AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson recently spoke at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference, where he voiced his regret for offering unlimited data when the iPhone first came out, and indicated that he worries how apps like iMessage bite into AT&T’s traditional messaging revenue streams. Regardless, Stephenson still attributed the iPhone for kick-starting the mobile data business; what’s really worth listening to starts at 4:41 in the video, where Stephen describes the story of how the Apple and AT&T exclusive partnership coalesced some two years before it actually came out. He goes on to describe how data usage exploded 20,000% from 2008 when the App Store launched to 2011. Here’s what Stephenson had to say specifically about unlimited data and iMessage.

My only regret was how we introduced pricing in the beginning, because how did we introduce pricing? Thirty dollars and you get all you can eat. And it's a variable cost model. Every additional megabyte you use in this network, I have to invest capital.

You lie awake at night worrying about what is that which will disrupt your business model. Apple iMessage is a classic example. If you're using iMessage, you're not using one of our messaging services, right? That's disruptive to our messaging revenue stream. Although it’s less of an issue now, I wonder if Stephenson was more okay with BBM than iMessage, since they got an additional cut from BlackBerry data. Speaking of which, Stephenson also talked a bit about the spectrum crunch and limited bandwidth, which are both issues which RIM’s old CEOs aggressively tried to address. Stephenson says that the next block of 50 MHz (which is next to nothing compared to AT&T’s demands) will take six to eight years to fully bring into the cellular world.

Here’s the full interview, if you’ve got an hour to kill. It’s a really interesting talk, and adds a lot of perspective to the iPhone’s early days, as well a bunch of important issues in the wireless industry overall.

Source: NYT

Walmart is set to cut the price of the iPhone 4 to $114 on contract and the 8 GB iPhone 4 to $34 according to these price cards and their internal pricing console. These are $54 and $74 price drops respectively, but it doesn’t seem like many (if any) Walmarts have pulled the trigger on the new pricetags just yet.

While the price cut isn’t a huge deal in and of itself, it does suggest that a new iPhone is right around the corner. We’re expecting the iPhone 5 to drop in the fall, but if Walmart is already trying to clear out old iPhone stock, maybe we’ll see the next iOS smartphone sooner than later.

It’s a little curious that it seems like these price cuts are just for the AT&T version; maybe Verizon and Sprint models will be included with this slash goes into effect, but it’s tricky to say at this point. Anyone want to take bets about a new iPhone being announced at WWDC, or are we just going to see iOS 6?

Source: Cult of Mac

UPDATE: Aaaaand it turned out to be a pricing error. Carry on, as you were.

Draw Something’s next step after being acquired by Zynga is to get people to draw brands that that they’re familiar with, like Doritos, the NHL, and KFC. It’s an interesting exercise in marketing, and definitely a novel way of getting people to interact with companies, but if overdone, I think it will ultimately sour people on the game, especially if they’re already tolerating banner ads in the free version.

My thinking is that as a smaller company, OMGPOP was able to make do with in-app purchases of new paints and bombs as their primary source of income with a bit of help from banner ads. Now that Zynga has paid a bunch for the game, they want a return on the investment and are pursuing more aggressive schemes. The popularity of Draw Something has already started to take a dip; daily active users have dropped from 14 million in April to 10 million. If it continues to dive, Zynga will have a hard time closing these kind of deals with big companies.

I’m all for this new take on mobile advertising, but only if it replaces banner ads. If a player picks a sponsored term, the picture could then provide a link to the advertiser’s site, or better yet, serve up a media rich iAd that launches for both players. An extra in-game coin would go a long way to inventivize players to sit through a quick video.

Do you guys still play Draw Something? Personally, I found it mostly just embarrassing if you don’t have much in the way of artistic talent, but your mileage may vary.  Is this plan to get players to interact directly with brands a smart, innovative marketing move that you’re interested in participating in, or a skeezy trick for companies to worm into your subconscious?

Source: AdAge

The video below shows an interesting concept, excellently rendered, for improving the speed and usability of text editing on iOS. Currently, to edit text in iOS, you have to poke at the screen until the right word is highlighted or the correct popup menu appears, and the drag handles to properly refine your selection. Like democracy, it sucks, but it sucks less than every other mobile implementation.

The maker of this concept video, Daniel Hooper, shows how a combination of on-keyboard gestures and shift-tapping could be used to greatly improve the speed and accuracy of text selection on iOS.

Unfortunately, text selection on iOS doesn’t always enjoy the presence of a keyboard. And that’s where this concept sadly breaks down for me. You can’t have two different methods for selecting text, depending on whether or not the keyboard is available. Consistency is king. If you’re selecting text in Safari with no keyboard, or selecting text in Notes with a keyboard, the method has to be as identical as possible or the user experience suffers.

Don’t get me wrong — improving gesture shortcuts to improve text selection would be great. It just can’t be dependent on the state of the keyboard. Adding an additional layer of “expert” gesture shortcuts for when the keyboard is available is another possibility (much as the multitasking fast app switching gestures serve as “expert” shortcuts around the iPad Home screen). However, text selection already uses gestures so the current gestures would have to remain active, and it’s very easy for gestures to start to collide.

All that said, I LOVE this stuff. Seeing and discussing fantastic UI and UX concepts is absolute candy. It doesn’t matter if any one concept or another is perfect right out of the box, it matters that it brings attention to issues of usability, and creates discussion.

So discuss away. Would you be interested in Apple introducing text selection like this? If so, hit the via link for instructions on how you can ask Apple to do just that. Then jump into our Mobile Design Forum and let us know how you’d improve iOS text editing.

Source: @danielchooper via iDownloadBlog

For today only, the iMore Store has the Mobi Products Crystal Case for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 on sale for only $4.95! That’s an unbelievable 75% off! Get them before they’re gone!

Easy to snap on, this Crystal Case from Mobi Products will keep your iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4 protected and looking great!

The Mobi Crystal Case is made from sturdy, hard plastic that will protect your iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4 from everyday wear and tear. Just snap it on and you’re ready to go!

There are cut-outs for the screen, keyboard, camera, and side buttons.

Features:

• Low profile design
• Made from a durable, hard plastic
• Cut outs for all iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4 functions
• No clip

Get the Mobi Products Crystal Case for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 now!

Last month we had learned that some iPad 2 units were being loaded with a new 32 nanometer version of the Apple A5 process, and as you might expect, testing results show that it is providing a significant increase in battery life. The new model, designated iPad 2,4, managed to squeeze around an extra hour and a half out of browser and gaming tests compared to a plain-Jane iPad 2 (15% and 30% gain respectively), and an additional two and a half hours of video playback (up 18%). The battery life compared to the third-generation iPad is even better, boasting an extra two and a half hours of gaming and browsing, and an extra four hours of video playback. Beyond eking out a bit more battery life, the 32 nm processor on these iPad 2 units perform just as quickly as the originals.

So how do you get one of these iPad 2,4 units? It’s tricky, because the box art is exactly the same as any other 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad 2, so the only way you can find out the specific model number is by loading up a diagnostic app like Geekbench. iPad 2,4 models are preloaded with iOS 5.1, but aside from that, you might have to return a lot of iPads to the store if you’re really on the hunt for one of these.

Those of you that recently bought an iPad 2, maybe thanks to the price drop when the new iPad came out, should download Geekbench below and see if they’ve got one of these elusive models. What’s more important to you when it comes to your iPad experience; a bleeding-sharp display, or oodles of battery life? Would it really be worth the hassle to track one of these iPad 2,4 units down?

$0.99 – Download Geekbench 2 now

Source: Anandtech

If the name Benedict Cumberbatch doesn’t mean anything to you yet, just wait. He plays the title roll in Sherlock, the BBC’s brilliant, modern re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes. He’ll also be the voice of the dragon, Smaug, in Peter Jackson’s upcoming Lord of the Rings prequels, The Hobbit. And if that’s not enough, rumor has it he’s landed one of the most iconic roles in science fiction in J.J. Abrams upcoming Star Trek sequel. You got it. “KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!”

On Sherlock, Cumberbatch’s character is a heavy iPhone user. Indeed the first episode of the first series revolves almost entirely around a pink iPhone. And according to The New York Times, Cumberbatch is almost as ingenious with his iPhone in real life.

Last December, on vacation in Gloucestershire, England, [Benedict Cumberbatch] got the call that [J.J. Abrams] wanted him to submit a videotaped audition for "the not-so-good guy" (in Mr. Cumberbatch's words) in the "Star Trek" sequel — and could not find anyone to film it for him.

"We observe this little Judeo-Christian cult holiday called Christmas," Mr. Cumberbatch said sarcastically. "Whereas, you know, some kids in this part of town" — he circled his hands in the Los Angeles air — "with their Crackberrys, don't."

In a friend's kitchen late at night, an agitated and weary Mr. Cumberbatch recorded his audition on an iPhone — "I was pretty strung out," he said, "so that went into the performance" — and sent it to Mr. Abrams, only to be told the director was also on vacation.

Mr. Abrams, who saw the recording a few days later and hired Mr. Cumberbatch, wrote in an e-mail that it was "one of the most compelling audition readings I'd ever seen."

Cumberbatch chased the role round the recordings of an iPhone, and round the challenges of CrackBerry, and round Christmas vacation before he auditioned it up! Abrams tasked him! He tasked Cumberbatch, and Cumberbatch had at him!

We won’t be seeing any iPhones in The Hobbit or Star Trek any time soon, but we’ll almost certainly see more in Sherlock when it returns for a third series sometime in 2013. If you haven’t watched it yet, go find it on iTunes or Netflix. It’s indubitably good.

Source: The New York Times

With OmniGraphSketcher for iPad you can create stunning, impressive graphs and charts with ease

OmniGraphSketcher is an iPad app that makes it easy to create gorgeous and precise graphs with lines, curves, shaded regions, and more. Instead of using specific equations, like a graphing calculator, OmniGraphSketcher let’s you use multitouch gestures to chart your points and draw cuves and bar graphs.

OmniGraphSketcher comes with four sample documents so that you can easily see how they are created or just manipulate them as your own. You can use these as templates be duplicating the document you want to use before editing it.

There is also a fifth document that works like a tutorial and explains the different tools included with OnmiGraphSketcher and how to use them.

To create a text label, just double tap the screen. You can edit the font type, size, color, and choose the exact (x, y)-coordinates for the label.

To create a line, select that drawing tool and tap the screen. This will place a marker for your first point. You can drag this around precisely where you want it to be — the exact (x, y)-coordinates will pop up as you drag around the marker and it will also snap to coordinates that are marked on your axes. Once you have it placed where you want, tap the location you want your second point to appear and adjust it like you did the first time. You can do this as many times as you want. When you’re ready for the lines to be drawn, tap the last marker and the dotted lines become solid and each of the point markers become actual points.

An alternative method to selecting specific points to plot is to simply freehand the curve and OmniGraphSketcher will smooth it out into a beautifully for you. This is great for the times when precision is not important, but when want to use your graph to explain a concept or general idea.

The line style can be changed to be linear or curved and you can change it from being a solid line to one of the multiple dotted line styles. You can also adjust the thickness, and color, and whether there are arrows at the ends. You can make similar adjustments to the points as well as enter their exact (x, y)-coordinates. This helpful for those times when you may be plotting points that are hard to precisely drag to. For example, if you wanted to plot the point (2, 47.5) when the range of your y-axis is 0 to 1000.

Speaking of the x and y-axis, you can adjust their ranges by simply double-tapping the first or last number on the line and typing in what you want to change it to. You can also drag an axis after selecting it to get the same result. When an axis is selected you can also adjust the tick mark spacing.

In addition to creating curves and lines, you can also make bar graphs with OmniGraphSketcher — and it’s super easy. After plotting your points, simply choose the option that looks like a bar graph from the point’s option menu. You can choose either horizontal or vertical bars and adjust their thickness and color.

To shade a region of your graph, tap the shading tool. Then tap a boundary point of the desired region and drag your finger to another boundary point, pause, and drag to the next one. Once you’ve selected the desired location, release your finger to complete the shading. OmniGraphSketcher lets you adjust the the color and opacity of the shaded regions.

If you’re creative with your use of lines, curves, and dots, you can also use OmniGraphSketcher to sketch piecewise functions. As a math instructor, this excites me because this is very difficult to do with traditional graphing calculator apps and programs. No longer will I be hand-drawing these types of graphs for quizzes and exams — I’ll create them with OmniGraphSketcher instead!

The Good

• Beautiful
• Easy and intuitive to use
• Different line and point styles
• Create horizontal or vertical bar graphs
• Freehand sketching
• Sketch piecewise functions
• Adjust x and y axes
• Import from iDisk or WebDAV
• Share to email, photos, iDisk, WebDAV, iTunes
• Send to another app as a graph, PDF, or PNG (including Dropbox)

The Bad

• No native DropBox support

The Conclusion

I’m not going to lie, when I first picked up OmniGraphSketcher, I was a bit disappointed. I wanted the ability to graph specific equations. But the more time I spent with OmniGraphSketcher, the more I liked it and appreciated it’s value of not also playing the role of a graphing calculator. It’s a very simple-to-use and gorgeous app that creates very impressive graphs and charts. You may not be able to graph complicated equations, but that’s ok — there’s graphing calculators for that.

$14.99 – Download Now

Okay, this one got me right in my geek heart. An iPhone case with Han Solo on the back. Frozen in carbonite. Just like in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. I can’t really do a proper review of this iPhone case. At least the case part. Don’t get me wrong, it’s serviceable enough — a slim, well fashioned black skin case. But it’s nothing more than that. And why should it be? This case is all about Solo.

The high resolution Han Solo pictures dominates the Han Solo Groovin in Carbonite – Star Wars Parody Case for iPhone. It’s photo-realistic and it looks great. It looks so good, in fact, you might think it’s a carving. You might think it’s 3D. It isn’t. It’s just a picture. Yet it’s still impressive. Most impressive.

It’s available on Etsy from iCaseSeraSera and comes with black, white, or clear sides. The Han Solo image is printed onto an aluminum insert that fits the back of the molded plastic case. The current version features carbonite Han Solo rocking out to an iPhone. (That’s one of the things I like best about Etsy — small batch products can be updated frequently and so there’s always something fresh and new.)

The good

• Perfect for Star Wars geeks

The bad

• Won’t appeal to non-Star Wars geeks

Conclusion

If you’re an iPhone user and a total Star Wars geek, check out the Han Solo Groovin in Carbonite – Star Wars Parody Case for iPhone.

You love it.

I know.

17.99 – Order now

We’ll keep this one short but sweet — Does the Home screen need updating in iOS 6? Rene laid out a lot of the pros and cons in his iOS 6 Home screen article a couple of days ago, and we discussed it in depth on the iPhone & iPad Live podcast last night. Hundreds of millions of users already know how to use the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad Home screen, and that’s a huge barrier to change. Maybe not to geeks, but certainly to mainstream users.

It has the fast app switcher, it has folders, it has notification center, it has Siri, but at its core it’s still an app switcher, same as it’s been since 2007 and the same as my Handspring was over a decade ago. It’s a classic, but as much as everyone loves the classics, sometimes we want something new.

So what shall it be, iMore nation? Does the Home screen need a complete redesign to compete with the likes of Windows Phone, webOS, and BlackBerry 10? Does it simply need some widgets to keep pace with Android? Or does it really need nothing at all? Vote in the poll up top and let us know your more detailed thoughts in our iOS 6 Forum!

“Post hoc ergo propter hoc” is Latin for “after it, therefore because of it”. That it comes from Latin should indicate how far back that particular fallacy can be traced. Yet ever since Apple launched the original iPhone in 2007, it has been the point of comparison for every flagship phone, from every manufacturer, on every carrier. Just like “post hoc ergo propter hoc” isn’t always — or even often — true, “post iPhone ergo propter iPhone” isn’t always true. Yet time after time, phone after phone, everything from hardware design to software features are taken as derived from, or as being a response to, the iPhone.

There’s a theory in combat that dates back to Sun Tsu, if not earlier, called “strike first to gain the initiative”. If, in a fight, all you do is defend, you’ll eventually make a mistake and get tagged. Even if you’re a natural counter-puncher, if you don’t take an opportunity when it opens up, at best you’ll stall your way to stalemate (and get booed for your efforts), and at worst you’ll mess up at some point and get clobbered. That’s why a good fighter knows everything is an attack. Everything is an attempt to turn an opponent’s mind away from acting and towards reacting.

It can be obvious — a strike or shoot or something else an opponent has to deal with. Or it can be subtle — a change of angle or distance that rocks them back on their heels or shoulders and messes with their balance and timing.

Those same essential strategic truths apply to the ancient battlefield, the modern Octagon, and business — including the smartphone business.

In 2007 Apple didn’t introduce a better Treo or BlackBerry, they introduced a better device. They didn’t take a tiny little step that entrenched competitors could quickly match. They took a diagonal leap that entrenched competitors either couldn’t quickly match, or didn’t even understand. They changed the rules of the game. They attacked.

It didn’t matter that the 2007 iPhone lacked apps or copy/paste or unobtrusive notifications or MMS or any of a dozen features existing smartphone has on their neat little checklists. It mattered only that multitouch, and the way the iPhone interface leveraged it to make a new experience, was so compelling no one cared what it was missing.

That was an attack.

The shift was so radical that for years after, every other flagship, or would be flagship phone was pitched by desperate competitors and attention-seeking media alike as an “iPhone killer”. (Early among them, the Samsung Instinct — a coincidence, I’m certain.) That the iPhone made every headline, that every device was cast not as something unique unto itself but as something wholly dependent on the gravity well of the iPhone, was the punchline. (No true iPhone killer would ever be called that — everyone would be too busy talking about it to bother mentioning the iPhone.)

And since then, no one else has done much attacking. Hell, most of Apple’s competitors ignored or derided the iPhone at launch. Smartly, Google didn’t. They spun on a dime and turned their new Android acquisition from a BlackBerry or Windows Phone Standard (or Nokia Communicator, if you lived in Europe) competitor to an iPhone competitor almost over night.

Yet Apple didn’t react. They didn’t rush to match any Android features that the iPhone was missing or toss in a hardware keyboard to win over legacy smartphone users. They changed the rules again. They acted again. They attacked again. They announced the App Store.

Palm got back into the game sooner than the other traditional smartphone vendors. But when they made the leap from Palm OS to webOS it was far more audacious than Android. (That tiny, cash-starved Palm literally coded circles around mighty Google, and made a more Google-esque product than Google itself, should be scrawled in permanent marker atop the dessert-laden garden in Mountain View so as to never be forgotten.) While elements of the Palm Pre were inarguably iPhone inspired — having the former head of Apple hardware, Jon Rubenstein, as their CEO and a lot of Apple engineers on their team will do that — they played a smart strategy. Rather than matching iPhone features, they tried to hit Apple where Apple was weak — multitasking, notifications, unified messaging. And unlike the early days of Android, they did it in an elegant, tasteful way.

RIM floundered with the Storm. And the Storm 2. And the Torch. Microsoft stumbled with Windows Mobile 6. And Windows Mobile 6.5. Still, other platforms started adding their own centralized software stores. Android Market (now Google Play), Nokia Ovi Store (no, really), webOS App Catalog BlackBerry App World. By and large, like Palm with the Pre, they tried to differentiate themselves by going where they thought Apple was weak — openness. It turned out, however, that openness didn’t translate into a better user experience. Having great apps and being able to take credit cards in large amount of global markets were far more important. (The “iTunes advantage” was the platform equivalent of having seized the high ground before the battle ever begun.)

Sadly, Palm never made webOS work well enough, fast enough, to catch on before they were brutally bought and betrayed by HP corporate intrigue and ineptitude. Android, however, got some body shots in. The Nexus One was smartly timed to the hit the market right in the middle of Apple’s typical year-long product cycle. With great hardware, an improved OS, and features like voice control, it caught influencers at the perfect moment and got a lot of attention. The Droid, meanwhile, seized on the huge, Verizon-sized hole Apple left in its flank by being locked to AT&T in the U.S. for 4 long years. (The Evo did similar on Sprint, and I’m sure something did on T-Mobile as well…)

Apple’s limited carrier footprint couldn’t stop Android from gaining incredible non-AT&T marketshare, but the iPhone remained a strong enough device that it not only held its own ground with but one flagship a year, on one carrier in the U.S., but kept on growing it.

And then Apple changed the rules again. They acted again. They attacked again. They released the iPad.

It was a tablet launched in 2010 that didn’t (and still doesn’t) have a desktop or windowing system, that didn’t (but now does) have multitasking for 3rd party apps. Like the iPhone in 2007, it didn’t matter that the iPad didn’t have nearly as much as the decade of Tablet PCs before it. It utterly obliterated and obsoleted its predecessors before it even shipped.

Again, Google reacted. They spun on a dime and rushed out (a still closed-source version of Android), Honeycomb, to compete in the tablet space. Absent the carrier opening it had with the iPhone, however, and left to their own devices, Android tablets haven’t caught on. Nor did the incredibly iPad-like Palm TouchPad hardware, even with it’s arguably still more elegant multitasking, notification, and messaging software. Nor did the BlackBerry PlayBook, similarly rushed to market without even a chance to put its email on.

Microsoft, meanwhile, finally got Windows Phone off the ground. Unlike Palm, however, they didn’t target the iPhone where it was weak. They copied the weaknesses the iPhone had at launch. Weaknesses Apple, for the most part, had long since addressed — no multitasking, no copy and paste, and an app store that needed to be filled from scratch. The design was new, much to Microsoft’s credit. It wasn’t the same old app launcher and swapping panels. That part Microsoft absolutely nailed. But taken as a whole, great new design with fundamental flaws in functionality (not to mention branding), it wasn’t enough to slow the iPhone’s momentum. The same interface gambit that gave Apple its smartphone mindshare in 2007 just wasn’t repeatable in 2011. At least not by Windows Phone. (Maybe one of those transparent aluminum jobbies from Avatar or Iron Man, branded as XPhone, could have made that shot…)

BlackBerry is now trying to get back into the game, some 5 years later, with BlackBerry 10. Based on QNX it will offer realtime capabilities and the most promiscuous development story in the smartphone space. The PlayBook, like Honeycomb, shipped before it was fully baked. RIM seems prepared to take their time with BlackBerry 10. We’ll have to wait see how that works out for them.

Until then, one essential truth remains indisputable — Apple, who wasn’t even in the smartphone or tablet business before 2006 — has controlled the pacing of both industries since the moment ever since. While they’ve given up a step or two, while they’ve been cut and bloodied a little at times, for the most part they’ve stood at the center of the ring, cut off the angles, and forced everyone else to circle and fight Apple’s fight going on 5 rounds now.

And if the Galaxy S III event is any indication, where Samsung introduced a bigger black slab with music matching and interactive voice control, no one is even challenging them for control of round 6.

Whether you like Apple and their products or would love nothing more than to kill them just to watch them die, everything that matters that’s happened in mobile since 2007 is because of Apple and iPhone, or has been in response to Apple and the iPhone.

Post iPhone ergo propter iPhone.

And as someone who loves technology even more than I love the iPhone, I’m well past tired of it.

The Daily was the very first custom daily news app created for the iPad back in 2011, and now you can get all that great content on your iPhone. The Daily for iPhone is beautiful and extremely easy to use app for Newsstand — no fluff or complicated UI’s to distract from reading your news!

If already have a subscription to The Daily for the iPad, your subscription will carry over the iPhone for no additional cost. A subscription to The Daily is $1.99/mo or $19.99/yr. If you don’t want to pay for the subscription, you will still have access to great, daily content, just not all content.

When browsing through The Daily, swiping left and right will switch between categories and swiping up and down will scroll through the stories in that category. The categories include news, business, gossip, opinion, arts & life, apps & tech, sports, video, and pictures.

To read a story, view a photo, or watch a video, you simply tap on it. The Daily include 3 different font sizes that can be changed while reading each post. You can also read comments and leave a comment of your own. For stories you want to share with your friends, you can easily send them to Facebook, Twitter, or email with just the tap of a button

This really is The Daily in a nutshell. It’s super easy to use and very basic — which is a good thing.

The Good

• Swipe up and down to scroll through stories in a category
• Swipe left and right to switch between categories
• multi-panel UI to quickly jump to a category
• Read and leave comments to stories
• Beautiful photos
• Videos
• 3 different font sizes
• Share to email, Facebook or Twitter

The Bad

• I have no clue why “Switch to New Issue” is displayed. Tapping it does nothing.

The Conclusion

The Daily is a great news app for the iPhone with great journalism. If you don’t want to sign up for a subscription, you’ll still have access to great, free daily content. Not only is the content great, but the UI is as well. The Daily found a great balance between being visually appealing, simple to use, and efficient.

Free – Download Now

Apple’s iPhone 4S has been on the market for 6 months already and the Samsung Galaxy S III doesn’t even hit store shelves until the end of May. Yet the iPhone 4S remains the best selling handset in the world and the Galaxy S III claims to be the best handset on the planet, period, so let’s put them head-to-head, Mobile Nations style.

(Technically Phil is using a Verizon iPhone 4 in the video, but lack of a SIM-card tray aside, it’s physically identical to an iPhone 4S, and that’s the phone we’ll be talking about here in the text).

It’s immediately obvious just how much bigger the Samsung Galaxy S III is, with a whopping 4.8-inch, SAMOLED PenTile screen. The Galaxy S III is so big, it looks like you could hollow it out and use it as an iPhone case. For people who don’t have a tablet, this is as close as you can get without become a… Galaxy Note. On the downside, some (yours truly included), far prefer the color and pixel perfection of a non-PenTile iPhone- or HTC One X-style LCD LED display.

Unfortunately, Samsung still seems to be clinging to their Hasbro-style plastic casings, which are frankly terrible compared to the glass and stainless steel feeling of the iPhone, not to mention the unearthly good plastics Nokia and HTC have been using these days.

The software side is a bit of a mixed bag for the Galaxy S III as well, with the latest version of Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich all loaded up, but hidden beneath Samsung’s TouchWiz. While intended to give a more consumer-friendly (i.e. Apple-like) look and feel, it also gives a slightly out-dated, Gingerbread-esque vibe to overall experience. Pro users will no doubt prefer stock (and will no doubt flash to that, or something close to it, at their earliest opportunity). The rest includes some interesting, innovative features like talk to wake, accelerometer switch from texting to talking, as well as versions of Siri and iTunes Match once again cloned directly from Apple’s 2011 keynote.

The iPhone 4S is still running iOS 5.1, which is either familiar and comfortable, or stale and boring depending on your take.

The bottom line, however, remains the same — Samsung makes fantastic, futuristic, totally uninspiring devices. They can spin out specs so impressive they literally make your nose bleed, but they don’t really know how to innovate. Every atom and pixel just sort of reminds you of something you’ve seen before from Apple or Nokia or someone else. They’re mechanics more than artists. Of course, that matters more to gadget divas than to mainstream consumers. That’s why Samsung sells tens of millions of these big boys, and why — like Apple — they’re actually profitable.

Still, this time around I think HTC stole a step on Samsung. The One X just looks and feels like a better next generation Android phone. (I’ve argued the Nexus One was far better for it’s time than either the Nexus S or Galaxy Nexus as well — Nexus one was a look ahead to what Android could be, Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus were both summations of what Android currently was.)

Speaking of which, neither the Galaxy S III nor the One X are Nexus devices, however, so if/when Google announces Android Jellybean, it might well be a race to see who gets it first… or last… or never.)

Either way, we’re going to have to wait until June to see iOS 6, and likely October to see the iPhone 5,1. Right now the new Androids are hitting the market against the old iPhone, which is a good bit of counter-programming. The more interesting war will be fought this fall, and Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 might just make it a 4 way race this time.

As always, watch the video, check out the pictures, and let us know what you think.