A recent article on the iPad blog, The iPad Guide, details the contents of a recent letter to investors from Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek which reports that the launch of the Apple iPad will be either delayed up to a full month or limited to the United States only. Though unconfirmed, the letter from Misek warns investors that Apple may have less than a third of the 1 million unit iPad inventory it has announced it would have come the March iPad release date.

The source of the delay is an "unspecified production problem" leading to production bottlenecks that is greatly reducing the number of units being produced by

You may remember a product from the now defunct Digital Convergence Corp. called CueCat from about ten years ago. It consisted of a cat-shaped bar code scanner and some software that would link the scanned bar code (called a cue) to digital content. The idea was that eventually any kind of printed material could have a cue in it and be linked to a web page. It was highly criticized and even named #1 worst invention of the 2000s by Gizmodo, and eventually the company went out of business. Obviously there is value to what they started though - consider the bar code scanning apps available for smart phones today. And now Microsoft is reviving the whole 'cue' idea with a new product called Microsoft Tag.

Microsoft Tag works like any bar code reader in that you take a picture of the tag with your phone's camera and then the software connects you to the appropriate content. Microsoft has its own tags though. Project marketing leader Marja Koopmans likens the tag to a "hyperlink in the physical world." Advertisers can put tags on anything they want, not just the products themselves. You could have tags

Imagine being able to conduct business over the phone that you would normally have to meet in person or fill out applications for, i.e. applying for mortgages, loans, credit cards, etc. etc. New technology from Frauenhofer SIT (Secure Information Technology), a German research organization, may soon make that possible.

IP telephony has become the standard in telecommunications and most telephone service providers now use Voice over IP (VoIP) technology. Like any other technology, security is always a concern, and VoIP is no different. Researchers at Frauenhofer have developed software that basically acts as a

Smart phones these days are too nice and too expensive to go unprotected. You wouldn't walk around with dirty, scratched up sun glasses would you? Zagg's renowned invisibleShield is now available for the Motorola Droid (and Milestone as well).

Apple's brand new iPad was finally unveiled earlier this week to mixed reviews. Many critics view it as just a huge iPhone (without the phone part) with no camera and no Flash (isn't one of the ideas of the bigger display for a better web experience? How many websites use Flash?). Despite those drawbacks the iPad does, as you would expect from an Apple device, have a very aesthetically pleasing design and UI, and the UI is now portable to your other Apple devices

If you want your iPhone or iPod Touch to mimic the iPad, it can now be done - you can have the iPad UI including the iBooks shelf, the springboard wallpaper, the same lockscreen, a carrier logo that says "iPad" , the Kindle book catalog and a NY Times reader plus a few more small touches.

The iPad is kind of like a jumbo-sized iPhone/iPod Touch with a few more apps, including the iWorks suite and the iBooks Store. It basically has the same feel since it also runs on the same iPhone OS 3.2, with just small differences here and there. Thus making the transition is not too difficult. You need your

Good news for both advertisers and consumers with smartphones - Google has added a "Click-to-Call" feature to AdWords. This means users with smartphones on the Android, Apple or WebOS platforms will be able to contact advertisers directly through their ads.

The number will appear in an extra line of text in the sponsored link. Users will be able to place a cal to the number simply by clicking on it. This cuts a few steps out of the process. Say you were looking to make a reservation at Mario's Italian Restaurant. Previously you might have had to navigate to their

Widespread user complaints about spotty 3G connectivity have plagued Google and T-Mobile since the release of the Nexus One earlier this month. Customers and self-proclaimed experts have been pointing fingers in varying directions, whether it be at Android, the Nexus One itself, or T-Mobile, with little in the way of conclusive information about what was causing the 3G woes experienced by many T-Mobile Nexus One owners.

As reported today by Android blog Operation Android, statements made by Google engineers indicate that a 3G fix for the Nexus One is on its way. The fix is reportedly a product of a combined effort by Google's engineers, HTC (the hardware manufacturer that produces the Nexus One), and T-Mobile (the main service provider for the Nexus One in the US).

Engineers at Google are reportedly in the final stages of testing and are indicating that results up until this point have been

It was widely rumored last week that the Verizon Droid (Motorola Droid) would be receiving an OTA (over-the-air) update from Verizon on January 22nd. The update was supposedly being issued to update Motorola Droid phones sold by Verizon which currently run Android 2.0 or Android 2.0.1 (depending on when the phone was purchased). Unfortunately, as noted by Android blog Operation Android, to the dismay of many Droid owners, the update failed to arrive.

The article on Operation Android details how, despite the fact that the 2.1 update brings little in the way of features, many Droid owners are eager to receive the update due to

As the rivalry heats up between Apple and Google, Apple has entered talks with Microsoft to replace Google with Bing as the iPhone's default search engine. With Google CEO Eric Schmidt on Apple's board the two companies have partnered in the past, but he is no longer on the board and there is now direct competition between the two giants.

Google's introduction of the Android OS was the first sign that a serious rivalry was in the making. Now Google has introduced the Nexus One, a mobile device that will directly compete with the iPhone in the smart phone market. Apple has pushed back by getting involved in ad placement on its mobile devices, which is Google ad-serving territory. Apple has also recently refused to approve two Google apps

With all kinds of smart devices already in use and many more coming in the very near future, including home appliances, e-readers and smart tablets, TVs, automobiles, even furniture and clothing, broadband networks are expecting severe traffic increases. Verizon, operator of the nation's largest wireless service, recently addressed some of the issues.

In an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show, Verizon CTO Dick Lynch said that considering the amount of devices that may be connecting to networks from a single household in the not too distant future, the days of flat rate data plans may be coming to an end. According to Lynch, "The problem we have today with flat-based usage is that you are trying to encourage customers to be efficient in use and applications but you are getting some people who are bandwidth hogs using gigabytes a month and