Google's Nexus One Confirms it: 2010 Will be a Tech Year for the Ages

Photo: Engadget.comGoogle just finished unveiling the Nexus One, created in partnership with htc. The phone in early reviews seems quite capable, and probably comes in above the Droid as the best Android phone. Of most interest though, is the 5MP camera and built-in flash all in a phone thinner than a pencil.

Many of the Android-powered devices seem designed to help their carriers retain customers, by closing the gap with the iPhone enough to make the move to AT&T (in the U.S.) less appealing. When/if Apple gets out of the AT&T exclusivity, it will be quite interesting to see how many Android devices thrive, and where the carriers will put their promotional dollars. If you were Verizon, and you had the iPhone and the Droid, and you knew how much brand/name recognition the iPhone already has, which handset would you want to promote.

The hardware specs, at least of the camera on the Nexus One shows that Apple can, with enough time be beaten. This may very well mean a move to two iPhone upgrades a year to keep pace with emerging camera and battery technology. All of which means better, faster, and hopefully cheaper devices for all of us.

Your move, Apple.

Our Quick Guide For New iPhone / iPod Touch Owners

Well what do ya' know... Turns out you weren't on the naughty list at all!

If you got an iPhone or iPod Touch this holiday season, we want to help you get up to speed with our superfast new owner guide.

First, welcome! When you get a new Mac, Apple has that cool intro screen with all the different languages. No such luck with the iPhone and iPod Touch, at least not yet...

1. Setup an iTunes account.

2. Grab these mainstream (and mostly free) apps: AIM, The Weather Channel, Facebook, and if you're into twitter, Tweetie. Speaking of twitter, follow @3WordAppReviews to get apps summed up in three tidy words. And if you'll be using AT&T, you'll want to pick up Mark The Spot as well. You shouldn't need it, but hey, it's not a perfect world.

3. Grab some apps to impress your friends: Yelp (use the Monocle feature!) iSpy Cameras, and Google Earth are good places to start.

4. Get some games to play: These will show off the range of the iPhone and iPod Touch for gaming: Spider, SkySmash, HomeRun Battle, Platypus, and Eliminate (free version).

5. Get a case: Before you get too excited playing with your new toy, you'll want to protect it. There are a ton of cases, many fall into  a few different styles. If you're looking for a soft protective case, try the iSkin Solo Fx, which has a bunch of color/pattern options. If you want something more rugged, it's hard to go wrong with a case from the folks at Otterbox.

6. Hook it up in the car: Many new cars have USB connectivity, or at least an audio input. If yours doesn't hopefully you have a cassette player, and can simply use a cassette adapter. If not, you'll have to pick an FM transmitter. None of them are great, so check those Amazon reviews carefully.

6. Get used to gift cards: Getting an iPod generally means relatives far and wide will start giving you iTunes giftcards. This is not a bad thing.

7. And you'll need a podcast, of course! If I may humbly suggest, (and manage to sneak in a plug) subscribing to DoubleTap through iTunes. In each episode we cover iPhone app, app store news and more.

8. Oh, and have fun! Happy holidays, everybody!

Want to go to WWDC 2010? You Might Want To Clear These Dates

Kudos to MacNN for a little bit of technology gumshoe-ing to discover what looks likely to be the dates for WWDC 2010. You see, Apple hasn't announced the dates for 2010's developer conference yet, but June/July is a safe bet, in general. However, some investigating reveals an events labelled simply as "Corporate event" is scheduled for June 28- July 2. "Corporate event" has been used in the past to block the WWDC dates on the Moscone Center calendar until Apple announces the event.

Of particular interest, if this conference followed the patterns of previous ones, the keynote could occur on June 29th, As MacNN points out, this is exactly three years to the day of the original iPhone release. Just a fun date to celebrate, or an indicator of the expiration of AT&T's exclusivity on the iPhone? Keep an eye on those T-Mobile/Verizon/Sprint execs' calendars!

Pay for your iPhone By Buying 200 Pizzas

We know all too well that an iPhone is quite an investment. Fortunately though, there are apps slowly emerging that could help the iPhone (or iPod Touch) pay for itself. One of those apps is from Pizza Hut.

This free app allows you to order pizza for pickup or delivery (depending on your local Pizza Hut, of course) from your Pizza Hut. And, it saves you 20% while doing it. According to all of the comments on the app, apparently early adopters hit a few bumps in the road, but with three sample orders here, we did indeed save 20% over the posted internet price each time. It seems some of the pizza configurations are not available, and the app can sometimes be too cute for its own good: you shake the phone left or right to indicates which half and ingredient is intended for, and you drag and drop the ingredients onto the crust to create your pizza rather than simply checking a list of ingredients.

The TDL crew doesn't order from Pizza Hut too often, but for the more frequent buyer, this could be a great way to save money. Heck, you might as well get the 32GB iPhone, now!

(iTunes Link)

Dead Panic for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

If the name Dead Panic sounds familiar, we also talked about it in a recent episode of DoubleTap. Dead Panic is a top down shooter with a healthy dose of strategy thrown in. You are attempting to ward off droves of zombies. To do it,  you strategically place a number of soldiers who fire automatically on zombies who enter their firing range.

In the campaign mode, you move from level to level after defeating a seemingly unending number of zombies. But if you want to see what its like to truly ward off unlimited enemies, fire up the survival mode. In this mode, the gameplay is the same, except you earn money for each zombie kill which can then be turned into things like restored health, extra soldiers, etc. Using the OpenFeint engine, the game displays your high scores and those of others, and you can invite specific players to your game. My hat's off to those high scorers. There are some zombie killing pros out there.

The game deftly combines shooting and strategy to create one of those stressful (in a good way) edge of your seat gaming experiences that's easy to learn.

(iTunes link)

Here's a look:

Don't forget you can subscribe to all of our iPhone App Reviews through iTunes.