Two recent studies illustrate the issue, which to be fair, is complicated not just by handset manufacturers but by the carriers too, who have to test them, integrate their own services, then push them out to handsets. Having said that, all handset makers have to deal with the carriers, and several manufacturers are far faster than Samsung.

Take this Computerworld research from last week, for example. Motorola’s Android phones have waited 54.5 days on average for an upgrade to Android 2.2, or Froyo. HTC handsets fare just slightly worse at a wait of 56 days. And then there are Samsung phones, which on average, wait 159 days. And some are still waiting, even as Gingerbread, or Android 2.3 has launched: Samsung’s Galaxy S devices have faced a “coming next month” upgrade path each month since September of last year.

If statistical analysis of the calendar doesn’t sway you, perhaps some basic facts will. Yesterday, PC Magazine created a chart of the top Android phones, what version of Android they shipped with, and what version of Android they currently run. It’s easy to spot which handset manufacturer is behind the others: Samsung’s entire line of Galaxy S devices is behind the curve and in a big way. The jump from Android 2.1 to 2.2 is far more significant than the next jump after that; I’m running Gingerbread (2.3) currently, and aside from a little more polish and shine, most users won’t see a difference from the prior version until developers take advantage of new under-the-hood features.

Back to T-Mobile and the new Galaxy S 4G then: If the slow Android update cycle for Samsung devices is recognized by consumers, will that play a part in the success of T-Mobile’s newest handset? I posed that question to my Twitter followers this afternoon, and here are some of the responses:

@KevinCTofel For the average consumer doubtful, for android fans no doubt about it. Same way I feel about Dell.—
Sloan Bowman (@sloanb) January 20, 2011

@KevinCTofel The two things I constantly read about Samsung – cheap plastic feel & slow-to-no updates = no Samsung for me!—
bubbatex (@TheBubbaTex) January 20, 2011

@KevinCTofel It has scared me away from replacing my Nexus One with anything from Samsung.—
Sean Brady (@seanabrady) January 20, 2011

@KevinCTofel normals don't care. It will sell because of the 4g branding.—
Jason Smith (@ohpleaseno) January 20, 2011

There were other insightful tweets, but rather than list them all, here’s a summary for you: Early adopters and power users are leery of Samsung’s track record, but purchase decisions by newer smartphone owners won’t likely be impacted, which would be good news for T-Mobile by attracting more consumers to its fast HSPA+ network.

That’s a fair answer to the question, which may even be helped by T-Mobile announcing Thursday that its current Samsung Galaxy S phone, the Vibrant, will finally begin to see the Android 2.2 update starting tomorrow. Such news follows recent reports that Samsung was holding back the upgrade to gain more support dollars from U.S. carriers. Not so, said T-Mobile today to PC Mag, indicating that Samsung provided the update back in late November. It’s just taken until now for the operator to test and get its carrier-branded bits in the update.

Does Samsung’s history with Android updates have any impact on your decision to buy a Samsung smartphone on Google’s platform, or do you simply hope they’ll come through in the future?

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According to Engadget, iPhone user Antoni Nygaard managed to activate the hidden multi-touch gesture features on his device using the iOS 4.3 pre-release software (as well as options to change the function of the iPhone’s mute button to a rotation lock, another iPad import). BGR also has screenshots of the gestures in action and the relevant Settings screen from a separate source. Nygaard’s demonstration of the feature in action can be seen in the video below.

Apple dampened anticipation surrounding the new gestures for iPad when it noted, alongside the release of the second beta of iOS 4.3, that these would not be included in the pubic release of the update, and were intended for testing purposes only. The gestures are even less likely to make it into a public 4.3 release on the iPhone, since they aren’t an acknowledged feature of the beta.

So why is the feature there? There are those who argue that it’s because Apple is going to get rid of the home button (that adorable one with the white rounded rectangle) in future hardware iterations of the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It’s true that the gestures replace navigation duties normally handled by the home button, making it possible to fully use the devices without ever touching such a button. But just because it can be done, does that mean it should?

The Case For

Gestures. The presence of the gestures themselves are probably the most convincing evidence in favor of a home buttonless future for iOS devices. Why else would Apple be testing not only app switching through swipes, but also the ability to bring up the multitasking tray and to return to the home screen, both of which taken together currently make up the bulk of the home button’s duties? Feature redundancy for its own sake isn’t one of Apple’s prevailing design principles. Ever look for the physical volume knob on a Mac?

Apple Hates Buttons. The latest iPod shuffle is a rare exception, but speaking generally, Apple has a tendency to do away with physical buttons if it can get away with it. The new nano is a prime example of the culmination of Apple’s design aesthetic: a touchscreen device with a thin bezel and no buttons on its face. Its simple swipe-back navigation works fine for the nano, but is obviously too limiting for an iPhone or iPod touch. Hence the introduction of more complex multi-touch gestures on devices that allow for them, like those mentioned above.

Smaller Devices With Bigger Screens. As Kevin pointed out, Apple may start thinking about equipping the iPhone with a larger display, and soon. Four-inch and larger screens have become de rigueur on many Android devices, and while the Retina Display still gives Apple a major advantage, a bigger Retina Display would provide a bigger advantage for video and gaming enjoyment. If Apple removes the home button, it can increase screen size without adding much or any bulk to the iPhone itself.

The Case Against

Usability. As you can see from the video above, things get pretty cramped when you’re trying to use four-finger gestures on the iPhone, assuming Apple doesn’t increase the overall size of the iPhone. Even putting that aside, gestures on both the iPad and the iPhone are far from intuitive (as Jon Gruber notes), unlike a big, obvious hardware button sitting all by its lonesome on the face of the device. It’s hard to imagine Apple implementing a control scheme that requires an introductory walk-through as the default mode of getting around its mobile OS, which is the benchmark of simplicity in most other regards.

Accessibility. The home button has a very key function that probably isn’t used by most, but is important nonetheless. It can be configured to enable various accessibility options, including toggling VoiceOver, white on black, zoom modes, and having your device prompt you for a command. These are things that can’t or shouldn’t be rerouted to gestures, and that might prove confusing and awkward (read: less accessible) if attached to volume or sleep buttons.

Keeping Button Roles Clearly Defined. Apple would also have to reassign things like taking screenshots (currently done by pressing the home and sleep buttons simultaneously) and performing a hard reset (holding the home and sleep buttons simultaneously). Redirecting these functions to some combination of volume and sleep buttons would be a confusing change.

The iPod Shuffle. As mentioned, Apple went back on its buttonless iPod shuffle design after users and reviewers complained. The shuffle is a safe playground for testing new features like a buttonless interface, since consumers aren’t investing much in it and in Apple’s larger revenue picture, it represents only a very small part. It’s hard to imagine Apple taking the same chance with either the iPhone or iPad, which are revenue stars for the company and much more likely to leave a lasting bad taste in the mouth of consumers.

Home Is Where the UX Is

While Apple testing gesture controls at this juncture might indicate that the company is considering taking away the home button in future iOS devices, I think rumors of a buttonless iPhone 5 or iPad 2 are extremely premature. There’s too much at stake, and not enough potential return to justify a change like that. The home button is, in fact, at the core of why iOS devices are so easy to just pick up and use. Apple’s not going to go messing with its biggest competitive advantage and make adoption harder.

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These initiatives by themselves aren’t surprising if you’ve been following along. But with Schmidt explicitly saying these are the main priorities for Google this year, it puts its various mobile efforts in better context. And it shows how much Google plans on competing in the coming years in mobile.

• Schmidt says Google needs to focus on developing fast networks like LTE, which are capable of 8-10 megabits per second download speeds, a 10x leap over 3G.  He said the boost in speed will usher in new applications, mostly entertainment and social. It’s unclear if Google actually plans on helping build out 4G networks or is just trying to encourage their development.
• A second priority is mobile payments, which Google has pushed lately with the addition of NFC support in the latest version of Android. Google is also looking at building its own mobile payments system, something we’re likely to hear more about this year.
• Third, Google is looking at increasing the availability of inexpensive smartphones around the world. As we’ve noted before, Google has a big opportunity as Android moves down market in less-developed countries. With component prices coming down and manufacturers building cheaper Android phones, this will be a big play for Google.

Google has already seen a lot of success with its mobile efforts. Android is outpacing its rivals in sales, and is poised to be the top smartphone platform. But it’s clear Google isn’t just looking to sell more phones; the company sees it can make money through mobile payments, faster mobile searches and applications. Payments, in particular, could be a huge business for Google if it can position itself as a dominant player.

The emphasis on mobile also offers a hint as to why Google was anxious to get a deal on network neutrality done. With so much riding on mobile, Google was probably eager to compromise on the issue, which deals with how operators can discriminate on traffic moving across their networks, in order to get some rules in place before it waded too deeply into the mobile market where the rules were non-existent.

Google is still primarily a search business with mobile a small but significant fraction of the pie. But as Schmidt has said before, mobile holds a huge promise for Google. “If we have a billion people using Android, you think we can’t make money from that?” asked Schmidt last year. It appears Google is anxious to find out.

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Liquavista displays reduce power consumption much like the Pixel Qi screens currently found in the Notion Ink Adam tablet and Qualcomm’s promising Mirasol display technology. Instead of the standard option of using a backlight to brighten the display, a Liquavista screen has three options: reflective, transmissive and transflective. Indoors, the screen can act just like a traditional LCD display while outdoors, natural light can be reflected through the pixels for clarity and brightness, without a backlight consuming any power. Transmissive is the typical backlit technology LCDs have used for years, while using natural, passive light for reflective displays is a more recent development. Transflective both reflects and transmits light as needed to save power while still displaying a high-quality image.

So Liquavista has both a power-efficient solution and is outdoor-friendly. But how can an e-Ink type of display be used on mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets? The company says its electrowetting technology can refresh a screen up to 60 times per second, opening the door to the high frame rates needed for gaming, video consumption and other media activities on a handheld device. An early prototype Liquavista display was filmed by the BBC last year, and about halfway through the video, you can see a few examples of full-screen, color video playback.

Such frame-rates open the door for Samsung to incorporate Liquavista’s electrowetting technology into handsets, which could help boost battery life. Samsung currently uses its Super AMOLED technology in its Galaxy S line of smartphones, the Nexus S, and its two Windows Phone 7 devices. Super AMOLED is also a power-efficient technology, but can’t leverage the outdoor properties of Liquavista’s screens, so future Samsung handsets could look just as good outside as they do indoors, if not better.

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The evidence comes via an image asset included in the new beta called “homescreenOverlayFaceTime~ipad.png,” which clearly shows icons for FaceTime, Camera and Photo Booth on the default iPad home screen. The image mirrors the one currently used in the iPad’s wallpaper settings, and is likely meant to replace it in the iPad 2.

FaceTime should work as it does on the iPod touch with the new iPad, letting users make video calls to others with iOS devices with front-facing cameras, or to those with FaceTime for Mac installed on their computers. Photo Booth, which Apple has yet to release on any iOS device, will presumably work like the desktop app that ships with OS X and allow users to snap photos of themselves using a front-facing camera and then apply various effects to the resulting image. Filters like Mirror, X-Ray and Kaleidoscope have already been found in the iOS 4.3 beta.

The inclusion of a separate Camera app is what suggests Apple will go ahead and include two cameras instead of just one. It’s true that it could just be for use with the front camera, but I’d suggest that Apple would’ve stuck with just the Photo Booth app if it were only including a front-facing camera. And evidence aside, a lack of a rear-facing camera, no matter how practical, would be ammunition for Apple’s competition in the tablet space. Plus, Apple couldn’t sell the ability to switch between front and back cameras as a value-add feature for FaceTime.

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UPDATED. Flash-based game site Kongregrate found itself excluded from the Android Market today, but it’s still trying to figure out whether its exile is going to be permanent and if so, why it’s being singled out. The gaming site launched the Kongregate Arcade app earlier today, only to have it yanked after Google reportedly said that it violated the non-compete rules in the Android Market terms of service. Essentially, Google seems to be suggesting that Kongregate Arcade is a competing app store.

According to Jim Greer, the CEO of Kongregate — which was recently bought by GameStop — the Arcade may look like an app store, but it’s actually a web browser that connects to the Kongregate site, Greer told VentureBeat. In this way, the app allows users access to hundreds of free games and allows them to cache those games for offline play.

“It does seem like a pretty extreme distortion to call something that plays content in a browser to be the same thing as an application store,” Greer said. “By this definition, we don’t see why apps like the Kindle or other music apps aren’t across the line.”

Greer told Joystiq that he was confused and shocked, and said the decision to call Kongregate Arcade an app store was a “pretty extreme stretch.” Greer said he previously showed the app to people at Google, who were enthusiastic about having it available in Android Market, though he said they weren’t involved in the decision. He’s holding out hope that Google erred in its exclusion of the app, saying it already allows some game emulators that include hundreds of games.

I’ve reached out to Google for comment and hope to hear back soon. It’s possible that this could all be a misunderstanding — although VentureBeat seems to think that Google may be motivated by a desire to make room for its own gaming efforts. If this decision stands, it does strike a blow to Google’s arguments about how open Android is. That’s been a favorite talking point of Google executives in drawing a distinction between Android and iOS. Apple has taken its lumps on numerous occasions for denying apps for a variety of reasons though it has made efforts to be more transparent lately.

Denying Kongregate wouldn’t do any favors to Android’s reputation as a weak gaming platform compared to the iPhone. The platform is slowly getting bigger titles like Angry Birds, but it’s still not a priority for game developers. And while technically the app store competition argument may apply to Kongregate, it raises the question about what Google will do with other apps like Kindle that offer similar services.

Kongregate is still being promoted through GameStop and being sold through GetJar, which is able to sell games direct to Android users. That is still a nice distinction for Android, which allows third-party app stores to sell apps. But until the Kongregate app rejection is sorted out or the rejection proves to be a mistake, it leaves a lot of questions about the role Google is taking in Android Market.

UPDATE: Google responded with a statement standing by its decision to pull the Kongragate Arcade app. “Applications in violation of our policies are removed from Android Market,” Google said. The reasoning comes down to the fact that the Kongregate app, while it acts much like a browser, has the ability to cache games for offline play. That elevates it into a competing software distribution platform offering outside content, something the Android Market terms of service prohibits. It’s likely that a simpler app that listed Kongregate games and launched a traditional browser could get approved. Or if the games were submitted as individual apps, they would also fly. It seems a distinction is being made here between digital content like books or music and mobile apps, which is why Kindle and other services don’t appear to be in danger of being pulled.

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“We are working hard with our U.S. carrier partners to bring meaningful smartphone solutions to market that are compelling consumer experiences, have strong operator support and a thriving ecosystem. As in any business, plans can change and deliberate decisions must be made to enable clear focus on bringing the right products to market at the right time.”

From the sounds of the statement, and given that Nokia hasn’t gained traction here in the U.S. with its Symbian devices, it appears to me that Nokia and AT&T couldn’t agree on the financial details of a carrier deal. Conversations may have ended a February launch, but Nokia appears open to revisiting a deal with AT&T — or perhaps the other big GSM operator, T-Mobile — to get its current high-end smartphones in front of consumers at a price competitive to iPhones and Android handsets.

The situation, if true, also tells me that AT&T is confident enough with its current and planned phone portfolio. Yes, the carrier is losing iPhone exclusivity in a few short weeks, but AT&T has solid Android offerings including the new Motorola Atrix 4G, which can fit in a laptop-like dock or pump 1080p video to a high-definition television set.

I actually had high hopes that Nokia would be able to work with AT&T to carry one of the new Symbian devices announced at Nokia World in September. A developer contest held by Nokia tipped off the possibility of a new Nokia device on AT&T, mainly because AT&T was a key sponsor. Now it looks like that plan has either fallen through or been postponed, at best. And that hurts Nokia because its Symbian devices aren’t subsidized, nor do they receive any marketing attention here in the States. This means most consumers don’t know about them, and when they do find out that Nokia has something to offer, they’re put off by prices of $500 or more.

Based on my prior conversations with key Nokia executives, I suspect this is just another set-back, and not a completely closed door. The U.S. market is extremely important to Nokia, I was told back in June by Niklas Savander, EVP and general manager of the markets unit at Nokia. If AT&T won’t play nice with Nokia, then perhaps the largest handset maker in the world in terms of sales can get T-Mobile to offer subsidized Symbian smartphones.

I think the devices have excellent hardware designs, but are lacking in usability. If Nokia can get a carrier to work with them, it will be up to U.S. consumers to pass their own judgment in a world of iPhones and Androids.

Image courtesy of Eldar Murtazin

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Yesterday, Microsoft launched its first Office app for iOS, a mobile version of the digital notebook application OneNote. If you’ve never heard of it, it may be because you’re using the Mac version of Office, which lacks OneNote, greatly reducing the usability of the iOS app.

Microsoft asserts that “78 million PCs in the U.S. have OneNote,” which, while not the same thing as having 78 million users, is still impressive. But the pool of potential overall Microsoft Office users from Mac and PC is more impressive still. Having tried OneNote, I’d suggest it may be the “practice” Office iOS app for Microsoft, before the team attempts to bring in that larger user base through Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps. But unfortunately that “practice” feel doesn’t help the OneNote succeed as an app in and of itself.

OneNote requires an active Windows Live account to work at all. A Windows Live account allows automatic syncing between OneNote on an iOS device and Windows Live SkyDrive, which then can be synced with OneNote in Office (which, remember, is only available in the Windows version). There are no other way (like email) by which to send notes from an iOS device to a Mac or PC, so cross easy syncing off your list with OneNote.

After logging in once to Windows Live, the admittedly gorgeous OneNote Home screen appears, but looks can be deceiving. On the left, the Home screen shows a list of “notebooks,” which act as directories for your notes. Unfortunately, you can’t create notebooks in OneNote for iOS. You must use OneNote in Office, or use the OneNote web app at windowslive.com. On the left are the contents of the Day-to-Day notebook broken down into sections. Think of sections as those little colored tabs on pages you might divide a physical notebook with. You can’t create or modify these in OneNote for iOS, either.

OneNote does perform well when it comes to actually taking notes, though. While OneNote can be used in landscape mode, you won’t have much screen real estate to keep track of what you’re doing. OneNote works much better, and looks just great, in portrait mode. As seen above, OneNote has options for both bullet lists and checkbox lists, as well as integration with the iPhone camera. The camera option is especially nice, as you can take a picture and have that be the subject of its own note. Apple needs to “borrow” that feature for Notes in iOS 5.

Unfortunately, even note taking in OneNote can at times be frustrating. Wouldn’t it be great if those ring binders on the left of the note indicated a potential action, like turning a page for the next or previous note? Instead, the only way you can get to different notes is by forever going back and forth through lists.

OneNote for iOS is free, for now, but Microsoft makes no promises about the future. If you want to be help encourage Microsoft to develop Office apps for iOS, get it now. If you want a full-featured notes app that really works, there’s Evernote. It’s free, but the premium service at $45 per year significantly increases what the app can do. For Mac users with limited needs, especially those with MobileMe, Apple’s Notes remains the best basic note-taking app. As for OneNote, for now it’s little more than an extension of the Windows application, better for viewing notes than actually creating, organizing, and sharing thoughts.

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Smartphone applications specific to cars may best illustrate the promise of mobility and connectivity: intelligent, pocketable devices combined with wireless broadband and smarter cars. While there have been a number of in-vehicle applications for years — think of navigation, point-of-interest searches, real-time traffic data and remote automobile diagnostics — most until now have been constrained for use within the vehicle.

By leveraging the ability for a smartphone to be tied with a car, such apps can move beyond in-car use. And as vehicles gain more processors and sensors, especially in greener cars as noted in a GigaOM Pro report, (subscription required), the possibilities for mobile apps will expand.

So what kinds of mobile apps will connect smartphone-toting drivers with their cars? Ford already launched software specific to its all-electric Ford Focus, allowing users to remotely monitor the battery level and even schedule a recharge during off-peak rate hours. Location Labs, in a partnership with T-Mobile, today launched software that can detect when a driver is behind the wheel of a vehicle and automatically shoot calls direct to voicemail or lock down access to text messaging. Focused on driver safety, the new app appears to monitor vehicle movement through GPS, but in the future, could get that data directly from the car.

But these examples, along with streaming music entertainment from Pandora and smarter navigation solutions, are just the tip of the iceberg. Pairing a connected car with smartphone apps is likely to lead to automatic location check-ins, voice-powered Facebook status updates from the driver’s seat, or even shopping list reminders when you’re about to pass a local retailer that stocks items you’re running out of at home. Whatever the application, mobile broadband and smart handsets combined with the cars of tomorrow could give new meaning to the term “information superhighway.”

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Airfoil for Mac. At the core of this solution is Airfoil 4.0 (free trial, $25 full version). It’s a simple application that would probably do better as a System Preference pane.  The interface is quick to master: Just pick an audio source, and select where you would like that audio source to be heard.  In addition to supporting playback of your iTunes music library, Airfoil will also stream audio content from almost any application on either Mac or PC, including system audio and any attached audio device.  I tested this with the microphone attached to my Apple Cinema Display, as well as a Samson C01U USB Microphone attached to my Mac, and in both cases it worked well.

Airfoil Video Player. One thing you’ll notice right away when playing back video files is that the sound timing is off — way off. This is due to the buffering technology Airfoil uses to keep all audio outputs in sync. You can still play videos on your Mac and listen to them on your external audio system. Included with Airfoil is a custom video player that keeps the soundtrack in sync with the video playback.  It supports web-based content like Netflix, Hulu and YouTube, as well as any most video file formats and DVD playback.

Airfoil to Airplay. Airfoil will transmit to any existing AirPlay device, like the Apple TV and the AirPort Express. It also supports any third-party hardware that uses AirPlay, like Denon’s new AVR-4311CI. You can select either one or many destinations, and Airfoil will ensure that audio playback remains in sync from room to room.

Airfoil Speakers for Mac, Windows and Linux. There are companion apps from Rogue Amoeba that turn any Mac, Windows or Linux machine into a destination that for Airfoil audio. Unfortunately, these apps can’t make any of these platforms AirPlay speakers, so playback only works using Airfoil as the source.

Airfoil Speakers Touch. The icing on the cake is this free App Store offering that enables all iOS devices to also become destinations for Airfoil audio.  Like Speakers for Mac, Windows and Linux, the Touch version doesn’t make iOS devices accessible through AirPlay, but it does allow for remote playback access to your iTunes music library, something you can’t do using Apple’s current AirPlay implementation. Using the Apple Remote app to control iTunes on your computer, and setting Airfoil to broadcast to your iOS device, you can have complete access to your entire iTunes library, bypassing onboard storage limitations.  Airfoil even supports background audio on your iOS device. Unfortunately, you need to be on the same local network as your Mac for this to work.

AirView. This one isn’t part of the Airfoil suite, but it’s worth checking out if you’re interested in the video side of AirPlay. It’s a free app that you can install on any iOS device, where it serves as a receiver for AirPlay video. So, for example, you could play back a video on your iPhone 4 using your iPad. It probably has the most potential as a way to stream your iTunes video library from your Mac to your iPad on a local network quickly and easily, though you’ll need to initiate playback on your Mac before you can control it in the AirView app. The streaming quality is fantastic, though.

Third-party solutions aren’t perfect, but once things are all up and running, everything sounds (and looks) just fine. One of the main hurdles is in initiating playback remotely. Reemote for Airfoil for $2.99 in the App Store provides a workaround for that solution, but an all-in-one solution would obviously be better. In any case, until Apple improves AirPlay itself, these apps are the best bet for fixing the feature’s deficiencies. Any other AirPlay-augmenters you’re using? Let us know in the comments.

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