If Michael Dell decides to release a new Android-based handheld device, as the Wall Street Journal speculates he might, it wjll be his fourth try at entering the market and he will almost certainly fail, if his track record is a guide to his future.

You'd think that Dell might be able to sell a business device--such as an Android handset--and the company supposedly has those in development for debut later this year. But, an inexpensive consumer music player/Internet device? Much less likely.

Call it the "Great Cave-in of China" as the Beijing government today delayed a requirement for controversial Green Dam censorship software to be installed on all machines sold in that country.

Assailed from all sides, including its own citizens, the Chinese government left the door open for reimposing the requirement, originally set for July 1, but didn’t say when that might occur.

Turning criminals into law-abiding customers is always a dicey business, made even more so when easy thievery was your company's primary reason to exist. That's the challenge facing the "new" Pirate Bay as the file sharing site tries going legit.

Put another way: What's Pirate Bay without the piracy? Not much.

The manager at my local Apple Store looked a little grim when I mentioned iPhone 3GS overheating and battery problems yesterday. "If that's what it is, you're going to have a flood of phones coming back," I told him. As if he had to be told.

Battery problems are nothing new to Apple, but the culprit has always been a replaceable notebook battery--until now. Back in 2006, Apple recalled 1.8 million batteries after only nine overheated--but two people were burned.

For all the hoopla over Google Voice, I have to wonder why it's such a big deal. Have people never heard about RingCentral before? Yes, I know we're talking about Google, which apparently makes it an instant hit, but most of the features have been available for years.

As a RingCentral customer, I've had most, maybe all the important features of Google Voice for three or four years. And I have features--like multiple local numbers in different calling areas--that I haven't seen mentioned for Google's service.

Wonderful news from Europe today, where micro-USB has been selected as the universal charger connector for wireless devices. Soon, the purchase of a new phone may no longer require purchasing new accessories or tossing old ones, just because the old and new devices use a different connector.

If the standard really becomes standard, customers will benefit both in cost savings and convenience. I'll keep my fingers crossed, though the chance that the next generation of cellular phones will use micro-USB seems excellent. Companies endorsing the micro-USB connector standard include Apple, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Texas Instruments.

I have a confession: I recently woke up with a hot iPhone. In fact, it happened twice. And that was just during the first week I owned my new iPhone 3GS.

This is, apparently, a reasonably common phenomenon--the hot phone, if not waking up with one. Around the forums, people are blaming Push features and bad batteries, and all sorts of things. Apple doesn't seem to have responded to the complaints.

In another blow to customers, Microsoft says free Windows 7 upgrades--for companies that purchase new hardware between now and the Oct. 22 release date of the new OS--will be limited to 25 machines.

As of last Friday, individual customers who purchase Vista Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate will be able to get a corresponding version of Windows 7 at little or no cost, according to a blog post by Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc.

If Microsoft really charges $120-and-up for Windows 7, the company will send a very clear message: Don't upgrade. That, or Microsoft is betting that Vista victims will pay almost any price to get the ill-fated OS off their machines.

Which is it?

In saying, "We don't have to beat each other to prosper" during a Thursday call held to discuss the company's fourth-quarter earnings, Palm's new CEO, Jon Rubenstein, has tacitly admitted what many already suspected: Palm won't end up number one in the smartphone race.

"Only a handful of companies have the software and product design capabilities" to gain significant market share, he said. "There's room for three to five players in this space. We don't have to beat each other to prosper."

The dispute between the Chinese government and Google appeared to heat up today as some Chinese users found themselves unable to contact the service, a short time after a government representative accused the company of spreading pornography.

The move sharpens China's attempts to define how Western companies do business there, forcing them to make a choice between free speech values and access to a rapidly-growing market.

Motorola plans to release a new line of Android-based handsets in time for holiday sales, potentially rearranging the smartphone market in Google's favor. This is more bad news for Microsoft, which takes a further backseat to Google and could make Palm's supposed ascendency a poorer bet. Apple is unfazed.

The Motorola news appeared in today's Wall Street Journal, and brought a slight uptick in the company's flagging share price. A stock analyst was the source of the report, which also predicted additional cuts for the beleaguered company.

In less than three weeks, the iPhone has caught up with the Palm Pre in the one area where the Pre held an undisputed lead: wireless charging. The ability to charge without wires is an idea that's been teasing us for a long time, with Palm the first company (I am aware of) to take it mainstream. The feature will soon be available for iPhone users, too.

The iPhone solution, from WildCharge, requires placing the iPhone or iPod touch into a gel skin inductor that looks pretty much like any other form-fitting other case. It includes a small connector that plugs into the iPhone. Once installed, the user places the iPhone onto any WildCharge charger pad and the phone starts charging.

Bad news for Blackberry: Forty percent of smartphone users who don't already own an iPhone said they would switch to the Apple handset for their next purchase, nearly three times the percentage of non-Blackberry users who would switch to a Research in Motion handset.

In an online survey conducted May 19 to June 8, market researcher Crowd Science found that only 14 percent of non-Blackberry users wanted to switch to that family of devices.

Intel and Nokia are expected this morning to announce a deal that will bring Atom processors to the manufacturer of the world's best-selling family of mobile devices.

A Bloomberg report is leading to speculation that Nokia is planning a wireless-enabled netbook or will build Atom-based smartphones or similar devices.

T-Mobile's introduction of its second Google phone, called the myTouch, points out the differences between the three leading operating systems in this summer of smartphones. It also points out why--in releasing this "too little, too late" device--T-Mobile is an also-ran.

T-Mobile's new myTouch is a version of the HTC Magic phone that's already available in Europe. That T-Mobile announces only days after the iPhone 3G S launch and the same month as the Palm Pre, only points out how far behind the curve T-Mobile remains and how Google needs to take more control of who ships what and when.

There seem to be two schools of thought about Steve Jobs: One holds that Apple has proved itself capable of living without him. The other says that Jobs is returning, apparently with a spiffy new liver, just in time. Both assessments are correct.

I don't think Apple really proved very much during the six months he's been gone, but the experience has nevertheless strengthened the company.

There was a time when it looked like HD-DVD would be winner in the battle to bring high-definition to computers and video players. Then the momentum suddenly swung to a competing standard called Blu-ray. Now, it looks like Blu-Ray is in trouble, but not from HD-DVD.

Let me make a confession: I've written about this stuff for 25 years and cannot, off the top of my head, recite the differences between the formats. Nor can most people, for whom the whole Blu-ray "thing" seems to be a snore.

Not to burst anyone's balloon, but the iPhone 3G S isn't a world-changer--unless you've never had an iPhone, of course. For the rest of us, it's simply the world's most successful "speed bump" for an existing product.

The most important part of the newest iPhone isn't the hardware, it's getting search, cut-and-paste, and the ability to type more quickly and easily--in landscape mode, using both thumbs. But, those are all software features, available to all iPhone and iPod touch owners.

At the beginning of cellular, the FCC did consumers wrong by allowing specific handsets to be tightly coupled to carrier networks. That lead to handset exclusivity deals that have limited choice and led to customer lock-in. That wrong may yet be righted.

Want an iPhone? Go see AT&T and only AT&T. A Pre? That's a Sprint offering. You know the drill and the negative impact it has had on customers.

So who still thinks Sprint's launch of the Palm Pre was a big success? No, the Pre isn't dead, but it hasn't generated the subscriber boost Sprint had hoped for and has quickly lost the imagination of the handset-buying public.

I've taken a lot of heat from the obsessed for describing the Pre's June 6 launch as "failed" in a previous post. Now come reports that suggest I was spot-on. Consider what Bloomberg has to say about Sprint and Palm shares falling as people figure out the Pre hasn't drawn customers to Sprint from other carriers.

The first iPhone was revolutionary, the first smartphone that really worked. People who expect tomorrow's iPhone 3G S or yesterday's iPhone 3.0 software upgrade to be equally exciting will be disappointed. Not because the product is bad, but because It's hard for any third release to be as dramatic as the first.

I purposefully avoided memorizing the new features of the iPhone 3.0 software, so I could experience the so-called "joy of discovery." So far, while my wife assures me that cut-and-paste is in there, I haven't found a need for it.

Remember when choosing a new, faster PC only required knowing the processor name and clock speed? Wish that simplicity would return to PC buying? Don't hold your breath. Buying an Intel PC is going to change, but for the better may be a different story.

Intel's Bill Calder yesterday revealed that the company's branding will be "simplified" into entry-level, mid-level, and high-level, referring to Intel Core i3, i5, and i5.

UPDATE: As of 10 A.M. Pacific Time, the iPhone 3.0 Update is now available from the iTunes Music Store.

Apple appears to be playing games with shipments of its new iPhone 3G S to customers who ordered online. Earlier promises of "delivery by June 19" have been replaced by "delivery by June 22." Meanwhile, downloads of iPhone OS 3.0 updates, promised for today, have apparently not yet begun.

Now that it's safe to do so, a technology industry group has oh-so-nicely asked the Chinese government to reconsider its requirement to include censorware known as Green Dam with all new PCs sold in that country. It's always heartening to see big, rich tech companies standing up to an authoritarian regime on behalf of free speech.

If that actually happens, I'll feel like we're making progress. But this is just after-the-fact window dressing.

The best place to buy the new iPhone 3GS is--surprise!--direct from Apple. Amid concern about delays for AT&T customers, Apple has already begun shipping new iPhones and is still promising quick delivery for orders placed on its Web site. If AT&T really is facing a short supply of new iPhones, this could be seen as the latest snub Apple has handed the company, its original iPhone launch partner.

At last week's WWDC iPhone announcement, Apple appeared to criticize AT&T's slow support for sending photos with SMS messages and non-support for tethering, which allows an iPhone to become a broadband modem for a nearly PC.

There was a time when American capitalists would have strongly protested totalitarian censorship, but that was before they became complicit in it. Moral indignation once again loses out to global profits.

In the case of the Green Dam Youth Escort software, China again seeks to co-opt American companies into its oppressive censorship schemes.

The "S" in the name of the new iPhone 3G S stands for speed, both in the phone itself and how it's being delivered to some customers.

Customers who ordered their phones direct from Apple's online store have begun receiving an e-mailed "Shipping Notification" from Apple. Included is a UPS tracking number that shows, in at least some cases, delivery as early as tomorrow or Thursday.

Who should know more about PC threats than the company whose software makes most of them possible? Is Microsoft's upcoming, free anti-malware app the company's way of apologizing to customers?

Not hardly. The free service, codenamed "Morro" and due in beta "soon," appears only after years of Microsoft trying and failing to sell a protection product called "OneCare," which routinely landed low in the protection ratings.

Paid content is the best hope of saving "the media" as we know it. The problem is killing all the free content first, or alternatively, breeding a new generation that understands content is often worth precisely what it costs you.

Some will read this as an "old media" guy waxing for the good ol' days of newspapers with 30-percent margins. Or think I am channeling Barry Diller or Rupert Murdoch; a couple of other old media guys who believe paid content is their future.

The issue with whether Google is or is not a monopoly isn't merely its search dominance: It's Google's ability to control online advertising and, increasingly, what we read or don't read.

This isn't entirely Google's fault, but a company whose goal seems to be to index and, if possible monetize and even appropriate, all the world's public information is going to run into antitrust problems eventually, right?

People using Facebook in business need to mark their calendars for 12:01 AM ET this Saturday in order to claim their real names on Facebook, if for no other reason than to do it before someone else does.

It's first-come-first-served for swapping your current numeric Facebook ID for something approaching the one your parents--or incorporators--gave you. This may easily be your only chance at this and anyone with a Facebook profile or page with 1,000 or more followers will be able to get in line.

Ed Colligan is a nice guy and visionary marketer who, nevertheless, deserves blame for most of Palm's problems, including the failed launch of the Palm Pre last weekend. At least by sacrificing Colligan so quickly, that must be what "the new Palm" hopes we'll think.

Ex-Apple exec Jon Rubinstein, who replaces Colligan, joined the company two years ago, when Evolution partners sunk $325 million into trying to recapture Palm's magic. If there is anyone to bless or blame for the Pre, it's Rubinstein.

Apple has yet to prove that it can prosper in a post-Steve Jobs world, but this week's Worldwide Developer Conference brought the company closer to that goal. With Jobs seemingly poised to soon return from medical leave, the company he co-founded looks better positioned to live without him, when that time eventually comes.

That is good for Apple, its customers, and even for Jobs, whose presence has previously been seen as the key to his company's success.

The biggest thing coming to Apple desktops and notebooks is something they have needed forever: First-class support for Microsoft Exchange users. This means Apple laptops now make more sense than ever as a Windows replacement.

Of course, there is simply no excuse that Exchange support has taken Apple this long, giving us some idea of how important Apple considers business customers to be, which is not very. But, there are small signs that this is changing. Apple has been making the sort of teensy, incremental changes that make Macs and iPhones more welcome on big company networks and IT bosses seem to be noticing.

In nearly 30 years of covering technology, I've never seen the kind of snub Apple handed to AT&T during its iPhone 3GS announcement at the WWDC keynote. Apple did everything possible, short of an on-stage denunciation, to picture its iPhone launch partner as what the carrier's customers have long considered it to be: Slow and backward.

Prediction: Verizon will, as soon as contracts allow, become the preferred iPhone carrier in the U.S. Not sure when this will happen, but it will. On behalf of its customers, I want to thank Apple for, with the release of the 3GS, locking us into a new 2-year AT&T contract just to update our phones.

If there is a single message from Apple's Monday announcements, it is a simple one: Software sells hardware. Second message? Apple's iPhone has a lot of software available and the Palm Pre, Android, BlackBerry, et al, don't come close.

Apple analyst Charles Wolf, of Needham & Co., called Apple's apps lead "insurmountable" in a research note issued Tuesday morning.

Welcome to our new blog!

My name is David Coursey and most weekday mornings I will be posting two or three items offering a mix of tech news, commentary, and opinion of interest to people in small and medium-sized businesses.