Morgan Stanley recently decided to stop making payments on five San Francisco office buildings. A Morgan Stanley fund purchased the buildings at the height of the boom, and their value has plunged. Nobody has said […]
AT&T "Testudine Download Speeds"
Evidently, AT&T thought it best not to mention the iconic super-smartphone too much lest its executives be driven offstage by a mob of iPhone users complaining of dropped calls, lousy service, delayed text and voice […]
Google Takes Ownership of a New Mobile Category
Today’s Google Nexus One launch is as game changing as Apple’s June 2007 release of the iPhone. Perhaps, Nexus One is more important, although judging from blogs and tweets, geekdom doesn’t yet get it. Apple supercharged the smartphone category with a more natural user interface. Suddenly, there was a new way to interact with a mobile phone that was seemingly magical. Today, Google turned on the superpowers, by finally starting to integrate cloud services into its mobile platform in a hugely useful way. Additionally, Google is transcending the limitations of one natural user interface by extending the capabilities of another.
With Nexus One and Android 2.1, Google is doing what Microsoft failed to with its March 2007 Tellme acquisition: Offer a more natural mobile phone user interface. Voice should have been it, but Microsoft failed to bring the technology to Windows Mobile in a big way. By comparison, Google has been hot on voice search, which promises to be much better on Nexus One and other handsets running Android 2.1. Google is extending voice search to other services, which just last week I blogged the information giant should be doing.
Understanding The Device Agnostic Internet
A tablet is a natural extension of the iPhone experience, and will ready the user base to accept new and other devices, like internet flat panel television sets. If Apple tried to launch an internet […]
Stuck in Newark Airport
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQeG1kaddsw] I agree 100 percent. “Maybe there is hope for our ever-increasingly isolated and anti-social (no, Facebook is making us less social) society after all”, nmook.
There can't be a Free Web if No One Pays
Paywall is suddenly a hot topic as free content turns many longstanding businesses—news among—to apparent ruin. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch is mad as hell, and he’s not going to take this anymore. This week Murdoch repeats his call for paid services during a U.S. Federal Trade Commission public workshop.
“We need to do a better job of persuading consumers that high-quality, reliable news and information does not come free,” he says. “Good journalism is an expensive commodity.”
Two Stories of Smartphones Stolen
Yesterday someone stole my daughter’s new smartphone from a school locker. On Friday, a good friend’s iPhone 3GS disappeared from a car dealership, while he was talking on it. Both stories, which go oddly together, are cautionary tales about social media, cloud computing and the risks of identities stolen with the hardware.
Stolen phones used to conjure fears of minutes usage overages or big bills from calls placed to faraway places. Now the cost could be you.
Shouldn't Healthcare Reform Reward Accountability?
Barack Obama’s healthcare reform plan is a series of compromises that don’t go far enough, but certainly promise improvements. As I write, a vote in the US House of Representatives looms close, and there is much uncertainty that a healthcare reform bill can pass—or should.
A recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece called so-called Obamacare “The worst bill ever.”
The Story Carl Rytterfalk’s Camera Tells
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-W2Ia9tar8]
Before there was Twitter or before Facebook gained popularity, I followed people online directly through their Websites or RSS feeds. I’ve long favored personal blogs over professional news sites. The best stories are told by and are about people.
Fast forward five years, people are what make the social Web work so well, and why my profession, journalism, is in state of chaos. Why read something filtered by a reporter/editor when the single, or even crowd, source is available? Interaction is more personal and direct.
Former Microsofties, Can I Tell Your Story?
One of my blogging goals is to shift the focus away from dry technology to people, whether they be innovators or consumers. Focus should be the people and the stories they tell. That’s what Oddly Together is really about. Today’s unexpected Microsoft layoffs—800 employees—is good opportunity to tell stories.
iPhone’s Chinese Disconnection?
Yesterday, several Wall Street analysts swallowed their pride and iPhone sales projections after the first four days of official iPhone sales in China amounted to 5,000 units. Whoa, 5,000? I’m stunned China Unicom sold that many. At $730 to over $1,000 price range, iPhone goes oddly—seemingly quite badly—together with average Chinese incomes. Apple’s mobile costs way too much for the market—or does it?
Several blogs, including All Things Digital, described iPhone’s China debut as a failure, feeding off analysts’ glum reaction. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, one of Apple’s biggest cheerleaders on Wall Street, described sales as “soft.”
Mini-Mobilesoft
Holy. Crap. I don’t think we have any unbruised skin left on our body to take any more lumps regarding our mobile strategy. The Microsoft Mismanagement theory is in full force as we throw any […]