It has been a dream for quite some time that Mobile phones become a true extension to our computer. That dream hasn’t been a reality. Even when you do have a smart phone that can get online, the interface was clunky and you couldn’t just add/remove apps as you wanted. The cell phone carrier dictates what you can and cannot do with your phone. And if you want to change it before your contract is expired, they’ll charge you a penalty for your troubles.

This is all going to be changing, though.

Continued

If you are the type of person who sends text messages a lot on your smartphone device using Windows Mobile, this is good news for you.

Windows Mobile 6.1 has been reported to (after a long wait) have native SMS threading. What this essentially means is that text messages can be sent/received in an instant-messenger style way, making it much easier to follow of text conversations. Before this point it was a bit difficult to keep track of what was going on without this threading, but now the native support exists and that’s genuinely a step in the right direction.

[Source: Mobile Computer]

If you’ve got an old 512MB (or less) USB flash drive (pen drive, thumb drive, whatever) hanging around, it’s time to ditch it.

Why?

Because 1GB flash drives are seven bucks. I kid you not. Put down some pennies and grab one. I’d get two.

Want some extra storage? How does 4GB sound? Good? Yep. How much? 22 bucks.

It’s almost (but not quite) getting to the point where you don’t have to buy burnable DVDs to back up your data any longer.

Chances are we’ll be seeing 4GB and higher USB flash drives drop below the five-dollar mark in less than 2 years.

Apple’s Steve Jobs says that Adobe’s Flash Player is not suited for the Iphone. Basically he says that that Flash performs too slowly on the Iphone because the Player was designed for more robust devices.

This is a real kick in the twins for Iphone users as well as for Adobe. Apple isn’t really talking to Adobe about it, either, as indicated by the Adobe spokesman responding like this:

"No one aside from [Apple Chief Executive] Steve Jobs has any idea if or when it’s coming," Ryan Stewart, Adobe’s chief spokesman for its Internet-based applications, wrote on his blog last month. "Everyone I talk to doesn’t know anything."

This all comes right when Microsoft landed a deal to put it’s new Silverlight platform onto Nokie phones. Silverlight is already picking up steam pretty quickly, and Apple’s swipe at Adobe leaves a huge opening for Microsoft to get it’s foot in the door.

Most of the web’s multimedia uses Flash. Is Apple actually going to expect publishers to start catering to a new format just for the Iphone?

Right now, the Iphone can only play web videos which have been specially ported by Youtube to an Iphone-compliant format.

A wild guess is that Adobe has balked at the idea of creating a special version of Flash just for the Iphone.

And if Apple is not going to support the world’s most popular multimedia format on their phone, where does that leave them? If not Flash, then what?

One of the features I’ve never used on my Garmin StreetPilot c580 is the Bluetooth connectivity. Well, I recently upgraded my phone to a Motorola RAZR V3m and it worked like a charm. See video below for details.

According to a story on AppleInsider, Apple exec Tim Cook recently said that the iPhone isn’t destined to remain a single-carrier phone, even if it does make business sense for Apple.

"We’re not married to any business model," Cook explained. "What we’re married to is shipping the best phones in the world."

This could be a response to troubles with Apple’s stock value amid rumors that Apple was going to miss it’s 10 million Iphone goal by more than 2 million units.

Cook explains that Apple is committed to meeting that 10 million iPhone goal even if it means changing strategy. Could this mean offering unlocked phones to multiple carriers?

According to Apple 2.0:

He also described the surprisingly large number of hacked iPhones turning up around the world as a good problem to have. When users are “stepping over each other” to get to a device, it’s a sign of pent-up worldwide demand.

Interesting.

Also interesting is the fact that this was a no-hype talk from somebody OTHER than Steve Jobs. Said one person on the MacObserver forums:

For the first time, listening yesterday to Tim Cook at the Goldman Technology Investment Symposium webcast made me feel confident that in him was a person who could ably step in if Jobs fell off the earth, or could progressively assume more of the duties of CEO if Jobs chose to downshift his involvement in Apple.

I am hoping that they soon divorce the iPhone from AT&T. Not so much switch to another carrier, but allow the consumer to choose. I think locking the iPhone to AT&T was a stupid move and I can speak honestly for myself in saying that is reason #1 why I am not buying an iPhone.