• A Helicopter made from Christmas lights. I said, A HELICOPTER MADE FROM CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!! Thank you. @kylejudkins http://bit.ly/8ve2Pj #
• Make sure to check out the Top 10 LostInTechnology Posts of 2009 http://bit.ly/4RQBFQ @kylejudkins #
• I really like how Twitter just makes fun of itself when it can't handle all of the people on it. People search is "stressing out" right now. #
• Check out some ways To Backup All of Your Holiday Photos for Free Online http://bit.ly/8i8vp9 @kylejudkins #
• Hey, start off your 2010 right by learning How To Benchmark Your PC http://bit.ly/7pDM2b @kylejudkins #
• What Mobile Tech Will You Buy This Year? http://om.bit.ly/4Dsk1P @jkontherun – I am going for some type of tablet/ebook reader. You? #
• Check out Engadget's first impressions of Nexus One http://bit.ly/7gD07Q #
• Don’t Forget About the CopyTrans 4 Giveaway at LostInTechnology http://bit.ly/5Z335e @kylejudkins #
• Want to rule your Windows 7 experience? How To Enable Windows 7 Secret God Mode http://om.bit.ly/8o2Kow from @jkontherun #

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This week wasn’t too too exciting mostly because everyone is widing down from a long year. But here are some links to keep you warm, that is if you are cold like me.

• Exclusive: Google Nexus One hands-on, video, and first impressions via Engadget Mobile
  • Excellent piece of tech here, although I do not feel extreme lust towards it for some reason. Maybe the Droid is helping curb my gadgetite.
• Apple pulls iPhone app that upset Hollywood via CNET News
  • Apple has to stop playing the police in regards to their app store.
• Jobs to unveil Apple Tablet new month ex-Google exec says via Computer World
  • With CES and the beginning of the gadget year, hopefully Kai-Fu Lee is right and we will get some news about this Tablet.
• AT and T is the latest to drop Woods via NYT
  • I guess since Luke Wilson is doing such a wonderful job looking kind of stupid, AT&T decided to drop Tiger Woods. Or I guess it could have been that whole cheating, drunken, beating, mess thing.
• Notion Ink tablet first with Pixel Qi Display via Crave Blog
  • I want to see how this gadget will pan out. LCD / e-paper screen? Awesome. Just let me write on it and I am in.
• Leaked Nexus One Documents: $530 Unlocked, $180 With T-Mobile via Gizmodo
  • I guess this isn’t very surprising. That is a pretty decent deal at $180 for this piece of hardware. $20 cheaper than the Droid on Verizon, plus T-Mobile plans are cheaper than Big Red’s
• 2010: the year of Cloud Computing via CNET Open Road Blog
  • I don’t know. I think that 2008 was my first real year of “cloud computing”. Where is everyone else at? Hopefully 2010 will be the year where businesses and the masses get more comfortable with the idea of making your life easier.
• AT&T resumes online iPhone sales in New York via CNET
  • This was sort of weird, but for a whole day New Yorkers couldn’t buy an iPhone online. AT&T has still not issued any response about it.
• Dell, Toshiba and Gateway Core i3 laptops get revealed early, joined by Pine Trail netbooks via Engadget
  • I cannot wait to get my hands on a notebook that has this new chip in it. Hopefully we some some battery life gains without loss in performance.
• What Mobile Tech will you get this year? via jkontherun
  • I think that this a really good question. Especially once CES comes around. Then we will have a much better outlook on what’s coming up.
• Fast Company Geeks of the Year: Jon Rubinstein via Fast Company
  • This is awesome! Rubinstein basically saved (well sort of saved) Palm from destruction with webOS and the Palm Pre and Pixi.
• Quake Ported to Palm Pre via PalmInfoCenter
  • Not just a port, but hardware accelerated. That is the important part. This means that the hardware can handle some decent 3D graphics and games.
• Predictions for 2010? via Engadget
  • This is just way too funny to pass up.

If you haven’t been on the interwebs and tech blogs in the last six months, you may have missed the passion (or obsession) with the idea of the Apple Tablet and what that piece of technology will look like. If you have been reading all of the blogs you may have become extremely annoyed by the idea that people are talking about a product that doesn’t even exist. Even though “people close to the matter” have “said” that an Apple tablet is completely real, we have no idea what it is going to be like. Since we don’t know it seems natural to ask the question; what do we really need in a tablet?

First, I am just going to make a quick list of my needs and wants in a tablet device:

• At least a 10′, capacitive touchscreen that has the ability to be written on with a stylus
• It would be nice to have a dual screen like the Microsoft Courier Prototype or the Entourage eDGe (but sexier)
• lighter than 1 pound
• at least 7 – 10 hours of battery life
• a camera (3MP or greater)
• Wifi and possible 3G integration
• 16GB or more of memory
• able to read any type of text from ebooks to PDFs
• a fast interface (iPhone OS would be OK, but I would really like a modified version of Android)
• good browser based on Webkit
• $500 or below

I’d say that is pretty good. I think that if a tablet comes out that promises and delivers these features it will do relatively well. Something that I see here though is that Apple may not meet these criteria with their tablet, if any of the proposed features of the Apple Tablet are true. One of the big features of my proposed tablet, sub $500 price point, seems cannot be reached by Apple’s premium pricing. So, I may have to wait for a different company to produce the tablet I am looking for (c’mon MS, where’s your Courier at?).

What would a tablet have to have for a non-regrettable purchase? Do we think that Apple will hit the mark? Or are we going to have to wait for another company to rock the lust-worthy tablet?

You have to admit, 2009 was a big year for smartphone and mobile applications. iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, webOS, and even Windows Mobile (or Windows Phone now) all have some sort of offering for applications. This trend is something that any cell phone manufacturer in the future would be stupid not to implement into their phone. The biggest problem is, is that with more and more different types of operating systems on phones, the more application formats are needed to reach each platform.

“App stores” are extremely “in” right now and they have shown to be extremely profitable and popular with the iPhone and Android operating systems. Consumers want to be able to customize their phone with different applications that they need for home, work, and play.  The problem with phone app popularity is that consumers almost expect their new phones to be able to run tons of applications. Obviously this isn’t the case.

Make

The iPhone App Store had done extremely well with over 100,000 applications and over 2 Billion downloads. When consumers and cell phone companies see this they both want a piece of the action. Android’s Market is doing well too with around 20,000 applications thus far and further shows that consumers want to be able to get useful applications on their phones.What this shows to me is that app stores are a necessity when it comes to smartphones. I know personally that if my phone doesn’t have a Remember the Milk and Evernote app then it will not be as useful to me.

iPhone OS and Android OS are the dominating mobile operating systems right now when it comes to breakthrough and innovative mobile applications. These operating systems will continue to flourish as the others will seem to clump along until they decide to innovate.

Break

App stores or the lack-there-of are going to break certain phones popularity and adoption. Like I said before, the more smartphone operating systems there are, the more application formats are needed for the operating systems. This presents a huge problem.

Most application developers are not going to have the time or resources to apply their applications to all smartphones. Because of this the development tools for each platform have to be easy to use and should provide the developer an easy way to port their applications to the new platform. Here is the reason that most smartphone platforms are going to fail; they do not provide the tools necessary for developers to do their job efficiently and the reach of the platform is not widespread enough.

It seems that Palm’s webOS may have some struggles to get more and more applications added. Even though the platform is built on web technologies (HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc.), the Pre and the Pixi are not widespread enough for developers to flock to the new OS. Palm’s webOS may be the only operating system besides iPhone and Android that has a chance to pick up some adoption because of it’s innovative operating system.

So, you thought 2009 was the year of the “app”? Wait until this year pans out; it won’t only be smartphones, everything will have apps. But it is easy to see that having a successful platform and application store is something that is needed for any new mobile operating system. Some of these OSs are going to die because of the lack of innovation. Will their be any in 2010 that go by the wayside?

I have been watching this story unfold in the wings for a couple of weeks now. Mostly because it didn’t seem like anyone knew what the heck they were talking about and I just wanted someone to get to the bottom of it. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe any of the reports, it’s just that something seemed fishy.

According to Wired, it now seems that Google will be having a press conference on January 5th, the day that many a blogger proposed would be the release date of the infamous “Google Phone”, Nexus One. At this press conference we may see what Google is going to do for their plan to market and sell this phone.

The Nexus One may be sold a tad differently than normal US handsets. Rather than being subsidized by a specific carrier, the phone may be sold directly by Google at an unsubsidized price. The phone would then need to be activated on a GSM carrier such as AT&T or T-Mobile. Yet some others are speculating that since Google has a good relationship with T-Mobile, that the Nexus One will be available at a subsidized price through them. This is where the Nexus One doesn’t seem to add up but here is what we know so far.

Killing Industries

If Google decides to release their own phone (it’s actually HTC hardware) they will potentially alienate their partners such as Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorola, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile. By providing a their own handset at an unsubsidized cost they are essentially taking the middle man completely out of the picture.

What I personally see happening is pure “creative destruction”. Google is trying to change the face of mobile and cloud-based technology; they are releasing a device and just using the cell phone carriers as “data-pipe” for the Android user experience. This means that in the long run Google will try to create and sell (or even give away for free) new devices that run on any network. This could be a nightmare for smartphone manufacturers and even the carriers because as 3G penetration grows and becomes more reliable only cost will matter in the long run when consumers decide what carrier to go with (here that Verizon?).

Contention, you better believe it

As Google’s mobile takeover pans out in the near future, we will see how protective cell phone companies and handset makers are over their fragile businesses. I am sure that if Google keeps moving forward with their mobile takeover (which they will) eventually these companies are going to sue or make their fears known to the US Government where they will have to battle some type of anti-competitive suit.

So, will Google actually release their unsubsidized Nexus One on January 5th to start a mobile takeover of the United State? Probably, yet they are definitely in store to fight some older industries over their disruptive business behavior. These are some exciting times and it will be interesting to see how this pans out in January.

This week was filled with cell phone carrier news, “reliable sources” telling us something that will happen that probably won’t, Dane’s trying to turn themselves in for ripping their own purchased DVDs, and Intel gives us a taste of 48 cores (picture). Enjoy!

• Leak: The Google Phone is a “certainty” via Gizmodo
  • I think that this post is funny. Gizmodo is saying that Google will produce hardware for an Android phone and that it is a certainty because that’s what they heard from “reliable sources”. I say no on this one. If there will be a Google phone, it will be a “developer” phone that Google will use internally.
• Black Friday sale up 11 percent from last year via Comscore
  • 11 percent seems like a pretty big jump and it is. I wouldn’t say that this means that our economy is out of the woods yet, but consumer electronics spending is through the roof.
• iPhone may go to T Mobile next via TheStreet
  • Ummm I guess this sort of makes sense. The only reason that this may happen would be because Apple doesn’t want to create brand new hardware until Verizon has rolled out their 4G network.
• Google’s 2009 Zeitgeist via Google
  • Check out what has been searched for the most this year. They’re aren’t too many surprises
• AT&T gives up Verizon ad lawsuit via CNET
  • I have a feeling that AT&T’s lawyers just felt more and more ridiculous everyday trying to defend against the truth.
• Sprint fed customer GPS data over to cops 8 million times via Ars
  • This was all over the place this week though I think that it is not as bad as it seems. Ars has a great post about it that isn’t filled with too many conspiracy theories.
• Dane who ripped his DVDs demands to be arrested under Dane law via Boing Boing
  • How funny is this. A Danish man rips his DVDs and because he is unsure if he broke the law or not turns himself in. The authorities didn’t even take him seriously even though it is technically illegal!
• Intel crams 48 cores onto stamp-sized processor, wants to do what Cell did via Engadget
  • 24 dual cores on one small-ass processor. This is amazing. And it actually uses less wattage as the Xenon processor. Hopefully this will be in my next phone.
• Microsoft’s Bing goes down via CNET
  • Who did they think they were Google? Oh wait, Google goes down all the time. So, yeah, I guess they did.

Passing out the link love!

• Measure and Analyze Your Website Stats With Woopra via LostInTechnology
  • This looks like a great alternative to Google Analytics. I feel that Analytics is sometimes extremely confusing and maybe even a little overkill, at least for now.
• How to use tearable tabs in your browser via Castellini on Computers
  • Yet another nice, quick video post on Rick’s site. I didn’t know that you could do this in Firefox!
• Bittorrent Explained: A Guide For the Beginner via WillINeedIt
  • Seriously, if you don’t know what Bittorrent is, this is THE guide that explains it. Matt did a very excellent and thorough job on this one.
• 11 Ways to Listen to Music Online for Free via The 2.0 Life
  • Need some free, legal music online? David gives you 11 ways!
• Reading eBooks on Phones: It’s all   in the settings via jkOnTheRun
  • After taking a look at this I may not get that eReader I have been mulling over. May just learn how to format for the Droid and be happy with it.

• NY gangs using Twitter to plan gang fights and meetups. Beats the hell out of tweeting what they ate for brunch. http://bit.ly/7l7Skh #
• RT @alleyinsider AOL Reveals Its Master Plan: Robot Editors http://bit.ly/5Nemrv #
• Black Friday Mac sales see a sharp drop. Don' think that it matters, especially when you have billions in the bank! http://bit.ly/7AKYlE #
• Another great way to analyze your web stats http://bit.ly/4VN5de #
• How to use "tearable" tabs in your browser. Awesome video tutorial from @HelpMeRick http://bit.ly/4K3Y3E #
• Good guide on how to transfer contacts from iPhone to Android phone http://bit.ly/8mkEwb @willineedit #
• If you have a HTC Hero and are feeling dangerous/curious check out the leaked Android 2.1 ROM! http://bit.ly/7V4iPk #
• Google shows that they are responsible and standards compliant, will discontinue Gears for HTML 5 http://tinyurl.com/yfxjz43 #
• RT Four Things 50 Cent Can Teach You About Connecting with Your Audience | Copyblogger http://bit.ly/8jFXao #
• Great way to store sticky notes online @LostInTechnology http://bit.ly/6pJODn #
• 4 Great and Free DVD Burner Applications http://bit.ly/6xzkwB @kylejudkins #
• Bing is down. #bingfail #
• Bing is up! At least for me… #bingsuccess #
• Quick tip on the new window maximization of Windows 7 http://bit.ly/74t7m4 @helpmerick #
• Retrieve Data from Damaged Hard Drives, CDs and DVDs with Unstoppable Copier http://bit.ly/6hjCYh @kylejudkins #

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I love Google Voice. I feel that Google Voice is THE thing that will release us from the clutches of the “cell phone company contract”. With that being said here is a little tutorial showing you how to create custom voicemail messages with groups and Google Voice. Of course this tutorial assumes that you have Google Voice and that it is able to be used with your phone.

1. After logging in to Google Voice, click on Settings on the top right

2. In the Setting menu click on the Groups tab and on this tab at the bottom click on Manage Groups. This will take you to your Groups and Contacts list.

3. Click on the New Group button and name your new group. Then click OK. You can also use this group to handle only one contact as well, making the voicemail a personal one.

4. Next, click on your contact list and select as many contact as you want to receive the custom VM you are going to record. Remember, you can also set up just one contact in the group. After you have selected your contact go to the Groups button and under Add to… click the group you just set up.

5. Click on Settings in the top right, click on the Groups tab again and then click on the Edit button under your group.

6. This is where the magic happens (I know, lame, right?). Anyways under the heading, When people in this group go to voicemail click on the Record New link. You will be welcomed by a input box where you can put the name of your voicemail, I just put the name of the group that the voicemail is for.

7. After this you will be brought to yet another message box where you choose what phone Google Voice will call you at to record your message. So, choose your phone, click the Connect button, wait for Google Voice to call, answer, and follow the instructions given by the kind woman on the end of the line.

8. After you are done recording your special, custom message and are off the phone under the heading, When people in this group go to voicemail click on the drop down and select the VM that you just created. Finally hit the Save button at the bottom.

Now, any time the contacts in the group you set up call you and go to voicemail they will get the custom VM that you set up for them. Pretty nice! Works very well for special occasions and to just add some personality to your unanswered calls. Enjoy!

One thing that I have noticed with my new-fangled Android phone is that to find good apps in the Android Market is, well, somewhat a pain. It seems that the Market searching process needs some refinement. So, it’s nice that the second installment of the Android Developer Challenge Winners have been announced. This gives us some new, useful, innovative apps to choose from the growing number of good and crap apps that the Market has to offer. Here are some of the highlights:

• What the Doodle !?
  • “‘WTD!?’ is a real-time online multiplayer game where one player tries to draw out a given phrase and others try to guess it.”
  • Sounds fun. I haven’t had the chance to try it yet.
• WaveSecure
  • “WaveSecure is a complete mobile security solution that protects your device, data and privacy.”
  • Adds some missing functionality to your Android phone like data wiping. Not sure if it has remote wipe, but if it does this could be the app that will bring Android further into the corporate world.
• A World of Photo
  • “Loosely inspired by the traditional “Spin the bottle”, A World of Photo is a casual, geographic worldwide multiplayer online game with a social touch. Players spin their phones and will receive a photo from whomever in the world they pointed to. For best play experience, let the app run in the background.”
  • This app is pretty cool. I have tried it out and it is still definitely in beta. Also, I kind of got a weird pic of some random guy’s hairy knee. Not so cool.
• Solo
  • “Solo is a great, easy to play and feature rich pocket guitar for your phone. A must for all guitar enthusiasts! Features include -Huge chord library with 380+ chords & diagrams -Load/save chord layouts -Play along with music on your phone -Overlay music & lyrics from the internet -Various strum modes, including shake strum”
  • Being a guitar player this app is extremely handy!
• Speed Forge 3D
  • “Speed Forge: Heavy duty hover vehicles, normally used for mining are now seen in illegal races organized in abondoned factories and dark Marsian alleys. The rock crushing explosives once used in these machines now serve a different purpose…”
  • I tried the free version of this app and I have to say that I am pretty impressed by the 3D graphics on my DROID. I  noticed in the comments section of the app that people on the G1 were experiencing very smooth gameplay as well. This shows me that Android CAN BE A GAMING PLATFORM.

Check out the rest of the Android Developer Challenge 2 Winners here. I am excited to see more and more innovative apps for the Android platform. Hopefully ADC3 will produce ever more great applications for Android.

This in from Alley Insider, AOL announces that they are going to be using a new algorithm that finds what is “hot” on the net at the moment and then sends out article assignments to freelancers. After these freelancers complete a piece it will be edited by some of the 500 AOL editors and then posted to the main site. Talk about a terrible plan and catastrophe waiting to happen.

I personally do not like the idea of an algorithm telling the company what needs to be written about and what doesn’t. Isn’t this why we have REAL editorial teams? Don’t they make the “big” bucks to do this type of work? I really don’t think that allowing an algorithm to choose what your top stories for the day or week are going to be is a good, new business model for AOL.

AOL says that they will also be paying upwards of $100 per post yet some may not even be reimbursed for their work. AOL’s payment terms seem to be a bit vague at the time.

Anyways, I can’t see this going to well and I have a feeling that after a few weeks or months this type of content creation strategy will go out the window. Maybe AOL should just find and hire some decent writers that know what the hell they are doing?