Palm CEO: I’ve ‘Never Even Used’ An iPhone – I understand hating the competition but how do you know what your competition is when you have never tried the competition?

Exclusive: Qualcomm to Power iPhone – it has never been a matter of if the iPhone will land on the Verizon network, just a matter of when.  Sounds like that will be this summer.

iPhone wins touchscreen quality test – this is probably one of the things that I will always evaluate as new phones come out as I think the touchscreen and gestures are really important on smartphones these days.

Facebook’s iPhone App Gets New Push and Sync Features – this is the first time I have used the push notifications on my iPhone and love the contact sync.  The contact sync is a small feature, but its just nice to have the pictures automatically pulled into your contacts for you.

iPhone Runs Toy Helicopter Taking Off at CES 2010 – while the iPhone still has a little bit of a wow factor when you show off some of the funny/cool apps that you can run, this would definitely make jaws drop.  Especially the live camera feed while flying the helicopter.

Apple: Three billion downloads from iPhone App Store – the App store still gives the iPhone an edge, but the playing field will be leveled as the Android Marketplace gains momentum.  At that point, I think it will come down to the software on the phone.

1. The iPhone will land on Verizon.  This is just a matter of time and if the rumors are right the exclusive contract is up this year and some version of the iPhone will land on the Verizon network.
2. Android momentum won’t catch the iPhone.  Right now, Android looks sweet and is driving competition against the iPhone.  The main reason it has a lot of momentum is because Verizon users don’t have any other device that can compete with it.  Once the iPhone hits Verizon I think people will take the iPhone over a Droid phone.
3. Multi-tasking, Voice Commands, 5mp camera, LED flash will come to the next version of the iPhone.  You can thank competition from the Droid and Pre lines for this one.  I may even go to say that there will be a front facing camera with some sort of live conferencing capability.  The voice commands are something that is built into the Android platform and is pretty slick, the iPhone will need to catch up to that.
4. Storage is the next thing to increase but they still won’t support external storage cards.  Do they really need external storage if you have 64GB of space?
5. The App store will hit 350,000 apps by the end of the year and there will be an option for developers to expedite their approval process by paying extra.
6. Subscription services will come to the iPhone and iTunes.
7. Flash won’t come to the iPhone in 2010.  I know Adobe has the mobile version but I just don’t see Apple letting that run on the iPhone and take away from their game market.
8. The overall form factor of the device won’t change much but the screen and internal CPU compoents will get get an upgrade.  The screen should get an HD upgrade, while the processor will go dual core which will allow them to open up multitasking.
9. Major enhancements to the default maps application, even a move away from using Google.  Integrated Traffic and weather?  Better GPS?
10. Continue to dominate sales and be the best phone out there.

What are your predictions?

As you can tell the list of vendors jumping on board to support the initiative is pretty broad, but Apple is no where to be found, which is perfectly fine by me but more on that in a minute. I think we need to look at why Apple is so hesitant to allow Flash on to the iPhone. Once they allow Flash on the iPhone Apple would be giving developers a way around their AppStore Cash Cow. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal for utility type applications because the user experience would not be the same (Flash apps would probably not be allowed to have an icon on the main menu system), this could be a big blow to Apple since they are marketing the iPhone as a gaming platform. If the iPhone had Flash that can take advantage of the accelerated graphics and video, why would developers create a game that is specific just for the iPhone and go through the Apple approval process?

On the other side I think more and more iPhone users are starting to get used to life without Flash, which makes you wonder how necessary it really is. Based on my usage, I really don’t see a need for Flash anymore and I hope it never comes to the iPhone. I visit more and more sites each day that just created a mobile or iPhone version of their site that works great without Flash. I find that most sites that I visit use Flash for either navigation or ads which can easily be replaced with a non-flash version of the site that performs better and does not eat up system resources. The only real use I could see for Flash would be for streaming such as video from Hulu, but I would rather see that implemented as a native app that is feature rich and not in the browser.

So where do you stand when it comes to Flash support on the iPhone?

Leave your comment below.

“As you know, today we do it by type of app and also have show popular apps and top-selling apps, et cetera,” Cook said. “We realize there’s opportunity there for further improvement and are working on that.”

Apple Insider provides a post that details a lot more information about the call.  So, what can Apple do to really improve the App Store?  Here are a few ideas on how I think they can do it:

1. Allow sub categories - This will allow users to filter down the list of apps within a category.  This would really help in the games category
2. Ratings Sort - Allow users to view a list of apps based on rating, not just free, paid, and release date.
3. Provide Preview Period – create an automatic demo mode that is available for every app.  Apple could eaily track this within the iPhone and allow users to try the game out for  a certain time period.
4. Genius - bring over Genius from iTunes but for app store purchases.  This little service could make recommendations based on past purchases
5. Improve Social Network – Improve the social network around app ratings and follow the model that Amazon uses by creating top reviewers, and have these reviews provide more weight to how the game is factored into qualifying for the top cateogires

What do you think?  How do you think Apple can improve the App Store?

Here is a summary chart of what I found while shopping online:

As you can tell the monthly cost of ownership between the iPhone and the Storm are pretty close.  The G1 is your best cost saver across the board, except for when you get into the unlimited talk, text, and data.  Once you get to that tier, the Palm Pre comes through as the cheapest.

Now some basic disclaimers.  I tried to put some carrier specific disclaimers on each chart listed below.  These prices were effective on 7/20/2009.  When listing the price for the phone, I took into account what offers the carriers had running at the time, regardless of if it was a mail in rebate or instant rebate.  The prices do not include any state or federal taxes.  Finally, all of this is based on signing your life away to a 2 year contract as a new subscriber.

Here are the rest of the charts:

[View with PicLens]

In a previous post I talked about insurance offered by SquareTrade.  Squaretrade has better options when it comes terms, pricing, and the deductible.  Squaretrade is cheaper because of its term, and it also offers free battery repair if the iPhone battery life drops below 50% of the original.

Safeware does provide some additional coverage that Squaretrade does not, such as coverage against theft, fire, flood, and vandalism.  One other key difference for Safeware is that you don’t have a 30 day window for the coverage.  So even if you bought your 3G iPhone a year ago, you can still get coverage, where with Squaretrade you can’t.

It will be interesting to see if people report back on how good the service is.  I would still bet that its a better option than AppleCare, which is just a really bad option for protecting your iPhone.

[via Macworld]

A new spin on an arcade classic – Radial 50 features fifty intense rounds, challenging gameplay for both beginners & arcade veterans, and a location based leaderboard to track your scores against friends.

The first challenge with the game will be learning how to control your paddle. You control the paddle by sliding your finger up and down in the control paddle area.  The paddle area is controlled by user preferences and can be set to right or left.  This takes a little bit to get used to because you easily find yourself dragging your finger horizontally around the panel to rotate it.  From what I can tell the paddle will still move, but the farther you get away from the control paddle area the less the paddle will move.

Once you learn how to control the paddle, you primary objective is to project the ball towards the targets.  Striking the targets will eventually unlock the center defense, allowing you to strike the inner most diamond and advance to the next round.  As you break down these targets, you begin to accumlate points.  Points are also accumulated by collecting particles as well as completing the round in a timely manner.  You also have to make sure that you don’t let the ball strike the wall too many times which will eliminate your health. Health will regenerate over time, but once you lose all health the game is over.    Whats is also nice is that the game offers some feedback as the ball hits the wall.  This is helpful for times when you are using your paddle to collect particles, and you lose track of the ball.  When the ball hits the wall, your iPhone will vibrate a bit and you will know that you need to move your paddle to block the ball so it won’t hit the wall anymore.

You also have the ability to earn various bonuses throughout each round, or as the round completes.  You can get bonsues based on time and health, but you also get bonuses on the number of particles you collect.  For example, you can get a bonus if you complete the level without losing any health.  You can also earn some bonsues for the number of particles that you collect throughout the round.

The game also offers an extensive list of achievements that you can try to complete.  There are 20 different achievements available to you, but some of them do not unlock until you reach other achievements.  I should also note that achievements don’t give you extra points that would affect your ranking in the leaderboard, they are just their for your own personal goals.

Radial 50 also offers a nice social aspect to the game.  The game offers the ability to post your various scores to their leaderboards.  The leaderboards have various categories broken down by by your device and your city, all the way up to a global leader board across everyone who has registered with the community.  The registration process was simple and you can easily post your latest score to the leaderboard, as well as Twitter and Facebook.

The only real gripe that I have with the game has to do with a side effect that is caused by the fast game play at times.  The ball will easily get lost in the mix because of how fast it can move at times.  I would also like to see them expand on various game modes that are available.  This would give you more exposure to all of the levels in the game.

Overall, I was very suprised about how fun this game is.  The game play is fun and addicting, and I think people will really enjoy the various challenges that the game provides.  For $1.99, I would highly recommend this game, but be prepared to get hooked.  Make sure you visit the website link below and check out the “First to 50″ Contest link.  They are giving away some great prizes to the people who can complete all 50 levels.

Enjoy, and don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Radial 50 [iTunes Link]
Radial 50 Website

[View with PicLens]

So how do you share more than 5 photos at a time?  Easy, just select all of the photos you want and then select the Copy action.  Then navigate over to the email app and create a new message, tap and press into message body area to get the new paste menu.  Once you select paste, all of the images that you copied when in the photo album will appear in your message.  Provide a recipient and subject for your email and click send.

Enjoy!

1. The plan for the family trip was to go to Waterworld (recently featured on the travel channel as the 3rd best water park in the US)  in Denver.  As most people do these days, I had to make sure that I had my directions since it had been a while since I have been there.  Normally, I would track down the laptop or go to my desktop, but no need this time.  Just opened up google maps and was able to track down my directions.
2. Once I had my directions, next up was to get the weather forcast.  As I had done numerous times throughout the week, I just fired up the Weahter Chanel app and checked the forecast.  I was glad to see that it was going to be partly cloudy and in the high 80’s.
3. The drive to Waterworld was just over 1 1/2 hours from my house, and on my way up I had to shoot a quick text to my brother in law to let him know we were on our way to pick him up.
4. Throughout the drive, my iPhone became in car entertainment.  My wife and kids stole the phone to check Facebook and play some games.  I think my wife even listened to a few tunes on the way up.
5. We got to the park early, so while waiting for the park to open I decided to check some news to see if anything exciting was happening, and thankfully there wasn’t.  What I did find out was that the park offered free Wifi.  Nice!, Very Nice!
6. Once in the park and we got situated the iPhone got stored in the locker and it did not see any action until around lunch time.  At this point, it was time to relax a bit since the heat was kicking in and we were getting a bit tired.  While lounging and watching my kids in the wave pool I decided to fire up Google Reader and check out some blogs.  After a bit of R&R, the iPhone went back into the locker and we went on to enjoy the rest of the water park.
7. We stayed at the park until it closed, and on the way out we saw some storms moving in and we also had to track down a place for dinner.  So of course, we tried out a few apps on the iPhone to help us with this.  First, we fired up google maps, iWant, and Yelp to see what was in the area.  We ended up passing on a sit down place because we just wanted to get home, so we hit a fast foot joint near by.
8. While on the interstate I had my wife pull up the local radar on the Weather Channel app to see what kind of weather we were going to hit.  Come to find out that there was a servere thunderstorm warning and of course that slowed traffic down a bit.  But its okay, my wife was able to hop on Facebook to pass the time.  This time around, my kids weren’t asking to play on the phone, since they were passed out in the back seat.
9. By the time we finally got home, my phone was down to about 35% battery life left, so I decided to put it to bed for the night and let it recharge.  I wasn’t too far behind it either.

So as you can tell we were still able to make pretty good use of the iPhone even though we were at a water park.  I know some people will say, “hey, just enjoy your time with your family” and I can respect that, but the iPhone is a convienence gadget and it helps me unwind by doing some light reading or playing some games.  My wife picks up a good book, I pick up my iPhone.  I also made sure that I wasn’t getting too wrapped up with the iPhone and enjoyed the water park just as much as my kids did.

There were also signs that this is the future and more and more people will expect to be connected, even at a water park.  There was evidence of that the minute I entered the park and saw the big sign that said “Free Wifi”.  I will also mention that I was not the only person at the water park on their iPhone.  Right now it probably was probably other iPhone fanboys that I saw, but as the smart phone market continues to grow more and more average people will expect more and this will become the norm.

myBatteryLife displays the current percentage of battery life left on your iPhone or iPod Touch.  With a large percentage and visual indicator you can quickly your remaining time.  ”myBatteryLife” will determine your hardware to calculate a the remaining hours and minutes for different uses.

What I really like about the display is that its clean, big, and easy to read.  You get an estimate on how much battery you have left for talking, listening to music, or watching videos.  The app also gives you an estimate on how much time you can spend on the internet and breaks it down based on your connection (3G, Edge, Wifi).  This could be helpful for when you are really running low, you can get an idea of what you have left if you did disable 3G.

The one thing this doesn’t take into consideration is how much battery you have wtih doing some of these activities simutaneously.  Obviously that would be a bit tricky for them to guess and you just need to make that judgement yourself.

I highly recommend that you check this app out.  Its a great little utility application that helps you keep track of your battery which is very important when it comes to the iPhone.

MyBatteryLife from KVApps [iTunes Link]
KVApps Website