There’s no doubt that the upcoming Apple iPad will kick the asses of all netbooks, tablet PCs, and e-readers, but it’s by far the perfect unit that we had hoped for from Apple. But then again, neither was the original iPhone.

How could it have been better?

Here’s a list of things we felt strongly about. Post yours in the comments section below. Please keep the tampon jokes to a minimum.

- No camera. Video conference calls over Skype or iChat with a front-facing hidden iSight camera would have been a killer feature. Apple did announce 30-pin connector accessories like an external keyboard, however there’s been no mention of an external video capture device. Hopefully something is in the works. I personally feel they should have held off the launch of this until a built-in camera was available. #1 feature, completely missed — and will keep many from not buying. As Spock would say, this is quite illogical.

- No phone. There’s 3G support, but no phone support? Perhaps VOIP is the answer.

- AT&T only? The love/hate relationship between Apple and AT&T continues. Why, man, why?

- Picture frame. What’s the deal with the humongo black frame? My guess is usability tests showed that it was necessary (the way users held the iPad), but it sure doesn’t look as slick as if the screen met up with the edge of the case.

- Mobile Safari still doesn’t support Flash. I suspect Apple’s mobile devices will be the death of Flash, and maybe that’s their intent? As a web developer myself, I avoid Flash or have to disable Flash for mobile devices for this very reason.

- Multitasking. There’s still no multi-tasking support with the iPhone operating system. Yikes!

- Storage. 64GB is the best they could do? What about support for network drives, memory expansion, or even tossing in a small hard drive?

- Battery. Like all Apple products these days, there’s no way to change the battery. A trend that nobody likes except for Apple.

And finally, I’m a bit bummed that there was no mention at all about an iPhone update, or at the very least — an iPhone OS update. I realize that an hour and a half on the iPad left little time to discuss anything else–but it’s been a long while since we’ve had an iPhone or iPod Touch OS update. Throw us a bone, Stevie-baby!

Apple iPad Specs

Source:  AppModo

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The website will serve as a hub for the Asterisk open-source VoIP community including a place for users to review applications and phones. Developers can get exposure for their Asterisk-based applications and users can get the purchase info right from the site.

At the moment it looks like AsteriskExchange is not actually doing any selling itself, but instead directs users to vendor sites who sell the products. The site has a number of tabs including a 'most popular' tab. Currently, the Bria softphone app is at the top of the list, but with no reviews or star ratings yet, I am not sure how they are determining the popularity. It will be interesting in the future to see what apps end up the top of the list when more users access the site.

Unlike other app stores, AsteriskExchange also includes some hardware that you can learn about, review, and connect to sellers to get your equipement. Clicking on the Snom 360 deskphone will bring to an info page and an offsite link to 'Buy Now.'

For more:
- read this article from Connected Planet

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But there are more factors to be taken into account than simple scope of coverage. When it comes to average data speeds, a recent Root Wireless study found that AT&T had higher average 3G data speeds than Verizon in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Overall, AT&T's average 3G data speeds ranged from a low of 246Kbps in New York and a high of 428Kbps in Dallas.

Verizon, meanwhile, had average 3G speeds ranging from 195Kbps in Seattle to 259Kbps in Chicago. The study also found that both carriers had comparably low rates of 3G connectivity failure, as each carrier's connection failure averaged between 1% and 3% for all seven cities.

Click Here to Continue Reading

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"The certification makes the vIPer Phone with PSTN Connect a cost-effective solution as users will no longer have support and maintenance of their legacy Secure Telephone Units or STU-IIIs," said John Cole, vice president of Information Assurance for General Dynamics C4 Systems. "PSTN and VoIP network flexibility, combined with the vIPer Phone's interoperability with the government's Secure Terminal Equipment (STE), also enables customers to easily transition to the latest technology."

Introduced in 2006, the Sectera vIPer Phone remains the only Voice over IP Phone certified by the NSA to protect voice communications classified Top Secret and below over commercial, wired VoIP networks. As military and government organizations plan for evolving technology and the replacement of end-of-life STU-III phones, General Dynamics is offering a price discount of $200 for each vIPer Phone ordered to replace a deployed STU-III or STE phone.

General Dynamics C4 Systems is a leading integrator of secure communication and information systems and technology.

General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., employs approximately 92,300 people worldwide. The company is a market leader in business aviation; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and information systems and technologies. More information about General Dynamics is available online at www.gd.com.

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On paper, DataJack has me second guessing my recent decision to pick up a CLEAR WiMAX modem. That’s especially true since while my mobile WiMAX modem works great, the home modem isn’t as fast as the DSL service I was hoping to replace, so I’m thinking of canceling the home service which means I’d end up paying as much as $45/month for WiMAX service that only works in a handful of cities when I could be paying $40/month for 3G data service that is available nationwide.

But this time I think I’ll try not to be the early adopter and wait to see how well the service works for others before signing up.

Source: Chip Chick

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