GigaOM

T-Mobile Sidekick II Review: Best Phone I’ll Never Buy proclaims Gizmodo-zilla Joel Johnson “I think it’s probably one of the best mobile devices I’ve ever used. And I can say, with total conviction, that I will never, ever purchase one and neither should you. In fact, after the experiences I’ve had today with T-Mobile, I’m not sure I can ever recommend one of their products again,” he writes. Well since only he and Paris Hilton have managed to use the Sidekick II (hopefully for different reasons), I am going to take his word for it. (Dude switching from T-Mobile is a good idea, even though some “quality” experts say T-Mobile is the best!) Anyway I think there are bigger problems with the product. The comments on the original Sidekick II post show a predominately negative feeling for this new device. I suspect much of it is due to the pathetic T-Mobile network. Continue »

Forget about science-fiction fantasies. These innovations are already here, and they’re about to hatch some of tomorrow’s biggest business opportunities. Breakthroughs are disruptive for a reason,” says Alex Pang, research director at the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, Calif. “They sneak up on us even when we try to prepare for them.” Among the seven technologies in the story, you will find stuff on “plastic power” and “brain boosters.” Here are three technologies I contributed to the story.

• Terabytes to go: this is about perpendicular magnetic storage
• Extra Broad Broadband: how micro-opticals are going to change the broadband economics and unleash megabandwidth for cheap.
• A Revolution in Roaming. Software radios and their impact on wireless networks

Link, PDF file Continue »

Sometimes, I just wish, San Francisco would stop trying. To be New York. Chris Nolan has a nice big blog post on the celebrity culture, the launch of SFist and well other so called gossip publications. Here is my observation: most of the gossip in this town revloves around some really unkown trustafraians, that annoying comedian who makes SF home, a once great director more interested in wines than in movies, and a bunch of wannabe writers. As for the glam factor - it is essentially blue-eyed, blonde haired crowd, those one does find occasional mention of the Asian cuties who prefer Anglo Saxons. Nolan says Nick & his gang would come to San Francisco. To that I say no f***ing way. Nick is truly not fond of this city, and the market is just too small and well why look back. (Here is what he said: Imagine New York, before Rudy Giuliani took office, except more corrupt and lethargic. Culturally, the city is still eating out on its reputation as home to Beat writers such as Allen Ginsburg. That was nearly fifty years ago now. In the meantime, San Francisco has produced Danielle Steel, and that is about it. Of the wilder writers I know, most have moved down to Los Angeles, which is warmer and cheaper and, believe it or not, culturally far more vibrant.) SF is just a terrible gossip town; even the restaurants tend to disappoint especially after you read glowing reviews in SF Chronicle. Psss. did you know that The Chronicle is planning a new kind of food venture to retain a handful of readers. How is that for gossip! (Ed Note: broadband minded folks, apologies for this long SF rant!) Continue »

My recent trip to India opened my eyes to how Indians were using wireless technologies in various different spheres of life. I saw a wireless-enabled ATM machine on a ferry, and wireless-enabled delivery boys with credit card machines. Even arranged marriages have become mobile-enabled. Crooks are running their crime empires using mobile phones right from the prisons. Today I came across this report about how National Informatics Centre and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) are planning to use mobile technologies and foster “better agriculture.” NIC has set-up agmarknet.nic.in and the site will have the latest information on prices of agricultural product. The information will distributed via cell phones to farmers in two states - Goa and Haryana. Continue »

PaidContent links to a report by Dario Betti, senior analyst at Ovum who has an interesting take on the whole issue of mobile music. “Operators run the risk of strategic paralysis - they are being pulled in two different directions. They want to delay the launch to provide a better service, but they are afraid of online music downloads cutting them out of the game.” Betti thinks “that online music shops would move into the mobile market and displace the mobile-only players like telcos. Mobile operators are being pushed to take a position. The media and financial institutions are particularly interested in this area and are waiting for the operators’ next moves.” I think the ITunes-Motorola announcement has scared the bejesus out of operators, who are terribly worried about missing the boat…or should I say the carrier tax…if mobile music takes off. So far they are merely hedging. Continue »

Some random links, which I found interesting, but instead of trying to come-up with some clever taglines, here are very befitting classics that do a better job. I would love to get your response if you find this attempt funny, or unfunny. Like I care!

• To be or not to be
• Comedy of Errors
• Moby Dick
• Last of the Mohicans

Becky Klein is getting all the money she needs to run for what is going to be a futile run for Congress, and most of it is coming from large phone and energy companies. Why is she getting all this money? Because according to The New York Times, if President Bush wins the reelection come November, she is likely to replace Michael Powell as the next FCC head honcho. And somehow that doesn’t work out, then she will be named the chief of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in case there is a vacancy. (Well if you have friends in high places, people can mysteriously resign from their posts!) Gene Kimmelman, a former Democratic Senate aide who is now a senior director at Consumers Union, told the Times: “Clearly, the companies are investing in the future. This is an interesting story about how Washington works.” Amen! Continue »

Sixty-three million Web users connected to the Internet via broadband during July 2004 as compared to 61.3 million accessing the Internet through narrowband. Overall growth for broadband connections rose 47 percent year-over-year, while narrowband dropped 13 percent annually. “Despite a plateau in the growth of U.S. Internet access, we’ve seen continued high double-digit growth in users’ broadband access,” said Marc Ryan, senior director and analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. “We expect to see this aggressive growth rate continue through next year when the majority of Internet users will be accessing the Internet via a broadband connection.” Clearly this is not good news for America Onine, NetZero and other narrowband providers. On the flipside, I think the big players - both cable and DSL - have started to realize some of the gains from their earlier investments. That said, my gut feeling is that overall growth is going to slow because there are certain parts of the country where broadband is not available as yet. Rural communities are still struggling to get broadband. “There are now close to 30 million households with broadband, and that’s a pretty robust number,” Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research told Reuters. “It’s not that the market is saturated, but clearly we’ve gone well past the low-hanging fruit.” Continue »