With it, you can use Google search to find shows on your TV, and can even speak the search terms into your Android-enabled phone to do the search. It will find content on your TV channels and also on the web (Hulu, Amazon, YouTube, NBC, etc.) You can even run Android apps on the Google TV. Finally, technology is arriving where I would have thought we would be (I recently complained about how pathetic technology is in comparison to where I would have thought, based on our ability to land on the moon over 40 years — nearly half a century ago.)

But, what fascinates me as much as the Google TV is how competitive Google is, and in how many areas.

Google is rapidly gaining ground on Apple and RIM with sales of handsets that use its Android operating system: they are reported to be activating 100,000 Android devices per day, and their app store is now said to have over 50,000 apps. Frankly, the more I read about what Android can do, the more I think about getting an Android phone, despite the fact that I like my iPhone.

Google’s Chrome browser is also rapidly gaining in popularity, with over 70,000,000 installations said to be in use. I am currently switching to it as the default browser on my Mac, and am writing this article from within Chrome. And, just today, Google previewed the Chrome App Store.

And, as you have probably heard, Google is in the process of producing a tablet, which will be squarely aimed at competing with Apple’s iPad. I have held off on getting an iPad because I suspect the Google Tablet will be more to my liking (and will let me view web pages that have Flash content, unlike the iPad).

And, going head-to-head against Amazon’s Web Services unit yesterday, Google announced the availability of the Google App Engine, and also of Google Storage. I am especially interested in the latter, in that it might give me a more speedy CDN (content distribution network) than Amazon’s CloudFront. I started using Amazon’s CloudFront yesterday, after seeing recommendation after recommendation to use a CDN for static content, to serve a few of my web site’s images. My experience with it so far is that it actually seems to be slower than serving the images from my own site. For example, in the waterfall chart provided below, you can see that the image “mylogo” takes over a second to load, which is more than twice as long as it took to load when served directly from my server:

So, I am wondering whether I would be better served (pun intended) using Google’s Storage for these images? Admittedly, I have more testing to do, but at least I have a new option, thanks to Google’s competitiveness.

Is all this competitiveness from Google a good thing? Sure is in my view. For one, it forces the other competitor’s to stay on their toes and to try to outdo Google. And, Google supports open standards.

As promised above, here is the full two-hour introduction of Google TV from the Google IO event … you really should watch at least some of it, because it is truly fascinating.

I asked the receptionist if everyone had trouble with their cell phones there, and she replied that a lot did, but some didn’t. I tried to find out if Verizon did any better, but she didn’t know. I was perfectly willing at that point to switch to another carrier if it would give me better service. My love of the iPhone became irrelevant. I calmed down, though, when I found that my iPhone worked a few feet down the hall.

Then I thought “This is nuts. Absolute nuts. Warren Buffett doesn’t even have a cell phone, and here I am fretting over my mine for not having service for a little bit.”

Later that evening I found that Advertising Age had an article entitled Apparently That Text Can’t Wait — Not Even During Sex. Now, that is just f**king crazy (pun intended).

Then I thought more about it. How is it that I can’t seem to do without my cell phone, while Warren Buffett doesn’t even need one, despite being one of the busiest people on earth? Easy enough answer: his staff knows where he is at all times. If there is any sort of emergency requiring his attention, they get in touch with him. But with me, nobody knows where I am half the time, and I really don’t want to feel like I have to let anyone know where I am and what I’m up to. So, comparing with Warren Buffett’s situation is like comparing apples and oranges.

Maybe we have reached the point where our cell phones are part of our extended mind. Perhaps I should not be surprised at this, since I am among those who believe that mind and machine will be melding into a new type of human within the next 50 years or so. Not only are we now dependent on our mobile phones, we will become dependent on AI and the internet and our phones to the point that they will become part of us, connected directly to our brains, extending the pretty limited abilities of our frontal cortex.

What are your thoughts? Do you feel too dependent on your mobile phone and/or other technology? Do you also believe our dependency is only going to increase?

This article by Fake Steve Jobs is hilarious: A not-so-brief chat with Randall Stephenson of AT&T. It contains a lot of profanity, so if that turns you off, you may want to skip it. It is so funny, though. Since the article’s content is fictional, it may be a stretch for me to call this “news.” But, word of the article spread so quickly on Twitter and other social media that it had the appeal that news usually has.

AT&T has been getting slammed in the press for a good while now on problems with its 3G network, and recently was poorly rated by Consumer Reports in comparisons with other wireless providers. It could be that they are getting a bad rap, though. This NYT article makes some good points and claims that AT&T truly does have the best 3G network: AT&T Takes the Blame, Even for the iPhone’s Faults. Quoting from the article:

When I set about looking for independent data, however, to confirm the superior performance of Verizon’s network, I was astonished to discover that I had managed to get things exactly wrong. Despite the well-publicized problems in New York and San Francisco, AT&T seems to have the superior network nationwide.

Perhaps the biggest news is the “announcement” of a Google Phone. Search Engine Land has a good article that summarizes the current information on the phone. One thing that makes this look like a reality to me is that the WSJ is one of the sources claiming that the phone is real. Since it looks like this will be an unlocked GSM phone, it would be compatible with my existing AT&T network, so I would likely buy one just to see how it stacks up against my iPhone. I love competition, and am delighted to see Google attempting to make the current smartphone market more competitive.

That is why I am so disturbed by two articles I have just finished reading. In one, Mike Arrington asserts that Apple lied to the FCC in its response to the FCC regarding the Google Voice app for the iPhone. He lists several parts of Apple’s response to the FCC, along with his interpretations of why those parts are either a lie or a misrepresentation of facts. Because I am typing this using a Mac, and I have an iPhone in my shirt pocket, this bothers me. It would bother me anyway, but it is worsened because I am an Apple customer and “almost fanboi.”

In the second article, on another of Mike’s websites, Steve Gillmor says that “… Apple is conspiring with Google to force the FCC to “force” Apple to, regrettably, open the door to VoIP and the Universal Inbox.” Basically, he is saying that Apple and Google conceived this whole thing so that Apple and AT&T would be forced into accepting Google Voice, opening up AT&T’s pipes.

If either of these assertions is true, I am not sure what I will do. If Arrington is right, then I am certainly less inclined to buy Apple products in the future. If Gillmor is right, then I would hate the dishonesty involved, but would like the result. That’s because I feel like all the carriers are screwing us, and it would be good to see them have less control over us (and at less cost to us, since this could open up free text messaging). I realize how extraordinarily hypocritical that is of me, but it is the way I am. Told you I am no saint.

Of course, it could well be that neither assertion is true. Indeed, I hope that is the case. We’ve already seen too much corporate misconduct and deception.

What are your thoughts?

Update: This morning I realized why this whole thing bothers me so much: Steve Jobs is one of about a dozen CEOs/leaders that I really admire, and if it turns out that he is dishonest, that would remove him from my “admires list.” All of the people on this list have impressed me as placing a high value on personal and corporate integrity. When I learn something that gives me a totally different view of someone on this list, it really upsets me. So that is why these assertions about Apple are so troublesome to me and why I decided to talk about it. Again, there are only assertions involved in the articles listed above, and no proof of dishonesty. As Thomas points out in the comments, it could all just be Arrington going for sensationalism and higher page views. I don’t know. I do know that I would really be bothered if his assertions turn out to be true.

Although I live in Atlanta, I am not in a position to say whether there are any noticeable improvements in the 3G quality at this point. I often get a signal strength of 5 bars at home anyway, and haven’t really traveled to other parts of town in the past few days. However, I do know there are a few dead spots not too far from me, so it will be interesting to see if these have improved.

Have any of you noticed any improvements on AT&T’s 3G network?

I’ll say this: if AT&T does as good of a job in beefing up the 3G network as they have done overall with their Uverse product, it will be a mighty fine network. I’ve had Uverse for about a month now and am thoroughly pleased with it. The picture quality on my TV is splendid, station switching is instantaneous, I can record up to 4 shows at the same time (while watching another one), the internet speeds are great, and the landline phone quality is great. So, it seems to me that AT&T does have some good tech capabilities, and that it’s a matter of them properly deploying it.

Update (20 Aug 2009): After driving around this morning, I noticed several areas where the signal strength is only 1 or 2 bars. And I am only getting about 3 bars average at my house today. So, if AT&T is upgrading in Atlanta, it does not look like it’s doing any good.

One other thing that AT&T needs, in addition to fixing the 3G problem, is to get some better advertising. If I were to base my carrier selection on advertising, I would definitely go with T-Mobile, which uses the lovely, pleasant, and sexy Catherine Zeta-Jones in some of its commercials. Compare that with AT&T’s use of a sour-faced woman fussing at her kids about rollover minutes. It’s a no-brainer.

I had not planned on saying anything about this controversy, but John sent me an email asking me to consider writing an article on it. He noted that he thinks the situation is overblown and that he is interested in my views on it. After thinking about his request, I decided that I want to know what you think about the flap. Hence, I look forward to hearing what you have to say in the comments.

Anyway, my initial reactions have been mixed. On one hand, I immensely dislike when internet openness is threatened. And, I really hate when a company disallows a service that could be useful to its customers. Plus, Google Voice sounds like a really useful application. You can see that from Paul Stamatiou’s excellent review of Google Voice and from ExpanDrive’s post on why it is important to their business.

On the other hand, I thought Arrington’s response of ditching his iPhone because of it was an overreaction. Then, I thought more about it and realized that it was no more an overreaction than was my unsubscribing from TechCrunch when he published several confidential documents about Twitter. Ultimately I realized I was missing some good articles by unsubscribing, so I signed back up. Whether Mike goes back to using his iPhone or not is not something I cannot speculate on. But I do know that AT&T and Apple could care less, just like Mike would not have cared about my unsubscribing. He’s really just punishing himself, just like I did.

Another reaction I had was that it seems like the tech blogs are treating Google as if they are pure as the driven snow. But, as Thomas R. Hall points out, “The official @googlevoice app for BlackBerry allows use of non-gmail.com accounts, but Android version does not. What is up with that?”

Good point, Thomas. And, what about the FCC jumping into this so quick? Did Google’s new-found influence in Washington have anything to do with that? When is the last time you remember the FCC jumping into anything so quickly?

It seems to me that a lot of this flap exists because it is becoming popular to bang on Apple, and it’s always popular to bang on the carriers, especially AT&T.

Come to think of it, I think that is the biggest story of all: that tech bloggers are taking off the kid gloves when it comes to talking about Apple.

I think it will also be interesting to watch whether the FCC decides to grow a set of balls and tackle some of the larger concerns that the public has with the carriers: the excessive termination fees and the fact that phones are often made to run on one network only (exclusivity deals). At 60 years old, I come from a generation that used to have some compassion for the carriers (specifically, thinking back to when it was all done by AT&T): they operated under a different set of rules and regulations because they were required to serve everybody, no matter how much it cost. My mother lives in the mountains on a farm, with no towns around for miles. Yet, she has a phone line that runs straight to the house. So, I used to be forgiving of AT&T, given the constraints it had. I am no longer that way.

Anyway, enough of my thoughts on the matter: I’d love to hear from you!