I’m thinking about what next to do with this blog. What direction to take it in. What platform to use (currently Drupal). Should I shut up/shut down? Make it more personal or make it more focused? If you have any thoughts on the matter post them below or email me. Thanks!
Monthly Archive for January, 2007
Can’t wait the two years (that’s the latest estimate for Europe) for your Apple iPhone? Make one yourself out of cardboard and just slot your existing phone into it. Here is a PDF link to the template. Simple really.
It looks like Koopa – a punk trio which a mate of mine has been involved with – have now proved that real punk (the kind that really does screw the establishment) is not dead. From Reuters:
Koopa is the first unsigned band to land a top 40 single — “Blag, Steal & Borrow” — that is available only by downloading it on the Internet. The breakthrough followed changes to the chart this month that mean no physical version of a record is required for the track to qualify.
The FT reports that social media sites with video, like YouTube and MySpace, will not earn as much in advertising as professional video sites. According to Screen Digest, the media analysis company, ad revenues on UGC sites will grow from $200m last year to $875m by 2010. But this will account for just 15 per cent of the total online video advertising budget. Arash Amel, Screen Digest’s senior analyst, says there is no real busines yet for UGC video sites: “The business model for user-generated sites has been ‘build it and sell it and let someone else worry about the business model’.” Peter Chernin, News Corp president recently said "there is no scarcity value for the content … so there is very little ability to monetise video advertising on user-generated video,” and that the migration of video advertising to the web spells good news for professionally produced content.
After reading a great deal about the iPhone in the last couple of days, I’d say among the best analysis has to be from Michael Mace. His analysis shows that Apple could face death outside of the US. Ironic when Europe and Asia are the real mobile markets they should have aimed at, not the ‘less dropped calls than other networks’ market of the US:
This design may not go over as well in Europe and Asia as it will in the US. In the US it’s easy for Steve to give a speech saying how stupid it is to type using a phone keypad. In Europe and parts of Asia, a lot of phone users are very used to doing it for SMS, and no matter how stupid Steve tells them they are, they kind of like doing it. I think they may not be happy trading in their physical keypad for a screen where they can’t feel the keys. That forces them to look at the screen when they type. For these people, Apple’s product is like trying to get touch typists to use a keyboard that’s just a flat glass surface without moving keys. With the single exception of the sets on Star Trek, this has never been accepted by anyone because the ergonomics are bad. I think Apple is at risk when it tries to change the established habits of users.
Amid all the hoopla about the Apple iPhone there are few things that occur to me:
- How will women with long fingernails – or anyone for that matter – deal with the touchscreen-only interface?
- I think it’s ability to carry third party widgets puts the whole widget space into a new light. Nokia has been developing it’s own “Widsets”, but Apple now has the opportunity to mainstream widgets.
- Handelaar calls it “like a Nokia 770 but ponced up and twice the price”
- EDGE (qualcomm US-only 3g) chips and Cell-based location (not available in Europe). Not good.
And the official version:
Screen size 3.5 inches
Screen resolution 320 by 480 at 160 ppi
Input method Multi-touch
Operating system OS X
Storage 4GB or 8GB
GSM Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)
Wireless data Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0
Camera 2.0 megapixels
Battery
* Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing
* Up to 16 hours Audio playback
Dimensions 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm
Weight 4.8 ounces / 135 grams
The long-rumoured Apple iPhone launches with Cingular in the US available February. Here are the features in no particular order: (Gleaned from live blogs by TUAW, Paidcontent, Crunchgear, Engadget)
The good: Where do I start? It’s an amazing device.
The bad: Only one: Not 3G yet.
- Actually called iPhone afterall!
- Touch screen, 2 megapixel camera, will sync with iTunes
- It swaps between normal and landscape modes
- Displays voicemails in a list
- SMS texting has multiple sessions, on-screen qwerty keyboard, and the message UI looks like iChat
- Call merging
- Quad-band GSM+EDGE phone.
- Caller ID
- Ringtones
- Plays downloaded TV shows
- “Use your finger to unlock the phone via ‘gestures’
- 3.5″ screen
- 160 ppi screen
- One button on the front. “Home”.
- Really thin, thinner than any smart phone. 11.6mm.
- Ring/silent and volume controls on the side.
- 2MP camera on the back.
- 3.5mm headseat jack
- SIM card for GSM
- extra speakers on bottom
- built in Mic
- Proximity sensor which turns off the display and touch sensor to save power when making calles
- Senses when you switch from portrait to landscape
- Syncs with iTunes just like the iPod
- Syncs with notes, bookmarks, email accounts, movies, photos, audio books and calendars
- Runs OS X
- No Stylus – you use your finger/hand
- Software ignores unintended touches
- WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0
- Scroll into and out of pics
- Rich HTML eMail. Any IMAP or POP e-mail service.
- Safari web browser on the phone
- WiFi + EDGE networking will autodetect Wifi
- Free Yahoo!push IMAP email to iPhone customers
- Read The New York Times site like a real newspaper buy ‘zooming in’ on what you want to read
- Tabbed browsing
And the official version:
Screen size 3.5 inches
Screen resolution 320 by 480 at 160 ppi
Input method Multi-touch
Operating system OS X
Storage 4GB or 8GB
GSM Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)
Wireless data Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0
Camera 2.0 megapixels
Battery
* Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing
* Up to 16 hours Audio playback
Dimensions 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm
Weight 4.8 ounces / 135 grams
I have written about the media business in the past – and still do, though usually about how the media is getting trashed by the tech business – but the below YouTube video pretty much sums up how some – admittedly not all – media agencies conduct themselves.
Recent Comments