Yes, that is Linus Torvalds in a Speedo. And yes, he got naked because he’s so excited about the Nexus One (that’s how I imagine things happening, anyway).

Actually, Torvalds just picked up a Nexus One. He’s notorious for his criticism of any and every cell phone, but he seems to love the Nexus One, so much he was willing to call it “a winner.” He doesn’t like that it’s a fun, rather that it has pinch-to-zoom capability and some GPS. Here’s what he said in his blog post:

I no longer feel like I’m dragging a phone with me “just in case” I would need to get in touch with somebody – now I’m having a useful (and admittedly pretty good-looking) gadget instead. The fact that you can use it as a phone too is kind of secondary.

Of course it doesn’t hurt that the phone runs Linux. Official Nexus One sales: 80,001.

The world’s first self-titled “superphone” isn’t posting super sales. Frankly, the numbers are terrible. Embarrassing. Worse than I ever would have expected. The Nexus One has only sold 80,000 units in its first month.

It’s hard to say where the problem lies. Sure, the phone wasn’t marketed very well, and what efforts were made were aimed a demographic that likely already has their smartphone of choice. It also launched shortly after the Droid, so Android fans had just picked up a new phone. There’s also the fact that it was being subsidized by T-Mobile, which just doesn’t have the kind of support Verizon’s got.

Whatever the reason, I was surprised by the number. The iPhone, by comparison, sold 600,000 units in its first month. The Droid sold 525,000.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Verizon and Motorola announced a new phone today. Called the Devour, the phone looks like a mini-Droid, or as my title suggests, the Droid’s weird cousin. It’s got a smaller display, a presumably smaller keyboard (yikes) and runs Anroid, albeit through Motoblur, Motorola’s odd Android distro.

I would guess the phone is going to fall somewhere around the Droid Eris in terms of price. It’s not a bad phone for $100, but like the Eris, it seems like a waste for what you’d get if you spent another $99. I can’t for the life of me figure out why Motorola is so obsessed with the physical keyboard, either. The pad on the Droid sucks. It really sucks. Android’s software keyboard is just so much nicer, why not rely on that?

If Motorola is your thing, you can get the Devour in early March.

If you believe what Apple tells you, the iPad is going to change the way you do just about everything. It’s the best web browser, the best movie viewer, the best way to read a book, and so on and so on. Realistically, though, it will probably change very little, at least for now.

The iPad is really just a big iPhone, albeit a very pretty, big iPhone, but not much more. It’s still lacking multitasking, which is a big deal if you’re going to use it as a productive device. Want to listen to Pandora while you’re typing out some emails? Sorry. Switch back and forth between email and a document? You’ll have to exit one to get to the other. The iPad also doesn’t have Flash support, which makes that “best browsing experience” feel like something from the dark ages. Sure you can watch your videos via apps, but that means more switching between applications.

It’s a problem of maturity for Apple’s new platform. The closed system has worked well enough for the iPhone, but we’re all sick of the restrictions on the device and the limitations of the App Store. We want Google Voice. Real Google Voice, not that web app trash. I want to use my iPad for Flash videos and watching DivX. For Ninjavideo. All of those things are limited by a platform that was designed for a mobile phone, not a web device.

For all the things the iPad can’t do, though, it can do one thing very well: evolve. The hardware is compelling enough and cheap enough to get into a lot of hands. As more people are ready to use the device, I’m willing to bet Apple will consider opening things up. If not, we’ve always got George Hotz.

Verizon said it would cut 13,000 jobs from its landline unit in a conference call today. The company missed sales estimates by less than one percent, which prompted it to axe approximately 11 percent of the land-line division’s workforce.

The company cuts are really to hedge losses in other divisions. Though the landline division was up almost 10% in sales over last year, enterprise and FiOS TV and Internet sales were down in the face of the poor economy. Most analysts predict that things will improve little in 2010. Verizon’s CFO is optimistic about the Apple tablet, though. “It will attract more and more data customers, more and more usage over the network,” he said. “Devices like that will be, long term, very positive for the wireless industry.”

Guess we’ll know more about whether Verizon is a part of Apple’s plan tomorrow.

Source: Bloomberg

I’m always a little put off by profanity filters. They are increasingly built into video games and seem to find their ways into all sorts of other applications. What I didn’t expect was a filter on a cell phone, and then Google did it.

Yes, the Nexus One has a profanity filter as a part of its speech-to-text engine. At first I was pretty surprised. It seems mighty presbyterian of Google to pull something like that without talking about it. The real reason, though, makes a lot of sense.

We filter potentially offensive or inappropriate results because we want to avoid situations whereby we might misrecognize a spoken query and return profanity when, in fact, the user said something completely innocent.

So instead of something nasty when your four-year-old says ‘duck,’ all he’ll see is ‘####.’ Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to disable the feature, so you’ll have to write out that drunken text instead of just yelling it into your phone.

With all the hype surrounding Apple’s latest announcement, you may have forgotten that the State of the Union address is next Wednesday night. What better way to celebrate both events than by watching the President on your iPhone!

This White House app streams live video content to your iPhone, beginning with the State of the Union next week. Other than that, it’s pretty much a dressed up version of whitehouse.gov, replete with pictures and news feeds about everything related to the executive branch. Topic of the moment? Haiti, of course.

Which are you more excited about? Hearing more about unemployment or dreaming of owning that Apple tablet?

Apple’s tablet is definitely the topic of conversation as we head toward Apple’s January event, but there could be more than just a hardware unveiling. There’s been a lot of speculation, in fact, about whether or not we’ll see iPhone OS 4.0 along with a tablet release.

The tablet isn’t likely to be powerful enough to run a full-fledged version of OS X, which points to another, stripped-down version, much like the iPhone OS. Actually, it probably is the iPhone OS, just with some more robust features like multi-tasking. There have also been reports that OS 4.0 has been kept out of developers hands because it leaks features about the impending tablet.

Whether it’s an updated iPhone OS or something else entirely, you can bet the tablet unveiling, if it even is that, will be about a whole lot more than just the hardware. For my money, I’d bet on an updated OS launching with the new machine.

This render of what’s been called the Motorola Shadow has been making the rounds over the weekend. You’ll notice it looks a whole lot like a Droid, just in white and with an added wriststrap. By some accounts it’s the successor to the Droid – a thinner, less evil-looking version of Verizon’s flagship Android device. There is another option, though.

Some are calling this the next Google Phone – the Nexus Two, maybe? I’d call that a very remote possibility, judging by the design of the device and the fact that it isn’t made by HTC. It seems odd that Google would abandon the manufacturer so shortly after it turned out a phone with solid critical reviews, despite Google’s retail problems.

If anything, I’m going to bet on a different market. It’s a decent looking phone, but I really wouldn’t want that wriststrap hanging out in my pocket. I guess I should wear it on my wrist?

Source: Engadget

This is exactly why I love Steve Wozniak. Just when you think he’s slipped, stepped over the line and said too much, he comes in and totally redeems himself. Here’s a comment he left over at Gizmodo about the Nexus One incident:

“Actually, everyone got it wrong. My favorite phones are my iPhones. When asked what my favorite gadgets were I took it to mean new gadgets I was playing with (that I considered good). I am not a switcher but I’m not going to tell people that the Nexus One is not a good gadget. Same for the Droid. I continually buy and play with new hot gadgets because I gets asked about them all the time. I have had prior Android phones that I didn’t consider good. I usually have between 2 and 6 different cell phones on me, more when there are interesting product introductions.

I try mainly to make good comments but I’m honest about flaws too. I don’t get into arguments trying to claim that there are objective reasons that make one person’s phone better than another’s. It’s subjective. You can’t win such arguments, only have a stressful life doing so. I have no problem praising and learning from non-Apple products as well as Apple products, when they are good.”

Your honesty…it is disarming. Seriously, all you CEO hacks who just ooze yes-man every time you talk, please read this. Then keep reading it until it sinks in.

Steve Wozniak is known for being a little eccentric, but he’s so much like a big, nerdy teddy bear that it’s hard not to like the guy. He’s also one of few corporate faces that will drop the marketing schtick and admit where his company has gone wrong. Most recently, he told NBC that his favorite gadget isn’t the iPhone, it’s the Nexus One.

It’s a strange thing to admit to someone like NBC, who will take that story and run in any direction that will get attention. He did say, though, that he hasn’t ditched his iPhone. The Apple product is still his cellphone of choice. My guess is he likes that Android is a little more open, that it doesn’t restrict extremely tech-savvy people like himself from doing what they want with the phone. He’s often criticized the iPhone for it’s rigid user interface.

Whatever the reason, you can bet there’s an Apple fanboy weeping somewhere at the news.

Source: NBC

The latest in a string of consumer disappointments around Google’s Nexus One involves stacking early termination fees on top of one another. As several customers have noticed, canceling your Nexus One service after the 14-day trial period and before 120 days has passed results in what Google calls an Equipment Recovery Fee of $350.

That’s in addition to any carrier fees in place. For T-Mobile that’s another $200. That’s $550 in fees plus the $180 you paid for the phone. The lesson? Buy the thing outright if you’re interested but unsure. It’ll run you $530, will come unlocked, and you can resell it yourself and recoup most of your losses.

You also have to wonder where that money is going. In most carrier partnerships, it’s the carrier that subsidizes the cost of the phone, hence the egregious ETF. Here, though, Google is the retailer, so presumably it subsidizes the cost itself. Why the T-Mobile fee? And if for some reason T-Mobile is covering consumer costs, why Google? Whatever the case, it ends poorly for consumers.

When you get poppy hipsters upset, they’re bound to go all sorts of loco on your ass. Take MIA. She recently had a three-hour long customer support call with Verizon, which prompted her to write a new song, titled “I’m Down Like Your Internet Connection.”

The song is set to be part of MIA’s new album, Kala which will be out later this year. For part of the song, MIA got Filipino Verizon employees to sing the hook. “I was having issues with my cable and wireless, and I was on the phone [with tech support] for three hours, and I thought, ‘Maybe this needs to be part of my music, could you just learn these lyrics and sing it down the phone to me?’” she said. “Ten phone calls later, I have Internet that sticks and a song.”

Now you know Verizon. You’ve got some bad publicity in the form of a pop song and your customer support reps aren’t helping your cause.

Source: Rolling Stone

Go ahead and read that one more time. Yes, the same line of chips that drives the Nexus One has been updated, pushed all the way to 1.5GHz with the help of a dual-core infrastructure.

It always sounds a little trite to talk about technology in this way, but I am, honestly and truly, a little blown away here. That kind of power was hardly available in laptops just a couple years ago. Less than half a decade ago. I know a LOT of people still running computers on slower chips than that. Madness.

Qualcomm’s announcement wasn’t just for the dual-core technosex. Luis Pineda, a Senior VP at Qualcomm, also wanted us to know about the single-core update, bringing chip model 8X50A up to 1.3 GHz. In case you were wondering, the dual-core chip is indeed for smartphones, not just netbooks, and can handle 1080p video. Let the drooling begin.

Shortly after the announcement of the Google Nexus One, BillShrink put together one of those nifty little charts as a cost comparison for the “next generation of smartphones.” (I’m glad to see it didn’t adopt Google’s new term: superphone.) The results read like yet another reason the iPhone needs to get off AT&T.

The cost of ownership for a top tier plan on the iPhone runs $3,799 over the course of your two year contract. The Nexus One, by comparison, is just $2,579, and that’s without the 5GB data cap. It’s an ugly stat for AT&T, which doesn’t even compete when you step down to an average plan. The total cost is still $500 more than the Nexus One.

The chart also throws in the Palm Pre and Verizon’s Motorola Droid, but now that the Nexus One is out I think we can pretty much forget about the droid. And the Pre? What’s that again?

Source: BillShrink

Today marked 2010’s first major tech release: the Google Nexus One. Google’s calling it a superphone, that special sub-category of smartphones that can do things like posting video to YouTube and run voice recognition software. I dunno, sounds like every other smartphone to me, though this one does look a good bit faster.

If you were hoping for a revelation, keep on hoping. While the Nexus One is definitely the best Android phone I’ve seen, it falls in line with the evolution of smartphones to this point. Yes, it is faster. That Snapdragon processor will be the envy of every iPhone owner, including myself. Yes, it is small. I was actually surprised to see that HTC was able to keep it thinner than a No. 2 pencil considering the processor. It will be interesting to see how hot it gets. And yes, above all, it is pretty. Android 2.1 looks really spectacular on that AMOLED screen. It’s got a big camera with an LED flash, another thing that will make the iPhone fans whimper.

Other than that, the world remains the same. Android app support still hasn’t caught up with the iPhone, and you can only get a 3G data connection on T-Mobile, the same one-network limitation the iPhone has. The one big difference is that it is possible to get the phone off contract, though in the US I doubt we’ll see many people going that route.

Head over to Google’s official webpage for all the spec info you need and a nice tour of the phone’s features.

Apple dropped $275 million to enter the world of mobile advertising today. The company purchased Quattro Wireless, one of AdMob’s direct competitors.

Though you may have never heard of it, Quattro has done some big business with some big names. The company has worked with CBS, Univision, and the NFL to deliver mobile ads across several platforms. This is a big move for Apple, another in a string of acquisitions that positions it for direct competition with Google. Given Apple’s history of going after the industry giant, it could be an interesting fight.

Here’s the email Apple sent to BGR confirming the deal:

Happy New Year from Quattro Wireless!

We are thrilled to let you know that Apple has acquired Quattro. We want to share with you our excitement about this news and what it means for our customers.

We have built our business by enabling advertisers to reach the right consumers across the mobile web and in applications. We remain focused on delivering more engaging, relevant and useful ads to mobile devices, and improving the measurement and execution of digital campaigns. Together with Apple, we look forward to developing exciting new opportunities in the future that will benefit our customers.

For now, the offerings and services you receive from Quattro Wireless will not change. We will continue to operate the Quattro Wireless network across all devices and platforms. Your client and support teams will remain the same, and you can continue to expect the world-class service we are proud to deliver to our customers.

We look forward to working with you during this exciting time.

Andy Miller
Vice President, Mobile Advertising
Apple

Source: BGR

Everyone’s saying it. I’m jumping on board. Whatever your feelings about tablets – they should exist, they shouldn’t, they’re pointless, they’re great – there’s no denying the potential market impact of a quality tablet. Quality is the key factor here. Much like ereaders, which no one cared about until the Kindle came around, tablets need a frontrunner, something to rally around and aspire to beat. My bet, like so many others, is on the Apple tablet.

It’s not just that I trust Apple, which I do, but that the market is so ripe for a Apple created device. The world has fallen in love with the iPhone and the iPod Touch, the App Store continues to grow at alarming rates, and everyone is imitating multi-touch wherever it makes sense and in plenty of places it doesn’t. Imagine your iPod Touch on ‘roids, powerful enough to run 1080p video, do some simple editing, and wirelessly post to YouTube. Did I mention you can surf the web and read your ebooks? How much would you pay for a device like that? $500? $600? More?

Amazon and Barnes & Noble don’t think the consumer’s financial tolerance is so high. I do. I think people would be willing to spend as much as a grand on an Apple tablet because it could potentially do everything I mentioned above. In the face of that kind of device, the Kindle starts to look a lot like the Peek, specializing in a service handled just as well, if not better, by a more versatile device.

The one thing that could stall tablets for another year is premature release. Everyone knows the tablet is the next big thing, but if it gets rushed, consumers could see the failed device as a reason to buy an ereader. Wait until the tablet people get it right before diving in.

What do you think? Is this the beginning of the end for ereaders? Will they still have their place in the market? Can they get cheap enough to stay relevant?

The Nielsen Company has released the top performers in the tech sector for 2009. Among the company’s lists is the cell phone chart, at the top of which sits the iPhone.

I know. I was shocked, too. Below that it’s the Blackberry 8300 series. Again, a pretty big surprise. The two most popular phones in the states this year are actual smartphones. Perhaps most surprising of all was the number three spot: the Motorola RAZR. I don’t know if people just aren’t resubbing, so they don’t replace their out-of-date phones, or if there just weren’t enough smartphone options on Verizon, the nation’s network of choice.

Whatever the case, the RAZR is still hanging around in big numbers, but it’s getting beat out by the smartphone explosion. Manufacturers take note: people want mobile web access, so much so that the smartphone sector is finally beating the pants off feature phones.

Source:

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple may have already locked in dates for WWDC 2010. A calendar listing at the Moscone Center in San Francisco shows a “Corporate Event” from June 28th to July 2nd, a name that has designated Apple events in the past.

The date also coincides with the launch of the original iPhone. Since that launch, Apple has made major iPhone announcements at each consecutive WWDC. The rumor this year is that we’ll finally see the phone make the jump to multiple carriers in the US, though it’s not clear who that could be. Most people think Verizon, but the CDMA standard is not exactly iPhone friendly. T-Mobile would be a much easier choice, but it’s also much smaller.

You can’t make mention of WWDC without bringing up the iPhone SDK conference that happens some time in March. Think we’ll see OS 4.0?