Things Smackie Thinks You Need to Know...

[walkonby]

i just watched the new lady gaga video for born this way.  it was good.  i like that zombie boy was in it.

[bearman🐻]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRSNy5Gjgzk

[miss pretentious]

happy birthday sir smack. 

[vansmack]

Awww, you remembered.  Thank you both.

And well played, bearman, well played.

[sweetcell]

for some, today will be remembered as smackie's b-day.  but for those not in the know, it will go down as the day the iPad2 was revealed, or more ominously:

Is Google's Android Market dangerous?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/03/02/google.android.hack/index.html

[Justin Tonation]

In The Race For More Spectrum, AT&T Is Acquiring T-Mobile For $39 Billion

[vansmack]

In The Race For More Spectrum, AT&T Is Acquiring T-Mobile For $39 Billion

I really thought Sprint was going to do this in an effort to ditch CDMA and be a world player.  This is a huge move by at&t and gives them full reign of the gsm spectrum in America.  Maybe their network won't suck in the future....

[vansmack]

are there any good android tablets out there yet

There.  Now it's on....

Samsung 8.9 inch and 10.1 inch tablets available June 8, cheaper, thinner, and more powerful than the iPad 2.

Specs

Pricing

[godsshoeshine]

that's about the same price. and 3 more months away

[vansmack]

that's about the same price. and 3 more months away

Wow - tough crowd. 

Considering it has a micro SD card slot allowing you to double/triple the storage at the market price of flash memory, I'd argue it's not "about the same price."  Sure, base model, albeit with a slightly larger 10.1 inch screen, is the same, but given it's ability to expand storage space at your whim, I think a Samsung tablet with a combination internal/external memory setup would be significantly less than a 64GB iPad2. 

And yes, it doesn't come out until June.  Have you tried to walk into a store and pick up a 16GB iPad2 lately?  6 week wait at a minimum is what I'm hearing...

I expect by the holiday season the Android tablets by Motorola, Toshiba, Acer, Asus and Samusng among others will be in a very nice price war.  I don't think I will holdout that long however...

[godsshoeshine]

the micro slot is a selling point, sure. but that wasnt one of the advantages in your original post

[kosmo vinyl]

Gotta give props to Amazon for opening their  app store which  of course wont work  with AT&T and then give give away angry birds.  They basically  flipped the bird at at&t and apple

[vansmack]

Gotta give props to Amazon for opening their  app store which  of course wont work  with AT&T and then give give away angry birds.  They basically  flipped the bird at at&t and apple

There was no reason for Amazon to wait around for at&t to open up their Android phones to sideloading - the process Amazon uses to install apps from their app store.  I don't know the exact percentage, but I'm guessing at&t is still the last of the big 4 in terms of total Android phone's sold.  (1) Verizon (2) Sprint (3) T-Mobile (4) at&t would be my guess, though with the Nexus series I may have grossly underestimated t-mo's market penetration.

As for the amazon app store - I'm not sold on the concept yet.  I think it confuses the marketplace a bit.  But time will tell....

Sidenote: for those at&t customers that want the new Angry Birds, I would check the Android market place for "Sideload Wonder Machine"....

[vansmack]

I don't know the exact percentage, but I'm guessing at&t is still the last of the big 4 in terms of total Android phone's sold.  (1) Verizon (2) Sprint (3) T-Mobile (4) at&t would be my guess,

I love it when somebody else does my research and in such a timely fashion:

Verizon, Sprint Rule Android Market Share Among US Carriers. AT&T? Downright Embarassing

"Verizon accounts for a whopping 51.4% of the market. Sprint comes in at second with 25.3%, while T-Mobile pulls up third with 16.8%. Meanwhile, AT&T checks in with a measly 3.6%"

[godsshoeshine]

sounds like the merger is a good move for at&t then?