Time ranks Motorola Droid above Apple iPhone for 2009
Time magazine has named the Motorola Droid the No. 1 gadget of 2009, besting the iPhone 3GS and calling the handset the first to truly challenge Apple’s groundbreaking smartphone.
Time said that the Droid is the best hardware companion to Google’s Android mobile operating system yet, earning the phone its top honors for 2009.
"The Droid is a hefty beast, a metal behemoth without the gloss and finish of the iPhone, but you don’t miss it," the magazine said. "The Droid’s touchscreen is phenomenally sharp and vivid, it has an actual physical (not great, but good enough) keyboard, and best of all, the Droid is on Verizon’s best-of-breed 3G network. It’s Android’s first credible challenge to the iPhone."
Apple’s iPhone still made the list, and earned praise. But the device came in fourth, behind the Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader, and the Dyson Air Multiplier.
"Take the iPhone. Make it faster. There, you’re done," the story said. "Yes, the 3GS has a better camera — with video. And it has a compass and voice control. Those are all improvements over the original. But the main point of, and the best thing about, the new iPhone is speed. It has more of it. Period."
Hype surrounding the Droid continues to linger more than a month after the device first debuted. This despite the fact that the handset managed to sell 100,000 units in its first weekend, compared with over a million units of the iPhone 3GS sold in its first three days at retail.
While comparisons between the Droid and iPhone are inevitable regardless, Motorola has encouraged them with a series of advertisements geared towards men. One recent ad suggested the iPhone is feminine, comparing it to a "tiara-wearing digitally clueless beauty pageant queen." Motorola then portrays its Droid as a fast, efficient device that isn’t worried about looks.
One recent study found that buzz surrounding the Droid had helped to propel the brand perception of Motorola beyond that of Apple for men ages 18 and up.
The rest of Time’s top 10 gadgets list for 2009, following the iPhone 3GS, in order, is: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, Dell Adamo XPS, FinePix Real 3D W1, Casio G-Shock GW7900B-1, Beats Solo by Dr. Dre, and Panasonic G10 Series Plasma HDTVs.
Apple’s recent stock drop not seen as cause for panic
Though AAPL stock has dropped 8 percent in the last 10 trading days, it’s no cause for concern over the Mac maker’s shares, one Wall Street analyst has said.
In his latest note to investors issued Tuesday afternoon, analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray said Apple typically outperforms in the last four months of the year, up 43 percent, and underperforms in the first four months of the year, up 2 percent. This year, he said, investors are just taking their typical sell-off a little early, to capitalize on the strong gains of late ’09.
In addition, he said shares may have, in years past, been driven up in December in anticipation of Apple’s participation in the Macworld conference.
Munster said he remains confident that the December quarter will provide upside, driven by Mac, to reassure investors.
"There has been disagreement on the Street as to what has caused the recent slide in AAPL shares," he said. "We believe it is the cumulative effect of several seasonal and industry wide market forces at work."
Another factor in Apple’s recent stock struggles: The ongoing ad war between Verizon and AT&T, and the recent launch of the Motorola Droid, also accompanied by an advertising blitz.
"Collectively, these competitive forces may have had a slight negative impact on consumer sentiment towards the iPhone," Munster said. "Also, large cap stocks GOOG, AMZN, QCOM and AAPL have each underperformed the market in the past 5 trading days."
Namebench Helps You Find the Fastest DNS Server for Your Computer
Google announced a free DNS service designed to speed up your browsing, but just because Google wants to be fast doesn’t actually mean they’re the best option for you. Namebench finds the fastest DNS server for your connection.
After you download and fire up namebench, just click the Start Benchmark button to test out a handful of free public DNS services, from Google Public DNS to OpenDNS to UltraDNS. Once started, the test took about 12 minutes to complete using the default settings. When it’s done, you’ll be presented with a handful of handy charts displaying the results of the tests.
(Click the image above for a closer look.)
You can see the results to my test in the screenshots above and below. From the looks of things, UltraDNS is the DNS that’s going to do the most to speed up my connection. In fact, it claims UltraDNS will be 46% faster than Google Public DNS (the DNS server my computer was using when I ran the test)—so it looks like I may just be switching yet again.
(Click the image above for a closer look.)
Nambench is a free, open-source download, works with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. If you give it a try, let’s hear what DNS server scores highest for you in the comments.
namebench [Google Code via Smarterware]
'Mark the Spot' iPhone app aims to find AT&T trouble areas
AT&T has released an iPhone application that gives customers the ability to notify the carrier of their location when they experience poor service.
Google promotes Place Pages in shop windows
Google is introducing a mobile marketing campaign for Place Pages, a service for businesses that faced some early criticism when it launched in September.
Place Pages are Web sites that Google creates for businesses that appear on Google Maps. The pages include basic information like an address, maps and nearby transit options, as well as customer reviews posted to sites like Tripadvisor and Urbanspoon.
Google planned to announce Monday that it has begun sending out decals -- basically stickers -- that businesses with Place Pages can post in their shop windows. The decals display a type of bar code, called a QR code, that mobile phones can "scan" to find related information online.
People with iPhones, Android phones and BlackBerry devices will be able to use an application on the phone to take a photograph of the QR code in the window. The application will recognize the QR code in the photograph and launch the business’ Place Page in the phone’s browser.
IPhone users will be able to use the QuickMark application, which usually costs US$0.99 but will be free to the first 40,000 people who download it starting on Monday, Google said. On Android devices, consumers can use the free Barcode Scanner application.
Businesses can update and correct information on their own Place Pages. Google said it is sending the decals to the 100,000 most-searched-for businesses that have updated their Place Pages through Google’s Local Business Center.
More than a million businesses have already “claimed” a Places Page, said Michaela Prescott, head of geomarketing for Google. It chose the most popular of those businesses by checking how many people are searching for them on Google or looking for driving directions to the business, she said.
Google plans to take the decal program international, and expects to hand out more decals to popular businesses early next year, she said.
Google introduced Place Pages in late September. When it launched, industry observers noticed that Place Pages were being ranked in Google results, leading to concern that Google was driving traffic to its own pages -- which feature advertising -- rather than to the source of information online. Google said it had taken steps to prevent the Place Pages from appearing in its search results, although some continue to appear.
Microsoft alters settlement with EU over browser exclusivity
Microsoft has modified its antitrust settlement with the European Union in response to complaints from other browser makers.
Microsoft’s offer to give consumers a choice of browsers to comply with antitrust claims by the European Union has undergone several changes in response to concerns raised by competing browser developers.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the modified agreement offers Windows users a "ballot screen" that will randomly list the five top web browsers. Users would be given the option to select a browser that will then be downloaded from the Internet.
Concerns were raised by Opera, Google, and Mozilla over the planned ballot concept when it was first announced due to plans to have the browsers listed in alphabetical order. This would have placed Apple’s Safari browser first. "More competition in the browser space will mean greater innovation on the Web and a better user experience for people everywhere," Google spokesman Bill Echikson reportedly said.
The European Union’s antitrust claim against Microsoft stemmed from its belief that the inclusion of Internet Explorer in Windows was an abuse of Microsoft’s stance in the market. The EU claimed that the widespread use of Internet Explorer forced outside developers and programmers to work towards optimizing their products exclusively for the Microsoft browser, therefore limiting the features available to potential users.
According to November numbers by Net Applications, Internet explorer has fallen in total market share to capture 63.62 percent of the market, followed by Firefox with 24.72 and Safari with 4.36 percent.