atmaspheric | endeavors

We’ve officially lost ABC on Cablevision today.  Thanks Disney.  Aside from the Oscar blackout tonight, which upsets my wife more than anything, we’ll lose access to Lost as well the only other show we care about on ABC.
The question I have for ABC is this … If it’s really about the money, how are you [...]

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Over the weekend I took my brother in law to the Apple Store in White Plains to pick up a new MacBook and I was struck by how much of an impression it made on him.  The things I take for granted because I already know a fair bit abut technology and have spent my [...]

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This morning I read about how JetBlue used Twitter to try and test the agencies pitching for their business.   I think it caught my attention as I had a Jet Blue flight booked for later in the day …  Well fast forward a few hours to that time and suddenly I’ve got a reason [...]

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Unlike the vast majority of crap that ran last night, Google delivered an incredibly focused piece for the Super Bowl.  The ad is simple, shows off the product and keeps the brand on screen for the entire time.

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An interesting development within the .Mac Gallery App for iPhone is the ability to configure the iPhone to redirect activity to the app over the browser.
I could easily see this evolving quickly to include all kinds of apps that can deliver a richer experience over the browser.  If you are a publisher, this seems like [...]

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What is the iPad?
On the surface, the iPad is a larger iPod Touch.  What it represents however, is an opportunity for considerably more.  While tablets have been tried many times and failed, Apple is leading the curve of thinking with a very new approach that solves against emerging consumer technology needs.  Instead of taking the [...]

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Today Nokia announced Maps with free navigation for everyone which is a very big deal.  Previously the only way to get turn by turn navigation was to buy a Navigator device. Nokia had offered free trials of the navigation service on most newer mid to higher end devices but to put it all out [...]

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mocoNews reports today on Nokia’s positive growth in “active” Services users, yet also reveals a dirty little secret about about how companies claim to count who’s active.
But this is only a small silver lining to a bigger cloud: the company counts as active users every consumer who has used a service just once over the last [...]

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Walking to the train tonight it suddenly hit me how awesome T-Mobile’s network announcement (Full HSPA+) was today.  It’s unclear how long they knew the Nexus One was coming, but clearly they knew enough and had enough lead time to pump out the upgrades for launch day.  Doing so takes the network issue  largely off [...]

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I missed this piece while writing my last post. It doesn’t say anything too specific about the higher end market (like nothing) but does indicate we’ll keep on waiting to see what Nokia has in store … I’m looking forward to seeing how the service integration evolves is revealed.
(Nokia’s executive vice-president and head [...]

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I just caught a very interesting and revealing post over on the Symbian Foundation’s Blog … The key quote for me was the following:
Nokia’s endorsement of Symbian specifically marks out our future as a mobile computing and communications platform for the masses, globally marketed in smartphones costing $150 and under, and being an essential ingredient [...]

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While this is hardly a definitive view, I think it’s an excellent example which highlights a key difference  in how Nokia and Google have gone to market with very similar ideas.
Ovi Prime Place and Google’s Favorite Places both seek to link physical businesses with mobile maps.  The main difference and it’s likely to be critical [...]

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WSJ.com is reporting that both Simon & Schuster and Hachette Book Group are looking to delay the release of e-Books by 4 months following the release of a hardback.
“The right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback,” said Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS Corp. [...]

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The AT&T Mark the Spot iPhone app which launched this week seems like a good idea until you actually use it. As I’ve discovered it fails to function in two key moments … When there is no data available regardless of gsm signal strength and again when you have no coverage.
As these two moments are [...]

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I signed up for Blaze Mobile over the summer and while I have received a number of emails from the company touting how wonderful they are, I have yet to receive my NFC sticker – the core product they offer.
When I questioned this I received the following:
We are sorry for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, our [...]

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I’ve written about day and date previously and think it’s a compelling opportunity for media companies and of course the consumer. I seriously doubt though that offering a $25 24 hour rental is the way to succeed.
It is doubtful consumers will find the offer particularly attractive: At $24.95 for a 24-hour rental, it is [...]

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I’m not sure why I always notice stuff like this, but I find it so lame, I have to comment.
A while back Sprint was running a relatively smart ad about belt tightening and featured this ad which I snapped a pic of during my commute:

Tonight was just browsing some RSS and see that once again [...]

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With all the noise yesterday about Android 2.0 and Google’s new free navigation service, this release just feels a bit … Meh.
Navigation market leader, Telmap, has used its unique navigation technology and NAVTEQ’s superior global map data, to bring a comprehensive mobile search, mapping and navigation solution for the iPhone, thus enabling mass adoption of [...]

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I don’t know that the average mobile consumer knows or cares but the iPhone is a surprisingly closed platform. You’d think with the massive volume of applications and sales that it would naturally be open, but like all Apple products there are rules and the best oportunities are left for the house.
As [...]

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After a lively debate on twitter tonight I’ve decided to reorganize my thoughts into post. My discussion with @chansearrington has really gotten me thinking about what Nokia’s perspective is on data usage and frankly why I think it’s wrong for today’s consumer marketplace.  Let me caveat this by first stating that I am considering only [...]

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