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According to a report in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, Google is teaming up with Intel, Logitech and Sony to bring you a WebTV-like platform for Web viewing in your living room called Google TV.  Everyone involved seems to have something in mind as to their own gains for doing this deal.

Funny, given their vision for this, none of them seem to have realized that the PlayStation and the XBox both already do everything that’s been said this new Google TV setup will do.  Tell me if you can’t already do this on the new game systems on the market today:

• Surf the Web and use apps like Twitter and Facebook
• Use photo sites like Picasa or Flickr

What Google seems to want to bring the mix is to base the whole thing on the Android platform.  That would be interesting, since it would leave it open to developers to create all kinds of nifty apps and wizbangs for the setup.  Sony seems interested in capturing exclusivity on built-ins for TVs and DVD/BluRay players while Logitech will likely provide the underlying hardware with Intel doing the processor(s).  Both Google and Intel have nothing in the realm of television, really, and Sony is fast losing market share thanks to their high price points.

ComputerWorld says that an SDK is going to become available as the technology progresses.  If it does, then this whole idea will have some merit and could be very interesting.  Watch for Apple to make a similar announcement in the coming months to keep up with the Joneses Google-es.

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.

Well, readers here should already know that we’ve heard enough about the iPad already, but Apple made another announcement today.  The iPad will be available in the U.S. on April 3, in stores and online, and pre-orders can be made starting a week from today (Friday, March 12).

Two models will be available: the Wi-Fi and the Wi-Fi 3G.  Next Friday, they’ll both be in the Apple store at Apple.com.  Store orders will ship to arrive on April 3 or you can pick up yours at a local Apple outlet store.  Base price for the iPad is $499 and battery life is about ten hours.

The base model has 16GB of memory, which can be doubled for another $100 or tripled for another $200.  Wi-Fi+3G models won’t be available until later in April and will have a base price of $629 for 16GB and going up in $100 increments for the 32 and 64GB options.

The other denizens of the world will see the iPad roll out throughout the year.  Most of Europe plus Australia and Canada will get theirs in late April and then Asia and other markets will see it later in the year.  Some apps, such as the iBooks reader and the iBookstore app for accessing electronic book titles will be a free download (books themselves will still require purchase).

Computerworld’s Mitch Wagner plans to camp out to get his iPad on release day.  John Biggs at Crunchgear plans to make do with his NotePod Plus until the release date.  Whatever a NotePod is.

Regardless, there are some of us who are looking forward to April 4, when all the iPod buzz will be over with.  I, for one, certainly hope the iPad won’t be taking the place of this year’s iPhone upgrade..

Google has said they’ll be rolling out their new Nexus One smart phone, the “iPhone Killer,” in January.  A date and carrier have been established: January 5 and the carrier will be T-Mobile.  Now, a leak shows the pending Google page for selling the phone and another leak of an internal memo at T-Mobile shows something else. Google will sell the phone, not T-Mobile.

That’s an interesting twist.

The Google leak is based on the graphic here, which is a screen capture first published by Gizmodo when an anonymous tipster sent it in.  The graphic shows the Nexus One home page.  More screen shots show the sales page.  With pricing.  The phone can be purchased in two ways: unlocked through Google, without subsidies or a carrier plan, and locked into T-Mobile with subsidies and a carrier plan.

For the former, the direct purchase price is $530, which is on par with the comparable iPhone models when purchased alone.  The name Google Phone has been dumped for Nexus One officially, it appears, and the T-Mobile subsidy price is $180.  Other contract details were also spelled out on the pages, including the oddity that the customer acknowledges that HTC is the phone manufacturer and not Google.  Probably some legaleze their law department dreamt up to avoid lawsuits from people claiming they get brain tumors from the phone or something.

An internal memo at T-Mobile confirms that Google will be selling the phone from http://www.google.com/phone and that T-Mobile will not be selling the phone from their website.  This was posted on Engaget and confirms the Google screen shots.  This plan may backfire on Google, though, as most people I know do their phone shopping on their network’s site.  Perhaps T-Mobile will have a link to Google for purchase.

I think the reasoning behind Google’s decision to be Type A about the phone’s sales is because they are selling a completely unlocked phone at $530.  That phone is compatible with all of the GSM network carriers.  Which means it will run on AT&T, directly in competition with the iPhone. This is pointed out by TechCrunch.

All of those things are what I pointed out earlier this month when talking about the iPhone vs. Nexus One here.

So the drama rolls on, though it will probably die down within a few days of the Nexus One hitting the streets and the mystique finally getting worn off.

Designing sites is not usually a simple task.  The designer usually knows the general audience the site is geared towards, but often doesn’t get much feedback on the site’s appearance until a lot of work has already been put into the project.  Sometimes, something obvious to a visitor won’t be to the designer.

Tools like Usabilla.com aren’t a new idea, but they are definitely evolving into something very useful for the design team.  Where sites like IntuitionHQ are aimed towards client collaboration, Usabilla is aimed more towards surveying and commenting from other designers, friends, clients, or prospective site users.

The setup works fairly simply.  You create a design or sets of designs, create a test on Usabilla for them, and then write a series of questions for users to answer.  Then you open the test up for invites and have users go check it out and leave their feedback, answering those questions.  The feedback is analyzed and shown in graphical statistics which can be exported in PDF or PNG formats.

You can see which area of the design is most likely to generate clicks, what portions of the design are most memorable to users after seeing them, and so forth.  A lot of valuable feedback can be quickly received this way.

Usabilla is free to use and just came out of beta.  It’s headquartered in Amsterdam with a team of developers lead by founder Paul Veugen.