This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of MobiTV. All opinions are 100% mine.

We’ve all had it happen at one point or another. There’s something you really wanted to watch on TV, but you’re either on the road or someone else is hogging the set in your living room. Do you wait patiently until you can grab the remote control and relax, or do you take matters into your own hands with a mobile solution?

Enter the new AT&T U-verse Live TV app for iOS. This app actually delivers live television to your mobile device using your 3G or wireless Internet connection. In a method similar to your home DVR, the AT&T U-verse Live TV app delivers both live and on-demand programming to your mobile device with great clarity and very little, if any, buffering issues.

AT&T U-verse Live TV is a free app, but in order to take advantage of the service you will need to sign up for a monthly recurring $11.99 fee. When compared to some comparable services that deliver television shows to mobile platforms, this rate is very reasonable, especially when you consider that almost none of them deliver live television from popular cable channels including Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, ESPN Mobile, Disney, ABC, and more. In terms of value for your investment, it would be hard to find something that delivers as much content on these platforms.

New channels are constantly being added to the app, which currently supports a wide range of live and on-demand channels. Here are some of the channels currently supported on the iPhone:

Live Channels:
FOX News, MSNBC, CNBC, ESPN Mobile TV (featuring live MLB, NBA and college sports), Disney Channel, ABC Mobile, NBC Sports Mobile, FOX Business, ABC News Now, Saturday Morning TV, Comedy Time, and Ataku.

Full-Episode, On-Demand Channels:
ABC Mobile, NBC, FOX News, FOX Business, Comedy Central, Spike, MTV, VH1, CMT, MTV Tr3s , NBC News Mobile, ABC News Now, ESPN On Demand, NBC Sports Mobile, FOX Sports, Disney Channel, Disney XD, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Nickelodeon en Español, Teen Nick, and ABC Family.

10 music video channels are also included and made available to AT&T U-verse Live TV app subscribers. Channel availability varies per device.

Just because this app is brought to you by AT&T U-verse doesn’t mean you have to be an AT&T iPhone user to take advantage of this service. Both AT&T and Verizon iPhones and iPads will work perfectly with this app. In fact, and iPod touch, with no direct ties to any carrier, can run AT&T U-verse Live TV as well.

There are a couple of points to keep in mind. First, you’re going to want to use this app on a Wi-Fi connection if at all possible unless you have an unlimited data plan. Video, no matter how well compressed, is bandwidth intensive and can eat away at your monthly cap very quickly. You’ll also want to be aware that the monthly fee is automatically recurring, and in order to cancel your commitment, you will need to do so through the app itself.

Over all, AT&T U-verse Live TV is a great way to stay connected to major news channels in times of emergency when you don’t have power, keep kids occupied with their favorite shows in the car, and otherwise free you from having to be on the couch while you enjoy your favorite television programs. This could be a very popular service for people working out at the gym who want something to take their mind off their 10-mile hike on the treadmill.

How to Watch Live TV on the iPhone

For many StarCraft fans, finding the will to leave the house and stop playing can be difficult. Thankfully, Splashtop Inc. has created a product that allows you to play DirectX 9, 10, and 11 games where other remote desktop clients often lack any support for 3D. In short, they’ve created an app that allows you to play PC games on your phone.

Splashtop Remote Desktop is free for desktops and about $2 for mobile devices making it one of the most affordable solutions for handheld remote desktops in its class.

Compatibility across platforms is impressive, allowing users of iOS, Android (2.2 Froyo and above), and even WebOS to use the program through dedicated apps available in their respective markets. Windows and Mac users are both able to use the server software to stream their desktops, as long as they meet the necessary system requirements. For Windows, all you need to stream is XP, Vista, or 7 and at least 1 GB of RAM and a 1.6GHz dual-core CPU. Mac uses will need the at least the same hardware with OS X 10.6+.

Latency is low but still present, so this won’t be a good platform for playing games that require fast movements and responses. First-person shooters will likely frustrate you as a player, as the latency between your device and the computer is coupled with the system’s latency to the game server. Games that do play relatively well include RTS titles like StarCraft II and various Command and Conquer titles where queueing up forces and planning strategies doesn’t require optimized response times.

This solution isn’t perfect. If you plan on using this method to play competitively online, the results may prove disappointing. At its heart, Splashtop Remote Desktop is made to allow you to access your desktop using your mobile phone wherever you may be. While it has the functionality needed to stream games and video, you won’t be advancing to the finals in any StarCraft leagues with this as your interface.

How to Play PC Games on Your Phone

What’s better than an iPod speaker dock powered by solar energy? The answer would be a solar powered iPod speaker dock with 8 speakers. This is what you’ll find in the NSP500B Soulra XL Sound System by Eton.

The Soultra XL connects to your iPhone or iPod and gives you incredible sound with no annoying power cable to lug around. A 72 square inch enhanced monocrystal solar panel produces enough energy to charge its rechargeable lithium ion battery pack and your device at the same time.

When the sun is nowhere to be found, the batteries carry enough juice to keep the tunes going for quite some time. At an expected 4 hours of battery life, it isn’t the longest-lasting battery-powered dock around. This wouldn’t be the best dock to bring with you to an all-night party. Still, its ability to self-power using solar energy can really come in handy in situations where you’re outside on the lawn or at the beach.

Your iDevice sits inside of a chamber that allows you to see its screen, even in sunny conditions. This creates a level of protection so you don’t have to be too nervous about having it around during soccer practice.

The remote allows you to control the iPod from a distance so you don’t have to keep making trips over to the dock to switch to a different playlist, or turn the volume up.

The whole unit weighs 7 pounds, and the included shoulder strap is comfortable. It’s not a small device, by any stretch of the imagination, so you’re probably not going to be taking it anywhere you’re not comfortable carrying a sizable speaker system to.

Sound quality is exactly what you’d expect from 8 speakers. The 22W output and bass boost provide a rich sound with a significant amount of bass. Some smaller systems struggle with recreating bass in particular, though this unit doesn’t lack in that department. Music played through the speakers is very rich and vibrant. The 22W of power behind them also gives you plenty of room to turn up the volume and annoy the neighbors.

Overall, this is a solid solution for users that spend a lot of time outdoors in the sun. Having one of these during camping trips or at the beach makes sense. At just over $250, this product is geared more towards serious outdoors enthusiasts and not so much the homebody or casual music listener. If you throw frequent outdoor events such as barbecues, you may certainly want to consider the Eton Soulra XL Sound System.

Eton Soulra XL Sound System for iPod and iPhone Review

A LockerGnome.net user named Senzers69 asked, “Are digital camera’s becoming obsolete now that phones have such good cameras?“

What does this mean? Well, it certainly serves as a strong indication that the technology behind camera phones has advanced to the point where they are becoming “good enough” to replace the traditional point-and-shoot for many of their users. The fact that these mobile devices are capable of doing a lot more than just taking pictures may also be a significant contributing factor to this overall trend.

You no longer have to keep a camera in one pocket and your phone in another. The quality of the camera built-in to most phones today is good enough to get the job done, and there isn’t any real reason for most people to carry around another gadget when they really don’t have to.

Services and apps like Instagram and ToonPAINT expand the functionality even further by allowing photos to be edited in an artistic way and shared with little more than a few taps of a screen. Digital point-and-shoots have come a long way in terms of quality, but in their current form they really can’t compete with the convenience a smartphone can deliver.

In the case of SLR (or DSLR) cameras, I don’t see much changing anytime soon. While they may be behind in terms of percentage of overall users when compared to mobile phones, their core user base relies on quality over convenience. Camera phones have a long way to go before they can capture images with the same level of detail as a modern DSLR.

In fact, even regular point-and-shoots still have an advantage over mobile phones in terms of image stabilization. Optical image stabilization is just better than any digital equivalent smartphones available today can deliver. Until this changes, dedicated digital cameras are probably not going to die completely. They are, however, going to face an ever increasing amount of competition from the mobile space.

According to Flickr, the most popular camera used in photos uploaded to their site is Apple’s iPhone 4. After a steady climb, the iPhone 4 beat out the Nikon D40 and Canon EOS 5D Mark II. This means a larger percentage of their users are using the mobile phone to take photos than traditional digital cameras.

What do you think? Are dedicated digital cameras facing extinction at the hands of mobile phones?

Are Dedicated Digital Cameras Going Extinct?

Brandon Wirtz and Jake Ludington of LockerGnome joined me in a discussion about the various differences between the iPhone and Android in relation to how the keyboards differ on the two platforms. While they both share many of the same core functions and features, there are a few notable differences.

The iPhone uses predictive text to determine where someone is headed while typing in order to increase accuracy during keystrokes. For example, if you type the word “drawer”, it will automatically predict whether or not the last letter in the word was a “t” or an “r” since they are laying very closely on the keyboard. With such a small surface and some users having larger digits than others, predictive text is often necessary to maintain a sense of accuracy while typing.

The iPhone will also give suggestions when it appears the user is misspelling or heading in the direction of a particular word. Hitting the space bar will automatically tell the iPhone that their suggestion is correct and allow you to begin entering the next word in the phrase. Unfortunately, this can be a problem when you’re intending to enter a proper name or abbreviation that the iPhone doesn’t recognize.

Android phones tend to handle text input a little differently. In addition to the standard Android on-screen keyboard, the user is able to install alternative keyboards that meet their particular needs. For example, the Samsung Captivate comes with three different on-screen keyboard layouts to choose from. The traditional Android keys are easily replaced with a Swype input and even a custom layout made specifically for the Samsung Galaxy series that is designed to fit within the exact dimensions of the particular device.

In addition, many Android devices feature a physical keyboard in addition to the one on-screen which allows you to have tactile feedback as you type. For many, this is a big plus, especially when you depend on being able to find your place by touch alone.

Swype is another feature available to Android users. With Swype, you can make a single figure motion across the screen to type a word rather than having to peck out individual keys. This allows you to type with a single digit faster than you would on a traditional keyboard. It does take some getting used to, and in being so, it isn’t for everyone.

If you compare the iPhone’s predictive text scheme to that of the standard Android keyboard, they are very similar. While some Android devices may vary in terms of accuracy and usability, the basic function of the keyboard remains the same. One very key difference is in how Android handles suggested words. Instead of suggesting a single word (like the iPhone), Android will put a list of possible matches in a horizontal bar across the top of the keyboard. Touching any of these suggestions will automatically change the word you’re typing to match and add a space in order for you to be able to pick up where you left off.

In the end, it all comes down to personal taste and experience. Some may find, as I have, that the iPhone’s keyboard just works faster and provides greater accuracy. Others may discover just the opposite. In the end, it’s up to you to decide what works best for you.

How Does the iPhone Keyboard Compare to that of an Android Device?

Apple has announced the features users can expect to see when iOS 5 launches in the Fall. Though they say over 200 new features will be included in the update, there are a few that stand out as being likely selling points for the iOS platform after the update. One of these new features is Notification Center, a new method of relaying and displaying notices that will replace the old system currently in place on the platform.

Undoubtedly borrowing from Android’s notification system, Notification Center for iOS is a new take on how its users are informed of various happenings including new email, calls, messages, and app notifications. In the past, a notification would interrupt whatever you’re doing and pull up a blue message area in the middle of the screen which you could either dismiss or elect to head directly to the app and see what all the fuss is about. In many cases, this is more of a nuisance than it’s worth, interrupting anything and everything that was going on for often trivial events. On the new notification system, notices don’t interrupt what you’re doing as much. A small message is displayed across the top of the screen that you don’t have to stop what you’re doing to close.

In addition, your notices are collected and made available through a drop-down pane that looks and acts similarly to Android’s equivalent. With a swipe of the screen, you can glance at any new information and determine what you feel is important enough to take a closer look at.

Another interesting aspect of Notification Center is how it displays your updates while the screen is locked. Instead of having to go through the trouble of unlocking your phone to see why it beeped or vibrated, you can simply glance at the lock screen and see any events that occurred during the current locked session.

With iOS 5, Apple appears to have provided answers to several key features most of their competition held over Apple’s platform. With the new iMessage system, integrated Twitter, and Notification Center, Apple appears to be taking giant steps forward towards giving their competition more reason to innovate in order to stay in the game.

How Notification Center Works on iOS 5

This guest post was written by Reza (RMalayeri) about Video Time Machine for iOS, an app that allows you to browse through videos throughout history in a simple and easy way.

What do you get when you spend all night watching nostalgic video’s on Youtube, drinking beer, and eating free pizza? Well, if you ask Justin Johnson and Delbert Shoopman III, they’ll say YTTM.TV and the associated app for iOS: Video Time Machine.

If you love to spend your downtime surfing through the massive library of available YouTube videos, then you have to check out YTTM.TV. It’s a cool website that helps users find classic videos that would have otherwise been lost in the abyss. Pick a year, go back in time, and watch classic Ads, Sports, Movies, Music, and more. Their iOS app, Video Time Machine, allows mobile users to experience the same content with formatting that is optimized for a smaller screen. Choose a year, category, and press play. The app will switch into YouTube and play the selected video from there. You can also have the app randomly play a video by pressing “rolling the dice” within the app.

You can find over 10,000 hand picked videos that have been curated by the team at YTTM.TV. With an archive of video’s ranging from 1860 to 2011; YTTM.TV will have countless hours of classic YouTube videos across multiple categories. Watch the very first Atari commercial in the 70′s, or get your groove on with Rebecca Black in 2011.

YTTM.TV allows users to easily submit content to the Time machine database. Make sure you have the link to a good quality YouTube video, and paste the url to the video on YTTM.TV for submission. Currently, the iPhone app doesn’t include this feature, so submissions need to be made directly to the website.

There is also a contest going on right now over at Film Fights until June 7th, and you have a chance to win $100 for submitting a 15 second video about YTTM.TV. Everyone who submits a video for the contest will be given a free copy of the iPhone app “Video Time Machine”. Remeber to let us know what kinds of awesome videos you dig up while you travel through time. By the way, have you joined the communities on Facebook, Twitter, Empire Avenue?

Go Back in Time with YTTM and Video Time Machine

This is a guest post written by Reza Malayeri, a frequent contributor to our LockerGnome channel on YouTube.

Reports are flying in that apple’s iTunes server is experiencing a glitch that will turn your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch into a very high priced BRICK. Needless to say, this is a very scary scenario, and the apple support forums are filled with complaints from shocked users who are out of luck.

Luckily there is hope for people who previously saved their SHSH files with TinyUmbrella (no need to jailbreak), or people who had jailbroken their iDevice on iOS versions prior to 4.3.3.

The SHSH file is a crucial iOS firmware file that allows users of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch to DOWNGRADE their version of iOS to whatever version of iOS that they have a saved SHSH for. When a user jailbreaks their iDevice, Cydia will usually save a copy of the most recent SHSH and cache that on their servers. You may get lucky and have several SHSH files for previous versions of iOS saved on the Cydia servers. Alternatively, you may have been diligent, and decided to save your SHSH files as an insurance policy against unforeseen situations like this. We have several video’s explaining how to save your SHSH files on our LockerGnome YouTube channel. One of which can be found here.

Once you determine if you have saved copies of SHSH files for previous versions of iOS, you’ll want to begin the process of downgrading from your bricked 4.3.3 iDevice. You’ll need to launch TinyUmbrella and search for a copy of the iOS firmware that you’d like to downgrade to on the internet. Two iOS firmware repositories you could try are ModMyi and Redmond Pie.

Next you’ll want to place your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch in DFU (Device Firmware Update) mode, and prepare to restore to your iOS firmware of choice. To place your bricked iDevice in DFU, you simply: open iTunes and connect the iPhone to your Mac, press and hold the Home button and the Sleep/Wake button at the same time, and after exactly 10 seconds release the Sleep/Wake button. Continue holding the Home button until your iTunes pops up a message telling you that it has detected an iPhone in recovery mode.

Now you can make sure you have the associated SHSH in Tiny Umbrella, and lauch the TSS server in Tiny Umbrella by pressing the button “Launch TSS server”. Once the TSS server is running in TinyUmbrella, head back over to iTunes, and press the “Restore” button while holding down the “Option” key on your Mac’s keyboard. On Windows you would be holding down “Ctrl” while pressing Restore in iTunes. You should now see iTunes giving the option to navigate the location where you previously downloaded the iOS firmware that you will downgrading to. Navigate to the iOS firmware file and select it. You should now be able to downgrade your iDevice. Keep in mind that you must have a stored SHSH file in TinyUmbrella that is associated with a version of iOS prior to 4.3.3, and you must have the TSS server running withing TinyUmbrella prior to restoring with iTunes.

How To Unbrick Your iDevice After Upgrading to iOS 4.3.3

The iPad has many amazing applications that, unfortunately, are not universal. Apps like Garage Band and FlipBoard do not currently offer an iPhone version. There is a solution out there that can make this happen, if you’re willing to jailbreak your iPhone. You can install iPad apps on your iPhone easily using a free Mac application called itelepad2pod.

There’s a lot of buzz around this iOS jailbreak tweak. Users can download this app and have it install their iPad app of choice onto their iPhone. The app requires that it’s home folder be installed in your Mac’s “applications” folder, and is currently not available on windows.

When you open the app, it will launch a Finder window and ask you to choose the iPad app that you’d like to install on your iPhone. Once you choose the app you want, it will launch into a utility that asks you to input the root password and the IP address of your iPhone. You will have 20 seconds to input this information, so act fast.

Once you input the info, the app will launch Terminal on your Mac and begin doing its magic. InteliPad2pod will patch some iPad configuration settings in order to make the app work on your iPhone. One important point here is you must be using a jailbroken iPhone with OPENSSH installed in order for this to work. The app uses SSH protocol to tunnel into the root file structure on your iPhone and install the correct files. Follow the prompts and the whole thing should work out smoothly.

Our demonstration featured a live working install of FlipBoard on the iPhone 4. Although we were able to install and demonstrate FlipBoard on the iPhone, a couple of quick swipes revealed the fundamental problems with such a method. Several of the menu items were difficult to view, and page elements were either cut off or hard to access. All in all, this method does allow people who don’t otherwise have an iPad to try something cool; they can install iPad apps on their iPhone, but unless they absolutely need to use this tweak, we found it lacking in user friendliness.

How to Install iPad Apps on Your iPhone

Before the iPhone, I owned a Samsung BlackJack. At the time, I thought a true qwerty keyboard, replaceable battery, and 3G coverage were must-haves and three of the best features of what I felt was one of the better phones of the time. When the news came out that the first-generation iPhone was going to have none of these, I expected the same disappointing experience so many others before me have had with the “next big thing” in mobile devices.

To my surprise, I discovered that this new style of mobile OS was incredibly fun and easy to use. The idea of swiping your finger across the screen and receiving an immediate and comparable response was unheard of from smartphones at the time. Palm, and to some extent Windows Mobile were on the right track years before, but they dropped the ball by not updating their operating system for extended periods of time. To add to this, the predictive keyboard translated my clumsy taps correctly, at least most of the time.

When it came down to it, the megapixels of the camera, MHz of the processor, capacity of the hard drive, and speed of the data connection took a back seat to the experience a smooth and intuitive interface delivered.

What about two phones running the same OS? Does it matter then? Here’s where it can make a difference. If you have two Android phones with the same version of the OS installed and a similar look and feel, then a difference in processor speed and/or memory can improve your overall experience. Keep in mind though, that better specs means little if you’re using a phone that doesn’t receive regular updates from the manufacturer.

For example, the Samsung Galaxy S series came out with remarkable specs included. They had bigger and higher resolution screens than most of the Android phones out there, and even featured a beefy processor. Unfortunately, updates to the operating system were few and far between, and phones such as the Samsung Captivate were left behind while other Android devices (with less impressive specs) were zipping along on a better optimized update two generations ahead.

In the end, you have to decide which phone works best for you. If you are confident that one has everything you need feature-wise and maintains a reliable update cycle, then whether or not it has the fastest processor isn’t important. Does your phone do what you need it to do? Specs can matter, especially if the differences are extreme, but they’re not nearly as important as your overall experience.

Are Phone Specs Important?

The iPhone has a wide range of uses thanks in part to an active developer community and their ability to easily distribute apps through the iTunes App Store. While geeks have certainly taken up the practice of downloading and trying out as many apps as they can get their hands on, the question as to how to use the iPhone for more than making phone calls still remains a mystery to many users.

Many users will just leave the phone in its factory state. Sure they’ll update their contacts from time to time and configure the weather app, but the idea of going to the app store and downloading additional programs just isn’t appealing to them. The iPhone comes with enough features to function just fine as a phone and while it may come in handy from time to time for directions and light web browsing, it really doesn’t need to do much more.

Some see the iPhone as a modern Swiss Army knife, capable of doing light tasks such as operating as a flashlight or alarm clock. In a pinch, they may use it to interact with their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Visits to the App Store are few and they typically just check out the top 50 or so free apps to see if there’s anything there that can be of use.

Others may use the iPhone as more of a social hub than a phone. They could have apps for every social network they’re a part of sending push notifications to them every time someone pokes them or sends them a message. These users may even go so far as to check in on Gowalla or foursquare from time to time and tweet to all their friends about the funny thing their friend or family member did that day. While they may be racking up rollover minutes by the thousands, their investment on unlimited text messages and data proves itself to be a wise one, time and time again.

The iPhone, or any smartphone for that matter, is a capable computer that can fit in your pocket. The fact is, it really doesn’t matter if you choose to use it as a multimedia platform, social hub, virtual Swiss Army knife, or even just a phone. The most important thing, is that you feel the experience is worthwhile to you.

How to Use the iPhone for More than Making Phone Calls

For longer than I can remember, people have asked me, “What is your favorite app?” The answer to this question is typically whatever does the job I need it to do when I need it to do it. This means if I am out of the house and I want to make sure my alarm is set, the app for that is my favorite one at that time. If you asked me to name one in particular to be my all time favorite, I’d have to say the browser.

There is no platform more prolific and universally available than the web. The web is home to the largest hub of information known to man, the best apps, and tools for just about every job you could imagine needing to have done. Through my browser, I can check my bank account, do my taxes, get directions, communicate with others, and even edit photos. It doesn’t matter if I’m using a device running on OS X, Windows, Linux, iOS, Windows Phone 7, or Android. The web is the most universal platform in existence presently.

The web never requires me to update, upgrade, or buy a pro version. It’s always there, day or night and it doesn’t care if I’m running a netbook phone, or desktop system.

When you think about it, most modern apps actually rely on the web to operate. A large number of these apps contact online services which are in themselves applications that can be accessed using a simple browser. There is a time and a place for apps, but if you look in terms of sheer amount of functionality and diversity, the web is second to none.

So, if you want to know what my favorite app is in general, I’d have to say Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and even Internet Explorer are among apply because I use them to access my favorite software platform.



What App is Your Favorite?

While his email is original, the question from community member “Tamloo” is an all-too-familiar one for me (unedited):

Hey Chris, I have been a really big fan of yous over the past couple of years. You are one of the main sources I get my technology news from. One thing I really like about you is that yes, you can be an “Apple Fanboy” at sometimes, but for the most part, you do reviews fairly and over a wide range of products and software. Unlike other tech reviews, you don’t just focus on one specific platform or company.

Well, the main reason why I am emailing you is because I recently purchased an Asus Netbook computer last year. It worked great for traveling since I travel very frequently; however I accidentally dropped my computer one week after the warranty expired and the screen completely shattered (huge crack down the middle, and I can’t see a thing on the screen). Sadly, during these rough economic times, I don’t know what kind of small-easy-to-use computer I could invest in at the moment.

Right now, all I have to use when I travel is my new iPhone4 (which I have grew to love over a month). I have not been much of an Apple fan, however I think it is actually coming out of me at the moment just like WilsonTech1 has lately. My main dilemma is what kind of computer should I get? Right now, I am extremely happy with my iPhone, and I am considering getting an iPad. But I don’t know if it is worth getting since I don’t know if the price is really right to me. If I get an iPad, I will most likely be getting the original as seeing the price has been dropped.

Now, the thing I like about a netbook is that it has a physical keyboard, but watching you videos, you state that the virtual keyboard isn’t that bad on the iPad. Is that really true? I like the iPhone’s keyboard and find it easy to use and normally don’t miss a key when typing. But does the iPad’s keyboard have that same easy and fluent functionality and can I type fast enough to have it replace a netbook?

What is your stance on this, should I go the extra $200 and buy an iPad or would a new netbook be worth it? Thanks for your opinion.

I appreciate that you’re asking for my opinion, but I can’t really tell you what to buy. It’s your money, and you need to be the one who makes the decision that works best for you. I’m only here to provide a good amount of perspective; I really have no horse in this race.

What I find most uplifting about the phrasing of your question is how you’re referring to an iPad as a computer – which it absolutely is. Few people have made this distinction, but I can tell you that the iPad can certainly do more than my first “home computer” could. The iPad is a computer.

Now, on to the crux of your quandary.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always found super-compact notebook / netbook computers to have super-scrunched, unusable-for-anything-but-infant-hand keyboards – and this flat fact, to me, defeats the purpose of having a keyboard in the first place. If your WPM on an average netbook is half of what it is on a standard keyboard, I’d be shocked.

So, are you in love with the keyboard – or merely the idea of the keyboard?

If the lack of a physical keyboard is what’s keeping you from buying an iPad, rest assured that there are countless iPad cases that accommodate workable keyboards that couple with the iPad (AND iPhone) via Bluetooth. You could also pick up an Apple Wireless Keyboard and use that in a similar fashion.

Moreover, iOS typo correction kicks the shot out of anything I’ve ever seen as a default in Windows (outright, third-party tools notwithstanding). Doesn’t that count for something in relation to keyboarding?

So, if that doesn’t help you decide, you should also be considering battery life. I’ve yet to find a single netbook computer that came close to 10-hour battery life after any amount of usage. You’d be lucky to find one that lasted 5 hours when doing nothing. If you’re never more than three hours from an electrical outlet, this may be less of an issue for you.

I think you may be better off comparing the iPad against other tablet computers (no, not Tablet PCs). There are quite a few Android devices on the market that weigh in at the same price point as a netbook, although you’re more than likely sacrificing quality if you go that direction – not just in terms of construction, but in absolute hardware features (resistive screen, no multi-touch, et al).

You can always save money – but at what cost?

It’s this phrase alone that continues to poke holes in the “too expensive” theory. Ask any owner of a faulty product how much more they would have paid to have something that just worked.

Either way, if you’re looking to save money on your impending purchase, we have a coupon site for you to use – which includes savings on Apple computers.

iPad vs Netbook: Does a Physical Keyboard REALLY Matter?

I just received an email from community member Andrew Wellings:

Hello Chris! When I’m doing stuff around the house, I like to keep my phone on me to listen to music or browse the Web (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and reading up on my news/tech blogs). As you may know from experience, this drains the battery alarmingly quickly, and the small screen is very limiting.

I have been looking at buying a tablet device for a few weeks, but I would rather trust your opinion, as opposed to some reviewer on a tech blog (which technically, I guess you are…). Anyway, the big dilemma is this: should I buy a used iPad 1st gen, or one of those many Android tablets?

I don’t need 3G, cameras or any bells and whistles. All I would need is Wi-Fi, a 7-10inch screen (not too fussy there, although preferably capacitative), to be able to watch videos, listen to music and maybe store some photos to show the relatives.

It would need to be available in the UK though, and preferably have a sub £250 price tag (~$400). Thanks very much for any help you can give.

Andrew, like most consumers (99 out of 100), are looking to get the most bang for their buck – right?

If you know anything about me (at all), you probably also know how I’m going to answer this question – but even if you didn’t know me, you’d be hard-pressed to find a true consumer advocate who would not recommend the iPad 1st-gen in this case. Can the 1G iPad do everything? No. Does that make it an inferior device? No.

You may be inclined to attack my position – so before you spout off your own brand of nonsense, why don’t you read a fandroid’s thoughts first. “Can the Android Tablet Ecosystem Still Beat iPad?” Yeah, I’m in complete agreement with him. Keep that in mind as you read the rest of this post – I happen to agree with cogent Android supporters.

I also think that the most definitive article on this subject has already been crafted by someone with far more insight than you or me.

Now, since Apple has recently dropped the price of the iPad 1G to US$400 (while supplies last, assumedly), it’s become even more attractive to would-be tablet owners. Keep in mind, too, that despite its year-old life, Apple continues to push the latest iOS updates to it. Find me a Honeycomb Android tablet that sells for less than $400 (without contract) with a capacitive (multi-touch) screen today at less than 1.5lbs and I’ll seriously reconsider my suggestion.

You have to wonder: what is Motorola smoking? At least Samsung has the cojones to state the painfully obvious. Buying any device based on its possible future potential is just… ill-advised.

Android tablets can’t beat the iPad – Reason #1: Splintered experiences.

The industry has yet to see an Android tablet that comes close to matching the iPad’s overarching experience. Ah, there’s the key word: “experience.” That’s the magic revealed when hardware works in perfect harmony with software. This is the elusive factor that all Android devices seem to face after the new car smell wears off.

Specs be damned. Would you rather have a souped-up machine that did everything 50% of the time, or a stripped-down machine that did some things 100% of the time? You’re a fool to answer the former.

The OS can never be written to run optimized on all compatible hardware. That’s a difficult hill to climb (trying to be all things to all people). Couple with that shortcoming that certain device models are effectively locked out of software revisions by carriers… and you’ve got the making for an even more cluttered, confusing, and just plain god-awful consumer experience. This very disconnect will keep Android from besting iOS, alone.

Let he who hath been locked out of an Android OS update on capable hardware cast the first stone.

Android tablets can’t beat the iPad – Reason #2: Current pricing models.

Apple is the only company creating iOS-compatible hardware – versus dozens upon dozens of companies creating Android-capable hardware. In other words: Android devices are a de-facto commodity. And there’s one thing you can’t do with a commodity if you expect it to succeed: charge too much. But higher-than-iPad pricing is exactly what we’re seeing from these supposed “iPad killers.”

Why on god’s green earth, if you were trying to compete with a clear market leader, would you set your entry model’s MSRP at a higher cost than the leader’s entry model?

As a matter of fact, the reason would-be Apple denouncers have been so anti-Mac for years is because they see the Mac as “more expensive” than its PC cousins. Well, it seems to me that if you are a dyed-in-the-wool PC user who brandishes this outdated myth about Macs, you should never be caught dead carrying an Android tablet – since they’re absolutely more expensive than Apple’s iPad.

Motorola is dropping the price on the Xoom, but is that low enough to capture any amount of market share before the next Android-based iPad-killer is released in another month or so?

New Android devices should be more affordable, comparatively – and certainly priced less than the lowest-priced iPad. Who could argue with that?!

We might readily suggest an older Android device that weighs in at a much more affordable price, but with it comes a correspondingly lackluster experience. Have you ever tried using Android 1.x (resistive) after playing inside 2.3 (capacitive with multi-touch)? Let’s just assume that sacrificing usability is never an option for any consumer – otherwise, we’ll be forever wrestling with nerds who believe that GUIs are for wimps.

Besides, it’s difficult to compare today’s available options with yesterday’s in fairness. I personally can’t wait to buy a truly competitive Android tablet. It, however, doesn’t currently seem to exist.

Android tablets can’t beat the iPad – Reason #3: Too many choices.

Consumers absolutely need choice – but there’s a far greater chance of you making an incorrect choice on a menu with thousands of items.

I absolutely do see a world where there are more Android than iOS devices – that’s inevitable, much like we see more PCs with no true or clear differentiation between them. However, #1 in saturation does not imply a #1 product. Do I really need to bring up IE6 as an example to belabor my point?

There’s only one iPad, and it’s easy to spot the differences between 1G and 2G models. Even with future editions in the fold, Apple only offers a limited amount of units at any given time.

Ask yourself this: why is it that a new “best Android device” seems to be released every few weeks? Who could keep up with that?

Tangentially, Android is irresponsibly positioned as “good” for the consumer with an intentionally laissez faire app marketplace – but while Android’s software choices seem to be equal to those within Apple’s iTunes App Store, you’re doing nothing but swimming in an array of razor blades within Google’s Market. That may be acceptable for geeks, but not for most of the known galaxy.

Nah, you’ll be safe with Android. I’m not making this stuff up. Certain geeks should be ashamed for wholeheartedly endorsing an experience that has such a strong potential for compromising the innocent consumer. That’s not a choice – it’s the Sword of Damocles.

Android tablets can’t beat the iPad – Reason #4: Flash is becoming increasingly irrelevant.

But why even bring up Flash in this entire “iPad vs Android” argument? Because it’s too frequently called upon as a trump card without true qualification. Maybe if poorly-developed Flash apps had caused my browsers to crash with less frequency over the years, I’d be more sympathetic to Adobe’s cause. Flash? Platform non grata in the mobile space.

It’s also been argued that the consumer should be able to view Flash-rendered content on any particular platform. But Flash, in case you missed the memo, has overstayed its welcome – and is far from stable or secure (on any OS). Even its proprietors are Flash compatibility (which will likely drain your battery at break-neck speed and run medicore-at-best), who am I to argue? It’s your money – and you’re absolutely free to spend it in whatever way(s) you see fit. I’ve been living largely without it on my desktop for some time, thanks to the Click-to-Play functionality found in development builds of Google Chrome (my default Web browser, and one of the best available today).

Oh, snap. Did you see that? I wrote an article about how Google’s Android wasn’t a good choice for consumers if they were also considering an iPad – then I dovetailed my statements with a clear assertion that I prefer Google’s Chrome web browser above all others. This isn’t about what’s right for Google or Apple – it’s about what’s best for consumers on the whole.

iOS devices are still selling like hotcakes, despite their inability to natively support Flash content. If you’re really concerned about not being able to view useless Flash splash screens to restaurant Web sites, just look up the information on Google Places. As far as Flash video content on the iPad is concerned – there’s always Skyfire. “Problem” solved.

By all definitions, the iPad is a new kind of computer. I need to state this outright, if only because the most ardent iPad antagonists awkwardly continue (in gusto) to shoehorn the “tablet” class into a classic notebook / laptop paradigm (USB ports, et al). If any Android tablet expects to be seen as true competition to Apple’s entrant, it must first qualify by accepting new rules and eschewing perception.

Of course, the Android ecosystem could continue to ignore competition at is own peril. If I were Google, I’d be far more concerned about webOS than I would be iOS. But I’m (obviously) not Google. ;) I have no horse in this race, other than wanting to see huge wins for consumers.

Android vs iPad? Why Android Tablets Can’t Beat the iPad

Yeah, I use “swear words” on a regular basis. I don’t think that makes me a bad person, either. At least I don’t mispronounce “nuclear!”

I’m also guilty of wanting to learn the “bad words” in other languages – if only to know when someone is calling me something I’d rather not be called. And knowing is half the battle. I know I’m not alone in this respect. What’s the first sentence YOU try to translate when you’re using a translation app for the first time? I can’t be the only one.

So, imagine my surprise when I fired up the brand new Google Translate app for the iPhone, spoke clearly into the mic, and saw it populate the fields with hashes:

Worse yet? The voice translation reads the hashes aloud – in whatever language it’s translated. At least Google could include a universal *bleep* sound if they’re not going to let me f**king do what I want to f**king do. :)

Now, I happen to think this app (overall) is pretty damn genius – and it’s highly recommended for any one of you traveling abroad with an international data plan in hand. Go ahead – try it with any other language that Google translates (French, Spanish, Albanian, etc.). For some reason, and with no filtering toggle available in the app’s settings, Google doesn’t want me cussing in other languages.

So, what about Bing? I tried saying that same phrase five times:

Bing seems to pretend that you didn’t really say it at all. That’s even worse.

Of course, each one of these apps will let you key in a swear word – so why don’t they like you speaking it into the microphone? Is that, somehow, worse? It could certainly be argued that a more sensitive person might say “I would like to eat your shiitake dish” and see a less-than-desirable translation.

However, shouldn’t each of these apps at least give us the option to learn about our favorite swears?

Google and Bing Apps for the iPhone Won’t Translate Spoken Swear Words – in Any Language