The irony here? I took this picture with my iPhone.

Look anywhere on the Internet for an article or blog post that mentions Android phones or the iPhone. Then, scroll down to the comments and duck as venom will begin to spew through your computer screen.

The vitriol, name-calling and idiocy that once were the hallmark of Mac vs. PC debates has been overtaken by fanboys of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android devices.

It is one thing to enjoy your favorite mobile platform. It is quite another to ridicule and throw insults at users of the competition. It seems that many people (mostly men) get a ridiculous, Alpha Male attachment to their phone and must defend its honor when any perceived criticism arises.

The reality is each device has its distinct advantages and weaknesses. The iPhone benefits from Apple’s maniacal focus on design and control to create a smooth and minimalistic user interface. Its control of the App Store prevents some buggy and unnecessary apps from making it onto the device. Of course in exchange you surrender some freedom: your choice is only one device on one network (and for now just one color).

Android offers more flexibility and choices of devices and carriers. There is a good Android phone now on all four of the major carriers. Some have keyboards, some don’t, and two even have enormous screens. Heavy users of Google products like Gmail get tight integration with those services and are not locked into iTunes. Yet more and more Android phones are getting loaded up with bloatware and have ugly skins like Motorola’s BLUR or HTC Sense running on top of them. This forces users to wait for the latest version of Android while the carriers and device makers figure out when it won’t break their software.

It’s a phone, not a religion. Just because I have an iPhone does not mean those who choose Android have done so unwisely. Interest in technology and mobile devices should be about discovering innovation and expanded knowledge. Instead many readers of the popular blogs have chosen sides and engage in all-out war.

So read and enjoy technology and gadget articles. Just skip the comments.

The irony is that the now infamous external antenna was supposed to be a breakthrough design that would end the misery of AT&T’s sometimes pitiful network coverage.

I have only been able to duplicate the signal loss issue in a few rare circumstances, and this Engadget post shares the experiences of various editors. While it is clear this issue is not experienced to the same degree by everyone, the Consumer Reports feature determined it is a problem with every Phone 4.

The real danger for Apple is the company is acting like a political team fighting off a scandal: deflect and deny. First it was Steve Jobs telling Ars Technica “avoid holding it that way.” A few days later the edict came down that it was a software issue.

There is a disconnect between the friendly Apple employees who casually help at the Genius Bar vs. the sketchy PR job underway now. These two sides of Apple are now colliding as frustrated consumers find they are forced to fix the issue themselves with a $29 Apple-branded bumper, a third-party case, or even duct tape.

At issue is how this will impact the buying habits of Apple’s fanbase. With 2 million iPhones sold the antenna issue may not matter. However, if loyal customers turn into disgruntled ones this could affect the iPhone update cycle. Less customers may be willing to stand in line for hours on launch day for a product that might include a major glitch.

This will be very interesting to watch as it plays out. Hold on – just not the wrong way.

I tested out the video capabilities of my iPhone 4 while enjoying Seattle’s annual fireworks show over Lake Union. Here is the result.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

That is why I’m excited to announce my forthcoming eBook: The App Store Survival Guide. The book will be an indispensable guide for iPhone/iPad newbies and veterans alike about navigating the jungle of the App Store.

The book will be available for download soon. I am holding off on putting a date on it yet because you never know when a white iPhone incident may happen. As I get closer to a release date I will announce it here. My expectation is the book will be easily accessible for your favorite eReader (including the iPad).

I am excited about this milestone and hope you will find The App Store Survival Guide a vital resource for making your favorite iDevice even more useful.

Sure, he took a couple of digs at Google (they made it easy with the recent Wi-Fi snafu) but largely resisted when Walt Mossberg continued to press him about the fact they now compete with their former ally. And Jobs even described how Apple lost the platform war to Microsoft – a pretty spin-free admission.

Most of the coverage overstated Jobs’ suggestion that we were beginning to see the end of the PC era. This wasn’t a proclamation that this would happen overnight. His argument, which is largely correct, is that over time many people will begin to rely more on lighter, touch-based devices and less on keyboard-and-mouse PCs. This is a challenge to both Apple and Microsoft who both have incredible resources invested in PC hardware and software.

The Apple-Google feud is only going to intensify with the unveiling of the next iPhone at WWDC next week. Expect Jobs to put on another good show filled with innovative design and plenty of hyperbole. And expect a green robot to be lurking around for the next move.

The Urban Muse is run by writer Susan Johnston. I highly recommend her eBook The Urban Muse Guide to Online Writing Markets.

There will be more to come as I cover the iPad. Let’s see what this thing can do!

But then reality hit. We learn that Gizmodo paid $5,000 for the phone from someone who found it at a Silicon Valley bar. Its unfortunate owner apparently left it behind. Instead of giving it to the police or making a more concerted effort to give it back to Apple, it was sold to the highest bidder. This was after the Apple employee was identified through a Facebook app and the phone was remotely wiped by Apple. All clear evidence that the phone was property that should have been returned.

So this is what we have come to. If something comes into your hands that isn’t yours, resort to the playground ethics of “finder’s keepers.”

This is why when someone returns money that is not theirs or engages in some other act of unforeseen honesty people are shocked. Too many share the view that if the world is ruthless and cutthroat, then we should be too.

There is an old saying about how each of us needs to have a moral compass to serve as a guide when we face such situations. Unfortunately we have another case where it just didn’t work. Maybe there’s an app for that.

Wrong. I caved and pre-ordered a 3G model. Despite its limitations, I feel the iPad has tremendous potential and is a glimpse into how computing may evolve.It also doesn’t hurt that the no-contract 3G plan is a fantastic option for frequent travelers like myself.

Is it a bit overpriced? Yes. Does it come with the usual Apple limitations? Of course. But like most Apple products, the things it CAN do are amazing and enough to sell you on it. When it finally does arrive I expect to be giving plenty of apps a trial run and publish the reviews on AppCraver. This week I will have a series of Q&As that should help iPad owners, fence-sitters, or those impatiently awaiting theirs to arrive.

Now comes the usual wait for an Apple product’s arrival. Rumors, news leaks, more rumors, then out of nowhere a shipping notification. Next comes incessantly hitting refresh on the UPS page, as if somehow that will makes its journey from China to California go faster.

As always, it will be a geeky adventure. Let it begin.