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Tim Bray is best known as the co-inventor of XML and for his blogging on his website at TBray.org.  Google has hired him as a “Developer Advocate” to promote and maintain the developers who interact with Google on the Android platform.  Blogging about it on his site, Bray rants against Apple and the iPhone platform:

The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger.

I hate it.

I hate it even though the iPhone hardware and software are great, because freedom’s not just another word for anything, nor is it an optional ingredient.

With Android gaining ground on the iPhone as the two become the two largest rivals in smart phones, the inclusion of Bray at Google to work on further promoting the APIs for the various Android sets, and this direct attack on Apple’s closed-circuit development process may be just a marketing ploy, but it’s a good one.

Apple’s recent moves against app makers and removal of some iPhone apps they thought “questionable” from the AppStore brought controversy and, as CNet points out, gave Google with their long-running “No-Evil Zone” motto a big opening to compete with the rival smart phone maker.

Bray specifically hates the “closed system of development” for the iPhone and Business Insider predicts that Bray will be doing all he can to “destroy” that model.

While it’s questionable whether any one person (or anything, for that matter) can take down the Apple iPhone Juggernaut, it’s likely that this could be a large boost to Google’s Android platform and likely the Nexus One specifically.

Market competition is good, so whatever the outcome here, the power of competition will probably help both rivals bring out the best in themselves.

In exactly one minute, at 5:30am Pacific Standard Time, the Apple iPad will be available for pre-order on Apple.com.  You still won’t see the unit until April 3rd, but you can pre-order today.

What, you’re still reading this?  Click the Apple.com link already!

Alright.  Are they gone?  Good, that gets rid of the riff-raff and gadget freaks.  I’m sure they’ll be back after Apple’s servers crash because millions like them ran to the store to refresh their screens endlessly until it finally popped up with an order screen.

You see, the news on when they would officially open their doors to the cyber-campers who stayed up all night guzzling Mountain Dew and Starbucks to wait for the big event broke last night on The Unofficial Apple Weblog.  Then it proliferated and hit CNet, Mashable! and now I’m perpetuating it in a mad sort of Dr. Evil kind of way.

Oh, hell, it just occurred to me that you can also buy an iPad through the Apple Store on the iPhone.  Now my service will be out, I guarantee it.  Son ofa… with the… dagnab… fooz…

Good thing it’s Friday.  Maybe Twitter will manage to stay up and running for a whole day today.  That might make up for my iPhone being offline thanks to the iPad-buying dweebs.

Note to the reader: if you’re reading this with anything but humor, you really need to take a day off and relax a little.  This is a joke, already.

Most iPhone users are aware that the gadget is due for a software upgrade soon and that it’s likely that Apple will release another OS for the phone sometime this year.  Tradition says this happens in late March, though this one may be delayed.  Apple Insider says that the upgrade will be OS 4.0 for “summer release” and it will include something that has long been a thorn in the side of the iPhone vs. Android debate.. multitasking.

Over at ReadWriteWeb, Mike Melanson mentions that jailbreaking has already proven that the iPhone is capable of multitasking, it’s the OS that’s holding it back.  With the iPad coming, however, the phone may find itself too powerful for its new cousin.  Or will it?  Apple has said that multitasking is not supported for phone security and stability reasons.

Those may be addressed and the iPad may be the impetus for the upgrade rather than a blockade.  Since the iPad is apparently running the iPhone’s OS, the upgrade to multitasking  may be all about the iPad with the iPhone thrown in as just a bonus.  Traditionally, as stated, this happens in late March or early April.  With the non-3G iPad coming later this month, Apple may be pushing ahead with the new OS as well.  At least in beta form, if not a full release.  Apple plans an SDK event towards the end of the month..

Regardless, the iPhone is the only smart phone at the front of the market that doesn’t support multitasking.  DailyTech lists all of the major competitors and their multitasking abilities, including Palm and Android (Google).  If the iPad doesn’t support multitasking (and all indicators so far say it won’t), it will be a seriously hobbled machine.

Beginning next month, Facebook will include location-based status updates into its makeup, allowing all 400 million-plus users to update not just with short text blurbs, but with current location as well.  Twitter activated geo-location on their status as well, just in time for South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas – one of the biggest tech gatherings in the nation.

Twitter activated their geo-location through the API in November, but did not incorporate it into status updates until yesterday.  Facebook, meanwhile, updated their privacy settings (to much controversy) in November, setting a new policy allowing for the location-based updates.  Those updates will launch late next month at Facebook’s f8 conference.

According to the New York Times, Facebook does promise to make the location updates optional so that users can participate (or not) as they wish.

Both Facebook and Twitter have been eyeballing the geo-location apps that have hit mainstream for months and many believed that either would make a move to buy out either or both of the major players in geo-location games (Foursquare and Gowalla).  So far, that hasn’t happened and it’s become clear that Facebook, at least, plans to compete with them rather than try to absorb them.

TechCrunch unveiled the Twitter update, which includes overlay maps of the user’s location when a location-based tag has been added to a tweet.  The update is by no means seamless, however, with some tweets appearing as place names and others appearing as map overlays.  Some don’t appear at all, as I failed to get either to work on my own Twitter account.  It is possible, of course, that Twitter is rolling this out slowly over accounts in the network.

In either case, it looks like the new location-based war is on with everyone getting in on the action.

With all of the buzz about the new Apple iPad, the new HP Slate has been a little overlooked.  This new device from Hewlett Packard will run Windows 7 and, of course, Adobe’s Flash.  The video also captures the on-screen keyboard, showcases how the hardware-accelerated Flash speeds up performance, and also shows that AIR applications will also run on the Slate.

Little is offered from HP on the technology underneath the hood of this device, but it’s obvious that HP knows where it’s strengths lie: it’s not an Apple and it runs Flash and AIR.  So despite its lackluster debut at Microsoft’s CES, where all the Slate could do was run the Kindle Windows app, the Slate is definitely aimed directly at the iPad-disappointment crowd, who epxected a little more from Apple’s first touch pad computer.

Here’s the commercial from HP showing the square-off between devices:

If that makes no sense to you, don’t worry.  You’re not alone.  I’ve seen Super Bowl ads that were more sensical than that.

Nonetheless, the marketing video and gadget-showcase from HP show that the tablet market is set to really heat up this year, with four contenders currently in the game.  Fun!

Social media is taking the business of the Internet by storm and is the marketing wave of the now as well as the future. Yet social media is not nearly as social as people might like you to think. Recent events right here in South Florida proved that many of the so-called social media experts are, in fact, just self-serving marketing whiners. The social media bubble is about to burst.

Recently, the Sun Sentinel announced this year’s Best of Blogs Awards for South Florida in which fans of various blogs could click through to vote on their favorites. The winner will be announced tonight, but the complaining and whining from those who think they should have won has already started. I learned about this because my own blog, WorstPizza.com, was up for the win and outpaced all of these complainers.

Looking at the others who complained, most of which are self-proclaimed social media experts, one thing became very apparent: these blogs have no traffic. Despite being supposed experts in media and social networking, these bloggers have an average of 10 visitors per day versus those on the short list for the win of the BOB Awards, which all have 500 or more visits per day.

Yet these self-absorbed social media mavens are busy crying fowl, calling the awards a joke, bashing those who are on the winners list. Which proves that they are not social media experts, but are instead self-serving media experts. These are people who just don’t understand social media and what it really is. Unfortunately we are living amongst several dozen down here in South Florida.

Sure, social media can be used to gain a lot of traffic and marketing, but it isn’t done by having a thousand (robot) followers on Twitter or a couple of hundred fans on Facebook. For those so-called experts, the bubble is about to burst.

No, social media marketing is about interacting with people, helping one another, and giving value. At the same time these bloggers have been bashing my own website, others on my friends lists have been extremely helpful and have shown what social marketing is supposed to be. Several commented on my great blog, wished me luck, and even asked me to go and vote for them. Most made sure that their networks were also in on the voting, getting the social crowd-sourcing on the task to get out the vote.

Social media users like @thetinyjewelbox, @malcolli (for AutoNation), @midtownchica and @vicequeenmaria are examples of how it should be done. They continually give their South Florida friends help, ideas, and value. One look at their tweets shows that they are interacting, not just playacting to gain a crowd.

Soon, those who are building empty networks and attempting to gain by sucking all they can from those social webs will find their bubble bursting. Those who really understand social networking and media and use it the way it should be used will be the ones who outlast and prevail. No matter how much crying and whining you do!