Tim Conneally

Those of you who follow my Tweets (@TimConneally) know that I got into a car accident yesterday. Nothing too serious, mind you, just a little unexpected voyage into converging traffic. I was hurriedly trying to obey my Google Maps turn-by-turn directions without noticing that the light I was approaching was actually red.

I'm not speaking against Google Maps navigation at all, but the incident successfully brought one of the application's new features to mind: Report Problems in Maps.

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We know many Hollywood studios view Redbox $1 DVD rental kiosks as a problem that must be kept in check. A recent report from the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) says those rental kiosks could represent a billion dollar drain on Hollywood's revenues.

The report, entitled "The Economic Implications of Low-Cost DVD Rentals" (PDF available here) characterizes those red boxes as pockmarks on the face of a sickened home video industry.

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As an Android fan, I've been looking forward to Google Goggles since the second I heard about it, and today it has officially been made available. It is a new lab from Google which turns your Android device's camera into a search input device. Similar to the way Shazam can identify a song by its audio "fingerprint," Goggles can identify landmarks, books, logos, artwork, and contact info simply by looking at it.

From the very first query, I was hooked. Maybe it's because my experience was so interesting. The very first piece of data I submitted was the PriceWatterhouseCoopers logo on my colleague's coffee cup on the desk next to me. Rather than return information about the company, the result was tennis player Jimmy Arias. I figured something wasn't quite right and snapped another picture for a second try. The results were the same.

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Hardly a day goes by when our inboxes and feeds aren't flooded with messages from companies announcing that they have created a new iPhone application. They range from the disappointingly simple to the disconcertingly arcane, but as a whole skew more toward the consumer. So when a significant player in enterprise services releases an iPhone app, it's worth looking into...especially when it's from an "underdog" company trying to challenge a market leader.

Good Technology, a long-running provider of mobile e-mail solutions, today debuted its Good for Enterprise iPhone app, which provides secure access to corporate e-mail, calendars and contacts with companies using the Good for Enterprise mobile e-mail solution.

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The world of mobile communications has changed considerably since Nokia reached market dominance in the late '90s, and the Finnish telecommunications leader is shifting its strategies to keep ahead as mobile behavior continues to change. This week, the company revealed some of its plans for the next couple of years, which could amount to something of a spring cleaning for the cluttered Nokia house, or could simply keep the company on the same path.

Most interestingly, Nokia said it is going to release fewer smartphones. The company is going to follow the lead taken by Research In Motion, Apple, and Palm, and offer a smaller, more concentrated portfolio of these devices and hopefully attract more consumers with their mid-range prices. This does not necessarily mean Nokia is looking to eliminate any of its product lines, but rather perform an overall cutback, reducing its roster of smartphones by more than half, and offering cheaper models. Nokia expects 33% of its 2010 smartphone lineup to have both touchscreens and QWERTY keypads, another 33% to have QWERTY only, 25% to have all touch, and the remaining 9% to have an ITU-T keypad.

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Part of the allure of Motorola's Droid smartphone is that it's the first, and currently only, device built upon Android 2.0 ("Eclair"). While Droid users are treated to a new Web browser, new personal navigation features, and new contact list structure, the rest of the Android devices on the market run Android 1.6, also known as "Donut," which began to appear last October.

There has been no official word about which existent Android devices will be able to upgrade to 2.0, and today, we begin to see a bit more of that dreaded Android fragmentation as both versions got updates to their SDK components.

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Today, Amazon announced that an automatic update to its popular Kindle 2 e-reader will extend the device's battery life by 85% and add a native PDF reader to its repertoire of functions.

The Kindle 2 could previously stay on for four days with wireless connectivity activated, following the firmware update, Amazon says the device will be able to stay turned on for a whole week.

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Microsoft's Xbox 360 is no longer compatible with the first -- and only -- third party memory card, Datel's Max Memory, after the distribution of a Dashboard software update. In response, Datel has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft.

"Microsoft has taken steps to render inoperable the competing Datel memory card for no visible purpose other than to have that market entirely to themselves," said Marty Glick, the senior attorney representing Datel. "They accomplished their recent update by making a system change that will not recognize or allow operation of a memory card with greater capacity than their own. We believe that with the power Microsoft enjoys in the market for Xbox accessories this conduct is unlawful."

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Black Friday is just a week away and the demand for ebook readers looks to already be too great.

Earlier this week, Sony said its 3G-connected Daily Edition Reader may not arrive in time for the holidays. Preorders for the device began on Wednesday, but it will not ship until some time between December 18th and January 7th, and it is not expected to land in stores until after the holidays.

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Sony yesterday discussed its plans to open a download shop similar to iTunes or Amazon Digital Downloads.

Reportedly given the tentative name "Sony Online Service," the online store would make the many different types of Sony digital content available in a single place. The company has a number of content portals already, but each is geared toward a related piece of hardware and run by a different business unit of the giant Sony conglomerate.

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Google announced its open source Chrome OS last July and it has been a little more than a mystery to the wondering public since that time. Now, an official first look is mere hours away.

At 10:00 am PST (1:00 pm EST), Google will present a live webcast of Chrome OS, the search giant's attempt to "rethink what operating systems should be." Speakers this afternoon will include Sundar Pichai, Vice President of Product Management and Matthew Papakipos, Engineering Director for Google Chrome OS.

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As Time Warner continues the process of spinning AOL off into a separate, independent company, AOL will lose a third of its workforce. The spinoff is expected to be completed on December 9. In filings with the Securities and Exchange commission earlier this month, Time Warner said the split will cost more than $200 million in restructuring charges.

Today, AOL has reportedly instituted a voluntary layoff program, asking for 2,500 employees to give up their jobs in exchange for severance packages. If this number cannot be reached, AOL will begin laying off people anyway. The soon-to-be spun off company is looking to reduce its operating expenses by $300 million.

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Nokia has always been solid on its dedication to the Symbian platform, but a report from an N900 event yesterday cast some doubt on Symbian's future in certain branches of Nokia's product line, specifically the high-end N-series of smartphones.

I reached out to Nokia to find out exactly what is going on with Maemo and Symbian in the N-series, and received equal parts affirmation and denial.

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Technology market research company Gartner Inc. has released a report which predicts what the top ten mobile applications will be in 2012 based on current activity in the smartphone field, including such factors as consumer and industry interest, potential revenue, and existing business models.

Based upon this information, Gartner predicts the number one "killer app" that everyone will have on their mobile device will be one that is currently uncommon in the United States, but available elsewhere in the world: Money Transfer.

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Download Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 for Windows from Fileforum now.

Here's what happens when our beloved Scott M. Fulton, III is away from his test machine while covering PDC 2009: You get a Firefox beta announcement with none of the scores, charts, or metrics you're accustomed to getting. Instead you just a plain old "Go download this!" message from yours truly.

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