Android Outsells IPhone during first 6 months

Nielsens reports, “While the iPhone has been the headline grabber over the last few years in the smartphone market, Google’s Android OS has shown the most significant expansion in market share among current subscribers,”

With Android being available on so many different cell phones, like the new HTC EVO, the Motorola Droid, the Samsung Galaxy S and many more devices, it’s easy to see how it has established such a strong foothold in the smartphone market.

That being said, the report is quick to point out that Apple’s iPhone retains the most loyal users and is the most desired phone.

“Among current subscribers thinking of switching devices, the iPhone remains the most desired phone, finding loyalty with nearly 90% of current iPhone users and enticing healthy slices of Android users (21%) and Blackberry owners (29%) to consider the move to Apple. Android’s loyalty among switchers (71%) outperforms Blackberry (42%) where half of its users could potentially chose an iPhone or an Android phone for their next device.” Nielsens blog reports

At Link2Unlock.com we get requests to jailbreak Android and iPhone’s, but do to the closed nature of iPhones, their popularity and the fact they are only on AT&T, we see many requests for the iPhone to be unlocked. The Android OS is establishing itself as a major player in a relatively short time, and requests come in all the time for Android as well.

We’d love to hear your thoughts? Are you more loyal to Apple or Android? Are you an iPhone user who is considering going with Android? Let us know.

A unique look from the Paperless theme

Another cool one I’m really excited to try out is the Paperless System by ADW. Everything on the cell-phone screen is 100% hand drawn. From the icons, to the Google search field to the main nav buttons at the bottom. The background is a choice of wrinkled up pages. It is really pretty cool looking. I’ll be testing it out and letting you know how it looks and functions. They do seem to be limited in the number of icons and buttons they supply with the hand drawn look, but at first glance it’s pretty fresh and appealing.

What is your favorite Andoid Wallpapers? Either Live or Static? We’d love to hear some feedback.

U.S. Government Makes Jailbreaking the iPhone a Legal Exception to the DMCA

A federal ruling on Monday makes it legal to jailbreak an iPhone to install unapproved software so Apple loses some of it’s control over the iPhone. The Library of Congress ruled it legal to circumvent the iPhone controlling what apps will run on the device and which will not.  With the power to define  exceptions to copyright law, the Library of Congress’s ruling comes as a victory to iPhone users.

So, if you own an iPhone and want to unlock or jailbreak the device to install non-Apple certified applications, then great news- it’s now legal to do so, according to the US Government. On Monday, the US Copyright Office released classes of work that breached DRM (Digital Rights Management), but are still considered lawful under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Apple will still be able to release updated that render jailbroken phones inoperable, but nonetheless, it’s still a win for iPhone users.

“This is a really important victory for iPhone owners,” said Corynne McSherry, a senior staff lawyer with the Electronic Freedom Foundation, the digital-rights organization that fought for the change. “People who want to tinker with their phones and move outside of the Applesphere now have the ability to legally do that.”

If you need your phone unlocked for this or any other reason, contact Link2Unlock.com today. Read more about the legality of unlocking your iPhone, or any other phone. Don’t be trapped into a phone service you don’t want by jailbreaking your phone, it’s easy and it’s legal!

They both are very slim, with the iPhone 4 being just barely thinner. However, the Captivate does sport a 4″ screen, compared to the 3.5″ screen on the iPhone 4. Also, the Captivate is lighter, making it feel better in the pocket. The Retina display on the iPhone 4 does seem to outmatch the really nice AmoLED display on the Captivate. The speaker phone is better on the Captivate, but the iPhone has better HD video capture and a flash on the camera.

I’m trying to decide between the two, but in the meantime, checkout the comparison video below.

Apple Demonstrated Antenna Problems with Several Other Phones

Samsung and HTC were not happy about Steve Job’s attempt to blame the new iPhone’s antenna problems on a ‘problem throughout the entire industry‘ by showing demonstrations of other phones having similar problems. It did seem to be a low blow by trying to repair their own image by ripping the other smart phone manufacturers. Well, these manufacturers didn’t like it either. HTC came out and refuted the claims made by Apple last week.

On Monday HTC Chief Financial Officer Hui-Meng Cheng said, “The reception problems are certainly not common among smart phones, [Apple] apparently didn’t give operators enough time to test the phone.”

Samsung, the world’s second largest mobile phone maker said the company “hasn’t received significant customer feedbacks on any signal reduction issue for the Omnia II”. The Omnia II was featured in Steve’s lambast of several phones in an attempt to add context and perspective about an industry problem that isn’t unique to Apple.

Considering Apple’s repeated attempts at claiming their merchandise just works, it all sings a little hollow. It appears the other manufactures don’t care for the PR mudslinging, either.

So are Apple’s flaws exaggerated by faulty design, or is this a problem most phones have? The debate continues.

Just tell us you’re sorry for making a blatant mistake! No numbers, no excuses, no ‘industry struggles with the same thing’ crap.

Listen for yourself to part 2…

Huge FAIL!

He shows how the Blackberry 9700, HTC Droid Eris, Samsung Omnia 2 have similiar trouble when held a certain way. But Apple prides itself on how well it’s product work. From Macs to the iPhone. That’s the point of their closed mentality is that it improves the functionality of their products. So if their products are just as flawed as others, why should I give up the open nature of the alternatives for a closed phone with closed functionality, that is just as flawed.

Anyway, here is the first segment…

Spoiler Alert: She likes it!

What's up with the bulging backside?

She makes a great point, the Motorola Droid X is basically like the EVO 4G, but doesn’t have 4G. It does allow tethering for up to 10 devices, with an additional fee. I just wish it wasn’t so HUGE. Also, that bulge on the back, upper portion of the phone just looks lame (IMHO). It is a nice phone, though, and will probably sell bunch of phones.

She adds a little snippet about Zuck’s predicting Facebook getting to 1 Billion users in the next 3-5 years. I agree with Molly on two counts; first, that Facebook will indeed reach this number, if they don’t shoot themselves in the foot with continual privacy blunders. Second, that Facebook is the face of the internet…dum, dum, dum…and we better just get used to it. She’s probably right. In fact, Link2Unlock will be opening a Facebook store where anyone can purchase unlock codes, in the next few weeks. We see the writing on the wall, and want to be ready for it!

Take a gander…

Verizon's new phone will be a formidable nemesis to HTC's EVO

Motorola is launching their new Droid X. It sounds like it’ll be much like the HTC EVO, with 8 mp camera, HD video capture, a 4.3″ screen and act as a Wi-Fi hotspot. I love the HDMI output, but it doesn’t have a front facing camera, like the EVO. It’s slightly taller than the EVO, but just a little thinner.

My question is, why are they making these phones so huge?! I understand they want the bigger screen, I just can’t imagine holding one up to my face, for any extended period of time. I’ll admit, the EVO doesn’t feel as big once I held it, as it looked in the previews, but I don’t think I’d want to lug it around in my pocket or hold it up to my ear. Feels like I’ve got a iPad Nano like device on the side of my face.

Here is a preview:

Want more? Engadget adds an early review…

• In March, 2009 Google announced Google Voice, basically it:
• Provides users with a phone number
• When the new number is dialed, users can have it directed to any number they want, or multiple phones
• Users have the ability to control incoming phone calls- almost like gmail will do with multiple email accounts, allowing users to have calls routed to a certain number at certain times of the day

Cool Feature:

• Personalized voice mail messages for different inbound callers
• Voice mail is converted to text- a very popular feature allowing users to read their voice mail messages, although Google is getting better at transcribing the messages, many are still laughable, although suitable

I’ll be getting an new Google Voice account soon, and I’ll be posting my updates. Get a Google Voice number and try it out yourself, we’d love to hear your feedback.

Want more info about Google Voice, watch this nice little overview video: