Near Field Communication (NFC) has become the talk of the tech town as of late and with Google’s latest Nexus release, one big name is putting some real backing into it. While NFC isn’t new, it’s been used in PayPass stations like the one seen in the graphic for years, it is becoming the next buzz word for smartphones and In-Stat shows an explosion in growth in the next few years. As Google forges ahead with the Android Army in placing NFC in many of future phones and other manufacturers such as Nokia have committed to the technology, others such as Apple have been mute on it. With privacy and security concerns overshadowing NFC, this explosion may have ill effects on millions of people if not properly pushed into the consumer market. Companies such as MobilePayUSA (read our previous post on this company) are working on safer alternatives which require no new hardware and hope to have its offering to the general public by the end of the year.

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1. Be prepared to act fast. If you want the new iPhone, be prepared to act fast on the date of release. After the announcement of the iPhone 4 pre-orders sold out within a matter of hours and those who procrastinated got left out in the cold. Pay attention to Apple news sources and pre-order your new iPhone as early as possible.

2. Avoid the lines: order online and deliver to your home. There are going to be lines around the block for the new iPhone. Don’t let fear of expensive shipping fees or late deliveries stop you from buying online. Apple has a great track record for getting new iPhones delivered to customers on time and delivery is free.

3. Buy from alternative sellers. If Apple’s pre-ordering system gets bogged down, buy from Verizon or AT&T. Whenever you buy from authorized retailers your new iPhone will come with the same one-year limited warranty and will be fully serviceable at Apple locations. Be aware, however, that return policies and procedures may differ from Apple’s so you should take a moment to read the retailer’s return policy.

4. Sell your old iPhone. If you’re upgrading from an old iPhone consider selling your old one for cash on eBay, Craigslist, or other channels such as sellyourmac.com. There’s plenty of demand and a used iPhone can fetch as much as a few hundred dollars. You can also trade in your iPhone with companies like Gazelle.com, which offers hundreds of dollars for well-kept models.

5. Buy with a credit card that offers additional protection. Many credit card companies (such as American Express) offer additional protection plans on purchases made with their cards. As long as you pay off your card balance so you don’t accrue interest or other fees that offset the benefit, it may be a good idea to take advantage of this service.

6. Hold off on AppleCare. AppleCare is Apple’s own service plan, which it offers for most of its products. The iPhone AppleCare plan currently costs $69 and can be obtained at any time for up to one year after purchase. Apart from the additional telephone technical support available beyond the 90-day complimentary period, there is little benefit to buying AppleCare before the one-year limited warranty is about to expire. Consider saving a date 11 months after you purchase your iPhone and decide then. It’s a waste of $69 if your phone gets lost, stolen, or damaged in a way that would void coverage (for example, by water damage).

7. Invest in a good case. Whether or not to equip your iPhone with a case is a matter of personal preference and risk assessment. If you do decide to buy a case take some time to read the reviews and choose one that is both aesthetically pleasing and offers sufficient protection for the types of environments you envision taking your iPhone into.

8. Learn iOS 5. The iPhone 4S’s operating system, iOS 5, is just as important—if not more—than the new hardware features in the iPhone 4S. All smartphones, not just the iPhone, are capable of far more than most users give them credit for. Take time to read up on the capabilities of the iOS and pay particular attention to the new features.

9. Do your research and read the reviews. Whatever iPhone(s) Apple releases this fall it’s important to research whether a new iPhone is really right for you. Online Mac sites are a great place to start because writers will be covering Apple’s release and sharing ideas and opinions for weeks before and after the announcement.

10. Look out for defects and be an informed consumer. Always be on the lookout for defects and get them addressed when they first arise. Stay informed by keeping up to date on problems, issues, bugs and breakdowns other Mac users may be having through Mac web sites (such as Cult of Mac.com).

Jonathan Zschau is a Boston-based attorney, a lifelong Mac enthusiast, a writer for CultofMac.com, and an outspoken advocate for consumer rights. Buying and Owning a Mac: Secrets Apple Doesn’t Want You to Know is available at bookstores online in print, PDF, EPUB, and Kindle formats. For more information visit http://www.cultofmac.com or http://amzn.com/0983107009

The Android onslaught will continue and it will do so with low-cost smartphones says the latest In-Stat report. While rumors proceed Steve Jobs autobiography of his betrayed feelings of Google’s Eric Schmidt concerning Android, it looks like there really is little to stop it from conquering the world. Either Apple needs to continue its innovation or kill Android.

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A lot has been made of the iPhone 4S star studded feature named Siri. She’s the helper inside Apple’s new smartphone that can take actual natural speech questions and give you an answer in return. Web sites, Twitter, and Facebook all have postings of the whacky and funny things Siri answers to such as marriage proposals and requesting to be beamed up. Many, however, are scratching their head how Siri knows who your wife is or sibling or parent. You know that video where Apple shows the iPhone 4S user calling “mom” and Siri dials it for the person? Man, Siri IS pretty smart, but how does she know my mom from any other women on my phone? Well, she doesn’t until you tell her.

The secret lay in a new field in your Contacts. It’s called Related People, as seen in the above screen capture. Simply find your mom, or any other relative, in your address book and tap the Edit button and then scroll down to “add field” to which brings up another window. At the end of it, you will find “Related People”. Tap it and up comes a relation, maybe mother, and a blue arrow. Tap this arrow to find your mother and select her. If you need to change the relations, tap the name for a list of other labels. You are not limited to family either as you can select assistant and manager as a relation. So if you want to tell Siri to call your boss, she may figure that out by the manager mark, too.

Don’t forget to select yourself in the Mail, Contacts, Calendars in the “My Info” section under Settings so the bond is obvious to Siri.

So you didn’t stay up until nearly 3:00 am last Friday morning to pre-order your iPhone 4S like I did, huh? Well, you missed out on all the fun! So there you are contemplating if you should go stand in lines Friday at one of the three cellular carriers or at the Apple Store. What to do? If you’re thinking, ‘No way I’m standing for hours only to be told there are none left,’ then you have the online alternative. BUT, which one should you go with? Best Buy? Radio Shack? AT&T? Verizon? Sprint? Take a look at STELLAService found before making your next click below and do it the easy way!

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Source: DisplaySearch’ Quarterly Advanced Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report

The forecast published by DisplaySearch in its Quarterly Advanced Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report shows a further reduction in the demand outlook for TVs worldwide. Total TV shipments are not forecast to grow from 2010 to 2011, holding at 248 million units. LCD TVs will account for 206M and plasma TV for 17M. The forecast reduction is based on lower business targets for the year from TV manufacturers, and lower than expected demand for key TV components during the peak procurement period leading into the holiday season.

“Demand in regions like North America and Europe has fallen short of expectations as persistent economic problems have made consumers cautious in their spending and highly value-seeking,” noted Paul Gagnon, Director of North America TV Research for DisplaySearch. “Emerging markets continue to show good growth, but it is not strong enough to counteract the weaker demand in developed markets, and as a result, we have lowered our unit forecasts for LCD and plasma TV.”

Although total TV unit demand for 2011 looks to be flat, shipments of flat panel TVs, which excludes CRT and rear projection technologies, will increase about 6% Y/Y. This growth looks likely to improve to 9% in 2012, as the premium for advanced features continues to fall and manufacturers bring low-cost solutions to emerging markets in an effort spur faster replacement of CRT TVs.

LCD TV Will Remain the #1 TV Technology, as Backlights Shift from CCFL to LED

LCD shipments will rise from 192M in 2010 to 206M this year, which is less than the previous forecast of 211M and a key reason the overall TV market forecast was reduced.

Gagnon added, “LCD TVs account for more than 80% share of all global TV shipments. LCD TV supply chain participants—including panel makers, OEMs, and TV brands—have all lowered their outlook for 2011 demand, despite a recent drop in LCD panel prices. Long-term, we continue to forecast annual growth in demand for LCD TVs, although generally we expect less than 10% growth each year.”

LED and 3D Features Keep LCD TV Prices Stable

A growing share of new premium features, like LED backlights and 3D, are helping to keep the LCD TV category average prices very stable in 2011, falling just 7% Y/Y on a volume weighted basis. However, with the slower unit growth, total LCD TV revenues are expected to be flat this year. After increasing slightly in 2012, revenues should begin a gradual decline beginning in 2013. The forecast share of LED backlights in LCD TV shipments has been reduced slightly to 46% in 2011, but is still expected to become the dominant backlight technology for LCD in 2012 and reach nearly 100% of shipments by 2015.

Plasma TV Growth Slows

Plasma TV unit growth started slowing in Q2’11, declining 6% Y/Y, and is now expected to see a double-digit unit shipment decline each quarter through the middle of 2012. Because LCD TV prices are falling more quickly than plasma TV prices, the gap in pricing is narrowing and share is shifting away from plasma and towards LCD at several sizes. For example, in Q2’10 a 42” 1080p plasma TV was 32% cheaper than a competitive 42” 1080p 120 Hz LED LCD TV, but that gap fell to just 9% by Q2’11. Total plasma TV unit shipments are expected to fall 9% in 2011 to 17M units and around 5-6% each year thereafter.

OLED TVs Enter the Scene in Late 2012

OLED TV is set to debut around late 2012 as a contender in the 40”+ category, but will only grow to about 2.5% of the 40”+ segment by 2015 due to high prices and limited availability. Current projections are for OLED to debut at about 2-3X the price of a high-end LED-backlit LCD TV.

Emerging regions (China, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa) will have the strongest flat panel TV growth over the next four years, averaging 11% growth each year, while developed regions decline an average of 1% each year. The Asia Pacific region is positioned for strongest growth as the late-adopting India market begins to boom.

The worldwide forecast for 3D TVs was slightly increased through unexpected growth in emerging markets and Europe, although North America is growing slower than expected. 3D TVs are expected to account for 11% of total TV shipments in North America, but 14% of Western Europe and 12% of China TV shipments. Eventually though, North America will lead 3D adoption due to stronger preference for 40”+ sizes. 3D TV is expected to account for just over 22M in 2011, rising to more than 100M shipped by 2015.

The DisplaySearch Q3’11 Quarterly Advanced Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report includes panel and TV shipments by region and by size for nearly 60 brands, and also includes rolling 16-quarter forecasts, TV cost/price forecasts ,and design wins. This report is delivered in PowerPoint and includes Excel-based data and tables. If you need further information or assistance please contact us at +1.408.418.1900 or sales@displaysearch.com or at the local DisplaySearch offices in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.

When the first iPhone debutted in 2007, I dragged my kids with me to the local AT&T store in my small Central California town of Manteca. It was festive and pleasant as my children sat huddled together against the windows of the AT&T store listening to a story on my iPod. The now defunct bank Washington Mutual next store added to the excitement by passing out free hot dogs and drinks! In just a few hours, I was the fourth one into the store and minutes later had my 16GB iPhone!

I didn’t line up in the following years for the iPhone on its day of release but did have to weather some lines when I finally did make the upgrade purchase. This year, however, I’d rather not spend a day in the mall hoping the Apple Store does not sale out of inventory before it’s my turn. No, this time I am ordering online seeing how it went so well with Verizon iPhone 4 orders in February. Mmm, the irony unfolds.

So, I revved up my browser at 11:50 last night and logged into the Apple Store. By 11:58, up came the notice that the store would be back soon. I found this as a good sign. Apple was gearing up. By 12:05, I realized it was no longer a good thing. By 12:15, I was becoming irritated. By 12:30 am, it was down right uncalled for.

I monitored my twitter feed to see if others were experiencing the same issue. Indeed, I was not alone. Macworld’s Dan Frakes (@danfrakes) posted, “I’ve memorized the phone numbers up to España.” CNet’s Brian Tong (@brian_tong) blasted, “iPhone 4S pre-orders are Siri-ously L-A-M-E. Thanks AT&T and Apple!” I couldn’t resist replying, “@brian_tong If I had an iPhone 4S, I’d say, “Siri, tell me when Apple gets its act together and the web page is ready for orders.”"

Finally, at 12:35, Apple brought it’s site back online for pre-orders. But the joy was short lived as Frakes posted what we all were seeing, “And stuck on the “Are you a new or existing AT&T wireless customer” page. Continue takes me back to the same page over and over”. Worse yet, if you were like me, Firefox 7 for the Mac wouldn’t render the site properly – still doesn’t as of this writing – and it was not possible to even make your selection. Thankfully, I thought to open Safari and that got me quickly to Dan’s issue. Yet, some how Chris Pirillo (@ChrisPirillo) got through the process and confirmed his order.

Frantically, I kept acknowledging that I was an upgrade client after clicking the Continue button and the same page would return over and over. Tong commented on twitter, “This is a HORRIBLE experience, site wouldn’t work. The App got to the checkout phase and then hangs, and says “We’ll be back soon”" Frakes almost made it further but got, “”Your request couldn’t be processed.” Nooooooooooo”. He thought out loud, “I’m imagining a few people at the server farm saying, “Let’s just turn on one server at first, just to screw with them,” as we all in our virtual line continued through the frustrating process of trying to get the order to happen. Tong wrote what we were all thinking, “What a tease when you get to the FINAL “Check Out” screen, and then it says try again…and it never gets past it…”

Interesting enough, Verizon users were off in bed sleeping and having sweet dreams of a new iPhone 4S in the mail as they had no issue with their orders. @pdgill teased, “@danfrakes Verizon’s new tag line: Switch to us for the convenience of preorders!”

Comments in the iPhone 4S virtual line were humorous and it’s all that kept most of us going. @MacfusionGirl encouraged the twitter line, “This is the best iPhone line I’ve been in. You guys don’t smell. You’re not annoying, loud or stepping on my feet ”, even though it was nearly 2:00 am and most of us hadn’t showered since the day before.

Sadly, agony mounted as the morning wore on and Frakes noted, “Please wait while we pretend to process your request, raising your hopes a bit, then kick you out mercilessly.” I received the error, “We are temporarily unable to take iPhone orders. We apologize for this inconvenience. Please try again later.” Frakes blamed all of us stating that we had broke it.

Looking for other ways to pre-order, I grabbed my iPhone and opened the App Store app. I made it much further than I did on my Mac Pro; however, I still received an error message at the final screen. “Drat!” I yelled at 2:15 in the morning. Then, in a ray of hope, I searched the App Store for the illusive AT&T Upgrader that we had been hearing about all week. “Dude!”, it was there! I downloaded it, opened it after install, and walked through the steps. Amazingly it was quick and I had a new white iPhone 4S 32GB on the way!! It was only 2:30 am in morning.

As I looked one last time on twitter, I noted Frakes had made it through via the old-fashioned way on his desktop computer, tweeting, “OK, they must have turned on the other servers, because the site came back up and I completed the reservation in 30 seconds.”

After all that and a late night, I awoke early in the morning to find that my credit card had been denied! “You’ve got to be kidding?!” I mumbled to myself as I ran to my Mac to attempt a new order. Being a pro in navigating the Apple Store site, I was able to get through the upgrade pricing approval screen quiet quickly. Again, my card declined. Ugh! I used a second card and it thankfully it went through. Minutes later when I returned to the Apple Store site to verify my order, “We’ll be back soon” Post-It note had reappeared. I had just made it!

As to the failed card? Chase Fraud alert. I just got an automated call asking to authorize the denied charges hours later. Nice, Chase.

Steve Jobs began putting a dent in the Universe in 1976 when he and his friend released to the world the Apple I. A year later, they gave it a keyboard and case and called it the Apple II. Then came Lisa in 1983 which in itself spawned the cheaper and faster Macintosh in 1984. Anyone that could claim just these few accomplishments to their name would be satisfied but this was just the beginning for Steve Jobs.

Jobs was forced out of the company he co-founded by the man he won over from Pepsi to be Appe’s CEO by asking him if he wanted to sale sugar water or change the world. So Jobs left Apple and brought a few engineers with him and started NeXT computer. After the Macintosh and the once-in-a-lifetime game changing invention, Jobs did it again with the NeXT Workstation. While it wasn’t a huge hit, like the Lisa, its influence is what made it so great. From the worlds first web browser being invented on a NeXT to the operating system of today’s Macs and iPhones based on it, NeXT was an amazing accomplishment.

Then Jobs started down a new road, one of animation. Helping a friend out, Jobs purchased Pixar from Star Wars fortune George Lucas to help pay for his divorce settlement. Jobs got a bargain at a few million and turned it around into the most successful animated entertainment company of all time. From the Lifesavers commercial to Toy Story, Jobs took animation to infinity and beyond.

While Jobs was building a new empire with Pixar, Apple was struggling to stay alive. It begged him to return and he agreed to help the ailing company he co-founded and even branded himself the iCEO. i for interim. The little i also appeared on his first success back to Apple with the iMac. i for Internet. Not only could it connect to the Internet easily, a service in its infancy, but one could also see through its exterior case. It came in lime and berry colors as well as orange. It was also the first computer to have a USB port. Yes, in 1998, Steve Jobs introduced yet another massive hit.

The Internet not only popularized the way people did things but also how people heard things. Napster and the MP3 began a new revolution that filled up hard drives with compress music quicker than a Beatles hit airing on an AM radio for the first time in 1964. Steve Jobs didn’t sit and wait for others to figure out solid state memory and taxing interfaces were not the way to put music into peoples pockets. No, in 2001, he marveled the world with the iPod. Sure, Creative had a hard drive digital music player but it didn’t have the iPods ease of use. The iPod was an instant hit and put white ear buds into millions of peoples heads.

Two years later, Jobs changed the music industry, again, with an easy – and legal – way to get music onto your iPod. He brought all the major labels into a single place called iTunes Music Store. It would later drop the Music from its name as Jobs pulled in Hollywood and its popular TV shows and movies to round out the digital hub as Jobs refereed to iTunes a year later at Macworld. In only five years, iTunes became the largest music retailer in the US surpassing long time giant Wal-mart.

In January 2007, I had the honor to witness the unveiling of Steve Jobs’ greatest invention since the Macintosh. The iPhone. It was rumored for months and yet when he showed it off to the crowd of reporters at Moscone West, all we could do is keep gasping and applauding. It was magnificent and fixed everything RIM, Nokia, Motorola, and Microsoft never thought was even broken to begin with. Even the $600 price didn’t phase most of us. We were all floating. Of course, the iPhone changed the mobile phone industry forever.

Steve’s final dent came last year as he introduced the iPad. Apple wasn’t the first tablet maker, Bill Gates touted it nearly a decade earlier at CES, but rather Apple was the first to do it right. Explaining to the crowd, Jobs told reporters that the iPad went back as far as to the time of Gates’ announcement in 2001. Jobs illustrated that the technology just wasn’t ripe enough for the iPad. So, instead, Jobs took what they had and turned it into the iPhone. While first impressions from many was that the iPad was nothing more than an over-sized iPhone, in just a few short months, the iPad sold millions and began a new age which Jobs would later call the Post-PC era.

Now, we wrestle with the Post-Steve era and wonder what would have been in just a couple more years. Most likely, Steve had already began the next Big Thing and maybe even a few other of Jobs brilliant ideas are already being nurtured. The fact is, sadly, Steve Jobs was a genius and with his passing, so ends his amazing journey through technology.