Dear HTC, please find enclosed your 2012 report card.

The best phone ever made. EVAR.

HTC.

HTC!

Where do I start? Perhaps I shall start by saying I love you. Seriously, I love you. Sadly, these days I am starting to love you in the way that I love cassette tapes; for what you once were to me, not what you represent now.

If that sounds painful HTC, please remember, the truth only hurts if it ought to.

Perhaps that was a little acerbic for a beginning? Allow me take one step back, and lay down some context.

From the Editors Desk: Thoughts on the Galaxy S3 Announcement

I don't often write editorials here at AndroidNZ. It's not that I have nothing to say so much as I have neither the time nor the energy. I just find editorials draining. You can't pad them with ludicrously detailed physical descriptions of a device, or hide behind some benchmarks. It's laying open your own personal thoughts to scrutiny, hoping your insights aren't too rudimentary, or just plain dull. There's a degree of investment inherent to the editorial that just isn't present in most of the other content a blog casts into the web. I suppose then it's appropriate that my first real editorial here is, in many ways, really about investment and perspective (or in this case a perspective on the loss of perspective).

In the end it took something momentous like the Galaxy S3 announcement to force my editorial hand, I figured you just can't call yourself an Android blog if you say nothing about the S3 prior to it's announcement. Despite the imperative to say something, I'd just feel too cheap doling out some stale speculation on it's specs. So hit me up after the break for what I hope will be a thought provoking read, one that maybe even has something fresh to say about the S3.

Apple's smartphone numbers in perspective

The web has just suffered a collective head rush on the news that Apple has sold 37.04 million iPhones, a doubling of sales from the previous quarter. Spectacular Android destroying stuff!

Or is it really? Let's have a wee look, shall we?

Using Apple's own earning statements for the last 15 months, and beginning with Q4 2010 as a base from which to work, we can put that performance into some perspective. If you get bored with figures and such, you might want to skip to the next bit, but if you're brave enough to follow the bouncing ball, the journey is enlightening.

Sep 2010 Q4 – 14.10 M

Dec 2010 Q1 – 16.24 M – 115.5% (increased)

Mar 2011 Q2 – 18.60 M – 114.5% (increased)

Jun 2011 Q3 – 20.34 M – 109.0% (increased)

Sep 2011 Q4 – 17.07 M – 84.0% (decreased)

Dec 2011 Q1 – 37.04 M – 217% (increased)

ASUS Transformer: the future of computing, today?

Image courtesy of Tony McNeil at FlickR

First off, I'd like to say thanks to Dr. Murray Winiata, the creator and Editor-in-Chief of AndroidNZ. I have previously written for the TelecomTech blog at Geekzone.co.nz, and a very small amount on my own personal blog.

My most recent post was several months ago and shared some of my ideas on where I think we are headed with computing in this supposedly "post-PC" era. Since that post, I have actually purchased an Asus Transformer tablet, along with the keyboard dock. I have been using it at work for the past few weeks and intend to continue using it in the future. While tablets have so far been relegated to being media and web-consumption devices, I believe that that is going to change.

RIP Steve Jobs; visionary

I would imagine this isn't news to anyone reading AndroidNZ, as no doubt you've already seen it's shadow cast over the whole of the internet . Nevertheless, I felt compelled to also acknowledge the passing of Steve Jobs.

Regardless of how you feel about Apple, Steve Job's was a luminary of our times. His vision for Apple, and of course the iconic product that will forever be associated with him, the iPhone, is what propelled them to where they stand today.

No matter where your tastes in tech may run, his passing should elicit sadness.

While you could make a case for Google's expansion into the mobile space being inevitable, the reality is that you're enjoying your Android device (or WP7 device, or Symbian touchscreen device) because of Steve Jobs.

To Steve Jobs; thank you for your visionary contribution to the technology that is so much a part of our daily lives. You will be missed.