DISQUS

Agreed with the other commenters on this post. And having watched your most entertaining yet educational performance (not a presentation) at WordCamp Las Vegas, I did tweet that when the next late night show opening occurs (any network) you should be a candidate.

But what I will always remember is the way you treated me when we actually met up personally after your time in front of us. I went away from our discussion thinking, "Wow, Chris is just simply human!" You (along with Lorelle who followed you) made my whole trip to LV worthwhile.

Looking forward to keeping in touch.

Luca,

Yesterday Skype COO Scott Durschlag made it clear to us that Skype wants to build relationships with established Social Networking operations (as they have done with MySpace) as a provider of a real time communications component of the SM site. But they have no intention to build their own SM capability; real time communications software is Skype's strength and focus, not community building.

As for white boarding, Skype's Public Chats are a text-based form of whiteboarding; the Skype 4.x Discussion Public Chagt has been an ongoing discussion since May 2007 when Skype introduced Publi Chat. It's a virtual "water cooler" discussion.

Finally, the new screen sharing on Skype for Mac actually allows transmission of streaming video, such as YouTube (not commonly possible on most desktop sharing applications. This probably works because Skype video itself can support 30 fps at 640x480 resolution.

And it became quite clear in discussions yesterday that Skype is operating as an eBay business unit independent of whatever eBay itself does. The new Skype executive team's sole responsibility to eBay is to build value for this business unit any way they feel appropriate for the benefit of increasing Skype's valuation only.

Luca, you may want to direct people to <a href="http://saunderslog.com/2008/11/20/blackberry-storm-panned/#comment-1134977"<my comment on Alec's post. There are other videos out there, for instance, this one.

I have both a Bold and an iPhone; used them for over three months. Personally the browser on the Bold is only occasionally a hindrance to getting what I want but overall, as a business tool, I find it to be more useful to the point where I don't have to rush to my laptop to keep up, and interact, with all my real time communications activities. Once RIM gets Javascript on the browser working totally effectively, it will be right up there. The real key to the way I use a smartphone is what a 480 pixel wide screen allows you to do.

The one key factor that will help Storm - it's providing a touch screen solution to Verizon's 70 million wireless customers and whatever Vodafone has in Europe (as well as Bell and Telus in Canada). And it readily integrates into any enterprise with BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Luca, thanks for the acknowledgements.

As I said in our Twitter exchange:
1. Bold is a full two-way real time communications device -- especially when it comes to handling Instant Messaging (in background) and editing of Office documents. And, as Andrew has expressed, I have tried and tried to get used to the iPhone touchpad but my error rate is way too high for any serious typing.

2. The three major features of the Bold for Business: (i) the display is stunning - it grows on you; (ii) the keyboard and (iii) the ability to do full background processing - important for having IM sessions running while performing other activities such as email or web browsing.

3. In practice it has become a "laptop for the hip" (or purse). When traveling I have lost the feeling that I have to run to my laptop to keep current with all real time activity such as email, IM, Twitter, reading blogs and websites - the Bold handles all these activities very well (I'll still use my laptop for creating documents of any size and for writing blog posts amongst other entry intensive applications.

4. Pending the arrival of the BlackBerry App Store both Crackberry.com and Handango have stores that run on the BlackBerry. There are already several thousand useful apps available through them.

The Storm 9350 fpr Verizon/Bell/Telus does not run on North American 3G bands; it does support CDMA-EV-DO. And if you try http://storminfo.ca/ you will find out more. Also try telusmobility.com/storm. And last time I looked at "3G" on Wikipedia, in researching this article, EV-DO was considered a 3G protocol. Storm 9500 for Vodafone only runs on the 2G North American bands, but on the European/Asian UMTS/HSPA 2100 MHz 3G bands.

Bell//Telus are upgrading to a shared HSPA network, hoping to launch next fall. This provides them with a more universally accepted protocol. This is also considered 3G.

Options at the Blackberry site link for Rogers also include OS 4.5 for 8800 and 8820 (but not Pearl, yet).

Sorry, Luca but as long as iPhone does not have a hardware QWERTY keyboard, I would not waste time doing more than one line posts from the iPhone. iPhone, is a great one way device for pulling down and viewing information and may be fine for Twitter but not for posts of any length beyond that. Give me a Blackberry or E71 (and even then most bloggers don't want to do posts of more than one or two paragraphs) - based on practical observations.

I have had the iPhone version (with upgrades) running; biggest issue is making it my primary IM since I use Skype Chat/IM mostly. That's where all my contacts are available.

At least when we were at the Toronto Hilton you got 6Mbps d/l and 2.5Mbps upload for $12.50 per day.

Just a little reminder to all those considering the outright purchase to avoid a 3 year commitment: the $30/month for 1GB data plan also requires a 3-year commitment. Unless you are only going to use it over WiFi, that has to be a consideration. From my own iPhone experience, you will find yourself using a lot more data than past experience over an EDGE network due to the nature of what's available and how you use it.

As I mentioned in a post last week on Skype Journal, calling Truphone-to-Truphone remains free; they are now charging for calls from Truphone to the PSTN -- where there are termination charges involved. Mobivox, on the other hand will be charging for calls between Mobivox users because somebody has to pay for use of the VoxGirl who sets up the calls.

Actually, Luca, Nokia is launching its first N-series phone in the North America tomorrow on the Rogers service in Canada with the N95 8GB. First wireless video calling service in North America is one of the features. More at Skype Journal tomorrow.

You forgot to mention how many pink drinks were consumed prior to this visit....

My experience with blogtv.ca was so bad it's worth repeating here what I commented to Mark Evans post on this.

Here is a real problem for blogtv.ca. Earlier this week Jeff Pulver was asking people to watch his blogtv broadcast, so I type in the URL he gave — blogtv.com/Shows/96 - and what do I get? A redirect to blogtv.ca with access to only Canadian content. Come on guys and gals, the Internet ignores borders — especially when you’re trying to launch a service that needs user generated content. If I can’t get content from my US acquaintances, (or from anywhere else worldwide), I’m not going to use the service.

Do a search at blogtv.ca on Pulver or Scoble and you come up dry.

Blogtv.ca executives must be ex-CRTC people, thinking they know better than I what is good for Canadians to see. Tonight I could still get blogtv.ca but if they are going off the air, they deserve to die.

Fortunately my one email received on this issue was "via" (not from) someone whom I knew would not do this. Check out Ken Camp's post, "Quechup -- Rat Bastard Disease of the Internet" at http://ipadventures.com/2007/09/06/quechup-rat-.... Fwiw, I posted a warning at http://skypejournal.com/blog/2007/09/a_vd_warni....

Interesting because I was reading Scobelizer -- the posts written when you were in a certain line up earlier this week -- two days ago via Google RSS Reader on a Nokia N95 with no problem. However, it appeared to be a version formatted especially for the N95. Went to mobile.google.com and received back a list of "Google Services for your N95". One of those services is the "Reader" (under "Google Lab services for your N95"). And the Reader gives you a list of several hundred RSS feeds -- including Scobelizer (but I could not find a way to add a feed, such as Skype Journal, to the list).

If I go to the same URL on my Blackberry I have a different experience for the Blackberry 8700 in that it gives me the opportunity to download separate clients for Search, Maps, GMail, News, and GTalk. And it acknowledges that I am on a Blackberry 8700. No sign of Google Reader in this case.

It seems Google has made responses to the mobile.google.com URL adapted to each mobile device. Would be interesting to know what you get when you go to this URL on the iPhone.

Based on the practical experience of my son's several years at Stanford, it is the student himself/herself who will be continuously watching the "home" TV stations videos. Often my son would tell me local news that I had not previously heard about. (And, you will be glad to know, usually it was because he had been reading the Globe and Mail site.)

I had a similar experience just over a year ago where my four-hour old car (yes just had it four hours) was broken into to steal the laptop on the back seat. Police told me these thieves will steal anything left visible on the back suit, including gym bags with sweat-enhanced gym clothes.

I then learned my new Volvo has an extra security arrangement for the trunk. Basically there is a security lock that can only be switched on/off (on a panel switch) with the ignition keys inserted. Avoids those frequency sweepers that can pop your trunk.

Fortunately there was not trace of any identity theft; did help that I had a Windows password.

I tend to look at these deals and ask -- ok -- how does this get to the customer. Now Intel OEM's processors to PC manufacturers. So is this something were a trial package will come with every Intel (Dual Core) PC via the PC mfr? But PC mfrs like to make their own bundling deals.

If not, are they getting into the retail software business? But they don't have the channels for software distribution. And I can see distributors being slow to pick it up unless Intel hss done a not marketing blitz with Ingram, TechData, etc.

Seems like one of those cases where they have run out of ideas on how to incrase hardware sales but then start grasping at strawa in an attemtp to associate their names with the "latest trend>'

I simply say "Huh?"!!

What would worry me more would be if, having looked at a Volvo web page and been "cookied", and then Google figured out an algorithm to track every other vehicle manufacturer whose page I visited. Would be a gold mine of competitive information that any vendor would lust for. However, that would be a definite invasion of privacy.

As an aside, having been a Volvo owner since 1972, I don't think there is much Volvo could learn about me by tracking me on the Internet.

Did you notice in the middle of this discourse that Shel (aka Rosie O'Grady) Israel had to take cover under the Blogger Protection Program?

The entire story of the role of GoTo in the evolution of Google is told in some detail John Batelle's book, The Search.

First, I worked in California when the anti-smoking referendum was passed (fall 1994). As one who is allergic to cigarette/cigar smoke (and who, while there had to worry about his own laundry), it made a huge difference.

I also recall my days at AST where smoking was banned in their Orange County facilities (pre-1994); if they smelled smoke in the ventilation system, they sent out search parties to find the culprit. I once saw Safi admonish a visitor for smoking in a reception area.

But, turning to non-smoking jurisdictions, both Ontario and Quebec have recently (June 1, 2006) implemented anti-smoking laws that are at least as tough as Californias. Of course, part of the reason was healthcare costs; remember there is "state" healthcare here.

But, of course, if you are considering these areas, bring along your most fashionable ski jacket! Not Bay Area weather for four months of the year.

Forget movies and downloadable content, has anyone noticed that sports, especially fast moving ones such as soccer (aka football outside US and Canada) and hockey are much better with HDTV. Even baseball (but it falls outside the "fast moving" category.)! You see more of the play forming up and catch lots of play and action detail that is cut off by a 4:3 video. In fact, being a marginal soccer fan at best, I find myself entranced watching World Cup soccer in HD.

OK, so I will comment on movies; legacy wide screen movies look much better on HDTV (even without a HD-DVD source). Tremendous quality for a movie like Lawrence of Arabia with its dramatic desert scenes. Yet this was a movie originally produced in 1962 and done an injustice by showing it on even a 32" traditional TV. It was produced in a wide screen format that contributes to the overall success the movie had. (In those days, the relatively few "wide screen" movies were cool!)

And my 5-year old home theatre audio is just fine, thank you.

Of course, it you want the hottest laptops going, check out these stories:

http://ricksegal.typepad.com/pmv/2006/06/the_je...

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops/dell-laptop-...

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops/ibook-in...

Thanks to Rick Segal for bringing them to our attenion.