I’m drawing this just hours before the keynote, and who knows how it may turn out. But there’s certainly a chance for showers and thunderstorms for the competition, if the new service lives up to the hype. Although Apple, in an unusual move, revealed the topics on their agenda, which will also include iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion, there’s still so many details that remain unknown. Keep up on the developments with our LiveCast for all the WWDC 2011 and iCloud news.

I love the Android robot, so hopefully Google will get him an umbrella soon and step up their music offering, which at the moment feels half-baked. But, it is only a closed beta right now, so a lot could change. If you’ve already gotten your invitation for Google Music Beta, we’d love to hear what you think.

A common observation among folks visiting the refreshed store was that the new abundance of iPad 2′s all over the counters created more cord mess in most instances. The iPad 2s were placed in a special acrylic casing that held it at an angle and also allowed it to connect to power via a flat cable. Wherever there used to be a product info placard, there’s now an iPad 2.

Considering the shortage of iPad 2s around the world, with online orders still 1-2 weeks out and various suppliers blamed for the production bottleneck, it’s interesting to see all these iPads suddenly flood the stores. However, the change does improve the queuing system for customers to get a hold of an Apple specialist, especially when the stores are busy. If you’ve visited the new Apple Store 2.0, let us know how you like it.

According to recent reports, Apple’s iPhone 5 may make a November appearance, while an iPhone 4S for carriers Sprint and T-Mobile may arrive in September. This leaves next month’s WWDC without a phone to announce, bringing many to believe that the focus will be on the rumored Apple iCloud, which may completely replace MobileMe, bring iTunes to the cloud, embarrass Google’s recently launched Music Beta, and attempt to “magically” revolutionize the industry in some way or other. Additionally, iOS 5 and the new Mac OS X Lion will most likely be unveiled as well.

Google announced Android Ice Cream Sandwich to come in Q4 2011 that will unify the platform and eliminate the need for the separate smartphone and tablet versions we currently see with Gingerbread and Honeycomb, respectively. Ice Cream Sandwich, besides sounding delectable, could alleviate a lot of the fragmentation issues that have been hindering app development for the platform that has often involved apps working for some devices and not others. This, plus a revamped Android Market along with the addition of Google TV into the Android ecosystem, will surely boost the quantity and scope of apps to come.

The term 4G was originally meant for 100Mbps, a speed that most carriers currently cannot achieve. It later became attached to the LTE and WiMAX networks being built by Verizon and Sprint, respectively. Late to the party, T-Mobile and AT&T, battled it out on the marketing end to jump on the 4G bandwagon by including their “evolved” 3G networks (HSPA+). However, this past week, AT&T redefined the term once again to mean anything with the combination of 3G speed plus a fast backhaul, or fast connection from cell tower back to the network.

According to PCMag, AT&T’s senior vice president of devices, Jeff Bradley, laid out the new definition saying, “Our tests show that [4G experiences] happen with Cat-10 devices, or 14.4 … combined with fast backhaul. That’s the key. It’s got to be a combination of the two.”

The Apple vs. Samsung legal battle is an interesting one despite the myriad of lawsuits already in full swing amongst all the major manufacturers. Apple is Samsung’s number two largest client and fills up 4% of their annual revenue, whereas Samsung is also Apple’s major components supplier in semi-conductors, memory, and displays.

For a really good breakdown of Apple’s lawsuit against Samsung, visit here.

The product had been quite popular at one time with many celebrities toting around Flip cams, but with the onslaught of smartphone cameras—now boasting up to 1080p full HD along with instant sharing capabilities via WiFi and data plans, plus almost every other feature you can imagine—even the promising FlipLive WiFi-enabled camera is a step too late. On flip side, Flip die-hards feel there is still hope for the brand and the product, but that Cisco is simply giving up.

Almost immediately after we posted the story originally sourced from CNN, we received a message from Google stating that the CNN report was purely speculative and soon thereafter received a rebuttal from CNN. It was quite entertaining, we must say, but it does bring up a lot of questions and concerns both on privacy as well as media reporting.

Consumers, especially those who require GSM over CDMA, may suffer from less competitive pricing plans. Even if T-Mobile is kept as a separate subsidiary, there’s no longer need for it to compete against AT&T. It will be interesting to see how Verizon and Sprint respond to this development in the upcoming months.

And here’s a hilarious spoof by Jimmy Fallon in case you haven’t seen.

Considering that Twitter has been having a difficult time monetizing its platform and that the move also coincided with an update to Twitter’s own app, makes people wonder about the motivations and timing. Over the weekend, Ubermedia made all the changes requested, including changing the name of its app to UberSocial. And they look to be back up and running. But other 3rd-party apps may want to tread carefully now, too.