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]

I'm sure you may have heard horror stories about refurbished iPhones, specifically those from AT&T. Some of the first batch of refurbished iPhones reportedly came with face grease and scratches, others were already even jailbroken--the issues kept getting more and more outlandish and I began to wonder where the truth lied.

Well after we reported the $249/8gb $349/16gb deal here at TiPb, I just had to see them for myself. I managed to purchase a 8gb version before it sold out that same day and eagerly anticipated its arrival.

Though I already have an 8gb iPhone and before you all tar and feather me for being unaware of the imminent release of the 3G iPhone, I figured that an iPhone, no matter when, where, or how, makes a great gift for a special someone. And in the case that they deny the gift, it’s a good way to make a quick buck by simply unlocking & jailbreaking to those poor, poor souls who live in a country with no current ‘official’ iPhone. And if I received one that was in terrible condition, well I would have struck story gold! So it’s a win-win-win, well unless the 3G iPhone does really come out for a subsidized $199, then I might cry.

Read on for the Rest of the Story & Pictures!

To give you a quick summary of the purchase, I bought the iPhone around 1:00 PM Pacific Time on Wednesday through AT&T’s website and promptly received a confirmation number. Thursday afternoon I received notice that my iPhone was already being shipped by DHL (which, by the way, has a great feature that update the status of your package via SMS or e-mail). After receiving silly updates over the weekend and seeing the package ship from Texas->Ohio->California (not my first route choice), I promptly received the iPhone Monday morning at 9:40 AM.

It arrived in a very unremarkable cardboard box that weighed much less than I originally remember my first iPhone weighing. After removing the contents from the box, I found the weirdest of sights. An Apple Product in a carrier-branded box. Complete with the company’s orange and blue, the box screamed AT&T and you would never imagine that there was an iPhone in there.

The packaging was also very anti-Apple, with the use of Styrofoam and careless placement of accessories. It seemed like the earphones and pamphlet didn’t have a slot in the Styrofoam packaging so it was just placed on top of everything. Whatever I thought, I was already wowed by the original packaging of the iPhone but was hopeful to see if it came in one of those white boxes that other refurbished iPhones have been boxed in.

I carefully examined the iPhone and its accessories and well, it suffices to say, I didn’t get to tell one of those crazy, outlandish stories. The iPhone was in flawless condition and doesn’t even look like it has been used. The screen feels great and the back is unscathed. However, some of the accessories do have some wear on them, the USB cable has a few marks and scratches on it and the other accessories don’t look BRAND NEW, but definitely new enough and most importantly, all are in perfect working condition.

The iPhone functions perfectly too. I quickly jailbreaked it to see if everything was functioning and sync’d it a couple times and well, everything turned out fine. So in all, next time there is a refurbished deal for the iPhone, whether it be through AT&T or Apple, fear not! The iPhone works perfectly, looks flawless, and you'll have a great toy to play with for the rest of eternity (or until the next one comes out).