Android on Verizon to take on AT&T, Apple

Last night during the ALCS, Verizon launched a new marketing blitz to promote its much lauded Android handest 'Droid' (A moniker oddly enough owned by none other than George Lucas). Its a ballsy campaign to take one of the largest consumer electronics manufacturers in the world, especially after taking jabs at poor AT&T 3G coverage with the 'There's a Map For That' ad launched earlier this month. Let's dissect the main takeaways from this, shall we?

A Powerful Ad
Apple ads have always been effective, and Microsoft's lame attempts to respond to them prove that as marketing tools, they're simply too mighty to topple. Instead, the Droid commercial brings you in through parody, mimicking the same trendy format with plain black text. As you get bombarded with a series of 'iDon't' statements, you begin to realize that this is no Apple commercial. One by one, they disect the lack of iPhone features and flaws that have been safely protected behind Apple's marketing veil. The final scene tears through the white, symbolically pulling the veil down. DroidDoes.com is the only call to action, with no evidence of Verizon branding. That last point is an interesting one, and almost serves as an acknowledgment that consumers may not perceive Verizon as an open company that can make solid hardware and software.




No iPhone on Verizon Anytime Soon
Those of you iPhone holdouts waiting for its arrival to Verizon should stop holding your breaths. This commercial calls Apple out directly for its closed platform, trendy indie advertising, and other lacking phone features (keyboard, low res camera, etc).  This is somewhat counter intuitive to a strategy that would cultivate and strengthen an eventual business partnership between the two giants.

As the number one wireless company in the US of A, it seems that Verizon would be eventually forced into this direction. The iPhone has made an undeniable impact on the consumer smartphone market, and with AT&T iPhone exclusivity showing no end in sight, it seems that they're looking to Google to show them how to actually make a UI that isn't completely terrible. What a great segway to the next point....
 

Verizon and Open Connectivity in the Same Sentence
I was on the Big V for 5 years, and my greatest frustration with their platforms were the flurry of GET IT NOW, VCAST MUSIC, MY PIX, MY FLIX, etc programs which ultimately result in the dishing out of money. It was poor execution of a user interface that worked less and less for the user and more and more for the bottom line of Verizon. When Apple and AT&T showed me that I could make my existing music, pictures, and video easily manageable, I made the jump, and haven't looked back.

And now there's Android. Since Google announced its open-source mobile platform in 2007, consumers and developers have rejoiced at the prospect of crowd-sourced application development open to all carriers. Being somewhat at the mercy of their customers as second rate carriers with spottier coverage, T-Mobile and Sprint understood that this affordable path to an innovative UI could give them an advantage over the big guys and adopted first.  Since then, they've enjoyed commercial success with the Palm Pre and MyTouch 3G.

Verizon is now stepping up to the open-source plate, and I think its a big victory for consumers.  Its a company that has traditionally been quite eager to sell content, but not really all that keen to help customers manage their existing content. I only hope that its an acknowledgment that Verizon is a great wireless carrier, but an awful content vendor, hardware maker, and software developer. I'm still somewhat skeptical in the execution, anticipating exclusive compatibility with software and hardware accessories only sold through Verizon channels, but its a great move towards the mythical dichotomy that I dreamed about as a young lad: A great, affordable phone that can actually make phone calls everywhere.

[Gizmodo]

5 Dang-Worthy iPhone Apps

USAA (Free)

Although its great to get paid, how frustrating is it when you need money and someone gives you a check? During the limited window of bank availability, you've got to drive out, login to the ATM, fill out a deposit slip, and fill out a bank envelope in order to get dough into your account. Frankly, it's just not the 80's anymore, (although this man might believe otherwise) and there's a bank out there that recognizes that. USAA's free iPhone application comes with a feature (for customers with a good credit history) that allows you to take a picture of both sides of a check and upload it for instant deposit. Finally, I can deposit grandma's birthday checks with no pants on!

Shazam (Free)

The music in Old Navy is terrible, but every once in a while, you're going to hear something vaguely familiar and want to know what it is. We've all been there. Then, you're going to get into an argument with your girlfriend about whether its a song Sting or Phil Collins (who, to this day, I still believe are actually the same person). The free Shazam app allows you to instantly identify a song by automatically analyzing 10-15 second clips and submitting it to their database. For me out in the field, its worked only about 65% of the time, but when it does work, its been consistently accurate every time, even in a noisy bar or crowded room. What's more, Shazam also provides links to Youtube videos, iTunes pages, and artist info. Not too bad if you want to do a back-to-back listen of Fields of Gold and Sussudio.

Peggle ($4.99)

After I got the iPhone, one part of my life will never be the same: the bathroom. No longer will I be impatient and bored whilst upon the golden throne. In fact, I think Apple should completely reposition their marketing strategy to bowel-based benefits. ('There's a crap for that') When searching for a great casual video game, you want something that's fun, easy to pick up and put down, and addicting. Now, the developers of the award-winning game Peggle have brought quirky pinball style action to the iPhone that's reminiscent of the ever popular computer game Snood. Just make sure you mute it, or the guy in the next stall might hear its zany noises and think that you're giving birth to an NES console.

Snatch ($3.99)

Ever since the speculation began for what next-generation technology might come in Apple's latest lines of MacBook, there's one concept that has always intrigued me. Imagine a MacBook that incorporated the touch display technology of the iPhone into its trackpad. Every application could theoretically produce its own dedicated set of custom buttons designed for a specific purpose. Well unfortunately for me, Apple went in a different direction so I'm stuck trying to find the damned spellcheck in Office 2007's 'innovative' ribbon menu. Snatch has been developed in order to change the way we interact with programs. By syncing to your computer and downloading program 'remotes', you can display a full page of program specific commands or even design your own. Initiatives like this will certainly shape the face of computer input in the future, or at the very least, tide me over until I can check email like Tom Cruise in Minority Report.


Sex Offenders ($1.99)

The future is a weird place huh? The marriage of pocket computing and the National Sex Offender Registry has brought forth a disturbing new tool which will inevitably trigger the following conversation in homes across America.

Wife: Honey, did you know we lived near a child molester?
Husband: Oh yeah? What degree?
Wife: Third.
Husband: Gee, only 3rd? What an amateur. Guess it looks like we're not moving!

That's right folks. For only $1.99, you can get a detailed map of your perfect little neighborhood with pins that show the household locations of every registered sex offender in the area. And if that wasn't enough to get you to hide your daughters and lock your doors, the app even allows you to select each pin for a detailed description of the crime and view a charming photo of the offender. The biggest use I've gotten out of this thus far is scaring women at local bars in an attempt to convince them not to sleep alone. Unfortunately, my eyes just can't take the pepper spray anymore.

GoogleVoiceGate: FCC to Investigate Apple for GV Block

Google Voice, another step in Google's secret plan to take over the world, promises to combine all of your phone numbers into one, bringing together standard sms and phone services with cool features like voicemail transcription, visual voicemail-esque messaging system, and listen in, which allows users to screen calls before answering.

And oh, did I mention its completely free? I didn't?

So if you're a wireless carrier like AT&T, who gets away with charging ridiculous fees for text messaging and long distance, you may, in fact, be shitting your pants. And somehow, through the endless chain of exclusivity agreements and corporate partnerships, this communal pants-shitting continues with the traditionally-cool cats at Cupertino.

Last week, Google was denied an application to bring their Google Voice services to the Apple iPhone. Additionally, all third party google voice apps such as Sean Kovac's GV Mobile received the ax, leaving the blogosphere in a state of WTF. Apple's only response? The application was pulled for "duplicating features that the iPhone comes with." Malarkey.

Thankfully, Uncle Sam has stepped in, announcing Friday that they have sent letters to Apple asking the company to rationalize its recent actions. This comes as part of a larger ongoing investigation of the fairness of access to exclusive phones for rural customers.

It's definitely interesting to see this first big clash between Apple with its iPhone and Google with its Android-based devices and other services. During the Microsoft-era of the tech industry, these two succesfully carved their own comfortable little niches as innovators in their own right. However, it seems that Apple and Google, who have become the biggest players in the future of mobile computing, are bound to collide in what will no doubt be the biggest and nerdiest corporate war ever. Lucky for us consumers, company wars are a good thing.