The latest generation are a huge improvement with their increased thickness and extraordinary vivid color retention. They can be cut into extremely accurate forms and custom fit whatever device you have. With iPhones, they wrap around the back of the phone and include cut-outs for the camera lens and an irregular edge that neatly extends the sticker without covering up any of the controls.

But are they worth it? Should you rush out and drop $15-20 to emblazon your favorite band, artist or comic book hero on the back of your iPhone?

To find out, I was given sample skins from the two main players in this market: GelaSkins and MusicSkins. Both use the exact same 3M film, and both seem to use the same die to cut their stickers to fit the iPhone, so the difference is primarily in the graphic itself. But there’s more to it than that, as you’ll see…

Since both use the same sort of film, let’s get that experience out of the way first, because both had the same problem and gave me a very similar result on my Apple iPhone 3GS, one that was cool, but not perfect.

The problem I faced was that neither of them actually went on perfectly and both had tiny little folds and bubbles along the edges, even as I exerted rather a lot of pressure trying to smooth them down.

Let’s start with the imagery, though: The GelaSkins skin was from a graffiti artist and was quite striking to see, as you can see below, while the MusicSkins skin was based on the terrific Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover from The Beatles.

Here are both of them:

The first thing that’ll strike you when you look at these is that the left side image that suggests there’s an included wallpaper for your phone screen? There isn’t. It’s just part of the printing, but not anything you can actually use. Kinda weird and wasteful, actually.

They peel off from a corner, giving you a sense of the thickness: these feel just about impossible to tear:

Next step is to carefully line things up and put the skin on your iPhone/device. Here you can see the Discoteca skin partially affixed:

Try as I might, though, I could never get rid of every single imperfection on my phone. In fact, both skins had exactly the same imperfections, which makes sense when you remember that they’re the same product, just different print jobs. Here’s a close up:

Can you see those spots I’ve circled? Yeah, maybe I want perfection, but it is annoying when you want something to be smooth and it’s not.

If the only difference between the two companies was the printed image on the skin, that’d be the end of the review, but Gelaskins goes further and has matching wallpaper images you can install on your iPhone too, which makes for a nice unified appearance. Better yet, it’s a free download from the App store so you can just grab Wallpapers by GelaSkins [iTunes link] and explore the many different artists they’re working with on this app and the skins.

Go through their app and you’ll see lots of cool images:

Pick the one that matches (or one that looks cool) and save it, which puts it in your photo album. Now go find it there, and tap on the Use As Wallpaper button:

This might seem unrelated to the iPhone skin review, but a quick glance shows that the two companies aren’t offering up the same product after all, even if they’re using the same sticky material. MusicSkins is all about the imagery they’ve licensed, while GelaSkins is looking at the entire experience of customizing your iPhone or other device. If all you want is a sticker on the back of your phone, both will work fine, but if you want something consistent on both sides of the device, GelaSkins is a superior choice.

Me? I tried both, enjoyed them (though was bugged by them not being a perfect fit) and ultimately went back to my hard case because I figured my iPhone just needs a bit more protection than they offered.

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VentureBeat has all the details on their survey and other fun things they learned.

OK, nothing really shocking there, but I did sit down for an interview with CEO Jeff Haynie this afternoon.

In the interview Haynie explains why his developer platform is a lot faster to develop on than building apps in Objective-C (developers use standard web technologies, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, along with its own API, named Appcelerator Titanium, that is easy to call from JavaScript to do a variety of functions. You can watch a video where they explain more about how this works.

Basically Appcelerator is a competitor for Adobe’s AIR framework/app system but one that delivers onto the iPhone (and, within a few days, on the Apple Tablet, or whatever it’ll be called).

Yes Haynie is taking advantage of the Apple news, even before it happens, but I gotta appreciate that in a CEO.

Finally, in his survey they found that most of their developers see lots of opportunities for the Apple Tablet outside of the kinds of scenarios already discussed. We talk about these at length in the interview, but while gaming will be hot they see opportunities to develop new apps in entertainment, productivity/business, social networking, and education.

Ahh, Apple Tablet Hype Week continues…

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Unfortunately for the companies exhibiting, I was too busy gorging myself on grilled cheese sandwiches made with white chocolate orange bread and brie to remember where I put my Sam Adams. I didn’t get to see every company there because:

1. I didn’t want to.
2. It’s kind of tiresome talking to booth vendors after awhile.
3. I had to pry myself away from the grilled cheese.

But I did get a good taste of things. Below are my gut reactions from the various gadgets and tech toys I tried there. You can find all of their press kits online from Showstoppers, you can view more of my photos from the event on Flickr, and I have a handful of videos on YouTube.

Technology I started using right away: Seesmic for Droid

Seesmic is best known for its desktop Twitter client. I’ve tried it but I always wind up either using Twitter.com or a mobile app. On the Droid, the gold standard has been Twidroid, but I think they just went silver. When I met Seesmic founder Loic LeMeur, he showed me how Seesmic for Droid had integrated Twitter Lists, and any of its features I’ve tried out so far either mirror or surpass anything from Twidroid.

Gadget I don’t understand why anyone would ever buy unless they’re a board member’s mother: Plastic Logic’s Que

One of the hot product categories at CES were e-readers… no big surprise there. There was a pretty, glassy, thin one that debuted from Paper Logic called Que, which is designed to format newspapers and magazines in a more natural way while also making it easy to review and even annotate Microsoft Office docs like presentations. I fell over when I heard the price - $649 (4GB wifi) or $799 (8GB wifi and 3G).

So let’s see – you can get a netbook for a few hundred, or a tablet somewhere close to $1000. If tablets go big, they will kill the market for this device because tablets have web browsers, color, and really any features you’d expect from your laptop without the physical keyboard. When I saw another demo of the Que they were very quick to say you shouldn’t spend much time typing – it was only for brief notes. When I appeared skeptical, on more than one occasion, different reps would say, “But it’s for business!” It’s reminiscent of the “You know, for kids!” tagline from Hudsucker Proxy. But at least in Hudsucker Tim Robbins was selling the hula hoop, a gadget that filled a need in the market.

By the way one reader that looks far more compelling is the Skiff, but pricing hasn’t been announced. Here are some views of the Que:

This wasn’t an easy award to give out – so many contenders… but Sensawaft lets you control computing devices just by breathing. The guy below was blowing into a mic and controlling flicking a website up and down. I got to do this too, and it took a little getting used to, but yes, the direction of the air blown can make a difference.

I can see it being used in some kind if My Left Foot scenario – I mean, imagine if the guy played by Daniel Day Lewis had this. Or if he had the Internet. The movie would have probably been a little less depressing.

There are some things I like about it. One big one is that they’re opening up the platform, and they created the Be A Mind Blower competition to get people to submit ideas.

I have seen other applications of breath blowing digital tech. GE’s Plug Into the Smart Grid augmented reality showcase allowed you to blow into the computer mic and turn the wind turbines. I’m sure this Sensawaft stuff is more sophisticated and perhaps more useful, but I think if your cubicle mate hears you blowing into your computer all day, they’re going to report you for running a 900 hotline.

Most creative use of an iPhone application: Yurbuds by Yurtopia

Yurbuds hooked me on a great use of both cool and practical, and it offered a fun demo of how digital tools can improve retail for physical goods.

The basic premise: custom-fitting earbuds. They have a much longer explanation for how these earbud covers fit better around your optic nerves and improve the sound and maybe improve your balance (I could use that last feature but I’m making that up). Go to their site for the specs. Ultimately, they’re these rubbery covers that make your earbuds fit better in your ear, even when running, or as I tried, waving your head back and forth like an idiot. They didn’t fall out.

What upped the cool factor tremendously though is that they’re sized with an iPhone app. You hold a quarter up to your earlobe, take a picture, and they use that to determine your ear size. It worked for me. On their site they also do it with a photo submission process. The price is $20 for the covers or $30 for the covers with the earphones, and their earphones look EXACTLY like iPod earphones. Full disclosure: I got a free pair of the earbuds and the earphones, and I used them on the plane ride home. The sound was about as good as you can expect to get from watching a Jets game on a Jetblue flight.

Best musical instrument for someone who can’t even figure out Guitar Hero: Beamz

If your kid can’t play any of these real musical instruments or even video games based on them, get them Beamz – a way to make noise just by running your hand across laser beams. They even advertise this on their site, calling it “an approachable instrument that anyone may play.” In other words, if your musical talents include banging a rock on the ground and almost kind of being able to whistle, you’ll love this.

It’s weird. I tried it out and, not being among the most rhythmically gifted, didn’t really let loose there. If you’re of drinking age, I highly recommend doing a few shots before trying this. But please note this blog does not advocate giving liquor to minors – they will enjoy it just fine as they are.

Apparently some real artists use it. I can’t remember who but they sounded famous. And you can program the Beamz to play any kind of instrument. They also have a new game Shadowbeamz. So yes, people who are talented can probably have even more fun with this than people who aren’t. But it is “approachable.” That’s one of those words often used as a backhanded compliment, but for those who like toys that make a lot of noise, I think “approachable” is a huge upside here.

Technology with most promise that’s not delivering (for me): PlayOn

I couldn’t love the idea of PlayOn more: you download software (free trial, then $40 flat fee), use your gaming console to connect to the Internet, and watch video from Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, and elsewhere on your TV. I thought this was the most impactful technology at all of Showstoppers.

Then I tried to use it.

It didn’t take too long to set up on my PC and then my Wii. A nice touch is that you can add your accounts for Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube so you can quickly access your content.

I tried going to Hulu first to watch some TV shows, only to get a recurring ‘error loading video’ message. Then I went to YouTube to load one of my own, a brief clip from CES. It took a couple minutes to load, and then it was choppy – and this was just a 20-second clip.

My PC passes all the connection tests in the PlayOn software, but maybe if I had a newer laptop it would run better. I really wish this would work so I could easily watch Hulu on my HD TV without even needing a box. Great idea, and maybe it works better for others. It’s a free trial so I’d still recommend giving it a shot to see if it works for you.

If it does though, I might be coming over to your place to watch it.

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Since then, technology and gadget bloggers have been in a frenzy not seen by me since the iPhone was first announced. I’m not about to get into the many details of Google’s Nexus One phone–I’m going to take a different angle, below–but you can read all about the unlocked Android phone, here, here, and here. Oh, and here’s what it looks like:

So, what’s my take on this?

The media frenzy!

OMG! I don’t know how much Motorola and Verizon spent trying to hype up the launch of the recent Droid phone, but that publicity doesn’t compare to what Google has accomplished over the weekend.

How smart was Google? It handed out free phones to Google employees, either didn’t tell them to keep quiet about it, or actively encouraged the discussions, and let the details slowly leak out. All weekend long, I’ve seen post, after article, after post hit the web. Right about now, everyone that doesn’t own an iPhone is currently drooling over becoming a Google Nexus owner–and there are probably a few iPhone owners feeling the same way too!

Perhaps Google has realized that it’s just not that good at artificially creating excitement with its own advertising. The company became the world’s #1 search engine via word of mouth. Could it own the world’s #1 cell phone the same way?

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It’s my first Android phone. It replaces the Samsung Omnia I had running Windows Mobile, a touchscreen-only phone with too many design flaws to name. I still have my iPhone for work, which I love as an email and gaming device but never used as a phone.

As for the Droid…

Google services: I’m an avid user of many things Google, from Gmail to Picasa to Maps. For me that’s a huge plus to access these personal accounts. I easily went to Picasa, picked a recent photo from my trip to Egypt, and made it my phone’s background.

Writing email: The option of a keyboard’s great, though I found the touch screen easy to use, rivaling the iPhone, and perhaps even easier, though I’m not sure why as the keyboard’s no bigger. It was very easy to set up.my work account too.

Interface: I really like the four default buttons of Back, Menu, Home, and Search. I had no clue how often I’d use the back button until I tried it here.

Screen: The size is similar to the iPhone, but the picture’s especially beautiful. Transitions and animations add some X factor of elegance to the device.

Battery life: Nothing special here. But it is removable so you can get a spare or replacement if it totally fails you.

Maps: I haven’t yet explored all of the features here, but the basic directions - for me, via public transport in NYC - are easy. I know there are major competitive advantages over the iPhone here, but I’ll get to those later. 

Sound quality: Maybe there’s some halo effect and this is imagined, but I’m convinced the sound is clearer on this device than any other I owned. When I called grandmom (and of course I call grandmom), it sounded like she was right next to me. Just great, I’ll get Androidish guilt.

Applications: A lot of my favorites from the iPhone app store seem to be available, and I’m learning (often via Twitter) about comparable ones, like Twidroid for Twitter. The app store’s easy to use, but some of the paid apps are in foreign currency like British pounds and I wish it all defaulted to dollars (or your local currency of choice). Many apps, like Twitter and Google Talk, can run in the background without slowing down the phone. Payments are synced to Google Accounts; updating Google Checkout information can be done on the phone but is especially easy from the Web.

Room for Improvement:

• I haven’t figured out copy and paste yet. I even watched a video demo (videos are easy to view on the phone), but it seemed to pull up different menus than my phone did.
• Multi-touch is missing. The zooming in is easy though.
• A longer lasting battery would be nice. But wouldn’t it always?
• Is there even desktop software to manage my phone? Could come in handy.
• Can I take screenshots on the phone as easily as on the iPhone? That’s been very helpful for client presentations for the iPhone. There are lots of things I just don’t know if I can do yet.

I welcome hearing about your favorite features and apps as I learn what it can do.

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SE is banking on their UX platform which has a heavy graphical UI. The platform will work along with Open OS and will feature many applications, with heavy emphasis on social media. SE has stated, “The XPERIA™ X10 is the first mobile phone to truly humanize the way people interact with their phones.”

The XPERIA X10 is a showcase of SE looking to go with an open approach. They’ve listed PlayNow and the Android Market as an example of providing consumers with choice when using XPERIA X10.

Bert Nordberg, President of Sony Ericson boasts about the device, “The XPERIA™ X10 is a fantastic example of our make.believe philosophy because we are pushing the boundaries of what is possible and demonstrating that anything consumers can imagine, we can make possible. With the X10, we are raising the bar we have set ourselves with entertainment-rich phones like Aino and Satio by making communication more fun and playful, multiplying and enriching opportunities to connect.”

The new device will also showcase two applications with strong potential, Timescape and Mediascape. The TimeScape app provides a cluster of options when socializing with friends, family, and anyone else in your phone. Timescape will list your contacts, and provide you with the latest updates, and changes. Twitter, Facebook, calls, emails, SMS messages, and voicemails are all seamlessly presented and allows for faster communication.

Mediascape is a mirror image of Timescape but is more media extensive. Options for photos, audio, and video will be presented and is divided between offline and online content. One interesting feature is the ‘Infinity icon’. When browsing through artists you can click this button, and content found online will be presented for whomever you’ve selected. As of now, YouTube and Playnow are the the two major options for this feature.

Here’s an expanded list of specs for the XPERIA X10

8.1 megapixel camera
Bluetooth
Wi-Fi Support
480 x 854 resolution
4 inch screen
8 GB microSD support

Verizon loaned me one of their mifi-2200 units and I have to say this is a fabulous gizmo, one that I’ll find out about buying when my loaner period is over. It’s that good.

As I said, the device is tiny: even in its little cloth pouch, it’s less than half the size of my Apple iPhone, and considerably lighter. It uses a micro-USB connector for both charging and direct connectivity (if you prefer to use it as a tethered cellular data network modem), so it’s also extremely portable. I know I’ve gotten into having it in my computer bag 24×7.

I tested this out on an Apple Mac system, a MacBook Pro running Mac OS X 10.6.1 (Snow Leopard), and it worked flawlessly.

Turn it on by pushing the single button on the device and within about 10-15 seconds it’s established a connection with the Verizon 3G network and “Verizon MIFI2200 A38B Secure” shows up on the normal Mac wifi menu.

Choose it and you’ll need to type in the twelve-digit password on the back of the device (once), and you’re online.

Performance-wise?

Not great, but pretty darn good for a device that will let you connect to the Internet just about anywhere you might be, from a hotel room to an airport to a house in the middle of suburbia.

Indeed, to test this, I took Amtrak from Denver to Chicago (and they say we reviewers aren’t dedicated!) and found that I was able to connect about 80% of the time, and that most of those connections were acceptably fast to surf the web without being aware I was using the cellular network. In more urban areas, it’s worked flawlessly even when my AT&T iPhone can’t find 3G coverage at all.

The Mifi-2200 is rated at about 4 hours of battery life, I found it to be a bit less, perhaps 3 hours or so, but still quite acceptable. After all, with a device this small it’s clear that they didn’t have space for a large battery. Since you can plug it in and use it while it’s charging, it’s quite acceptable. Better, bring the wall charger along and you can just plug-and-forget: it’s a perfectly acceptable wifi base station while charging too.

Verizon also includes a pretty crude little app called VZAccess Manager (a white-label version of Smith Micro’s QuickLink Mobile, I believe). The UI could do with a facelift, but it does have some cool stats you can view:

Perhaps the most important question with the Verizon Mifi-2200 is cost. According to Verizon [caveat: that link might require you've logged in to the site], the MIFI2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot costs $99 on a two-year contract, or $149 without it. Verizon mobile broadband plans range from $39.99/month (for 250MB of data usage) to $59.99 (for 5GB of data usage).

If you wanted the top plan and were buying the device, across two years it’d run a cool $1,538, but then again, if you are used to paying $12.99/night for Internet access in hotels and spend four or five days/week on the road, it’s about the same cost overall.

Finally, I appreciate Verizon giving me the chance to really put the MIFI2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot through its paces. It’s one of the few devices I’ve tested in the last year that has no downside I can think of. It’s tiny, light, fast, flexible, and dead simple to use.

Oh, no, that’s not right. I have one request: some sort of battery power indicator on the device itself. More than once I’ve flipped it on just to have it die 5-10 minutes later. Otherwise, flawless, and highly recommended.

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The two companies have announced a strategic partnership that will see more Android phones coming to market–some within the next few weeks.

Integral to this agreement is a commitment by the companies to devote substantial resources to accelerate delivery of leading-edge innovation that will put unique applications in the hands of consumers quickly…Verizon Wireless and Google plan to co-develop several Android-based devices that will be pre-loaded with innovative applications from both parties as well as third-party developers.

This is a big win for Google. While the iPhone has seen impressive market gains, there’s no doubt that it won’t realize its full potential until it can break free from its current AT&T bonds. While consumers are left waiting for the iPhone to become available on Verizon’s arguably better 3G network, Google gets to sweep in and try to make as many of them as possible convert to Android.

I’ve spoken to many Verizon Wireless customers that feel left out of the smart phone race because their desire for a reliable network outweighs their desire for an iPhone. If Apple doesn’t cozy up to Verizon soon, it could find it misses the boat. All of the hundreds of thousands of patiently waiting Verizon customers might decide the Android is good enough–locking them in for another two years and locking out Apple in the process.

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HTC Sense is a new User Interface for Android from HTC which was previously called Rosie and originated from TouchFlo.

Sense is graphically impressive along with being relatively simple thus making “sense” as it provides:

• Breadth of inherent widgets
• Customized content profiles
• Combining your contacts IM, text messages, calls, status, photos, and social media into a single view
• FLASH Support

This last item is the MOST interesting in my view as its what most people have been clamoring for and makes for a true counterweight over the iPhone.

Processing power and depth of RAM is key for FLASH since its a huge drain of resources and why its taken so long to be ported effectively to mobile devices.

One of the hopes conveyed at Google I/O is that the advancement of HTML5 will remove the need for the processing burden of FLASH, Silverlight, & Flash FX for a full web experience.

Now, in my opinion, the best mobile web experience is enhanced by the 2 new Android phones recently announced – The myTouch 3G & Hero.

For clarity the myTouch 3G is just another name for the 2nd generation Android phone which also has other names:

• G2 (Android Engineers HATE this term)
• Sapphire (Initial name of the device that Android Engineers have been accustomed to using)
• Google Ion (Version given away by Google at Google IO 2009)
• Magic (Most common reference to the phone outside the United States)

Its like a Mattress store calling the same thing different names so its tough to compare prices from store to store.

The Hero is essentially a prettied up G1 minus the keyboard while the myTouch 3G is a smaller rounder device.

The myTouch 3G is nearly an ounce lighter than the Hero, while the Hero has a 3.5mm audio jack and nearly 2 megapixels higher camera along with its HTC Sense Android UI.

Under the hood they both have the same Qualcomm MSM7200A 528 MHz processor, 512 ROM, 288 RAM, and essentially the same battery of approximately 1350 mAh.

I questioned HTC why these phones have a MSM7200A processor which seems like a downgrade from the MSM7201A processor on the G1 – I was simply told there is no noticeable performance difference but not properly explained why the name change.

So HTC Sense makes “sense” on post G1 devices while as Android Engineers feared the G1 with its 256 ROM & 192 RAM will struggle.

In the end my “sense” is that for FLASH to be in a true usable state with Android the processing power NEEDS to be further advanced and increasing the RAM to at least 1GB.

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According to a Google spokesperson:

We work hard to bring Google applications to a number of mobile platforms, including the iPhone. Apple did not approve the Google Voice application we submitted six weeks ago to the Apple App Store. We will continue to work to bring our services to iPhone users — for example, by taking advantage of advances in mobile browsers.

Not only that, but Apple has apparently started pulling the plug on third-party iPhone apps that provide Google Voice features.

Jason Kincaid speculates that AT&T is behind the move–likely exerting pressure on Apple to prevent approval of a service that could clearly compete with the wireless company. But, what I don’t understand is how did Skype get its iPhone application approved and Google didn’t? If the fear of cheap long distance and SMS messages are part of Apple’s concerns about a Google Voice app, why did it overlook the same features offered in Skype?

With that in mind, I think AT&T might just be a convenient scapegoat–after all, wouldn’t it have also cried foul over the Skype app? On the contrary, I believe that Apple is just as equally to blame for Google Voice receiving the “rejected” stamp. After all, Google’s Android is fast becoming a threat to the iPhone. Much more of a threat than Google Voice is to AT&T.

With two strikes in the past week, clearly being on Apple’s board of directors isn’t worth a hoot. I wonder how much longer Google CEO Eric Schmidt will feel cozy sitting around the table of a company that keeps slapping it down?

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