SiRF and Intel joint development agreement

Embedded GPS makes Jack a very happy boy…

“SiRF Technology Inc. (makers of the SiRFstar chip line, amongst others) and Intel (makers of everything else) have just signed a license and joint development agreement to collaborate on products which the companies hope will ‘help location and wireless connectivity become more mainstream in next generation mobile devices.’ As part of the agreement, SiRF will license some of its technologies to Intel, but the company will also co-develop new products which will be destined for Intel-powered gear like mobile phones and ‘mobile internet devices.'” [SiRF and Intel sign license and development agreement – Engadget]

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Sprint, Google in pact for WiMax mobile Web

An interest bit of news from Sprint and Google…We already know that Sprint and Nokia are working on a device for the WiMax network and now a Google Powered mobile portal is in the mix as well.

: “Sprint Nextel said on Thursday it would develop with Google a new mobile Internet portal using WiMax wireless technology to offer Web search and social networking.

Sprint’s WiMax for high-speed wireless and its services for detecting location will be combined with Google tools including e-mail, chat and other applications.”

[News.com]

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Why did Nokia acquire Twango?

I read another piece this am on the Twango acquisition and it’s got me wondering what the hell Nokia is really thinking here. Between Mosh and Twango, they will now own two separate social sites. Actually, if you count the Loudeye acquisition and Music Recommenders, there are three – though MR is not really that social.

According to the Mashable post:

The plan is to provide a seamless integration of Twango on both the Internet and on your cell phone. This will make room for a new way for people to share content and stay connected. With the ability to share photos, videos, Twango’s availability in an integrated, cross-platform existence will offer access to friends and their content, as well as a way to organize and manage your own content. [Mashable]

If you think about this for a moment, there are already a few building blocks in place. Nokia has a web upload capability that can send content to Flickr and Vox, though not yet to Twango. They have Lifeblog which captures everything you do (pictures, video, sms and mms) and can sync with both your desktop (on Windows) or send to TypePad.

For $90 Million – hell let’s say $20 Million – you’d think Nokia would want to develop a service or symbian application to send amd sync content from your device to ANY service you might want to use. It’s easier to maintain contact and activity on a social network than it is to move — especially when you’ve got content and a conversation with an audience. As of this moment, there is little to no incentive to use Twango over Flickr for images, YouTube/Viddler/Blip for video and I did not see how it would make for a good place to blog.

If Nokia’s tag line is Connecting People, why are they going out of their way to develop new stand-alone services, rather than working with what’s already present and being used by communities globally. They could really just focus enabling the experience from Mobile to web and back. From a user perspective, I would much rather have an application or service that could talk with everything else I use to make it simple for content to go back and forth. This would make it easy for me and easy for my friends to stay in touch. We already know Facebook is working on the connection with the desktop and Jaiku, Facebook and even Plaxo offer ways to have content from other syndicate-able sources appear in your profile, but no one has come up with way to link with your mobile.

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Wired Confirms Second Life is More of a Time and Budget Suck Than Marketing Channel

Second Life Logo

I’ve never gotten Second Life…. It has little appeal and is frankly boring to me. That said it seems enormously popular and I’ve had clients who’ve expressed interest in being there so I’ve spent some time checking it out.

Wired published a great piece today on the experience and experiments… Some highlights:

Then there’s the question of what people do when they get there. Once you put in several hours flailing around learning how to function in Second Life, there isn’t much to do. That may explain why more than 85 percent of the avatars created have been abandoned. Linden’s in-world traffic tally, which factors in both the number of visitors and time spent, shows that the big draws for those who do return are free money and kinky sex. On a random day in June, the most popular location was Money Island (where Linden dollars, the official currency, are given away gratis), with a score of 136,000. Sexy Beach, one of several regions that offer virtual sex shops, dancing, and no-strings hookups, came in at 133,000. The Sears store on IBM’s Innovation Island had a traffic score of 281; Coke’s Virtual Thirst pavilion, a mere 27. And even when corporate destinations actually draw people, the PR can be less than ideal. Last winter, CNET’s in-world correspondent was conducting a live interview with Anshe Chung, an avatar said to have earned more than $1 million on virtual real estate deals, when Chung was assaulted by flying penises in a griefer attack.

Sounds like a place I want my brand to be interacting with the people…

Joseph Jaffe, the marketing consultant who advised Coke on its in-world presence, dismisses the notion that such efforts might not be worthwhile. “The learning is now,” Jaffe says. “You are a pioneer, and with that comes first-mover advantage” — that chestnut from the Web 1.0 boom. And the paltry numbers? “This is not about reach anymore. This is about connecting. It’s about establishing meaningful, impactful conversations. So when people ask, ‘Why Second Life?’ I ask ‘Why not?'”

Jaffe logs on to show off Coke’s Virtual Thirst pavilion, which was created by Millions of Us, a Bay Area company that does in-world builds. He’s a close match for his avatar, Divo Dapto, a trim little figure clad in roll-up jeans and a red-on-white Virtual Thirst T-shirt. “You never know who you’re going to meet,” Jaffe says as Dapto soars toward the Virtual Thirst pavilion.

The Coke build is expansive, elaborate, and of course empty. But Coca-Cola has a plan. It’s sponsoring a contest to create a Virtual Thirst vending machine that it hopes will become ubiquitous in Second Life, just as Coke machines are everywhere in real life. Jaffe professes to be overwhelmed by the number of entries, which he characterizes as “well north of 100.”

Suddenly, another avatar materializes. “Ah, there you go,” Jaffe exclaims. “Someone’s just arrived! I think she’s from Japan.” As he speaks, Dapto starts air-typing in the weird way that Second Life avatars do, trying to chat up the new Japanese girl. She looks around, then teleports someplace else.

You might wonder what Coke is doing in such a place. “It had a lot to do with hype,” admits Michael Donnelly.

Well north of a 100 entries? I can only imagine what the budget was and the cost per entry…. How’s the ROI on that spend?

“Companies say, ‘It’s an experiment’ — but what are they learning?” Tobaccowala asks. “Basically, they’re learning how to create an avatar and walk around in Second Life.” Which is fine if that’s what you want to do. Just don’t expect to sell a lot of Coke.

Exactly. People catch on quickly and don’t repeatedly seek out experiences to involve themselves with ads. Might I be bold enough to suggest that companies take the time to get it right in real life before moving on to virtual worlds…

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iPhone vs…

Seems today’s meme is iPhone vs. Blackberry.

Dave Winer looks at ease of use for things we all consider on a daily basis – advantage BlackBerry.

For example, I brought only the iPhone with me to a meeting in Palo Alto last week. As I was driving to the meeting I could see that I would be a few minutes late, so I wanted to call the person I was meeting and alert them. With the Blackberry I would have been able to do this while stopped at a red light. Just search for the person’s name in my inbox, open the first message, highlight the phone number, click the scroll wheel twice (once to dial the number, the second time to confirm that I want to do it).

In comparison, the iPhone only keeps the most recent 25 messages in memory, and this person’s email was not in that group. No search command. And it doesn’t have a scroll wheel or a clipboard. The light turned green long before I found the email that contained the phone number. [Dave Winer]

Mark Hendrickson at Techcrunch compares mainly email – and it’s only due to Exchange sync that the Blackberry wins. With better email / PIM sync the iPhone would have come out on top.

Despite all of these criticisms of the iPhone, our venture capitalist admits that he would switch over to the iPhone if only it supported push email, calendar and contacts synchronization, and GPS. For him, the prospect of ridding his pockets of a separate device for music (an iPod nano), as well as enjoying all of the iPhone’s slick features (such as full-featured web browsing, stocks and weather apps, and its YouTube program), makes the iPhone very tempting. However, until Apple resolves these shortcomings (and perhaps Google makes its applications, especially Gmail, work as seamlessly with the iPhone as Microsoft makes Exchange work with the BlackBerry), others are going to have to pry his BlackBerry from his cold, dead hands (his words, mind you, not ours). [Techcrunch]

In my own usage, I am finding the email experience to be more than a bit anemic. The Gmail integration (or lack thereof) is horrendous. Gmail uses it’s own system which completely messes up the way you’d normally do POP mail – something I really don’t like to begin with… While the 15 min sync interval is fine for most people, in my experience it seems the iPhone is constantly in a state of connection – trying but not downloading messages. When viewing my FastMail IMAP account or Yahoo IMAP account things are more efficient and seem to connect properly and as expected.

I’ve been working with Gmail for quite a while now and while I was accustomed to some limitations on Nokia devices (not respecting my preferred email identity and no sending of attachments) things are amplified on the iPhone. As Dave mentioned, there’s no search, but there’s also no ability to view by tag / folder. Another critical ommision is there’s only one setting for checking mail on all accounts. I’ve been leaving three accounts active, but essentially live in Gmail. As a result I get multiple notifications for all my mail – first in FastMail which then forwards to Gmail. I need Fastmail on the iPhone for when I don’t want to send as Gmail, but Gmail is my main inbox where I want to get quite a bit of other stuff.

As much as I enjoy using the iPhone for all that it does – particularly the web and iPod functions, email is seriously annoying me. We need a dedicated app to manage Gmail – not POP and that will certainly require some changes (an actual application) on the iPhone. I don’t in anyway miss using a blackberry, but thinking about how nice the J2ME Gmail is on my Nokia N-Series devices does give me some pause over which device has my long term usage in its future. Why make compromises when there a choices of devices that can do it all?

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Nokia acquires Twango… a few quick thoughts

Twango Logo

Nokia has announced they’ve acquired Twango for around $90 millon! Twango is a social media site that lets you share photos and video from your mobile or computer. I just signed up and have a few observations.

  • I’ve got no idea how long this was in the works, but where’s the Web Upload configuration for N-Series devices??? Email works from every device, but is a more a pain than anything as it tends to hog the device when you send massive files. I like how you can download vcards for each of the folders you set-up. That’s a nice touch and something most sites that use email as the method do not use. I had them emailed opened and synced to my iPhone in a few minutes.
  • Contacts, the key to all social networks… Where’s the upload my address book feature to search against existing registrants and to enable me to invite my friends who’ve yet to sign up?
  • Limits on uploads suck. Sorry it just does. I previously mentioned how much I enjoyed Vimeo, but found the limits, well limiting for my needs and moved on without looking back. Twango allows the same 250MB per week… If you’ve used the later model N-Series devices, you know it’s easy to get 70-90MB files with a quick video. Do that a few times a few along with your photos and you’ve reached your limit. Choose to share other media from your desktop, and you are over.
  • The site looks good and is certainly easy to use, though a way to play videos on their existing page would be nice. It’s a fresh start here unless you’ve got some way to do a bulk upload (without bumping into the file allowance) and could be a slow transition.

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Elgato’s HD Homerun … still in the park

Elgato HD HomeRun

Elgato announced the $199 HD Homerun this morning which is a very cool, though limited product.

I love the idea! A centrally located two tuner, HD DVR accessible from any networked computer and ready to share content with my AppleTV, iPod or iPhone. Unfortunately due to one substantial limitation, this box will not be sitting in my equipment rack anytime soon…

The Good – Record two separate HD inputs across your home network. The HD HomeRun sits wherever you’ve got a 100/1000base-T Ethernet connection and a cable box, which is a great option for people like me who have a wired home and a central place for all my gear.

The main negative with this box is that it only works with ATSC and ClearQAM signals meaning you will not be controlling your cable box, but rather working with the unencrypted and freely available signal. This negative is a deal breaker. I have no intention of starting to work with antenna based HD at this point.

Today, I can access our DVRs from any TV thanks to a rather complex installation and networked video. I’d love to export shows from the DVR for use on the AppleTV (more permanent) or to the iPhone, but I can actually do that now with the EyeTV 200 I have currently collecting some dust. Of course I would have to have a computer sitting next to both the cable box (or at least a wired coax connection) and the EyeTV. The HD Home run solves that connection issue by being able to be sit away from my computer, but adds a new wrinkle by only working with Coax connections so there’s no easy way to export from my cable DVR rig. So close…

SiriusMac

SiriusMac - Jam On

SiriusMac is a super cool application I just stumbled on at the Apple Downloads site. You have to install MacPython, but that’s very easy (follow the prompts) and then you are on you way. If you’ve got a Sirius Radio subscription this is infinitely simpler than browser streaming which is a royal pain for Macs. The best feature is a single CAPTCHA rather than having to enter one each time you run.

You can set alerts for artists you want to hear (like on a hardware radio) and get Growl support so it’s easy to see what’s playing as things change. You also get a popup guide which shows what’s on each station …

Happy Listening!

One thing the iPhone definitely needs… Profiles!

I use profiles frequently on my Nokia devices and really miss that option on the iPhone.

When I’m in the car using the iPod, I want to turn mail notifications off and while I can do it manually, I’d prefer to set the phone into car mode. Lying in bed, I’d like system sounds on, but don’t want to hear the ringer in the middle of the night or hear my email coming in…

There’s a hardware switch which you can use to change things to silent, but you have to also choose to turn vibration off manually in settings in order to make the phone actually quiet which is handy if you charge on your bedside table as I do.

There are currently no settings for what uses vibration or options (like silent) for sounds per app. Right now it’s as Apple decided. A simple profiles setting (like what’s in all my Nokia’s) or a 3rd party app when the day comes we can install something would be much appreciated.

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What’s on a Blogger’s Phone?

Zach from Symbian in Motion tagged me in the latest meme, “What’s on a Blogger’s Phone?” Zach is curious as to how I am adjusting (and perhaps compensating) for the iPhone’s lack of true applications based on what I run on the N95.My standard set of apps on S60 has not changed in quite a while…

  • Jaiku Mobile – I love the beta… and I am sure you will as well when it’s finally released to the greater public. The beta lets you see status for your contacts, update your location, post and reply. Essentially all the things you’d expect and miss in the release version.
  • Gmail Mobile – right softkey. Just wish it would do attachment sending and respect my preferred identity when sending mail.
  • Google Maps Mobile
  • Epocware has been a standard part of what I use. Their suite of Handy apps are well designed and look great too. My favorites are HandyWeather, HandyClock and HandyTaskman.
  • I really like Shozu, though it’s been a problem for me on the N95. The official release is out and seems to work fine, but people are still reporting incompatibilities. To me this biggest drawback is only being able to upload a 10MB video file which is (not so) surprisingly small on the N95.
  • On the WiFi capable devices I tend to install either Gizmo or TruPhone. I’ve got them both plugged into GrandCentral to simplify things, though honestly VOIP is more because I can, than because I need. 99.9% of my calls happen on the cellular network when I am mobile.

 That’s pretty much my standard set of apps to install. I use the Camera a lot to take video and still shots, review in Gallery and also find myself using the Calendar, Browser and Nokia Maps a fair bit though all of these are standard on the device. The iPhone is a new beast. No way to install anything and only Safari as a path to run something more robust. So far this has not really been that much of an issue for me, though I’d really like to get at least a chat client going. The mobile web apps I’ve been trying work nicely but have no notification sounds, so you have to constantly check to see if something is new. 

  • m.jaiku.com is my door into Jaiku on the iPhone and it works really well on EDGE or WiFi.
  • Unfortunately there is no way to get the Gmail mobile app running on the iPhone… without Java and a way to install, you need to choose either the web UI or POP download. I hate POP, but it’s the path I’ve chosen. I’ve yet to set Gmail to archive what gets popped and use the iPhone to review, desktop to manage. I like the looks of the iPhone email application, but wish there were some more advanced settings to choose an account when sending a message or perhaps adjust the reply to field at the very least. Once we have file system access I’d expect the mail client to change so attachment support for something other than mailing a picture (only from within the Photos app).
  • Google Maps is awesome! I use that frequently – in fact instead of sending an SMS To Google as I’ve done many times, I simply search and then either bookmark or add the result to my address book. This is very cool!
  • Weather and Clock are easily handled by the default app widgets. I’d love to have more than one countdown timer and would apprciate some louder sounds for alarms, but these work very well regardless. There’s currently no need to view my memory utilization or launch apps more quickly on the iPhone since there are no low memory issues and launching is two-clicks.
  • To “upload” to Flickr, I just email the pictures, but the iPhone strips EXIF data (if it even captures it in the first place) and scales pictures to 640×480 which is smaller than the original. I find unless I want to do a quick image blog post I’m uploading to Flickr less via mobile. I do sync my images back to Aperture which is great and works out of the box. No need to install the Nokia Media Transfer tool, which I did not mention above, but is required to sync / download images from your Nokia to your Mac.
  • Photos is a very impressive application and my 3yr old figured it out within moments. I have well over 700 images synced from Aperture and she loves to flick through them – as do I actually. The display is phenomenal and really shows off your pics!
  • iPod – I’ve got podcasts and a few albums loaded and find I use this more than I have ever on a mobile phone though perhaps an obvious outcome as an iPod syncs so easily with iTunes. I’ve been using Pzizz to generate some sleep patterns for the past week as well and have been enjoying.
  • From within Safari… I’ve been checking out AppMarks, Leaflets, and Digg and Mowser iFeeds to find good stuff to use and read. I also like the NYT and BBC River of news sites to see the latest headlines, though at least in the past 24 hours, the news reading on Leaflets is more appealing. I’ve tried the chat apps – BeeJive, FlickIM which are both nice. BeeJive lets you do more than AIM, while FlickIM has a way to track down links to either YouTube or movie trailers with a /youtube [movie name] or /movie [movie trailer] in a message. This feature is super cool actually and something I think others will likely copy.

 

On all my devices I tend to spend a good amount of time on Google Reader mobile and have bookmarks for certain tag folders so I can quickly drill down on topics of interest. I’d like to hear what Bryan Sawler is up to on his mobiles… He’s a mobile developer and I know has both an iPhone and a Nokia or two handy.

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iPhone Browser Sync

As good as it is to have all your bookmarks with you on the iPhone I wish Safari had some of the other features you have on the desktop.

I’d really like to have some form management so it was easier to save logins and I’d like to see my keychain sync – or parts of it anyway that were relative to the browser. I suppose if we get an OTA sync and share function with Leopard as has been rumored we may be able to save logins to servers and other systems if that’s a device capability. For now, stronger management of my personal data would be most excellent.

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atmaspheric | interference #1

Today I recorded what I hope will start to become a regular podcast here. Long time readers might reflect back to 2004 which was the last time I did this, though I only lasted 5 shows. I’m planning a considerably longer tour this time around and hope you’ll join me.

atmaspheric | interference is the show name and you should be able to subscribe directly in your podcatcher of choice using this feed. If you like, you can download the iTunes (MP3) file here (right click, save as).

I’m looking forward to your feedback, suggestions and ideas. And yes I know I need a better mic setup…

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Browser Comparison: iPhone vs. Nokia N95 and N800

I took a look at the browsing experience on the iPhone and compared it to the Nokia N95 as well as the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. In general, the iPhone and N800 are much closer experiences, though having used both I’m leaning towards the iPhone. The N800 is definitely still robust for handling your browsing needs – especially with the addition of Flash 9 support, but my preference is for how Safari handles things over Opera.

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Competing with iPhone: Nokia

Roland Tanglao has an interest post about a few ways Nokia could start thinking about competing with the iPhone:

Plan A:

  1. Make the existing phones work right. e.g. fix the memory problems with ShoZu and the N95 even if this requires throwing hardware at it e.g. by doubling the RAM.
  2. Bundle N95s with ShoZu (a version that allows unlimited size video uploads to YouTube, or blip.tv, the present 4MB limit is silly) and a flickr membership and market the N95 for the groundbreaking and cool device that it is (well that I think it is; I don’t have an N95 but other than the usual memory problems and the GPS antenna not being sensitive enough it looks like an awesome device)

Plan B:

  1. recast S60 around an open source core to make it more reliable and robust
  2. add touch and create a new user interface from the ground up to make the S60 user experience competitive with iPhone.

Hard to argue with Plan A, though I would add offering an upgrade / update to existing owners to fix the memory issues that plague us on the N95. The phone is $750, which as you know is MORE than the iPhone which according to the iPhone haters out there means you should be getting more for your money. I like the notion of a special version of Shozu. Assuming it actually works on your device – something that is a crap shoot apparently – it would be nice to actually be able to get media from the device up to your online service of choice. This only enhances the value of the device to the people most likely to be attracted to purchase.

Shozu should probably not be where things end either. Since there’s a bevy of applications available for the S60 platform, why not parter with the software companies for some bundling. Take better advantage of the Downloads service and offer more than people want and how they can get the most from their purchase. The devices are being sold unlocked — use that to your advantage as well… they can work out of the box anywhere you want on any carrier with little exception).

Nokia’s real issue though is marketing. They’ve had a massive head start in the market and have a few devices (UI aside) with much greater capabilities. The phones are more complex to use and have a definite learning curve if you are new to S60 which hurts adoption. That said, there’s an appeal with power users that needs to be properly exploited.

The Blogger Relations program of which I am a part helps – as illustrated by my readership as well as the reader of other participants, but Nokia needs to do more to SHOW what the devices are about, how they work and most importantly WHY you want one. I would suggest embracing the users more and sharing a deeper view from the base in a broader context — not just what readers see on the blogs, but in actual ads and a campaign site – make it mass! The iPhone broke through all the barriers and has become a pop culture icon in consumer electronics… use that momentum now that the people have awakened but steer them down your path. Apple’s excellent marketing simplicity has opened the door for opportunity.

BTW — my guess on the initial response to the iPhone in the US is that rumored 8GB N95 though I have a feeling we’ll see it working on US 3G bands.

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8 Random Things

Ok so I’ve been tagged … first from Ricky and now by Marc.

  • My professional background is in Direct Marketing though I’ve been focused primarily on integrating interactive ideas into campaign strategy. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time within large holding company agencies and understand the full view. I am actively considering new career paths and am considering agency and client side technology / web 2.0 opportunities as well as (for me) less traditional options like consulting or trying to get more into tech journalism (TV or online video).
  • I’m hooked on social software tools. I’m actively using Jaiku, Flickr, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Last.FM… less actively using Pownce and Dopplr. My preference is for services that make it easy to continue participation from my mobile and use both mobile sites and applications (when possible) to stay connected. This tends to make my wife a tad nutty… but it’s been a valuable experience so far.
  • I’m a former All American swimmer. In college I swam distance Freestyle, IM and sprint backstroke. A few of my records still stand.
  • Sadly, I have not done much working out since college. We did recently pick up some exercise equipment for the house and I’m trying… need to get back on the horse!
  • I’m a certified open water diver.
  • I’ve been married to my wife Ashley for over 7 6 years and have two beautiful daughters Hannah (3.5) and Campbell (11 months). We live in our first house in Katonah NY which is in Northern Westchester, about 45 miles from NYC.
  • I feel like I was much more of a music geek before tech took over…. I used to want to record music as an electronic musician but never went for it. It’s hardly too late to start, but priorities are currently on other things. I did used to play tenor saxophone in high school, but that seems like ages ago. Today I listen to a lot of electronica, jazz and classic rock.
  • This blog has existed in various forms since 2002. I’ve used Radio, Grey Matter, Blogger, Typepad, Moveable Type and WordPress. Google Reader reports I have 781 subscriptions. Over the last 30 days I’ve read 14,134 items and starred 73 items which you can see on my sidebar.

My turn to pass the torch… Let’s hear from Neil Vineberg, Zach Epstein and Rudy De Waele.Technorati Tags: