The next battle shaping up in smartphones may be between Microsoft and Google, with Apple sitting on the sidelines secure in its dominant position, one analyst told investors Friday. Indeed, a turf war is in the cards as Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 and Google’s Android fight for the hearts and minds of handset makers. HTC, Samsung, Motorola and LG will become the battleground as the two smartphone operating systems battle for the hardware companies’ attention.

“In the short run,” writes Needham’s Charlie Wolf, “the turf war could put the smartphone manufacturers in the driver’s seat. Ultimately, however, commoditization, accompanied by deteriorating prices and gross margins, appears inevitable for licensees of the Android and Windows Phone 7 operating systems,” Wolf says.

Everyone can agree that there’s simply no chance that when the iPad 2 ships next year that it won’t support FaceTime: the iPad’s the only current-gen iOS device that doesn’t support Apple’s video chat standard now, after all.

So sure, it can be taken for granted that the iPad 2 will handle FaceTime, but will it also allow for rear-facing photography? How else will it improve upon its predecessor?

OBiON, a free mobile communications app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch now available for download from the iTunes App store, is an exciting — if still evolving — tool that offers more power and flexibility than any similar app available today.

The app is the mobile centerpiece in a new communication paradigm being charted by Obihai Technology, a Cupertino, CA start-up founded by the developers of the first Analog Telephone Adapter, which made “Internet calling” possible without the use of a computer and spawned the growth of Vonage and dozens of other Internet Telephony Service Providers.

Now, in conjunction with the OBiTALK web portal and the company’s Obi110 Voice Services Bridge, OBiON users can leverage the ability to make and receive calls from local or remote landlines, as well as to and from multiple VoIP services on Apple mobile devices.

With Christmas just around the corner, most of us are setting up our homes ready for the festive season. If you are looking to add some geekery to your festive decorations this year, MEA Mobile’s latest product, the iGlo iPhone controlled LED set could be just what you are after.

Evolution is a wonderful thing (relax, creationists — we’re only talking the electronic kind here), and iPhone app Twitcal‘s transformation today into SnapCal brings big changes along with the name switch — not the least of which is that the cool little app is now free (down from $3) through iAd support.

For those who aren’t familiar with the app, SnapCal lets users broadcast event details through Twitter, which can then be easily imported into the app’s calendar by other SnapCal users. Events can also be auto-updated by following another user’s calendar. And now, the app can also import events from Evernote and sync with Google Calendar.

SnapCal can also be freed of its iAd shackles for a buck through an in-app purchase.

Much to the annoyance of parents who have to pay the credit card bills, in-app iPhone and iPad buys are popular with kids.

A typical scenario: your tot is playing with a game like “The Smurfs’ Village.” It’s free to download will keep the kid busy building a village where they can play with the famous blue cartoon characters.

The problem? To complete the Smurf village, your kid might want to add an extra, say, a wheelbarrow of Smurfberries.

That in-app purchase comes with a price tag of $59.99. Other extras are slightly cheaper – a bucket of Smurfberries costs $4.99, two bushels go for $11.99.

If you are one of the many Apple rumor mongers who expects the Mac App Store to flutter cherubically out of the fertile womb of Software Update later this week, The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple suggests you put your celebratory cigars back in the humidor: it ain’t coming this week, or even this month. Dang.

It has emerged today that when the Mac App Store launches for Snow Leopard in the coming months, developers will not be given the opportunity to generate promo codes for their applications like iOS developers can.

In the iTunes Connect Developer Guide, Apple states that promo codes are for iOS apps only, and are not available to apps made for Mac OS X.

In an email to a frustrated user, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has confirmed that the company’s MobileMe subscription service will improve in 2011. Jobs’ reply was a signature short response, but it promises a better service for the many disgruntled users who sign up to Apple’s email, hosting, and syncing service each year.

One MacRumors reader became so dissatisfied with the MobileMe service, that he emailed Jobs to let him know.

I love my iPad and iPhone4 and am a huge fan of yours and all that Apple does. I desperately want to stay inside of Apple’e ecosystem as much as possible.

However, MobileMe is making it very difficult for me to do so. Unreliable/unpredictable syncing, creating duplicate entries (sometimes scores of them), etc. It’s almost unusable.

And I know from forums (including Apple’s own support boards) that I am not the only one experiencing these very real and frustrating problems.

Please tell me it will get better, and soon?

Jobs’ reply was simply, “Yes, it will get a lot better in 2011.”

Unsurprisingly, Steve’s response doesn’t give away much for us to get excited about, other than the reassurance of a significantly enhanced MobileMe service next year. Whether that means improvements to existing MobileMe services, or the introduction of new features is unclear at this time.

The $99 yearly subscription service from Apple providers users with email, file/photo hosting, and syncing across all of their devices, including Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches.

If you have your hands on Apple’s latest must-have gadget the iPad, you’ve probably wondered how to keep other people’s hands off it.

Sure, you can password protect the screen. But that’s not going to do much if someone decides to pick up the handy tablet and run with it.

Enter the iPad lock. Well, it’s actually a $40 case with room for a standard computer lock (sold separately.) The hard clear plastic case has a prominent slot on the side, then you attach a lock which you need to secure to a table or other stationary too-big-to-walk-off-with item.