Opinion – Apple’s iPhone 3G made its official debut at Best Buy stores nationwide today. Just as at the phone’s launch in late July, people were standing in line. But there was one distinct difference: Best Buy is advertising the iPhone 3G with its “regular price” and “instant savings”, interestingly highlighting Apple’s misleading advertising for the iPhone 3G.

Opinion – How would shopping for shoes compare to using a Mac. Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates try to play such a scenario in a first episode of a series of commercials to ridicule the tight grip Apple has on its users.    

Analyst Opinion – Microsoft’s business is built on four main software pillars - Windows, Office, Windows Server and IE.  The two most important, because they have the greatest number of related offerings, are Windows and IE. Windows has been struggling for some time and IE as been losing ground slowly to its rivals, especially Firefox. But Firefox against IE is kind of like Switzerland against the U.S. The resource mismatch is massive and you’d think Firefox would have failed given this massive disadvantage.   It didn’t and has become a poster child the power of viral product growth. But now Google is joining the party – with funding levels that rival Microsoft.    

Opinion - iRobot co-founder Rodney Brooks announced he is leaving his position as CTO to form a new robotics company. While the new company's focus and direction will not compete with iRobot's products, they will be competing with you. Brooks wants to change the way robots are used in today's labor markets. That means his robots will be in, and you will be out.

Opinion - About 18 months ago Arthur Dula, a space lawyer, patent attorney and CEO of the private spaceflight company Excalibur Almaz, filed an international patent application (PCT/US2007/007407) for a solar system positioning system (SSPS, like a GPS but for the whole solar system). His patent was granted last month and proposes we send out dozens of satellites to various points around the solar system so any space vehicles will know where they are at all times.

Opinion – Ok, I get it: Beta software isn’t software that should be run on computers you rely on every day. Betas are merely previews of products we can use to get a glimpse of the future and should be treated with care as bugs and hiccups are almost certainly part of the deal. Microsoft’s latest IE8 Beta surely has bugs as well, but there is one surprise that is a bit beyond my comfort level: Some users may actually not be able to uninstall this beta anymore.

Analyst Opinion - Intel has IDF and NVIDIA has NVISION. Both shows have some similar goals, but the two couldn’t be more different.  Intel’s show is button down and professional while NVIDIA’s is a little crazy.  Intel dominates the PC hardware space and, as it often was in the Olympics last week, the real competition is for number 2, or Silver and Nvidia clearly wants that spot.   AMD plays very conservatively generally leveraging partners like Microsoft who often have their own agendas.  Nvidia is taking a much more aggressive path and while the press room I’m writing this in is sponsored by Microsoft, there is no sense at all that this is anything but an Nvidia event. 

Opinion – Microsoft has a tough time these days. First we complain that they don’t react to Apple’s mean and insulting Mac vs. Vista commercials and then nobody appears to like Microsoft’s choice for a spokesperson, Jerry Seinfeld (we do agree that this is a strange choice.) But we do not want to simply criticize Microsoft – criticism always should offer solutions and this is exactly what we wanted to do. Here are our top 10 choices for Microsoft’s anti-Apple campaign.

Opinion – Some companies are more equal than others. That is an impression some may take away from an order issued by the FCC against Comcast, requiring the cable Internet service provider to disclose details of its network management practices, submit a plan of compliance with current rules and regulations, stop unreasonable and, perhaps most importantly, disclose future plans of bandwidth restrictions. Comcast lied and deceived. It violated federal policies and ends up with an opportunity to discuss bandwidth restrictions. You may call that unfair. Others may call it business brilliance.

Analyst Opinion - Given the number of problems the iPhone had, the device was lucky to have been brought to market by Apple. Any other company would be dead in the market. Battery life is terrible, the connectivity is unreliable, the MobileMe application deleted email for large numbers of users and weeks after the launch it is still having issues. But the iPhone also shows that Apple marketing, packaging, and overall user experience can overcome almost any obstacle. And it may be exactly what Netbooks and MIDs need.