Who hasn’t walked down the street and seen people with their heads buried in their iPhones? And you know they aren’t all looking up stock quotes or making work calls. Most are playing Paper Toss or checking in with Foursquare. We even see those jealous Verizon customers with their Droids as they secretly wait for their carrier to pick up the iPhone.

Smart phones are the way technology is pointing with their layers of functionality and ever increasing capabilities. That’s why it wasn’t a surprise Thursday morning when the Wall Street Journal reported that Sony would be entering the smart phone arena. Of special interest to this particular item though is that it will be “capable of downloading and playing PlayStation games”, possibly referring to PlayStation One titles specifically.

Reported as a device that “blurs distinctions among a netbook, an e-reader and a PlayStation Portable,” they are already expecting a 2010 launch. It is possible that Sony may make a big announcement regarding this phone next week during the Games Developers Conference.

With ever declining PSP sales and the lackluster response to the PSP Go, one would think the portable device market was in trouble. Nintendo has shown with the DS and the record breaking game sales of Plants vs. Zombies on the iPhone have shown that this isn’t the case however and that Sony is just searching for its niche still.

If you’ve never been to Austin, TX during South by Southwest (SXSW), let me assure you AT&T’s network pretty much sucks during the fest. Sure, it has something to do with the sheer number of users concentrated all in one place but still, that doesn’t make it any better. So, to prevent a repeat of last years’s problems (To put it mildly) AT&T is going overboard to ensure a similar wireless network debacle doesn’t happen again this year.

To avoid a second such disaster, AT&T is pulling out all the stops (Well, most of them anyway) and bringing in a lot of additional equipment for the SXSW conference including:

• Bringing in three temporary cell sites that are positioned in areas expected to see high traffic.

• Installing a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) at the Austin Convention Center. The DAS is comprised of 50 antenna nodes that provide the equivalent coverage of eight cell sites.

• Improving the cell sites in the surrounding area by utilizing 30MHz of spectrum for 3G instead of the standard 10MHz and upgrading the system to include the 850MHz band and HSPA.

• Improving the backhaul by beefing up the fiber optic connections that serve the eight cell sites of the DAS and the three temporary sites.

These all seems like great steps in the right direction for the company but still, you have to wonder if it will be enough. Even with AT&T’s recent victory in a PC World survey of network performance, many of us who use the network every day haven’t really seen much of a difference. It still kinda sucks.

When you’ve got thousands of power users with iPhones all in one square mile and all trying to use the network at the same time, will it be able to handle the load or will it fail once again? I guess we’ll find out next week. Any bets?

With the idea of Hulu coming to the iPhone still a distant pipe dream, other services on the device seem to be closer to reality than we thought. Netflix, which is slowly but surely becoming the leading company in online movie and DVD rentals, has put out some feelers on their site to see if fans would be interested in a streaming service for the iPhone. From a survey on Netflix.com:

“Imagine that Netflix offers its subscribers the ability to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on their iPhone. The selection availability to instantly watch includes some new releases, lots of classics and TV episodes. There are no advertisements or trailers, and movies start in as little as 30 seconds. You can fast-forward, rewind, and pause or watch again. The movies & TV episodes you instantly watch are included in your Netflix membership for no additional fee.

Whenever you want to instantly watch content on your iPhone, your iPhone must be connected to a Wi-Fi network (such as one you might have at home or at work, or in public places like coffee shops, book stores, hotels, airports, etc.)

If this functionality were available, how likely would you or someone in your household be to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on your iPhone via a Wi-Fi network?”

So what could this mean? Is it just a ruse? With Netflix allegedly having an exclusive streaming deal with Xbox Live, this could mean that we won’t see anything on the iPhone for another year, but with the Apple iPad hitting stores in the coming months, that may be just enough time for us to be ready.

What are your thoughts on Netflix streaming on the iPhone or iPad? Would you use it? Comment below and let us know!

It’s Tuesday so that must mean it’s a day for lawsuits, at least where Apple, Inc. is concerned. Case in point, our favorite fruit flavored technology company is suing hardware maker HTC for infringement of 20 patents concerning the iPhone user interface and its hardware and architecture. The lawsuit was filed with the U.S. International Trade Comission and in the U.S. District Court of Deleware.

Steve Jobs himself had this to say about the lawsuit: “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Jobs. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.” Yeah, he seems a bit miffed about the whole thing.

Although the Google Nexus One is not mentioned specifically in the lawsuit and HTC does make several other Android handsets, some could argue the touchscreen models interface does look quite a bit like the iPhone’s. Still, “quite a bit” does not necessarily a lawsuit make. Could it just be a bit of posturing to warn others away from trying to steal Apple’s ideas or to slow down the progress Android is making in the marketplace? Maybe.

Apple has the right to defend it’s ideas and the cash to try and punish those it deems responsible for stealing said ideas. However, I was kinda hoping to get my hands on a Nexus One when it is released for Verizon. I hope this lawsuit doesn’t hold that up. Neither HTC nor Google has issued a statement yet concerning the lawsuit.

Seeing as how I use AT&T daily in Los Angeles and find the 3G service to be spotty and occasionally non-existant, I have a bit of a hard time believing that AT&T’s 3G network speed is actually the fastest. However, based on a recent study conducted by PC World, that seems to be the case.

The study, a collaboration between PC World and wireless analysis firm Novarum, took place from December 2009 to January 2010, and compares the four major U.S. wireless carriers (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile) in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle on both mobile phones and laptop data cards

Highlights of the study include:

• AT&T: average download speed 1410 Kbps, average upload speed 773 Kbps

• Sprint: average download speed 795 Kbps, average upload speed 396 Kbps

• T-Mobile: average download speed 868 Kbps, average upload speed 311 Kbps

• Verizon: average download speed 877 Kbps, average upload speed 434 Kbps

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Responding to rather vocal criticism from much of the online community, Google is making adjustments to its two-day-old Google Buzz service to enhance, and enable users to more easily manage, privacy. Buzz, as it currently exists, was to be Google’s answer to Twitter and Facebook with a dash of FriendFeed thrown in, but so far it seems off to a somewhat rocky start — at least when it comes to user privacy concerns.

The changes, to be implemented later today, include:

• More visible option to not show followers/people you follow on your public profile
• Ability to block anyone who starts following you
• More clarity on which of your followers/people you follow can appear on your public profile

These changes will hopefully help users feel more comfortable with the service. I, for one, turned it off due to concerns that my contact list was being viewed by anyone who follows me, regardless if they are someone I know. With these new privacy features, let’s hope Google gets Buzz going in the right direction again.

Do you use Buzz? Or, is it something you’re not interested in? Let us know in the comments.

During a special event today at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, CA, the search giant unveiled its new Google Buzz approach to sharing and several new features designed to enhance its Gmail service and bring it more in line with other mainstream social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Google Buzz, which works inside the Gmail interface, includes the following features:

• Auto-following. We didn’t want users to have to peck out a totally new social graph. There has always been a giant social network under Gmail.

• Rich, fast sharing experience. Same nice Gmail UI and keyboard shortcuts. Special attention to media.

• Public and private sharing. We want things Google can index, but also private messages.

• Inbox integration. The inbox is the center for communication.

• Just the good stuff. Some much social data, we need to filter the noise.

• Go to google.com on your iPhone or Android phone web browser.

• New application for Buzz.

• Update to Google Maps for mobiles. Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian today

According to Google, they will be rolling out the starting today so keep an eye out. One question to consider, though, is if Google’s answer to social networking will actually be successful or not? As someone who uses Twitter and Facebook daily but has less time for something like Friendfeed (which Buzz is similar to) I wonder if users will take to these new features or not.

Also, if you’re interested, there’s a video produced by Google that explains Buzz a bit more after the jump.

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There’s no denying Twitter’s popularity. It’s everywhere and many people use it all day, every day. So, if you need to Tweet while on the go, you need an smartphone with a Twitter app on it. The iPhone has several, with Tweetie and Twitterific probably being the most popular.

That’s great, but what if you’re using a cool Android powered smartphone like Verizon’s DROID? Fortunately, there’s a app for you too in the form of Seesmic. And now, the folks who make Seesmic have updated their app with some cool new features.

Among the new features are multiple account support with cross-posting, extra large font size, auto-correction of typing, automatic profile updates, on device twitter password management and optional timeline position memory so you jump back to the last tweets that you were reading.

The latest version of Seesmic is available now for free from the Android Market. If you check it out, be sure to come back and let us know how it compares to other Android Twitter apps like Twidroid and Tweetcaster.

With the Academy Awards just around the corner, it’s always fun to make predictions as to who the winners might be. To help you in this, and promote its Oscar-related content, Vanity Fair magazine is launching a free iPhone app that will allow you to make your picks for all the awards and receive realtime results on the night of the show.

Of course, you can also invite friends to vote for the people you think have the best chance of winning, compare your selections to friends and the Vanity Fair editors, and chat via the app the app in Facebook. On Oscar night, the app will show you who is winning from your picks.

The app also offers access to Vanity Fair’s content including background information on nominees, stories, photos, profiles, trailers of nominated films, and slideshows. Hey, they gotta pay for the app somehow, right? With some much hype surrounding the Oscars, its nice to see an app that caters to the most important aspect of the night: who’s gonna take home the golden statue.

If you check out the app, tell us what you think in the comments. Also, after the break, we’ve included a little video that helps you understand Vanity Fair’s vision for this app and a little more on how to use it. So check that out too.

The Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 7 at 8/5P on ABC.

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Got an iPhone or an iPod Touch? If so, it’s time to connect them to iTunes to get the latest version of Apple’s operating system for these devices. This latest version, dubbed 3.1.3, addresses a number of issues including the following:

CoreAudio
Playing a maliciously crafted mp4 audio file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

ImageIO
Viewing a maliciously crafted TIFF image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Recovery Mode
A person with physical access to a locked device may be able to access the user’s data

WebKit
Accessing a maliciously crafted FTP server could result in an unexpected application termination, information disclosure, or arbitrary code execution

WebKit
When WebKit encounters an HTML 5 Media Element pointing to an external resource, it does not issue a resource load callback to determine if the resource should be loaded. This may result in
undesired requests to remote servers. As an example, the sender of an HTML-formatted email message could use this to determine that the message was read.

The update also offers the requisite “stability and usability enhancements.” Confused? Don’t worry, just update and things will be fine. Although, if you’re worried, you could wait a couple days to see if this latest update breaks something else, which sometimes happens. For more on this update, visit Apple’s Security Update site.