Apple's suing HTC for infringing on 20 iPhone patents, but what will this mean to the cellphone market?

According to Eric Von Hippel, a professor of technological innovation at MIT, it'll be bad news for consumers in the end:

It's a bad scene right now. The social value of patents was supposed to be to encourage innovation - that's what society gets out of it. The net effect is that they decrease innovation, and in the end, the public loses out.

It's doubtful that we'll find out how right Von Hippel is anytime soon though, because cases like this one "can last many years, sometimes five or 10," assuming they're not settled out of court. But I don't exactly see Apple or HTC being in a rush to settle here. [NY Times]

It's not pretty, but according to BBLeaks this is the Storm 3, also known as "Slider." Supposedly there's some video coming, so maybe we'll get a better idea of what might be RIM's newest offering soon. [BBLeaks via BGR]

Each month, the best new iPhone apps-and some older ones-are considered for Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps Directory. Who will join? Who will live? Who will die? Here's the best of the best from February.

For the full directory of Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps for 2009, click here. Here are the best of the month, and what we've added to the directory:

February's Best Apps

For a single-page view, click here.

Essential App Directory Inductees

Camera Pro Plus: It isn't enough for a camera app to add options to still shooting. No, nowadays you need video.

Meebo: An ultra-slick messaging app that makes every other free entrant look either quaint or crappy.

Angry Birds: I could have gone outside last Saturday, but I didn't. I played Angry Birds instead. I have no regrets.

Siri: Rolls speech recognition, search, and intelligent text parsing into one semi-magical package.

Logitech Touch Mouse: Does 75% percent of what more expensive iPhone-as-a-touchpad apps do, for 0% of the price.

The Fallen

Fring: Because Meebo is that good.

Snapture: Replaced by Camera Pro Plus.

And that's it! What counts as an essential iPhone app changes all the time, and so should our guide: If we've missed anything huge, or you've got a much better suggestion for a particular type of app, let us know, or say so in the comments. We'll be updating this thing pretty frequently, and a million Gizmodo readers can do a better job at sorting through the app mess than a single Gizmodo editor. Enjoy!

Bourne Energy's BPP-2 puts a 30-pound, 500-watt generating hydroelectric plant on your back. That's like being able to walk around with 60 solar panels. And when civilization finally collapses, I'll be dragging mine to an as yet undisclosed location.

You can use the Backpack Power Plant in any stream deeper than four feet. It also operates silently, with no heat or exhaust emissions, and can be "bottom-mounted" for total invisibility: all good things for hiding from the roving hordes of the post-apocalyptic dystopia. The set-up is pretty straightforward as well:

To install the civilian BPP, you would dig two trenches on opposite sides of a river and insert a lightweight anchor into each. Then, you'd run a synthetic rope between the anchors and the BPP. [The] company designed the system to work like the high-tension mooring systems that hold up floating oil rigs.

There's a military version already in use that can operate in a variety of flow rates, but the $3,000 civilian edition is designed for streams moving 7.5 feet per second. The main target audience is developing countries, where a portable generator of this magnitude could make a huge difference for remote villages and towns.

It's a prototype for now, but you and I both know they've got a hard deadline of 2012 if they really want this thing put to good use. [Wired]

Tragedy! The New York Times is reporting that Viacom is going to pull "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report," and other Comedy Central properties off of Hulu next week. The reason, as always: money. The bigger question: who's next?

Apparently Viacom realized the importance of "The Daily Show" to Hulu—it's consistently one of the site's most popular programs and is clearly in sync with the Hulu demographc—and wanted outsized compensation, possibly including upfront payment.

You'll still be able to watch rebroadcasts of John Stewart and Stephen Colbert on TheDailyShow.com and ColbertNation.com. But the larger point seems to be that if you're not one of Hulu's major network stakeholders, sharing your content on the site may not be financially viable. That doesn't immediately impact many popular shows outside of Viacom's cadre, but if Hulu wants to be a big tent for online video, they're going to need the participation of third-party content providers. Of which there are plenty, including BBC America, WB, and a whole lot of niche content providers with passionate fan bases.

Maybe Hulu's inevitable pay model will be a solution that helps spread the wealth a little better. But if they lose many more shows by then, it may not even matter. [NY Times]

TiVo may have invented time-shifting, but the past few years haven't been kind to this company unsure how to cut a profit. Then, someone inside TiVo HQ must have realized, oh right, INNOVATION! That's the ticket!

What You Need to Know

• The TiVo Premiere (320GB, $300) and Premiere XL (1TB, THX certified, $500) are the new Series 4 TiVos
• They have completely new widescreen HD software built on Flash
• This software will not come to Series 3 models (or earlier)
• The Premiere is less a DVR than a completely integrated video machine
• Available in early April

Why I'm Excited

The TiVo Premiere is the smallest TiVo yet, a thin and diminutive box that holds only one CableCard and still lacks Wi-Fi (a $90 802.11n adapter will be available this May, plus you can pick up a $30 TiVo powerline adapter). It hides a multicore processor inside that drives a new, HD UI that previews your program at all times. That's right—no more going into Now Playing only to lose the stream of your show.

Despite the redesign, you'll find the experience is remarkably familiar. The basic fonts and menus are unchanged, with a few key differences. Most importantly, instead of seeing one page at a time (like being in Now Playing, then clicking to a new screen with a particular show), you see two pages at a time—a logical design update to the widescreen format that speeds up navigation enormously.

Plus there are little touches that anyone can appreciate: A disk space meter. Show titles change colors once watched. The 30-second commercial skip? That's been programmed into a dedicated "scan" button that flashes half a minute by in just a handful of frames (to keep advertisers happy). Plus, I have it in good faith that TiVo won't be eliminating the classic 30-second skip, either.

Of course, you've already noticed the top bar filled with show icons. That's basically a list of suggestions that shift dynamically depending on what you're watching at the time. I have a feeling TiVo is finding a way to make money off that thing, but you know what? That's OK if they're offering content to me based upon what I like.

Which brings us to the big, key difference about the Series 4.

It's the Internet

Even though the Series 4 still makes you pay for a Wi-Fi dongle (ridiculous, right?), it's truly an internet machine.

Imagine if TiVo and IMDB made a baby. That's exactly what you get.

Swivel Search, which allowed you to search for programs by criteria like actor and keyword, has been built in to the very core of Series 4, and it's got internet access.

So say you're watching 30 Rock and you decide, that Jack Donaghy is an interesting guy. I want to see more of his work! A few clicks takes you to Alec Baldwin. A few more? You can access pretty much anything Alec Baldwin's been in—but not just within your cable subscription.

You'll see Netflix streaming options. Amazon Video on Demand. Blockbuster on Demand. YouTube clips, even. Or you can find an Alec Baldwin movie that will be in the theaters in several months. Then? You can program your TiVo, right then, to record that movie whenever it's finally on cable.

And I should add, none of this advanced search is forced upon you. Much like IMDB, the information is just there if you choose to dig deeper.

For Flash, There's Not Much Flash

If we have one criticism regarding the Series 4 (other than the lack of integrated Wi-Fi, yes, I'm gonna hammer that point home), it's that there's nothing all that flashy about it.

Yes, this point is a quibble, but an important quibble all the same. Those accustomed to flipping through their Netflix queue on a modern, powerful machine like the Xbox 360, those accustomed to the seemingly endless media oomph of the PS3's animated XMB previews and photo collages, may be disappointed in the Premiere's general lack of flare.

I'd love to see a few more UI treats—tiny, tactile animations that smartphone programmers are so wickedly good at designing—built in to the core UI.

There's no doubt, the Series 4 is a smart machine. I just want to make sure that TiVo doesn't become an old maid, but rather a naughty librarian with a sense of adventure. I'm not sure whether or not, just by glancing at it, the Premiere will be enough to woo the average consumer again. And that's something that TiVo very much needs to do.

Oh, and TiVo, Wi-Fi dongles shouldn't cost $90 anymore. Who are you taking lessons from, Microsoft? (OK, OK, I'm done with the Wi-Fi complaints...for now.)

While my impressions were from a meeting long ago, John Herrman just got a second hands on. Here is the sum of his experience:

TiVo's Series 4 box is superficially, well, just another TiVo box, but that's not the point—all set-top boxes are boxes, and if they were anything else, they wouldn't be set-top boxes. It's what's inside that counts, and that's where the Premiere's newness is.

The new TiVo interface is recognizably TiVo-y (and almost exactly like what was previewed back in 2008), and just as recognizably fresher—there are fewer tacky shine effects, and more soft gradients. It's kind of a natural progression for the original interface, which was designed with SDTVs in mind, to a more HD-ready take on the same concept. It's based on Flash, and while you can't really tell now, Tivo's said that the platform is extensible with some kind of app store-type platform, from which you can download Flash Lite-based apps, very little of which TiVo has made specific commitments about, but which is coming, in one way or another. This could be what makes the Premiere a gamechanger, whenever it happens.

In terms of content, TiVo's taken a hard turn online: as Mark put it, it's as if "TiVo and IMDB made a baby," which is to say any TV show or movie you're browsing is augmented with context and metadata, pulled from online. A minor feature which is actually kind of huge is that if you look up a film or show, the Premiere plants icons for the integrated streaming services—Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, etc—to help see if a download or play option is available. The integration is smooth, and the concept natural. But groundbreaking? Not so much.

The optional QWERTY remote will be very familiar to anyone who's used TiVo for more than five minutes, excepting the giant freakin' keyboard that slides out of the side. Integrating the keyboard into a peanut shape was risky, and it didn't really pay off: The keyboard itself isn't overly large, but the fact that it's flanked by two large endpieces makes reaching the center buttons tough, even for the large-handed. Anyway, it's more merciful than generous, since asking users to navigating any amount of text-oriented web content with the regular ol' peanut is mildy hellish. I suspect a lot of folks will spring for this one, even if the necessary Bluetooth dongle (not to mention the remote itself) costs.

What's most striking about TiVo's Next Big Thing is that it doesn't do a whole lot that other DVRs and set-top boxes couldn't, probably for a lower price. (The Premiere is $300, and the XL, with a 1TB drive, is $500.) Granted, a lot of people are going to end up with a Series 4 DVR subsidized by their TV provider, and then, yeah, it's going to be a nice step up from whatever terrible TI genero-box they would have had otherwise. But TiVo's breathless invite to this launch (Inventing the DVR was just a warmup!) doesn't ring true. Is there's something else on the way? Is everyone missing something? mean, I'm glad TiVo discovered the internet and all, but this kind of stuff is baseline nowadays.

TiVo Premiere Box Specifications:

* TiVo Series4™ architecture
* Supports digital cable, high-definition digital cable, antenna (ATSC) and Verizon FiOS
* Outputs: HDMI, Component video, Composite video, Optical audio, Analog audio
* Video output modes include: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
* Inputs: CableCARD™ support, Cable coax, Antenna coax, Ethernet
* Ethernet connection, USB 2.0 ports (2), E-SATA support for external storage
* TiVo Wireless N and G Network Adapter support
* ENERGY STAR® certified
* 320 Gigabytes
* Records up to 45 hours of HD programming or up to 400 hours of standard-definition

TiVo Premiere XL Box Specifications (all specs not listed are the same as above unless noted)

* One Terabyte storage
* Records up to 150 hours of HD programming or up to 1350 hours of standard-definition
* Backlit, programmable, and learning remote
* THX®certified, ensuring optimal audio and video reproduction and enables seamless integration with other THX components
* TiVo Premiere XL box is the first HD product to feature THX® Optimizer™, a video calibration tool that lets users fine tune color, black levels and other settings to improve picture quality. Hailed by critics for its ease-of-use, the exclusive THX Optimizer for TiVo Premiere XL box is found in the My Shows menu of the TiVo service. A pair of THX Optimizer Blue Glasses, designed for adjusting Color and Tint settings, is included with the owner's manual.

TiVo Premiere and TiVo Premiere XL boxes will be available in retail nationwide in early April. They are also available for pre-order today at tivo.com for $299.99 and $499.99 respectively.

When we saw Vizio's gargantuan QWERTY remote at CES, we knew a new era was upon us. Now TiVo debuts their premium QWERTY remote slider and, yes, the day in which you change the channel with a Sidekick has come.

Joking aside, TiVo's upcoming QWERTY remote is an interesting evolution of their classic peanut. Popping out like a slider, the backlit keyboard allows easy text entry for new TiVo Premieres.

It's a bit large in your hand, which means it feels a tad less perfect than the classic TiVo remote. But the Bluetooth connectivity means you don't need line of site, which is always nice.

However, when it's available later this year for an undisclosed price, there's a big catch: It will come with a USB dongle. The Premiere doesn't have Bluetooth for reasons we don't really understand (it's not expensive at all to stick a Bluetooth chip into even small devices like cellphones now). So, somewhat anticlimactically, TiVo's flagship remote will require a Bluetooth dongle (on top of the Wi-Fi dongle you'll probably need). I wouldn't call this a dealbreaker, but for a company that designs a very small ecosystem of hardware, it's not the best thought-out plan, is it?

One of our ninjas just dropped some tantalizing and blurry details for us to feast on.

We've been informed that T-Mobile will be releasing the Motorola CLIQ XT on March 10th, the HTC HD2 (listed as "Dark Handset" on the screen capture) is confirmed on March 24th, and a Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook, complete with T-Mobile broadband access, on the 24th as well.

Our connect also mentions the launch of Even More 1.5, but no details were given. Looks like it is going to be a pretty busy month for the number four carrier in the U.S. Hit the break for one more shot!

Tags: CLIQ XT, Dell, Even More 1.5, HD2, HTC, Inspiron Mini, Mini 10, Motorola, T-Mobile

I want a universal password manager—something that can work with any browser and any OS—and I want it to be simple, secure, and completely dummy-proof. Turns out that such a thing actually exists. Meet LastPass.

Lifehacker's Kevin has a great guide to how LastPass works and how you can get the most out of it, but here's one of the most important things to keep in mind:

[T]he only thing stored on LastPass' servers is a heavily encrypted bundle of your passwords and the sites they belong to-a form of host-proof hosting. They don't have the encryption key to your passwords (only you do), and the encryption and decrypting all takes place on your own computer, where a backup copy of LastPass' records is always kept. If LastPass became evil, or got hacked, the nefarious doers would have to buy one of Google's server farms to break into its users' passwords.

Sold? I am and will be giving LastPass a shot. You can read all about the password manager's features such as browser extensions, one-time passwords, bookmarklets, secure notes, and mobile app compatibility over at Lifehacker. [Lifehacker]

The AP supposedly had an embargo time of 7:01 PM EST on this photo, but it's up on their site now and it confirms the previously mentioned TiVo Premiere. [AP via CrunchGear]

Happy Birthday, Yahoo! You turned 15 today. As a present, here's a pretty scathing assessment of you from Ditherati, compliments of Twitter. You know, your new content-sharing partner! It's okay... everyone's teen years are awkward.

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz's comments about comparing her company to Google came during a CNBC interview today, in which she also spilled that yeah, sure, Yahoo would accept a buyout at the right price:

And what do you bet that price is dropping every day? Let's hope they blow out all the candles in Sunnyvale today—Yahoo could use a wish or two. [Twitter, CNBC]

Our friend Mark Spoonauer at Laptop published the first major review of Sony's 3G-connected Daily Edition ebook reader. Despite Mark's diplomatic tone, you can tell he thinks it sucks.

As a side note, I don't have a review unit of my own to check out. But I don't need to to know that this Daily has the same screen—and screen problems—as the Sony Reader Touch. And, according to Mark, a few more.

Many people know that the Sony Reader Touch Edition I reviewed recently has a film over it that causes glare and makes reading difficult. I speculated that the Daily Edition would have the same unbearable screen covering, and according to Spoonauer's review, it does. As he puts it:

Due to the extra layer Sony added to the screen to enable touch functionality, the Daily Edition's E-Ink display looks somewhat dull compared to non-touch eReaders, such as the Kindle and Nook... We did find that when reading in medium to low lighting we felt more eye strain with the Daily Edition than with other eReaders.

So my chief complaint on the Touch would apparently be my chief complain on the Daily. Anyone who cares about the value of e-ink—how it is easier on the eyes than LCD—should steer clear of both the Touch and the Daily.

If that were all, the consumer attractiveness of this device might be debatable. But Spoonauer had other beefs with the product. He also cites interface "sluggishness" and network connectivity drops that led him to feel it was "easier to browse and search the store on our computer." So like yikes.

Spoonauer concludes his piece—which I encourage you to read—with a verdict that the Kindle is still way better, and that even the Nook is a better choice for people who particularly want a touch interface.

I recognize that by writing this, I forfeit my request to a review, but truth be told, I have always respected Spoonauer's opinion, and given his thorough work, if he didn't like it, neither will I. I hereby wash my hands of the whole Sony Reader touchscreen nightmare. By his word and by our experience with previous devices, do not buy the reader. [Laptop]

All this time I thought people weren't using Google Wave because it was generally unwieldy. But after watching this I finally understand: people don't use Google Wave because it's specifically unwieldy, for cyber sex. [College Humor]

Steve Ballmer recently revealed that he has a secret Twitter account which he uses to "blast out the scores of his kid's high school basketball games." We did a few quick searches and we think we may have found it.

Based on a few old stories we know that Steve's son, Sam, attends Lakeside School in Seattle, so we searched for Twitter accounts announcing scores for that school's basketball games.

There were some accounts which tweeted scores here and there, but there was one which was simply dedicated to one thing and one thing only: LakesideBball.

This particular Twitter account doesn't appear to be affiliated with the school itself, so it would make sense that an athlete's proud parent was behind it.

Possibly Steve himself?

While LakesideBball doesn't follow anyone, it does have a fellow by the name of Sam Ballmer among its followers. I didn't discover any other Sam Ballmer's mentioned on any of Lakeside's sports teams, and this particular one is rather excited about his school winning a game:

He also mentions playing on a team several times:

So, it's pretty reasonable to think that this particular Twitter user is Steve Ballmer's son. (Heck, even Fake Steve Ballmer thinks so and follows him.)

Anyway, between that family connection and the fitting tweets, we're led to believe that LakesideBball is very likely the secret Twitter account Steve Ballmer says he has. Either way, I'm sorry if anyone feels that this spoils a little mystery, but c'mon! Steve teased us with a secret.

Photo by Dot Photo

Two days after a 8.8 magnitude earthquake displaced them from their homes and separated them from dear ones, people gathered at a fire-station in Concepcion, Chile to charge their cellphones—their comfort objects during this disaster.

Chile was becoming a trending topic on Twitter before even the fastest newscasters got a chance to talk about Saturday's earthquake, thanks to many hastily posted Tweets—most of which likely came from mobile devices. Tweets, text messages, emails, calls, voicemails—everything flew across the networks, draining phones and granting people some comfort and peace. Just hearing a familiar voice or reading words of assurance—knowing that your mobile device links you to the world, to family, and to much needed aid—makes one heck of a difference.

We need food. We need medication. We need a hand to pull us out of the rubble. But we also need a little gadget that lets us cry out to the world so that everyone else has a chance to tell us that it'll be ok. [Boston]

Picture by EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images

This video infographic (vinfografic?) by Jesse Thomas runs through a boatload of stats on the internet and just how much happens on it every day. And man, Facebook is huge, guys. [Vimeo via The Daily What]

Apple's plans for cloud computing go beyond music.

The company's representatives have recently spoken with some of the major film studios about enabling iTunes users to store their content on the company's servers, two people familiar with the discussions told CNET. That's in addition to streaming them television shows and music.

Apple has told the studios that under the plan, iTunes users will access video from various Internet-connected devices. Apple would of course prefer that users access video from the iPad, the company's upcoming tablet computer, the sources said. Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said Apple doesn't comment on rumors or speculation.

The news comes a month after Apple spoke to the major record companies about a similar plan involving music. Apple's vision is to build proverbial digital shelves where iTunes users store their media, said one of the sources. "Basically, they want to eliminate the hard drive," the source said.

By cramming digital songs, videos, and all manner of software applications on computers and handheld devices, there's some indication that consumers are maxing out hard drives, particularly on smaller mobile devices. That's led to speculation among Apple watchers that some consumers might slow their purchasing of new content if they have nowhere to easily put it.

It's a bit of leap to reach that conclusion, certainly when a stagnant economy might be hampering sales, but there are some worrisome signs. The NPD Group reported last week that the number of people who legally downloaded songs dropped by nearly a million, from 35.2 million in 2008 to 34.6 million last year. Screen Digest, a research firm that focuses on the entertainment industry said Monday that growth in movie downloads slowed dramatically in 2009 following sharp increases in the two prior years. Screen Digest had projected that total U.S. online movie sales for 2009 would come in at about $360 million, but the total only reached $291 million, the company said.

Before iTunes users can store their movies and TV shows in Apple's cloud, the company must get the studios to sign on. This may not be easy. The studios want to make sure that whatever Apple plans are friendly to other non-Apple devices and services.

Hollywood isn't interested in any walled gardens, said James McQuivey, a media analyst with Forrester Research.

"The studios are very concerned that they're going to get roped into somebody's proprietary platform," McQuivey said. "They want a world where consumers have a relationship with the content and not with the device or the service. They are in a position to force Apple to go along and make sure that if content bought from iTunes will play on a Nokia phone. That is very un-Apple like.

"Apple would prefer not to do this," McQuivey continued. "But it just doesn't have the leverage it once did. Apple can't dictate terms or position itself as a digital savior."

The reason that Apple doesn't wield the same power over the film and TV industries that it did with music is that there's more players that are willing to give the studios what they want.

The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) is a consortum of heaving-hitting media stakeholders lining up to create standards for file formats, digital rights management, and authentication technologies. The group includes Adobe, Best Buy, Cisco, Comcast, Intel, HP, Lionsgate, Fox, Microsoft, Netflix, Panasonic, the four largest recording companies, Samsung, Sony, and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

DECE's goal is to make sure that a movie or TV show bought from Comcast's video service will play on Samsung devices or on Netflix's service.

Not all the studios have joined. Disney has create a DECE-like service called KeyChest, which is supposed to be DECE compatible.

Applying more pressure on Apple is Google, one of its main rivals. Google, obviously, has YouTube. It's also eyeing some start-ups with cloud technology to beef up its streaming services.

Two weeks ago, sources told CNET that Google had informal acquisition talks with Catch Media, a Los Angeles company that wants to become a clearinghouse of sorts, where consumers move media around the Web and Catch handles the permissions and licensing.

So what's Apple's answer to the Google threat? Apple is building a new data center in North Carolina that, according to reports, will be the backbone of its streaming offerings. In December, Apple bought Lala, a struggling music service with an expertise in cloud computing. Google was also trying to acquire the company but Apple outbid them.

The one thing that could help Apple pull away from Google and give it some clout with the studios and TV networks is if iPad catches on with consumers.

The Web-enabled computer tablet, which is due to hit store shelves later this month, features a 9.7-inch display screen and can playback video in up to 720p, the sources said. If consumers start buying video to watch on the iPad, Hollywood could soften its stance on standards. But McQuivey says Apple can't create any proprietary formats at this point.

"Apple can't suddenly make the iPad a closed environment," he said. "Netflix, and Amazon have built apps (for the iPhone) and Apple is not any position to refuse to limit its customers' choices. By pioneering (the apps), Apple is stuck doing what's right for consumers."

In today's Remainders: disappearing acts. TigerText, a new iPhone app, makes your illicit text messages vanish; an official HTC video shows you how to disassemble an HD2; Intel's new Convertible Classroom netbook makes its keyboard go "Poof!" and more.

Grrrr
Incriminating text messages, as a thing, aren't going away any time soon. That is, unless they do go away, which is the whole point of TigerText, a new messaging app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that lets illicit texters set a expiration for date for their messages. After that time texts disappear—Poof!—and your affair continues without a trace. A fine idea for iPhone-wielding slimeballs, but there's one jungle cat-sized catch: both phones need to have TigerText installed for it to function. So while you don't want your spouse to come across naughty texts on your phone, you don't really want them coming across an app designed explicitly for hiding naughty texts either, do you? [Wired]

Colorful
Here's a video showing some nifty (but only nifty) hacks for the Nexus One, and they both involve colors. The first adds a "sexy colors" setting for the little zooming pixels on the phone's default live wallpaper. The other allows you to set the LED notification button to different colors. It definitely looks pretty glowing blue or purple, but it's sort of a one trick pony—let us know when you can set different colors for different notifications. There's no explanation for how to implement the hacks yourself, but if you really want to color in your drab life, you might be able to snag the Twitter names from the video and work backwards to the original Tweets. [Make]

Disassembly
Here we have an "official" video showing you how to disassemble an HD2 step by step (earlier today Apple showed us how to disassemble an HTC step by step). But this official video comes to your computer unofficially, probably by way of some third party repair shop. So it's not the most exciting leak, and it's not the most exciting phone, but it's a nice curiosity nonetheless. [CrunchGear]

Classmates.com
Today Intel showed off its new Convertible Classmate netbook, which lets you swivel its screen to turn the underperforming netbook into a slightly less noticeably underperforming tablet. Folding over the 10.1" touch screen will make it easier to flick through e-books, which are an emphasis in this newest iteration of the machine (Intel released another transforming tablet/netbook combo back in 2008). Intel has their sights set on classrooms in developing countries, hoping the device can serve as both an e-reader and a more fully functioning computer for those students. Whereas the last One Laptop Per Child update showed off a fantasy slate, Intel's new device has a physical keyboard and, you know, the benefit of being real. [PC World]

286 booths, and nary an iPhone in sight. In fact, a lot of the gadgets on display here were first released in 2007. Welcome to CAN InfoTech: the CES of Nepal.

BoingBoing's photo tour of the January conference, held in a country with a near-50% unemployment rate and a per-capita GDP of $1,200, paints a picture of a sort of proto-CES, in which Apple is a new and novel brand, many of the attendees don't have mobile phones, and electric generators are a prime attraction.

I'm not sure why, but I assumed a trade show like this would be inflected with a different feeling. Instead of complaining about ebook reader overload or a crowded trade floor, attendees would glimpse a technological future that a lot of the world lives in, and that they too could one day enjoy. But no: A trade show is a trade show, all the way down the economic scale. It's a way for innovators and hucksters alike to get the word out, for better or for worse, about the thing they're trying to sell right then.

Head over to the source for the full photo set, because it's utterly fascinating, from the 2008-vintage Sony catalog on display to the cellophane-wrapped display laptops. I'll never complain about CES again. (This is a lie.) [BoingBoing]

AT&T's first Android phone, the Backflip, is a smartphone for people who probably wouldn't otherwise buy a smartphone. And for them—and only them—it might just work.

The Price

$100, on a two-year contract with AT&T. As usual, you can expect retailers to beat this price, and soon. (Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Backflip end up free, or nearly free, within a close timeframe.)

The Theory

It's cute. It's ever so slightly odd. It's, in short, the opposite of what nearly every other Android phone on the market has strived for. But where Motorola's Cliq and Devour had identity issues—the Cliq was unavoidably viewed as Motorola's grand entrance into Android, even though it was a second-tier product; and the Devour suffered from perceptions of downgraded Droid-ness—the Backflip knows what it is, and who it's for: a budget phone, for the masses.

The Hardware

The first thing you notice about the Backflip is the way it unfolds. It's weird! Quite weird! Instead of closing screen-to-keypad, clamshell-style, it closes with the screen and keypad facing outward. (Contortionist-style?) Behind the screen is a hidden trackpad, which does what a trackball or d-pad does on other Android phones.

The advantages, as far as I can tell, number three:

• since the keyboard doesn't have to slide inside of the screen, it's free to take up the entire rear surface
• when the phone is closed, you can still see the screen
• the phone can be propped halfway open, so you can set it down on a table for movie watching.

It's a concept that works if only because the Backflip is fairly compact, just a bit thicker than the iPhone, and smaller in every other way. The rounded outside edges mean the body slides in and out of your pocket with ease, and that it feels even smaller than it is. The keyboard is spacious, and despite its smooth surface and lack of gaps between keys, provides juuuuust enough surface differentiation and feedback to make typing effortlessly fast. The rear trackpad strikes me as a gimmick most of the time, especially since you can only use it when the phone is open, but I will give it some credit—it's no worse than a trackball for most tasks, and for scrolling through long email messages and webpages, I actually prefer it to a Droid-like d-pad.

It's when you drill down past the surface that the Backflip reveals its weaknesses. The touchscreen is resistive, and a bit squishy to the touch. UPDATE: It's capacitive. I mistook the screen's give to mean that it was resistive. Wi-Fi and GPS are all included, but really, how couldn't they be? And that camera, with a 5MP sensor and LED flash, couldn't be classified as better than "good enough," though the fact that it's mounted on the keyboard makes MySpace-style self-portraiture dangerously easy.

The processor is an outdated 528MHz Qualcomm number, and the whole system is propped up, Motoblur and all, by 256MB of RAM. In terms of raw hardware specs, the Backflip is really no better than the Cliq, and more damningly, the G1. If you're the kind of person who snaps up phones from the bleeding edge, the Backflip isn't for you. Just buy a Droid.

The Software

Last I saw Motoblur, Motorola's social networking-centric Android skin, it was on the Motorola Devour, a similarly-placed Android phone on Verizon. I'm not a huge fan of the interface, but I get what it's going for, and who might like it—it makes sense for social networking hounds, even if it's a little clumsy sometimes.

But here's where it gets weird: The Backflip runs Motoblur atop Android 1.5, which means that at its core, its software is older than the G1's. And there's no way around it: This is a bad thing. New Google apps like Google Maps Navigation don't even show up in its App Market, 3rd party apps increasingly won't support it, and Android 1.6+ accoutrements like voice commands just aren't there. Add to that Motoblur's inherent slowness, and you've got a decidedly strained software experience.

This would be a dealbreaker—even for the smartphone noobies the Backflip is targeting—if not for one thing: Though they couldn't give me a timeframe, AT&T tells me that a software upgrade to 2.1 is coming—something which I couldn't confirm for the Devour, which shipped with a slightly more futureproof 1.6. On the one hand, this is reflective of a truly bizarre software and upgrade strategy on Motorola's part; on the other, it means that the Backflip could actually be a buyable phone, for the right user.

The Right User

If you've read through this review and you're feeling flat about the Backflip, that's fine. It's not for you! And honestly, it's not for me. There are objectively more capable phones on other carriers, and soon, probably, on AT&T as well. But if you're not even sure you need a smartphone, plan to spend most of your time texting or on Twitter or Facebook, don't really know about (or care to know about) the newest apps in the Android Market, and aren't bothered by quirks like Motorola's replacement of Google search with Yahoo search, don't count the Backflip out. Just keep in mind what we don't know for sure:

• When exactly to expect the software upgrade to Android 2.1
• That Motoblur on 2.1 will be significantly faster that Motoblur on 1.5 (The enhanced speed of 1.6 on the Devour could be attributed to its fast processor)
• That newer apps in generally will perform well on the Backflip's 528MHz processor
• That AT&T won't release another Android phone that'll instantly nullify the Backflip entirely.

These are some serious caveats for a new phone, to the point that even my tempered recommendation comes with a separate recommendation to wait and see—what Motoblur has in store for Android 2.1, what AT&T has in store for Android, and what retailers have in store for the Backflip's price. To us, the gadget nerds, the phone is basically unbuyable. But Android's future is as much about Backflips as about Nexus Ones—not because the Backflip is comparable to the Google Phone, but because it's not. As an agent from Android's budget future, the AT&T's firstborn gets a lot right.

It's more functional than the messaging/feature phones it's attacking

The backwards folding mechanism is surprisingly functional

Android 2.1 to come

Spacious keyboard

Launch price too high, though it will probably fall

The rear trackpad: great when the phone's unfolded, but useless when it's closed

Ships with Android 1.5

Resistive screen

Underwhelming hardware specs