There’s no price or official announcement from Samsung just yet, so we’ll all have to wait for an actual shipping product. Based on the FCC documents, here’s what you’ll be waiting on in addition to the wireless functionality: 14.2 megapixels, 7x optical, 3.5″ LCD touch screen, microSD support and high-def video recording of 720p at 30fps. Here’s how it looks from the FCC’s point of view — and it makes me wonder: what camera do they use?

If I can borrow from the HTC ad campaign, I want a phone that gets me. More to the point — I want a phone that watches what I do each day and then figures out what I am going to want to do next. Then make that easier for me to do. Learn what I do and how I do it, and then make it simpler.

Sure, I want the web and social networking, I want to track my schedule and stay on top of my email. But I want my phone to know how I do all of those things and to make it easier. That’s not too much to ask, and today’s phone hardware is more than up to the challenge, I’m pretty sure.

I don’t care what platform my phone runs or what is under the hood. I want to turn it on and get busy doing the things I do each day. I check my email every morning first thing when I turn on my phone. After a few days of paying attention to what I do, my phone should know that’s always what I do. When I turn my phone on in the morning then fire up the email app. Download the email headers for me to see what’s come in overnight.

If I get an email from a colleague (and past email should allow the phone to figure out if a given email is indeed from a colleague), and that email asks if I can meet with them on Thursday at 10 am, then the phone should offer to set an appointment for me at that time. All I would have to do is tap a button on the phone to confirm the meeting, or another to suggest another time. The technology exists today to do this so let’s get after it.

The phone always knows where I am physically located given location-based tech, so if I try to enter an appointment too close to another given the distance between them, then the phone should tell me. It can use location to determine how far the two appointments are located, and thus prevent me from making a scheduling mistake. Think for me (and with me) about things, that’s what I want.

We are largely creatures of repetition in our daily lives, and my phone can leverage that to my advantage. A lot of the time it can accurately predict what I need to do next based on my historical actions, and that’s what I want it to suggest. Sure, there will always be the exception when I don’t want to do that next thing I usually do, but a simple confirmation / rejection can handle that.

Earlier this year I was having a conversation with Dr. Sanjay Jha, the CEO of Motorola. We were talking about what we wanted in our phones, and it didn’t take long to figure out we wanted the exact same things. Dr. Jha had obviously given a lot of thought to this “anticipatory phone” like I have, and it was a fantastic conversation as we bounced ideas back and forth. Maybe someday we’ll see such a phone. I am not in a position to build a phone like this, but I dare say that Sanjay is.

Image Credit: AndroLib

Many of the apps are ones I’ve seen or used before, but two jumped out at me. NewsRob is a free Google Reader app for RSS and since I live in RSS seven days a week, it immediately got a download on an old G1. My first take — it’s quite usable and offers starring, sharing and more, just like Google Reader on a desktop browser. Also getting a download is Astrid, which is a free task manager. Although I use Remember the Milk for Android, Astrid also synchronizes with RTM, so it’s worth taking a look.

Android Guys also found a new app for me and it strongly supports my GigaOm Pro piece (subscription required) on why streaming music through the cloud is moving towards reality sooner rather than later — Grooveshark for Android is now available. You’ll need a VIP account with Grooveshark — $30 a year — but you can upload and stream your entire audio library to an Android device, plus listen to gobs of other music as well.

I still can’t fathom why Sprint didn’t put Wi-Fi in its Pixi. The cost of a Wi-Fi radio in a phone these days is practically nothing, and it helps to offer customers a better smartphone experience. Sure, 3G is great when you have coverage, but what about the folks who bought a Pixi and then couldn’t update webOS because they live outside of a 3G coverage area? Yes, I too question why someone would buy a 3G device in a non-3G area, but that’s not the point. These folks had to update webOS using a computer and the webOS Doctor software offered by Palm — hardly a seamless experience.

Luckily, Verizon is doing the smart thing and providing a Wi-Fi radio in its Pixi. Not only does that help when there’s no 3G coverage, but it also supports apps that work only over Wi-Fi. What kinds of apps, you ask? There are several in-home remote control apps that depend on Wi-Fi for the iPhone, for example. And I’m using WiFiPhoto on a daily basis to wirelessly transfer pics from my iPhone to any computer via a web browser and Wi-Fi. There may not be any WiFi-specific apps for Palm’s webOS yet, but without Wi-Fi on a handset, developers can’t create such apps.

The suspicion set in when a B&N customer bought an e-book recently, expecting it to be in the PDB format as always. He reads the content on his Palm device, and PDB is the only format that works. Instead the purchased e-book was in the new (for B&N) ePUB format, making it worthless to the purchaser.

There are two eReader programs the company supplies, the Barnes & Noble reader that is only available on a few platforms and the eReader Pro app that works on quite a few platforms. The eReader Pro app only works with the old PDB format e-books, and it is beginning to look like the B&N eReader app will only work with ePUB. That begins to confuse the entire issue, and company web sites are giving no indication that the content format has changed. These situations where long-time customers buy content, only to discover it is a new format that can’t be used, are likely to get more common. We’ll see if we can get some clarity from B&N on what is going on. I own almost 500 titles in the PDB format and I am getting concerned about the viability of this library down the road.

Image Credit: RadioShack

James pointed out a holiday price drop on the Nokia Booklet 3G this morning, so I’ll be fair to the other kids in netbook land — the LG X120 is down to $49 through Christmas Eve at RadioShack stores. Like the Booklet 3G, the X120 pricing requires a 2-year commitment to AT&T’s wireless broadband service at $60 a month. So regardless of the great deal up front, you’re looking at $1,440 over 24 months unless you decide to ante up an early termination fee of $175 along the way.

LG’s X120 netbook is your typical fare: a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom, 1 GB of memory, Microsoft Windows XP Home, 160 GB hard drive and 4400 mAh six-cell battery. The 10.1″ display is a little short in terms of resolution, however — 1024 x 576 is what you’re looking at, which is a far cry from the 1366 x 768 offered in the Booklet 3G. On the plus side for the X120 is SmartOn, the SplashTop-powered “instant on” Linux partition for fast booting and browsing.

Image Credit: Zatz Not Funny

Now this is a clever use of digital image processing — Sony’s DSC-WX1 can seamlessly stitch pictures together for a massively wide panoramic image. Dave Zatz recently took the WX1 for a spin — and I do mean “spin” literally. Aside from the standard bells and whistles on a 10 megapixel pocket shooter, you have to do a little spin for that panoramic mode. You tap the shutter release and physically pan around while the WX1 captures images. Then the camera stitches the input together for a super-wide view — and from the two samples Dave shared, it looks pretty seamless. I don’t see any evidence of the photo stitching, meaning Dave either has a super-steady hand or the WX1 is good at what it does. Click the above image for a larger size and see if you can find any stitching.

The WX1 lists for around $350, but is readily available for $299, and includes a few other nice features for a portable picture taker: a premium f/2.4 lens, stationary wide angle of 24mm, 5x optical zoom, anti-motion blur mode, 10 fps shooting, and 720p video capture.

Image Credit: Sony

From a hardware perspective, the Nexus One didn’t come from left field. Pictures of the phone from Engadget confirm that it’s a design we’ve seen leaked back in October. In fact, the device looks similar to the HTC Bravo that appeared on a leaked roadmap for the first half of 2010. And while all of the specs are still under wraps, the Nexus One is very likely powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor — that’s the platform you can expect to see in higher end Android phones now through next year. So again, nothing too radical or unexpected here. The display could be an AMOLED, but it’s a very safe bet that it has the same 854 x 480 resolution as the latest Android handsets.

And then there’s the radio frequencies. The only truly wild thought is that this GSM device supports both the T-Mobile and AT&T 3G frequencies. That would set this apart as “the” Google Phone over all others, but that’s a bit of an unknown. Other than that aspect, the Nexus One is exactly what we should be — and have been — expecting. All in all, it sounds promising and since I may drop my Palm Pre, this device and others like it are appealing.

But then there’s the other side of the coin — the non-hardware attributes. Will Google sell this directly to the public or is this simply a phone to be sold to Google developers? I’m with Sascha Segan on this front — the latter scenario makes more sense to me because there isn’t another Google development phone that supports WVGA. Google just launched Android 2.0 a few months ago and it was the first version to support higher resolution screens, so making this phone available to developers is a logical progression.

Then there’s the cost of the Nexus One. I have no idea what it is, but if Google sells it without a carrier subsidy, it will either be cost-prohibitive for most consumers or Google will lose money on each. Of course, I’ve said in the past that Google’s currency is information, which could be a subsidy on it’s own. Regardless, most consumers will balk at a $400 or $500 Nexus One when they can very likely get the same handset for $199 with contract through a carrier. Like it or not, that’s the mainstream model here in the U.S.

One last bit about hardware — even though I addressed it above — there’s a difference between “unlocked” and “completely carrier agnostic.” I don’t doubt the Nexus One will be an unlocked handset. But I do have doubts about it supporting the 3G bands for both T-Mobile and AT&T here in the U.S. Unlocked means you can put a SIM card in from either carrier and use the phone. You’ll be able to make voice calls in that scenario, but you won’t have high-speed mobile broadband. If the Nexus One supports T-Mobile’s 3G network — which is my guess — you’ll only get pokey EDGE speeds using an AT&T SIM card in it. So yes, it would be an unlocked phone in that case, but would you really want to use it for data on AT&T’s network?

Having said all that, let’s play oddsmaker on some different scenarios:

• Nexus One will be sold to Google Android developers (1 – 1) — This is a no-brainer to me for reasons mentioned. Android will only continue its success through work of developers, both within and outside of Google. Offering the handset to developers makes it easier for them to take advantage of new features in Android 2.x.
• Nexus One will be sold directly to the public by Google (30 – 1) — I think it’s a long shot. Google doesn’t have much to gain in this case and they’re going to get the carriers worked up, so there’s much to lose. While Google and others would like to see the cellular market mature and change, it doesn’t have enough power to disrupt things just yet.
• Nexus One will be sold by carriers in March or April (5 – 1) — T-Mobile will offer the same handset or one extremely similar to it, possibly in the first quarter of 2010. The device won’t be priced higher than $199 and it will be locked to the carrier. AT&T offering this device isn’t likely, but if it happens, it won’t be until the second half of the year. This will be a T-Mobile flagship phone.
• Nexus One will support both AT&T and T-Mobile’s 3G frequencies (20 – 1) — While not impossible, it’s going to add cost to the device and I can’t see Google wanting to make this handset more expensive. If they do, developers will feel undermined.
• Google is loving all the hype created by the new phone (really? you need me handicap that one? )

Anyone placing bets on the Nexus One or do you think my odds making is out of touch?

This reduced price makes the Booklet 3G fairly competitive in the world of netbooks, and is pretty decent for one with integrated 3G. The special deal is available in any Best Buy store and through the Best Buy Mobile site. It runs from Dec. 13 through the holidays.

Competition is a good thing, even if it comes from within. That’s apparently the mantra at B&N, as they have begun selling the eSlick reader from FoxIt. They are offering the eSlick through the  eReader store, a subsidiary due to an acquisition earlier this year. The eSlick is going for $259, with a cool $100 in-store credit to help fill it with content.

Yesterday afternoon the MacBook informed me of a firmware update that was ready to apply. I admit I didn’t pay much attention to the changes the update was making; I have come to believe that firmware updates are important for notebooks and should be applied when available. I duly fired up the update process and it went without a hitch. This is one area I believe that Apple does a good job — potentially dicey updates such as firmware updates generally work properly.

The update applied properly and I headed out the door for a holiday party. I returned late in the evening and decided to check things and I opened up the MacBook lid. The system resumed as always but with a little problem. Actually, it was two rather large problems — the MacBook did not report any Bluetooth connections and I couldn’t connect to my home Wi-Fi network.

The Bluetooth problem was insidious; the reason no peripherals were detected was due to the system’s not recognizing the presence of any Bluetooth hardware. The Bluetooth icon in the system bar indicated that “no hardware detected” was the culprit. No matter what I did, including a couple of reboots, would the system acknowledge the presence of Bluetooth hardware. This was disturbing, and obviously a result of the firmware update just applied.

I couldn’t research the problem online as the MacBook would not log onto my home network, no matter what I did. It could see the network, but would not connect to it. I tried inputting the encryption key again but no dice. Things were not looking good at this point.

I stepped back and realized that the first step to figuring out the problem was to get online to research the problem. I fired up the trusty MiFi and was online in less than a minute. I Googled the Bluetooth problem and got a hit that looked like just what I needed. I hit the link and was surprised not only to find that it led to an article here on jkOnTheRun but to one that I had written a year ago!

It became clear why this Bluetooth problem was nagging at the edge of my recollection, I had seen a similar problem before. That one was the result of an OS X update, and it didn’t affect the Wi-Fi connectivity, but it killed the Bluetooth, too. I followed the instructions in my own solution:

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.

This resets the PRAM/ NVRAM in the MacBook and sure enough it worked! My Bluetooth was back after the reboot and I was able to connect to my home network first try. Apparently the firmware update had whacked the PRAM/ NVRAM and the reset caused it to get back to normal. I must say that while I am not happy the update caused this problem, I am impressed with OS X and the ability it provides to recover from a nasty problem like this.

The smartphone scene is highly competitive, and Microsoft may want to do whatever possible to speed up the release of WinMo 7. Recent numbers compiled by Gartner show that WinMo has lost a third of its smartphone market share over the past year alone. WinMo still has a good position in the enterprise, but 80 percent of smartphones are currently being sold to consumers.

HP recently released the Glisten, a WM-equipped smartphone that hasn’t set the world on fire but demonstrates the company is getting back into the Windows phone game in the U. S.. While it had been a few years since we’d seen an HP WinMo phone in the U. S., the company has been producing them for the global market. HP has stated it will produce one or two Windows phones next year. We’ll have to see if they make appearances on the U. S. carriers.

• Fuze Meeting: Share everything you see with everyone in high definition, anywhere on any device.

The eSlick reader is made by FoxIt, the PDF utility people, and it features the standard e-Ink screen. The reader as offered has 512MB of memory augmented by a 2 GB memory card for storing lots of books. The reader can handle eReader PDB format along with PDF format documents. The 6-inch reader comes with FoxIt PDF Creator for converting multiple formats into the supported PDF. The reader can reflow PDF documents for optimal reading on the small screen.

The Eris has a svelte 3.2-inch screen displaying at 320×480. It runs Android 1.5, although I have been told by Verizon that 2.1 will be released for the Eris early next year. For some reason I was thinking that the Eris lacked Wi-Fi, but this handset has it and it works fine.

I am getting it set up now so I can test it out — here are some quick photos to show the phone from all sides: