Google is taking it to the top

Hello all! I didn't make an appearance yesterday, but I'm one of the other guest-bloggers, and for the time I'm here, I'll be focusing mostly on tech stuff.

A friend and I have an ongoing argument over which is the better platform, Google Android or iPhone OS. I will hold out for iPhone OS, but if the market is any indication, Americans are far more partial to Android:

Smartphones carrying Google’s Android operating system outsold the iPhone in the first quarter of 2010, according to new research out today from NPD.

During the quarter, Android handsets accounted for 28% of smartphone sales, beating out iPhone OS and its 21% share. BlackBerry was the bestselling OS, with its devices capturing 36% of the market. NPD attributes the shift to strong sales of the Motorola Droid and Droid Eris.

Now, there are a two important caveats to this, the biggest being that whereas iPhone OS is restricted to a single piece of hardware, Android is present on more than thirty devices in the United States. If you are purchasing a smartphone, and it isn't an iPhone or a Blackberry, chances are that it is an Android device. Which makes the comparison a little unfair; I'm sure iPhone OS's share of the market would be much greater if it weren't proprietary software.

I said there were two caveats to this, and here is the second one: while Android is a leader in the United States (second only to Blackberry OS), worldwide, Apple still holds the crown with 46 percent market share, compared to 25 percent for Android. I expect those numbers to reach parity within two years, as Android matures as a platform and more phones carry the platform. In any case, insofar that there is anything interesting about this, it's that Google has emerged as a real mobile competitor with Apple. With any luck, this competition will push Apple in the right direction, in terms of features and responsiveness (and of course, this is to say nothing of Microsoft's reemergence in the mobile world).

Smiley / Pot Sounds

image courtesy of WFMU's Beware of the Blog

By Bryan H, Washington, DC.

Preparing to help take care of Alyssa's house while she is away I wanted to channel her inner critic the way that I often get my game face on -- by listening to music. The laid back and sophisticated sounds of the Beach Boys are a good match for Alyssa's style; what more, she is a big fan. Knowing what I needed to do, I started thumbing through my CDs before I realized that I don't own any Beach Boys.

Next step, the hard drive. I have some MP3s of the Boys rehearsing in the studio, and I figure that will get me close. Wanting more, I found a forgotten oddity digitally shelved next those sessions. Its a Japanese record called 'Smiley / Pot Sounds' by a group named Toru & Kojima.

B.C. Sterrett found the album while visiting a friend in Japan and looking for rare records. At the time he was dead set on finding an LP with excerpts of the then un-released Beach Boy opus, Smile. Instead, he ended up with a CD that sounds like it was recorded in a closet by solo male vocalist and karaoke machine as back up. He was disappointed.

I'll let B.C. take it from here: Sometime later I came back to the mystery of this cd. And quickly realized that I had found something even more rare, before I even knew about the labeling of Outsider Music. I would often play tracks for friends during one of those, "Look what I found" occasions. I've grown to love it, though it's headache inducing at times.

I'm no Alyssa Rosesnberg, and nor was meant to be, but I'm looking forward to my time here and reading what the other esteemed guest bloggers have to say. And as long as my efforts don't result in any Toru & Kojima stlye headaches, I will consider my efforts a success.

Anyway, for your listening pleasure / displeasure, here is a collage I made of some of the highlights of 'Smiley / Pot Sounds.' If you want to download the whole thing head over to the best radio station in the world, WFMU, and check out their unbeatable MP3 blog.

Songs by Brian Wilson or Toru Kojima or Paul McCartney-ish:

Surfer Girl | Meant for You | I Want to Eat Whale | I Wanna Pick You Up | Suffer USSR | God Only Knows