No one wants to be second place in most races, but in the smartphone war, that's precisely what Android has aimed for over the last couple quarters.

RIM rests atop smartphone sales charts thanks to the fact that the smartphone population initially consisted almost exclusively of business users -- a group that still makes up a large portion of the total smartphone market.  

Apple's iPhone changed the market by delivering the first smartphone truly accessible for the masses.  True, others (Windows Mobile phones, Palm designs) could argue ownership of such a title.  But Apple's App Store, advertising blitz, and slick hardware won over the masses like never before.  And they earned it a solid spot at number two -- a very desirable place to be.

Then came Android.  Google's OS didn't start off beautifully.  From the start many questioned the patchwork alliance, the at times unclear objectives of the project, and lacking first generation hardware such as the first Android handset, the G1 phone.

But slowly, Google began to catch up and pick up steam.  It picked up multi-touch.  Its hardware partners, particularly HTC, flooded hot new designs onto every major U.S. carrier.  These designs like the  djia live chart fbi badges for sale how to install plastic lattice ait - sky california christening gown crochet patterns kim australia andalusians symptoms joint aches nauseous no appetit newspaper clipping of the likens murder gas conversion on subaru forester nursing assessment and documentation val los angeles fire department gage desoto clusters of itchy blisters how to curve handrails objective registered nurse laptops for sale in town plymouth building a wood oval pool deck dog knot inside women sample nursing cases review material diarrhea and pain in teeth mary mary quite contrary costume swollen glands under front teeth download nursery rhyme mps unblocked video sites at school diy firepit bench curious george machine embroidery cd cardiac review questions with rationales 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Apple still had one key advantage -- the App Store.  Google's app count will soon hit 50k, but that pales in comparison to the 150,000 apps that the App Store has.  But Apple made some critical missteps.  First, it banned Flash from the iPhone.  Then it even banned Flash ports to native code, further alienating both developers and customers.  Second, it practiced inconsistent policing the App Store.  Sometimes it rejected apps only to later approve them, other times it approved them only to reject them.  Google, too did a bit of this, but Apple did it far more often.

In the end it's easy to see why Apple lost the coveted second place position to the army of Android handsets.  How could its one handset on one (U.S.) carrier hope to keep up with a plethora of high end handsets backed by a multitude of carriers and a more open app marketplace?

If Apple feels bad, we can only wonder where that leaves Palm (recently acquired) and Microsoft's Windows Mobile division who have been bumped further down the ladder as well.  At least Apple still is solidly holding on to its third place position.

I've developed apps for the iPhone, and while I admit I am now eyeing the Android phones, I still have a soft spot for the old iPhone.  I bear it no ill will.

Thus it is out of best wishes that I give Apple the following advice:
1.  Adopt multiple carriers in the U.S.  Lucrative exclusive contracts are not worth cornering yourself into obscurity.
2.  Release multiple phones.  You already did this with the iPod -- imagine how hot an iPhone Nano would be!
3.  Most important -- drop the rhetoric on Flash and shore up the app approval process.  If you want to be the world's premiere mobile applications provider, there's little room for such poor behavior as you have shown.

If Apple can follow such advice, perhaps it can once again become competitive in the race.  Otherwise, with other hungry competitors (Palm, Microsoft) and hot new Android handsets (Samsung Galaxy, HTC EVO) it seems destined to sink down the sales charts, much like Palm before it.

It's been a Monday of social-media security embarrassments: Twitter has confirmed the existence of a bug that can force one user to follow another.

The bug appears to have originally been noticed by a Turkish blog, followed by the blog Webrazzi, which successfully tested it out and forced the Twitter accounts of industry luminaries like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Evan Williams to follow a dummy profile. The flaw allowed members to add followers to their own accounts, basically, by tweeting "accept" followed by "@" and any given Twitter user name.

Twitter spokesman Sean Garrett told CNET that the bug is "unfortunately" real, and that "we're focused on fixing it now (and) hope to know a lot more about the specifics once that's done."

As a result, it's not yet clear how long the bug had been in existence or whether it could potentially give Twitter users access to the contents of "protected" accounts in which all tweets are private.

Update at 9:53 a.m. PDT: Gizmodo notes that this only worked in Twitter's Web interface, not on third-party apps. Meanwhile, I forced Ashton Kutcher to follow me--but a moment later, Twitter appeared to have delved into the issue and had reset follower and following number counts to 0. Temporarily, we can only hope!

Update at 10:19 a.m. PDT: "We're now working to rollback all abuse of the bug that took place. Follower/following numbers are currently at 0; we're aware and this too should shortly be resolved," Twitter has posted on its status blog. (Farewell, Ashton!)

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats are abandoning efforts to win a special election in Hawaii as a party feud threatens their prospects in President Barack Obama's native state.

HAMPTON, VA. -- President Obama delivered a strong argument Sunday on the importance of education, telling the new graduates of the historic black university here that "all of us have a responsibility, as Americans, to change" the comparatively low academic achievement of African Americans in this country.

Before an audience of more than 12,000 students, family members and guests at Hampton University's commencement, Obama said the nation must "offer every single child in this country an education that will make them competitive in our knowledge economy."

"But I have to say, Class of 2010, all of you have a separate responsibility. To be role models for your brothers and sisters," Obama told the 1,072 students receiving undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees on the cool but lovely spring morning. "To be mentors in your communities. And, when the time comes, to pass that sense of an education's value down to your children, a sense of personal responsibility and self-respect."

Obama's speech marked his second commencement appearance of the season and was a more traditional address than the broad critique he delivered eight days ago on the role of government, political parties and the media at the University of Michigan.

But he echoed those views Sunday in a passage meant to reinforce his central message -- that in a quickly changing and economically troubled world, a deep education is more important to individual success and the future of the country than ever before.

"This class is graduating at a time of great difficulty for America and for the world," Obama said. "You're entering a job market, in an era of heightened international competition, with an economy that's still rebounding from the worst crisis since the Great Depression. You're accepting your degrees as America still wages two wars -- wars that many in your generation have been fighting. " At the same time, he said, "you're coming of age in a 24-7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter."

"And with iPods and iPads, and Xboxes and PlayStations -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," he continued. "So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it's putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy.

The university's red-brick Armstrong Stadium was filled with families under a bright blue sky, a cool breeze fluttering purple school banners that rose among the graduates. Obama wore pale blue robes, the sleeves circled with black stripes and was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree. He joked, "This is much less expensive than my last law degree."

Although he warned the new graduates of the challenges ahead, Obama also added an element of optimism, telling them that "all of you are ahead of the curve."

He cited the proud traditions of the country's historically black universities and quoted Frederick Douglass's in saying that "education . . . means emancipation."

He also told a story about the late Dorothy I. Height, the civil rights leader whom Obama memorialized last month at her funeral in Washington. Height was accepted at Barnard College in 1929, only to be turned away when the school saw she was black. It had already filled the two spots it reserved at the time for African Americans.

"She stood up, straight-backed, and with Barnard's acceptance letter in hand, she marched down to New York University, and said, 'Let me in.' And she was admitted right away," Obama said. "That refusal to accept a lesser fate, that insistence on a better life, that, ultimately, is the secret not only of African American survival and success, it has been the secret of America's survival and success."