Apple Refuses to Return Stolen iPhone to Rightful Owner

Android Motorola Droid and HTC Hero Review from an iPhone Perspective — Smartphone Round Robin

Google’s Android was last year’s “new thing”, and while Palm’s webOS takes that place this year, Android Central brings us their second generation hardware with the likes of the HTC Hero, and the 2.0 version of its OS with the Motorola Droid. That Google enjoys massive tech-geek cachet while at the same time maturing into two such different (potentially fractured?) sets of hardware and software, while being the cloud company and yet not enjoying the most cloud-centric OS in the 2009 Smartphone Round Robin are what make it potentially the most interesting platform this year.

To help me figure it all out, Casey Chan went over the finer points for me and the Android Central Forum members provided tons of great feedback. Thanks to all the ‘droidekas!

(And just a reminder, every day you post on my Android Central thread, or any of the official Round Robin threads, is another day you’re entered to win one of six (6!) new smartphones!)

Okay, time to get Androidy with it… after the break!

Android: Take Two

First, here’s the Droid and Hero tour I got, courtesy of Casey.

[YouTube Video link]

And here are the rest of the contextual links:

• Android Central’s Phil Nickinson, Keith Newman, and Rene on the iPhone Live! podcast.
• Android Central Motorola Droid review.
• Android Central HTC Hero review.
• 2008 TiPb Smartphone Round Robin Android G1 video
• 2008 TiPb Smartphone Round Robin Android G1 review

Hardware Design

Android’s two entries in the 2009 Smartphone Round Robin couldn’t be any more different. One is made my Motorola, the other by HTC. One runs on Verizon, the other on Sprint (or also on Verizon under the name Droid Eris — more on that later). One is vanilla Android 2.0, the other is HTC’s Sense UI. One is an HD slider, the other an SD slab. One’s design harkens to the hard edges of the Millennium Falcon (if MC Hammer had repainted it), and the other the softer lines of the princess (if that irony isn’t too rich).

Droid

More specifically, the Droid is a well built slider, impossibly thin — iPhone thin — for a device with that type of keyboard. However, that type of keyboard is woefully inadequate on the Droid. It’s so flat and so lacking in separation, it really feels like little more than the stick-on it is. If having a better keyboard would have meant having a thicker Droid, I would have been fine with that. Oh, and that 5-way? Yeah, it’s a 5-way. It confused all of us. It looks like the chip on our new credit cards, feels like it should be a a touch pad, but it seems to be a 5-way. I’m still not sure though. All I know is that it shoves an already poor keyboard all the way to the even-less functional left.

Again, the irony of mocking Apple as having form over function should not be lost. Other than that — and it’s a big “that” for the hardware keyboard set — the build quality here is top notch. (Okay, maybe the camera is disappointing given its specs, but like others I hold hope for a software fix).

The screen is fantastic, however. Big and bright and 16:9, it’s very much what the next generation of smartphones should be.

Hero

The Hero is just as well built. Depending on what version you get, it can be chinned or chinless, but the basic clean curves and clear screen is the same. It isn’t the monster the Droid is — it doesn’t have the huge keyboard or screen or camera, but that’s the point. Not everyone wants a monster, and for those who want more of (I’ll say it!) an iPhone form-factor, the Hero might just be the better Android hardware.

Software Experience

Where to start? Android is now on version 1.5. Or 1.6. Or 2.0. Or maybe 2.1 in beta. And it’s UI is the Google Experience. Or HTC Sense UI. Or MotoBlur. Or some other stuff that I can never un-know. Is that a software experience or software schism? More on that later.

Droid/with Google Software

The Motorola Droid runs a Google version of Android 2.0. Compared to previous “with Google” devices, it’s good if not great, powerful if not polished. Lightyears ahead of the G1 I tried last year (where it would ask for input when none was possible), but it’s still not the iPhone US. It’s still inconsistent, and for whatever reason, even though Android 2.0 supports multi-touch, the Google apps on the Droid don’t. (And yes that makes a difference on a capacitive device).

If you’re heavily invested in Google services (like I am, and like most geeks are), you won’t find a better shipping device that supports those services. From a real, honest-to-threads-and-labels Gmail app, to free Google Maps Navigation in the US, if you’ve decided Google’s convenience is worth more than your privacy (and it’s a very convenient convenience, which is why most of us have), then deciding Google’s own platform best leverages that isn’t a hard second step.

As to the rest of the OS, it’s pretty much what we saw last year. It’s got multitasking but not as well visually represented as Palm’s webOS. It’s got far better notifications than the iPhone, even if again they may not be as well handled by the UI as webOS. It’s also got apps. Not as many as the iPhone, of course, but building quickly and given the open nature of the Android Market, while the apps may not be as many or as polished as the iPhone, they have apps Apple won’t even let in the store. (Not coincidentally Google’s own Latitude and Voice.

Hero Sense UI

Unlike the Google experience on the Droid, HTC has wrapped up the Hero in Sense UI, an evolution of the TouchFlo UI they previously lacquered on top of Windows Mobile (and will be using going forward on that platform as well).

It’s widgety and beautiful, and works much better on the Hero’s capacitive screen than its predecessor did on the Touch Pro in last year’s Round Robin. The weather animation is still something I unabashedly hope Apple somehow integrates into the iPhone OS. It’s still slightly less intuitive and consistent to me than the iPhone UI — but the eye candy alone balances the scales.

The tradeoff — and there’s always a tradeoff — is that it takes time for HTC to spin their Sense UI on top of Android updates, so while “with Google” devices might go to 2.0 sooner, HTC might only get a Sense UI version out later.

And This is Where it Gets Interesting

To recap: Google offers Android on a liberal, open-source license. Motorola makes MotoBlur for their Android devices, but not for the Droid which uses the Google experience. Actually, Verizon owns the Droid trademark and they also offer a Droid Eris, but that’s made by HTC and is otherwise called the Hero and runs Sense UI. HTC also made the G1 and myTouch which don’t run Sense UI. Oh, and the Droid off Verizon will be called the Milestone.

Apple has the iPhone.

Brand-aid

Contrast those two paragraphs. As a consumer, if you want an iPhone you get an iPhone. As a consumer, I’m not even sure if you know what an Android device is. I’ve seen Droid commercials here in Canada, but that device won’t exist in Canada. I go to my local carrier and try to buy one and get what… confused? And if HTC runs Sense UI on top of Android and Windows Mobile, do I buy an HTC device and not even notice what’s running underneath? Or do I just get a Verizon device like Droid or Eris and never know they’re Android or are the Milestone and Hero?

What I’m getting to there is branding. Apple offers a single, consistent brand. Google’s Android is sundered amid who knows how many brands and while that doesn’t hurt individual devices, could it hurt the platform as a whole? (We’ll be covering Windows Phone next week, which Micrsoft is now calling Windows Phone because it seems many people who had Windows Mobile devices had no idea what platform they actually had — does that answer the question? We’ll see.)

Frak-ture

So the Droid outside Verizon will be the Milestone. And the G1/myTouch off T-Mobile are the Magic/Dream, and on my carrier they might be stuck on Android 1.5 forever, because Google only updates “with Google” devices and HTC may only be updating Sense UI devices, and Rogers certainly doesn’t seem to care. These are devices sold in 2009.

To contrast again, even an iPhone 2G from 2007 is currently running the latest iPhone 3.1.2 software.

I’m tempted to say for an average consumer they won’t care. They’ll buy the device they want and when and if it doesn’t update (if they even know it didn’t update) they’ll just buy the next device. But I don’t think many average consumers buy Android devices yet (possibly with the exception of the much-hyped Droid on Verizon, who had a paucity of smartphone selection previous to its release).

In general, I think more savvy, geeky users seek out Android, and seek it out specifically, and they’re exactly the type of user who will and should care.

And not just because they may not get the latest Android OS, but because the breadth of Android platforms out there, from 1.5 to beta 2.1 makes a huge target for developers, and not in the good sense of the term. With the iPhone (and iPod touch) there are 50+ million users most of whom updated to 3.x at some point when they plugged into iTunes. So the choice for developers is targeting tens of millions of almost identical Apple devices, or nearly a dozen Google phones on 4 different versions of the OS, running one of 3 different UI layers, with at least two different screen resolutions and an odd assortment of input methods (touch only, touch and keyboard, touch and keyboard and trackball/trackpad/etc.)

To put that in some form of end-user perspective, when I first got the G1 last year I went to Android Market and downloaded a Snake game and was told to “push up to start”, and it took forever for me to figure out what “up” they meant. (The screen, the keyboard, the trackball?)

When one of our writers got the Droid, she tweeted exactly the same problem.

That Android Thing

Let’s be clear — as much as Apple runs iTunes on low-margins to promote the sale of iPods (including the iPhone), Google gives away web services to promote the attraction of our eyeballs to their advertising. They’re just as happy if those eyeballs are looking at Google services on an Apple or Microsoft or Rim or Palm or whatever platform, but if Microsoft or Apple (for example) ever locked Google out to promote their own services (like Bing or MobileMe), Google would have a problem. (Just look at how Facebook locks out Google for an example).

Enter Android. By having their own platform on the market, Google knows there’s one place from which they can never be locked out. And more than that, they can use it as a lever to promote the technologies that best serve Google services — things that make the web, and hence WebApps run faster and more reliably. That’s good for everybody, but make no mistake — Google does it because it’s good for Google first and foremost.

I state all this not because that makes Google any different from any other for-profit company — or platform in the Round Robin — but because it makes it the same, and for some reason the technorati often likes to assume Google is different. No company is. I’m not sure any company can realistically afford to be.

Which brings us back to Android. Google’s current Mobile OS is a conundrum. It’s a traditional platform OS from the company that’s usually anything but. I still half-suspect Android was acquired solely for the reason stated above — to guarantee Google couldn’t be locked out of the mobile space. Then when Palm released webOS, Google smacked their head and Chrome OS was born. That the most traditional of all smartphone companies beat the new kid, Google to the web-ification of mobile, is something, and it raises some interesting questions and concerns about the Android platform.

Apple made the iPhone because Steve Jobs wanted an iPhone and figured they could sell 50 million of them. I’m guessing RIM makes BlackBerrys because they’re just as passionate about that pushy little platform. Elevation Partners may be sinking money into Palm in a bet to get a part of the huge mobile pie, but if Rubinstein hadn’t have wanted it he could have stayed retired on his giant pile of Apple-bucks and let Palm churn out the Treo 900. And Microsoft… well I don’t really get the feeling Ballmer cares about Windows Mobile any further than he thinks Microsoft needs that screen in its collection, and I think that’s part of their core problem (but we’ll get to that next week).

Google has much the same problem as Microsoft — the people at the top don’t seem to be, and really don’t need to be as passionate about their platform, and that shows. Now I’m not saying Andy Rubin, who founded Android isn’t passionate, and I’m sure many of the Googlers are deeply passionate about Android, but at the top Android doesn’t exist because Eric or Sergey or Larry just had to have that phone. It exists, like I said, so that Google can’t get shut off from mobile eyeballs by a competitor.

And that’s what the Android thing feels like to me. Not the product Google wants themselves (that might be Chrome OS), but a strategic move they decided to make.

Conclusion

Yes, Android offers killer Google services integration. If Google is your life, Android is clearly the OS for you. If you don’t use Google, I’m not sure there’s any reason to get Android over another device. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good at everything, but unlike the other devices, it’s not killer at any of them.

It doesn’t have the UI or handle media as well as the iPhone, it’s not the communications monster BlackBerry is, it’s not full-on Linux like Nokia’s Maemo, and it doesn’t make the web manifest, nor handle multitasking or notifications as elegantly as Palm’s webOS.

If you’re on Verizon or T-Mobile or Sprint and want something iPhone-like. If you can’t stand Apple’s dictatorial control over the iPhone app ecosystem. If you want a hardware option other than the full-screen slab. If there’s some dealbreaker for you about the iPhone then Android is a good alternative.

Which is crazy when you think Google makes this OS. They’re the megacorp of the 21st century. They’re a verb. They have more money and talent and reach than almost any other company. They make Android… but I think the problem is they don’t champion it. Again, their ultimate C-level goal isn’t to make the best smartphone on the planet, they’re goal is to get the most eyeballs on the planet, and that means making great stuff for every platform.

Now it’s quite possible that Google will keep iterating and by this time next year it could be head and shoulders above everyone else. It could be the “iPhone killer”, swarming over Apple’s device with a hive of Android-powered alternatives, some of which are clearly better in many or most ways. Anything is possible when it comes to Google. (Though people used to say that about Microsoft as well, but again we’ll visit that next week).

In the end, this is a very different review than I expected to write, and I think that’s because of how much I expected from Google this year. Arguably Android has as much if not more potential than any other platform, yet now in year two it still doesn’t seem to fully realize it. It doesn’t seem as ground-breaking as it should. Just look at how far Palm has come with webOS out of almost nowhere. Google’s had longer than that with Android and far more resources than Palm. That makes no sense to me, except that it’s exactly how Google has positioned it. For now.

Next year Google might just announce free cell service for everyone in the US. Then it’s game over.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Android Motorola Droid and HTC Hero Review from an iPhone Perspective — Smartphone Round Robin

AT&T’s 3G Covers Over 230 Million Americans According to Latest TV Spot

According to AT&T’s latest commercial, their 3G network covers over 230 million people in the U.S. Finally they have addressed what they failed to address in any of the other countless commercials.

The last few AT&T TV spots seem to be getting a bit better than the previous ones but still in limbo is the commercial where they boast how they are improving their network similar to O2’s network. While I personally have no complaints here in Chicago regarding the quality of AT&T’s 3G, I have to ask, how is your AT&T 3G network?

Fire away in the comments below!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

AT&T’s 3G Covers Over 230 Million Americans According to Latest TV Spot

Can the Project 365 iPhone app make you a better photographer?

Filed under: Reviews, iPhone, App Store, App Review

Photographers have always known that the more pictures you take, the more you learn about photography. Digital photography has made it easy and inexpensive for photographers of any experience level to take as many photos as they want. In addition, the advent of fairly high-resolution phone cameras has added the touch of having a camera with you almost all the time.

In 2004, a chap by the name of Taylor McKnight started taking one picture a day and posting the photos as a way of chronicling his life and what was important to him. Over the year, he also found that he become a better photographer. The classic photography website Photojojo published his post about the process in 2006, and the rest is history. There are now thousands of photographers who are shooting their way to better pictures one day at a time.

Developer Alvin Yu has made it possible for any iPhone owner to create their own Project 365 portfolio through his free Project 365 app [iTunes Link]. The app is quite simple; launching Project 365 shows you a monthly calendar with a blank area for each day. Tapping on the date allows you to add a photo, either by taking one or adding it from your photo library. Once you've chosen the photo, you can add a caption, then send the photo either to an email address, to Facebook, or to Twitter.

Continue reading Can the Project 365 iPhone app make you a better photographer?

Can the Project 365 iPhone app make you a better photographer? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Can the Project 365 iPhone app make you a better photographer? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UK mobile operator O2: iPhone apps are hurting our network

Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone

Everyone knows about the struggles US mobile phone company AT&T has had with keeping its network up to speed given the huge bandwidth requirements of the popular iPhone. Well, they're not the only mobile carrier having issues.

In the UK, O2 has been having problems with the huge amount of data being schlepped around the network by iPhones. O2 CEO Ronan Dunne told the Financial Times that performance of the O2 network had been disappointing since this summer and that the company was trying to cope with the increasing number of mobile apps running on devices such as the iPhone. TUAW reported a multi-day data outage that affected O2 users just a few weeks ago.

Most of the issues have been confined to London, so the company is installing 200 additional base stations to support the increased levels of traffic. Dunne also noted that the company is working with Apple, RIM, and other handset manufacturers to learn more about which applications are causing the heavy demands on the O2 network. O2 has been working with Nokia Siemens Networks to modify the network infrastructure to better handle the combination of voice and data traffic.

While trying to iron out these issues, it appears that O2's parent company, Telefonica, is making moves that could place further demands on the network. Telefonica purchased mobile VoIP company Jajah to add to O2's portfolio of services, and VoIP services are notorious devourers of bandwidth.

In the United States, Verizon can smirk about AT&T's network issues, but O2's problems point out that no mobile operator is immune from the bandwidth-eating apps that are popular on the iPhone platform.

[via Techworld]

UK mobile operator O2: iPhone apps are hurting our network originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

UK mobile operator O2: iPhone apps are hurting our network originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our mistake, your gain: win one of fifteen free copies of Weightbot

Filed under: Software, iPhone, iPod touch

I need a brain transplant.

When Paul Haddad of Tapbots offered us fifteen license codes for a giveaway, I blithely assumed that they were for Pastebot, their cool cut, copy, and paste app for iPhone. I set up the giveaway yesterday and have been thrilled with the number of entries (you can still enter until midnight ET tonight, by the way).

Well, Paul reminded me this morning that the giveaway was for Weightbot, as we wanted to do a tie-in to everyone's resolution to lose (or in some cases, gain) weight in the new year. After flogging myself for my lack of memory, I received another email from Paul stating that it would just be easier for him to create promo codes for Pastebot and we could keep the Weightbot codes as well. Thank you, Paul!

What does that mean? We're giving away fifteen copies of Weightbot, too! This will be a completely different giveaway, and to enter you just need to leave a comment telling us how many pounds you'd like to lose or gain this year. Here are the rules:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment telling us how many pounds you'd like to lose or gain, tracking it with Weightbot
• The comment must be left before Sunday, January 3, 2009, 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time.
• You may enter only once.
• Fifteen winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prizes: Promo Code for one copy of Weightbot (Value: US$1.99)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Now if Tapbots could only come out with a way of making my memory and organization better...

Our mistake, your gain: win one of fifteen free copies of Weightbot originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Our mistake, your gain: win one of fifteen free copies of Weightbot originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Was the iPhone the Gadget of the Decade?

It wouldn’t be polite for TiPb to proclaim our signature device, Apple’s iPhone, the gadget of the decade — but luckily we don’t have to as it’s one of the more common memes circulating the ‘net as we pass from the 00’s to the 10’s.

Sure, the Treo smartphone came first, as did Apple’s original iPod, but arguably no device converged so many technologies of the last decade so elegantly, or coalesced more of Apple’s own strategies, as the iPhone. If the 2000s were about going from portable to mobile, then the iPhone certainly made the mobile mainstream.

From phone to internet to media to computing, from OS X to iPod to iTunes to iTunes store to Apple Retail to Apple Online to MobileMe to iLife and back again, the iPhone brought so much together so simply that it certainly makes an obvious candidate.

What do you think? Is the iPhone the gadget of the last decade? And if not, what was?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Was the iPhone the Gadget of the Decade?

Ford to offer iTunes tagging in their cars

Filed under: Hardware, Multimedia, iTunes, iPhone, iPod classic, Music

Just as 2009 was ending, Ford announced that they'll be offering a new option in their cars for 2010: the ability to "tag" any songs you happen to hear on the radio for later purchase in iTunes. It'll be an option, so it won't come standard in the new Taurus you buy, but if you opt for the HD Radio, the stereo will have a "tag" button that will capture the information of whatever you're hearing, sync it to your connected iPod and then bring it up for purchase in iTunes the next time you're at your computer. It sounds like a win-win for everybody: Ford gets to sell HD Radios, radio stations get more listener involvement, and Apple and the music companies get your sales (presuming you complete the purchase).

It'd be nice to have the song automatically sent to iTunes (or even transmitted via Bluetooth to your iPhone -- maybe even via an official app -- next time it happens to be near the car), but one step at a time, I guess. Don't forget that you don't even need this option to mark any music you happen to hear: if you have an iPhone, you can use Shazam's iPhone app to listen in, tell you whatever the song is, and save it for purchase later if you want. It's a free download in iTunes, lots cheaper than a brand new car.

Ford to offer iTunes tagging in their cars originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ford to offer iTunes tagging in their cars originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tethering On iPhone - Why Hasn’t It Come Yet?

O2 admits that network struggles to cope with iPhone apps

The success of the iPhone has had an effect on mobile operator O2, causing the network to under-perform in the UK.

iPhone OS Saw Largest Ever Monthly Gain In Market Share In December 09

Review: QBaseball for iPhone

This baseball slugging game fails to live up to the standards set by better baseball-themed offerings in the App Store.

Mophie’s Enters iPhone Credit Card Transaction Arena

Looks like Mophie, makers of the Juice Pack Air, are going to be offering their own take on the iPhone credit card reader accessory, and software app. We should hear more at CES, but with rumors of Apple offering their EasyPay system beyond the Apple Retail Stores, and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s Square coming to market, next year could be big for mobile money-taking.

Hide your wallets now.

[via TechCrunch]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Mophie’s Enters iPhone Credit Card Transaction Arena

Mosspuppet Rumor Madness: iTablet to be iPhone’s “Foleo” with Permanent 3G Tether?

Mosspuppet passed along a rumor that says Apple is not going to provide 3G radio for the iTablet/iSlate, but rather make it automagically, and persistently tethered to an iPhone, harkening back to Palm’s legendary Foleo device — that never shipped.

Sure, Mosspuppet is a… well, a puppet, and likely only has access to the plush version of Apple’s upcoming tablet, but the humor to this rumor has us thinking — it’s totally the kind of crazy, maddening move that would drive consumers out of their minds and get the tech press shouting “why?!” from every post.

And AT&T would love it, given how they haven’t even gotten iPhone tethering up and running and it’s, what, 2010 now or something?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Mosspuppet Rumor Madness: iTablet to be iPhone’s “Foleo” with Permanent 3G Tether?