What is Web 2.0?

4 tech predictions for 2009

The technology outlook for the new year looks pretty grim, but here are a few trends that could pay off.

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Sony Ericsson, HTC Androids Set For Summer 2009

With yesterday’s announcement that Sony Ericsson (and 13 others) joined the Open Handset Alliance, it was obvious they would be working on an Android Phone for 2009 release. We have learned that the first Sony Ericsson Android Phone will be a high-end handset tentatively set for the summer of 2009.

This news comes from a Swedish article on IDG.se that makes these two important points after translation to English:

We expect initially to focus on products in the higher segment, but later on we will also supplement with products for the broad mass market, “said Sony Ericsson’s spokesman, Garfield Brusewitz.
The first Androidtelefonerna from Sony Ericsson is expected to show up for the summer.
At least now we know how long we have to wait and hopefully Sony Ericsson can stay on track. Phandroids are craving more Androids!

As if that wasn’t enough, the news out of HTC - makers of the T-Mobile G1 among other amazingly hot handsets - seems it will ALSO have offerings in the summer of 2009!

Another Danish news source, Business.dk, talks about how the first Android Phones will hit Denmark in 2009. But after translation to English, check out some of these crazy comments from an HTC exec Peter Frølund:

Yes, we come with one or more Android-products by the summer of 2009…
“I can say that we are working with a portfolio of models, and, yes, the ambition is that the phone comes with a Danish software,”
Products? PORTFOLIO? Oh wow although we don’t know exactly what this means it sounds big. If they are working with a portfolio of products that certainly sounds like they’ll have the OPPORTUNITY to push out more than 1 or 2 Android Phones. ONE of these is likely the T-Mobile G1 with localized OS for the Danish language, you could guess/assume. But it sounds like HTC has more than just another G1 in the works.

Save up those vacation days if they carry over fiscal/calendar years and get ready to block off your entire Summer of 2009. It sounds like its shaping up to be the Summer of Android.

::article courtesy www.phandroid.com::

What's a BluDangle?

MacBook Nano Looks Like It Came from Cupertino

I don't know if these MacBook Nanos are a custom hack or if they come from some kind of illegal outlet selling retrofitted MSI U100 laptops made to look like shiny—and fictional—Apple notebooks with Mac OS X installed. I do know one thing, though: I wouldn't mind having one, specially seeing the contrast with the MacBook Pro 17.

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Essential Social Networking and Bookmarking Toolbars and Extensions

Must haves for social web lovers.

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Microsoft launches Windows Azure

The software maker hopes an OS in the cloud will add up to blue skies.

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T-Mobile G1 - The Engadget Review

Will Android and G1 live up to the hype? Is this the first coming of a serious new contender in the mobile space, or has the triple threat of Google, HTC, and T-Mobile not delivered on their promises? We've put both the device and the software through its paces to bring you the definitive review of the T-Mobile G1. Read on!

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BlackBerry's Storm Aims to Blow the iPhone Away

The BlackBerry Storm, which goes on sale later this year, is a direct competitor to Apple's iPhone 3G and T-Mobile's G1 "Google Phone".

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Macs now have 8% of PC market

Apple's OSX cutting into Windows' dominanceApple is celebrating a new milestone after a research company reported that Macs have now taken an 8% market share in computing for the first time. Net Applications conducted a survey on 40,000 sites, and came to the conclusion that 8.2% of computers accessing the web were using Apple's OSX ...

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A look at Google's Android

Click here

Anyone for Great Text Messaging Revenue?

Overall, most Americans (58%) text message. One out of three Americans (31%) send or receive text messages on a typical day. These stats are from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Radio stations are beginning to generate revenue from text messaging. Here are some ways to make money from texting.

1. On air ask listeners to text the station to win. All but the one winner receives a return text that includes an electronic coupon, such as: "Show this screen at your local Pizza Hut and receive $1 off your next order." Pizza Hut pays for the coupon.

2. On air ask listeners to register online for station updates on various topics. When there is news of interest on the topic the listener recieves a text, such as: "Last night's Colorado Rockies rainout will be played as a double-header tonight starting at 6:30. Brought to you by Coors." The client buys the text sponsorship or buys a multi-media campaign that includes the text.

3. At events like basketball games or concerts, use big screens or PA announcements to invite listeners to participate in contests, polls, or trivia games. Everyone gets a return message with the sponsor message.

Kris Foley, GSM of WAKS (Kiss FM) in Cleveland, says: "Developing a texting program specific to our station was one of the best things we could have done for spot revenue growth. Our local sellers are getting wonderful, trackable results for their clients. Revenue is grown by great ideas and our texting short code allows us to implement many advertiser-specific concepts that are highly customized and effective. This year, WAKS has developed programs for more than 30 clients by incorporating texting into their spot campaign. Interactive Media, and specifically our texting technology, has been a major tool for revenue growth."

Learn more about ITdM's mobile platform

Article Courtesy John Potter, RAB VP Interactive Revenue Development

Microsoft to Pull Seinfeld TV Commercials

Microsoft is expected to announce Thursday that it will be suspending its ad campaign featuring Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and veteran comedy superstar Jerry Seinfeld.

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BlackBerry Storm to give iPhone serious run for the money

Here comes the first real competition for the iPhone: The BlackBerry Storm, to be sold soon by Verizon, according to a new teaser advert that went up over night on the Verizon Web site.The BlackBerry Storm is a touch screen that looks to be a bit thicker than the iPhone but shares its minimalistic controls, with just four.

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Google, T-mobile to unveil iPhone competitor next week

Google will next week launch the first mobile phone running its Android software in a joint initiative with T-mobile, the companies have announced.

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Don't Trash It! 15 Great Uses For Your Old PC

Are you looking to trade in your old PC for the latest all-singing, all-dancing model? If you haven't yet earmarked it for a role in your household, don't rush to bin it: we Britons produce over 1.8 million tonnes of electric and electronic waste every single year, and even if you don't care about the environment per se, we're fast running out of l

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Will Yada Yada Yada help Microsoft's image?

The first new commercial in Microsoft's Jerry Seinfeld campaign. Will it top Apple's creative ads? Only time will tell.

Whoa,100Mbps. 2010. Over The Air

What if WiFi could square off or even beat WiMax or other approaches to broadband access to the Internet, over the air?Cablevision Systems Corp. plans to rollout WiFi which would transmit data at more than 100 million bits a second. This is something made possible by the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification 3.0.

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The iPhone App Experience is About to be Destroyed... By Ads

“Ads on the iPhone deliver strong engagement for advertisers with triple, on average, the already high click-through-rates seen on mobile,” the company claimed in a press release. If that is indeed turns out to be a sustainable metric, advertisers are likely to view as iPhone as platform worth supporting.

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WebDiet: An iPhone Application Which Shows Food Nearby

According to Brown, it works by having people enter various dietary criteria that are important to them--such as being vegetarian, vegan, kosher, or wanting low- calorie or low-carb meals--and then combines that information with location-based data. In the early going, the company is focusing on restaurants and restaurant chains with online menus.

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Is Google Chrome an IE/Firefox/Opera/Safari killer?

So, it would appear that Google has plans to shake up the browser ecosystem by releasing an open source browser of its own. What does this mean for the other browsers.

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Apple details next-gen multi-touch techniques for tablet Mac

In a new company filing discovered by AppleInsider, iPhone maker Apple Inc. illustrates a number of techniques that would pave the way for tablet Macs that display a near full-sized multi-touch keyboard and run an undiluted version of the Mac OS X operating system.

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Analyst Angle: Call-to-action advertising proves that dreams

Mobile advertising is taking off...

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Microsoft enlists Seinfeld, Gates to battle "Get a Mac" ads

Those Apple "Get a Mac" ads have long been an annoyance to Microsoft and to Bill Gates in particular. No surprise as an emboldened Apple with rising market share has continued to ratchet up the venomous quips like, "fear of switching is the foundation of customer loyalty for PCs." Now Microsoft is fighting back, with Jerry Seinfeld.

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What Apple And Michael Phelps Share in Common

The latest rankings from the American Customer Satisfaction Index show that Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) has dramatically outpaced its rival computer makers in the hearts of U.S. consumers. In fact, the gulf between Apple's consumer satisfaction ranking and that of the industry's No. 2 player is one of the widest margins ever seen

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A Third of New PCs Being Downgraded to Windows XP

Vista may be what Microsoft sells, but XP remains popular.

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The next U.S. war to be fought in Cyberspace?

Interesting story about IT security on CNN.

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Countdown to 4G Networks: Who’s Doing What, and When

for those reading about the promise of 4G networks such as LTE or mobile WiMAX, here’s a look at each carrier’s launch plans and when (or if) you can expect to see up to 100 Mbps down on your mobile network.

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Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

Scientists in the US say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people invisible...

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VMware joins Linux Foundation

Virtualisation giant VMware has announced that it has joined the Linux Foundation, lining up alongside existing members such as Adobe, Google and IBM.

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11 iPhone Tricks You Might Not Have Known

Whether you're an iPhone rookie or a weathered pro, take a look at these quick-and-easy iPhone tips and tricks which not only save you time, but ease your overall iPhone experience.

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Need some help finding your way around this year's Olympics?

So what is Green IT?

How do you define "Green IT?" Sure, data center energy savings are a huge opportunity. Data centers consume more energy per square foot than any other part of an office building. But they're part of an information and services supply chain that begins with raw materials and ends with the disposal of waste. The chain includes people, the space they occupy, and the cars they drive. Along the way, the chain increasingly gobbles energy and spews greenhouse gases.

Energy consumption in the data center is predominantly from two loads: servers and cooling. Increasing server density compounds the problem. A Gartner poll showed that more than 69 percent of data centers are constrained for power, cooling and space. Energy-efficient servers are available from the major vendors, most notably Sun's CoolThreads technology that Sun says makes servers more efficient by a factor of five. Efficient processors from IBM, AMD and Intel are making their way into the mainstream, so your favorite server will soon be available in green.

The payoff of efficient servers is twofold. Servers that consume less energy also throw off less heat, requiring less energy for cooling. Alternative approaches, including ice storage and geothermal energy, accept the heat and focus directly on reducing the cost of cooling the data center.

Reducing cooling loads gets the attention of utilities because their summer peak demand periods are caused by air conditioning. Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), one of the largest natural gas and electric utilities in the United States serving 350,000 California businesses, is offering $1,000 rebates for buying efficient servers that generate less heat.

Utilities also offer incentive programs for virtualization, which reduces the number of physical servers required. Virtualization is not new, but vendors are repositioning it now that energy costs are of concern: "IBM sees virtualization combined with power efficiency as a key differentiator in our systems design” says Rich Lechner, vice president of virtualization at IBM.

Desktop PC energy use is manageable, too

Outside the data center, PC workstations make a contribution to US companies' power bills. It's not the 100 watts they consume, it's the sheer number of them out there. The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance concluded that the average consumption could be shaved by about 25 percent through effective use of power management tools.
The state of the art in this niche is driven primarily by the demand for a set-it-and-forget-it solution. Workers don't want power management to intrude on their day, and IT doesn't want complaints to intrude on theirs. The result is network-based power management software.

Would centralized sleep control be beneficial to your network? One way to find out is to install Verdiem's Surveyor demo without turning it on. Then use the "prediction" function to calculate the potential savings of each profile. Users will be unaffected and unaware of the test, and you'll have a good idea of the effectiveness in your situation.

To go a step farther, consider deploying thin client workstations. Thin clients didn't catch on when pitched as a way to reduce hardware and maintenance costs, but rising energy costs have added an effective selling point. Thin clients use about half the electricity of a typical desktop PC.

Convergence: enabling mobility inside and outside the building

Voice over IP brought together voice and data communications for some significant benefits. This step in convergence reduced the telephony wiring infrastructure and ongoing operation cost. VoIP and phone extension mobility also made practical a concept introduced in the early 1990s: hotelling of office space.
Hotelling reduces the square footage required per employee, because workers reserve space only when they need it. For many jobs -- sales, consulting, field service -- a dedicated office need not sit vacant, consuming energy for lighting and cooling.

Telecommuting is a companion concept that is gaining favor, not only for space reductions, but because suddenly companies are thinking about the emissions caused by the commuters they employ. Telephony technologies have made it practical to operate whole departments outside the building. Call centers at companies like JetBlue hire at-home agents whose physical absence from the building is practically indiscernible to customers.

Zealous adopters of these concepts have reported a 40 percent reduction in space requirements by leveraging their communications infrastructures. They also get to claim emission reductions due to fewer commutes.

IT enables other ideas that save energy and reduce emissions. Teleconferencing -- and its newest iteration, telepresence -- have cut down demonstrably on business travel. Electronic documents and processes reduce paper and the accompanying costs of copiers, printers and couriers.

Beyond these familiar ideas lies a huge opportunity scarcely tapped by IT: the building itself.

Article courtesy Denis Du Bois of Energypriorities.com

And here's why Sprint won't sell out of Instincts

Detailed demo of Sprint/Samsung's Instinct

WWDC 2008 Keynote in 1 minute

It's here...Apple says hello to 3G.

You could cut the anticipation with a knife leading up to Apple Inc.'s Worldwide Developer Conference this morning. The company delivered the iPhone 3G to thunderous applause more than 75 minutes into a nearly two-hour presentation.

The sold-out event brought 5,200 people to the company's annual gathering for developers and kicked off with details about the iPhone 2.0 software, App Store and 11 new application demonstrations from developers.

"I think it's widely believed that this is the phone that changed phones forever," CEO Steve Jobs said, leading up to up to the big announcement.

Calling the iPhone "one of the most amazing products I've ever had the pleasure of being involved with," Jobs checked off five major areas that Apple was pressed to improve on and delivered on all of them with the new device. A 3G network plus GPS support, enterprise support, third party applications, more scale and a lower price will all be met with the new device, which comes out July 11 in 22 countries.

"We did figure out what our next challenges are, the next mountain we have to climb to go to the next level," Jobs said. Although six million iPhones have been sold thus far, Jobs said the price must drop before reaching greater scale.

"We need to make the iPhone more affordable," he said.

A lower price

Most disturbing for other handset vendors that have been trying to catch up with the first generation of the device is that the 3G, 8GB iPhone will sell for $200 in the United States, with the more spacious 16 GB model priced at $299 — both with a 2-year contract at AT&T Mobility. (The first-generation iPhone continues to be listed on the AT&T Mobility site at $399 for the 8GB model and $499 for the 16GB model, though both are tagged as “temporarily out of stock.”)

As expected, the new pricing indicates a new business model for Apple and AT&T.

“The new agreement between Apple and AT&T eliminates the revenue-sharing model under which AT&T shared a portion of monthly service revenue with Apple,” AT&T said in a statement. “Under the revised agreement, which is consistent with traditional equipment manufacturer-carrier arrangements, there is no revenue sharing and both iPhone 3G models will be offered at attractive prices to broaden the market potential and accelerate subscriber volumes.”

AT&T also said unlimited data for the 3G iPhone would cost $30 per month.

During his presentation, Jobs compared the iPhone's performance over Wi-Fi, a 3G network and EDGE. The new device pulled up nationalgeographic.com over 3G in 21 seconds and took 59 seconds on the EDGE network. Wi-Fi clocked the site in at 19 seconds. "You can see that the 3G speeds are actually approaching Wi-Fi," Jobs said.

Scott Forstall, senior VP of iPhone software, introduced 11 different engineers that each has developed applications that will be available on the App Store at launch or shortly after. Sega, eBay, Loopt, TypePad, Associated Press, Pangea Software, Cow Music, MLB.com, Modality, MIMvista and Digital Legends Entertainment all showcased their applications built for the device to varying levels of “oohs” and “ahhs” from the crowd.

"We've developed for nearly every mobile platform, this one is the best," Loopt's Sam Altman said. "We think this is a new era in mobile."

Forstall also introduced a new feature that allows iPhone users to receive notifications of changes on an application even when the user isn't actively using the applications. Instant messaging messages and more will be made available through a new Apple Push Notification Service that maintains one consistent link with the device, rather than requiring multiple applications to run in the background.

The specs

The “3G” aspect of the new iPhone calls out the device’s tri-band HSDPA support in the 850/1900/2100 MHz bands in addition to its quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support from the previous model. (No word in Apple’s press release about support for HSUPA technology, which AT&T Mobility has baked into its recent network upgrades.) Apple claims the device will have 10 hours of talk time in GSM mode and 5 hours of talk time in UMTS mode. The device continues to include Wi-Fi capabilities as well inside its new, slimmer profile.

Speaking of aesthetics, the 3G iPhone will not come in two colors: black for both models and white for the 16GB model. The new colors are rendered in plastic that will replace the previous models’ aluminum casing.

The new device also includes assisted GPS technology and Bluetooth 2.0, which were both lacking in the original model. The GPS functionality was central to several new applications that were presented during the event that also highlighted new applications developed for the iPhone platform through its software development kit.

Apple also touted the new device’s support for enterprise applications, as well as Apple’s new MobileMe service that pushes e-mail, contacts and calendar events from a central Apple server to the iPhone. The MobileMe service is set to replace Apple’s previous .mac service.

Other “improvements” to the device include a flush headphone jack and the inclusion of a “SIM ejector tool.”

Article courtesy Matt Kapko of RCR Wireless News

That's one expensive phone

Good news, Dior lovers: More pictures, and details, of the upcoming Dior mobile phone have emerged. We knew the fashion house was introducing a luxury handset after images of the phone appeared online, but the pictures didn't really reveal anything about specifications, pricing and color.

Lucky for us, an article on the Wall Street Journal gives us a few more details regarding the designer phone, which will be initially available in Russia and China. The reason for this, according to Dior Chief Executive Sidney Toledano, is there's a bigger demand for luxury goods there, and consumers living in these countries really pay attention to color and design when buying a phone.

But don't be disheartened if you really want one, because this phone will work in most parts of the world, except Japan and Korea, where it isn't compatible with local wireless networks. Specifications are still a bit sketchy, but we do know the features on the Dior phone include a touchscreen, a camera, and special ringtones.

What really makes the Dior handset stand out though is the accompanying clip-on mini-phone that comes with the model. This unusual attachment called "My Dior" is about the size of a USB key and connects to the main handset via Bluetooth to make it easy for the user to answer any incoming calls.

As you can see from the picture above, the phone will be available in pink, red, and white when it goes on sale later this year for $5,000.

Article courtesy Yahoo.com

Killer doors man.

The Real-Life Ironman

iClones

So the world has been narrowed down to two types of people. iPhone users and the rest of the world. Being an iPhone user myself, I have to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Yes the iPhone has been wildly successful and yes there are many reasons not to like it. However, it's hard to deny what the iPhone has done to and for the mobile market. Let's take a look at some of the competition's spin-offs that are making a run at the iPhone, along with broadening the evolving technology around mobile devices...




HTC is the latest to enter the battle, this week unveiling the HTC Touch Diamond (pictured) a mobile phone that comes in as more compact as its Apple rival and adding what it calls a "3D touch interface" called TouchFLO to offer access to people, messaging, email, photos, music, weather and more.

The HTC Touch Diamond measures 102 mm by 51 mm by 11.33 mm and weighs in at 110 g. For connectivity it operates on WCDMA/HSPA, 900/2100 MHz, and HDSPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA. The device runs the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system and features a 2.8-inch VGA touch screen, a 3.2 megapixel camera with video calling, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, 802.11 b and g Wi-Fi, and for storage features 4 GB internal, 256 MB flash and 192 MB RAM. Along with all of those features, the Touch Diamond offers GPS and offers up to 4 hours of talk time and up to 300 hours of standby time, or 100 hours of standby with push e-mail.



Probably the biggest attention-getter of this year's CTIA Wireless 2008 in Las Vegas was the Samsung Instinct (pictured) from Sprint. The device, which features a touch screen and ultra-fast Internet speeds, boasts its lower-than-the-iPhone price tag of about $300, while still packing in features.

The Instinct measures 2.17 inches by 4.57 inches by 0.49 inches and weighs less than 4.5 ounces. It features advanced functions like Visual Voicemail, which lets users listen to messages in their order of preference and manage them with a screen tap. It also offers support for corporate and consumer POP3 email accounts, multitasking that lets users play music in background mode while surfing the Internet, texting or playing games; a 2.0 megapixel camera with camcorder and expandable microSD memory of up to 8 Gb. Other features include stereo Bluetooth 2.0, an integrated world clock, SMS voice and text messaging with threaded text, phone as a modem, picture caller ID and Sprint Mobile Sync.



Verizon is also in on the touch-screen craze with its Verizon Wireless XV6900, a touch-screen device that Verizon said is optimized for easy navigation with the swipe of a finger. The pure white device offers Web access through Internet Explorer Mobile and enables the sending and receiving of emails and chat on several services. Users can also view and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files and view Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Reader PDFs while also being able to extract and create new zip files and attachments.

The XV6900 also features a built-in speakerphone, Bluetooth support, a microSD slot, a 2.0 megapixel camera with video capture and support for Office Outlook Mobile and Microsoft Exchange with Direct Push.

The XV6900 has a 2.8-inch touch screen with LED backlight and measures 3.98 inches by 2.35 inches by 0.56 inches. The XV6900 will run about $350 with a two-year service contract and a $50 mail-in rebate.



GPS device maker Garmin, while relatively new to the phone game, has come out with an iPhone-style device that incorporates its GPS technology with a Web-enabled mobile phone. The Garmin nuvifone (pictured) is a GPS-enabled touch screen mobile phone that integrates 3.5G mobile capabilities with an Internet browser, data connectivity, personal messaging and personal navigation in one device. Featuring a 3.5-inch touch screen display, the device has three primary icons: call, search and view map.

One the mobile entertainment side, the nuvifone features a built-in camera, direct access to millions of geo-located landmark and sightseeing photographs available through Google's Panoramio picture sharing site, a built-in video camera, and MP3 and MPEG4/AAC.



The AT&T Tilt (pictured) offers many iPhone-like features as well. The mobile Wi-Fi device enables the sending and receiving of email and multimedia messages on a slide out QWERTY keypad; and users can view messages, photos and videos on a large color touch screen that swivels and tilts upward. The Tilt lets users surf the Web, watch streaming video, listen to satellite radio and download music at broadband speeds. Users can talk and send data simultaneously and combine up to six Bluetooth pairings at once.

Additional features include a 3-megapixel camera, a music player, Telenav GPS Navigator support and integrated Wi-Fi. The device uses Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional with Vista compatibility and features Microsoft Office Mobile, which offers mobile access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.



The Palm Centro (pictured), a touch screen device that builds off the popularity of the Palm Treo smartphone offers touch screen capabilities on both AT&T's and Sprint's network, depending on which you choose. The device, which runs the Palm operating system features a 320 pixel by 320 pixel Transflective color touch screen and supports 16-bit color. The Centro features 64 MB of user storage and includes a 1.3 megapixel camera with two-times zoom and video capabilities.

Depending on which service you choose, the device offers access to various email platforms, instant messaging services, push to talk and a host of other applications.



The LG Voyager (pictured) may be the closest in similarities to the iPhone. The Voyager features a touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard. The device offers Internet browsing, a music player, V Cast Mobile TV, dual speakers with stereo sound, Bluetooth support and a 2.0 megapixel camera and camcorder. The device hosts a 2.81-inch touch screen and measures 2.12 inches by 0.71 inches by 4.64 inches.

It offers host of other tools, like a phone book with up to 1,000 contacts, a function key for quick access to 10 shortcuts, USB mass storage, VC NavigatorSM for turn-by-turn voice-prompted directions, and access to email and instant messaging.

Portions of this article are courtesy of CRN.com

The future is touch

Touchscreen devices have been with us for years but, for obvious reasons, they’ve been getting a bit of attention lately.

Call it “touch navigation,” arguably a more accurate term. Add the notion of touch-based input/output for productivity-minded business users, another topic du jour. (Fingers for basic menu navigation, stylus for the nitty gritty.) Engineer in a virtual QWERTY keypad for ease-of-use in messaging and handling documents. Give it 3G connectivity. Call it your own.

In fact, call it the XV6900, the latest Verizon Wireless device to hit the market, at $250 online with a two-year contract and mail-in rebate.

The device, made by HTC Corp., is the sibling of the Touch handset at Verizon’s CDMA rivals, Sprint Nextel Corp. and Alltel Corp., and embodies aspects of the ongoing battle for hearts and minds (and wallets) in an upgrade market where competition is fierce.

Touch navigation indeed has a long history, said Saeed Saatchi, executive director for device marketing at Verizon Wireless, which began with productivity devices such as PDAs, morphed to consumer devices, and now returns to productivity — with the requisite multimedia applications that have become “table stakes,” of course.

“We’re always looking at new technologies and we work with OEMs to bring them to market as they mature,” Saatchi said.

The XV6900 has minimal customization to make it as versatile as possible for the mobile professional, according to Saatchi. The operating system is Windows Mobile 6 Professional, with support for Office Outlook Mobile and Microsoft Exchange. The device offers myriad messaging options, the ability to view and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files and view PowerPoint presentations. Add a speakerphone, Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, a 2-megapixel camera with video capture and microSD slot for up to 8 GB of removable memory.

From HTC’s point of view, the XV6900 and its TouchFLO technology takes its place among the OEM’s lengthening line of touchscreen handsets, which adorn all four top-tier carriers’ portfolios.

“The XV6900 is a great example of our direction and our commitment to tailor hardware and software into one great user experience,” said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of HTC America, via e-mail, “and we believe the pure white XV6900 will be a strong standout in Verizon’s portfolio.”

Despite an HTC effort at establishing its brand by adorning its devices with its logo, the XV6900 is a Verizon-branded device — a point Verizon declined to elaborate on, citing confidential agreements with its business partners.

“The device offers a nice touchscreen experience, emphasizing its strengths with 3G connectivity and tight integration with corporate e-mail systems, all in a caress-able form factor,” said analyst Michael Gartenberg at Jupiter Research. “Verizon Wireless has capitalized on iPhone awareness to offer an alternative aimed at a different demographic. And the device is priced reasonably, in the context of related devices.”

The carrier branding reflects a “natural tension” between carriers and handset vendors that has been playing out for years, Gartenberg added. Both parties are interested in each handset’s branding opportunity and whether the resulting brand logo belongs to the carrier, the vendor, or both is in constant flux. As HTC places more emphasis on gaining brand recognition, that tension is bound to increase and the vendor will continue to wrestle with the issue, according to Gartenberg.

“One reason carriers liked working with HTC in the past is that they could brand HTC’s devices as their own,” Gartenberg said. “For HTC, it’s more important to get the SKU (stock keeping unit) at Verizon. Any single device is merely tactical, not strategic.”

The prospect for and interest in touchscreen devices, however, is in fact a strategic matter, according to analyst Avi Greengart at Current Analysis.

“I consider touchscreens a major form factor overall,” Greengart said, “something that all carriers will need to address with a percentage of their portfolio — this is not just about the iPhone and competing with Apple. Verizon Wireless already has touchscreen products in their line aimed at both productivity and consumer entertainment. The XV6900 falls somewhere in between (those two categories) and can be marketed either way.”

Courtesy Phil Carson

The latest iPhone competition

Sprint gains new CFO and moves to junk status.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its corporate credit and senior unsecured ratings on Sprint Nextel Corp. to BB from BBB- and removed the company’s ratings from CreditWatch with negative implications. The downgrade moves Sprint Nextel out of the investment-grade category and into junk status.

"The downgrade is based on our assessment that Sprint Nextel's business risk profile is no longer supportive of an investment-grade rating given its deteriorating operating performance and lack of visibility in the wireless business, along with increased financial leverage due largely to declining EBITDA," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Allyn Arden

The ratings firm placed Sprint Nextel on CreditWatch in February after the company warned of steep postpaid subscriber losses. S&P said it expects Sprint Nextel’s operating and financial results to remain under pressure over the next couple of years.

The downgrade coincided with the arrival of a new CFO for Sprint Nextel. Robert H. Brust was named its new CFO effective immediately. Brust previously was CFO at Eastman Kodak Co. and CFO of Unisys Corp. He also spent 31 years with General Electric.

William Arendt, senior VP and controller, has been serving as interim CFO since Paul Saleh and two other executives were ousted earlier this year in a management shakeup.

The company is expected to report first-quarter results May 12.

Article Courtesy Kristen Beckman

Microsoft gets a taste of Apple medicine

Apple's little gamble paid off.

Tearing a page out of Microsoft's playbook, Apple used one monopoly to help it gain marketshare in another field. Instead of Operating Systems (Microsoft used Windows to spread IE adoption), Apple used iTunes to spread its Safari browser...and oh boy, did it ever work!

Last month, iTunes for Windows users found an interesting new little application in their Apple Software Update window. Safari 3.1. Even if they hadn't ever installed or wanted to install the browser, it was there. And it was ticked.

That ticked (har) off a lot of people who generally saw Apple as having the moral high ground. Not the least of which was Firefox's CEO who called the move "a bad practice" that "ultimately undermines the safety of the Internet."

Apple eventually (on April 18th) created a box called "new installations" in the updater but continues to leave the Safari 3.1 installation ticked. Obviously Apple knows how valuable this "iTunes trojan" has become on Windows boxes and at the same time knows that its method of spreading it is considered wrong by many.



Safari browser marketshare grew 3 fold on Windows machines. Perhaps helped partially by good reviews, the browser is on a serious uptick as you can see on the graph.

When you play in Microsoft's playground you have to play by Microsoft's rules if you want to succeed...I guess.

Article by Seth Weintraub