Lots in the news today...

It doesn't take long to find something interesting on the news today to write about.

Email VS Social Networks:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10200669-62.html

According to Neilsen Online Social Networks are more popular than Email now. This is not surprising to me. Email lacks the community need. Sure you can reach out to whomever you want, and they to you, but why. In a social network there topics and discussions going on to hang out around and take part in. Email definately is not going away and has it's place, like for CYA in many places.

Tom Tom to MS - Get Lost!

http://www.crn.com/software/215901395

It is patent infringement wars between the two around navigation. Linux is pulled into the mix because MS claims Tom Tom is using part of MS technology that relies upon Linux. Interestingly MS has said that they are willing to work out some sort of license agreement with Tom Tom and other developers. This has outraged Linux developers because Linux is an open source platform. TomTom has countersued MS, saying that in fact MS has infringed on their patents. Wow what a mess.

Ballmer has eyes for yahoo!

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc20090319_464203.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_technology

After speaking with CEO of Yahoo! Ballmer sees a real opportunity for a deal. Referring back to the first artical that claims 85% use and are interested in internet search seems to indicate clearly why MS wants a search engine with some popularity. Currently, MS search capabilities have not found success, although they are rebranding their search capability to be Kumo. What is Kumo??? Would you Kumo it???

What are you all thinking about, send me mail or comments and lets talk!

-Wylie

Contract free iPhone

I am reading on CNET about the speculation that AT&T will offer the iPhone free of the two year contract. This is good news, but the price of the phone is $599-$699! Without the two year contract could we take the iPhone to another carrier?

Mobile and Location Based Wireless Presence

Presence is best described through the example of most Instant Messaging software. Simply put it is a way for software and systems to always know the availability of the users. This is also being extended to the wireless communications world with Push to Talk features on phones. I am thinking that it will need to used for any peer to peer application.

So, the question is how will this work. It especially becomes an interesting problem when the status of the peer is changing constantly, as would be in the case of location based peer to peer applications. It seems unreasonable to have the application constantly sending messages with a new status of the presence, but is that the way it gets done today? Is there a technology that enables presence?

Wireless Trends

After reading the CTIA Agenda I think I have come up with a list of wireless trends over the next 12-24 months. Here are some of the more interesting ones.

• The falling of the walls around the walled garden
• Peer to Peer applications that make use of GIS
• Mobile social networking

It will be interesting follow these trends and product developments over the next 1-2 years. For starters match up Apple's iPhone announcements with these trends. Hmmmm....

Killer Apps

I have been reading two good books lately by Tomi Ahonen.

• "Services for UMTS"
• "m-Profits"

I am really starting to understand the 6 Ms method of determining killer apps. I highly recommend the read. Here are the 6 Ms as described in these books.

1. Mobile: Must be mobile and enable the free movement of the user and service
2. Moment: Relevant to the time of day or delivered at the crucial moment
3. Money: Must generate money while delivering value
4. Me: The user wants what they want not what we want – My content, my services, my interests, supports my work needs, makes my life easier
5. Machines: Services must come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors. The must be usable from many different devices from home, the office, vehicle, phone, and more
6. Multi-User: Creates a sense of community. People want to belong to something, anything. Information travels and improves faster within a community

Frictionless Communications

Yesterday my eyes were open to the future of information communication and collaboration. While reading tweets from my some of my favorite techie tweeters I learned that Apple was about to host a special meeting for the press to announce the new iPhone OS 3.0. Lance Ulanoff a tweeter I was following was attending the meeting and decided to start blogging live on the event (complete with pictures). I was following Lance and others on twitter and his blog (http://live.appscout.com/2009/03/apple_iphone_os_30_announcemen.php). All in all this was very fun and I actually felt like I was learning new information real-time.

The point I am making is that in the advent of social media, which started with blogging, and has now advanced to sites like Twitter and Facebook, information is shared more easily. The sharing of data is refreshing. I hope this continues and that new technologies are developed on open platforms with open software so that anyone with a computer or phone can feel the power of frictionless communication and collaboration.

-wb

IBM and SUN

My head is still spinning on this one. IBM is talking with Sun about buying the company. Here is a summary of what I have read.

• May happen as early as this week
• Sun's pricetag is $6.5B
• IBM most interested in the software
• People are not seeing Sun HW go away
• Like everyone else Sun is struggling (revenues are down and staff getting laid off)
• If deal goes through Linux will NOT be impacted and Solaris will certified on IBM servers
• IBM would likely get mySQL

Apple iPhone OS 3.0 announcement

Yesterday at 1:00 Apple had a special meeting for the press to announce the new iPhone OS 3.0. I was reading the highlights live on blogs and twitter, which was really exciting. Here are some of the announcements they made.

· Available in June

· iPhone in 80 countries with 13.7 million sold in 2008 (projected 10 million units sold). I wonder if this will do anything for the stock?

· 800,000 downloads of the iPhone SDK

· 96% of apps built by 3^rd parties are approved. 98% are approved within 7 days.

· 100 new features and 1000 new APIs

· Maps app for iPhone done with Google (go figure). Provides public API for embedded maps in applications. TBT capable, but something goofy about bringing your own maps.

· Push notifications done all server side. Claims that when tested with processing all on phone the battery and cpu were drained.

· Social Media and Networking. New app with Meebo (social network aggregator)

· Touch pet: social pet simulator

· Lots of new games through EA.

· Global game playing

· Buying into games at $1 a piece.

· Mention of Oracle Mobile as a way to contact CRM backends from the phone. Not sure what the app was here.

· New app with Lifescan for simplified diabetes management and realtime communication of health data to doctors so as to alter dosage and med strategies on the fly. Also, used to keep others informed of the health of the diabetic. Interesting “notification” type app.

· Peer to Peer support by using Bonjour for discovery. Location based music. iTunes sharing with nearby iPhone users

· MMS messaging

· Calendaring

· Search multiple apps at once

· Stereo Bluetooth

· Cut, Paste, and undo by shaking the phone (how cool is that! Etch-a-sketch style)

That about covers it. Most bloggers and tweeters were impressed, a lot of them said there is much here that is simply expected with a smart phone.

Finding the truth - Is it even possible

It is not that I am a supporter of Palin, honestly that couldn't be farther from what I am. In fact she has pretty much scared me from the day she was selected running mate. However, it is probably necessary to say that the recent pictures of her are the results of very skilled Photo Shop artists (i.e. they are false according to most hoax sites on the Internet). It would make things easy the pictures were true, but it is better to hunt for the true facts.

My frustration with all important elections is that finding the truth is as close to impossible as you can get. As long as the media continues to allow hoaxes like these; the truth will continue to elude almost all of us, allowing for the wrong decisions to be made in the voting booth. Here is an interesting article by Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald, regarding this sort of thing.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008809200327

Off shore drilling - Who really benefits?

After reading the article in the link at the end of this blog I finally figured out the real purpose of hotly debated off shore drilling.


First, it is important to understand that US off shore drilling already occurs off the shores of California and Louisiana. This drilling occurs in only 8 million acres of the 43 million acres that is leasable for oil drilling.


This made me wonder if there is so many acres still not leased for drilling, why would we need to more leasable acres?


OK, well to answer this you need to understand that drilling has various costs based on how deep the drill needs to go; the deeper the more costly.


The oil companies have drilled in all the shallow areas where the cost of drilling low. Now they are looking for new areas to drill, not because it will change the price of gasoline to you or I (the US Dept. of Energy predicts "insignificant" changes at the pump), but because it will continue to keep their profits high. These companies that are making huge profits and gains refuse to spend some of their ridiculously huge profits on deeper oil drilling. They are the supporters of more offshore drilling disregard the harm to the environment for spillage and eye soar of the drill itself only to benefit these companies.


So, who is really pushing for these new off shore drilling locations? It came from Bush, a formal Oil executive, in 2006 when he requested new exploration for oil. This was blocked, largely by California senators and the California Governor because of the impact to sea life. Now Bush is back pushing even stronger becase, and in my opinion, he is looking for what work he can do after his disastrous 8 years in office. The only place he can go is back to the family business of oil (nobody else will likely even want to hear his opinion). While he is in office he is trying to find ways to make his next job more profitable. Remember, these new drilling areas will not change the price at the pump, do not have more oil available then the already leasable space (in fact have less than what is currently available), and are only cheaper areas to drill to raise more profits for the oil company.


Who benefits? Oil companies and their executives! Does that make sense? To me I would rather focus on the existing areas for drilling at the expense of the wealthy oil companies, and divert even more funds to developing the US infrastructure to handle public alternative fuel stations. Soon, the automotive companies will have huge inventories of alternative fuel vehicles ready for you and I to purchase. However, if there is no place to "fill up the tank" with alternative fuel, than all this will be a waste. That translates to more automotive industry struggles, which means loss of jobs, and a weakening of the economy.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-07-13-offshore-drilling_N.htm