Discussion Counterpoint. Colleague Tim Conneally and I got into a heated debate about smartphone comparisons this morning. He has the Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone for review (and I -- whaaaaa -- don't). I suggested Tim do a comparison with Google-branded Galaxy Nexus, which we both have. He refused. Tim was quite adamant about it, too. His out-and-out refusal clearly taps into strong feelings about how products are compared.

We bantered back and forth over group chat, with neither of our positions changing. "Buyers make these product comparisons all the time", I expressed late in our debate. "I can see we won't agree. If I had the Lumia 900, I would compare them". But I don't, and Tim won't. So I suggested: "Let's ask the readers...something like: 'Would you like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Nokia Lumia 900 compared?'"

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Discussion Point. Joe Wilcox asked me to write an article comparing the Nokia Lumia 900 to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. I refused. Here is why. Read Joe's response.

Anyone who knows about marketing should readily understand market segmentation: it is a way of isolating customers/users/consumers by type. It could be geographically, it could be demographically, it could be psychographically, or it could be through some other defining characteristic.

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When you’re looking to capture a moment in time then your first instinct might be to take a still photo. Getting this right is a challenge, though -- it takes skill and great timing to produce quality results.

And while taking a video seems easier, you can often end up with too much information -- shaky camerawork, noise and background clutter -- which only takes away from what should be the real focus of your movie. But now there’s a third option, in Microsoft Research’s newly-released Cliplets, which produces something that’s part still photo, yet also includes motion in just the area that matters to you.

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eBay's payment processing subsidiary PayPal is no longer relegated to online purchases and auctions. Mobile payment app Tabbedout on Tuesday announced it now includes PayPal as an option to let users pay their bar tab or restaurant bill if they happen to be in Austin, Texas. And in just three days, a lot of people are going to be happening through Austin for the SXSW Interactive, Film, and Music Festival.

The Tabbedout mobile application is available for free on Android and iOS, and it lets bar and restaurant patrons open, view and pay their tab with their credit card on a smartphone. By doing this, the idea is that servers can more quickly and easily collect payment without actually having to process cards, come back for tips, and so forth. Within the app, the tab is kept, a tip calculator is included, and credit card data is stored locally and password protected. The system, of course, only works if a restaurant or bar has partnered with Tabbedout, and the startup has about 400 partnerships thus far.

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