One of the biggest features that separates Google+ from Facebook is Circles. With this feature, users can group the people they’re following by any category they come up with. Unlike Facebook, where everything the user posts goes on a single monolithic feed page that all their friends have access to, user-generated content is split among the different Circles. If the user wants to post something that is only relevant to their work contacts, they can post it without their friends and family having to see it. If they want to post a joke that might offend Aunt Louise and their boss, they can let only their Friends circle see it. Contacts on Google+ are more like Twitter than Facebook, in that you can follow a connection without necessarily being followed back, and vice versa.

Conveniently, you can add people into different circles visually, by dragging a photo of them onto a literal circle representing a category. You can remove them by dragging their photo out of the circle. When you add new content to your Stream, Google+ asks you which Circles you want to see it.

Facebook is not taking the Google+ idea of Circles sitting down. Shortly after the Google+ closed beta began, a group of Facebook engineers coded a Facebook add-on called Circle Hack in one night. However, its functionality was a bit rough, as it was indeed a hack built around Facebook’s Lists feature. Facebook has yet to directly offer a competitor to Circles.

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The two platforms are in direct competition. While Apple has more experience in the mobile phone world, Google has more experience in the realm of advertising; this experience reflects innovation and creativity not only in the content and presentation of ads, but in the expansion and retention of a client base. However, while this experience in advertising could be advantageous for Google, the far wider mobile phone customer base that Apple has already established could be the deciding factor in this competition.

As you can imagine, Google is quite upset about this, especially since in late May Google acquired the mobile ad company named AdMob, from Apple Devices for a reported $750 Million. This decision also seems to have AdMob’s founder Omar Hamoui a bit miffed as well. This is also quite easy to understand, since as reported by AdMob, almost 32% of the ads served by that company in April went out to iPhone and iPod devices. That can translate into some serious future advertising revenue losses. Were your devices being bombarded with ads during the month of April?

It seems that there have been many requests made to Apple to clarify on Google’s claim, but none have been forthcoming from the company as yet.
In other breaking news, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs spoke on Monday June 8th that iAd, which is scheduled to launch in July 2010, could own a large share of the mobile advertising market by mid 2010. This is no big surprise as iAd is Apple’s own new mobile advertising platform. Personally this seems to be a well thought out plan by Steve to help boost Apple’s domination and market share even further.

All I can say is “Kudos’ to you once again”, Steve.

What are your thoughts on this new information?

Yahoo isn’t exactly hurting in the mobile market, either. Unbelievably, Yahoo claims to be on 37 million of the 82 million mobile phones in the United States. While that statement hasn’t been verified by an outside source, CEO Carol Bartz made the claim earlier this week in order to point out Yahoo’s presence in the mobile market even prior to the Nokia deal. Some have claimed that the figure is outrageous, and probably counts things like all mobile phones that have used their browser to go the Yahoo homepage at some point.

Regardless of the state of Yahoo on mobile phones prior to today, it is clear that now Yahoo will be a force to reckon with in the mobile market from here on out.

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The iPad is 13mm (0.5 inches) thin and weighs 1.5lbs.  It sports a 9.7-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen.  It isn’t 16:9, despite showing widescreen high-definition films and YouTube videos.

Apple’s uses it’s own A4 1GHz chip.  There’s 16, 32 or 64GB of flash storage built-in. Interestingly, Jobs made no mention of 3G, with 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR built-in, but were sure it’s there.  Jobs pulled up his own location, suggesting the iPad has GPS, but that could just be via Wi-Fi.

Other features include an accelerometer, compass, speaker and microphone, but no cameras?!  Jobs claims 10 hours of battery life, and over a month on standby.

The iPad is slated to go on sale sometime in March.

Google did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The Wal-Mart page says that the Nexus may soon become available for use on other networks besides T-Mobile.  It says that the phone works on UMTS/HSDPA Universal Mobile Telecommunications System/High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (UMTS/HSDPA).  This means the phone could operate on the Verizon and Sprint networks.

While Google is selling the $530 phone unlocked, the phone will only operate on 3G on T-Mobile’s network. Unlocked phones will make and receive phone calls and deliver slower data speeds on AT&T’s network.  Current Nexus One phones won’t work on the Verizon or Sprint networks.

With that said, the Android myTouch 3G and Motorola Droid were also first-generation hadsets with U.S.-only launches, and both had sales much stronger than the Nexus One.  The myTouch 3G sold over 60,000 in its first week, while the Motorola Droid sold over 250,000 units.

Nexus One was outsold three times by the myTouch 3G, 12 times by the Droid, and 80 times by the iPhone 3GS, Flurry noted there are key differences.  The Motorola Droid debuted with a $100 million marketing campaign, and even the myTouch 3G was heavily promoted on television by carrier T-Mobile.  By comparison, Google’s device launched after the holiday season and is marketing and selling the device through its own ‘Monster’ Web site.

Analysis noted that “While Google, avoided channel conflict with T-Mobile, it appears to have set the direct-to-consumer price for the handset at over $500 dollars, the high price combined with the fact that the device is only considered an ‘evolutionary’ improvement over previous Android devices, indicates that Google did not take the neccesary steps to maximize first week sales,”.
“Perhaps one would consider that among the most expensive costs associated with the launch -enough marketing- has not been incurred, and could have been applied to lowering the direct-to-consumer price.”

Apple is trying to corner the market on 10″ display panels for an upcoming tablet device.  Much like it has did with supplies of NAND flash memory used in their iPhones and iPods, Suppliers in Asia are reportedly telling customers that no 10″ LCD or OLED panels are available, as Apple has bought them all.

An anonymous source told TG Daily “We were designing a product for a customer and we needed 10-inch screens, but we’ve been trying for months and can’t get one from any of the Asian suppliers,”.  “We were told that Apple preordered them all.  All 10 inch LCDs, and all 10 inch OLEDs too.”

Apple is reportedly buying up OLED panels as well.  Apple may move to OLED technology for the tablet, as a few devices—digital cameras, cell phones, and notably the Zune HD and Nexus One—have begun incorporating them.  However, a 10″ OLED would likely be costly, even at the rumored price of around $1,000 for the tablet.