Thanks to Drew Garen, I was able to get a quick taste of this new tasty treat before an official version is released some unknown time in the future.

Personally, I find the port surprisingly stable enough for every day use but it may not be enough for you - so please do back up your device. Just in case.

The Good:

• Surprisingly stable
• No issues with voice calls, 3G data or wifi
• Love having access to the new Gmail, Calendar, Browser app and UX

The Bad:

• Camera and video playback causes the screen to “flicker” at times
• Panorama doesn’t work for me… don’t see myself using it often though
• MX Player (and a few others) will not run stating an unsupported Android Build
• Seemingly random Force Close events with apps (APN settings and Korean IME for me)

Overall - love being able to test it out on my device. Definitely looking forward to the official release for Nexus S.

Here’s a pic of my device running the port:

I expected Tim to add his own “Cooksian” flair to the keynote - lost his opportunity in my opinion. To be fair he had a big shoe to fill, but I expected more. A lot more. Today’s keynote saving grace; the 8MP camera and Siri implementation.

Everything else was pretty much announced at WWDC.

Apple Store:

- 100,000 visitors: Took LA store a month, Shanghai store did it in a weekend.

- Hong Kong store sold more Macs on opening day than any other store in the world.

- 357 stores in 11 countries. Will “raise the bar at retail”.

Mac OS:

- Lion downloaded 6 million times (I am a happy Lion user)

- In terms of install base: Windows7 in 20 weeks, Lion in 2 weeks.

Macbook Air, Macbook, Macbook Pro:

- Mac outgrew PC market in the US by almost x6

- For 5 years, Mac has outgrown the PC market and approaching 60million users

iPod & iTunes:

- iPod is the number one music player in the world.

- US market share remains a cool 70%

- Sold 300m iPods to date. It took Sony 30 years to sell 230k Walkmans.

- Started with 200k songs on iTunes, now have 20m songs. 16B downloads.

- iPod Nano updated. Fitness “out of the box”. I wish this came out a year ago :(

- iPod Touch “#1 Portable Game Player”

   * Ultra thin design (White version included!)

   * Retina display

   * FaceTime

   * HD Video Recording

   * Gyro

   * iMessage: Free over WiFi

iPhone:

- Constantly rated #1. 93% of the Fortune 500 are testing or deploying the iPhone (!!!)

- iPhone is only 5% of the worldwide market of handsets

- iPhone 4S

   * Retina Display

   * A5: 2x faster processing, x7 faster graphics than previous iPhone

   * 8 Hours of Talk Time

   * Intelligent antennas for better call quality

   * HSDPA 14.4: Double the data download rate from previous iPhone

   * GSM and CDMA

   * 8MP, high-end IR filter, Wide f2.4, 73% more light than iPhone 4 sensor, 1/3rd faster

   * Face detection, 26% better Auto White Balance

   * 1080p HD Video Recording with Image Stabilization, Real Time Noise Reduction

   * Airplay Mirroring (watch movies, game on a larger screen)

   * Siri Intelligent Assistant!!!!!!!!

   * Black and White - 16GB @ $199, 32GB @ $299, 64GB @ $399

   *** iPhone 3GS 8GB: FREE, iPhone 4 8GB: $99

iPad:

- Customer satisfaction shows a 95% score.

- iPad pilot programs all around the US (teaching in classrooms, medical, pilots)

- 92% of Fortune 500 testing or deploying the iPad (in less than 10 months)

iOS:

- 500k apps in app store. 140k+ are made for the iPad.

- Market downloading 1B apps per month, paid developers more than $3B

- “Cards”: An app that allows to you create hard copies of digital photos (think iPhoto). Available $2.99 in the US, $4.99 elsewhere starting Oct. 12th.

- 200 new user features in new iOS:

   ”Push to all Device”: Pick up where you left off on another device.

   ”Reminders”: Location-based reminders with geo fencing.

   ”Twitter integration”: Tweet almost everything

   ”Newsstand”: You’ve read about this before…

   ”HDR Camera”: Awesome, not a bad addition. Edit photos on device.

   ”Reader”: Reformatting a webpage for the device. Think “Instapaper”.

   …. bored of iOS repetition from WWDC to be honest.

iCloud:

- FREE! Integrated to apps so everything happens automatically.

- Typical Cloud scenarios: store stuff, grab stuff on any device.

- “Latitude” for iPhone called “Find my Friends”, but with parental controls and other information sharing controls

“In order of importance, the key factors of overall satisfaction […] for smartphones, the key factors are: ease of operation (26%); operating system (24%); physical design (23%); features (19%); and battery function (8%).”

(Source)

[Sept. 1st, 2011 - During a business trip to Dallas…]

*Title is a little misleading, Bloomberg quoted a research firm*

DOJ’s position on the proposed $39B buyout of T-Mobile was the headline of the day, with different news outlets stating a varying potential loss of $6B to $7B (which includes $3B in cash) if the deal falls through.

Bloomberg, quoting recent figures from a research firm, reported the average cost per month for mobile subscribers in the US:

• AT&T - $91.94
• Verizon - $96.54
• T-Mobile - $78.13
• Sprint - $83.43

And AT&T’s potential market share if they successfully purchase T-Mobile (Current Market Share% -> Potential Market Share%):

• Dallas: 40% -> 54%
• Houston: 32% -> 50%
• Miami: 39% -> 53%
• San Francisco: 44% -> 52%
• St. Louis: 40% -> 50%

This data formed part of the argument against the buyout stating a potential loss of a lower cost option for subscribers, and significant market share increases (assumptions for these calculations were not shared).

With a much to gain, and much to lose - it was pretty clear from the start that AT&T will fight any opposition to the deal… what an unfortunate situation for T-Mobile. With so much uncertainty, how will current T-Mobile subscribers and business partners react?

(Source)

Great doodle! A play on Fermat’s Theorem and the comment he left in the whitespace about his proof!

That’s right - according to Engadget, the founder of one of Android’s most popular custom ROMs has joined Samsung Mobile.

CyanogenMod offers numerous feature enhancements, and hopefully we will be seeing some of Mr. Kondiks’ work on upcoming devices.

Saw someone holding his phone on the thin side, tapping his head deep in thought; reminded me of an earlier time when we held bricks to our ears.

Phones are getting ridiculously large again aren’t they? It only seemed like yesterday, we were LOL’ing at the way people in the 80’s looked with their bricks, and hailed the Motorola RAZR for saving our image.

Wonder if we will ever revert to a smaller device… perhaps when holographic displays are ready?