Technology Feast

This is my takeaway from Hillel Fuld’s excellent interview with Peter Verterbacka, a.k.a. the “Mighty Eagle” of Rovio, creators of the chart-topping Angry Birds ($0.99, App Store) game:

Apple will be the number one platform for a long time from a developer perspective, they have gotten so many things right. And they know what they are doing and they call the shots. Android is growing, but it’s also growing complexity at the same time. Device fragmentation not the issue, but rather the fragmentation of the ecosystem. So many different shops, so many different models. The carriers messing with the experience again. Open but not really open, a very Google centric ecosystem. And paid content just doesn’t work on Android.

I’m a huge fan of Angry Birds and happen to agree with him about Apple. Verterbacka is also brilliant for focusing on retention. How many time have you downloaded an app only to use it for a day or two then never again? Probably a lot. Rovio keeps us coming back for more (a.k.a. retention) by issuing free updates every four weeks or so with lots of new levels.

I also think that new AB plush toys (pictured via Digital Mom Blog) make the best cubicle decor ever. You can get them as in-app purchases in Angry Birds Seasons ($0.99, App Store) and online exclusively through ToyWiz.com.

Skype just rolled out video calling for iOS devices so now you can forget about trying to find friends with Facetime and make video calls to millions of people around the world. Did you know that Skype video calling was out and available for the Nokia N900 back in May of this year? The Nokia N900 is still the best mobile phone for integrated Skype support so if Skype is important to you then you might want to consider this device that has been out for over a year.

Skype for iOS devices is definitely a major new and welcome functionality since there are so many millions of iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch owners and now these customers can experience free video calling and instant messaging. However, it isn’t the first mobile phone to get Skype video support, even though many are reporting it this way. The Nokia N900 launched with Skype service integration and in my foreign travels I made sure to have it on hand for free calls (when connected to WiFi in a hotel or other hotspot) back to my family in the US. Jason Harris wrote about the Skype video calling experience back in May and as you can see the user interface on the N900 is quite good.

The Nokia N900 also has support for several other services associated with your contacts and presents you with an awesome interface for knowing your contacts’ status and interacting with them. You can share your status and location, make voice or VoIP calls, send email or SMS, or start up an IM conversation all from within the same view. The Nokia N900 is also a fantastic multitasking device and is a device that is still worthy of consideration in this day and age with the latest iOS, Android, webOS, Symbian, and Windows Phone 7 devices.

Throw together some of the world’s foremost thinkers of online privacy and representatives from Mozilla into a room, and given enough time something incredible will be created.

Introducing a prototype alpha version of ‘Privacy Icons’, these visual representations of online privacy policies could revolutionise the existing policies for websites and services into a readable and understandable format for ordinary users.

This combined effort will help transform text-based contract-like policies into a system where the ordinary user will know where their data goes. For example, knowing that a website or service will only use your data solely for the intended use for that site, versus a service which uses your data to sell on to spammers and junk mailers could be the difference between using it and not.

Gallery
To take a look at the proposed new Privacy Icons to revolutionise the understanding of online privacy policies, check out the gallery here.

To find out more, I spoke to my old friend, Aza Raskin, former head of user experiences at Mozilla Labs and now startup entrepreneur of Massive Health, about his prototype idea of Privacy Icons.

I asked him about enforcement and how privacy policies can be amended to accommodate Privacy Icons:

“The current thinking for Privacy Icons is to use a bolt-on approach. That is, when a site uses a Privacy Icon, the icon appends legalese to the site’s existing privacy policy to make it as enforceable as privacy policies can be.

Just like copyright or privacy policies in general, Privacy Icons cannot be automatically enforced. A site can lie in their privacy policy today to mislead their users. Enforcement and accountability has and will continue to come from third-parties and governments.

The exact legal mechanisms by which this works is still an open question, but the copyright symbol is a good anology: the simple act of its presence confers a set of rights. Just like Firefox warns when you are visiting a potentially malicious site, it can also warn if the symbol appears without the appropriate text existing in the privacy policy.

But think about it this way. If the Privacy Icons are used maliciously to mislead people then that implies Privacy Icons have succeeded in a big way. If people are making decisions based on now easily-understood privacy attributes, the icons have succeeded at informing and educating web users about the importance of their and with whom and how they share it. Misuse is a classy problem to have.”

Could Privacy Icons be automatically brought into web browsing and email software?

“Absolutely. As Privacy Icons evolve, I expect to see a number of extensions made by a variety of parties. Places like the CDT have already expressed interest in doing just that.”

Will Privacy Icons act as a conduit to ensuring the younger generations are more careful with their privacy, and more careful with the data they directly and indirectly hand over to websites?

“Privacy Icons are fundamentally about transparency. They make it easier to know exactly what a company intends to do with your data in a way which is understandable to most people. As people begin to realize what happens to their data, at the most basic level, it will help them make better decisions about which new services they use.

Given a choice of a two Facebook applications that do roughly the same thing, where one sells data to advertisers, with Privacy Icons it is much easier to decide which to use. I expect the more technically savvy folks to blog, tweet, and evangelize the sites which are better actors. That, in turn, will influence the broader demographics.”

Though there’s speculation that Microsoft will eventually provide Windows support for its Kinect hands-free control system for the Xbox 360, it seems like everybody is jumping the gun. Hackers have made it work with PCs almost from its launch, and now a Korean PC game developer is claiming its new title will support Kinect.

GamePrix told IncGamers that its game Divine Soul will include support for Kinect for its combat mode. The company also says that “there are many [PC] game companies that are trying to apply for this system.”

Questions abound concerning the announcement, including why GamePrix is divulging Kinect support when no other PC game company has, and does this mean an announcement about official Windows support for Kinect is coming sooner than later. Or is GamePrix just building support into its game and hoping that hackers take care of the rest? Maybe next month’s CES will provide a more definitive answer.

It’s very difficult to predict what an entire demographic of broad level users will do in the upcoming year. It’s like predicting whether or not you’ll get hit by an engine falling from a plane while dressed as Hugh Jackman in drag.

However, some predictions may surprise you altogether. It has been a tough year of economic recovery and though the recession is widely over, the spending cuts from governmental budgets will hit the younger, spendthrifty consumer most.

1. The Generation Y will continue not to be put off by copyright laws

Copyright laws are weak. Even the newer digital laws are prohibitive and disproportionate. They are busting at the seams with irrelevant content which bears little know how of modern technologies, and are practically unenforceable. No wonder people have been taking advantage since the days of WinMX and the original Napster back in the 1990’s.

Cases which have enveloped the media with disproportionate fines and court battles turns the defendants, arguably the victim in these cases, almost into a martyr for the cause. Surprisingly public sympathy becomes divided, with a feel of modern day ’stealing a loaf of bread’ because they were hungry. I know it sounds odd, but copyright laws at the moment are as effective as the odds to winning the Euro lottery.

2. Rising inflation will impact Generation Y spending

As inflation rises so do the price of consumer goods. For many who are working on national minimum wage at £5-$12 an hour depending on age and country, this is not enough to maintain a technology filled lifestyle.

The technology already bought, ranging from mobile devices to laptops, either by parents or themselves during a time of economic downfall, will be safe. Yet with wages remaining the same, plus the hike in Value Added Tax (VAT) in the UK and similar taxes across the developed world, spending will significantly reduce.

I expect that those with higher incomes with little or no dependencies will have more expendable income. This may include some of the Generation Y, but not the iGeneration demographic as a whole.

3. High speed fibre/WiMAX broadband will be sought by colleges and universities

Even with rising tuition fees and universities and colleges still recovering from their own budget cuts since the recession, the recovery is on. One of the logical options for many will be a increase in bandwidth to their campuses to encourage growth, external research and development, and opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Bandwidth nowadays acts like a currency; the bigger the pipe, the bigger the wallet, and the more you can fit in and the more to spend. New York University could be getting the first taste the fibre pie with Google’s new office conveniently located above a hub of fibre activity.

4. Younger developers may be put off by increasing corporate bureaucracy

Back in the day, there was a good mix of development for enthusiasm but also development for revenue. With a more broad spectrum of devices and platforms to develop for, combined with the bureaucracy of terms and conditions, especially from Apple, this could hamper the efforts for younger developers who create for passion as well as money.

5. Computing students will become more ‘creative’ and less ‘technical’

There always has been a disparity between the creative and the practical industries; like political parties, one occasionally holds the top spot until the other leads the polls.

From what I have seen and heard on my studenty-travels, the creative industry for university students has been on a downwards trend, as the recession recovers from ‘non-vital’ infrastructure and technical staffers. The creative industry bridges the technical world with the ordinary consumer, and at long last now that money has hit the economy like a wet fish, more money can be invested into areas which spur on the ordinary consumer.

The last decade has been golden for telecom user, but network providers have barely broke even on their broadband buildouts.

That’s the crux of a recent research note by Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett. His data, published in a book called “Capital Punishment,” shows how it’s hard to build networks and even harder to get returns.

Moffett notes that the last 10 years have been great for consumers. Big phones have become small computers. Internet access is faster than ever and there are more television choices than ever. He writes:

As the decade of the 2000s drew to a close, the iPhone was already four years old, more than nine out of 10 Americans (including infants and the infirm) had a wireless phone, and smartphones — what had been “the next big thing” — were ramping toward ubiquity. Cable had captured one-quarter of the nation’s residential phone business, broadband had soared to more than 60% household penetration, and the TelCos were delivering video to more than five million households.

And yet for all the technological strides the industry has made, the returns on invested capital, or ROIC, during the decade have been, at best, anemic. Even before considering the atrocious deals that mark the past decade of telecommunications, the business of building networks is so capital intensive that economic value creation by the group we cover here has been, in aggregate, barely positive.

Wireline networks have the weakest returns on invested capital with a 1.5 percent gain over the last decade. Wireless networks had a meager return of 0.3 percent. Cable garnered a 2.5 percent return. Satellite networks had the best return on invested capital at 5.5 percent. It’s no wonder that DirecTV shares have trounced other companies in 8-year returns. Others stocks—AT&T, Comcast, Dish, Sprint and Verizon—have negative returns.

But here’s where the returns get tricky. Once you add up the costs of various telecom deals—MCI, AT&T, BellSouth etc.—the returns look much worse.

This chart illustrates the returns on invested capital once you include goodwill related to acquisitions.

Apple said it expects to sell more than 1 million new Apple TV units this week in a move that is timed perfectly to mock Google TV.
Steve Jobs’ “hobby” is a $99 box that brings iTunes, Netflix, YouTube, Flickr and MobileMe to an HDTV. The first Apple TV didn’t sell so well. Jobs took those lessons, simplified and made some headway.

But more importantly for Apple’s announcement is the timing. Apple is almost taunting Google with 1 million units of Apple TV even as connected Google TV sets aren’t selling all that well. Best Buy has said 3DTV and Internet connected TV hasn’t lived up to industry expectations. Meanwhile, Google seems to be slowing its Google TV reviews over mixed reviews. Google TV won’t be making a huge splash at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Google’s problem is that it saw Google TV as a blend of the Internet, TV and computer. The problem is that Google TV may have been too complicated. No one is going to use a keyboard and mouse on the couch.

Like Apple learned, scaling down a TV effort can work—even though modestly. Google will learn the same. At some point these tech giants will get TV right.

While I was on my flight to Alaska, Mary Jo beat me to the punch with the news that more than 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices have been sold by the manufacturers since the launch in late October (Europe) and early November (U.S.). While these numbers do not show the total bought by consumers, it still is pretty impressive and much more than what some have predicted. Device sales isn’t the whole story with Windows Phone 7 though as we also see a huge growth in applications with over 4,000 apps now available in the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Device sales

I think it is pretty impressive that over 1.5 million phones have been sold by manufacturers given that there are two carriers with only four phones that were available at launch in the US and five more phones on multiple carriers outside the US. I would be interested in seeing the breakdown between the US and non-US figures as well. In the US, we have three phones on AT&T and AT&T is the carrier that is focused on iPhone sales. It must take some major advertising and education for people to go into a store and buy a Windows Phone 7 device instead of an iPhone 4. I have seen a ton of LG WP7 commercials on TV so maybe good advertising is working.

T-Mobile only has a single device, the HTC HD7 (see my hands-on look), available in stores and with nearly the same form factor as the failed HTC HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 device it seems like people are pretty hesitant to try this device out. Dell has had some major issues with the Venue Pro and it is just this week arriving in people’s hands after some ordering snafus. You can check out the Pocketnow.com and PhoneArena.com reviews to see this may actually be one of the best Windows Phone 7 devices and people haven’t even had a chance to use it much yet.

We know there will be Sprint and Verizon Windows Phone 7 devices launching in early 2011 and hopefully we see more cool devices announced at CES in a couple of weeks.

Windows Phone Marketplace

As you can see on the Bing visual search page there is something like 3,000 apps for the US market with a reported 4,000+ available worldwide. The iPhone had 0 apps for a year before Apple decided to roll out support for 3rd party applications. The App Store opened on 11 July 2008 with 500 apps. After two months there were 3,000 apps, which is just about where we are with Windows Phone 7 at the moment. Apple hit the 15,000 app mark at six months.

The Android Market launched with the release of Android devices in late 2008 and after a couple of months there were 800 free apps. It wasn’t until 17 February 2009 that priced apps were available. Data I found showed that there were 2,300 total apps in the Android Market after six months. Here we are at nearly two months with Windows Phone 7 and we are already at the 4,000 apps level with many of these much higher quality than what we saw in the early Android Market. Games on Windows Phone 7 are all still much better than what we have for Android and games are the hottest selling application category.

So, in regards to the number of apps, Windows Phone 7 is showing they are very competitive to Apple and Google so far. There are also a reported 18,000 developers working on apps for Windows Phone Marketplace.

Thoughts on Windows Phone 7

I have been showing off my HTC HD7 to a lot of folks and I haven’t met a single one that was not impressed with the responsiveness and fluid user interface. I have a few people at work who are waiting for CDMA versions to launch and I haven’t heard of too many people giving up on Windows Phone 7 once they try it. My T-Mobile SIM flip flops between the HD7 and Nokia N8, with most of its time spent in the HD7. It is not perfect and there is definitely room for improvement, but the top notch email experience, full Exchange support, enjoyable gaming, and fun user interface keep me using it as my daily device.

I think we can all acknowledge that Windows Phone 7 is no KIN.

Here’s a nice granular breakdown comparison of Facebook vs. Twitter demographics put together by Digital Surgeons. There are lots of interesting little nuggets in here. It’s no surprise that a higher percentage of Twitter users ‘update their status’ every day than Facebook, being that updating your status is the only way to actually use Twitter. For all you businesses out there, pay attention to the fact that 40% of all people on Facebook follow a brand, and 51% of those people will actually purchase a product or service from a specific brand. My speculation is that these numbers will go up at least 50% by end of next year as companies get smarter and continue to re-prioritize how and why they do business.

Some of the fonts in this chart can be a little small for our blog layout so if you are having trouble reading some of the smaller print, the larger size original gangster version of this infographic is located here.

Motorola recently announced its own tablet plans, and now we have the new teaser video to drool over until CES 2011 next month.

Tracing the evolution of tablets from the Rosetta Stone to the iPad (dubbed a “giant iPhone), the video is overdramatic. And that bumblebee at the end will certain have people buzzing (pun intended) about Honeycomb.

But it is certainly worth a look. Enjoy.

"Video"

I feel really bad while I write this for the simple reason that Notion Ink was going to take India to the global map of consumer tech products. They are the first Indian consumer tech company to generate interest among gadget enthusiasts around the world and when the time came they floundered, not with the product but with how they are launching it.

A few days back my twitter stream was filled with blog posts about their eagerly awaited Android based tablet – the Adam being available for pre-order. I clicked on most of them, one by one looking for a link to pre-order but didn’t find it! I ranted asking for the link and as it turns out the brilliant engineering minds behind Notion Ink (no puns there) had made a blog post a few days before the pre-order news that blog commenters would be sent emails with pre-order links. I laughed out loud.

Giving them the benefit of doubt, them being this new startup by really smart engineers but then there was news about them not having proper sales terms in place. The initial document seemed like it was drafted without help from competent lawyers. This led them to taking down the terms and publishing an updated one. I was inclined to write about this but decided not to given that it’s their first big launch and things don’t always go as planned.

Today however they went ahead and did something they clearly shouldn’t have. CEO Rohan Shravan has acknowledged the lack of hands-on videos and screenshots showing the interface, he made a short blog post today saying they’re sending a video to Android Police, a few hours later, Android Police claim no knowledge they don’t have it and enthusiasts continue to wait.

This is probably the most amateurish product launch I’ve ever read about. Notion Ink makes a strong case for the existence of Social Media Experts. Hopefully they’ll learn and the Adam becomes a success, India needs it to be one.

3D HDTVs may not be the big sellers that TV manufacturers and retailers were hoping for, but that hasn’t stopped the onslaught of new models. This week, Vizio has announced that its biggest set ever, the 65-inch edge-lit LED XVT3D650SV, makes use of the company’s Theater 3D technology, which requires cheaper passive 3D glasses rather than the pricier active-shutter specs.

Vizio claims that its system is superior to active-shutter 3D in the following manner:

Theater 3D is up to 50% brighter, has one half of the visual crosstalk distortion, handles fast action motion without blurring images, has a wider horizontal viewing angle and has none of the annoying flickering of Active Shutter 3D that may cause eye strain.

Whether any of this really results in superior 3D performance will be up to reviewers to decide, but one thing that sets this TV apart is that it comes with four pairs of 3D glasses. That’s right — not a single pair, not two pairs, but enough for a small family.

The set also comes with Vizio Internet Apps, its online widget service that includes Amazon Video On Demand, Netflix, Vudu, and the other usual suspects. Thankfully it has built-in dual-band Wi-Fi rather than a mere Ethernet connection, as well as a Bluetooth remote with slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

While the four pairs of glasses is a nice touch, you’ll have to be able to afford the actual TV, which isn’t cheap. It’ll be available this month at Costco, Sam’s Club, and online for the eye-popping (in 3D, of course) price of $3,499.99.

According to Wikipedia, “In economics, a monopoly exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it.” Next year, Facebook plans to acquire twice as many companies as it has this year to keep up with new ideas, innovation and technology.

We’ve all witnessed monopoly litigation in the news with battles like The United States vs. Microsoft and others. There are some very clear definitions by the U.S. Department of Justice on what a legitimate monopoly attempt looks like and what it doesn’t look like.

Last week Facebook announced it’s acquisition plans for 2011 and after reading the list of potential candidates (about 15 or so), I realized that as long as the people choose Facebook as their social network of choice and Facebook only acquires companies that only compliment their business (which is almost anyone they want) instead of competing with them, they for the most part have full carte blanch to build out their business however they want with no real competition in sight. In fact, they’ve now created a more rigorous competition in hundreds of industries around the world that are vying to get the attention of people on Facebook in a way that converts to real revenue. Companies are realizing that regardless of what industry they are in, they may soon start needing Facebook so that their business is where the people are. Foot traffic is becoming a thing of the past. Instead we’re all gonna be like virtual push-cart vendors going from profile to profile, trying to meet a need.

Think about it. The planets have aligned in their favor on a level that few (if any really), other companies have experienced. Successful companies almost always have some competition that drive them to create better products or services so they can continue to lead. Facebook can acquire any type of company that will augment and build on the foundation of behavioral data built by us, you and me, and over half a billion other human beings. Facebook has a customer base at their fingertips that is 100% opt-in by word of mouth referral. The beauty of it for them is that since they are in the business of people, by default they can get involved in ANY industry, without ever becoming a monopoly in the legal sense if they play their cards right.

Find me another business that has pulled something like that off, at that scale, in less than a decade of existence, and I’ll show you the rainbow covered unicorn that is running around my backyard.

Got a PS3? Got an iPhone, iPod touch or Android handset? There’s an app coming to your handset “very soon.” Well, depending on where you live.

iOS users will need to be running version 4.0 or higher, and Android users will need a minimum of version 1.6.

So, what ill you be able to do?

• Check out your PlayStation Network trophies and keep up to date with your friends’ games and online status.
• Discover all the latest games, news and hardware for your PlayStation 3, PSP and PlayStation 2.
• Read all the announcements on the European PlayStation.Blog.
• Share your favorite products or news with your friends on Facebook, Twitter or via e-mail.

Sorry, no gaming!

But there’s a catch - The first version (1.0) will only be available in the following countries: UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and The Netherlands.

Wish you could jump inside the Tron world as well? You could get a little closer with this sleek, limited edition Tron Xbox 360 controller.

You’d think if Microsoft was going to jump on the Tron merchandizing bandwagon, they would have done something with Kinect and your body being the controller and all, etc. But this is simpler and probably easier to sell.

The Tron-themed controller is up for pre-order now for $39.99. Only 250 of these orange-accented accessories have been made, so act fast. Orders start shipping in late December.

Razer is hoping it has the perfect gift for your high-dpi gaming mouse: the new Scarab hard mouse mat.

Dubbed as a sequel to the Razer Destructor, the Scarab is designed for both laser and optical mice. With Razer’s own Fractal 2.0 surface coating, this new mousepad ensures more precision than its predecessor with a “highly responsive and uniform” tracking system.

Gamers are also promised “feeling of awesomeness during usage,” which is a bit over the top, but let us know if that is the case for you.

Available worldwide on January 1, the Razer Scarab will retail for $39.99/€39.99.

Related coverage on ZDNet:

• Limited edition ‘Tron’ Xbox 360 controller coming soon
• SteelSeries unveils ‘World of Warcraft: Cataclysm’ MMO gaming mouse
• Razer unleashes vibrant Naga Maelstrom, Naga Molten gaming mouse peripherals
• Razer busts out monster green Orca gaming headphones
• Coloud now shipping ‘Star Wars’-themed, DJ-style headphones

As if there weren’t enough Android tablets crowding the market, Creative’s ZiiO is now ready for the taking.

Sporting a 7-inch TFT color touch screen, the Android 2.1-based ZiiO is a standard slate without any significant bells and whistles. The most notable feature might be the inclusion of a front-facing VGA camera. Other specs include:

• 480 x 800 resolution
• ZiiLABS ZMS-08 HD Media-Rich Applications Processor
• Bluetooth 2.1
• 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
• microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
• Connectivity: mini USB, 3.5mm stereo jack

The Creative ZiiO is available now for $249.99 for 8GB of onboard storage or $269.99 for 16GB of storage. Orders are fulfilled by Amazon, thus this one qualifies for some free shipping!

While there’s always a ton of Star Wars memorabilia floating around, this year has been exceptional given the 30th anniversary of the release of The Empire Strikes Back. (Just look at Motorola’s Droid 2 R2-D2 special edition phone.)

Before the year is over, now there are six new headphone sets ready to blast John Williams’ classic score into your ears.

These one-size-fits-all headphones sets fall into the DJ-esque category…at least when it comes to looks. There isn’t much to boast about on the sound front, but for a serious Star Wars fan, these would make a nice holiday gift.

Pricing ranges from $39.90 to $49.90, and the headphones are shipping now. Unfortunately, the Darth Vader, Stormtrooper and R2-D2 (arguably the best designs of the bunch) have already sold out. Keep your fingers crossed that more come in stock. But the Lightspeed, Rebel Alliance and Boba Fett designs are still available!

The long-awaited launch of AMD’s new high-performance desktop graphics cards — the Radeon HD 6970 and 6950 — has just occurred, but they’re not quite the Nvidia beaters that many had hoped for. While they are superior to their Radeon HD 5870 and 5850 predecessors, their performance according to benchmarking is mixed when it comes to the latest GeForce GTX 580 and 570 boards.

The bottom line is simple: The GTX 580 is the still the fastest single-card graphics solution out there. The Radeon HD 6970 can’t compete with it, though it does match up better with the GTX 570 — HotHardware found that it was faster than the 570 on four of the eight apps and games the site tested. (Anandtech came to a similar conclusion.) It is a little more expensive than the GTX 570 at $369, however. The 6950 beats the 5870, but is priced slightly more at $299, so AMD’s previous flagship GPU may be a good bargain if you can live with 1GB of video RAM.

It’s not all bad news for AMD, though, as the new cards are still more power-efficient and quieter than Nvidia’s latest Fermi boards. HotHardware also saw some good scaling in CrossFire mode for the new 6900 series. Finally, there’s still the Radeon HD 6990 dual-GPU solution — a.k.a. Antilles — that AMD will launch early next year. To date, Nvidia won’t have anything to match it, so if you’re looking for colossal performance from an AMD board, it might be worth the wait (and expense).

MetroPCS has expanded its 4G reach to three major metropolitan areas: New York City, Boston and Sacramento.

The smaller network launched its 4G LTE network in Las Vegas in September. Along with the three aforementioned cities, the MetroPCS 4G network covers nine other metropolitan areas, including Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Pricing for a MetroPCS plan starts at $55, which includes all those annoying fees and taxes that are usually tacked on after the fact with other mobile providers. That plan also guarantees unlimited 4G access and doesn’t require an annual contract. Sounds like the best deal ever…except that it’s only useful with a Samsung Craft, which isn’t exactly the most impressive of mobile phones.

MetroPCS has big plans to further expand the LTE network in 2011 to more locations nationwide, including Atlanta, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando and Tampa.

Apple is reportedly making a “major push” for more illustrated titles to be available in the iBookstore, specifically photo books, cookbooks and children’s books.

According to The New York Times, “some of the most popular children’s picture books of all time will be available” as well as Ad Hoc at Home by chef Thomas Keller, Beginnings by photographer Anne Geddes and In the National Parks, a collection of photos by Ansel Adams.

The iBookstore is set to expand today with these titles and more. Apple has already made deals with multiple major publishers, including HarperCollins, Disney and Macmillan, among others.

With the iPad and its large 9.7-inch color display, you have to wonder why Apple didn’t make this push sooner. It seems like a no brainer with a lovely panel like that and how much it is already being used as an educational tool (and sometimes toy) for children. Perhaps the Cupertino-based company was feeling a little envious of the Nook Color, which was already being touted by Barnes & Noble from announcement day as an ideal device for children’s books and magazines.

Getting into the holiday shopping game before it’s over, Hitachi GST has launched a trio of new hard drive solutions - each with 3TB capacities.

The real stars here are the Deskstar internal hard drives, which are boasted as being able to break “2.2TB capacity limit on 32- bit Windows XP systems.” But there are some portable options as well.

Each system is rather straight-forward, but as there are so many, here’s the breakdown to make things extra clear and simple:

Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 internal hard drive (pictured above)

• 3.5-inch internal HDD
• 32MB buffer
• 6Gb/s SATA interface
• Uses Hitachi’s Coolspin technology for cooler, power-saving operation
• 14% quieter than the Deskstar 7K3000
• Availability: Shipping to OEMs and select distributors since November; also available in 1.5TB and 2TB capacities

Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 internal hard drive

• 3TB, 7,200 RPM hard drive
• 64MB buffer
• 6Gb/s SATA interface
• Compatible with 32- and 64-bit Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux platforms
• No extra hardware required
• Pricing: $249.99
• Availability: Ships this week; also available in 2TB capacity

Hitachi XL Desktop External Drives

• USB 2.0 connectivity
• Compatible with Windows and Mac OS X platforms
• Ideal for storing multimedia (i.e. photos, music and videos)
• Pricing: $99.99 for 1TB, $169.99 for 2TB and $249.99 for 3TB
• Availability: Shipping now

Google’s Chrome OS is off to rough start. It arrives just as growth of netbooks seems to be cooling off–and just as Android smartphones and tablets are taking off. A former Googler predicted it would be dead within a year. Free software advocate Richard Stallman described Chrome OS as part of plan “to push people into careless computing.” And ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley wonders just “who the real Chromebook user is supposed to be?”

To make matters worse, Chrome is running late. When Google announced it a year ago, the company promised the first netbooks would be available in time for the holidays. But building an operating system is no easy task, and with lots of bugs left to stamp out, the first Chrome netbooks from the likes of Acer and Samsung won’t appear until mid-2011.

In the meantime Google has released a prototype netbook, the Cr-48, to get Chrome into the hands of application developers and reviewers. It is a move that has worked well with Android. The Nexus One wasn’t a commercial success, but it did push handset makers and carriers to launch more powerful smartphones at a faster pace. (With the Nexus S, which is available starting tomorrow, Google is doing it once again.) Chrome is a different beast, though. The browser-based OS is very different from Windows 7 or Mac OS X, and the Cr-48 has raised as many questions as it has answered. (TechCrunch, covering its bases, called it “both insanely awesome and shockingly awful.”)

The Cr-48, as nearly every reviewer has noted, looks very similar to the old black MacBooks right down to the chiclet keyboard and the large, button-less ClickPad. But it is really more of a large netbook with a 12-inch display, an Intel Atom single-core processor and, according to published teardowns, a 16GB SanDisk SSD (there’s no hard drive). The rubberized black-plastic case is less than an inch thick and the Cr-48 weighs 3.6 pounds–about the size and weight of a typical 12-inch ultraportable.

Since the hardware is just a prototype, the final Chrome netbooks are likely to look different (though the basic specs probably won’t change all that much). It’s more interesting to read reviewers’ impressions of the Chrome OS since it offers a very different user experience. Several themes–both positive and negative–have popped up in reviews:

The good:

Quick setup
When you first boot the Cr-48, you enter your Google credentials (the netbook snaps a picture for your profile) and you’re good to go. All of your bookmarks, extensions and applications (Gmail, Calendar, Docs) are up-to-date and in sync with your PC(s) and other devices. If you’ve ever used an Android smartphone, you know this is a great feature, especially if you are a heavy user of Google services.

Short boot time
The Cr-48 boots in 15 seconds and wakes instantly from standby. That is certainly faster than Windows laptops, but it is about the same as the MacBook Air. Moreover, as Laptopmag.com points out, when you include the time to enter your Google credentials–required at start-up–it really takes more like 25 seconds to get up and running. Still that’s a big improvement over my Windows laptop.

Long battery life
Google claims the Cr-48 will last for 8 hours and can remain in standby for up to 8 days. It’s tough to test this because there’s no apparent way to turn off the power settings that automatically dim the display after a few minutes. But most reviewers have found that the Cr-48 seems to last a full day–and perhaps even more with the 3G radio turned off–which sounds great.

Wireless built-in
The Cr-48 has both WiFi and a 3G modem for wireless broadband, and it is designed to be always connected. In this sense, it is similar to what Qualcomm, Nokia and others used to call smartbooks (though an Atom-based netbook won’t have the same standby time as an ARM-based smartbook or tablet running Android or iOS). Google has cut a deal with Verizon to offer 100MB of 3G data per month for free. The other monthly plans include 1GB for $20, 3GB for $35, and 5GB for $50. You can also purchase an unlimited day-pass for $9.99. Integrated wireless WAN isn’t a new feature in laptops, but with deployment of faster 3G and 4G networks and the introduction of wireless broadband in other devices such as e-readers and tablets, more users will want it.

Innovative keyboard
The changes that Google has made to the keyboard are controversial–some reviewers like them, others find them self-serving and confusing. Google replaced the Caps Lock with a Search key (which automatically opens a new tab in Chrome), eliminated the Function keys and Windows Command key, and added keys for browser commands such as Forward, Back and Refresh. These changes might take a little getting used to, but on balance they make a lot of sense given how much time we all spend in a browser, and it would be nice to see similar experimentation on Windows PCs and Macs.

The not-so-good:

Nothing but browser
The Chrome browser basically is the OS–or at least its interface. This keeps things simple, but it is also very limiting. You can’t minimize or re-size Chrome windows because there’s no graphical user interface behind it. You can open multiple tabs or multiple browser windows and cycle through them, but that’s about it (there are one or two applets such as Google Talk that remain visible on top of open windows). The file system is rudimentary. There is no equivalent to Windows Explorer so you can’t view folders (except for the Downloads folder) or copy files from one location to another. Similarly when you insert an SD card or USB drive, you can upload files to an online service but you can’t save them to local storage.

Limited settings
The System Settings menu has a series of tabs for modifying basic options such as the date and time, language, home page and default search provider. You can also change the look and feel of Chrome by downloading and installing new themes. But Chrome is missing many of the settings you’d find in the Control Panel or other parts of Windows. For example, you can’t view basic system specs (processor type or amount of memory), change the power settings or check how much free storage space is remaining.

Few apps
The Cr-48 comes with a handful of pre-loaded applications including Get Started, Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Talk and two games. You can install additional apps and extensions from the Chrome Web Store (chrome.google.com/webstore). Some major apps such as Skype and Evernote are not available, but the selection will surely increase over time. Chrome runs only Web apps, meaning that they are really interactive Web sites and not applications that you download and run locally. Some Web apps, including new ones using HTML5, should work offline, but this is still an emerging standard. You can watch videos or play games that use Adobe Flash, but you can’t use Netflix’s streaming service because Chrome does not have a Microsoft Silverlight extension.

Slow performance
Every reviewer has had issues with the performance, even in comparison with smaller netbooks using an Atom processor. Basic services such as Google Talk and Pandora seem to slow down the system. Adobe Flash is one of the big culprits here. The performance on sites such as YouTube and Hulu is sluggish, and in some cases the Flash plug-in fails to work at all. Adobe admits that Flash Player 10.1 support on Chrome notebooks is a “work in progress” and promises that fixing it is a top priority.

The hardware needs work
Like most netbooks, the Cr-48 has only a handful of ports including VGA, one USB connector, a headphone jack and an SD card slot. There’s no HDMI, no DisplayPort, and no powered USB/eSATA. Apple got beat up for leaving Ethernet off the MacBook Air, so it is only fair to note that Google has done the same with the Cr-48. Driver support is a challenge even for Microsoft (remember the Vista launch?), so it isn’t surprising that this is a work in progress on Chrome. Some USB peripherals may work and many others will not. The ClickPad also seems to be crying out for better drivers: several reviewers said it veered back and forth between non-responsive and overly-sensitive. Finally, the keyboard isn’t backlit and there is no keyboard light.

Printing is problematic
Speaking of drivers, you can’t print directly from a Chrome netbook. Instead you use Google Cloud Print service, which is currently in beta, to send the print jobs to a Windows PC connected to a printer. Of course, this implies that you already have a Windows PC and aren’t relying on a Chrome netbook as your primary PC. There’s another catch: Cloud Print won’t work with your Windows PC if it is using the latest version of Chrome 8. Instead you have to install a developer build of Chrome 9, which is less stable than the beta or “stable” versions. (ZDNet’s Larry Dignan sorted it all out here.) Despite these hassles, Cloud Print seems to work as advertised and it is a reasonable workaround for those using a Chrome netbook as a companion device.

That’s a long list of issues, but I wouldn’t write off Chrome just yet. True, the user experience is very different from a typical laptop, and Chrome OS doesn’t have many of the features in Windows 7 or Mac OS X. Furthermore tablets will almost certainly continue to grow at the expense of netbooks running all operating systems. But the Chrome netbook is a niche product specifically designed for users who want a device with a keyboard, but are happy to live entirely in the cloud. As carriers launch faster 4G networks and developers release more HTML5 applications, that niche should grow.

One big question mark, though, is the price. If they are priced below their Windows counterparts (Verizon or other carriers might subsidize it, pushing the price down even further), Chrome netbooks could have a fighting chance.