{image courtesy of Gizmodo)

The best part of this flowchart is that not only is it true, it’s hilariously true. If you’re trying to figure out whether you should jump ship from whatever carrier you have and buy an Apple iPhone 3GS or a Palm Pre, this can help you out a bit.

Personally? I’ve been drooling over the iPhone 3GS, but when I heard that Verizon is probably getting the Pre around the end of the year, I started thinking I should wait a little bit to see how that all shapes up. If Verizon bastardizes the phone with their own OS and all that “Get It Now” nonsense, I’ll probably jump ship. Then again, I might do it anyway, since the Pre really is no iPhone killer.

But that all being said, both phones have their pros and cons, and this flowchart will help you figure out which one might be best for you in the interim, and it’ll probably entertain you in the process. Enjoy!

[ Gizmodo: The iPhone and Pre Buyer's Guide Flowchart ]

There’s been a whole world of commotion in the smartphone market these days. Even teen-aimed mobile devices like LG’s enV3 (which the commercial claims is “app friendly,” somehow) are looking more and more like smartphones – you can download applications that make it easier to stay in touch with your friends, surf the Web, get your e-mail, and all in all distract you more while you drive. (texting while driving is a whole other column)

But no one’s scrambling for the enV3, no one’s scrambling for the Samsung Trance. No one’s lining up to get the Blackberry Storm – even though it’s one of these new breed of smartphones. What are people lining up for? The iPhone in just about every iteration it’s been released, and surprising new devices like the Palm Pre and the G1. The G1, the Pre, and the iPhone prove a remarkable point: the smartphone isn’t the realm of the businessperson anymore, and even professionals want more from a smartphone than just the ability to get their corporate e-mail on the go.

The United States, in all target markets, is learning a lesson that people in other markets have either known or also been learning for years: we need better smartphones. The iPhone, the Palm Pre, and the G1 are proof of this – people want phones that bring true Web browsing to their mobile fingertips, and not the type of terrifyingly ugly Web experience that typically comes on devices like your standard clamshell mobile phone.

But it goes beyond this – people don’t just want them, they’re willing to jump ship from their current carriers, even if they have no complaints, and pay large amounts of money for expensive data plans in order to get them. They’re also willing to line up in front of mobile phone stores around the country to get them on the first possible day they can get them.

Continue reading Spinning Gears :: The iPhone, G1, and Palm Pre Prove It: The US Needs Better Smartphones…

WWDC was the big news of the previous week, and now that I’ve had a chance to let it all settle in, I think the announcements get more and more exciting the more you think about them. There was probably more subtext in this year’s WWDC keynote than I’ve heard in any keynote prior, and there was a lot of reading between the lines to be done to get a feel for not only what Apple is doing, but how the market is affecting them and what their plans for the future are.

So let’s start with the big announcement that’s stolen everyone’s heart, shall we?

Continue reading WWDC Roundup: New Macbook Pros, Snow Leopard, and the iPhone 3GS…

Planning a huge new Mac purchase? Maybe you’re lusting over one of those shiny new Macbook Pros, or the new iPhone 3GS? Okay, it’s pretty safe to buy one of those since they’ve just been released. But what if you’re thinking about a new iPod Nano, or better yet, an iPod Touch? Is now the right time to buy?

MacRumors has a buyer’s guide that has all but become the definitive guide for when to buy an Apple product. The site is updated as new products are announced and rolled out, and keeps track of the average amount of time between product revisions or upgrades so you don’t have to buy worrying that a newer, better version of the same product will come out in a couple of weeks. So for example, now’s probably not a great time to buy an iPod Touch, but it is a good time to buy a Mac Mini.

It’s not foolproof, but it’s an excellent reference for how frequently Apple makes revisions or upgrades to the products in its lineup, and avoids the dreaded upgrade remorse that plagues Apple lovers and customers.

[ MacRumors :: Buyer's Guide (Time Ordered) ]

Netbooks. All the rage, I think we can all agree – but if you’re planning to buy one, you could spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out which one is best for you. My advice is the same that I would give to anyone planning to buy a notebook computer – try to touch one before you buy it. That way you get a feel (pun completely intended) for what the device feels like under your fingers, how it behaves during regular use, and how you feel when you use it. You can read as many reviews as you like, but there’s no real replacement for actual use.

That being said, one other good thing to have is personal experience from others who have used the same models that you have – you could search out customer reviews, but over at Lifehacker one of the regular features is called the Hive Five, where the editors poll the community for their favorite app, product, device, or other item in a given category. In this case, Netbooks.

The community weighed in, and there are a number of unsurprising entries, but a few that I wouldn’t have predicted. For example, I would be surprised if the Dell Mini 10 didn’t make a list of top netbooks, but I was definitely surprised to see the Samsung NC10. For the rest of the list, head on over to Lifehacker to read all about it, and some pros and cons of each product.

[ Lifehacker :: Five Best Netbooks ]

Owning a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device and attaching it to your home netwotrk instantly gives you a place you can back up your files or use for extra storage for an ever-fatter music or movie collection. Most of these come empty and you have to go out and buy hard drives to install into them; but once the drives are in place you’ll probably configured them in a RAID array that allows for redundancy if any of the drives should fail.

There are tons of options on the market, like the ever-present Drobo, which is a good product, but the fine folks at ExtremeTech went off the beaten path a bit to find a few other offerings from some other manufacturers that are worth considering if you’re planning to buy a NAS device and some drives to give yourself a place to back up your files. Among them are the Western Digital Sharespace (shown above), the Segate Black Armor 440, the Promise SmartStor NS4600, and the Intel SS-4200E. Lots of model names, but which of the devices has the solid spec to cut through the confusing numbers?

[ ExtremeTech :: 4 RAID NAS Drives for the Home ]

I’m a huge fan of Lifehacker, I think that’s clear by now. That being said, I’ve been fiddling with the Windows 7 RC in a VM using VirtualBox on my Mac, and it’s definitely good enough to be my permanent operating system if it weren’t running in a VM (although frankly, it’s performance in VM is pretty spectacular).

Lifehacker has a run down of some of the best and most underhyped features that are coming in Windows 7, and on the whole I think it’s an excellent list. From automatic wallpaper shuffling (which I currently accomplish in Windows Vista with John’s Background Switcher), to Jump Lists, to Libraries, there are a number of really interesting features under the hood of Windows 7 that a lot of people aren’t talking about…but should be.

[ Lifehacker :: Lifehacker :: Windows 7's Best Underhyped Features ]