Joe Wilcox

Today, Samsung Electronics unveiled its next-generation solid-state drives, the 830 series, which goes on sale in October. Pricing isn't immediately available.

The new SSDs incorporate Serial ATA Revision 3.0, which Samsung claims doubles the bandwidth of the 470 series. SSDs use flash memory and aren't susceptible to the same kind of failures as magnetic drives.

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It's Tuesday in mid August. You're not really working are you?  So how about another juicy Hunch infographic comparing Android and iOS users. Let's be honest -- Hunch's findings, culled from more than 15,000 people -- are about one thing: class warfare. The wealthy use iPhones, and the rest of us Androids.

I love Hunch, but don't go there enough because the social rating service is such a time suck. Hell, it has been so long, I forgot -- and so had to reset -- my password today. Hunch cranks out these infographics every so often that I just can't resist.

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Along with Firefox 6 for PCs, today, Mozilla also released the mobile version, which I must say looks damn good. But it feels even better. There's a solidness about the browser that makes it ready, finally, for prime time. Firefox fans, this is the one you've been waiting for.

I tested Firefox 6 for Android, quite unexpectedly, on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. I had planned to use the Nexus S but let the battery run down. Good thing, too, because I might have waited days to try the tablet experience -- and, whoa, is it good. So let me preface that the screenshots here are stock ones from the Android Market and they show the browser on a smartphone. The browser looks much better on the Tab. That's right, Mozilla optimized this release for tablets.

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Some of the best commentary about the pending Moto merger is taking place on Google+. So I've collected some of the more insightful opinions so that you don't have to search the social network for them.

The responses are about as "real people" as the geekfest of commentary going at Google+ today can be. I've randomly pulled reaction from journalists, IT admins, Android enthusiasts and mobile gearheads; surprisingly, or perhaps not because of the social venue, they're enthused. I actually expected more criticism, but maybe I'm in the wrong Plus Circles for that.

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What? Is MG Siegler on holiday? TechCrunch's Jordan Crook has a sizzling story about Apple's bullying Samsung in German courts, not exactly the kind of stuff her Mac-loving colleague writes. I almost never re-report from another publication, but, damn, Crook makes sense out of what didn't make sense to me last week.

On August 9, a German court issued a preliminary injunction, banning sale of Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the European Union, with exception of Netherlands. Apple filed the complaint under the EU's "community design" provision enacted in 2002 and 2003, This is not a patent dispute, per se, but one of look and feel -- does one product essentially immitate, or copy, another. That baffled me for two reasons: The tablet form factor has been around for more than a decade and Tab 10.1 is longer and narrower in portrait mode than iPad. They're not the same shape. As soon as you pick up iPad 2 and Tab 10.1 you feel the difference, and I wondered how much that matters with "community design".

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Google's CEO proved his mettle today, just four months after assuming the role from Chairman Eric Schmidt. Google's $12.5 billion Motorola Mobility acquisition is bold for its risks, which are no less great than the benefits.

There's something fitting about the merger. Motorola Droid, backed by $100-million Verizon ad blitz, made Android. Google launched Android on a single handset (the G1) from a single carrier (T-Mobile) in autumn 2008. Moto Droid launch came about a year later. The operating system really took off -- really started wooing consumers, developers and handset makers -- following the Droid line's stunning success. In 2010, Android sales grew 888.8 percent according to Gartner. Android shipped on 48 percent of smartphones in second quarter 2011, according to Canalys.

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John Gruber and MG Siegler may deny it, but there is massive fraud going on through iTunes and the App Store. Apple's response, or lack of it, is the first problem. Apologists are the second.

I'm a big fan of brand or product enthusiasts. They're the measure of a company's success and the best marketers. But enthusiasts also get in the way by their insistent denial, when they defend a company at fault. The worst-case scenario is when the deniers are highly influential writers like Gruber, who writes for himself at Daring Fireball, and TechCrunch writer MG Siegler, who also has personal blog Paris Lemon. Both men are unabashed Apple apologists.

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I'm having this strange feeling it's 1999 again, when Microsoft competitors ganged up to form or support so-called independent groups that cried monopoly abuse outside the courthouse and in the court of public opinion. Now it's a Microsoft-supported group doing the same, and to Google. Is this ironic or what?

When Microsoft was on the receiving end, it was all talk about competitors plying the legal system to make gains they couldn't in the marketplace. Now that the shoe's on the other foot, with Google leading in search and Microsoft trying to catch up, competition through regulation is okay.

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My sweetie is an artist, and no geek. Her idea of complicated technology is the TV remote control's channel and volume buttons. So I was surprised to find her enthused about Google Android phones. Isn't it a stereotype that artists and Apple go together like organic gumballs in a bag?

Choosing Google over Apple

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Exxon Mobile has retaken the lead from the most valuable tech company. This morning in early trading, Exxon Mobile's market cap was $353.60 billion compared to $350.45 billion for Apple. Update: Apple almost caught Exxon at day's end. Exxon closed with valuation of $350.07 billion and Apple $349.50 billion.

On August 9, Apple and Exxon Mobile played a cat-and-mouse chase for largest market capitalization. Apple passed Exxon the next day and held the lead to close -- Apple's market cap was $337.17 billion, compared to Exxon Mobile's $330.77 billion. But Apple's gains came more because of Exxon's losses. Today, with both stocks up in early trading, the energy giant pulled away from the maker of the Jesus phone -- er, iPhone.

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Damn, video streaming looks good, too, and there are no dropped frames. To critics who have never used Chromebook, I say: Underpowered my arse. This is the first computer I've used that just keeps getting better.

First, I must apologize. Google's PR agency reached out to me late yesterday afternoon about a new update to Chrome OS. I wondered if it was the same update I downloaded last week, asked, and after an exchange of emails assumed that it was. Wrong! Chrome OS prompted for the new update today -- so that's two delivered in less than 7 days. Outstanding!

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Whoa, that can't be good.

Today, Gartner released worldwide handset sales for second quarter 2011. To be clear these are real sales. IDC and most other analyst firms measure shipments into the channel, not sales to end users, which Gartner does. These aren't good numbers for Microsoft.

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Yesterday's cat-and-mouse chase, where Apple and Exxon Mobile kept passing one another, didn't last today. Apple's market capitalization surpassed Exxon's early in the day and stayed that way though market close.

Apple's market cap is $337.17 billion, compared to Exxon Mobile's $330.77 billion

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Mark this day -- Aug. 10, 2011 -- on a calendar, for it may be remembered as a turning point for Apple, when it finally claimed and maintained largest market capitalization and the beginnings of a developer revolt broke iOS mobile apps dominance. What's that axiom about Rome declining at the height of power and rotting from corruption within?

Yesterday, several times, Apple's market valuation topped Exxon, making it the world's biggest company. But Exxon closed a few billion bucks ahead of Apple. As I write early this afternoon, Apple has surged ahead of Exxon and is set to close the day of trading with higher market cap.

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PC shipments have been downright glum over the last couple quarters, with tablets (c`mon, friggin' iPad) sucking away consumer dollars. But that hasn't stopped Windows 7's advance, which is getting a boost from the huge corporate Windows XP install base moving onward. Today, Gartner predicted -- and, frankly, it's no shocking palm reading -- that Windows 7 will become the "leading operating system" this year.

Yeah, tell me something less obvious than my nose. But summer is a slow season even for analyst firms. Gartner needs to say something, so customers will keep buying those expense reports and that journalists (yeah, like me) write about the data -- lest somebody forget Gartner still exists.

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