Entries Tagged 'Mobile' ↓

The news doesn’t seem that interesting: “UN telecom panel endorses Intel’s WiMax technology“. I wonder, though, if this is exactly what Apple foresaw when it chose EDGE over existing 3G for the iPhone. I have always thought that Apple was betting on a non-cellular wireless technology as the long-term data entryway for the iPhone - and the fact that such a tech has been formally embraced seems like a strategic win for Apple.

As I predicted, Apple has announced that it will release a proper SDK in February (2008). From the announcement:

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users.

Certainly many will find fault with this and say it’s too little too late, but both the marketplace and Apple’s recent history seem to prove the naysayers wrong. Now if only Rogers could their act together and offer non-insane data rates (for all wireless data) and then bring the iPhone to Canada.

Alec Saunders reports on his experience with a new Rogers service he tried out - in particular, the basic buying (and returning) experience: Rogers Portable Internet bait and switch. There’s something strange going on when a market leader makes even more elementary mistakes than it did when it built its leadership position. Rogers reminds me of the record companies more than anything else - scrambling frantically in all directions when the road ahead is difficult but clearly marked.

The Globe and Mail’s Jack Kapica wrote a piece on Rogers data rates and the problems these pose in relation to bringing the iPhone to Canada. Take special note of the insulting comment from Rogers’ communications flack, who managed to both be inappropriately aggressive AND completely avoid the point of Kapica’s article. I wonder if mobile carriers - particularly those in Canada - will ever get it? Not only are they gouging their customers, but they’re leaving a ton of money on the table by completely underestimating the demand for wireless data in Canada.

Confessions of a Twitter Convert.

I’m eating a hearty meal of crow (roasted, with garlic and rosemary) today, since I’m here to tell you how interesting and downright useful I’ve found Twitter to be since being turned onto it properly at the C4 conference in August. My initial reaction to Twitter was that it was utterly inane…

I think a lot of people were misled by the early talk of Twitter that was focused on whether or not it was useful. That was likely the wrong question, the wrong focus. In fact it is (sometimes) useful, but more importantly, it’s (almost always) fun.

The word today is that Google has bought Jaiku, the social/presence/messaging service that competes with Twitter and others. Here’s Google’s announcement of the news from their blog. As others have noted, it’s interesting that GOOG chose Jaiku over Twitter, which was co-founded by a guy (Evan Williams) who co-founded an earlier Google acquisition, Blogger.