So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

After an abortive attempt at starting this site, I've decided to call it quits.

Originally, I thought there was a need for real, useful content about wireless devices of all ilk, not gossip about stolen phones and made-up features of unreleased products. And, I'd written about them in other venues for a couple of decades. But, things changed, and I changed. 

I used to be excited about wireless devices. But that was when I logged 2,000,000 miles on airlines. I remember pulling out of the Miami airport with a giant, old Oki cell phone powered by a battery-eliminator-adaptor plugged into the rental car's cigarette lighter, and making a call that saved a deal (and kept a bunch of us employed). 

Then, there was the time running between flights at the Frankfurt airport with the Ericsson T28, the first "world phone", and being able to solve a customs problem that would have kept materials from getting to our conference in Berlin -- while pulling an O.J. with carry-on bags between Lufthansa terminals. Or, the first time I turned on a Blackberry, while in the customs line at Heathrow, and saw the string of emails pile in before I even got to the scanner. 

But, I'm no longer a 100K flyer. My enthusiasm fell as the devices became less important to me. Tweeting and updating my "wall"? So, millennial. 

Besides, the industry has changed. I realized that when I was with a group of executives from around the globe at an off-site in Provence. We were at a lull, in a bus. The execs basically split into two groups: The Blackberry types, were heads down, skimming email, getting some work done quickly before going sight-seeing. Meanwhile, the iPhone crowd was holding their phones above their heads, or up to windows, trying in vein to get a signal, and claiming the Orange network was to blame. 

Yet, if you asked the two groups, the RIM-heads would say their devices were "OK. They get the job done," yawn, while the Apple fanboys would say their devices were "great, fun" even though they didn't work.

I realized the industry had become all about fashion, and this blog was obsolete before it started. 

So, as Douglas Adams' dolphins told the unappreciative humans when they abandoned Earth before its destruction: So, long and thanks for all the fish. 

Toshiba's Targets iPhone with TG01

Toshiba announced a multimedia-centric phone clearly targeted at Apple's iPhone. 

The TG01's design is similar to the iPhone, but leverages Toshiba's LCD expertise with a larger, higher-resolution screen, yet is thinner and claims much longer batter life, uses the new SnapDragon chip from Qualcomm, and Microsoft Windows Mobile 6. 

McNamee Pitches Palm's Pending Pre Phone

I try to read or in this case watch any interviews VC Roger McNamee gives because, in addition to being an entertaining character (for a finance guy, afterall) he is often insightful.

Why I'll Wait for Apple iPhone 2.0 in May

As exciting as Apple's iPhone is, I'll wait for the second rev, anticipated in May or June for several reasons.

While the iPhone is arguably the best iPod to date (for users that don't need the larger storage of the Classic), it isn't really a great phone -- yet.

Apple's iPhone Shuffle

Since the speculation on Apple creating a smaller phone , an iPhone-Nano or some such, appears baseless and random, let's just make something up.

Here's what we do know: Jobs hates keypads so he will put a regular phone keypad on an iPhone at about the same time he puts a floppy disk-drive back in the Mac. Secondly, Apple lacks voice-recognition-dialing software, otherwise voice commands would be in today's iPhone, which badly needs it.

Apple Sub-Notebook in Jan, 3G iPhone in May/June?

CNBC's Jim Goldman predicted yesterday that the rumored Apple sub-notebook has already gone into production and will be "unveiled" in January, 2007 at an Apple conference and the 3G version of the iPhone can be expected by mid-year.

Rumors claim this super-portable will use flash memory for storage, instead of a hard disk, and sport a 12- or 13.5-inch screen, making it extremely thin, and lightweight. Speculation is round half-an-inch, under 2 pounds, and a price of under $1,500. Here's Goldman's video.

The most widespread criticism of Apple's iPhone has been reliance on the slow AT&T EDGE network, rather than HSDPA.

Hulu Promises HD Video Online

While it is easy to be skeptical about commercial TV's Web exploits, first previews of Hulu, a video sharing service for professional video show promise.

Hulu is only accepting a limited number of beta users at this point, but is displaying some HD 1280 x 720 video, using the H.264 code for compression, and a player that offers ability to quickly and easily grab segments from commercial TV shows, to email or post. A slider-control on the player allows users to select the specific scene they want directly in the player.

Verizon Announcements Promise Better Phones

Verizon customers will get faster phones that can roam in Europe and Asia as well as work on AT&T's network.

Verizon Wireless made two announcements last week that will result in more choices of faster phones and services. The first, is the widely-reported decision to open its mobile network to others' devices, while the second, which was generally overlooked, amplifies the significance of the open network.

Verizon will use Long Term Evolution for its so-called fourth generation high-speed network.

Apple Claims to Have Invented Multitouch

Following Apple, Inc. CEO Steve Jobs' reported comments that his company "invented" the multitouch interface, stories have now surfaced that Apple is attempting to patent this approach, setting off a potential patent war with Nokia, among others.

Amazon's Kindle Both Satisfies and Disappoints at Once

I just spent a Thanksgiving weekend with the Amazon Kindle, the online retailer's newest entry into the long-disappointing ebook market, and was pleasantly surprised at how well the system works.

Whether you like the Kindle will depend, as most of the early reviews have, on whether you focus on Kindle, the physical ebook reading device, or on Kindle, the complete ebook distribution system.

The later is the best thought-out, most thorough yet with by far the largest inventory of ebooks ever offered.