Apple's "Mobile Me" an MVNO?

This makes sense to me... and probably bad news for Richard Branson's Virgin Mobile brand.

A "son of iPod" mobile device this year plus profitable, innovative, content offerings / partnerships with existing carrier networks and devices would do the trick. If anyone still isn't sure, Apple's "Mobile Me" push is all about the "iPod as a platform".

Link to Engadget.

UPDATE: Wired's "Cult of Mac" blog just reported that this photo and story are an obvious fake. Bummer.

The internet makes us more social?

This is probably true, at least until people find out I'm actually a dog.

Cereal faucet

There's no doubt about it... mine would be filled with "Cap'n Crunch"

Link to BoingBoing.

Dissing the $100 Laptop

It's interesting when, metaphoricaly speaking, the computing industry Mandarin's rice bowls are at risk of being broken.

Chewy blogs

An oldie, but a goodie :-)

Hey DJ!

Way cool Scratch & Spin Video via Cory at BoingBoing.

Video Podcasts?

What? Download Nova, Frontline, American Experience and The Newshour to my video iPod? Where do I sign!


PaidContent reports:

"In its halting, PBS-esque way, the public broadcaster has been pushing ahead with a digital strategy that could have far-flung effects, says this Variety story. Among them, some video downloads/podcasts of its shows are available now, and it is considering VOD as well.
With funding always an issue, PBS acknowledges it has considered various pay models. Already, streaming has enabled PBS to draw advertising that might be trickier on the air, with Google-sponsored links. And outgoing president Pat Mitchell recently said PBS could see $25 million-$30 million annually from downloading and VOD services."

Link to Variety via PaidContent.

What is RSS?

Link to New York Times article discussing RSS (Really Simple Syndication) via J D Lasica's "New Media Musings", a favorite blog of mine.

Oprah's Lesson

As the dust settles on the superb con-job James Frey (author of "A Million Little Pieces") pulled off on Oprah and her recent "mea culpa" to fans and book club members everywhere, there's a hard lesson for us all in (what satrist Steven Colbert calls) "truthiness".

Link to Howard Kurtz's Media Notes.

Cat Warriors!

A recent post on BoingBoing reminded me of the video clip above, but since I don't support the use of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" by Cats I still think it's way cool when they sport that "Warrior look" (via BoingBoing).

NYTimes on Gadgets & Media

The New York Times has an interesting piece on media, gadgets and convergence. My take on all this is simple: as Big Media clamours to maintain control of distribution and the financial opportunities convergence represents, normal people (albeit creative ones) will continue producing and injecting content into the web-media-ecosystem, at an accelerated pace, forcing them to find or create business models (US Congress backed or not) that enable them to keep up. This is going to be interesting...

"Game On!"

Link to the New York Times.

Slate on Gonzales vs. Google

Columbia Law Professor Tim Wu has an interesting take on the Bush administration's subpoena to Google:

"But the big news for most Americans shouldn't be that the administration wants yet more confidential records. It should be the revelation that every single search you've ever conducted—ever—is stored on a database, somewhere. Forget e-mail and wiretaps—for many of us, there's probably nothing more embarrassing than the searches we've made over the last decade. Google's campus LCD sounds like it's just fun and games, but when a search can be linked to you (through the IP address recorded by Google), that's a lot less fun. And when, as we're seeing, it can all be demanded by the government, that's no fun at all."

Link to Slate via BoingBoing.

It's about time

I'm a bit late in posting this mini round-up but there's good stuff on the Disney/Pixar merger here and here and Digital Lifestyle uber-Guru Om Malik chimes in with this post.

Canadian Election Results

Canadian Election results should be available on-line by 7PM PAC time... but obey the laws! :-)

Link to MeFi.

EFF Action Alert!

To all my American pals, a call to action from the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

"New Senate Broadcast Flag Bill Would Freeze Fair Use"
January 20, 2006

Draft legislation making the rounds in the U.S. Senate gives us a preview of the MPAA and RIAA's next target: your television and radio. (Please write your Senator about this!)

You say you want the power to time-shift and space-shift TV and radio? You say you want tomorrow's innovators to invent new TV and radio gizmos you haven't thought of yet, the same way the pioneers behind the VCR, TiVo, and the iPod did?

Well, that's not what the entertainment industry has in mind.

Carribean Google Map Mashup

I hope there's a location pinpointed where I can buy Bermuda shorts!

Link to GoogleMapsMania.

A Talking Head talks

In reference to the music industry and the proposed "Digital Content Protection Act of 2006" musician David Byrne is calling for a consumer boycott of DRM protected content:

"So, first they start off suing their customers, and now they are maliciously making it hard for their customers to even listen to music, and they will cripple your music and media player to boot. These guys deserve to go out of business, they obviously don't love music, and they don't understand their own customers. They must have a deathwish or be run by....who? FEMA? Rumsfeld? Bin Laden?"

Link to BoingBoing.

Help Google?

Given all the "Google is evil" stuff floating around I'm not sure if this news is good timing or just brilliant strategy on their part but wow, are things ever getting interesting.

Links to Of, By and For and The Electronic Frontier Foundation and BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin has an interesting chat with Alex Chadwick on NPR.

UPDATE: and John Battelle points to a Steven Levy Newsweek piece here.

Sweet Rig!

Radiation burns aside, check out this totaly dope desktop set-up. :-)

Mouse Ears for Steve Jobs?

Reuters is reporting that Disney would buy Pixar in a mostly stock swap transaction.

"The newspaper report said terms under discussion would have Disney pay a small premium to Pixar's current stock market value of $6.7 billion. The deal would be a stock transaction and make Pixar Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs the biggest individual shareholder in Disney, the newspaper reported."

Link via DisneyBlog.

Way Cool "GeoBlogging" feature in Navizon

"NEW YORK, Jan. 17 -- Mexens Technology, the creators of Navizon, (www.navizon.com) announced today the launch of the Geotag, a new feature available immediately to all members of the Navizon network. The Geotag allows members to post information based upon a specific geographic location, such as a restaurant or business, thus creating the world's first geographically based blogging system. This feature reinforces the idea of information submitted by the people and for the people that is at the epicenter of the Navizon philosophy."

C'est si bon, Cyril, C'est si bon! :-)

Link to GISUser.

Apple is kicking ass!

Om Malik points out that:

"Nicholas Carr reminds us that on October 6, 1997, Michael Dell proposed that Apple be shut down and the money given back to its shareholders. On Friday the 13th, Dell was lapped by Apple. Oops! Dell has a market cap of about $71.97 billion while Apple’s market capitalization is about $72.13 billion."

Amazing.

Link to Om Malik.

Rodin & Friends

When I lived in Palo Alto I had tons of friends stay for brief visits (for both business and pleasure) and a regular ritual was a walk around the Stanford University Campus. For a brief time Stanford kept a collection of Rodin's works gathered near the main Quad / courtyard where I'd usually try and "capture the moment" with a wide array of guests.

I've been sitting on this collection since I got my first digital camera way back in 1989 and just posted them as a flickr photo set.

Enjoy! :-)

Google Voodoo

Jeff Jarvis has a great post about about Google's evil factor, something you'll be hearing a lot more about in the coming weeks and months as Big Media gears up to fight the "beast".

UPDATE: and this article just in from Business Week (via Dave Winer).

GoogleMapsManiac Mike Pegg on NPR

Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada's esteemed "GoogleMapsManiac", Mike Pegg, was featured on NPR's "All Things Considered" with Robert Seigel today. A fantastic segment for anyone Geospatially inclinded... or any Google Maps / Google Earth enthusiast.

Here's an NPR special segment page with the RealAudio stream and here's a link to an MP3 download page I just set up.

Apple missing something at MWSF?

Reuters reports that Apple files "Mobile Me" as a US trademark which is interesting when "mashed-up" with this cool rumor from Wired magazine's
"Cult of Mac" blog.

Cool GoogleMaps images

I'm too busy today to zoom down onto the nude beach but take a look at some of these cool places via Google Maps. You can click, drag and zoom in on the images.

Nikon says: "Sayonara" Silver Halide

Nikon says goodbye to cameras that use film. Glad I'm not Kodak.
Link to the NYTimes.

iPod-o-rama

Yeah, I'd say that's a platform:

"I’m really pleased to announce that last quarter we sold 14 million iPods .. that is over a hundred every minute, 24/7 throughout the quarter. And it still wasn’t enough. We’ve now sold over 42 million iPods — as you can see the curve is going up again …. have sold on iTunes over 850 million songs … a billion in the next weeks …. market share continues to be very strong - 83 percent. Since we launched on October 12th we have sold over 8 million videos. For the first time last week we added some sports. For the first time with ABC and ESPN we put up some Bowl games.”

--- Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, January 10, 2006.

"Live, from the iPod, it's Saturday Night!"

The New York Times reports: "Apple to Sell SNL Skits for iPod Use".

Why does this not surprise me. I already have dozens of SNL skits in the MPEG format (via TiVo export) already loaded in iTunes that are dying to jump onto a Video iPod :-)

Link to NYTimes.

Polaris is really 3 Stars?

The Hubble Space Telescope squints and sees three stars (via Slashdot).
Twinkle, Twinkle indeed!

Techno-induced ADD

A great piece from Time magazine on modern day workplace pressures, attention and Techno-induced-ADD.

The Future of Newspapers

Great article by Michael Kinsley on the Future of Newspapers
(via Dave Winer) and coincidentally, here's a great piece from New York Magazine on Craig Newmark and the devastating effects CraigList has had on the Classified advertising business (via Paul Kerodsky's Infectious Greed blog).

David Byrne Radio

Way cool.

Link to BoingBoing for more.

Twinkle, Twinkle

This new Celestron Skyscout looks like a pretty cool gadget for adding context and useful information to the night sky.

Way cool.

Show Me The Money!

A great article from the "Of, By and For" blog on money and Washington politics:

"Well the Abramoff scandal has DC all in a titter about who might get dragged down with him. Republicans are on the frontburner, but more than a few Democrats are feeling the heat. Most pathetic is the Democratic finger pointing, particularly in the blogs about how this is simply a Republican scandal."

"Let's get one thing straight, Jack Abramoff isn't the exception, he's the rule. Washington DC is a bipartisan pay to play place and yes it's worse than ever. For anyone to write that this is just a Republican problem is not only incredulous, but is actively seeking to insult your intelligence."

Link to "The Best Government Money Can Buy", reminiscent of a old post of mine from 8.16.05 called Business as Usual.

Louis Braille's Birthday

For those of you that missed this (on 1.4.06) it was Louis Braille's birthday... and this was Google's header graphic for that day:



Absoutely brilliant.

The Death of Net Neutrality

Reading Om Malik just now reminds me of the day I was sitting a my desk at RealNetworks in Seattle and had an epiphany:

"the value of what is flowing through the pipes, is worth way more than the pipes themselves".

Big Telco's are crapping their pants right now trying to figure out how and why their margins are going south while Google, Yahoo! and Apple's are rising -- arguably via the very bandwidth the Telcos provide. Watch them try and "double dip" consumers by trying to charge us all more for "improved quality and better delivery".

Om Malik on "The Slow Lingering Death of Net Neutrality".

Top Ten VC Lies

It's GREAT to see Guy Kawasaki blogging...

Here's a link to his post about Top Ten VC Lies.

UPDATE: and some equal time to those bullshitting, hustlers:
Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs.

Backed by Big Media?

Toronto Liberal MP Candidate Sarmite Bulte.

I've been following Ottawa Law Professor Michael Geist's posts about this story for a few days... and it's great to see Standford Law Professor Larry Lessig chime in.

Geist writes:

"Cleaning Up Copyright
With both prospective Canadian Heritage Ministers accepting copyright lobby cash (see The Sad Reality of Copyright Policy In Canada, Campaign Contributions, Tipping Point, That's What Friends Are For) and the funders making it clear that they are in the market for more (see Business As Usual), it is time to clean up copyright in Canada. The election campaign provides the perfect time to do so. The short term solution is obvious - Bulte should cancel the January 19th fundraiser and apologize to her constituents and the Canadian public."

Here's a link to Professor Geist's full post.

UPDATE: Cory Doctorow is all over this story like stink on a nervous skunk and points to some video from an All-Candidates meeting in Toronto's HIgh Park riding.

Turning Down 80 Billion Dollars

Rumors are flying that Yahoo! said "nyet" to an 80 billion dollar offer from Micorosft over the Holidays.

I wonder what the merged company would have been called. MicroHoo! ?

Link to Mary Jo Foley's terrific blog.

Mark Cuban on the Stock Market

yup, it's for suckers.

flickr High Speed Photo pool

More stuff get's "blowed up real good!" Link via digg.

New Sense of Place - The Geospatial Web

Now here's an NPR Boston Talk Show that fits nicely into my Wheel House!

"Just a decade after it became ubiquitous, the World Wide Web has made us blase about information. We assume we can learn almost everything about almost anything at the touch of a PC keyboard. But the digital revolution is hardly over.

Now, the digital realm is exploding into the physical world. They call it the "geo-spatial web." Already it means online maps loaded with information about the physical world, and someday soon, that physical world itself will be tagged and teeming with data for the asking: What is that building? Where is my dog? Who is that man?

The implications are huge, exciting, and scary and the result will be a world alive with information.

Hear about the ambitions and implications of the "geospatial web."

-- with NPR Boston "OnPoint" host Tom Ashbrook.


My observations on the segment:
* Guest Mike Liebhold (Senior Researcher: IFTF) does a great job explaining the Geospatial web.
* Host Tom Ashbrook tries to conjure up scary privacy scenarios but this is basically a non-issue.
* callers to the show are incredibly savvy about the GeoWeb!
* Lots of talk about flickr and Dodgeball.
* Mike Liebhold explains/addresses privacy issues really well.
* Good call from a commercial Truck Driver.
* Guest Peter Morville (author of "Ambient Findability") briefly discusses "open realms" vs. Teleco walled gardens.
* Mike Liebhold talks about cell devices with WiFi and vice versa :-)

Link to WBUR NPR-Boston's "OnPoint" Radio show web page with Real Audio and Windows Media streams and here's a link to a 42MB MP3 file you can download and toss on your iPod or MP3 player.

Pandora: music recommendation engine

A great music discovery tool from the good folks at the Music Geneome project:

"Can you help me discover more music that I'll like?"
Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that we were now their personal DJs. We created Pandora so that we can have that same kind of conversation with you."

Well, I typed in "Dream Academy" and Pandora played "One Dream" a great song of theirs, then Pandora played "Paradise" by the Bodeans, then "Perception Room" by the Lily's, etc. etc.

Very cool tool! (uses a browser embedded Macromedia Flash player)

Link to Pandora (thanks Kevin!)

The Boss

I don't know how I missed this NPR "Fresh Air" interview when it originally aired on November 15, 2005 but here's the Boss discussing "Born to Run" with Terry Gross on the occassion of the albums 30th anniversary.

Link to NPR's Fresh Air page with the Real Audio stream and here's a link to a 40MB MP3 file you can download and toss on your iPod.

Mapping the internet

Here's what it looks like. Link via digg.

Woman marries Dolphin

I wonder which side of the Church was under water?

Link via MeFi.

Big Surf

Like, the biggest ever recorded dude...

Below is an amazing clip from this Sundays PBS "Nature" episode titled:
"Condition Black", "an episode that examines the dangerous weather system that swept through Hawaii on January 28, 1998. Surfers from around the world came to the state's famous North Shore with hopes of riding some of the largest waves ever recorded. However, the Coast Guard deemed the storm so hazardous, all access to the water was officially denied." But a small group of daring surfers made it out to a spot called "log cabin" 1/2 to 2 miles offshore in Waimea Bay. Eyewitness accounts are combined with unbelievable action footage, some of which was captured on 70mm IMAX film.

Can't say I'm too happy with the quality of the video clip or the nasty scan lines but this is truly amazing footage (8:00 mins). Hopefully it'll make you run out and catch the IMAX film called "Extreme"... or maybe just make you wax up your board :-)

Moving Big Files

A great list of resources:

"If you’ve ever had to send large files to someone and don’t have access to FTP, or the person you’re sending to doesn’t, this type of service is a fantastic resource.

Today, I have a list of 50 similar services that are absolutely free and require no e-mail registration to use. Included in the list are file size limits, download limits and the amount of time the file remains on the server for download."

-- The CreativeGuy Blog.

Link via digg.

Happy New Year 2006!

New Year's Eve From Around the World!
Way cool 360 degree panorama photos from the first few minutes of 2006 in New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Minneapolis, Ljubljana and elsewhere.
[Note: Some of the panoramas also have sound]

Link via MeFi.