*michael parekh on IT*

ON THE BLACKBERRY/iPHONE BATTLE

TRENCH WARFARE

Maybe it's the fickle gadget junkie in me, or maybe it's just me being jaded about my 3G iPhone after my problems with it the last few days.  But when I saw this picture of the coming new Blackberry Bold from RIMM in "bedside mode", my gadget gaze has now shifted to getting one on first opportunity (not that I haven't been focused on the upcoming Blackberry models). 

The picture is part of a post on Blackberry's recent annual shareholders meeting, by Jim Courtney of Skype Journal.  This application, though simple, is as cool as anything I've seen on the new iPhone.

Here's another tidbit from that post that I found interesting, especially for those with extensive music collections in iTunes:

"Blackberry's new Media Sync creates a direct connection between your iTunes music collection and the Blackberry. (and will also be made available to all Blackberry devices with a media card - Pearl, Curve, 88xx - through both a firmware and desktop software upgrade)."

For a long time now, I've carried both a Blackberry and an iPhone, with the former being my primary business phone and email device, and the latter being my primary web browsing and media device.

Being a primary device, I find that I still use my Blackberry more than the iPhone to take pictures, given that it has a better camera with flash, something even the new 3G iPhone still lacks.  But I have NO music on my Blackberry, something I turn to the iPhone for on a long flight.

There are many users like me, who compartmentalize their professional and personal lives in a similar fashion, and use separate devices for each life.  Or as Jim Courtney puts it in starker terms:

"The iPhone is left with two markets: younger generation consumers who want an expensive toy and Mac aficionados who can use the iPhone as an extension of their Mac experience."

Both RIMM and Apple have long-realized this and are increasingly beefing up their products and services, so that RIMM has more media, personal fun oriented features, and Apple has more business and professionally oriented features like "push" wireless syncing.

But it looks like for the next 12 to 18 months anyway, it's going to be a bit of a stalemate.  And both sides will have interesting enough features to keep their core users hooked on their upcoming offerings.  But neither will just yet have enough to make broad and deep inroads into the other camp's core functionality.

In the meantime, many of us gadget geeks will have to continue to carry around both devices.

ON SOFTWARE BUGS AND THE 3G iPHONE

BUMPY ROAD

(Updated below)

All things are not rosy with my new 3G iPhone, as I've expressed in some posts on Twitter already.  Having eagerly anticipated the App Store now available with the iPhone 2.0 software on new and existing iPhones and iTouch iPods, I'd downloaded and installed over 60 third-paid and free applications (aka Apps), onto the new device in the last week (image source).

And I've paid a price in device instability ever since.  My brand new 3G iPhone has crashed and hung up on the boot screen, about five times now.  Each time it happened while I was playing or trying to wirelessly update an application installed on the device. 

Each time, after turning off the device and turning it on, I faced the famous shiny Apple screen, with no further response from the device.  I even took it in to the Genius Bar at the Apple store on the first crash, and they couldn't revive the device other than a full reset.

That involves taking the device back to the factory installed settings, wiping out all the customized settings and newly installed applications.  A full restore takes about two hours, even though all the applications and iTunes content are stored locally on my iMac.  It's just a slow, slow process.

Well, I've had to go through five of these now, and have just finished and customizing the iPhone with all my favorite settings, bookmarks, mail accounts, and applications for the sixth time.  And I'm planning to be much more careful in how I use the third party Apps, and how I go about updating them wirelessly (NOT).

Now, this post is not to complain about Apple, the new iPhone or the App Store.  It's just to highlight one user's experience with brand new, version 1.0 software, whether it's on a device or in the cloud. 

MacWorld makes this point particularly well in a recent article:

"With the release of the updated iPhone software, Apple flung open the doors of its new App Store. On its first day, the App store was populated with more than 500 programs, and that number is growing rapidly.

Think about that: 500 programs, all of them at version 1.0. On a device that had never before supported software written outside of Apple. It’s exciting, seeing the birth of a brand new software ecosystem. But it’s also scary. If people were worried about the first-generation iPhone hardware and software (many vowed they wouldn’t buy an iPhone until the second version arrived, for fear of buying a buggy 1.0 product), how should they feel about more than 500 programs on a brand-new platform, all at version 1.0?"

They go on to make the broader point of how the unique circumstances around the 3G iPhone introduction complicated the normal quality-testing process for third-party App developers:

"Unfortunately, there was no way for iPhone programmers to beta-test their products before the App Store launched. The software used to create iPhone programs was a secret. And only a select group of programmers were able to run their programs on real hardware, rather than in a Mac-based simulator. Developers in countries without iPhones could only test their programs on the iPod touch.

Even worse, Apple’s cloak of secrecy around the iPhone software programming tools prevented programmers from sharing tricks they had picked up during their work. The programming community, especially on the Mac, is remarkably collegial—programmers post blog entries detailing things they’ve learned all the time, and the quality of all the programs in the Mac ecosystem benefit as a result. Without blogging and Google searches, the only way iPhone programmers could share what they’d learned was through the old, inefficient medium of one-on-one conversations."

So, the reality is that early buyers of Apps on the Apple store on the new iPhone 2.0 software, are in for some continued instability.  It doesn't mean we have to like it, but at least we may be prepared to grin and bear it...for now.  It's Apple after all.

Update:  After experiencing a 7th crash and hang yesterday, I decided to do a full restore of the iPhone WITH all the Applications, but WITHOUT turning on syncing with MobileMe, the upgraded version of Apple's old .Mac (aka dotMac) service.  I especially didn't turn on the wireless, over-the-air "push" upgrading of my contacts, calendar, and email data via MobileMe, to see if this would stop the crashes.

It's been 12 hours since that restore, and so far so good.  The iPhone seems fairly stable, and am able to run any of the 65 or so Apps without any problems.  I still haven't tried to wirelessly update any of the Apps.  For now, will hold off any wireless data syncing and/or updates.  At least until the next firmware release from Apple.

ON THE NEW BLACKBERRY LINE-UP

WHAT'S NEXT?

Now that many of us gadget junkies have gotten our 3G iPhone fix, the next big wait is for the two major releases from RIMM, the makers of Blackberries. 

First up is the Blackberry Bold (one with the keyboard on the left, due out on U.S. carriers like AT&T) and the Blackberry Thunder (full touch screen a la iPhone, expected only on Verizon initially). 

Gadget site BoyGenius has been on a tear of late on both these phones, with a full hands-on review of the Bold just a couple of days ago, and they seem to have the scoop on when these two Blackberries might be expected:

"We’ve been told that the Bold might have been pushed back yet again. What’s the whispered launch month now? September for a lot of carriers. That’s not to say it couldn’t launch sooner on a couple carriers, but that’s what we were told.
It looks like there are still some problems with the radio code that have to do with network roaming, searching, etc...
Now, what about the BlackBerry Thunder?...Here are the most confirmed Thunder dates: a huge marketing push in the U.S. starting in September, and device release in mid-October on Verizon. We said November because we were betting on a couple week delay which, knowing RIM, certainly wouldn’t be out of the question."

Of course, no word yet on the "Pearl" version of the Bold, which would be a slimmer profile with the much smaller keyboard.  And the "Javelin" Blackberry, which would be the "Curve" version of the Bold, isn't expected until 2009 as Engadget reported last month.  Later this year could also see the release of the "Kickstart" Blackberry, which is expected to be a clamshell version of the Pearl version of the Bold.  Confused? Don't be...it's just a lot of Blackberries.

In any case, we're talking about waiting until Fall at the earliest for our new Blackberry fix. 

ON IMPROVING THE Wii

SHARPENED SENSES

OK, so now that the iPhone 3G debut Tsunami has passed, what can we geeks look forward to next? Well, the gaming industry confab E3 is at hand, and there should be a spate of fun product announcements this week.  An example would this cool item from Engadget on Nintendo's plan to sharpen the motion sensitivity of it's world-beating Wii platform controllers:

"While we saw it hinted at in patents, Nintendo is springing quite the doozy on us at E3 in the form of its new Wii MotionPlus add-on. Perhaps in a preemptive strike against supposed Wiimote competition from the likes of Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo is beefing up its motion support with this add-on, which is supposed to proved "an unmatched level of precision and immersion," with sensors to supplement the accelerometer and sensor bar to provide 1:1 motion -- as in, I move my arm this much, my character moves his arm that much. So far that's all we know about the unit, Nintendo will be detailing more at its E3 media briefing tomorrow."

Kind of like Wii remote 3G, only without the 2-year service contract with AT&T.

ON DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION

LOOK MA, NO HANDS

Today California joins a host of states that make it illegal to drive while using a cell phone in one's hand.  While the logic of the move seems reasonable, as we've seen state after state pass this law, there is growing evidence that cell phone use while driving, regardless of whether held to one's ear, or with a head-set/speaker-phone arrangement, can be equally distracting and dangerous. 

The LA Times notes:

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says the new law will reduce accidents. "Getting people's hands off their phones and onto their steering wheels will save lives and make California's roads safer," he said earlier this month.
That, however, is not what the research finds. Scientists say that when mixing cellphones and driving, the number of hands available for the tasks is not the limiting factor.
Instead, it's a driver's attention and processing capacity. These are often stretched beyond safe limits when someone juggles the complex tasks of negotiating traffic and conversing with another remotely."

The article goes on to quote some studies that provide some evidence of this phenomena.  A 2005 study for example, found that:

"Compared with drivers exceeding the legal blood alcohol limit, users of cellphones -- hand-held or hands-free -- reacted 18% more slowly to braking by the car in front and were more likely to get in a rear-end collision.
What's more, the talkers seemed to compensate for their slowed response time by falling farther behind the car in front -- a pattern likely to slow traffic and exacerbate congestion."

It'll be difficult for politicians and regulators to ban both hand-held AND hands-free cell phone use while driving. 

What'll likely need to happen  over time is that cars will get additional technology that assist the drivers while they're driving, whether they're distracted or not.  This CNN piece from last year, gives some examples:

"The next generation of environment-sensing cars will use more than just radar and infrared sensors to watch for signs of trouble. Video cameras will look for stoplights that have turned red and for children who are running toward the road. Distance-sensing lasers will check for vehicles in the driver's blind spot and the passing lane.These sensors won't do anything that a vigilant driver can't already do, but what if they could? What if your car could sense road conditions and traffic problems that are out of your sight? That's coming too.

The next giant leap in sensing will be radio networking that enables cars to exchange information.

"Communication [between cars] will be like an additional sensor," says Ralf Herrtwich, director of vehicle IT research at DaimlerChrysler.

Car-to-car communication will ensure that your automobile is impeccably informed about road conditions ahead. And this extra "sensor" will have almost unlimited range, because information can be instantaneously relayed from one vehicle to the next, to the next, and so on."

It'll be a while until these types of technologies are mainstream realities, but they're no longer in the realm of science fiction. 

The ideal technology of course would be self-driving cars, with or without the robot driver as in the classic 1990 Schwarzenegger sci-fi movie Total Recall.

Until then let's all be really careful while driving and using cell phones, hands-free or not.

ON VISUAL VOICEMAIL FOR EVERYONE

FEED ME

Visual Voice mail, one of the flashier features of the original iPhone, is apparently coming to a Blackberry near you, as Boy Genius Reports:

"If you haven’t yet heard of Fusion Voicemail Plus by PhoneFusion, prepare to be impressed. In a nutshell, Fusion Voicemail Plus centralizes all of your voicemail boxes and presents your voicemail messages visually on your mobile handset.
Instead of receiving voicemails in separate boxes for your mobile number, home number, VoIP number, office number, etc everything goes to your PhoneFusion One voicemail box. The messages are then displayed visually on your handset a la iPhone. Each entry displays caller info and incoming number along with your number corresponding to the relevant phone service (so you know if the caller dialed your mobile number or home number for example). And did we mention that the service is completely free?"

All of this sounds good, but will have to see how it works in practice.  The last couple of years have seen a handful of startups provide voice mail transcription services.  I've been an avid user of Simulscribe, now known as PhoneTag, which is a subscription based voice-mail service, I'd still recommend.

The notion of having multiple voice mail boxes feed into a consolidated email feed though is appealing.  Will have to keep an eye on this new service by PhoneFusion.

ON CRUISING TO A RECORD

FLOATING FAT

My wife and I went on our first cruise ever with my in-laws and grandparents earlier this year and enjoyed the on-board experience more than we expected.  Prior to that, we'd always thought Cruise-ships were not quite our speed. 

But we've come to realize that for traveling with extended family from both sides, it's not a bad experience at all.  Not to mention that it can be a better value traveling to places like Europe at current exchange and fuel rates.

So I've come to pay more attention to developments in the cruise-ship world, and this Gizmodo post caught my eye today:

"Royal Caribbean's new boat is big. Really big. The "Project Genesis" cruise liner, currently being constructed, will be 43% larger than the Queen Mary II, currently the world's largest ship. 1,180 feet long and weighing 220,000 tons, it'll be able to carry more people from New Jersey down to the Caribbean than any ship before it.

5,400 people, to be exact. The ship is so large that it has a "Central Park" the size of a football field in the middle, its own gigantic amphitheatre, and seven different "neighborhoods" that people will stay on. This thing is larger than an aircraft carrier, people."

It's expected to launch next year, with a twin due in 2010.  Will have to check it out, especially if it has ship-wide wireless Wifi internet access.

ON A SMALL STEP FORWARD FOR U.S. BROADBAND

SPOT OF SUN-LIGHT

Broadband consumers in the U.S., have had a spate of bad news, both on the wired and wireless fronts in the past year.  If you haven't been keeping track, let me count some of the ways:

1. Our world rank in the provision of broadband relative to the price paid, has slipped to the mid-teens in recent years.
2. The wired and wireless broadband providers are experimenting with putting caps on the amount of bandwidth consumed by their customers at given price points.  In fact, most of the wireless broadband providers like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint et al, have already started to put on caps to their "unlimited" data plans.
3. The wired broadband providers have been implementing technologies in their networks to throttle down high-bandwidth applications like P2P (peer-to-peer) video services.
4. The broadband providers continue to aggressively use their hefty lobbying capabilities with Beltway regulators on the network neutrality front.
5. On the wireless front, efforts to provide municipal Wifi services across the country have been scaled back for a wide variety of reasons.
6. Also on the wireless front, the widespread deployment of next generation Wimax wireless technologies by providers like Sprint, have also seen setbacks.
7. Recent signs that carriers like Verizon, which won the recent wireless spectrum auction, maybe backing away from some of the open access conditions of those auctions.

So it was good to see a minor bit of good news on the wired broadband front today, from none other than Verizon on it's FIOS fiber broadband roll-out across the country.  Here's an excerpt from DSLReports:

Verizon...has now expanded their 50Mbps/20Mbps FiOS tier into their entire footprint.
The company will also be expanding their symmetrical 20Mbps tier, previously only available in some States, to all of their users starting next week. The push is likely a pre-emptive strike against cable competitors like Comcast, who've only just begun deploying faster DOCSIS 3.0 speeds.
The 50/20 Mbps service will be available in New York and Virginia for $89.95, and in other States for $139.95 a month with an annual service plan. The 20/20 Mbps FiOS tier is available in all FiOS markets for $64.99 a month with an annual service plan (press release here, forum discussion here)."

It's not cheap, but it's increased competition for the cable broadband providers, and that's a good thing.  Verizon's FIOS service has been a multi-billion investment initiative that has been the one small bright spot in the rolling out of relatively affordable, true broadband services in the U.S. 

Not clear from the initial reports if FIOS has any bandwidth caps associated with the various pricing tiers.

We need a lot more  competition from a host of other providers, but this is a small step in the right direction.

ON GOOGLE UNPLUGGING BROWSER SYNC

SAY IT AIN'T SO

Must say that like many other geeks and early adopters, I was surprised and very disappointed to learn from Lifehacker, that Google is suspending support and development of it's popular Google Browser Sync extension software for the next version of the Firefox 3 browser to be launched next Tuesday.  Lifehacker posted a reply to a user query from the Google team responsible for the product:

"Thanks for trying out Google Browser Sync and for all of your feedback. It was a tough call, but we decided to phase out support for Browser Sync. Since the team has moved on to other projects that are keeping them busy, we don't have time to update the extension to work with Firefox 3 or to continue to maintain it.

For those of you who want to continue to use Firefox 2, we'll maintain support for old versions of Google Browser Sync through 2008. After that, we can recommend a few other products that scratch a similar itch. We hope that one of them works for you:

Mozilla Weave [labs.mozilla.com] from Mozilla Labs—Offers bookmark and history synchronization across computers.

Google Toolbar for Firefox [toolbar.google.com]—Store your bookmarks online and access them from any computer online.

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer [addons.mozilla.org]—Synchronizes your bookmarks across all computers where it is installed.

Regards,
The Google Team"

Like many Firefox users, I find Google Browser Sync to be the single-most useful extension I use on Firefox, since it allows automatic syncing of not just bookmarks, but my passwords, usage history, and browser states across several computers, both Windows and Macs.  It's been a "Thriller" product for me since day one, despite occasional problems as the product evolved within Google.

If this news is true, I'm going to forgo using FireFox 3.0 into 2009, even though it's supposed to be a much faster and more stable browser.  I know there are other potential alternatives for this functionality, including the Fennec initiative by Firefox developer Mozilla, but I prefer getting this service from Google than anyone else.

It's especially puzzling that Google think this software is not critical to continue to support given that it's long-term strategic mission is to get hundreds of millions of users around the world comfortable doing their computing off the cloud, less tethered to specific computers and devices.

In fact, Google Browser Sync seems to be the perfect customer facing device to propagate the work it's doing with Google Gears, which is a set of emerging Google technologies allowing tons of Google and third-party applications to run on multiple computers even when the user do not have an internet connection. Nik Cubrilovic has a great post today on TechCrunch describing where that effort is at Google to date.

If anything, Google should be expanding it's investment in Browser Sync, and making every effort to make the technology less geeky and more appealing and obvious in it's benefits to mainstream users.

All this is especially ironic given that competitors like Yahoo! are pulling out all the stops to become the daily "starting point" on the internet for hundreds of millions of users around the world. 

Google already is the starting point with it's Search application, and services like Browser Sync were starting to act as the glue bringing the disparate computers together for every user, starting to do things on the internet every day.  And they didn't even think of it is a starting point.  User habits were changing to just expect that their computing environment would be the same as they flit from machine to machine, all using Google services.  What other Google product or service could be more important to invest in than that?

Other companies like Apple are also hoping to be glue together the browsing experience for it's users across both Macs and Windows, and into it's iPhone and iPod Touch hand-held devices, using it's Safari browser as the conduit.

Microsoft is also working on similar strategies on the multiple incarnations of it's Live platform initiatives.

But these solutions are vertically focused on a given company's hardware and software.  Google is uniquely positioned to be a cross-platform, and potentially cross-browser provider of this unifying functionality.  Technically, the task is not a trivial one, given that it requires tying together many standard and non-standard, proprietary and non-proprietary technologies to make a seamless user experience possible across computers and hand-helds.  Again, this seems to be totally aligned with Google's long-term strategic focus.

I like many geeks, am hoping that Google re-considers it's strategy with Google Browser Sync.  Here's hoping that Google has a strategy to continue to bring Browser Sync like functionality to future browsers and platforms to the masses, even if it's with a whole different name and approach.

ON THE 3G iPHONE HOOPLA TO COME

HERE WE GO AGAIN

Mark July 11, 2008 on your calendar, if you're an Apple iPhone fan.  That's the date the new 3G iPhone, will be available in the U.S. and over 20 other countries.  See these stories on Techmeme for all the discussions, or see this Engadget report for a summary on what's what:

"Thinner edges, full plastic back, flush headphone jack, and the iPhone 2.0 firmware -- Apple's taking a lot of the criticisms to heart from the first time around.
Obviously 3G is at the forefront, but they're also making sure it's available all over internationally, works with enterprises, runs 3rd party apps... and does it all for cheaper. Apple claims its 3G speeds trounce the competition, with pageloads 36% faster than the N95 and Treo 750 -- and of course it completely trounces the old EDGE data.
Battery life isn't getting put out to pasture though, with 300 hours of standby, 8-10 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 7 hours of video and 24 hours of audio. GPS is also a go...
"Apple hopes to launch in 70 countries this year. 8GB is available for $199, 16GB for $299 -- and the 16GB comes in white. Both pricepoints require a contract. Apple will be hitting the 22 biggest markets, including the US, on July 11th."

The mainstream and online media will likely again report on long lines at Apple and AT&T stores in the U.S., with folks waiting to be amongst the first to get their hands on one.

For those interested in the financial implications for Apple and AT&T in all this, Saul Hansell (NYTimes) has a good summary in this blog post:

"The biggest news from Apple is what Steve Jobs didn’t say: It has completely changed the basis of its deals with AT&T and other wireless carriers.

According to a press release from AT&T, the carrier will no longer give a portion of monthly usage fees to Apple. Instead carriers will pay Apple a subsidy for each phone sold, in order to bring the price from $399 down to $199 for the 8 Gigabyte model. The company did not specify the amount of the subsidy. Subsidies of $200 to $300 are common in the industry.

What is more, consumers will now pay $30 a month for unlimited data service from AT&T, compared to $20 under the plan introduced last year. So even though the phone will now cost $200, consumers will be out more cash at the end of a two-year contract compared to the previous deal."

Benefit for Apple in all this, you ask?:

"It also should help insulate Apple from the cost of people who buy iPhones and unlock them to use on carriers that don’t pay Apple the monthly fee. Now Apple will get its money, say $500, up front and it no longer has to police what people do with them."

All this of course does not include the 30% revenue share Apple will take on selling third-party iPhone applications via it's App store, accessible from 62 countries.  Also of note is the rejuvenated .Mac service, now re-named MobileMe.  And of course since the iPhone and iPod businesses ties into a host of Mac-based services, there presumably will be synergies across most of Apple's main product lines.

But to really get a sense of what's really special going on with the new iPhone platform, one needs to watch the whole Keynote presentation.  It'll take about an hour and 45 minutes, but for anyone interested in things Apple, it's worth it.

I was particularly impressed with the third-party application presentations...not just the applications, but the actual presentations themselves were done really well by the various parties.  Not boring at all, as it would seem at first blush.

Pretty cool stuff overall.

The Mac/iPhone/MobileMe platforms have the potential to be where Microsoft and a few others really should have been able to go with all their assets and capabilities, and maybe still will...but Apple has a bit of a head-start.

In the meantime, July 11, 2008, is the new June 29, 2007.  And the zaniness won't be limited to just  the U.S. this time.

ON THE LONG-RUNNING BLACKBERRY/iPHONE RACE

THE FIGHT GOES ON

Research in Motion (RIMM) is up almost $10 today on the news of it's answer to Apple's iPhone, the Blackberry Bold (formerly known as the Blackberry 9000).  To be available later this summer on AT&T first and then all the major carriers, the new Blackberry borrows quite a few design cues from last year's iPhone, as this Ars Technica post illustrates and describes:

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that RIM has taken a few design tips from the iPhone this time around. The Bold's all-black enclosure with a chrome border, combined with the high-contrast screen make it indeed a very, er, bold-looking new BlackBerry. Physically, the resemblance is striking.

Of course, the iPhone currently lacks many of the features that the Bold has—namely 3G capabilities, integrated GPS, Bluetooth that actually works with something besides a Bluetooth headset, video recording capabilities, and camera zoom.

However, many of these features are expected to be announced soon at WWDC for the next-gen iPhone. At the very least, a 3G iPhone is all but guaranteed, and GPS is widely-rumored to be included. And, of course, the iPhone already offers desktop-style web browsing in addition to a giant multi-touch screen that the Bold doesn't have."

The piece goes onto list Blackberry's unique advantage vs. the iPhone:

"On its own, however, the Bold is still a very attractive option for those in business who are married to things like the BlackBerry's handling of corporate e-mail and the non-touchscreen keyboard that many BlackBerry enthusiasts still love.

On the flip side, Apple said at its SDK Roadmap event in February that the iPhone 2.0 software will introduce "real" Exchange support, push e-mail, and other enterprise features that it currently lacks, possibly bringing it up to speed with the BlackBerry in that regard."

One has the killer physical keyboard and industrial-strength email capabilities.  The other the killer touch-screen with the "real internet", and a universe of software applications to come.

It looks like I'll be upgrading to BOTH the Blackberry Bold and the new 3G iPhone and continue to carry both around for a while longer. 

No clear-cut winner yet.  It's Experience vs. Hope all over again.

Looks like this race between the two devices will run at least  as long as the Clinton-Obama contest before we have a clear winner.

ON A PROMISING iPHONE ACCESSORY

AMP IT UP

Being the eternal optimist when it comes to tech gadgets, I'm inclined to try this latest iPhone accessory from Griffin, despite the logical reservations.  iLounge describes the new product as follows:

"Griffin Technology’s ClearBoost ($35), therefore, is a major stand-out. Described by the company as an “antenna-boosting case,” which “improves reception as it protects your iPhone,” ClearBoost is the first iPhone case with an integrated, stub-like antenna at the top, as well as the first that measurably improves iPhone cell reception—under certain conditions."

Here's the crux of its capabilities that's interesting if it works:

"The good news is that, under conditions than an unencased iPhone would report as being between 2 and 3 bars of service, ClearBoost did actually achieve a benefit. With one or two unencased iPhones next to the ClearBoost one, we saw gains of 1-2 bars under such conditions, such that the standard iPhone might be at 2 or 3 and the ClearBoosted one would be at 3 or 4.

In some cases, this might mean the difference between a stable EDGE connection and one that seems to slow down or give up in mid-load of a web page, and this sort of benefit isn’t trivial."

Since I use the iPhone primarily as a mobile web surfing device, boosting the EDGE connection a bit in various places is something of interest. 

Then again, one could always wait for the long-anticipated 3G iPhone expected any month now, and presumably the upgraded ClearBoost case for the 3G phone.

ON GADGET ETIQUETTE IN MEETINGS

MULTI-TASKING NO NOs

ABC News ran a story on a recent silicon valley trend with the titillating title "Going Topless to Office Meetings", wisely adding the sub-title, "Why Silicon Valley employees are going to meetings Laptop-less".

Here's the gist:

"In the headquarters of Dogster, a networking site for pets, employees are allowed to bring their dogs into meetings but they can't bring their laptops or any other electronic device...
So far, Google, Yahoo and Apple are among the companies encouraging their employees to ditch high-tech distraction and engage with their colleagues.

Topless has gone beyond high-tech companies. Laptops are not allowed in some classrooms at USC's law school. Etiquette coach Colette Swan said, "We are becoming an internalized society. We are living in our laptops, our cell phones, in our texting."

It's a logical trend going forward, although increasingly difficult to enforce, as more innovative gadgets come along all the time. 

A case in point is the LiveScribe pen that I wrote about some time ago, which is finally starting to ship to pre-orders.  It's designed specifically to improve productivity in the workplace (see demo video here). 

But I'm sure like any other technology, users will find ways to use them for distracting purposes.

Disclosure:  I'm an investor in Dogster.

ON A SUCCESS STORY FOR MAINSTREAM MEDIA

POSSIBILITIES

It's good every now and then to see evidence that traditional mainstream media (aka MSM), can make organizational and business model changes to meaningfully address online opportunities.  This Wall Street journal piece titled "BBC Chief has radical designs on Internet" seems to be a case in point:

"The world's oldest and largest public broadcaster may emerge as a pioneer of new ways of delivering TV news and entertainment. The taxpayer-financed BBC doesn't have to worry about advertisers or delivering results to Wall Street. It owns most of its own shows, so it can control how they appear online. As such, the 85-year-old global behemoth can focus on the industry's most pressing problem: keeping viewers in the Internet age."

Here was one of the challenges they were trying to address:

"One-quarter of 15-to-24-year-olds didn't watch, read or listen to the BBC at all in an average week. Many preferred to play computer games or socialize online. If the BBC stayed as it was, by 2015 only 60% of people in Britain would get some form of BBC news each week, the study found, down from 81% today.  If that happened, the British government could argue it doesn't need to give the BBC as much money."

This was the solution the new Chief came up with:

"Mr. Thompson, who envisioned the BBC becoming a global media force, quickly concluded the broadcaster needed to try to make everything it created available online in some form, so viewers, particularly younger ones, could watch BBC shows whenever they wanted. "Everything should be digital," he says. "That was maybe the only really big idea I was going to bring into the place."

And despite a lot of head-winds in implementing the solution that the article explains in detail, here's the report card on the changes thus far:

"Unlike U.S. networks, which have only made tentative steps on the Internet for fear of losing advertising revenue, the BBC has thrown almost its entire schedule online. To do that, the broadcaster has bet big on iPlayer, a free computer program offered via the BBC's Web site and Apple Inc.'s iPhone, which allows anyone in the U.K. to download and watch BBC shows that have appeared in the past week.

Launched on Christmas Day, the iPlayer is already emerging as a cultural phenomenon, particularly among young viewers. About 17 million BBC shows were downloaded in the seven weeks after iPlayer's launch, compared with one million videos sold in the first three weeks after TV shows were put on Apple's iTunes store."

Young people seem to be liking this new way to access "old" content.  And new mobile platforms like the iPhone, are potentially part of the solution.  Good to see these types of data points at this early stage.

ON A REALLY HANDY TRAVEL SITE

ON THE GO AGAIN

My favorite new site discovery of the week has to be Flightstats Mobile, which I found thanks to a helpful "tweet" by  Stuart MacDonald on Twitter. 

It's a simple but very useful aggregation of some critical websites one might need traveling in a week like this, with record snow-storms in the middle of the country.

Here's what the home-screen looks like:

"FlightStats Mobile Home Main Menu

1. Flight Status
2. Departures & Arrivals
3. Flight Status By Route
4. Airport Chatter - New!
5. Airport Information
6. Airline Information
7. Security Wait Times
8. Weather Center
9. Current Airport Delays"

I've already book-marked the site on all my cell-phones.  Now I'm armed for bear on my next trip in inclement weather.  Thanks Stuart!

P.S.  Like many, I'm finding Twitter increasingly helpful in discovering new things that interest me.  I've also started to post many things that interest me , much more frequently there as well.  You can follow them either at my Twitter site, or in the pink box in the right side-bar of this blog.

ON THE STATE OF ONLINE VIDEO

SAME OLD, SAME OLD

This spot on if somewhat depressing assessment by Techdirt, on the state of today's movie download services, is worth a quick read:

"Here's a roundup of movie-download services -- Apple TV, Vudu, Movielink, Unbox -- all of which have underperformed expectations. This won't come as a surprise to Techdirt readers, as we've panned these products before. And the reasons they've flopped are frankly pretty obvious: high prices, restrictive DRM, and no easy way to move videos to the device of your choice...

Right now, Hollywood has veto power over innovations in the video space. They've made some dumb mistakes, like charging too much and mandating the use of DRM. Unfortunately, thanks to the DMCA, competition hasn't had a chance to kick in.

People can't route around Hollywood by using DVD-ripping software the way they routed around the record labels in the 1990s using CD rippers. So if somebody has a great idea for a digital video product, they have to go begging to Hollywood before they can implement it. But Hollywood isn't run by technologists, so they make bad decisions. And because nobody else is allowed to enter the market without their permission, the whole world suffers for it."

Promising, new video startups like Joost are mired in this very dilemma.

In the meantime, the world is routing around the video content that people really want, with the "user-generated" video content found on services like YouTube.   And that may scratch the itch for a bit, but doesn't solve the long-term problem.

Video (TV and movies for sale and for rent) on Apple's iTunes, has been a bit of a bright spot in all this, even with it's DRM (digital rights management), pricing and usage restrictions.  But the selection and flexibility of use still leave a lot to be desired.

To be fair to the mainstream media industry, it's not all their fault, and it's not just about DRM and protecting old business models.  As Steve Jobs pointed out in the Q&A at Apple's recent shareholder meeting:

"...the studios are working on difficult issues with gaining clearance for content created before anyone had contemplated Internet distribution.

Existing films need to have rights lined up from talent and copyright owners who had never outlined their rights and royalties in terms of downloads, and work in those areas is accelerating."

So for all these reasons and some others, it's going to be a bit longer to the promised land in video online.  We'll have to cool our heels here for a while.

But at some point, the tipping point will be reached, the time when the amount of professional video content online, with all the restrictions, becomes so overwhelming relative to the underwhelming demand for the content in that form, that the restrictions will start to give way to new compromises on mutually workable business models.

And that time though a bit far away, is not that long from today.  My guess, two to three years from now.  What do you think?

ON APPLE'S EMERGING MOBILE PLATFORM

FUN FUTURES

A lot of good things for Apple are likely in the long-term, following it's release of a long-awaited software development kit (SDK) for third-party developers yesterday.  In particular, this marks the transformation of it's iPod and iPhone franchises into a mobile platform that could rival the coming of the personal computer a few decades ago (see the Apple presentation here, and the  Techmeme discussion here).

In the near-term, it allows Apple to make the iPod Touch and iPhone more useful with Enterprise applications, and enable a rich universe of applications in almost every genre imaginable, when it releases it's iPhone 2.0 software as a free download in late June.  At the very least, it's upcoming support for Microsoft Exchange and direct push technologies, starts to pit the iPhone against RIMM's Blackberry devices.

Particularly impressive in the roll-out yesterday where the types of games that could be run on the iPhone/iPod using the built-in motion sensor of the device (aka accelerometer), as a Wii-type motion driven controller.  Here's the clip where the Sega rep demonstrates Super Monkeyball running on the iPhone:

What's interesting is that the developer cites this a "console-class" application, as opposed to a game one would play on a hand-held.

This new mobile platform strategy by Apple has meaningful long-term potential.  And it's not all just fun and games.

DISCLOSURE:  I've remain a long-term investor in Apple securities.

ON A STOLEN MACBOOK AIR

MB, CALL HOME

(Updated:  see below)

No, it wasn't my MacBook Air laptop that was stolen.

But one belonging to an attendee at TED 2008 was stolen today.  There was an almost audible gasp from the audience around me, when Chris Anderson, TED curator, announced this at the end of the afternoon sessions.

As the owner of a shiny new MacBook Air, i could empathize what a loss like that would feel like.

But it got me thinking...how difficult would it be to develop a Mac software application that a user could install on any MacBook of recent vintage, that would do the following:

1.  The application would be activated the first time the stolen laptop would be connected to the internet, and report the IP address, and other related network information to the user, and the software security service provider. 

So far so good.  I understand there are applications that one can buy for both Windows and Macs that can do this already.

2.  But this being a Mac, the application would perform an additional task.  Given that every Mac laptop comes with a built-in camera, and microphone, the application would automatically do the following when turned on by the thief and connected to the internet (wireless or wired):

a) Take several pictures and email them to pre-defined people, including the owner, and the software security provider.

b) Record the ambient sound in the room for a pre-determined time and send the audio file on as well.

c)  Then of course shut down the machine and lock down the user data using the File Vault capabilities of the Mac's operating system.

Come to think of it, this idea can be applied to an iPhone, or any camera-equipped cell phone.  Not to mention any Windows laptop with a built-in camera.

But it'd be really cool if something like this was available on the Mac first.

And it would be ESPECIALLY COOL if Apple took the initiative to add this as an operating system feature in the next version of OS X Leopard.

It'd take the burden of taking security precautions of the user...just like Apple's Time Machine  product innovation.

What do you think?

Update:  Within minutes of twittering about this, I got this tweet back from Gia Milinovitch:

"Do you mean something like this for stolen laptops? http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/

The application seems to do most of the things wished for above.  Will download it and try it out, and look for reviews on the web.  Now, all Apple has to do is buy the company and make it part of the OS.

Thanks, Gia!

ON VISIONS OF MOBILE COMPUTING PLATFORMS

STRETCHING

This BBC News piece on Nokia, titled "Nokia morphs itself from within", got me going this morning, primarily due to this sub-headline:

"Nokia is the world's largest mobile phone maker and with more than one billion handsets shipped is by extension the world's largest computing platform."

The author goes on to buttress this statement with Nokia impressive standing in the handset vendor world:

"Every day Nokia sources 329 million parts and builds a million phones in 100 plus handset models and distributes these phones in 70 different languages to 150 countries.

But as phones become less about making calls and more an extension of our connected lives, Nokia is transforming itself from a hardware company into something more converged. It's not the parts that matter but what use those parts are put to."

It even generously lets a Nokia spokesperson explain how this yet unrealized, and idealized "mobile computing platform" may come to be:

"We're not a cell phone company we're a software and services company as well," Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice president at Nokia, told BBC News."

The piece then goes into the various initiatives underway at Nokia facilities around the world, to make this "vision" a reality.

I wouldn't have had any problem with any of this if the sub-headline quoted above simply stated that Nokia "hoped" to become the world's largest computing platform, rather than the assertion that it already is the world's largest computing platform.

Let's state clearly that what they're really hoping to be is the "world's largest mobile computing platform". 

This is an arena that a number of other companies like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, and Apple amongst others have been toiling away for a while now, and have greater dibs saying they're creating a computing platform than Nokia.

Nokia as impressive as it is, is a very successful global vendor of handsets and other mobile technologies.  And it's been a great stock over the last year.

Their products are used across a range of wireles carriers in many countries, but they do not constitute a "computing platform" per se.

The BBC should be more rigorous in it's reporting here.

ON JAPAN'S LATEST BROADBAND STEPS

LEAPS AND BOUNDS

Last fall I posted about how the U.S. is falling behind countries like Japan, South Korea and others, in the broadband speeds available to it's citizens.  Well, CNN has a story that suggests that the lead may expand in the near-term (see the full Techmeme discussion here).  Here's the highlight:

"Japan launched a rocket Saturday carrying a satellite that will test new technology that promises to deliver "super high-speed Internet" service to homes and businesses around the world.

The rocket carrying the WINDS satellite -- a joint project of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries -- lifted off its pad at 5:55 p.m. (0855 GMT).

If the technology proves successful, subscribers with small dishes will connect to the Internet at speeds many times faster than what is now available over residential cable or DSL services.

The Associated Press said the satellite would offer speeds of up to 1.2 gigabytes per second.

The service initially would focus on the Asia-Pacific region close to Japan, a JAXA news release said."

What's amusing are the applications the press release cites that'll be enabled by new broadband vehicle:

"Among other uses, this will make possible great advances in telemedicine, which will bring high-quality medical treatment to remote areas, and in distance education, connecting students and teachers separated by great distances," JAXA said."

I remember those two applications being cited when the first dial-up, internet networks were being rolled out over a dozen years ago.  Including them in any broadband update announcement is like a beauty queen claiming she yearning for world peace in her interview.

Tom Evslin explains in a related post why the latency off this geostationary satellite won't allow a lot of normal web applications,including the ones cited in the press release, to work as expected.

But hey, it sounds good in a press release, so they go with it.

The more things change...

ON KICKING OFF APPLE'S MOBILE PLATFORM

IT BEGINS

Well, we're getting close to the end of February, which means about the time Apple promised to roll out it's SDK (software development kit) for the iPhone.

It's one of the critical elements that should help Apple to merge it's iPod and iPhone franchises into a global mobile computing platform with few equals over the next couple of years.  With a little help from Apple's iTunes store.

As this piece in Wired News reminds us:

"Apple's upcoming iPhone software development kit will do more than enable programmers to create new software for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

It will also turn iTunes into a software store, because Apple will probably use iTunes as the primary distribution vehicle for what's likely to be a massive community of iPhone software developers. In so doing, it could usher in a new way of buying low-cost software that's both easier and faster than downloading shareware or purchasing shrink-wrapped boxes."

And it's a substantial platform already:

"An estimated 35.7 million people use iTunes, according to Nielsen Online. Based on the figures Apple CEO Steve Jobs provided at this year's Macworld Expo, Apple has now sold more than 4 billion songs through its iTunes Store. By some estimates, 20 percent of the U.S. population now purchases its music through iTunes.

Whether the store is ultimately the only venue for distributing iPhone and iPod Touch software or not, using it for app distribution means that many third-party developers will have the chance to get their software noticed by a huge base of users."

It all kicks off at the end of this month.  Ready or not.

ON WHAT MAKES AN iPHONE TICK

BLIND QUEST

Hilarious piece from the EETimes about a panel of experts at the big mobile conference going on in Barcelona, Spain, trying to figure out what makes the iPhone a success:

"A blue-ribbon panel of human behavior and technology experts at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain agreed that the best recent advance in the mobile telecommunications user space came not from a mobile telecom company but from Apple Inc. — the iPhone..."

"The panel, whose title was It's the User Experience, Stupid  agreed that iPhone represents a model for mobile operators to follow, but they reached little agreement on how to follow."

The rest of the article is about the panelists trying to dissect elements of the iPhone experience (hardware, software, user experience, specific features, etc.), to try and explain why the iPhone has over 75% of users in recent surveys saying that they're "very satisfied" with the product.

I know personally, every time I use the iPhone, I get a still get a thrill out of the experience.  And I've had one since it first launched June 29, 2007. 

My satisfaction is so darn high with the iPhone, I feel an urge to buy another one every time I pass an Apple store.  (Don't worry, I won't...good self-control...barely).

And here's a hint to the panel.  I almost never use the iPhone as a phone, since I carry around a Blackberry Pearl for that mundane task (and for the business-scale email).

I love the iPhone for it's full-blown internet access, even though it's on the relatively slow AT&T Edge network.

And others agree, as this piece from Appleinsider illustrates today:

"Google on Wednesday said it has seen 50 times more search requests coming from Apple iPhones than any other mobile handset -- a revelation so astonishing that the company originally suspected it had made an error culling its own data..."

Should other companies follow in Apple's footsteps by making web access commonplace on their mobile handsets, Gundotra believes the number of mobile searches could outpace fixed internet search "within the next several years."

I know anecdotally there have been many times when I've had the choice between walking up to a PC in the house or office and my iPhone to look up something, I just use the iPhone.

But here's the line from the article on the mobile panel, commenting on current cell phones, that had me rolling in the aisles:

" Panelists cautiously agreed that the current user experience — at least compared to the iPhone — is not very good."

You think?

Note to self:  Buy more Apple...with a dash more Google.

ON A DISAPPOINTING NEW iPHONE INTRO

URGENTLY NEEDED FIX

I'm disappointed in Apple's execution of it's recently upgraded iPhone, which bumped the on-board memory of the device from 8Gb to 16 Gb.  No, I'm not talking about the lack of the long-anticipated upgrade to a 3G (higher wireless broadband speed) iPhone. 

I'm talking about the utter dearth of information on Apple's website on how  the three million plus owners of the current iPhone may transfer their phone numbers and data off their existing iPhone to a new iPhone.

And no, I'm not complaining about an UPGRADE path for existing iPhone owners, whereby existing owners would get some sort of a discount for upgrading to a new iPhone.  No consumer electronics company could reasonably make that kind of an offer on a sustained basis in a fast-changing technology world.

No, I'm just talking about the on-going confusion amongst both Apple and AT&T representatives on how current users would transfer their numbers and information to a new iPhone, preferably WITHOUT having to renew their two-year contract with AT&T.

This article in iLounge, summarizes the current state of affairs:

"A number of iPhone users upgrading from older 4GB or 8GB units to the new 16GB model have been presented with conflicting information regarding whether or not their AT&T contracts are being extended, and whether they should attempt to use their prior iPhone SIM cards in the new model.
A discussion thread on Apple’s support site outlines the problems, with an Apple employee admitting to not having a concrete answer. “Use the SIM from your current iPhone,” said Apple employee Nathan C., before editing his post to say “My apologies these steps may not work. You may need to activate it with the new SIM choosing the option to ‘replace’ an existing phone on your account.”
Another user claims that an AT&T sales agent said that the original 2-year plan would end as soon as he activated the new iPhone, and that a new 2-year contract would be initiated. iLounge has contacted AT&T for clarification on the issue, and will be updating this story once we receive a response.
Update: Mark Siegel, Executive Director of Media and Analyst Relations with AT&T, told iLounge in an email, “If you upgrade from an 8 to a 16 GB iPhone, you sign a new contract. However, we automatically backdate it to the starting point of your contract on the 8 GB phone.” He added that the company “will make every effort to ensure that our reps provide customers with the correct information,” and clarified that customers should activate the SIM card that comes with the new model."

That process, where the customer activates the new SIM card rather than replace it with the old SIM card contradicts the process recommended by O2, the European wireless carrier, on it's own website.  There they recommend customers replace the new SIM with the Old, then activate it on iTunes, click on existing owner, and then proceed with the activation of the new phone with the old SIM card.

Very different than what the AT&T executive seems to recommend doing above for U.S. customers.

Anecdotally, I've visited several Apple stores on both the east and west coasts over the last couple of weeks since the new iPhone was announced, and can vouch for the on-going state of confusion even amongst Apple employees at the stores.

In each case, the only advice I got was that I could transfer the number and data to the new iPhone merely by replacing the SIM card from the old to the new phone. 

When countered with the information that online sources were pointing to different solutions, most of the time, the response I got back was a shrug.  In one case, the Apple rep even had the audacity to say, "Sir, we just sell the hardware".

Apple doesn't just sell hardware, but software and the promise of a better service, a better experience than competing solutions.

And Apple has spoiled us, by introducing a cell phone that didn't require a visit to a phone store to activate it, but rather do it just by visiting a website.  Apple from the beginning has tried to make cellphones easier to buy and use.  And this should apply as well to users moving from an old to a new phone.

This state of affairs is simple to fix. 

Just put up the correct information and procedure on the Apple website.  And place it front and center next to the information about the new iPhone, not hidden somewhere in the Support or forum pages on the Apple site and/or elsewhere.  Make it unnecessary for every owner of an iPhone  to scramble around online wasting time, trying to get a straight answer.

And while they're at it, they should explain how the old iPhone may now be used, with a new AT&T account of course, by another user.  Preferably with a seamlessly functioning online process, and some incentives, of course.  This would encourage existing iPhone users to give/sell their old phone to a family member or friend and spread the iPhone message.

And it's important Apple fix this now rather than when they finally introduce a 3G phone, expected later this year.

If they don't, they're really going to have some really frustrated and angry iPhone users overwhelming their representatives both in their stores and on the phone.

Fix this, Apple, please.

DISCLOSURE:  I remain a long-time shareholder in Apple.

ON GOOGLE AND THE SPECTRUM AUCTION

NO BET

It looks like Google investors may rest a touch easier.  Forbes reports that Google may be out of the bidding in the wireless spectrum auctions being run by the FCC:

"After dominating the U.S. wireless spectrum auction for months, from influencing the terms of the auction to bidding, it looks like Google is off the hook.

Nine days into the closely watched Federal Communications Commission auction, it appears that enough competitors are keen on the spectrum that Google won't be stuck shelling out billions of dollars for the right to own and operate a new wireless network.

Instead, analysts believe that Verizon-thought to be the only bidder besides Google that is both rich and motivated enough--is poised to win the coveted C block of spectrum that Google was eyeing."

If true, this would be good news for Google investors in the short-term, who've been concerned that Google may go off investing in infrastructure businesses that aren't part of their core expertise.  Especially since investors have had a lot to worry about lately, what with Google's first disappointing earnings release last week in a very long time.

Not necessarily as good for customers though, in the long-term.

ON SOME NEEDED APPLE CHEER

JOY TO THE WORLD

Here's about the only thing that can possibly make an Apple shareholder smile today*:

Can't get the damn song out of my head.

I'd buy "Hit me on my iPhone" on iTunes if it were available. 

The tune is rattling in my head even as I go through the spreadsheets on Apple's quarter just reported, and the quarters yet to come.

*See this Techmeme thread and the adjacent Yahoo! Finance chart if you're not sure why most Apple shareholders aren't smiling today.

If you're a shareholder, I share your pain.

ON CELLPHONE NOVELS IN JAPAN

FAST-FOOD OF READING

A must-read article in the Sunday New York Times on how "cellphone novels" are up-ending the traditional book publishing business in Japan:

"Until recently, cellphone novels —"composed on phone keypads by young women wielding dexterous thumbs and read by fans on their tiny screens — had been dismissed in