Put away those white pants, Labor Day has come and gone. Don't be sad, though - Fall is full of great stuff. Our beloved Rebecca is getting all amped up for football season (me, I'm yawning ... NBA and college hoops are still a few months away). Halloween, Thanksgiving, and my cousin's birthday are right around the corner. And, yes, it's Back-to-School (tm) time, which means all sorts of new phones, gadgets, and more phones will soon be flooding store shelves.
This week I'll be at two major product launches in San Francisco, bringing you the details in text, images, and video so you don't have to wedge your way into press conferences and nibble on passed hors d'oeuvres while waiting in line to get some hands-on time with the new gear. I'll take care of the hard work, and you my friend can just visit our Website repeatedly from the comfort of your own surroundings, with your own passed hors d'oeuvres, to check out what's new from Apple and Motorola.
Yep, Apple and Motorola.
First up is Apple's iPod event tomorrow, Wednedsay September 9 at 10 am (Pacific Time) from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts theater. We're expecting new iPods, most likely in the form of iPod Touches and iPod nanos with built-in cameras. We're also expecting some kind of iTunes upgrade (or "upgrade," depending on your perspective), possibly debuting whatever multimedia cocktail Apple's cooked up with the record labels in hopes of breathing new life into the full length digital album format. We're also hoping for an appearance by a relatively healthy Steve Jobs - whatever you think of the guy and his company, I personally wouldn't wish cancer on anyone. And while it's highly, highly unlikely, I'll go ahead and keep hoping for the launch of the mythical Apple tablet computer tomorrow, as well.
No, it's not a phone event. But whatever affects Apple's iPod Touch lineup affects iPhone, as well, since they share a common platform in iPhone OS. And, frankly, I'd bet that at least half of the iPhone haters out there actually have an iPod Touch they use alongside of their smartphone of choice. Point being, an iPod event impacts iPhone, and gadget fun is gadget fun. So I'll be there. Hopefully neither John Mayer nor Jason Mraz will take the stage for Apple's trademark soft rock performance to close out the show, but we'll see.
Day after tomorrow is Motorola's Android launch event. Motorola Mobile Devices CEO, Sanjay Jha, will give the keynote at GigaOM's Mobilize conference way the heck out at Mission Bay Conference Center. I don't know who this GigaOM guy is (okay, I do), but I wish he could have held his conference at a more convenient location. Anyway, around 10:25 AM, Sanjay will take to the stage to unveil Moto's Android portfolio, or at least the first part of it. Odds are we'll see a T-Mobile USA bound Android phone, and I'm guessing we'll see a non-US market device or two as well. While lots of rumors have been swirling regarding MotoDroids headed for Verizon and AT&T, I'm hearing that execs from those companies may not be in attendance Thursday - T-Mo USA's CTO, Cole Brodman, will be speaking at the conference - so we may have to wait awhile longer for Android to hit those carriers.
Hopefully that speculation is off. I want to see Android on all four major US carriers by Thanksgiving, and I want to see Motorola come back with a vengenace, as well. Competiton is good for industry, and while I love HTC's devices it's high time folks had some choice when it comes to what hardware to run Android on. So, fingers crossed we'll get more than one device from Moto on Thursday.
Oh yeah, after the conference I'm apparently supposed to board a trolley to hit up Moto's evening press event for some hands-on time with the new device(s) and, yes ... passed hors d'oeuvres. Hopefully the dude who ate all of IntoMobile's sandwiches won't be there pirating the food. I love me some pass hors d'oeuvres in early Autumn.
Stay tuned to PhoneDog for coverage of this week's Apple and Motorola events. And follow me on twitter for more real-time updates than you really want.
