Remember the online advertising of the ’90s? That was brutal stuff – pop-ups, pop-unders, and enough flashing banner ads on a page to make a person’s head spin. Some websites were about a 50/50 split between ads and content, it seemed. Online advertising has gotten much more tasteful after the dot-com bubble and the end of the “Wild West” era of the web, that’s for sure.

I was actually inspired to write this post following my observations when I recently switched from Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome. I’d been a loyal Firefox user since 2006, and I couldn’t imagine parting with the wildly-popular AdBlock Plus extension. As a result of AdBlock Plus, I had barely seen any web ads during my entire college experience. Most browsers already blocked pop-ups at the time, but AdBlock plus took it a step further by blocking all ads – banners, Flash, and the like.

I didn’t imagine that I’d be able to handle Chrome as my primary browser. Without a reliable ad-blocking extension available (at the time), I couldn’t picture going back to an ad-filled browsing experience. To my surprise, though, online advertising generally seems to have improved over the past half-decade. Most ads are tasteful and out-of-the-way – they aren’t annoyingly flashy and don’t detract greatly from the browsing experience. Thus, even though I found an ad-blocking extension for Chrome recently, I haven’t bothered with it because the ads no longer bother me like they used to – with one exception.

Here’s the one thing that really bothers me about online ads… Facebook. In general, the idea of leveraging the social graph for targeted advertising makes sense. In practice, though, the results are decidedly mixed. I’ve gone through stretches where all I will see are advertisements for online dating sites – and not the more reputable ones, either. Though I get a good mix of ads once in awhile, those ads are by far the most prevalent. I understand why – relationship status is one of the easiest things on the social graph to market to. People’s tastes in music or TV shows are undoubtedly more of a niche area to target. Thus, Facebook probably has the easiest time selling and showing ads for online dating.

So, while I see the logic behind the situation, it doesn’t become any less annoying. It may be easy for Facebook to market online dating to me, but the ease of that targeted ad isn’t going to increase my likelihood to click it. In fact, the overexposure to that particular category of ad is probably going to send me in the opposite direction.

Facebook could take a bold step and try to target users more deeply, but this is obviously a risky move. The ad space for online dating sites is simple to sell and show. Moving toward more niche-based targeting would increase Facebook’s difficulty in generating sufficient ad impressions. The payoff could be huge, though, and it could help realize the vast promise and potential that exists in monetizing the social graph. If I’m going to see ads anyways, I’d much rather see ones that are geared towards my actual interests in needs. I want to see ads that will actually motivate me to click and find out more about what’s being advertised.

That sounds great, but there is certainly the other side of the coin as well: privacy. People have varying degrees of skepticism about Facebook and their use of our data, and that skepticism has certainly been earned. This likely provides a second explanation as to why Facebook has been slow to move forward on more targeted advertising. This certainly is something that should be handled with care and an eye towards privacy concerns. I do think making this opt-in could go a long way towards making the concept feasible. If you want targeted ads that might be useful, opt-in to sharing components of your social graph. Otherwise, you will get the same annoying and repetitive ads that you get now, but your privacy will be more protected.

Ultimately, though, I do think targeted advertising is only going to grow from here. The question is not “if,” but “how soon.” It’s a double-edged sword, without a doubt. Let’s face it, though: advertisers already have plenty of information about us. In my personal opinion, the bottom line is that targeted advertising is a giant leap forward from the ugly, ad-infested websites of the web’s early days.

This article from the International Business Times summarizes the outage timeline quite well. In short, PSN was hacked around the 17th of April, and Sony shut down PSN on the 20th. Several days later, Sony acknowledged their discovery that a large amount of personal information was compromised. This included passwords, names and addresses, and possibly even credit card information. After numerous public apologies and promises, Sony finally got PSN back online this weekend.

Sony mishandled the entire situation, both from a technical standpoint and a PR standpoint.

First, the technical side of things. If the network had stronger security to begin with, none of this would have even been an issue. With cyber-attacks ever-increasing in frequency, scope, and complexity, tech companies need to stay ahead of the game more than ever. Sony clearly was not prepared for an attack of this magnitude. Though I sang the praises of the cloud in my post the other day, trusting another company to keep the cloud secure is what makes it a double-edged sword. Sony failed to keep data secure, and they are paying the price.

When it comes to security, though, here’s Sony’s most egregious error of all: unencrypted passwords. Even if the hackers managed to steal some information, this event would have been far less awful if passwords were encrypted. Unfortunately, from the appearance of it, they must have been stored in plain text or very weak encryption (hence Sony’s warnings to consumers and mandatory password changes with PSN going back online). In this day and age, storing passwords without strong encryption is simply inexcusable.

Let me also note that I have no sympathy for Sony in this entire situation, as their history with security was already shady. Does anyone else remember the rootkits bundled on CD’s they sold a number of years ago?

That, in a nutshell, sums up Sony’s failings from a technical perspective. How about from a PR standpoint?

First off, they were too slow to get out in front of the issue and communicate with consumers. It took several days for a blog post summarizing the issue. I understand that they were doing research to understand the scope of the attack, but they still should have communicated on a higher level than they did. You don’t want to incite panic and fear the worst, but you also have an obligation to inform customers that there was potentially a serious breach. In the weeks that followed, Sony improved somewhat, but they still couldn’t recover from that initial first-week hit. Later on, they missed their promised timeline to restore service, provided one vague blog update, and then went silent for four days until service was restored. Now, I’m not demanding daily updates if there’s nothing to report, but what are you paying your PR people for if they are going days without providing any useful information?

I’m not a huge gamer these days due to time constraints, so I really didn’t miss having the PSN available all that much. What bothered me more was Sony’s mishandling of the situation in all aspects. I’ve enjoyed my PS3 (and my PS2 before it), but I’m going to be much more hesitant when it comes to Sony products in the future. I don’t think I’m the only one, either – I imagine Sony’s brand equity has taken a sizable hit.

Other companies had better be paying attention. In this age, where more and more sensitive data is moving online, and cyber-attacks are becoming more and more common, another company could be the next target. What if it’s not just the PSN, but a bank or some other more important institution? Here’s hoping that companies in every sector are beefing up security and improving their responses from a PR standpoint as well.

The “cloud” concept has been taking off like a rocket over the past year or so. It’s a somewhat ambiguous concept, and some companies have really stretched the definition of what the cloud is (looking at you, Microsoft). In short, though, the cloud can be summed up as utilizing the storage, bandwidth, and processing power of the whole World Wide Web to do more than what your computer can do alone.

We’ve seen the power of the cloud manifest itself in many ways, from video (YouTube), to file storage (Dropbox), to productivity (Google Docs), to corporate America (thin-clients, SaaS, data analysis and decision support). I’m oversimplifying to some extent, but for the sake of this particular post, I think I’ve touched enough on the intricacies of the cloud.

The cloud can also enhance mobility. Think about the freedom and mobility we’ve already gained with the rise of powerful laptops, smartphones, and tablets. That mobility can be taken to another level with the ability to centrally store data in the cloud and access it with a device-agnostic mentality. The cloud can bring us anything, anywhere, at anytime, in theory.

Thus, it would be rather obvious for music to journey into the cloud. After all, music is one of the most mobile forms of entertainment (think back to the Walkman). Right now, many people store their personal music collections in digital format on their main PC’s, and then attempt to keep that collection synchronized across many different devices. It’s not exactly an elegant solution.

Advancing smartphone technology has worked towards solving this problem. For example, the excellent free Audiogalaxy program will stream music from a computer to any other computer or mobile device (iOS or Android). It’s a great step in the right direction, but it still requires the streaming computer to be on anytime you want to access music off it. That’s not incredibly efficient, and it doesn’t fully leverage the cloud. Still, I enjoyed the fact that I could sync a smaller subset of songs to my phone and still theoretically access my full library from my phone at any time.

However, the game is starting to change even more. In late March, Amazon quietly introduced Cloud Player, which allows you to store your songs (or any files, for that matter) on their servers and stream to an Internet browser or Android device. They offer 5 gigabytes for free, enough for a decent chunk of music (but not full libraries for the majority of people). They also had a promotion going on where you could get a year of 20 GB for free by making a purchase from their MP3 store. I was able to get in on that, but I’m not sure if it is still going on. Anyways, the concept is simple: you can upload your own songs, and anything you purchase on Amazon can also be dumped into your cloud space automatically. The music is there, on their servers, for you to access at any time. So far, I’ve had great success streaming music to both computers and phones with great quality. iOS support was quietly added a few days ago, though the webapp is not as nice or user-friendly as the native app for Android. Overall, it’s a great step in the right direction, though there are still drawbacks (more on that as I continue).

Google officially joined the bandwagon yesterday, announcing Google Music Beta at their Google I/O conference. It’s invitation only for now, and obviously there’s that Beta tag hanging around, but it looks to be a strong rival to Amazon’s offering. Google will start by offering space for 20,000 songs free of charge (no other pricing or plan information has been divulged yet, so that number could change in the future). As with Amazon, they offer software to upload from your computer, and they offer a web client (Flash-based -sorry iOS users) and Android app.

The big advantage for Amazon is obviously their MP3 store. Google doesn’t have a competing store, so Amazon wins there because they can draw on their existing customer base and work to convince them to move their purchases to the cloud. On the other hand, Google has more robust options for playlist creation at the moment, as well as offline caching that Amazon doesn’t offer. With Amazon, you will still need to manually download or sync songs to your Android device if you will be outside of 3G or Wi-Fi range, while Google Music lets you “pin” songs that will be cached to the device for offline access.

Still, the biggest drawback of all is the absence of support from the labels. Amazon pressed forward with their Cloud Player service despite a lack of major label support, and the same appears to be true with Google. Google actually announced initial plans for a web-based music service last year at I/O, but expectations seemed to be centered on a store and centralized repository. The hope was that Google could keep a database of what users owned what songs, and then stream those songs to users as requested. This would eliminate a great deal of redundancy and storage usage. Unfortunately, the labels continue to be slow to embrace change, as they continue to worry about their piece of the pie. Here’s a good article summarizing their main perceived issues. To Google’s credit, they didn’t give up on the idea completely when they couldn’t strike a deal with the labels; instead, they opted to go it alone. Hopefully, they can find success, gain customer adoption, and eventually drag the labels behind them, kicking and screaming into the future of digital music.

I’d also expect Apple to be a major player here. Rumors  have been noisy (it’s Apple, what else is new?) surrounding their own plans for music in the cloud. Just as the iTunes store did for music sales a decade ago, iTunes in the cloud could be the catalyst to move cloud music forward. One caveat: Apple has been using iTunes as an omni-app for all of their media and mobile offerings. It’s a requirement for any iOS device, needed for syncing, and used to sell apps, music, and video. Apple certainly likes to keep eyeballs on their revenue streams, and requiring the use of iTunes is a big part of that. If people can move their media to the cloud and out of iTunes, Apple will have to make sure they have a way to keep those eyeballs on what they’re selling. Remember, even the “post-PC” iPad still requires the use of a PC for initial activation and downloading updates. Thus, I am very interested to see what route Apple chooses to take as they venture into the cloud.

I, for one, am very excited about the ongoing and upcoming developments in the digital music space. Just think about how music has evolved over the past ten years; we were barely starting to listen to music on computers then, and now we can practically access music anywhere and at anytime in the palm of our hand. Technology never ceases to amaze me.

Interested in discussing cloud music (or the cloud in general)? Feel free to leave a comment below.

It dawned on me that I really hadn’t learned a single channel number since moving to Kansas City. That’s in part because I watch HD content almost exclusively, and it’s tough to remember those when they are all four-digit numbers. However, the bigger reason is this: I don’t need to remember them. There hasn’t been a moment where I’ve scratched my head trying to remember where ESPN is. These days, I watch all my shows off my Moxi, and all I have to do to schedule a full series of recordings is search and schedule it. I do watch sports live, but my programming guide is nicely broken up by category so I can always find all of the sporting events on with a couple button presses. I don’t channel surf; either I know what I want to watch live or I have plenty of recordings waiting for me on the DVR.

I may enjoy living on the bleeding edge with technology, but I definitely don’t think I’m alone in this opinion. Add in all the video content available these days on computers and mobile devices (Hulu, Netflix, iTunes, MLB.tv, etc.), and channel numbers start to seem irrelevant. In a way, it’s similar to what’s happened with file storage on computers. Unsophisticated operating systems used to require files to be stored in places you’d remember, or you’d have a hard time going back and finding them. But search has become so much more sophisticated that you can store a document pretty much anywhere, even in the cloud, and be able to pull it up when you need it.

Any thoughts on this? Maybe I’m assuming too much, but I think channel surfing is dying, and this re-shuffling of channels isn’t going to be met with much opinion on either side. If anything, I think it could actually be viewed negatively by those who are still hardcore channel surfers, because those people are probably most familiar with the channel positions as they are now.

Last April, I wrote a fairly critical post about the Apple iPad. At the time, I didn’t think it had a clear purpose and wouldn’t be a useful device. In fact, these are some of my exact words:

From the day it was announced, I was an iPad skeptic. Even in spite of glowing reviews populating the Internet, I remain unconvinced and am still uninterested in purchasing the device.

Well, fast-forward to today, and the device has won me over. As someone who has never previously owned an Apple product, I’m as surprised by this development as anyone.

Here’s the situation: I’m starting to travel pretty frequently for work, and a tablet started to seem like an appealing thing to take along. I figured it would be nice to have some entertainment on the go, and I wanted something more than just eBooks (so the Kindle was out). I already take my work laptop with me, but I wanted something a little more portable (easier to bring out at the airport or on the plane). I didn’t feel like my netbook was quite right for this purpose, so I started looking at tablets.

The iPad 2 had just been announced, and I didn’t really see what it added over the iPad 1 to make it worth my purchase. However, the resulting discount to the original iPad did pique my interest. Meanwhile, I surveyed the other tablet options, and the pickings are slim. I have to give Apple credit in this regard – the original iPad has been out for a year and no serious competition has emerged as of yet. Tons of companies – Motorola, HTC, RIM, Samsung, LG, HP, etc. – have announced their own products, but other than the original Galaxy Tab and the Motorola Xoom, nothing else has released yet. That’s pretty pathetic if you ask me. Apple wins here, for the simple fact that they’re the only ones able to put out a competent product so far. And compared to other Apple products, they’re actually competing on price too, partially because their one-year head start has given them a huge supply chain advantage.

I thought about holding out a little longer to see if any competing products would finally make it to market, but I was getting tired of waiting on what is essentially vaporware right now (heck, Samsung just modeled a tablet the other day that wasn’t even a functional model). For $399, and with an established ecosystem of tablet-optimized apps (including exclusives like ESPN the Magazine and March Madness on Demand), I took the plunge.

One week later, I’m very satisfied with my purchase. It was extremely useful and valuable to me on my work trip last week, allowing me to do some reading on the go. It’s never going to be a serious productivity device, but the touch keyboard is surprisingly usable, and I had no issues typing out quick emails or status updates. The battery life is also a huge plus for the device. It is truly impressive, which is great for a traveling device. Overall, the hardware is solid, and I have no questions about durability.

From a software standpoint, iOS is acceptable but has its drawbacks. Notifications especially need serious work. Apple is lagging way behind Android, webOS, and Windows Phone 7 in this regard. It’s honestly laughable that they are on version 4.0 of the OS, and notifications are still so intrusive. That’s my chief complaint, and I have to believe that it will get addressed in iOS 5. I’d also like to see some sort of widget implementation, as well as slightly more access to the file system (but I may have to keep dreaming on those fronts). Overall, though, iOS is very usable, though a bit simplistic for my taste. I understand the advantages to the simplicity, though.

In the end, I still think the iPad is a bit of a niche device, and there are definitely people that own them and don’t really need them. For frequent travelers, it’s a great device. I can now take movies, books, news articles, games, magazines, and more on the go, all in one handy device. I think it can also be useful for people who use the Internet for primarily content-consumption, don’t do a lot of content creation, and don’t need a full desktop or even a laptop. I’ve done a 180 from my post last year, and I can admit that there’s a definite large market for the iPad.

Furthermore, I think I definitely have room in my life for both an Android phone and an iOS tablet. I definitely still wouldn’t trade my EVO for an iPhone; I enjoy the larger screen size, free turn-by-turn navigation, deep Google integration, superior notifications, widgets, and tweakability that the Android platform offers. This fits my phone perfectly, but I think I like the simplicity of iOS on a tablet. My phone is something I use and check many times a day, but the iPad is something I will use somewhat less frequently. I don’t need navigation, deep Google integration, and tweakability. I’m going to use the iPad for less tasks in a given day compared to my phone, so I just need something reliable and the iPad fits the bill.

I’m still a little surprised when I go back and read what I wrote, but it’s the truth. Like I said, I don’t mind admitting when I’m wrong. In an upcoming post, probably next weekend, I’ll go into detail about some of my favorite iPad apps thus far.

Thanks for reading!

First off, does anyone out there disagree with the notion that this has been one of the more exciting tournaments ever so far? I know people tend to be prone to hyperbole when it comes to more recent history, and it’s difficult to keep the here in now in proper context with great tournaments of years past. However, there aren’t too many tournaments that have featured so many great games in the early rounds. And it seems like four-network television setup may have helped; it was possible to find a compelling game on pretty much all the time.

My one beef with the four networks televising the action this year: how on earth did truTV get this gig? The Channel Formerly Known As Court TV features gems in its broadcast schedule like Big Brian the Fortune Seller, Hardcore Pawn, and my personal favorite, World’s Dumbest. With all that intellectually-stimulating programming normally aired, I’m amazed they found time to squeeze the tournament in. Turning my sarcasm down, I have to say it was hilarious when I was watching Wisconsin-Belmont in the first round second round and the broadcasting crew couldn’t get through a truTV promo without laughing. I will say that I’m glad Time Warner added the HD version of the channel last Friday, but it’s a complete waste of a channel for about 8,760 hours of the year.

Another note on the tournament from an administrative side: the expansion to 68 teams worked well, I think. There were still a few questionable decisions when it came to the bubble, but there will always have to be a cutoff point no matter how big you expand the field. I had more quibbles with seeding decisions than I did with who was in or out of the field. One thing about the “First Four,” though. Call it the First Four, call it the opening round, call it what you want if “play-in game” sounds too pejorative. But no matter how much you want to pretend, it will never be the first round. The first round starts on Thursday, when the 64 remaining teams get going. For the most part, the talking heads referred to last week as the second and third rounds, but I noticed a few slips. And when those slips occurred, they were never corrected by other commentators – because let’s face it, everyone knows what the real first and second rounds are. The First Four is the First Four, no matter how much you try to make it otherwise.

Next, a note on officiating. I can’t remember a tournament where so many games hinged on important calls very late in games. Overall, though, the referees have been top-notch. The incident in the St. John’s-Rutgers game at the Big East tournament recently was ugly, but for as bad as that finish was, the refs have been on the opposite end of the spectrum in this year’s NCAA tournament. Their late-game calls have been on point much more often than not. I’ve heard some complaints that calls should be made differently at the end of games (especially in the case of Butler-Pitt), but a foul is a foul no matter when it’s committed.

This is turning into a stream of consciousness, but I think I’ve hit all the points I intended to. Let me conclude with my current Final Four picks.

I’ve still got Kansas coming out of the Southwest, as I did in my original bracket. Look out for VCU, but I think they will run out of steam. Likewise, I think Ohio State is still the team to beat in the East and in the whole field. Out in the West, I’m going with San Diego State, as they get two de facto home games (I originally had Texas in this region). I had Pitt in my original Southeast region, but their loss to Butler on Saturday threw this region wide open. I think this region is the most up-for-grabs by far, but I’m going to go with Wisconsin.

Well, it’s less than a half-hour until tip now, so here’s hoping the second weekend equals the excitement of the first.

Suffice it to say, I’ve been pretty busy lately. I continue to enjoy my job, but blogging hasn’t been much of a priority for me. In addition, I felt like I was getting a little burned out on blogging.

However, I am back with a renewed energy, and I can promise increased blog activity in the future.

On the work front, I’ve been working on a pretty large and long-term project for about the last month, and it’s very exciting. I’m going to be doing my first travel next week, which I’m really looking forward to. I’ll be down in Texas two separate weeks this month.

In terms of my “side projects,” they’ve unfortunately met a similar fate as the blog did over the past few months. However, I’m finally starting to get caught back up. I’ve re-launched the website for my college fraternity, Sigma Theta Epsilon, though it’s still a work-in-progress to some extent. I’ll be getting back into some other web projects in the coming weeks as well, and a redesign for this site is on my plate as well. I’m hoping to have a new version of this site done by summer, though this site will always take the back seat to any other projects I’m working on.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll keep it short and sweet and just let everyone know that the blog is still alive and kicking. I’ve got plenty more topics in mind to blog about, so keep your eyes open for more!

With the fast pace of new gadget releases, new devices are usually reviewed at their release and then quickly forgotten. Reviewers very rarely revisit a device several months after release to take a second look. Often, early glitches will be squashed, and perceptions of the devices can change with a little more time. With that in mind, I hope that this review brings new a perspective to this fantastic device.

The hardware is of very high quality. While the 4.3″ screen makes for a large device, it is extremely thin which makes it very pocketable. Build quality seems strong and durable, and I think the device will hold up just fine. I do question the design of the camera lens, as it sticks out from the back of the phone somewhat. To protect the phone somewhat, I am using a screen protector and a leather pouch. The pouch makes the phone slightly thicker in my pocket, but I didn’t want to purchase a hard case because I am using the official HTC car dock which only works with a naked phone.

The internals of the phone absolutely rock. The 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor runs Android 2.2 like silk, and the display is big and beautiful with very good touch response. Call quality and data speed have also been excellent so far.

One thing I have not yet done is use the 4G radio on the device. Kansas City is one of the city’s offering Sprint 4G service (not surprising since Sprint is headquartered here). However, when I tried it at my apartment, I did not obtain a signal. At this point, I don’t see much need for using 4G, especially with the amount of battery it does use, but it is nice to have. Even if this phone had no 4G, though, it would still be fantastic.

I mentioned battery life in the previous category, and that’s one thing that was a major sticking point in this phone’s early reviews. TechCrunch absolutely slammed the EVO’s battery life back in May, claiming that users would be lucky to exceed “4 hours of moderate usage.” I haven’t seen this at all. Maybe my definition of “moderate usage” is different, and maybe software updates have made a big difference, but I’ve had no trouble getting a full day out of a charge. I charge overnight every night, and I’m usually somewhere between 20% and 30% remaining when I go to bed. My daily usage consists of a decent number of emails and text messaging, a phone call or two, some web browsing, and a game or two. I’d consider that moderate usage, and my battery handles it just fine.

In terms of other hardware features, the camera takes pretty good quality shots. Megapixels aren’t everything, but the 8.0MP shooter is solid, and I think it’ll be plenty good to serve as my point-and-shoot. I’m notorious for not taking many pictures, mostly because I hate taking my camera with me. I think this camera will finally realize the promise of replacing my dedicated camera with my cellphone. My BlackBerry camera was not good enough to do that.

The kickstand is also a nice touch. It elevates the phone, which is good because I don’t have to worry about the camera lens. It also keeps the speakerphone elevated, which I think improves the quality of it a little bit. Finally, it makes the phone work really well as an alarm clock. I plug it in each night on my nightstand and enable the Desk Clock app. It works really well, and the virtually unlimited custom alarms are great.

I think that about covers the hardware, so what about the software? I love Android 2.2, and the HTC Sense interface overlaid on top is also great. Sense offers seven homescreens, all filled with widgets and app shortcuts. Even with all seven homescreens full, my battery hasn’t really taken an additional hit. And the Snapdragon processor moves between the homescreens with ease. Sense also offers nice Facebook integration for pulling in contact photos and uploading pictures.

The Sense keyboard is also not too bad, as I quickly got used to using a touchscreen keyboard in place of my BlackBerry keyboard. The word prediction and the size of the keys on the large screen helped make me a proficient texter. However, I improved even further with the addition of Swype last Friday. I would gladly pay for Swype, and if you can get it on your phone, do so. It takes a little time getting accustomed to Swype, but once you do, it’s amazing. I’m definitely typing faster now than I did with my BlackBerry’s hardware keyboard.

Android also offers very good contact management. I exported all of my contacts from my BlackBerry to the Google cloud before getting the EVO, and once I entered my credentials on the EVO, it quickly pulled in all my contacts. It’s also incredibly easy to merge contacts between the phone, Google, Facebook, and Twitter. I always had issues with duplicate contacts on my BlackBerry, but everything is merged on my EVO, and all of my Facebook friends have their profile pictures automatically downloaded.

The notification drawer is an outstanding feature that really sets Android apart from the iPhone and other competitors. On the iPhone, an obtrusive popup appears and must be addressed whenever a message comes in. With Android, the notification appears atop the screen, and an icon sits up there. When the user feels like addressing the notification, they simply pull down the drawer. It lets the user know what’s going on, but at the same time, it stays out of the way. Notifications work great for texts, true push Gmail, and Twitter mentions. Unfortunately, it is lacking when it comes to Facebook, but I think this is the fault of the Facebook application (more on this later).

While the iPhone leads in quantity of apps, the Android Market offers plenty of solid options. I’ve downloaded ten games (including the very addictive Angry Birds, which is a paid app on iOS but free on Android), and several other apps. Lookout Mobile Security has been mentioned in a Verizon Droid commercial, and it’s a great free app that scans your apps for viruses and can also locate your phone if it is lost. Pandora works just as well on the go as it does on a computer. OI Shopping List is a great program for making and checking off all kinds of lists, from grocery lists to to-do lists. My bank also offers a great mobile app, which even allows me to pay bills on the go, and I also have the NFL Sunday Ticket mobile app. I also downloaded an app called JuiceDefender, which is supposed to boost battery life. Almost all of these games have been free, save for a couple of the games. I’ll cover my impressions of these apps further in some later blog posts.

Android also includes a number of great native apps. HTC includes the Peep app as part of Sense, and it’s a solid and full-featured Twitter client. I’m sure there are other good ones available, but Peep does everything I need and provides good notification support. Therefore, I’m not looking for any alternatives. Google Maps and Google Navigation are also fantastic. I’ve had Sprint Navigation on my BlackBerry for the last few years, but Google’s free voice-guided turn-by-turn app is even better in my mind. The Gmail app is also full-featured and offers real-time push support to the device.

The Facebook app, as I touched on earlier, is just about the only disappointment. Notifications seem to be broken completely, and the touch mobile website offers a better interface than the app. Of course, this is Facebook’s fault, not Google’s or HTC. I’ve worked around the issue pretty well by using Facebook email notifcations, as the links in the emails take me to the touch website when clicked on the phone. That’s good enough for me until Facebook improves their app.

The other issue I’ve encountered with the device happened only once. Two days ago, when I was charging the phone, the touchscreen response was poor and inconsistent. I haven’t encountered that any any other times, but it isn’t a huge deal to me at any rate because I usually charge at night and obviously don’t need the phone then.

Finally, I want to mention the accessories briefly. I already touched on the case I bought, and I very briefly mentioned the HTC car dock. I want to elaborate on the car dock a little. It’s a great device, with outstanding build quality. I attached it to my dashboard, and the phone sits in it and charges. Because of the EVO’s large screen, it really works great as a navigation unit. I installed Custom Car Home from the Android Market, which is better than the built-in HTC app in my opinion. Custom Car Home allows me to choose and arrange the shortcuts I want, and it works in both portrait and landscape. The HTC app only works in portrait. Either way, though, it’s great to have an app with large icons customized for use in a car dock.

In summary, this is a superb phone. The Samsung Epic is also an excellent device, but I didn’t need a physical keyboard. In most other areas, except for price ($250 for the Epic and $200 for the EVO), the devices are fairly equal. If you are looking for a new smartphone and don’t mind the EVO’s size and battery performance, I’d absolutely recommend it. If you are on Sprint, I’d definitely recommend stepping up to this phone compared to a device like the $150 Samsung Transform. Over the life of the contract, the $50 isn’t a big deal when you look at the much better quality of the EVO.

Also note that I hardly mentioned the iPhone at all in this review. I don’t view this device as a so-called “iPhone killer,” and so I didn’t feel the need to make a comparison. Both devices are top-notch, for different reasons. the iPhone is a great and reliable device, and offers an outstanding App Store. Android, on the other hand, offers more customizability, and the various Android devices offer different form factors and options. The EVO is not an “iPhone killer,” but the multitude of Android devices might be. Together, the phones running Google’s mobile OS are gaining market share and making a name for themselves.

I’d be happy to answer any questions about the EVO and mobile phones in general. Feel free to chime in below. And, as I mentioned earlier, keep an eye out because I will be highlighting some top Android apps in future blog posts.

Balance of Power: Right now, the power is clearly in the AFC. Over in the NFC, the East has been a disappointment, as has been the North. The West is just plain bad. Meanwhile, the AFC East is strong aside from Buffalo, and the North features Baltimore and somewhat surprising Pittsburgh. The South is stacked, and while the West is weak, Kansas City has been one of the surprises of the league (despite their blown lead against Houston last weekend). Clearly, the AFC champion is going to be tested, but does that really work to their advantage? It only takes one strong team from the NFC to come in and win, so I certainly wouldn’t be anointing anyone from the AFC just yet.

Injuries: Several teams have been affected by injuries to a high degree. The Green Bay Packers undoubtedly top this list. Critical playmakers on both sides of the ball have missed significant time, and though Atari Bigby and Al Harris return this week, Jermichael Finley and Nick Barnett are both likely done for the year. Philadelphia has also suffered a few injuries, with the revolving door at quarterback and the nasty injury DeSean Jackson suffered last week. Detroit is also suffering without their quarterback of the future, Matt Stafford. They are a better team than their record indicates.

Topsy-turvy: Several divisions are completely upside-down from what anyone expected. In the NFC North, did anyone really expect the Bears to contend? I didn’t think their defense had it in them. I’m still unconvinced that they have the staying power to be there at the end, but with Green Bay banged up and Minnesota struggling, the division could be Chicago’s for the taking. The Packers and Vikings meet this weekend in an absolutely critical game for both squads.

In the NFC West, it seems no one really wants to win the division. San Francisco was the preseason favorite, but they have played their way out of contention – or have they? Despite being 1-5, the 49ers could still conceivably win this division. Arizona is getting things together and now sits at 3-2 at the start of the post-Warner era. Seattle is also at 3-2 under new coach Pete Carroll. St. Louis is a somewhat surprising 3-3, and they are starting to get things together.

In the East, the Cowboys have been a trainwreck. They are in full-on panic mode after losing to Minnesota last weekend. Meanwhile, after Indianapolis routed them in week two, did anyone think the Giants were going anywhere? Well, here they are, tied for first.

Then there’s the AFC West, where Kansas City is the only team over .500. Pulling out the game against Houston really would have put the Chiefs comfortably in front, but they are still looking alright compared to scuffling San Diego, Denver, and Oakland.

Finally, you can never count out the Steelers. Along with Kansas City, they could be considered one of the league’s bigger surprises. Without Ben Roethlisberger for four games, many predicted the Steelers would have a rough go of it. However, they not only survived, they thrived. After going 3-1 without Big Ben, he now had to fit in with the system they had won with in his absence. He did so last week, and the Steelers are looking like a very tough team going forward.

It’s been a fascinating six weeks, and there’s much more to come. The next two to three weeks should really provide a great deal of clarity as the playoff contenders start to separate.

Coming this weekend: HTC EVO 4G review

Tonight, I’m going to give my thoughts on the contenders in college football, and tomorrow, I’ll attempt to tackle the NFL picture (pun intended).

Oklahoma: The Sooners vaulted to the top in this week’s first BCS rankings, thanks to strong computer rankings. A tough road game against Missouri looms this week, along with the regular season finale against Oklahoma State and then the potential Big 12 championship. With so many undefeated teams bearing down on Oklahoma, they have very little margin for error. It’s going to be a large challenge, I think, for a one-loss team to reach the national championship game this year.

Oregon: In contrast to Oklahoma, the Ducks are holding the top spot in the human polls. They’ve managed their schedule well so far, including a nice win over Stanford. Going on the road to USC is always tough, but Oregon’s only other big test is a home game against Oregon. I think the Ducks have a very legitimate shot at winning out, and I don’t see any way they’d miss out on the BCS title game if that’s the case.

Boise State/TCU/Utah: This year, we get a trio of potential BCS party-crashers. All three of these teams are undefeated and ranked in the top ten. Boise is third in the BCS and owns two wins over ranked teams. The Broncos’ win over Virginia Tech is regaining some cachet, now that the Hokies have won five straight after their upset loss to FCS school James Madison. However, Boise’s last remaining test has lost some luster, as once-ranked Nevada was upset at Hawaii last weekend. TCU sits fifth; they have a marquee win against Oregon State and have won comfortably in their other five games. Utah knocked off Pittsburgh in their season opener. The Utes and Horned frogs meet at Utah on November 6 in a game that will certainly loom large for both teams. If any of these teams finish undefeated, it could be extremely tough to leave them out of the title game. This could finally be the year where a non-BCS school gets a shot to win it all.

Auburn/LSU/Alabama: These teams are the class of the SEC, with Arkansas and South Carolina taking a step back last week. Auburn, ranked fourth in the bunch, is playing the best football right now. LSU is a paper tiger (another pun!). Their only impressive win thus far is against Florida, and Florida is down this year. I watched that game and came away thinking both teams were incredibly ugly. LSU needed a fake field goal to win that one, and they should have lost to Tennessee the previous week. Their computer rankings are very high, but they play Auburn and Alabama in the next two weeks, so their title hopes will soon be relegated to the dustbin. Alabama had a nice bounce-back win last week, and I think they are capable of winning out. If they can win out, they still are very much in the national title hunt if things break right in front of them. Alabama at Auburn November 26 is the SEC title game in my mind, as I think whoever wins that one will take out the SEC East champion in the conference championship game.

Michigan State/Ohio State/Wisconsin/Iowa: Wisconsin’s upset of Ohio State last Saturday threw this race wide open. Michigan State is in the driver’s seat; they don’t play Ohio State and their last test is at Iowa on October 30. Ohio State did not impress me at all on Saturday, and I still don’t think Terrelle Pryor is anywhere near a complete quarterback. I fully expect the Buckyes to lose at least one more game, likely November 20 at Iowa. I think Iowa is going to emerge as the conference champion, if they can protect their home field against Michigan State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin. However, if the Badgers can find a way to follow their win over OSU with a win at Iowa this weekend, they are in position to win out. A three-way tie between the Badgers, Hawkeyes, and Spartans would be a very interesting scenario if it materialize. I fully expect two of these four teams to reach a BCS game, but which two teams will go is still very much in the air. I don’t think OSU will be among them, though.

Missouri/Stanford/Oklahoma State/Nebraska: Let’s go ahead and round out the top 16 in the BCS. Missouri is off to a 6-0 start, and if they can knock off Oklahoma at home this week, they could suddenly find themselves in the national championship conversation. That would be a tall task, though, and it is followed up by a game at Nebraska. Stanford’s lone blemish is a loss to Oregon, nothing to be ashamed of. If Oregon holds their position and reaches the national title game, I’d fully expect the Cardinal to win out and be invited to the Rose Bowl. Oklahoma State is 6-0 but hasn’t faced a ranked team yet. With three on their schedule from here on out, I think the Cowboys will slip back. Finally, there’s Nebraska, who couldn’t get their revenge on Texas and took a tumble in the rankings. With consecutive games ahead against Oklahoma State and Missouri, they can still bounce back and reach a BCS game, but they are at a pivotal point in their season. Those two upcoming games will have a huge impact on all three Big 12 teams’ BCS hopes.

My Prediction: I suppose all this analysis doesn’t mean much without me going out on a limb and predicting who will reach the championship game, so here goes. I’m going to go with Oregon and Alabama. I think the Ducks will win out, and I think Alabama will finish ahead of Auburn in the SEC. A win in the SEC title game will be enough to push a one-loss Alabama team by Boise State. Fortunately for the Crimson Tide, the early-season nature of their loss gives them time to recover and leapfrog the teams they fell behind.

Usually, there’s a great deal of shifting from the first BCS rankings to the end of the season, so anything can happen yet. It seems like there have been a number of marquee games every week in college football so far, and I fully expect an exciting finish to the season. We’ll see if any of my predictions end up coming close to being true. If you have your own thoughts on how the rest of the college football season will play out, be sure to leave them in the comments below.