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If you are one of the many people who have been planning to hang out and wait for the launch of the Apple iPad (which basically involves lining up in the long queues that will form outside of Apple’s stores), then you might want to follow these few simple tips that might just get you through the long wait.

First off, pack some entertainment. Nothing really makes a wait worse than the fact that you do not get to do anything productive during that time. A fully charged laptop, smart phone or other gadget will help, but be sure that your batteries have the power to last for several hours. The big tip here is to avoid playing resource intensive games on a laptop -the most recommended item you could possibly bring is a good book.

Now that you have got your sanity secured, it is time to keep yourself fit. A small bottle of water and an energy bar will do well. It pays to avoid bringing messy items as cleaning up might force you to leave your spot in the line. Of course, better make sure that all bodily needs have been satisfied before going to the line, the last thing you will need is an emergency rush to the nearest toilet.

Forget chairs; just bring a nice small blanket that you can drape on the floor. Even cheap ones would do, in fact, it is better that you just buy a cheap blanket that you can afford to throw away or just stash in your car’s compartment when you no longer need it.

If you can, bring a friend. If you are a tech fan who loves gadgets, chances are, you have made friends with similar interests and are hopefully, as eager to get the iPad. Nothing beats a long wait than a great conversation.

The newest Android handset from HTC is heading straight to the UK via Vodafone. This new Android smart phone has spent its development under the radar only to later surprise the tech community with its impressive features and practical hardware setup. With this announcement, at least four network operators will be offering the Android handset (T-Mobile, 3 UK and Virgin Mobile). With this level of competition we should be able to enjoy some pretty nice HTC Wildfire deals upon release.

Going in a different direction than the HTC Desire, the Wildfire is practically a low to mid range smart phone that still brings plenty of useful features on the table. While users cannot expect the same speed and performance that is normally found in other of the recently launched Android handsets, we can at least expect the Wildfire to be significantly cheaper than its Snapdragon bearing predecessors. Social networking is a major feature on this Android handset as it has integrated features for Facebook and Twitter.

The device also comes with a 3.2 capacitive touch screen with an accelerometer and multi touch, a 5 mega pixel camera (with flash and autofocus), a 3.5 mm audio jack and of course, support for WiFi, Bluetooth, AGPS, microSD cards and more. Hopefully, when the Android 2.2 Froyo update for the HTC Desire comes out this coming June 23, an update for the Wildfire will also be released (version 2.2 of the Android OS brings native support for Adobe Flash and AIR as well as tethering and other useful features).

Vodafone has already released the new plan details for this handset. According to Vodafone’s official website, the Wildfire is free with the two year 15 GPB monthly tariff which gives users 300 minutes of talk time and free texts -but no internet data allowance. While so many networks have already confirmed the device (and the price as well), it appears that nobody can still give a definitive release date for the Android smart phone.

Flash is never a necessity, web browser can run without any problems even if you do not download a Flash player.  There are hundreds and thousands of websites all over the world that are made entirely in HTML, Java and CSS.

Still, the lack of Flash will render many sites and features unavailable.

One of the biggest missing features is video playback. Most of the video content that users will find on the internet is encoded in Flash format. While Apple’s H.264 has an impressive video compression rate and the quality is much better than FLV, there are only a few website that actually use the new format. Even YouTube which is slowly re-encoding content to H.264, still uses FLV as the default file format for users.

So what does this all mean for the Apple iPad? This means that the touch screen tablet will work great as an eBook reader, an apps platform, a media playback device, but as a browser, it is crippled.

There is no denying the fact that lack of Flash is a disadvantage. Despite being future proofed for HTML5 and H.264, the iPad is a device of today, not tomorrow. Given a choice between a tablet that can run Flash, AIR, HTML5 and H.264 –like the new Android tablet previewed at the Web 2.0 Expo, and the Apple iPad which is only limited to the last two formats, the Google device is the better choice.

Apple is simply making sales because Google has yet to release their device.

To answer the main question: yes, Flash is needed. There is no two ways about it. Apple may be prepared for the future, but they certainly lack the features that are needed here and now; and it would be a bad assumption to think that the iPad will still be Apple’s main tablet by the time that Flash is no longer used.

The new Android 2.2 Froyo update is now available for the Google Nexus One smart phone. Thankfully, since Vodafone is now directly selling the device, the Nexus One is easy to obtain –as opposed to having to order the handset at the Google Online Store.

Anyway, the Nexus One is touch screen smart phone with a 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive display. The screen response time (and refresh rates) is excellent and the touch controls are accurate. Of course, it certainly helps having a 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU running inside this device. The phone also features advanced voice recognition capabilities as well as speech to text options (thanks mostly to the new voice filtering hardware on the device).

Of course, the big headline here is not the phone (most of us are already familiar with the very first Google branded handset by now), but rather, the new Froyo update. As expected, the Nexus One is first to get the update, though it is expected that other Android devices will also be updated in a matter of time.

Froyo stands for frozen yogurt –as goes Google’s naming trend for the Android OS since 1.5 Cupcake, which was followed by 1.6 Donut, then later 2.0 Éclair. The next OS update after Froyo is expected to be version 3.0 Gingerbread. The new update features plenty of new options such as the ability to view and read Flash content as well as AIR.

Version 2.2 Froyo also allows using the handset (well, some handsets anyway) as a tether for your laptop or other device. Another new function is the ability to just download content –especially media into your phone directly by going online. No need for a computer or Android software to transfer and sync the files –a major addition which iPhone users have been waiting for. Now Google has decided to sell through thirdy party retailers it is possible to pick up Nexus One deals through Vodafone without going through the Google store.

Why is cloud to device such a powerful new feature? Microsoft was actually the first to show off this function. They demonstrated playing a game on a Windows Phone 7 handset, assuming that a person playing the game comes home, one can instantly transfer the running game state from the handset to a Windows computer.

Now let us say that the person wants to sit in the living room, the game can then be transferred straight to an Xbox 360 console. Lastly, to form a whole circle, assume that the player now needs to go out, they can once again transfer the running game into their mobile device and be on their way.

After today’s I/O presentation, Google has shown that their Android can do the same. Of course, critics might say that Microsoft has Windows and more importantly, the Xbox 360. While it is arguable that Google is planning to match Windows for desktop with their Chrome operating system, Google has no console system of their own.

What people are missing is the fact that they are already working on a Google TV –and more importantly, they are working with Intel and Sony (yes, Sony, the same Japanese company that made the Playstation 3). It has already been shown that Linux can run on the PS3, and while the function may have been removed, it is not unlikely that the console would be given an Android or Chrome add-on in the future.

With Microsoft being a competitor for both Google and Sony, the possibility is always there.

The big question is not whether the technology is possible. The real concern is whether people really need this. Right now, the function sees use in eBook reading apps and games; it will be a while before this technology is adapted to support document editing and other computing functions.

3 UK is well known for having excellent 3G network coverage and service. The mobile virtual network operator has been pushing the envelope of 3G standards for the past few months with mobile phones that are best used with 3G technology. Now, three new devices will be adding to the lineup and they all make full use of the network connectivity.

It seems that the HTC Wildfire, the LG Viewty and the BlackBerry Pearl 3G have been added to 3 UK’s mobile phone line up.

Right off the bat, the Pearl 3G is one of the more recognizable devices. This phone, aside from having 3G support, also features a slightly larger screen than the original BlackBerry Pearl. The rest of the features of the two devices are actually quite similar. So far, 3 UK has not made any remarks regarding the launch date for the Pearl 3G.

The LG Viewty on the hand is already available at this time. This new smart phone from Korean manufacturer LG is a low to mid range handset that features a 3 inch resistive touch screen display, a 5 mega pixel camera and the usual host of smart phone features that one would expect. Since the device uses a resistive touch screen, a stylus comes embedded with the handset.

Taiwanese manufacturer HTC is also bringing its own blend of smart phone technology with the HTC Wildfire. While this new phone lacks the general speed and power of the newer HTC devices such as the Desire and the Legend; the HTC Wildfire is still a great phone on its own. HTC is also proud to introduce the new social networking system that features Friend stream, integration of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many other services. The phone comes with a 3.2 inch capacitive touch screen, a 5 mega pixel camera and a 528 MHz CPU.

Web developer and author Jonathan Snook is man with plenty of experience and know how; and he knows that Flash is far from the dead format that Apple is proclaiming it to be.

In his recent blog, he points out one of the key factors regarding Flash technology today:

“Flash’s downfall, however, has more to do with those wielding its power—the web developers and designers who misuse it—and less to do with the technology itself.”

Simply put, Flash has not only become the main media format for web games, apps and video, but it is also the medium of choice for many of those annoying things on the internet –mainly pop up ads and other recurring forms of annoying media content.

At the same time, Flash websites are being criticized as being touch unfriendly (as so Steve Jobs says), but the fact of the matter is that badly made sites are badly made, regardless if they are made in plain old HTML, Flash or HTML5. It has been shown several times that Flash content is something that works well with touch-based controls.

The bottom line here is that there is no reason to believe that Flash has finally met its end, or that browsers need only be compatible with HTML5. There is simply too much content online that uses the Flash format to think that it would be practical to browse the internet without being able to see a large chunk of online content.

Of course, Snook also knows that Flash is not the end all; even Adobe has announced that they will also be creating HTML5 development tools.

“Right now, HTML5 is slowly becoming a viable alternative to Flash for a greater variety of situations. However, Flash will continue to fill in the gaps for years to come because it continues to solve problems that web developers have and that can’t be solved with any other client-side technology.”

It will be a long time before the full transition from Flash to HTML5 actually happens. For now, the internet will evolve in its’ own way –without being dictated by Apple.

In what might have been one of the scariest weeks for millions of addicted Zynga games players, there is no longer any need to worry about the closure of Farmville, Café World, Mafia Wars and the many other Zynga game apps on Facebook.

Last week’s news that Facebook would be changing its developer policies did not seem like much of a big deal until Zynga started complaining about the 30% price cut for Facebook. With the implementation of the new Facebook credits system, the social network will have full control and records of any and all online transactions done within their system. While some users have been worried that Facebook will be tracking their purchasing preferences (and they certainly will in order to build an even more thorough customer profile for advertisers), the real big issue came when Zynga announced that they are considering to leave Facebook unless the new policies are either dropped or altered.

Many industry experts however, failed to see the value of Zynga’s bluff. The game developer had no social network of its own, even if they can easily set up their own gaming network site and carry over all user progress from Facebook users, they will not be able to import the Facebook network itself –and the presence of that network is what makes playing Facebook games so addictive.

At the same time, Facebook also owes a lot to Zynga games, their addictive and gameplay nature often requires a user to log in several times each day in order to make a good progression –increasing the amount of time users access the social networking site. It is believed that Facebook managed to surpass Google in terms of web use and access because of this.

So far, Facebook and Zynga are keeping quiet about the new terms of agreement that the two companies have settled in their recent meeting, though it has been let known that the two parties are now part of a five year strategic partnership.

There is no doubt that our generation’s engineers and industrial designers are some of the most prolific that human civilization has ever seen. In the past few years, technology has grown at an exponential rate –one that has never been matched in any previous stage of civilization.

The mobile phone industry, and in a much wider sense, the telecommunications industry, has enjoyed a large period of growth. WiFi and 3G networks have brought better internet access and connectivity between people all over the world. The internet, email and most importantly, social networking, were no longer limited to access at home or at the office in front of a computer, people can just whip out their smart phones and instantly get connected to friends and family online.

Social networking is very influential; there are already several cases wherein people are finding themselves emotionally and psychologically reliant on being able to access the social networking site. There are people who are compulsive Twitter users too. It is ironic that as the best and latest technology seems to be able to adjust and cater more and more to the needs of society, it is humanity that is unable to cope with the technology that has been developed.

The signs have started to appear; children who are born and taught about the internet early find themselves being influenced more and more by online media and social networking than their own parents or through actual, physical contact with friends.

With the older generation of teachers and parents being brought up in a culture that lacked the devices we see and use today, there is a growing need to adjust teaching and social standards. The main reason why children are not prepared to handle the various problems that can be found online, the real fault lies with parents who are not properly equipped to provide the educational needs of children.

It seems that the new NVIDIA Tegra might be the hardware of choice for the next Android smart phones. It has already been revealed that NVIDIA technology is being used in the Android tablet that was shown off at the Web 2.0 Expo. This is why it would not be surprising to know that the tablet was already packed with the Tegra.

The Tegra is more than just a CPU; it is an all in one system (or as NVIDIA calls it, a system on a chip). This hardware combines an ARM architecture CPU with a GPU, Southbridge, a memory controller and Northbridge.

This places the next generation Android smart phones with a technological advantage over many other handsets. With the competition between Google and Apple reaching new heights, it is not surprising that the Android developer has been heavily focusing on not only improving its mobile platform (with the recent new improvements to search, inclusion of Flash and more), but they are now also working on improving the hardware use in Android devices.

Speaking of Android add-ons, the Google Goggles augmented reality application has been improved recently to include the ability to scan foreign languages and translate the text into English content. This is very useful especially for reading languages that are written in special characters that cannot be written manually with a standard keyboard.

It has also been confirmed that the next Android OS, version 2.2 Froyo, will have native support for Flash. As recently announced, Google and Adobe have been teaming up after Apple forced developers to stop using the Adobe Flash Professional CS5 software for developing iPhone apps.

Back to the tablet at the Web 2.0 Expo, the device pretty much shows off what makes the Android the amazing OS that it is now and also, a preview into the new features that will be included –namely the NVIDIA hardware and the implementation of Flash support.