Law.com has revealed that Gizmodo editor Jason Chen has hired a criminal lawyer. I’m glad to hear that he’s finally taking this seriously. Chen’s lawyer says that he does not know if Chen is the target of the investigation or if they are trying to find information about his sources. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is saying that to protect his client.

What’s more interesting is that the finder of the iPhone prototype has been revealed. Wired has discovered the identity of the finder after following some social networking clues.

From the report on Wired:

Brian J. Hogan, a 21-year-old resident of Redwood City, California, says although he was paid by tech site Gizmodo, he believed the payment was for allowing the site exclusive access to review the phone. Gizmodo emphasized to him “that there was nothing wrong in sharing the phone with the tech press,” according to his attorney Jeffrey

Hogan says that he regrets not doing more to return the iPhone to Apple. Wired also reports that a friend of Hogan called AppleCare about the device and this is all that was done as an attempt to return the device. The iPhone was never returned to the bar and no other type of attempts were made.

In their report Wired also reveals that they were contacted to purchase the device, but not by Hogan. So there was a middleman, which leads me to believe that Hogan knew what he was doing was not only incredibly shady but also potentially illegal.

Adobe’s Kevin Lynch:

given the legal terms Apple has imposed on developers, we have already decided to shift our focus away from Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices for both Flash Player and AIR. We are working to bring Flash Player and AIR to all the other major participants in the mobile ecosystem, including Google, RIM, Palm (soon to be HP), Microsoft, Nokia and others.

Apple didn’t leave a lot of room for comment from Adobe. Apple’s stance was pretty clear and it would have been difficult for Adobe to argue with it directly. Using this as an opportunity to remind everyone that other platforms will be getting Flash was probably the smartest move they could have made.

HP has announced that they will be acquiring Palm for $1.2 billion.

From the press release:

HP and Palm, Inc. today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase Palm, a provider of smartphones powered by the Palm webOS mobile operating system, at a price of $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion. The transaction has been approved by the HP and Palm boards of directors.

The press release also mentions that current chairman and CEO, Jon Rubinstein, is expected to remain with the company.

I see this as a good move for both companies. But, I am still a little worried, this could easily be poorly executed. What keeps me hopeful though, is this little bit from MG Siegler’s interview with HP’s senior VP Brian Humphries in which Humphries says:

WebOS is the best-in-class mobile operating system. Our intent is to double down on WebOS.

The biggest mistake HP could make is to not use webOS for all of their handheld and tablet devices. There has already been word from Michael Arrington on TechCrunch that HP has canceled their Windows 7 tablet. Arrington mentions ChromeOS as a possible replacement OS on similar future tablets from HP, I truly hope this isn’t the case, webOS would be fantastic on a tablet. HP needs to use every resource at Palm to its fullest extent, not doing so would defeat the purpose of this acquisition.

Engadget reports that Microsoft has confirmed that “Courier” was a real project but that it will not be released to the market.

Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s VP of corporate communications:

At any given time, across any of our business groups, there are new ideas being investigated, tested, and incubated. It’s in Microsoft’s DNA to continually develop and incubate new technologies to foster productivity and creativity. The “Courier” project is an example of this type of effort and its technologies will be evaluated for use in future Microsoft offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.

This doesn’t surprise me all that much. Courier never really seemed like something that would have a broad market appeal. I can see that there would be those that would buy it and love it, but unfortunately the digital journal isn’t something that too many people would buy into. Although there was a lot of great things to demo in those leaked videos nothing really reached out and grabbed me as something I would really need.

Lala has posted a brief message to their website announcing that the service will shut down on May 31. The site will no longer be accepting new users.

This has sparked a flurry of speculation that Apple will be launching their own music streaming service shortly after Lala’s demise. However, none of these rumors seem to be based on anything other than the fact that they own Lala and it is shutting down.

I personally believe that Apple will launch a music streaming service at some point in the future. But I find it likely that Apple is simply moving resources away from Lala to ramp up development of their own service, not to launch it.

My iPad was “prepared for shipment” two days ago. This morning I received confirmation from Apple that it has officially shipped. FedEx says it will be delivered tomorrow.

Thankfully I have the day off and will be anxiously awaiting the FedEx guy all morning. I haven’t been this excited about a new device since I bought the first generation iPhone.

In a rare public letter, Steve Jobs published his “Thoughts on Flash” in which he explained why Apple hasn’t implemented Flash on the iPhone, iPod, and iPad.

Jobs made six points in his piece, all of which have been made by others, but it’s nice to finally hear it from Apple themselves in a concise manner.

On openness:

Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe […] Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards.

It’s hard for Adobe to argue that Flash is open, and I’m still amazed by the number of people who believe them. Flash isn’t open because Adobe solely controls it’s future. Just because Flash is nearly ubiquitous does not mean it’s open.

On the “full web”:

Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. […] YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices […] Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.

I can think of a lot of web video sites that are still not available on the iPhone or iPad, but you’d be hard pressed to find a video that isn’t available on one of Steve’s listed sites. When the iPhone was first released I would often come across a video that wouldn’t playback on the iPhone. But, this happens less and less often — I can’t even remember the last time I had to go to my computer because a video was only available in Flash.

On reliability, security, and performance:

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. […] We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it.

The best way to keep your browser from crashing is to install ClickToFlash or FlashBlock. You’ll be amazed at how stable the web can be. It’ll also surprise you how quiet your computer is once Flash is turned off, even the simplest Flash apps seem to kick my MacBook’s fans into high gear whenever they’re loaded in the browser.

On battery life:

Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software.

Steve says that an H.264 video played on an iPhone can play for 10 hours when decoded in hardware, but using a software decoder cut that time in half. That’s certainly not the kind of battery life I want on my mobile device.

On touch and mouse-based interfaces:

Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover.

Because of this discrepancy in interfaces, many Flash websites would have to be rewritten with touch in mind. So, why not just rewrite in HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript?

On cross-platform compilers:

The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.

Apple wants you to develop using tools built specifically for the platform. It is the only way they can be assured that enhancements to the platform are adopted in a timely manner. Any feature that is specific to the iPhone won’t be a priority to the developer of a cross-platform compiler. Why spend time implementing a feature that’s only supported by one of the many platforms that your compiler supports?

Apple wants the applications in the App Store to shine when compared to their Android and Flash counterparts. Blocking cross-platform compilers is their best bet at making sure App Store apps shine. Native tools have always produced the best quality applications.

The final dig at Adobe comes in Steve’s conclusion:

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Anyone who understands why Apple is keeping Flash off their touch devices has been wondering why Adobe hasn’t invested more in building HTML5 tools. I’m glad someone this high-profile has finally told it to them straight.

I have already claimed to have published my “final thoughts on Gizmodo” but as it turns out, I have little bit more to say. When I wrote that piece I suspected that the story was over, Apple had been given their iPhone back and I didn’t expect them or the district attorney to do anything about it. Of course this was silly of me, especially since I know next to nothing about lawsuits and police investigations.

Gizmodo reports that last Friday night, California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team entered Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s home and seized four computers, two servers, and a few external hard drives. Gizmodo has chosen to publish the search warrant documentation with Jason Chen’s personal details pixelated. Gizmodo doesn’t seem to have any problem publishing the Apple employee’s details, but when it comes to their own they’ve decided to pixelate them. I guess I don’t understand that at all.

The folks at Gizmodo are arguing that journalist shield laws protect them from search and seizure. However, Henry Blodget argues that shield laws are beside the point.

From Henry Blodget’s recent piece on Business Insider:

The search warrant is ambiguous about the specific reason the police gave for the search and seizure.  Specifically, it’s possible–likely, even–that the police believe Gawker Media committed the felony by acquiring the iPhone (“buying stolen property”).

If that’s the “probable cause” the police used to obtain the warrant, the journalist shield law may not apply.

Shield laws are put into place to protect sources who may have committed crimes, it doesn’t protect journalists who have committed crimes. Especially ones who have openly admitted to purchasing something that, under California law, is stolen property (which in this case happens to be a felony).

The question is whether Jason Chen or the finder of the iPhone is the target of this investigation. If it is the finder of the iPhone than Gizmodo could argue that the search warrant is invalid and they instead should have issued a subpoena to try and obtain information from Jason Chen. But, if Jason Chen and Gizmodo or Gawker Media are (and I suspect they are) the target of this investigation than shield laws are irrelevant.

But, Gizmodo’s argument hasn’t seemed to hold up the investigation for too long. CNET is reporting that the investigation is “poised to expand.” I wouldn’t be surprised if the editors at Engadget will be the target of a subpoena in an attempt to gather information about the finder of the iPhone. Engadget was offered the unit. However, after consulting their lawyers they decided against purchasing it.

It’s clear that Gizmodo got themselves into a sticky situation and I have little faith that they’ll manage to come out of this unscathed.

Apple has responded to Adobe’s Mike Chambers’ recent piece in which he claims that Flash is an open platform.

Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller speaking with CNET:

Someone has it backwards–it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary.

Mike Chambers also mentions that Flash CS5 will still be shipping with the ability to target the iPhone and iPad, but Adobe is not planning any additional investment in the feature.

Greg Sandoval reporting for CNET:

Apple has spoken to local police about the incident and the investigation is believed to be headed by a computer crime task force led by the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office, the source said. Apple’s Cupertino headquarters is in Santa Clara County, about 40 miles south of San Francisco.

I’m starting to think that Apple may not pursue a civil lawsuit against Gizmodo however California’s district attorney may file charges against them.

Greg Sandoval explains California’s law very simply:

dating back to 1872, any person who finds lost property and knows who the owner is likely to be but “appropriates such property to his own use” is guilty of theft. If the value of the property exceeds $400, more serious charges of grand theft can be filed. In addition, a second state law says that any person who knowingly receives property that has been obtained illegally can be imprisoned for up to one year.

It sounds like Gawker Media better get their lawyers on the phone.

Gizmodo has published a letter from Apple’s senior VP and chief legal counsel Bruce Sewell that formally requests that they return the iPhone prototype to them. They’ve also published their response, which has been archived by Cult of Mac.

Gizmodo’s response in its original form:

Happy to have you pick this thing up. Was burning a hole in our pockets. Just so you know, we didn’t know this was stolen when we bought it. Now that we definitely know it’s not some knockoff, and it really is Apple’s, I’m happy to see it returned to its rightful owner.

P.S. I hope you take it easy on the kid who lost it. I don’t think he loves anything more than Apple except, well, beer.

I call this its original form because it was later edited by Gizmodo. Keep in mind that this isn’t just a weblog post, this is what Gizmodo is claiming to be their official response to Bruce Sewell.

Here’s their published response in its current form:

Happy to have you pick this thing up. Was burning a hole in our pockets. Just so you know, we didn’t know this was stolen [as they might have claimed. meaning, real and truly from Apple. It was found, and to be of unproven origin] when we bought it. Now that we definitely know it’s not some knockoff, and it really is Apple’s, I’m happy to see it returned to its rightful owner.

P.S. I hope you take it easy on the kid who lost it. I don’t think he loves anything more than Apple.

The bit in brackets was added and the snarky jab about beer has been removed. I’m not going to get into the legal aspect of this whole ordeal because I’m not I don’t know enough to do so (and Jeff Bercovici has already done a fine job at that on DailyFinance). However, I will comment on their nonchalant attitude regarding the situation. I think it’s clear to anyone who’s paid any attention to this story that Gizmodo cares less about their reputation and readers than they do pageviews.

The simple fact that they edited their response to make themselves look better is enough reason to believe that these guys aren’t anything more than scumbags. Gizmodo has lost me as a reader and I don’t know if there is anything they could do to bring me back.

Microsoft’s announcement of what can best be described as the successor to the Sidekick, “Kin,” slipped below the fold in my RSS reader because of the flurry of stories related to the iPhone leak. As a result I haven’t managed to write anything about it yet, but I certainly have a lot of opinions about it.

If you don’t already know, Microsoft announced two handsets, the Kin One and Kin Two. Both handsets use an entirely different user interface than Windows Phone 7 and there isn’t any support for third-party apps.

I can’t explain to you how silly I think this entire initiative is. Microsoft has everything they need to make a real, genuinely good experience in the mobile space and they seem determined to fail. Less than one month after Windows Phone 7 is detailed they drop this thing in our laps. I understand that they want to market Kin towards teenagers but why is Apple the only handset maker confident enough in their products to market their handset to everyone? Men, women, teenagers, businessmen, etc. Why couldn’t Microsoft integrate the team at Danger into their own mobile division and simplify their lineup? Instead they’ve decided to split development and resources between two distinctly different offerings. Kin doesn’t even run on the same Windows CE kernel as Windows Phone 7.

But, it isn’t just Windows Phone 7 and Kin, there’s this third platform called Zune. They’ve attempted to integrate all of the platforms together through Zune with it’s desktop software and Zune Pass but what’s the point of having apps for Zune, different apps for Windows Phone 7, and zero apps for Kin? I don’t understand why they couldn’t attempt to compete with Apple head-on and build one operating system for all three systems. Windows Phone 7 could be the OS that runs on Zune, Kin, and other manufacturer’s handsets. Zune could be the phone-less device that Apple (with the iPod touch) has learned to be oh so important. Kin could simply be the branding that Microsoft uses on their own handsets, while Windows Phone 7 could be the underlying OS that runs on all of them. I’m sure Microsoft’s partners wouldn’t be too happy about competing with Microsoft, but at least we would know where Microsoft was headed. And, Microsoft would know for sure that there is at least one Windows Phone 7 handset (their own) on the market that lives up to their standards and has decent push behind it.

Microsoft has been struggling to keep market share with Windows Mobile and it looked like they were headed in the right direction when Windows Phone 7 was announced, but their Kin announcement has made me lose all hope.  If you know what to look for you can see the resemblance between Kin and Windows Phone 7. But, the extra social integration and lack of third-party apps makes Kin look like this strange oddball device that has little do with Zune or Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft seems to have a problem eating their own dog food. Not only is the Kin website written in Flash (as apposed to Silverlight), Licensing Windows Phone 7 to other manufacturers while using another OS on their own handsets makes me feel like Microsoft is unsure about how good either one of them are, so instead of putting all of their effort behind one or the other they’ve decided to hedge their bets. This means that, aside from the people on the Windows Phone 7 and Kin teams, no one in the company is really behind either one of the two. Without the full force of the company I don’t know if either one of them will be anything more than Windows Mobile Part 2.

In an amazing display of scumbaggery, Gizmodo has decided to publicly shame the Apple employee who lost the iPhone prototype. I’ve decided not to link to their piece and not to mention the employee’s name because I think their actions are simply appalling.

There was no mention in Gizmodo’s report of who found the device or how the folks at Gizmodo got a hold of it. Their story goes from “He reached for a phone and called a lot of Apple numbers and tried to find someone who was at least willing to transfer his call to the right person, but no luck” to “weeks later, Gizmodo got it” without much actual information in between. However, the New York Times has confirmed that the person who found the device sold it to Nick Denton, chief executive of Gawker Media, which owns Gizmodo, for $5,000.

The piece ends with what seems like their justification for running it, Jesus Diaz stating that Apple shouldn’t fire the employee.

He sounded tired and broken. But at least he’s alive and apparently may still be working at Apple—as he should be. After all, it’s just a fucking iPhone and mistakes can happen to everyone

Sure, it’s just an iPhone that Gizmodo paid $5,000 to get their hands on. It’s just an iPhone that Jason Chen and Jesus Diaz were willing to risk journalistic integrity to write about in detail. It’s just an iPhone that is currently considered to be stolen goods under California law.

Whether it’s just an iPhone or not, you’ve decided to publicly humiliate a man who made a mistake, possible costing him his career. It doesn’t matter if you thought you were doing the right thing — you weren’t. Sure, you may have had one of the biggest days in the history of Gizmodo (in terms of pageviews) but you’ve lost what little respect for you that remained from some incredibly influential people (like Macro Arment, Craig Hockenberry, and John Gruber to name a few).

What really got my goat was Nick Denton’s tweet in which he wrote:

A few clueless geeks believe “real journalists” wait for Steve Jobs or his publicists to make an announcement. Screw that.

That may be the case, but “real journalists” also believe that one shouldn’t acquire stolen property for pageviews.

But hey, it’s just a fucking iPhone.

There’s certainly a lot of information missing from today and yesterday‘s iPhone leak. Engadget and Gizmodo both claim that it was lost in a bar and Gizmodo says that they got their hands on it a week ago. John Gruber asserts that it was purchased about a week ago by Gizmodo from whoever “found” it, if this is the case than I would assume that the folks at Gizmodo could be in for some legal trouble. Buying a “found” device from someone is a major issue because (as Nilay Patel points out) in California the finder of a lost item is required to contact the police and return it to its owner.

The biggest question I have is was this device actually just found in a bar? It seems plausible but it’s also nearly as likely that the device was actually stolen (Apple considers it to be, as Gruber pointed out in the aforelinked piece). If this device was in anyway stolen and Gizmodo knows about it, I think they should come out and admit it. But, regardless of whether it was stolen, Gizmodo needs to explain themselves and speak more about how they actually got their hands on the device.

In the realm of conspiracy theory 9 to 5 Mac mentions that we already know about one fourth generation iPhone that was lost — the one that a Foxconn employee lost that lead to his death. I doubt that these are the same device but it makes you think a little bit more about the origins of this device. Could it have been stolen from Foxconn’s factory? Or maybe even Apple’s campus?

If Engadget knew this device was real, and that Gizmodo had it, why didn’t they admit it in one of their posts? If Apple was able to remotely wipe the device, why couldn’t they use “Find my iPhone” to retrieve it? I have a feeling many of these questions will be answered, but we’ll have to wait and see.

While everyone is still mulling over the fourth generation iPhone leak, I’ve had some time to look through my backlog of news. Three days ago AppleInsider reported that Apple is in discussions to adopt AMD chips.

AppleInsider’s sources claim to have seen AMD executives on their way out of meetings at Apple’s campus. Regarding the reasoning behind Apple’s move from Intel, AppleInsider writes:

It is believed that Apple is working with AMD to expand its potential sources for CPUs in order to increase its flexibility and broaden its competitive options, but also likely in response to problems it has encountered with Intel. These issues include limited availability of new processors (which is rumored to have slowed Apple’s notebook refreshes) as well as new chipset designs imposed by Intel that have blocked the Mac maker’s plans to continue a partnership with NVidia to deliver a standardized chipset for use with its Intel processors across all of its consumer computer offerings.

Expanding their CPU sources is the most interesting reason behind this move. It means that Intel will have to compete with AMD for Apple’s attention which, if true, means that Apple will be able to get faster chips for less money per unit. I just hope that lower cost to Apple translates to even faster macs at the same cost to the consumer.

In an interesting turn of events, Applesfera has retracted their claim that Engadget’s iPhone was a Japanese knockoff saying that the reader who sent in the photo admitted it was fake.

John Gruber has linked to a 2006 patent filing for ceramic enclosures. The ceramic enclosure would be glass-like in appearance, be radio transparent, and have high durability. He also spoke with multiple sources who confirmed that the next iPhone’s back is made out of “some sort of fancy glass — and looks pretty much exactly like what’s pictured at Engadget.”

The biggest thing that bugs me about this whole story is the fact that Engadget likely knew more when they published their original story. This extra information clearly lead them to believe that it was real but Joashua Topolsky didn’t indicate that they knew anything more than what was included in their original report. In their second update to their followup piece, Joshua Topolsky writes:

It is incredibly likely that the next version of the iPhone will look like the photos you see in the gallery below, and we certainly wouldn’t claim that if we didn’t have good reason to believe it.

So, why didn’t he write something along the lines of: “we’ve been given more information that we can’t publish that leads us to believe that this is indeed the real deal” in they’re original report? It very well could have been an oversight but why did it take until the second update to their followup post to say something to that effect? It boggles the mind.

The biggest piece of evidence that this is a real prototype is that Gizmodo has the device and has written an extensive look at the new hardware features. They weren’t able to boot the device as it had been remotely wiped and without a hardware-specific firmware file they haven’t been able to get anything more than the connect to iTunes screen. But, the device does appear in iTunes when connected to a computer. Gizmodo’s Jason Chen says that the handset was lost in a bar in Redwood City and disguised inside of a case that made it look like an iPhone 3GS.

It’s worth noting that John Gruber called around and confirmed that Apple had lost a prototype unit and it’s “a unit Apple is very interested in getting back.” Gruber later adds that Apple considers the device to be stolen not lost and also writes:

It’s been an open secret to those of us in the racket that Gizmodo purchased this unit about a week ago, from those who claimed to find it.

Gizmodo mentions that they have had it for a week but never mentions that it was purchased. I don’t have any problem with them purchasing the device but I find it a little disingenuous for them to act as if they don’t know who had the device before them.

Jason Chen details some of the hardware improvements in their write-up which include an improved camera, camera flash, front-facing camera, micro-SIM (instead of a regular SIM card), improved display, a secondary mic likely used for noise cancellation, split buttons for volume, and metal power, mute, and volume buttons. Gizmodo says that it is 3 grams heavier and has a 16% larger battery.

What we still don’t know is how close this device is to the final design. I strongly believe that the back of the fourth generation iPhone will be made of this ceramic material but I don’t believe the sides to look anything like this. I find it hard to believe that Apple would let a working device outside their doors that looks anything like what we’ll see in June. I believe the sides will be made out of the same material but won’t look like they do in the photos Engadget and Gizmodo have published.

I think this device is a field test unit made specifically to test the new ceramic back for radio transparency. But whether this is a field test unit or not, the folks at Apple can’t be anything less than pissed about this whole ordeal. I just wonder how Gizmodo is going to be treated when invites are sent out for Apple’s next event.

Last night Engadget published photos of what was claimed to be the fourth generation iPhone (or a prototype of such device). The reader who sent the photos in said that he found it on the floor of a San Jose bar inside of an iPhone 3G case. It was said to have a front facing camera, 80GB of storage, and a “decidedly new” OS (although it wasn’t booting at the time when he sent in the photos, how convenient).

The images wreaked of fake when I first saw them last night and they didn’t seem any more real when I looked at them this morning. And lo and behold, Applesfera reports that the device is indeed a Japanese iPhone knockoff.

This is less a story about the device itself and more a story about Engadget’s shoddy reporting.

Joshua Topolsky from the original Engadget report:

Is this the iPhone 4G (or iPhone HD)? There’s no way to tell for sure, but these photos which made their way into our hands certainly do a convincing job of making us think that’s very much the case. […] It’s not clear if this is definitely a production model, or just a prototype that found its way into the world, but it’s certainly a compelling design, no matter how you look at it.

I understand that it’s their job is to get pageviews, but why would you report on this without making it very clear that this could easily be a fake? “Certainly do a convincing job,” how is this the case? What was it that made you believe it was true, Josh? Was it the three — count’em three — photos with terrible framing that were sent in or was it the incredibly ridiculous story that was sent with them?

Just like many of you, I noticed the “iPod Out” feature listed on one of the slides at the iPhone 4.0 event. Until now there wasn’t any information as to what “iPod Out” actually was. The Unofficial Apple Weblog reveals that this feature could be used for car integration.

Their “informant” tells them that the application will be bundled with iPods and iPhones and when launched will turn the iPhone or iPod touch’s screen into a remote used to control a menu system fed out through a video-out cable.

The included video depicting the interface is reminiscent of click-wheel iPods and currently only allows for audio playback. Their informant also suggests that Apple could be building their own branded car kit that could include physical buttons and a screen to display the menu system.

Apple issued a statement today announcing that they have postponed the release of the iPad internationally due to unexpectedly strong demand in the U.S. Apple has sold 500,000 units in the first week and have taken “a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models.”

Apple will announce international pricing  and begin accepting pre-orders on May 10, with delivery starting in late May.

Before I read their announcement I was hoping that there would be mention of a more concrete date for iPad 3G shipments in the U.S. But, this was strictly about the international launch.

“Late April” and “late May” seems to be as specific as they’re willing to be right now.

Twitter has acquired Tweetie and it’s developer, Loren Brichter, will now be working for Twitter. Anyone who uses or develops Twitter clients should pay attention to how this plays out. Tweetie’s name will be changed to “Twitter for iPhone,” which means that when someone searches for “Twitter” in the App Store, Twitter’s own application will be the first one listed. This is good for users because it means that developers will have to step up their game to get new users and keep their existing ones.

But, this could be bad news for developers — why would someone use your client when they could use the official client? Especially since Twitter’s own client will be free. There’s a lot of questions left unanswered. Will Twitter for the iPhone get early access to new APIs? Will it be restricted to the same API limits imposed on other developers? Will it be the only client with true push notifications?

Until all of these questions are answered it’s hard to tell how this will play out. I’m optimistic, but I really hope that Twitter doesn’t screw up Tweetie like Brizzly did to Birdfeed.

Updated Guide

7/15/10: As it turns out, iRecovery has been superseded by RecBoot a simple utility that can force your iPhone into or out of recovery mode.

Use this guide at your own risk, I’ve tested it and it worked for me and I’ve seen a great deal of evidence suggesting that this should work for everyone, but there is always the chance of it not working for you. Luckily, you should always be able to revert back to 4.0 if anything goes wrong.

The new steps are as follows:

• Put your iPhone in DFU mode.
• Once iTunes recognizes the device click OK.
• Download iPhone firmware 3.1.3 from iClarified.
• Option-click (shift-click on Windows) the Restore button in iTunes.
• Choose the downloaded firmware file from above.
• Your firmware should install, it will take 10-15 minutes.
• After the device restores you’ll receive an error, most likely 1011, 1013, 1015, or 1055. This is normal.
• Download RecBoot from sebby.net.
• After the download is finished use RecBoot to exit recovery mode.

And again, if you have any problems with this guide please drop me a line. I’d like to keep this guide as current as possible for all upcoming iOS firmware updates.

Original Guide

I was one of the brave ones, somebody who installed 4.0 on their primary device. Yes, it was stupid. But, I managed to play around with new software before most iPhone users even had a chance to look over the feature set.

I ultimately decided that 4.0 beta 1 wasn’t quite ready yet. I’ll probably upgrade to one of the future 4.0 betas but for now I’d rather be on 3.1.3.

I set about attempting to find a good guide to help me downgrade my device. But, there aren’t very many available and most of the ones that exist seem to be targeted towards users who have jailbroken their device. After 5-6 guides I was finally able to downgrade my device.

So, here’s how to downgrade to 3.1.3 (remember that if you don’t have backups from 3.1.3 you’ll have to start from scratch):

• Put your iPhone in DFU mode.
• Once iTunes recognizes the device click OK.
• Click restore and iPhone firwmare 3.1.3 will be installed. This process should take 10-15 minutes.
• After the device restores you’ll receive an error, most likely 1011, 1013, 1015, or 1055. This is normal.
• Download iRecovery from iHackintosh.
• Open the archive (I suggest the Unarchiver) and then open irecovery-mac.zip.
• Open Terminal and drag and drop irecovery into it.
• Add ” -s” to the end of the command and hit enter.
• Wait for iRecovery to load and run the following commands one at a time:
• setenv auto-boot true, then saveenv, and finally /exit
• Hold down the home and lock buttons for ten seconds and reboot your device.
• It should show up in iTunes and work properly.
• Luckily I saved my iPhone backups (located in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup) so I could quickly put my pre-4.0 backups in that folder and then restore from them. But, if you don’t happen to have those backed up (keep Time Machine in mind) you’ll have to start fresh.

I hope this helps all of you that were too excited about 4.0 to think about how difficult it would be going back to 3.1.3. I’ve spent some time with my device and everything appears to be working fine.

If you have any problems with the guide or have found any better solutions or steps please drop me a line. I’d like to keep this guide as current as possible for the latest iPhone 4.0 betas.

Today, Opera announced that their Opera Mini web browser for the iPhone has been approved for the App Store. It showed up in the U.S. App Store shortly after their announcement. I’ve tried it out and honestly, it’s not very good.

The first site I visited on Opera Mini was my own (naturally) and needless to say it didn’t render too well. All of the text is pushed off to the left and scrunched up. Compare this to Mobile Safari which renders it much better.

Next I tried to view Engadget in the browser. It rendered much better than I thought it would, but the text of each of the posts was also scrunched to the left. At this point I started to understand why Opera does this. Double tapping zooms in and the text happens to fit the width of the screen nicely. This way you don’t have to do any horizontal scrolling to read a line. I personally believe that Apple’s decision to render pages as they are coded is a better way to handle this sort of problem. I hope Opera changes their mind and starts rendering pages properly in the future.

But, speaking of zooming, there happens to be only two levels of zoom, zoomed in and zoomed out. This is a hindrance when your trying to zoom into a high-resolution image or trying to fit something on the screen perfectly — it just isn’t possible.

There are some nice features in Opera, though. The ability to quickly switch between a search of Google, Amazon, eBay, Wikipedia, etc. in the search bar would come in handy when you are trying to find something specific on the web. I often find myself searching Google for “something wikipedia” while using Mobile Safari. I want information about that thing but would prefer to find it on Wikipedia. I’m sure the “Find in Page” feature will be used extensively, and I’m willing to bet that some people will consider it a killer feature. Unfortunately, I don’t happen to be one of those people. Searching within a page is great but there are already bookmarklets available that enable the same feature in Mobile Safari.

Opera features a handy start page with up to 9 web pages listed for quick browsing. But as long as you close the last window the last time it was used, Mobile Safari will show you your bookmarks the next time it opens. And, I happen to find Mobile Safari’s bookmark list more attractive than Opera’s wonky-looking start page, especially with that “Recommend to a friend” link at the top.

Bookmarks, history, and tabbed browsing are all there, although bookmarks are hidden inside of the tools button and their tabbed browsing implementation is simply terrible. Why in the world do I have to tap the close button twice before a page closes? It just doesn’t make any sense.

I have some other issues with the browser, I don’t like that the title bar is always visible at the top of the screen, tapping on the status bar doesn’t scroll to the top (it does with the title bar), I hate the icons along the bottom of the screen, and I cannot stress enough how terrible the rendering is. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of Smoking Apples rendered in Opera (left) and Mobile Safari (right):

Pretty awful, right?

Web pages do load quickly, though. I can give them that. And, I’m glad to see a “Saved Pages” feature for offline viewing. However, Instapaper is my preferred way of reading while offline.

I don’t think I’ll be using Opera Mini again any time soon, but I’m certainly happy that it exists. Not only does this open the doors to other browsers in the App Store, it will also help push Apple to continue improving Mobile Safari.

Opera Mini Web Browser – Free

Arnold Kim reports on MacRumors (and I can confirm) that the iPhone no longer prompts users to rate an application upon deletion. Developers have complained about this since it was introduced because it skews ratings downward.

I personally remove applications from my iPhone all the time, just as a way of cleaning house. There are many apps that I use rarely and therefore only install on my device when I actually need them. I usually use the prompt as an opportunity to rate these applications. So for me this means I will likely never rate another application again.

But for the majority of users and developers, this is a good thing.

As if the announcement regarding compatibility wasn’t clear enough, the first generation iPhone will no longer receive software updates from Apple. @ven000m sent Steve Jobs an email asking the question and Steve replied:

Sorry, no.

This isn’t exactly a surprise but I had incorrectly predicted that the first generation iPhone would support iPhone OS 4. I didn’t think that it would support all of the features, Apple often leaves features out of software updates for old hardware. But, I suppose I didn’t think it through as much as I should have. By the time 4.0 comes out every person who purchased the first generation iPhone will be out of contract (or very close to out of contract). A 3 year life cycle for devices makes perfect sense.

Anyone who is upset about this should either switch to a new platform or suck it up and buy a new iPhone.

I listen to quite a few enhanced podcasts, many of them include links in each of their chapters. Unfortunately iPhone OS hasn’t supported those links, even though it has a full web browser. But, with iPhone OS 4 links now appear when listening to enhanced podcasts.

The image on the left is an iPod touch running iPhone OS 3.1.3 playing the most recent episode of the Engadget podcast, the image on the right is an iPhone 3GS running OS 4 playing back the same podcast.

The first change is that the progress bar now shows the entire podcast length, not just the current chapter. The chapter selector can still be accessed by tapping the track list button (although currently, selecting a track crashes the app). But, there is new info button below the playback controls, tapping on it takes you into Mobile Safari to visit the web page linked to by the current chapter.

Last week Fever was updated to version 1.14 and with it came the introduction of an API. The API is currently in public beta and supports basic syncing and consuming of content. A future update will allow for adding, editing, and deleting feeds and groups.

I’m incredibly glad that Fever’s developer, Shaun Inman, has decided to build an API for Fever. I quit using Google Reader last summer and have only looked back briefly (simply to test out Reeder). I enjoy using Fever and specifically hope that the developer of Reeder decides to support it in the near future.

I know of one developer who is already working on an app that makes use of Fever’s API. James Finley is working with a friend on an application for the iPad called “Ashes.” He’s published a few teaser images of the app on his Dribbble account and it looks great. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

Bloomberg reports that Palm has been working with Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer for the company.

HTC and Lenovo have both been mentioned as possible buyers. Dell is said to have also looked at buying Palm but ultimately decided against it.

Palm has been struggling for several years and I’m sad to say that, unless they find a suitable buyer, this could be the end. Palm has resorted to some desperate moves as of late, even offering their flagship device on Verizon for $49.99 with a buy-one-get-one-free deal.

So, who should buy Palm? As much as HTC would benefit from Palm’s patent portfolio in their lawsuit with Apple, I really think Om Malik was right when he said that Motorla should buy Palm. What Motorola needs is to differentiate. They shouldn’t just be another Windows Phone 7 or Android handset maker. They make good enough hardware, but why would anyone buy a Motorola handset over the Google branded Nexus One? I think webOS should be the answer.

From a piece I published on April 14, 2009:

I have admitted that I was skeptical about the CrunchPad, but I must also admit that the device looks pretty solid and has a very clear path to the market.

That was nearly a year ago, but earlier this month the CrunchPad finally shipped to customers, albeit under a different moniker. I think we were all a bit skeptical and although there might only be about 100 of them in the wild, Fusion Garage actually managed to get this thing out the door.

I don’t know if anyone truly thinks that this could be a credible iPad competitor but I certainly know Paul Miller doesn’t. From the wrap-up section of his review on Engadget:

Even putting aside the fact that Apple’s $499 iPad brings more to the table than just web browsing, the JooJoo is less portable, has a worse (if larger) screen, is unintuitive to use, and ships with half-baked software. We commend the start-up on its nice piece of hardware design, but until the software is given some much-needed love and the price is seriously reevaluated we simply cannot recommend this tablet.

When the CrunchPad project was first announced I was actually excited about it. The idea of a 10-12 inch tablet computer built specifically for browsing the web sounding great. But a good idea can only get you so far. Shoddy software and litigation is a recipe for failure.

Remember the brouhaha over Elgato’s EyeTV for iPhone being able to stream over 3G? Well, with EyeTV for iPhone version 1.0.2 3G streaming has returned.

I’ve tried it out and it works quite well. The iPhone app can even remotely open EyeTV on your mac if it isn’t already running when you attempt to stream.

Elgato has done a great job with this app. My only complaint is that I’d like to have a better view for scheduling recordings, maybe something a little more like what you’d see on your cable box’s guide.

Microsoft has invited the press to an event to be held on April 12. The invitations were received on April 5 and we already know what the event will be focused on. CNET’s Ina Fried has heard that Microsoft will unveil their “Pink” phones.

Ina Fried:

The devices, code-named Pure and Turtle, are both slider phones, each with a touch screen and keyboard, a source told CNET. In the U.S., the devices will run on Verizon Wireless’ network and go on sale within the month following the event.

Paul Thurrott has also stated that this is definitely the Pink phone announcement.

The craziest part about Microsoft’s Pink phones is that from what I’ve gathered, it isn’t going to be based on Windows Phone 7. That could have changed over the past several months, but it appears that Pink is just going to be their replacement for the Sidekick.

Steve Swasey, VP of Corporate Communications writing in The Netflix Blog regarding Netflix on the iPhone:

We wouldn’t invite you to dinner without planning to serve dessert.

I still haven’t had a chance to try Netflix on the iPad but it’ll likely be the first app I launch when I get mine at the end of the month. As for Netflix on the iPhone, good idea.

I’ve had a little bit of time with iPhone OS 4 and it is actually quite stable. A few of my apps don’t work that well (or at all). Birdhouse for example crashes when you attempt to open it and Delivery Status Touch only displays a black screen. But, beyond all of that it is still very usable even though it is such an early build. There aren’t any applications available that are background aware but fast app switching alone can come in quite handy. I found it especially useful when using TomTom’s navigation app.

One unexpected result of applications’ ability to save state is that Fever has become quite a bit more useful to me. Fever has been my favorite feed reader ever since it was released last summer but since web clips can now save state whenever I launch Fever it often times (unless it was flushed from memory) goes right back to where I left off and there is no need to reload the page. The only downside to this is that if I receive any errors from Fever I have to manually close the application in the app switching dock.

I haven’t found anything that I don’t like in OS 4, everything has taken a step in the right direction. I’m truly excited to see how this all works once developers start adding background awareness to their apps.

Yesterday, Apple unveiled iPhone OS 4 and along with the rumored multitasking and unified email inbox, Apple had a slew of other features that will push the platform even closer to perfection.

Steve Jobs and Scott Forestall talked about their seven “tentpole” features in iPhone OS 4, but they also mentioned that there are over 100 new user features. Before I get into the big stuff I think there are a few smaller ones that deserve mentioning. Playlist creation, spell check, Bluetooth keyboard support, 5x digital zoom, and home screen wallpapers are some of the more interesting ones.

Apple has introduced folders for the iPhone, just drag and drop an app icon onto another one and a folder is created with a name automatically populated for you (although it can be edited). Folders is just a simple way of organizing your applications but I have a feeling it’s going to make it a lot easier for people to find their apps. I also think many will consider this a way to hide some of the default applications that they don’t ever use.

The rumored unified email inbox was there and with it came a threaded conversation view as well. I’ve been hoping for a unified email inbox since day one and I’m incredibly happy that it’s finally been implemented. Threaded view will be a boon for those of you who get a lot of email, but for people like me it’ll never get used. Apple has also announced the ability to open email attachments with applications from the App Store, so if you receive a photo you could choose what photo editor you’d like to open it in.

Apple has brought iBooks to the iPhone. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, Apple clearly has been working on this for a while but decided that the iPad announcement wasn’t the right time to talk about it. Buy a book once and read it on either the iPad or the iPhone. Current location and bookmarks will be wirelessly synced, so you’ll be able to read on your iPhone and pick up where you left off on your iPad.

Apple has made some enterprising enhancements, including: better data protection, mobile device management, wireless app distribution, support for multiple Exchange accounts, and SSL VPN support.

A new social gaming network has been announced called “Game Center.” In essence it is Xbox Live for the iPhone. You can challenge your friends to a game, it will do automatic matchmaking that will find you opponents of a similar ability to you, leaders boards, and achievements. Game Center is an obvious slap in the face of Sony and Nintendo who as of yet haven’t really been able to make online gaming work too well on handheld devices. I’m incredibly excited about this because two of my family members just recently purchased an iPhone and another one will be doing so in two months. I really like the idea challenging them to a game of Scrabble or checking their achievements in Ramp Champ.

Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless has resulted in a new mobile advertising network for iPhone apps called “iAd.” This announcement appeared to be targeted directly at Google. Jobs made a point to mention that search on mobile devices just doesn’t happen like it does on the desktop, if you want to find a restaurant you open the Yelp app not Google, if you want to find a movie playing you open the Fandango app not Google. Apple is also attempting to increase the quality of ads by creating interactive and emotional experiences. What’s amazing about the implementation of the ads is that even before I saw them I imagined exactly what Apple displayed. A simple banner-style ad that expands to a full screen ad with a close button in the upper-corner. The ads keep you in your app instead of jumping you into Mobile Safari. The ads are built using HTML5 and can make use of audio, video, maps, etc. Apple will be selling and hosting the ads and 60% of the revenue will go to the developer. I think this is a great opportunity for developers and I can assure them that I for one will not hesitate to tap on these ads.

I’ve decided to leave the biggest announcement for last, as it deserves the most attention. Multitasking is finally coming to the iPhone. Apple claims to have implemented multitasking while avoiding battery life issues and performance degradation. Apple has made it easy for applications to save state so that when the app is opened again you are exactly where you left off the last time it was used. This is key to the way Apple has designed their multitasking experience because apps don’t actually run in the background. Instead, Apple has decided to implement the most common background services themselves and will be providing those services as APIs to developers (more on that below). The most striking part of multitasking on the iPhone is fast app switching. Rather than having to go to the home screen and choose your application you can double click the home button and a dock will pop up on the bottom of the screen showing you all of the applications that are “running” in the background. You can then choose one of those apps and jump right into them. This fast app switching seems daunting at first, at least currently I haven’t found any limit to the number of apps that can sit in that dock, I’ve had as many as 37 in it at a time. And people thought trying to find an app in a screen of 16 icons was hard, try swiping through screens with just 4 icons on each. Luckily, Apple makes it a little bit easier to deal with by letting you remove “close” those applications by tap and holding on the icon and tapping the minus button. Also, your most recently used applications always sit close to (or on) the first four spots.

But, let’s get back to those background services. Background audio was the first service mentioned in which Pandora was demoed playing audio in the background. The player controls that appear on the lock screen are also available to developers, so you can skip to the next or previous song or pause the audio. The next service is voice over IP. When developers implement it you’ll be able to stay on a VoIP call while using another application. Location services will also be able to run in the background. If you are using the TomTom application you’ll be able to open another app and continue to receive directions. Since GPS uses so much power, some applications that don’t need your exact location will be able to use information from the call towers to determine your location. They’ve also added app by app controls for location services and an icon to the status bar that let’s you know if any application is currently asking for your location.

Push notifications was Apple’s first background service and they’ve made sure you remind you that it’s around. But, they’ve also added local notifications which are exactly as the name suggests. The final background service is task completion, such as uploading photos to Flickr.

I have to admit that Apple seems to have hit a home run with iPhone OS 4. Multitasking alone would be a big step forward, but with all of the other announcements, 4.0 is a real leap. I’ve had a little bit of hands-on time with iPhone OS 4 and will be publishing more observations and screenshots over the next few days.

iPhone OS 4 will be released this summer for the iPhone 3G, 3GS, second, and third generation iPod touch. The second generation iPod touch and iPhone 3G will not support all of the new features (such as multitasking). iPhone OS 4 will come to the iPad this fall.

Apple is holding their iPhone OS event today and there have been a couple more rumors circulating regarding the announcements. The first of which is from Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. Yes, the same Shaw Wu who predicted that Steve Jobs wouldn’t be at September’s iPod event (in other words, his track record is a little hit and miss).

Shaw Wu claims that Apple will unveil iPhone OS 4.0 with full multi-tasking support and a new “iAd” mobile advertising service. Multi-tasking shouldn’t come as a surprise since it has been mentioned by multiple sources over the past few weeks. But, the iAd platform is something that hasn’t had nearly as many mentions. The first report I managed to find regarding the iAd service was from MediaPost late last month. There wasn’t any solid details about the service’s features but it’s safe to assume that it would be based off of Apple’s recently acquired Quattro Wireless and would give developers of free App Store apps and web apps the ability to monetize their offerings.

The second rumor is based on speculation about Apple’s Pages, Keynote, and Numbers for iPad documentation that states “printing directly from iPad is not currently available.” While this doesn’t come right out and say that these applications will support printing, it does leave the window open for the future. It’s possible that Apple decided to include this simply to make it clear that printing isn’t supported, but they also could have included it because it’s something they’re working on.

I have little reason to believe that printer support will be included in today’s announcements but I can’t imagine it will never make it’s way into the OS. If Apple sees this as a serious content creation platform (and the existence of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers indicate that they do), printing is one feature that can’t be overlooked for too long. It will happen, but when is a different question entirely.

I likely won’t be able to write about today’s announcements until later tonight but rest assured I’ll be waiting with bated breath to see what Apple has in store for the future of iPhone OS.

The official Windows Phone Twitter account has announced that they’ve dropped the word “series” from Windows Phone 7 Series. It is now officially called “Windows Phone 7.”

So, Apple releases the first viable tablet computer and Microsoft tries to preempt them by changing the name of their mobile OS. Smart guys, real smart.

Back in January I wrote this piece about the yet-to-be-announced iPad. I was trying explain why everyone was so excited about the iPad, the following bit sums up the point of the piece:

people are interested in the tablet because it is literally a clean slate (pardon the pun). The tablet isn’t about the hardware, it’s about the software — a new way of computing — done right this time (not like Microsoft’s tablet initiatives). After countless rumors about the display, the technical specs, whether or not it will have a webcam, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is the software — how we will interact with the device in new ways.

Adam Engst continues this thought in one of his recent articles on TidBITS. Where my piece focused on why we were excited about the iPad, his spends time talking about why people would want to buy one.

Here’s my favorite part of his article:

No matter what you do on a Mac, the keyboard and mouse and window-based operating system make it impossible to ignore the fact that you’re using a Mac, and it’s often equally impossible to ignore the fact that you’re using a particular program. In contrast, the iPad becomes the app you’re using. That’s part of the magic. The hardware is so understated – it’s just a screen, really – and because you manipulate objects and interface elements so smoothly and directly on the screen, the fact that you’re using an iPad falls away. You’re using the app, whatever it may be, and while you’re doing so, the iPad is that app.

As much as the criticizers want to call the iPad a device for grandmothers they really need to re-think that concept. The iPad isn’t for grandmothers (although I’m sure many of them would be incredibly happy with one), it’s for anyone who wants an easier simpler way to interact with their stuff. So much of our lives are stored on computers and current desktop operating systems seem to do everything in their power to make it difficult to do anything.

And, as stable as my MacBook and iMac are, the iPhone is still the most stable computer I’ve ever used, not a single app has crashed on me in the past six months and I can’t even remember the last time I rebooted it. On the desktop side of things I reboot my computers at least once a day and applications quit unexpectedly about 4-5 times per week. As low as that may seem it is still 4-5 times more than I’d like it to be.

I still haven’t had the opportunity to use an iPad (I ordered mine on day one but chose to pre-order the 3G version), but Adam reminds us all that the most important aspect of the iPad is it’s ability to get out of your way when you try to do things on it. It doesn’t matter what application your running, when it’s open, the iPad becomes that app.

Engadget reports that Apple has sent out invitations for an event to be held on April 8. The focus of the event will be on iPhone OS 4.0. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, Apple always seems to announce their next big iPhone OS update around this time of year. But, they do seem to be cutting it a little close with the invites.

The event will be held at Apple’s campus at 10AM PT.

There have been several rumors about iPhone OS 4.0, the most interesting of which are of a unified email inbox and an Expose-like interface for application switching (in other words, multi-tasking).

This is probably the best part about owning an iPhone OS device — it’s very likely that even if you purchased the first generation iPhone on June 29, 2007, you’ll still be able to update to iPhone OS 4.0. Every iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad is capable of updating to the latest software version, it’s a little bit tougher with other handset operating systems.

Paul Thurrott recently published his first impressions of the iPad. Here’s some of the interesting parts:

The power plug is the bigger, uglier old-style plug, not the new small, square one you get with iPhone.

That small, square one you get with the iPhone only outputs as much power as a standard USB port. The smaller USB power adapter would take twice as long to charge the iPad as the 10W adapter that comes with it.

Why isn’t this widescreen? It’s so obvious.

It seems that Thurrott is one of the few who hasn’t come to terms with the iPad’s aspect ratio. I think Neven Mrgan had the best explanation for why the iPad isn’t 16:9, he even used a nice visual aid.

There’s only a single speaker. It actually sounds OK but come on: It should [sic] four speakers so there’s always stereo sound, regardless of the screen orientation.

He seriously believes that this device should have four speakers. The hardware speakers aren’t for serious listening, if you plan on doing that I suggest getting yourself a pair of headphones.

This thing is crying out for dual cameras.

I can understand a front-facing camera — like a webcam — but why would you want one on the back of the device as well? I don’t think anyone wants to hold a 1.5 lbs. device straight out in front of them to take a picture, that’s just silly.

And the pièce de résistance:

Anyone who believes this thing is a game changer is a tool.

Wow.

David Pogue decided to split his review of the iPad into two parts, one for “techies” and one for everyone else. A brilliant idea for the review, but he starts to lose me with this:

The bottom line is that you can get a laptop for much less money — with a full keyboard, DVD drive, U.S.B. jacks, camera-card slot, camera, the works. Besides: If you’ve already got a laptop and a smartphone, who’s going to carry around a third machine?

Based on his review for everyone else, I’m not sure if this is meant to be tongue in cheek. But I’m just going to take it at face value. Let’s tackle this one by one, my DVD drive is rarely used, usually just to rip a DVD to be viewed on my iPhone or Apple TV; aside from the always plugged in Elgato EyeTV and Turbo.264, my third USB port is only used to sync my iPhone or my Kindle; I’ve never used the web cam on my iMac; I would rather wait until I get home to my iMac to import my pictures but if I was dead set on importing pictures into the iPad I could always purchase the camera connection kit ($29 is a small price to pay).

And, to answer the final question: the people who choose to carry this around are going to be the ones that realize that they rarely need an actual laptop to do what they need to do.

fiftyfootshadows.net has released a set of 15 iPad wallpapers. They’re all fantastic but I particularly enjoy “Summer Inside Winter.”

If you’ve decided to pick up an iPad I would suggest giving these a look.

The photographer behind these wallpapers, John Carey, also mentions an interesting point about wallpapers on the iPad that I haven’t thought about before. Because of the aspect ratio change, rotating into landscape mode will crop off the top and bottom of your wallpaper. For anyone who takes pictures with desktop wallpapers, you’ll have to keep this in mind when framing your subject.

(Via Minimal Mac).

Ed Baig regarding the stand-alone use of an iPad (i.e. without syncing to a computer):

Many people will still need a more traditional computer. You can’t edit video on an iPad. And the virtual onscreen keyboard that pops up when needed is fine for e-mails or scribbling notes, but I wouldn’t want to regularly write articles using it.

We mustn’t forget about backing up and updating the firmware as well, without syncing with iTunes this isn’t possible.

I think I laughed out loud four times reading his review.

Walt Mossberg nails it in his Wall Street Journal piece:

If people see the iPad mainly as an extra device to carry around, it will likely have limited appeal. If, however, they see it as a way to replace heavier, bulkier computers much of the time—for Web surfing, email, social-networking, video- and photo-viewing, gaming, music and even some light content creation—it could be a game changer the way Apple’s iPhone has been.

And by “heavier, bulkier computers” he means “laptop.”