Cranking out news for the geeks, music buffs and gossip junkies, my way. -Greg

So here it is, the big prizefight between Motorola’s Droid and Apple’s iPhone 3GS. I won’t tell you who wins, but I will say that it was very close and looks like they both have some things to work on. so without any more delay, “let’s get ready to rummmmmmmble!” -Greg

Android now has the “Bump” app that’s found on iPhone. I saw the commercial quite a while back for the iPhone that showed you a neat little app designed by the people at Bump Technologies that allowed 2 iPhone users to share pictures simply by bumping the 2 phones together. I was ready to go get my girlfriend and I an iPhone that moment, literally I wanted to run out and buy them right then. I’ve since had several moments of weakness where as I almost bought an iPhone. Android of course changed all that, now I just internet window shop the Android phones, and impatiently wait for the day that AT&T finally gets an Adnroid phone, so I can RUSH OUT AND BUY ONE! Anyway, as I was saying the Bump app allows 2 phones that share the app to share media by just setting the media they want to share and then bumping the phones together, isn’t technology wonderful! -Greg

 Get the app from Bump Technologies

Here’s a YouTube video of the app in action..

I can’t say it enough how impressed I am with Android and for those of you who still just don’t quite get it, I want you to take a moment and read this article from the guys at Gizmodo.com. Just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! -Greg

So Wait, What Is Android, Exactly?

In Google’s words, it’s “the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices.” That doesn’t mean much, so here’s a breakdown: It’s a Linux-based, open-source mobile OS, complete with a custom window manager, modified Linux 2.6 kernel, WebKit-based browser and built-in camera, calendar, messaging, dialer, calculator, media player and album apps. If that sounds a little sparse, that’s because it is: Android on its own doesn’t amount to a whole lot; in fact, a phone with plain vanilla Android wouldn’t feel like a smartphone at all. Thankfully, these phones don’t exist.

Android is Linux insofar as its core components are open-source and free, and Google must publish their source code with every release. But the real heart of the Android phone experience—the Google apps like Maps, GChat, Gmail, Android Market, Google Voice, Places and YouTube are closed-source, meaning Google owns them outright. Every Google phone comes with these apps in one form or another so to the user this distinction isn’t that important. That said, it occasionally rears its head, like when Android modder Cyanogen had to strip the apps out of his custom Android builds to avoid getting sued by Google:

The issue that’s raised is the redistribution of Google’s proprietary applications like Maps, GTalk, Market, and YouTube. They are Google’s intellectual property and I intend to respect that. I will no longer be distributing these applications as part of CyanogenMod.

This can lead to more mainstream (and confusing) issues, like with the, erm, touchy (sorry!) multitouch issue: Android OS supports multitouch, in that it can recognize multiple simultaneous input points on its screen. But Google’s Android apps don’t. So when a company like HTC comes along and decides to properly add multitiouch to the OS, they can only add it to the open-source parts, like the browser (or their own closed-source apps), not Google’s proprietary apps. That’s why the Hero has pinch-zoom in its browser and photo albums but not in Google Maps, where it’s just as at home.

The issue gets even less trivial as the apps grow more central to the Android experience. You know how Google Maps Navigation was, like, the banner feature for Android 2.0? Well, it was, but technically speaking, it’s not a part of Android. It’s just part of an app made by Google for Android, and that’ll ship with most Android handsets. Except for in countries where Google doesn’t have their mapping data quite together enough, where it won’t. That’s what’s happening with the Euro Droid, which, by the way, does have multitouch in its browser, like the Hero. That’s why the distinction matters.

So, why take so much care to set up and protect this open source component, when surely Google could just slap together a closed-source mobile operating system and give it away for free, right? It would deprive handset manufacturers of their ability to freely modify certain core components of the OS, sure, but the real reasoning, oddly enough, has less to do with phones and more to do with, well, everything else.

Read the rest of this article at Gizmodo.com

So as I’ve read and talked about several times now, it looks as if its now FACT that Dell is entering the US mobile market with the Android OS on is phone and its headed for AT&T. Which is outstanding news for AT&T customers, more importantly ME! Seems that they already have a phone in the Chinese market. The Dell Mini 3iX, will be revamped and cramed pack before hitting the US shores by early 2010. Just so happens that my birthday and available upgrade dates are both in January, coincidence? I think not! -Greg

Here are some pictures of the Chinese version..

The Android 2.0 OS for mobile phone is awesome and is starting to take the market by storm. Only hours remain before Verizon unleashes their newest phone, Andorid 2.0 phone, Droid. I just wanted to show a picture of Droid’s website, which is astounding of how much it offers right out of the gate. This ball of fury shows 69 things (yes I counted) that Droid “does” or has its arsenal of features. I’m still sadly on AT&T, so I won’t get to too much join in the joy of Android just yet, but I’m keeping good faith that Dell and AT&T are going to be dropping something huge for me and soon! -Greg

If  your already on Verizon, lucky, and your looking for a new phone, your going to buy Droid. If you don’t buy a Droid then I’d have to say you shouldn’t be allowed to make your own decisions anymore. -Greg

A year ago, Android was an unfinished OS for nerds, bursting with potential. With Android 2.0, it’s evolved into something sleeker, more refined and focused—but still something not quite human.

Over the last year, Android’s evolved more rapidly and appeared in more shapes than any other smartphone OS. Every major update has made Android more capable and advanced, while custom interfaces from companies like HTC and Motorola, mean it’s constantly and continually shifting shapes. When you look at the bucket of bolts everybody started with, some of the oh-so-shiny end results were kind of amazing. Android 2.0 blows all of that away, and lays down a platform for the next year that’s wildly more compelling, even as it retains a lot of the same fundamental weaknesses.

..READ THE FULL REVIEW AT GIZMODO

This is a very neat and very useful app for the iPhone, especially for anyone that is a world traveler. The PicTranslator is ver simple to operate and seems form the video to work very smooth. Take a picture of the text you want to translate, tell it what language to translate it from and a few moments later its translated. It will even pronounce it for you! You get 1 language for a $1, each additional for another $1. Not a bad deal, only wish I would have thought of it first, hope to see the is on the Android platform, hint hint..  -Greg