Tuesday, August 31, 2004
have you seen the new imac?
as previous predicted in this very blog, apple has announced the new g5 based imac at the "apple expo paris" show. while steve jobs was not on hand, most likely due to his recovery, vp phil schiller was on hand to introduce the latest model in the imac family which just recently celebrated its 6 year birthday.
it should be noted that over the 6 year time period, apple has sold 7.5 million imacs or 2.38 imacs per minutes.
the new g5 imac continues the all-in-one enclosure design, but this time the model features a flat screen display that is offered in 17" and 20" sizzes. pricing will range from $1329 to $1899. the $1329 option is a 17" with a combo drive..a bit disappointing that combo drives are still in the mix..when will superdrives become standard?
it should be noted that over the 6 year time period, apple has sold 7.5 million imacs or 2.38 imacs per minutes.
the new g5 imac continues the all-in-one enclosure design, but this time the model features a flat screen display that is offered in 17" and 20" sizzes. pricing will range from $1329 to $1899. the $1329 option is a 17" with a combo drive..a bit disappointing that combo drives are still in the mix..when will superdrives become standard?
Ericsson abandons bluetooth development
A quick news flash about ericsson's decision to stop developing bluetooth technology. More to come on what this means in a further post.
Monday, August 30, 2004
Early photo leaks of the new treo
early photos of the new palm treo have been leaked to a few online forums. Still no early word on a release date or confirmation that these photos are the actual new treo. The pictures do confirm a new screen resolution and bluetooth.
the new treo is rumored to be code named "ace"
the new treo is rumored to be code named "ace"
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Wireless ipod
Word on the street is that apple is looking to develop wireless functionality into next generation ipods.
I hope they move quickly, a lot of people have been expecting this for awhile and other companies have already explored wi-fi integration into next generation digital devices - a killer app for physical retail spaces.
I hope they move quickly, a lot of people have been expecting this for awhile and other companies have already explored wi-fi integration into next generation digital devices - a killer app for physical retail spaces.
Monday, August 23, 2004
you can sleep now..
broadband has won the home internet wars. nielsen has a report that more people access the internet from home broadband connections than dial-up connections.
while using broadband is a no brainer for us top 10 market city dwellers, broadband providers have been sweeping up subscribers with bundled deals (phone + dsl, cable + cable modem) - we are now seeing the snowball get bigger and roll downhill.
what's next..which type of broadband will win? the Wi-MAX story is getting more and more interesting every day as it fulfills similar needs of the early cable tv subscribers.
while using broadband is a no brainer for us top 10 market city dwellers, broadband providers have been sweeping up subscribers with bundled deals (phone + dsl, cable + cable modem) - we are now seeing the snowball get bigger and roll downhill.
what's next..which type of broadband will win? the Wi-MAX story is getting more and more interesting every day as it fulfills similar needs of the early cable tv subscribers.
Saturday, August 21, 2004
new imac design - rumor
in case you havent been following the current imac situation, it goes a little something like this: apple ran out of imacs. their dardware group had shortsighted the sales potential of the current imac design and apple has found itself in an inventory drought. high imac demand, and no product in inventory.
apple's plan was to introduce a new imac in september - at a time where existing inventory would be absolute minimal. well, its almost september, and this 8-10 week product drought looks like it will end as early as macworld paris on august 31st.
what will the new machine look like? ive heard a lot of speculation ranging from a single enclosure design to a wall mountable unit that leverages the recently standardized "wireless firewire" standard to send video signals from a base CPU to a non-tethered display. think secret has posted this report based on what industry insiders have seen.
other mac rumors include the recently resurfaced rumblings of a mac-based tablet product which will rely on wireless networks and os x's handwriting recognition engine - inkwell.
apple's plan was to introduce a new imac in september - at a time where existing inventory would be absolute minimal. well, its almost september, and this 8-10 week product drought looks like it will end as early as macworld paris on august 31st.
what will the new machine look like? ive heard a lot of speculation ranging from a single enclosure design to a wall mountable unit that leverages the recently standardized "wireless firewire" standard to send video signals from a base CPU to a non-tethered display. think secret has posted this report based on what industry insiders have seen.
other mac rumors include the recently resurfaced rumblings of a mac-based tablet product which will rely on wireless networks and os x's handwriting recognition engine - inkwell.
rnc nyc
a lot of people are asking me about my plans for when the rnc rolls into town.
from the "just my luck" category, i return from my summer vacation trip to the first day of the convention, so i still dont know exactly what i'm going to do during this fiasco, but a lot of new yorkers are planning on high tailing it out of town. a friend of mine is writing about this pretty regularly.
im still unsure what all of this means. i'm assuming that the mets are participating in rnc festivities because they are simply the home team that is in town during the convention. i've seen republican support from piazza in the past, especially during the 2000 election and convention. it's no surprise that al leiter is getting involved, as he's made it well known that has has political aspirations for his post-playing days, and has campaigned for gwb in the past. i suppose i'll put a positive spin on the whole thing and hope that anyone who participates in this activity with the mets turns out to be a surprise left handing pitching talent...
while we're on the subject of the rnc, people in new york have been treated to some great anti-rnc messaging and community rallying tools. by far, the best material that you haven't seen is is this...and official window treatments can be found here..
from the "just my luck" category, i return from my summer vacation trip to the first day of the convention, so i still dont know exactly what i'm going to do during this fiasco, but a lot of new yorkers are planning on high tailing it out of town. a friend of mine is writing about this pretty regularly.
im still unsure what all of this means. i'm assuming that the mets are participating in rnc festivities because they are simply the home team that is in town during the convention. i've seen republican support from piazza in the past, especially during the 2000 election and convention. it's no surprise that al leiter is getting involved, as he's made it well known that has has political aspirations for his post-playing days, and has campaigned for gwb in the past. i suppose i'll put a positive spin on the whole thing and hope that anyone who participates in this activity with the mets turns out to be a surprise left handing pitching talent...
while we're on the subject of the rnc, people in new york have been treated to some great anti-rnc messaging and community rallying tools. by far, the best material that you haven't seen is is this...and official window treatments can be found here..
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
nokia counters apple
I just found this news story while sorting through my mail, and I guess we
should have expected nokia to get on the "me-to" bandwagon - but with
loudeye? Wasn't this the compnay that specialized in streaming media
production? One would think with nokia desparately trying to get their hands
into the entertainment business, that they would have selected a partner who
has more marketplace momentum, marketing, and brand awareness. Motorla
aligning with apple provides = software + content. This deal aligns a
manufacturer with digtial files - not as exciting. Will this deal mean
anything? Time will tell.
In the mean time, after conversations last night, I'm beginning to sense
what apple may have in store for us with their longer term ipod strategy.
With the motorola deal, this could be the first of "ipod-inside" devices.
Think about it, by the time the motorola phones ship, we could see phones
with approximately 1gb in memory..enough to hold 250 songs..we've certainly
seen that the ipod mini can sell with a 4gb capacity - providing proof to
the dirty little secret that most human beings are only listening to
hundreds of songs..not thousands...and that battery life and simplicity
matter..not capacity. So, in getting back to the point of this rambling, the
deal with motorola, combined with possible UMTS delivery could provide a
decent ipod music player, with a decent speed delivery of new music through
a mobile itunes store, in a device that everyone needs (a phone). Ipod
convergence with cell phones reduces the needs for multiple devices for
people who have low music needs.
Just loose, random thoughts, but im sensing something big from apple with
this deal.
should have expected nokia to get on the "me-to" bandwagon - but with
loudeye? Wasn't this the compnay that specialized in streaming media
production? One would think with nokia desparately trying to get their hands
into the entertainment business, that they would have selected a partner who
has more marketplace momentum, marketing, and brand awareness. Motorla
aligning with apple provides = software + content. This deal aligns a
manufacturer with digtial files - not as exciting. Will this deal mean
anything? Time will tell.
In the mean time, after conversations last night, I'm beginning to sense
what apple may have in store for us with their longer term ipod strategy.
With the motorola deal, this could be the first of "ipod-inside" devices.
Think about it, by the time the motorola phones ship, we could see phones
with approximately 1gb in memory..enough to hold 250 songs..we've certainly
seen that the ipod mini can sell with a 4gb capacity - providing proof to
the dirty little secret that most human beings are only listening to
hundreds of songs..not thousands...and that battery life and simplicity
matter..not capacity. So, in getting back to the point of this rambling, the
deal with motorola, combined with possible UMTS delivery could provide a
decent ipod music player, with a decent speed delivery of new music through
a mobile itunes store, in a device that everyone needs (a phone). Ipod
convergence with cell phones reduces the needs for multiple devices for
people who have low music needs.
Just loose, random thoughts, but im sensing something big from apple with
this deal.
Saturday, August 14, 2004
blackberry is bigger than you think
an interesting story here about the size of blackberry's penetration. while a lot of us rely on more sophisticated smart phones and data devices, coporate america prefers the ease of use of the blackberry software. RIM's plan for a new software release by the end of this year will include over the air synchornization of all exchange elements (contacts, calendar, mail, etc) and over the air software management which will allow for remote provisioning in case a user goes down in the field.
as noted in my post from 08.06.04, the future of RIM could be in the licensing of their blackberry client software as the number of licensees of "blackberry built in" continues to grow. motorola, siemens, nokia, and sonyericsson all plan "blackberrry built-in" service by early 2005 in their next generation phones and smartphones.
interesting times for RIM, but what does goodlink have in store? the goodlink server product already allows for ota synchronization of all exchange elements and its server management and provisioning tools allow for a full view of user status and range. immediate plans are future software releases for pocket pc devices, but hopefully, an aggressive licensing plan will soon follow...
as noted in my post from 08.06.04, the future of RIM could be in the licensing of their blackberry client software as the number of licensees of "blackberry built in" continues to grow. motorola, siemens, nokia, and sonyericsson all plan "blackberrry built-in" service by early 2005 in their next generation phones and smartphones.
interesting times for RIM, but what does goodlink have in store? the goodlink server product already allows for ota synchronization of all exchange elements and its server management and provisioning tools allow for a full view of user status and range. immediate plans are future software releases for pocket pc devices, but hopefully, an aggressive licensing plan will soon follow...
Friday, August 13, 2004
10 billion US text messages this year?
The New York
Times reports that over 2.6 billion text messages were sent this year in
the first quarter - over a 100% gain over the same quarter last year.
Looks like the US marketplace is quickly catching on while marketers are
rolling the dice and appealing to the high penetration of teens who use text
messaging (according to the same article, they project that 50% of teens use
text messaging regularly.
Times reports that over 2.6 billion text messages were sent this year in
the first quarter - over a 100% gain over the same quarter last year.
Looks like the US marketplace is quickly catching on while marketers are
rolling the dice and appealing to the high penetration of teens who use text
messaging (according to the same article, they project that 50% of teens use
text messaging regularly.
Who is going to win?
In an unscientific poll, alien is predicted to be the winner by a 10-1
margin. Everyone attributes alien's advantages to its reproductive
capabilities.
margin. Everyone attributes alien's advantages to its reproductive
capabilities.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
the first mobile virus?
the bbc reports today of the first known mobile phone trojan virus. the trojan runs in the background while the user plays the game "mosquito" and sends outbound text messages to premium services. the end result is the rather large bill that the phone owner receives from all of the outbound premium text services sent by the trojan.
the trojan can only be found in pirated copies of the game. the handy people who cracked and released the now pirated version claim that they did not integrate the virus into the game, so the origin of the virus is still unknown. is this real or a pr scam from mobile operators who fear lost revenues once phones become "more open" to PCs.
the game mosquito runs off of the symbian mobile operating system which makes it easier to mount phones to desktop PCs (if the mobile manufacturer enables this).
the trojan can only be found in pirated copies of the game. the handy people who cracked and released the now pirated version claim that they did not integrate the virus into the game, so the origin of the virus is still unknown. is this real or a pr scam from mobile operators who fear lost revenues once phones become "more open" to PCs.
the game mosquito runs off of the symbian mobile operating system which makes it easier to mount phones to desktop PCs (if the mobile manufacturer enables this).
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
new psp video!
the fine folks at lik-sang have posted a new video of the playstation portable. the video shows live content of Grand Turismo Mobile from a psp that is un-tethered. no word on whether or not the person in the video suffered hand cramps :)
the fact that the psp is not connected to an external device means that the device is running of its own power and this confirms the speculation that the design of the product is complete.
the video can be found here. you will need windows media player.
the fact that the psp is not connected to an external device means that the device is running of its own power and this confirms the speculation that the design of the product is complete.
the video can be found here. you will need windows media player.
Monday, August 09, 2004
movies, movies, and more movies
spent a beautiful sunday indoors at the movies with a group of friends who all shared the same need - the need to see all of hollywood's "finest" in one afternoon. afterall, with so much going on this summer, who has the time to get to the movies.
about 10 people were interested in seeing 1-4 movies, so we decided to get them all in one day. it was a regular movie marathon..and frankly, it was quite fun and everyone wants to do it again. you get your mind into a zone and you are able to tune out a lot of external noise.
choosing the 4 wasn't a problem, as we decided on:
open water
harold & kumar go to white castle
the village
the bourne supremacy
so here are the top lines:
open water - seth said it best. "i think its quite remarkable that you can make a movie for $130,000 that is just as mediocre as a $100,000,000 movie." all in all, it was fun to watch and definitely has its moments that will make you jump. i would hace liked to see a little more story telling, etc, but hey - there is only so much that can be done with final cut pro.
harold & kumar - i knew it was going to be "everything" once i read about it in the spring. it got rave early reviews, and its defintely the comedy sleeper of the summer. it made me feel stoned, and i cant say that any other movie has done that for me.
the village - sleepy..not as scary or sci-fi as advetised, but the ending doesnt let you down. btw, a nice review is here.
bourne supremacy - lots of chasing with people and cars. a little bit predictable, but the SIM card buring scene was worth the $11. the one film i could have done without.
let me know if you want to make the next marathon.
about 10 people were interested in seeing 1-4 movies, so we decided to get them all in one day. it was a regular movie marathon..and frankly, it was quite fun and everyone wants to do it again. you get your mind into a zone and you are able to tune out a lot of external noise.
choosing the 4 wasn't a problem, as we decided on:
open water
harold & kumar go to white castle
the village
the bourne supremacy
so here are the top lines:
open water - seth said it best. "i think its quite remarkable that you can make a movie for $130,000 that is just as mediocre as a $100,000,000 movie." all in all, it was fun to watch and definitely has its moments that will make you jump. i would hace liked to see a little more story telling, etc, but hey - there is only so much that can be done with final cut pro.
harold & kumar - i knew it was going to be "everything" once i read about it in the spring. it got rave early reviews, and its defintely the comedy sleeper of the summer. it made me feel stoned, and i cant say that any other movie has done that for me.
the village - sleepy..not as scary or sci-fi as advetised, but the ending doesnt let you down. btw, a nice review is here.
bourne supremacy - lots of chasing with people and cars. a little bit predictable, but the SIM card buring scene was worth the $11. the one film i could have done without.
let me know if you want to make the next marathon.
Friday, August 06, 2004
Siemens switchblade?
Have you seen this? its the new siemens sk65.
Now this is a hot design. Just when you thought phone design was exhausted
as a multi-function device, along comes another innovative design. What
makes this even more special is the fact that its likely to be the first
phone to feature "blackberry built-in," which means the phone will have the
required software to access corporate e-mail and provide exchange
interconnectivity in the same way that traditional blackberry devices do.
Lots of carriers have signed on to license and include "blackberry built it"
in future devices including nokia (which was supposed to be the first to
launch this..), sonyericsson, and motorola.
Fyi - the phone is triband and includes all of the features that enterprise
users need including bluetooth connectivity, synch ML, putsh-to-talk and it
even includes 30MB of RAM.
And the best part - no US launch plans! Look to brown bag it once its released in November. The price is still unannounced.
Now this is a hot design. Just when you thought phone design was exhausted
as a multi-function device, along comes another innovative design. What
makes this even more special is the fact that its likely to be the first
phone to feature "blackberry built-in," which means the phone will have the
required software to access corporate e-mail and provide exchange
interconnectivity in the same way that traditional blackberry devices do.
Lots of carriers have signed on to license and include "blackberry built it"
in future devices including nokia (which was supposed to be the first to
launch this..), sonyericsson, and motorola.
Fyi - the phone is triband and includes all of the features that enterprise
users need including bluetooth connectivity, synch ML, putsh-to-talk and it
even includes 30MB of RAM.
And the best part - no US launch plans! Look to brown bag it once its released in November. The price is still unannounced.
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
danger sadly misses the boat...
In case you haven't noticed, Danger, the US developer and manufacturer of the "hiptop" (aka t-mobile "sidekick")wireless communication device, has been making moves and getting press.
2 weeks ago they announced a deal with Sharp to manufacture their devices. A move that was well received by analysts because Danger needs a capable sourcing partner for color displays, and Sharp offers key relationships with mobile providers outside of the US that could help Danger gain traction outside of the US. This move is a definite "upgrade" if I may borrow a term from the amusing folks at "best week ever."
On the same day, they announced more funding from a variety of partners. Another upgrade.
Today, they announced the hiptop2 with t-mobile service and will deliver the product in the fall. While the product looks slick and is now of a smaller size (they claim 25%), a lot of features seem to be missing: video recording, ota synchronization, bluetooth, and tri-band support. In a world dominated by next gen features and carriers who are looking to sell next generation added value services, danger has missed the boat.
While the product looks great and now features a built-in camera with VGA resolution, a flash, photo caller ID, support for Yahoo! messenger and IMAP support for exchange, its a definite downgrade.
However, the missing features outlined about are much more important to corporate users and the hiptop2's new feature set may just be enough to appeal to teens and young adults looking to upgrade from the first generations of the hiptop.
Bummer. I really liked the innovation of the first hiptop and danger's interface has always been well regarded.
2 weeks ago they announced a deal with Sharp to manufacture their devices. A move that was well received by analysts because Danger needs a capable sourcing partner for color displays, and Sharp offers key relationships with mobile providers outside of the US that could help Danger gain traction outside of the US. This move is a definite "upgrade" if I may borrow a term from the amusing folks at "best week ever."
On the same day, they announced more funding from a variety of partners. Another upgrade.
Today, they announced the hiptop2 with t-mobile service and will deliver the product in the fall. While the product looks slick and is now of a smaller size (they claim 25%), a lot of features seem to be missing: video recording, ota synchronization, bluetooth, and tri-band support. In a world dominated by next gen features and carriers who are looking to sell next generation added value services, danger has missed the boat.
While the product looks great and now features a built-in camera with VGA resolution, a flash, photo caller ID, support for Yahoo! messenger and IMAP support for exchange, its a definite downgrade.
However, the missing features outlined about are much more important to corporate users and the hiptop2's new feature set may just be enough to appeal to teens and young adults looking to upgrade from the first generations of the hiptop.
Bummer. I really liked the innovation of the first hiptop and danger's interface has always been well regarded.
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
we'll miss the "happy recap"
sad news today with the passing of bob murphy. childhood memories of "murph" calling all of the action while i was supposed to be sleeping are flashing back to me. we will certainly miss him, its too bad this mess of a team, couldnt let him leave on a happy note.
at least they scored twelve runs for him tonight.
does anyone remember his call of "..and they win the damn thing.." from 1990?
at least they scored twelve runs for him tonight.
does anyone remember his call of "..and they win the damn thing.." from 1990?
Orange alert
Travel from laguardia today is very interesting. No one checking boarding passes or IDs at security. I could have gotten on the plane without showing any ID. Its sad that its this bad, especially considering nyc's orange alert status.
