UPDATE: Daring Fireball points out:

[This story] puts [TechCrunch's Michael] Arrington on the same side as the almost-always-full-of-sh*t Scott Moritz. On the other side: Andy Rubin, vice president of engineering for Android at Google, who just two weeks ago said Google would not “compete with its customers” and “We’re not making hardware. We’re enabling other people to build hardware.”

So either Mike Arrington is totally wrong or Andy Rubin is a liar.

Apple typically denies something, even decries it, until the moment they release it. Google’s not Apple, though…

ORIGINAL: Could Google be “pulling a Zune” and going from software provider to integrated device maker, ready to take on the iPhone with a pure, straight up Google gPhone? That the latest… retread of the old rumor, though TechCrunch is basically singing a castrati-high “nailed it!” at this point.

Rumors of a gPhone, or Google Phone, predated Android, but instead of following Apple, Palm, and RIM in the integrated hardware/software model, Google decided to go the Windows Mobile path, create Android OS (though with a liberal Apache license) and let other hardware makers do their thing.

Microsoft did similar a few years ago, competing against the iPod with PlaysForSure software for a variety of different music player manufacturers. Then they teamed up with Toshiba, killed PlaysForSure, and released the Microsoft-only Zune. Needless to say, their previous partners were not filled with happy joy (and how many PlaysForSure devices do you see today, oh bitter-named irony?)

There’s no indication, however, that if Google made a gPhone they would in any way kill Android for partners. Indeed, Nokia makes Symbian devices now that it controls (and is in the process of open sourcing) that OS, right alongside other manufacturers. But is it fair to be scared of Google now, having seen them decimate the competition in everything from search (anyone remember Alta Vista?) to turn-by-turn Navigation (remember those TomTom and Garmin stock charts, post Android 2.0 announcement?)

And is it even more fair when we consider that the tech community is realizing Android isn’t as open as they once hoped? Casey at Android Central sums it up:

Why would I buy a Motorola DROID or Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 if I can get an official Google Phone built from the ground up for Android? How will companies feel if the Google Phone launches with 3.0 but every other Android device is stuck at 2.0? Will they continue to make Android devices? Google would be leaving the companies that backed Android from the beginning in the dust. Simply put, the existence of a Google Phone automatically makes third-party Android phones second-tier devices because Google’s priority will shift to the Google Phone, all others second.

But back to the iPhone. One of Steve Jobs’ favorite quotes is from Alan Kay — “”People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” Google bringing a first-party gPhone to the table would likely be the strongest competition yet for the iPhone. As much as Google’s Android partners should be afraid, Apple should be more afraid. And they should — and no doubt are — working even harder on iPhone 2010 and the iPhone OS 4.0. And that’s great news for iPhone users.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

UPDATED: Google to Pull a Zune, Go Head-to-Head with iPhone in Software and Hardware Next Year?

So, yeah, Windows Mobile and Zune. In all the excitement over the Droid (and Pixi), Microsoft went and snuck in some new, competitive updates.

First, the iPod touch’s rival, and media darling, the Zune HD got a firmware update that enhanced the browser (though we still get shivers at any mention of IE6, mobile or otherwise) and paved the way for 3D gaming. (Check out the video, above). As with previous games, they’re free, but you might have to watch a 15-30 car commercial before the game (or calculator app) launches.

Second, Windows Mobile proper just saw the launch of Windows Marketplace for Mobile Phase II, including an on-phone update for the Marketplace App, and the ability to purchase apps right from a desktop PC browser. And, yeah, the new Marketplace security has reportedly already been cracked.

For the customization junkies, George at WMExperts has also run down some of the more popular UI layers currently available for WinMo, including manufacturers’ like HTC and Samsung, vendors’ like SPB and Vito, and, of course, Microsoft’s home grown.

So, anything Apple and the iPhone should be paying attention to? Any greener grass on Microsoft’s side of the road with these updates? Check out the links and let us know what you think.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Zune HD Adds 3D Games, Windows Marketplace for Mobile Goes Phase II, and the Many Faces of Windows Mobile — Mega Competition Roundup!

Much has been said about Verizon’s latest addition to their smarthphone arsenal, the Motorola Droid, some good and some bad. I decided to pick one up and decide for myself. It’s been a little less than a week that I’ve spent with my Droid and I must say, I’ve actually come away quite impressed. Now by no means am I saying the Droid is the best looking device on the market, nor is it the perfect smartphone — that simply does not exist. But what we have here is a very solid effort by Motorola. Sure Apple is at the top of the game in regards to UI, ease of use, speed, etc… but they have to play some major catch up with the release of their next iPhone — namely on display, notifications, and multitasking.

For the full run down follow me after the break!

Display

I want to start with the first thing that really pops out when you turn the Droid on — the display. I will admit I never had issues with the screen on my iPhone… until the Droid came along. The Droid’s display has a resolution of 480×854 and is 3.7-inches of pure delight. So much so that after using the Droid for almost a week now when I look at the screen on my iPhone everything on it comes across as being blurry.

Apple, we all beg of you, please make Rene’s dream of an iPhone HD come to life by giving us a better screen on the next version of iPhone. Pretty please…

Notifications

The way the Droid handles notifications is not something new but rather a staple of the Android OS. Like many of you, I feel the iPhone does a very poor job with any sort of push notification whether it is a incoming text message or a sports score. So poor in fact that if I receive a sports score and then a text message right afterwords I have no way of knowing the sports score ever came through! On the Droid I can get all the scores pushed to the device and have email, text messages, etc and a simple swipe down on the screen reveals every single notification. I’m not sure about any of you but how the iPhone handles push notifications is getting pretty old at this point.

Multitasking

According to our poll of what Droid feature would you like to see on your iPhone, many of you would like to see the ability to multitask 3rd party applications. Apple’s response to your request has been that multitasking will kill your battery faster than you could ever imagine. Are they correct? Yes and no. Multitasking will have a negative effect on your battery but it’s not as much as Apple claims it to be. Apple needs to let the consumer decide for themselves. If they’d like to take a hit in the battery life department to be able to multitask 3rd party applications, why not let them? Give us the option and make everyone happy.

Conclusion

So what does this all mean for Apple, and for me? Will I be ditching my iPhone for the Droid? No. I could never leave all of you behind. But I will be keeping the Droid as it definitely has my attention. I can’t say it’s the Verizon network as AT&T service is top notch where I live, but the three things I discussed above have me hooked and good. The Droid really is Apple’s wake up call in a sense. It’s finally a competitive enough device that it should force them to step up and greatly improve upon the iPhone next time around. While I would never tell any of you to do away with your iPhone I will tell you this, if you have a chance to pick one up and give it a whirl, do so as you are sure to enjoy it.

If you are interested in learning more about the Droid be sure to check out Android Central’s full hardware review as Casey knocked it out of the park. And if you’ve already tried the Droid, drop us a note in the comments and let us know how it treated you.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

An iPhone Blogger’s Trip to the Dark Side with Verizon’s Motorola Droid

It’s not an iPhone-like slab, but it does ditch the Palm Pre slider (and Wi-Fi!) for a Centro-esque front-facing webOS form factor, and Dieter over at PreCentral.net has the full Palm Pixi Review up to prove it. His take?

The Palm Pixi is a tiny smartphone with enough features and elegance to woo even the most die-hard feature phone user, but current Pre owners will want to stick with what they have.

We’re figuring that will apply to iPhone owners as well, but for new buyers, could it be enough for Sprint and Palm to compete with a $99 iPhone 3G, and all its apps, on AT&T? Check out the rest of the Palm Pixi review and let us know what you think.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

The Competition: Palm Pixi Gets Reviewed

Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata loves his MacBook and his iPhone, and firmly believes Nintendo and Apple aren’t competitors (they appeal to different customers), and any talk of it makes him uncomfortable.

Yet Apple is most assuredly aiming at gaming (even if John Carmack thinks it’s between clenched teeth), especially with the funner iPod touch ever, and its game-heavy marketing.

With Nintendo profits down 52% for the first half of the year, and Apple selling record numbers of iPhones and reporting 100,000 apps and 2,000,000,000 downloads (with games weighed heavily among them).

Even with a dedicated gaming device like the DS (and perhaps a new platform on the way next year?), and a high-profile set of first-party properties like Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Pokémon, etc. those are tough numbers to look at. And Nintendo isn’t kidding themselves about that:

“If we can’t make clear why customers pay a lot of money to play games on Nintendo hardware and Nintendo software and differentiate ourselves from games on the mobile phone or iPhone, then our future is dark.”

Still, there are no plans for a WiiPhone (no matter how cool that might sound to us!), though an Amazon Kindle-like model, where the end-user doesn’t see any of the cell network bills, does appeal to Iwata.

Likewise, we can’t hold our breath for even older 1st party GameBoy titles to show up on the iPhone either. At least not anytime soon.

[Wall Street Journal -- thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Nintendo Sees no Rivalry with iPhone, but “Future is Dark” if They Can’t Differentiate

Hot on the heels of Verizon pretty much burying the Storm2 in favor of their latest lust, the Droid, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion used their annual developer conference to announce a few improvements for the platform. No, not word one about a next generation BlackBerry OS (hey, Palm spent their time in the desert to get to webOS, and Microsoft is still trudging towards Windows Mobile 7, so RIM needs to pick up that canteen and get to stepping!).

Still, Kevin and the CrackBerry crew have been tearing up the coverage, so check out their DevCon 2009 liveblog, and here are a couple more handy links to help you keep track of all the pushy news:

• Open GL ES Support, Java GUI Builder and Theme Studio to Help BB Developers Generate Dynamic User Experiences
• BlackBerry Application Platform Enhancements to Foster Rich Content Development
• RIM Unveils New Services Platform for BlackBerry Developers
• RIM and Adobe to Simplify Delivery Of Rich Content and Applications for BlackBerry Smartphones
• RIM Announces BlackBerry Academic Program

So, what do you think, in the face of iPhone 3.x, Android 2.0, and webOS 1.x, is RIM doing enough to keep the BlackBerry competitive?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

The Competition: BlackBerry Strikes Back-ish at DevCon 2009

Considering an iPhone 3GS but interested in other options? Already an iPhone owner but curious about the alternatives? There’s an increasing amount of competition in the smartphone space — more great devices on more networks — but how do they stack up? Which one’s really for you?

Check out the links below for TiPb’s (and Smartphone Experts’) take:

• iPhone vs. Google/Motorola DROID (Milestone)
• iPhone vs. Palm Pre

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone vs. the Competition

A new, phantom menace emerges today in the iPhone world. Verizon’s massive network has opened their drop-bays, and the DROID invasion has begun. Android Central is providing Generally Grievous-level coverage, while SPE’s own Darth Tyranus, editor-in-chief Dieter Bohn deployed at 5 am to find… no line ups, but hopefully a lot of new gadgets to power his darkside.

Nokia Expert’s Matt Miller is concerned about Verizon’s pricing, as is PreCentral.net’s Keith Newman, at least compared to Sprint, though he seems happy enough with the device itself. Malatesta from WMExperts… is still nonplussed. CrackBerry Kevin of CrackBerry.com? He’s busy with the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and Curve 8530 launches. (He loves his berries. A lot.) And TiPb, well you know where to find our coverage so far.

If you get a chance to try out a DROID or DROID Eris this weekend, let us know what you think!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

The DROID Invasion Has Begun…!

The 5 megapixel, dual LED flash Verizon/Motorola Droid camera beats the iPhone 3GS 3 megapixels on specs alone, right? Not according to the Chicago Sun/Times’ technology columnist, Andy Ihnatko, who put some side-by-side comparison shots up on Flickr.

Ihnatko also seems to share many of my opinions about the Droid’s dubious introduction commercial, though he writes it out ever so much better. About the camera specifically, he says:

But does the Droid actually take better pictures than the iPhone? Overall, no. Over the past few days I’ve shot lots of scenes with both phones and the iPhone consistently produced prettier images. Where software inside the Droid is easily bamboozled by uncooperative lighting, the iPhone’s camera app almost always finds a workable and attractive solution.

Droid Day in November 6th. Android Central has one in the house, and Casey’s already crowing about it, so stay tuned for more!

[Via Daring Fireball]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Verizon Droid vs. iPhone 3GS Side-by-Side Camera Showdown

Did Verizon and Motorola forget to include a few things in their iDon’t attack ads, like iDon’t render web pages as slowly or badly, iDon’t arbitrarily restrict the amount of apps users can install to 256MB, iDon’t fail to implement multi-touch, and iDon’t have a worse user experience.

We can’t blame them, of course. They were focusing on the iPhone’s weaknesses, as the geekier among us (nitpickers included!) would have to admit, and not the Droid’s. It was their ad, and fair enough.

However, for those considering the Droid vs. an iPhone, we should lay all the cards on the table. Sure the iPhone lacks a physical keyboard (that irks some users, pleases others), doesn’t have Google Maps Navigation (yet), doesn’t match all the specs, and has issues with App Store approvals (though that doesn’t effect most users). But what about the Droid?

(And no, we don’t mean that horrible devil-red eye graphic that’s kind of the opposite of “not evil” and makes that incessant “DRRROOOOOOIIDDD” chime pretty much indistinguishable from “REDRUM!”)

First, in the perfunctory Browser Battles, it turns out the almost two month old iPhone 3.1 Safari is still king of the mobile mountain, according to MobileCrunch:

On the popular web-standards test known as Acid3, the iPhone scores a 100/100 while the Droid caps out at 93/100. [...] Once you’ve grown accustomed to pinch-zooming, the level of accuracy provided by tap-zooming alone simply doesn’t cut it. [...] The iPhone browser is also considerably faster, with page loads completing anywhere from 15-30% more quickly with both handsets on WiFi.

Second, we all know the Android Market doesn’t have as many apps as the App Store, but maybe that’s a good thing since Android 2.0 still doesn’t fix its app space limitation, leaving Droid with a paltry 256MB for apps according to AndroidandMe.com:

Google does not support installing apps to the SD card (and likely never will), so developers are limited in what they can create. [...] For most applications, we want a small file size to limit the download times. When it comes to 3D games though, we need a ton of space for all the high-res textures, audio, and video. [...] Have you seen all the awesome iPhone and iPod Touch games? Hardly any of them would fit on an Android phone.

This problem, of course, also plagues the Palm webOS and BlackBerry platforms. NokiaExpert and ZDNet’s Matt Miller’s been told it’s a security issue, but does that matter to end users when iPhone’s can go up to (almost) 32GB?

Third, if you’re a fan of the iPhone and iPod touch’s (and Magic Mouse’s!) multi-touch, don’t think the Droid will have your fingers covered. According to Engadget:

As you have probably heard (or guessed), there’s no multitouch on this device. That’s clearly an issue with Android 2.0 and choices that Google is making about user interface

Fourth, the user interface, while definitely an improvement — and maybe even a refreshing change for some — still doesn’t rise to level of usability as the iPhone. Like MobileCrunch (and every other review we’ve seen), we’ve given our iPhones to toddlers and they’ve been able to use them well.

That’s still Apple’s killer app. And that’s likely why, even after going all in on Droid and throwing BlackBerry under the bus (even canceling their BOGO!), Verizon still wants the iPhone…

[Thanks to Tom for the app limit tip!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Verizon Droid iDoesn’t Beat iPhone on Browser, Apps, Multi-touch or User Interface