Joe Wilcox

I have a special request for you, President Barack Obama. Intervene on behalf of a great American institution. Surely all it takes is an executive order. You bailed out General Motors and the banks, something you reminded all of us during your reelection campaign. Surely you can come to the aid of a company dear to you. Research in Motion has a big problem. Nokia asks courts in Britain, Canada and the United States to ban BlackBerries, because of a contract dispute. You have the power to stop this travesty before it starts.

We all know how you feel about BlackBerry; after becoming president you fought to keep your RIM smartphone and won. BlackBerry security protocols are good enough even for our Commander-in-Chief. You're an addict and make no secret of the fact. Hell, there have been rumors among hacker communities for years that you are a frequent poster on some CrackBerry forums. You're a fanboy, Mr. President. Now is time to put your loyalty to practice, by saving the tech you love so dearly.

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Nexus 4 is no longer "sold out" at Google Play, and I can't help but laugh at the store's idea of "ships soon". That's "8-9 weeks" for the $299 model. Exactly how is that not sold out? Basically, Google throws out hope to the hopeless. Still, from a marketing perspective, long wait is better than telling potential buyers the product is out of stock. Meanwhile, people place orders and get somewhere in the long queue.

Yesterday, Google resumed Nexus 4 sales after selling out within hours of taking orders on October 13. Like that day, the search giant struggled to take orders, with many buyers watching orders be cancelled in the shopping cart. But the persistent succeeded, often after several hours effort. Today's wait time is more about when devices ship rather than ordering them. Expect "4-5 weeks" on the 16GB model.

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If you wonder why "A Google User" suddenly is the most popular review commenter at Play, he (or she) is not. Today the store started a radical change, requiring Google Profile to place stars and comments for apps and other content. The days of anonymity are over, and good riddance.

Others disagree, and the move definitely isn't popular with some writers in our newsroom. All the typical justifications are back: People need anonymity to protect their jobs. So on and so on. Blah, blah, blah. I've heard these crap excuses before. You got an opinion, stand by it with your identity -- particularly something like an app, movie or music review.

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The LG-manufactured Nexus 4 is nearly perfect. Unless you have no other choice, perhaps because of unsupported cellular carrier and binding contractual commitment, put Google's newest smartphone at the top of your must-buy list. The device satisfies in all the right places -- battery life, call quality, display clarity, size and visibility, operating system and performance. There are other Androids with comparable or better hardware, but they typically slap on a secondary UI and ship with older OS. It's not the measure of one attribute, or even a couple, but many combined that make Nexus 4 so good.

But nearly isn't perfect. Nexus 4's flaws, while subtle, will be serious for some potential buyers. There is no 4G LTE, for example. The feature is built-in to the Snapdragon processor but not properly enabled. The phone is HSPA+ for data, which works on GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile USA. No LTE is a deal-breaker for some people, as seen in commments here and elsewhere. Something else: LG copied Apple, which put glass on the back of iPhone 4 and 4S and rightly abandoned the design with the newest handset. Double-sided glass makes the phone less durable than should be, particularly if dropped. Finally, many Galaxy Nexus users won't find its successor to be a compelling upgrade; much depends on what they use their phones for.

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At 9:24 am ET this morning, I received surprising email from Google: "Nexus 4 will be available for purchase later today! Order yours from Google Play starting today, November 27 at 12:00 noon PST (US only)".

Sudden availability follows shipping notices many people who had placed orders previously received yesterday. The question: Can Google Play handle the orders this time? Another: Will you get a phone?

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Suddenly, I don't feel so special. But that's okay. For some time, I belonged to a small, elite group of Chromebook users. But new, lower-cost models and Google's aggressive "for everyone" marketing campaign moves the cloud computer into the mainstream market. On October 18, I started using the $249 model announced the same day. The question: Is 'for everyone' for me -- or even you?

I already had adopted the $449 Chromebook as my only PC. The question: Could the ARM model satisfy? Except for 40 hours back on the costlier Intel, for performance comparison, I've used the smaller Chromebook full time for more than a month. In trying to answer the question, I hoped to perhaps get one for people tempted by the newer model's lower price or that of the (gasp) $199 Acer. Samsung makes the other two.

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About a month ago I posted "Whom do you trust with your personal?", containing two polls. The number of respondents is surprisingly low, so I'm back with them, using a slightly different approach. Perhaps the InterWebs will respond more to the negative trust question.

The results so far don't surprise me. Facebook is distrusted by a wide margin -- 57.42 percent of respondents. Microsoft and Google are most trusted (38.6 percent and 34.5 percent, respectively). But Google also is second-most distrusted (27.1 percent). Both polls provide just five major tech companies but opportunity for respondents to give their own answers. Nine percent trust no one.

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Over the weekend, my daughter asked: "Have you heard of Cyber Monday?" I thought but didn't say: "Have you been living under a rock?" She's 18 and a shopaholic. How is it she only just learned about this dreadful day?

I despise the Monday after Thanksgiving, mostly because it's an artificial retail construct created during my adulthood. I'm too young for Black Friday. But I remember when suddenly the Amazons of the world added one more day to Black Friday weekend, and greedy analysts looking to sell clients new services promoted the concept. Supposedly, Shop.org coined the term eight years ago. Is that all? It seems so much longer.

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I can see only one good reason to choose iPhone 5 over Nexus 4: The LG-manufactured mobile is sold out, and you can't wait. For the patient, Google's fourth-generation stock Android delivers rewarding experience. The new Nexus is the smartphone to buy this holiday season -- if you can find one.

Two reasons stand in iPhone 5's favor, neither is good, just necessary for some people: Your carrier -- for example, Sprint and Verizon in the United States -- isn't supported (Nexus 4 is GSM/HSPA+), or you bought heap loads of apps from Apple and don't want to lose your investment. I feel your pain, but offer no pity. Nexus 4 is exceptional.

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That's not the headline I hoped to write this Black Friday. Having used iPhone 5 and Nexus 4, I easily recommend the LG-made Android over the Apple. There simply is no comparison in terms of overall user experience. I'll go into detail in my comparative review, which I'm writing now (in another browser tab). Nexus 4 should be deal of the day -- even full price. Not that you can pay the price. It's simply abominable that Google has none to sell; T-Mobile is sold out, too.

Trust me, if there was even whiff of supply, Nexus 4 sales page would read "ships soon" rather than "out of stock". The smartphone's Black Friday absence suggests deep shortage, unless someone at the top of Google's retail supply chain thinks Cyber Monday is better day to bring back the smartphone. Absolutely not. Because over the next three days, some buyers wanting Nexus 4 will take a hot deal on some other handset.

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US Thanksgiving is a time for reflection on the year behind, with plenty of time to ponder resolutions for January 1st. Yesterday, I posted about the things Microsoft should be grateful for in 2012. Today, I followed up with another, for Google. For consistency's sake, the list numbers eight, in line with Microsoft's, for which I chose to hat-tip Windows 8.

The list is by no means comprehensive, just some things that stand ahead of others -- and it is organized from least to most important. Google had a great year, perhaps the best ever. Few companies released more innovative products, affecting so many people and building such positive brand awareness.

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Another Thanksgiving arrives here in the United States, and some people consider what they have to be grateful for. I celebrate by talking turkey, not just eating it, about the companies I cover. It's tradition, going back to 2006, that I present the things Microsoft should be grateful for.

Last year, 11 items made the list, keeping with the 2011 theme. For 2012, I reduce the list to eight; my hat tip of respect to Windows 8, which launched nearly a month ago. There are many more things Microsoft could be grateful for, but I chose some that might not readily come to mind. The list goes from least to most important.

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Hewlett-Packard's $8.8 billion fiscal fourth-quarter write-down, and reasons for it, shine a stunning spotlight on Meg Whitman and predecessor Léo Apotheker's lingering legacy. HP ousted Apotheker in September 2011, less than a month after he brokered the Autonomy acquisition. Today, during the company's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings conference call, chief executive Whitman had to answer for mistakes she inherited.

While expressing "we remain 100-percent committed to Autonomy and its industry-leading technology", she also acknowledges alleged fraudulent accounting that only recently came to HP's attention. Regarding the $8.8 billion, "the majority of this impairment charge is linked to serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations that occurred prior to HP's acquisition of Autonomy and the associated impact on the expected financial performance of the business over the long term. The balance of the impairment charge is linked to the recent trading value of HP stock".

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Today, HP stunned Wall Street and investors by announcing an unexpected $8.8 billion charge. The computing giant dropped the bombshell ahead of the market's opening concurrently with fiscal fourth quarter results. The amount isn't so stunning as the reason.

Official statement: "The majority of this impairment charge is linked to serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations at Autonomy Corporation plc that occurred prior to HP's acquisition of Autonomy and the associated impact of those improprieties, failures and misrepresentations on the expected future financial performance of the Autonomy business over the long-term. The balance of the impairment charge is linked to the recent trading value of HP stock".

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Some advice to Google: If you launch exciting new products right before the holidays, it's a good idea to have them to sell. Not only are new Nexus devices sold out, so are new Chromebooks. Worse, they're not available in stores that stock them. Ah, yeah, what a brilliant way to push a new product category to the masses: Look, but you can't buy.

The new $199 Acer and $249 Samsung Chromebooks are on display in 500 Best Buys, and Google staffs sales specialists, who are there during store hours and are contracted through the end of the year. But the search and information giant can't stock Chromebooks. Like Amazon and Google Play, the Samsung Chromebook is sold out (the new Acer model is still available from Google today but not yet stocked by Amazon). Units coming into Best Buy are generally already claimed from online orders. Even the few returns, available as open-box purchases, sell within a couple hours. Google pays sales staff to educate potential buyers, who leave stores empty-handed.

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