Less than a week ago, Google introduced its own Android phone, the Nexus One . Over the weekend, we got a chance to take the phone through its paces and while we aren’t quite ready to give up our iPhone yet, the Nexus One is a formidable challenger. Apple will clearly have to step up its game with the next iPhone if it wants to hold off Android’s momentum. In terms of features, the Nexus One is already on par with the iPhone platform and beats it in many areas. When it comes to the overall user experience, the iPhone is still a step ahead of the Android platform, but that could easily change in the near future. Sponsor Hardware For the sake of this review, we won’t look at the Nexus One hardware in great detail. Suffice to say, the 1GHz Snapdragon processor makes the phone extremely fast and the 3.7 inch AMOLED screen simply looks gorgeous. While it isn’t much bigger than the iPhone’s screen, the difference in resolution (800×400) is quite noticeable. We didn’t get a chance to formally test the phone’s battery life, but unless we made extensive use of the GPS, it easily got through a day’s use without needing a recharge. The phone’s five megapixel camera works just as advertised – though the camera app isn’t the prettiest app on the phone. Picture quality was generally on par with pictures from the iPhone 3GS, though the built-in LED flash gives the phone an important additional feature that Apple doesn’t currently offer. In the long run, the big difference between the two platforms isn’t the hardware but the operating system. After all, the iPhone 3GS is also quite fast and we haven’t heard a lot of complaints about the iPhone’s screen. Android 2.1 isn’t a major step up from version 2.0, but it does introduce some notable new features, including the ability to use voice in every application that brings up the built-in virtual keyboard. Android 2.1 While the Nexus One isn’t an iPhone killer, it’s already on par with Apple’s phone in many regards. As Google and the developer community that has grown around Android continues to improve the OS, it is only a matter of time before Apple will have to react with an updated version of its iPhone OS. Here are some of the features that make the Nexus One and Android 2.1 a winner in our opinion. We should note there are some unresolved customer service and hardware issues that have made headlines over the last few days. We didn’t experience any of these problems ourselves, but your mileage may vary. Nexus One and Android 2.1 vs. the iPhone Google Navigation : When it was released for Android 2.0, we described Google’s own GPS application as the first “killer feature” for Android. Google hasn’t really updated this app in 2.1, but it remains one of the signature features for Android. This is also one of the many apps that showcases Android’s ability to multitask. On the iPhone, for example, you have to exit the GPS app while you check your email. On an Android phone, the app simply continues to run in the background and continues to give you voice prompts. Voice Recognition : We were quite skeptical about this feature at first. Every time Android 2.1 brings up the keyboard, you now have the option to dictate text into the phone. This works surprisingly well and makes writing a quick email or tweet very easy. Some apps, including Google Navigation, can also handle more complex voice commands. On the iPhone, the newly updated Dragon Natural Speaking app works similarly well, but suffers from the fact that it isn’t integrated into every application on the phone. Multitasking : Other smartphones like the Palm Pre also feature multitasking for third-party apps and handle switching between these apps better than Android. At the same time, though, one of the iPhone Achilles’ heels is its inability to run more than one non-Apple app at a time. No such problem with Android, though running a lot of apps in the background can put a lot of strain on the battery. Back Button : Besides the volume controls, the iPhone only features one button. The Nexus features quite a few more (back, menu, home, and search, plus a trackball). The back button is likely the most useful of these and works just like your browser’s back button. On the iPhone, whenever an app takes you to a browser, the app quits and opens up the browser, leaving you no easy way to get back to the app. On Android phones, you simply click the back button and you’re back to where you started. Google Voice : If you use Google Voice, you are surely aware of the controversy around getting the Google Voice app on the iPhone. On Android, it’s simply a built-in feature and works perfectly. You can even set up the phone to route international calls through Google Voice by default. Photo Gallery : Google worked with CoolIris to integrate the company’s signature 3D-view of your photos into the Android photo gallery app. This is easily the prettiest and most useful default gallery app we have seen on any phone to date. Google Integration : If you are heavily invested in the Google universe, then setting up Android is as easy as it gets. When you first start up the Nexus One (or any other Android phone for that matter), the phone will ask you for your Google Account credentials. Once you enter these, the phone will set up all the Google apps on the phone for you. The phone sets up your email accounts and downloads contacts from Google Contacts. The gallery app connects to Picasa and the calendar connects to Google Calendar. Areas for Improvement But there are also some areas where the iPhone is still a clear winner: Music : For now, Android’s music app doesn’t come close to the iPhone’s native iPod app. While it’s not woefully bad, it also doesn’t come close to the design and functionality of the iPhone. User Interface : While Android 2.1 looks pretty nice and offers some cool new eye candy like animated wallpapers, Apple is still one step ahead of Google when it comes to the fit and finish of the built-in apps. Also, while we love the back button on the Nexus One, using the menu button isn’t very intuitive and quite a few people we showed the phone to struggled to understand its functions. App Store : No doubt, Apple’s App Store features far more applications than the Android Market. Especially when it comes to games, Apple beats Google hands down. OS Updates for Everybody : You can reasonably assume that the iPhone you buy today will be supported with OS updates for the two years of your contract. With Android, you can’t be so sure about that. It’s still a moving target and quite a few early adopters are still stuck with Android 1.5 because their vendors never updated the phone or because their phones don’t feature the necessary hardware to run later versions of the OS. As we pointed out last week, the Nexus One and Android 2.1 aren’t quite ready for the enterprise yet, and Google has to work on the security features of the phone and software before it can become a major player in this market. Google, however, is aware of this and is already working on an enterprise version of the phone. Verdict Overall, we were very impressed with the phone’s hardware and software. Android 2.1 could still benefit from some design work, but in terms of features and functionality, Android can now easily compete with the iPhone. Disclaimer : Google provided us with a loaner unit and a working SIM card free of charge. Discuss

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Nexus One and Android 2.1: Apple Better Watch Out

As we reported last week , Firefox’s latest version of 3.6, release candidate 1, has been released to the general public . This time around, however, Mozilla has issued a more general release, as the new version will not only be available for download but also part of an automatic update for those already running Firefox. The release is one more sign that we’re getting closer by the day to a full-on sparkly new version of Firefox. For those of you worried about updating, Mozilla has assured us that “over 75% of the thousands of Firefox Add-ons have now been upgraded by their authors to be compatible with Firefox 3.6,” so go ahead and take that leap. But what will you find on the other side? Sponsor Firefox 3.6 RC1 Features In addition with offering this release as an automatic update, Mozilla has offered a synopsis of what it sees as the most important new features to be found in what the company hopes to be a near final version. Users can change the browser’s appearance with a single click using Personas . Firefox 3.6 alerts users about out of date plugins to keep them safe. Changes to how third-party software integrates with Firefox to increase stability. Improved automatic form fill provides better options from your form history. Open, native video can now be displayed full screen , and supports poster frames . Support for the WOFF font format. Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time. The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times. Support for the HTML5 File API Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies. While wallpapering Firefox with the latest blockbuster movie may be an attractive addition, we are looking forward to a faster and more stable Firefox. Loading scripts asynchronously should speed up some page load-times dramatically by letting faster scripts run while slower ones continue to do their work in the background – something our computers have been doing for a long time now. And the changes to third-party software integration should offer a huge boost to the browser’s stability by keeping the core components of the browser safe from being modified. For the web developers out there, increased support for CSS, DOM and HTML5 is always a welcome addition, and the addition of the WOFF font format may further help page load-times and give web designers a greater range of choice. Discuss

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New Firefox Release…One Last Time?

One month ago Google unveiled five big new technologies in one day – and then launched real-time search that afternoon. One of those five was something called Near Me Now, and it just went live moments ago . The feature lets Google grab your geographic location and display restaurants, coffee shops, bars, ATM machines and more in your immediate vicinity. It’s available today for both iPhone and Android users. It’s enough to make a person bookmark Google.com, instead of just Googling through the browser search bar. Sponsor This feature is much more useful than Google Latitude and it’s more lightweight than launching Google Maps. It probably doesn’t bode well for established local mobile search apps like Yelp or for innovative new ones like NextStop . Those are a lot of fun, but Google’s Near Me Now is good enough, it’s fast enough and gosh darn it, I think people are going to like it. Next: See four more awesome new technologies Google unveiled along with Near Me Now. Discuss

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Google’s Near Me Now is Live & Good Enough to Replace Yelp

One month ago Google unveiled five big new technologies in one day – and then launched real-time search that afternoon. One of those five was something called Near Me Now, and it just went live moments ago . The feature lets Google grab your geographic location and display restaurants, coffee shops, bars, ATM machines and more in your immediate vicinity. It’s available today for both iPhone and Android users. It’s enough to make a person bookmark Google.com, instead of just Googling through the browser search bar. Sponsor This feature is much more useful than Google Latitude and it’s more lightweight than launching Google Maps. It probably doesn’t bode well for established local mobile search apps like Yelp or for innovative new ones like NextStop . Those are a lot of fun, but Google’s Near Me Now is good enough, it’s fast enough and gosh darn it, I think people are going to like it. Next: See four more awesome new technologies Google unveiled along with Near Me Now. Discuss

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Google’s Near Me Now is Live & Good Enough to Replace Yelp

FluidApp is what’s called a Single Site Browser and is a great way to pull key websites you use throughout the day out of your primary browser and onto your Mac dashboard as standalone applications. It’s super easy for anyone to use. The service has a thriving community of users – I have 10 Fluid browsers running on my computer right now and wouldn’t want to work without them. In fact, I’m writing this blog post from Movable Type inside a Fluid Browser. In a quiet mid-December move, FluidApp developer Todd Ditchendorf put “most of the code behind Fluid” up on Github under an open source license. That’s very good news – new developments are already coming fast and furious. If you haven’t checked out Fluid before, now is a great time. Sponsor There’s something magical about the way single site browsers let you use different web apps. They don’t get lost in tabs. They don’t fall prey to browser crashes. You can put a handsome icon in your doc to jump over to them. Windows users looking for a similar experience should check out Bubbles or Mozilla’s Prism . Now that Fluid for the Mac is open source though, it will be very exciting to see what features are added next. Creator Ditchendorf says he has some more exciting plans under his hat but nothing to show off yet. Watch this space. What’s your favorite Fluid App? One of my favorites is LazyFeed . Next: 15 Fluid Apps You Can Build For Your Business . Discuss

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I Run 13 Browsers At Once; 11 of Them Just Went Open Source

During my visit to MIT earlier this year I met up with Henry Holtzman , Chief Knowledge Officer of the MIT Media Lab. We discussed the Internet of Things, which Holtzman has been actively involved in since the 90s. Holtzman said that consumer apps for Web-connected objects are becoming more common; he refers to this as an emerging “ecology of devices.” There are many real world objects being connected to the Internet nowadays, he said, and they are beginning to act in concert. Read on to find out which Internet of Things products have most impressed Henry Holtzman lately, plus we explore some of his own projects. Sponsor Editor’s note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we’ll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year – and ahead to what next year holds – we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It’s not just a best-of list, it’s also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb! I started off by remarking that the Internet of Things is ramping up in 2009. Holtzman replied that it’s been many years in the making – for example he did a project back in 1997 involving putting RFID tags onto Pokemon figures. Indeed Holtzman created a commercial company in 1998 to output Internet of Things products. Consumer Electronics 2.0 A Wired article from February 2000 outlines how Holtzman founded Presto Technologies in 1998, with fellow MIT Lab professors Andrew Lippman (see our recent post featuring Lippman ) and Michael Hawley. The Presto network embedded RFID tags in objects. It was an early version of Internet of Things. The vision for Presto was to make it an e-commerce tool – “products become roving portals for the companies that make them,” according to the 2000 Wired article. While it was too early for that vision to transpire fully, Presto is still operating. One of its current products, PrestoPass, allows consumers to make purchases “by simply waving a card, key tag, or even a wristwatch.” Nowadays Holtzman refers to this trend as “consumer electronics 2.0.” He cites an MIT spin-off company, Ambient Devices , as one to watch in this area. One of their products is the Ambient Clock , which can hook up to your Google Calendar. Henry Holtzman’s Favorite 2009 Products As we’ve been reporting here on ReadWriteWeb this year, there are plenty of Internet of Things products making their presence felt in 2009. I asked Holtzman which products from the current era have particularly impressed him? He replied that he really likes Violet , the company behind the Nabaztag (a cute robot rabbit that can deliver anything from ambient information, through lights and sounds, to verbal information). We reviewed Violet back in May. Touchatag (formally known as Tikitag) is another company to have impressed Holtzman. As we wrote in February , Touchatag allows you to program your own RFID tags so that they can do anything you want. Holtzman said that he’s been very impressed by the decisions the company has made, for example using adhesives. He also likes their ‘web 2.0 savvy’ – they host everything, but let the users create the content. Internet of Things Concepts & Issues I asked Henry Holtzman what other concepts are interesting him currently, as well as what issues are still to be overcome in the emerging Internet of Things. He talked about using sensors as an “additional sense,” by putting a tag reader on people. Not dissimilar to another Media Lab project we wrote about recently, a wearable internet system which aims to become a “sixth sense.” Holtzman said that possible uses for sensors on people include: finding objects (for example your keys), raising an alert (e.g. a safety warning), a memory assist device, being a bridge between what you do in the real world and what gets recorded on your social network (e.g. Facebook updating when you’re in certain locations; which we mentioned here ). As for issues: while currently light and temperature sensors are popular, Holtzman thinks that we need to do better job with location. But this is where RFID comes in. One big issue that Holtzman is concerned about is identity. He told me that mobile phones that interact with objects using NFC ( Near Field Communication ) will need to work out how to federate around the same ID for a user. This is perhaps similar to the identity issues that the browser-based Web has. Privacy and security are two other important issues that Holtzman has been focusing on of late. It was great to speak with Henry Holtzman – someone with extensive experience, both theoretical and practical, in the Internet of Things. Let us know your own thoughts in the comments. Discuss

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Consumer Electronics 2.0: MIT’s Henry Holtzman on The Internet of Things

As part of the European Union’s antitrust agreement with Microsoft , the company will be required next year to show a list of alternatives to Internet Explorer to any Windows user with IE installed as their default browser. Love or hate the government intervention, it’s notable to see which browsers are about to get a big boost in user numbers. The EU says increased viability in the browser market will lead to more competition and more innovation. Here are the companies that will get a first crack at new levels of market viability in Europe. Sponsor On the Front Page – The Best Known 5 The first page of the Choice Screen, which users will be presented with when they first turn on their computers or when they click a link for it later, will feature whichever five browsers have the largest market share over the previous 6 months. Microsoft will begin showing the page to users in March, 2010. Right now the top 5 will include, in the order listed on an EU page about the program: Apple Safari – that’s right, even for Windows! Google Chrome – so soon. If Chrome can grow so fast, it makes you wonder if government intervention is really needed. Of course, Chrome has been promoted prominently on Google pages. That could become part of the next antitrust issue. Microsoft Internet Explorer – gets better all the time, even with dominant market share. Couldn’t the EU just require people to stop using IE 6? Mozilla Firefox – the classic that’s most effectively challenged IE. In fact, it’s done so pretty effectively. Too bad Chrome now runs circles around its performance. Opera – loved by mobile users, loved by Europeans. Below the Fold – The Smaller Challengers Users will be able to scroll the Choice Screen horizontally and see the next 7 most popular browsers at the time. Here’s who the EU lists as those browsers today. AOL – chuckle if you will, but AOL is doing a lot of innovative work with social networks and lifestreaming these days. Maxthon – is a popular browser in China and has its sights set on topping Opera in Europe. K-Meleon – says its a super-fast Windows browser built on Gecko, the same layout engine Firefox uses. Flock – is a Mozilla-powered browser that integrates a whole lot of social features. It’s got such a great feature set that we recently asked Why don’t you love Flock? Avant Browser – says that it, in fact, is the browser that’s the fastest. It includes an inline RSS reader and a number of other interesting features. Sleipnir – is a highly-customizable browser that says it’s big in Japan. Slim Browser – a Windows browser focused on automating processes. That’s the field, so far! Do you think this move will foster increased innovation? Do you think it’s needed? Discuss

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Meet the 12 Lucky Browsers European IE Users Will Be Shown Next Year