Last night I heard about Twitter acquiring the Tweetie iPhone application.  Tweetie, often raved as the best Twitter iPhone app, will now be offered for free instead of $2.99.  On Twitter’s blog, the company justified its acquisition, “People are looking for an app from Twitter, and they’re not finding one.”  I think they are right, and I’m happy they will be giving away the app.

When I heard the news, I was not surprised that they had released a native application, but I was surprised they had acquired another company to do it.

After waking up this afternoon (hey, don’t judge; I was up working until 10am), I was linked to this story on CNET. As the story shows, some view Twitter’s move as an attack on third-party developers and have compared it to Apple’s move with iPhone OS 4.0 (a move I do have reservations about).

To me, Twitter’s actions are significantly different from Apple’s, and significantly better for users and developers.  As I see it, Twitter is simply re-entering the market that made Twitter what it is.  It is NOT moving to block any third-party development.  The developer community is understandably nervous about any acquisitions and freebies, but, in this case, I think the anxiety is misplaced.

I’m a firm believer in competition and transparency. Twitter seems to be, too.  They have certainly encouraged developers to create external solutions through their API (application programming interface).  The Twitter API is well documented and allows access from a variety of languages and platforms, unlike Apple’s approach, which rules out anything not written in Objective-C.

Services like Seesmic go beyond a simple read/post interface and offer an expanded service (ability to post to updates to 50+ services), serving more than a generic recreation of Twitter. In contrast, Tweetable offers a generic read/post service that integrates with the admin panel of my blog, making Twitter available in a unique location.  I’m all for that.

Ultimately, innovation and improvement are the two greatest assets in any business model. Twitter’s acquisition of Tweetie shows it understands this logic well.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Twitter follows up by buying more related services or expanding internally in similar directions.

After seeing Windows Mobile 7, I have to say it really compliments Android as a serious mobile phone.  As Gizmodo said, it “out Appled Apple.” Not to say it won’t be an enjoyable experience, or a competitor in the mobile market, but it’s a different experience than the typical “Smartphone.”  The big question, then, is how does Microsoft’s new platform compare with Apple and Android–for users and for developers?

Windows Mobile 7′s interface and layout are the definition of simplicity. This comes as a direct challenge to the iPhone, which prides itself on a simple interface and usability. The WM7 user interface is about the easiest navigation I’ve seen and might be better than the iPhone because it has significantly more flexibility.

As I have said many times, one platform is not a substitute for another. This mobile operating system seems to target the market of iPhone users, who want a phone that “just works.” Microsoft is creating minimum phone specifications, ranging from screen size to sensors, to ensure that the phones run the OS smoothly. Because Android doesn’t have such standards (it provides more flexibility with the hardware), Windows Mobile 7 appears to be targeting the iPhone market share.

Unlike the iPhone OS and Windows Mobile, Android can be applied to a variety of devices. Android also has a virtually open application market, meaning developers can create what they want and deliver it when they want. So while the iPhone might own the mobile application market today, Android will really pick up steam as Microsoft and Apple create barriers for developers.  Such barriers seem inevitable for both Microsoft and Apple mobile operating platforms because both companies want a seamless interface and, unfortunately, don’t trust independent app developers to provide it.

With the thought of a hardware floor comes a nightmare of an application approval process similar to Apple’s. Needless to say, this would be extremely discouraging for developers looking to produce applications for the platform. The bright side–there’s always a bright side–is that Flash will probably be available soon on the Windows Mobile platform.. for those of you who care for Flash.

So, before I start in on the Nexus one and my lust for it, I wanted to bring up this issue I have with claims as illustrated in the title.  Today alone, I’ve read numerous articles talking about a future product killing off demand of an existing product.  This is simply not the case, to be honest I don’t know when this was the case. There is no “iPhone killer” as much as the Apple Tablet won’t “kill” off ebook readers or netbooks.

The hype, while often strong, behind a new product almost always revolves around the existence of a product which owns the majority of the market share.  This has been the story with almost every Android phone that’s released, almost as though people expect a phone to take an immediate 40% share of the market.

Unfortunately, while I was browsing CNN between calls, I saw the headline (center page mind you) “Is Google releasing the iPhone killer.” This gains center attention, despite a plethora of equally disappointing articles (such as “woman defends tattooing her infant children.”) Despite the almost invisible article “Dow kicks ass” brushed aside to make room for the Nexus opinion.

Here’s the thing, for me and others, we look at each gadget as having the ability to compliment another instead of replacing it.  A good example is that along side my T-Mobile G1 I carry an iPod Touch and a Laptop.  While it is true that I can preform the same general tasks on my different devices, each carries their own benefits separate from the others.  I refuse to use my G1 for media, because the battery life is stretched thin as it is, while I can’t type on a virtual keyboard for the life of me, I won’t even go into the thought of writing code on my G1 (although I’ve done it numerous times) because it wouldn’t even be fun.

This is the same approach I take to the Nexus One and Apple Tablet launch, sure each would replace a device I already have, but neither will replace my need for the other devices, if anything it would create more of a reliance on them.  If I were to get the Nexus One, which I will some day (I hope), I would be even more bound to my netbook because of it’s keyboard and extended battery life. Whereas, if I were to acquire the Apple Tablet, I would rely more on my phone for communication and my iPod for media. If anything came close to minimizing my reliance on a gadget, it would be my netbook because it’s more powerful and the battery lasts 10 hours on a charge.

After a few years of “dealing” with AT&T I have most recently switched to T-Mobile about 6 months ago. For the longest time I was one of the people that always said “Oh nothing will ever be greater than my iPhone.”  Well truth be told the Motorola Cliq has just hit a home run with me, that’s right android has won my heart haha. Granted the iPhone was a pretty big hit over the past 2+ years but in retrospect I only ever used the phone for games or apps that helped pass the time while I was sitting in sociology lectures. Sure they had some decent apps for your social networking sites, but this is where the Cliq stands very strong. One touch status updates will automatically direct all status’ to Facebook, Twitter, Myspace wherever all at once. The iPhone forces you to select app, wait for it to load, and then login. With the Cliq it’s simply, touch and go. This phone is a socializing giant and I have a feeling iPhone app developers are falling all over themselves to try and jump on the bandwagon to try and compete. They better be working quickly because the MOTOBLUR is expected to be running on more than ten devices in the coming months.

Like I’ve stated I have had T-Mobile for a while now and it’s not just the new phone that I am so happy with, I am more so overwhelmed by their generosity and customer service. The last thing I remember getting from AT&T was my iPhone and I was “assisted” by some cold, hard headed, foreign bitch that didn’t want to do anything! I straight up left the store and ended up ordering one online instead of dealing with that. After my contract ended there was no way I was staying with AT&T. I was either going to hack the iPhone and use it on T-Mobile or just get a new phone when I switched. Long story short I gave up on the iPhone. After a few months of using a Blackberry 8320 and a Moto Zine I decided to look into upgrading my plan which consisted of 600 minutes and unlimited texts. After a day of deliberation and much help from T-Mobiles customer service and billing department I decided on getting the new Moto Cliq and the Even More Plus plan that included 1000 minutes, unlimited text and unlimited data which only amounted to $20 more a month than I was all ready paying.

All in all T-Mobile gets a well deserved 10 out of 10. With such strong phones like the G1, Moto Cliq, MyTouch, and numerous others that will come out running android, you pair that up with their new rate plans and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if people start dropping their current providers at the end of their contracts and start switching.

Over the last several days there has been thousands of blog posts and articles about Apple pulling Google Voice apps off the market. After the FCC involved itself, the opinions only grew in number and often claimed the “I told you AT&T (or Apple) was eVil!” The thing is that everyone loves to be rooting for the winning team, even when the battle isn’t over.

What happened:
Google has this service named Google Voice, formerly Grand Central, which allows someone to have a single number route to many phones. For simplicity’s sake let’s just call it a forwarding service, which provides you a number for free, for life. For many smart phone users there is a mobile application which allows the user to use the data service on their smart phone to manage the account. These applications for the iPhone were pulled and future project indefinitely rejected by Apple. Apple made this move in one swoop, without explanation.

Continue Reading

Windows Phone OS walkthrough « INQ TV
While flash is amazing, it seems like Windows Phone OS is just regergtating everything else that is on the market.  While I’m not a huge fan of the Windows Mobile operating systems that I’ve used in the past, I have to say that I’m least likely to give this a shot out of anything on the market. For me the highlight of using my T-Mobile Dash or MDA was  that aside from “ActiveSync” working flawlessly with outlook, the email client was almost as stripped down as the BlackBerry email client.

Continue Reading