1: The PC Decrapifier

Well, it should be pretty clear from the name what The PC Decrapifier does. This zero-install application, shown in Figure A, easily removes the most common pieces of junk that clutter up a new Windows PC. You can run it from a USB drive (great for desktop support technicians), and it has two low-priced purchase plans, one for commercial use and one for individuals.

Figure A

The PC Decrapifier

2: SlimComputer

SlimComputer (Figure B) doesn’t just remove crapware. It also performs basic performance tuning, such as disabling services and reordering startup items. It can remove some of the less intrusive items, too, like links to trial offers. SlimComputer is interesting in that users can give feedback on what applications should be included in the scans, and it uses a cloud-based system to get this crowdsourced data when you run a scan.

Figure B

SlimComputer

3: WinPatrol

WinPatrol (Figure C) is not nearly as automated as some of the other tools on this list, but what it lacks in automation, it makes up for with control. WinPatrol provides extensive lists of the applications on your system and gives you the choice to disable or remove them. There is a feature-limited free edition as well as a paid version.

Figure C

WinPatrol

4: Revo Uninstaller

Revo Uninstaller (Figure D) is an app in the tradition of the uninstallers that were popular in the Windows 9X era. It can show the installed applications on your system and remove them, of course. But more important, it can look at applications that are already gone, find the traces of them that were left over, and give them the heave-ho as well. In addition, it can monitor what occurs during an installation and use that data to completely uninstall an application. Revo Uninstaller has free and paid versions.

Figure D

Revo Uninstaller

5: CCleaner

After you have uninstalled the crapware, use CCleaner (Figure E) to make sure that no traces of it are left behind. CCleaner can also perform the basic tasks of uninstalling software and detecting what runs on startup. It comes in a free edition, a “home” edition, and a commercial user edition. There is also a portable version for running from a USB drive that does not require an installation of its own.

Figure E

CCleaner

Update: Downloadable version also available.( Save time by installing this reg entry)

Here’s the quick registry hack to get this working. As usual, back up your registry just in case. You will want to browse down to this key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

Once you are at that key, right click and choose the New Key option:

Now you will double-click on the (Default) value and enter the following:

{C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

Click OK and continue.

If you want to enable Move To, you will repeat the same steps, except creating a new key named Move To, and using this value:

{C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

Now when you right click on a file or folder, you should see the following options:

Let’s click Copy To Folder just to see what happens….

And that’s it. Useful!

1: The UI

The Android UI is absolutely miserable to use. It does not matter what add-ons you include to spruce it up, the base functionality of the operating system is just a train wreck. Every minor piece of functionality requires significant numbers of gestures, and many of those gestures are poorly chosen. You sometimes wonder if the same company that made the Google search engine and Gmail also produces Android. Every competing product I’ve used (other than Windows Mobile 6.X) has an easier-to-use interface. And as phones achieve feature set parity, the UI becomes an important selling point.

2: Resource management

Android phones have horrible resource management, and it is because Android has a wide open development model. It is not unusual to see phones requiring reboots multiple times a week (if not in a day) because of the resource crunch. Android is the first mainstream OS since Windows 3.1 or perhaps Windows 95 that has required “average users” to know how to forcibly close processes to avoid reboots. That is not a good sign.

3: Application sandboxing

Another problem with the application model is that applications can trample all over the operating system and files. As both iOS and WP7 have proven, proper sandboxing can lead to excellent reliability and a much more secure phone.

4: Sync

The sync experience of Android is stuck in the stone age as far as I am concerned. Both the iTunes and Zune experiences with iOS and WP7 are flawed to be sure, but Android does not even have that. On my last Android phone, I had to treat it like an external hard drive and then attempt to find the camera’s pictures each time. While it can be argued that the wired sync to a PC is becoming less important with the cloud’s rise and the PC’s declining use, you still have to ask, “Where’s the Android cloud sync?” Windows 8 is automatically syncing application information to the cloud, Amazon’s new tablets do cloud sync, iOS has iCloud, but Android isn’t even talking “cloud” yet.

5: The marketplace

The Android marketplace is messy. It’s not just hard to find applications that interest you, but the contents of the marketplace are a disaster. Malware? Check. Buggy apps? Check. Incompatible apps? Check. Look through the Android marketplace, and you’ll see that far too many apps are filled with reviews along the line of “doesn’t work with the arrow button on my phone” and “screen size is wrong for my phone.” While these issues are due to fragmentation of the Android ecosystem, the Android marketplace does not do anything to test applications or provide system requirements beyond bare minimum details.

6: Content partnerships

Android’s competitors are working hard to deliver content directly to the phones. Even if Google does not want to run a music and video store, it could be partnering with someone else to do it. Not developing a close relationship with Amazon was a big mistake I think, and now the only major independent content provider left to work with is Netflix, which lacks music. The lack of partners for content is what fundamentally sank Google TV’s debut, along with significant UI issues.

7: The patent mess

In the last year or so, the patent situation around Android has gotten downright frightening. The most troubling is the Java suit with Oracle. Google was forced to buy Motorola Mobility not because it wanted a hardware arm, but because it needed patents. Can it turn about Motorola Mobility and make it a big profit center? Possibly, but that’s not the point. Google is now spending billions of dollars to stop the bleeding from the patent disaster, and it is scaring away potential partners. These patent lawsuits are so bad that it looks like Microsoft makes more money from Android than anyone else, and some OEMs pay more to use Android than they would to license WP7. That is not a healthy situation, and Google needs to fix it pronto.

8: Form factors

Google has spent a lot of time trying to penetrate the tablet market, and meanwhile, its smartphone progress has stalled. At the same time, Google poured a ton of resources into the Google TV fiasco. Those resources could have (and should have) gone into tablets and phones. Google needs to realize that it can do only so many things at once, and in this case, it isn’t handling the basics properly so it can’t be messing around with things like TVs.

9: Support

With a system as wide open as Android, support issues are fairly common. Between the customizations that OEMs are making, the customizations that carriers are adding, and the application model that lets customers add all sorts of system-level functionality, it is no surprise that determining the root cause of a problem is virtually impossible. To make matters worse, if you want an answer beyond resetting the phone to factory defaults, the best you can do is to hit Google’s forums. This may be acceptable for a free phone, but not for people who are spending big bucks on premium devices, particularly tablets. Google needs to step it up on the support side if it wants to avoid alienating customers.

10: Security

Android’s Windows 95 development model has given it Windows 95 security issues. The Android security model is (barely) appropriate for a non-networked operating system that can run only one application at a time (think MS-DOS). But like MS-DOS, when multiple applications can run at once and the device is plugged into a network, all the security holes become quickly apparent.

Viruses for Android are now running wild; some are even in applications bought from the Android marketplace. Applications can do all sorts of things to run up a big data bill or access private information without the user even realizing it. It’s hard to believe, but Google managed to create an insecure Linux distribution! While the damage is still fairly limited, Android does not enjoy the monopoly position that Windows had in the 1990s, which allowed it to be riddled with security bugs without losing market share. How many widespread public security breaches will it take before IT administrators ban Android from their networks and consumers won’t touch it either?

1: Produce good content

We often forget what the purpose of a search engine is: to allow people to find what they are looking for! All the algorithms of a search engine are designed to support this end. It’s been my experience that good, high quality content tends to rise to the top in search engines. They recognize it as being good, and when other people see it, they will link to it.

2: Analyze your traffic

Looking at your Web traffic with a tool like Google Analytics will help you get a handle on what kinds of things your users are looking for. Once you know what keywords attract them and what types of sites point to which pages on your site, you can play to your strengths and try to bring up your weaknesses. For example, if you are trying to score well for one keyword but you see than another keyword is bringing you a lot more traffic, it may mean that you need to change strategies or perhaps focus on the more popular keyword.

3: Go with text, not images, AJAX, or other multimedia

Search engines have made great strides in improving their ability to read text in Flash, run AJAX applications, and so on. But still, it’s best to not depend on it happening. While presenting a different set of content to a search engine (aka “cloaking”) can get you in trouble with them, there is no reason why you shouldn’t make your site easier for search engines to work with, like making sure that there are text-only versions of your content available.

4: Write quality HTML

Writing clean HTML goes a long way toward signaling to the search engines what text is important and what isn’t. It also makes it easier for the search engines to get at that oh-so-important content that users are trying to find. By writing clean HTML, you are making it easier for the search engine to send traffic to your site.

5: Use a sitemap

Making a sitemap and submitting it to the search engines is like giving them a GPS for your site. Instead of counting on their crawlers to discover all the hard-to-find pages (remember, crawlers have a time budget they spend on each page), the sitemap tells them exactly where to go and how often to go there. It speeds up the time to get indexed and ensures that important pages are found. There are even automated tools to make the sitemap for you.

6: Do not pay for links…

We all know that inbound links are important to your site’s rankings. But did you know that paying for them can get you penalized pretty badly? A number of high profile sites have been burned because their SEO team paid for links. How did they get caught? In some cases, they were turned in by other sites that noticed fishy links. But the engines are starting to use algorithms to detect it, too. Don’t pay for links; you will regret it in the long run.

7: …but work for links!

Just because you can’t pay for links doesn’t mean that you can or should rely on them to grow in a purely organic fashion. There are lots of honest, legitimate ways to encourage other sites to give you links. Remember, most sites now set up their comments and forums so that you don’t get much (if any) “link juice” from putting your Web site’s URL there. At the same time, there is nothing stopping you from writing an article for a site and asking them to link to yours or requesting that they give a link to your site where appropriate. Look for sites that complement your offerings instead of competing.

8: Use canonical URLs

Search engines like it when only one URL on your site contains any particular piece of content; otherwise, they start spreading the ranking across multiple URLs. It’s even worse for you when those different URLs all actually point to the same page. By using canonical URLs, you can make sure that only one URL to a page is used by the search engines.

9: Include metadata

No, I don’t mean the “meta” tags like keywords, which search engines stopped paying attention to years ago. I mean things like the alt text on images, titles to links, page titles, and so on. These are all useful cues to search engines. Adding them to your existing content is fairly easy, albeit time consuming and tedious. Also, metadata should be relevant. Putting alt text like “img001.jpg” on a file named “img001.jpg” is not going to help you too much.

10: Cut the fat

As mentioned previously, search engines limit the time they spend on any given site each time they make an indexing pass. In addition, they are starting to take page load speed into account in their rankings. Slow pages make their users unhappy, so they prefer to rank fast pages higher. Shrinking your file sizes by minifying your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript not only allows the search engine to index more pages at a time, but it can provide a small boost in rankings. Oh, and it will make your users happier too!

1: Software fragmentation

Simply put, there are too many versions of the Android operating system in circulation. This means that developers can’t just focus on the most recent versions of the OS; not everyone has upgraded. It’s not easy for users to upgrade their operating systems, and carriers have little incentive to do so. For example, we bought an Android phone in February 2011 that came equipped with Android 2.1. Version 2.2 had been released way back in July of 2010!

Workaround: Learn which operating systems are most popular and develop with the latest widely adopted version in mind. Get to know handsets that are popular among your customers and familiarize yourself with the carriers’ upgrade schedules. Another alternative is the lowest common denominator approach: Don’t make an app that won’t work on the oldest OS that’s still in wide circulation.

2: Hardware fragmentation

Developing for the iPhone is easy from the hardware perspective. There are currently only five devices running iOS. By contrast, there are at least 170 running Android, with widely varying features, from keyboards (or lack thereof) to cameras to buttons, plus different screen shapes and sizes. It’s a development nightmare.

Workaround: Again, market research. Find out which handsets are most popular with your target audience and develop for those first. Expand from there if and when possible.

3: Lack of software/hardware integration

Button A on Handset 1 does Function X. The problem? Button A on Handset 2 does Function Y. Here’s a look at the variety of button configurations. Whoa. So obviously, you can’t design an app that relies on Button A to do the same thing for everyone. Users may grow frustrated and give up on an app that doesn’t perform intuitively.

Workaround: Once you understand which phones your users prefer and how they use features like touchscreens and keyboards, you can start designing an app that (hopefully) operates intuitively for most of your users. Focus groups or crowdsourcing through social media are two good ways to gather this information, but you will also want to play around with many different Android handsets yourself to get a feel for the user experience.

4: Too many carriers making too many changes to the core OS

Unlike Apple, whose devices are available only on two carriers in the U.S., Android phones are carried by all U.S. cell phone companies. And while Apple is strict when it comes to controlling the features of its phones, Android’s carriers have leeway to modify the OS for their purposes, adding, subtracting, and modifying features and libraries at will. This compounds fragmentation problems.

Workaround: Find out which carriers your users gravitate toward and work with their specifications first. At the moment, Verizon and Sprint have the lead, but be sure to keep an eye on the market and shift your development resources accordingly.

5: Google’s lack of authority

Google has taken a deliberately hands-off stance when it comes to the Android OS. Open source code provides a low barrier to entry for app developers, which can be a blessing and a curse. A lot of developers (myself included) would like to see Google police the ecosystem better, implementing more rigorous standards and an app review process. If Android provided more universal UI guidelines (and components) like Apple’s, we might see better apps as a result.

Workaround: The good news is that Google seems to be moving in the right direction with the upcoming OS update. It claims that the new version will make it easier to produce attractive, user-friendly apps for Android. We’ll see.

6: Security issues

Lack of governance in the Android market has led to a proliferation of malware programs that can masquerade as trusted apps. The openness of Android has made it susceptible to attack. To make matters worse, unlike traditional open source software, fragmentation on Android makes it difficult to roll out fixes, so many devices remain vulnerable. It’s hard to keep customers happy and retain trust when security problems can’t be fixed quickly.

Workaround: Monitor your apps for security issues and stay tuned to the happenings in the platform. When security problems do arise, have a plan to ensure that your users understand the scope of the problem and the extent to which it affects your application.

7: Market research cost

As mentioned, understanding your customer is the key to getting an Android app right. This, of course, requires lots of research into how customers use the software and hardware on their phones. And, yes, that takes time and can therefore be an expensive endeavor for developers to undertake.

Workaround: If you’re committed to developing on Android, just dig in. Google does provide some user statistics that can get you started. But the best thing you can do is to use focus groups and customer surveys to understand your user base’s behaviors and then allocate development resources appropriately.

8: Patent issues

In light of the recent lawsuits, there is a possibility that certain Android features could be declared in violation of patent law. Manufacturers might also be forced to pay licensing fees. If this happens, it could have a huge impact on the Android platform. It’s impossible to guess now how it will turn out, but this litigation is enough to make some people nervous about dedicating development manpower to Android.

Workaround: There’s nothing to be done about this now, but mobile app companies would be wise to stay abreast of this litigation and make development decisions accordingly. Google seems to be taking a strong stance against the patent litigation, so there’s good reason to believe they won’t just roll over on the platform.

9: iPad domination

As of now, Apple’s iPad has effectively cornered the market on tablets. That isn’t to say that we never will see a strong competitor (or many), but it doesn’t exist yet. For a lot of developers, it’s just not worth developing for the Android tablet platform yet.

Workaround: For now, just keep an eye on the tablet market. When a strong alternative with a competitive price tag does find its way to market (and they’re getting closer), you will want to be ready to develop on it. You should also consider rich, HTML5-based Web apps that work well on tablets until you can develop native apps for Android.

10: The Android Market search engine

The irony is painful. Google’s Android marketplace just isn’t very searchable. In some cases, even searching for an app by its exact title won’t bring it up. There are a lot of apps in the marketplace, and it’s hard to be sure yours will be found. The marketplace also doesn’t have a recommendation function, forcing customers to choose between apps without any reliable method for separating the wheat from the chaff.

Workaround: The best thing you can do is to understand how the app marketplace works and use search engine optimization techniques that take this into account. For example, while the Apple store seems to favor titles when returning searches, the Android store favors app descriptions. It may also be worth looking into secondary app marketplaces like Evernote’s Trunk. This can be a great way to drive potential customers to your app and to increase the likelihood of being found within the Android marketplace.

The upside

Of course, it’s worth noting that there are some really cool aspects of developing for Android. The open source nature of the Google operating system means developers have a good amount of leeway, for better or worse. Creative developers with good ideas may find that they can pioneer more interesting apps than they could on the closed iOS. Google also doesn’t police apps entering its marketplace, so getting in is as simple as submission. If you can develop an Android app that works intuitively, looks great, and can be found in the marketplace, you stand a strong chance of capitalizing on this strong and growing market.

Anand Rajaram is the cofounder and chief product officer for OfficeDrop, a digital filing cabinet with scan-to-cloud apps for Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, and Android. Anand has extensive experience developing Web/mobile apps and playing Angry Birds. Shockingly, he prefers iOS.

1: Kevin Mitnick

Kevin Mitnick, once considered the most-wanted cybercriminal in the United States, is often touted as the poster child of computer hacking. Kevin mastered an early form of social engineering (scamming operators) and computer hacking to gain access to and modify telephony switching systems. After a very public two-year chase, arrest ,and incarceration, the hacker community collectively rose in protest against what they viewed as a witch hunt.

2: Robert Tappan Morris

On November 2, 1988, Robert Morris released a worm that brought down one-tenth of the Internet. With the need for social acceptance that seems to infect many young hackers, Morris made the mistake of chatting about his worm for months before he actually released it on the Internet, so it didn’t take long for the police to track him down. Morris said it was just a stunt and added that he truly regretted wreaking $15 million worth of damage, the estimated amount of carnage caused by his worm.

3: Vladimir Levin

Seeming like the opening of a James Bond movie, Vladimir Levin was working on his laptop in 1994 from his St. Petersburg, Russia, apartment. He transferred $10 million from Citibank clients to his own accounts around the world. As with most Bond movies, Levin’s career as a hacker was short lived — with a capture, imprisonment, and recovery of all but $400,000 of the original $10 million.

4: Yan Romanowski

Yan Romanowski, also known as MafiaBoy, was arrested in February 2000 for launching a denial-of-service attack that brought down many of the Internet’s largest sites, including Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo. Yan’s lawyer claimed, “If [MafiaBoy] had used all his powers, he could have done unimaginable damage.” It is widely believed that Romanowski is no more than a script kiddie. His attacks, however successful, were implemented using computer scripts that clogged networks full of garbage data.

5: Kevin Poulsen

Kevin Poulsen, known as Dark Dante in the hacker community, specialized in hacking phone systems, particularly radio stations. This talent allowed only calls originating from his house to make it through to the station, assuring him of wins in listener radio contests. His iconic 1991 hack was a takeover of all of the telephone lines for the Los Angeles KIIS-FM radio station, guaranteeing that he would be the 102nd caller and win the prize of a Porsche 944 S2. The bold Poulsen was wanted by the FBI for federal computer hacking at the same time he was winning the Porsche and $20,000 in prize money at a separate station. Poulsen spent 51 months in a federal prison, the longest sentence of a cybercriminal at that time.

6: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak

The now-famous founders of Apple Computer spent part of their youth as hackers. They spent their pre-Apple days (circa 1971) building Blue Box devices (an early phreaking tool allowing users to make long distance calls without the financial charges) and selling them to fellow students at the University of California, Berkeley.

7: David Smith

Smith’s fame comes from being the author of the infamous email virus known as Melissa. According to Smith, the Melissa virus was never meant to cause harm, but its simple means of propagation (each infected computer sent out multiple infected emails) overloaded computer systems and servers around the world. Smith’s virus was unusual in that it was originally hidden in a file containing passwords to 80 well-known pornography Web sites. Even though more than 60,000 email viruses have been discovered, Smith is the only person to go to federal prison in the United States for sending one.

8: Jonathan James

James gained notoriety when he became the first juvenile, at age 16, to be sent to prison for hacking. James specialized in hacking high-profile government systems, such as NASA and the Department of Defense. He was reported to have stolen software worth more than $1.7 million.

9: George Hotz

While George Hotz may be a renowned jailbreak artist, he’s best known for being named as the primary reason for the April 2011 PlayStation breach. As one of the first hackers to jailbreak the Sony PlayStation 3, Hotz found himself in the middle of a very mean, public, and messy court battle with Sony — perhaps because of his public release of his jailbreaking methods. In stated retaliation, the hacker group Anonymous attacked Sony in what has been the most costly security break of all time. Hotz denied any responsibility for the attack and said, “Running homebrew and exploring security on your devices is cool; hacking into someone else’s server and stealing databases of user info is not cool.”

10: Gary McKinnon

In 2002, a decidedly odd message appeared on a U.S. Army computer: “Your security system is crap,” it read. “I am Solo. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels.” It was later found to be the work of Gary McKinnon, a Scottish system administrator. Gary has been accused of mounting the largest ever hack of U.S. government computer networks — including Army, Air Force, Navy, and NASA systems. The court has recommended that McKinnon be extradited to the United States to face charges of illegally accessing 97 computers, causing $700,000 in damage. Adding even more interest to McKinnon’s actions is his insistence that much of his hacking was in search of information on UFOs, information he believed the U.S. government was hiding in its military computers.

PicsIn Photo Studio

PicsIn Photo Studio hasn’t been around long, but has already gotten quite a bit of attention. It’s a great Android app that’s packed full of fun features. PicsIn allows you to add stickers, text, frames, clipart, and quite a few other effects to your pictures. You’ll also have the ability to draw on you photos using several funky brushes. There are a few other cool features to mention including the Kaleidoscope and Goo modes. Once you’re done with your masterpieces, you can share them through Facebook, Flickr, SMS or Email. Overall, PicsIn is a great photo app, that has a lot of cool features. You can grab it for free over at the Android market.

WireGoggles

You can use WireGoggles to see real-time wireframe outlinesof whatever you point your camera at. There are 16 different color schemes to choose from, or you can make your own. The free version just lets you view things, but you can’t take a picture. The Full version lets you take pictures & record video which is awesome. Dozing Cat Software has said they will be including audio in the future, and I personally can’t wait for it. All of the effects were cool, but the “Matrix” effect was my favorite by far.

Retro Camera

Retro Camera is one of my favorite photo apps on my phone. The program lets you take pictures with an old-school vibe. There are 5 different cameras to choose from like the pinhole, xolaroid & the fudgecam. Each camera has different presets such as saturation, scratches, and contrast that will give your pictures a retro feel. There are free and paid (ad-free) versions available in the market.

Pro HDR Camera

Pro HDR Camera is a cool camera application from EyeApps. If you’re not familiar with the term HDR it means High Dynamic Range. If you’ve seen pictures where the colors really stand out, chances are they have may have used HDR. There are programs that allow you to do simliar things, but HDR is photography is the sole purpose of this app. There isn’t a free version available at this time. Pro HDR Camera is available for 1.99, or if you need some more info you can check out a full review at android apps.

FatBooth

Last but not least, we have FatBooth. I had to put it on the list for the fun factor alone. This Android app lets you take pictures of your friends and make them fat. It has auto-cropping face detection along with a gallery features. When you are done distorting your buddies faces, you can share the pics with the world via Facebook, Twitter, and Email. Fatbooth is a lot of fun, and best of all it’s free.

1: Browsing

Let me first say I do like the Safari browser on the iPhone. It’s fast, it’s reliable, it’s stable. But flexible? Flash? Monopolistic? Yes Safari is the only browser for the iPhone, and that browser still does not do Flash. However, the Android browser is one of the best browsers on the mobile market. On my Motorola Milestone, I have Opera Mini, Dolphin, and the default Browser. I haven’t used Opera Mini since I used it a couple of times upon installation. Dolphin is outstanding, with its use of Tabs and Gestures. But the default Android browser just can’t be beat. It usually loads pages faster than Safari, has Flash support, and simply does everything a browser should do.

2: Desktop

Instead of just having icons littering your phone’s desktop (like the iPhone), the Android phone adds widgets to the desktop. These widgets tend to have an actual purpose. For example:

• The Twitter Widget allows you to update your Twitter status from your mobile desktop.
• The People Widget allows you to enable different actions for different contacts right from your desktop (say you want to call your wife with a single click and text your child from a single click).
• The Messages Widget allows you to instantly see your email from the desktop.

The Android desktop is on a completely different level from the iPhone desktop. To compare them is actually unfair. Apples to Éclairs as it were.

3: Connectivity

On one of the “pages” of my Hero desktop, I have four buttons:

• Turn on/off bluetooth
• Turn on/off Wi-Fi
• Turn on/off Mobile Network
• Turn on/off GPS

These buttons let you instantly switch on or off the various connectivity options, which will go a long way toward conserving battery life. There is also an app in the Market called Y5, which will turn off Wi-Fi automatically when no known wireless network is available. To do any of this on the iPhone, you have to go into the Settings screen and navigate your way around the various options.

4: PC connection

Unlike the iPhone, you don’t need to have iTunes to manage your phone. Now, I say this with a bit of a chewed-up tongue because Android can’t sync with the Linux desktop yet. That’s okay for now. But Android can mount the SD card so that it is usable (via drag and drop) by any operating system. On this you can add music and files, which will then be usable on the phone. Simple.

5: Multi-notification

One of the issues I’ve always had with the iPhone is its notification system. Basically, it depends upon a single system that not all applications have access too. For instance, if you are a Twitterer, you can find out if you have updates only by opening the Twitter app on the iPhone. With Android, the apps have access to the notification system and can all report. The notification bar on the Android phone can alert you to new voice messages, email messages, Facebook notifications, new Gmail, new text messages, and much more. If an app has a notification, it can let you know quickly, and in the background.

6: Endless personalization

I hesitate to place this on the list because so many readers seem to think user-configuration is worthless. It’s not. The Android phone allows users to configure their mobile to look and behave exactly how they want it. If you’re a social network power user, you can have a screen for Facebook, one for Twitter, one for texting, and one for Flickr. Or if you are a business user, you can have a screen for contacts, for your calendar, for gmail, for email, for RSS, and more. Not only can you configure the desktop the way you want, you can configure the behaviour of your phone. Set up default actions for different contacts — even add an entirely different desktop, should you want. The possibilities are endless with the Android phone. With the iPhone, you’re pretty much limited to what Apple says.

7: Market

Yes, Apple has an app for that. But so does Android. And chances are, the Android app is free and works as well (or better) than the iPhone app. And, believe it or not, there are thousands of apps in the Android Market. Apple does not (at least yet) have a patent on an application for just about everything. Give it time though. And installing applications on your Android phone is actually easier than it is on the iPhone. For free applications, you don’t have to worry about entering a password every time you try to install anything. And you do not have to link to Apple’s iTunes store to purchase applications from the Android Market. For those apps that have a price, you enter your information on the Google Market one time and you’re done.

8: Google integration

This one is almost not fair, since Android was built with the intention of integrating with Google. But wow does it integrate well. Want to search Google? Simply click the search button, enter your search string, and you’re off and running. Did I mention Google Voice? Yes, the Android has an app for that.

9: Open Source

Why does being open make Android better than iPhone? For the same reason that being open helps Linux: a planet full of developers with the ability to aid Android’s developers. Anyone can get access to the source of Android to better the system. This is also a double-edged sword, in that it allows those will less-than-ideal intentions to discover any weakness of the phone. But that can be seen as an indirect plus because when weaknesses are found in the open source community, they are quickly fixed. I assume that this tradition will extend to the Android phone. iPhone open? You’re kidding right?

10: Open to carriers

This is yet another reason why Android is superior. If you want an iPhone (at least for the time being), you better be open to limited carriers. If you don’t like Airtel or Aircel or AT&T and you still want an iPhone, you better be open to doing a little jail breaking or move to another country. If you want an Android phone, you can join any number of carriers and have your choice of any number of outstanding phones using Android. No lock down.

Your take

What do you think: Are these reasons enough to get you to move from your iPhone to an Android phone? If not, tell us why you prefer the iPhone. And if you aren’t sure, just grab an Android phone and play around with it. You might quickly change your mind.

The July issue of the Dice report reveals, among other things, the top searches of emerging skills by hiring managers in the Dice resume database. The top five skills are:

1. iRise–an enterprise visualization platform used to quickly assemble working previews of business software that mimic the exact look, feel and behavior of the final product before any coding.
2. COTS–Commercial Off The Shelf technology. Embedded COTS technology is used in a number of computer systems across a broad range of military and government applications.
3. Crystal SDK–a service joining the increasingly crowded social network market for iPhone games.
4. PeopleSoft Security–that provides an agency with a well-documented, defendable user access security model.
5. NetApp–an integrated solution that enables storage, delivery, and management of network data and content

To download the entire Dice report, click here.

The new MacBook Airs with updated Intel Sandy Bridge processors Core i series processor are due to hit any day along with OS X Lion. The new Airs are rumored to to feature a high-speed Thunderbolt port and perhaps a lighted keyboard while retaining the same form factor.

Back in January, the Vizio XVT3D6SP series was the Best of CES winner in the TV category. On top of offering passive 3D and a full-array LED backlight with local dimming, the XVT3D6SP series is loaded with features. Here’s what editor David Katzamier had to say about it:

"The Vizio XVT3D6SP series is billed as a complement to the company’s new Android phone and tablet. It boasts a custom Google TV interface and a beefed-up version of VIA (Vizio Internet Apps), our favorite Internet TV suite of last year. It also has a spiffy new remote that replaces a trendy touch screen with a much more useful touch pad, a la your favorite laptop PC. Finally it boasts passive 3D (see below) and all of the full-array local-dimming LED goodness we liked so much on the XVT3SV series. Oh yeah: it’s also the first TV announced with embedded OnLive gaming (video)."

Rumor has it that the Samsung Nexus Prime, due out late this year, will be the first smartphone to run Android Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). Here’s what Scott Webster had to say about it on a post on CNET:

"Keeping with other Pure Google experience smartphones, the Nexus Prime is expected to be devoid of any carrier customization or pre-loaded applications. Rumors also have been swirling that the first Ice Cream Sandwich handset would also be notable for another absence, physical buttons. And given that the next iteration of Android blends parts of Honeycomb and Gingerbread, it’s very possible that any 4.0+ devices could operate without hard keys.

"The "monster-sized" screen will be branded as a "Super AMOLED HD" display, matching up with previous reports of a 720p resolution. For the sake of comparison, today’s top Android smart phones feature qHD screens that operate at 960×540 resolution, whereas mid-range devices now typically run with 800×480 resolution."

Rumor has it that the Nexus Prime (or whatever name the device ends up with) will also have a next-generation dual-core processor running ion the 1.2-1.5 GHZ range

While the Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color isn’t a full-fledged Android tablet (with Android Market) unless you root it and install custom firmware, it is the best-selling Android-based tablet out there right now, priced at a modest $249.

Before the holiday buying season we expect that Barnes & Noble will upgrade it, perhaps as soon as late October. We doubt the design will change dramatically (if at all), but we do think it will get a faster processor and some other small but significant improvements.

The Motorola Droid Bionic is due to hit very soon and will be among the few Verizon phones to work on the carrier’s new 4G LTE network. Overall, it has impressive specs, which CNET editor Nicole Lee summarized back at CES in January (watch her first-look video):

"Aside from 4G and the dual-core processors, the Droid Bionic also has 512MB DDR2 RAM; HDMI mirroring (so you can view video on both the phone and the TV when they’re connected); 1080p video playback; 8-megapixel camera on the rear plus a front-facing VGA camera for video calls; Wi-Fi, of course; mobile Wi-Fi hot spot for up to five devices (subject to carrier fees); and since it ships with Android 2.2, the WebKit browser also plays in-browser Flash video

Will Amazon put out a touch-screen Kindle? Or will it release an even more affordable non-touch model to follow up on the success of the Kindle 3? Speculation is heating up as we head into August, which is when Amazon revealed the Kindle 3 last year.

It doesn’t seem like there’s much more that Apple can do with the iPod Touch, but there’s talk of an added 3G option (you’ll have to pay for service) and the possibility of a jumbo Touch that might also qualify as an iPad Mini.

Sony’s next portable gaming console, the PlayStation Vita, ups the ante in terms of graphics and features. But it remains to be seen whether the $249 Vita (or $299 with 3G) will be a hit after Sony experienced such a tepid reception for the PlayStation Go.

Due to hit this fall, the Vita has built-in WiFi, dual joysticks, multitouch 5-inch OLED screen, front and rear touchpads, and front and rear cameras.

Rumor has it that Amazon will be releasing two new Android tablets by year’s end. The smaller model may have a 7-inch screen and be something along the lines of the Nook Color but feature a more powerful processor (and be aggressively priced). A larger 10-inch model will allegedly be designed to compete with the iPad.

Will the iPhone 5 have an all new design or simply retain the iPhone 4′s chassis and offer such upgrades as a faster A5 processor and improved camera? And will it be a true 4G phone? At this point, no one knows for sure but all signs point to a Fall release date for the next-generation iPhone, whatever it’s called.

If you know of any that we missed, please post in the comments section.