Lumia 900
Price: $100 on contract.
Processor: 1.4 GHz
Display: 4.3-inch 800 x 480 AMOLED
RAM: 512 MB
Storage: 16 GB, non-expandable

Camera: 8 MP rear, 1 MP front, 720p video capture
Weight: 0.35 pounds
Dimensions: 2.7 x 0.45 x 0.35 inches

Not too shabby for a $100 phone that supports LTE as well.  So hardware wise, while it’s not top of the line, it’s certainly impressive enough considering how cheap it is to buy on contract.  Price is a big selling point too.  As popular as the iPhone was when it first came out at $600 bucks on contract!!! … the iPhone didn’t really gain traction until they were able to drop the price down to a more reasonable $200 on contract.  There’s really only 2 or 3 basic types of phone shoppers.  The one’s who feel paying money for a cell phone is cancerous, and avoid it like it’s a puddle of AIDS.  They go out and buy $20 prepaid phones and use them for 5 years or more until it breaks, then part with another $20 to replace it.  Then, you have your “mid range” crowd who want to be part of the cool crowd, but want to get away with that as cheaply as possible, and then your high end crowd who settles for nothing less than the best.  The iPhone/Galaxy S/Nexus S types who are proud to admit they paid full retail for the device to avoid contract, or just can’t or don’t want to paid subsidy pricing for their plans, but at the end of the day want nothing less than the most powerful brick they can land.  The Lumia family falls squarely into this middle ground crowd, and it’s a nice handset from a hardware standpoint although I’m not particularly in love with the look, it’s a fairly sharp looking device, is sleek, feels good in the hand, which is very important, and sports pretty impressive specs for such a low end contract price.  The crowd who wants a smartphone basically because it’s the in vogue thing at the moment will buy this device because of the price.  Also, people who yearn for the higher end phones will also gravitate towards the phone because again, the specs vs price are certainly hard to beat.

From a software standpoint.  Despite not being a huge fan of Microsoft software, I have to admit, since Win Phone 7, Microsoft has really done quite well in bringing the mobile version of Windows into the 21st century, and with Mango 7.5 on the device, I must admit I was fairly surprised how easy the ‘live tile’ system was to get a handle on.  The OS ran smoothly, flawlessly, didn’t crash, was zippy at the various tasks I tested, and is an overall great experience.  A pretty big compliment coming from someone who’s a big iOS fan, and although I still am, as much as I hate to admit it… Windows phone is a decent OS now.

The flip side of that coin though is applications.  Windows Marketplace is a street side vendor cart compared to Google Play Store (formerly the Android Market), at about 300,000 and the App Store at well over a half a million apps.  Windows Marketplace is at about 50,000 right now, and has been growing pretty rapidly with about 20 percent of the apps coming in just within the last few months.  Still despite it’s recent growth, there’s still a long road ahead before Microsoft can comfortably compare to Apple or Google.

With that said, if you’re not that big on apps, and the basic features of just about any smartphone will pretty much fill your app need, then this phone could be a good choice for you.  However, for the same price, you can land last year’s model iPhone (4) for the same price on contract with 8GB and probably be in better shape overall.  While the Lumia out specs the iPhone 4 in a few areas, the iPhone 4 out specs the Lumia in a few as well, and for what you give up spec wise with the 4, you get the prestige of owning Apple (which is a turn off for some), and all the positives Apple brings to the table with better software, better quality hardware, way more apps, and the whole ‘ecosystem’ compatibility with Macs, iPods, iPads, Apple TV, and iCloud.  So, if at the end of the day, you’re one of those mid range types who want the most they can get for the least cheddar, and you’re actively avoiding Apple because, well, you’re one of those anti-Apple types,  then I’d highly recommend the phone.  If you’d rather own Apple though, you can at the same price buying last year’s model, and still be ahead at the end of the day.

Neither is really true.  For starters, yes Apple does have a pretty effective marketing campaign with it’s signature style in it’s advertising, but Apple doesn’t really advertise that much.  It’s not like the Apple Blimp is hovering over Indianapolis Speedway peering down on the Apple Indy car with Apple billboards every two miles on the highway, etc, etc.  They actually don’t really need to advertise that much because word of mouth is pretty effective when the product is well liked.  When a product is good, it sells itself, and the iPhone, probably more than any other singular product in this country, sells itself, and is a household word.  So buying into strong marketing can’t be true, there just isn’t that much.

Secondly, I’m not stupid.

I work in the industry and have intimate knowledge about Windows, RIM, Android, and Symbian mobile operating systems, and I’ve owned an iPhone for 2 1/2 years, so I think I have a pretty fair idea of the capabilities as well as usability of the various handsets that run these operating systems.

What Android users fail to consider is satisfaction.  Even if iPhone owners weren’t smartphone savvy, and even if Apple did more aggressively market the iPhone, then how can one explain a 96% satisfaction rate?

Changewave recently surveyed iPhone users, and 77 percent responded “very satisfied” while 19 percent responded “somewhat satisfied” and 1 percent each responded “somewhat unsatisfied” or “very unsatisfied”.

Obviously, such a phenomenal satisfaction rate is reflective of the product.

Also, Android users flooded the net with jibes about how much of a wet fart disappointment the iPhone 4s was… really?  That 96% satisfaction rate is up 3 percent over last year’s iPhone 4, and the iPhone 4s has sold in record numbers (4 million it’s first week, more than double the previous best).

At the end of the day, Android users (at least the iPhone hater sect) seem to only be convincing each other that the iPhone sucks, because no one else seems to be listening.

Every two years, you’re “eligible” for a “full discount” on a new phone in exchange for an agreement to remain a customer of the carrier for another two years.

This “full discount” varies greatly depending on a handset.

A cheap $70 phone will have a $55-60 discount, and a $600 smartphone will have a $200-300 discount.

That should be your first clue that something’s not right…

Where’s the logic in giving someone a $55 discount in exchange for a two year agreement when the next guy can get a $300 discount?

Why isn’t the $55 discount in exchange for a one year contract, or six months?

The reason is because the whole game is to guarantee your business for as long as possible.

Realistically the $70 phone should at the very least be free if the carrier can ‘afford’ to discount the next guy $300 bucks.

The reality is that there are no discounts.

How’s that you ask?  I bought my $600 smartphone for $200 bucks!  How did I not get a discount??

Here’s how… rate plans.

When you sign a 2 year contract to get a discount, you’re signing a deal for a rate plan designed with a $10 a month more fee to recover the carrier’s investment in the phone.

For example, let’s look at the whole picture.  Let’s say that you can buy a high end smartphone at $500 full price, or, $200 with a 2 year contract.

The carrier doesn’t make money off of the handset.  Their only goal is to break even, so looking at our $500 handset, how much did the carrier pay…. around $450 bucks.  Yep, it’s the manufacturer who’s making the money off of the handset sale, and it’s the carrier who’s forking over the $450 bucks for the phone to sell to you on contract for $200.

Right now, day 1, you’re ahead of the game. You’re walking out of the store with a  $500 phone for $200 bucks.  However, because the rate plan has the built in $10 a month hike built in, the carrier is going to recover another $240 over the next two years… simple math… $200 + $240 = $440

About $10 bucks shy of what the carrier paid for the handset.

Still a fair deal, right?  Right, it is…. you bought a $500 phone for $200 bucks and the rest on lay-a-way, and you walked with the phone on day one.  So I’m not saying you’re being ripped off… all I’m saying is that you’re not getting a discount, and you’re not.

Don’t believe me?  Hunt around the carrier’s website or press a store representative for info and you’ll find that there are rate plans available that are $10 bucks cheaper, but, the catch is they’re “non-contract-able” rate plans where you show up with a phone, or buy one full price.

So, at the end of the day, you’re paying (just about) full price, or full price, so what’s the difference?

The difference is the contract.  When you’re bound by a carrier, they own you.  Why?  Because you signed your life away when you signed their contract.  It’s not a contract…. a contract is an agreement between two parties where the terms are clear and neither side can screw the other side over by changing the terms, but read your contract.  The carrier can change just about any part of your contract at any time, but you have to pony up your bill each month regardless of weather or not you agree with the terms the carrier is forcing on you.

So, how do you beat them at their own game?  Easy.  Don’t sign contracts.  Save your pennies & pay for the phone “all at once” instead of  ”half now…. half over the next two years”.

It’s really the only difference between contract and no contract, and the carrier doesn’t have you under contract (read:by the balls).

So when they try (and they will try…) to foist some bullshit on you… you can you can say “well… then I’ll just cancel”, and they’ll grant you “special consideration” and grandfather you out of anything you don’t want to be a part of.  In other words… it’s incumbent upon them to provide you good service at a fair price in exchange for your (premium priced) money.

Some things to consider:

It’s still OK to sign a contract if…

• You’re pretty happy with your carrier/service and don’t plan to opt out.
• You plan on upgrading in two years.
• There’s no possibility you’ll move.
• You’re set in your rate plan/features, and don’t plan to change things there.
• You’re spending more than $70 bucks on a phone.

Let’s stop there a minute and talk about that…  I saw a simple non-smartphone, an LG flip with a shitty camera, texting ability, and of course, phone for $69.99.  With a 2 year contract, it was $9.99 (plus an $18 upgrade fee), so, instead of $87.99 plus tax, it’s $27.99 plus tax, a difference of $60 bucks.  Believe me, it’s more than worth 3 Andrew Jacksons to opt out of a 2 year contract with a carrier, so if you’re in that shrinking group of people who use a phone “just as a phone”, then you have the best choice.  Phones are cheap, and it’s easy to waltz in, buy a phone full price, and walk out, or better yet, if you don’t need alot of bells & whistles, a prepaid solution may fit even better.

People earn different amounts of money, so what price point you sign a contract for may differ, but don’t bother unless you’re getting at least $240 off the retail price of the phone, or you’re actually paying more.  Remember, the carrier’s charging you $10 more per month for two years, so there’s really no point in signing a contract for a $60 savings… Pony up the $70 bucks and go home richer.

If you’re fairly happy with your carrier, and it is possible, then chances are things will likely stay that way over the next two years.

If your job, or desire to relocate or whatever could possibly put you somewhere else, then don’t sign a contract.  If you find out you’ve been transferred to B.F.E. 3 months from now, you may wind up somewhere where the carrier doesn’t offer service, or, if they do offer service through a partner network, they’ll cancel you for extreme roaming, and you have to buy your way out of the contract by paying the early termination fee.

Also, if you’re under a contract-able rate plan, then you’re always paying that extra $10 a month, so it’s in your best interest to upgrade as soon as your eligible for the full discount again or you’re just dumping money into their pockets.  Either that, or switch to a no contract rate plan after the agreement is up so you’re not paying that extra fee (that the carrier will neglect to inform you about).

Whenever possible, buy the phone outright.  If you can afford it, you’ll get the best deal and the best service you can get from the carrier.  They’ll keep trying to hook you, but be the smart fish with the smart phone and you get to set the terms of the business relationship, not the carrier.

Another thing to consider is buying your phone from a different channel. Carriers really don’t care if you buy a phone from them or not in the end because they only sell phones more or less at their cost.  There’s hundreds of different places to buy phones.  From dealers to Ebay or Craig’s list or some online wholesalers of unbranded phones, you can buy phones all day and night and never step foot inside a carrier’s store.

The only caveat being that if you’re buying an unbranded phone, or a phone branded to one carrier that you plan to use on another, then you need to be fairly savvy when it comes to programming the phone to function fully.

For example, an unbranded GSM phone will work to make phone calls or send/receive text messages, but if you’re planning on sending/receiving MMS messages or using the data services of the carrier, you need to program access point names and other settings into the phone.

Sometimes this is easy, the carrier can often shoot a text message to the phone that will automatically configure the phone, other times the carrier (or info found on the net via articles & videos) can help you configure the phones too, but in the end, not all off the functionality may be there.

For example, an AT&T iPhone will not work on T-Mobile’s 3G/4G network (although it will connect EDGE/GPRS), and features like FaceTime (despite being wifi only) and iPhone visual voice mail just flat out will not work on T-Mobile’s network.  Blackberries are a service book nightmare when trying to cross carrier lines when configuring them to a network it wasn’t branded for, and again, full functionality may not be there.

Comments welcome.

Ok, so one of Adobe’s flash engineers, Mike Chambers, blogged about, among other things, the decision by Adobe to stop Flash development on mobile devices.  Mike’s out there more or less blaming Apple… several times in his post… as the primary reason Adobe nixed mobile Flash.  That’s a big line of shit.  For starters, while it’s true Apple was in no hurry to let Flash onto iOS devices, Flash would have had a chance if Mike Chambers (and the rest of the Flash development team) would have addressed the technical reasons pointed out by Steve Jobs back in April of 2010.  In a nutshell… from the open letter from Steve Jobs:

Reliability, security and performance.

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?

Battery life.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.

Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.

When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Touch.

Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.

Now, Steve didn’t really beat around the bush here, he stated simply, and truthfully that Flash lacked the reliability, security, and performance required by Apple to even consider putting Flash on iOS.  What Mike’s missing here is that just because Flash has major penetration on desktops/laptops, that doesn’t mean that Flash gets a free ride on whatever other platforms come down the pike.  It’s clearly the fault of the engineering team in charge of Flash development at Adobe that wouldn’t, or couldn’t produce a product tailored to the needs of a mobile device.  Now maybe the folks at Samsung, HTC, Motorola, LG, and Huawei don’t seem to think battery life is an issue, but at the end of the day, you have millions of Android handsets out there with owners who bitch about poor battery life.  At the same time, Apple (driven by Steve Jobs’ leadership) put battery life high on the list of what’s important.  Their products show it too… Apple is constantly improving operational time on their devices by A) The physical approach… bigger, better built, higher density batteries, and B) Smart coding.  Pressing the coders to think of ways to improve battery performance though the use of hardware when possible, and simpler, straightforward things like not allowing “live” wallpapers.

At the end of the day, it’s the name on the phone that determines who gets the blame when a phone doesn’t perform as expected.  If my “Acme” smartphone crashes all the time, gets hacked, and eats the shit out of my battery because of Flash, it’s not Adobe, or Flash that gets blamed, it’s “Acme”.  Why?  For one, people are stupid, and they look at the Phone, see “Acme” and associate “Acme” with a piece of shit smartphone that is busy crashing or being hacked when it’s not draining the shit out of the battery.

It is my firm belief that if Adobe would have addressed the many issues Flash faced on mobile devices, that in the end Apple would have ultimately had to allow Flash on the iOS bus because penetration would have been high already due to acceptance by Android, and if the performance issues were addressed, there would have been no reason (at least from a performance standpoint) to keep Flash off of iOS.  However, Steve Jobs had no qualms telling it like it is… and had the balls to say no, the Emperor has no clothes… not to mention reliability, security, or conservative power usage, and was willing to roll the dice that iPhone and iOS backed by a better alternative… HTML 5 would be a better choice for Apple, and Apple’s large base of satisfied customers, who like their efficient running, non crashing iPhones and iPads, not to mention the sales figures, and returning customers, to prove that Steve was right all along.  The difference is that Steve Jobs wasn’t intimidated by large, dominant forces.  He held his ground and maintained the guiding principles, the “Prime Directive” at Apple to set the bar high, and set ground rules that cannot be bent.  That’s why Apple sometimes makes decisions that may seem odd or even bad decisions at the time, but, in the end, you look back and realize they were right.

So, to you, Mike Chambers, don’t blame Apple for the death of Flash on mobile devices, hell, don’t even blame yourself.  Put the blame where it most sits.  The fragmentation issues faced by Android are probably the biggest contributing factor.  It’s just not good business sense to continue to invest money to support Flash on “the many faces of Android” and so even if Flash executed flawlessly on all platforms, was rock solid secure, and charged the battery instead of drained it, then it still is probably not a good bet due to the investment needed to keep up with the lack of uniformity on Android.  Still, some of the blame should fall on the team that dropped the ball… The Flash development team seemed to not even try to address the issues that, to this day, plague Flash on both desktops and mobile devices.

At the end of the day, it was your bosses, not Apple who killed Flash on mobile.  I wonder what they think about you getting out there publicly to blame a dead guy for your inadequacies, and I wonder what they think about you.  I also wonder if you’re concerned over your employment status in the near future.

Not that Flash isn’t a big part of the web, but much of what flash does seems to be done better with HTML 5, and HTML 5 is open where flash is not.  Sadly Steve Jobs didn’t live to see the day Adobe showed Flash the door, but I have a feeling that the low spirits at Apple since Steve’s death got a lift today reading the story… and doing so while gazing at a font that was developed by Steve Jobs.

This is not to take away from Google Maps at all.  Google maps has some pretty neat tech of it’s own in it’s street view system, but just imagine Google Maps Street View with the ability to go up the driveway and into the back yard and look around in complete 3D…

I imagine ultimately Apple will develop a map app that will have enough functionality to replace Google Maps, and have something in it’s place that’s good enough to replace the awesome job Google has done with Google Maps.

Check out the video below to get an idea of the technology.

Seems as though every year Apple tries to come up with some major improvement to the iPhone so as to not only sell phones to newcomers, but to entice the folks who upgraded just last year to throw up their arms and say “I gotta have it!” and do an early upgrade, which, a fair number of iPhone users do.  The first generation iPhone brought us inertial scrolling, rubber banding, and don’t forget a phone, internet device, and an iPod, all rolled into one.  The second generation brought 3G connectivity into the mix, which, was badly needed, and worthy of being the driving force behind the 3G.  The third generation added the compass as well as a faster processor to give the iPhone the power it needed to continue to grow.  The fourth generation brought a still faster device that added a gyroscope to improve gaming as well as a radical redesign of the form factor of the device that not only improved the phone’s “phone” function, but did so with a completely outside of the box approach to it, and making it super thin, and sporting the highest level of build quality not seen in the industry since perhaps the Motorola V3 Razr.

This time around, the iPhone 4s, while retaining last year’s awesome form factor.  Personally, I see no problem with that.  You can’t come up with a groundbreaking redesign every year, and last year’s radical redesign is one year older, and some tweaks in the design have been done, albeit not quite so visible, they’re still there.  Also, internally, it’s a whole new phone with the A5 processor as expected, so despite looking much the same as last year, much is different, and significantly improved too.

Siri… the big teaser by far this year is the introduction of Siri.  iPhone 3Gs/4 owners may already be vaguely familiar with Siri aka “Voice Control” on the iPhone 3Gs/4.  It seems to have been the initial foundation of Siri as we can say “Play music by the Beatles” or “Call Phil” in pretty much the same way you can with Siri, and executed the same way by holding down the home key.

AI has been around for a LONG time, and many systems have come and gone with various levels of success.  I think overall, Siri drags AI forward a bit, but just a bit.  Not to take away from what Apple’s done by any stretch, but the “magic” behind Siri isn’t all that new, but I think how Apple has implemented it into the OS is where the magic comes from.

Basically, 3 things are happening when you talk to Siri.  First, what you say is converted from audio to text, then, a parser reads that text, and figures out what you’re trying to do, then, once the parser has what you want to do figured out, and here’s where the magic comes from, it is integrated into the OS so it can call up the same apps you use, and interact with them just as you do.  For example, sending a text message….

You say to Siri, “I want to send a message to Jim telling him I’ll be 15 minutes late.”

The first portion of Siri simply takes that recorded audio file and converts it to the exact text you see above.  Not that that’s easy or anything, but work in that area is pretty advanced, and that combined with the closeness of the microphone to the speaker, and, that the device also has the built in noise cancellation hardware and software means Siri does this part of the job really well.

The second portion of Sir, the parser, is fed that same text, and using various algorithms it throws useless stuff like “I want to” (that’s implied), and keeps the important bits like “send message”, “Jim” and “I’ll be 15 minutes late”.  So Siri looks at everything you say, and separates it into two classes, actions and data.  In this example “telling him” is you way of saying “this is the body of the text message” to Siri.  You could have just as easily said “Send a text to Jim saying I’ll be 15 minutes late.” and it would have worked just as well.  To Siri, “Send a text”, “Send a message”, “New text message”, etc, all have the same meaning, it’s telling Siri the text messaging app is what we’re using.  Also, “telling him that”, or “telling her that”, or “saying”, or “saying to him” or “saying to her”, etc all mean the same thing as well (what follows is the message body).

Thirdly, once Siri knows what app we’re using, and what data we’re sending to it, it opens that application and sends the data to it just as you would do so pushing buttons on the touch screen.

Siri works because of the limited scope of what it was designed to be good at.  Basically, text messages, maps, reminders, contacts, weather, etc.  Because it’s intended use is limited to this fairly small scope, it can be heavily tuned to work well in it’s area of expertise.  Also, Apple incorporated multiple responses to the same state.  For example, when asking if it’s going to rain, instead of a straight, robotic “Yes” or “No” Siri will respond with different phrases, particularly fuzzy human phrases like “I don’t think so”, or “probably not”.  It’s these little touches combined with Siri’s limited scope that tend to give Siri that “Smarter than I really am” look and feel, and will, in my opinion, really serve to continue to set the iPhone apart from the rest.

4s or 5?

This seems to be tied to the fact that alot of the cell phone bloggers.. the so called ‘experts’ kept predicting that Apple is going to release more than 1 phone at a time.  No… not going to happen.  Why?  Because, for starters, Apple put’s 110% of their effort into producing 1 handset, let alone 2.  Just look… a relatively soft release of the iPhone 4s caused Apple to run out of pre-order  handsets in less than a day, and it’s going to be a month or two before you can just waltz into an Apple Store or carrier and buy one without have to A)Wait, and B)Climb over a forest of human beings all out complete the same task you are.  Apple can’t even make enough of one handset, there’s just not enough days in a year.. even when you add 4 months to that year as was the case this year.  Also, history is a fairly good indicator of what will happen in the future, and looking at the past, it seems to me that ‘last years model’ is what becomes that secondary (or tertiary) handset as is the case this year with AT&T still offering the 3Gs 8GB model for free, the 8GB 4 for $99 and the latest model at $199.  I think this will be the model of the future if Apple can continue to come up with new shit to stuff in the phone that will continue to entice users to upgrade year after year.  It makes alot of sense because last year’s model is already developed and mass produced, so it’s easier than developing a lesser handset.  As long as next years handset makes this years handset lesser, you’ve got those cost effective lower end handsets already at hand.  And just think about it… for the first time a new, out of the box, iPhone is being offered for free with a 2 year contract.  How much more cost effective can you get… because it’s not what you pay, it’s what you think you pay.  In other words, there’s always those folks who won’t buy a phone unless it’s free (with a contract).  So, for even those folks, they can be hawkin’ an iPhone now.  I think this has alot to do with the fact that there’s always alot of speculation out there as to what the next model year will be, and when 2 of them got tossed around alot this year, along with the ‘expert’ predictions of a multi-handset release made folks think the 4s would be an update to the 4, and the 5 would be some radical new un-thought -of handset.  The reality is that the (one) handset would have likely been named 4s or 5.  Two names… two maybes… not too handsets.

A Minor Update:

Really?  Is it a requirement that Apple come out with a radical new rethink of the physical form of the device before you call it a major new upgrade?  Realistically, the iPhone 4 design is still fairly new, including the new antenna system and all glass back.  Those were radical rethinks, and that sort of major jumps just don’t happen often.  Besides, when you examine the inward changes, there’s alot to be impressed by.  The A5 is a powerful processor, and even with the pedal not quite to the metal (~800 mhz), it’s faster than the 4, not to mention dual core.  This means that a stock 4 up against a stock 4s isn’t going show blazing improvements, but when 4s specific stuff comes along… stuff that doesn’t even run on the 4.. the 4s will really show it’s improvements off.  Also, Apple, with it’s usual ‘at least some’ battery improvement, and phenomenal Siri implementation, and most certainly the improvement of the camera… how is this not a major upgrade?  If they shaped it like a boomerang, would you all have gone ooooohhhh, and hailed it as “the 5″???

Overall, I’m fairly impressed with this year’s update, but maybe because I’m a fan, and would have (tried) to make excuses if they wrapped a piece of dog shit soaked in piss and called it iPhone 5, or maybe it was because it wasn’t Steve out there presenting it in his unique way… something we’ll all certainly miss.

Will iMessage defeat SMS?  Nah, not by a stretch as iPhones make up only 5 percent of the market, and iPhone to iPhone messaging makes up even less.  Still, iMessage, when it can be used, is better, faster, encrypted, and has typing indication when someone is responding and is already giving me a benefit as my messages to my text happy friend don’t count against my SMS bucket

The Moto Razr, in all it’s infinite glory, was a data device in so much as I could make GPRS connections to the ‘mobile internet’.  Yay me.  I thought, hey, I’ll upload this myriad of games and applications to a freebie website, create a WAP deck interface, and I’ll be able to delete a few apps if I needed space, and log onto my WAP page interface with links to all these Java apps stored in ‘the cloud’ and have access to all of them anywhere, anytime.  All the apps were fairly small, so even my snail’s pace GPRS connection could feed me apps at the rate of about 30-60 seconds download time, and bam, I have that app.  It wasn’t untiil 2011 that it dawned on me that I had essentially had the building blocks of the app store in place back in 2004, a year before Jobs & Co began work on the iPhone!  Hell, I could have added MP3′s onto the website, which were just as downloadable, as well as videos taken by the phone (or any compatible 3gpp video) and had my own little iTunes/App Store going.

Not convinced yet?

Nah, me either.  Ok, let’s talk HP/Palm for example.  When HP bought Palm a while back, the first thing I thought was MISTAKE.  I mean c’mon, by the time that the stern of the mighty ship – Palm began to meet the waterline, what fuck nut over at HP said, “Hey! Let’s snatch us up some dat webOS pie!”  Really?  I mean Really???  It was clear to me that the straw poles & primaries were over, and it was clear the fight was between iOS and Android.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying webOS is a piece of shit or anything… hell for that matter I’ve never really pissed around with a webOS device in my life. (Clue 1)  From what I’ve heard, it’s a powerful & robust OS, but it’s not iOS or Android… it’s… it’s.. well, it’s one of those OS’s out there that competed with RIM, MS, & Nokia’s Symbian, and who wants to fuck with a pre iPhone era OS anymore?  Just ask the 52 percent of Blackberry users out there jumping ship to the iPhone.  Those OS’s are old school, business people oriented, smart-phone-os-before-everyone-owned-a-smartphone OS’s.  You have to read that last line again… go ahead, I’ll wait… OK, what I’m saying is, unless you use your smartphone for boring ass shit like checking stocks, scheduling business meetings and the like, those operating systems are dead. iOS and Android are geared toward the masses.  Look at Apple with it’s ‘fun-to-use-me’ advertising.  It makes no difference if webOS or Symbian are good OS’s… they’re DEAD OS’s!  This was more than obvious to me the day I read HP shelled out a shitload of money for a company… Palm, and it’s grandpa’s smartphone OS along with it.  Then, they have the balls to develop a tablet… a nice piece of hardware btw… running webOS, and expect it to sell when everyone knows, no one wants a tablet… they want an iPad.  Don’t believe me?  Look at the numbers… Apple has sold 29 million iPads in 20 months.  Apple’s biggest problem isn’t competition, it’s the ability to make the units fast enough, as if the rest of the industry isn’t even there.  Add up all tablets sold, Android & webOS alike, add them together, and the iPad thwarts the sales of the rest of the industry combined.  Then, to boot, HP handing out $400 tablet’s for $99 bucks because well, ya know… it’s inventory time again, and tax man cometh.  So to stop the bleeding, they rushed every tablet to market at a super blowout price, but a bit too fast as some of the Android… yes Android based HP produced tablets were accidentally sold onto the market, showing HP’s true colors … pukey Android green.  So, there’s the salt in the wound… like Hitler’s final days in the bunker trying to figure a way out, HP apparently was porting Android over to their devices in a last ditch effort to salvage the device.  Thing is, the Apple tanks rolled in so fast, HP never got the chance to see if they could win The Battle of Berlin.  It all just fell apart so fast that the only math was what’s cheaper… fire sale prices to get them off the shelves, turn them into digital picture frames, or pay the tax man his fair share for getting caught will crate after crate full of webOS tabs…

Now, how is it that lil’ ol’ me, can understand this shit, and the rich, highly educated, way over paid, movers & shakers of these large companies cannot?

Look at RIM… it’s been 5 years since Steve Jobs pointed out that the screen over keyboard form factor is limiting and wasteful, yet RIM continues to pump out phones with that same tired form factor, and within the last few months even, are releasing models… for the first time with that hot new technology known as 3G!  RIM’s excuse is that it caters to the businessman.  Well, they do, and business folk DO buy them for their business-centric features like enterprise email and security features.  Thing is, there’s alot more people people than there are business people, and psst.. guess what RIM… business people are people people too, and they want that snappy ‘makes-me-look-cool’ 4G, hi-res, plays-my-music device that the people people use too.  That’s evident with companies like Apple working day & night to add RIM style enterprise into the iPhone, and businesses everywhere are now field testing, or deploying iPhones as well.  The difference being Apple will implement the features in a cool, easy to use way.  Even RIM’s lame attempts at trying to be iCool look like some sick, bastardized caricature of a smartphone with a shit processor running a java based os with a screen resolution that, and I mean almost literally, make my eyes bleed.  To boot, RIM’s starting to incorporate the ability to run Android apps on their devices… smart move huh?  No fuck nuts, who the fuck is going to buy a RIM tablet that an run some sorts of Android apps under some sorts of conditions…  Really?  Hmm, do I want a fully compatible Android tablet, or some tablet that runs outdated RIM software along with a slim to fair chance it runs the Android app I want to run too.  If anything, you’ve got to give RIM consistency in their retardedness.   The only thing I’m wondering is will they survive long enough to come up with some equally dickheaded idea, or, go out of business/get bought up by some other, larger, more retarded company first.

Now, I don’t liken myself to the Genius of Steve Jobs, (even though I had the app store concept up and running 4 years earlier, albeit smaller, and lacking that whole credit card number thing that really seems to help), but I watch the corporate world pretty close, especially electronics with special emphasis on wireless, and I see companies do the right thing at times too.  For example Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola’s wireless unit was a smart move, albeit copying Apple.  It’s the only way for Google to compete with Apple… by having full control of the development of a smartphone from the first chip to the last line of code in the software.  Not to mention Apple’s fairly recent acquisition of Siri.  Not that most people are thinking it, but I predict that was a smart investment on Apple’s part even though it remains to be seen.  Why do I know this?  I don’t know… maybe I think the whole talking to computers to control them with voice will catch on.  Just think, HP spent six times as much money for Palm as Apple did for Siri, and Apple will turn that 200 million into billions while HP’s 1.2 billion… six times what Apple paid for Siri, and it bought them a piece of shit that they were ready to chuck overboard in an attempt recover the additional losses it incurred by releasing a tablet with webOS on it.  Just think, HP could have spent 6 times less money, went with Android for the OS, and had HTC, Moto, Samsung, and even Apple drooling over the fact that their smartphone is smart enough to understand common speech, and, perhaps even have had a true iPhone killer on their hands.

I’ve got more, but this article is too long, and I’m tired.  Tired like someone who works for a living.  Not some overpaid CEO trying to figure out the obvious.