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Otherwordly by Gregory Euclide. Via these sites.

Over the years we’ve made some significant improvements to our map style. This summer, we’re starting a new project to give you more map and simplify the overall look and feel. As part of a larger effort, Google is bringing you an experience that

There is no doubting the skill of designer Toby Ng. His designs have won him numerous accolades including the Red Dots Awards, International Design Awards, and the Hong Kong International Poster Triennial Awards among others. One of his projects, call…

For the second year in a row, more American soldiers—both enlisted men and women and veterans—committed suicide than were killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Excluding accidents and illness, 462 soldiers died in combat, while 468 committe…

You might have stumbled across a story or two on the web today about Florian Mueller from FOSSpatents finding 43 more files in the Android source that look to be copied from Sun.  I know I did, and had a heart wrenching editorial all ready to go, all …

In October, Amazon announced that it would begin allowing Kindle owners to lend books to friends and family, so long as they use a Kindle (or the Kindle app), too. The company promised the feature would arrive before the end of the year and, while Ama…

By Tim Conneally, Betanews
Now approaching its third year online, Adobe’s Web-based photo editing suite Photoshop Express underwent a significant redesign which launched Wednesday. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor, Organizer, and Uploader are included in…

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

At Google I/O this morning, the topic of discussion was mobile; specifically, the Android mobile platform. As of this morning, there are more than 60 consumer devices running on Android, more than 100,000 new activations per day, 50,000 apps in the Android marketplace, and 180,000 registered developers working on apps. Not too shabby.

As the platform continues its rapid growth, Google has announced a number of very significant improvements will be coming to the next version, numbered 2.2 but nicknamed “FroYo,” which address key issues Android has dealt with in the past.

1) Improved Speed — Just as it was rumored, the next version of Android will have a JIT compiler, responsible for a significant (2x-5x) speed boost.

2) Better Enterprise Support — The platform has lagged behind Windows Mobile and BlackBerry in terms of enterprise functionality, but FroYo will include over 20 new enterprise features. These include better Exchange support, with auto-discovery, improved security, and GAL lookup, and new device admin APIs.

3) Cloud-to-Device API — Google services, Chrome extensions, and soon-to-be released Chrome apps will be able to sync with your Android device. If you need directions from Google Maps, it can be sent directly.

4) Tethering — This was also a rumored feature for a few weeks. The feature will be in the “settings” menu, and clicking “portable wi-fi hotspot.”

5) New Browser — The Javascript interpreter in Chrome will be used in FroYo’s native browser, offering a 2x-3x Javascript performance boost. Google’s Vic Gundotra said it will be the fastest mobile browser available.

6) Install apps on SD memory — One of the main problems people had with Android was that you could not install apps on your removable memory card, you were limited to the device’s physical memory, which in some cases was quite limited. In FroYo, apps can be moved to, and launched from, the phone’s SD card.

7) Flash 10.1 and AIR support — This one is not a surprise, as Adobe and Google have both said this would be coming.

8) Web-based Android Market — Without a doubt one of the weakest aspects of consuming apps on the Android Platform was that you were limited to only seeing what was shown on your mobile device’s screen, which in most cases is not very appealing.

9) App auto-updating — When an app you downloaded gets updated, you would get a notification that there was an update available in the Market. You’d have to navigate to the market and click OK three or four times per update just to get it installed. In FroYo, there will be an “Update All” icon, and the ability to check “allow automatic updating” when you download a new app. Apps can be purchased on the Web-based store and synced down to your Android device.

10) Music Sync — Even though it’s got a decent media player, Android devices have never had the music power that iPhone has with its built-in iPod functionality. With FroYo, however, users will be able to sync their local music collection with their Android device and stream wirelessly.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

You could be among them, but don’t delay.

Months of hype built up your expectations — like one of those Internet romances. There’s what you imagined the iPad to be, and now there is the reality. Can you annul this sorry relationship? Yes, within 14 days of purchase and by coughing up a 10-percent restocking fee.

Don’t worry, you’re not alone. You gave into the peer pressure — “Hell! Everyone was buying iPad.” But there also is a support group of returnees. You can join them, and you can be free. You can reclaim your mind from the “reality distortion field” effects. Other returnees:

Jeff Jarvis fell out of love with iPad, nearly immediately. On Sunday he tweeted: “After having slept with her (Ms. iPad), I am having morning-after regrets. Sweet and cute but shallow and vapid.” So much for the Internet romance. Ms. iPad looked beautiful on the WebCam and even more so in person. But there’s beauty and there’s depth.

Jarvis tweeted late yesterday: “I just talked with two people who, like me, are planning to return their iPads.” Tweeted today: “Sitting in the 5th Av Apple Store before a breakfast meeting, reading tweets about me saying on @sternshow that I’m returning my iPad.” To which Story Worldwide CEO Kirk Cheyfitz replied: “Is it better to have loved an iPad and taken it back than never to have loved an iPad at all? (With apologies to Tennyson.)”

Old media-turned-new-media convert Jarvis has yet to say why he is returning the iPad. Surely the saga will continue playing out on Twitter.

Michelle Alexandria “hates her iPad and is Returning it!” Alexandria has a litany of gripes — from “ridiculous price gouging” e-books to “numerous syncing issues” to “gimped” WiFi-only connection (no 3G model yet). Yesterday, I asserted the necessity of multitasking on mobile devices. Alexandria agrees: “The lack of Multitasking was irritating as heck. While downloading stuff, in the above mentioned apps, the only thing I could do is sit there and stare at the freaking downloading bar.” She’s giving up for now, but not forever:

I'm fairly certain I'm returning this in the next week or so and going to take the $80 (10 percent of $800) Apple Tax for the privilege of being able to return something. We're launching a new iPad website so I have to have this thing, but I'm going to wait for the 3G model ??" yeah AT&T sucks, but what else can I do?

Nick O’Neill announced his qualms in an April 5 blog post:

Not only did I feel like Steve Jobs’ pawn when I walked into Apple to purchase the device, but I also spent at least 8 hours following my purchase trying to justify the expense. Ironically I find that the majority of tweets on Twitter are attempts to do the exact same thing: justify the purchase after the fact. Unfortunately though, while Steve Jobs may be able to dictate that a few million people should buy a device, I am not a true Apple cult member.

Today, having returned iPad, he gave some reasons. Apple marketing describes iPad as a “magically and revolutionary product.” But that wasn’t O`Neill’s experience: “It isn’t magical and it isn’t revolutionary.”

Jerome Nichols confessed his lover’s regret in a tweet reply to CNET’s Molly Wood — not three hours ago: “I literally just walked out of the Apple store after returning my iPad — not impressed, just a big iPod touch.” Wood had tweeted: “Why on earth can’t I edit a Google Doc on iPad? I can edit a spreadsheet, but not a Doc, in either mobile or desktop mode. Augh!” Nichols’ blog nor his Twitter feed explain why he returned his iPad.

Mike O`Connor returned his iPad “after 3 hours.” He did so with vague uncertainty: “I don’t really know why I returned my iPad after 3 hours. I guess it just didn’t deliver $600+ worth of smiles.” O`Connor rattled off some reasons, nevertheless, such as no Safari plugins, no Adobe Flash and the “whole iTunes/Marketplace sandbox,” which “weirded me out.” Cory Doctorow’s post “Why I won’t buy an iPad (and think you shouldn’t, either)” impacted O’Connor.

The simplest reason: “Mostly it just wasn’t fun. So I returned it and took the 10% ‘restocking fee’ haircut. 60 bux, for 3 hours, so 20 bux an hour.”

Marc Mercuri briefly tweeted late yesterday: “Returned my iPad tonight (wanted it for an Azure+iPad demo) because of wifi+constant rebooting. Genius bar was 5 strong with iPad issues.” Mercuri works for Microsoft, but don’t assume that as reason for the return. Wifi problems on a wifi-to-Internet only device is reason enough.

Nick Ellis bought his iPad on Saturday only to return it — along with a case. He explains why in a post from earlier today:

I took it home, started playing and something weird happened. I wasn’t blown away. It was cool and all, but I just couldn’t figure out how it fit into my life. It seemed to be an “if” device.

• If I didn’t already have an iPhone.
• If I didn’t have a laptop.
• If I had time to actually read books or watch movies.
• If I really needed it.

But I didn’t need it. If anything it was going to complicate my life. One more device to sync, keep charged and clear email from.

Ellis got a surprisingly good deal. The Apple Store charged no restocking fee (saving him $60) and he had renewed MobileMe for $30 off when purchasing the iPad.

Wrapping up, are you ready to part with your iPad? Do you want to return it, or perhaps you have already? Go ahead, confess in Comments. You’ll feel better for it.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010