Top 5 Nexus One Apps

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iPhone 4G Rumors Heat Up

It's been less than a year since the iPhone 3GS launched, and the rumor mill is already churning out speculation about an upcoming iPhone 4G, expected as early as May.
New rumors have been circulating over the past couple of days, saying a new Apple iPhone 4G will be available by June, or even as early as May. Besides the earlier-than-expected launch date (new iPhone models traditionally come out in June or July), potential new features are in discussion as well, such as a better camera, an OLED screen, a removable battery, and different casing.

A Bloomberg/BusinessWeek report quotes an analyst from the Goldman Sachs Group saying the iPhone 4G would have a better camera than the 3-megapixel shooter found on the iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 4G's camera could offer up to 5 megapixels, which would put it on the par with the camera in Google's Nexus One.
The story also speculates that Apple is working on an updated version of the iPhone OS with an overhauled App Store. The analyst in the Bloomberg story did not identify who gave him the information, but speculates the iPhone 4G will go into production as early as April, with availability expected sometime in June or July.
Derailing from the usual July/July launch timeframe though, is a report originating from a French Web site, which claims we are likely to see the next generation iPhone in May. The report says Apple targeted May because it thought that's when Google would release their Nexus One Android smartphone. Actually, the Nexus One was unveiled earlier this month. Is it like that Apple would move up the release of a new iPhone to compete with Google? Maybe. But it doesn't seem likely that Apple would misjudge Google's launch date by several months.
Also this week, a report from Korea Times quoted unnamed mobile executives claiming the iPhone 4G will have an OLED screen and support for video chat. Most surprisingly, it claimed that the upcoming iPhone would feature a removable battery - though the chances of this happening are slight (Apple refused to use removable batteries in all three generations of iPhones and its latest laptops also sport non-removable batteries).
All-in-all, some of these rumors are plausible, such as the OLED screen and a better camera, though earlier launch dates as soon as May might seem a bit far-fetched, as Apple usually refreshes products in a yearly cycle.

SOURCE: PCWORLD

Nexus One: Too Much Hype, Not Enough Marketing

Poor Nexus One. Despite earning mostly positive reviews and becoming an obsession in the tech blogosphere, the Google phone reportedly sold just 20,000 units in its first week. That's just 10 percent of the Motorola Droid's debut sales.
If those figures are correct -- they're not official, but calculated in a roundabout way by market researcher Flurry -- there a few takeaways as to why the Droid had better early commercial success than the Nexus One. You could argue that in-store Droid sales trump the Nexus One's online-only distribution, or that Verizon Wireless is a bigger carrier than T-Mobile, translating to more potential customers.
But even if you could buy the Nexus One in stores, and on Verizon Wireless, Google's marketing would still be problematic. Google plans to focus its marketing efforts online, within its own pages, the Wall Street Journal reported. That includes Google home page promotion (though I don't see any at the time of writing this), search ads and a Nexus One channel on YouTube. It's a very Google-like outlook on advertising, where all you need is a little online message here and there to make an impression. Verizon, meanwhile, relentlessly used the Droid to bash the iPhone, and AT&T. It approached the stage with the cockiness of a professional wrestler And it worked.
Google's approach just doesn't stack up. Phones are more than just a purchase. They're your constant companion, probably for two years, and like it or not, they convey a message and a lifestyle. The Droid's lifestyle is that of a manly man who favors function over form, unlike that pretty princess iPhone. The iPhone's image is one of smug satisfaction: Can your phone do this?
Google's in a tough position with the Nexus One, because it can't really knock either of those phones. Obviously attacking another Android phone makes no sense, and iPhone-bashing probably isn't in Google's best interests, because so many Google services -- Search, Maps, YouTube -- are tied up in the iPhone. Verizon can get away with an anti-iPhone campaign, but Google, which is selling the Nexus One directly, cannot.
There's hope for the Nexus One. Perhaps Google's online marketing strategy will be a slow burn, sinking in over many months as word of mouth spreads. Verizon Wireless took the shortcut by bashing the iPhone, but the Nexus One has a long road ahead.

Source: PCWORLD

Google Nexus Two is Coming

Google executive Andy Rubin has claimed the next version of the Nexus One will be aimed at enterprise users and could feature a physical keyboard.

Techtree writes that the follow-up to the Google Nexus One will feature a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, which was the most conspicuous omission from the Nexus One’s design. While it makes sense that Google’s first Android phone ditched the Qwerty – phones without them are a lot easier to keep slim and ‘sexy’ – we always expected that later phones would offer a physical keyboard.

Google Nexus One Vs. Apple iPhone

Promoting and directly marketing HTC's latest new Android phone under its own brand, Google has taken the fate of its Android smartphone platform into its own hands. How does the new "superphone" mass up to last summer's iPhone 3GS?

AppleInsider has presented a series of articles on how Android stacks up against Apple's iPhone OS as a platform in general terms. In this article, we'll consider the hardware specifics of the latest offering from Google's partner.

Meet your maker

While the tech press likes to say Google designed the Nexus One "with HTC," Google executives clearly gave all the credit to HTC at its introduction, saying "It’s inaccurate to say Google designed the phone. Peter [Chou] and his team [at HTC] built and designed the phone. Google is just marketing and selling the phone."

The phone is nearly identical to what HTC itself sells under the name Bravo in Europe, apart from the placement of its buttons. Google's impact on the Nexus One's specs is far less significant than even Microsoft's original Zune, which while being based on the Toshiba Gigabeat, was at least given a design update and noticeably different software that rendered it incompatible with other PlaysforSure MP3 players. In contrast, the Nexus One is very clearly a Google-branded HTC phone, and there are no intentional, artificial compatibility barriers with other Android platform devices.

HTC has a history of building higher-end PDA-style phones, often with physical keyboards, large screens, and envelope pushing hardware features. Most of its phones have been designed to run Microsoft's Windows Mobile, and are therefore targeted at that platform's core market of IT staff and gadget enthusiasts. HTC has served as Microsoft's primary licensee, building 80% of the Windows Mobile phones to reach the market (although many of these were sold under different brand names, just as Google is now doing with the Nexus One).

The company also built previous generations of PDA-style phones sold by Palm, prior to the debut of the new WebOS-based Pre. But HTC's history as the leading maker of Windows Mobile phones is what positioned it to be the first major manufacture to launch an Android phone, because Google targeted its relatively new Android operating system at hardware reference designs running Windows Mobile, in much the same way that popular desktop distributions of Linux are geared to run on Microsoft's reference design for Windows PCs.

Magic, Dream, Hero, Passion

Google launched Android 1.0 in October 2008 with HTC's Dream (sold as the T-Mobile G1), then followed up with HTC's second generation Magic (the T-Mobile myTouch) last summer, and then the HTC Hero (also sold with slight modifications as the Verizon Droid Eris) last fall. It's therefore nothing out of the ordinary that the newly released Nexus One running Android 2.1 is also being sold under other HTC names in other markets.

Unike earlier HTC models, the new Nexus One does not pair the stock Android OS with HTC's "Sense UI," a user interface theme HTC added to the stock Android both to differentiate its offerings and to solve some rough edges in the Android interface, such as the look of its virtual keyboard. HTC also applies Sense to its Windows Mobile phones which makes HTC's Android phones look and feel more similar to the company's other products than to those of other Android makers, including Motorola's Verizon Droid and the upcoming Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.

Overall, this fractionalization has resulted in making the Android platform less similar to commodity Windows PCs and more like PlaysForSure devices in terms of being unique to their manufacturer rather than offering a largely identical experience between vendors. With Android 2.1 however, Google seems to be signaling the intention to fold in many of HTC's Sense improvements into the standard OS, which should help streamline the platform at the expense of HTC's differentiation.

The Android balancing act

It remains to be seen whether Google will continue to work to neutralize the differentiation efforts of its partners in order to strengthen the Android brand, or whether it will continue to encourage vendors to create their own look and feel independently, as Motorola did with Blur and Sony Ericsson is expected to do with its upcoming phone.

On the other hand, it is in HTC's interests to create reasons for customers to pick its phones over those of other competitors. The company already advertises its Android and Windows Mobile devices under the same ad campaign, direction attention to its own brand rather than to either licensed operating system. Further, at CES the company unveiled a new initiative to release a series of lower-end smartphones based on BREW, Qualcomm's proprietary alternative to Java.

That indicates that despite its shift from Windows Mobile, HTC isn't betting its future on Android. Additionally, it shows that Android itself doesn't do enough to allow phone makers to hit low price points. Successful Android phones require a fast processor and significant RAM and other system resources to be taken seriously.

Finding one operating system to span from the bargain bin to the high end has similarly been a challenge for Nokia, which uses its own simple Nokia OS, the more sophisticated Symbian, a full distro of Maemo Linux in its Internet Tablets, and Windows on its netbook. Samsung has also announced plans to juggle Windows Mobile, Android, and its own Bada platform. Most other makers also have a variety of operating systems, leaving Apple, RIM, and Palm unique in pushing one single OS.

Motorola has announced an intention do to this with Android, but is already facing a rather direct blow from Google and its new branding partnership with HTC. On the other side, Google is also planning to add its new Chrome OS into the mix as a way to enter the significantly different netbook market, which will splinter efforts by its current licensees who already have Android netbooks and tablets under development.

The company has also announced a clear intention to turn its hardware partners into commodity manufacturers, leaving Google with control of all the value across their products, much as Microsoft did to PC makers in the 90s. This is all a precarious balancing act challenge Apple doesn't face.

Android super-Hero

Unlike most of its Windows Mobile phones, which nearly always supply a physical keyboard, HTC's Nexus One builds upon the previous Hero/Droid Eris form factor to deliver something that's closer to the iPhone, but which still supplies a trackball pointer rather than relying on ubiquitous multitouch for navigation. The result is a something of a middle ground between the gadgety PC experience of Windows Mobile and the slick and refined appliance experience Apple provides.

In many ways, the Nexus One is HTC's answer to the Motorola Verizon Droid, which stole the spotlight this winter as Google focused on it and left HTC's Hero (Verizon Droid Eris) to serve as a runner up to be given away for free with Droid purchases. HTC's Hero was also relegated to running an older version of the Android OS, as Google launched Android 2.0 on the Droid exclusively.

As with the Droid, the Nexus One's hybrid design of being an iPhone-like touchscreen but still sporting a Windows Mobile-like array of touch sensitive buttons and a physical trackball results in the problem of making it easy to inadvertently fall back to the home screen while attempting to type. "we found ourselves consistently accidentally tapping them while composing an email or text message," Engadget complained. That review also said the unit's "[trackball] placement feels a bit awkward here, and there's literally nothing in the OS that requires it." In contrast, the iPhone 3GS uses a recessed home button that is difficult to hit accidentally.

The Nexus One now brings the Android 2.x platform to HTC's product lineup, although existing Hero/Droid Eris users will have to wait as long as this summer before they can obtain the latest update from their mobile provider. Apple regularly releases updates that all iPhone users can install as soon as they become available. Again, the layers of differentiation that Android partners are adding (like HTC's Sense, Motorola's Blur, and support for unique hardware) tend to complicate and slow the propagation of Android updates for users.

New Features

The Nexus One carries forward the basic iPhone-like design of the earlier Magic and Hero, adding a suite of new features such as a fast new processor, noise canceling audio, a better camera supporting 720p HD capture and playback initial reviewers have noted that HTC's camera works much better than the Droid's, which was plagued by focusing issues), a higher resolution screen, and a new OLED display like the Zune HD.

The display resolution of the Nexus One now almost matches the Droid, although it does so using an OLED screen. This may be why it uses a 480x800 resolution rather than the Droid's 480x854, adding some extra complication for Android developers who now have three different popular resolutions to account for on the platform (earlier models use the same 320x480 resolution of the iPhone).

As we noted in regard to the Zune HD, OLED technology results in a screen that promises to save power and which looks exceptional in low light. However, reviewers have actually reported that, like the Zune HD, the Nexus One's screen is terrible to the point of unusable in bright light, with Engadget writing, "Oh, and using this thing in daylight? Forget about it. Like most screens of this type, the Nexus One is a nightmare to see with any kind of bright light around, and snapping photos with it on a sunny day was like taking shots with your eyes closed."

At the same time, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, who has been using the phone for weeks, complained that he "found battery life to be woefully brief," and that users should "be prepared to keep this phone near a charger at all times," regardless of its rated battery life and the energy saving potential of its new display.

Google's Zune

In addition to OLED, the Nexus One also shares other engineering choices with the Zune. Unlike the iPhone and the iPods before it, which are all designed to power down the screen as quickly as possible the moment you stop interacting with it, the Nexus One debuts Zune-like flashy effects that assume you'll be staring at the screen even while listening to music. These include new interactive graphic background effects and music visualizers which require the screen to be on in order to notice them, an engineering decision that, like Microsoft's Zune, indicates more interest in delivering Vista-like sizzle than the practical, functional utility that Apple trends toward.

For Apple's products, anything that distracts from core features or doesn't add tangible value is a potential casualty. The company canned the latent audio recording features on the first iPods and initially delivered a simple black and white screen. The iPhone's user interface is rich with animation effects, but they are all targeted at enhancing its navigation and overall feel, not to decorate the screen with superfluous candy.

There are also more practical features the Nexus One holds over last summer's iPhone 3GS: the camera has an LED flash, which is handy when taking close ups in dim lighting; the camera also has a higher rated resolution, but that isn't necessarily an improvement when you're using a tiny CCD chip, as packing more pixels into a tiny sensor can result in more grain noise and greater file sizes without actually improving the shots you can take. The noise cancellation feature sound promising and valuable, and there's also a novel speech recognition feature designed to serve as an alternative to the virtual keyboard. Engadget called it "marginally successful."

The phone is also faster; it's rated to be significantly faster than the Droid, but only slightly faster then the iPhone 3GS when loading web pages. In JavaScript rendering, the iPhone 3GS actually came out ahead in some tests. One would expect that the very latest Android phone using the most advanced ARM processor available would perform significantly better than last summer's iPhone 3GS and just narrowly better than the Droid.

This indicates that Apple's software provides significant performance optimization, something that last year's Palm Pre also demonstrated. That model used the same chip Apple put in the iPhone 3GS, but failed to achieve the same performance. This does not bode well for competitors once Apple debuts its own optimized ARM cores under development within the company's PA Semi subsidiary.

Missing Features

Despite being almost a year ahead of the iPhone 3GS in an industry where performance and capacity can often double on an annual basis, the Nexus One doesn't do a lot of things Apple's phone did last year. Like the Droid, the Nexus One doesn't do hardware encryption, meaning that most Microsoft Exchange shops will refuse to support either model (unless you can convince your company to downgrade its default security policy). The iPhone 3GS does support Exchange's default policy settings, which require device encryption.

The Android OS also can't handle moving purchased software titles from Android Market into the devices' Flash RAM storage (which on HTC and Motorola devices, like other phones developed for Windows Mobile, is provided primarily on removable SD RAM cards). This results in a significant limitation for developers and for users who want to run sophisticated mobile apps such as games. Google as been aware of this issue for a long time, but only commented that it has plans to address it at some point in the future.

Until that happens, growth of the Android Market will be artificially handicapped as Apple's App Store juggernaut further establishes itself as the best way for developers to make money and for users to find the latest, richest, and most regularly updated games, serious applications, and software-integrated hardware peripherals. Speaking of which, the Nexus One doesn't have anything comparable to the iPhone's Dock Connector, which has given birth to an ecosystem of iPhone and iPod related peripherals. Instead, the Nexus One only provides a mini USB connector.

Microsoft copied Apple in creating its own hybrid connector supplying power, USB, audio, and video signals for the Zune, but also demonstrated how difficult it was to build momentum behind such a standard. Google, partnered with a variety of hardware competitors under Android, neither created a standard hardware connector for Android nor one for its own branded version of the HTC Passion/Bravo. There is a docking mechanism of some sort, but no details on when the dock will be made available and what capabilities it will have in the absence of a hybrid connector.

The iPhone 3GS also supplies a consistent multitouch user interface that is used throughout it bundled apps. Google has only added limited support for this in the Android OS, and apps that can make the most use of "pinch to zoom" type features don't consistently offer it to the user. That includes Google's own web browser, which has become a primary feature of smartphones. The Nexus One also lacks the iPhone 3GS' automatic focus, white balance, and exposure set by the user's touch.

The Network

It's often said that the biggest problem with the iPhone is its association with AT&T, at least in the US. That being the case, it's hard to see how the Nexus One improves upon things by either limiting users to an even less complete network on T-Mobile (which suffers from serious problems both due to its less penetrating higher frequency radio spectrum as well as its much smaller network, primarily concentrated in urban areas) or asking them to revert back to 2007 and forgo 3G service completely to use the phone unlocked on AT&T.

Google promises a Verizon version to follow, but hasn't said when, hinting only that it is likely around the same time Apple is expected to bring the iPhone to CDMA carriers using either a worldmode or separate CDMA chipset. The reason behind this vagueness is likely related to Google's efforts to balance its love between carriers and hardware partners. Users interested in the Nexus One but wanting a Verizon phone are directed to the Droid.

Of course, the iPhone is also limited to working on AT&T or in EDGE-only mode on T-Mobile (if users incur the risks involved with cracking the carrier lock). It remains to be seen whether Google can keep users satisfied with T-Mobile's network and avoid the same criticism Apple gets for partnering with AT&T. If it can, Apple may be more likely to offer a new version of the iPhone that works with both AT&T and T-Mobile's 3G networks.

Reception

When Apple debuted the iPhone 3GS last summer, it all but silenced any talk out the Palm Pre, which up to that point had stoked lots of enthusiastic anticipation. Observers immediately shifted their attention to other potential rivals to the iPhone, and Android began receiving much of that attention. The Hero and then the Droid took turns basking in the Android spotlight last winter, and have now been eclipsed by the Nexus One, with general consensus being that this model is the "Droid-killer."

At the same time, Apple has continued selling its iPhone 3GS, shifting focus only slightly to the complementary iPod touch. Now Apple is stoking hype surrounding its expected Tablet launch, while continuing to sell and promote the same iPhone model. This pattern of Apple conquering new territory with blockbuster releases that occur only once a year while rivals throw handfuls of new models under its tank treads appears to be continuing with Android.

Google appears to be purposely fractionalizing its brand by pitting itself against each of its hardware rivals while also assigning Android credibility to Verizon with the "Droid" brand, and associating "with Google" to anyone who agrees to put its apps on their phone. While the iPhone brand has remained globally famous for going on three years now, Google is making Android an umbrella term that doesn't necessarily mean anything really good or bad while its partners also pick a variety of model names that will only apply to specific markets and or providers.

But the point of a brand is to associate a name with a strong reputation and consistent level of quality. It's not clear how Nexus One will do that for Google, no matter how much success it can generate before Android's attention spotlight shifts to another model. Additionally, by launching the marginally new HTC model with the hubris of "superphone" attached to it, Google risks associating itself with an embarrassing failure that will impede its ability to grab legitimate attention in the future, another similarity it shares with Microsoft's Zune.

Source: AppleInsider

Google Nexus One Specifications & Features

Nexus One will struggle

Nexus One; the search giant's first branded mobile phone unveiled. Then Google confirmed that Nexus One, and all subsequent Google phones sold via the company's online store, will be available unlocked for use on every participating carrier. Microsoft has weighed in on this development, specifically where Google is both offering Android to its partners and allowing one partner to benefit from having a Google-branded phone, concluding that it is a faulty strategy. The software giant says that Google will have a hard time attracting partners to its mobile operating system after introducing its own handset, even if it is developed by HTC.
In the stir of the opening of Google's Nexus One smartphone, Microsoft has attacked the company's mobile strategy. Google’s Android mobile phone software will struggle to make a key impact in the market now that the company has launched its own mobile phone, the Windows manufacturer has claimed.
Robbie Bach, the President of the company’s entertainment and devices division, said that so long as Google makes its own handsets, such as the new Nexus One, other phone manufacturers would hesitate to work with the Android mobile software platform because they would fear that they would never be a top priority for the search company.  “Doing both software and hardware in the way they are trying to do both is actually very, very difficult,” Bach said in an interview yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “Google’s announcement sends a signal where they’re going to place their commitment.”
Google may have a hard time convincing their licensees that they're not in competition with them. Still, Google has at least one advantage over Microsoft: Android is free for licensees to put on their devices. If Google started off by launching the Nexus One and then began distributing Android, it would be a big problem. Since it's the other way around, we must remember that gratis is an addiction hard to drop once you've had it for a few months.
When Google launched the Nexus One on Tuesday night, however, both Motorola and the phone’s manufacturer, HTC, joined the search giant on stage. Motorola Chief Executive Sanjay Jha confirmed that his company was already working on a range of new Android devices, even though many in the industry consider that the new Nexus One has largely stolen the thunder of the Motorola Droid handset.
Mobile network operators around the world, too, are apparently keen to get their hands on the Nexus One. Vodafone have confirmed that they expect to be the first to bring a Nexus One-subsidizing tariff to the UK market, although T-Mobile, which is already partnering with Google in the USA, has also held advanced talks with the company in Europe.

3 Reasons The Google Nexus One Won't Live Up To The Hype

Google played it smart unveiling the Nexus One smartphone, the latest Google  Android offering, while CES is in full swing in Las Vegas. Why not take the opportunity to steal a little thunder away from all of the other device makers looking to make a splash on one of the world's biggest consumer technology stages?
And it worked. The Web and tech news outlets exploded with word of what the Google team had hatched with the Nexus One smartphone.But here's the rub: The Google Nexus One smartphone is a flavor of the week. They hype is going to die and the device, despite how cool and powerful, will crawl back under the shadow of the all-encompassing Apple iPhone.
Why will the Google Nexus One fail to live up the hype? Here are three reasons:

1. T-Mobile will be the Nexus One's first carrier. T-Mobile has fallen to No. 4 behind the big three carriers -- AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. And, despite T-Mobile recently completing upgrades to its 3G network to boost speeds to up to 7.2 Mbps, its network coverage through the U.S. isn't as pervasive as its competitors. The network can be the fastest in the world, but if you can't catch a 3G signal, all the speed in the world won't help. Granted, the leap to Verizon that the Google Nexus One smartphone is expected to make a few months after launch will help, but by then its time on T-Mobile may have worked against it. And, yeah, for a few extra bills an unlocked version is available, but that's a spicy meatball for an as yet unproven device.

2. Google Android isn't quite there yet. Google Android has made great strides since it made its October 2008 debut in the T-Mobile G1. A host of hot Android phones have since hit the market, most recently the Motorola Droid, which has captured the hearts of Google Android lovers everywhere. But Android hasn't evolved enough to reach the iconic status the Apple iPhone has reached. Despite Android phones getting slicker from a hardware standpoint, the software hasn't kept up. While the Nexus One is coming equipped with Google Android 2.1, so far Android hasn't proven itself as a strong enough contender in the OS race. That could all change, but right now Google Android is still a "me too" play.

3. Potential buyers are already suffering Google Nexus One fatigue. This smartphone has been inescapable. Everyone thought Apple went overboard with its product placement, advertising and marketing for its initial iPhone launch, which has been scaled back with each subsequent iPhone release. But Google is beating the proverbial dead horse. Granted, all of the media attention is part of the problem too. But take a look at the main Google search page today. Do you see it? Yup, there it is. Just under the "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky" buttons it reads: "Experience Nexus One, the new Android phone from Google" with a thumbnail-size image of the Nexus One and a link to more information. While a brilliant placement and marketing ploy, users will grow tired of being bombarded with Nexus One branding and consumer fatigue can often hurt sales.

Source: CRN.COM

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Nexus One review

While Google’s Android has powered other phones, this is the first one where the search giant has specified the design. The pencil-thin Nexus One is built to feel like a genuine object of desire.

And the Nexus One offers features the iPhone lacks, too – the camera’s resolution is 5mp, compared to Apple’s 3mp, there are satnav capabilities built in that cost Apple users extra, and a fast processor means the Nexus One operates quicker than any phone currently on sale in the UK. Web-browsing is impressive, although in the UK is likely to lack the multitouch capabilities that have been available on previous versions of Android. Automatic online synchronization of camera photos is also impressive. It’s effective voice operation, for controlling the phone and writing emails, however, that is the most surprising feature. This is the first time I’ve seen a version of that technology that is genuinely useable.

In the burgeoning market for additional applications, however, Apple’s iTunes Store offers 115,000 compared to the 20,000 or so in Google’s Android Marketplace. That means that there are currently far more games, tools and clever tricks available to iPhone owners. As more phones start to adopt Google’s operating system, however, Android is likely to catch up fast. And while Android can run a number of Apps at once, the iPhone can’t.

Does the Nexus One feel quite as well put together as the iPhone? No, although it’s close enough to make no meaningful difference. What Android handsets can’t do, however, is plug in to your music collection as seamlessly as an iPod or an iMac. And that’s the biggest problem Google faces – an iPhone is a web-browsing, every song in your pocket, phone call making pleasure to own. It’s part of an entire ecosystem, with accessories, covers, speaker systems and even ties that are built to house iPods.

But the Nexus One does plug in effortlessly to the web, social media, email, calendar, search and contacts functions; perhaps the company that dominates web search should simply start making the computers as well.

Nexus One Phone Officially Pits Google Against Apple

The Nexus One Phone is anticipated to be wider but slimmer than Apple's market-leading iPhone and faster than Motorola's Fortune 500, is the first handset to be designed, marketed and sold exclusively by Google.

It will run the search leader's Android operating system on a high-speed processor with the complete binding touch-screen and virtual keyboard of the smartphone.

Google has alleged little about the Nexus One since giving the device to its employees last month for testing. But it is expected to reveal its plans for the phone during a press conference about the Android system at its Mountain View headquarters in California today.

Early assesses imply the Nexus camera, that comes with a flash, is preferred to that on the iPhone, and it is expected to win the battle over battery life, with the facility to hold full charge for at least 24 hours. It will also come complete with a light sensor, proximity sensor and an accelerometer.

But the Nexus will fall short of the iPhone in the applications arena, with around 16,000 available for Android phones compared with 100,000 at the Apple App Store.

The phone, which stores audio and video, will also not offer a connection to Apple's iTunes online music library.

New Sony Ericsson Kanna Phone leaked

The phone-terrain now gets one more drop in its pail. Now it appears that Sony Ericsson failed to hide from view its brand-new phone from a spark of camera for so long. According to FoneArena, in the past days there was a Sony Ericsson phone that was leaked for everybody to feast eyes on.

Tagged as ‘Kanna’, the eye-catching device runs on Symbian S60 5th Edition OS and comes equipped with a 3.2-inch touchscreen display, a highly impressive 8.1-megapixel camera and Wi-Fi connectivity, reveals FoneArena.

Seemingly, other leaked details of the new Sony Ericsson Kanna include 360 x 640 pixels resolution, QWERTY keyboard, microUSB port, and that weighty 8.1-megapixel camera with autofocus.

It seems that, the satiny phone is a sister of Kurara. The compelling camera further lends support to 720p HD video recording and also features a 3.4mm audio jack.

The newest offering from Sony Ericsson is likely to be announced at the Mobile World Congress, on February 14, 2010.

Online Sales Of iPhone Suspended In New York

In a holiday-shortened week, AT&T has spawned a raft of headlines on the Internet after the company halted online sales of the iPhone in New York City, at least temporarily. The phone is still available to New Yorkers in Apple /quotes/comstock/15*!aapl/quotes/nls/aapl and AT&T stores, however.

The decision has revived talk about whether AT&T's network can handle the traffic generated by iPhone users, especially in dense urban markets. Owners of the iPhone tend to use the Internet much more than other wireless customers, but existing mobile networks are not designed for such heavy data traffic.

Although AT&T /quotes/comstock/13*!t/quotes/nls/t has beefed up its network, complaints about dropped calls and Internet interruptions seemed to have increased. That's spurred rivals such as Verizon Wireless to mock the quality of AT&T's network in commercials.

In almost any other week, AT&T's effort to limit online sales in New York City might have gone little mentioned. Yet business news is scarce in the last week of December, between the Christmas and New Year's Day holidays.

Dallas-based AT&T hasn't helped its cause with a cryptic and tight-lipped explanation of its action. Several spokespeople have given different media outlets, including MarketWatch, the same response: "We periodically modify our promotion and distribution channels."

Since reports of AT&T's online move surfaced Sunday, a number of people have tried to order the iPhone online using New York City ZIP codes. An effort by this writer to do the same showed that "there are no phones and devices that match your search criteria," according to AT&T's Web site.

A blog called the Consumerist, apparently the first site to report the halt in online sales, said a customer-service representative cited a lack of wireless cell towers in New York City for AT&T's decision. Other AT&T representatives blamed excess fraud or said the online stock of iPhones available to New York customers had been depleted.

Whatever the case, AT&T knows it has to continue to expand its network to match the increased usage by iPhone customers -- 11 million and growing -- as well as 70 million other AT&T wireless subscribers. Brand is critical in the fiercely competitive U.S. wireless market -- as Sprint Nextel Corp. unhappily discovered -- and AT&T can ill afford to see its image suffer. In a worst-case scenario, AT&T might even have to consider raising prices for iPhone customers, who now pay a flat monthly rate for unlimited Internet access.

Ralph de la Vega, AT&T's mobile-operations president, hinted at such a possibility in a presentation to investors earlier this month, though he later said a change in pricing policy is not imminent. He insisted AT&T is merely exploring a variety of methods to reduce the strain on its wireless network.

Discover Spotlight searches--iPhone tip of the week

Spotlight, an advanced utility for searching, migrated from the Mac to the iPhone and iPod Touch, and we should all be grateful for that since it is quite useful. Spotlight also happens to be one of my favorite iPhone features, and this week I'd like to share some of my favorite tips about it.

Access Spotlight

You access Spotlight from the iPhone Home screen by pressing the Home button once when you are on the first Home screen, or by simply swiping left while that screen is displayed.

(Credit: Apple)

If you are on a different screen, press the Home key twice: once to get Home, pause briefly, and again to open Spotlight (or simply swipe left instead of pressing Home again).

Performing a search

You will now be able to search your entire device for apps, songs, and e-mails. Simply start typing the word, name of an app, name of a song, or e-mail content you are seeking, and the iPhone will display it as you type. I have nearly 400 apps and not all of them will display on the 11 available Home screens, so this feature comes in handy when I need to launch an app I cannot see. If you see an app appear in the search results, tap it and it will launch.

Search from inside apps

The following built-in apps have a hidden search feature: Mail, iPod, or Music (on an iPod) apps, and Contacts. In all these apps, to access the hidden search feature you need to swipe down to reveal the Spotlight search field. This search will be performed on data native to the particular app so its scope is limited. For example, in the Contacts app it will only show results from the contact apps database. It does not currently support the capability to search your entire device as Spotlight does from the Home screen.

Now you will have no excuses about losing something, since looking for that honey-do list, favorite song, or important e-mail from your boss is easy with Spotlight.

BlackBerry Storm2 review

There’s no denying that if you want to see your email when you’re on the move, you can’t beat BlackBerry with its efficient, fast, easy-to-use system. And if you’re suffering a little Apple iPhone envy, BlackBerry has its own touchscreen handset, the Storm, released a year ago.

Although popular with end users, it had a mixed critical reception. Nobody liked the lack of wi-fi, requiring you to find a decent 3G phone signal before you could surf the net at speed.

Its unique touchscreen was a Marmite affair: the screen was sprung so you’d rest your finger on a menu item to highlight it but push through to make the screen click in order to activate it. I loved this – it was a reassuring confirmation that you were doing what you were trying to and worked better than the vibrating response offered with some other smartphones. And many felt that texting was a dog and the motion sensor was erratic – turn the phone sideways and the screen took an age to reformat, for instance.

So how does the Storm2 fare? Well, it’s a whacking great improvement in every single way. The springy screen is more accurate, though you’ll still like it or loathe it. The new software makes the accelerometer responsive and effective and texting is a little better – though the fact that when you touch a key with your thumb renders it invisible still hasn’t been addressed. Other smart phones display the key above your finger, so you know you’ve got the right one. Best of all, though, the BlackBerry boffins have found space for a wi-fi chip.

The new model is sleeker and sexier than the first, and in the last six months the BlackBerry AppWorld application store has built up its catalog. Not huge, but with lots of business-oriented add-ons, though many are pricey.

Original Storm users are promised a software update which will, it’s claimed address many of the usability issues. But, of course, it can’t add wi-fi. Still, it may tide you over until it’s time to upgrade.

Blackberry Outage: RIM Should Compensate Users

For the second time in a week, a Blackberry outage has left North American users without access to e-mail on their handsets.

Bloomberg reports that two recent versions of Blackberry's Messenger program could be to blame, and that Research in Motion, which makes the handsets, has released software to fix the glitches. Customers are encouraged to download the latest version if their last upgrade was after December 14. Thanks for the tip, RIM, but two outages in five days deserves more than a patch and a half-hearted "we apologize for any inconvenience." Show your customers the money. It doesn't have to be much. Maybe a $5 or $10 credit, arranged with wireless carriers. Or maybe a $20 voucher off the purchase of a new Blackberry phone. Something to show that customer satisfaction is a priority and that RIM doesn't intend to make a habit of e-mail outages.

RIM doesn't have a flawless track record for responding to outages. In 2007, it took the company a few days to explain a day-long outage, causing outrage among users. Crisis management consultants said RIM should've communicated early and often, even if the company didn't fully grasp on what went wrong. RIM appears to have learned that lesson, keeping the press updated during last week's outage, even when the exact cause wasn't known. But with two outages in short succession, it could be time to go the extra mile with compensation. Some customers appear to have already worked the system. On the Crackberry forums, user "climbguy" said he received a $25 credit from AT&T after the December 17 outage by complaining and following up. Another user said he got a $5 service credit from his carrier by complaining about today's outage. But if RIM really wants to make good on its recent failings, it'll spare customers the hoop-jumping and cough up the dough.

Google's Nexus One Details: What We Know So Far

Google's pretty good at keeping its Web and search developments secret, but it's quickly learning that hardware's a different beast, as details on the Nexus One, a.k.a. the Google Phone, are leaking all over the Internet.

The Official Story

Google has developed an Android phone exclusively for its employees, for the purpose of testing and collecting feedback. An unnamed hardware partner has created what Google calls a “mobile lab” to “experiment with new mobile features and capabilities,” with employees around the globe chipping in. Everything else you've heard, from the name to the photos to the specs, comes from unnamed sources via the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Engadget, Gizmodo, Boy Genius Report and others.

The Specs

According to Engadget, the Nexus One measures a little over 0.45 inches thick, and has a 3.7-inch OLED touch screen. It could possibly run Qualcomm's 1GHz QSD 8250 “Snapdragon” processor, and has 512 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM and a 4 GB microSD card included, expandable to 32 GB. The camera has a 5-megapixel sensor, mechanical auto focus and LED flash, and could also include 2x optical zoom (this wasn't mentioned in a hands-on report from Gizmodo). Unsurprising frills include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, accelerometers and a compass.

The Interface

I'd recommend you check out the YouTube video, which was uploaded yesterday. The Android 2.1 interface isn't a dramatic change over Android 2.0, but it looks smooth given the shaky camerawork. A hands-on report from Gizmodo notes that the phone is considerably faster than the Droid, and even beat out the iPhone in multiple Web page loading tests. The screen is also noticeably better than that of the Droid, despite being the same size and resolution. This could be the rumored 1 GHz processor at work. Multitouch was not evident in the browser or map.

The Carrier

Reuters has reported that in addition to the usual carrier subsidy route, Google will sell the Nexus One unlocked and unsubsidized, but all signs point to T-Mobile as the carrier of choice. The HSPA 900/1700/2100 support cited in Engadget's specs suggest that only T-Mobile's 3G service will work on the phone, so AT&T users would be stuck with the slower EDGE.

The Price and Release Date

A T-Mobile source tells PC World that the carrier won't have anything to announce at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, so don't hold your breath. We don't know how much this phone will cost, and suggestions that the Nexus One will subsidize itself with ads are just speculation. A rumor at Android and Me says the price will be $199, but it's a vague report that doesn't describe how the subsidy will work. For all that we know about the Google phone, its business model -- arguably the most interesting thing about it – remains a big question mark.

Apple iPhone coming to Vodafone on Jan 14

But shoppers hoping for a price war between the major network operators will be left disappointed – Vodafone's cheapest deal for Apple's 16GB iPhone 3GS works out more expensive over the lifetime of the device than any of its competitors.
People signing up to Vodafone's £40 per month, 18-month contract also have to pay £89 for the iPhone itself, meaning they will have spent £809 on the phone and monthly payments by the time their contract expires.
O2 and Orange, which also offer the iPhone, are a significantly cheaper than Vodafone, but there is just 84p difference in price between the two: a 16GB iPhone 3GS on O2's £29.38 per month, 18-month contract will cost users £713.82 over the lifetime of their device, including the £184.98 initial outlay for the phone; the same handset on Orange's £29.36 per month, 18-month contract will cost £712.98 over its lifetime, including an upfront cost of £184.50 for the handset.
Supermarket giant Tesco, which started selling the iPhone last week, represents the cheapest deal for shoppers, who can choose between a 12-month or two-year contract. The cheapest monthly tariff is just £20, but shoppers will have to pay a whopping £320 up front for the 16GB iPhone 3GS.
The number of free minutes and texts available varies between networks and tariffs, and will be a key consideration for shoppers as they try and decide which contracts represent the best value for money for their needs.
But mobile phone experts have warned that purchasing decisions may boil down to more than just cost. O2's network, which has suffered frequent crashes in recent months, has gone down again, leaving some iPhone users unable to make or receive calls or surf the internet.
"Consumers who were hoping that with four networks vying for a share of the iPhone market that a price war would ensue, are likely to be disappointed, particularly those who have been holding out for Vodafone's announcement in the hope of picking up a New Year bargain," said Ernest Doku of mobile phone comparison site Omio.
"The networks are battling on the fronts of quality of call reception and data usage limits, rather than the cheapest deals. It will be interesting to see if their stance changes in the New Year, when the feeling is that the real battle for market share will commence."

First mobile version of Firefox 'days' away from launch

The popular browser, which accounts for 24.7 per cent of the global browser market – according to Net Applications’ December figures - is almost ready to make its debut on mobile.
Jay Sullivan, who is heading up the project – codenamed Fennec - told the BBC that it is currently going through testing and could be released before the end of the year.

It will be able to synchronise with the desktop version of the browser – meaning any pages open on a Firefox user’s desktop will automatically open in the mobile version of the browser.
"At the end of the working day you can walk away from your computer and keep on going on your phone," Mr Sullivan told the BBC.
"It encrypts all of the information and sends it back through the cloud between your desktop and mobile."
If all goes to plan, before the end of the year he hopes N900 users will be able to download Firefox in Nokia’s Ovi store.
Mozilla, the parent company of Firefox, is also working on versions for Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows respective operating systems.
However, iPhone owners who like using Firefox on their desktop, will have to keep waiting to be able to sync their desktop and mobile browser experiences as Mr Sullivan told the BBC that Apple was a “pretty closed platform” so he didn’t see it happening soon.
Opera is the most popular mobile browser at the moment – as it is well optimised for the platform and comes pre-programmed into many mobile handsets.

BlackBerry Users See the Fail Whale Twice in a Week

BlackBerry users faced a second disruption in less than a week last night, prompting phone maker Research In Motion Ltd. to release new software to restore e- mail service.

The breakdown may stem from flaws in two recent versions of the BlackBerry Messenger program, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company said in an e-mailed statement today. RIM said it has taken action to fix the glitch, which didn’t affect phone or text-messaging service.

The breakdown affected customers in North America, home to about two-thirds of RIM’s revenue. Suffering two disruptions so close together may frustrate consumers, one of RIM’s biggest growth areas, said Jeff Fidacaro, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group in New York.

“They’re vulnerable to something like this because the perception of BlackBerry is that it’s a superior messaging device,” said Fidacaro, who has a “neutral” rating on the stock and doesn’t own any RIM shares. “RIM has to be very careful that they can offer reliability and uninterrupted service -- if it becomes frequent, then their reputation could be at risk.”

Customers who downloaded BlackBerry Messenger versions 5.0.0.55 and 5.0.0.56 since Dec. 14 should download the new version, RIM said. Its BlackBerry Curve was the top consumer smart phone in the U.S. in the third quarter as price cuts fueled sales, according to researcher NPD Group Inc. Models of the iPhone, made by Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc., took second and third place.

RIM fell 4 cents to $67.18 at 9:32 a.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock had climbed 66 percent this year before today.

The previous BlackBerry disruption, which affected consumer users, occurred Dec. 17 in North America. RIM has sought to broaden its subscriber base beyond that region by expanding in developing countries such as China, striving to compete with Apple and Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola Inc.

Businesses and governments worldwide rely on BlackBerrys to communicate with mobile workers. RIM had about 36 million subscribers globally at the end of its third quarter, ended Nov. 28.

Co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie said last week that the third quarter was the company’s strongest for growth outside North America. About 35 percent of subscribers are from outside the region, he said on a conference call.

Balsillie also announced an agreement with China Telecom Corp. to offer the BlackBerry in China, the world’s biggest mobile-phone market. RIM plans to sell a BlackBerry customized for that country with China Mobile Ltd.

The Dec. 17 interruption affected BlackBerry users who rely on RIM’s Internet-based service, instead of corporate servers, according to Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile-phone carrier. RIM restored services several hours later.

Entry into phone market helps Google in its battle with Microsoft

After years of trying to understand whether Google has the wherewithal to jump in front of Microsoft as the most powerful software company, I've finally came to a conclusion: It does!

That's not because of Google's huge lead in search, nor in advertising, nor because users are so much more enamored with Google than with Microsoft.

It's because of a powerful strategy that Google is employing related to a product that's not even great, in a market in which Microsoft is a bigger player. In fact, Google is still an also ran in that market: telephones.

The product is Google Voice, which the company obtained when it acquired Grand Central. But Google Voice, while it's got a lot of great bells and whistles, is unreliable. I've heard about a lot of happy users -- but just as many unhappy users. According to Global Grind, Google Voice has about 1.5 million registered users, but only 580,000 of them are active. I suspect that will change as Google Voice matures and improves.

The genius of the strategy, though, is that Google is becoming a phone company like none we have ever seen before. Its newly released Android 2.0 cell phone operating system is fast becoming a favorite of cell phone manufacturers and users alike. The users like its features and its catalog of third party applications, which while smaller than Apple's catalog of apps for the iPhone, is growing larger every day. The manufacturers like the price of Android: It's free.

The Google strategy is disruptive in a big way. It has tightly linked Google Voice to Android, substantially enhancing the phone experience for anybody who has both a Google Voice number and an Android based phone, such as the Samsung Behold or Motorola CLIQ (both on T-Mobile) or the Motorola Droid or htc Droid Eris (both on Verizon Wireless).

And it has made two acquisitions in which it gets Skype-like Internet telephone capabilities, an advanced mobile phone advertising technology allowing the company to continue to offer phone services for free, and the engineers to support both.

In essence, Google is creating a powerful new user cell phone experience rivaling that of the Apple iPhone -- but doing it in a way that it doesn't have to manufacture all of the devices. So it will likely grow its market share very fast.

Where does that put Microsoft? Right in the cross-hairs of Google's newly aimed weapons. Apple won't suffer from the Google advantage. Microsoft will, as Google takes large chunks of market share from Microsoft's Windows Mobile smart phone software. More importantly, though, to take full advantage of the user experience on Android, the user will need to sign up for a Gmail account and use the Gmail contact list as a primary contact list.

This is where the battle gets heavy. As Google converts millions of people to Gmail, it will eat into Microsoft's huge market for Outlook and Exchange (the server software that powers many of Outlook's corporate features).

Suddenly Google's appearance in the cell phone market becomes a powerful weapon to gain control of your computing desktop -- even beyond messaging. It's genius. It may even give Google what it needs to goad users into using the Internet cloud as their computer operating system instead of Windows.

When it's in full swing, this battle will dwarf the Microsoft-Netscape war.