To make your life a bit easier as THE BIG DAY grows near, here is a list of interesting rumors we’ve seen around the Interwebz related to this event:

• Mythical tablet not so mythical after all ?
• AT&T and Verizon in bed with Apple over mythical tablet ?
• iPhone no longer exclusive to AT&T ?
• iPhone for every cell carrier !
• Mythical tablet to have front facing camera ?
• McGraw-Hill and Apple talking about text book deal ?
• Apple talking to other publisher ?
• iPhone OS 4.0 with multi-tasking ?

So far every Apple-related site seems to be convinced of one thing: Uncle Steve is going to announce a tablet-like device on the 27th. Another groups believes that there will be an iLife 2010 announcement as well as information about the new iPhone (or at least the new OS). Could they be right? Is Apple finally releasing it’s larger form-factor touch-screen device? Or maybe they will surprise us all and release a netbook (doubtful). What ever it may be, we shall find out in just a few hours.

Hmm… Sounds like someone got confused somewhere.

Aside from the European release and the US release being 3 months apart it seems that the only difference between the phones is the branding.

Naming aside, this phone may shine a new light on smartphones for me, since most of the time I am unimpressed with one aspect or another. The phone is rumored to have a plethora of pleasing specs and looks that make me giggle, bringing together a very, very holy alliance between the: Snapdragon QDS 1GHz CPU, Android 2.0, AMOLED 3.7 inch capacitive touchscreen, 5MP camera capable of shooting 720p video, and a variety of other nifty features including Wifi, FM radio tuner, digital compass and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

It’s too bad I have another year left on my contract, or else getting the Passion/Bravo would be my new years resolution. Maybe they’ll have something nicer by then. Who knows? Maybe 2010 will also have an iPhone for Verizon?

IntelliScanner

I have the hardest time going shopping. Now that I actually plan my meals, I don’t just walk around the store and buy what looks good, instead I buy for a recipe. My problem is I can never remember what I already have or what cabinet I put it in, or what I need to replenish. An IntelliScanner lets you scan all your groceries and use the computer to organize and plan out your next shopping list.

Wireless Talking Cooking Thermometer

There is so much food at Thanksgiving Dinner: the sweet potato and marshmallows, the variety of veggies, the stuffing, the gravy, and of course the turkey (plus lasagna if you have a family like mine). Its tough to keep track of everything, but this talking thermometer will assist you in keeping track of your bird’s meat, wirelessly.

Automatic Wine Bottle Opener

Those wine bottles have it out to get us. Seriously, those corks are always breaking and getting stuck. They’ve got so many different kinds of bottle openers, but none of them really quite do the trick like a gadget would. This fine piece of gadget will pluck that cork from the bottle with grace and elegance, and it might just make your Thanksgiving dinner go a bit smoother.

One-Touch Can Opener

I can never get those darn automatic can openers to work the can always keeps falling off or it doesn’t cut all the way around. Then there is those manual can openers but who uses those anyway, you actually have to turn them by hand! But lay this gadget down on top of any can hit the button and it will spin around in a jiffy, leaving you a cleanly opened can.

CulinaryPrep

There are only three things that I can think of that can ruin a Thanksgiving.

1. No Food
2. Drunk family members airing your not-so-favorite stories about you running around naked as a child.
3. A bowel-emptying case of food poisoning.

This is made to prevent the last one and apparently it can make your food taste better too.

Do we really remember what listening to and purchasing music was like before iTunes… or the iPod for that matter? These numbers are a testament to the type of transformation that’s been made from an industry which once relied almost solely on going to your local record store and purchasing a CD.

Where else is this type of transformation taking place? Two other industries that are beginning to see a similar shift to digital format are the Print Media and Book markets. Believe it or not the first e-book was actually published back in 1971 through a project called Project Gutenberg. The goal of this project was to digitize and archive cultural works. Ironically, the first document to be digitized through this project is one of our nation’s most important, The Declaration of Independence.

So, if the concept of e-books has been around this long, why today… nearly 40 years later are people finally taking notice? There are many answers to this question, but the most important is that today’s technology has finally allowed consumers to easily take advantage of books and print media in a digital format.

Two devices that notably stand out when talking about reading in a digital format are the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook. Up until this point the Kindle has dominated the e-reader/e-book market mainly because they’ve been able to leverage one of the things they’ve done best since Amazon was founded… selling books. Amazon has been able to do what other companies, such as Sony, haven’t by making available a huge selection of books in a digital format, at a significantly lower price than print, downloadable directly on the device. I like to make the analogy that the Kindle is to the Kindle Store what the iPhone is to the App Store.

So what about the Barnes and Noble Nook? Will this be a significant threat to the Kindle? In my opinion, Barnes and Noble are entering the e-reader market at a perfect time. Amazon has done a great job getting people excited about reading books in a digital format, but Barnes and Noble has one thing Amazon doesn’t, physical locations. When the Nook is released in a little over a week, customers will be able to download any e-book directly from Barnes and Noble, and if they’re in the store they’ll have access to free Wi-Fi from the device and the ability to even read entire books for free while in the store.
The biggest advantage though, is the fact that customers will be able to actually pick up and play with the nook prior to purchasing. Something the Kindle doesn’t have because it’s only available through the online retailer.

It should be interesting to see where the e-book/e-reader market takes us in the months and years to come. Will the Nook overtake the Kindle as the number one e-reading device? Are e-readers going to do to the book/print media market what mp3 players did to the music industry? Will you eventually make the shift towards reading in a digital format?

Guest post by Zach Schmid.

Thoughts/Opinions?

Here are my thoughts on the Smartphone market. When you start a jigsaw puzzle and all the pieces are scattered across the table, you know that there is a beautiful picture in there somewhere, but the parts are in all the wrong places. Well that’s the Smartphone market. Think about it.

HTC
On one side of the table you have HTC: one of the few companies that got the “sleek form factor” piece of the Smartphone world right with their HD2 phone. Too bad they left the usability piece (aka Android OS)  back on the other side of the table. Instead they force fed WinMo 6.5, a piece that looks like it fits, but really won’t. In the end, it ruins the puzzle’s beautiful picture.

Motorola:
Back to the other side of the table, you have Motorola. They’ve got the usability concept down, taking the extremely versatile Android OS and building it into their new release the Motorola DROID. But they seem to have forgotten that puzzle piece that likes to fall off the table and onto the floor: form factor. I might be the only one, but I want to break off every slide out keyboard I see on a phone. I would love to rip the keys off and put them back on, spelling “your a tool”. Seriously, why bother with a touch screen if your going to put physical keys on it. It defeats the purpose. Touchscreens are designed to eliminate unnecessary moving parts…

RIM
Which brings me to another point: The Storm. This is an especially touchy subject for me as I am an original Storm owner. So believe me, I know first hand of all its short comings, but I may also have a biased opinion so feel free to comment.

I think RIM did good in a lot of areas here. Form factor, usability, and even the service provider (Verizon); all fairly decent. Not top of the line mind you, but decent none the less. Not to stray back to my cheesy analogy… but think of the storm as your 50 piece puzzle instead of your 1000 piece puzzle. You have to remember the Blackberry OS was not designed to support a touchscreen so I give RIM a handicap in that area, and the sure-press click typing thing; a ballsy move in my book, so I give them points for effort despite it’s tremendous failure.

Apple
I am definitely not an Apple fanboy, far from it in fact, but over the past few years the iPhone has set the bar for Smartphones and they set it pretty damn high. But even Apple didn’t get all the pieces together right away. Stupid things like picture messaging and landscape keyboards in initial releases didn’t make the cut. Which make me wonder; will any of these companies ever get this right? Thoughts anyone?

Jeff Immelt unveils GE Healthcare's new Vscan at the Web 2.0 Summit

It has been a busy week and I had little time to keep up with twitter, so yesterday I decided to catch up. I was reading tweet after tweet and I finally came across a tweet that I actually cared about. It was from @GE_Reports and it proclaimed that GE had released a pocket-sized ultra-sound. POCKET-SIZED! I remember going to the doctor’s with my parents to have a look see at my little sister on an ultrasound. I also remember the machine being about the size of my dresser with a TV screen on top. Miniaturization seems to be everything these days, but that is quite a jump in 8 years.

A little more information about this new gadget…
Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt released the vScan ultrasound at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Fransisco on Oct 20th. As you will see in the demo video below, it has features stored videos from multiple patients, colorizing, black and white, and an intuitive interface. GE’s healthymagination campaign is about lower cost, better quality, and improved access for medical equipment. The vScan has certainly met the improved access, but we have yet to see cost and quality. I anxiously await actual user reviews of this product. This device has some serious potential to be as common as a stethoscope or a blood pressure cuff. Think of the promise it could have out in the field for military doctor’s or for Paramedics. Is GE the new Apple of Medical Equipment?

Disclaimer: I am an employee of GE Capital. The views in this article are my own personal opinions and do not represent that of my employers past, present, or future.