It's Crunch Time For Apple and the Future of iPhone

The untimely and tragic passing of Steve Jobs has left just about every pundit in the industry and indeed just about every reporter and commentator in the media wondering about how the future of iPhone and Apple will be affected.  While I agree that there is definitely a large looming question created by Steve's passing, some other indicators have me wondering: are we witnessing the beginning of a major shift in the smartphone market from hardware to software?

The Verizon iPhone - Game Changer

There's a lot of talk about what the iPhone on Verizon means for the overall industry and for Verizon in general.  Most notably, most pundits are discussing how this will impact Android device sales, and what this will mean for the Verizon owned brand of Android - DROID.

What I want to zero in on today right before the announcement is something slightly different: the AT&T factor.

It's well known that the cellphone companies are in a limited growth market.  There are only so many people in the US that are eligible for phones, and once they have one, they aren't generally buying another for some time.  That's why it's cutthroat between carriers for customer acquisition.  That's also why the carriers try so hard to add features, markets, services, etc.  They need to justify company and stock growth.

Flash Enabled iPad / iPhone Browsing With Splashtop FTW!

There are several "workarounds" for full-featured web browsing on the iPad.  By full-featured I'm referring mostly to Adobe Flash support, especially for Flash Video.  While it's true that many sites now support direct mobile video (via HTML5) there are still many that don't and there are some that charge specifically for the iPad and make their videos unavailable without paying (Hulu, NBC.)

Some of the past methods have been Cloud Browse, which essentially is an app that remotes into a Linux box running Firefox.  It is subscription based, and not worth the money especially because video performance leaves much to be desired.  Skyfire for iPad takes a different approach and instead transcodes Flash video so that it can play on the iPad.  The problem with Skyfire among others for example is lack of compatibility with many sites.

Enter Splashtop.

This $1.99 app from the App Store allows you to remote into your desktop, but unlike other RDP, VNC, etc. apps, this one flawlessly streams even the audio and video content from your desktop seemingly effortlessly.  So, wherever I am, I VPN into my office network and load up Splashtop.  The resolution on my desktop is automatically changed to 1024x768 (by choice, this is a Splashtop option) and I am able to browse using Google Chrome, my preferred browser.  Even better, using the Splashtop Beta features (made available by naming your computer "Splashtop Beta [Name]") makes available a menu that appears when touching the screen with 3 fingers.  That menu allows you to switch between "Sharp" video mode and "Smooth" video mode.  I've found using Smooth mode allows Hulu to play full-screen with no noticeable lag.

In my opinion, right now Splashtop offers *the best* browsing experience on the iPad, at almost no cost.

Check out my video review for the full experience, and go and buy Splashtop for your iPad.

New App Released - What to Expect Forums

Check out the What to Expect Pregnancy Blackberry app released by Everyday Health, developed by BlueSwitch. It allows all you moms to share advice and experiences on pregnancy through message boards and groups.

http://bit.ly/fqeviF

The sister app is also a pregnancy tracker and available in the Android marketplace...also developed by BlueSwitch: http://bit.ly/gTO0TZ