Photo courtesy of Amazon.com

I've been thinking about which netbook to buy next. I'm leaning towards either the Asus Eee PC T91 touchscreen netbook or a Dell Mini 10 with an HD display. So, I didn't expect to find much personal interest in this item from EeeUser.com...

Customising Your 1000HE and the 1005HA Arrives

But, I was wrong... Martin points out that two version of the 1005HA are available in Amazon: One has a matte LCD display while the other has a glossy display. That sounds great so far since many people prefer one display type over the other. So, that's that, right? Choose a display type and you're done. But, no. Asus, or perhaps Amazon's buyer, decided these two models would have other significant differences.

1005HA VU1X: $349.99. Matte LCD display. 8.5-hour battery life. Atom N270 processor

1005HA-PU1X: $389.99. Glossy ("Color-Shine") LCD display. 10.5 hour battery life. Atom N280 processor

So, there you have it. If you prefer a matte screen (minimal reflection) you pay less but also get a shorter battery life and the older processor model. If you prefer the glossy screen (lots of reflections), you have to pay $40 more but get longer battery life and the newer processor. This just doesn't seem right to me.

Nokia Beta Labs announced...

Introducing Nokia Java Runtime 2.0 for S60

My first thought while reading the subject line was: Sounds good! Then, I read that this runtime update provides:

- One-click application installation
- Improved application launch user experience
- Improved execution performance

So, my next thought was: Wow, this is great!

Then, I read it has only been tested with:

- Nokia 5800 XpressMusic software versions 20.x.xxx and 21.x.xxx
- Nokia N97 software versions 10.x.xxx and 11.x.xxx

Phooey was the thought that came after reading that. So, if you are fortunate enough to have the two latest and greatest Nokia phones with touchscreen goodness, head over to...

Nokia Java Runtime 2.0 for S60

...to download and install the new Java runtime. Otherwise, keep moving on... there's nothing to see here...

Some situations have a good side and a bad side. On one hand, I was not happy to see that Visual Voicemail is currently unavailable message on my iPhone. On the other hand, I was thrilled to actually have service from AT&T Wireless instead of the dreaded "No Service" in the status area. I have numerous issues with AT&T service on my iPhone 3G. One of them has been voicemail messages that seem to emerge from hiding hours after they were sent. But, I didn't realize that AT&T was aware this is nationwide (U.S.) and that some people aren't receiving their voicemail until days later! PC World describes the experience of one frustrated iPhone user who chased down the problem...

AT&T Problems Can Delay iPhone Voicemail

Are you having frequent issues with visual voicemail issues on your iPhone? Have you contacted AT&T about it? Did you get the same story as the Glenn Tenney (the subject of PC World's article)?

I'm not enough of a Facebook user to say much about the current Facebook 2.5 for iPhone. As iPhone apps go, it looks ok to me, is stable and performs basic tasks as expected. However, I guess heavy-duty Facebook users want a lot more because there are 15 new features listed in this blog item about the upcoming...

Facebook for iPhone 3.0

Its developer says it is about 98% completed and expects to submit it to Apple in the near future. He also says that the frequently requested Push feature won't be in the 3.0 update. Here's what is though:

1. The "new" News Feed
2. Like
3. Events (including the ability to RSVP)
4. Notes
5. Pages
6. Create new photo albums
7. Upload photos to any album
8. Zoom into photos
9. Easier photo tagging
10. Profile Pictures albums
11. A new home screen for easy access to all your stuff, search, and notifications
12. Add your favorite profiles and pages to the home screen
13. Better Notifications (they link to the comments so you can reply)
14. Quickly call or text people right from the Friends page
15. Messages you are typing will be restored if you quit or are interrupted by a phone call

QuickPWN has a good concise summary of...

What's new in iPhone OS 3.1 beta?

The list isn't very long. But, there are at least two changes that most iPhone 3GS owners will welcome:

- Voice control works over Bluetooth
- Option to save original video after trimming a video

There's one change that is pretty much of a puzzle to me...

- iPhone vibrates when moving icon around

And, developers are probably happy to see that they will be able to use Apple's video editing interface from their own apps.

Screenshot courtesy of Automattic, Inc.

Straight from the WordPress for iPhone blog...

Version 1.3 is Live

A few weeks ago I noted that...

WordPress Founder Matt Mullenweg Says Their iPhone App is "Pretty Lame": Will Version 1.3 Rock?

So, is version 1.3 non-lame? It certainly appears so based on the screenshots. But, my problem has been that WordPress for iPhone refused to let me work with my WordPress based blogs since around the 1.1 or 1.2 update cycle. It worked fine before that with the same settings. I'm going to wait until the long weekend to try out version 1.3. I don't want to waste a half hour fussing with an app that still might not work for me.

WordPress 1.3 for iPhone (iTunes App Store)

Photos courtesy of PC World

PC World's Daniel Ionescu is a brave person. Why? I think it is nearly impossible to write a comparison article like...

Smartphone Palooza: 10 Hot Touchscreens Compared

...an emerge unscathed. You are bound to make judgement calls that are going to upset people if you didn't choose they phone they are using (and presumably like) right now. I encourage you to read the article. But, don't get upset if one of Daniel's choices isn't one of your current favorite touch screen smartphones. Note he doesn't pick a single winner. In fact, he picks pairs of winner in three broad categories: Storage space, photos and heavy text input (email, texting, twittering). The HTC Touch Pro2 (something I'm hoping to buy later this month) is one of the two "winners" in this last category. So, I wasn't upset by his picks :-)

Screenshots courtesy of Google

With people like me constantly yapping about smartphones, you might think that the so-called feature phones (essentially phones that do not run one of the major smartphone operating systems like Symbian S60, Windows Mobile or Google Android. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Feature phones dominates mobile phones sales. And, quite frankly, today's feature phones would have been considered technological miracles a few years ago.

Google hasn't forgotten that there are hundreds of millions of feature phones out there (maybe more!). And, they prove this by expanding Google search for feature phones from two languages (U.S. English and Japanese) to 38 languages in more than 60 countries.

Google Search results optimized for feature phones in 38 languages

Screenshot courtesy of Skype

Skype has been super-busy! I reported on the update of their Windows Mobile client yesterday. And, they also released a new version for Microsoft Windows. The eagle-eyed James Kendrick over on jkOnTheRun spotted...

Skype 1.1 for iPhone Released - SMS but Don't Push

You can find it here in the iTunes App Store...

Skype 1.1

The update adds support for a whole bunch of languages, SMS text messaging using Skype credit, voice mail support (optional service) and improved dialing for dialing conventional phones.

Those of us in the U.S. have an event coming up that happens only once a decade. The 2010 U.S. Census is nearly upon us. And, it looks like Sprint has the contract to provide census takers with wireless data...

Sprint Is Exclusive Wireless Data Provider for 2010 Census

140,000 U.S. Census workers will be carrying custom built mobile devices from Harris Corp. The GPS-enabled and, presumably, 3G connected devices also has a fingerprint ID scanner.

You can read more about the Harris Field Data Collection Automation (FDCA) in this Harris press release from 2007...

Census Bureau Debuting Advanced Harris Corporation Technology During 2010 Census Dress Rehearsal Beginning This Week

YouTube video courtesy of zodttd

I don't often write about apps that require jailbreaking a phone. But, this one for the Palm Pre was just too good to let pass...

Palm Pre gets some Playstation action!

You can see this jailbroken Palm Pre running a PlayStation 1 emulator. And, it is running one of my favorite games on my PlayStation Portable (PSP) - Wipeout.

ZodTTD clearly describes issues that have not been resolved in the emulator yet such as the lack of sound and hardware rotation. But, the demo in the video looks pretty good to me.

Company sponsored surveys are funny things. They tend to provide evidence for what they want in many cases. And, I wonder if this is one example...

Sprint Survey Shows That Many Are Not Aware of Budget-wise Travel Applications on Their Wireless Device

Sprint summarizes the study in the first paragraph by stating: the majority of those vacationers are not using helpful travel applications because of budget concerns. They use this is as a hammer to say that Sprint customers can save $1200 per year compared to iPhone customers. At first this doesn't seem to have anything to do with the press release's title.

However, Sprint goes on to say: More than half of vacationers (56 percent) do not use available travel-related features on their wireless phones because of cost concerns. Sixty-one percent of these women and 65 percent of these young adults (ages 18-34) believe that the fee to run travel-related applications on their wireless phones is a deterrent to using them.

Here's the thing though: Despite our touch economic situation a lot of people still went out to buy the iPhone 3GS recently. And, a lot of people are still buying a lot of iPhone applications. I don't think Sprint's survey asked any iPhone users to complete their survey.

Video courtesy of fidohub

A touch screen seems like a natural option for netbooks. I've been considering purchasing the Asus Eee PC T91 because of its touch screen and convertible tablet feature. Now, DigiTimes tells us that...

Netbooks to make head start in adopting touch panels, suppliers say

I sure hope so. A co-worker in the office just modified his Asus Eee PC with an aftermarket solderless touch screen...

Asus Eee PC 1000HE Solderless Touch Screen Kit (Ultimate-Netbook)

...and it seemed to work great. I was amused to see he used a LiveScribe pen with the stylus option for the screen and was taking notes using Evernote (two of my favorite mobile products). You can see part 3 of the instructions to install this after market touch screen above.

Photo courtesy of Dell

Do you remember those awful old days when so-called ultraportable notebooks with 10 to 12 inch displays cost between $1500 and $3000? Then, along came the affordable sub-$400 netbooks which had very decent feature sets, a small size and, of course, a great price. Then, manufacturers started selling netbooks with 12 inch displays that seemed too big and too expensive to be called netbooks.

So, I'm really glad to see Dell announce this unNetbook...

Vostro 1220: no-compromise ultraportable laptop

Its base price is between $800 and $1030 and weighs in at 3.36 lbs. So, it costs a bit more and weighs a bit more than the typical 12 inch display netbook. But, the Vostro 1220 delivers a lot of features including the option to have up to 8GB RAM. The low-end model uses a Celeron processor. So, you'll probably want to look more closely at the mid and high end models with Core 2 Duo processors (no more Atom). And, yes, they all came standard with a DVD burner in that 3+ pound package. The 6-cell battery is rated at up to 9 hours. So, I'm hoping that translate to between 5 and 7 hours of actual battery life.

If current generation netbooks are just a bit short of the processing power you need, you might want to take a look at the Vostro 1220. I know it has me interested.

Dell came late to the netbook game but hit the ground running with the well regarded, if short-lived, Dell mini 9 model late last summer. They've more than made up for it by offering interesting options like HD LCD displays, Atom Z530 processor, TV tuners, Ubuntu Linux and a bunch of different case colors to choose from. Their latest announced (but not available until next week) option is sure to get the attention of the mobile road warrior crowd...

GPS and Wi-Fi Positioning Coming to the Mini 10

Their browser based location aware portal (powered by the Loki browser plug-in) should add quite a bit of value to this hardware addition.

The GPS enabled Dell mini 10 will ship with Windows XP for now and Windows 7 when it becomes available.