Geekfishing Blog

According to the news, THIS phone will let you play your own music, unlike the flap over the iPod phone. I hope this phone makes it to the US!

Personal Tech Pipeline | Nokia Announces 4 GB Music Phone

Posted by at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While trying to figure out to recover a .wav file out of the Firefox cache today, I discovered this cool command. Just use about:cache and you can easily browse everything in both memory and on disk.

Just plain about: is fun, too.

-Bob

Posted by at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Very nice article at the link below on micro economics, and the associated strategic thinking (or lack!) behind various corporate moves. Recommended reading!

Joel on Software - Strategy Letter V

-Bob

Posted by at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Also note that the "First iPod" is managed by a staffer!

White House Letter: 'Boomer rock' keeps Bush's heart in tune

Makes me wonder - does the Pres have a cellphone? And what kind?

-Bob

Posted by at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out these articles....

http://www.personaltechpipeline.com/news/161500306

Personal Tech Pipeline | The iPod Phone Will Ship. But Where?

Apparantly the US domestic phone wackiness over this may extend to blocking the release in the US, even as the phone is released abroad.

Also looks like Apple is going to move into this space with Mobile iTunes.

Gray market sales on ebay, anyone? Code unlocked iTunes phones, anyone? I'll bet Moto/Apple don't go out of their way to make this hard.

I just can't imagine consumers putting up with having to buy the same content twice - once for each device. I did buy Star Wars twice - once on VHS and once on DVD - but this was a media upgrade, not for simultaneous use. Anyone want a used Star Wars VHS set?

-Bob

Posted by at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've long been a fan of the productivity benefits of a quiet, low-interrupt environment. Here's a particularly supportive article about it!

CNN.com - E-mails 'hurt IQ more than pot' - Apr 22, 2005

Other studies show that the time it takes for people to get into their flow state (where they are the most productive) is greater than the average interrupt load.

-Bob

Posted by at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

TONG!. OK, I admit it, when you query on yourself, what fun to find a game named after you. It's free and a great mix of Pong and Tetris.

Come to think of it, it is kind of a metaphor for my life :_)

Posted by Rich at 9:43 PM | Permalink

A9.com Search: tong. So what is bigger, Rich Tong or Shanghai Jiao Tong University home to tens of thousands of students and a real institution.

I just met someone from Shanghai Jiao Tong and it was amazing to remember that this is the school I compete with for first page rank when you tong.

Posted by Rich at 9:41 PM | Permalink

John Battelle's Searchblog: News: Google Launches My Search History. Both Google and Amazon have search histories up now. Interesting to see how the big guys are really enhancing general search. I've tried the A9 one and for whatever reason I don't find it super useful.

The site is here.
Once you sign up, your search history will be integrated into every
Google search you do. This is a major move for Google, and I'll have an
essay as to why later.

I'll have to try google and see if they are better.

Posted by Rich at 9:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article from businessweek covers the essence...

The Motorola Phone/iPod (sounds dreamy, doesn't it?) is on hold
because the big carriers want everyone to pay THEM for any music on
the handset, rather than allowing you to put whatever music you could already own on the phone!

Wacky, isn't it?

Surely they don't think they can make that stick. On the other hand, a potentially good device is not seeing the market as a result!

Comments, please!

-Bob

Posted by at 6:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was re-reading one of my favorite articles on the Internet culture. This is one of those rare articles that will crystallize your thinking about why you've been seeing those anti-social behaviors on newsgroups and don't on blogs - and other interesting nuances.

Shirky is one of my favorite internet authors. Visit...

www.shirky.com
www.corante.com/many

-Bob Wise

Posted by at 2:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article at personaltechpipeline agrees with everyone I know on this point, but has some additional interesting points...

"Wireless market continues to defy predictions ... of saturation"
"Basic features ... price, ease of use, battery life ... more important"

...NOT the super-device features we are seeing so much of!

----

The personaltechpipe site - it's becoming one of my favs.

http://www.personaltechpipeline.com

-Bob Wise

PS: Don't miss the bionic suit article!

Posted by at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tom's Hardware Guide: Tom's Hard News. When something has momentum it really takes off with today's Internet. 100M downloads in a year. Wow.

Skype nears 100 million downloads

Posted by Rich at 2:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tom's Hardware Guide: Tom's Hard News. I used to read IDC religiously to learn about PC shipment numbers. Interesting to see how a market matures. Now a 10.2% worldwide growth rate in shipments is amazing while in my time (the olden days), growths were 30%.

Some short stats

46.2M PCs shipped this is 10.9% higher than 1Q04. EMEA was up 15% driven by laptops and the US was 6.5%

Competitively Dell grew 13.6% to ship 8.7M with a 18.9% share (up 0.4%). HP maintaineed at 15.4% share grwoing 10.9% to 7.1M PCs. IBM was thid with 2 growth to 2.3M PC and share falling from 5.5% to 5.1%.

In the US, Dell grew to 34% share up 8.4% or 5M PCs. HP when from 18.7% to 18.2% growing 3.6% to 2.7M PCs. Gateway is third largest shipping 830K pC or 5.7% share mainly because it bought emachines. IBM was fourth with 627K PC or 4.3% share and Toshiba was fifth with 590K PCs or 3.5% share

Framingham (MA) - Strong international demand for computers kept the PC
industry on a healthy growth path, according to a report released today
by IDC. After merging with eMachines, once struggling Gateway surpassed
IBM and Toshiba and has become the third largest PC company in the US.

Posted by Rich at 2:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

TIME.com: Attack of the Anti-iPods -- Apr. 11, 2005. None of these sounds like an exact winner though. Some excerpts...

Leading the iPod-killer list is Sony's NW-HD3 Network Walkman, a player that attacks Apple at its stylishly minimalist core. Sony engineers understand that consumers want products that look as good as they sound, and the 20-GB NW-HD3 reflects that with its slim, anodized-aluminum casing. The player offers excellent sound and a menu that's easy to navigate using a four-way directional button. The company claims the player can go 30 hours without recharging. But Sony style means Sony price: at $349, the NW-HD3 costs $50 more than Apple's 20-GB iPod and is the same price as the 30-GB iPod photo--yet unlike the latter, the Sony has no color screen. Seems like a miss to me based on pricing.

Craving more than monochrome? The display's the thing on Toshiba's Gigabeat MEG F20--a gorgeous, 2.2-in. color screen that can crisply handle JPEG images, slick menu icons and even animated graphics that pulsate in synch with your music. Unlike the Sony and Apple players, which are closely bound to the companies' Sony Connect and iTunes Music Store, the Gigabeat can download songs from most music sites, and there's a forthcoming $449 version with an enormous 60 GB of memory. Bet it is beautiful but hard to use.

The H10 is about the same size as the mini, has about the same storage capacity and likewise comes in designer colors, but it offers features that Apple doesn't: a removable Li-Ion battery, a 1.5-in. color LCD, an FM radio tuner and voice recording. At the CeBIT electronics show in Germany last month, iRiver's parent company announced that it would introduce 20-GB and 1-GB versions, starting at $440 and $270, respectively. iRiver makes comparable ones with better hardware and worse software.

the Zen Micro sports an FM radio and audio/voice recording. The unit has a solid feel, a sharp, white-backlit screen and an easy-to-understand menu rivaling Apple's famously user-friendly interface. At $250, the 6-GB version costs the same as a 6-GB iPod mini; it's also smaller, plays tunes in the Windows Media Audio format as well as MP3. Moderately better than the market leader at the same price, seems a hard road.

Posted by Rich at 12:29 AM | Permalink

iPodlounge | iPod remains on top in teen survey. iPod remains on top in teen survey

The iPod remains the leading digital audio player among teenagers by a significant margin in current and expected ownership of the devices, according to a new survey of 11 high schools released Wednesday.

Piper Jaffray's bi-annual "Taking Stock With Teens" survey found that 56% who said they own a portable music player own an iPod, compared to 40% in the Fall 2004 survey. The next closest competitor was Sony, which was chosen by 14% of device owners. The survey found that Apple also has a significant lead in expected future purchases. Of the 59% of students expecting to buy a device within the next year, 70% expect to buy an iPod. Only 15% said they expect to buy a Sony device.

For teens, the pricing "sweet spot" for digital audio players remains $100-$199, which the investment firm notes includes three iPod models — both iPod shuffles and the 4GB iPod mini.

Like the iPod, Apple's iTunes Music Store is also rated highly by teenagers. The results of Piper Jaffray's survey found that iTunes has "significantly higher penetration into the high school demographic than all other services," with nearly 60% usage. The next closest online music store is Napster with 9% usage by teens surveyed.

Posted by Rich at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Coverville: Coverville 70: Live from Lexington, KY! It's (almost) all Indie!. Of all the podcasts to listen to, this is my current vote. I just love the covers and I've found so many new artists with this. One thing that would be really wonderful is a way to just say, I like the song, buy the album. Something to ponder.

Posted by Rich at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

iPodlounge | iPodlounge Q&A: Odeo's Evan Williams talks podcasting

Odeo's Evan Williams talks podcasting. He's the guy who did blogger which google bought, now he is doing syndicated content as podcasts with Odeo. Interesting.

Posted by Rich at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

www.podcatch.com :

"I'm filing a column for Forbes.com on podcasting and I ask you this:
what are key ideas/themes I should touch upon in my 700-word piece? (My
deadline is Friday 4/8). I'm as open-minded as I can be at the moment,
though at least some of the column will deal with my own experiences
trying to license Grateful Dead music for use on my own podcast, called
Closet Deadhead."

Well, we'll see what he writes, but podcasts are entering the mainstream.

Posted by Rich at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monket :: Mobile Book Reader. This is a word at a time reader that someone hacked up. It actually works pretty well and is a good example of what could happen if writing for a phone was actually easy. Java almost makes it so, but notice how hard provisioning is for a simple download over-the-air a simple Java application .jar.

Drew take note. A good example of what companies like yours should be making easier.

word-at-a-time speed reader for books on Java MIDP devices

Posted by Rich at 11:17 PM | Permalink

GSM World News. Press Release 2005 - 500% Growth Confirms Take-Off For 3GSM

3GSM World Congress, Cannes, France, 14th February 2005: Net additions of more than 13.5 million users, representing an annual growth rate of more than 500%, confirmed that 3GSM took-off during 2004.

At the year-end, 60 operators in 30 countries were offering 3GSM services. The global 3GSM customer base is fast approaching 20 million today. 3GSM is now the world's most widely used broadband 3G mobile system and has already been commercially launched by operators in Africa, the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.

3GSM was conceived to build on GSM’s heritage and preserve the user and operator benefits of seamless global services. It’s efficiency delivers extra capacity to accommodate continuing growth in demand for voice services while its enhanced data performance creates the platform for the convergence of the mobile and internet worlds.

Inter-operability at the network level, combined with the general availability of dual-mode handsets, allows “green-field” 3GSM operators to connect into the global community of 650+ 3GSM and 3GSM operators, enhancing the international roaming services they can offer their customers, as demonstrated by the GSM Association’s Japanese members.

The 13.5 million 3GSM net adds, combined with GSM’s growth of more than 270 million users, helped the GSM family take 90% of global mobile growth in 200

Posted by Rich at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

TelecomWeb : Wireless. MOst of this content is paid, but they have some good facts.

The main reason for Verizon's low churn is call quality. Consumer Reports and Ziff Davis says it is the best provider in all major markets. It seems to be lagging on data services though which may explain its low ARPU. Nextel churn is low because of push-to-talk and its industrial user base.

Posted by Rich at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

X-bit labs - Hardware news - 27 Million Subscribers to U.S. Residential VoIP Services by 2009.

Fuelled in part by consumers looking to add value to their telephony service, IDC expects that the number of U.S. subscribers to residential VoIP services will grow from 3 million in 2005 to 27 million by the end of 2009. But before that VoIP providers will need to convince the clients in VoIP’s potential and reliability.

Posted by Rich at 9:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BetaNews | Google Adds Satellite Imagery to Maps. This is another example of how Google is winning the technology drag race. Just get out more features faster.

See where we work at Ignition

Google quietly updated its Maps service late Monday to include satellite imagery, a first in the industry. With images provided by DigitalGlobe and EarthSat, users can now zoom in on homes and businesses across the United States and Canada, even charting out directions over actual streets.

The latest update to Google Maps comes only two months after Google launched the service, in a similarly silent fashion.

Posted by Rich at 5:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yagoohoogle compares search engine results

A WEB SITE lets you bung in an item and then compares the results returned from search mammoth web sites Google and Yahoo! This is a great way to see who is doing better.

Had a great discussion today about why sites like Yahoo Autos and Carpoint don't show up in results for queries like Acura MDX 2006. Seems like you'd want to decouple the search business from your content businesses. In general, I've always been confused why the content sites on MSN, Yahoo and AOL don't show up in each sites listings not by salting but just because they have the most relevant content. By that measure about.com is amazing.

Posted by Rich at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tom's Hardware Guide: Tom's Hard News. Some good hard data on broadband.

Broadband continues its rapid growth: 26.5 million new lines were installed in the second have of 2004 alone, bringing the total number to 150.5 million. By the end of this year, there will be more than 215 million active broadband accounts, market researchers said.

Point-Topic, a British market research firm that tracks the worldwide development of broadband connections, reported high-speed Internet connections to gain popularity at an increasing speed. For 2004, more than 50 million new lines were installed on a worldwide basis, breaking the 150-million mark by the end of last year. Between July and December, 26.5 million new accounts were activated, representing the biggest half-year worldwide increase to date, according to Point-Topic.

The United States remain the world's largest broadband country with 33.9 million lines. China and Japan however are closing. China added more than 6.6 million new lines in the second half of 2004, bringing the total to 25.8 million. Japan reported 18.1 million lines and South Korea 11.9 million. Germany leads total broadband installations in Europe with 6.9 million lines, but showed slower growth than France and the UK, which now have 6.8 million and 6.1 million lines, respectively.

DSL has a majority 62 percent of world broadband market share compared to a 38 percent share made up of cable modem and other technologies. DSL outpaced cable also in US with 20.1 percent compared to 13.8 percent growth in installations in the second half of 2004. However, cable modems are still the dominant broadband type in the US with 20.2 million lines (DSL: 13.7 million).

In terms of market penetration, the US did not make it into the top-10 broadband nations. South Korea leads the ranking with 24.8 broadband lines per 100 people, followed by Hong Kong with 21.9 and the Netherlands with 19.

Point-Topic analysts said they expect growth of broadband to decline in percentage terms, but increase in the absolute number of lines added for the foreseeable time. By the end of this year, total broadband installations will have reached 215 million (140 million DSL lines), according to Point-Topic.

Posted by Rich at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Podcastplayer.org news » Podcast & Portable Media Expo. The first podcast conventions are happening. This one is November of this year. I'll be there!

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Posted by Rich at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)