Feb 26, 2006 | blog
So I’m going to try to not get into the Old Media/New Media thing too much, but I was just reading a post by Kent Newsome over on his blog. In it, he talks about how some “old media” writers/journalists keep predicting the passing of blogging popularity, and how they believe interest in blogging is waning.
Now I understand that over the last several years the buzz about blogging has reached a fever pitch and has some media types running scared. That the trends in readership of information of many types is moving to new media outlets – namely blogs. Tie that in with Richard Edelman’s recent discussion about the Me2 Revolution, and you can see how traditional media types could be concerned that what they have to say is not being heard the way the would like it to be.
Like many industries in our modern age, digital publishing is facing the same comoditization and automation of their product that so many other industries have already experienced. What is hard to see for everyone who goes through this initial phase of change is that the end-product will be better for everyone involved. The writing of all participants will improve, the content of the writing will improve, the thinking behind what we all say will improve, the conversation will improve, etc…
Similarly, look at how the RIAA views digital music as a threat instead of a new distribution model that they could leverage to their benefit (give me $.10/track downloads and a premium “offline” CD-type product option). Or how the traditional telephony companies are running scared at how VoIP is rendering their decades-old voice lines obsolete (don’t worry about content, just sell me the cheapest, fastest internet pipe – do what you do best). What it simply means to these industires, and “old media” alike, is that they need to change. To think anew – come up with a new way to leverage the opportunity in front of them. Realize that the increased competition is worth their effort to change and improve what they currently offer.
Change is a scarry thing – especially when it has the potential to hit the bottom line, but it is also one of the most exciting events that can occur to any industry – how else can anyone improve & expand without going through some sort of change? And how many of us would like a static unchanging world anyway? Change, whether small or large is what keeps us all interested. What keeps us all coming back for more.
Feb 25, 2006 | blog
An article over at The Wireless Report covers some new developments in the Cable vs. municiple wireless “battle”. There are some efforts being pursued by CableLabs (an industry trade group) where they investigate competing in the wireless space.
This is a good thing – the cable industry is taking the correct approach in trying to compete with the new competition rather than continue to lobby against something that is a direct threat to their business model. New competition should always be viewed as a challenge to improve, to become better than before rather than the knee-jerk reaction of protect our market share at all costs kind of mentality.
I encourage the cable industry to keep trying to think further ahead, as well as their competion – it will make the resulting products and services that much more useful and valuable to us consumers.
Via: The Wireless Report
Feb 22, 2006 | blog
*rant*
Sensational – yes, but you have to admit the current practice of making new phones/devices available to “new” customers and not to loyal existing customers is one sure way of making them unhappy.
This is my case – I’ve been waiting for T-Mobile USA to carry Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone devices for over 4 years. I’ve poked, prodded, emailed, called, suggested, etc… and now that the MDA is “available” through T-Mobile – I get the standard run-around that its not available to current customers “right now”.
However, if I want to start a new line of service I can get the phone. Will someone explain the logic to me? This is one of the few times Tmo has pissed me off. Customer service is good, and so are the pricing plans, but to not make a new phone available to your current loyal customers is simply unacceptable.
Well Tmo, Verizon is looking better – even if it costs more in data services, at least I can get the PPC 6700 right off the bat, or the Treo 700w. All it takes to make me happy is to sell me the phone that is on the web site for the price you are asking for it, without making me start a new line of service – is that so hard?
*/rant*
Feb 21, 2006 | blog
Ok, here is the phone I’ve been waiting for. T-Mobile’s version of the HTC Wizard – the MDA. Neat device, I was able to test this very unit back in October/November.
It has EDGE Quad-Band services which are much faster than straight GPRS bandwidth. The keyboard is a trade-off, but I was able to adapt quite quickly to it. The screen is razor sharp, bright and clear, sound quality was good, phone quality as well.
One handed operation was a little iffy – and was the source of most of my suggestions on improving the product. We’ll see if they incorporated any suggestions. The pull-mail features of Pocket Outlook were fantastic – I had it pulling mail every 15 minutes for 5 accounts. I also had a number of software packages that pulled data from the ‘Net on a regular basis as well – like weather, news and such.
Performance suffered a little with the 200MHz processor, but I think a person can adapt what they run. Overall a good phone when a person makes an effort to adapt to the device a little.
Feb 20, 2006 | blog
Well, an update to one of the best Today screen Pocket PC program launchers is available. Among the numerous updates to iLauncher 2.3 are:
- Captions Support
- D-Pad Navigation Support
- Additional Look & Feel Customizations
- New Menu Replacement
- Enhancements to the iLauncher Settings
- Context Menu Enhancements
- New True VGA Hack option
- Additional Meters Path Selection
- Command-line parameters support
- Fullscreen Mode Changes
- Installer Changes
- Some bug fixes and enhancements
Looks like a nice update. Kudos to Jason, Amit and crew over at SBSH Mobile Software!
