Job opportunities like this didn’t just come about thanks to the Internet’s rise in popularity, but rather because the Internet is open and free. In a world where television news sources are owned by conglomerates that have their own political agendas and newspapers throw journalistic integrity out the window in favor of partisan articles meant to divide the world, the Internet is really the only place you can go to find speech that is truly free. That’s the wonderful thing about the Internet – anyone can set up a website and instantly have a platform to speak their mind, regardless of whether that opinion is popular or not.

All of that, however, is currently under attack. If you’ve read this blog any time in past month or so, you know that I’m talking about SOPA and PIPA. SOPA and PIPA are two bills that have been introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate, respectively, that aim to bring online piracy to an end. It’s a noble cause considering that online piracy is real problem that has far reaching ramifications you probably didn’t even know were possible when you downloaded the latest Justin Bieber album, but both bills have major problems.

First and foremost, SOPA and PIPA would aim to stop piracy by censoring the Internet. In recent days, both bills have suffered major setbacks, with the Senate and the House both opting to shelve PIPA and SOPA. That may seem like a victory, but don’t become complacent. SOPA and PIPA are merely waiting in the wings, with Senators and Representatives alike waiting until the controversy dies down before reintroducing these bills under different names with less offensive language. This is going to happen, because major organizations like the MPAA and the RIAA will continue to try and convince congressmen and women that they only way they can effectively fight piracy is by being given the right to wipe out any site that even hint at copyright infringement. They will do the convincing with money, and they won’t stop until they get what they want or they Senators and Representatives they’ve bought are removed from office.

The notion that the only way to fight piracy is through censorship is a direct threat to free speech, and I can’t believe that my government, which was founded on the value that an American should be allowed to speak his or her mind, is even considering a bill that could result in voices being stifled. Even more bizarre is the fact that the US government has openly chastised China and Iran for censoring the Internet, yet looks to grant itself the same power. You’ll hear supporters of SOPA say things like “Well, things will probably be okay even if SOPA passes.” They might be right, but do you really want to give the government that kind of power just to see what it does? I certainly don’t.

This issue has quickly evolved into something more than online piracy, most likely because SOPA and PIPA won’t do anything to stop piracy. Our Senators and Representatives clearly have no idea that simply blocking websites or having them removed entirely won’t do a damn thing to stop piracy. Hackers and pirates are smarter than those who run our country and the massive media organizations that support these bills, and SOPA and PIPA will be an annoyance for them at best. They will still find a way to get the stuff they want illegally, all the while laughing, tickled that our government thought that something as stupid as SOPA or PIPA would do anything to stop them.

The only thing that a bill like SOPA will do is put our jobs at risk, along with the millions of other people who rely on a free and open Internet to make a living. For that reason, TFTS cannot support anything resembling SOPA and PIPA, and we urge you to contact your elected officials (even if you don’t live in the US, since this will affect the entire world) and tell them that a vote for bills like SOPA and PIPA is akin to a vote against free speech.

Since this is a matter that will affect TFTS as a whole, our editors all have something specific they’d like to say, and we invite you to carefully consider what each thinks about these bills:

Steve Andersen – TFTS Assistant Editor:

SOPA in its current form is a disaster waiting to happen. SOPA is likely to kill jobs–and this during the worst economy since the Great Depression–as well as do horrible things to innovation all across the
internet. Why? Simple–it’s so spectacularly vague that just about anything could apply under its terms. In an environment where just about any picture or any video or any clip could result in a horde of overpowered lawyers landing on your throat feet-first, who in their right mind would start anything? Worse yet, even if it’s not your post, but rather a post from a user, you’re automatically assumed at fault because you didn’t do enough to stop it. And we’re not even talking about software pirates for large parts of this discussion, but rather blog owners, web site owners, and the like. There’s too much presumption of guilt here and not near enough common sense applied.

Chris Smith – TFTS Executive Editor:

My name is Chris and I have a problem, I am an Internet addict – which is not necessarily a problem. I love the current kind of Internet flavor, uncensored, with everything it has to offer, good or bad. And it’s mostly good stuff! Because the Internet drives innovation and helps online and offline businesses flourish, something certain lawmakers are clearly unaware of. The good thing about SOPA and PIPA is that it made me realize how many Internet services I use every day, whether work-related or not, to make my life easier. And I take them all for granted, they’re there to be taken advantage of and I can’t imagine waking up one day and finding out they had to be shut down without due process, for alleged copyright infringement. Should these bills pass, then we’ll have all kinds of big corporations anonymously bully various smaller sites out of business, without suffering any consequences. Various services and websites will disappear thanks to a law that gives certain powers and a waiver-to-censor to certain corporations overnight. Innovation will be stifled and soon everyone using the Internet will lose money. Everyone. As a tech writer but also as a simple Internet user, I can easily see how these two bills would affect my whole online experience in a heartbeat. I’m not an American, but once the U.S. green-lights such laws, I bet that other less democratic governments will have their own SOPAs and PIPAs out there in a minute to locally censor the Internet. And we’ll all have to suffer. The best thing of all is that piracy, which we don’t condone over here at TFTS, will not disappear, it will just adapt to the new environment. The bottom line is that I don’t want to tell my kids one day how I witnessed the Internet being pilled up in a yard in a cold winter day and being set on fire.

Andrew Tingle – TFTS Editor-In-Chief, Publisher, and Owner:

We live in a world that’s increasingly disinvesting us of ourselves, where those that are supposed to be serving us utilise the power and trust invested in them to bear down with invisible shackles upon a Joe Public who seemingly needs said individuals to reign in on our own personal responsibilities and freedoms. Many of us already live in a bubble that sees our every move tracked and filmed as we as carefully steered along the ever more restrictive tramlines defined not by a genuine cause based on what’s right and wrong but by lobby groups with cash in hand.

In all this, as we try to live our lives in a world ever more zoned and mapped out for us lest we actually need to fall back on our own sense of right and wrong or tax our brains with any sense of personal responsibility, the internet has been and remains, to a large degree, one of our last freedoms – but should the likes of SOPA and PIPA (in whatever iteration they may now take) come to fruition then, as in politics, Joe Public’s voice can and undoubtedly will be sidelined, pushed to the fringes by teams of lawyers whose mission is to see that whom they represent get to steer public opinion.

It is well documented, both on this site and across the net, how SOPA/PIPA and any of their mutations moving forward can and undoubtedly will play out – all of which leads to opinion being stifled, slowly muted and lost.

Of course, copyright infringement is not something we condone, but SOPA/PIPA have clear wider connotations that could, and thus will, lead to the gagging of free speech as those with power – by power, I mean those that already dilute laws with their lobby groups – cast their shadow across the net.

Now that SOPA/PIPA have been sidelined (or, rather, as they slip into the backroom to avail themselves of a new mask ready to face us again) it is clear that the people have spoken and, without wanting to state the bleeding obvious, isn’t it these very same people whom the politicians are supposed to be serving?

Enough already. Some of us were lucky enough to have been born in “the free world” – let’s try to keep at least some semblance of it at least someplace. Or, perhaps, we could just hand over the net to those that would like to shape it for their own ends, have them filter our content whilst we, in democracies, slam other counties who have looked to shape personal opinion by the very some (ultimate) means – that of censorship.

You, we, still have a voice and a platform to be heard. Use it or loose it. It really is as simple as that.

So there you have it folks. If you’re a citizen of the United States of America, the stakes can’t be much higher. Now is the time to remind your Senators and Representatives that they were elected to serve the people; they work for us, not special interests. If nothing else, remember that bureaucracies and corporations will jump at the chance to take away liberties like free speech and the open exchange of information, and once they’re taken away, they’re nearly impossible to get back.

True, the investor reaction to the Wii U after its reveal at E3 might be something of a knee-jerk, but it’s pretty much undeniable at this point that the Nintendo 3DS has been nothing but a series of bad decisions. Yeah, it may be cool, but only the most loyal of the loyal would be steadfast (or deluded) enough to continue to sing the praises of a handheld that receives literally no noteworthy games until six months after release (and sorry, but a remake of a twelve-year-old N64 game just doesn’t cut it).

So, how does Nintendo bounce back from this rut? They embrace the enemy: the iPhone. It doesn’t matter what you think about gaming on the iPhone, it has Nintendo worried, and it’s grabbing the attention of casual gamers while their Wiis sit on a shelf, collecting dust. Sure, the Wii may be in tons of households around the world, but that hardly matters anymore. The Wii U is on the way, and Nintendo has all but abandoned the original Wii. Seriously, I’ve had some great times with my Wii, but I haven’t hooked it up to my TV in nearly six months because, for whatever reason, Nintendo seems to think that they’ve made it to the point where they don’t have to support it anymore.

I really don’t think the Wii U is going to be as big of a hit as Nintendo thinks it will, either, for one simple reason: the Wii’s success is due in large part to the fact that the Wii was the only thing targeting casual gamers at the time. The Xbox 360 and PS3 were busy duking it out over which was more powerful, or which had better exclusives, while Nintendo sat back and raked in the cash from all of the families that didn’t care one bit about the Xbox 360/PS3 rivalry (read: not core gamers). This was in a pre-iPhone world, where $50-$60 a pop was still the norm in game prices, and when people would gladly hand over that much cash without giving it a second thought.

But the times, they are a-changin’, and Nintendo refuses to change along with them. This is evidenced, first and foremost, in their terrible handling of the 3DS launch. Nintendo figured that they could launch an incomplete, unsupported handheld, and that people would eat it up. Hey, that’s what ended up happening with the DS, so it has to happen again with the 3DS, right? Wrong. So incredibly wrong. No matter how much they ignore mobile gaming, that doesn’t change the fact that iPhone and Android games are cutting directly into the market that, just a few years ago, Nintendo had cornered, and I suspect that has at least something to do with the slow uptake of the 3DS.

Now, the iPhone is taking the casual gaming market by storm, and what does Nintendo do? They put Reggie Fils-Aime in the spotlight to say that inexpensive iPhone games devalue the $40 games that they’re trying to push on consumers and then, in the very same interview, claim that Steel Diver is a good excuse for a launch title. Something reeks of bullshit here, and it isn’t Apple or the iPhone.

Call me a pessimist if you like, but I really doubt things are going to get better for the 3DS, and I’m not confident that the Wii U can deliver. Not as long as the iPhone is still going strong and the popularity of Android is growing by the day. Investors clearly want Nintendo to take a serious look at the iPhone – they’ve flat out requested that Nintendo starts making games for the iPhone, and in case that isn’t enough for you, Nintendo’s stock prices jumped when Pokemon Say Tap? was announced for the iPhone.

It’s really so simple that it’s laughable. Nintendo needs to seriously consider releasing some games for mobile platforms. They can continue developing their own consoles, because I really think that the iPhone is far enough removed from the console wars that releasing games for it wouldn’t put an end to Nintendo’s console outfit.

Hell, they don’t even need to release new games for the iPhone. If they put a bunch of old N64, SNES, and NES games on the iPhone, I guarantee they would clean up. Instead of being greedy and charging ten dollars for a ROM like they do on the Virtual Console, offer the N64 games for $2.99, SNES games for $1.99, and NES games for $0.99. Nintendo, I promise doing this will earn you piles and piles of cash. Plus, by putting their older library up on mobile platforms, this would allow them to have a presence on mobiles while still supporting the 3DS with new games.

Of course, Nintendo isn’t going to do this, because Satoru Iwata and his ilk still think that the more they charge for their games, the more cash they’ll have to fill their coffers. There’s been plenty of iPhone developers that have shown us that notion isn’t necessarily true, but in typical Nintendo fashion they’ll just ignore what seems logical and do their own thing, if only because that’s worked for them in the past with the Wii (which, honestly, seems more like a fluke than anything else).

Nintendo’s problem is that they’ve put all their eggs in one basket with the casual games market. They alienated a lot of core gamers with the Wii, and now we see them trying to get them back with the Wii U, ignoring those who made the Wii such a smashing success. Don’t kid yourself, either: those who identify as hardcore gamers aren’t going to buy a Wii U, they’ll just wait for the next PlayStation or Xbox. I really doubt casual gamers are going to stick around for the Wii U too – they’ll be too busy playing games on their iPhone or Android device. Flame all you want, but I’m just not convinced that the Wii U is going to be the must-have console for casual gamers like the original Wii was.

Whatever Nintendo does, one thing’s for sure: they need to change their strategy or they risk losing it all. If nothing else, they need to stop half-assing this casual games thing and get some games on the iPhone. The casual games market is leaving you behind, Nintendo, and you can either swallow your pride and actually do something to ensure that you’re still relevant in five years, or you can keep bitching about how cheap little iPhone games are wiping the floor with your full-priced shovelware. Your choice.

The following posts are directly related to this item (click images to link):

Our Top 7 8-Bit Games Nintendo Should Convert To iOS

Frustrated Investors Push Nintendo to Embrace iOS & Mobile Gaming

We’ve seen some pretty big CEOs fall in the last year, too. HP is the biggest computer manufacturer in the world, and Mark Hurd left the company in disgrace after an alleged sexual assault claim and expense report fraud. Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was forced out of Nokia after the company has been slow to innovate and compete on the smartphone front. So, did Google oust Dr. Schmidt from the CEO chair, too?

And, you may think it’s been a tough year for Google, too. Afterall, Google Buzz went nowhere. The first edition of Google TV wasn’t that great, and depending on what Android blogs you read, it may seem like the entire world is up in arms over the Android fragmentation “issue”. Oh god, three flops. They must be in trouble, right?

Well, not quite. The stock price is up 32% in the last three months. The search business, despite Bing’s growing success, is still as strong as ever. In Q4 2010, the company made $8.4 billion in revenue.

The fact is, Dr. Eric Schmidt is one of the best CEOs in the technology sector. Larry Page agrees. He said during the Google conference call:

Eric has clearly done an outstanding job leading Google for the last decade. The results speak for themselves. There is no other CEO in the world that could have kept such headstrong founders so deeply involved and still run the business so brilliantly. Eric is a tremendous leader and I have learned innumerable lessons from him.

So, if Schmidt is such a great leader – why is he leaving? It’s simple. Larry and Sergei have grown up.

Before Schmidt was CEO of Google, Larry Page was CEO of Google. Schmidt was named CEO in 2001, three years before Google went public, though it was obvious that the company had an IPO in their sights. Wall Street hates young CEOs. Steve Jobs had to hire John Sculley (the man who would later fire him) as CEO of Apple because Wall Street didn’t think a 28-year-old Jobs could run Apple Computer.  Jerry Yang wanted to CEO of Yahoo! but they wouldn’t let him. And there are numerous examples of this happening.

In 2001, Larry Page was just 29-years-old. Like Jobs back in ’83, he and Sergei likely were told that they had to find a “grown-up” (IE: Somebody over 35) to run the company. Eric Schmidt was a great choice, a former computer scientist who made a name for himself working at Java, and was later the CEO at Novell.

Even during the 10 years where Schmidt was CEO, the “Google boys” (who hold titles of “Vice President”) and Schmidt ran the company together. An SEC filing in 2009 even confirmed that Larry, Sergei and Schmidt ran the company as a “triumvirate”.

So, Schmidt’s stepping down is simply to let the once and future king (Larry Page – who was CEO before Schmidt, and will be again) take the throne again. Schmidt will remain as Chairman of the Board, and statements by Larry and Sergei make it clear that Schmidt will remain as an advisor to them.

Need further proof that Schmidt wasn’t fired? He wrote a very long blog post on the official Google blog explaining what happened. Ousted CEOs aren’t allowed to write long blog posts. Mark Hurd wasn’t. Kallasvuo wasn’t. If you’re fired as CEO, you’re sent away with a large severance package and told to shut up if you want to keep it.

On his Twitter feed, Schmidt wrote: “Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!” And that’s exactly what’s happened here. Schmidt is stepping down so Larry and Sergei can run the company they founded.

Sorry, Apple fans. Google is fine. The house that Larry and Sergei built isn’t collapsing just yet.

Now, we just have to wonder if Schmidt will be asked to be Obama’s Secretary of Commerce during his second term…

As is typical, the phone is running Samsung’s ‘TouchWiz’ custom user interface that they place on top of the stock Android interface. All the major manufacturers are now doing this with their phones, as they see it as a way to differentiate themselves from the competition. It’s got all the widgets and homescreen options that Android and the other interfaces have. These custom interfaces have come along way since they first started appearing on Android devices and I think most users will find it acceptable, unless you’re a crazy Android fanatic who needs an unaltered Android experience. But, the phone also is shipping with Android 2.1.1 – an outdated version of the operating system. For some hardcore Android fans, that will turn them off to this device.

One thing I didn’t like about the interface is its unlock screens. The device uses two bizarre and horrible lock screens (either “Fit the puzzle piece into the hole” or “Move the glass”) and those are a big step down from the stock Android lock screen

As for the hardware, as mentioned, the mainscreen of the device is a bit smaller than other modern touchscreen smartphones (Continuum’s 3.4-inches compared to the iPhone’s 3.5-inches or the Droid X’s 4.3-inches). But, it’s just big enough that use of the phone isn’t constrained and most users should find the phone big enough. As for the “ticker”, it’s a smaller 1.8-inch screen just below the Android menu buttons. It goes without saying that both screens use Samsung OLED display technology and they look amazingly crisp.

When the phone is in use (you’re cruising the menus, using an app, etc.), it displays the time and date, along with your local weather (if you provide the WeatherBug app with your postal code). When not in use, you can configure it with RSS feeds, and as news comes it from those feeds, the ticker will flash to life and show you what’s “coming across the wires.” For example, I had the weather and ESPN RSS feeds in my ticker and news of MLB player Cliff Lee returning to the Philadelphia Phillies came to me as I was eating my breakfast. The ticker can also be configured you show you how many e-mails, text messages or voicemails you have. For a power communicator, I imagine this could be useful.

Although I liked the ticker screen, it didn’t change the way I got my news. If you’re a savy user who uses an RSS reader on the computer, the ticker won’t become your primary newsreader due to the fact you’re likely to miss something. The message notification is slightly more interesting and if you’re somebody who’s constantly getting texts or e-mails, it could be a bit more useful. It’s an interesting innovation, but I don’t see it changing the way all other smartphones are used.

In all, the hardware of the Continuum is nice. It’s small and light. Samsung is calling it a member of the Galaxy S family (in line with the Samsung Fascinate on Verizon, Vibrant on T-Mobile, Captivate on AT&T and Epic 4G on Sprint), and it even says “Galaxy S” on the back – but this phone is considerably smaller and feels more solid than the other Galaxy S phones. I don’t know how they call it a Galaxy S phone – maybe it’s a younger cousin.

In my uninformed male opinion, it seems like the Continuum was made for women. We’re all (or those of you who are Americans, at least) familiar with Verizon’s Droid brand. Their premier Android brand features loud commercials with robots, spaceships and other macho sci-fi images and themes as Lance Henriksen talks about “Droid Does” and “cargo bays of Apps”. It’s all very male-oriented in my opinion.

The Continuum, based on it’s size and weight, seems like it would be more appealing to women and that’s why I assume Verizon is carrying it in it’s lineup. If you’re looking for a Verizon Android device for the lucky lady in your life, take a look at this phone.

Performance wise, the phone is great. It’s carrying a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor (the same processor as the Apple A4 that’s featured in the iPhone 4 and iPad, as Samsung makes that processor for Apple under contract), and has 336MB of RAM. Moving between home screens is quick and responsive and the apps ran without duress on the device. So, as mentioned, we were pleased with the performance of this device. For your music, movies and pictures, it has 2GB of memory space built-in.

Regarding the camera on the Continuum, we found it to be an adequate phone camera – about par for the course with what you’d get from a mobile phone.

Verizon’s pricing on this phone is a bit disappointing. They are asking $199.99 for the phone with a two-year contract, which places it among the top-notch Android smartphones in Verizon’s lineup. It’s Verizon’s prerogative to price this phone where they see fit, but honestly this phone seems like it would be more at home starting at a $150 price point with contract. Especially as I see this phone appealing to younger people and women. Without a new contract, the price of this device is $580. As with all Verizon smartphones, it requires a data plan.

In all, I liked the Samsung Continuum. It’s a small Android device that’s still powerful enough to do what you’d want to do with it. The ticker display is an interesting innovation on Samsung’s part, and it may be useful to some, but I don’t see it spreading to all smartphones. For those turned off by the techno-macho marketing and styling of Verizon’s Droid phones, the thin and light Samsung Continuum may be for you – if you can stomach the price of the phone, which we believe is $50 too high at launch.

Full Disclosure: Verizon provided us with a Samsung Continuum to use during this review.

The Motorola Droid Pro is roughly the same size and weight of its BlackBerry contemporaries. It features a slightly bigger screen that is a touch longer vertically. The 3.1-inch screen on the Droid Pro is, of course, a touchscreen, which takes it out of the class of your typical BlackBerry Pearl and Bold and puts it with the likes of the BlackBerry Torch and Palm Pixi Plus. Compared to those phones, the screensize is comparable.

The keyboard is obviously the big attraction here. It’s best described as a “BlackBerry-style” keyboard, as it’s comparable to the keyboard you’d find on such a phone. If you are a heavy business user and were discouraged by the keyboard on the Motorola Droid and Droid 2, then you should give the Droid Pro’s keyboard a try. Simply put, the Droid’s keyboard is for text messagers while the Droid Pro’s keyboard is more adapt to people used to business-minded phones. While the Droid Pro’s keyboard is lightyears better than the Droid 1 and 2, and is better than the older BlackBerry keyboards (like whats found on the Curve and Pearl lines) – it still doesn’t seem to match the newer BlackBerry keyboards found on the BB Tour and Bold brands of phones.

A rumor circulating the internet some months ago said that the Motorola Droid Pro would be available in a camera-free variant for those of you who work in high-security workplaces and aren’t allowed camera phones. We’ve reached out to our Verizon RP rep and asked for a confirmation on this, and a release date.

The Droid Pro is running Android 2.2. Android has been getting more and more business friendly the last few updates. The core operating system does now support syncing with unsecured Exchange servers as well as some Exchange ActiveSync security policies. But, from a software perspective, the Droid Pro is the first really business-compliant Android device. Motorola is swinging for the BlackBerry boys in Waterloo with this device – it features support for Exchange data encryption, as well as the ability to remotely wipe the device and the ability to change passwords remotely. Motorola calls it ‘corporate-level’ security.

As far as the ‘fun’ stuff, the Droid Pro isn’t as great at. E-mail is okay on the touchscreen, and so is web browsing (you’re web browsing with a real web browser, as opposed to the BlackBerry and their ‘mobile web’ browsers). But, don’t expect third-party apps to be so good on this device. Many third-party apps don’t scale down well to the smaller screen, and some games, like Angry Birds, may be difficult to play with the small screen.

Flash performance was about as well as you’d expect on an Android device. On some sites, Flash performed well on the device, while other sites caused the whole phone to slow down. Generally, it’s okay, but don’t expect to be playing any great Flash games on the small screen.

Here’s something strange we noticed – this phone is made be used in portrait mode. The screen will not rotate to a landscape mode, no matter what you do. If a third-party will only run that way, it will rotate, but otherwise, the phone is locked portrait. Makes some sense, though. Likewise, you’ll never see the virtual keyboard on the device. It shows up in the menu settings, but you’ll never be able to get the phone to bring up the virtual keyboard. And probably for the better, considering the great hardware keyboard and the screen’s small size.

The camera for the Motorola Droid Pro was adequate. Despite not being a consumer-orientated phone, the camera could hold its own when compared to other phone cameras.

The Motorola Droid Pro is available only through Verizon Wireless, and is under their Droid branding. The phone costs $479.99 without a contract and $179.99 on a two-year contract when purchased through Verizon. But, you can find Best Buy selling it for $50 or Amazon selling it for $20, again, both prices with a two-year contract. As a smartphone, it will require a data plan.

Final thoughts, we found the Motorola Droid Pro by Verizon to be a capable Android device. Despite a small screen size, web browsing and e-mail were still fine on the device, along with all the Google apps integration that we’ve come to know and love. How will business users like the Droid Pro? The biggest shock for them will be the switch to Android from whatever else they were using. A reformed BlackBerry user will quickly get used to the keyboard and the touchscreen, but we suspect they will find the biggest issue to be the new operating system and the sometimes quirky nature of Android. Although the Android software is nowhere near bad (and Motorola has made some nice corporate security upgrades to it on this phone), it will still remain the biggest hurdle for ‘CrackBerry’ addicts looking to make the jump to the Android operating system with this phone.

(Verizon Wireless provided us with a loaner Droid Pro to use during the review period.)

They say you never get a second chance at a first impression, but thankfully the Optimus One, doesn’t really need to. It’s small, no doubt and someone lusting after one of its larger siblings would hold the necessarily small screen against it, but its tiny frame serves a purpose as well-determined as the burly bulk of something like the Epic 4G. It’s made to tax your pocket as slightly as possible (both physically and metaphorically) and to allow you to expend almost no amount of effort in sliding it out. The resulting feel is that it almost seems to teleport in your hand.  The other trade-off, which is a bit more serious, is the battery life. Slim phone means slim battery means daily charge for a heavy user, though regular use (an hour or two of calling, about the same for Internet browsing per day) will get you two days of use.

Build quality is a few notches above adequate, with no signs of give or creak anywhere on its slim body. We also got the distinct impression that it can take quite a few knocks too, but we weren’t about to test that one out all that thoroughly. The first thing that comes to mind immediately after “why does this plastic feel soft and creamy?” is how did they get the heft of it so right? The discerning smartphone enthusiast, who has groped his way through line-ups of both this and yesteryear knows that an inordinate amount of them feel either like pocket calculators or external hard disk drives, but this one is as finely balanced as a shuriken and you never find yourself either having that empty milk carton feeling when picking it up or your pants around your ankles when you drop it in your pocket. It comes with a barely-noticeable screen protector already applied and the silky-feeling plastic also seems quite resilient to scuffs, marks and scratches of the mundane variety.

The 3.2-inch 480 x 320 pixel TFT LCD doesn’t really stand out in any way, good viewing angles and good color reproduction mean it’s wearing its adequacy like a crown, but we can’t really fault it for what amounts to the budgety end of the smartphone market. It’s a capacitive screen, so no departure from its ilk; it’s a joy to type on (as it should be with no physical keyboard), with only the wonky accelerometer getting in the way of the experience. It was not uncommon for the screen view to get stuck in the blatantly wrong setting and no amount of shaking and cajoling would persuade it to see reason so you just had to use it in its current state. Also coming back from stand-by to see a completely flipped screen view was not uncommon.

Everything you’ll regularly see on the phone’s body apart from the screen is black with some subtle silver accents and while there’s nothing groundbreaking here, there is a no non-sense approach to the esthetic that feels solid and unapologetic. The one thing no one can accuse the Optimus One of is trying too hard (but in a good way). Buttons are well defined and they have a very nice, clicky follow-through. Don’t worry about the unified Home and Back buttons, they’re quite easy to press separately.

Hardware-wise the Optimus One has it where it counts with a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7627 ringleader, backed up by Adreno 200 graphics, 512MB of memory, and standard WiFi, HSDPA & BT 2.1 connectivity options. Much like baffled criminal investigators, we saw no signs of a struggle from the Optimus One either in menus, browser or even when playing unconverted mkv videos via the awesomely excellent Rock Player, albeit of the 480p variety, as 720p, while they did play tended to stutter off into the unwatchable. This phone doesn’t really punch above its weight when it comes to specs, but it can slap pretty hard and that’s more than enough for the target audience.

We also have AGPS to top it all off and, as we’re told the retail version will as well (only for the remainder of 2010 from our understanding), our review package included a car mount and car charger so we can offer the moving carriage perspective as well. This obviously won’t beat out a dedicated satellite navigation solution, but for what it is and for most people’s driving needs it works very well, with a frankly quite snappy 30 second-ish GPS signal acquisition time in Central London and the excellent Google In Car answer to paid nav software powering things. Turn-by-turn instructions, points of interest, pedestrian option, it’s all there and then some. There’s even a separate Places app that allows you to find the nearest ATM for instance, and we can tell you it comes in handier than tissues in flu season. Mostly because you need money for tissues in flu season.

You might be wondering where exactly they visibly skimped in order to keep the price from running away with the caravan. This is as close to the culprit as we’ve been able to get, as this 3.0 MP shooter does decent work on the surface of the sun, not as great anywhere less illuminated. It will successfully replace your three-year old compact, but for famously overcast London and depending on your standards, you’re going to struggle to get something better than barely usable. Video is a token inclusion as well, 2006 hasn’t called to ask for their 640×480 18 fps video recording back yet (which we know is still pretty much par for the course, if by course you mean price point, but it’s still choppy and 30 fps recording wouldn’t have broken the bank), but we think the line was just busy on account of 2005 calling to brag about how phones back then had at least some form of crappy LED flash. We’ve included both day and night shots, as well as some video of some brilliant Covent Garden musicians.

The OS is Froyo, the UI is only lightly customized by LG and the result is all gravy as heavy UI customizations usually go over like legendary rock bands named after metal flying machines with people accustomed to the stock Android UI implementation. And while we have Froyo in the building, there is no Flash to go with it, which is not nearly as unfortunate as the fact that it is not coming. Ever. Apparently though above average for the price, the hardware still can’t handle it. There is, however, a cure and it’s not cowbell so much as Skyfire, a browser available on the Android market that can display Flash content with no issues. On music duty there’s the stock Android affair, but you’re exactly one Market download away from something better (i.e. anything).

Three’s HSDPA coverage was strong in all areas we’ve tested, meaning locations in both Central and Greater London, with the exception of one of London’s busiest spots, Piccadilly Circus, where we experienced a spotty data connection. If you do have similar problems though, be sure to look out for Three’s Human Hotspots, which are exactly what they sound like, people with portable MiFi hotspots deployed around busy London areas as part of a publicity stunt that lasts until December. You’ll recognize them by the full-body faceless white suits and the fact that some are hanging from the scenery. Getting back to the Optimus, reception was generally strong, sound quality during calls did not suffer from any discernible distortion or other issues, all in all two thumbs up on that front.

We can’t really fault the Optimus One, for the price it’s hard to find a more bellicose device hardware-wise and while it’s not a stunner to look at, there is a definite understated charm to its simple design. Everyone  we showed it to down the pub agreed that while it’s not enchanting by any stretch of the imagination, it is quite a lot of phone for the price. It didn’t get the wrinkly nose expression usually reserved for QWERTY keyboard-bearing monsters from our companions of the female persuasion either and they were Bejeweling it up for dear life in seconds. Keeping in mind the Optimus One does battle with the likes of HTC Wildfire and Samsung Galaxy Portal and is a bit cheaper and a bit better specced where it counts (definitely not the camera department though), we can definitely recommend the Optimus One as a rock-solid Android purchase.

As an executive, Ballmer’s transactions of Microsoft stock are carefully monitored by the public and the SEC. If all the executives in a company start dumping their stock (think Enron), it’s clearly a sign that something is wrong. So, is Microsoft in trouble? No, probably not. Microsoft’s stock has been flat for the last ten years.

Wall Street’s valuations of stock prices are based on growth, generally. Despite some awesome new products (Windows 7, Xbox 360, etc), financial analysts don’t get excited about MSFT products the way they do about Google, Apple, etc. Microsoft’s stock price has suffered, and largely been lethargic after the dot-com bubble burst.

What does Ballmer say about the stock sell-off?

Even though this is a personal financial matter, I want to be clear about this to avoid any confusion. I am excited about our new products and the potential for our technology to change people’s lives, and I remain fully committed to Microsoft and its success.

Is Ballmer leaving Microsoft? Possible, but unlikely. When Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple in the mid-1980s, the hotheaded Jobs sold all of his Apple stock save for 1 share, the story goes, in defiance of the company (while the one share still allowed Jobs to get shareholder reports from the company he helped found). Ballmer, a graduate of Harvard Business School, is likely more level headed when it comes to finances (yes, Ballmer, level headed) and it’s hard to imagine the CEO pitching his Microsoft stock overboard because he was quietly informed by the Microsoft board that he was going to be leaving his chief executive seat?

What about the other rumors? Is he buying the Sacramento Kings to move to Seattle? The city has been without an NBA team for two years since the Sonics moved to Oklahoma City. But, the owners of the Kings say the team isn’t for sale. And $1.9 billion is too much for the Kings.

Here’s the real reason why Ballmer is selling. In 2001, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 was passed by the US Congress. Largely referred to as “the Bush tax cuts”, they cut a wide number of taxes, including the capital gains tax (which is a tax on investment profits). President Clinton had increased the capital gains tax considerably during his time in office, and President Bush had cut them (I’ll let the reader decide if this is right or wrong – we’re not a political blog) in the Bush tax cuts.

The tax cuts were extended by Congress again in 2003, and are set to expire in January 2011. With the Bush tax cuts largely seen as a gift to the upper class and government spending to finance, the largely Democratic Congress (the most recent midterm election notwithstanding) hasn’t been quick to extend them. The Bush Tax Cuts were a (very minor) election issue in the 2008 Presidential election, and President Obama has publicly stated that he will not extend them, either. Some Republican pundits have said that by not extending the tax cuts, it’s a way for Democrats to raise taxes without raising taxes, but again, we’ll digress and let you make up your own mind on the issue.

The tax rate on long-term investment profits (which Ballmer’s preferred MSFT stock is) is going up from 15% to 20% for 2011. If Ballmer had shed the 75 million shares next year, as opposed to this year, he would have to pay the government an extra $98.5 million, by our math.

There you have it. But – there is one small shred of evidence towards something going on at Microsoft. Ballmer’s pal Bill Gates also sold 3 million of his own shares this week. Coincidence? You tell us.

Chuck Norris told Steve Jobs never to wear a suit again in his life. Turtlenecks are fine as long as they’re black and go with jeans and matching shoes.

Chuck Norris shared the words that describe him: “magical,” “phenomenal”, “incredible,” “revolutionary,” with Apple; Cupertino signed the deal with blood e-ink.

Chuck Norris has a White iPhone 4. The paint is too scared to let light go through it, not to mention it spreads evenly on the phone’s entire surface. It can also resemble any other color if Chuck Norris wants it so.

Chuck Norris’ iPad does Flash out of the box. It does Thunder and Lightning too depending on Chuck Norris’ mood.

Chuck Norris’ iPad takes perfect pictures although Chuck Norris can’t be photographed to reflect his true awesomeness.

Chuck Norris hates Mac but loves KFC.

Chuck Norris has a full Steve Jobs kit, which he only wears at keynotes. You’ll know it’s Chuck Norris disguised as Steve Jobs if other Apple Staff members aren’t invited to explain new product features.

Chuck Norris… There’s no app for that

“There’s an app for that!” is a spoof of the legendary “There’s a roundhouse kick for that!” line, one of Chuck Norris first words ever.

Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked all other smartphones until they dropped signals during Antennagate.

Apple doesn’t ban apps from the App Store, Chuck Norris personally roundhouse kicks them out of it.

Apple pays a 70% commission on its take from the App Store revenue stream plus a 30% protection fee to Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris’ iPhone gets coverage at all times, from all carriers in the world simultaneously. It does 4G and beyond too.

Apple is looking for an exclusivity deal with Chuck Norris; Chuck Norris is not the exclusive kind of guy.

Apple asked once Chuck Norris to sign an NDA agreement. Steve Jobs ended up creating a new company called Pixar.

Chuck Norris escaped Vietnam, went back and escaped again. He can jailbreak and unlock any iPhones or iOS devices out there. Roundhouse kicking may be used.

Like Steve Jobs Chuck Norris can do a lot better than just 7-inches.

Chuck Norris is the only person in the world to own an 11-inch MacBook Air netbook. Everyone else has 11-inch Air notebooks.

Apple Geniuses train at the Chuck Norris bar by looking at a picture of him inventing the Internet with the power of his mind.

Chuck Norris is the iPhone- and iPad-killer. He can also kill anything else should the need arise.

Chuck Norris doesn’t do HTML5 since he sees the web in Matrix anyway.

Each Mac battery uses half of a drop of Chuck Norris’ sweat to give you 9 hours of uptime; that’s why Steve Jobs talks smack to everyone else, to keep Chuck Norris busy at roundhouse kicking rivals and thus sweating more.

Chuck Norris can’t be manipulated, he roundhouse kicks everyone else because he wants to; the other half of each sweat drop is harvested to bring life to Mars by 2012, December, End of Time.

When there’s nobody left to roundhouse kick Apple employees volunteer to take the hits. There’s always someone to roundhouse kick if you’re Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris makes up rumors about Apple devices and then Apple has to invent them or get roundhouse kicked in the Apple. He calls it sleepless Inception.

The Apple logo wasn’t always the same, but Chuck Norris was in a mood for a bite of fresh fruit one morning.

Chuck Norris puts the “i” in Apple and Apple products, or any letter for that matter into any other word we take for granted.

Steve Jobs was never fired by Apple, he was roundhouse kicked into Pixar with a boomerang-like spin by Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris never answers Steve Jobs’ emails. Never ever!

Chuck Norris changes everything again, and again and again… Whenever he wants too.

We’ll be back whenever new technology Chuck Norris facts are available. In the mean time tell us what’s your favorite Chuck Norris Apple fact!

All events depicted in the material above are purely fictional and should inspire a healthy dose of innocent laughter. In fact we surely appreciate the persons, products and brands described above, in one way or another, otherwise such a Chuck Norris and Apple combination would have never been possible.

Let’s look at all the major “software-agnostic” phone manufacturers in the world today. Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson. They’re all big players. If you aren’t using software named BlackBerry OS or iOS, you’re probably using a phone made by them (and you could add Dell to the list, who’s testing the waters with Android phones). And, all of them, except for Motorola are publicly making a Windows Phone 7 device.

Motorola is no stranger to Microsoft. Back in the day, they released Windows Mobile devices all the time. I know most tech blog readers didn’t care about smartphones before the iPhone (yes, they made smartphones before the iPhone), but in 2006, when everybody was chasing RIM, Motorola released a device called the Motorola Q. It was a highly marketed device with great hardware. But it was running Windows Mobile 5 and ultimately didn’t compete with the RIM BlackBerry freight train.

Fast-forward to today. after years of middling with Windows Mobile and Symbian smartphones, Motorola has reinvented themselves like Pretty Woman with Android. And they’re really quite good too. You could argue that the original Droid/Milestone set off the tidal wave of ‘good’ Android phones. And depending on your carrier, the Droid X may be the best Android phone you can get today. Regardless, you’ve got to admit that Android has been good for Motorola.

From the outside, it looks like Motorola has no interest in making a Windows Phone 7 device. I’m sure their engineers played with the software and there might be a MOTO WP7 prototype sitting in some Schaumberg prototype – but as far as the tech blog community can tell, the company has no plans or intention of making a Microsoft phone.

And why should they? Nokia’s argument against Android (an argument that has been levied against Symbian, Windows Mobile, and every other manufacturer-agnostic OS) is that with a common OS, it turns the phone manufacturer into an commodity provider. Producers racing to the bottom of the barrel in an effort to appeal to consumers with the cheapest hardware possible. Do you care who grows your fruits and vegetables in the grocery store? No, you get the cheapest one that doesn’t look rotten and shriveled.

But, Windows Phone 7 has strict hardware requirements. Really strict. Down to the number of buttons, screensize and hardware. Now, the Open Handset Alliance does this for Android too , but Microsoft’s appear to be more strict than usual. And all the phones look the same.

Writing for this site is my full-time job. I spend all day pursuing tech blogs for stories. I’ve seen all the spycam shots and CGI renders of the alleged Windows Phone 7 devices. And they’re all identical. They all look like the boring Samsung developer phones that some media outlets have been given. None of the phones have the sexy appeal of the iPhone, the solid keyboard of the BlackBerry. You could argue that the HTC HD7 has the giant screen of the Droid X, EVO 4G. The majority of these phones from Samsung, LG, HTC and Dell look the same and Motorola would be racing to the bottom.

But, Microsoft is reinventing themselves with Windows Phone 7. They took Windows Mobile 6.5 out behind the woodshed and they’ve spent tons of money in development on WP7. And according to a recent article in BusinessWeek, they’re going to spend a metric “lot” of money on advertising. They’re trying to get the phone on as many carriers as possible. And Motorola isn’t playing ball.

Microsoft, like Apple and Oracle (post their purchase of Sun) probably has had their eyes on Android for a while. I’m sure you’ve seen the stats, in the past 12 months, Android has grown by leaps and bounds. And while Android was an ugly open-source OS on a weird T-Mobile phone in the beginning, it’s becoming a major threat to be the “Windows 95″ of the mobile world. So, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle (and probably others) have decided to try to take Android down. (Not together, that’s collusion, and that’s not what I’m implying).

Note that they may not want to kill Android. They may genuinely believe that their patents are being infringed. But, if they can get a $3 licensing fee per Android phone sold, they may be golden for years to come. And if Apple and Microsoft inadvertently kill Android  in the process (part of Android’s appeal to manufacturers is it’s low/no cost), then, it works out even better for them. All these patent issues could scare away the manufacturers and ultimately end Android. This, not the weak development tools or the severe version fragmentation (as the iPhone fanboys love to scream), is what could potentially destroy Android in its tracks.

With Samsung, HTC, Dell, Sony Ericsson and LG making Windows Phone 7 phones, Microsoft can’t sue them. (Heck, you know how those Korean conglomerates work. If Microsoft had sued Samsung, a Microsoft executive would get his head cut-off – I’m joking). Motorola, happy with their Android phones, refused to play ball. And Microsoft will make them pay. It’s an old-school protection racket.

And that’s why Microsoft is suing Motorola.

You’ll notice two things about the Epic 4G when you first pick one up. First, it’s light, and second, it feels like plastic. It’s got to be one of the lightest smartphones with a slider keyboard that we’ve felt in a long time. It’s lighter than the Droid 2 (who, you’ve got to figure will be it’s keyboard-packing Android rival this summer) and for anybody concerned about the added width of a 4-inch screen should realize that the phone is light and not bulky at all.

It also feels, as mentioned, plastic. This has been a common complaint of all Galaxy S phones across the entire line. Some say they feel cheap – and it’s certainly something they inherited from Samsung’s long history of making low-cost featurephones. If you’re used to the metal feeling of the HTC and Motorola Android phones, or the steel and glass feeling of the iPhone, the Epic 4G will feel like a step down. It’s a shame really, since it’s quite a nice (and expensive) phone.

You can’t mention the Epic 4G without talking about its screen. It’s packing a 4-inch “Super” OLED screen and it goes without saying, it looks great. It doesn’t pack the pixel density of the iPhone 4, but it is definitely a step above the ‘average’ screens like you’ll find on other phones. I couldn’t tell a difference between this and other OLED screens, but since it’s using Samsung’s propitiatory “Super” OLED, I’m sure it’s better.

Many feel that the 4-inch screen hits a “sweet spot” in between the 3.7-inch phones (iPhone, Droid 2, Droid Incredible) and the 4.3-inch phones (EVO 4G, Droid X) and we must agree. The screen is big, but it doesn’t have the girth or bulk of the 4.3-inch screens. However, web browsing is just a little bit more uncomfortable than you’d find with the EVO 4G/Droid X/Dell Streak/iPad.

On the inside, this phone is a hot rod. It’s packing the Samsung Hummingbird processor, which isn’t as popular as the Qualcomm Snapdragon or TI’s higher-end OMAP processors. But, the Hummingbird isn’t a slouch. I strongly suspect that the Samsung Hummingbird is actually what Apple’s A4 processor is (Apple loyalists, send your hatemail to the comments below), and some industry insiders agree with me. But the point remains the same, the Epic 4G is not underpowered. Unfortunately, the phone ships with Android 2.1 so I couldn’t test Flash 10.1 on the phone. With all the talk about Flash 10.1 being too much of a system hog on modern Android phones, I was ready to put the Epic 4G through its paces. Unfortunately, I got the “missing plugin” warnings everywhere.

The keyboard is ok. Yep, just okay. It’s allegedly similar to the various featurephones that Samsung offers, so if you’re a fan of such phones as the Samsung Intensity, I think you’ll find it just up your ally. It’s also better than the Droid 2 (which isn’t saying much). However, users used to BlackBerry devices will find the keyboard awful and almost unusable. Thankfully, the Android keyboard is getting better all the time, and the Epic 4G comes equipped with the wonderful Swype virtual keyboard which makes typing a breeze.

This phone, like almost all Android phones these days is coming with a custom UI made by the manufacturer. Samsung’s is dubbed TouchWiz, and it’s modeled after the (horrible) software that bares the same name on their featurephones. Fortunately, the UI is being powered by a much more powerful processor this time around. It’s basically MOTOBLUR with a different name and offers all the re-sizable widgets and other ‘features’ that all of these do. If you’re used to the stock Android UI, it’ll be a pain to navigate around the third-party user interface.

The camera is average. (check the sample shot below) It’s about the average quality of what you’ll find in a smartphone these days – and if you’re looking to replace a point-and-shoot camera with it, it will be perfectly adequate. It probably won’t replace that Canon SLR, but it’s decent enough. It records video 720p, which is almost becoming a standard feature on phones these days. A nice feature of TouchWiz UI that Samsung as added is that it asks you if you’d like the phone to automatically resize video to be able to be sent via media text message (MMS). Very thoughtful for all the supertexters out there.

A noticeably missing feature was mobile video editing. While we doubt that mobile video editing will catch on, it’s already been shipped on the iPhone 4, Droids X and 2 and will be a big part of the upcoming Nokia N8. We can’t help but feel that Samsung will be hurting if mobile video editing becomes a big hit.

Unfortunately, where we tested the phone (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), we weren’t covered by Sprint’s 4G network. While Sprint and Clearwire are building those towers as fast as they can, and (don’t get us wrong), the 4G connectivity is a major feature of this device – a majority of people in the United States won’t be covered by the 4G WiMAX network.

When testing the phone, we found the voice quality to be clear and crisp. When testing for signal attenuation while holding the phone, we were not able to make the signal quality drop by holding the phone in any particular fashion and call quality was not affected.

In closing, the Samsung Epic 4G is a fantastic, solid phone. It packs the screen size and horsepower to compete with the major smartphone players (Droid X, EVO 4G, iPhone) and it’s a solid Android experience all the way around. We’re a fan of the big screens here at TFTS, so unless you’re absolutely dying for a keyboard, go with the HTC EVO 4G. The OLED screen is nice, but not a deal-maker for us. While the phone does suffer from feeling cheaper than it is, many people coming from featurephones and multimedia phones won’t mind. And users coming from smartphones will likely get over it. Still, we can’t wait to see what the next generation of Samsung Android superphone looks like.

Apple is notorious for not allowing live video of their keynotes/press events. They’ll often put up a video hours after the event, but for tech blogger types (like ourselves) and the Apple loyal, that’s too late and we already know the news by that point. So, when it was announced that Apple would be offering a live videostream of the event, quite a few of us were pleasantly surprised. Too bad Apple is restricting it to Macs only.

This has gone under-reported. But I quote directly from the Apple press release:

Apple® will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on September 1, 2010 at www.apple.com.

Wow, really? “Open-standards” eh? I guess they’re only open as long as you’re using a Mac. If you recall, Apple also called “FaceTime” based on an open standard and I’m starting to believe that maybe Apple doesn’t understand what the term “open standard” means.

The truth is, Apple lies to create their perfect world, and they use excuses that make it easy for their loyalists to defend them with. In the late 1990′s, when Apple was on it’s knees – Adobe announced it was making Windows version of its Creative Suite products the native version. Steve Jobs had a hemmorhage and hasn’t given up since.

So he bans Flash on iOS, because of his grudge with Adobe. He says it hurts performance on the device. Apple fanboys suddenly start to claim that “Oh yeah, I guess Flash is kinda slow.” Later, when Adobe comes out with a tool that makes it easy for ActionScript (the language behind Flash) developers to publish their apps in Objective-C, Apple blocks it with changes in the EULA. Jobs has never given up his grudge with Adobe, and he’s trying to blow up the Flash empire.

The truth is, Jobs wants us all to live in the Mac World. And a lot of people do. Often, I’ll see people brag about living in an “all-Apple house” and they’re even proud of the fact that they bought the over-priced AirPort WiFi hubs.

In the real world, Apple products are just computers. They’re just tablets and they’re just smartphones. They’re very good ones. But Jobs, the Apple marketing department and every Apple fanboy likes to pretend that they’re more than that. Really, does a $1200 MacBook Pro do anything a $800 Dell laptop can’t? It goes on the web. You can write documents. Sure, Mac OS X is better against malware and viruses – but smart surfers don’t need to worry about those. Let’s cut the crap – people buy Apple products for the white (or black) Apple logo on the back. Some just are too ignorant to admit it.

Somehow, Jobs and company have got the entire world convinced that if you use Apple products, you’re somehow smarter and morally superior than everybody else. Well, guess what – you’re not.

And while the smug Apple flocks enjoy the Apple Press Event tomorrow with their MacBook Pros in Starbucks – those of us who can’t use a Mac, or can’t afford to use a Mac, or don’t want to us a Mac, will have to follow along the old-fashioned way – if you in the Ivory Tower allow us.

The first thing you’ll notice when you get your hands on the Motorola Droid 2 is that it seems a lot like the first Droid. The more you spend time with it, you’ll realize it is the Motorola Droid 1. The phones are identical in width, length and height. The screens are the same size and if you take the battery cover off, you’ll see they have the same innards. The USB port is in the same spot. They use the same batteries and (as your humble reviewer found out – inadvertently) their battery covers can fit each other. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Motorola’s engineers just used the first Droid’s CAD file when starting working on the Droid 2.

But, all that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Instead of the black of the first Droid, the Droid 2 now packs a glossy blue-silver look on the front. On the back, it’s a dull dark blue. The bezel of the screen now covers the end of the keyboard slider, as opposed to the first Droid where it was exposed. The edges on the back are more rounded and curved. It feels better in your hand. While the Droid 2 only packs a typical LCD display, it was bright, crisp and clear. The ‘sliding’ of the keyboard felt more solid and improved as well. Overall, the changes were welcome.

The keyboard is also improved from the first phone, but is still awful. The physical keyboard may satisfy some users used to featurephones, but anybody who’s used a proper phone keyboard like you’ll find from RIM’s BlackBerry offerings will find the keyboard almost impossible to use. One welcome change to the Droid 2′s keyboard from the first Droid is that each ‘key’ now has a small bump, making it easier to use. Motorola has done away with that bizarre gold directional pad and added a regular key-bound one, as well as making every key bigger.

While it the Droid 2 may just look like a facelift from the older phone on the outside – it’s packing a bigger punch on the inside and the Droid 2 greatly benefits from the new processor. While the first Motorola Droid had a TI OMAP 3430 that was locked to 550MHz, the Droid 2 joins the major leagues and brings a TI OMAP 3630 clocked at 1GHz. 1GHz is the new standard for ‘super’ smartphones and performance wise – we think the Droid 2 can keep up with the big boys in the space (iPhone 4, EVO 4G, Droid X, Galaxy S).

The phone is running the latest version of Android 2.2 – something it has over it’s bigger Droid X brother and other Android phones in the marketplace. Unfortunately, Motorola has included their MOTOBLUR custom UI, which is almost universally panned across the internet tech blog circuit. While we didn’t mind MOTOBLUR when we reviewed the Motorola Droid X, something about MOTOBLUR on Android 2.2 rubs us the wrong way.

The widgets don’t seem to be particularly intuitive, and unlock phones running the stock Android UI – the phone ships with tons of widgets and apps preplaced on your home screen and most of them are worthless. While it may show off the abilities of MOTOBLUR and Android to new users, we didn’t like the clutter and removing them all was the first thing we did. Sorry, Motorola, but you’ve turned us from MOTOBLUR apologists into MOTOBLUR critics. It’s time to drop it. It’s particularly odd since the first Droid was running the stock Android UI.

The Droid 2 also comes with Swype, the virtual keyboard that allows you to ‘type’ words by dragging your finger across the letters that it spell it. Although it may sound like a gimmick, it’s actually a much better and faster way to type – and there’s a certain joy about seeing the Swype software figure out some complex word that you’ve tried to type out. Those who read my Droid X review will know – we’re big fans of Swype here. Of course, its functionality is sort of marginalized since the Droid 2 comes with a physical keyboard and most users won’t bother to use the digital keyboard.

Android 2.2 features voice commands – an highly touted feature of the new version of the open-source operating system. While I like the Voice features in previous versions of Android (being able to use voice for searching and typing), the voice command feature is needlessly cumbersome and a pain to use. While the system has no problem recognizing the commands (“Send text…”) it often has trouble with names. I realize that the folks at Google have to keep up with the Joneses – as the iPhone 4 can do voice commands and the anticipated Windows Phone 7 will have it as well – but this implementation is horrible. Your results may vary, though.

One common complaint about the first Droid was it’s voice quality. Thankfully, the Droid 2 has improved voice quality. We use our mobile phones for talking less and less, but for those calls, you’ll find good voice quality. Our testing found that the quality wasn’t as good as our recently reviewed Droid X but it was better than the handful of phones we had on hand here – as well as the dreadful quality of the first Droid.

We were pleasantly surprised with the Droid 2′s camera. Many people these says are giving up their point-and-shoot cameras in favor of using their phones – and the Droid 2 should fit this task. It’s packing a 5MP camera with handsome pictures (see our test shot below). Video recording was adequate and the phone features the same light video editing functionality as the Droid X. As both the Nokia N8 and iPhone 4 feature mobile video editing, look for this to be a bigger feature in the future.

We found that the battery life of the Droid 2 was fine. It was marginally better than the Droid and Droid X. Our disclaimer is that all of these slate-style touchscreen offers have awful battery life – but we believe that you’ll be able to go a whole workday without the Droid 2 needing a recharge. A protip – turn off the GPS for a longer lasting battery. Ironically (after out diatribe against MOTOBLUR above), we did like one MOTOBLUR widget and that was a GPS ‘kill switch’ that allowed us to quickly turn off and on the GPS receiver from the home screen. They offer one for every type of radio in the phone (Bluetooth, etc.)

As avid readers of tech sites may have heard – some accused the Motorola Droid 2 of suffering from antenna issues. Like the drawn-out “Antennagate” issue of the iPhone 4 a month ago, some with the phone are reporting “the phone is not being able to maintain a strong and consistent signal, leading to dropped calls.” Our own (unscientific) testing of the Droid 2 found that the there was no problems with reception (in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area) or a “kill switch” that caused signal attenuation. If you’re worried about this, I suggest you try a Droid 2 in your local Verizon store and check the reception. If that’s not enough for you, Verizon does offer an exchange policy for 30 days.

Yearly revisions are common in consumer electronics – a yearly iPod update with more memory; a new video game sequel with better graphics; or a new Dell laptop with a newer processor. And that’s what the Droid 2 feels like – an annual revision to the first Droid. They might as well called it the Droid 2010. If you used and hated the first Motorola Droid, then you won’t find anything new here. However, the phone does look, feel and work better than the first Droid.

But, we have one request for Motorola and Verizon – don’t expect us to cut the hypothetical “Droid 3” as much slack. While the Droid 2 is a nice facelift and renovation of the first Droid – it’s thicker than most smartphones in this class. We’re reminded of Motorola’s RAZR brand where they made minimal changes to the same phone every three months and wondered why consumers weren’t buying them as much as they did the first phone. The next keyboard-carrying Android phone from Motorola needs to be thinner, and sleeker. We like your Android products, Motorola, but don’t RAZR this.

At this point, if you’re in the market for an Android phone with a physical keyboard, then the Droid 2 is a solid choice. It’s quick, comes with Android 2.2 and offers a slightly-improved keyboard. If you don’t need a physical keyboard, then we would still recommend the Droid X or EVO 4G – both supersized Android phones that have big, big screens.

If you have any questions for us regarding the Droid 2 – feel free to ask them in the comments section and we’ll answer them. Those interested in the Motorola Droid 2 can find it now on sale from Verizon Wireless for $200 with a two-year contract or $560 contract-free.

The most noticeable thing about this phone? It’s big. It’s notably bigger than the first Droid, and iPhone. Even though they start the same screen size – it’s also slightly bigger in bezel than its Android rival – the EVO 4G. The thing to note – although this screen is wide and flat – it’s also thin – very thin, in fact. It’s thinner than the first Droid (probably due to the lack of extra mass from the slider QWERTY keyboard – this phone is virtual QWERTY only). In addition, it’s also lighter than the first Droid. Overall, it often feels less bulky than other smartphones – despite having a bigger-than-normal screen.

Some friends I showed the phone to didn’t like it’s big size. But some – and myself – found it a real feature. Watching videos and media as well as surfing the net is a pleasure on the big screen. When you’re using the phone in portrait mode, the on-screen keyboard is much more easier to use thanks to the wide screen. It’s not an OLED or IPS screen like you’d find on the Droid Incredible or iPhone 4G – but it does look sharp. The screen appears to be sharper than the original Droid, even though they share the same resolution. It could be that Motorola has gone with a new display manufacturer. Sure, it may not be crystal sharp like the OLED phones, but this is by no means a “bad screen”. Verizon offers various mobile video services – like Blockbuster On Demand and NFL Mobile. Frankly, if you’re going to use those services, this phone is the one to do it on, with the big screen.

One nit-pick I had? The guide buttons on the Droid X have changed from the original Droid. Instead of going “Back – Menu – Home – Search” they now go “Menu – Home – Back – Search”. They also are now physical buttons as opposed to the soft virtual ones they were on the Droid. Granted, most users will adapt to it if they purchase a new Droid X – but for your humble reviewer, switching between an original Droid for a personal phone and a Droid X review unit it got a big confusing at times. If you’re a Droid power user – it may take some adjusting for you, too.

Regarding the performance – it’s got the specs to keep up with the big players in the smartphone space. It has a 1GHz processor – a Texas Instruments OMAP processor and 512MB of RAM. When comparing it to my original Droid – it’s noticeably faster and responds quicker. It’s something that the iPhones do well – and is often held up as a positive of the iPhones and iOS. Well – the Droid X is a hot rod under the hood and the UI is quick and responsive. In other areas, you can notice enhanced performance, too.

That brings us to the user interface (UI), which is indeed running a custom UI over the stock Android 2.1 UI. It’s being called MOTOBLUR by some – but it’s really not. It shares no resemblance to the unpopular MOTOBLUR UI that was on the Motorola Backflip. At first glance, the Droid X’s UI (unofficially called SHADOWBLUR by some) is very similar to the stock Android UI – and someone giving them a casual glance may assume that they’re the same. If you had reservations about the Droid X because you aren’t keen on MOTOBLUR, I would suggest you go into a Verizon store and try it. It’s really nothing like the older MOTOBLUR.

There are some slight changes – you’ll get five ‘home screens’ instead of the usual three. Instead of the ‘slider’ that comes up when you pull up your app collection, it now just goes right to a separate screen. Otherwise, it just looks to be minor changes. It looks better, for sure. The drawback to these custom UIs, as previously discussed by many, is the fact they’ll delay users on getting the newest Android updates (since the manufacturers have to port the UIs to every new version of Android). This could be a negative for you.

Other reviews online have mentioned the Swype keyboard – which I feel also warrants mentioning. The Droid X will come standard with a third-party keyboard, Swype, installed. It won’t be turned on by default, but it should. Unlike a lot of hokey text prediction things we’ve seen on these virtual keyboards, it’s pretty cool. Swype allows you to drag your finger across the keys instead of typing it out. It’s very cool, very quick and impressed everybody I showed it too. Thinking back, once you get over the big 4.3-inch screen and performance of the 1GHz processor, Swype may be the most exciting thing about the Droid X. I’m serious – you have to try it to appreciate it.

The voice quality is much improved than the first Droid. That phone was lacking in voice quality, but this one seems to have crystal clear voice coverage. The voice functionality of smartphone seems to becoming less and less important – but the first Droid seriously lacked in that point and the Droid X corrects it. Oh yeah – and like the recent Motorola-Verizon full page ad in the New York Times pointed out – you can hold it anyway you like with no antenna issues (oh, I went there).

As with most phones these days. The phone features a fat camera. A sample picture is below. Not only is the camera capable of taking 8-megapixel still shots, but it also is capable of recording in 720p HD video. Here’s where I was pleasantly surprised – the Droid X has image editing capabilities. As the iPhone 4 and upcoming Nokia N8 have both announced image editing software on their devices, I thought that the Droid X might be behind the curve on this – but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it does in fact have some mobile image editing capabilities. It remains to be seen if this’ll be a big hit with users (I certainly didn’t use it in everyday use), but the Droid X does include these features.

That brings us to the battery. Ah, the battery. The HTC EVO 4G from Sprint is sort of the Droid X’s evil twin, and the main complaint for that phone has been the battery life. Turns out, a 4.3-inch screen isn’t really condusive for a terrific battery life. But – regarding the Droid X’s battery life, I was pleasantly surprised with it, since I had expected it to be awful like the reports of the EVO 4G. It features a battery manager that shows you what apps/utilities are using the most battery. Unsurprisingly for me, it was the display (backlight, I assume). The battery manager isn’t just a toy for seeing what’s draining the most amps, however. It also includes “Battery Profiles” that allow you to better manage your battery. The profiles are “Performance”, “Battery Saver” and “Smart”, the last one being the default and presumably some sort of middle ground.

In my experience – all of these slate touchscreen-style smartphones have awful battery life, and I didn’t notice the Droid X being any worse or better. I also didn’t notice any difference by using the Battery Profiles, either. I’m sure that they must do something, but I couldn’t find out what it is.

In case you made it this far into the review and didn’t figure out that I liked the Droid X, I did enjoy the phone a fair bit. But it isn’t perfect. First, it’s a premium phone. It costs $199.99, and that’s after a $100 rebate. And that’s with a two-year contract. One imagines it’ll cost around $600 without a two-year deal.  It’s expensive and there are definitely cheaper ways to get an Android experience. As I alluded to earlier, I didn’t like the switch from the “soft” guide keys on the first Droid to the mechanical push-button guide keys on the Droid X. It’s jarring at first and feels like a step back. I didn’t mind the supersized 4.3-inch screen, watching media and surfing the web was awesome on it. In fact, I wouldn’t mind using a bigger screen. But, the screen size seems to be a problem for a lot of people.

Closing thoughts. The first Motorola Droid is my personal phone, and coming from the first Droid to the Droid X, it’s evident that this is a Motorola-made Android device. Everything from the industrial design to the ‘feeling’ of the phone just screams “Moto Droid”. While it doesn’t have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard (wait for the rumored Droid 2, I guess) the way to sum up the Droid X is that it feels like the first Motorola Droid, but with the volume on every feature turned up. By that I mean, bigger screen, faster processor, newer OS, better UI, bigger camera, thinner profile etc. etc. The phone has a few minor (I mean, very minor) drawbacks, but it’s still a very, very good phone. If you’ve used Android before – you’ll love it. If you’ve never used Android before, might as well get on board with the best.

Considering the fact that Sprint’s 4G network doesn’t cover a large portion of America and the problems with HTC’s build quality on the EVO 4G, I feel comfortable in saying that the Motorola Droid X is currently the best Android phone on the market.

If any potential Droid X buyers have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments and I’ll respond.

The Motorola Droid barely edged out the iPhone in sales through the first 74 days, with the Droid capturing just 50,000 more units sold. While this is remarkable, it’s important to remember that the first generation iPhone wasn’t subsidized, while the Droid was. The Nexus One has only sold a miserable 135,000 units in its first 74 days. This wasn’t an entire surprise, as sources within Google and HTC have said things accordingly.

Why is the Nexus One doing so poorly despite being regarded as the “best” and “purest” Android experience? In our estimation, it boils down to price and fanfare:

Price: Google is asking $529 for the Nexus One unsubsidized. North Americans are used to paying for phones subsidized with a service plan – and in the first few weeks of the Nexus One’s launch, T-Mobile customers had to open a new service plan to get the Nexus One. Now, existing customers can upgrade to the Nexus One, but it wasn’t always like that.

Fanfare: Like anything Apple does post-2003, the iPhone was launched to great fanfare. We had weeks of speculations, tons of bad Photoshop renders of potential iPhones and when Steve Jobs finally revealed the device, it was watched like the World Cup of the tech blog world. After all that excitement, it’s hard not to believe that the iPhone flew off of shelves. As for the droid, Motorola and Verizon had (and currently have) a huge marketing campaign in the US promoting the Droid. There have been a few Nexus One c

Is the Nexus One a failure? Several high-profile tech blogs have said so – considering that it isn’t selling well. I’m not so sure, considering that Google wanted the Nexus One to be an “unfragmented” Android experience. They delivered on that, and HTC provided some great hardware. Google won’t go out of business because of the poor Nexus One sales, and it gave them an experience in producing hardware – which they’ll need for their upcoming Google netbooks later this year.

Sure Apple has sued HTC, that’s not going to be the end of the world, is it? But check out the diagram above. It looks like everyone is trying or has tried to sue and counter-sue everyone else. Is there any unofficial contest between these companies? So far it looks like Nokia, Kodak and Apple are masters at this game as they have entered lawsuits with seven, five and five other companies, respectively.

So let’s look at the Apple vs HTC suit for a change. What will happen next? Who will win and what will eventually happen to you and me, the real people that use the technology at center of these lawsuits?

Well first of all Apple is trying to get a lot of money from HTC in damages for the alleged infringement. If their endeavor will be successful we might see HTC having to strip their handsets of the technology borrowed from Apple too and that’s besides paying in hard cold cash for their alleged mistake. And that whole stripping can be done OTA which might render some HTC handsets totally useless. That’s all just in theory as we don’t really believe that any judge will make HTC, or no other company for that matter, go through all that madness. Worst case scenario HTC will pay a premium price for using those technologies and we shall move on with our lives.

Should Apple lose, then basically nothing will really change although such an outcome might convince others (remember Psystar?) to use Apple’s technology without permission thinking they can get away with it. Although folks, I will have to clearly say here that HTC is allegedly infringing on some Apple patents. That doesn’t mean anything yet. Just like them Apple is allegedly infringing some Nokia patents but it’s only a judge really capable of telling us what’s what.

And by the time the jury, where applicable, reaches a verdict, we’ll have other suits, counter-suits and appeals ready to make everything go away.

In this process the companies will spend time and money focusing on that war when in fact they should be focusing more on us, their consumers and their mobile future. Sure the technology available today is really impressive but the mobile world is not stopping here. Even if, and that’s a very big big if, HTC were to lose this battle the war wages on. The company will surely come up with other ways of making their HTC smartphones compete against all the other smartphones. And so they should, no matter the outcome of this legal battle. The sky is not the limit here and everything can be done when it comes to mobile phones especially since these devices are expected to be more and more influential in the future.

Competition is definitely the force that drives innovation. But such trials could definitely have a destructive force that would negatively influence the whole mobile environment. Just check out the names above: Apple, HTC, Nokia, Samsung, RIM, LG, Sharp, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Toshiba, Kodak, Qualcomm, Cisco, Elan, Hitachi… Imagine them playing nice together and making deals that would be mutually beneficial! Wouldn’t that make the mobile business a better place? Because, and that’s already proven, it doesn’t mean that if you’re using the same technologies available today at the same time, you’re going to make a phone as good as your rival. It’s more about, and I hate to use this phrase particularly given the circumstances, thinking out of the box, than about who has the more patents to play with and why.

First thing that comes to mind is pricing. Yes,  the “magical and revolutionary” device sells for $499, $599 and $699 on the Wi-Fi model that has 16, 32 and 64GB of flash storage, while the Wi-Fi + 3G model (by now you probably already know that 3G is optional and it costs more) should be sold at $629, $729 and $829, respectively.

But look, that 64GB model which boasts 3G connectivity is not far from the starting price of a MacBook laptop with a 15.4-inch display and more than decent specs. So why not buy a MacBook instead of the iPad? Could it be that the device appeals to you from an aesthetic point of view, as we have to agree, it looks pretty stylish. Of course it does, but so does the MacBook Air, except for the fact that the thin and light notebook starts selling at some $1,499.

So does that mean the iPad is a good buy? We don’t know. That’s why we’re asking you. Is it?

The days when one could simply download all the illegal content one wanted to one’s computers have long gone. With The Pirate Bay going under, other sites thought they could profit from the extra traffic coming their way. Lots of Pirate Bay fans have had to revert to other means of downloading their favorite, but also very illegal, TV shows, games and music.

After The Pirate Bay went down, it looks like another giant torrent site is following. Mininova, a well known “brand” in the business is going to go legal. Due to a Dutch court ruling Mininova will have to remove all the links to copyright content.

Mininova is considering appealing the August ruling but until then we can safely say that hardcore torrent downloaders will have to look elsewhere for a fix. The question is what will Mininova have to offer now that its pirated content is off limits? After all, the site had plenty of visitors thanks to those popular TV shows and movies available for download. Lots of music from popular artists was also available to download, not to mention games and pirated software.

No less than 5 million people visited Mininova every day which means the owners of the website must have cashed in on all that traffic.

Now that Mininova has been hit hard, can we expect other sites in the torrent business to go down? It looks like that’s a possibility considering the current state of the economy. The recession brought a decline in sales to every business and especially to the music and movie businesses. In other words more people than usual decided to download illegal copies of their favorite titles instead of buying them like they used to do before the economy tumbled.

With sites like Mininova and The Pirate Bay going down we can expect their competitors to become more and more popular until someone takes them down too. I see a pattern emerging here but I don’t believe that illegal torrents will be completely stopped anytime soon. Naturally, I am not advising you to look for illegal content elsewhere. What you do with your computer and bandwidth is your own business but don’t disregard the clear warning. Illegal content will not be tolerated the way it used to.

Google is undoubtedly one of the best resources the Internet has to offer. The company has so many tools available which most of use every day that we’d simply hate to see the Internet without Google. Sure we can complain all we want about various aspects concerning Google’s services but we won’t be able to deny the fact that, in the end, we don’t mind seeing Google taking over the Internet.

A new feature has been brought to our attention. Google has unveiled the Google Dashboard which is supposed to be a service that will keep track of everything you’re doing online with your Google account. Google’s aim is to provide a transparent look into the information it stores about you. The whole thing is a good idea if know for a fact that nobody else is able to access your Google account. Because if they can, they will know everything else Google knows about you.

The Dashboard offers quick access to all Google’s services that you happen to use. Everything is nicely stored on a single web page. More than 20 services and tools are currently available in the Dashboard and those include Gmail, Google Docs, Google Voice, YouTube, Picassa, Wave, Checkout, Blogger, Calendar, Orkut, Talk, Reader, Alerts, Latitude, Maps, AdSense, AdWords, Tasks, iGoogle, Analytics, Feedburner, Groups and more. I got tired listing all these services and I don’t even use them all yet. I’m sure though that with the Dashboard in place we will rethink our whole approach when it comes to Google services. The new app might bring some of the apps that we knew little about to our attention. In other words, the Dashboard might just be the app manager we were looking for our Google account.

Like I said above, there’s nothing to worry about when it comes to your privacy. Sure it all becomes dangerous when someone manages to steal your identity but you do know how to prevent that, right? The information stored into the Dashboard can be very limited if you happen to use only a few Google services but it will amount to more and more as you let more Google tools enter your life.

If you’re really paranoid about it you can use various Google accounts to make sure that at least stuff like your personal email and calendar are stored safely. That will not guarantee however that your Google accounts will be completely safe when it comes to hacking. The alternative is to stop using Google altogether which is something less likely to happen. As I said at the beginning, Google is slowly taking the Internet over and whether we like it or not, we’re already happy about using some of its services. So why not get familiar with the Dashboard already? What’s your opinion on the Dashboard? Have you had a chance of testing it yet?

Picture from theipinionsjournal

The CNN App for iPhone and the iPod Touch is now available on the iTunes store. So this means now news junkies  (present company included) can access the latest headlines, breaking news and be aware of all the shenanigans happening in the world at a touch of a button.  With this new application CNN hopes to cash in the growing news market, which according to Nielsen is a 55 million-user market.

CNN’s iPhone app hopes to be game changing as it makes use of the 3.0 SDK features and hence has been able to integrate a huge library of video clips. Not only this, but the application also supports live stream during breaking news making it a notch higher than the regular CNN Mobile service. The CNN App will also let the user access location-based news, weather and traffic.

The CNN App also makes use of the uber cool Coverflow technology as one will also be able to swipe through the latest headlines and feel like the coolest news junkie on the block!  Interestingly CNN may soon also launch a similar application for the Android and BlackBerry platform

Those who like their news early and fast can now download the CNN App from the Apple iTunes Store. The app will set you just $1.99 back which is quite a small price to pay don’t you think? For more information you can also head over to the CNN site where they have listed all the features.

“Pantone Coffee Mugs?” you say.
Yes, I do say! Possibly the coolest thing to hit the shelves this season, in my opinion. My opinion, being that of a graphic design graduate, of course.

For those of you who haven’t a clue what “Pantone” means, well, basically consider that each colour in the whole entire world (approximately 24 million to be precise) has it’s own unique code (just to make we designer’s lives that much easier). So the designers of this particular range have appealed to the average artist’s geeky side by making a range of colourful mugs, complete with their own individual colour codes, matching their printed colour. Ingenious! Modern! Absolutely Fabulous!

These Pantone Coffee Mugs are priced at 8 pounds per one or at a sterling 72 pounds for the palette of 10 (makes more sense to own the whole lot)!

For all those nerdy enough to go “google” the Pantone colours after reading this post, the reference numbers for the particular colours are Red 186C, Pink 239C, Royal Blue 286C, Lime Green 388C, Pale Blue 549C, Lilac 2583C, Olive Green 5757C, Black 4C, Orange 021C, Process YellowC.

While you’re at it, why not order a set and get ready to entertain “colourfully.”

[source]

Well, another year passes as I reach 24 (and some) years yet again and if such a wholly (un)momentous occasion isn’t just cause for an oh so infrequent personal post I really don’t know what is – so it’s Happy Birthday to me as I wait with baited breath hoping that my wife’s got me something other than a USB fish tank (oh how I laughed when I unwrapped that at Christmas – Mrs TFTS is not without humour).

Let’s assume, for the sake of example (and just off the top of my head), that your website had, like so many others, seen a wholly unjustified loss in page rank from Google’s latest update and that you were feeling rather aggrieved about it, perhaps staring across your desktop at this Vortex Light might cheer you up knowing that, in coming with 4 USB ports, not only is this particular gadget multifunctional but you’re hardly likely to wake up the next morning to find that Google had decided to take away one of the ports for no apparent reason whatsoever.

No, actually, I take that back. Staring at this desktop Vortex Light really wouldn’t help at all.

So what have we achieved here, exactly – apart from managing to sledge-hammer in a wholly tenuous topic merely in a bid to express our frustrations?

Absolutely nothing.

Which, interestingly (I’m working hard to save this post here – bear with me) is exactly what we feel about this particular gadget.

Yes it’s a mini Vortex light and, yes, it comes complete with a 2-port USB hub. But who really cares? I mean, if you’re that hippy-like shouldn’t you be out hugging a tree or something rather than looking to plug yet more peripherals into your computer thus expending yet more of the Earth’s valuable recourses?

No, today, I’m afraid even a wholly redundant amalgamation of functions fused together in yet another pointless desktop gadget really isn’t going to improve my mood in the least.

A mini desktop brewery with integral 4-port USB hub? Well that just might.

As a side note:

Dear Google – if the reason for my page rank loss is due to featuring (wholly unpaid) links on my links page that are deemed as being off topic then here is a link for you thats entirely on-topic:

The Future of Search Engines

There – childish I know, but I feel better already. :-)