Today’s discovery by TechCrunch that HP filed for a trademark on Palmpad confirms what many have guessed would happen. The acquisition of Palm will likely make its way into larger devices.

Palm’s webOS is the best mobile operating system and should translate better to a tablet than Apple iOS. However, I hope that HP does not make the same mistake that Palm did when it was independent — namely, chase Apple — because it still cannot compete with their head start, rabid fan base, or number of applications. At best, a simple webOS tablet could perhaps gain a #3 or #4 position behind the iPad but ahead of some eBook readers.

HP must redefine expectations to be in a position of strength. It can capitalize on the many false starts of its Microsoft Windows brethren and Google Android cousins.

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Apparently the iPhone 4 has antenna issues that prevent normal human beings from holding it naturally. Kind of reminds me of an old Nokia problem, sidetalking on the N-Gage…

I might have actually considered getting one of those back in the day if they made a screen with a horizontal aspect ratio instead.

Most games just haven’t designed to run vertically unless it’s Tetris. Of course I’m still hoping Ben Heck will make a handheld Vectrex one day.

Sorry for the silly post. I just can’t believe no one has written a post comparing the two yet!

Another recent online power grab involves Facebook’s changes in privacy SEO. Most of the information gathered in social networking is used to improve the relevancy of advertising presented to you (be it behavioral or retargeting).

Yet Facebook’s recent changes in layout and linking unveil an even more ambitious plan. They want to become a hub for all brands, products, and artists on the web.

It’s true that you can hide all of your fan pages in green that fit into Facebook’s pigeon holes of activities, interests, movies, books, or music. There’s a good chance that most listings here will have their own fan pages, except for books which should list authors instead.

(Mark’s profile information that is publicly available; the interests in green can be hidden but the section in yellow must be visible to everyone, even outside of Facebook, if your settings allow visibility in search engines)

However, when you log in, you can discover some interesting user experience decisions that determine the data displayed above.

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Readers of my last post no doubt expected that I would write about HP and Palm next. I applaud the move for reasons I will explain later, but for now I want to talk about something perhaps more important: privacy.

Some people want to share absolutely everything online. The Foursquare satire, Please Rob Me, and heavily funded startup, Blippy, have shown that doing so is not always a good idea. Some Blippy members’ credit and debit card numbers were published to the world in Google search results. The privacy breach continued even after a supposed fix. Whoops.

(Credit card numbers in search results — every webmaster’s worst nightmare and every thief’s dream)

Before you call me a Luddite, I should say that I love social networking sites as long as I retain control over who sees what. Of course Blippy’s problem was due to a lapse in security, but it never would have happened if users had chose not to discard their privacy by volunteering their credit card numbers in the first place. And lest you ask, Blippy is different than a typical eCommerce site because its raison d’être is the overexposure of sharing shopping behavior.

I think there needs to be a little more common sense from consumers and independent analysis in the online industry. It should not require FTC investigations or Congressional oversight, as was suggested after Google Buzz complaints (warning, contains justified profanity). It means the fourth estate doing their job.

For instance, despite the backlash against Google Buzz, initial concerns about Google Social Search have all but disappeared.

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