Links for Friday January 7th, 2011
Exclusive interview: Google's Matias Duarte talks Honeycomb, tablets, and the future of Android: Based on what I've seen so far of Honeycomb, it looks like Matias Duarte is going to be Google's not-so-secret weapon against Apple. He already appears to have made great progress in making Android more usable, and if Google keeps him motivated, the sky appears to be the limit.
Daring Fireball: Why Next Week's Event Is Hosted by Verizon, Not Apple: Bingo.
Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time: Looks like the Verizon iPhone is on. It makes sense that Verizon is going to handle the actual announcement — it's going going to be a CDMA iPhone 4. So the only things that we don't know are release date (February 4th?) and price. Both of those are in Verizon's wheelhouse.
Google's Android 3.0 Honeycomb for tablets: a guided tour of the UI: Some details of Android Honeycomb are being shown at CES, but none of the vendors (or Google, for that matter), are allowing the press to play with any Honeycomb devices. That lack of confidence, to me, means that Honeycomb isn't all that close to shipping.
For reference, consider the iPhone: when it was first announced in January 2007, Apple didn't let anyone outside of the company (with a few exceptions), because the software wasn't close to being finished. It shipped 6 months later.
When the iPad was announced in late January of 2010, Apple had working demo units that the press could play with, unrestricted. It shipped just 3 months later, in April.
So, don't hold your breath for Honeycomb tablets in March. ;)
Razer Switchblade preview: 3G, Intel Oak Trail, almost definitely going on sale: This thing is pretty interesting (and the promo video does an excellent job riffing on the promo videos that Apple makes for it's flagship new products), but let's be realistic — this thing is never going to ship.