Gadgets and TV

Ok so the holiday shopping season is in full swing, and everyone is rushing out to purchase their goodies. Top sellers seem to be the Wii and iPods. Is the iPod/iPhone/Touch the most impactful gadget of the 2000's? The cell phone has really transformed our lives, remember back when we just dialed 4 digits on a rotary dial phone to talk to our friends? Remember when we first saw a car with a phone? My first car with a phone experience was a 1986 Mercedes roadster, I remember my friends and I were amazed and could only imagine that a doctor would need such a thing. Then in 1994 I remember seeing people carrying these large phones that reminded me of the field phone used by the military at the end of WWII and Korea and Vietnam. I remember a class mate of mine in high school said his mom worked for southwestern bell mobile systems a new pager and cell phone division of southwestern bell and I thought mobile systems, what's that? Then I remember the first RIM pager/calendar thing and the first US Robotics Palm III. The year was 1995 I was working for a long distance company called US Sprint that was changing it's name to just Sprint and they were launching a wireless digital phone service, not a cellular service but a digital service called Personal Communication Service (PCS) that worked on technology called CDMA developed by some company called Qaulcom. About that same time GTE rolls out a PCS service and so does PrimeCo. Looking back on PrimeCo and Sprint they were at the forefront of the technology. So fast forward to 2001 and the launch of Apple computers new music device the iPod. Wikipedia states,"As of September 2007, the iPod had sold over 110 million units worldwide (stated in "The Beat Goes On" conference) making it the best-selling series in history." So it was just a matter of time before the PCS device and the digital music player merged. So what's next? Where do we go from here? I still believe that the future is upon us, and the days of being tied to wired high speed internet connection are numbered, but aren't their some things that require one to sit a desk? The real question is what can't one do? Do I really need a seperate GPS device, Blackberry, iPod, and laptop? Why can't I have all of this in one Pearl sized package? Is this where the iPhone is heading? If it isn't maybe it should. Why do I need a laptop? To check email and access custom applications for my company? I can already check email on my iPhone. One thing I'm pretty sure of is that most people, including me, don't want to watch TV or a movie on a two inch screen. I prefer the big home theater with full surround sound, why limit my movie/tv watching experience, but there is something to be said for being able to watch my movies or DVR from somewhere else if I'm traveling. Why should I have to wait until I get home at the end of the week? Will a wireless carrier offer me cable or satellite programming on my phone? What about on iPhone or Touch? I really think Sling Media is on to something, but I'm still dependent on a home internet connection. If Sling can manage to add a built in high speed wireless data connection to their devices, then I don't have to have a home network. Which leads me to another new device/service that Amazon has just released the Kindle. I'm still not sure about this little thing, but I must say I'm really intrigued. If I could get rid of my book library that takes up so much space, and I can access my books almost anywhere in the U.S. why wouldn't I want that? The Kindle has built in wireless high speed internet access for downloading new material from books to magazines. I can get my New York Times or Wall Street Journal everyday on this little thing. So which wireless carrier is going to blink and step out there and say to Sling use us? Did you know that some counties and police departments are not issuing carbon copies of traffic tickets any longer? I learned first hand that Dallas county is utilizing a handheld device to issue citations and I get a printed copy that's a lot like my receipt I get at National Rental Car when I return my car. My ticket is electronically transmitted to the court and no paper can get lost or shuffled. I suppose my data could get scrambled, but the chances of that happening are slim. So what's next. Apple has some great ideas, and I expect them to challenge the portable GPS market soon with an iPhone GPS service along with 3G or 4G high speed internet connectivity. Who says that Apple will only work with AT&T? What other industries will be revolutionized or infused by this growing state of mobility that people are experiencing. There's another interesting device that I have not mentioned to this point, and I'd like to pick up here next time. What do NASCAR, NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL have in common besides the fact that they are major sport conglomerates?

Android Story of the Day

Digitimes is reporting that HTC will produce 2-3 Android devices with Wi-MAX and TD-WCDMA.

Good on it's word the Open Handset Alliance and Google have released the first SDK for the new OS. Check out all the greatness on the Google/Android site.

Sprint and Clearwire Say Psych and Stuff

Yeah that's right Sprint and Clearwire have supposedly decided that working together on Wi-MAX won't be such a good idea after all. The WSJ is reporting that sources close to the matter have said since Sprint doesn't have a CEO it would be premature to define a formal agreement. So does this mean that the planned Xohm product is soon to go the way of ION? You do remember that little revolutionary product that Sprint tried to roll out back in 1999/2000. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. Clearwire's stock tanked in late afternoon and after market trading. AP - WSJ: Sprint and Clearwire Splitting Up

and STUFF
On a separate note Sprint released their customer service agenda for 2008 today. Promises of a rewards program for longtime subscribers will be nice, I wonder how that will be implemented?

Open Handset Alliance - NOT gPhone

"Android™ will deliver a complete set of software for mobile devices: an operating system, middleware and key mobile applications. On November 12, we will release an early look at the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) to allow developers to build rich mobile applications." OpenHandsetAlliance/Android

Open
Android was built from the ground-up to enable developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer. It is built to be truly open. For example, an application could call upon any of the phone's core functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera, allowing developers to create richer and more cohesive experiences for users. Android is built on the open Linux Kernel. Furthermore, it utilizes a custom virtual machine that has been designed to optimize memory and hardware resources in a mobile environment. Android will be open source; it can be liberally extended to incorporate new cutting edge technologies as they emerge. The platform will continue to evolve as the developer community works together to build innovative mobile applications.

So there's no gPhone, and the wireless community is working together? Here's the list of companies working on this effort.

Open Handset Alliance Founding Members
Aplix (www.aplixcorp.com), Ascender Corporation (www.ascendercorp.com), Audience (www.audience.com), Broadcom (www.broadcom.com), China Mobile (www.chinamobile.com), eBay (www.ebay.com), Esmertec (www.esmertec.com), Google (www.google.com), HTC (www.htc.com), Intel (www.intel.com), KDDI (www.kddi.com), Living Image (www.livingimage.jp), LG (www.lge.com), Marvell (www.marvell.com), Motorola (www.motorola.com), NMS Communications (www.nmscommunications.com), Noser (www.noser.com), NTT DoCoMo, Inc. (www.nttdocomo.com), Nuance (www.nuance.com), Nvidia (www.nvidia.com), PacketVideo (www.packetvideo.com), Qualcomm (www.qualcomm.com), Samsung (www.samsung.com), SiRF (www.sirf.com), SkyPop (www.skypop.com), SONiVOX (www.sonivoxrocks.com), Sprint Nextel (www.sprint.com), Synaptics (www.synaptics.com), TAT - The Astonishing Tribe (www.tat.se), Telecom Italia (www.telecomitalia.com), Telefónica (www.telefonica.es), Texas Instruments (www.ti.com), T-Mobile (www.t-mobile.com), Wind River (www.windriver.com). More on members

Google will not brand a device or market a device instead they will provide a bundle of applications referred to as a "software stack". So when can I get it? Q4 2008.... The press release says second half of 2008 so that usually means Sept/Oct. so I always lean towards later instead of sooner on these type of announcements. The question I have is who/what organization is leading this effort? There has to be a team leading this effort from software, hardware, and manufacturing. With all the carriers lined up now we need to see what will be the first device that utilizes this new infrastructure. There are little details about the OS in the announcement, or was there anything? The OS is Android and the leader is Google. So now we wait and see what the details are released on 11/12 in the SDK (software development kit) and then we see what comes out next year. It will be interesting to see what the baseline processor and graphics specifications will be. Will there be a screen size standard? Will it matter if the application is GSM or CDMA or WiMAX? I guess we'll see.

More information is provided in a Forbes article, Google's Dream Phone.