Even without making any official announcements, Google and Apple both have the ability to set gadget lovers and bloggers aflutter. This week's dual track mania will focus on two things: Apple's impending launch of next generation iPods on Wednesday, and the potential unveiling of a new mobile phone from Google - just months after Apple's much-anticipated iPhone redefined the mobile Web experience. And while there are sure to be constant comparisons between the rumored Google Phone and the iPhone, the truth is that both devices can win without killing the other.

As Read/Write Web notes, the hottest thing for tech companies, like Google, Apple, Microsoft and eBay, to do is announce they're moving into the phone space - filling a technology void made possible by a lack of innovation by current leaders, including Nokia and Motorola. And while the popular thing to do is say that the Google Phone will go head to head with Apple's iPhone, there is more than enough room for two dogs in this fight, especially when both companies are coming at the opportunity with their own strengths.

For the last five years, Apple has been a leader in digital music, and no company - not Microsoft, not Yahoo!, not Sony nor Amazon, has come close in offering a single package that rivals the iPod. When making the iPhone, Apple first made it the world's best iPod on the planet, and then added phone and Web features - borrowing heavily from their previous work on Safari and Mac OS X.

For about the same amount of time, Google has been the leader in Web search, and is growing a vast stable of Web applications, from GMail to Google Calendar, Google Reader, Google Maps, Google Checkout, Picasa Photos, Google News, and so on. But the company's Google Video site was a dud, leading them to buy out YouTube, and the company recently made news for shutting down their paid download online video store. It's becoming more clear what Google is good at (Web Apps) and what it is not good at (Media downloads).

Just as Apple started with its core strength (the iPod), Google will likely start with its core strength (Web search and integrated Web applications), rather than trying to be a swiss army knife solution - one überphone to rule them all. As a result, Google Phone consumers will not always be potential iPhone consumers. iPhone consumers will continue to be media driven, while Google Phone users will be Web search and Web applications driven. And neither of them will take away too much share from Blackberry users, who are Microsoft Exchange driven - a niche that neither Google nor Apple look ready to take on yet.

Apple initially claimed their target with the iPhone was to garner a 1% market share within 12 months - an aggressive, yet realistic goal. That leaves 99% of the market for Google to play with, and if early indications are true, they will be letting their plans be known very soon. As we've seen in the last 12 months, Google and Apple have drawn close as companies. I hope they can see room for both to succeed, and that in every respect, customers will win with this race to add new features and capabilities to what just recently had been an incredibly boring market.

Long-time readers of this blog know I just can't get enough good electronic/trance/techno music. As my Last.fm and MusicMobs profiles will attest, I don't like spending too much time away from my iTunes. That's why when I find surprise treasures on iTunes with a vast number of songs well beyond the typical CD, I'm ecstatic.

Last night, I picked up a compilation titled "Afterhours Ibiza: Deluxe Edition" from Global Underground for the standard $9.99. But rather than just over an hour's worth of music, the album serves up 63 tracks, with 7.7 hours of music, including three hour-long continuous mixes. There's no doubt I'll be listening to the soothing, occasionally upbeat sounds of Ibiza for weeks to come.

Related Posts on this Topic:

iTunes is My Only Source for New Music
In Depeche Mode Overload and Loving It
iTunes Offers Up Massive Song Sets
100 More iTunes Trance Songs for Less than $20

Cross-posted to Athletics Nation...

Newcomer Jack Hannahan is fast-becoming the king of walk-off hits for these rebuilding, refocused, A's. Both Sunday and Wednesday saw the A's new third baseman come up with big hits that sent the team home with a victory - while in between, Jack is sporting a .500+ slugging percentage and a .400 OBP. Is this the real Jack Hannahan?


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Ahhh.. September. The start of the college football season, with Saturday treks to Berkeley, donning of Blue and Gold, and cheering on of one of the country's best football teams.

This year, rather than some simple patsy setting up game one for an easy Cal victory, the 12th-ranked Golden Bears were tasked with taking on the 15th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers, who had spanked Cal last year 35-18 in week one, in a contest that was even more wide open than the final score indicated. This year, the team didn't fade, but responded in a big way, scoring in the opening minutes, never trailing, and walking away victorious by a 45-31 margin.


The Scene on the Field After the Big Win
The game, nationally televised on ABC, started at 5 p.m. Pacific, and didn't end until after 9 o'clock, after accounting for 76 points of offense, and nearly as many TV timeouts. But the nearly 73,000 of us there to root on the Bears and the Volunteers didn't mind the game's length, or even the ridiculous lines to get food and drink amid the human throng. (For a good example, getting two $5 Diet Cokes took me from 3 minutes before half-time, through half-time and five minutes into the third quarter)

With last year's game fresh in our minds, combined with national comments questioning the Pac-10 conference's toughness, yesterday's contest was more than a game - it was time for revenge, to represent the conference, the school and the program. This was a time to let those from ESPN to the SEC to know Berkeley isn't just a town for washed-up hippies and well-meaning tree-huggers, but a team to be reckoned with.

After the Bears elected to kick off, Tennessee's quarterback was rocked by a sack, forcing a fumble into the hands of a Cal defender, who ran 44 yards for the early score. After some more back and forth drives, Cal Heisman hopeful DeSean Jackson returned a punt an electrifying 77 yards to make the game 21-14. The amazing thing about his return was not just his shaking and jiving away from defenders, but that he did it even with the entire stadium expecting him to, as the Cal student section and Young Alumni yelled "DeSean Jackson!!!! DeSean Jackson!!!!" when he took the field.

Cal went to the locker room at halftime up 10, leading 31-21, having scored by way of defense, special teams, and offense (three times) by the end of the second quarter, giving the cannon (a Cal tradition after every Bears' score) plenty of work.

As the third quarter began, Cal received, and took their first drive back to the end zone, opening up a 17-point lead at 38-21. While Tennessee managed to pull within 7, at 38-31 later on, they could get no closer, as Cal added on one more touchdown, and wound down the clock as the capacity crowd went crazy deep into the night in Berkeley.

Four hours of football nearly erased a year's worth of bad memories and frustration, and has the Bay Area buzzing again about these Cal Bears and what they could do this year - as many are already looking ahead to the team's match with USC later this year as a game that could have more than the Pac-10 conference title on the line. Regardless, we will be back in our seats, working hard to lose our voice, and cheering on the Bears.

(Additional Recaps: Narduzzi Nation, The Band Is Out on the Field, Yahoo! Sports)