Helpdesk

If you haven’t heard, Apple is now suing HTC over a group of its patents. What I did find interesting is that Apple was having “top-secret” discussions with C-level people before the suit was filed (according to a post at Fortune).

Why HTC?  Erica Ogg at CNET thinks it is because of a close HTC and Google relationship (and frenemy stuff).  Philip Elmer-DeWitt thinks it may be that there were few, if any, suppliers problems that would crop up.  John Paczkowski believes it may be that HTC has the fewest number of patents and may be the low hanging fruit, however Nilay Patel thinks that analysis may be unconvincing (same post).

Personally, I think it is the fact that HTC has established itself as the Android purveyor/expert and they appear to be smaller than the other companies.  They’ve built the Nexus One, G1 and a slew of other devices.  The only other Android maker that people know is Motorola because of its Droid.

–Ben

Sources:  Fortune, CNet, All Things Digital, Phandroid, HTCPedia

For those of you who wonder why the Nexus one touch screen has multi-touch reversals, a good article has been written about the G1’s same problems.  Basically, if the two touch points are on a diagonal line, the hardware cannot know upon which diagonal the touch points lie.  So it makes a best guess.

–Ben

Source:  Luke Hutchison

Wow.  Just read an article stating that the Nexus One’s axis inversion when using multi-touch is likely a sensor problem – IE no over the air (OTA) update will fix it.  On the bright side, the Droid multitouch works great.  If you want to try it out yourself, the app is called Multitouch Visible Test and is available on the Android Market.

Here’s the video evidence.  Looks damning to me.

–Ben

Sources:  Phandroid, Robert Green’s DIY, Android Developers Group

Just saw an article that said there was a leaked ROM of android 2.1 for Droid.  Now, most people probably shouldn’t download it because of the risks, but it does appear to be a final version.

Here’s a video:

–Ben

Source:  Softsailor

On a side note, PCWorld claimed Android was doomed.  Galen Gruman has a hypothesis that basically states that manufacturers can choose what features to implement and whether to allow an upgrade to the next OS.

Wow.  Personally, I think manufacturer choice was a good thing.  I also think that while consumers may want to run the latest OS, that we recognize that many of our devices are underpowered for some tasks.  Plus, it should count as an advantage, not a detriment that there is even possible an upgrade path.

When we look at the actual world, Linux is fractured – but its still very successful and often tailored to the desired device.  Ruby on Rails (the language and framework) has strange compatibility problems between versions, but its still on fire in the the development community.  Both are open source.  Android is open source.

In sum, I think Galen is reading tea leaves in an alarmist fashion (ie I don’t think the facts he sees add up to the death of Android – but the contrary).  Microsoft has been predicting the death of Linux for years.  Despite their best efforts, it hasn’t happened.  I think Android is here to stay as well.

–Ben

Source:  PCWorld

PCWorld has a report that shows that Verizon’s uptick in phones isn’t all its cracked up to be.  In fact, the report states that Verizon has had problems keeping up with the demand (see the reliability numbers).  Verizon apparently has also been hampered by an uninterrupted signal – only 76% of the time was it uninterrupted.

Personally, I’ve seen in on my train ride into work.  I keep dropping into 1x instead of 3G.  So, let’s hope Verizon gets back on top.  We bought into the network because it was the best, right?

Verizon’s come back is that their map is bigger.  Bigger isn’t necessarily better if it drops speed.  1 in 4, it appears.

–Ben

Source:  PCWorld

Billshrink put up an interesting infographic on Valentines Day and they’re inviting people to share it.  Here’s the surprising low-down on who gets what for Valentine’s Day.  One of the most surprising stats is just how many parents buy cards for kids.  I thought it was a “lovers” holiday.

–Ben

Verizon apparently is running a special on Droid and Droid Eris.  Buy one phone, get a second of the same kind for free.  Of course by free, I mean that you eventually get one phone for “free”, but end up paying the $30 times 2 surcharge for data and then a voice plan plus another $10 for another line that shares the minutes (or $60 times two for unlimited voice).  But hey, there’s really no free lunch.  Just an awesome phone.

In any case, if you were looking for his and her Droids, now might be the time.

–Ben

Source:  Verizon, Phandroid, Phones Review

Verizon Wireless and Skype just announced that Verizon is going to carry skype calls over its network starting in March.   It may require a data plan, but those international calls may have gotten a lot cheaper.

Seriously?  This seems such an about-face from the wireless carrier that was known to lock everything down and make you pay for any small incremental benefit (I’m looking at you, ringtones from the V-shop).  I’m skeptically optimistic at this point.  And I hope it continues.

Here’s the initial phones with Skype support:

• DROID by Motorola
• DROID ERIS by HTC
• Motorola DEVOUR
• BlackBerry Storm 9530
• Storm2 9550
• Curve 8330
• Curve 8530
• 8830 World Edition
• Tour 9630

–Ben

Sources:  Skype, Verizon Wireless, PCWorld

Google Buzz was hit hard by a lot of complaints, including one woman who complained that Google automatically followed her abusive ex-husband.  Google responded and seems to be correcting course and moving from an auto-follow to an auto-suggest model.

This should be a lesson to all programmers.  Instead of an automatic do-it-ourself model, we should give the user the options to check all, uncheck all, or select for themselves.  Otherwise, we could make the New York Times in not such a good way.

Personally, I opted into Google Buzz the first day.  Right after I saw who it followed, I dropped it like a hot rock and quit.  Maybe I’ll give it another go around.

–Ben

Sources:  Gmail Blog, Techcrunch, CNet, Business Insider, New York Times