Verizon_Droid Preview Image

Verizon’s upcoming phone Driod has been advertised to compete with Apple’s iPhone. Verizon’s teaser preview with a large media buy has stirred up some hype for the phone. If anything, it has raised some eye brows about some of the phone’s claims to have and exceed the Apple iPhone’s capabilities. Check out the ad below to see what I mean.

Now some have said this is not an  attack on the iPhone. The ad seems obvious to me as the “idont” comment throughout the ad is targeted to the i in ”iPhone”. Verizon’s  Web site for the Driod phone does not have much detail and adds little to the hype generated by the advertisement.

The iPhone Blog recently wrote about “Verizon Attack Ads — Claim iPhone iDoesn’t do What Android 2.0 Droid Does.” In the blog Rene Richie counters each point that the Driod ad raises.

For example, “iDon’t run simultaneous apps: Again, it does. The iPhone can run iPod, Email, Phone, Messages, App Store/iTunes downloads, Quicktime streams, and other functions in the background with full multitasking. Apple restricts two or more 3rd party apps from running at the same time, but that’s obviously too subtle a difference for Verizon.”

From Daring Fireball, “Droid” is going to be a Verizon-owned brand. It’s purportedly a Motorola-manufactured phone, but Verizon is the licensee of the “Droid” trademark. (Which name, by the way, strikes me as the perfect name for an Android OS phone — sort of implicitly establishes it as the Android phone.) That’s the big thing. Verizon doesn’t see itself as a mere carrier for other companies’ phones. It sees itself as being bigger than the phones. It’s Verizon-vs.-Apple in this spot, not Verizon-vs.-AT&T.

So that is some of the hype going on between Verizon’s Droid and the Apple iPhone. Personally, I think the hype is all hot air. My bet is the phone will launch and ultimately fall short of the advertised claims. The iPhone with all it’s applications is just to hard to beat!

Cheers,

Adam Faragalli

Walt Mossberg wrote this article on the Blackberry Storm 2 that I found interesting. I happen to have a Blackberry Storm which I really like. It was not always my favorite device. In fact, I spent the first month  just frustrated with the OS that came with the phone. Blackberry Storm 1 from RIM came with a rushed OS. The Storm would freeze and lock up, not answer calls among a host of other issues.

I spent a lot of time on crackberry.com downloading new OS updates and themes. Over time, the phone has gotten better. Now, the nice big touch screen is great because it actually works well! I have all the apps I need and the battery life is actually pretty good.

View the BlackBerry Storm Preview Movie Here.

But, I’m excited about the Blackberry storm 2! Although I doubt I’ll upgrade, the new one looks to close the gap a little more with the iPhone. With the ability to have Wifi, this means much faster Internet at Starbucks or what have you. Although the Verizon 3G network is good, it cannot compete with a solid Wifi signal running high speed Internet. The phone will also feature more memory and an improved touchscreen.

 I thought the touch screen for the Blackberry Storm was decent. I’m courious how RIM improved the Blackberry Storm 2. Hopefully they did away with the click because after a lot of use it begins to stick, very frustrating. According to the article, “The Storm2 fixes all those flaws. The screen now stays still when tapped, providing tactile feedback electronically instead of mechanically. This allows for faster, smoother typing.”

For more information and the link to the original article, click here. Verizon hasn’t set a launch date or price for the Storm2, but it’s likely to appear in November at around $200.

Best,

Adam Faragalli

Douglas MacMillan over at Business Week brings us this article on Google’s 20 Hottest Tools. A cool list of many of the awesome things Google has been working on over the years. I have convered many of them, including Google Wave, Google SikiWiki and Google Patents. But this list contains some that I bet you may have not heard of including Google Heath, Google SketchUp, Google Mars, and Google News Timeline. Give the article, Google’s 20 Hottest Tools, a look over and learn more about all the awesome things Google  adds to our lives.

Best,

Adam Faragalli

Ever find yourself needing information on a patent held by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office?  I have and can’t begin to tell you how confusing and frustrating the online U.S Patent Office’s Web can be. Google to the rescue.  Google’s own Patent Search, launched in 2006, uses the full-text search capabilities it developed for Google Book Search to deliver more relevant results. Give Google Patents a try before http://www.uspto.gov/.

Best,

Adam Faragalli

Google Wave, announced several months back at the Google I/O conference, aims to change the way people collaborate and communicate with others. According to Google, a “wave” is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.”
The question the developers asked if email was invented today, what would it look like and ultimately how would it work? Google Wave is the answer. If you have some time, check out the long demonstration video below of the conference back in May.

Here’s how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It’s concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content - it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use “playback” to rewind the wave and see how it evolved.

Some key technologies in Google Wave include real-time collaboration tools, Natural language tools, Extending Google Wave.

I especially love the playback ability and the instant ability to see the message as it is being typed. Think about just how much time one can save when one can plan there response as someone forms their message. This is in contrast to the typing icon that currently works in most email and instant message applications. What is also great is you can turn this feature off, helpful for those of us who are not quite sure about spelling or a quick response. But these features are just bonus to an revolutionary online tool!

In the near future, there is little doubt that Google Wave will have a major impact on the way we all email and share online. If you would like to give it a shot, try your hand at requesting an invitation. I am still eargerly awaiting the official release of Google Wave, which is supposed to be coming very soon last this year! As soon as it is released I will make a new blog and let you know.

Best,

Adam Faragalli

Twine.com sent me this link this morning from LifeHacker.com about there list of Top 10 Web Collaboration Tools. As they state, these collaboration tools stand apart from the awesome platform Google Wave, announced a few months back, which I will save for another blog entry. Many of these I had never heard of but many are very helpful. I especially liked MindMeister.

MindMeister Preview Image

From the developers Web site, “MindMeister brings the concept of mind mapping to the web, using its facilities for real-time collaboration to allow truly global brainstorming sessions. Users can create, manage and share mind maps online and access them anytime, from anywhere. In brainstorming mode, fellow MindMeisters from around the world (or just in different rooms) can simultaneously work on the same mind map and see each other’s changes as they happen.”

I hope you take a look at them and be sure to thank LifeHacker.com for the article, Top 10 Web Collaboration Tools.

Best,

Adam Faragalli