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To commemorate the freedom bought on the 4th of July (for US citizens that is); Palm is apparently freeing webOS 1.4.5 to the public! Starting with Sprint and other foreign carriers, webOS 1.4.5 is being pushed even as you read. Unfortunately there is a delay for those of you on Verizon and AT&T, which in the past has been as many as several weeks. The good news is that this update will be bringer some interesting updates to the web browser for everyone! Plus something about PDK support and the Palm Pixi, but nobody’s interested in that. The details however for those app hounds is that 3D games are coming to the Pixi with this update and independent developers will be able to use the PDK to publish their own 3D games via the App Catalog. Further details on the update, as provided by Palm, include…

If you’ve been shopping AMD notebooks over the last year you’ve probably noticed AMDs new marketing strategy, Vision.
Instead of focusing on gigahertz and cores, AMD Vision markets notebooks by the user experience in categories such as budget, mainstream, home-theater, and enthusiast.
It’s also a known fact that AMD has been falling behind in the mobile space, focusing instead on cheap and accessible desktop components to combat Intel’s high-end, high-priced parts.
Getting a full head of steam isn’t always the easiest thing to do, but in the last several months AMD has begun showing signs of movement from their mobile slumber.
New deals with HP and Lenovo have started infusing the market with a much larger selection of AMD powered notebooks.
Today AMD has has added an extra log to its fire by announcing the complete refresh of its mobile processor line and Vision program.
This refresh promises a new way of looking at notebook performance as well as many much needed technological improvements, such as DDR3 and HyperTransport 3.

The question that most people are asking is, is this the new iPhone?

Well, it’s looking like it is at least a late prototype. According to Gizmodo, the phone belonged to a certain Gray Powell, an Apple engineer. They claim to know this based on the fact that his Facebook account was set up on the device. Secondly, the phone was contained in a specially made plastic case which made it look like an iPhone 3GS, so people wouldn’t spot it was an unreleased device. Thirdly, when taken apart, many of the components are Apple branded. Finally, and most damning is, Gizmodo have reported that they received a letter from Apple looking for their device back.

All that sounds pretty much tightly wrapped up, case closed. Some people however, are skeptical.

From the outset, I’ll state that I personally think it’s real, but it could be fake.

There are a few reasons for this. The only source we have on this is Gizmodo. They could be making it up. They could have a Chinese knock off iPhone that they are touting as the real deal. The problem with this is that the build quality looks great, and not cheap. Also, the Internet as a whole is great at debunking scams, and I reckon we’d have heard someone cry shenanigans by now if it was a Chinese fake.

Something that many people have an issue with is that the design doesn’t look very Apple like. A friend of mine Charles Doyle called it “pretty crappy” and disappointing. This point is pretty ridiculous, I think it’s much nicer than any iPhone before it, but then again, I’m a fan of industrial design. Just because it’s more of a change than the iPhone -> iPhone 3G doesn’t mean it’s not Apple designed.

All in all, it seems like this thing is legit. From first glance, it seems that the mighty Apple, famed for their secrecy, have made a huge blunder. This leads us to the next question. Is it a PR stunt?

No. No it’s not a PR stunt. Lets look at this objectively. PR stunts are done to generate buzz and interest in a product. This is Apple we’re talking about. People camp out to buy their products. They’re not a company who needs something like this to generate buzz. Apply Occam’s Razor here people, conspiracy theories are attractive, but this one doesn’t make any sense.

Another strange point about this saga is the way that Gizmodo are handling the coverage. Instead of keeping quiet about their source and just reporting on the device, they have posted a series of posts discussing the employee who lost the phone in detail, which is a little puzzling. Why do we care if it was Grays birthday when he lost the phone?

It makes sense when you think it through, and Gizmodo have likely saved Mr. Powells job. Considering the strict policy of secrecy present in the Apple ethos, as demonstrated by alleged suicides at Chinese manufacturers, it’s likely that Gray isn’t Steve Jobs favorite person in the world at the moment. By very publicly identifying the employee, ironically Gizmodo have protected him. If Apple fire the employee in question now, they will be in for a shitstorm of bad publicity.

What will be interesting now is to follow what Apple does from this point onwards, if this is real, and every sign points to it being genuine, it is a very late prototype. Prototypes don’t make it out of the lab until they are almost feature complete. Apple will have to acknowledge the leak, and how they react will show us a lot about how Apple work. If you know anyone who works for Apples PR team, don’t expect to see them out of the office in the next week. Balls in your court Steve, your move.

I can’t speak for most of you guys but I use my computers a lot. Even as I’m writing this article, I have a Chrome window, a Firefox window, and a Virtual DJ window up along with my Zune software. Most power users like to have multiple applications running at the same time. Not that the power user will be using this device to multitask, this device is clearly designed to be used by the entry level consumer, but multitasking would still be a nice feature to have or at least add in later on in a firmware update. And we know how long it takes Apple to release new features in firmware, so I’m not holding my breath.  I know this point has been elaborated on in most other site in lists like these so I’ll end it here and I won’t even mention the lack of Flash support.

4.  No iPhone Tethering

A Swedish DJ apparently emailed Steve Jobs if there was going to be a way to tether the iPad to an iPhone for internet access. Most people that would buy an iPad already have an iPhone with unlimited internet access. Why should they have to get another 3G data plan for another Apple device? Steve Jobs apparently gave a quick and easy answer to that question, a simple “No.”

So hold on for a second, Apple wants us to spend an extra $130 plus $30 extra a month to have an iPad and use it anywhere. That’s why people have their iPhone; they can browse the net anywhere because they are paying for it on their phone bill. And it’s already expensive enough. But knowing Apple, they would play this card and not enable tethering of the devices. Way to go Apple.

3. Pricing

The iPad is too expensive.

- $499: 16 GB, Wi-Fi only
- $599: 32 GB, Wi-Fi only
- $629: 16 GB, Wi-Fi and 3G
- $699: 64 GB, Wi-Fi only
- $729: 32 GB, Wi-Fi and 3G
- $829: 64 GB, Wi-Fi and 3G

Dell currently has a deal going at its website. You can get 2 brand new Dell Mini 10v netbooks for $411 shipped. You might say that that is not the same, as this is an iPad we’re talking about. True, but the price for the two netbooks is less than that of the 16 GB, Wi-Fi only iPad. You get a larger hard drive, a faster processor, and a real keyboard for less money. Plus you can give one to one of your friends and I’m sure they’ll be happy as well. You can even tether it with most non-iPhone type phones for internet access anywhere.

$499 is a really steep price for a device that is for the average entry-level consumer. Most Apple fanboys will be all over it because they expect unreasonably high prices from Apple and hide away money for the next new device announcements. Most people don’t have $500 or more just lying around waiting to be spent. If I did I’d probably buy an Xbox 360 which I most likely would get more usage out of than the iPad. But I’m sure that most of the people who buy it started hoarding money when the device was first was announced and plan to spend it all on the 64 GB version with 3G, which happens to cost more than this computer.

2. It’s Too Big

The iPad itself is not that big of a device, and I’m not going to discuss the ridiculously large bezel it has all around it. The device itself is supposed to allow you to use the internet anywhere. How exactly am I going to do that? I don’t carry a purse around with me wherever I go. I don’t even carry a man bag. It sure isn’t going to fit in my pockets. That is probably going to be a problem for most people who just want to use it outside or someplace other than their home. They would need to find a way to transport it from one place to another. And that brings me to my last point.

1. The Huge Glass Screen

Just imagine this 3x when you drop your new iPad to the ground out of your pocket. Not a pretty picture at all.

Palm WebOS 1.4 changes

• Record, edit, and share video
• Added a notification light that indicates new messages, appointments, and other notifications while the screen is off
• E-mail, messaging, and calendar notification customizations by selecting new sounds
• Capability to view, dial alternate contact numbers from the call log
• Call numbers directly from Web sites, e-mails, and messages by pressing and holding on number
• Forward a text message to an e-mail address
• WiFi sleep mode
• Exchange contacts now shown through universal search
• A load icon so you no longer have to guess and hope you opened an app
• Faster app loading and gesture response
• Improved battery life
• A full list of improvements can be found on the Palm website at this link

Trying out these new features has made me very happy. One thing I noticed is a definite speed increase in the app menus, no more stuttering. When you launch an app they definitely load faster, most obviously so with my music player which takes about half the time. It feels faster too with the inclusion of a pop-up load card, letting you know that you actually did start the loading process. As I’ve not used my phone heavily yet, I can’t say anything about the battery life, but with the inclusion of the WiFi sleep mode (which turns off WiFi while the screen is off) I know I’ll save a lot of battery life while using my Pre as a MP3 player. If you want to watch a video from my Pre to see how the new video feature looks, popover to YouTube for a brief video on how to make the milk shake I made for lunch. It’s surprisingly good quality for something from a phone.

Overall, the new features are what have been promised and a wonderful boon to us Pre owners. They’ve even helped some previous doubters turn users. This leads to the question, why isn’t Palm more popular? Some of the woes for Palm may stem from image issues, poor advertising that has failed to turn customers onto their devices. The Pre and Pixi are excellent Smart phones with an amazingly stable OS, yet somehow they haven’t been able to get any consumer traction. Palm and Verizon have begun a new marketing plan for the Pre which will leave behind the latest ad flops, the “Super Mom” ads. Hopefully they’ll be focusing on the business applications of this phone, where I think it really shines. Speaking of apps, many people say that a lack of apps in the catalog is detriment to the Pre’s future. I say, when was the last time you walked into a Best Buy and had over a thousand five-hundred choices for software packages? What apps do you really need, Facebook? It has it. Twitter? Ditto. There’s an app for all the most commonly wanted functionalities on the Pre already, all you have to do is try them! Games are available, even more so in the last few weeks where quite a few 3D games have become available. Palm is a good company with a good device that hasn’t been getting the attention it deserves. It’s appeal is great, now if only it could get the hype.

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To Google’s credit, they have been providing a plethora of useful online tools; GMail is arguably the best web-based email, and Google Docs is a flexible office productivity suite that is gaining ground as an alternative to Microsoft and Open Office. I have found myself over the last couple of months buying into the idea of moving my data out to the cloud.  Being a GMail user, Google’s solutions were a natural fit since they were already available to me for free.

The biggest change in my personal workflow that I was looking to do in moving to the cloud was with regards to my writing.  Before, I would maintain a copy of my documents on my laptop, and using a Microsoft Mesh client would sync them out to my Skydrive for backup.  However, if I wanted to move to another computer, it would be “easiest” to copy the documents to a USB thumbdrive, and then try to maintain the different versions and not accidentally overwrite newer files.  In short, I figured that their had to be a better way.

Parallel to this was the evolution of Google Chrome for Windows.

Google Chrome has become my web browser of choice, wrestling that crown from Firefox, which had been a favorite since the 0.99 days.  Chrome initially won me over with its speed and simplicity.  The 1.x version was lean- a little too lean- although things improved with 2.x and 3.x.  But what really made Chrome soar were two features: bookmark sync and extensions.

The former was a revelation to use.  I never cared for the bookmark toolbar implementation on Firefox; the UI looked cluttered and the whole thing lacked elegance.  On Chrome, with its slick, streamlined UI, the bookmark bar not only made sense, it became an integral part of the experience.  The only caveat was repeatedly setting up your bookmarks on new machines.  Bookmark sync uses your Google Docs account to sync your bookmarks across your various Chrome sessions.  Not only is it a huge time-saver, but changes sync up quickly and follow you from PC to PC (or across OSes, such as Windows to Linux).

Extensions were the biggest advantage Firefox had over Internet Explorer, and were a huge boon to my computing needs.  Finally making their official debut in Chrome 4.0, extensions are implemented on Chrome with a few key differences.  The biggest is that extensions could be installed or removed on-the-fly, and quickly, without the need for restarting the browser.  The other is that the extensions are lightweight scripts that do not bog down Chrome’s performance once you have several installed.  Chrome has simply remained fast throughout its various iterations, suffering none of the bloat that Firefox was plagued with through its 2.x phase.  This has allowed me to really embrace Chrome as more than just a web browser; I’ve begun to use Chrome as a workspace, where if I boot up my laptop I wind up spending the majority of my time there.

It started with my Bookmarks bar. I placed all the sites that I regularly visit on there.  Using a tip from my boss (who is a Chrome user and originally introduced me to it), I removed the names of the bookmarks, maximizing the number I could have.  I also have a Tumblr bookmarklet that I keep, in order to quickly share content I find across the Internet to my blog. Since I use Google as my primary search engine (and yes, I have given others a chance over the last couple of years, such as Live / Bing and Cuil, but none have matched Google for accuracy or depth of searches), Chrome’s Omnibar (the souped-up address bar) is perfect, as I have gotten used to just typing in my queries there and launching searches. For extensions, I use a number; Delicious and Evernote for links and notetaking, respectively; Wikipedia Visual Search to quickly and easily look up Wikipedia articles; Chromed Bird for instant Twitter access; ChromeMuse allows me to shorten URLs into Bit.ly format with a click; and Facebook Dashboard, eBay, and Google Mail Checker Plus.  Couple this with Chrome’s speed, I have the perfect workspace for my needs and personal workflow.

Because of this, I can understand the lure of Chrome OS.  We have come to depend so much upon the Internet, and lured in by the promise of data easily accessible everywhere, that an operating system that breaks away from decades of monolithic design and exists as a workspace on the web is not only tempting, it makes sense. However, are we really at the point to make that transition? Certainly not for our everyday personal machines.  Chrome OS does not make sense for gaming or entertainment outside of music or light video viewing (such as YouTube).   But as an OS for our work machines?  Definitely.

Will corporations adopt Chrome OS? I don’t believe so, unless the word processing and spreadsheet applications in Google Docs become very feature-rich (on par with their thick client cousins).  Plus, you’ll never be able to do certain things on a cloud OS that a business may need, such as photo and video editing, terminal emulation, or development, to name a few. Something like Chrome OS fits a niche, perhaps in the case of business continuity planning / disaster recovery (boot up from a flash drive and be up and running in a minute or two).

And along those lines, Chrome makes sense to me as a workspace, almost as a desktop shell replacement that can work on Windows, Linux or MacOS.  The only thing Chrome is currently missing is extension syncing (syncing my extensions and configuration just as with bookmarks).  Given time, I would not be surprised to see this happen.

How about you? Have you found a similar methodology that works for you?  Please share your experiences, I’d love to hear it.

AMD’s side of this bargain is to,

“Commit to substantially invest in AMD Fusion processor-related R&D activities in Markham (one of the largest Canadian cities)”

This will help stimulate important job growth in the Markham area under the Next Generation of Jobs Fund, and according to Dirk Meyer; President of AMD,

“will deepen the province’s reputation as a seat of technology innovation”

AMD Fusion will be the brand name for AMD’s next generation of Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), which combine the CPU and GPU onto one die, analogous to Intel’s Pinetrail platform. AMD’s first APU, codenamed “Llano”, and peripherals is planned to be available sometime in 2011.

For more, reference this press release from AMD:

AMD Canada Slated to Receive $56 Million CAD Grant from Ontario Government

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