The Federal Aviation Administration is believed to be re-examining the rules which prohibit the use of electronic devices during takeoff and landing.

According to the New York Times, the FAA plans to conduct tests to see  whether there's any danger of new devices affecting the operation of the plane.

However, the mandated test procedures are so thorough that there's real doubt as to whether devices could be approved before they're completely out of date.

via tgdaily.com

The blurb I got in e-mail that linked to this story misspelled the word "fortunately" in the following sentence... "Unfortunately, it looks like cellphones will still be off the list." See how they accidentally put the letters "Un-" in front of the correct spelling?

If there's just *one* convenience I absolutely do not need at any point in the future, it's the person behind me able to shout into their cellphone during takeoff and landing. {Shudder}

Samsung (005930.KS) only entered the smartphone market in earnest last year, but its sales have skyrocketed thanks to a sleek production system that rapidly brings new products to market. Apple (AAPL.O) introduced its first iPhone in 2007.

"In the handset division, Samsung has no real rival models to challenge its products except for the iPhone 4S. Apple and Samsung will continue to dominate the market in the fourth quarter," said Kim Hyun-joong, a fund manager at Midas Asset Management, which owns Samsung shares.

I'm always fascinated to face yet another example that I'm utterly average. The competition has come down to a Samsung Galaxy S or an iPhone 4s for me now, particularly since CSpire claims the iPhone 4s is coming.

Why would I *not* get an iPhone? Me? Such an Apple dude?

The only reasons I'm coming up with are (a.) price and (b.) screen size.

I'm probably getting the iPhone, although I don't yet know the dates, data plans, etc. for rollout. But if I can keep my cheap smartphone plan and get an iPhone for $200 at the most (maybe even less with a phone trade-in credit?) then I'm there.

But the Galaxy S remains tempting... it does seem to be a well designed phone, good screen size, maybe more comfortable for typing...

We'll see.

Mac vs. PC comparisons now go even deeper between iOS and Android... at it seems that the same benefits to closed-loop OS-and-hardware system apply. According to the story, Apple iOS is "targeted so little that it's not even in McAfee report." Yowza.

Citing two people with knowledge of the matter, the global news agency said its heard that Apple's Asian supplies have begun building "a lower-priced version of its hot-selling iPhone 4 with a smaller 8 gigabyte flash drive" that's "expected to launch within weeks."

Not only do I hope this is true, but I hope (on a wing and a prayer) that this could possibly mean Apple is ready to open up to regional carriers like Cellular South, which offers great coverage down here in MS, no roaming charges in the U.S. and happens to have a nice, cheap data plan for it's Android phones*.

It seems to me that regional carriers and specialty carriers (Credo, Virgin, Boost) are an area dominated by Blackberry and Android and certainly one place where Apple could win huge converts -- often young folks -- if they have the CDMA chipset ready and they're willing to flood the market with lower-end versions of their already widely successful (if slightly dated) previous model.

(* Full disclosure: CS has advertised with the JFP in the past and I'd love them to do so again the future, but I'm not specifically sucking up here. They're also my current mobile carrier and I'm ready to trade up my Hero and/or throw it out the window of a moving vehicle.)

Update: Business Insider has this chart showing what a mere *report* of the iPhone 5 for Sprint is doing to their stock; just think what reports of iPhones for regional carriers would do for their bottom lines (and for Apple in the War Against Robots):

VERY interesting. I think we know why we've got that Android dominance in Missisissippi -- CellularSouth has great signal strength and cheap smartphone plans, while AT&T sux. Bad. Like zero signal in my house.

Verizon coming on board could change things (or if CellSouth got the iPhone it'd be game over), but that'll take a while.

Meanwhile, how about that Blackberry domination in Oregon... what's that about?

We believe the likelihood of the iPhone 5 launch in September including LTE [Long-Term Evolution] is now remote,” Misek said in a note to clients. “According to our industry checks, the device should be called iPhone 4S and will include minor cosmetic changes, better cameras, A5 dual-core processor, and HSPA+ support.

Interesting that the iPhone 5 might be the iPhone 4s (which would be cool for me since I'm *still* seriously contemplating an iPhone 4 from Verizon and I'd hate to not be the cool kid). The iPhone 4 still looks great, still has the bestest or second-bestest screen out there and has tons of tech life left in it.

In other news... Sprint? Could Sprint feed the iPhone to Credo and other affiliates? How fab would that be?

Here's what I'm curious about -- how much marketshare could Apple get against Android by putting an iPhone on *all* the major carriers... and even open things up to regional carriers like CellularSouth, where I have the majority of my office phones. They're reliable, high-speed and local-ish (also an occasional JFP advertiser, full disclosure) but stuck with Android phones that I find less than overwhelming. (Sure, the phones are nice, but they run Android and are like PeeCees! Ew!)

Maybe having multiple handsets is less important than having as many carriers (and even some variety in the voice/data plans) as possible?

Knol: like Wikipedia, but not as useful

Knol was supposed to provide a more authoritative source than Wikipedia -- articles are written by subject matter experts -- but after almost two years, the site has so many gaps in content that it's practically worthless. Google should be indexing the Web's knowledge, not providing a half-hearted storehouse for some randomly selected portion of it.

In fact, this one's been on the deathwatch list for so long, it's amazing that it's still around. But it's still listed on Google's products page.

I've never heard of Google's Knol... so perhaps it is, in fact, a product that Google should dispatch with all due haste.

Not that I care. I bring it up because it's personally funny to me that Business Insider says that Larry Page should kill Knol.

I just hope Larry waits until after the Best of Jackson party. :-)

So my first thought when reading "Watch The Smartphone Subscriber Market Share Reverse In Apple's Favor" -- because the iPhone will soon be available on Verizon -- was: Really? Seems unlikely.

Buy my second reaction was to recall the feverishness with which I was recently re-activating my forgotten password on the Verizon website. Apparently, the phone I have with Verizon is out of contract, so, when, Verizon gets the iPhone, so will I -- assuming performance reports are otherwise favorable.

Don't get me wrong... I like my Hero, and I've considered (despite the expense) upgrading to an even faster Android. But I gave up my original iPhone not because I didn't enjoy the experience, but because I couldn't talk on it in my house thanks (I assume) to the AT&T signal.

It didn't work all that great in my office, either.

My experience with Verizon's service around here has been pretty good (Verizon used to be Alltel here, which is how I ended up with the account in the first place) so as soon as I can justify it, I'll be upgrading the phone on our Verizon account to an iPhone... and, more than likely, Ms. D gets my HTC Hero in that deal.

Sure, I'm a serial upgrader... and a Mac fanboy. But most of all I'm looking forward to just having all my info sync'ed and iTuned, and buttoned up, ready for action.

So, if I'm willing to jump the Android ship (sorta... I won't actually be doing away with the Android, just moving it around in our pool of phones) then I can kinda see where others might be willing to as well.

The Motorola Xoom looks pretty cool and, assuming the price makes sense, it may well give the iPad a run for its money.

But in checking it out, what caught my eye was this video -- it's almost like a parody of those obligatory Apple rollout videos with Jonathan Ive and Phil Schiller, right down to the accent of Melissa Gardner, who is playing the "explain how we managed to capture magic and sexy and then cram them into our technology product... all whilst being a subject-of-the-crown" role generally reserved for Ive.

The funniest moments early on (I couldn't get through the whole thing) are a couple of quick-cut to Gardner saying, "I want to be connected to the Internet all the time" and "I just wish I could rip my HD screen off the wall" in a way that almost seems out of context.

She comes off a bit unhinged, frankly. I could imagine cutting to Ive against his white backdrop at Apple, waiting a beat and then saying "Oh my. My my. Down. Girl."

The other funny bit is where a good chunk of the video is simply them pretending then didn't try to out-spec the iPad and give their tablet Flash, which is described as "add[ing] Adobe in" so as to give you an experience "exactly like the experience you have at home."

"That's the magic." Ms. Gardner tells us. Flash is magic?

But, kudos anyway... could be a good product and I'll be interested to see what "Android designed for a tablet" looks and feels like. And then there's perhaps the key question -- price. My understanding is that's it's going to have a Verizon contract with it, which might be OK if the purchase price is subsidized, but will remain a disadvantage if it's priced close to the iPad.

This could have to do with the fact that thanks to AT&T, the iPhone is only available to 1/3 of the U.S. population. Or, it could mean that Android (and maybe Windows Phone 7?) are more appealing now than ever.

Or... it could mean that you're adding together total demand for all smartphones and coming up 6 points higher than iPhone on its own. Why not break out Android, Windows, Web OS, Blackberry and other smartphones?

Meanwhile, back at the iPad...only 1% more people want a TV in the next six months as compared with an iPad? Yowza. Apple better start cranking.