Every five years or so in the Valley there's a lot of hype about mobile being the next big thing. Only it never quite pans out. This is one of those times, and while skeptics are still out there, there are also a lot of believers. Why? The iPhone. It's far less about the glitzy hardware than the software and developers platform that for the first time enables not only Web-like experiences but applications we've never even seen on the Web, thanks to that GPS chip.

Web kingpins Jason Calacanis and Michael Arrington are two of the believers. At their TechCrunch50 conference on Monday, they plan on showing the valley several new companies that prove it.

Typically reporters have the regular weeks of run up to Apple's World Wide Developers Conference or MacWorld to speculate on exactly what wonder device Steve Jobs will unveil. But Apple has sprung an event on us next Tuesday called "Rock On." It's not a stretch to think it's iPod themed and indeed some schematics of new iPod Nanos and Touches have been making the rounds. ZDNet has a catalog of past iPod announcements and the current speculation here. As the post notes, well known Apple fan boy and Digg co-founder Kevin Rose in increasingly making predictions that include iTunes software updates as well. One example is a program called "Genius" that puts together playlists for you of like-songs.

So what's a stake for Apple? As Kevin Maney of Portfolio points out Apple has been so dominant that it's growth of the music market is slowing. He goes so far as to say the Zune and a forthcoming competitor by Dell are threats, but I'll frankly believe that when I see it.

The bigger question is whether Apple has stolen its own iPod thunder with the iPhone-- complete with an app store that supports a free version of wildly popular Internet radio site Pandora.

One thing is for sure: Given all the recent health rumors, articles and Bloomberg's premature obituary leak, all investors will be eyeing not only what Steve Jobs says, but how he looks.

From Silicon Alley Insider, Sept. 3, 2008:

Now that the format war with HD-DVD is over, the biggest hurdle getting people to buy Blu-ray players is that they're too expensive. And it looks like that problem won't go away this holiday season: Sony's two U.S. Blu-ray players will be priced at $400 and $2,000.

So while wealthy movie addicts might pick up a player this year, don't expect big, mainstream sales until Blu-ray players dip below $200. It's still possible that some gadget maker and/or retailer could price a device at $200 this year -- but it won't be Sony.

Which is probably why the electronics giant is still projecting it'll sell more Blu-ray-equipped PlayStation 3 game consoles this year than all manufacturers will sell standalone Blu-ray players. WSJ:

Sony said it expects industrywide Blu-ray player and recorder sales to more than triple to about seven million units in the current business year ending March 2009, from 2.1 million a year earlier. Of that, Sony expects to sell 3.1 million units, which is about a 44% share. It also expects to sell 10 million PlayStation 3 videogame consoles, which can be used to watch Blu-ray movies.

The Shanghai Index has fallen as much as 60% from its October peak but that is an opportunity, not a sign that the China growth story is over, he says. The growth of its middle class makes investing in China akin to the PC market in the 1980s and 90s, when investors (almost) couldn't go wrong.

In the accompanying video, Altucher reveals his top China stock picks, which each have strong cash positions, no debt and trade at low P/E multiples: online game company Giant Interactive, cell phone manufacturer Cogo Group, and real estate agency E-House. (At the time of interview, Altucher had no position in stocks mentioned.)

From All Things Digital, Aug. 29, 2008:

If you’re the owner of an iPhone 3G and you haven’t already updated to the iPhone 2.0.2 firmware, do so today–for your sake and that of all iPhone 3G owners.

Why?

Well, according to sources at AT&T (T), the reception problems that have plagued the device won’t be resolved until you do. iPhone’s running 2.0 or 2.0.1 firmware mistakenly demand too much power from 3G networks. And when they do this en masse, they can cause the network to refuse new requests for 3G bandwidth. That in turn causes the reception issues we’ve been hearing about since the device first arrived at market in July. And those issues will persist as long as handsets running iPhone 2.0 and 2.0.1 continue to strain the 3G networks.

That’s the story, anyway. And it does sound plausible. Although, you’ve got to wonder why this issue is specific to the iPhone. Presumably, there’s a multitude of other 3G devices out in the world requesting a 3G signal from the same networks the Apple (AAPL) iPhone is overwhelming. Why aren’t they suffering similar problems?

From Silicon Alley Insider, August 19, 2008:

Another beat and raise from Mark Hurd's HP: The PC giant posted better-than-expected Q3 sales and profits, and said Q4 would also be strong. Also reassuring: Unlike most tech companies, there's no language in HP's release about a weak economy, economic climate, etc.

Especially strong: HP's notebook sales, which grew 26% year-over-year, blade servers, which grew 66%, and storage, which grew 16%. Especially weak: Consumer printing and imaging hardware, which dropped 14% year-over-year.

Key Stats:

Revenue: $28.0 billion vs. $27.4 billion consensus
EPS: $0.86 vs. $0.83 consensus

Q4 Guidance:

Revenue: $30.25 billion midpoint vs. $30.22 billion consensus
EPS: $1.02 midpoint vs. $1.00 consensus

One thing we can learn from YouTube's entry into the mobile advertising business: As Henry and I discuss in the accompanying video, it's still really, really early in the mobile advertising business.

Why do we say that? Because we couldn't help but feel some nostalgia for the early days of the Web when we used our iPhone to check out the sample ad Google (GOOG) placed on YouTube for Mobile Monday.

What was it? Not some new-fangled, interactive, GPS-location-based, behaviorally-targeted, local coupon ad, or a video ad hovering over a YouTube video, or anything like that. Just a small DoubleClick banner ad for Mountain Dew. And, on a less-sophisticated phone we tested the site on, a text link.

The good news for Google: It's still really, really early in the mobile advertising business. We're not sure how many people will end up seeing this ad -- Google boasts that "millions of people" visit the site on their phones a day, but that seems high to us. But in any case, if Google is ever going to make a multi-billion-dollar market in mobile advertising, it's a good first step toward getting users comfortable seeing ads on their phones -- and toward developing smarter, higher-tech, higher-yield mobile ads.

See Also:
Google Still Dreaming Of $50 Billion Mobile Ad Market
More Ads Coming To iPhone Apps: AdMob Expands iPhone Ad Network

The government is out of Google's way: The FCC has just approved the HTC Dream, the first phone that will run Google's "GPhone" Android mobile operating system.

No hi-res product shots included in the FCC's documentation, but we're able to confirm that the Dream will be able to access T-Mobile's nascent 3G data network -- it's been approved to use the 1700 MHz band, the chunk of airwaves that T-Mobile uses for 3G service. And the phone includes a "jog ball," which we understand is the correct jargon for the tiny trackball used on BlackBerries.

Now T-Mobile can start selling the Dream pretty much as soon as it wants. We expect it to go on sale next quarter as promised -- specifically, before Nov. 10 -- that's the date HTC has requested the FCC keep Dream photos and user manuals confidential until.

In the accompanying video, Henry and I discuss how the GPhone could change the smartphone market, particularly for U.S. market leaders RIM and Apple and overseas leader Nokia.

We've had our hands on Apple's iPhone 3G for a month now, as we can easily declare that it's the best cellphone we've ever owned. And more good news: A software update Apple issued Monday night promises to squash some of the bugs we've noticed. But there's still plenty of room for improvement.

Rather than list features or go over the basics -- you can find those anywhere -- we thought we'd evaluate the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 2.0 operating system from three specific perspectives. Read our findings after the jump.

From Silicon Alley Insider, August 18, 2008:

Will new gadgets be able to use airspace between digital TV channels -- "white spaces," or "wi-fi on steroids," as Google has dubbed it -- for Internet access? We'll know more next month, when the FCC is expected to report its latest test results.

That's when we'll find out if gadgets submitted by companies like Philips Electronics pass the FCC's muster. These aren't gizmos designed for consumer use. Instead, the FCC is just looking to test the technology that will automatically detect which frequencies of wireless spectrum are being used by TV stations, wireless microphones, etc., so that a potential Internet device would steer clear of them.

And while "FCC engineers aren't talking about their conclusions" so far, the gadgets aren't exactly flying through their evaluations.