Answer Guy Central

One of the beautiful things about using SmartPhones like the iPhone, or my Android-based Droid is that I can now access my computer from literally anywhere, and I don’t even need to carry a notebook computer to do it.

Of course, that’s one of the ugly things too; being connected all the time means either that you let your work take over your life or you create rules to prevent that.

There are a few things that my Droid isn’t able to do for me without some help, though, and since they’re among the most important and common things I do, like checking to-do items in Outlook and taking notes that end up in that software, I rely on remote control software to get me logged into my Exchange server.

And yesterday I ripped LogMeIn out of my server and my Droid, because it presents a security risk that just doesn’t need to be there.

Let me start by saying that this disappointed me tremendously. LogMeIn is pretty darned good at remote control, and even has a free version. It works across platforms (Mac, PC, Linux, whatever) and is without a doubt the simplest way for people who need occasional remote control abilities to get things set up.

But yesterday I discovered that when I use LogMeIn my screen and mouse come to life. Meaning that if someone happens to be in my office my previously locked-down computer becomes open and available to them because I’ve logged in using LogMeIn.

And that’s not OK. It should be the least of my security worries, of course, and it is. I’m not actually worried about anyone with access to my computer doing bad things, and I have nothing on there that I need to hide. BUT LOGMEIN OPENING UP YOUR COMPUTER THIS WAY MAKES NO SENSE.

When I have my laptop and a WiFi signal and need to get at the computers in my office, I use software built right into Windows to access them. I can even do it from an Apple Macintosh. And that software, Remote Desktop, is no more difficult to use than LogMeIn, takes only a little bit longer to get set up, and when I log into my computer remotely IT LOCKS OUT ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE AT THE COMPUTER AND IT SHUTS OFF THE SCREEN, KEYBOARD, AND MOUSE.

And yes, I have software on my Droid that works with Remote Desktop.

So Why Use LogMeIn?

This is the part of the piece where I’m supposed to present a counterargument and tell you that LogMeIn may not be much easier to set up, but that the slight advantage is worth something. And I suppose that’s true if you really don’t have the wherewithal to pull Remote Desktop together. But that’s just not good enough; if you’re going to use advanced business tools and pay for data plans on SmartPhones you also need to take a couple of other steps from time to time. And if you really can’t figure it out, call us at The Computer Answer Guy or PC-VIP and we’ll get you running.

Leaving big security holes open isn’t an option. LogMeIn may sound great, but the hole I noticed yesterday is too big to ignore.

LogMeIn reminds me of a line from Jurassic Park: Just Because Your Can Doesn’t Mean You Should.

As an Android user, one of the things that I’ve yet to figure out is why there are no Apps to capture what’s on my screen. They just don’t exist.

OK, so that’s not completely true. If I “root” my Droid SmartPhone, meaning tweak it to bypass the regular Android operating system and make it do stuff that Verizon, Motorola, and Google didn’t intend, screen grabs become a possibility. I give up my warranty and any hope for technical support if I even need it, but I gain some control and a feature I often wish I had.

Surprise! If you use a Droid Incredible, or other Sense UI – based SmartPhones from HTC, the screen grab feature is built right in. But it isn’t under your control. In fact, it’s just the opposite; it looks like Sense UI does periodic screen grabs in the background and hides the results from you.

Annoying enough that screen grabs are apparently way more easy to implement than Google’s led us all to believe. But way worse is this: there’s stuff on your phone that you don’t know about, and let’s face it; your security is compromised when there are captures of your screen being stored.

No further commentary needed, eh? If you use an HTC SmartPhone with the Sense UI, please follow the instructions you’ll find in the article linked above and clean out that stuff every now then.

Happy Friday, Friends.

Last November, I wrote a post detailing the customer service issues and software problems with SplashData ‘s SplashID for Android software.

That post is the most popular page on the Internet dealing with the problems in SplashID for Android, and when SplashData pushed an upgrade to SplashID for Android earlier today, I immediately reached out to them.

And they responded quickly. As you may recall, I pointed out how fast SplashData’s customer service response times were back in the original post, and I’m happy to report that hasn’t changed.

<Sigh>

Has SplashData addressed the issues in SplashID for Android? In part, yes they have.

Once you get everything configured, you no longer need to know your IP address. The Synchronize command is no longer hidden away. And . . . everything else is still bad.

OK, strike that; SplashID Version 5 for Android looks better, and has a few usability and functionality tweaks added; it IS better than the previous version.

But after all the noise we heard about the problems in SplashID Version 4 and their admission that it wasn’t what it should have been, I’m astonished that SplashData is charging a ten dollar upgrade fee for SplashID Version 5. And the technical issues aren’t exactly gone; I’ll give SplashData a pass for continuing the need to sync the desktop and handheld versions over WiFi instead of your phone network, but the fact that you still have to start the software on both sides to make a sync happen and that you can still initiate the sync only from the Android device? Incredible.

It’s just too many steps in an era of don’t-need-to-be-computer-literate-to-use-your-device SmartPhones.

Kudos once again to SplashData for their responsiveness in the customer service department. But as someone who’s used SplashID for over a decade I just can’t believe that this software is still being released in what feels like a rushed, unfinished state.

Forgive me for lack of speed; I needed to let this one roll around in my head for a few days:

Motorola is enjoying a business resurgence. Owing to their decision to start making SmartPhones based on the Google Android operating system, Motorola has become profitable after many quarters of moving in the wrong direction. Palm, on the other hand, is no more, having been acquired by Hewlett Packard for reasons that HP has thus far kept close to the vest.

This article in the New York Times compares the fate of the two companies, and I wasn’t sure what the real point of the comparison was until I gave it some thought.

Palm all but created the market for Personal Digital Assistants when they released the Palm Pilot back in 1996. Sure, there were other PDAs that came earlier, but the Palm Pilot was the first one to gain any traction. Since then, Palm has floundered, being sold a couple of times and going through a couple of business change cycles when they weren’t sure if they were a hardware company or a software company . . . and even splitting the two.

Nobody says “PDA” any more. The things that PDAs did are now done by SmartPhones.

Motorola was at one time a phone manufacturer. Of course, Motorola makes many other things, too, but they created some of the most important cell phone technologies and were the runaway leader in that market for years. And cell phones need software, which Motorola wrote themselves. And the software was . . . well, who cares? It was phone software.

Now, Motorola has hitched its wagon to the Google Android star. In short, Motorola has enacted business change by acknowledging that they’re better off concentrating on the hardware and using someone else’s (free!) software. The Verizon (Motorola / Google) Droid sold many millions of units. Motorola is back, baby!

Or are they?

I’m not a stock prognosticator, but if I was I wouldn’t be so excited about Motorola’s future chances based on their recent success in the SmartPhone market using Android. Verizon released a second Droid model last November; the HTC (Verizon / Google ) Droid Eris came out at the same time, but Verizon didn’t give it the marketing boost that Motorola’s Droid received. And now, Verizon’s Droid Incredible is on the street. It also uses  Google Android. It’s also made by HTC. And Verizon has moved on; it’s the HTC Droid Incredible that’s now Verizon’s Droid Baby.

Wither, Motorola?

Motorola has all but remade themselves as a software company, but Google Android software is available to anyone who wants it. Companies like Verizon are marketing Android-based hardware from other companies. And Google has already shown that they have no intention of being part of this fight; their foray into the hardware and phone businesses with Nexus One was nothing more than a giant smoke screen to get companies like Motorola and Verizon to adopt Android.

And Verizon, by the way, is at is again; they’re about to release a tablet computer based on Google Android.

Don’t get too excited about the business change at Motorola; it’s going to be a short-lived success. And you do better: when planning your business change, make sure you look long-term.

Forget the iPad.

Apple’s hold on the SmartPhone market is finally slipping, as in March more traffic ran over the airwaves through SmartPhones based on the Google Android operating system than to iPhone devices.

I’ve made it pretty clear how I feel about the iPhone, and I’ve been a loud supporter of Android since I started using a Droid last November. But there’s only the slightest tinge of “I told you so” in me telling you about this.

Keyboard issues are purely subjective; I need the physical keypad that iPhone lacks, and I find it easy to use the Droid’s on-screen keyboard but impossible to use iPhone’s. But I speak for no one else on that issue and I’ve been clear that the iPhone is beautiful, well engineered, and even better in those regards when you move up to an iPad. But the iPhone isn’t a serious business tool. Android is, and when you combine that with Google’s brilliant bait-and-switch marketing it’s easy to see why the tide is turning.

No, I don’t think Google’s recent business practices are OK. But then again I’m no fan of Apple’s, particularly as it relates to making developers’ live even more difficult with the advent of iPhone OS 4.0 . For me, a SmartPhone is a tool, and the business change you sign up for when you pick one needs to reflect the way you approach business.

Android is just better than iPhone when you compare how they work to how people operate in the real world. The SmartPhone business is changing, and Android is at the center of that change.

Business Change is a odd thing. We all know we have to be constantly changing our businesses to adapt to … well, changing business … but should business change be active or passive? Proactive or reactive?

And is it ever a good idea to anger your suppliers?

Apple has announced the next generation of operating system software for the iPhone. OS 4.0 will bring the iPhone more or less to parity with what’s developed over the last couple of years for Google’s Android operating system and made popular on devices like the Droid, and make no mistake: Apple had to address the problems in iPhone OS. So hooray for Jobs & Company; Steve has shown that he understands that arrogantly pushing forth into the places he says are “right” all the time isn’t a viable long-term strategy.

I’m not going to turn this into a rant on how God-like Steve Jobs has a propensity for acting. CLEARLY, Steve Jobs has one of the great business minds of the last few decades, and maybe of all time. But I look at what’s happening in iPhone OS 4.0 and I can’t help but wonder whether Mr. Jobs has jumped the shark.

Speaking both functionally and technically, I love that at some level Apple is acknowledging things like multitasking and intelligent organization matter, and that even if there needs to be a cohesiveness to the iPhone that acknowledges its core feature to BE that of a phone and thus needs to be protected that once you turn a phone into a computer it need to act like one. So kudos: iPhone OS 4.0 is a step forward in ways that matter.

Yes, now your iPhone can almost be your primary computer. Thank goodness, because you know what I think of the iPad.

But simultaneous with opening up the iPhone to new, important ways of operating, Apple has made life even more difficult for developers than their already-notoriously-heavy-handed partnership agreement has done.

If you develop software for iPhone 4.0, you will now be obligated to do so using Apple-approved programming languages. Technically, any “C” programming language is allowable, but Apple is making it clear that they’d prefer you to use a variant of C called Objective-C. Oh: and don’t you dare use FLASH.

And historically, Apple stating a preference tends to lead to Apple issuing a mandate.

There’s a good reason for forcing all developers to use the same programming language: Apple is saying that in order to protect the integrity of the iPhone they need to be able to easily examine code used to create apps that run on it. And let’s be fair: with over a hundred thousand apps already available it’s incredibly difficult to have your staff be able to examine and understand all the code being submitted if they need to live in a Tower of Babel.

Now move on to iAd. Isn’t it great that Apple has made it so very easy for software developers to make money in the advertising business? But what if you want to partner with Google’s AdMob to be your ad distributor instead of Apple? Or maybe you think you can go it on your own; good luck getting an advertising-supported app approved for iPhone OS 4.0 if it hooks to any clearinghouse other than iAd.

I said above that Steve Jobs is one of the most brilliant businessmen in history, and I’m going to stand by that. But Apple feels more like “the evil empire” every time they make an announcement, and iPhone 4.0 trumps pretty much anything they’ve come up with before.

And that doesn’t even take into account the huge and head-scratch-inducing business change that iPhone OS 4.0 represents when you consider that for the second time in three months and maybe in their history Apple has pre-announced a product. Apple never does that.

And so I wonder: is iPhone OS 4.0 a business change for the better, or a sign that Apple is getting desperate?

Wondering what ever happened to the Android 2.1 upgrade for Droid that Verizon promised on January 6 when Google’s Nexus One was released? Remember when they said they’d start rolling it out on March 18, only to change their minds at the last minute?

It’s Here. I’ve installed it. It’s very fast in places that Android 2.01 on the Droid was slow. And maybe, just maybe, it’s broken again.

Actually, I’ve seen only one report of Android 2.1 for Droid being broken, and it might well be an April Fools joke.  I pay attention mostly because that report suggests that Wi-Fi is the problem. Again. But I’ll say that Android 2.1 is running on my Droid, my Wi-Fi works a little better than it did before, and lots of people seem to be installing Android 2.1 on their Droids with no issues.

If there’s a problem with this latest release of the Google SmartPhone operating system do we blame Google, Verizon, or Motorola? Probably a little bit of all three.

Carry on . . .

I’m being less social. My Twitter Community has spoken.

As cool a thing as social networking is (or can be), every time you write something you risk rubbing the people who follow you the wrong way. You probably want to avoid the “I’m Eating Breakfast” messages that I’ve joked about, but how close to that standard is it OK to get, in the interest of being social?

I use Foursquare on my Droid. I’ve told you about the service / game / social networking tool before, and I’ve said both here and in conversation that I’m not really sure what its purpose is. The test goes on, but I’ve disabled one of Foursquare’s features.

Foursquare will no longer send my activity to Twitter. >> update 29-April-2010: you may have noticed I recently turned Twitter updates from Foursquare back on.

My kids saw everywhere I went, and now they can’t. They tell me that’s a good thing; even my own children just weren’t interested in my moment-to-moment movements and periodic search for free WiFi. Occasionally, I got a funny response on Twitter from accounts that were set up specifically to annoy people who were broadcasting their movements the way I was.

And every now and then a real person would ping me back. But that opportunity for social networking interaction is no more. Ditto my use of AppAware, a program in my Droid that keeps me up on the latest trends in software for Android SmartPhones. I’m still using the software, but it’s no longer telling my Twitterverse when I add or remove software.

Why have I stopped using Twitter integration in AppAware and Foursquare? Because I was losing followers. Simply put, I was talking too much.

I’m not going to rant about the “right” way to do social networking. It’s simply: be genuine and bring value to the discussions you join. But in the quest for using social networking in your business change, keep an eye on what works and what doesn’t . . . and especially on what detracts. It seems that for now, automatic posts from one social networking platform to another may still be in that latter category.

Ahh, Droid. We barely knew ye . . .

This week, Google introduced a version of Google Earth for Android SmartPhones. In large part, I don’t care; Google Earth is very cool, but compared to Google Maps it has limited real-world use.

And Google Earth requires version 2.1 of the Android operating system. Which means that it won’t run on the Droid, which has been available for just over three months.

Aside from being a Droid user and being in sour-grapes mode, maybe you think I shouldn’t care. You’d be wrong. Android is the fastest-growing operating system for SmartPhones, and Google is splintering the market for that operating system, which like Google Earth and the Nexus One is also a Google product.

Operating Systems don’t do very well when they get splintered this way. Just the introduction of viruses that act differently on one version than on another is all the proof you need of that. In fact, be cynical if you like about the Microsofts of the world being after your money, but the real reason you have to eventually upgrade to a new version of Windows  even if you think you don’t need it is because unless you do you’re open to all kinds of security threats.

I sometimes pick on Apple for the heavy-handed way they control the Macintosh OS and iPhone OS, but users of both sure do get consistent behavior, don’t they?

Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” slogan is feeling more and more like a line of . . . nothing. And as a business consultant I understand that they need to make (lots of) money. But to be as involved in the marketing of the Droid as Google was and after such a short period of time leave its users behind as they try to sell more Google-branded phones (the Droid is supported by Motorola, not Google) is just . . . bad. Evil. Wrong.

By the way: while Google Earth officially requires Android 2.1, People who use Android 2.01 can get it to work by going here.

You know . . . assuming there’s no virus.

This week in Barcelona, Spain a conference called Mobile World Congress is happening. The attendees are employees of some of the world’s biggest and most influential companies: AT&T, Apple Computer, Motorola, Google, Microsoft.

Their goal? To consolidate the market for the software that runs on SmartPhones. Summing it up if you’re from Apple, you might say: “there’s an app for that, but only if you use an iPhone”.

So let’s see: Apple, the undisputed leader in the SmartPhone market (but losing share quickly to Android), would like everyone’s software to run on everyone else’s phones? And Microsoft, who have released yet another version of their phone software, is looking to be cooperative with their competitors?

Yeah. This ought to work.

Yesterday, this article in The New York Times explained, correctly, that the market for SmartPhone Apps is fracturing in much the same way that the personal computer fractured. Apple Macintosh sucked off a small portion of the market from Microsoft Windows, Windows became “the standard” in businesses, and it took decades before Macintosh became a worthy competitor, market-wise. Mobile World Congress’ goal is nothing less than to stop that kind of thing from happening again.

Now if only a group of large companies with more to lose from coopetition that they have to gain would cooperate and create  . . . what? A single operating system?

Mobile World Congress has an admirable goal. But it’s unattainable. Large companies don’t make changes of that sort easily. And they sure don’t make them proactively. Verizon and AT&T have just started allowing data-based voice software like Skype to run on their phone networks, after years of fighting to keep them out. They enacted that business change only when they realized they had no choice and were better off doing business with their previous “competitors” than pushing the proverbial rock of refusal up the proverbial hill of “good luck stopping them”.

What’s Apple’s incentive for playing nice with Google and Android, or Microsoft and Windows Phone? Theoretically, being the leader of the pack will look appealing, but not for these guys.

Mobile World Congress is a big waste of time. Which is too bad, because I sure do wish I could run the Answer Guy Central iPhone App on my Droid.

Apple is so afraid of Android, just mentioning it will get your app banned from the iTunes store. Yes, Seriously.

I understand not wanting to promote your competition, so not wanting iPhone apps to mention Android (it’s the software running the Droid, the Nexus One, etc.) “makes sense”. But telling a vendor / partner that mentioning an award their Android App has won is grounds for being banned from the iTunes Store?

OK, here’s the deal: The Answer Guy Central iTunes App mentions Android liberally. If you’re an iPhone user, click here to go and download it now.

And tell Apple what you think of them.

Wow.

Business Change takes many forms. For too many of us one of the forms that’s long overdue is putting a data backup and protection plan in place. Tell the truth: you know someone who’d have a very big problem if their hard drive crashed, right?

As we get more and more of the stuff we do and use into computers and need to get it back out, the issue becomes exponentially more important. This morning I noted a question at Droid Forums that got me thinking: what do you do to protect all that information on your SmartPhone?

As you know, I’m a Droid user. The device truly makes my life easier, 0rganization-wise, or I would have stuck with my old regular-phone-and-PDA way of doing things. And when there’s a problem, like the one the SplashID password manager creates on Android phones, I tell you so.

So I started thinking: what does backup software really do for you, and is it any different on a SmartPhone than on a computer?

To start, there’s a methaphorical difference: backup on your computer means (minimally) grabbing safe copies of all your work files and (ideally) a copy of the way your entire hard drive is arranged including software and its setting, the operating system, and anything else you’ll need to get back up and running quickly after a crash. On a SmartPhone like the Droid, there’s no such bit-for-bit backup, but also no need for one, since the operating system is built in and restores automatically if you ever need to reset your device.

I use a piece of software called MyBackup Pro to keep my Droid safe. It does two things: MyBackup Pro copies my data, and it copies the applications I have installed on my Droid. The concerns I addressed in that forum?: is MyBackup Pro getting ALL my data? The answer is no, and on an Android-based Smartphone, that answer is fine.

Remember that most of what you do on a SmartPhone is interact with programs stored elsewhere; out in “the cloud” you have many accounts with companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, and if your Droid crashed, all that data would still be there. So the issue is much smaller: let’s protect your contact data (hmmm . . . also likely to be stored elsewhere . . .), call and texting history, and . . . . that’s about all!

The biggest problem if your SmartPhone needs to be reset is restoring your programs. That can be time-consuming, and who knows what you’ll remember to do when the time comes?

With Google and Android,  the Android store remembers what you’ve downloaded (including the programs you’ve paid for) and allows you to restore for free any time. All you need to do is re-download MyBackup Pro and then restore everything else. It takes literally under five minutes, and the software costs a whopping $5. Total no-brainer.

The larger question is this: what’s it going to take to get you to enact the kinds of business change that your business needs to make a difference? If you are the person I mentioned above who isn’t doing backups, please don’t wait another moment to start doing something about it. The Computer Answer Guy can even help, if you aren’t sure how to go about solving the problem.

But for goodness’ sake: if you use a Droid or other SmartPhone, please start using a program like MyBackup Pro, right now.

Wow. And just when we had declared the Google Nexus One to represent no real business change.

While I’ll be standing by that statement for the most part, in not reading the contracts I missed one huge business change that folks who opt to take the Google / T-Mobile subsidy and get their Nexus One phones inexpensively could run up against:

Cancel early, and you owe not just T-Mobile, but also Google an early termination fee.

And it’s a fee that would make Verizon proud: $350 to Google, $200 to T-Mobile.

What ever happened to Google and their “Don’t Be Evil” motto? The little company that’s become more influential than any other has created the first fee to a phone manufacturer for early plan termination, which would be fine if in doing so they had eliminated your liability to the carrier. They’ve not. The Google Nexus One, as cool as it is, is feeling more and more like a giant rip-off.

When I bought my Droid from Verizon one of the things that made me jump when I did was the knowledge that Verizon was getting ready to raise their ETF from $175 to $350. Verizon’s caught grief from the FTC for this, but next to the $550 you might pay to back out of a Nexus One contract that’s looking pretty tame.

I’m all about business change. I was disappointed when I thought the Nexus One looked like no business change at all. Now, I wish that had been correct.

Yesterday, someone in my Facebook stream asked about SmartPhones. And it occurred to me that even with all the press coverage and expert opinions being tossed around in the aftermath of Google ‘s Nexus One release just last week, real people are tied in knots over their choice of SmartPhone.

I’m not talking about bleeding-edge, geeky gadget types, by the way; when real people decide to take the jump they agonize over the decision. It’s like business change; sooner or later you have to jump, but getting there . . . painful!

By now, there’s very little question about one thing: I don’t like the Apple iPhone. Let me be clear that I think iPhone is an absolutely amazing piece of technology, and that in the iPhone Apple has demonstrated yet again how terrific they are at making things that look great and act in a way that people understand without a lot of training. But my personal view is that always having to back out to “the top” when I want to do something different is not OK, and that I can’t use the iPhone on-screen keyboard.

In other words: Apple’s typical approach that “they know what’s best” is all over the iPhone, and if you don’t fit their vision, you’re better off elsewhere. And that’s fine; lots of people like being led around that way.

So along comes Google with Android. It’s infinitely customizable, and Google convinces phone manufacturers to use it as the software in the devices they sell to phone companies. They have only minor success until they get Verizon and Motorola to do Droid and market it heavily enough that the phrase “iPhone killer” starts getting tossed around. Droids fly off the shelf, Android gets instant credibility, Google becomes a serious player in the phone business, and . . . out comes the Nexus One. Yes, it’s manufactured by HTC, but nobody is saying that; this is the Google Nexus One, and it’s going to change the world.

I, of course, disagreed.

But there’s new momentum now. Real people are trying to decide which Kool-Aid to drink. And the question, in simple terms, was this:

one of my resolutions is to stop giving my kids all the good stuff and start getting some for myself so….a Nexus One or an iPhone? I need some input here…the Nexus one is the new Google phone. My son is pushing it over the iPhone for me to buy so I’m perplexed.

Most of the input that came back was from iPhone lovers. No surprise; there are a lot of you out there! But my answer was this:

Nexus One. Or better yet . . . Droid

As was my intent, it opened up the box of real questions that this real person had on her mind. Stuff like this:

I did look at the Droid today. And I am w/ Verizon now. Trying to make a good decision here.

I’m NOT concerned w/ storage AT all. I want a good phone and agree Verizon has best network especially where I live. But really like the sleekness of the nexus/iphone. (us women and our irrational decisions.)

Are you saying there is zero difference between Droid and Nexus for the most part and if I’m already with Verizon then go Droid?

And my favorite:

Maybe I’ll just master T-9 and stay w/ my old piece of crap!

So how Do I feel? Really?

Droid and Nexus One run the same software. Nexus One is lighter, but has no keyboard. It has a screen that will look better in bright sunlight, but Droid comes w/ 4 times the storage (16 GB vs. 4 GB). To me, I look at those stats, think “I don’t care”, realize the price is the same-ish regardless, and choose by picking the network. Verizon’s is superior, so if you’re jumping today, go Droid—The Nexus One will be on Verizon “soon”, if that already-done-deal doesn’t get undone before launch. <<update 26-April 2010 . . . it did get undone.

Assuming you don’t let the iPhone Army coerce you to the dark side <grin>, then it comes down mostly to weight, since the other Droid vs. Nexus One comparison point is the “better screen in extremely bright light vs. more memory” thing.

So with that said: the Droid feels substantial. Personally I like that, but it’s winter. When summer comes, I have no coat pockets, and being a dude I’ll be left no choice but hold it all the time because my pants pockets won’t do.  I could change my mind about liking the Droid’s weight when that happens.

The extra weight brings you a keyboard. I thought I would care about that, but the truth is I rarely do, except when typing something long. But with THAT said, I found the iPhone on-screen keyboard difficult and the Droid on-screen keyboard not difficult . . . and they’re very similarly-sized, as is Nexus One’s.

And as for T9 . . . listen, I know people who are really good at that, and while I’m not one of them I won’t argue.

Change is difficult. In the real world, for real people and real businesses, extraordinarily so. Ask real questions, demand real answers, and . . . the rest will work itself out.

A few weeks ago I had some harsh words for David Pogue. Dave, The New York Times’ lead technology columnist—among other things—had expressed an opinion about copy protection that I felt was so out of touch with reality he needed to be called on it.

Pogue didn’t like my opinion. He told me so. Well, David . . . this time I’m with you: today, Pogue comments on Google and their new Nexus One cell phone. And I’m happy to report that he’s back in the fold as “the voice of reason”.

Over the last few months, and especially the last couple of weeks, the hype for Nexus One has been in full overdrive. Without every saying so officially, Google had let us know that they were about to release a new, super-feature-rich phone that you can buy without a contract. And they’ve done exactly that. The Nexus One is very, very cool, leap-frogging even my beloved Droid in a few areas (while falling short in a few others).

And that’s it. Business Change from the Nexus One? Very close to zero.

My disappointment with what Google has done stems not from my feelings about the device itself; I’ll repeat that the Nexus One is a great SmartPhone. But let’s be clear: while it’s theoretically true that you could just buy the phone and then 1) get service from the carrier of your choice and 2) get that service at a lower cost , the reality is that differences in the way cell carriers move calls and data around means that the only place you can get service for the Nexus One is T-Mobile. Yes, you could use AT&T instead, but then your data would be too slow.

Oh, and by the way: if you buy your Nexus One from T-Mobile, on contract, you’ll pay about the same thing that AT&T gets for an iPhone and Verizon gets for a Droid. And if you buy a Nexus One without a contract it costs . . . you guessed it . . . pretty much what AT&T and Verizon’s flagship phones cost without a contract.

Overall, this makes the Nexus One announcement a non-event in my book. So why write about it?

Because this is the very first time that Google has hyped/announced/released something that qualified as nothing more than a me-too. Love them or hate them, Google pushes the envelope on everything they do, and the Nexus One is not business change, phone change, power-to-the-people, or anything else, other than Google wanting very much to usurp Microsoft and Apple in the phone operating system wars.

I concede, Google; Android is spectacular. The Nexus One is a great Android phone; I almost want to replace my Droid. But . . . really, when you tell the world you’re going to change business, you need to actually bring some business change to the table. The Nexus One is no such thing.