You can check out Apple’s web site for some more detail or continue past the break for some more discussion.

Steve talked about their implementation of multitasking being the best on any phone. However Steve did not define what multitasking is to Apple. Steve is not talking about running two different applications at the same time. He is talking about building a structure where applications and run predetermined processes while suspended. There are seven different things apps can do while suspended:

1. Play music
2. Continue a VOIP session
3. Get your location through GPS or cellular triangulation
4. Receive push notifications
5. Create local notifications
6. Finish a task
7. Continue from a suspended state quickly

If your idea of multitasking is outside of those seven things then you are out of luck. I am interested to see if an IM client will be allowed to receive IMs while being suspended and when you switch back will the messages be there or will they have to be pulled down. Apple talked about how Skype will keep you logged in while suspended in the background and allow you to take calls still. Also the additional power to run special features like multitasking will not be fully supported in the first generation of iPhone / iPod Touches. No word on pricing either.

I think there are a lot of questions about what is possible and what is not. The development kit was released today and I am sure answers will be provided shortly.

There were several other things Apple talked about today, including their venture in the advertising. There is not a whole lot on information about iAd other than they will get companies to provided the ads while splitting the profits 60 / 40.

More information will be added as it comes in. Look for the full release this summer.

So why would you want to switch. The average internet user probably won’t. Depending on your ISP and your location you could see an improvement in the time it takes for you to reach the DNS servers and for them to respond. We are talking about small amounts of time being saved however you probably make hundreds of DNS calls a day. Also if you are like me and don’t understand why your browser has two text entry bars at the top, you can get the search functionality from the URL bar (although this probably already happens).

All of this is great but what I really want over my ISP DNS is reliability. I want a service that will always be up and I think Google can promise that as well as any other company could.

In the end this is another way for Google to gather information and in reality a pretty good way. Now they can track what straight urls people are going to without going through search. It really fills in a whole data set they have been missing. There are other services that do and promise the same experience. OpenDNS comes to mind. I have used it in the passed without problems.

Check out the service and let me know if you have tried it out.

Word on the street is that the Barnes and Noble e-reader will be available in the store on November 30th. That is just three days short of the famous Black Friday shopping extravaganza. If you try and pre-order a Nook online you will be met with a message telling you it will be shipped on Dec 18th. I find it strange that B&N would be selling the Nook three weeks early in their brick and mortar stores. May they are trying to take advantage of the one thing they have over the competition, a physical store. Allowing people to see / play before they buy is going to help the Nooks chances. More on the Nook Here.

Palms new phone, the Pixi, is hitting shelves Nov. 15th (this Sunday). The Pixi will be Palms second device carrying their flagship Web OS. The device is smaller than the Pre and has its keyboard on the front instead of a slide out. The phone looks and feels like a Centro replacement and a welcome one at that. The Pixi is a candy bar phone with a full keyboard and a 2.63″ touch screen. It is priced at $100 but I feel like that price will come down very shortly. It did not take long for the price of the Pre to drop dramatically and I think the same will happen with the Pixi.

I have seen several articles and videos that say the Pixi’s performance is somewhat lacking. The browser can hang at times while loading pages and the scrolling can be laggy in general around the OS. Some of these problems can be contributed to the slower processor and the overall lower spec of the Pixi compared to the Pre. However I want to point out that Web OS does not take advantage of the graphics processor that is available in both phones. Basically this chip is sitting there doing nothing while the cpu handles all the graphical duties. Palm is working on a solution and when that hits I believe most of the laggy issues will be resolved. In the end the Pre has the same specs at the iPhone 3Gs but does not feel like it from a consumer view.

Enough of that, here are some links to more in-depth review of the Palm Pixi.

Engadget Review

Phone Arena Review

Gizmodo Hands On

Precentral.net Reveiw

Enjoy.

When I heard all the rumors about the new Apple products launching this week the first thing I thought of was if I missed the keynote. If you are not familiar Apple normally holds large keynotes to introduce new or refresh products. None of that this time and when the Apple store went down earlier this week we knew what was coming.

Lets start with the new iMacs. They come in 21.5″ and 27″ flavors now wide screen and LED backlit. Prices are pretty comparable with previous versions. The 21.5″ model starts at $1199 and comes with 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB ram, 500GB hard drive and NVIDIA 9400M. The 27″ model starts at $1699 with similar CPU and ram but larger hard drive and ATI HD 4670 graphics.

The white MacBook got a refresher with a new plastic unibody shell. There is nothing super special here, still $999. 13inch LED screen, 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3, 250GB hard drive, NVIDIA 9400M and an estimated 7 hour batter life. The screen is still glossy and the track pad is still large and glass covered. Only 2 USB ports and no firewire.

The MacMini is next and just like the other products it got a refresher. This is probably the product that needed it the most. Now the MacMini start at $599 and that gets you a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB ram, 160GB hard drive and NVIDIA 9400M graphics. The $799 model pushes more CPU, ram and hard drive. The really surprise is the new MacMini server, for $999 you get a mini case with no media slot drive instead it has two 500GB hard drives. It comes with Snow Leopard Server and unlimited clients.

The last and probably most interesting production was the new Magic Mouse. A wireless mouse with no visible buttons but a multi-touch body. The mouse has a very thin profile and allows you to scroll with the swipe of a finger. The scrolling works similar to the iPhone in that it uses momentum. You can use two fingers to swipe back and forth in your browser history or through your photos in iPhoto. The battery is said to last four months and for the $69 price tag you get a mouse to change all mices (mouses?).

Yesterday Barnes and Noble announced their new eBook the Nook. The Nook is a portable ebook reader with an eink display for reading and a color touch screen for navigation. The color screen is powered by a version of Android the Google phone OS. I have to say that the few videos I have seen make the color screen look a little sluggish. The Apple cover flow style of scrolling through your books looked a little choppy. However lets not worry about those sort of things and talk about how this product compares to the other major ebook reader.

Obviously the other choice for someone looking into getting an ebook reader would be the Kindle 2 and it so happens that B&N have created a page showing the differences. First of course the Kindle does not have a color touch screen and you use the eink screen for all the navigation. I imagine that the color screen is why the Nook is half an inch thick while the Kindle is .36 of an inch and the battery life for the Nook is four days shorter than the Kindle. These things aside the Nook does come with some really great new features.

The Nook has wireless access through AT&T’s cell network but it also comes with wifi connectivity as well. You really only use the network when browsing for a book or when downloading one from the cloud. The books are not that large in file size and take very little time to download. I really only see this being a major benefit for those people who do not get AT&T cell service in their homes or offices (I hear it happens to a lot of people). The Nook has a built in Micro SD slot for memory expansion and replaceable back covers.

The other differentiating feature to me is more about the B&N store than the Nook itself. Some books purchased on the B&N store can be lent to your friends for up to 14 days. So if you like a book and your friend has a Nook you can send the book to them so they can read it. You will not be able to access the book while your friend has it and when they are done they will return the book back to you. There is something really great about the idea of handing a paper book to someone for them to read. I felt like that was something the Kindle was missing.

So it comes down to whether you should purchase the Nook or the Kindle. I feel that both devices have their ups and downs. The Kindle is a second generation device and there fore should have some of the bugs worked out. The Nook is a new take of the ebook reader with dual screens and initiative new content store. B&N say they have more books but I would bet that each will have all the bestsellers, newspapers and magazines you want. Without having seen the Nook it is really hard to say which you should buy. I think B&N are in a really great position because they can put the Nook in their stores for people to look at and play with. That is something that Amazon can’t do. Devices like these really sell them selves when you look at them. Eink displays are not main stream, people want to see how it looks and performs before buying. The Nook really does have the advantage.

• The Nook is listed as pre-order at $259
• Comes with a USB charger and replaceable battery
• AT&T wireless and built in wifi (802.11 b/g)
• 2GB of storage with expandable SD slot
• Supports EPUB, PDF, MP3, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP formats

Just yesterday Palm has started to add paid application to their WebOS app store. Prices of the apps all very from 99 cents to $9.95. Although nothing ground breaking has been released it is still good to see developers getting their stuff through the application process. As the competition for apps increases I am sure we will see lower prices.

This all comes after Palms release of the 1.2 Pre update which brought a new app store application. You can now pin a credit card to your Palm account which is how transactions will take place. Also the look and thumbnail viewing has changed slightly. The whole app store feels much improved in performance while you can still sort and search through the store.

And iTunes sync is fixed with the small 1.2.1 update

Updates:

Several new iPods were announced at the Apple event today. Also new iPhone OS 3.1 and iTunes 9. Check out the full details after the break.

Apple started with the new iPhone OS 3.1. They added new Genius functionality, it now recommends songs on the store. There are now 30,000 ring-tones for purchase at $1.29 each and the update will be free.

Next Apple talked about iTunes 9 which is available today. The Genius functionality makes another appearance here. iTunes now create mixes of your music for you, “Imagine a genius DJ that plays endless mixes of songs from your library that go great together.” There are now new ways to sync your iPod with your library. You can now select what artist and genres are synced along with play-lists. You can manage your iPod or iPhone Apps directly from iTunes. You can even arrange your device icon layout. Home sharing allows you to copy all or parts of your library to 5 other computers on your network. Apple has redesigned the store. Probably to create a fresh new look but also to accommodate some of the new features. New to the store is iTunes LP. You can now download all the great liner notes, photographs, lyrics and writings you would get when you purchased albums long ago. This seems like a really great feature and something that Microsoft has been doing with their Zune software. Lastly downloaded DVDs now come with extra content just like the physical DVDs do.

Now on to the main even, the iPods. The first to be revealed was the iPod Touch. Not much has really changed. It gets the new 3.1 software which includes the new genius features. It now supports Open GL 2.0 and I would guess some beefier hardware. The prices have dropped a little as well. 8GB now $199, 32GB now $299 and 64GB now $399.

The iPod Classic as undergone a little renovation as well. A new thinner design and upgraded storage. The Classic is still $249 but now caries 160GB.

The Shuffle is still around and now can be had in five different colors. You can get pink, green, blue, silver or polished steel. It still talks to you and now lets you know when the battery is full. Apple also announced several new headphones that come with the Shuffle controls. Prices are $59 for 2GB and $79 for 4GB.

Now the big news was the iPod Nano. The Nano now comes with a larger 2.2 inch screen. That screen will make it easier to view and create video. Yes the Nano now has a built in video camera. Not only that but they have also added a speaker and FM radio. Where are those updates for the iPod Touch? Also Apple has thrown in a pedometer that can sync directly to Nike. All of this is now in a polished aluminum case that still comes in all the colors. Prices are $149 for the 8GB and $179 for the 16GB.

That is it. Thanks for coming here to get your Apple release news.

The rumored price drop of the Palm Pre is here. Sprint says that their WebOS device will now be $149. This is of course the on contract price and includes a $150 instant rebate and a $100 mail-in rebate. If you did not jump on board back during the release you now have your chance.

However (in the spirit of the Apple press conference today) that’s not all. Sprint also announced their new Palm WebOS phone. The Pixi has hit the pages of Sprints press release. The device was rumored way back when the Pre was being released. Then it was through to be called the EOS and the first 3G version of a WebOS device. Guess it is hitting Sprint first but if WebOS phones are going to save Palm you can expect other carriers to join the party soon. The Pixi is set of release this holiday season.

More details and photos after the break.

The Pixi will be a candy bar style phone with a full keyboard right on the phone (no slide). A 2.63 inch screen, 8GB of onboard memory and no Wifi. My guess is that the Pixi will replace current Centro. It will interesting to see how the WebOS works on a smaller screen.

Sony has announced that it will be releasing a new Slim version of it’s PS3 for $299 this September. But where does this price cut put it with the competition. If we are to talk price then we must take into account the yet to be announced price shuffling of Microsoft’s.

The current PS3 now sells for $299 (80 gig), $299 (120 gig slim) and $399 (160 gig). There have been talks for a 240 gig slim model which could replace the current 160 gig.

It is well know that Microsoft is planning on cutting out the Xbox Pro for the well equipped Xbox Elite model while keeping the lower price. This puts the Xbox Arcade at $179 and the Elite at $299.

What does this all mean? From my experience the console you are going to purchase has probably already been decided no matter what the prices are. I get asked which console people should pickup and I find that almost all the time the person asking already knows which one they would like to buy. They ask because they don’t know all the facts. I normally inform them that in my opinion the Xbox is the way to go because of the continued innovation of the online community and console firmware.

However we must now be objective and realize the the price drop for the PS3 really does make it a more desirable system. You get enough hard drive space to get you started with downloading games and DLC. Sony does keep making their PS3 only library larger every year. Lets not forget the Blue-ray playback. Really with the best current Blue-ray players hovering around $210 you could say you are only paying $100 for the gaming system.

In the end I think this price cut is only going to effect one group of consumers. Those people who already have one console and want to purchase the other brand. The PS3 now becomes a much more attractive offer for those people who would like to round out their gaming collection. I believe they are the only group that will now purchase more consoles than they would have before.

I do believe we are all agree on one thing. The PS3 needed a price drop. I took way to long for Sony to bit the bullet. I can not believe they had to release a new model of PS3 in order to get the price cut to market but we as consumers are glad to save the money.