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For such a long-time Apple believer and Mac/iPhone customer, the idea of turning my back on Steve Jobs and crew, stopping my app store and media buying preferences almost entirely and choosing a divergent path is not one taken lightly. In the two months following Google I/O, I’ve talked about my looking at Android and how I think the mobile operating system is a real challenger to the iPhone’s place on the pedestal in the world of smartphones, but I didn’t make a lot of noise about my taking the final step and switching to Android. It turns out that on the very day the iPhone 4 hit Apple Stores and AT&T Stores around the country, I was trading mine in and converting the family (including my wife) to Google’s OS. Given many of the comments I have seen around the Web comparing the two platforms, I thought I would explain my choice - especially as news articles are hitting seemingly every day that back up my hypotheses.

For me, more than the over-used phrase of “open”, the promise of true multitasking, and the platform’s integration with Google Apps, was one word - “Choice”. Choice of handsets. Choice of carriers. Choice of manufacturers. Second behind the word choice has to be “Momentum”. I can see that Android has momentum in terms of improved quality, in terms of the number of devices sold and users, and yes, applications, which are growing in quantity, soon to be followed by quality. I really do believe that if Android does not already have a market share lead over Apple yet in this discussion, they soon will. It is inevitable. The growth in the number of handsets, carriers and users will drive more developers to the platform, and the holdouts who are not there will eventually make the move. And yes, third is “Cloud” - the idea that I don’t need to be tied to my desktop computer to manage data on the phone, but instead, the phone is built to tap into data stored on the Web. Fourth is “Capability”. The Android platform, as the Droid commercials offer, simply does more. The power of the mobile hotspot cannot be understated, and the iPhone is a zero there.

Unfortunately, I am pretty sure I hadn’t previously made that decision process clear. Most, thanks to my derogatory comments against AT&T (rightly deserved, I may add), thought I switched from my AT&T-fed iPhone to my Sprint contract on the HTC EVO and new HTC Hero because of the many frequent issues with the carrier. This is not true. Yes, AT&T has been dramatically underdelivering in terms of quality and functionality, but this did not drive me away from Apple as much as the lack of choice did. Not even the announcement of an imminent offering of a Verizon iPhone could have kept me on Apple.

I have been publicly and openly thinking about moving off iPhone for more than six months. At the time of the December post, none of us knew what the iPhone 4 would look like. We didn’t know if Apple would open up to new carriers. We didn’t know what the Nexus One would offer. We didn’t know about the HTC EVO or the HTC Hero or the HTC Aria or the Droid Incredible. But the writing was on the wall that change was afoot, and we would have to be in wait and see mode. I waited, and what I saw told me that the speed at which Android has improved and the speed at which new models are developed and released is far outpacing Apple. In my personal experience of using the HTC EVO after receiving a free unit from Google I/O, the gaps in the platform were very few, and were more than outweighed by the device’s capabilities. I kept running into ways to use my EVO where my previous generation iPhone could not keep up, and even my handling of the new iPhone 4 was not enough to make me feel I had chosen wrong.

This isn’t to say that it’s impossible the iPhone 4 is the best mobile phone in the world. Maybe it is. Apple’s sense of design and integration is impeccable. They do fantastic work and I do not think they have an equal in hardware. I would never say the HTC EVO is a better hardware device than the iPhone 4, so that discussion is moot. But it is a fantastically capable, flexible device, and I had the choice - yes that word again - to get my wife a different model with a different physical appearance and a different set of capabilities, in the Hero. With Apple, my choice (if you can call it that) is to buy this year’s model or last year’s model, and black versus white (assuming white ever ships).

I also will never tell you that Android is perfect - in software or in hardware. I have seen bugs on the EVO that have impacted button sensitivity, which at times are baffling and directly impact my ability to use the device for minutes at a time. There are background app crashes, and yes, you do have to be smart about how you use apps to avoid draining the battery faster than would be optimal. But I don’t feel that any of these bugs are permanent, nor are they reason to switch back and call it a public loss. It’s certainly not as if I have been blind to iPhones traded in or sent back to the Genius Bar on the other side of the aisle. In my view, I feel that Android is today equally capable to Apple in almost all ways, is more capable in several ways, and is less capable or polished in others.

When I first discussed my thoughts on Android, I made comments saying that if I were a software developer looking to deploy a mobile app, I would look to code for Android first and iPhone and iPad second, to gain highly visible mindshare in a fast growing marketplace. In a piece in the San Jose Mercury News last week, that theory was validated by developers who said the once small pond was turning into an ocean. The article said “early bets on Android and Google are paying off.”

On Thursday, news from ComScore said Android gained market share while Apple, BlackBerry and pretty much everybody else lost share. On Saturday, Barron’s also reported on the growth, saying Android “could eat Apple’s lunch.” This momentum is real on the market share side, no doubt driven by a swath of partners pushing Android-capable devices, while Apple, a personal favorite mind you, is practically going it alone.

Earlier on Saturday, news broke that HTC was not going to “jump into the tablet market” any time soon, as the company looked for a compelling form factor and use case. We’ve seen how Apple launched the iPad and has done tremendously well by it, but the great thing about the Android ecosystem is that HTC’s saying no is not a deathknell for the platform or its customers (including me). If HTC won’t make it, then somebody else will. As we saw with the iPad, rumors of tablets stirred for years until Apple finally launched one. That’s what can happen when only one manufacturer has access to a system. Seeing HTC is not doing a tablet now caused me to shrug, not to writhe in pain. But if they had an exclusive agreement with Google, that would be another story altogether.

The momentum is clear and the option of multiple choices is clear. If I like Android and hate my new carrier, Sprint, I can switch to Verizon and get the Incredible. If I have an aneurysm and love AT&T, I can get the Aria. If I want a small screen, I can do that. If I want a physical keyboard, I can find a device that does that. But for iPhone, I simply would have to take whatever Apple offers and believe that their choices are right for me. I’ve chosen Apple many times and will again in the future, but I don’t think I should buy into a system that restricts my choices when another one is out there that enables my choices.

I switched to Android because I am extending my move away from the desktop and more to the cloud. iTunes does not deserve to be the core of my device any more, as it is simply a utility to rent films and get new apps for the iPad. I do believe the Web to be my future hub, and Google is preparing for that world, while Apple is not. Their devices do great work to get to the Web easily, but once there, I have almost always been pointed to other providers, so now, with Android, for the most part, I can just go to the source.

A bet on iPhone 4 today may be a vote for the best phone of today. But a bet on Android is a bet on the future. I am betting on an ecosystem and an application environment that encourages best of breed developers to move their product to a growing population of smartphones, and I expect to reap the benefits. I have the utmost respect for Steve Jobs, Apple and all the work Cupertino has done to make my family’s lives better, but I think the baton has been passed. I won’t be hanging around hoping they will get reinvigorated, to win on their own against a flotilla of partners on the opposing side. Our family is on the side that is going to win the next five years of mobile.

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Resolve Market Research has just completed a comprehensive study that looks at how the iPad is being used, and how the iPad is impacting other technology devices like e-readers, portable gaming consoles and netbooks.

The study, which was conducted online across a nationally representative sample, compared technology owners or people that intend to own devices in four different categories: the iPad, smartphones (including iPhones, Androids and BlackBerrys), e-readers and portable video game devices. The study also focused on how users perceive the iPad both before and after owning the device.

The study has some interesting, and in some cases surprising, results. While the ultimate impact that devices like the iPad will have on netbooks has been discussed at length (some analysts predict tablets will outsell netbooks by 2012), the two devices that will really be affected by the iPad, at least according to Resolve’s study, are e-readers and portable gaming devices.

The iPad: The Ultimate Gaming Device?

The iPad has primarily been positioned as a device to browse the web, watch video and read content. Its gaming capabilities, while certainly impressive, haven’t been a major part of the conversation. In fact, according to Resolve, only 28% of users said that one of their main uses for the iPad would be playing games. Additionally, only 23% said that they thought of the iPad as the most enjoyable device for playing games.

However, after owning an iPad, those figures start to change. It turns out that 38% of respondents said that they did not plan to buy a portable gaming device after owning an iPad. The only category that ranked higher than that amongst iPad owners was e-readers.

The iPhone has had a huge impact on the portable gaming market and it looks like the iPad could further that trend. The size of the device and its accelerometer really make for an immersive gaming experience. Show anyone Real Racing HD and watch their faces explode into what my fiancé calls “the smile of iPad glee.”

Once iOS 4 is deployed to the iPad and Apple has its Game Center deployed and ready for action, the iPad could really start to make a play for the gaming space.

E-readers Should Be Worried

The biggest category that has been affected by the iPad is that of standalone e-readers. Beyond just Resolve’s own survey results, we’re already seen evidence of this in the marketplace; both Barnes & Noble and Amazon recently slashed the prices of their e-readers.

Even before the Kindle and Nook price cuts, we were already seeing some movement with lower-priced e-readers. We think that reading-only devices will ultimately find a new market at the sub $100 price point. Even at $200, the value proposition for an e-reader versus an iPad is tough to overcome.

Many iPad Owners Are New to Apple

One of the most surprising parts of Resolve’s study, at least to us, was that 37% of respondents who owned or were planning to own an iPad said that it would be their first Apple product. This is impressive and interesting because it has the potential to pull more customers into the Apple ecosystem.

Much has been written about the iPod halo effect, in which people were more willing to buy Apple computers and other Apple products after owning an iPod. It will be interesting to see if the iPad can have a similar impact.

When I asked Resolve about the age groups of iPad users, I found out some other interesting information. The first owners of the iPad tended to be young professionals, 22-45, who were either early adopters in general or had a highly connected and mobile lifestyle.

However, the next group of adopters and those interested in buying an iPad are much older than the one might expect (45+). Anecdotally, I’ve seen this in my own travels and discussions with iPad or future iPad owners. The first wave of iPad owners were people like myself. The second wave of iPad owners, at least from what I’m seeing, have more in common with my parents.

Studies have already shown that the iPod touch is a great gateway device to the broader iOS ecosystem for young teens and pre-teens. The iPad has the potential to attract the other end of that market.

Still Viewed as an Expensive Toy

According to Resolve, 55% of iPad owners or would-be owners see the device as a very expensive toy, or luxury item. It’s not a necessary device to have in your daily life, although it can replace a number of other gadgets or products. Still, that functionality can largely be reproduced (albeit with a less experience, in many cases) by things that many users already own.

We’re still at the nascent stages of tablet devices and as time goes on, we expect that features, applications and use cases will make these must-have rather than luxury items, just as we saw with laptop computers and smartphones

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Today at the VidCon 2010 conference, we announced support for videos shot in 4K (a reference resolution of 4096 x 3072), meaning that now we support original video resolution from 360p all the way up to 4096p. To give some perspective on the size of 4K, the ideal screen size for a 4K video is 25 feet; IMAX movies are projected through two 2k resolution projectors.

We always want videos on YouTube to be available in the highest quality possible, as creators intend. In December of last year, we announced support for 1080p, or full HD. At 4096 x 3072 pixels, 4K is nearly four times the size of 1080p. To view any video in a source resolution greater than 1080p, select “Original” in the video quality pulldown menu:

To illustrate the power of 4K, please check out the videos in this playlist; each one was created by a filmmaker with access to a 4K camera. (Be warned: watching videos in 4K, even on YouTube, will require ultra-fast high-speed broadband connections).

Because 4K represents the highest quality of video available, there are a few limitations that you should be aware of. First off, video cameras that shoot in 4K aren’t cheap, and projectors that show videos in 4K are typically the size of a small refrigerator. And, as we mentioned, watching these videos on YouTube will require super-fast broadband.

We’re excited about this latest step in the evolution of online video. We’ve been impressed by the 1080p videos you’ve uploaded over the last seven months and can’t wait to see (in 4K!) what you do next.

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In a move that could keep ties with online games programmers strong, Adobe Systems is adding 3D graphics support to a coming version of its widely used browser plug-in.

The move is an important advancement for Flash, a software foundation that eases programmers’ difficulties with incompatibilities among various operating systems and browsers. And it’ll come none too soon: Flash is under siege by a host of Web standards, and part of that work focuses on 3D Web graphics.

Adobe plans to detail new 3D abilities coming to Flash Player.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

The 3D plans came to light on an agenda for the Adobe Max conference in October. “Join Sebastian Marketsmueller, Adobe Flash Player engineer, for a deep dive into the next-generation 3D API [application programming interface] coming in a future version of Flash Player,” said the agenda item for a talk titled “Flash Player 3D Future.”

The “deep dive” is on the last day of the conference, so it’s reasonable to expect the official news to arrive earlier–say, during the Monday keynote address on October 25.

Later, Flash Player product manager Imbert Thibault offered a bit more of a teaser in a blog post. “I tell you, some serious stuff is coming for 3D developers.

“If you are into 3D development for games, augmented reality, or just interactive stuff like Web sites, you just can’t miss the session,” Thibault said. When exactly the technology will arrive isn’t clear, but Thibault said it is coming “in a future version of the Flash Player.”

Adobe added some 3D features to the 2008 release of Flash Player 10, but they were limited–for example, 2D objects could be manipulated in a 3D space. It wasn’t a full 3D environment like that you’d see in a first-person shooter game or the Second Life virtual world.

And although Adobe invested a lot of time in the newly released Flash Player 10.1, much of that was getting the software to work on hardware-constrained smartphones, where Flash is largely nonexistent today. Because Flash’s interface didn’t change, the version number was only a minor bump upward.

Adding a 3D interface to Flash would be a significant change for programmers, so expect a full step up in release numbers. Version 11 sounds like the right time frame for 3D’s full arrival, given the significant effort under way by many players to rebuild Flash features without relying on Adobe’s proprietary (albeit publicly documented) technology.

Some of what Flash can do is being rebuilt with standards including HTML, the Hypertext Markup Language used to describe Web pages, CSS, the Cascading Style Sheets used for formatting, SVG, the Scalable Vector Graphics technology, and JavaScript, the programming language of choice for Web applications. Examples of the new era coming in recent browsers include support for HTML’s 2D graphics technology called Canvas and CSS’s downloadable typeface technology called WOFF, or Web Open Font Format.

But the future of 3D on the Web is murkier. Major browsers, including Mozilla’s Firefox, Google’s Chrome, and Apple’s Safari, are being fitted right now with 3D technology called WebGL. It’s based on an existing standard, OpenGL, that has wide if not universal support.

3D doesn’t end with WebGL. Google is using it as a foundation for library of code to provide a higher-level Web graphics 3D interface that began as a browser plug-in called O3D.

Here’s the rub, though: Internet Explorer. Although Microsoft is supporting a wide range of new standards in its forthcoming IE9, WebGL is not on the list.

“I think it’s different markup,” said Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of IE, in an earlier interview, meaning that WebGL is antithetical to Microsoft’s current “same markup” marketing push that Web developers should be able to write code for one Web page that works compatibly under all browsers.

Flash sidesteps such browser compatibility issues by providing an interface.

However, it comes with its own baggage, such as the fact that Flash elements on a Web page often are isolated from other elements and behave differently. And Flash brings stability and security concerns, as Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs pointed out in a high-profile explanation of why Apple banned Flash from the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Online games are a major use of Flash, as sites such as Kongregate and Armor Game can attest and as Jobs acknowledged in his letter. Thus far, however, those Flash games tend to be casual affairs; the heavy-duty blockbusters are usually written to take advantage of an operating system’s native interface, such as Microsoft’s Direct3D.

Notably, Google is trying to marry this native approach with Web-based methods using its Native Client technology, which lets Web applications tap into a computer’s processing power.

While Flash isn’t likely at least in the near term to replace games that use the native operating system, getting 3D abilities would substantially expand the range of games developers could write, bringing new depth to those for racing cars or tossing wads of paper into a trash can, for example. Support for hardware acceleration would be essential for Flash 3D graphics, especially on mobile devices with limited processors and battery life.

It’s not clear which of these approaches or others will prevail, so Web developers will have to choose carefully which technology to use for new projects.

It’s clear that change is in the air. Scribd opted to move from Flash to HTML5 and other Web standards for its online document business. But despite Google’s ardent support for the Web standards, YouTube continues to rely on Flash as its primary vehicle for delivering video, and Google has built Flash directly into Chrome.

Adobe hasn’t said when the next version of Flash Player will arrive, but here’s one clue: Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch promised Flash will support Google’s VP8 video compression technology, and he promised that version would arrive within a year of the May release of VP8.

Another big item likely to arrive in the next Flash Player is 64-bit support. Here again, Adobe hasn’t been willing to commit to a time frame, but given that browsers are following the processor and operating system transitions from 32-bit to 64-bit, a release soon must be a priority.

Flash developers obviously have plenty on their plates. But one last thing: don’t assume that Adobe is betting on the Flash horse alone. It’s also getting more involved in the world of HTML and CSS.

At the same Max conference, another talk will focus on creating Web applications with HTML5 and CSS3. “Get up to speed on the latest developments in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS,” the agenda exhorts. “HTML5 has become a powerful way to add interactivity and video to the Web.”

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