Archive for September 29th, 2008
Sept 29th: The Day of Unlucky Sevens
Does anyone else find it weird that the rejection of the $700 billion bailout plan was a day of unlucky sevens? The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 777.7 for the day. I wrote over the weekend a post that rounded up what some of the big technology companies had to say about the current credit crunch. Today, more information is emerging as to how the malaise is going to impact Silicon Valley. In particular I’ve been reading research reports from various Wall Street firms, and they ar...
Now What?
The House defeat of the bailout bill was good for both our democracy and our economy. Even the prospect of Wall Street holding a gun to its own collective head and threatening to pull the trigger - even the prospect of not getting the next round of campaign contributions – was not enough to make a majority of the representatives, every one of whom is up for reelection, vote against the wishes of the vast majority of their constituents. Special appreciation to Vermont Democratic Congressm...
GigaOM Briefing: The Smart Energy Home
There are major transformations underway in the U.S. electric grid, driven by an aging infrastructure and growing concern over the environment. Well-established firms, like IBM and SAP, have launched energy practices aimed at capturing emerging opportunities to revolutionize the way electricity is delivered to our homes. But there is a similar shift about to occur on the demand side, and the residential market is ripe with opportunities to revolutionize the ways in which we use that energy in o...
Nintendo’s New DS Goes Music, Camera, Wireless
By the end of this year, Nintendo will debut a new version of its DS handheld console that plays music and is equipped with a camera and advanced wireless functions. This would put the new DS in direct competition with such well-entrenched devices as the Apple iPod and camera-equipped mobile phones. The price for the new machine is expected to be below 20,000 yen ($189) in Japan, compared with 16,800 yen ($158) for the current model. Now I wonder what Sony and other folks have u...
An Unlocked iPhone 3G in HK?
Unlocked iPhone 3Gs are now on sale in Hong Kong direct from the company web site, according to a published report. Until now, Hong Kong iPhones could only be bought from Hutchison Telecommunications on a two-year contract, the cheapest package being a staggering $188 a month. Now Apple’s local website is offering the 8 gigabyte version of its unlocked phone for $695 and the 16 gigabyte one for $798, letting buyers choose their own GSM service provider. The shape of things to co...
Congress Gets Closer to Forcing a Broadband Census
The Senate on Friday passed a bill aimed at improving information about broadband competitiveness — or lack thereof. Following similar legislation that passed the House last fall, the Broadband Data Improvement Act act was passed in the Senate. Now the two sides must hash out a compromise bill and send it to the president. Given that the federal election is just weeks away, this may take a while, if it happens at all. The bill does a couple of things, among them ordering the Federal Comm...
Cell Phones: More Tapping Than Talking Now
For the first time in recorded history, we used our cell phones more for sending text messages than making phone calls! (Knew that day would come …) In the fourth quarter of 2007, the average subscriber’s volume of text messages shot upward by 64%, while the average number of calls dropped slightly, according to Nielsen Mobile. Not surprisingly, users with QWERTY-style keypads sent 54% more text messages than those with ordinary keypads. Teenagers 13 to 17 are by far the ...
Tumbling off the Apple Cart?
With the U.S. economy in “crisis” (Geoge Bush’s description, not mine), it comes as no surprise that everyone’s looking for victims. The freshest specimen seems to be Apple, which has been riding high for the past four years on the aura of Steve Jobs, robust sales of iPods and Macs and the mainstream embrace of Apple as cool and hip. While Apple is still as cool and hip as ever, some analysts seem to be getting a little nervous the Apple cart could be headed for a bumpy r...
Judging for the Channel Elite Awards
IT Business is one of the major tech trade publishers here in Canada, and they run a large stable of vertical titles. One of the publications, Computer Dealer News has an annual industry program called the Channel Elite Awards. These awards are focused on IT solution providers, and they have 9 distinct categories covering the gamut, including managed services, collaboration, enteprise, SMB, etc. The Editorial team has asked me to be one of the judges, which involves reviewing submissions from ro...
Why Ringside Networks Failed
Ringside Networks, a Marlton, N.J.-based startup that raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Matrix Partners in January, has closed its doors. News of the move came via a blog post authored by the company’s CEO and co-founder, Bob Bickel. The fact that Ringside, which was making an open-source social networking server for the enterprise, shut down isn’t that big of a deal. The reason why, however, offers an important lesson for all startups hoping to get bought by one of ...
Jazinga Launches
Somehow, in the midst of everything else that kept me busy last week, I neglected to post about Jazinga’s launch. Being Toronto-based, I’m always keen to support a local startup, especially one that shows this much promise. I’ve been beta testing their service for a while, and will be posting a review fairly soon. I’ve been waiting for the latest upgrades, which came just before my last conference. I hope to get this done before the week is out. Back to the news. For thos...
Xohm WiMAX Finally Gets Going with Limited Service, No Caps
After six months of waiting and a few leaked launch dates, Sprint announced commercial availability for its Xohm WiMAX network in Baltimore with a good pricing plan that undercuts 3G data but only provides limited coverage. That would have to be my summation of Xohm: it’s a compelling service with a lot of limits, kind of like a cool pair of shoes you can only wear for a few hours, rather than a pair that can last a full day. Xohm offers downlink speeds of 2 Mbps to 4 Mbps, which is faste...
Skype tries Skype Prime commissions at 8% for October
"For the whole of October we’ll be reducing the commission we take from Skype Prime to just 8%. That means you get to keep more of the money from your calls – you deserve it." Skype, in a letter to Prime service providers. 30% is Skype’s standard cut. Skype takes 120 days to pay and does not pay interest on your money. Skype Prime is Skype’s first try at eBay-style markets. Where eBay brings people together to buy and sell atoms, Prime brings people t...
The Perfect Apple for the Living Room
Apple’s bland launch of a thinner Nano left the Mac faithful craving more. Now rumors are flying around the Net about a new device, with Apple retailers being asked to return their existing Apple TVs by Sept. 30 and mysterious placeholder SKUs showing up in Futureshop’s inventory system. Apple dominates music and consumer mobility. The MacBook is selling in record numbers. But despite making consumer-friendly products for the whole family, Apple has failed in an increasingly importa...
Public Speaking 101: Jeffs Tips for Being a Better Public Speaker
Back in June, 1987 when I spoke at the Lotus Developers Conference it was the first time I ever spoke in front of an audience. And looking back at how I approached that moment, I would have been a great example of all the things someone should not do when speaking to a crowd. From writing my words in advance and reading my script to the audience and becoming a Talking Head, I can only appreciate how much the audience tolerated me as a first time speaker. Ever since that moment, every time ...
Can Browser Plug-ins Be a Business?
For as long as I can remember, I have been highly skeptical of the concept of browser plug-ins as a business. Whenever I’d learn of a browser plug-in startup fetching millions of dollars in venture funding, I’d just shake my head. And while my skepticism hasn’t really gone away, I am beginning to view a select few of these players with fresh eyes. What brought on this change of heart? A chance meeting with a senior executive at two-and-a-half-year-old Menlo Park, Calif.-based st...
Baseball, Startups and Always Wanting to Believe
Baseball continues to be amazing game. An ever forgiving game. And a game where anything can and will happen. Baseball is a game of inches. Baseball is a game of momentum. There will be days where your team wins and days where your team loses and how the team handles their wins and their loses will have an impact on their overall performance during the season. The Mets 2008 baseball season just came to an end. A season which reinforced the concept that every game in a 162 game baseball season ma...
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News, opinions and announcements about fast changing communication tools and technologies, from various blogs and ezine.