It's a Free World

I recently signed up for Free World Dialup. My number is 94802 in case anyone wants to give me a call :)

The Fat Pipe is finally getting filled up!

I am enjoying the recent spate of VoIP articles in the popular media. I am also enjoying seeing more and more of the Cisco IP phones in TV and Movies. I think VoIP is the way of the future, and companies like Vonage and iConnectHere are only the beginning. I see services delivered over broadband increasing at least tenfold over the next five years. If you have Video-on-demand through digital cable, you already have broadband video service, and as companies produce consumer devices that tap into the 'fat pipe' that is cable modem/dsl service, we will get our cable service from phone companies, and phone service from cable companies (the latter is already happening!). I currently bitch about how cable lines are still regulated to the point where the cable cos. have a monopoly. As much as I want the cable lines opened to competition, I won't need it. Soon, satellite braodband will mature, and so will other solutions like terrestrial wireless in the form of Wi-Max, as well as Powerline and Cellular broadband services. We might very well soon see cable companies offering their services a-la-carte so that we can pick and choose stations, and international delivery of tv becomes trivial. Because its done over the Internet, I can bring my subscriber info with me when I travel and still get the same channels as I do at home!

Kick Ass! - now we just need to wait for it to get here :)

Sure I'll buy an iPod Mini - when the price drops to $149!

So Steve Jobs big announcement was the $249 mini iPod. Although I must admit that I find the device to be very applesque - cool, and desirable, I also find that it just doesn't have any value as far as I am concenered. In his keynote her compared it to a $200 256MB flash-based MP3 player - but this isn't a true (pardon the pun) Apple to apples comparison. Firstly, because of the way that other companies sell their products, a list price of $199 means that, in reality, you can buy this device for at least $180, if not lower. Secondly, he specifically choose a bare-bones player like the Rio Cali. Why not the iRiver iFP-390T - it's just as small, costs under $200, and even comes FM Radio, Voice Recording, and an armband to boot - yes it only has 1/16th of the mini's storage, but again - there is a fine-line between the full-fledged players that can hold an entire music collection and players that have small capacities but are used for a 1-2 hour workout. The 4GB players are priced just below the higher-capacity players, and just above the Flash Players. My prediction - the prices on the smaller capacity drives will drop, and the ripple effect will be either a)A cessation of production of Flahs Players or b) A drop in the prices of Flash Players. The $GB Muvo from Creative is already available in the $250 vicinity, while it's 1GB flash cousin costs $400! I think I might consider a mini at the point at which it drops to $149, but by then we will all be wanting a Video iPod instead :)

Going back to Cali....

So I am in Calfornia. This is a weird state, the Governor is from a foreign country, and has made almost as much money making movies as the state has a deficit (Okay that's a stretch).

For the next three days, I need to remember that the ocean is to the west and the rest of the USA is to the east.

Internet Rule #1 - Don't believe everything you see online...

So last week, I was talking about the 'perceived' new HP Handheld. The actual 4100 and 4300 series models are a lot different than the one I saw a 'sneak preview' video of, but nevertheless, the 4350 does include a mini-qwerty keyboard. This is probably one of many such devices recently introduced or to be introduced just before the holiday buying season begins.

This is a major shift for several reasons. IMHO, the early PDA designers felt that the PDA was more of a device for reading and making small modifications to data that you normally entered and managed on your pc. Therefore, they felt that people would learn how to write for and adapt to handwriting recognition systems. Ultimately, with the rise of the BlackBerry - a device designed for e-mail, and with the rise in wireless technologies, their speed and availability (i.e. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G), it became evident that mobile workers were becoming more and more reliant on their PDA as primary sources of date entry for their use in the field.

And so, the industry is adapting. My guess is that soon we will see corporations beggining to shun the BlackBerry in lieu of devices running PalmOS 5, and Windows Mobile software. Those tools, coupled with Wi-fi or 3G access to data and third party over-the-air sync software will out-BlackBerry RIM on the e-mail front, and also provide so many other feature as well - such as better web-browsing, messenging software, more access option (such as combined Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled devices) and better throughput.

Handspring has released its revolutionary new Treo 600 to rave reviews so far, and to spearhead this trend, they are partnering with Good Technology, a blackberry competitor, to offer BlackBerry-style e-mail services along with the new device. Will it be the elusive BlackBerry killer? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, I will wait for that iPaq that I saw in the spy pic :)