Also getting the update treatment are the data layers like photos, Wikipedia articles and various other points of interest. In the prior version, I had to be very precise when tapping an icon or I had to waste time zooming in farther. Tapping a spot close to multiple data layer icons now opens up a menu of the various data points, making it easier to choose. Google also added support for another 18 languages, bringing the total to 31. Here’s a full rundown of the supported ones:

English (U.S), English (UK), French (France), German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malaysian, Romanian, Slovak, and Croatian.

I’m also finding performance to be a little more snappy in general, but that could just be hopeful observation. It seems to me that panning and zooming is improved, but I’m not a frequent world traveller in Google Earth — just a frequent traveller to WaWa.

Microsoft not only spotted his complaint on Twitter, one of the developers of Live Writer reached out quickly with a fix to his problem. This is great customer service for a number of reasons: Live Writer is free, not paid; the way David set up his blog caused the problem; they gave David three options to try to fix his problem. That is simply outstanding, and a big pat on the back for all involved.

David’s problem had to do with using the Thesis theme on his WordPress blog, so anyone unable to get Windows Live Writer working on your similarly themed blog should check out David’s blog post detailing the fix. His feelings say it all:

Have to say I haven’t had a rapid response like that from Apple over anything for stuff I’ve paid for. And certainly wouldn’t expect it for something I got for free.

I better get cleaning off some desk space for this baby, heck, I’d better clean off an entire desk. Why do I have the feeling I’ll be picking up Call of Duty: MW2 to play on this notebook?

(via engadget)

I’m not representative of your mainstream consumer, but I can’t remember the last time — or even the first time — that I looked for software in the iTunes store on a computer. I don’t think a desktop app store alone is the answer, but it wouldn’t hurt — instead, Google needs to continue revamping its mobile Android Marketplace to make it easier to find apps. I’m not against Jason’s suggestion to revamp the existing Google Android Marketplace website with a “buy here and push to phone” software store. While that would be useful, I don’t see much value added — the best mobile solution is to have customers find what they need for their handset right on their handset, not in front of a computer. Google can start by making better use of screen real estate in the Market — I find that the large “Update” and “Install” buttons are too big and there’s too much scrolling in general when look at an application’s details. Is it just me?

While we ponder and debate Android software approaches, let’s not forget that some new hardware is due out this week. The Samsung Behold II arrives for T-Mobile customers on Wednesday. That price of admission nets you a 3.2″ AMOLED touchscreen display, Samsung’s TouchWIZ interface riding atop Android 1.6, a 2 GB microSD card, Wi-Fi, 3G and 5 megapixel camera. I’ve read two different price tags for the Behold II — $199 and $229 — and Samsung’s official press release does nothing to clarify a price. I’m thinking $199 is the cost later this week because we’re starting to see real competition to get good smartphones under the $199 barrier after subsidy.

She lives with her boyfriend and they do not use the web much. Light surfing is as deep as they go, and if not for schoolwork they wouldn’t really need connectivity at all. They’ve done without the web for a long time, but find when they need it they really do need it. They researched the costs for getting connectivity added to their apartment, and the monthly costs were pretty high.

They have their phones on the Verizon network, so they have been researching the subsidized netbooks being offered. The $60 monthly fee for the data plan on a netbook is in line with the costs they would have to shell out for fixed connectivity, and they find it makes sense to have “connectivity to go” for the price. They need to buy a notebook too, nothing heavyweight performance-wise, just a simple netbook meets their needs.

They did their homework on the situation nicely, and have determined that the Gateway netbook that Verizon is offering with a data plan subsidy more than meets their needs. The netbook will only cost them $99 with the subsidy, and the data plan gets them web connectivity which is the real objective. I have to admit they’ve researched it well, and this path is a very good one for them that meets their needs.

This question is timely given the recent release of the Verizon Droid and Droid Eris. The Droid is the only available smartphone that runs Android 2.0, the latest version that is widely recognized as a big improvement over the previous version, 1.6. That version is on most of the other Android phones currently available, or in some cases (the HTC Hero comes to mind) even an earlier version is running the show.

The Droid Eris is priced very attractively, but prospective customers have to consider if the older OS is worth the cost savings. Sure, it is expected (although not necessarily a given) that the Eris will get an upgrade to Android 2.0. That would make the Eris one of the most attractive Android phones on the market given the low price point compared to the Droid. But in the world of phone OS updates, such an update could be months before it appears. There are too many fingers in the OS update pie, the phone manufacturer, the OS provider and of course the phone network.

A few months doesn’t seem like a long time to wait for a significant update, but smartphones have a very short consumer lifespan. Contracts in the U.S. are two years in duration, and some folks don’t keep phones even that long. That makes a wait of a few months for an OS update a lot more of an impact on the buying decision. If a given phone doesn’t see an update for six months, not that unusual, that can be a significant portion of the phone’s lifespan with the typical consumer. To some folks it might not be worth the wait, it might make more sense to get the more expensive phone that ships with the latest OS version.

I only used the Droid as an example given the timeliness of the Eris release. The same question can be asked of other phones, as it seems we are always waiting for one OS update or another. The only platforms exempt from this dilemma are the iPhone and WebOS. All of Apple’s and Palm’s phones get all updates, a distinct advantage in this case. So how long is too long for an OS update? Would you be willing to wait a long time for an update, or do you take that into your buying decision?

Although it’s been said many times and many ways (GigaOM Pro, subscription required) — yes, I’m prepping for Christmas carols — that $199 netbook is really costing you much more due to the monthly data service. If you don’t plan to use the netbook outside of the home or office where you have Wi-Fi, I wouldn’t recommend the purchase. In a more stationary case, you’re better off just buying a device at full price for $350 or $400 with no monthly fee. Having said that, I’m starting to wonder about the success, or failure, of notebook subsidies. I’d love to see some breakout numbers of how many netbooks are subsidized as opposed to how many are bought outright. I know that the subsidy model is a little more prominent outside of the U.S., but I don’t expect that sales of subsidized netbooks are very high here.

Do we have any readers that have bought or considered buying a subsidized netbook?

This is usually the season for door-busting sales, but I think this one has to do with reducing inventory more than anything. MSI is touting a new online promotion in India, the UK, Australia and Italy, and although I’m not near any of those parts, I checked it out. The promotional link took me to a deal for a free MSI Wind netbook with the purchase of an X600 notebook. The free netbook is the same U100 model I purchased in 2008 and is worth roughly $350. To get the deal, you actually have to print out the online coupon and take it to specific vendors.

Purchasing the X600 gets you a skinny 15.6″ notebook with 1366 x 768 resolution running on an Intel ULV chip and ATI Radeon HD 4330 graphics processor. The 2.1-kilogram notebook with 6-cell battery should run for nearly a full workday, and of course, you can always migrate over to your free netbook if you run out of juice.

All other labeled specifications appear to be within normal operating parameters: 1024 x 600 display, 250 GB 5400 RPM hard drive and Wi-Fi. The  keyboard looks fairly standard, but SlashGear notes that the trackpad is buttonless. The label also notes 2 GB of memory right from the get-go, so no need to spend more money on a RAM module after purchase. Of course, we’ll have to wait for an official announcement to see when that purchase will be, and for how much. Any guesses on the number of PineTrail-powered products announced at CES in January? I’ll wager a dollar on 83.

Early adopters of the PRS-500 might be on the fence here, but if it were me and I had the money, I’d probably take advantage of the upgrade for a little cost savings. The newer devices have a faster refresh rate, 8-level grey scale and, in the case of the Touch Edition, offers a touchscreen display. Nice to see Sony give a little something to the first Reader customers.

The Readius pocket reader was doomed with the failure of Polymer Vision. The innovative device used a flexible display that rolls up into a base unit, and early prototypes were impressive. This week came welcome news, Wistron bought the failed company and plans to sell a similar device early next year.

When the Barnes and Noble Nook went up for order at launch, the company claimed a Nov. 30 ship date. Early buyers were indeed quoted that date, and it is expected to see the Nook appear in B&N stores around that date. Customers who are buying the Nook currently, are now being quoted a ship date of Dec. 18, so the logical deduction is that sales are going briskly enough to outstrip production. This is similar to the situation when the original Kindle was launched. Maybe it’s an e-book thing.

Windows Mobile 7 is the upcoming version of the mobile OS that everyone, including Microsoft, is expecting to help bring the smartphone platform up to speed competitively. WM7 is long overdue, even Ballmer thinks so, and according to those in the know it is still on track for a release during the third quarter of 2010. That’s almost a year away, and I wonder how far the competition will go in that time. WM7 could be obsolete before it’s even released.

• Support for Yahoo! in Synergy, Calendar, IM and Mail
• Ability to forward text messages
• Palm Backup now includes browser cookies
• Google Contact sync only includes records in My Contacts, not all contacts
• Music app now has a playback slider for faster in-song navigation
• New Secure Unlock feature
• Tapping a YouTube video in the browser automatically opens a YouTube card

My installation is still in progress, so if I see anything else worth mentioning, I’ll add an update.

Backup

• Backup now includes browser cookies, so that after a restart, for example, if you stored your username and password on a web-based email site, you can continue to access the site without needing to log in.
• Backup no longer saves online account passwords. If you perform a partial or full erase or buy a replacement phone, after signing in to your Palm profile, you are prompted to enter the password for each of your online accounts. If you choose to skip this step, to continuing synchronizing this account, you must open an app that syncs with the account (Calendar, Contacts, Email) >application menu > Preferences & Accounts > tap the account name > enter your username and password.

Calendar

• Yahoo! now appears as a Calendar synchronization account. You can synchronize Yahoo! calendar events by opening Calendar > application menu > Preferences & Accounts > Add An Account >Yahoo!
• An event’s location now appears with the same formatting in Day view and in the event notification.
• Calendar notifications no longer reappear after being dismissed.
• All-day events that span more than one day now appear correctly in all Calendar views.
• If you create a Google calendar event on the phone and the event location contains an apostrophe, the event now correctly synchronizes with Google online.

Camera

• After taking a picture, if you tap the picture thumbnail in the lower-left corner of the camera screen, the picture now opens in full-screen view, not Thumbnails view. Making the back gesture returns you to the camera.

Contacts

• Yahoo! now appears as a Contacts synchronization account. You can download contacts from Yahoo! online to the phone by opening Contacts > application menu > Preferences & Accounts> Add An Account > Yahoo!
• Automatic contact linking based on name matches occurs only if the first and last name fields are populated with the same names. If either field is blank, the Contacts app no longer links the contacts. In addition, the Contacts app no longer automatically links contacts with the same name but with different suffixes (such as Jr. and Sr.).
• Contact phone numbers in an Exchange account display the same label that is used for the number in Outlook.
• If you set up Contacts to synchronize with a Google account, the account synchronizes only entries in Google’s My Contacts, not all contacts.
• If a contact entry includes a linked Google instant message that contains a special character (such as an apostrophe or ampersand), the special character now displays correctly.

Device Info

• If you copy a music file to the phone and then delete it, Device Info now shows the correct amount of available memory after the deletion.

Email

• Forwarded and replied-to messages include improved formatting, such as the original sender’s email address in forwarded messages and correct inline image display in replies.
• The list of mail types available in manual setup now includes Google Apps (Hosted Google Domains) and Yahoo! Small Business Domain email accounts. Selecting one of these types automatically enters the correct settings for these accounts.
• If you have multiple Exchange accounts, doing a Global Address List (GAL) contact lookup searches all the accounts.
• When you set up more than one email account from the same provider-for example, two Gmail or two Yahoo! accounts-in Account List view, the account names display the associated email address so that you can distinguish them.
• A new Select All menu item selects message body text so that you can cut or copy it. A new Copy All menu item copies the entire message contents-sender, date, recipient, subject, and body text-so that you can paste it elsewhere. These menu items appear only when a message is open.
• If you turn the All Inboxes preference off, email notifications now show how many new messages are in each of your email accounts.
• Performing a message search in the All Flagged folder returns flagged messages only.
• If an Exchange 2003 implementation requires a password, you can select an alphanumeric (strong) password even if the server does not require a strong password.
• If an Exchange implementation allows use of a simple PIN (numbers only), the phone supports entry of a PIN that is longer than four characters.
• If a notification appears for an incoming email message whose subject line contains an ampersand, the ampersand appears correctly in the notification.

Messaging

• Yahoo! IM is available as an instant messaging account.
• You can select a unique ringtone for new message alerts: Open Messaging > application menu >Preferences & Accounts > Sound > Ringtone.
• You can forward a text or multimedia message by tapping the message > Forward.
• You can copy the text of a text or multimedia message by tapping the message > Copy Text.
• If you receive a message from an email address, the sender’s name (if in Contacts) or email address (if not) shows up correctly on the new message notification and on the open message in Messaging.
• If you copy a conversation using the Copy All menu item and then pastes the conversation text, the pasted text now appears correctly as plain text, without any HTML tags.
• Messaging notifications now show the number of senders and the number of conversations.
• If you enter a message and start it with a standalone letter-for example, “R” or “r” for “are”-when the auto-correct feature expands the letter to a word, the word is correctly capitalized (“Are”).

Music

• While listening to a song with album art displayed, you can tap the screen below the art to display a playback slider. Dragging the slider jumps forward or backward in the song.

Phone

• If the you are on a call, calendar notifications no longer partially cover the End Call icon.

Screen & Lock

• A new Secure Unlock preference allows you to set the time interval the phone is idle before the phone locks, requiring you to enter the PIN/password to unlock the phone. This can be the same as or different from the interval after which the screen turns off. To set the preference: OpenScreen & Lock > Lock After.
• If you select the Simple PIN Secure Unlock option, you can now enter a numeric PIN of more than four digits.
• If you press power to turn off the screen, the screen locks at the same time. Previously, there was a gap of a few seconds before the screen locked.

Sounds & Ringtones

• If you select a new ringtone and throw the card off the screen, the phone saves the new ringtone selection.
• If you set the Ringer Switch Off setting to Mute and turn the ringer switch off at any time, the ringer is muted and the phone does not vibrate, regardless of any other Sounds & Ringtones settings.

System

• The application information dialog box (accessed by pressing and holding the orange key/Optionand tapping an app icon) displays the total (uncompressed) size of the app, including the amount of storage the app requires. For apps you installed, this number represents the amount of memory you free up on the phone by deleting the app.
• If you change the apps in Quick Launch, after a backup and partial erase, the new apps still appear in Quick Launch. Previously, Quick Launch reverted to the default apps.
• You can access USB Drive mode by pressing and holding the orange key/Option + Sym + U after connecting the phone to the computer. This enables you to access USB drive mode if the screen is broken or stops responding to taps.
• A new option is available for restarting the phone: press and hold power > Power > Restart. The prior restart method (Device Info > Reset Options > Restart) is still available.
• You have two options for shutting down the phone completely: 1) press and hold power > Power> Shut Down/Swap Battery > Shut Down; 2) open Device Info > Reset Options > Shut Down >Shut Down.

Tasks

• If a task notification shows a single task, tapping the notification now opens the details screen for that task, not the task list screen.

Videos

• Widescreen videos now display in widescreen mode on the phone by default, instead of being cropped.

Web

• Backup now includes browser cookies, so that after a restart, for example, if you stored your username and password on a web-based email site, you can continue to access the site without needing to log in.
• If you tap to play a YouTube video embedded on a web page, the YouTube application launches and the video plays in the app.

YouTube

• Widescreen videos now display in widescreen mode on the phone by default, instead of being cropped.
• If you tap to play a YouTube video embedded on a web page, the YouTube application launches and the video plays in the app.