Palm’s new Pre gets good reviews, even when compared to Apple’s hot-selling iPhone. The smartphone market segment continues rapid growth in users and phones. There’s RIM’s BlackBerry, Google’s Android, Apple’s iPhone, Microsoft’s upcoming WinMob 7, and many others. However, some smartphones were not smart enough.

Palm’s Treo smartphone, meanwhile, has faded. For fiscal 2009, ended in February, Palm’s smartphone sales fell 42%, and revenue fell 72% to $77.5 million.

Apple will spend more than $100-million advertising the iPhone. Palm claims the Pre is easier to use than an iPhone. How so?

Apple’s new iPod nano has a built-in video camera. Is the quality of the video good enough to put a dent in Cisco’s latest purchase, PureVideo’s Flip video camera? Pater Kafka in AllThingsD:

Apple (AAPL) has passed my “good enough” test. The nano doesn’t do the job as well as a single-use device, but it’s adequate for my needs.

That’s an important story because most technology pundits are predicting the death of the iPod. Apple wisely waited for years before adding video and audio features to the iPod, which was first a music player, then a media player, and now an almost all-purpose device?

Almost? All purpose? The latest iPod nano has a microphone and speaker. It also has a built-in FM radio. The iPod is not yet dead, and Apple is working to extend the product’s life cycle through enhanced usability and more features.

How does the iPod nano’s video compare to the stand-alone Flip video camera (a true one-trick-pony)?

I don’t think the gap between the two cameras is big enough to help Flip. If you’re really serious about video quality, you’re probably not carrying a Flip to begin with. And given the choice between a video camera that takes a decent picture and one that also lets you listen to music, watch movies and play games…well, that’s a tough sell…

Apple’s media centric future is tied up in iPhone OS, represented by the expensive iPhone, and the increasingly affordable iPod touch. The new iPod nano is an interim, low-end product, priced just $50 lower than the iPod touch. Kafka:

The only question for me is whether I spring for a nano now, or hold off in the hopes that the iPod touch line gets a camera sooner than later.

What’s important to note is that Kafka springs for an Apple product. When will we see an iPod touch with a built-in video camera, digital still camera, and an FM radio?

Time busts out a list of high profile technology failures of the past 10 years. Microsoft is on the list twice; at #1 and #7. No Macs made the list.

To make the list, a product had to be widely recognized and widely available to customers. It had to be aimed at a large global market. It had to be technologically equal to or superior to its competition. It had to be a product or new company that had the possibility of bringing in billions of dollars in revenue based on the sales of similar or competing products. Finally, it had to clearly miss the mark of living up to the potential that its creators expected, and that the public and press were lead to believe was possible.

YouTube is #5. Everyone uses it but Google hasn’t figured out how to make money with YouTube.

From Our new secret weapon sucks by Mark Leyner who managed to meet with Saul A. Jenks, CEO of JaniTech, and what it means to develop a vacuum cleaner for the military with 4.5 million air watts. Jenks:

It means that you could approach a cave in Tora Bora and vacuum out high-value targets. I’m talking about literally sucking the sons of bitches right out of there.

Oh, the secrets divulged over a beer at Hooter’s.

John Paczkowski points out the lies, damned lies, and statistics regarding Mac sales. They’re up. And they’re down. It all depends on who you talk to. The top two market research firms gave strikingly different numbers for Mac shipments in the spring quarter. From All Things D:

So what are we to make of this? A disparity of more than 200,000 units between the the Q2 domestic Mac shipment estimates of two top market research outfits? Is it a 2.5 percent year-over-year increase. Or a 12.4 percent year-over-year decrease?

I just flipped a quarter to determine whether sales are up or down.

CNN has gone Twitter and blog crazy as the once vaunted news network falls behind Fox Faux News. Doonesbury’s Roland Hedley on social media as a journalistic tool:

Twitter is the first rough draft of gossip.

Priceless.

Unless you’ve been on a sabbatical to Elbonia, you know that Apple, Inc. is about to release a tablet computer. The unannounced, unknown device is commonly known as iTablet, iSlate, iPad, or Jesus Tablet by technology pundits. Arik Hesseldahl in BusinessWeek:

The hunger for information—and misguided speculation—reminds me of the mistaken prognosticating about the iPhone before its introduction three years ago. It may be time to step back and realize that Apple may uncork a product so surprising that the company again leaves the tech industry scrambling to catch up to its products’ smooth operation and sleek design.

So, what should we expect from Apple (besides the unexpected)?

Apple may throw everyone a curve ball here. Imagine an Apple tablet about the size of a 11-in. spiral notebook with an iPhone-like touch screen. How about the ability for the machine to recognize voice commands and dictation of text? A built-in video camera and maybe a mini-projector for meetings would be nice. And if the reports of Apple’s discussion to land print media content in the iTunes store are true, how about an easy-on-the-eyes display for reading electronic magazines and books?

Besides email, music, movies, TV shows, and browsing on a larger screen device, what will the Jesus Tablet do that isn’t already being done by an iPhone or a Mac?

We use PCs and laptops to get things done when we’re stationary; we use mobile devices to stay informed and complete small tasks when we’re out and about. This device, it seems, will either have to incorporate both paradigms or have to create one of its own.

Basically, nobody but Apple knows.

But I’ll buy one.