Top stories

iPad Pre-Orders Start 5.30AM PST on Friday, Says Apple PR [Updated]

Update 2: Apple is sending out emails confirming the 5.30 AM PST/8.30 AM EST time, according to TidBits and others. Emails were sent to customers who signed up for pre-order info (I signed up but didn’t get the message for some reason).
Update: Reader Bob Penn says the staff at his local Apple store insists that [...]

Screaming Fast New MacBook Pros and Mac Pro Desktops Next Week? [UPDATE: Maybe No MacBooks]

UPDATE: Seth at 9to5Mac is now backtracking. While he says he’s received multiple tips that Mac Pros will be updated, he thinks the MacBook Pros tip might have been fake. “Shame on us,” he says.
Our friend Seth Weintraub at 9to5Mac thinks MacBooks and Mac Pros will be updated within a week. Seth received a tip [...]

Steve Jobs #136 on Forbes World Billionaire List

Steve Jobs may be one of the most admired CEOs in the tech industry even if he’s not the richest.
Jobs ranked 136 — down from up 43 spots since last year — in the annual Forbes list of billionaires, far behind Bill Gates (no. 2), Larry Ellison (6), Google founder Sergey Brin (24), Steve [...]

How To Be First In Line To Pre-Order The iPad

With just a few weeks to go before the iPad hits stores, here’s the best way to ensure you’re at the head of the line to get one (or three).
If history is any indication, the iPad will be in short supply when it goes on sale April 3. Plus there are rumors of production delays [...]

Moto’s Android May Be Stronger iPhone Rival

Will Motorola’s Android handset pose a greater threat to the iPhone, improving on the G1, the first Google phone from HTC and T-Mobile? That’s the question on many minds as details of Moto’s open-source phone appeared Monday.

Motorola’s Android unit, not expected until late 2009, reportedly sports many features missing from the G1, offering improved specs, according to Monday’s BusinessWeek.

Citing information distributed to carriers, the financial news source said the Motorola device appears to be “a higher-end version” of the G1, produced by Taiwan’s HTC.

A larger screen tops the list of features. The display approaches the size of the iPhone’s 3.5-inch screen. The handset also includes a slide-out QWERTY keyboard instead of Apple’s virtual on-screen keyboard.

Motorola is reportedly shopping its Android version with a $150 price tag, undercutting the $180 G1.

Along with Google Maps and other online services from the Internet giant, the Motorola’ device will offer easy access to social media sites MySpace and Facebook.

One analyst who has hands-on experience with the G1 said Google didn’t stress the importance of the HTC handset to mesh with the Android OS.

“The iPhone on the other hand was conceptualized as a complete system,” Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney told Cult of Mac.

Dulaney said the G1 illustrates a flaw with the Android system versus the often elegant proprietary iPhone or BlackBerry.

“With [open source] you have the freedom to choose but many don’t take
the time to understand the goals and objectives in the minds of others,” he said.

Another analyst who has both a G1 and an iPhone, said there are other trade-offs.

“I would describe the G1’s styling as ‘functional’ or ‘clunky,’ so it shouldn’t be too hard for someone to raise the bar there,” Current Analysis handset analyst Avi Greengart told Cult of Mac.

He said the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. deal with AT&T allows Android to position itself as a way for carriers to offer an iPhone-like experience without having a bruising head-to-head battle against Apple.

If you enjoyed this article:
Subscribe via RSS or email, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter

About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

Email the author | Read more posts by Ed Sutherland.

5 comments

    I think, there are good scope for motorola to get a good market with android. I doubt, It is really hard for motorola to compete with the look and feel of the iPhone. :)

    Can we please stop calling every new phone that comes out an “iphone killer”?

    please retract my last comment

    Motorola = Over-promise and under-deliver.

    After all those years in the cellphone business and they still don’t have a clue how to make a good cellphone or to run a profitable business. They’re right up there with GM for American industry incompetency.

    Wait. You’re talking about a phone that may or may not even exist, that is supposed to be released sometime in “late 2009″? Late 2009? Are you guys serious?

    If this thing is not much better than today’s G1 as well as a “pose a greater threat” to today’s iPhone when it’s released in late 2009, i think i’ll have to seriously re-think my views on human intelligence outside Apple and Google.

Buy Inside Steve's Brain Buy from Amazon.com Buy from Barnes & Noble