Oh btw… Voice and Data at the same time. I so called it. Although its only on 4g, and I don’t have 4g yet in Los Angeles, but I know its coming.

Full press release is below.

HTC EVO™ Fact Sheet

The ultimate multimedia experience at Sprint 3G and 4G speeds The world’s first 3G/4G Android handset, exclusively from Sprint, HTC EVO™ 4G, offers a rich mobile Internet experience with a fully integrated suite of services built on the AndroidTM 2.1 platform. HTC EVO 4G includes a blazing-fast 1GHz Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ processor, the award-winning HTC SenseTM user experience, an 8.0 megapixel auto-focus camera with HD-capable video camcorder and a forward-facing 1.3 megapixel camera. HTC EVO supports industry leading features including Simultaneous Voice and Data while in 4G coverage and new Mobile Video Chat, the two-way voice and video service from Qik. The large vibrant 4.3 inch display, built-in kickstand, 3.5 mm headset jack and HDMI output make HTC EVO 4G an unparalleled platform for wireless entertainment. Download music, pictures, files, or videos in seconds – not minutes – and watch streaming video on the go on a network with download speeds that are up to 10 times faster than 3G speeds.1 With built-in mobile hotspot functionality, HTC EVO 4G also allows up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices, including laptop, camera, music player, video player and any other Wi-Fi-enabled device, to enjoy the benefits of 3G/4G speeds on the go. PRODUCTIVITY 3G/4G capability Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ QSD8650 (1GHz) processor 4.3” capacitive display with pinch-to-zoom and tactile feedback World-class HTML browser – bandwidth and quality that rival that of netbooks Android 2.1, with access to more than 35,000 apps on Android Market Simultaneous voice and data capability in 4G and Wi-Fi coverage areas, enabling Web surfing and more while talking GoogleTM mobile services including Google SearchTM, Google MapsTM, Google TalkTM, GmailTM, YouTubeTM , and syncs with Google CalendarTM Access to Google Goggles™ to search with pictures instead of words Sprint Navigation, with turn-by-turn driving directions and 3D maps Updated HTC Sense, award-winning user experience, which includes Friend Stream to integrate Facebook, Twitter and more into a single flow of updates Visual voicemail Messaging – personal and business email, IM and text messaging 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot capability – connects up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices 4G data speeds (WiMAX) – peak download speeds of more than 10 Mbps; peak upload speeds of 1 Mbps; average download speeds of 3-6 Mbps. 3G data speeds (EVDO Rev A.) – peak download speeds of up to 3.1 Mbps; peak upload speeds of 1.8 Mbps; average download speeds of 600 kbps-1.4 Mbps. ENTERTAINMENT Video chat service available as an upgrade to the pre-loaded Qik app to enable conversational, interactive, real-time sharing between mobile devices or from mobile-to-desktop 8MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash and 1.3MP front-facing camera High-quality video streaming and downloads at 3G and 4G data speeds Capture and share HD-quality video (720p) from your phone Output pictures, slides and videos in HD quality (720p) via HDMI cable (sold separately) Live video sharing with Qik Built-in kickstand for hands-free viewing Media player with 3.5mm stereo headset jack FM radio and Amazon MP3 store Sprint applications including Sprint TV® and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile(SM) Bluetooth® 2.1 with A2DP Stereo and EDR Built-in WiFi®: 802.11 b/g Digital compass, G-Sensor, proximity sensor, light sensor, GPS Expandable memory: 8GB microSD card included; supports up to 32GB SPECIFICATIONS Dimensions: 4.8″ x 2.6″ x .5″ (LxWxT)  Weight: 6 ounces Main display: 4.3” WVGA (800×480) 65K colors Battery life: 6 hours of talk time. Time may vary depending on 3G/4G coverage and usage. Standard removable 1500mAh Lithium (Li-on) battery Memory: 1GB ROM, 512MB RAM

The extra 10 bucks for 4g, no biggie. the extra 30 for mobile hotspot… well that kinds of sucks a little. but hey…. I’m so getting this phone. Its completely worth it!

1)  
LastPass; Multi browser, multi platform, and the last pass you’ll ever need. This simple to use extension works on nearly every browser, syncs between them all, cloud based so it works on multiple computers, and best of all is free. There is a subscription model for $1 a day. It includes extra features like, iPhone and Android applications, Ad free, and Yubikey support. I hear a Palm WebOS version is in the making. FYI, you should always build secure passwords.

2)
Xmarks; Now that you’re passwords are sync’d you you probably want your bookmarks sync’d across browsers too. Xmarks is your program. Also based on a cloud platform, it allows you to keep your bookmarks sync’d across computers and browsers. As with Lastpass it has a web interface and sharing with friends.

3)

Web of Trust or WOT; is a great extension for finding those shady sites. Now Chrome is great at detecting phishing sites, but WOT extension adds little colored icons next to each link on your search page and gmail. It gives you a better view of sites to just outright avoid. You can also read what others had to say about it.

4)

Adblock; If you’re a Firefox user then you probably know what Adblock is. If not, then it does exactly what its named. Blocks Ads. I however do not use it. I”m sure its a great extension but I like a more system wide approach. I use Privoxy. Its a small application that is basically a pass through proxy, it listens on local host, and you just point your browsers to it. It then filters out anything that passes through it.

5)

Google Quick Scroll; Have you ever been searching for something and you get to a page, but you can’t seem to find it on the page? Here comes Google Quick Scroll to save the day. Basically the way it works is when you click on a link from a Google search page, if relevant enough it dumps to you the right place on the page and shows you a box. Its a great simple little addon, that in my opinion should just be built into the browser. However since there people who use chrome, but don’t use Google search, I could see how this might be a conflict. Anyway back to this plugin, it uses Google’s Magic to decide when the quick box should be shown.  Somehow it does seem to be there when I’m looking for it, and not when I don’t need it.

Misc Extensions:
There are tons of plugins out there, and more every day, The few others I use are;

• Quick Calendar
• Stumble Upon
• Cooliris
• KeyboardNavigation

Call for Development:

So I’ve been thinking about how I’d use the web more and more, I know Chrome is a baby in the Browser war, but its already its approaching its terrible twos and going to wreak havoc all over your virtual house.  I’m sure there is already a plugin for Firefox, but what I’m looking for is an extension that can be a notepad per sites. I already use Chromepad, but its one pad for everything. I would love to be able to put notes per site I’ve visted.

Think about just 5 years ago. Facebook was still closed to college students only, it had only been around since feb 2004. No Twitter, No Youtube. Social media as we new it didn’t exist. We relied heavily on email, and instant messaging.  Broadband was still expensive and slow. You were lucky to get 1.5/128 broadband. Things like Google Maps wasn’t even around in 2004. I’m sure 99% of us used Mapquest since it was the only real online map site.

With a sense of disconnect we continue hitting refresh in the hope that we will get a glimpse or a update from someone somewhere telling us that things will be ok, or what shoes you are wearing. Information that seems so silly yet so vital to our daily lives.

We then turn to other online media sites and flood them trying to get the word out to increase the buzz yet we all already know its down just from a twitter search. Which in itself creates a catch 22. If no one reports it, no one knows about it, if tens of thousands of people twitter it then it becomes an epidemic, and more wildly known. Even if the outage only last for a few minutes. The 5 minutes of downtime will circle the blog-o-sphere casting a much needed doubt in the reliability of the information we rely on.

We complain when there is an outage but build cloud based services because some niche needs to be filled on the internet for us to store our content. yet is still prone to failures as is with anything.  Whats the next move? Cloud based computing, lets remove local storage and put it on the cloud and build a computer around it. Don’t get me wrong, I think Chrome OS is great, and for someone who just needs to browse the web, check email, and look at pictures. My parents who are getting better at using the internet as long as I tell them what browsers to use, what services to use, and most of all a virus/spyware program that emails me. Plus I tell them they are not allowed to install anything unless they call me. Usually I have a better idea of what they are looking for than some program they don’t need.

What do I tell them if they are using Google Docs, and Gmail, and Wave and Google breakfast maker and the cloud goes down?

What if its like my father who would use it for work and handle customer tracking. What does he tell his clients when something goes down? What if a service goes out of business. I wonder if someone has built a graph of startups with cloud/remote storage and failures vs success. I don’t Google would fail, because they have some of the most amazing technology, and Microsoft is releasing Office Live which is a cloud based document center. Everything is just moving to the web. I don’t even think I could function without a computer for more than 2 weeks. Not only would my Email get backed up, my work would explode, I wouldn’t even know how to pay bills via snail mail let alone check my account balance without going to an atm. Even then I’d have no idea how to figure out how to get a balance. I mean I’m sure I could figure it out, but the browser and online banking is just so much easier.

I dunno, honestly its going to be very interesting to see where online media and social network takes us next. If the U.S. was the broadband leader and we all had 100mbit wireless internet I think the web would jump a few version numbers from 2.0 to 16.9 in a matter of months. Everyone wants instant content, and they want it now.

Search engines alone are getting crazy accurate. The next logical step for them is to plus directly into our brains and make our memory searchable. How awesome would that be? Google Brain Search.

Yes, If I could have a internet connection planted into my brain with audio and video playback, and just think what I want. I would rob you, get it implanted, go on every knowledge game show and then pay you back with my winnings. Hey I’m just saying…

Lets discuss Youtube, Flash, and the changes to 3rd parties first.

Today on my commute I listened to Buzz Out Loud podcast #1111. In this podcast they discussed Youtube and its (unlike Googles) decision to restrict the API for devices connected to TV’s. While they made some excellent points, I have a theory on why all of this has happened.

Lets look at the timeline…

1. Adobe announced a new beta of their flash player using hardware acceleration. This new player makes use of the GPU of devices to play better video, and overall a better flash experience.

2. Youtube announced 1080p content rolling out.

3. Youtube restricts API usage to only license partners.

Looking at all of this you have to wonder if there was some sort of strategy behind all of this. What each company gains, and what each company stands to loose. Youtube has been trying to find a business model to build a revenue stream.  Adobe gives flash away for free, and my guess would love to build a licensing model for 3rd party hardware vendors. If Youtube is trying to bring paid content to their platform, wouldn’t it be difficult to bring said content of these content providers if they have to compete with their own products? Mainly television.

With Youtube closing the gap to their API and only allowing the flash based API to work, this gives Adobe the ability to license its Flash player to hardware vendors which brings them additional revenue. The restrictions that now exist on the API for vendors not using flash require licensing agreements, like the ones they have with Panasonic and Sony. In less than two weeks all of these changes have taken place. I just can’t believe its all not related.

With companies like Boxee getting ready to provide hardware devices with integrated software to allow Youtube, and other online social networking platforms to connect directly to your TV, why wouldn’t you want to get them to license that?

Lets discuss Google’s aquisition of Gizmo5. This was mainly a discussion from a podcast of Twit where Leo Laporte, and John C Dvorak discussed Google Voice and Gizmo5. Everyone talks about how you can use Google Voice to connect to Gizmo, which can connect to skype to get free inbound numbers. What people don’t realize is you can connect physical devices to Gizmo5. They allow you to register Sip Devices, which include ATA’s, Desk Phones, Soft Clients, Mobile Clients, and even Asterisk boxes. Imagine the power of being able to register your device like a Linksys Pap2 (popular Vonage device) and put it in your house and have it linked to your Google Voice account.

Google Voice already allows you to connect your mobile phone for voicemail and outbound calling. Then there are rumors of a Google Phone. I think its coming and I’ll tell you why. If you remember Google bid on the 700mhz frequency. I don’t think they even wanted it, but they got what they did want. They pushed for open standards, open networks, and open devices. If you think about it, a data only phone would fit right into their strategy. A sip based client on a phone takes care of voice, which links into Google Voice, which could tie into your home phone.  I think when the time is right, Google is going to ask for their “Open Devices Favor” and get exactly what they want. The ability to provide a device that works only with data, and gives them the ability to still provide every service they want to offer, including voice.

This is my take on it all,

Andrew