Category: Mobile

Tomorrow is a big day for the wireless industry, as one of the most influential innovators in the mobile world announces the latest edition of its mobile phone operating system. With every major iteration of the iPhone’s operating system, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has disrupted the mobile ecosystem (first with the iPhone itself, and later, for example, by adding the app store). So the obvious question is: will Apple be able to do it again with iPhone OS 4.0?

With mounting competition from Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Research In Motion and others, Apple cannot afford to release a mediocre update – it has to come up with something special to please investors, developers and fanboys. We will be at Apple’s headquarters tomorrow morning to find out if it passes the test. But in the meantime, here are five things we’d like to see at tomorrow’s announcement. Our list isn’t meant to predict the actual list—rather it’s the five services and capabilities that we think Apple should roll out to keep the iPhone momentum rolling. Please add your own suggestions, in the comments, for what iPhone OS 4.0 should look like.

1. Multi-tasking: This is an obvious one that many others have mentioned. Especially with the release of the iPad, Apple needs to add the ability to run multiple applications simultaneously. The devices become much more powerful when you can listen to Pandora while checking email, or receive a Skype call while also streaming TV.

2. Live Widgets: The iPhone’s home screen is embarrassingly stagnant. There’s no excuse for it to always be 73 degrees in Cupertino. The weather app should be able to track your location and update the temperature accordingly. Google Android currently has this capability, and Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 is taking it to even further with tiles that can sift through photo albums and and provide short-cuts to the people you care about most.

3. Distribution/price points: To keep developers and advertisers happy, Apple must increase its market share. During a recent three-month period, Apple’s growth remained flat, while Android’s share rose by 5.2 percent. How can Apple compete in the U.S. when the iPhone is only available on AT&T? (NYSE: T) Price points are also important. While an entry-level iPhone costs as low as $99, it will have to compete with Android phones that will be free by the end of the year.

4. Advertising: Apple is expected to roll out a new advertising service tomorrow that is the result of its purchase of Quattro Wireless. While it’s very speculative, the service could be instrumental in keeping application developers and carriers happy. As we reported, Google is sharing advertising revenues from search with operators that adopt Android. Microsoft, as well, could offer that. While carriers are still eager to adopt the iPhone, Apple may need to provide some financial incentive in the future to keep the relationship healthy and give carriers a reason to invest in their network infrastructure. At minimum, an advertising network would potentially help application developers monetize their applications.

5. Content and services: While there’s hundreds of thousands of iPhone applications—many of them free—the phone itself does not come pre-loaded with a lot of services. That leaves customers sifting aimlessly through a mind-numbing list. Other handset makers are seeing value in partnering with content companies as a way to differentiate themselves. Google started offering free turn-by-turn navigation; Nokia (NYSE: NOK) quickly followed suit. Likewise, T-Mobile USA recently integrated an e-reader and a Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) video subscription service into the HTC HD2 running Windows Mobile; Samsung has announced content partnerships with Paramount Pictures and others for future Android phones. Apple, of course, lets you buy video and songs from iTunes to play on your iPhone, but it needs to also offer subscription services and/or pre-loaded standalone applications based on this treasure chest of music and video.

It’s four days after launch, so how is the nascent iPad app environment shaping up? The numbers are in. There are now 2,385 iPad-only apps, according to the first iPad report from Dutch app tracker Distimo…

—Awash with rehashed games: Perhaps surprisingly, 35 percent of iPad apps (833) are games – way ahead of entertainment (260) and education (205) apps in second and third place.

—But iPad users aren’t so keen: While 56 percent of apps in iPhone’s Top Overall chart are games, only 32 percent of apps in iPad’s chart are games. It’s still by far the most popular app category amongst users, though.

—Paid is more popular: At least with publishers. Pay-for apps take up 83 percent of the iPad store shelf space, compared with 73 percent on iPad. Average price for an iPad-only app is $3.61 compared with $3.55 for iPhone.

—Not everything has a premium price: Education, entertainment, games, health, music, news, productivity, sports, travel and weather apps are all pricier on iPad than iPhone. But business, finance, medical, navigation, photography, reference and utility apps are all priced cheaper.

—Devices show differentiation: There are more business, education, lifestyle, news and productivity apps toward the top of iPad’s chart than on iPhone’s. News apps make up six percent – “significantly more” than on iPhone’s chart – but entertainment apps lag iPhone’s. Book apps are performing quite poorly – but probably only due to the existence of iPad’s own iBooks.

It’s less than a week old, so we don’t yet know how different the tablet app economy will end up looking. Indeed, most iPad developers had not even touched the device before this weekend, and were merely writing apps through an upgrade to their existing iPhone software developers’ kit. This may account for what are broadly similar patterns between iPad and iPhone. Will the next generation set a different course for tablet apps, or have the early crop set the course?

See the charts here.

In 1969, Chevrolet built 3675 copies of the Camaro convertible that paced that year’s Indianapolis 500. Sold with the RS/SS appearance and performance packages, the ’69 replicas were all decorated in white paint with Hugger Orange stripes and orange houndstooth interiors. Now, fast forward 41 years and Chevy is doing something very similar—but slightly different—with its new 2010 Camaro.

Limited to just 200 units, the 2010 Camaro Indianapolis 500 Pace Car Edition will be offered only as a coupe—likely since the convertible isn’t yet available—wearing Inferno Orange with White Pearl stripes, the reverse of the original paint scheme. Starting with a 2SS model and its 400-hp, 6.2-liter V-8 and adding the RS appearance package, all replicas will come equipped with the six-speed automatic; 20-inch wheels; a special grille, engine cover, and floor mats; and Indy 500–embroidered headrests and badges.

The Indy 500 Edition will be priced at $41,950, about a three-grand premium over a similarly equipped RS/SS car. Then again, there are only 200 being made and exclusivity (and speculation) has its price. We expect to see at least one at next year’s Barrett-Jackson auctions.

Related posts:

1. 2010 Chevrolet Camaro V6 and V8 Performance Test Results – Car News
2. 2010 Chevrolet Camaro Transformers Special Edition – Car News
3. 2010 Chevrolet Camaro Fuel Economy Figures and Option Packages Released – Car News

The current generation of check-in based location apps like Foursquare and Gowalla are more or less focused on the gaming aspects of location-based social networking. CauseWorld for the iPhone and Android, however, wants to use location based check-ins for two things: connect you to the stores around you and allow you to use the points you get for checking in to support a variety of charitable causes. CauseWorld features badges and other virtual rewards, but the main focus of the app is on collecting “karma points” that can then be exchanged for donations to participating charities.

Sponsor

Shopping and Charity

The mission of CauseWorld’s parent company Shopkick is to bring the physical and virtual worlds of retail together. Besides just checking in at various stores, CauseWorld’s users can also scan products in supermarkets to get extra points. Typically, it’s been hard for barcode scanners like RedLaser to get to this data for grocery items, but as Shopkick’s CEO Cyriac Roeding tols us yesterday, his company manged to strike a deal with Procter & Gamble and Kraft Foods, which gives Shopkick access to this data.

It’s easy to see why these companies would be interesting in making the deal with CauseWorld. After all, whenever you scan a product (even if your motivation is to help the world by gathering karma points), you are already holding this product in your hands and Kraft can now give you a mobile coupon for the product that you can use at the check-out counter. That, as Roeding put it, “is the holy grail for retailers” – being able to create a deeper relationship with the consumer right in the store while they are already looking at the product.

After just a little bit more than three month on the market, CauseWorld has already seen 400,000 downloads of its mobile app and plans to release a major update in the summer.

So far, the company has received around $700,000 in sponsorship money from Citi for its charity program and is giving away about $100,000 per month.

Features

The app itself is pretty straightforward. You can check in to stores around you and if this is a participating store, the app will also encourage you to check the store out and scan some products. To make sure that you are not just gaming the system, CauseWorld restricts you to 10 check-ins a day and enforces a three minute break between check-ins. Every check-in is worth 5 karma points (some sponsors also offer double points).

You can connect the app to Facebook, but the social networking aspects are really not the focus of the app.

One problem we noticed, however, is that the app allows to check in even if the store is still almost mile half a mile away from you. This seems to defeat the purpose of really connecting consumers to nearby stores and makes it rather easy to collect points while you are actually still sitting in your living room.

Discuss

Just a few days after the launch of the iPad, Apple plans to reveal more details about the next version of the iPhone operating system tomorrow. As with any Apple product, rumors about the new iPhone OS, which runs on the iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad, are already floating around the Internet, but the reality is that nobody outside of Apple really knows what the company plans to unveil tomorrow.

Here are a few features we would like to see in the new version of the iPhone OS.

Sponsor

Multitasking

The iPad, which is far more powerful than the iPhone, still runs what is basically a modified version of the current iPhone OS. Currently, Apple still doesn’t allow developers to access the OS’s multitasking features and prevents them from running their programs in the background. We expect to see some support for multitasking in the 4.0 release, but it isn’t clear what form this will take.

The latest rumors point towards an Expose-like interface for switching between apps.

Even if Apple just allowed some music apps to stream in the background or allowed some apps to regularly send location pings or wake their programs up remotely or at regular intervals, this would already be a huge step forward for what developers can do with the iPhone OS.

Better Notifications Management

Push notifications were supposed to be a stop-gap measure until Apple opened up the floodgates for background applications. However, for breaking news updates, email alerts and Twitter notifications, these push alerts will still be useful (if only to maximize battery life). Right now, however, the iPhone OS doesn’t manage these notifications well. There is no way to see all recent notifications in one place and no way to just turn off notifications for certain hours of the day (and night) without having to turn them off altogether.

New Home Screen

This new notifications system could be integrated into a new home screen that shows new email, notifications and text messages instead of just dropping users into a list of apps.

File Management

As Apple continues to push the idea that the iPhone OS family isn’t just for surfing the web and gaming, but also for using serious productivity tools, managing and transferring files becomes a must. That, of course, represents a serious challenge for Apple’s user interface designers, so we don’t expect to see this anytime soon – but we still hope that Apple will surprise us.

Reduced Need for iTunes

iTunes wasn’t designed as a file management tool and it’s starting to show. With the iPad, you now have to use iTunes – a music player – to manage your books and documents. Why can’t we just get this data right from our email inbox or just use a dropbox folder on the iPad and iPhone to drag data onto the device?

Easier Podcast Management

Sure, you can use third-party apps to manage your podcasts, but why Apple hasn’t included an easy to use podcast client is beyond us. We can see why Apple wouldn’t want people to transfer hundreds of megabytes over the cellular network, but why not just make this a WiFi-only service? Instead of having to sync with iTunes on a laptop while traveling, for example, wouldn’t it be nice if you could just use the hotel or airport WiFi to download all of your podcasts with one click?

Of course, we will bring you all the news about the new iPhone OS tomorrow. The announcement is scheduled to begin at 10am Pacific.

Discuss

Excitement is building for our upcoming Mobile Summit – May 7th at the Computer History Museum. Get ready to explore, think and create the future of Mobile! As in our last event, The Real-Time Web Summit, it will be you – the attendees – who ultimately set the agenda.

We will have two main tracks at this Summit, Development and Business. Here’s a sample of some of the topics we’ll explore in both of these tracks.

Sponsor

• Geo-location services – what can you do using location as a platform?
• Commerce & Marketing – as more and more consumers use smartphones, how can businesses utilize this channel?
• Content, Publishing & Recommendations – the technologies and best practices.
• Mobile Social Networking – how to tap into communities on mobile devices.
• Internet of Things – the emerging opportunities from sensor and RFID data.
• Augmented Reality – the technology and business applications of AR.
• Native App vs. Browser Based – Including iPhone, Android, RIM, Palm, Windows Mobile and Symbian.

We already have some amazing attendees including:

• Deb Schultz of Altimeter group
• Patrick Chanezon, Don Dodge & Bob Meese of Google
• Matt Galligan of Simplegeo
• Ted Morgan of Skyhook Wireless
• Scott Raney & Tom Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures

If you haven’t already registered, please register now!

Supporting the conversation are an amazing set of sponsors who are not only committed to releasing products that are shaping the future of mobile but also supporting that conversation. Below we’re announcing the first 3 sponsors of the summit. If you’d like information on joining these sponsors and supporting the upcoming mobile summit please email me.

Platinum Sponsor: CallFire

CallFire allows SMBs and developers to easily & cost-effectively build rich interactive phone systems. In minutes, users can create useful toll free hot-lines, send notification & emergency response phone calls, and even setup cloud call centers with agents located anywhere in the world. CallFire’s text-to-speech engine lets you create database-driven appointment reminders, toll-free information hotlines & outbound power-dialing campaigns for pennies a call. Call 877.897.FIRE to learn more, or check out a video: IVR, Cloud Call Center, Toll Free Numbers.

CallFire will be introducing our very own Richard MacManus for the keynote and has a surprise giveaway for all attendees of the morning keynote – so make sure you arrive early!

Travel Sponsor: World Mate

WorldMate, the world’s leading mobile travel assistant with over 5 million members worldwide, is the official travel sponsor of the upcoming 2010 ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit. Add WorldMate to your Blackberry or iPhone today and use its powerful features to deliver an unparalleled travel experience as you make your way to the Summit on May 7th in Mountain View. WorldMate can recommend flights, hotels and ground transportation to suit your individual needs – you can even book your travel through the mobile application. Visit www.worldmate.com for more information.

Lunch Sponsor: Alcatel-Lucent

Finally, Alcatel-Lucent will be sponsoring the lunch at the Mobile Summit. By the way, this isn’t a boxed lunch, we know that shaping the future of mobile takes energy and therefore you need good food – so we’re pleased to announce the lunch will be fresh grilled made to order tacos, burritos & quesadillas. Also, while ordering your lunch make sure to drop your business card in for a chance to win one of the six iPads Alcatel-Lucent’s team will be giving away!

Discuss

The XPERIA X2 debuted late last year and is a smartphone of the XPERIA series by Sony Ericsson. Features include a 3.2-inch touchscreen, a sliding arc keyboard, 8.1 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS and 3G, among others. It runs Windows Mobile 6.5 and the home screen can be customized to the normal Windows 6.5 home screen, XPERIA panels, or an isometric pixel art city. Some mobile phone news sites have suggested that the XPERIA X2 may be the last Sony Ericsson phone to use the Windows Mobile operating system, as Sony Ericsson concentrates its efforts on Google’s Android platform, and Symbian OS.

Surprisingly, Sony Ericsson has released a rather large update for the X2 which improves many aspects of the phone. According to Aaron at the Sony Ericsson Product blog, the update “brings performance and stability improvements throughout the device and introduces several new features as well.” We were quite impressed with this update, and hope that Sony Ericsson continues to offer large updates like this for other devices in the future. SE recommends using the Update Service application to facilitate the XPERIA X2 software upgrade.

Here is a list of some of the changes:

• MR1 is built on a new core platform release from Microsoft including a newer version of IE6
• Stability improvements are everywhere with focus on SlideView, Panel manager and TileWave
• Performance improvements focused on rotation and touch performance, the camera, web browsing, the software keyboard and audio streaming
• New features are added like FM radio, Video calling, Auto-lock and Fast GPS which allows for a faster first fix to the GPS signal
• SlideView 2.0 gives better usability throughout with a fresh design; and new actions are build in like new/reply/delete/edit capabilities in messaging and calendar. Music scrolling/searching and the mini-player have also been enhanced
• The new dialer took a big step forward with four easy buttons giving easy access to the dial-pad, favorites, call activity and contacts. We increased the target hit area in contacts for finger friendliness and added user friendly redial functionality
• Based on feedback from you, we really worked hard on the software keyboard (XT9) by improving speed and touch responsiveness

Wade Roush wrote:

I may not be the CEO of Xconomy (that title belongs to our founder Bob Buderi), but at least I’m the Mayor.

I won that distinction last week by checking into Foursquare from our office on Rogers Street in Cambridge, MA more times than anyone else. If you haven’t heard of Foursquare, you’re in a vanishing minority: the location-based social game is this year’s Twitter, in the estimation of Pete Cashmore, founder and CEO of the social media blog Mashable.

Foursquare players win points, badges, and mayorships by going to destinations such as coffee shops, bars, or museums, and opening the Foursquare app on their mobile phones to let Foursquare know where they are. So far the startup has versions for iPhones, Android phones, and BlackBerry devices. On the social side, players get to see where their Foursquare friends have checked in lately, who else has checked in at their current location, and what those visitors recommend seeing or doing.On the game side, many users make a point of visiting new places or visiting old haunts more often in order to unlock badges, win points, and beat their friends.

Xconomy Podcast: Foursquare and the Rise of Location-based Social Networking The Ad Club, April 5, 2010 Microsoft New England R&D Center

CLICK TO PLAY

Launched 13 months ago, Foursquare now has almost 1 million users, according to CEO and co-founder Dennis Crowley. Twitter didn’t reach that point until it was close to two years old. But as Crowley was the first to admit during a recent appearance in Cambridge, the New York-based startup’s fast growth is in large part thanks to Twitter itself: the microblogging service has trained many people to share quick status updates with their friends and followers whatever the time, and wherever they may be.

Foursquare is also a product of the spread of the iPhone and other smartphones with location-finding abilities, which spare users from having to specify their locations manually. That’s how Dodgeball, Crowley’s first company and Foursquare’s direct predecessor, used to work.Users manually reported their locations to a central server via text message, then received replies that said which friends were nearby. Mainly used in big cities like New York and San Francisco as a tool for meeting up with drinking buddies, Dodgeball was acquired in 2005 by Google. The search giant never really invested in growing the service, and shut it down in early 2009.

Foursquare is not just Dodgeball reincarnated. The badges and points and mayorships are all new, and to hear Crowley tell it, they’re a fundamental part of the service’s appeal, both to players and to potential business partners. And while Foursquare is far from the only social network built around the promise of rewards for local check-ins—competitors include Brightkite, Booyah, Gowalla, Loopt, and Whrrl—it’s fair to say it’s the current darling of the social media elite, not to mention Silicon Valley venture firms, who are competing to invest more cash for equity stakes in the the startup.

In fact, Crowley was on his way home from a series of Bay Area venture meetings last weekend when he stopped in Boston to take in the Red Sox season opener against the Yankees. On Monday, he checked in at the Microsoft New England Research & Development Center in Cambridge for a talk sponsored by the Ad Club, the trade association for Boston’s advertising and marketing industry. I was the moderator at that event, and I got to ask Crowley about Foursquare’s origins, its business model, and the allure of location-based social networking. You can hear the whole conversation, which I recorded on my iPad, by clicking on the audio player above. (You can also download the original 55-megabyte MP3 file to your computer by right-clicking here.)

In preparation for the Ad Club event, Crowley and I also spoke by phone on Sunday, and I thought I’d pull my notes from that conversation together into the following writeup. It’s a short alternative to the recorded interview, which is an hour long.

Xconomy: How is Foursquare different now than what you envisioned it might be 13 months ago?

Dennis Crowley: The big difference from last year to this year is that it’s evolved into a game. When we started it, it was just a reaction to Google shutting off Dodgeball, which was the way me and my friends hooked up and coordinated meetings. The thing we learned after Dodgeball was that …Next Page »

UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

While the west has piled on data-hungry smartphone sales in the last couple of years, carriers have been content to treat developing nations as second-class territories, suitable only for low-end voice handsets.

Now Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) is attempting to change that. It says it’s worked with Norwegian browser maker Opera to make a customised version of the Opera Mini mobile browser designed to run on these lesser handsets and their 2G networks in developing markets, initially targeting India, South Africa, Turkey, Tanzania and Egypt.

From the announcement: “Since the Opera Mini 5 browser can compress data by up to 90 percent, it requires less processing power on the handset and uses less network capacity, resulting in a richer internet experience in more challenging conditions.”

Voda says it’s embedding the browser on 20 devices in its line-up; the UI has “step-by-step, simple instructions” and “intuitive icons to help those with lower levels of literacy”. “The move aims to enable as many people as possible to experience the internet for the first time, and to enjoy the social advantages it can bring through the spread of email and commerce-based applications.”

That’s all very well, but isn’t the web going to rack up big charges on tariffs in developing markets? Vodafone says it’s also rolling out “a string of highly affordable data tariffs”.

Opera’s own data centres compress web pages, stripping out elements they deem unsuitable for the mobile experience.

Social gaming tycoon Zynga is testing out a way to bring its games to the mobile phone, but despite what you might think, it’s not by building a bunch of fancy smartphone applications.

One way it’s approaching mobile is by tapping into SMS—something nearly every phone in the U.S. is capable of doing. The company, which raised a jaw-dropping $180 million in its last round, surely has the resources to build an app for every platform. So far, it’s released a dozen or so for the iPhone, but this way it can capture most of their customers in one move. Right now, users of the popular Facebook game Mafia Wars can sign-up for the service, and use it to fight opponents, perform jobs, visit the hospital, and most importantly, top off their accounts while on the go.

The basic qualification is that the users must have a Facebook account in order to sign up. Otherwise it is free and works with any SMS-capable phone (which goes way beyond those smartphones that everyone keeps talking about). Once registered, users send a command to MAFIA (62342). Examples include “A” to “assist a mafia member on a job, or “FF” to fight your last opponent again, or “PE” to “purchase energy refills.”

For now, Zynga is currently testing Mafia Wars SMS with select users and will roll out the feature to more users over time. Users wanting to participate in the trial can sign-up at http://apps.facebook.com/inthemafia/, where there’s more information under the “help” button. If you want to make sure Mafia Wars won’t disturb an important business meeting or distract you while you are driving, Zynga makes it easy to manage the time and frequency of messages.

There were rumblings last month that South Korea was going to block Android Marketplace because some games hadn’t been reviewed by the Korean Game Rating Board. Oh, yeah, Korea? Well, Google’s gonna just go ahead and exclude all games preemptively. More »

I’ve used the free Netflix iPad software daily since Saturday’s iPad launch, and I can honestly say I’ve watched more content in the past three days than I did in the prior three weeks. My Netflix account ($8.99/month) gives me access to the more than 12,000 titles in its Instant Streaming library — and essentially turns my iPad into my own private movie house.

Set-up is simple and straightforward in the Netflix for iPad software. You simply install the app, open it and sign in with a Netflix account. In under a minute, I was able to log in and view the content library. With one tap of the play button, I was enjoying a movie 10 seconds later. Bear in mind — Netflix only allows six devices for playback authorization. If the iPad is a seventh device for you, you can de-authorize another device on the Netflix web site.

Playback is silky smooth over Wi-Fi as long as you have a fast Internet connection to your wireless router. My 20 Mbps FiOS pipe is probably overkill, so I also tested Netflix over 3G. No, I don’t have a 3G model of the iPad — those aren’t due out until later this month — but I do have a MiFi device with Verizon Wireless. It connects to Verizon’s EVDO mobile broadband network and shares the connection with my iPad over Wi-Fi, so it’s not a bad simulation. Video quality was still good, but not quite the same caliber. Just as it does with other devices, Netflix adapts the video quality to match your bandwidth throughput. The experience reminds me of the variable bitrate demonstrations I viewed after reading Liz’s GigaOM Pro report (sub req’d) on adaptive bitrate technology. A lower video bitrate shows occasional artifacts or other quality degradation, but I found it to be minimal.

Occasionally while on 3G the Netflix video simply stopped — but that’s likely more of a connectivity issue than anything else, so iPad 3G owners, take note. Each time this happened, I simply hit the Play button again. I had planned to warn iPad 3G owners about their bandwidth consumption since video streaming can gobble up bits and bytes quite quickly. However, subscribers to AT&T’s $29.99 3G service for iPad aren’t capped at 5 GB as I originally thought. GearLog confirmed with the carrier that the plan is unlimited, so no worries unless you opt for the $14.99/250 MB plan. I wouldn’t recommend the lesser plan if you expect to watch Netflix — enjoying one video leads to another, which leads to another, and so on until your 250 MB tank is empty.

Like other media, Netflix video content is viewable in either portrait or landscape on the iPad; simply rotate the device to change the view. Like most other video, you’ll see black bars above and below the content because the iPad display isn’t a 16:9 widescreen ratio. Just as with iTunes content, you can zoom the picture with one tap. Zooming removes the bars as content fills the display, but the left and right edges of the picture are cut off.

There aren’t many playback controls to get in the way of the viewing experience. A simple panel allows for a 30-second instant rewind, playing or pausing, skipping to the end of a movie and adjusting the volume. For fast video scrubbing or movement, simply drag a finger along the progress bar atop the screen. Easy and effective. One minor complaint: Tapping the right-most button brings up the Netflix library while video continues to play. I see no easy way to return to the video without re-selecting it in the library.

The simplicity and overall quality of the Netflix application combined with the iPad’s connectivity and display make for an outstanding team. Some are mulling the use cases for Apple’s latest creation, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s excellent for content consumption. Netflix streaming with the device only emphasizes that point. The experience is at least as good as that of streaming video on a notebook computer, perhaps more so because there are no distractions on the device. Holding the iPad while watching video can be a drag, though. That’s not reflective of the software, but you may want a dock or stand-up case for your device.

For those with a Netflix subscription, I’d say this just might be the “killer app” for you and your iPad. And if you don’t use Netflix now, the iPad app could change your mind.

Google is finally selling a car dock for the Nexus One in its web store. The dock will charge your phone’s battery, pull up the Car Home app, and keep your hands free for $55. [Nexus One Board] More »

Taiwanese Handset-maker HTC said it easily beat its own revenue expectations for the first quarter, and in particular, saw strong sales growth in March—the same month that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) slapped it with a patent infringement lawsuit.

HTC, which is best known for its Android and Windows-Mobile devices, attributes the sales spike in part to its advertising campaign that is designed to raise the awareness of the company’s brand. The company’s multi-million dollar advertising campaign hit late last year timed for the holiday shopping season, but has continued into the new year, which HTC has coined The HTC Brand Year. HTC’s revenues for the first three months of the year totaled NT37.8 billion (about $1.2 billion), easily beating its forecast of between NT32-34 billion. (about $1 billion).

The month of March was particularly strong when revenues rose sharply to NT$16.4 billion, an increase of about 60 percent from February and 32.4 percent compared to the same month last year. HTC said the better-than-expected figures prove that it has adopted successful branding strategies.

The company reports very few numbers, so it’s hard to get a complete picture of how the company is doing. However, Morgan Stanley recently raised its target price on HTC’s stock, which trades on the Taiwanese stock exchange, and Macquarie Securities reiterated its “outperform” rating for the company. BNP Paribas Securities raised its forecast for the sale of HTC phones in 2010 from 14.5 million to 15.8 million units.

The above photo reminds us of two things: 1. The Viper is still awesome. 2. The bewinged ACR makes the regular Viper coupe look downright tame.

The company has announced that it will build 50 of the Final Edition Viper SRT10s, oddly broken down as 20 coupes, 18 convertibles, and 12 ACRs. The Final Editions will follow the other special-edition 2010s (1:33, the Voodoo, and the ACR-X) out of the Conner Avenue plant, marking the end of second-gen Viper production.

The Final Edition cars all wear graphite paint with red-trimmed black center stripes. Standard coupes and convertibles get anthracite six-spoke wheels while the ACR coupes roll on black five-spokes. Inside is black leather trimmed with red stitching. There are bright stainless screws poking out of the center-console bezel, red-ringed gauges, Final Edition floor mats (woo!), and each car gets a numbered plaque. (Recent-history lesson: In 2002—when the original Viper RT/10, GTS coupe, and first-gen ACRs made way for the SRT10s—Dodge built a total of 360 Final Edition coupes and ACRs. Those cars were all red with white stripes.)

As for a follow-up, we had heard a while back that a third-gen Viper would use know-how and possibly some dirty parts borrowed from the more exotic garages at Italian overlord Fiat. Hopefully that’s seen as a good use of the company’s limited funds, since a Ferrari- or even Maserati-ized Viper would make for one heck of a halo vehicle.

No related posts.

Ferrari-like Lexus hits 60 in 3.7 seconds. In other words, the LFA is PDQ.

Watch the Video: World Exclusive! 2012 Lexus LFA Tested – Video

Related posts:

1. World Exclusive! 2012 Lexus LFA Tested – Short Take Road Test
2. 2012 Lexus LFA – Video
3. 2012 Lexus LFA Nürburgring Package – Car News

Hit play for an audio recording of a mystery car’s exhaust note, and then share your guesses or get a few hints from other visitors in the comments below. Be sure to check back on Thursday for the answer!

Related posts:

1. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 8: Audi S8
2. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 15: Ferrari F430
3. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 16: Porsche Cayman S

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will seek a $16.4 million civil fine from Toyota for failing to acknowledge “unintended acceleration” problems. NHTSA rules require automakers to notify the regulatory board within five days of discovering a problem. The agency claims that Toyota knew of sticking accelerator pedals by the end of last September—and warned Toyota dealers in Europe and Canada—but didn’t notify U.S. owners or NHTSA for another four months.

The fine will be the largest civil fine that NHTSA has ever levied against an automaker and is the maximum fine the regulatory board can impose. The maximum fine was chosen because Toyota “knowingly hid a dangerous defect for months from U.S. officials and did not take action to protect millions of drivers and their families,” according to transportation secretary Ray LaHood.

For its part, a Toyota statement acknowledged the NHTSA fine and reiterated that the automaker has already taken steps toward improving its safety record. While we don’t condone Toyota keeping information to itself, if that’s actually the case, we stand by our belief that this whole situation has been blown way out of proportion. This is likely NHTSA’s attempt at saving face, as it has also come under fire for its handling of the recalls.

For more, read our timeline of the Toyota fiasco or our full roundup of recall coverage.

Related posts:

1. Toyota Adds 1.1 Million Vehicles to Floor-Mat Recall, Now Includes Pontiac Vibe
2. Toyota and Lexus Recalling 3.8 Million Vehicles to Fix Pedals, Floor Mats
3. NHTSA Numbers Show Continued Decrease in Road Fatalities