I downloaded this on my Droid and have been playing around with it for a few days. All I can say is that this is crazy. Take a picture of something and Google will (most of the time) find you some info on it. I’ve played around with some examples:

Took a pic of my Macbook Pro sitting on my desk… and Google new it was a Macbook.

I was across the street from the Fox Theater in Boulder and I took a pic of the front of the building. Google knew it was the Fox, and brought up info and links to a map.

I found a Hanna Montana pink tissue box at a local store and I took a pic.. Google knew it was Hanna…

Supposedly it will recognize wine labels too. This is some neat technology and could be useful. Sometimes its hard to search for something based on text, especially if you dont know exactly what you are looking at or it is in some foreign language.

Maybe eventually this will couple with Google’s really great translation tools and do things like translate street signs on the fly… it also reads barcodes and book covers, but its a bit slower than other Android apps for just that.

The screen looks great, and this has the new nvidia tegra chipset, so the graphics should be excellent.

Sure it plays music, has an HD radio tuner, video, and all that… but I secretly hope this is just the beginning of the Zune take over of the world. I’m serious. What if they added a UMTS modem? Instant cell phone…. And the Zune OS looks a whole heck of a lot better than the upcoming release of WinMobile…

Ok, and here is the other killer things for Zune (phone or otherwise). Apps. Lets look at programming on Apple vs Microsoft platforms. (For the sake of this exercise, I’m ignoring shell scripts or C++ command line app, etc). For GUI programming and GUI apps you have XCode vs .NET.. and then you have Java on both sides. But Java GUIs are worse than other of the other options, so we can ignore that too. I’ve coded on both sides and I have to say .NET is the easiest development system I’ve ever used, by far. VisualStudio is epic for debugging and development.

So.. Zune goes all app store on us… and you get to use .NET mobile to develop the apps. This would explode overnight. EVERYONE knows C# or VB… but to break into the Apple app store you have to figure out XCode’s development methodology and Obj-C. That sucks. No one uses Obj-C except Apple and I really just don’t like it.

This would be better than Android as well. I’m a big fan of Google and what they are doing with Android, but the SDK is still a bit rough, and the GUI design is no were near as good as what a Microsoft tool would bring.

And the HD has an nvidia chip set. What if we got some mobile version of DirectX? Think about the gaming potential of that too?

So that is my wild dream.. a Zune Phone with a .NET dev tool and an app store… Do it MS… DO IT.

Techcrunch

Steve Frank

And now the FCC is asking questions about the Apple rejection of all Google Voice related app. Interesting.

All I know is I’m happy enough with my Android phone and the ability to have a pretty open platform. And I always have my iPod Touch if I really want to try out some of the cooler apps…

In a nutshell, you get a Google phone number (I even got a local number) and you can configure the service to interact with all your other numbers – cell, home, work, etc. You can set which phone(s) ring in what order, and on Android installing Voice gives you to option to make a call from the handset from either your carrier’s number or your Google number. But here’s the issue, if you can’t port your main number, you have to go through the pain of changing your number, which is no fun at all. Google says you may be able to port over a number later on. For now, I’m not going to give out my Google number.

But here is the awesome part of Voice even if you don’t use it as a primary number – the voicemail is outstanding. I am now using it for my primary VM instead of T-Mobile. Here is how I set it up, and why its great:

1) I change my Android options to point my phone at my Google Voice number as my “voicemail” number instead of the T-Mobile default. This means that if I dont pick up my cell phone the call is sent to my GV number.

2). Set Google Voice to not forward to any numbers, and set it to go directly to voicemail when the Google number rings.

At this point if I don’t answer my cell, it forwards to google and straight to voicemail. So the caller can’t tell the different.

Now, GV has some great options to set for voice mail. It will transcribe your messages and txt or email them to you! Its not perfect, but over the few dozen messages I’d gotten so far, its close enough to know what the caller really said.

I setup GV to txt my cell when I get a VM. This is KILLER if you are in a meeting or a movie or a loud location. I can read my VM on my phone.

Second, the GV Android app will download the VM to my phone along with the transcript in the GV “inbox”. So later on I can go listen and/or read the message again.

Also, I can log into GV from any computer and get all my messages, send txts, even make calls, directly from the web interface.

Its not perfect yet, but so far its pretty amazing.

The bottom line is that the author things open source (or at least totally open app development) will overtake the iPhone in the end. Android is totally open source and there are little restrictions on the app store… and you can load apps without using the app store. The Pre has little restrictions on its app store as well. Nothing like what Apple does.

Plus, like I have said before, the fact that Android lets you do almost anything and access any part of the OS or hook any sort of even are huge. You want a new dialer app? Do it. Want to hook all your incoming SMS and do soemthing funky with them? Sure why not. The iPhone restricts all of this.

And of course multitasking is huge. And with better technology with batteries or display technology (shameless corporate plug: Qualcomm’s mirasol) there are so many possibilities for a true computing phone.

Hands on with this phone plus some great pictures here.

This thing looks great, and notice at the end of the article… flash player comes standard!

*** ***

HTC announced another Android handset today – the “Hero”

See specs here

A couple of big things jump out at me:

1) Flash support in the web browser
2) 5mp camera with auto focus and video capture
3) The “Hero” OS overlay from HTC.
4) Finally HTC puts in a headphone jack that doesn’t need a dongle

There are plenty of videos on youtube, etc, that show the Hero UI update for Android. This looks pretty slick, nice widgets like real time streaming stock quotes. Plus the look and feel are a bit more polished than the standard Android.

The other standard Android specs are here – Qualcomm 528Mhz proc, HSDPA, wifi, but then they also say “multitouch” screen. That is interesting. There is a custom Cupcake build out there that supposedly enables multitouch, but I haven’t tried it. That would be a nice addition.

I didn’t see price info and there is no official announcement from T-Mo, but the pics on engadget show “T-Mobile” on the screen, so I assume it will be coming. Good news for Android fans, more choices!

The future Qualcomm QSD8672 will be a dual-core Snapdragon that features two CPU computing cores and will include HSPA+, up to 28Mbps download speeds, 1080p high-definition video, Wi-Fi, mobile TV, and GPS. The graphics core is based on Advanced Micro Devices’ ATI unit’s technology.

Snapdragon cores currently run at 1Ghz with 1.3 planned and then eventually 1.5. Two of those plus at least one QDSP along with all the other features, in a single chip. Remember that Qualcomm bought the mobile graphics division of ATI, so the new gfx core will something like an entry level mobile computing chip. Someone needs to build a device with the form factor of the Toshiba G01 for a nice big screen and you would have a killer mobile device.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=043C49DB-E33B-4603-A699-9F1FBA8E9245&displaylang=en

I’m pretty excited about this. Mostly because the phone looks SOO much better than the current G1. No info on pricing yet – hopefully the upgrade price isn’t ridiculous. But I’ll definitely be upgrading.

Specs look nice too, running a 7k series Qualcomm MSM with a 528MHz CPU + DSP, 3.2 inch screen, HSPA data, autofocus 3.2 MP camera with video.

Here was the deal.. I had an iPod Touch that I was using at work and the gym and all that. It was great for listening to music, pandora, and the slingbox app is killer. I have wifi at work, and my gym as free wifi as well, so I was pretty much set. Oh and I bought the Myst game port because thats just awesome. And then I used my Android for calls and email and all.

Well I was thinking, the Touch cost me $220 and I could just get an iPhone 3GS for $199. The plans were about the same cost, and I figured I could sell my G1 on CraigsList and try to cover most of my contract break fee.

So its been about half a day with the new iPhone and I have to say I’m not completely happy. The apps are great, and I have my pandora and Myst and all that. But I think the big surprise for me is how much it feels like the iPhone is sub par on the messaging and communications aspects than Android. Obviously there is no comparison with the quality and variety of the apps on iPhone, but here are the reasons why I think Android wins for Email/IM/Texting.

1) Exchange. My office mail is exchange and Android does not have native support. However, for $25 there is a very nice app (Moxier Mail) that is active sync capable for push and what not. Its just about as pretty as the iPhone mail app too.

2) PUSH gmail. I didnt think about this much until I started not getting gmail on the iPhone as often as my laptop would notify me that a mail was ready. On Android Gmail notification is faster than having Gmail open on your laptop. On the iPhone the only option is polling, and the shortest interval is 15min. And then you have to worry about batt life if you are goign out and polling Gmail that often all day.

3) IM on Android is great. There is a native gChat app and a native IM app that supports AIM, Yahoo, and Windows Live. The iPhone has no native IM app but there are a few in the app store obviously. The real problem is that none of them can run in the background. There is a free app that will keep you connected when you shut down the app on the phone, and it will send you an email notification when you get a message. but here is the problem with that… I can only poll my gmail account every 15min, so that makes for a lousy IM conversation if I have to wait some amount of time between 0 and 15min to get the next msg. I could use my work address and then have the notification pushed to my phone, but then I’m sending tons of mail through my work address all the time. Abnd then when I open up the mail app I might have a bunch of random emails to delete from notifications. That doesnt sound great. Of course when the Apple Notification enabled IM apps are out things should get better as you get a push notify and can just go open the app. Although even in that case, you have to re-open the app, wait for it to launch, and then wait for it to connect and all that. On Android I dont even have to open the chat program to view the message. An icon appears in the notification area, and I can slide the notification tray open and read the message, and if I click it it opens the IM app and I could respond. I like this method a LOT better.

4) Gmail acts in interesting ways on iPhone. When I compose a new message and start typing a name, the phone doesn’t seem to be aware of my Gmail contacts, it does however give me options from my work Exchange account. This seems really weird. Why would I want to send a mail to a work contact from my non-work email account? Shouldnt the mail app know which account I’m composing from? We have about 15000 employees plus many more mailing lists, and each conference room in every office in the world has an email address. When I started typing my friends name, the suggestion window showed a list of conference rooms as the only suggestions. Android on the other hand is aware of my Gmail contacts and when I start typing “Ma” it suggests “Markis”. This is nice. Also, the iPhone mail app does not group Gmail into conversations like the Gmail web app (which is such a nice feature). The Android Gmail app does. My mail looks exactly the same on the web client or the phone app.

5) Widgets. These are new in Android 1.5. I only use a couple, but I found myself missing them quickly. Widgets are little apps that run directly on your home screen and can do things when clicked or just display info. For example on my main home screen I have a calendar widget that displays the next meeting I have upcoming, the time and the location. If I click the widget it launches the calendar. On another screen I have the google widget. It has a box where I can type a search and then a browser window will come up. And finally I have a weather widget. Its small (the size of 2 iPhone app icons in a row) and it just sits on my home screen and shows me the current conditions.

Also, I have widgets that enable/disable WiFi and Bluetooth. This is super nice. When I’m not at work or the gym or home I dont need WiFi enabled and looking for networks. I can click the widget and turn WiFi off. This is a several click procedure on the iPhone. Ditto for Bluetooth.

6) Also, generally the iPhone OS feels more “dead” than Android. In Android notifications pop up, I can move though programs and swtich between things. On the iPhone, I do one thing with one app… hit the home button to close and then go do something else. Android has this concept of application stacks. If I’m working in one app, and I open another for whatever reason, a message comes in or an email, when I hit the back button the top app screen slides off and I’m back at the last app I was working with.

And then on top of that, I don’t like how some apps have their settings located in the main settings app. For example, weather bug. If I go to settings and scroll down there are the options for configuring it. But I can’t get to the settings when I’m in the app. So if I want to change from F to C temperatures, I have to close the app, go find settings, scroll around, change stuff, go back to the home screen and then launch weather bug again. Urbanspoon, snaptell, and others do this as well. I find it odd.

So here is my great dilemma for the evening. What do I do? The iPhone is vastly superior in the areas of music, games, and nifty apps. But Android is superior in how it handles email, IM, and other communictions.

My thought right now is that I think I would prefer better communication on my phone, and would use the games and nifty apps more when I’m not driving or out running around town. So I;m coming back to the 2 device solution as the winner for me right now. I have the iPod touch at the office so I can listen to music, watch slingbox, etc etc when im in the lab, and then have my G1 for calls and email.

Obviously this isnt an idea solution, and I wish it could be fixed. Apple needs to revamp the look and feel of the iPhone soon or more people might catch on to how out of date it seems to feel compared to Android or Palm’s WebOS. For example, the way icons are arranged on the iPhone is limited. They are in a grid and you can just move them around, but they auto fill up and to the left… Android is also a grid style layout, but I can put any icon anywhere and have blank spaces wherever I want. AND I dont have to have all my app icons out on my home screens. There is a tray tab at the bottom that you can pull up to show all icons and all apps installed. I can drag any that I want to my home screens if I want faster access. This makes even more sense when you can actually have a background image that you see for more than the 3.5 seconds it takes to unlock the iPhone. The black background needs to go…

I actually like the Palm Pre way of doing things even more. You have a task bar along the bottom, and then can open a tray in an Android fashion to apps you dont have in the task bar. And you get a nice clean desktop… and if you have any apps open, they appear as cards that you can swipe between or close. This is one area Android needs to add – an easy way to kill apps, not having to wait for the garbage collection system to kill it off to recover resources. UPDATE: I got a demo Pre from a Sprint store today and used it for about 30min. While it is an impressive device and has a lot going for it, I still prefer Android for now. Mainly because of the lack of apps, but also, the version 1 software seems to be a bit slow. Even though the Pre has the same Cortex CPU as the new 3GS, the system hesitates when launching apps and that was annoying. Also, after 30 min of email, txt, and web surfing I can’t say I’m a big fan of the keyboard, its just a bit too cramped, and there is no option to use a soft keyboard. Although, given how small the device is an on screen keyboard may not work well at all. So, for now, in my book Android is still the winner.

Oh, and one point about the screens between the two devices. I think the iPhone has a slightly better screen, but it look more pixelated due to being the same resolution, but larger physically. Its hard to say if I have a preference. I guess the G1 looks a bit smoother, but the iPhone seems to be a bit brighter and just looks better for some reason (except the pixels).

Another thing about Android are the context menus. Hold your finger down over an item or icon or the background of the home screen and a menu will appear with options. This makes it easy to do quite a few thigns.. and I found myself missing them on the iPhone.

For example, in Android, if I click and hold on a mail item or IM convo or txt message thread, a menu pops up and I can delete the thread. On the iPhone I have to click “edit” and then click the little red icon thing next to the thread and then a delete button appears on the other side and then I click that.

Or, if I’m viewing a txt thread, on the iPhone I have to scroll all the way to the top of the convo to find the “call” button. On Android, I just click and hold any message in the thread from the other person and a menu pops up and I can click call.

If I want to change my background image on my home screen, I just click and hold on the background and a menu pops up with options… one of them is change background. On the iPhone I have to find the settings app icon and launch that then select background.

Right now I’m leaning towards going back to my 2 device solution tomorrow and just deal with the fact that the iPhone doesnt cut it in terms of notifications, IM and email, but it rocks for fun apps and media. And reactivate my G1 so I can have the goodness that is Android for communications.