When it comes to the long awaited iPad killer, there apparently have been a long list of candidates to have emerged over the years ranging from the Blackberry Playbook to Google’s rumored Chromepad to even various Android tablets.

While the latter does have the potential to match iOS, most of the Android tablets (like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab) sport a much smaller size than the iPad, despite being priced about the same as Steve Jobs magical device.

Unless a competitor can match the iPad’s size and price, Apple will continue to dominate the tablet arena leaving everyone else to fight for second place.

While I have yet to see a real challenger emerge, HP could be the company to make Apple nervous regarding their latest tablet revelation. More →

For many months now I’ve been hearing rumors about Google Voice’s number porting service which will allow users to import their mobile number into the hands of the search engine giant.

Apparently a few lucky users were blessed with the ability to import their mobile numbers, and (more importantly) the fee one has to pay in order to activate the feature.

Google Voice users may soon be able to turn their cellphone numbers into their central Google Voice number for $20. The search giant recently started testing a number porting service for Google Voice with a small group of users. The feature requires you to cancel your mobile contract and move your phone number from your carrier to Google. (PC World)

Honestly this is something I’ve been thinking about doing ever since the Verizon iPhone made it’s debut, as importing my number will give me more control (especially when it comes to phone spam).

Google is still being tight lipped regarding when this feature will be released to the masses, although with more users partaking of the beta, it may only be a matter of time before it launches to the public.

Although Google Voice still has a long ways to go before it can be a near replacement of ones cell service (as they currently do not support MMS), their number porting service probably has a few carriers nervous (at least those within the US).

After remaining exclusive upon Windows Mobile 7, Microsoft has apparently had a change of heart after announcing that they have ported OneNote to the iPhone.

If you use an iPhone, now you can experience the organizing power of OneNote right there. Starting today, you can download Microsoft OneNote Mobile for iPhone from the iTunes App Store, and it’s free for a limited time. [...]

OneNote Mobile for the iPhone lets you capture and review notes and lists on your phone. Notes are automatically backed up and synced with free Windows Live SkyDrive online storage, so that you can access them from virtually anywhere – your PC, phone, and browser. Collecting thoughts and ideas on the go is what OneNote was made for. (Microsoft Office Exec Blog)

The app thus far supports the iPhone although Microsoft has not announced whether they will consider making this a universal app for iPad lovers. More →

It looks like Verizon users who recently picked up a smartphone over the holiday season will now have the option to exchange their phones for an iPhone 4 as noted by their FAQ page.

Current Verizon customers who purchased and activated new smartphones, feature phones or certified pre-owned phones between 11/26/2010, and 01/10/2011, are eligible to receive up to a $200 Visa debit card when they purchase an iPhone 4 at full retail price by 02/28/2011 and return their existing phone. Note: This offer is only available on consumer accounts with five lines or less, who are purchasing iPhone 4 through Verizon Wireless retail stores, telesales, or through verizonwireless.com. (Verizon Wireless FAQ)

Upon the surface this deal looks great, but as others have noted DROID lovers (and other smartphone geeks on Verizon) will have to pay full price for the iPhone 4 before receiving the $200 VISA debit card.

This means that you will be spending at least $650 for the 16 GB Verizon iPhone making this decision extemley pricey for those of you with buyers remorse.

Honestly DROID lovers (and other smartphone owners)  might be better off spending the extra money on iPad 2.0 instead, as paying that much for a brand new iPhone 4 (especially in light of the button-less iPhone 5 debuting in June).

Despite all the criticisms about Steve Jobs walled garden, Apple has been able to produce a highly successful app store for iOS that is unmatched by rivals like Android (despite the latter outselling iOS last year).

In celebration of their 10 billionth download, Cupertino is giving away an iTunes gift card that would easily put the Macbook Air and Verizon iPad within reach.

As of today, nearly 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks. Download the 10 billionth app, and you could win a US $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. Just visit the App Store, and download what could be your best app yet. (via Apple.com)

Prizes and gift cards aside, Apple thus far is the only company that boasts how many billions (not millions) of total apps are downloaded, which might explain why developers are flocking towards iOS despite Cupertino’s draconian rules.

Android which is arguably Apple’s biggest threat was estimated to have a total of 289 million downloads last year (note: Apple was at 3 billion downloads around the same time), although Google has yet to release any official numbers for the Android app market.

(Hat Tip: Daring Fireball)

Despite having fewer developers than Apple’s iOS ecosystem, RIM has been making drastic improvements to their SDK in order to catch up to their rival.

The latest involves RIM’s latest update to their push notification system which should give developers one less excuse for avoiding the Blackberry OS.

BlackBerry Push Service allows you to efficiently and reliably deliver information to your users through a BlackBerry Java® or BlackBerry® WebWorks™ Application. It provides an easy-to-use server side API based on the open WAP Push Access protocol v2.2 standard. BlackBerry Push Service is available to all developers and web content providers. By using this service, you can make your application more engaging and help turn it into a Super App. (Blackberry Developers Blog)

According to RIM, the latest update will allow developers to send push notifications to active users as well as help cut down on sending push notifications to unsubscribed users (who might consider these alerts as spam).

Blackberry still has a long ways to go before they can catch up to iOS or even Android (the latter which is surprisingly outselling everyone right now), but it’s good to see the company isn’t calling it quits in their attempt to win the hearts of mobile developers.

Despite Apple rocking the mobile universe with the iPhone and iPad (both which are now on Verizon), both the iPhone and the iPad have always had one distinct feature: the physical button near the bottom.

However the upcoming iPhone and iPad (iPad 2.0 and iPhone 5) will reportedly drop the physical home button in order to bring a near complete touchscreen experience.

We just got some pretty wild information from one of our Apple sources and while it’s hard to believe at first, it does make sense. We have exclusively been told that the reason Apple just added multitouch gestures for the iPad in the latest iOS 4.3 beta is because the iPad will be losing the home button. Yes, we are told that Apple, at some point in time, will remove the home button from the iPad’s design. Instead of button taps, you will use new multitouch gestures to navigate to the home screen and also to launch the app switcher.

That’s not all, however. In addition to the home button disappearing from the iPad, we’re told that this change will make its way over to the iPhone as well. (via BGR)

Despite being a huge fan of touch screens in general (in fact I’m still waiting for Apple to develop a Macbook Air with a touch screen keyboard), ditching the physical home button could convince users switching from other devices (like the Blackberry) that the iPhone is not the device for them.

If the iPhone ever freezes or becomes unresponsive to touch, users (especially new comers) will end up panicking and may conclude that the device is not for them.

While the physical home button is as useless as Google’s “I’m feeling lucky” button, it does however reassure users that if all else fails they can hit the home button (along with the switch near the top) and do a hard reset.

Although I would still buy the iPhone 5 and iPad 2.0 button free, I’m sure that many of my friends will end up choosing Android as they have yet to place their entire faith in touch screens like yours truly.

Musicians big and small will now have a new reason to rejoice about Android as Google has just provided a new way to generate some revenue off of the millions of users who watch their music videos everyday.

Starting today, we’re welcoming VEVO’s extensive library of official music videos from artists like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Kanye West and U2 onto the YouTube 2.0 app for Android, available around the world. To watch these videos your mobile phone needs to be running Android 2.2 (Froyo).  [...]

In addition to these features, tens of thousands of YouTube partner videos will also now have pre-roll ads appear on the YouTube 2.0 app for Android. This not only expands distribution opportunities for partners like VEVO, but also opens up more revenue to partners distributing their content to mobile. Although we’ve tested ads on mobile over the years, this is our largest step in mobile monetization to date. (Official YouTube Blog)

Google also announced that the mobile ad market is on course to generate $1 billion in 2011, which should help convince a few artists to allow their music videos to be viewed upon mobile devices (as many artists only allow them to be viewed by desktops and notebooks).

With more users sporting an Android device, extending the ability to view their favorite videos upon their smartphone makes sense as it can help “starving artists” pay the bills (especially as the world climbs out of a recession).

The oft rumored Verizon iPhone has finally made its debut to the public to the delight of many frustrated AT&T users.

While the iPhone’s are practically identical save for the different radio chips (as Verizon uses CDMA), AT&T’s nemesis is promising one feature that may convince users to ditch Ma’Bell for Big Red.

The Verizon iPhone 4 will launch on February 3 exclusively first for current Verizon customers. It will launch on February 10 for everyone else. It will be the same $199.99 price for the 16 GB model and $299.99 for the 32 GB model. One key difference from the AT&T version is that will be able able to be used as a personal hotspot. (via TechCrunch)

Currently AT&T customers can only tether their iPhone to a laptop through a wire unless if they want to use it as a personal modem.

The fact that Verizon is allowing users to use the device as a hotspot means that users will potentially be able to connect more than one device to the iPhone as well as give them one less item to carry around with them.

While users can create a hotspot with an AT&T iPhone, they have to jailbreak (or hack) the device in order to utilize it.

Verizon’s iPhone page is already live, and it will be interesting to see if AT&T offers customers the ability to create hotspots in the future (as simply reducing iPhone prices may not convince many users to stay).

Update: Just talked to a Verizon representative, and it looks like FaceTime is unfortunately not available over Verizon’s network.

It looks like those of you sporting an Android smartphone will soon be able to catch your favorite shows upon Hulu without having to purchase an iPod Touch.

While Hulu’s embrace of Android is a good thing, it looks like they are taking a cue from Skype as far as Android adoption goes.

During Samsung’s keynote at CES today, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar announced for the first time that Hulu is working to bring the Hulu Plus subscription service to select Android™ phones (running Android OS 2.2), and gave the audience a sneak peek at the Hulu Plus Android app during the presentation. Hulu Plus will be available on select Android mobile phones in coming months; we’ll announce further details as soon as we have an official launch date and complete list of Hulu Plus-enabled Android phones. We hope you’re as excited as we are! (Official Hulu Blog)

Note: Emphasis mine.

Although it’s understandable why Hulu is choosing Android phones running Froyo (version 2.2), it doesn’t make any sense as to why they are limiting their market share to select Android models.

Unless Hulu is receiving cash from a major carrier (my guess would be either AT&T or Verizon), reducing their initial outreach upon Android will benefit rivals as well as encourage users to find ways to “hack” around the limitation.

Although companies like Hulu are probably nervous about Android due to the fact that it is designed to be hacked, hopefully the company will reconsider their position in light of Android’s increasing popularity.