If the 8:30am Eastern Standard Time Apple iPod pre-order start time is correct, we are less than 5 hours away as I type this blog item. Some reports say that the WiFi-only iPad will be available for pre-order. I've read one report that both the WiFi-only models available on April 3 and the 3G model available a month or so after that.

To refresh your memory, here are the prices for the three WiFi-only models:

$499 - 16GB iPad
$599 - 32GB iPad
$699 - 64GB iPad

My current plan is to buy the low-end 16GB model. Here's my rationale. The iPhone 3G I use has 16GB of storage and it is, generally speaking, plenty of space for my needs. I don't plan to listen to music or podcasts on the iPad. And, since the iPad doesn't have a camera, I won't be taking and storing new photos on it at all. This means that iPad storage will be used for apps, video, ebooks, and system space requirements for mail, browsing, and iWorks mobile documents.

So, 16GB should be more than enough space until Apple lowers the iPad's price around the end of year just in time for the holiday buying season.

So, are you buying an iPad? Is so, why and which model are you choosing?

Remember Google Buzz? Google's answer to social networking "frienemies" Facebook and Twitter launched with a lot of excitement. Um, is anyone still using it? Or are you just feeding your tweets over to it and then stopped looking at it. It may turn out to be more of an aggregator like Friendfeed (now owned by Facebook) than a tier one social networking service.

However, if you are still using it and want to learn how to use it more effectively from your phone, Google has a bunch (10) tips for you:

5 tips for using Google Buzz on your phone

5 more tips for using Google Buzz on your phone

Here's the short version of these Google Buzz for mobile tips

1. Search for a place to post from
2. Learn more about a tagged place
3. Choose to share privately or publicly
4. View mobile profiles and follow new people
5. Auto-finish @reply
6. Post buzz with your voice.
7. Filter the Nearby tab for a specific place
8. Search!
9. Post from your city-level location
10. Refresh your location

Skype's decision to pull their Windows Mobile app last month surprised me. Here's what I wrote about it then: This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I've tried Skype's Windows Mobile app and it seemed to work as well as could be expected. It didn't seem subpar to me. My theory at the time was that this was an indication of Windows Mobile's downward spiral into irrelevancy.

Skype Dumped Its Windows Mobile App: Windows Mobile == TRS-80?

TechDirt has a different theory. One might call it a conspiracy theory. But, it is theory with what looks like good research behind it. And, quite honestly, I am quite happy to trade in my plausible but less interesting theory for TechDirt's.

Skype Deliberately Crippling Functionality of iPhone and WinMo and Verizon Apps?

Their theory is backed by an interesting Skype timeline that leads to TechDirt's conclusion that Skype has some kind of secret agreement with Verizon to cripped the existing mobile VoIP apps in order to create a demand for a full-featured premium (paid) Skype app.

Here we are, mere hours away from being able to pre-order an Apple iPad. Well, ok, I guess pre-ordering is not really that exciting. But, we're sure to see a bunch of iPad related apps announcements. Here's an interesting one to start things off.

eBooks: B&N eReader for iPad Coming Soon

Barnes & Noble already has a free ebook reader app for the iPhone...

B&N eReader 1.1.5

So, it isn't too surprising to learn that an iPad version is in the works. Nook owners will be happy to learn that their library will be available on their iPad too. B&N is the winner here. They sell ebooks just the same whether it is on an iPad or their own Nook. I wonder when Amazon will say something about a Kindle app tweaked for the iPad?

I expressed my dismay at the way AT&T decided to launch their first Android-powered phone earlier this week.

AT&T Doesn't Need an iPhone Killer, But Why Mess Up the Motorola Backflip (Android)?

One of their odd decisions was to make Yahoo! the default search engine on a Google Android based device. However, they are not alone in dumping the Google search engine from a Google Android phone according to this Motorola press release:

Motorola Announces Alliance with Microsoft for Search and Maps Services; Launching on New Smart Phones in China

Microsoft will also provide the map feature on the Motorola Android phone sold in China. The only reason given in the press release is the long business relationship between Motorola and Microsoft. It sure would be interest to learn the details of this specific decision.

There's no doubt in my mind that Google "gets" mobile. This doesn't happen 100% of the time (as evidenced by the lack of a mobile story for the Google Maps for Mobile bicycle routing service released this week). But, the percentage of on target efforts is very very high. Here's another one worth looking at: Hyper-local results for shopping searches.

In stock nearby? Look for the blue dots.

The hyper-local shopping search results looked pretty good to me in my tests. Note that this feature is only available for Android based phones, iPhone, and webOS based phones (Palm Pre line).

Excellent app find in the digiphile blog...

FCC goes mobile, launches iPhone, Android apps for crowdsourced broadband speed testing

I downloaded and installed the free FCC app from the Android Market to my Droid. I also found it in the iTunes App Store...

FCC Broadband Test 1.0.0

and installed it on my iPhone 3G. You can the results from that test in the screenshot above. And, yes, you are seeing a download speed of 0.33 Mbps (330 Kbps) with a 3066 millisecond (more than 3 full seconds!) latency. I had to walk a bit to stand in a spot that actually had 3G service. So, this is far better than the "No Service" status that was showing before I took a little walk.

Both the Android and iPhone versions of the FCC speed test app has worked fine so far. It is far easier to use that the web-based speed tests I often use to get similar results on a variety of platforms. I hope the FCC provides versions of this app for other mobile platforms soon. Be sure to try it in a couple of different areas around where you live and work to get a better idea of the variation of service you may encounter.

First, let me go on record saying that AppleInsider is one my favorite blogs focusing on Apple-related information, speculation, and rumors. So, when I read this "matter of fact" subject line...

Apple's iPhone 4.0 software to deliver multitasking support

I thought that I had missed a major announcement about iPhone OS 4.0. But, when an article/blog opens with People with a proven track record in predicting Apple's technological advances and then not saying what that track record is, I'm labeling this wild-eyed speculation. For all we know, this source might be the same one that said the 3rd generation iPod touch would gain a camera last year or that the iPad would launch with service from Verizon instead of AT&T or that the iPad would have a front-facing camera video conferencing.

That said (wild-eyed speculation, that is), I think it is entirely plausible that Apple will introduce traditional multitasking (vs. the limited Apple-apps-only multitasking) in iPhone OS 4.0. And, I'll go on record saying I think this is a bad idea. Here's why:

- Although many developers want multitasking to enable, very few iPhone users seem to be demanding multitasking. The only exception might be heavy users of social networking services like Twitter, Gowalla, and Foursqaure.

- Managing multiple applications on a mobile platform is a very hard thing to do. Microsoft has not figured it out after more than a decade of trying. One of the most asked for features by end users is to have the "X" button on Windows Mobile apps close and exit the app. Microsoft's refusal to do this for years led to nearly every hardware manufacturer adding a task manager app to their product. Google has had its own problem with Android in its relatively short time on the market. The most recommended app type I Android users advise new users to download and use is a task manager like Advanced Task Killer. The good folks at Apple are smart. But, I'm not sure they are able to solve the multitasking management problem.

- If Apple has to police the behavior of apps in a multitasking environment, it will slow down the app approval process even more.

Over the years there has been many different ways to transfer information between mobile devices. In the Pocket PC days we used infrared to beam information between two Pocket PCs, and because infrared requires line of sight, the two devices had to be perfectly aligned with each other. Next came Bluetooth, which provides a wireless way to transfer information between devices, but requires that both have the same Bluetooth profiles, be turned on, and configured to send and receive information.

Today I found a very intriguing application called Hoccer that transfers information between two devices, which can be two Android phones or an Android phone and an iPhone. The transfer method involves sending files via the Internet, so the devices must be connected to the Internet. The source and target for a transfer is determined by the GPS location of the devices and whether the device is in the send or receive mode. Putting a device in either mode involves moving the phone in a specific way, for example to send an item you move the phone horizontally like you are throwing a frisbee. The following video shows you how this works:

Video courtesy of Hoccer

While I find Hoccer to be very cool, I am concerned about the security of the information being sent. While Hoccer's web site doesn't explicitly say it, the information must obviously be stored on their servers and I don't see anything suggesting that the information is encrypted in anyway, so there may be nothing prevent someone from taking the information once it is on their servers. You also do not have control over who specifically receives the information. Any device that is in the same proximity as yours, and is prepared to receive information, will receive what you send. Consequently, because of these security issues, I recommend that you don't use this program unless you really don't care that anyone could get what you send. Still, give the company credit for applying some innovation to the problem of transferring infromation between devices. Hopefully they address the security concerns that I have explained above.

The very first iPhone did not provide a way for one to install applications, like you did with personal computers. Instead, application functionality was provided via web applications in the web browser. While many very good web applications were developed, it was impossible for them to take full advantage of the phone's capabilities. The New York Time's Bits blog has a post titled...

Mobile Apps That Outperform Web Sites

...that highlights specific features in three iPhone applications that it thinks are not possible in web applications. Two of them are like many applications on the iPhone or Android phones that use the phone's GPS to find the current location and then tailor information for that location. I don't know about Mobile Safari, but I do know that the Android browser can find location information using the GPS, so that capability is possible for web apps at least on Android.

The third example that Bits provides is Pandora, which plays streaming music. Today I can't play streaming music in the browser of either the iPhone or Android, but when Flash 10 becomes available it will then be possible to have a Pandora flash plug-in that plays streaming music on Android phones.

I am not personally opposed to mobile applications, but I do understand the problem that exists for developers. Developing an application for all platforms requires writing different programs for each, which requires people to know several different skills. To produce programs for all platforms at nearly the same time a company will need a staff of programmers dedicated to each platform, and the problem doesn't end there. Once the programs are released they need to be supported, and bug fixes and enhancements are needed over time.

Back in 1995 when it first released Java, Sun thought it was providing the solution to the problem I describe above. Java is still used today, but it has not achieved the original vision of "write once, run anywhere." My understanding is that much of the development for Android is in Java, but I don't believe you could simply take an Android application and simply run it in a Java Virtual Machine (JVM), probably because of the unique system calls the Android applications make to the phone hardware.

The emergence of HTML5 might help alleviate the problem, or Java might yet still re-emerge as a solution, but it seems to me that something has to be done to make it simpler for developers to write programs that will run on all mobile platforms. Without a solution inevitably developers will pick one platform over another and that will force consumers, if they want a particular program, to pick one platform over another.

Opera is a long time developer of web browsers for desktop computers and mobile phones. You will find two types of mobile browsers from Opera, Opera Mini, which is Java based, and Opera Mobile that runs natively on mobile phones. A beta version of the Opera Mini 5 browser is now available in the Android Market for all versions of Android phones.

Image courtesy of Opera

What sets Opera Mini apart from the Android browser is that it uses a proxy server to compress data before it is sent to your phone, which can significantly improve browser performance. Opera claims that it compresses data by up to as much as 90 percent. The one caveat to this process is the dependency on Opera's servers that perform the compression, if those servers don't perform fast enough or are down, the browsing experience may not be as efficient as Opera claims.

There has been a version of Opera for Windows Mobile for several years that I have never stuck with because for some reason it hid the back button in another menu. Consequently, I was skeptical about whether I would like this version of Opera Mini for Android. I installed Opera Mini 5 on the T-Mobile myTouch 3G and I am happy to report that the Back button is right there on the toolbar, where it belongs.

I found browsing performance to indeed be much faster than with the Android browser. Text and pictures appear in the browser at the same time. When pages first load they are completely zoomed out so that you can see the entire web page, and you then tap a section to zoom in on that part of the screen. To zoom back out you tap the back button on the toolbar. My one complaint with browsing with Opera is that it seems to be too sensitive to my touch. Often when scrolling up or down with my thumb the page would move slightly to the right, sensing a horizontal scroll rather than the vertical scroll I intend.

Another nice feature of Opera is the ability to synchronize bookmarks, speed dials, and search history with the Opera desktop browsers, which helps with the problem of bookmark management. Bookmarks also synchronize between multiple mobile devices. You see an example of speed dials in the image above. Speed dials are bookmarks that appear in the browser home page, allowing you to quickly go to a page when the browser launches.

One downside is that Opera Mini does not support the pinch to zoom multitouch feature, so if you are used to using multitouch on a Nexus One, you may not like Opera Mini. Keep in mind, however, that the Android Opera Mini 5 is currently in beta so perhaps multitouch could be added in the future. In my brief experience using this browser, I can recommend it for people using any Android phone other than the Nexus One. On the Nexus One you have a trade-off between performance and multitouch, and you will have to decide which is more important.

I often note an iPhone app's average use rating when discussing an app here. I do this because I use these averages to help me decide whether or not to buy an app or even try a free one. The other thing I often mention here is what people are writing in the customer review comments section. These comments often point out especially good things about an app as well as potential issues. Here's a good recent example where the comments helped me decide to not buy an app.

A public relations type emailed me a press release the other day for...

Mobile Receipt for iPhone

I receive a lot of press releases. But, I only have the time to follow-up on a few. The ones that receive a follow-up from me usually interest me personally (in fact, let's say "always interests me personally"). Having spent many years trying different methods to collect expense information of taxes and expense reports, this $4.99 iPhone app looked reasonably priced (compared, for example, to a mobile scanner) and could perform a useful function. However, I learned from customer review comments that the app produces a single PDF file for all receipts for a particular date. That is somewhat useful but not exactly what I want. It also appears to be crash-prone if the customer comments are to be believed.

My inclination at the moment is to save my $4.99 and pass on this app with a 2.5 star average customer rating.