Ampers & Dot

By nature I am a pretty crazy mobile device enthusiast. I can name and detail more cell phone acronyms than just about anyone (CDMA, EVDO, GSM, HSDPA, HSUPA… I can do that for hours).  I can even explain to you the difference between 1G, 2G, 3G, 3.5G, and 4G data speeds and who they related to the 700mhz spectrum.

What I can’t explain is how the hell Sprint lost 1,090,000 customers in Q1 this year.  That’s about 12,000 unhappy customers a DAY.  That’s horrendous.  As someone who has switched cell providers only once ever (with Verizon for nearly a decade (Cellular One, which rolled into Verizon) of dissatisfaction before jumping ship to ATT (Cingular, which rolled into ATT) and have actually been surprised at the relatively positive service), I can only say that losing 1.09m customers in three months is truly amazing.

What went wrong?  According to the comments in the post I linked up there… a lot went wrong.  There are 75+ comments running on that thread and nearly every one of them is negative.  Although there isn’t one overwhelmingly strong central theme- people just don’t like Sprint.

For a long time I’ve been quasi-active on a few gadget forums and one of my strongest memories of one of my favorite communities, PDAphonehome.com, is the amount of conversation around Sprint and the PPC6600.  Looking at the 6600 threads you’ll notice that two of the top three most popular threads are about Sprint promising an update for a phone… and then not delivering. Over 2,000 replies and over 160,000 views of people pissed off at Sprint. And on the thread for Sprint’s updated model, the 6700, there’s an open thread with nearly 1,000 replies and almost 300,000 views about Sprint dropping the ball again.

Ok, so that’s enough with the boring phone stuff- let me finally get to my point in all this: social media is killing Sprint.  In the old days, way back when modems dialed numbers and eBay was still a legitimate website, the ability to discuss your dissatisfaction for something was relatively limited.  While now, when my phone connects over 83 times faster than my first modem and eBay is like craigslist mixed with a Nigerian email scam, spreading your unhappiness about a company is easier than ever.

Jumping online to rant about something is not only possible, but you’ll find a community that shares a similar distaste.  These communities enable dissatisfied customers’ hate to brew- by hearing other stories people get even more riled up and unhappy.

This wasn’t originally where I expected this post to go, but what I’m getting at is that Sprint has always sucked.  It’s just hit the tipping point where people no longer care to hold it inside.  And once they see how annoyed everyone else is, it makes it easier than ever to give up.

And not to fan the flame or anything, but should you be similarly unhappy with Sprint, like 1.09m others, check out this forum thread on how to get out of your Sprint contract.

Sorry Sprint, it’s nothing personal- but while reading PDAPhoneHome forums I met a lot of unhappy people- and I sympathize enough to be unhappy too.  It’s time for to utilize social media to fix your reputation and get your customers back.  Also, while you’re at it: roll out WiMax already.  No more delays, ok?

The point of today’s post has nothing to do with social media. Nothing to do with “web 2.0″. Today’s post is all about my love for the Grand Theft Auto series. Because you know what? They deserve the praise.

My life changed about eight years ago when I first played Grand Theft Auto 2. The top-down shooting/racer game was a fun and addictive, but would only be the gateway drug to me life-long addiction to the GTA series. When GTAIII came out it was an entirely new world of awesome. The third person car stealing mayhem was overwhelmingly enjoyable. Then Vice City opened my eyes to a new possibilities of fun. And in 2005 when GTA San Andreas came out, I was convinced that no game could ever top it.

In the three years since purchasing GTA:SA I have completed all of the missions six times through; played it through three times each on both Xbox and Xbox 360. I have completed 100% of the game. As annoying as that was. I spent hours on end finding all those god-damned horse shoes. Then, I went back and did it again.

And you know what? I still have fun playing GTA:SA. There has never been a game without a multiplayer mode that has had as severe staying power as any in the GTA series. The only reason I ever stop playing one of them is when the newest comes out- even if that only happens every three or so years.

So today is the day that the most insanely anticipated game of my life hits shelves. Finally. After three release date changes, we are finally here. (Incidentally, when the second release date was changed to October 16th, I had requested two days off around it… then when it was pushed back yet-again to April 29th I decided not to jinx it. And here we are. Not jinxed, but at work.)

Today, April 29th, is finally here. I didn’t think it would ever actually happen. But here we are. And I’m too busy to play anyway. BUT- now that I know it isn’t getting pushed back again, I can at least hype it up more than ever before.

So let’s get back to it with some fun links:

• Analysts are predicting that GTAIV will single handedly derail the box office this weekend
• Read this retrospective of the history of the Grand Theft Auto series
• It might sell up to 13,000,000 copies this year
• I’m not the only one (obviously) who feels passionately about the GTA series
• It received a “Perfect Score” with the critics - even Halo 3 only got a 93…
• There are awesome, awesome achievements for the 360 version
• There’s a multiplayer mode. Yes. The game that I could play forever singleplayerly, has a multiplayer mode.
• Also: here is everything you ever wanted to know and more about GTAIV

That’s all I’ve got today. And likely tomorrow. And the next day. Because as you can probably guess, I’ll be spending the next few months about three feet away from my TV stealing cars, driving fast, shooting gang members, and billions of other amazingly fun options in GTAIV. So long social life… Liberty City, here I come!

The main concept to blogging is to add value and thought to the online community. (That or show pictures of female celebrities getting out of cars…) And the point of this blog has always been to discuss things I find interesting and have some semblance of insight to share.

Well today, seeing as how I’m too busy to have an opinion on anything, I thought that I’d share a few recent reads that I’ve enjoyed. Further, I think a few of these are so well done, that I don’t even have anything smart to add.

For example: ReadWriteWeb’s take on Web 2.0 and 3.0 terminology and the complete arbitrariness of naming the internet. This article singlepostedly explains why RWW is my current favorite blog. Everything written there is well thought through, well crafted, and authoritative on a subject. Plus- someone else finally agrees with me about stupid “web 2.0″ usage. RWW- great work.

About a week ago I read this article on “A Stranger in a Strange Land: A Windows Mobile Guy Meets iPhone” from PocketPC Thoughts. If you have an iPhone, or a WinMo device- you must read that article. It’s everything I’ve wanted to say and more. And it makes me feel less jealous of iPhone owners. So does PPC Thoughts’ follow up.

On Windows Mobile- it’s really exciting to see HTC launch a US campaign. Also cool to see it might be launching a new sampling of phones too… I mean, it had been almost two years since I’ve seen anything new out of the love-of-my-phone-life.

Mashable had a recent and awesome post on finding new music- which I hope to actually take advantage of this weekend. If you play around with any of these sites and find something cool, you are now obligated to tell me about it. Thanks.

And lastly- we finally relaunched our TechToons blog on the Prompt site. Spend some time going through the archives- there are a few hilarious ones back there. The ideas for each cartoon come from my colleagues- obviously a pretty funny and smart group.

That’s all I’ve got today- oh, but I heard a rumor that there’s funny stuff on the internet… let me know if you find any of it. I’m going to need some help once GTA IV comes out on Tuesday… and after that I’m going to be pretty glued to my xbox… it will be unhealthy and embarrassing. And I couldn’t be much more excited.

Enjoy the weekend!

If you’re like me and you have a hustling bustle of a social life, filled with crazy parties, gallery openings, regatta galas, and aquarium christenings, then you likely don’t need any tips on weekend plans.  But on the off-chance you are looking for something to do this, or any other weekend, then today’s post will be especially relevant.

Just in case there are no special shows at the zoo this weekend, or no good cricket matches in your area, and you’re looking for something to do, I thought I’d list off a few of my personal favorite “completely nerdy weekend projects” to give you some ideas of what to do when you have some downtime and are feeling really geeky.  

So let’s jump into the list of “Completely Nerdy Weekend Projects”
(Preface note: I have done every single one of these things listed- so if you have any questions, let me know)

Speed up your Windows boot time
Being a Windows Mobile junky- I want my computer up and running immediately.  I want to press a button and have the digital world at my fingertips.  I don’t want to wait more than 30 seconds for it.  Unfortunately, one of Window’s built in “features” is the continual slowing down of all things processor related over time.  Thanks Bill.  But there are a lot of ways to fix your computer’s boot speed- likely to get it below 30-45 seconds. The best resources that I’ve used are: PC-Hell’s Guide, ExtremeTech’s (extra-nerdy) Guide, and a new one to me, but comes highly recommended- TweakXP.

Rewire your desk/entertainment center
As we’ve learned in the past, I’m a bit obsessive about organization.  Well there’s no better fix for me than nicely ordered electronics cabling.  And conversely there is nothing worse than disastrous cabling. The best tips I have for this are: keep your power strip somewhere easily accessible for easy adding/removing components (so you’re not climbing over a desk every day to plug in your laptop…) Unplug everything first, separate the cords, and start from scratch.  Then use pipecleaners to secure excess cable.  I also swear by cord clips

Cleanup your desktop(s)
First start with your physical desktop.  Ok good.  Now how about your computer’s desktop.  How many icons you got there?  Can you even see your desktop?  Oh come on, you still have the icon to Bonzai Buddy on there!?  And is that an AOL shortcut?  Use that link above and then just start deleting.  Then whatever’s left- start sorting and wait until next weekend when you can…:

Reorganize your digital media
This one is more daunting to me than any of the others… mainly because I’m a lot less talented at it.  But searching and digging for local files on your computer is just stupid, but probably happens almost daily.  Do you have eight versions of your resume saved in My Documents, all with the same title but different dates?  Archive if you want, but if it’s not relevant then there’s no reason to keep it.  And this brings us nicely into the last weekend project:

Backup your important files
This one is easily the most important and even more easily the most often overlooked.  Just do it.  Two easy ways: 1) This little puppy that continuously backs up your data automatically (or some of the cheaper alternatives from Western Digital are equally awesome) 2) Do it manually, for free, without any hardware.  Read about GmailSync and let it blow your mind.  Then once your mind is feeling better, download it and use it.

And that’s it.  That should keep you busy for the next month and a quarter. 

For me this especially rainy New England weekend, I’m heading up to Maine to avoid the big-city distractions of Boston and focus 100% of my attention on the Masters with some great golf friends (I’m assuming you read the post yesterday on how absolutely bonkers I am for this weekend and leaving my apartment and skipping town to watch TV makes sense to you).

This year I’m rooting for the defending champion: Augusta National, who kicked the ass of every golfer last year and made the best of them work for every stroke.  YOU DA MAN AUGUSTA! 

It’s that time of the year and everyone’s doing it… that’s right: time for some predictions on the future of tech! One of the main aspects that attracts me to tech is that it’s always evolving which means there is always something new to learn. As most of you know, I love to talk about this stuff and really enjoy taking the information that is widely available out there and putting it all together to guess where things are going.

The following predictions (sorted by tech category) come as a result of a lot of research, a bit of professional experience, and a large amount of guessing… So here we go.

Social Networks

• Facebook will continue to grow, reaching over 80 Million registered users
• At some point in 2008 there will be a revolt of users on Facebook (due to another invasive advertising scandal) resulting in a large dropoff of traffic. It will return to normal in under two weeks.
• More small, specifically focused, social networks will pop-up in the first half of the year. By the years’ end they will start going to way of friendster and the big networks will gobble them up.
• Google’s Open Social will help all of this happen as it will make it simpler to build small specialty social networks interoperable, but it will also make it simple for the big networks to adapt their features and user bases.
• MySpace will continue to look more and more like Facebook with each redesign; Facebook will stubbornly not change their look, resulting in third-party applications for customizing the look (think of Skins or Themes) of your Facebook portal.
• Social Networking will take its first real steps into the mobile world through applications, not miniature browser portals. Beyond the simple apps or mobile sites out now, MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc, will all have their on client-server apps for Windows Mobile, Android, Symbian, and other dumbphones.

Blogs

• Sifry (Technorati) will report the existence of over 100 million blogs and a new quarter million created daily.
• Bloggers will no longer put up with Technorati’s inconsistent service- a clone will steal the market by offering similar service with better functionality.
• More celebs, athletes, and high-profile figures will start blogging as themselves.
• Due to Gawker Media’s (Gizmodo, Valleywag, Wonkette, Consumerist, Kotaku, etc) new commission system for its bloggers, posting will decrease to a readable amount. This will also make Gawker and Valleywag writers stoop to paparazzi-like tactics to get new stories. It won’t be good.
• I’ll keep up the posts for a while, until I get too busy and frustrated that I don’t have time. Then I’ll write a big come-back post apologizing and be extra witty for two straight weeks. This process will repeat a month later.
• When GTA IV comes out I will not post for an entire week.

Mobile Phones

• Apple will release the second gen iPhone. It will come in 8 and 16gb varieties, both sporting 3g HSDPA (high speed download packet access) but not HSUPA (same thing but with Upload).
• Apple will institute stricter measures to ensure the new iPhone can’t be jailbroken or unlocked. Less than 5 days after release the iPhone will be jailbroken and unlocked.
• Android phones will run on ATT, TMobile and VZW. They will be disappointing at first, but by the end of 2008 will be solid competitors in the market.
• HTC’s first “gPhone” will be called ugly by the mass media, mainly because they have no idea what a pda-phone is supposed to look like.
• Google’s Android competition will be won by a pretty simple application that already exists for Windows Mobile. People will ignore this fact and be wowed by its functionality.
• Windows Mobile 7 will be leaked and sadly it will be a disappointment. The interface will be drastically improved, but the functionality will remain sluggish.
• HTC will release a 5mp Camera phone. Nokia will release an 11mp camera phone.
• A large amount of standard phones released in 2008 will have touch screen capabilities. Others will have qwerty pads.
• Bluetooth stereo headsets will gain style points - and bluetooth phone headsets will finally stop sounding so crappy.
• Sprint’s WiMax will still suck and fail to roll-out.
• Here’s a biggie: Google will win the 700mhz Auction for over $8 Billion (I’ll write a lot more on this later)

Web TV

• The continuing spread of Fiber Optics will help IPTV exist through set top boxes thanks to ATT and Verizon (now roll-out in Boston!)
• The networks will continue to adapt their online offerings (see: Hulu), learning that iTunes is a horrible deal for everyone (but apple).
• YouTube spin-offs will keep popping up- the successful ones will be acquired, the unsuccessful ones will fail miserably.
• User Generated Content will always be funny and a huge part of online video, but as hosting sites adapt HD standards there will be a larger market for “Straight to Download”, professionally generated content. People will have trouble adopting this in 2008, mistakenly relating it to “Straight to Video”.
• Online video will start dropping the in-program commercials in favor of over-lay advertising. Some sites will do this well and will be popular. Some sites will integrate far too invasive overlays and upset viewers.
• XBOX 360 will finally gain full IPTV features
• Viral marketing will become even stranger and more random, resulting in a completetly misconstrued add which crosses line in the Controversial/Funny bell-curve and gives the company more negative publicity than anything else.

General Tech

• Apple will release an “ultra portable” laptop - it will weigh around 2lbs and have a 9-10″ screen.
• Asus will release a follow up to the Eee PC, at 9″ and 2.5lbs. The two computers will be put head-to-head by every one of the big tech blogs.
• HDDVD vs BlueRay will not be resolved. The 150 early adopters of each will be pissed. The general public will be happy during holiday season 2008 when prices on each drops below $150.
• LCD TV prices will continue to fall as the first OLED and SED TVs hit the consumer market (at astronomical prices).
• The PS3 will drop in price again, reaching $350. Then it will be release in a variety of colors.
• The Nintendo Wii shortage will get better, but it still won’t be easy to find one.
• A new Wii will be released by December 2008 and it will come in multiple colors, will have a built in DVD drive and multimedia capabilities… but you won’t be able to get one anywhere.
• 2008 will be a slow year for the iPod, but each current version will be re-released in a new array of colors.
• GMail will up each user’s server space to 10GB and will provide an option to upload files for them to host. The service will be free.
• Digg will be bought by a big corporation - and its users will flee requiring the big company to reinvent a user-supported community. This will fail.
• More tech Venture Capitalists will follow the FunnyorDie.com model and invest in Hollywood. This will also fail.
• Quad core computers will be more widely available and affordable. People will still find Vista to be bulky and slow.
• XP will still be an option for new laptops at the end of 2008.
• Linux will continue to gain market share (maybe as large as 3%) through sales of notebooks and desktops at Walmart and Target.

And that’s it

I’ve got a lot more floating around my head, but I think I’ve written enough that something has to end up being correct. My goal is to make this a static page, where I can cross things off as the year goes on. That should be pretty fun, I think.

Lastly, what do you think? I can back-up my thoughts on each of these, as not one is completely random. If you want some justification then ask- I’ll have fun with that. Any you wildly disagree with?

And really lastly- Starting on Sunday and running next week is my second favorite holiday of the year (right after Masters’ weekend but before Halloween) … that’s right: it’s Consumer Electronic Showcase week!!! My lifelong dream is to attend… but obviously that’s not happening this year, so expect some fun commentary as the week progresses.

Enjoy!

Ok, thanks for sticking with me through an outdated post yesterday because, as you will soon see, it was necessary to set up today’s post. And today we’ve got a long one, be forewarned…

Well here we go. Today I want to counter yesterday’s argument, that Windows Mobile will suffer in the light of Google’s Android (open source development platform for cell phones), because a) the hardware manufacturers will focus more efforts on Android capable phones, ignoring Windows Mobile, and b) the development community will be further segmented.

So here’s the thing: I’m still genuinely worried about the latter issue because adding yet another mobile platform really will force developers to chose. In light of Android’s $10M contest for the best mobile app built by March ‘08, as well as the hype surrounding Android, I’d be surprised if developers didn’t begin working on applications for the new platform. But what I’ll outline towards the end of this post, is the longterm influence this will have on the mobile market, and how this could actually be highly beneficial down the road.

In my previous post I expressed a real concern about the former issue; that the hardware manufacturers will lose focus on Windows Mobile devices, as building phones that can run Android applications will be more appealing. Well since that was originally written, a few new stories have come up that have me thinking about all the cool gadgetry of the future.

Read Engadget’s Interview with HTC CEO, Peter Chou
Since Google announced Android (and I wrote that post, nearly a month ago), the hype has settled a little bit and we’ve had time to reflect on what the implications of the open source platform really are. HTC has been the leader (90% or so marketshare) of Windows Mobile, and I previously feared they would be dropping their focus. Ironically, this interview focuses primarily on HTC’s role with Android and the Open Handset Alliance, but it actually puts me at ease for the future of WinMo gadgetry…

And here’s why: HTC doesn’t see Android as a competitor of Windows Mobile.

This quote, from the interview, shows how HTC’s CEO sees the emergence of Android into a company that was previously narrowly focused.

Ryan Block: I find it interesting that you mention that this is more of a consumer focused product because I think the one thing that Windows Mobile has really done well, especially in partnership with HTC, is define these extremely enterprise-centric and very effective mobile business tools. Do you feel that Android is not really entering that space? And that they are going to limit to two different worlds — you’ve got the enterprise and then the consumer?

Peter Chou: Android is probably not entering into the enterprise. At least initially, I have to say. But do not assume Microsoft is only enterprise. Maybe in the past the devices were techy, bigger, and with an unattractive form factor, and of course we put a lot of effort to try and mature the experience. But this year you’re seeing us ship devices like the Touch, which is much more consumer oriented, with a fine-tuned, simplified experience. So we believe that Windows mobile is there for consumer opportunity, and will continue working on that. But even still, there are different kinds of consumers, so we believe that Windows Mobile will continue to have opportunities.

Time for a major digression- the different types of cell phones. Most people (and cell providers, for some reason) mistakenly look at the cell phone world as a dichotomy: Cell Phones and Smartphones. Well I’ve always argued that there are three categories (seen below) but now, there’s an emerging fourth.

Cell Phone: Makes calls, probably has an internal calendar (which you haven’t used), minimal web browsing capability through WAP, probably has a junky camera. “Multimedia Phones” also fall under this category- phones that play music, videos, and store pictures, but still just have the standard phone function.
SmartPhone: A phone with PDA features. Integrates your email, calendar, office details, usually synchronized on a schedule or through “Push” capabilities. The best example here is a Blackberry.
PDA Phone: Smartphone features, added touch screen, and full desktop integration. Does everything a laptop can do, just smaller (and likely slower). Basically a Personal Digital Assistant, with a phone built in.

Until this summer, that was all I needed to categorize phones… but with the release of the iPhone (heard of it?), a new category emerged. Advanced SmartPhones: This category falls between SmartPhones and PDA phones, as they have more features than a smartphone (and often touch screen ability), but not full PDA features, such as Outlook or Exchange support. They likely get email through POP3 (gmail, hotmail, etc) but not your work email. Under this header, fall the iPhone, Nokia’s N95, and even LG’s Voyager

So where’s this all going?

Let’s step back to Peter Chou’s quote: “Android is probably not entering into the enterprise… there are different kinds of consumers, so we believe that Windows Mobile will continue to have opportunities.” This is what I seemed to have missed before- Android is in competition with the iPhone, not the Kaiser!

As the new category of Advanced Smartphones develops, Android will be pushing the envelope for Apple to start building a cooler 2nd Gen iPhone (likely released in June 2008, for anyone holding out on a new toy). What this means for Windows Mobile is that they will have a full realm of possibilities for the enterprise user, but they’ll still take cues from what Advanced Smartphones do. The same way that HTC built the Windows Mobile Touch in response to the iPhone, or the or the S730 to counter the Voyager, HTC will continue to create cutting edge hardware that takes the Advanced Smartphone features a few steps further. Windows Mobile will remain the leader in enterprise class phones and simply gain the cool gadgetry form of the competition. And hopefully this will mean a release of the long anticipated Omni

To round out this already-to-long post: What this means for software.
For the short term- bad news bears. The development community will undoubtedly be swept up with Android and you know what- it’ll be fun to watch what they build. But here are three arguments as to why I’m not worried for the long term (and please note, this took me a month to come up with…)

1. There will always been an overwhelming need for enterprise application development- Businesses will have to pay for it, but there will be developers out there making awesome products once the hype of Android settles a bit
2. Real developers want more out of their devices. A hardcore coder probably has a few Windows Mobile devices around because they can do so much. Android has limited capabilities and this will drive some developers back to WinMo, to build bigger, more powerful applications.
3. Android is open source and if someone builds something cool enough for Android, it will only be a matter of time before it’s ported (or rebuilt) for Windows Mobile.

So maybe it won’t be soon- but in the long run, WinMo will only benefit from the new platform war. And hey, I haven’t even mentioned the 700MHZ auction yet… (that’ll be a big post, likely before Christmas… but I’ll need some time to work on it).

Needless to say: these are great times for the mobile industry- starting in 2008 we are going to see some sweeping changes to the way we use phones, the way phones look, and the overall functionality of phones. So get ready- it’s going to be a fun ride.

PREFACE: This post was written a month ago for a different blog I’m working on, but was never published. I’m posting it today because I want to do a follow up on it tomorrow. So jump back in time a few weeks like you don’t know where this is going… and enjoy!

****

After countless rumors and speculation, Google finally held their press conference to announce its future in the Mobile Phone Industry. And no, this was not an announcement of the fabled gPhone, but instead of the new mobile development platform: Android.

Fundamentally, Android as an open source development platform for mobile phones, which allows developers a simpler way to create software that can be easily ported from one phone to another. Giving developers an opportunity to build applications that can be downloaded easily and used by millions is a big draw for the talented pool, similar to Google’s Open Social initiative. This is a huge step towards a future of feature packed cell-phones that do far more than the devices of today, but unfortunately, it’s also a blow to the Windows Mobile community.

As smart-phones have been increasing in sales, variety, and popularity over the past year, the application platforms have already been fairly segmented: Windows Mobile and Palm have been fighting for developers to build applications for years, Symbian OS has always been around and somewhat viable, and Blackberry has recently emerged as a worthy competitor.

The problem with having so many platforms is that developers must choose one to create for. Similar to the Windows/Mac battle of the last few decades, there’s no simple way to create one program and have it work on multiple phones. The concept behind Android is that the development will be open source, allowing anyone to work on the platform, for any device that runs it, weeding down the development community even more.

The biggest blow to the Windows Mobile community came when HTC, makers of almost every great WinMo gadget out there, announced they would sign on to be part of Google’s OHA (Open Handset Alliance). This means that Android is guaranteed to have impressive hardware to back it up, so even more users will be jumping ship for the newer, cooler phones.

In a recent interview with the BoyGeniusReport, US VP of HTC, Jason Mackenzie, said that “Windows Mobile will always be a big part of HTC. We have a significant share of 75% worldwide and expect that to grow. Android will be complimentary to Windows Mobile and we’ll focus on a new market share with the Android platform.” Although it’s somewhat reassuring to hear they are remaining the leaders in Windows Mobile phones, there’s no denying that their work on Android will detract from their WM phone efforts.

Microsoft could be short sited enough to think that their OS comes with everything a user might need pre-bundled and that they don’t need the underground development community (seeing as how they still haven’t built a way to actually close programs, leave that up to countless independent developers). They may not see this assault coming over the horizon at all.

But that’s exactly what this will be to the Windows Mobile community: an assault. When the iPhone came around, there were numerous Windows Mobile refugees who jumped ship for a new device. Android will provide the next wave of hits to Windows Mobile users.

The only shred of positive potential is that (and I can only assume) Microsoft knows exactly what they’re doing and can counter Android with a whole new realm of appealing applications to compete. A little friendly competition could push MS into building a stronger, cooler WM7, or even open up their devices to more developers.

After all, when the iPhone was announced in January of this year, it gave MS developers six months to come up with a rival… less than two months later came the announcement of Touch FLO and the Touch Cube for WM6. Now it’s Android’s turn to scare developers into making something even cooler to put Windows Mobile back in the news.

So my blog has a comment already! (thanks, Drew) and it was so good that I’m devoting a response post to it. Hopefully, I’ll eventually have some people reading this, so that there will be more comments and thus, more ideas of things to write about, but until then- let’s get to today’s topic- the justification of creating a tech blog these days.

First, read Drew’s response to my post from yesterday for a frame of reference. What I want to debate specifically are his responses to #3 – Although my original statement was only about start-ups… Drew is completely on-point to call me out on this. Basically how I’m adding to the overgrown world of start-ups and useless web stuff by creating yet another tech blog.

3. I think you creating this site backs that statement up (not that it isn’t cool or anything).

Exactly. Ironic, right?: talking about the over population of start-ups in 2007 by using a blog as a medium… I may as well go on to use the terms “Blogosphere” and “web 2.0” as often as possible in this post (but for sanity’s sake, I won’t).

So here are five justifying reasons for me releasing yet another tech-related blog onto the web during a time when nearly half of Technorati’s top 100 tracked blogs are web/tech-centric:

• I’m not from, nor have I ever been to Silicon Valley, and that gives me an advantage in providing a new viewpoint on technology stories.
• Although I have a vast appreciation for Apple (and will be disowned by my family if I say otherwise), I’m not swept up in the new hype and I won’t be posting about it all the time- by contrast, I love Windows Mobile and there is actually a surprisingly small amount of coverage of WinMo world within blogs.
• I consult on blogs for tech companies for a living and it was getting embarrassing not being able to direct people somewhere to read up on my “expertise”.
• I actually know what I’m talking about (to a certain extent…) and I need a place to talk to other people about tech stuff.
• Irony is funny. And I hope we can all laugh at that someday.

Now that I’ve come up with those, I realize these aren’t the most persuasive argument. So here’s the main one: It will be fun. For me. I love this stuff, I enjoy writing, and I’m glad to have a place to be able to write about stuff I love. The real question will be- who’s going to read yet another tech blog? . . . hopefully I’ll figure that one out soon.

So there- I have a blog. About tech. And with all the choices of tech blogs out there- I’m pretty psyched you’ve decided to read mine.

Check back later as I’ll be addressing Drew’s comment on #1 - the overvaluation of Facebook.

To let everyone know- this is my new site. I’ve been writing a lot of these things in other places, but I finally purchased a domain and decided to host it all myself (or pay someone to host it…). Welcome to my site.

This post is stolen from my “Who Am I?” section- to help you all get to know me a little better. Wow, I just realized that I’m already referencing my own site… nice- way to be immediately self-referential. . . anyway- read on for some fun.

So here’s how to figure out if you’ll enjoy reading my future postings- do you find the following ten thoughts interesting? It doesn’t matter if you agree, just if you might want to read more about the topics. Here we go:

1. Facebook’s $15B valuation is too high by about 600% (and that’s being generous)
2. I’ve never owned an iPod, nor do I plan on it - plus the iPhone is a cool “Toy”
3. If I were to create a supply/demand chart for 2007 Web Startups, I’d need a second sheet of paper to reach the top of of the “supply” section
4. There are three computers in my apartment: one mac, one running XP, one running Kubuntu; I’ve reformatted one of them over 14 times. Only 8 of the times were out of necessity
5. I usually reflash my current Windows Mobile device every other month, never has it been “necessary” (currently runs a European build of wm6… waiting for a WM6.1 rom to show up somewhere)
6. I think MySpace is the best way to meet someone… mainly Chris Hansen from Dateline NBC
7. I don’t think the Palm Foleo was as big a flop is everyone has claimed
8. I’m well aware of the Web 2.0 bubble theory… let’s just keep pretending it’s not real
9. I think the term “Web 2.0″ is way over used
10. I will never give in to using emoticons

What do you think about all this? You hooked yet? Want to read more? Check back soon- hopefully I’ll have my act together.

It’s a funny story. Ok, not really funny, nor is there really a story.

Basically I wanted something funny and I thought it would be great to tell people to go to “ampersand dot dot com” and see where they ended up.

In retrospect this was a horrible idea. It reminds me of my favorite McSweeny’s post: “Email Addresses It Would Be Really Annoying to Give Out Over the Phone“. But if you made it here: congrats- you’ve passed the first test.

Well- welcome to my new site. This is where I’ll be writing about all sorts of things: technology, web, social media, video games… I’ll likely criticize things I’m not qualified to criticize and I’m sure I’ll end up making some crazy predictions on things I probably don’t know enough about.

Basically I thought the internet was severely lacking a site about web/tech related talk…

So yeah- welcome. And enjoy.