Hiding behind the gorgeous 3.7 AMOLED multi-touch screen is a 1.0 GHz Snapdragon processor. Yes people, it’s as fast as the iPad. The phone comes with built in 8GB Flash meda with 512MB RAM. The phone also has a microSD card slot which can support 32GB. On the back of the Incredible with a very pretty red bezel is an 8MP camera with LED flash and video capture capabilities. This phone also has an optical trackball; similar to how the trackpad works on the Blackberry Curve. What I don’t understand is why. This is a touch screen phone with a fantastic responsive touchscreen. So why the need for the trackpad? Touchscreen HTC, duh. My finger is the cursor. Other than the trackball I have no issue with the hardware. The phone itself is as thin as the iPhone and feels more rugged.

As far as software is concerned it works just like every other Android powered phone does with a twist. The Incredible has HTC’s Sense Skin. I used to love this skin but now it’s just there for extra forms of customization. Before Android got multi-touch, the HTC Sense skin added the feature to a few apps like Photo Gallery. So all you Droid Eris or Hero owners try pinching your pictures. Android comes packed with a full HTML browser, Gmail, Picasa, Buzz, Google Maps, Google Voice applications, and a whole lot more on the Google Marketplace. Google Maps on Android has a built in Turn by Turn Navigation mode too. One thing, you should be aware of the accelerometer on the Incredible. It only works in one direction. I don’t get this feature either. You can tilt the phone to the right and it will change the screen orientation, but if you tilt the phone to the left the phone will leave the screen orientation in portrait. It’s a little annoying but the phone has so much awesomeness that everyone can live with it.

In addition to the hardware and software the Incredible is available on the Verizon network that allows you to make phone calls and browse the web over 3G speeds pretty much anywhere in the US. So for a price tag of $200.00 with a two year contract, the Incredible is an elite smart phone with an average price. I like the direction Android is going and the hardware manufacturers are finally on board with building impressive phones.

Other noteworthy specs:

• Bluetooth 2.1
• Wireless headphones support
• Wifi
• 3.5 mm headphones jack
• microUSB charger
• Li-Ion Battery
  • 146 Hrs Standby
  • 5.5 Hrs Talk Time
• Digital Compass

The Palm Pre Plus uses Palm’s Web OS. Web OS is fairly intuitive, supports multitasking, a sweet contact manager, native IM client, smart notifications, multitouch, Microsoft Exchnange, and an application to turn the phone into a mobile hotspot to support five other Wi-Fi devices. Web OS allows the user to have a lot more freedom with their phone. For example, with Web OS I can make any sound a ringtone. If a buddy of mine emails me an MP3 file I could also save that as a ringtone all on the phone within the mail app and settings. The iPhone does not allow any functionality like that. Lastly, unlike Android phones, the Pre has an all-in-one Media Player. I know, and that’s just the software. Oh and how could I have forgotten the full HTML browser that supports FLASH!!!

The most notable hardware upgrades are 16 GB of internal space and the laack of a trackball. The bottom part of the phone is now clear for gestures. The Plus version has a much nicer keyboard. The keys are spread out a little more with a great clicky feel to it. Also the slider part of the phone is not as sharp as the original Pre. The Pre Plus has a 3MP camera with an LED flash too.

The only negative I see in the phone is that it does not have a virtual keyboard. This is not a deal breaker by any means. With all this I have no idea why Palm is struggling and why the phone is not selling. Verizon has a phenomenal 3G network and they are selling it for just $150.00. That’s $50.00 less than the iPhone and popular Android Phones. You also get another $100.00 off if you’re up for your “new every two”. I don’t get it. At the regular price or the discounted price you’re getting arguably the most functional phone on the market for a steal. Verizon should be selling out of these phones. If you are on Verizon and need a new phone, there should be no question about, buy the Palm Pre Plus.

Why would I not buy the Motorola Devour?

• The BLUR skin. I think having a social network skin on my phone is distracting and takes away from the core functionality of the phone. On the flip side, if Twitter and Facebook is the only way you talk to your friends this phone might be for you.
• Verizon network. No surf and talk at the same time.
• Slower than the Moto Droid and Nexus One.
• Android 1.6 (hopefully upgraded to 2.1)
• Only a 3MP camera. Other comparable phones have a 5MP camera.

Why would I buy the Motorola Devour?

• Verizon network. Yeah I know its a con, but you’ll never be without 3G. So it’s a pro too.
• Decent 3.1 display but no where near the best.
• Above average battery with 6.5 hrs of continuous usage.
• Good body design. I like the centered slider.
• Separated keys on keyboard. Much better than the Droid’s keyboard design.
• If I’ve never owned a smart phone before.

That’s it. It’s not yet out on Verizon; I would be shocked if it was priced a penny over $100.00. It’s a fun average phone. Just like it’s sibling the Backflip, it is a perfect phone for the not too tech savvy user and the heavy tweeter.

Physical Phone:

• Slightly thicker than an iPhone.
• The flipping motion is really awkward. I like the creativity but the phone is too wide to flip like a normal clam shell phone. Also unlike other phones with flip action this thing flips to a straight 180 degrees unlike other phones that stop at 135 degrees.
• The display is average at 3.1 inches
• Camera and Flash are integrated on the keyboard. Yeah, I know. Ugly and weird.

Operating System:

• Android 1.5 already obsolete. Supposed to get upgraded sometime soon but the OS upgrade will probably make the phone extremely slow.
• Android Market. Yay now you can download Apps.
• MotoBlur Skin is okay. I don’t really care for it too much. I don’t stalk my friends’ every move on Twitter or Facebook nor do I update every one of my statuses that much to need to have an OS skin focused on Social Networking.

The Rest:

• 5MP camera with 4X digital zoom. Pretty good for the type of phone it is.
• MP3 Player and Video Capable. I still don’t understand why Android Phones don’t come with an all-in-one Media Player.
• Bluetooth, wifi, and full HTML browser. The standard.
• Speaker phone and noise canceling mic.
• Average battery life at 6hrs of straight usage.
• Only $100.00

So if you are madly in love with AT&T service and don’t want an iPhone or any Windows Mobile Phones then this is the phone for you. It is a steal at $100.00. It does everything anyone could ever want in a smart phone and it does it all at an unprecedented level of mediocrity. I think this would be a great gift for kids or someone who is looking to get into the smart phone market without having to pay a boat load of money. So go in today and trade in your old Moto Razr for the Backflip. You’ll be happy.

Tunebug:
This was probably my favorite product at the whole Expo. Tunebug makes two products the Vibe (wired) and the Shake (blue-tooth). Both of these devices use NXT SurfaceSound Technology which essentially turns any surface into a speaker. The devices work best when touching something hollow. It’s really simple, just plug in any portable audio device using the headphone jack, sit the Tunebug on your desk, hollow drawer, or even you head and it will turn that object into a speaker. The demo they had at the Expo was with helmets. If you snowboard, ski, ride a bike, or do anything that requires you to wear a helmet; it’s probably not a good idea for you be wearing headphones at the same time. I’m assuming you’ll want to be able to hear what is happening around you. So the friendly people at Tunebug feel the same way. Just attach your Shake or Vibe to your helmet with the anchors that come with your Tunebug and your helmet is now a surround sound speaker but you can still hear all the ambient noises around you. I wanted to buy one pretty much after I took the helmet off, but the blue-tooth version is not available yet. You can bet I’m going to go get one as soon as it is available. Look out for me I’ll be the guy on the MUNI wearing a helmet just so I don’t have to wear headphones and it will be awesome!

Pogo Stylus:
I never really had the need for a stylus, until I downloaded Zosh for my iPhone. So instead of running out to buy one I thought it would be more fun to make my own: DIY Stylus. However, with the announcement of the iPad I can see how styluses are going to get more popular. The Pogo stylus works extremely well and comes in two sizes: Stylus (large) and Sketch (small). So if you are of the artist type or like to sign documents I think you should pick one of these bad boys up. They are a nice compliment to the iPhone/iPod Touch and have a much more elegant look and feel than the one I made myself.

Scosche:
Scosche iPod and iPhone accessories are awesome. I own a set of Scosche headphones and I think they are fantastic. The sound quality is not what you would get out of a set of Shures but they are way better than Sony, Panasonic, or any middle of the road headphone out there. They also have a built in remote for the iPhone and iPod using TapLINE technology. It doesn’t stop there. All of their accessories I had a chance to look at were up to par. So instead of writing about all of them here are links to a handful of my favorite Scosche accessories:

• Headphones
• Solar Battery Pack
• Charging Wall Mount
• HD Video Cables

Uncommon iPhone Cases:
This a pretty interesting product. 100% customizable iPhone cases. Upload your photo or design to their website and they’ll print out your design for you on an plastic slider case and ship it out to you. That’s pretty much it. I encourage you to check out the site. If you are artistically challenged like myself and cannot come up with a cool design of your own you can check out their gallery which is built by several other artistically talented people. Also if you have an iPod Touch, plan on buying an iPad, or have a Blackberry Storm II they will make cases for you soon enough too. So check them out.

Beats by Dr. Dre:
I know these aren’t anything new, but they make me feel like a I am in a concert hall. I was surprised when I first tried these out a few months ago. I was expecting something gimmicky, but when put them on my ears I was, eating my words and contemplating dropping over $300.00 on a set of headphones. I know they are ridiculously priced but if I traveled and/or need something to pretty much isolate me from the world around me, I wouldn’t buy anything else. I’m so much of a dork that I would probably send mine into Colorware and get them colored with the Los Angeles Lakers Purple and Gold theme. I don’t have much else to say about them other than they are probably some of the best sounding headphones I have ever tried. The noise canceling Bose ones are nice too, but something about the Beats make them have a much richer sound and lets you clearly hear the highs, mids and lows of any type of music. I love them. I want them. My birthday is in April.

GelaSkins:
They make beautiful skins pretty much any of your gizmos and gadgets. They have skins for Blackberries, Palm Pres, Kindles, PC laptops, MacBooks, iPods, iPhones and a whole lot more. The artwork ranges from abstract art to comic books. The skins are printed on thick adhesive vinyl decals using 3M sticky stuff. You know the stuff that Romie and Michelle invented. Except this new 3M adhesive will not leave a residue and can be removed and reapplied a bunch of times. I don’t know the actual statistic, but the representative said he had demoed one decal over 100 times and it hasn’t lost it’s stickiness. Also they vinyl has these tiny grooves on the adhesive side making it really easy to press and smear out those annoying air bubbles. As an added bonus for you iPhone users out there, GelaSkins has a free iPhone App that allows you to save any of the artwork as wallpapers. This way you can have the matching wallpaper for the iPhone skin you just ordered from www.gelaskins.com. Well even if you don’t have a skin you can still take advantage of their services and decorate your iPhone with their wallpaper.

Those were the highlights of my trip to MacWorld Expo. I had a good time dorking out with fellow Apple fans. If you’d like more info or want to check out what other people thought, visit www.macworldexpo.com.

I walked into the Expo and HyperMac is the fist booth you see. They have an awesome set up with huge sign displaying their name and photos of the products. Two tables with all colors laid out charging various Apple devices. I’ve been in the market for a back up battery. I got one off of Woot! a year ago and it treated me well. It is a bit on the bulky side and I have to carry around a long doc connector cable. So the HM Nano solved my problems of convenience. The Dock Connector cable is connected to the battery and it is the size of 1.5 Zippo lighters stacked on top of each other. It’s equally thin as a Zippo lighter. I can slide that thing into my jean’s pockets and not have to worry about it. It has a fantastic design and it matches the black iPhone with the shiny black coating and chrome accents.

Vendors also sell their products at the Expo and usually for a discount. The HM Nano is normally $70.00 (pretty steep) but at the Expo it was $50.00 with an additional 10% off. $45.00 to me was a reasonable price for a well designed battery back up. Before I bought the HM Nano I specifically asked the salesman if the HM Nano will give me at least one full charge. He told me that it would charge my phone 1.5 times. I was stoked and bought it. Now here’s the disappointed part. I went out on Friday night and my phone was down to 5%. No big deal though, I got an HM Nano on me. Plugged it an barely got 60% out of it. So I figured maybe it wasn’t fully charged and ready to go out of the box like the salesman also told me as I was leaving the booth. I fully charged the device that night and went out all day  Saturday. It barely charged my phone to 80% before it died.

Fortunately, it was 5:00PM (Expo closes at 6:00PM) and I was still downtown San Francisco. I hoofed it back to MacWorld and went to the HyperMac booth. They were nice enough to give me a replacement on the spot and was told again that the HM Nano was ready to go out of the box. A friend of mine’s phone was down to 5% battery so I loaned my brand new HM Nano to her for the rest of the evening. Her phone only got a 92% charge. The HM Nano has an 1800 mAh battery and the iPhone has a 1200 mAh battery, so I’m assuming only under optimal conditions will it provide me with 1.5 charges. By optimal I’m thinking they expect you to turn your phone off and not use it while it fully charges. Overall, I wish I didn’t buy  it and and am considering returning it. The only reason keeping me from returning it is having to drive down to Sunnyvale, CA or have to pay for shipping to send it back to them. It doesn’t feel like any of that will be worth my time.

More importantly though, I’m not writing to talk about how awesome the regular MagicJack is; I’m writing to talk about the potential of the MagicJack Femtocell (MJF). This thing turns your computer into a cell tower! The MJF comes with its own SIM card which you pop in your cell phone. Don’t have a SIM card? Sucks for you. You won’t be able to use it, here’s looking at you CDMA (Verizon and Sprint) customers. But for the rest of you, switch out SIM cards when you’re at home and after a few steps of sycning to the MJF you’ll be able to dial out to anywhere in the US and receive calls from any where in the world using your new MJF number without using any of your precious minutes. The device is supposed to have a range of 3000 square feet because it doesn’t want to cause any issues with the commercial GSM networks. You know the networks that we hold near and dear to our heart, AT&T and T-Mobile. At the moment the MJF does not support text and data.

Now I’m not a patient person. So I’m not sure how much I’m going to like this switching of the SIM card business. An easy fix for this is to go out and get a used GSM phone and not use your active phone when at home. That should take away the annoying factor. You know who’s going to find this very annoying? AT&T and T-Mobile. I’m willing to bet these guys are going to lay a fatty lawsuit down on MagicJack. They have to. There really isn’t other way around it. I don’t quite know the MJF works behind the scenes but it seems to me that MJF turns your computer into a cell tower using the GSM spectrum. MagicJack hasn’t purchased any of the GSM spectrum. AT&T and T-Mobile have. Which mean’s MagicJack, in theory, letting the consumer use AT&T or T-Mobile’s network for a very low cost. They’re like the Robin Hood of the mobile world. This can’t be legal. Also don’t forget the irony in all of this. Use myself for an example; I am an AT&T customer and pay a monthly bill for my cell phone. MJF wants to charge an additional cost to use the same network I’m already paying for! Granted it’ll be about $1.50 more a month for unlimited minutes from my house, but still kinda weird that I have to pay more for what I’m already paying for.

Overall, I’m torn about the MJF. It will force the cell companies to compete. There is no reason that at least smart phones can be VOIP phones when on a wifi network. But I’m not sure who’s going to buy the MJF. Regular phones are 15 bucks at target (I’m assuming this is much cheaper than a GSM handset.) and can give you unlimited calling at home with a regular MagicJack. If there was a work around to where there was no SIM card switching, I’d be all for it.  However, right now, it’s a good start but I don’t think it’s as revolutionary as the original MagicJack and does not give me a compelling enough reason to trade my MagicJack.

The device is built well. The Nook has a soft grey rubbery silicone back. It is really nice to the touch. The soft backing is much more comfortable to hold than a hard piece of plastic. Secondly the body of the reader is slightly curved so that the face is rounded out. This is also similar to how a normal book arcs. The curve provides kind of a grip too for your fingers to rest in. Another fancy feature about the backing of the ebook is that it is removable. You can peel it off to expose the rechargeable battery and microSD card slot. Drop in a card to supplement the onboard 2GB if you desire. Also, the ebook reader is very light; it’s only 11 ounces. You could throw it in your bag and not even know you’re carrying it. It’s Great for backpacks and purses. You know who you are, you girls with purses that carry a week’s worth of laundry. You just might lose this thing in there.

The face has a bright white border with four buttons. Each side of the screen has two buttons, back and forward. This allows for one or two handed navigation. And as expected the eInk screen looks just like a paper. Right below the eInk screen is a color touch screen. This is where thing start to go south.

I really didn’t like the touch screen. It isn’t nearly as responsive as the touch screens I’m used to (iPhone and Android Phones). Don’t get me wrong. It’s nice, but it’s not as fluid as one would expect for a product entirely dependent on its touch screen for navigation. There is a a long lag in between menus and the home button is a little buggy. I noticed every time I pressed the home button the screen would reset to home but then automatically switch to the search menu. It did this about three times until I could get it to just stop at the main menu. It’s just weird, like it wasn’t completely thought out. I hope they issue a software update on it soon to make the color touch screen a bit more user friendly.

Finally I was able to browse the preloaded library and select a book. I started reading the book and I really enjoyed the experience. Now I’m not a heavy reader. Like I said above I read mainly graphic novels. So I was okay with the flashing during the page switch. However, I think big time readers may not. Let me explain. When one advances or goes back a page they push the back or forward buttons on the face of the book. The eInk screen then flashes and a new page pops up in about three to four seconds. This process is much slower than just “turning the page”. So big time readers who can read fast are going to get slowed down by this a lot. I also want to make it clear that I did not fiddle with the settings so there might be a setting to make this thing faster. Since it wasn’t a nuisance to me I didn’t care to look. Sorry.

Overall, I like it, don’t love it. B&N needs to issue some firmware upgrades and speed it up a bit. If it supported graphic novels, maybe I’d own it. Here’s a summary of its features:

• Access to Barnes and Noble Book Library
• Download via AT&T 3G and Wifi
• Built in 2GB
• Charge through Micro USB
• Reading Battery Life of 10 Days
• eBook Sharing — limited
• MP3 Player
• On Board Mono Speaker
• Personalized Screen Saver
• Add files from your computer

Below are a few hands on photos of The Nook:

Website: nook.com

However, there are two restaurants that I have been to that have fixed my dilemma. Jasmine Garden (14th and Church) uses a spoon with a little hook on the end of the stem. So when you put  your spoon down to eat with your sticks, your spoon is secured at the top of the bowl.

A ramen spot in Japan town, Tanpopo (pictured in this article), goes one step further. The spoon has a notch right at the base of the stem/handle before it rounds out the spoon part. This allows you to rest the spoon on the lip of the bowl putting your spoon entirely out of the soup but still right there for you to grab when you want to get a sip of some warm liquid goodness.

I know, like I said above, this isn’t a normal post but I had to write about it. I love things like this, continuous improvement. Pretty sweet that people are still out there making things as small as a spoon better.

The Droid Eris is a solid phone for $100. It runs Google’s Android OS 1.5, which I have to say is a very nice OS. Much better than Verizon’s standard OS which was probably designed by a six year old with a box of red and white crayons. Now Android 1.5 is already obsolete with Android 2.0 on the market but that is no reason to shy away from this phone. It functions pretty much just like the G1 (the first Android Phone) you can find on T-Mobile.

The phone itself has a very slim profile and feels good to hold. It’s not too heavy but you know you’re holding a nice piece of hardware. The touch screen is a glass touch screen with a bright LCD display. The touch screen is pretty responsive. The Eris does come with multi-touch. This is built into the phone (this is an HTC feature) and only works on specific applications. You can use multi-touch while browsing which makes the browsing experience that much nicer. This phone doesn’t have a physical keyboard. I don’t know about you but I really don’t care about physical keyboards. They’re nice but if the virtual keyboard is done right then I don’t see the need. The Eris’ virtual keyboard is done nicely. It gives you a little “bzz” when you touch a key to let you know you touched a button. Turn the phone to landscape mode and you get a wide screen keyboard which work splendidly.

The only thing that I have to say negatively about this phone is the processor. It is pretty damn slow slow. The Blackberry Tour and iPhone 3G are much faster. You can notice the lag when browsing or simply turning the phone from portrait to landscape. Like I said though, if you’re on Verizon and want to get a good phone for $100 bucks, then this is it. Hell, it might even be free if you have a “New Every 2″ upgrade.

Sorry I can’t report on calls, reception, or battery life. I’m sure it’s safe to assume that you’ll have Verizon’s 3G network almost anywhere. I mean, if you watch TV then you’ve seen “there’s a map for that” ad. Also Google phones are notorious for being battery hogs. They boast multi-tasking but having widgets in the background constantly running is gonna drain your battery. These are cell phones people not laptops. Their tiny little batteries can’t power these devices to make calls, browse the web, and heat up your cup o’ noodles all at the same time.

Lastly, everyone seems to care about the camera on a cell phone. I’m sorry but I don’t really care about it. The cell phone camera is a long time away from replacing a real camera. They’re nice to have and great to never miss the moment when your buddy passes out with his shoes on. If you chose one phone over the other because of their camera, the pictures it takes better make you look like a supermodel.