Expert Shield has just released a new screen protector for the HTC HD2, a smartphone which really does benefit from having such an accessory installed. In my tests the screen is highly prone to fingerprints and this is a good solution for under £6.

Trevor has sent in a link to iPhone Market Share: The Rest of the Story which attempts to look deep into the recent smartphone market share results and in my view offers some clarity while also managing to agree that the data can be looked at in many ways. Who knows what the real answer is?

“How did the most recent quarter of Apple (AAPL) iPhone sales compare to the competition? It depends. A statistician would say, “How do you want it to look?”

Philip Elmer-DeWitt recently wrote an article called “The iPhone grabs/loses market share”. In it, he discusses two other articles by different authors, using similar data, and coming up with opposite conclusions about the health of iPhone sales in the global smart phone market.

In one article, James Rogers for TheStreet.com reported that Q4 2009 iPhone sales comprised 16.4% of the global smart phone market, up from 10.8% in Q4 2008, a 52% increase while the smart phone market increased 28% over the same period.

In the other article, Niraj Sheth for the WSJ Blogs looked at sequential quarters and saw iPhone market share decrease from 18.1% to 16.6% from Q3 to Q4 2009, a 8.3% decrease while the global smart phone sales increased 30% over the same period.

Both of the above articles were based on opinions from professional analysts and are technically correct, but they provide a narrow view of the situation and individually or together, do not provide enough information to draw helpful conclusions. More analysis is needed to resolve the above discrepancy…”

What smartphone apps would you recommend for children? I suspect that many will be iPhone related, but The Smelly Sprout is one I highly recommend alongside Colorama. Thanks to Philippa for the question.

The accusation that everyone who owns an Apple product is a fanboy is common on all tech websites whether they are Apple related or not and it is unjustified on the whole. This comment from Graham does, however, shed some light onto why some people feel this way-

“When I tried to get some help on an iPhone forum they were particularly unhelpful. They would not countenance the fact that there could be a bug in the iPhone rom even though many others were experiencing the same problem. Some of them were quite rude. I was genuinely shocked by the attitude.”

I had a very similar experience when I was having some iPhone issues a year ago and for every helpful response I received 3 or 4 which were blinded by the fact that it could not possibly be an Apple problem. There are fanboys for every smartphone platform, but I have to say that the forums for the iPhone have ‘many’ more people not willing to accept criticism of Apple products no matter what the problem is. They take any form of question as criticism and feel so personally involved in the product that they are blinded to the truth. Don’t get me wrong- this is by far the minority of users, but there seems to be more people like this in the Apple world than elsewhere.

All of the above is one small reason why some people hate Apple and I have been guilty of not buying into the brand either and having an irrational dislike for the company. The question is why? I suspect it is a combination of many things; success, smugness, clever marketing, price and the fact that the company barely puts a foot wrong these days. I personally hate the product launches where the audience claps each new announcement- it doesn’t get any sadder than that. I have long had an issue with the pricing of Apple products, but am seeing this in a different light as well because most Apple laptops and desktops will have a longer life than their Windows counterparts and ultimately they can represent better value. Finally, there is just something about Apple that I don’t get, but I can’t put my finger on it.

Then again, the products are superb, the pricing is not as bad as I used to think and Apple delivers time and time again so what am I not liking about the company? Anyone care to enlighten me?

Lazyboy then came up with this on the site- “Shaun, I’ll be honest with you, I think the term “fanboy” is just a cheap shot taken by people when they have no convincing argument to make. I’ve never used it in reference to anyone else, and never will.

It’s based on prejudice, irrationality, fear, envy and spite; and justifying it by saying there’s a special class of people who deserve it is rationalization and self-deception in my book.”

Obviously he is right about people generalising, but there is still a group of people who refuse to see bad points about Apple and other groups who refuse to see bad points about Microsoft, Nokia, RIM etc. etc. I believe ‘fanboy’ is an adequate term and far less insulting than some descriptions, but it is also used far too much in too many situations.

We have two special deals for you all today. First up is Par 72 Golf II for BlackBerry which has been discounted to only $2.49 which is 50% off the normal price.

Next is AutoFile Plus for Windows Mobile which has also received a 50% discount to just $14.99.

Both deals are valid for today only.

Kevin Lynch from Adobe has claimed that Flash is ready for the iPhone and it is a timely blog post given the arguments that are spinning around concerning the long term prospects of the software. Some believe that Flash will die out because of HTML5 and other products and also because Apple does not exactly like the product. I am not so sure…

“So, what about Flash running on Apple devices? We have shown that Flash technology is starting to work on these devices today by enabling standalone applications for the iPhone to be built on Flash. In fact, some of these apps are already available in the Apple App Store such as FickleBlox and Chroma Circuit. This same solution will work on the iPad as well. We are ready to enable Flash in the browser on these devices if and when Apple chooses to allow that for its users, but to date we have not had the required cooperation from Apple to make this happen.”

EmailFirewall for BlackBerry is a much needed product, but there are some problems with the way it is presented. Firstly, this is it is described- “you can block the emai whith EmailFirewall. make it better to use! this is a software that can block the email.” Obviously this is not written by an English speaker, but this kind of thing puts people off straight away- it would cost a couple of dollars to get it translated properly and have the product look more appealing.

Second problem is the price- to use it you would have to pay over $50 a year. Phew!

It seems that the app store is spurring developers of other mobile platforms to make more interesting products and Guitar Suite for Windows Mobile is one example- “The essential application for any guitar player. Panoramic Guitar Suite contains five essential screens: Chords, Scales, Digital Tuner, Tune by Ear, and a Metronome, making it a great and comprehensive aid for guitarists. Practice, reference or teach by accessing Guitar Suite’s library of over 25,000 popular chords. Visual feedback from the extremely accurate Metronome with variable tempo and meter, helps maintain a consistent tempo while practicing.”

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is now officially listed on the Vodafone UK site as coming in April. It could be the best Android phone yet…

The incredible Sony Ericsson X10 is powered by Android™. So it’s easy to sync with your Google&trade account – and with Picasa&trade, Google’s popular photo sharing site.

It’s a looker too, with a huge four inch touchscreen that’ll blow you away. Switch fast to widescreen by turning the X10 on its side. Then enjoy movies and the web in stunning definition – as well as photos taken with its 8.1 megapixel camera.

Want great apps for your X10? Choose from hundreds at the online Android market. Get everything from the latest sports, news or weather updates to favourites like Last.fm and Facebook.

Powered by Android – a clever system that makes Sony Ericsson’s X10 an amazing experience

Three home screens
Slide your finger across the screen to move between three home screens that let you set things up just the way you like them.

Feels like a PC
Drag and drop apps like you do on a computer. And search Google by typing straight into a handy bar right there on your home screen.

Works brilliantly with Google
Got Google Mail&trade? Get it sent straight to your phone. Use Picasa to share photos? You can upload them without a computer.

Pinpoint places and people
Google Latitude&trade works with the X10’s built in GPS to show where friends are. And Google Maps&trade gives you directions to find them.

Nokia Beta Labs has released the Custom Dictionary which is good news because the facility should already be built in- “Nokia Custom Dictionary is designed to offer an easy way to manage the custom dictionary on your smartphone.

The custom dictionary is used for storing your personal words that are used frequently while typing. These words are then used in predictive text input.”

If the latest rumours from PPC Geeks about Windows Mobile 7 turn out to be true then it is a very sorry state of affairs for Microsoft. Check out the parts in red below- they scream of Apple, but 2 years too late. Where did the originality go? Microsoft won’t win the battle by copying others…

-The User Interface is based upon codename “METRO”. It will be very similar to the Zune HD User Interface with a complete revamp of the “Start” screen. The UI is “Very Clean”, “Soulful” and “Alive”
-Unfortunately there will be no Flash support at the get go as there was not enough time to implement these features.
-Windows Phone 7 will only support application installation through service based delivery. (i.e Marketplace). Application installation via storage card will not be possible.
- No Multi-Task support. Applications will “Pause” when in the background, however will support notifications via push notifications.
-Marketplace will now support “try before you buy” as well as an API
-No NETCF backwards compatibility. This means the original rumor of no backward compatibility for applications holds to be true. That being said, there are high hopes of porting the NetCF to the newer platform easily.
-Microsoft is confident that devices will be ready by September 2010
-Full Zune Integration
-Windows Mobile Device Center will no longer be used. Zune software to take over syncing via PC.
-OEM Interfaces will not be allowed to run on the device. Say goodbye to Sense UI / SPB Mobile Shell / Point UI / Infinity, etc, etc
-Full XBOX Gaming Integration (Gamer tag, achievements, friends, avatars, merchandising, etc)
-Full support for social networking

mobile review has posted a video demo of the Sony Ericsson Aspen and Murray has posted his thoughts at Palm-Mac and comments “Why launch a Windows Mobile phone with such a small, low res screen when the world and its dog are heading off to other platforms?”

Well, I sort of like the look of it- reminds me of an E71, but to see a touch screen front-keyboarded device is not exactly usual and it will appeal to some hardened mobile users. Sign me up to review this one.

The Missing Sync for BlackBerry is now compatible with OS 5.0 devices thanks to a new update- “An update to The Missing Sync for BlackBerry provides compatibility with phones running BlackBerry OS 5.0 or later – new BlackBerry phones such as the Bold 9700 and Storm2 9550, and phones updated to 5.0 such as the Curve 8900.

The Missing Sync for BlackBerry offers the most robust syncing of contacts, calendars, music, notes and much more – wirelessly and automatically. When a BlackBerry phone is near a Mac, sync happens – even when the phone is in a jacket pocket or bag.

This is a free update to current customers. To download and install this software update, customers should follow these instructions:

- Find the Missing Sync application on their phone and launch it
- Click the menu button and select About.
- Click on Check for Update
- Follow the instructions to install the updated device application.”

The iTablet name lives again and should see the light of day if X2 Computing has its way- Feb 05, 2010 – Coming hot on the heels of Apple’s latest product launch is the powerful new iTablet range of portable computers offering a real alternative to users wishing to continue to use their existing Microsoft Windows-based applications. With first shipments starting in April 2010 from X2 Computing, one of the UK’s fastest growing developers of mobile computing solutions, the iTablet will revolutionise the way that Windows users can access and use data on the move.

The iTablet range has a user interface that will be familiar to mobile phone owners but with 10.2” widescreen TFT or 12.1” widescreen XGA screens that feature touch and optional multi touch wrapped in stunning slim-line bezels. They have large, easy to use on-screen keyboards and powerful integrated graphics processors that deliver high quality visually stunning images at up 1024 x 768 resolution. This makes the iTablet an excellent e-reader that displays text and news the way it is meant to be read. The iTablet also provides high definition content playback to deliver a rich multimedia experience and the screen can be viewed in portrait or landscape format.

Intel micro processors up to 1.6GHz with 2GB of cache enable the use of Windows 7, Windows Tablet or open sourced Linux based operating systems. They provide high levels of processing performance enabling multiple applications to run simultaneously – something that cannot be achieved with some other operating systems. They also deliver a 20% reduction in power consumption over the previous generation of processors with an extended battery life, enough for the most dedicated user.

The iTablet range offers a superior memory storage capacity of up to 250GB giving users significantly more room to keep important pictures, films, music and applications with audio playback can be through the built-in stereo speakers or headset. With up to three in-built USB 2.0 ports, users have the flexibility to connect peripheral devices including additional external hard drives. The range includes versions with a built-in 1.3 mega-pixel USB camera and optional HDMI output is also available to enable high quality playback of HD video through larger TV screens.

ITablets are fully equipped with Bluetooth, optional 3G and GSM as well as built-in 802.11b/g networking enabling users to easily connect to wireless networks to download and edit their files or access the internet. Significantly, Flash animations can be played to maximise the web browsing experience and enable access to websites using a choice of browser software.

According to Robin Daunter, Technical Director of X2 Computing and formerly Head of R&D at Evesham Technology: “Prepare for the next revolution in mobile computing. The iTablet is extremely powerful with a vast array of features and data storage capacity and, what is more, it uses the well received Microsoft Windows 7 operating system making it a more compelling proposition for users wishing to share data with their existing Windows-based systems and networks. iTablets can be used in a wider range of business and home environments and will deliver a lower cost of ownership over the operational life of the equipment.”

“iTablet will empower users with unlimited technology and advanced multimedia access across multiple platforms without being restricted to exclusive content providers,” added Jonathan Wharrad, R&D Director of X2 Computing. “This new breed of Windows-based computer takes design, functionality and solution fit to new and higher levels.”

The iTablet range is compact and lightweight sized from just 252mm(h) x 192mm(w) x 35mm(d) and weighing from 1.18kg. A range of accessories are available including batteries, mains adaptors, stands and display options for use in sunlight conditions. It is available in a range of solid and metallic colours including white, grey, pink, blue, red, yellow and black.

The Nexus One has not gotten off to a great start with just 80,000 shipping so far. From The Wall Street Journal- “SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)–Google Inc. (GOOG) sold about 80,000 Nexus One mobile phones in its first month on the market, roughly one-eighth the number of units the original Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhone sold in its debut month, according to analytics group Flurry Inc.

The slow sales figures highlight the challenges Google faces as it attempts to establish a new model for pricing, marketing and distributing mobile phones. The Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant broke with conventional sales models when it launched its smartphone, saying it would sell the unit directly to consumers without a cell phone company contract.”