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iPod Shuffle: Thank god Apple went back to the previous Shuffle design, because the 3rd gen buttonless Shuffle was a disaster. They also lowered the price to $50, which is nice.

Verdict: nice.

—

iPod Nano: Lord have mercy, Kelly Clarkson Eddie Murphy. This new design is a disaster, let’s see here:

• NO video camera.
• NO video playback (that’s right, you can’t play videos on this thing). This alone is pretty insulting, if you ask me.
• Pointless addition of touchscreen. I see absolutely no point in having a touch-based input on a screen that small. Not to mention your options on a Nano is limited anyway: play music, or radio, or use that Nike app. That’s it. A touchscreen adds nothing to the functionality. Oh wait a sec, you can change the order of “apps”… ROFL.

I’m willing to bet that Apple will change the Nano’s design back next year, just like what they just did with the Shuffle. I personally don’t get the rationale behind this redesign at all. The removal of video playback alone is extremely confusing to me. Of course I might be dead wrong, but we’ll see next year…

Verdict: I don’t think so, buddy.

—

iPod Touch: Now this is a winner in my book. There were some major upgrades to the Touch, namely the addition of cameras (FINALLY), retina (high-res) display, and faster processor. Right now it’s definitely very close to being “iPhone without the phone”. However, I do have to mention 2 minuses:

• The back camera is low-res, so it won’t be able to take still photo at the same level of quality as the iPhone.
• No 16gb options (it jumps from 8gb to 32gb).

The first point is quite a disappointment to me. I was super excited when I found out that Apple finally put in a camera in the iPod. However, it seems like the cameras are meant more for video calls rather than taking still photos. I don’t think I can replace my point-and-shoot just yet… I probably need to play with one first in person to judge the camera quality.

Overall though, it’s a very nice upgrade from the last version. Definitely not a fail.

Verdict: great, minus one or two minor things.

—

Apple TV: Now this is interesting. The new Apple TV is a big departure from the old version. It’s much smaller, for one. And cheaper ($100). It also has no internal storage and instead streams content from external sources (another computer or Netflix).

It gets a plain “eh” for me. I dunno. It’s great that Apple manages to lower rental prices for TV shows down to $1. But as for the device itself… I feel like nothing about it necessarily offers anything new or radical. It does look very nice & slick, though.

Verdict: eh.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has filed far-reaching patent lawsuits against Google, Apple, Yahoo, Netflix, Facebook, AOL and eBay, among others, alleging the companies violated patents owned by his now-defunct idea lab Interval Research.

The four patents at issue allegedly cover basics of online commerce, including recommending products to a user based on what they are currently looking at, and allowing readers of a news story to see other stories based on the current one. Two other patents relate to showing other information on a web page, such as news updates or stock quotes.

All I can say is a giant, big fat SMH. Obviously he’s not doing this for the money, so WTF? Sometimes I just don’t get people. Oh, and of course Microsoft was left out from the picture completely, since, he was the co-founder of Microsoft. *rolls eyes*.

This is the perfect example of what one would call a dick move.

It made some pretty good points: “No, the real point of Google Voice inside Gmail is to keep you using and logged into Gmail, which keeps you logged into your Google account… And if you are logged into your Google account, you make it easier for Google to know what you are up to and track what you do.”

And of course it’s in line with all the Google social-networking rumors that’s been floating around lately.

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/08/17/is-the-web-really-de.html

Interesting

Keyword: was. Because apparently, as of today, Target has given up.

So. As much as I love Target (and believe me, I do; I was damn happy when they opened a store close to where I’m living right now), I’m going to stop shopping there.

It sucks, but hey.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/09/google-and-verizons-net-neutrality-proposal-explained/

From what I gather, it looks like the Torch (and OS6) isn’t that different from its predecessors. An evolution rather than revolution, if you will. Which is an understandable strategy. Blackberry’s core market has been, and still is, the corporate world. The main focus is still email capabilites, which Blackberry devices do very well.

I’m glad to hear the new OS uses a webkit-based browser. Thank goodness.

HOWEVER, I don’t get why they’re using a ridiculously low-res 480 x 360 screen…. umm, is this 2004? What’s up with that? Couldn’t they at least sport a 800 x 480 display?

While the new OS & device aren’t bad, they seem rather “last-gen”(see processor power & screen resolution). RIMM has been losing market share for the past few months, mainly in the non-corporate/consumer market, which is dominated by Apple & Google. They still have a stronghold in the corporate world, but that may not be sustainable enough in the long run (see Windows Mobile 6).

Good luck, RIMM.

And just yesterday HP files for “Palmpad” trademark, so it’s pretty safe to assume that they’re working on a tablet too: http://gizmodo.com/5590902/hp-files-for-palmpad-trademark-could-be-webos-tablet-name

And of course there’s the iPad.

So I guess tablet computers will officially be called “pads” now.

*still waiting on Notion Ink Adam. sigh*

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGT8ZCTBoBA

What mobile apps? Youtube just proved you don’t need to create an app to have a good mobile web experience.

***** please

Dumb as hell. For the same monthly cost, of course people would rather use a Droid, or Pre, or one of those HTC phones. The Kin phones should’ve come with a special data plan like the Sidekick, i.e. more limited but cheaper.

Supposedly now all the people in the Kin team are working on Windows Phone 7. Well… good luck, Microsoft. They will need lots of it if they want to break into the mobile space.