Uncool Mobility

It's funny until it's you: brutal headline of the day

Sprint to give 8,000 employees unlimited free roaming time | Good Morning Silicon Valley.

GoEverywhere: Symantec's SAAS Workspace in the Cloud

Interesting play by Symantec on another cloud-based application and storage service (similar to MobileMe, Mesh, etc.)

GoEverywhere: Symantec's SAAS Workspace in the Cloud.

BlackBerry Storm Is Off To Bit of a Bumpy Start - WSJ.com

I've heard such mixed reviews about the touchscreen Blackberry. Are there any current Storm users out there who can say if the device is a good one or not?

BlackBerry Storm Is Off To Bit of a Bumpy Start - WSJ.com.

Microsoft Launching Mobile Music Downloads In UK

I forgot to mention this story earlier in the week.

Microsoft Launching Mobile Music Downloads In UK, Tracks Are DRM-Protected | mocoNews.net.

This is just stupid. Can Microsoft, and Mr Griffiths, truly be that out of it?

DRM protected, high prices, no device bundle, and the integration of device + service + content is dependent on WM which, in addition to sucking, is going through two major version changes in the next two years. Neither of which is likely to be downward compatible.

Interview: iPhone dev gets existential about "crap" apps

This interview and article on Apple's App Store are funny on many levels if you deal with technology product marketing.

Interview: iPhone dev gets existential about "crap" apps.

Google dumps microblogging, mobile social networking

I guess the bright side is if you made money being acquired by Google your payout is secure even in this economy.

Google can't seem to overcome its size and its prejudice against outside innovation as it ditches some under-developed products which are in very active market areas. You'd think a big profitable company would use the downturn to buy marketshare in high-growth areas. But you'd be wrong.

Google Code Blog: Changes for Jaiku and Farewell to Dodgeball and Mashup Editor.

Third-party web browsers surprise App Store watchers

I don't understand the news that Apple is allowing competing browsers in their web store. It sounds to me like a misinterpretation.

Apple is not allowing true competing browsers, only web interface apps. Am I wrong? As the Ars Technica article notes you can't switch the default browser so you'd have to manually launch each time. Also, without cut and paste, you'd have quite a chore manually adding in the url you are seeking.

Third-party web browsers surprise App Store watchers.

As far as my limited understanding can tell the same restrictions for other browsers using different engines remain (no use of anything that interprets code e.g. Flash or Java).

Google and Omni could offer their browsers, as both are webkit based, but the only feature additions they could offer to Safari either don't work on a mobile or conflict with the inability to run background apps (e.g. Chrome's multitab).

Palm launches the Pre

Palm unveiled its new device and OS today at the CES tradeshow in Las Vegas. Engadget had great live coverage.

The launch shared some similar points to Microsoft's Windows 7/WM7 demos from yesterday as both Palm and Microsoft seek to emphasize the mobile browser as the entry point for mobile applications and services while creating a unified messaging interface based on the email inbox to present email, presence, social networking status, and photo posts in a single entry point.

The result is that messaging on the device becomes the entry point for cloud services.

The new Palm Pre features both a touch screen and slide-out keyboard powered by its new OS. From a messaging standpoint Palm's new WebOS features "Synergy sync" which automatically manages contacts across Facebook, Google, and Outlook thus becoming the control point for the social address book. The messaging inbox consolidates both email and IM services. Notification updates from applications and new messages from email and IM are surfaced at the top level of the device OS.

While Palm promised rapid and easy integration of third party services and applications it gave no information on whether the OS will be open source or have an SDK opening compenents to third parties. It also did not address how third parties would achieve distribution across its OS and devices. New devices launching today must address both of these topics to gain relevance against the iPhone, Android, and RIM platforms.

MacWorld still more interesting than CES?

With the economy melting down around us it's been a dull year innovation-wise at the first two big trade shows of 2009. Here is a fun take on MacWorld still generating more buzz than CES.

Apparently Ballmer's keynote about Windows 7 wasn't enough to sway the Twitter crowd (at almost 1.5 hours I wonder how many people made it through the whole thing?).

iTunes goes DRM free

The big news out of Macworld today is Apple's decision to remove copy restrictions on iTunes content.

For consumers this will cement iTunes as the dominant music store and service/device ecosystem. For Apple competitors the basic requirements of content distribution have changed again making it even more difficult for Amazon, Microsoft, and especially Real to maintain relevancy in music.

From a mobile perspective this lends a big tailwind to the App Store and the iPhone in general amongst consumers who have a PC.