPhone with Phil Nickinson from Android Central, who’s putting the Android version through its paces and… it’s got a lot of promise. The UI is dark, with big, bold white text. (Though they insist on color-coding your friends’ names, which is ends up feeling very Christmas tree.) They also stick to tried and true UI metaphors (even, smartly, borrowing the now almost standard “pull to refresh” pioneered by Loren Brichter in Tweetie/Twitter for iPhone).

Organization is done in Pools, and one you add a a Pool you can add people to it. For those who thrive on such things, push notifications are included to keep you up to date on every little interaction imaginable (I turned them off, like I turned off Google+’s email notifications). There are also a couple prominent places to provide feedback, so it’s clear the developers and designers want to make this a good experience.

This being Google, there’s also a web interface for when you’re away from your iPhone (or Android device).

Whether or not this ultimately takes any users away from established image sharing services like Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, or Google own services, new and old, like Picasa and Google+ remains to be seen. It’s great to see Google trying things and fantastic to see them working on improving their user experience. Ultimately, however, it will be nice to see them coalesce into a single, coherent, consistent service.

Screenshots after the break. If want more on the background story, MG Siegler from TechCrunch broke it yesterday (link below).

[TechCrunch]

According to Reuters, a consortium of tech companies, including Apple, BlackBerry maker RIM, Microsoft, EMC, Sony, and Ericsson have won the auction to acquire Nortel’s mammoth $4.5 billion dollar mobile patent portfolio. How much of that will come from Apple is currently unknown, though RIM is on the line for $770 million and Ericsson, $340 million. The companies are expected to pool the patents and use them both to protect against patent lawsuits and, of course, launch lawsuits of their own.

The patents cover “wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, Internet and semiconductor technologies”, with the LTE 4G patents expected to become extremely valuable as networks and devices are upgraded to that standard.

If you noticed one major mobile company conspicuous by their absence, you’re not alone. Google appears not to have been part of the winning bid, which is perplexing since, as a new entrant in mobile, they have one of the weakest existing patent portfolios.

“Google lost an unprecedented opportunity to acquire a major bargaining chip that would strengthen it at the mobile industry’s intellectual property negotiating table.”

“I’m afraid it won’t get a similar opportunity in quantitative and qualitative terms any time soon.”

Android manufacturers are already paying Microsoft licensing fees for Android, and are being sued by Apple. Android developers are being sued by Lodsys and while Apple has filed to intervene in the iOS-related lawsuits, Google is still missing in action.

What that means going forward is hard to say, but manufacturer and developer confidence is part of the currency of any platform and it needs to be invested in and protected.

[Reuters]

Google+ is the search giant’s take on a social network, and while it will get its own iOS app eventually, it’s already got it’s own world-class web app (would you really expect anything else from the company that’s defined the modern web?). Here’s a quick look at it, primarily the profile, circles, and friends elements.

Check it out the photo gallery, after the break.

Wondering why Google+ looks, well, uncharacteristically good for a Google product? Turn out Andy Hertzfeld, an former Apple design guru going back to the days of the original Mac, has been given the freedom to exercise his creative genius on the new Google+ project. No wonder it has such a simple, useful — dare we say elegant — look and feel to it.

Hertzfeld credits some of his work done on the project to Apple, saying that Apple’s reign on the mobile industry may have had “A little bit to do” with his creative design into the project of Google+.

Does knowing that a famous former Apple designer had a big hand in how Google+ looks and works make you any more likely to try it out?

[Wired]

Google has finally taken the wraps off their long awaited, highly-anticipated (what?) social network, Google+ and it looks like a really clever take on the age-old problem of mapping personal relationships to a virtual space. It will eventually roll out across Google’s web properties, but rather than one monolithic service, it’s comprised of several parts:

• Circles, which let you define your relationships and how much you want to share with who and when. These are usually annoying to set up so no one uses them. Google aims to change that.
• Sparks, which brings you content based on your interests and hopes to strike up conversations
• Hangouts, which is multi-person video chat. FaceTime is currently only one-to-one…
• Mobile, which lets you share and upload from your devices (iOS app in the works?)
• Huddle, a group messaging platform now in competition with the mature BBM on BlackBerry and nascent iMessage on iOS

Google hasn’t had much luck with previous projects like Wave and Buzz, but this feels both more ambitious and far better considered. Whether it will be enough to put a dent in Facebook’s 750 million member and growing dominance of the social space remains to be seen. (See how I snuck them into the post? I thought you did.)

One thing is clear, with Apple integrating Twitter into iOS and introducing Game Center, Ping (no snickering), and replacing MobileMe with iCloud, they’re getting more serious (if not yet more adapt) at Social. And Google’s just re-entered, once again, that game in a big way. Are you going to switch?

Videos after the break.

[Google blog via Android Central]

Google +

Sparks

Circles

Hangouts

Mobile (Instant upload)

Huddle

Google has an interesting tool up called Swiffy, which converts Flash FLV files to “HTML5″ formats which should be compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. (I put HTML5 in quotes because it represents not just the HTML5 standard itself, but typically and conveniently includes CSS3, JavaScript, H.264 video, and other technologies).

Swiffy converts Flash SWF files to HTML5, allowing you to reuse Flash content on devices without a Flash player (such as iPhones and iPads).

Swiffy currently supports a subset of SWF 8 and ActionScript 2.0, and the output works in all Webkit browsers such as Chrome and Mobile Safari. If possible, exporting your Flash animation as a SWF 5 file might give better results.

Flash is more than just video, however, and Flash games, interfaces, and other media types can’t yet be replicated by HTML5. Still for content that Flash — and its overhead — aren’t needed for, this sounds like a great tool. (It also sounds like something banner ad companies will jump on…)

I’m trying it out now on some simple Flash slideshow files but getting errors. If I get it working, I’ll update with the results.

[Swiffy via Daring Fireball]

Want to know how to find the closest sushi restaurant, or pizza, or who to call to make a reservation when it’s your anniversary and you completely forgot to make a reservation? Never fear, the native Google Maps app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch is here! We’ll show you how it can save the day — or at least save yourself from pizza famine — after the break!

1. Launch maps
2. Get your current location by tapping the arrow button at the bottom left.
3. Using the search field at the top right, type in the type of food you want, the name of the restaurant you’re looking for, or anything you can remember about the address. For example, I’m in New York City near Broadway and Reade Street and I’m in the mood for Pizza. Typing “pizza” will then search the environs for the nearest pizza joints and drop a pin on their precise locations.
4. Tap the pins to get more information. You can click the small blue chevron to bring up more information about your chosen pizza place, and if it has a Google Streetview icon on the left, you can even see the place and its surroundings!
   
5. Tap the link to the homepage of the restaurant, or if you’re on an iPhone, simply tap of the phone number to call it right up (so they can have your pie hot ‘n ready for you when you get there).
6. Finally, tap the “Directions to Here” button at the bottom of the info page and select if you are driving, taking public transit or walking with estimated time it takes to get there.

That’s it, a few simple steps to find the food, Starbucks, burger joint, pizza place, or 5-star restaurant of your choice, all right on your iOS device! If you have any other Maps tips, let us know in the comments!

[Special thanks to Master from the iPad live chatroom for this tip!]

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 dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Google held their Inside Search event today, and once again the focus is on speed and convenience, especially in mobile. For iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users, this means faster local searches and faster suggested searches in Safari. (Or your WebKit browser of choice on other mobile platforms.)

Local search:

On the results page, you’ll see a map with markers for your current location and places around you. When you scroll through the results, the map remains at the top of the page and adjusts automatically to the listing you are looking at. That way, you can see the listing information while still getting location context from the map. Tapping on a result will quickly show you more about a place including reviews and other useful details. Discovering great places nearby has never been easier on your mobile phone.

Suggested search builds:

Another mobile improvement we’ve introduced today is an easier way to build longer, more complicated searches. You can now add suggested phrases to the search box and “build” your search piece by piece. This feature is already available on the Google Search app for Android and iOS devices and we’re now making this available on www.google.com from your mobile browser. Watch the video below to see how you can search faster with less typing.

It works on iOS 4 compatible browsers (and presumably iOS 5 as well). Google announced a lot of other improvements for their non-mobile search today as well, like Instant, improved Voice and Image, etc. so hit up the Google Inside Search link below for the bigger picture.

Then go search Safari and tell us what you think.

[Google Inside Search Blog, Google Mobile Blog, Android Central]

Magellan RoadMate North America has received a big update that includes Yelp integration, Google local search, lifetime maps, and a new UI.

Yelp API

• Integrated within the RoadMate app opens a whole new world of restaurants, entertainment, shopping, and more for you – connect with old favorites or explore new ones.
• Easily search for venues and destinations, browse user ratings, and decide where to go and route to it, all from within the app.

Google Local Search

• Find out where you’d like to go using real-time Google Local search. Then route to your searched location with a tap of the GO button.

New User Interface

• Designed for when you’re on-the-road – a collapsible dashboard creates a generous screen size making it easy for you to view while routing.
• Plus, personalize your dashboard icons and view your arrival time, distance, and speed all at once.

Includes Lifetime Maps

• Roads change more often than you realize. Get on board with the latest available maps so that you will always be up-to-date.

To celebrate the update, Magellan RoadMate North America has given us some promo codes to pass on to you, our awesome readers. For a chance to win, just leave a comment in the thread below telling us which of the new features you like best.

UPDATE: Congrats to winners Jason and Bassistfrmsbwy. Enjoy!

Screenshots after the break!

[$39.99 - iTunes link]

Google has announced they’ll be limiting and eventually shutting down the Google Translate API, meaning any iPhone or iPad apps that rely on the service for free translation functionality aren’t going to be able to reply on it any longer.

The Google Translate API has been officially deprecated as of May 26, 2011. Due to the substantial economic burden caused by extensive abuse, the number of requests you may make per day will be limited and the API will be shut off completely on December 1, 2011.

Google Translate is a great, free-as-in-Google web-based language translation service that can tell you what a seal is in French or what ferme means in English. The API let developers use that free service in other web apps, or in native apps like those in iOS. Which is what Marco Armant guesses just might have been the problem.

I wonder how Google felt about all of these iPhones hitting their free translator constantly. Seems like the kind of service that they might want to be exclusive to Android. Maybe iPhone apps are the “abuse” they’re talking about.

Microsoft’s Bing still offers a free translation API, so developers have an alternative, for now at least. It’s another example, however, of how risky it can be to base your app on the goodwill and free offerings of a big internet company like Google, Twitter, or Facebook.

[Google Code via Marco.org]

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]

It seems that Google are slowly implementing a new UI for their web app. The update changes the ‘blue tabs’ at the top of the site to new ‘grey tabs’ with pull down icons. To change the type of search, they’ve updated it to include a drop down grid of all the different search types, and apps, instead of the old text list.

Interestingly, this UI update has only been updated on Web search, Video search, News and Blogs. The older ‘blue’ interface still appears on Image Search, Places, Shopping, Finance, Apps, iGoogle and Books. Google Apps, like GMail, Google Translate, Google Docs and Google Reader haven’t received any form of update either. YouTube has its own mobile web app, and Maps has recently been updated.

Do you like this update on the Google Web App? Do you use the Google Web App?

[Google Mobile]

During yesterday’s Senate subcommittee hearing on location tracking, Apple was asked why they haven’t pulled a number of DUI checkpoint apps like Fuzz Alert which notify users of nearby law-enforcement checkpoints.

Four U.S. Senators, including Sen. Charles Schumer, sent letters to Apple, Google and Research in Motion in March requesting that the companies remove apps notifying users of police sobriety checkpoints their respective application stores. Schumer raised the issue again at Tuesday’s Senate subcommittee hearing on privacy.

VP of Software Technology Guy Tribble told senators that Apple is currently looking into the legality of these apps and would remove them from the App Store if they were deemed illegal. He also commented that these apps are only “publishing data that’s actually first published by the police department”, to which Senator Charles Schumer responded claiming he was unaware of any police departments who published this information in realtime.

Apparently these DUI checkpoint apps have continued to anger senators after watching RIM pull similar apps from their App World while Apple and Google make sure it’s actually warranted before pulling the trigger.

What’s your take? Do you think DUI checkpoint apps should be allowed to remain in the App Store or should Apple get rid of them? Sound off in the comments below!

[AppleInsider]

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?

In a recent brand survey by Millward Brown, Apple has taken the top spot from Google as the world’s most valuable brand. The survey revealed the Apple brand to be worth a staggering $153 billion; which was a huge increase on last year’s figures. This resulted in Apple coming out on top and ended Google’s four year reign at the top.

Peter Walshe, global brands director of Millward Brown, says Apple’s meticulous attention to detail, along with an increasing presence of its gadgets in corporate environments, have allowed it to behave differently from other consumer-electronics makers. ”Apple is breaking the rules in terms of its pricing model,” he told Reuters by telephone. “It’s doing what luxury brands do, where the higher price the brand is, the more it seems to underpin and reinforce the desire.”

The survey takes the value that the company puts on its own brand in its earnings report as a starting point. This is then combined with the perceptions of over 2 million consumers in the market who are surveyed over a 12 month period. A factor is then applied based on the company’s short-term future growth prospects.

[Millward Brown via Reuters]

Apple’s latest ad wants you to buy a $500+ tablet computer that runs App Store apps. Apple wants to sell you shiny things to make money.

Google’s latest ad wants you to store personal details about your child’s life, from birth, on their servers. Google wants your data so they can sell it (aggregated and anonymized, of course) to others to make money.

Taken in that context, Apple’s ad might be obnoxious and highly commercial, but Google’s is downright creepy.

That’s not an Apple fanboy perspective, that’s a privacy fanboy perspective. And it’s not iPhone vs. Android either. iPhone users use tons of Google services, including Gmail, Maps, and Search, and YouTube built in, and Voice, Latitude, etc. available via apps. Given over a 100 million iOS devices, we’re a huge part of Google’s user base, and a valuable part. And for the record, I haven’t liked some of Apple’s recent ads either.

But I do think about how each company makes money and what they have to sell to make that money. Apple makes almost all their money selling hardware products — selling to you. Google makes almost all their money selling advertising — selling you. (Or in this case, your child. Seriously.)

I’m not telling anyone to stop using Google, far from it. I’m a huge Google user myself. What I’m saying is this is not really a good ad.

(Note: As Apple ramps up iAds, this’ll be a concern for iOS users as well.)

Both videos after the break.

UPDATE: Again, I’m a huge user of Google services — this is not intended to scare anyone but simply to inform users, so users can make better informed decisions. Convenience and security are always at odds, and choosing the convenience of free cloud services like Google’s sacrifices the security of your personal information. I currently find that an acceptable compromise. If you don’t have a problem with it either, than good for you. Enjoy. As long as we all know the deal.

One of MacRumors readers has supposedly managed to get an email response from Apple CEO, Steve Jobs regarding the recent location tracking controversy. 

The question:

Steve, Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It’s kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. They don’t track me.

The answer:

Oh yes they do. We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false. Sent from my iPhone.

As if on queue, Bloomberg is now reporting that two customers from Tampa, Florida have filed a federal complaint against Apple, citing that the company is secretly recording and storing the location and movement of iPhone and iPad users.

What do you think? Is Apple in the wrong or is this another media-manufactured controversy?

[MacRumors, Bloomberg]

Reuters is reporting that Apple has now completed work on its rumored online music storage and streaming service. Reuters also claim that Google is working on a similar service but its plans have stalled; Apple will beat it to the launch. The source of this new information is cited as “several people familiar with both companies’ plans”.

Apple’s plans will allow iTunes customers to store their songs on a remote server, and then access them from wherever they have an Internet connection, said two of these people who asked not to be named as the talks are still confidential.

More importantly, do you think that this is this the future for iTunes? Are you excited by the prospect of an online music storage and streaming service from Apple? Let us know in the comments!

[Reuters]

Google has announced a small improvement to its Gmail mobile web experience. Starting today you now have an undo bar that allows you to undo certain actions.

Sometimes when I’m using Gmail on my phone, I delete a message by mistake or label it incorrectly. Sure I can fish the message out of my Trash or remove the label and apply the correct one, but that takes several steps. Even just a few seconds is usually enough time to catch those annoying mistakes.

Do any of our readers use Gmail in mobile Safari? Is this a handy improvement? Let us know in the comments!

[Google Mobile Blog]

Google has released an update to its ebook reading application Google Books. The update mainly offers support for landscape reading mode on the iPad but does include a few extra features and bug fixes.

Some of the new features include the “Find” feature, which shows matched words throughout the book when you scroll. Also, you can automatically sign in to Google when you tap “Get eBooks”.

Bug fixes cover speed improvements, 3-D page turning for the iPad on iOS 4.3 and above and a better downloading experience.

Do any of our readers use Google Books? Let us know in the comments!

[Free – ITunes Link]

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]

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.

Google has updated two of its apps, Google Latitude and Google Places. The apps are designed to help you connect with the people you care about at the places you love!

Google Latitude now has the added feature of check-ins, which allow you to see where your friends are on a map as well as choose to continually share your location information. When this setting is turned on, your location and check-ins will be done automatically; you will also be checked out when you leave so your friends know you have left. This is an opt in service and runs in the background on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPad’s with 3G.

[Free - iTunes link]

Google Places has also been updated and it now supports thirty different languages. Wherever you are and whatever language you speak, you can now get personalised recommendations for places to visit.

[Free - iTunes link]

If you want to have your whole life visible to your close friends, these app updates may be of interest. The question is, do you want your friends to know your every move? Let us know what you think in the comments!

[Google Mobile Blog]

The popular Google Mobile app has just received a major update and a complete name change too — it will now be known simply as Google Search.

The update offers more ways to interact with the app using swipe gestures. Swiping down in a page will reveal the search bar whilst browsing. There is also a dedicated apps button for quick access to mobile versions of Google Apps. A new toolbar is available to filter search results; again a swipe is initiated to access this toolbar, left to right.

If you leave the app and come back later, you’ll be able to either start a new search by typing in the search box, hit the microphone button to do a voice search or tap on the camera icon to use Google Goggles. If you want to get back to exactly where you were before you left the app, you can simply tap the lower part of the page and it will be restored.

Google Goggles, Voice Search, My Location and Gmail have also all been improved in this new app. There is a short video after the break, demonstrating the new features.

[iTunes Link]

Earlier today Google rolled out their Instant Previews feature for mobile devices like iPhone. The feature adds elegant thumbnail previews to your search results and works perfectly on your iPhone or iPod touch, even bearing a resemblance to the way Mobile Safari handles tab management.

Instant Previews has been available on the desktop since last year but I never found myself actually using it. I’ve only been playing with it on my iPhone for a few minutes but can already tell you I’ll be using Instant Previews a lot more on the go than I ever did on the desktop. Just tap the little magnifying glass next to your search results to see Instant Previews in action.

If you don’t have your iPhone handy then check out the video after the break to get a better idea of how it works, and don’t forget to let us know what you think in the comments!

Amazon has updated its Kindle app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad and added in a few really nice features like real page numbering, percentage read, and Google and Wikipedia lookup.

Kindle now provides real page numbers to books from the Kindle Store. This basically means that Kindle books will mirror the print versions page numbers. This may not sound like a big deal but if you are reading in a group or in class it is very important . Also you can now see how far you have read as a percentage whilst reading the book and the app home screen now shows your progress in a list view.

Finally, and maybe one of the best new features is the ability to lookup words using Google and Wikipedia all from within the application.

The app still does not give you the ability to purchase books through in-app purchase or via iTunes. This apparently was the reason Sony’s application was recently rejected. This is sure to fan the flames of the alleged upcoming war with Sony!

A point to note, after the update, most of my books would not open and had to be deleted and downloaded again. Let us know in the comments if you experience the same problem!

[iTunes- Link]

Google has released Google Translate for iPhone, a native iOS app that allows you to “speak to translate” in 15 different languages, with output support for up to 50 languages. Simply speak into your iPhone and the app will translate your speech into a number of different languages, even reading the text aloud for you:

• Translate text between 57 languages
• Translate by speaking the text instead of typing it (15 languages)
• Listen to your translations spoken aloud (23 languages)
• Display translations in full screen mode to make it easier for others nearby to read
• Star your favorite translations for quick access even when you’re offline
• Access your translation history even when you’re offline
• Spell out the translation of non-Latin script languages (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, etc..) in Latin characters to read it phonetically (e.g. Pinyin, Romaji)
• View additional dictionary results for single words or short phrases

Google Translate was previously available for iPhone but only through a webapp interface. With Google switching to a fully native version this lets users access a few additional features not available in the HTML5 version. It’s pretty fun to use and it would make a great sidekick if you’re traveling to a foreign country where you aren’t familiar with the native language.

Give it a try and let us know what you think in the comments below!

[free -- iTunes via Google Mobile Blog]

Google has released Google Shopper for iPhone, which was previously only available for Android devices. Google Shopper is an app that provides information on products that you may wish to buy and lets you read product reviews and compare prices at online and local stores, using location services.

You can search for a product using text input, Voice Search or by scanning the barcode with the iPhone camera. Once you have found the product you want, you can then find the item at nearby retailers and with some stores you can even check if they have it in stock. You can also build gift lists and star products for future purchase as well as share items with friends across your social network.

Google Shopper is available today via the App Store and works with iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 running iOS 4.0 and above. The app is only available in English, for the United States and UK markets.

[iTunes Link]

Google ‘Instant Previews’ is slowly appearing on iPhones and iPads.

Google rolled out their ‘Instant Search’ feature to iOS last November which allowed you to see instant results as you typed in your search. ‘Instant Previews’ allows you to view a screenshot of any webpage before loading it up, saving you time in the long run.

‘Instant Previews’ is accessed by tapping a small magnifying glass next to a result, which opens a new UI (reminicent to Safari’s Tab UI) so you can scroll through all the different page screenshots.

Instant Previews hasn’t hit all iOS devices yet, and Google is still yet to make an official announcement.

Have you had the pleasure of Instant Previews on your iPhone or iPad? Let us know what you think below.

[via 9to5mac]

Netgear CEO Patrick Lo has spoken out over Apple’s closed ecosystem and the ego of Steve Jobs. Speaking at a lunch in Sydney Australia, Lo questioned the future of Apple’s closed system, in the face of mounting competition from Google’s “Open” Android operating system.

Once Steve Jobs goes away, which is probably not far away, then Apple will have to make a strategic decision on whether to open up the platform. Ultimately a closed system just can’t go that far … If they continue to close it and let Android continue to creep up then it’s pretty difficult as I see it.

What’s the reason for him to trash Flash? There’s no reason other than ego.

Lo did not stop with Apple, he also claimed that Microsoft had fallen too far behind with the Windows Phone 7 platform and that it was now game over.

Strong views, but are they fair? Do Apple need to open up the platform to continue the growth needed to see off Android? Do Apple care about the iPhone being the number one selling smartphone? Let us know what you think in the comments!

[Sydney Morning Herald]

When searching for “weather” on Google with your iPhone, you will now be greeted with a beautiful widget-like interface above your search results.

Google weather search displays the current weather conditions including temperature, humidity, wind speed, and chance for precipitation. Also, the forecast for the next four days is displayed and a slider to see the conditions predicted over the next 12 hours. As you slide the slider, not only are the conditions updated, but the background darkens or lightens to reflect the time of day. Underneath, you will find links to The Weather Channel, Weather Underground, and AccuWeather.

Google did a great job with this, and if you bookmark this page to your home screen, it can easily replace Apple’s weather app or many other apps available in the App Store. Anyone want to do this?

[Download Squad]

Former Apple board member Eric Schmidt has stepped down and Google co-founder Larry page will be replacing him as Google CEO. The announcement came during Google’s earnings call today.

• Starting from April 4, Larry Page, Google Co-Founder, will take charge of Google’s day-to-day operations as Chief Executive Officer.
• Sergey Brin, Google Co-Founder, will devote his energy to strategic projects, in particular working on new products.
• Eric Schmidt will assume the role of Executive Chairman, focusing externally on deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership–all of which are increasingly important given Google’s global reach. Internally, he will continue to act as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.

Under Schmidt Google achieved amazing technological and financial results but at the same time became heavily competitive in Apple’s key businesses and became embroiled in several controversies that cast significant doubt on their once widely hailed “don’t be evil” motto, including backing down on net neutrality with Verizon, allowing carriers to mutilate the open Android experience, and privacy concerns involving Buzz and Wi-Fi data collection, among others. Could Larry Page bring back a kinder, more customer and product-centric Google? Or is it exactly as @EricSchmidt tweeted following the announcement?

Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!

Love or hate Google they’re responsible for tons of good stuff on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad including the data feed for Maps and YouTube, and services and apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Mobile, Latitude, Google Earth, and Google Voice. How, if at all, will this change in leadership effect their relationship with Apple and Apple users?

[AndroidCentral]

Google has recently announced that they’re removing H.264 — the video compression open standard used by everything from iPad and iPhone to YouTube and Netflix — from their Chrome browser. Up until now Google has been the only company to support all the major video codecs, including H.264, OGG Theora, and their own, newly open-sourced WebM. Apple supports H.264, as does Microsoft, and Firefox supports only OGG Theora.

Why the sudden change? Some might say to hurt Apple, whose iOS and iTunes depend heavily on the technology and have shown no signs of slowing down even after Google decided to stop so much partnering and start much more competing with Apple directly in the mobile OS and media services space. Others might say it’s simply to give Google a competitive advantage and push adoption of their own WebM format. Neither motives are mutually exclusive but again put the advancement of standards-based web technology on the back burner — something Google once championed. (Hey, you know it’s bad when Microsoft is chiding you over lack of standards support, okay?)

Google claims they don’t want to support proprietary formats like H.264, which rings decidedly false since they still do — and have gone out of their way to expand — support for Adobe’s just-as-proprietary Flash plugin. Yes, H.264 carries licensing fees for commercial content but to say those amount to little more than a rounding error when compared to Google’s monthly, never mind yearly profits is an overstatement. H.264 is a an international and open standard, supported by hardware acceleration in chipsets and file format compatibility in an increasing amount of consumer video creation and playback gear. It was on its way to becoming the video equivalent of MP3 (which Google probably won’t drop support for either). Yet with native H.264 support taken away from Chrome, only Adobe Flash H.264 support will remain (because Flash is packaged right into Chrome, and Flash uses H.264 for a lot of their higher quality video). So in order to watch it, you’ll have to use Flash.

Why does this matter to iPhone and iPad users? Because if Google (and Palm and RIM) hadn’t chosen to compete against Apple by cozying up to Adobe’s Flash the amount of battery draining, phone heating web video content would be lessened today and the H.264 share would be even higher. In other words, we’d have even more iOS-friendly videos and less sites we couldn’t access on our iOS devices.

Remember, Flash existed to fill a void in web technology, much like ActiveX in Internet Explorer 6, and like ActiveX (and Real) the advent of better, more efficient solutions would have led to Flash’s gradual decrease until it was back to what it was ideally and originally suited for — efficient frame-based animation.

Apple, famously, doesn’t support Flash on iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or Apple TV and doesn’t even install the plugin by default in Mac OS X. Do we really want Google to be more like Apple?

I’ve promised to be nicer to Google this year but they’re making it hard right out the outset. Still, I’m not going to complain about this as a competitive business decision, and I won’t vomit even a little at how they once again disingenuously and insultingly wrapped their competitive business decision up in the cloak of openness in an attempt to pander to open software advocates. (They know better.) I’ll just hope Google changes their mind before those self-same FOSSies turn on them. Beware the faboys scorned.

But even if they don’t, what will happen? Will YouTube go through the massive re-encoding effort to switch to WebM? Will Netflix? Will iTunes? Probably not, so as usual it will just be us users who suffer. Or switch back to IE…

Google have released Google Places with Hotpot on the iPhone. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Google Places is a free app that allows you to find local businesses and rate them, and with their new ‘hotpot’ feature, Google can suggest new places you’ll like, based on your previously ratings.

The app uses your location to suggest nearby places for you to rate. You can give a standard star rating out of 5, and depending on the location, optional ratings including: Food, Atmosphere, Value and Service.

You can view ratings from most review sites such as Yelp or Qype, as well as Google’s own ratings and it comes with 9 separate categories as standard (Restaurants, Coffee Shops, Bars, ATMs, Gas Stations, Hotels, Attractions, Pizza Parlours and Post Offices) but you can add personal searches as well, to cater to your tastes.

This isn’t a ‘check-in’ application like Gowalla or Foursquare, but this is more similar to apps like Yelp or AroundMe.

What do you guys think about the new Google Places? Will you be using it? Let us know.

[Free - iTunes Link]

Do you want to save a location that you’ve found on Google Maps? After searching for a place on Google Maps, you can save the results to Bookmarks or Contacts so you can easily come back to it later. Stay with us after the break and we will show you how.

Start

1. First, Search for the location in the search box.
2. When you find the location you want, select the ‘ > ‘ icon
3. At the bottom, select ‘Add to Bookmarks’
4. Type in a ‘location name’
5. Click Save.

To find the location later.

1. Select the ‘ book ‘ icon in the search box.
2. Select Bookmarks

You can also save a location to a contact for later viewing.

1. After selecting the ‘ > ‘ icon on a location.
2. Select ‘Add to Contacts’
3. Here, you can either ‘Create a new contact’ or ‘Add to existing contact’
4. Select the Contact, you want to save the location to.

To find the location later.

1. Select the ‘ book ‘ icon in the search box.
2. Select Contacts, and select the contact you want to view.

BONUS TIP: If you press and hold on any spot on the Map, you will ‘drop a pin’, which you can then save as a bookmark or to your contact.

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 dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Despite hundreds of thousands of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps in the App Store, there are still some huge gaps, and major apps missing from the big players, including Apple themselves, Adobe, Google, Microsoft, and BlackBerry maker RIM. Some of the best known software on the market simply isn’t available for iOS. We’re hoping that changes in 2011, and after the break are the apps we’re hoping help make the change!

Apple: Files

I wrote at length about the need for a Finder app and amended it to a Files app in 2010 and now, at the beginning of 2011, it still tops my list for new iPhone and iPad apps I want from Apple. The reason is simple: document access on iOS as it currently stands is a nightmare. Apple’s own iDisk and third parties like DropBox and Box.net offer functionality that really should be native and as off-line as it is on. Again, the Photo app is the model. It preserves the sandbox by providing a central repository for files, and allows them to easily be opened via the Picker in any other app. What Photos does or images and video, Files should do for documents (and both should do via Safari so we can upload to the web, just saying…). Apple, make it happen.

Also want:

• iWork for iPhone. We have it for iPad, we’ve seen it teased for iPhone, it can’t possibly not be released in 2011.
• iPhoto for iOS. Create albums, move photos between them, do basic editing like crop and red-eye removal, and sync selected photos. We got iMovie for iPhone (and hopefully for iPad 2 soon), give us iPhoto.

Adobe: Flash Player

For years people have been angry at Apple for the lack of Flash support. And that’s ridiculous. It’s entirely Adobe’s fault for coasting on shoddy code for the last five years and only delivering a workable mobile Flash, in beta, near the end of 2010. But deliver it they have. It’s not great; I’ve disabled it on my Nexus One, but Adobe is working on it fearfully hard, and Google and Palm and RIM have chosen to support it (and in so doing slowed the switch to HTML 5. Jerks.), so it’ll get good enough. I don’t think Apple would allow a Flash plugin like on other devices — it’s a security risk and a user experience hit — but a Flash Player? Apple could work with Adobe to create a Flash app much like the YouTube app. A single app that, if it detects Flash video anywhere else on the device, especially Safari, it can take the handoff and play it in its own little, highly optimized, hopefully hardware accelerated, Flash-cookie-free sandbox. (Much how the QuickTime player handles H.264 video). It’s not 2007 anymore, and 2011 isn’t Flash free, so it’s time to bite the bullet on this one.

Also want:

• Creative Suite Viewer That I can view AutoCad docs on my iPhone and iPad and not Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign is a disgrace. Get on that, Adobe!

Google: Gmail

I don’t want to come off as greedy, since my mind is still blown by getting Google Voice and Google Latitude in 2010, but in 2011 I really, truly would like a native Gmail app that can handle things like attaching pictures and video (and Files.app, right Apple?). In a perfect world Google would have made Gmail more compatible with other mail systems, seamlessly handling labels as folders and stars as flags. In a perfect world, Apple would actually handle things like stars/flags in the built-in Mail app. But keeping with the pragmatic theme of this post, and acknowledging how annoying separate email apps are on Android, I’d still like a native Gmail app for iPhone and iPad. If it gets decent push notifications built in, like the Google Mobile app, I won’t even have to worry about iOS not having a “set default mail client” setting.

Also want:

• Google Navigation When Android got this for free we heard rumors iPhone would be getting it as well. Then not. Then again. Then not again. Google, just do it.

(If you could somehow get Apple to add those newfangled vector graphics to the Google-powered, built-in Maps app, we’d appreciate that as well).

Microsoft: Office

Documents to Go is great. QuickOffice is grand. Even Google Docs is usable over the web. But Microsoft, baby (can I call you baby?) none of those are Office. Sure, Office is a beast of a suite, as frustrating as it is fantastic, but it’s the standard and it belongs on iPhone and iPad. You’ve built it for Windows Mobile. You’ve built it for Windows Phone. You’ve even built it for Mac and are working on it for Nokia. You know how to do Apple and you know how to do mobile, so it’s time to do Mobile Apple. Sure you lose a differentiator for your own OS, but you had no problem doing that for Exchange, did you? Microsoft, stop teasing us and make 2011 the year of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPhone and iPad. Okay?

Also want:

• Outlook ActiveSync is okay but for hard core Exchange users a native Outlook app is every bit as important as a native Gmail app is to Googlers. Let’s get that sync’ed.
• Zune Pass Apple hasn’t done subscription music yet but they have sold a gazillion iOS devices. Get those users on Zune Pass before iTunes.com launches.

RIM: BlackBerry Connect

CrackBerry Kevin already laid out why, in a post Kik-world, RIM would be better off owning the cross-platform instant messaging space than sitting on the sidelines while some third-party service breaks the crack off from the berry, so I’ll just echo his sentiments here. BlackBerry Connect used to bring BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) to other devices; it could do the same again. Do I expect to see Big Mike bound across a WWDC stage any time soon? No, but Apple did announce a Microsoft ActiveSync license at the iOS 2 event in 2008, so announcing a BlackBerry Connect license in 2011 wouldn’t be unprecedented.

Also want:

• BrickBreaker. Kidding! Give me BBM and I’m good.

Your picks?

Those the top 5 big name apps I’d like to see come to iPhone and iPad in 2011. What are yours? (Besides Facebook for iPad, of course!)

Angry Birds creator, Peter Vesterbacka, in a recent interview had some fairly positive things to say about Apple and the opportunities they have created for developers with the iPhone and iOS platform. He also gives a short explanation for the price tag for the iOS version versus the free Android version.

Apple will be the number one platform for a long time from a developer perspective, they have gotten so many things right. And they know what they are doing and they call the shots. Android is growing, but it’s also growing complexity at the same time. Device fragmentation not the issue, but rather the fragmentation of the ecosystem. So many different shops, so many different models. The carriers messing with the experience again. Open but not really open, a very Google centric ecosystem. And paid content just doesn’t work on Android.

Vesterbacka was also asked about the ever so famous fragmentation issue that Apple CEO Steve Jobs mentioned during Apples Q3 2010 earnings conference call.

Fragmentation on the device side is not a huge problem, but Steve is absolutely right when he says that there are more challenges for developers when working with Android. But that’s fine, developers will figure out how to work any given ecosystem and as long as it doesn’t cause physical pain, it’s ok;-) Nobody else will be able to build what Apple has built, there just isn’t that kind of market power out there.

That doesn’t mean that model is superior, it’s just important to understand that Apple is Apple and Google is Google. Different. And developers need to understand that. Different business models for different ecosystems. And wouldn’t forget about Nokia and MeeGo either, new leadership always tends to shake things up and create opportunity. And HP-Palm. And RIM. And even Microsoft. It’s a fragmented world.

Do you have a preference for ad-supported vs. paid apps? Do you think Vesterbacka is right and certain platforms demand certain business models, or should you be able to choose free-with-ads or paid on all platforms?

[ Tech N' Marketing ]