Oh God! Yet Another Lame Carrier-Backed Mobile OS

http://gigaom.com/2010/09/17/oh-god-yet-another-lame-carrier-backed-mobile-os/

"Let's face it: the mobile game is all about the developers. Developers maketh and developers taketh away. The carriers and their OS efforts are only going to be good if they gain traction with developers, and that's hard considering the effortsalready invested in iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Symbian.
The phone companies are suddenly realizing, "Oops, we're losing grip on our customers." The customers who use iPhones use Apple's billing systems. Android users will make money for Google via its mobile ad systems, and eventually through Google's other mobile services like Google Checkout. Mobile app developers — who in the pre-iPhone era paid millions of dollars in baksheeshto get on the carrier decks — no longer have to deal with the draconian bureaucrats at these mobile operators.
Sure they try to re-create carrier decks by launching their own mobile stores on smartphones — T-Mobile has done it, and so has Verizon with its VCast Store — but the fact remains:Nnone of these have the same money-gouging potential as the carrier deck.
These attempts are like seeing a middle-aged uncle, who upon finding that his wife left him, gets back into the dating game. He tries to feel hip by wearing Ben Sherman shirts and skinny jeans. The only person who doesn't quite grok how ridiculous he looks is him!"

but...

what i'm really pissed about is, hpq is up $2 *after* i just sold a
bunch of stock...

Tim Cook May Go To HP (AAPL, HPQ) | Benzinga.com

http://www.benzinga.com/news/10/09/477769/tim-cook-may-go-to-hp-aapl-hpq

"If Cook does not accept the offer, HP will go with an internal candidate."

my prediction: todd bradley. clearly they're interested in tuning up the operations of outsourced consumer electronics. although i was going to bet that they'd leave CE behind now that EDS is performing for them & generating all kinds of profit. however, hp did buy palm so we've pushed out the sale of the PC & printer divisions for a few more years. and the closest person to tim internally is todd, especially with his ace in the hole of Palm experience.

oh wait - i got it now. hp needs tim's kung fu around whipping contract mfg partners into shape. otherwise the palm acquisition is all for nothing, if they cant launch products ontime. and who better than the guy responsible for harnessing foxconn for apple? obviously apple figured it out...with tim at the helm.

Adults as a group are missing out on the power of smartphones

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/pew-29-percent-of-cell-phone-owners-have-downloaded-apps/?news=123

"Adult cell phone users reported taking pictures and sending/receiving text messages were by far the most common non-voice uses of their phones, with 76 and 72 percent usership rates, respectively. Farther down the scale, 38 percent said their accessed the Internet, 34 percent said they played games, handled email, or recorded video. Some 33 percent said they played music on their phones, and 30 percent engages in instant messaging. Next, at 29 percent, came apps"

first google videochat

my buddy just called me over google voice and invited me to a videocall.  thank goodness it shows a big picture of yourself and asks "do you want to answer this call?" since i was sitting in bed in my pj's.   i was decent, so i clicked "accept."

also, it was a little disconcerting to have a phonecall where I also had to make eye contact.  i am so used to talking on the phone and staring off into space, or down at my keyboard, basically expressionless, that i had to force myself to engage him.  also, the lag was tremendous - i would start talking without realizing he was done talking, and all of a sudden we'd be talking over each other.

but even though voice calls are dwindling, might it be that we'll prefer the richness of face to face conversation to one-dimensional voice-only conversations?  in the 30  years that the world has had video conferencing, only very recently has anyone (in this case, Apple) made us feel like we were missing out on something if we weren't having video conversations.

but google got it into the hands of everyone on the internet; apple has to make do with only 40 million. in other words, BUY CISCO!!

Data swamps Voice

From http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15697717?nclick_check=1 :

"In 2007, there was almost no data traffic in the mobile networks. In December last year, data passed voice. On average now, there's more data than voice in the mobile networks. And we expect that to double every year for the coming five years. If you double something five times, it becomes 30 times bigger. So in 2015, there will be 30 times more data than voice in the networks."

From http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/technology/personaltech/14talk.
- growth in voice minutes used by consumers has stagnated
- The number of text messages sent per user increased by nearly 50 percent nationwide last year
- for the first time in the United States, the amount of data in text, e-mail messages, streaming video, music and other services on mobile devices in 2009 surpassed the amount of voice data in cellphone calls
- the average length of a local call was 1.81 minutes in 2009, compared with 2.27 minutes in 2008, according to CTIA

iLoveHandles turns nano iPods into oversized watches - Engadget

http://i.engadget.com/2010/09/10/ilovehandles-turns-nano-ipods-into-oversized-watches/

could there be something to this gadget on a wrist idea?
ok, i want an epaper bracelet that i wear like a watch that shows me
the time date weather stocks headlines. yes, really. then if i need to
know more ill pull out my smartphone. something about 2/3" wide. and
it would be elegant and goodlooking, not like a hospital wristband.