We're ostensibly an Android blog but that doesn't mean we can't be objective when it comes to comparing Android to its competition. Perhaps the biggest question most smartphone shoppers have is whether to buy now or wait for the next big thing to be released. It makes sense; if you're going to make a big investment, you want to know it will pay off for you long term. If you're thinking of buying a new phone but are unsure whether to wait for the next iPhone or buy one of the already released top-of-the-line Android phones out there, you're going to want to read on.

(Rendering of the iPhone 5 from PCAuthority.com)

There's no doubt the iPhone 4S is a sexy device. It has a nice weight, an industrial design and it feels great in your hand. The iPhone 5, according to leaked renderings, will likely feature a significantly longer screen and a new casing, but will hew closely to the design elements of its predecessors. 

Compared to the Galaxy S3, the iPhone 5 will probably feel a bit more substantial and less plasticky. But comparing an Apple product to a phone like the One X is a bit trickier, since HTC also uses very high quality materials to construct their sleek and sexy devices. Whether you find HTC's design more or less inspiring than the iPhone 5 may simply come down to personal taste.

Apple is absolutely obsessed with display quality, as anyone who's played around with the newest iPad can attest, so I think it's safe to assume the iPhone 5 will have an improved retina display, probably on the same level as the newest Macbook Pro. The iPhone 4S already has a brighter and sharper display than, say, the Galaxy Nexus, but it's a closer call when compared to the Galaxy S3 or the HTC One X. Some even prefer the HTC One X to the iPhone 4S's screen.

At the end of the day, the amount of detail the human eye can see in such a rich display begins to diminish as screens are perfected to a ridiculous degree. Thus, for some, it will all come down to display size. While the iPhone 5 is expected to have a larger, 4" display, that might not be big enough for some. The HTC One X features a larger, 4.7-inch display, which could become a deciding factor for people who care about such things.

(Photo:CNET)

What kind of camera the iPhone 5 will sport is, at this point, anyone's guess. Apple could decide that they don't need to improve upon the iPhone 4S, or they could, as some rumors suggest, create a higher-quality front-facing camera capable of taking high resolution shots or include an interchangeable lens 'round back. Apple has already applied for a patent that would allow users to change the iPhone's camera lens by removing the back cover, but we're not sure how realistic it is to expect to see this feature on an iPhone, given the fact that iPhones have never had detachable battery cases.

Assuming Apple doesn't significantly upgrade their camera, you can expect the iPhone 5's photo-shooting abilities to compare favorably to that of its competitors in some areas, while falling short in other areas. The iPhone 4S seems especially better at dealing with shadows than the One X and the S3, but the S3 won in terms of contrast and sharpness in tests by CNET. We prefer the S3, which is currently the best camera of any smartphone on the market.

But Apple loves improving upon the iPhone's camera, so I wouldn't be surprised if the iPhone 5 blew away the competition in this regard.

I have no doubt Apple will try to one-up the Galaxy S3 when it comes to processor speed. Rumors point to an A5X chip and we expect the same quad-core graphics processor that's in the iPad 3. But the Galaxy S3 and the HTC One X are no slouches either, and will likely compare favorably the iPhone 5. Waiting for a new iPhone so you can get the fastest processor on the block is maybe not the brightest idea, though, because most apps won't benefit and above a certain threshold, the experience is buttery enough that you won't care whether your phone is the absolute fastest, unless you like to brag about that kind of thing.

(Photo: T3.com)

iOS 6 has already been announced and we were not impressed. The minor update brings a bunch of stolen Android features to the iPhone, including "quick reply," browser syncing, turn-by-turn navigation and Facebook integration. It's all but assured that this is the OS the iPhone 5 will launch on, although Apple may also introduced an improved version of Siri and – possibly – a refreshed UI. However, considering how conservative the company is about these things, we're not expecting much.

Compared to Android Jelly Bean, and the newest iOS looks puny. I highly doubt Apple will roll-out anything like resizeable widgets, Google Now or offline voice-to-text, all of which you can find on Android 4.1. The newest Google update is already available for Galaxy Nexus owners and can easily be installed on any other rooted Android running Ice Cream Sandwich. As far as innovation goes, the newest edition of Android beats iOS 6. It all comes down to whether or not Apple introduces other, more substantial features at launch. I'm guessing they will, but I doubt they'll include widgets or anything radical; that's just not Apple's style.

The Galaxy S3 and the HTC One X are currently available for $199 on contract. It's likely that the iPhone 5 will also be available for that price. But the going gets thougher for those wanting more internal memory. A 32GB iPhone 4S, for example, costs $299 across all networks, while shoppers can bag a 32GB Galaxy S3 for $249.99. Don't expect an expandable SD card; this is Apple we're talking about

(Top photo: appadvice.com)

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For the first time, Android has topped iPhone sales at Verizon. The carrier sold 2.7 million iPhones in the second quarter- down 16% sequantially and far below estimates – and 2.9 million Android devices.

Verizon revenues grew 7.8% to reach $15.8 billion this past quarter, spurred along, no doubt, by the ballooning use of smartphones on the network. Smartphones now make up 50 percent of all postpaid devices on Verizon. Even more incredible is the killing Verizon is making on data. Over $6.9 billion of their revenue has been generated by data sales.That's over $1 billion more data sold than last year.

Verizon introduced new shared data plans in late June, which allow customers to pay for a pool of wireless data and share it across multiple smartphones, tablets and laptops. The new plans were initially criticized for making data even more expensive on the network, although they may help families who already spend a lot for data, text and phone service. 

AT&T quickly copied Verizon's shared data plans, as is what happens in most duopolies. It seems both companies aren't afraid of losing customers, no matter how expensive their services become. 

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If you haven’t heard about Chameleon for Android, you’re missing out on a seriously cool project. Back in March we learned that a company called Teknision (the company behind the interface on the RIM Playbook tablet) was developing a seriously impressive overlay for Android tablets (phones as well), and with a little help from Kickstarter, the team is now literally weeks away from releasing Chameleon to the public. We are extremely pleased to see how well this project has progressed, and we recently had the chance to interview Teknision President Gabor Vida, who not only shared lots of exciting details about Chameleon's Android homescreens, but answered questions on hardware requirements, compatibility, public release, and more. Lets give him a warm AndroidPIT welcome for part 2 of this interview, where he answers YOUR questions about which devices Chameleon can run on, what screen sizes are supported, and when you can get your hands on it!

If you missed part one of this interview, you can check it out here. Gabor answered lots of questions about what exactly Chameleon is, the work they have done before, and what the Android community can expect from this project. Lets continue now with YOUR questions about Chameleon:

AndroidPIT: Now I’ll start with a few questions that lots of our users (and myself) are really curious about. Exactly which tablets/processors/hardware will be supported? Are we looking at only dual core tablets being supported, or will single core, Tegra 3 and Exynos 4412 processors also get some Chameleon love?

Gabor: Tablets running Android 3.2 and up. So far we haven't ruled out any specific hardware at all.

AndroidPIT: Are there any tablets in particular that are NOT supported?

Gabor: Again I don't think we've ruled anything out specifically. Beta tests will help us figure this out a little better. We would likely not support any tablet that does not implement Android's support for hardware acceleration.

AndroidPIT: What size tablets will be supported?

Gabor: 7 inch tablets and up. HD tablets will be supported as well.

AndroidPIT: Android tablets often suffer from laggy home screen transitions when swiping if you’re using lots of widgets. From the videos I’ve seen of Chameleon, the screen transitions look very smooth, especially considering how many widgets are on the screens. How did you achieve such smooth and lag free transitions?

Gabor: Chameleon is not totally free of this problem as our widgets use Android Web Views. We have spent a lot of time coming up with smart ways to do bitmap caching to ensure the UI is as responsive as possible. We also focus on purposeful transitions. This means that the transitions are there to guide and re-enforce the user experience instead of trying to add to it though effects and 3D.

AndroidPIT: Some services integrated into Chameleon (like Netflix) have no functionality outside of the US. Will Chameleon also function for users outside of the US? If yes, what differences can users outside of the US expect to see?

Gabor: Chameleon will definitely work outside the US. I hope so! We are in Canada :) If a widget offers a service that is limited to a particular region then that widget probably won't work but it will not affect the rest of the application.

AndroidPIT: Does Chameleon seem to run faster/snappier on any tablet in particular?

Gabor: We just put it on our new Nexus 7 and it is just buttery smooth and beautiful.

AndroidPIT: Any plans for a Chameleon interface for phones?

Gabor: Definitely. It's not on the immediate roadmap as getting Chameleon selling and building the development community is top priority, but the phone version is on the roadmap.

AndroidPIT: Will Chameleon be a standard app that you can download from the Google Play Store, or will it be an apk file that needs to be manually installed?

Gabor: It will be a standard application that anyone can get on Google Play.

AndroidPIT: How big of an install file are we looking at?

Gabor: Currently many things are in flux in development, so it's hard to say exactly. Likely, the APK will be somewhere between 15-30 megs. The reason for the large size is that we pre-cache our default HTML widget set with Chameleon so that it will work offline on it's first run.

AndroidPIT: How much of a role did Kickstarter play in getting your project to where it is now?

Gabor: The value of Kickstarter is immeasurable. We raised almost $67,000 in 20 days. While that amount is large, it's only a fraction of the cost of creating Chameleon. What Kickstarter really means to us is a level of publicity and connection to the Android community that would be almost impossible through any other channel. It was really true to the name of Kickstarter - it gave our communications a kick start and it gave our team even more fuel to their fire.

AndroidPIT: When can members who have pledged 5 dollars or more plan on seeing Chameleon available for download, and when will it be available for people who didn’t pledge?

Gabor: We are hard at work to keep our August release promise. For those who missed the Kickstarter campaign, we have created a pre-order store at http://chameleon.teknision.com/. People who pre-order will get the release at the same time as the Kickstarter backers.

AndroidPIT: Gabor, thank you very much for taking the time for this interview, and we wish you the best of luck with this exciting project!

Gabor: Thank you! It has been a pleasure.

There you have it folks! Chameleon will be released in just a few weeks, and now we know which devices it will run on, what size screens will be supported, and that it will also be available for phones. 

What do you guys think? Is this something you'll be buying when it's released? Impressed by the homescreens and how they work?

Let us know how you feel about Chameleon in the comments below!

P.S - Here's a quick preview that Teknison sent over with Chameleon running on a Galaxy Nexus:

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HTC has never had the best reputation for promptly providing Android updates, and with Jelly Bean rollouts getting underway, a lot of eyes are on HTC and their popular One series. The good news is that if the following report is accurate, HTC customers might not have to wait that long before getting a taste of Jelly Bean. Australian network Telstra is reporting that HTC is currently prepping the HTC One S and One XL for Jelly Bean, raising hopes of seeing a timely update to Android 4.1 for some HTC customers.

Keep in mind that Telstra hasn’t always made good on every promise when it comes to Android updates. So until we receive official confirmation directly from HTC regarding the updates, you’re probably better off taking the report with a grain of salt. That being said, they did post this update information on their website recently:

We are crossing our fingers for owners of these devices, and hope to see an update rolling out from HTC sooner than later. We haven’t received word in regards to the quad core packing HTC One X 4.1 update, but we will keep you up to date as soon as we receive word from HTC.

Picture credits: ultimate10.net, androidguys.com, and Telstra

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