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Google's browser hasn't quite been out for a year and a half and it has just surpassed Safari according to one online bean counter's stats. It's now the number three browser, behind Internet Explorer and Firefox right behind it.

Both Chrome and Safari have mobile versions to bolster their numbers, and Safari has to date been emblematic of Apple's comeback. Those Apple stores are still humming along happily, but the Google juggernaut can't be underestimated. The mobile version of Firefox, code named Fennec, is in development and can be found for the Nokia tablets, but those devices are so niche -- I should know, I own one -- I don't expect them to make any kind of dent in Firefox's numbers.

In the end I imagine this just makes the folks at Opera really angry. All of these years of putting out quality browsers for all sorts of platforms and they haven't been able to reach the number four spot. One possible way to boost Opera's numbers? Promote the Internet Channel on the Wii that uses the Opera browser. It seems like everyone owns one of those now.

Seen on CNet.

The G1 had a famously small app space of just 70 Megs, and early indications are that the N900's space might be 256 Megs. It's taken me wading through a handful of Motorola Droid reviews to finally find out how much of the Droid's storage is reserved for apps.

The New York Times review of the Droid has it: 560 Megs. Smartphones are supposed to hook consumers with an always-internet-connected experience. "App phones" as David Pogue calls this class of phone add in often-paid small applications that add functionality and make the experience even more compelling. Do you really want the space they can store these things in to be limited?

In the end it really depends on how large these apps are on the phone, and whether for those apps that have large reference-style data sets those data sets can be loaded onto the external storage micro SD card or not.

From David Pogue's review, which coins the new term "app phone":

I still like what I've seen of the Droid, but I haven't put my hands on one yet to know how much I might like using one.

Read more »

This January 2010 I will have had my Nokia N800 tablet for two years. It's something of a little Debian Linux device that could, this chunky little internet tablet, since it can do a terrific number of open-source focused things, but it's a complete failure as a commercial mobile platform. Its developer community, however, while nowhere near something I would call "vibrant", is slowly and steadily plugging away at Linux-oriented applications of varying usefulness.

The tablets to date have occupied a rather strange niche, though. Nokia's stance on DRM -- namely, not shipping any way of locking software on the device, and not even providing any kind of central storefront for selling applications for the device -- made commercial developers never give it a shot. One of Michael Mace's quotes I like to keep in mind when it comes to mobile devices is (source):

Symbian happens to be Nokia's older phone OS now becoming open source. Maemo is considered its successor, but the lesson still applies. Read more »

It turns out that Verizon's pact with Google about Android is going to bear fruit with the Motorola Droid. The big red carrier has just kicked off an ad campaign that cements that the iPhone isn't coming to the CDMA carrier by attacking it head-on, citing better features on the upcoming Droid. While it doesn't show the Droid, it hints at a November release, perhaps sooner.

Engadget seems to think it'll actually be running Android 2.0, something notable since handsets only very recently got Android 1.6. Being this cutting-edge would be a complete 180 for Verizon, a carrier long known for moving slowly when bringing new, feature-rich handsets to market. It's also surprising to see Verizon embracing open development in the commercial -- but to be fair, open development doesn't mean open deployment.

Excitement over a Google Android phone on Verizon should be tempered first and foremost by Verizon's data plans. Their pricing on both voice and data plans are universally bemoaned by consumers, and recent changes to their plans have only made things less appealing.