Nine-Day NetBooks

I claim the "NetBook" (whatever the hell that really is) will turn out to be a 9-day wonder: less utility then a laptop, too big to put in your pocket. End of story. :-)

i-Screen, u-Screen, Vee All Screen for Which Screen?

When I first came to the USA, it quickly became apparent that there was no such thing as, ice cream. You had to specify what flavor, what combination of flavors, what kind of cone, what you wanted on top of it, and so on. This is all enshrined in the song I scream, You scream, We all scream for Ice Cream. Coming from England, I was not used to dealing with such a wide spectrum of choices for such a simple thing as ice cream. And England had the worst ice cream I had ever tasted, made from hydrogenated vegetable oils; margarine, basically. But it only took a few "experiments" to catch on to the more complex American approach.

MacET Phone Home or Il Papa or Starbucks

As Apple Inc., drops the word 'computer' from its name and focuses on the commodity computer of the future (currently called 'The iPhone'), I had forgotten that Apple's history began with The Steves playing with (analog) phones, in the shape of a Blue Box.

This cute NPR piece reminded me of all that. In it, Steve Wozniak recalls his meeting with Captain Crunch ca.1971, learning how to make Blue Boxes and later using it to place a free prank call to the Pope. Fast forward to the 2007 MacWorld introduction of the iPhone and Steve Jobs placing a prank call to Starbucks for 4000 caffè lattes.

Laptop Shipments Finally Beat Desktops

As reported in this December 23rd piece by Information Week, the new laptop player hiding in these numbers is the NetBook. A netbook is defined as an ultralight, ultraportable PC with screen sizes 10 inches or less. With no CD/DVD drive and limited storage, prices can be as low as $300. Thanks but, no thanks! just give an iPhone.

Apple IT Dies on iPhone 3G Launch

It's great to be popular, but hell to be the rage.

In the aftermath, Apple managed to sell 1 million iPhones in just 3 days cf. the same number of the original iPhone in 2.5 months. Why should you care? Mobile devices like this are actually computers, not just phones. The iPhone runs MacOS X; same as mac laptops. In my view, this and similar devices represent the commodity computer of the future.