It looks like Engadget managed to get their hands on a real live Nexus One from Google. They are reporting that the Nexus One is using Android 2.1 atop a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, a 3.7-inch, 480 x 800 display. The article goes on to say that the overall feel is very HTC in design. Sadly for Google, however, is that the Nexus One is no iPhone killer. Rather, a better Android offering than the DROID.
What does this mean to you?
Google knows search, but sadly, it seems to end there. Sorry Google fans, but it looks like we have yet another bust. No way this Android phone is better than the iPhone with the exception of it being unlocked. Still same old OS, lacking apps and of course my favorite – where the hell are my movies? Get something going with video and more apps, or forget it. Another clever design is simply not going to cover it.
Sure, every blogger worth his salt has weighed in on the long-rumored Apple tablet that may or may not be--its possible size, shape, specs, debut date, and on and on. Now offering up a perspective on the matter is a high-profile tech industry executive, Kai-fu Lee, who until recently was the head of Google's China operations.
It seems that Lee, who's now working to foster entrepreneurship in China, wrote on his Chinese language blog earlier this week that Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be releasing a tablet PC in January, and expects to produce a voluminous 10 million in the first year, according to the IDG News Service and other media outlets.
Kai-fu Lee
(Credit: Google)
The tablet, according to Lee's post, will have a 10.1-inch touch screen and will look like an oversize iPhone. Other features are said to include a virtual keyboard, 3D graphics, and support for videoconferencing and e-books. The price reportedly will be below $1,000.
Coincidentally, reports have emerged in recent days that Apple may have an event planned for January 26 in San Francisco, with a focus on mobile offerings, and that Apple has told software developers to conjure up versions of their iPhone apps suitable for a larger-than-iPhone screen.
How would Lee, who hasn't worked at Apple in more than a decade, know all this? He said on his blog that he got the information from a friend (unnamed, of course) who's familiar with the project.
But it's not as if Lee is lacking for contacts in the tech industry. Until September 2009, he was the president of Google's Greater China operation. Before that, he spent seven years at Microsoft working on, among other things, speech, natural language, and assistance technologies, and founding Microsoft Research Asia. It was his move from Microsoft to Google, first announced in the middle of 2005, that brought him a wave of notoriety, as the two tech giants squabbled inside and outside the courtroom over his hiring, before settling in December of that year.
From 1996 to 1998, he was a vice president at Silicon Graphics, where he oversaw a group that developed a line of Web servers.
Before that, Lee spent six years at Apple, eventually serving as vice president of the company's Interactive Media Group, according to the biography on the Web site of his latest undertaking.
Lee's current venture, which launched in September, is the Beijing-based Innovation Works, which aims to nurture Chinese high-tech companies and entrepreneurs. Focusing on the Internet, the mobile Internet, and cloud computing, Innovation Works says on its Web site that it plans each year to "prototype some 20 new ideas, aiming to spin off 3-5 independent companies."
Innovation Works says it has $115 million in funding from "an elite group of venture capital groups and investors" that includes YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, Legend Group, and Foxconn Technology Group--the same Foxconn whose operations include the manufacture of the Apple iPhone.
But Lee told the Bloomberg news agency Thursday that his information on the purported Apple tablet didn't come directly from Foxconn, or from Apple for that matter.
"I have never discussed Apple's tablet products with anyone at Foxconn, or anyone at Apple," Lee said in an e-mail to Bloomberg.
Apple was not immediately available for comment.
Does your list of new year’s resolutions include changing your appearance? A facial plastic surgeon in Omaha/Council Bluffs claims he’s one of the first in the country to develop an i-Phone application, or app, for his industry.
Dr. Steven Denenberg says his app is very user-friendly. “That not only allows someone to see a plastic surgeon’s before-and-after pictures, and lots of them, but also much more conveniently than browsing around a website.”
As i-Phones are growing in popularity, Dr. Denenberg says so is self-improvement surgery. The app allows people to send in their photo via the i-Phone and attach any questions about a potential procedure.
Denenberg says, “Someone browses around the before-and-after pictures and says, ‘I want to get an opinion from this doctor,’ so they just turn the phone around, snap some pictures of themselves, press a button or two, and then the photos get sent off to me, if it’s my app.”
He says one of the most popular requests he’s getting for surgery have to do with the nose. “Rhinoplasty, changing what the nose looks like,” Denenberg says. “Also revision rhinoplasty, which is a large part of my practice, which is where you re-operate on a nose after a previous unsuccessful rhinoplasty.”
Denenberg says the i-Phone is bringing him business and he’s also developing apps for the medical field, including cosmetic dentists and other plastic surgeons. “People who use the i-Phone and use it a lot, they’re looking for interesting apps,” he says. “They’re looking for something fun to do and this app provides yet another new way of using the i-Phone.”
Smartphone fans, prepare the ring: Some new research released this week is sure to send the Android-iPhone rivalry into overdrive.
With the Droid's debut, followed by the buzz surrounding Tuesday's expected revelation of the Nexus One, the Android mobile OS has certainly been basking in the spotlight lately. Now, a study by independent analysis firm ChangeWave Research finds the number of people planning to buy an Android phone is skyrocketing -- while the crowd eyeing the iPhone is slowly starting to slip.
Android and iPhone Interest
The study, based on a survey of about 4,000 consumers, shows interest in Android nearly tripling from September to December of 2009. In September, about 6 percent of respondents said an Android phone was in their future. By December, that number was up to 21 percent.
In the span of three months, Android shot ahead of BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Palm when it comes to consumer preference. The only platform still ahead of it: the iPhone.
The rate of change, however, may be where the numbers speak the loudest. In the same time period that Android saw a 250 percent growth in buyer interest, the iPhone experienced a 12.5 percent drop. To be sure, the iPhone still holds a healthy overall lead -- about 28 percent of people expressed interest in buying Apple's mobile device in December, compared to the 21 percent gunning for Android -- but the shifting trend is tough to ignore.
Smartphone Shifts
ChangeWave's research isn't alone; other recent analyses have shown similar shifts in the smartphone market. In December, ComScore found consumer interest in the Android platform had more than doubled since the summer. ComScore's numbers placed Android and iPhone nearly neck-and-neck: Seventeen percent of people surveyed by the company said they were headed to Android, while 20 percent were planning to make new iPhone purchases.
Hang on, though: Before you start digging a virtual grave (and incurring the ire of Apple fans worldwide), you should also look at the big picture. Yes, some expect Android to outpace the iPhone in sales within a matter of years. But does that mean the iPhone is facing certain doom? Don't count on it. Apple earned the honor of most profitable handset vendor in the world just a couple of months ago, according to Strategy Analytics. Even if Android steals a few pieces of its pie, Apple's pride and joy isn't going to shrivel up and die anytime soon.
Still, for what it's worth, the trends increasingly seem to suggest a changing of the guard is on the way. It may not be as dramatic as the always-popular "this-or-that killer" kind of scenario, but in this ring, it's where the real odds lie.
The iPhone has kicked off a technological revolution, and the world has grabbed hold with both hands and is embracing as if it’s the Holy Grail of the industry. The touch revolution has even turned this young blogger into a FarmVille player on steroids, and we will no doubt see the world succumb once the computing Pandora’s box is opened.
But I can’t see it taking off in the academic community. If anything, I see at this point a device which would be smaller than a tablet PC, much larger than the iPhone but around medium-sized to that of the Kindle. So it may be large enough to browse on, but probably too small to hammer away on the on-screen keyboard without feeling like you’re going to break the damn thing.
Ergonomically, it’ll be a disaster. Just think for a moment, how would you type? Would you need to raise your knees and balance it as you tap the on-screen keyboard? Would it have something in the back to hold it at an angle to reduce RSI or even make it viewable? Will it be too heavy, or more realistically, will the weight distribution be way off?
The tablet is a stupid, stupid idea; I don’t even need to use one to know how I’d feel. The Kindle can get away with it as it is predominantly a reading device. You hold with two hands and you read with your eyes. The iSlate or any competing pure-tablet computer will have to be held with two hands and then somehow be typed on with the remaining hands of Shiva.
I can’t see academics using it, but students could buy it but only because it’s the “fashionable thing to do” while they slash away their money into technology they will barely use. We already know that students will buy anything they can get their hands on.
Off on a tangent for a second: could Apple be creating a tablet, something that we haven’t really seen before in mass production, just to prove a point that it can? There is no answer to this hypothesis, but it would add another notch to the bedpost of Apple to be “the first” at something else as well.
The tablet isn’t designed at anybody specifically and while Apple is convinced (and convincing others) that the future of computing is touch-based, I wholeheartedly disagree and will fight it to the last dying breath.
Frankly on this ending thought, a tablet without a keyboard - limiting the user to one awful method of input - is stupid, and it simply annoys the hell out of me.
BMW has launched the M Power iPhone app, the Bavarian automaker's second free application to promote its brand. However, unlike its previous offering, this app is actually sort of useful.
The M Power app measures vehicle acceleration using your iPhone's (or iPod Touch's) built-in accelerometer. After securing the iPhone (via a windshield mount or just tossing it in a cup holder), the app will measure 0-60 mph times other user-customizable speeds in mph or kph. The app will also measure forward and lateral G-forces for users who want to take a spin on a skidpad. Users can also unlock different skins on BMW's Web site to customize the look and feel of the app.
Although branded with the BMW M badge, the M Power app will work for any car that you can fit an iPhone into. Unlike my favorite paid iPhone accelerometer-based speed computer, Dynolicious, BMW's app doesn't look like it will calculate your vehicle's horsepower or torque. But at the low cost of "free," the M Power app is a hard bargain to turn down.
Apple has obtained the trademark for "i-phone" from a Chinese company that applied for ownership of the name in 2004, and a hands-on with Google's Nexus One phone concludes it isn't an "iPhone killer."
Apple obtains Chinese iPhone trademark
Hanwang Technology, a Chinese company that makes e-readers, applied for the trademark for "i-phone" in 2004. The i-phone was a handset the company no longer sells.
According to IDG News Service, the new owner of the trademark application has changed to Apple. A Hangwang official reportedly said that the Chinese company reached an agreement with Apple over the trademark to the iPhone name. Details of the agreement were not provided.
When China Unicom launched the iPhone last October, it was said the similarity between the i-phone and iPhone names could have made the sale of Apple's handset illegal.
Though Apple only sold 5,000 iPhones at launch with China Unicom, sales continued at a steady pace through the end of the year. In early December, it was revealed that Apple had sold 100,000 handsets in the nation of over 1 billion. It is believed that gray market sales far exceed those numbers, however.
Google Nexus One compared to iPhone
Engadgetgot its hands on Google's forthcoming Nexus One handset, which runs the Android mobile operating system and is expected to be available through carrier T-Mobile very soon. The HTC-built device has a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, a 3.7-inch display, 512MB of ROM and 512MB of RAM.
Joshua Topolsky said the phone is a little thinner than the iPhone and feels good in the hand, but aside from its superior design and form factor, it is not significantly different from the Motorola Droid. The improved user interface was also welcomed.
"Throughout the phone there are also new animations and flourishes which make Android 2.1 feel way more polished than previous iterations (including the Droid's 2.0.1), though it's still got a ways to go to matching something like the iPhone or even Pre in terms of fit and finish," Topolsky said. "Regardless, it's clear Google has started thinking about not just function but form as well, and that's very good news for Android aficionados."
The review was not as favorable as an earlier comparison that said the Nexus One might be more of a "Droid killer" than an "iPhone killer." Google has planned a special event to formally announce the Nexus One Tuesday morning. The GSM-based handset will reportedly be sold direct from Google for $530 unlocked, or $180 under contract with T-Mobile.
Third-party app manufacturer for iPhone, Morphie will be uncovering its credit card reader for the cult-device iPhone at the upcoming 2010 Consumer Electronics Show. This app would mark the add-on manufacter’s foray into the high-potential market of mobile payment systems. Morphie, has already developed accessories for the iPhone and iPhone along with battery add-ons.
Named as the “Credit Card Reader”, the application will be complemented with a processing application from a third party and would facilitate in credit card payments for iPhone users. Though the details of the app are yet to be known, industry watchers opine that the success of it would depend on its pricing and design. Additional details about the application will be unearthed at the CES 2010, which will be kicked off in Las Vegas, US.
The application would be pitched right against its competing app Square. Square, which is being developed by Jack Dorsey, who also co-founded Twitter, was the first known mobile phone payment system for iPhone and devices running on the Android Platform.
The credit card reader from Morphie would be making use of wireless connectivity of the iPhone device to help users to manage their credit card sales from any connected place. The app will be cased into a special casing developed for the iPhone.
January starts off 2010 with much excitement and anticipation. January 7th is the start of the Computer Electronics Show (CES). This is where vendors like Nikon will present their products like the CoolPix S1000pj. January 26th Apple will be making a significant product announcement. It has been greatly speculated that Jobs will be announcing the long anticipated Apple "iSlate." Lastly, it has just been reported by ComputerWorld that on January 5th, Google will be holding an Android, invitation-only, event at the Googleplex in Mountain View. The event will consist of a press conference, presentations and question and answer sessions.
Although January starts off the new year with much fan-fare -- it's 2010 that the industry will be watching very closely. The speculation is that 2010 will be the year of the tablet. We seem to have more speculation than facts these days. The rumor mill is producing four distinct tablet stories. We are looking at the Microsoft Courier, the Apple "iSlate," HP might be in tablet development and it was just reported in Gizmodo that Google and HTC are supposedly working on a tablet.
Some in the industry are speculating if Schmidt is purposely holding the Google conference right before CES. This is a similar move to what Jobs did in 2007 -- when he announced the iPhone right before CES. In essence, the iPhone became all the talk at CES 2007. I think that Schmidt is a smart man. This very well calculated move worked for Jobs and Schmidt is hoping it will do the same for Google.
In a post first reported by David Richards of Smarthouse, he confirms that HTC has a product that will compete with the Apple tablet. It appears that Schmidt is going to pull a "one more thing" on January 5th.
HTC, who has been working closely with Google for the past 18 months have several working models of a touch tablet including one model, is based on the new Google Chrome Operating System say sources. An Android based device which is set to be shown privately to core HTC customers at the CES Show is set to incorporate new Qualcomm processors, touch technology and new software from Adobe.
Although the competitive landscape of the tablet is young it would appear that Apple and Google have a significant lead. Of the two, I do believe that Apple has the advantage. Leaving technology behind for a moment. The tablets will succeed based on two factors -- price point and content.
Apple is rumored to be coming in between $700 - $900. The price is rather steep and may keep many from buying the iSlate. The high price maybe justified since the iSlate is apparently content rich. Apart from what is already offered in iTunes the story is that CBS and Disney are very interested in providing TV subscription services. Additionally, Apple has been rumored to be speaking with publishers, broadcasters and movie studios to bring subscription based services to iTunes. These services may come in the form of news papers, text books, magazines all updated in real time, living stories and Internet TV -- all operating on a 3G or 4G network; even white-space is a strong possibility. This makes the iSlate sound more like a media tablet, than a big iPhone.
As far as the Google - HTC tablet, I have not heard of price or content packages. According to PCWorld the Google Chrome OS-based netbook "will come pre-installed with Google apps such as Google Map, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calender, and Google Search by Voice." I am making the assumption that the tablet would at bare minimum have this set of applications -- since it's running the Google Chrome OS.
With all these speculations and some facts, there is still a level of uncertainty on what Google will be presenting on January 5th. The speculation runs their entire portfolio. Whatever happens on the 5th one thing is certain -- it will be all the talk at CES 2010.
I am sure honest Hollywood agents do exist. It's just that they don't seem to employ the finest PR firms to proselytize their honesty.
This might explain why Oisin Hanrahan, the Irish creator of an iPhone app called SuperAgent, decided that the main character in his game might be a few scruples short of Mother Teresa.
SuperAgent seems to have been well received, a reception that might have led to its being noticed by, well, Hollywood super agents. According to the Independent, one super agent may have enjoyed a particular interest in this app. His name is Ari Emanuel. He is the agent for so many important acting citizens such as Robert De Niro and Sacha Baron Cohen as well as directors such as Spike Lee. He is even thought to be the person upon whom the character of Ari Gold is based in the delightfully fluffy "Entourage" on HBO.
What is important for today's story, however, is that he has reportedly set his more toothsome legal dogs upon Oisin Hanrahan and his company, Factory Six. You see, the slightly less than honest agent in the SuperAgent game is called Ari.
While I leave you to gather your breath for a moment, let me just whisper that it is not the mere mention of Emanuel's first name that appears to have ruffled his hairline.
The Independent kindly offers details of the cease-and-desist letter that has caused Apple to remove SuperAgent from the App Store.
"The game uses the name 'Ari' for the main character, which clearly is a reference to Mr Emanuel, the co-chief executive officer of WME, one of the world's premier talent agencies," begins the forceful cease-and-desist letter.
It continues as forcefully it began: "[It] clearly intends to capitalize on using Mr Emanuel's and WME's names for the game and possibly mislead the public into thinking that Mr Emanuel and/or WME endorse the game - effectively trading off the goodwill, reputation and fame established by our clients."
Hanrahan deftly told the Independent that because of the "Entourage" series, "Ari" is a name that symbolizes Hollywood in general, not one person in particular. He added: "We're a very small firm, of just three people, and since Apple pulled it we have had no income."
I feel sure that many of you will sympathize with Hanrahan's plight. His arguments appear plausible. His game, just as the "Entourage" show, seems but an amusing diversion from the pains of everyday existence.
But perhaps others might consider that while saying truth to power is an often alluring concept, one should always think carefully before saying jokes to power. Power is a sensitive soul, one that isn't always comfortable with japes. Somehow, for some powerful souls, taking a joke is like Samson admitting he'd always wondered what it would like to be bald.
LONDON — You don’t need a crystal ball, seer stone, scrying pool or any other spooky stuff to guess what one of the most talked-about design projects of 2010 will be. The tech blogs have been buzzing about it for months. It’s the iSlate, iTablet, iProd, Magic Slate, or whatever else Apple finally decides to call its new tablet computer.
One Laptop Per Child showed how cute a small version of the laptop could be when it unveiled the first prototype of its XO machine in 2005. Pictured is the latest prototype, the XO-3.
VitraHaus, a model modern house by the architects Herzog & de Meuron, which is slated to open at Vitra’s headquarters in Weil am Rhein, Germany in 2010.
We’ve been here before: three years ago, to be exact. The drill was the same. Months of frenzied blogging culminated in ecstatic cheers on Jan. 9, 2007, when Apple’s co-founder, Steve Jobs, brandished a prototype iPhone before an adoring audience of Apple nuts at a convention in San Francisco.
What’s happened since? Not only has Apple sold tens of millions of iPhones, it has pulled off a stunningly successful exercise in design democracy whereby thousands of D.I.Y. designers have developed applications, or programs, for them. Some 100,000 “apps” have been invented, and more than two billion downloaded from Apple’s App Store. What’s almost more impressive is that Apple has achieved this despite its own history — and instincts — as the consummate corporate control freak.
Mr. Jobs is expected to show off the iSlate (as we’ll call it, if only because that’s the latest rumor) in San Francisco later this month. If the bloggers are right, it will hit the stores in March. At the risk of party-pooping, we should note that not every new Apple product has been a hit. Remember the Newton PDA? Or the G4 Cube computer? But if the iSlate is another of the company’s successes, it promises to have as much impact as the iPhone, if not more.
It’s that tantalizing possibility of “more” that puts it on the top of the design agenda for 2010. There are other contenders, despite the recession. The automotive industry will discover whether its investment in electric cars has paid off when the Nissan LEAF and other zero-emissions vehicles go on sale. Vitra, the Swiss furniture group, will experiment with new ways of designing the home in the VitraHaus, a model modern house built by the architects Herzog & de Meuron at Vitra’s headquarters in Weil am Rhein, Germany. And a proposal to help consumers monitor their environmental impact by introducing a global system of identifying the carbon and water footprints of products and their packaging is to be discussed at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, later this month.
Even so, the iSlate is particularly interesting, not only because of that promise of “more,” but because it sums up so much of what’s happening in design now.
The iSlate would probably be successful simply by dint of being Apple’s first tablet computer. Ever since the non-profit organization One Laptop Per Child showed how cute a small version of the laptop could be when it unveiled the first prototype of its XO machine in 2005, tablet computers have been one of the fastest growing areas of the computer market. That wasn’t OLPC’s intention. Fuseproject, the San Francisco design group that develops its hardware, reduced the computer’s size in the hope of making it cheap enough for developing countries to buy for their schools. Spawning a profitable new product category for the I.T. industry wasn’t part of the idealistic agenda.
Accidental though it was, consumers have leapt at the chance to buy computers that are not only smaller than laptops, but lighter and cheaper too. Apple may be a late entrant to the market, but there is no reason to believe that its designers won’t be able to replicate their past success at battling against the laws of physics to produce a tablet that’s sleeker, lighter and generally hotter than anyone else’s, so much so that people will be willing to pay more for it.
The outcome of that battle will be even more important when it comes to the “more” element of the iSlate. Like many new digital devices, it will combine several products in one. An extreme example is the iPhone. It fulfills the functions of dozens of products including a watch, diary, alarm clock, barometer, satellite navigation system, Internet browser, dictionary, DVD player and MP3 player as well as a phone, and that’s before we come on to those 100,000 apps. The iSlate will do lots of that stuff too, as well as basic computing. Critically it will also act as an electronic reader, like Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader.
Many people like their e-readers (not least because they save them from having to haul around books, newspapers and magazines) but I’ve yet to meet anyone who loves them. That’s the key. If a really great e-reader appeared, the market would explode. The e-reader is waiting for a killer product, just as the MP3 player was before Apple’s iPod. Apple didn’t invent the MP3 player, it made such a sexy one that many more people wanted to buy it. That’s what it is promising to do again.
If it comes through, demand for electronic books, newspapers and magazines should soar. This will create an exciting design challenge for their publishers to develop seductive ways of presenting their content on e-readers. In theory, e-newspapers could combine the convenience of the printed product with the dynamism of their Web sites. And e-magazines should be more visually compelling with higher resolution images than their Web versions. As well as helping publishers to tackle the thorny problem of how to make money from the Internet, it could enable them to create dazzling new e-media.
That’s why an important element of the iSlate will be another contemporary design essential — a great service design concept. For the iPod, that’s the iTunes music store, and for the iPhone, the App Store. The iSlate’s equivalent will be a fun, simple system with which we can download e-content.
There is, of course, another increasingly important area of design where Apple has fared less well — sustainability. Will it do better with the iSlate? Hopefully we’ll find out soon.
Whether the marketplace is ready or not, the Big Guns in consumer electronics are about to make their move at the dawn of the New Year.
Screenshots sent to Gizmodo from an anonymous source reveal the possible price and tariff details of the Nexus OneGooglephone, along with some extra hardware details.
(Courtesy Gizmodo.com)
Next Tuesday, Google is expected to announce its long-rumored Nexus One smartphone. It is undoubtedly designed to run the Google Androidoperating system for cellphones, which the search giant introduced more than a year ago. Android was envisioned as a major breakthrough in cellphones because it offered an "open" operating system – i.e., one that other companies could use and design applications for. At the time, this strategy was compared to that of MicrosoftWindows, which broke the market hegemony of Apple's decidedly non-open OS in the mid-1980s and within a decade, turned Apple into a niche company. This time around, the new Android phones were supposed to break the hegemony of the Apple iPhone.
So far, it hasn't quite worked out that way with Android. A number of cell phone companies – notably Motorola, HTC, and Samsung – have adopted Android and seen impressive sales. However, this time around Apple, though still exhibiting much of its old "closed" and proprietary ways, has learned some important lessons over the last 20 years.
For one thing, Apple understands, better perhaps than any company on the planet, the importance of being not only perpetually innovative – but with a vast and loyal army of Apple fanatics behind it – to regularly take category-busting risks. Thus, the amazing run, beginning a decade ago, of the iMac, MacBook, iPodand iPhone. These landmark (and in the case of the iPod, historic) products not only were ambitious in their goals and beautifully designed, but they also exhibited multiple features that were so innovative that they forced the competition to spend years catching up – and by then, Apple had already moved on to the next breakthrough.
Military theorists like to say that the goal of combat is to get inside your opponent's "decision horizon" – that is, to move so quickly that the enemy can't respond in time before you have moved on to the next victory. That's exactly what Apple, at its best, has done to the consumer electronics world … and in the process has left competitors reeling, loyal customers thrilled, and not least, Apple regaining its lost market share and making its shareholders wealthy.
The Apple iPhone is a classic example of that. It has taken nearly two years for Apple's competitors to field products that are even close to the iPhone; to identify weaknesses in the device (such as the lack of a real keyboard for texters, its commitment to AT&Tas service provider) and respond. Apple, meanwhile, has used that time to continuously improve the iPhone – the result being that the company now dominates the smartphone world to a degree Apple hasn't enjoyed since the early years of the Macintosh.
If that was the sum of Apple's advantage, the door might be wide open for Google and the rest to pull a Windows Redux strategy. Apple, after all, is still all about controlling the operating system and suing anyone who tries to copy it. This would seem to open the door for yet another Open Systems assault, pulling together the entire intellectual capital of the entire rest of the phone industry to simply overwhelm Apple's defenses.
But, as I said, even if Apple hasn't reformed its bad old ways, it has grown a whole lot wiser. And, in one of the most brilliant strategic moves in its history, the company opened the door more than a year ago to outside developers to create their own proprietary application programs for the iPhone (and iPod Touch) to be sold through the Apple Store. Here, too, serendipity has been Apple's friend: economic downturns are always times for a burst of entrepreneurial energy as the unemployed and underemployed use the downtime to start new enterprises and then give them a running start. But this crash has been unique in high tech history not only for its depth and duration, but also because, for the first, time, the venture capital industry (largely because of government regulation) is paralyzed and little investment money is available.
This entrepreneurial energy needs to go somewhere … and where much of it has headed is toward the design of iPhone apps. The sheer number of these apps that have been created in just 18 months is absolutely mind-boggling: more than 100,000 different programs, from guitar tuners to restaurant ratings to burp generators, and everything else you can imagine. It is one of the greatest outpourings of small, independent entrepreneurship in American business history, and all supported by the Apple Store. There have been more than 1 billion iPhone app downloads.
2010 will see increasing security threats to users of social networking and media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, a security vendor predicted.
"In 2009 we saw increased attacks on websites, exploit cocktails thrown at unsuspecting users, infrastructure failure via natural and unnatural causes, and 'friendly fire' become a larger problem than ever."
"With Facebook reaching more than 350 million users, we expect that 2010 will take these trends to new heights," security vendor McAfee said in its "2010 Threat Predictions" report (PDF).
"Malware authors love following the social networking buzz and hot spots of activity; that will continue in 2010."
The report warns that as Google and other providers crack down on "search engine poisoning", Twitter and similar services will increase in appeal for such purposes.
Twitter has been a major driver in the use of abbreviated URL services, such as bit.ly and tinyurl.com.
McAfee suggests that these services make it easier than ever to mask the URLs that users are asked to click.
"This trick will play a more predominant role in 2010; it's the perfect avenue to direct users to websites that they would normally be wary about visiting," states the report written by Dmitri Alperovitch, Toralv Dirro, Paula Greve, Rahul Kashyap, David Marcus, Sam Masiello, Franois Paget, and Craig Schmugar of McAfee Labs.
"As users expectations of their Web 2.0 services evolve, we expect to see many rogue services set up with the hidden purpose of capturing credentials and data."
The phenomenal success of Apple's iPhone is driven in large part by the diversity of applications available to it.
The audience is there: Facebook boasts more than 350,000 active applications and Apple's App Store recently reached the 100,000 mark.
"Users blindly distribute applications; with the widespread availability of stolen credentials it could become very easy to launch and share these rogue apps across a wide population."
"Wherever and whenever a trusted mainstream website distributes or promotes third-party content, attackers seek to abuse the trust relationship established between the site and their users."
"Users often let down their guard when clicking hyperlinks sent from their friends, or when installing applications offered by well-known sites," warn the report writers.
DENVER -- Heather Poli wasn't quite sure how to react when her friend's cellphone informed her she was drunk.
The 27-year-old ad-agency worker had been at a bar here with her buddies. It was late; she was about to catch a ride home. Then a friend pulled out an iPhone, and the gang took turns entering their weights and what they had imbibed into an app called R-U-Buzzed?
Bing! Up popped estimates of their blood-alcohol content. Ms. Poli's designated driver turned out to be hammered. Ms. Poli wanted to take the wheel herself, but to her indignation, the phone told her no: "I got the big red 'Don't even think about driving' result." Her hangover the next day confirmed the phone's assessment, she says ruefully. "But at the time, it was very surprising." Still, she obeyed the phone and called a cab.
State officials hope tens of thousands of her peers will follow suit tonight.
A new iPhone app called R-U-Buzzed aims to help you decide if you're too drunk to drive. Neil Hickey reports.
New Year's Eve may mean champagne toasts and midnight kisses to many Americans, but to law enforcement, it means trouble and, too often, tragedy. The nation records an average of 54 alcohol-related traffic fatalities on New Year's Day. The rest of the year, the average daily toll is 36, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The problem is especially acute among younger drivers. Federal statistics show that 65% of drunk drivers involved in fatal crashes last year were 21 to 34 years old. An additional 17% were under the legal drinking age of 21.
These are precisely the age groups least likely to tune into the radio spots, billboards and newspaper ads traditionally used to warn about the dangers of driving while impaired.
So state officials are trying new -- and, they hope, hip -- ways to reach out to the Twitter-iPhone-Facebook generation. Some safe-driving advocates fear the new strategies, often lighthearted in tone, will undermine the stern message that has been the gold-standard for years: Don't ever drink and drive.
But state officials say they have to meet their target audience on its own turf.
In the fall, Washington state's Traffic Safety Commission spent $50,000 to embed virtual billboards in online videogames. The ads show cuffed hands and the warning, "Drive Hammered, Get Nailed."
Maryland's highway agency posted a YouTube video of heart-rending testimony from relatives whose loved ones were killed by drunk drivers. A Facebook page launched last week by California's Office of Traffic Safety is sponsoring a contest for the best nonalcoholic "mocktail." The winner gets a two-night hotel getaway.
In New York, the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee has been taking to concerts and football games a drunk-driving simulator and goggles that mimic various levels of intoxication. "The kids love it, especially the goggles," says Ken Brown, a spokesman. "It's, 'Look at Johnny, he can't walk straight, hee, hee, hee.' But it gets the point across."
In Colorado, the state Department of Transportation hosts an interactive Web site that shows partygoers where to park their cars safely overnight and points them to bars that hand out vouchers for free taxi rides.
But officials were looking for something more dynamic. When their marketing team, Webb PR, suggested an iPhone buzz-o-meter, they bit, spending $8,000 to develop the program.
In the month since its debut, the free app -- which is designed to look like a slot machine -- has been downloaded nearly 40,000 times from Apple's online store, with a noticeable spike in traffic on Christmas Day.
The calculator comes with a disclaimer that it isn't definitive: Impairment can vary greatly depending on how much drinkers have eaten, whether they are on medication and how much sleep they have had.
Still, based on the user's input of weight, gender, hours drinking and a tally of beer, wine and liquor consumed, the calculator spits out a blood-alcohol content number that looks very precise -- for example, 0.058%. It's accompanied by a color-coded message: "No hangover expected," printed in sober gray; "You're buzzed!" in yellow; or, in cautionary red: "Don't even think about it!...Designate a sober driver."
In major Colorado cities, an added feature uses GPS technology to let the user call a cab with a tap of the phone.
Pocket breath-analysis devices, some so small they fit on keychains, have been sold for some time, for as little as $15, though experts warn that they aren't always accurate. There are also several online blood-alcohol calculators. Colorado officials hope that bringing the issue to the iPhone will make it even easier -- and more socially acceptable -- for young adults to keep tabs on their intoxication.
But some have found another use: "It could definitely become a drinking game," says Brad Brown, a 23-year-old bank teller.
Mr. Brown pulled out the app at a recent party and started punching in each drink as he downed it: One shot of vodka. Two. Three. A mixed drink. A beer. It became a challenge, he says, to watch the blood-alcohol content climb and see when he could tip the color bar from gray to yellow to red. He didn't drive home that night, but he credits his common sense, not the app. "It's just a cool thing to mess around with," he says. "It gives you another excuse to drink."
That is worrisome to safe-driving advocates. Another concern: Users might trust their phones to pronounce them fit to drive when they really aren't. A blood alcohol content of 0.058% is below the legal limit of 0.08% but can still slow reaction time and blur judgment.
Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, says the app may undermine her group's message that the safest approach is never to drive after drinking. "Reaching young people is a great idea," she says -- but depending on a phone to judge intoxication isn't.
Then there is the question of whether revelers will accurately recall and input their alcohol consumption. Or whether they will remember to consult their phones. Tim Kilgannon, who owns a Denver bar called the Blake Street Vault, has doubts. "If someone's that messed up, they're never going to pull out an app," he says.
Social networking is also a double-edged sword: Drivers in some areas have begun using Twitter, text messages and iPhone apps to broadcast the locations of sobriety checkpoints, allowing those who have been drinking to choose another route.
For all its shortcomings, the new technology does at least raise awareness of drunk driving, says Christy Kruzick, a 29-year-old TV producer in Denver.
"When you're out at a bar, no one wants to talk about it," Ms. Kruzick says "It's too serious. You don't want to bring the party down."
Yet when she pulled out the iPhone app at a bar the other night, her friends all clamored to take a turn -- and the subject was suddenly very much on the table.
Ms. Poli, who was taken aback when her friend's phone pronounced her drunk, sees another advantage: She's more apt to listen to her phone, she says, than to a friend who tries to take away her keys. The app "felt very solid and mathematical and trustworthy," Ms. Poli says. "And nonjudgmental."
Today's Apple tablet rumor has an optimistic zing to it--and maybe that's a great way to close out a dreary 2009. According to a blog post by former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee, Apple plans to produce nearly 10 million tablets in the still-unannounced product's first year. Lee worked for Apple more than ten years ago and left Google earlier this year, according to published reports.
That figure--10 million--seems awfully high for a consumer product that's charting unknown territory. The tablet (or iSlate or iPad, if you prefer) would target an untapped market, if rumors of the device's form and functionality are true. True, a few tablet-style browser/media players are either already on the market or are arriving shortly, but none has garnered anywhere near the attention of the Apple tablet.
I did some checking at Apple's site to see what sales figures were like for the iPhone in its first year. Here's the breakdown:
Q3 2007: 270,000 units
Q4 2007: 1,119,000
Q1 2008: 2,315,000
Q2 2008: 1,703,000
Add up the quarterly numbers, and Apple sold just over 5.4 million iPhones in the handset's first year. (I also tried to get first-year numbers for the iPod, which launched in November 2001, but Apple's financial reports didn't break down iPod sales back then.)
If Lee's blog post is to be believed, Apple plans to sell nearly twice as many tablets as it did iPhones in the product's first year.
Call me a pessimist, but that's hard to believe. Remember, the iPhone was entering a well-established cell phone market when it debuted in 2007. People had used cell phones for years. They liked cell phones and understood their value. Apple's pitch back then: The iPhone is better than any other cell phone on the market. Millions of customers agreed, and the rest is history.
The tablet? Well, that's a much harder sell. The iSlate is sort of a big iPod, but not really. It performs a lot of notebook-like functions, but it's not really a notebook either.
My point is that Apple will need to educate its target market. And that's why I seriously doubt the company expects to move 10 million tablets within a year.
Then again, Apple has proven the pundits wrong before. What do you think?
It looks like Engadget managed to get their hands on a real live Nexus One from Google. They are reporting that the Nexus One is using Android 2.1 atop a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, a 3.7-inch, 480 x 800 display. The article goes on to say that the overall feel is very HTC in design. Sadly for Google, however, is that the Nexus One is no iPhone killer. Rather, a better Android offering than the DROID.
