Weekly News - Oct 11th, 2009

Sunday

• Sidekick data is lost (Giz, ComputerWorld, PCWorld,  WashingtonPost). This may have significant implications for T-Mobile, MS, and maybe even for Cloud acceptance.  At the least we all will pay more attention to our backups; at least for a while
• I was curious so did a quick check on Alexa rankings
  • Gizmodo #788, Engadget #572, BoyGeniusReport: #8,462, crackberry: #1,871, BerryReview: #20,286.
  • Apple: #55, Blackberry: #835, Android #7,951
  • NYtimes:
  • Top
    1. Google – up
    2. Facebook – still up!
    3. Yahoo – down
    4. YouTube – up
    5. Live (but direct to bing is #21) – stable?
    6. Wikipedia – up
    7. Blogger – down a bit.  blogging stabilizing? somewhere else?
    8. MSN
    9. Baidu – down (I’m surprised.  searches going to?)
    10. Yahoo Japan – stable for a bit, now up.
    11. MySpace – down, down
    12. Google india
    13. twitter – stabilizing
    14. Google germany
    15. Microsoft
    16. QQ (china IM, expanding into other things) – dropping
    17. WordPress – down, now back up
  • boingboing.net is now #2,399 and ramping very steeply up, although I liked the old format much better.
• Report on ATT woes are data, not infrastructure (TelephonyOnline) [BB are (a bit? a lot?) less data-hungry]
• TMobile Project Dark (BGR).  Trying to become #3 carrier. From FierceWireles: Verizon (87M), ATT (79M), Sprint (47M), TMobile (33M).

Monday

• BB JDE 5.0 beta 4 is now out (BR)
• Moto moving away from LiMo; getting closer to Android? (EG)

Tuesday

• T-Mobile to compensate Sidekick users (PCW). A lesson for all of us.
• GSM Palm-Pre starts in Germany (EG)
• Experiments in iPhone UI by Ocean Observations (youTube, home).  It looks nice.  Multi-gestures are not the fastest UI but they can be very intuitive.
• Barnes and Noble “Major Event” (G).  We forget the role that the B&M companies can play in the new net.  B&N, BestBuy, … others?
• GelaSkins for different devices, including BBs (website)
• New Apps to try
  • Dictionary.com (CB) – yet to try
  • Weather.com (CB) – useful but font is too small (and can’t be changed), looks unfinished
• T-Mobile has “free phones” for BB developers (BR)
• More bold (9700) launch rumors on ATT (BGR). And Storm2 on Vodaphone (BGR).  Too many to track; I’ll stop doing it unless a really important one shows up.
• And Bell Canada adds iPhone (already had Palm Pre and BB Bold (BGR).
• New look/logo for BB on “consumer-friendly” sites?  Together with new visuals?  Less black, more colors.  See devices, and this “Love the Journey” image and “Love what you do” at top page.  This is good.  Finally getting serious about consumer market.

Wednesday

• Nice review of RIM/BBs at NYTimes.  Quite positive overall.  Getting ready for Storm2 launch any day now.
• Reports about JailBreak-resistant iPhone (BGR, ElReg, PCWorld).  I’m surprised nobody points out that there are two separate issues; one is Apple’s desire to control distribution channel; the other is integrity of the phone and the ability to wipe it out if needed.   The first is just $$s for Apple.  The second is a need by security-conscious customers (like the goverment).  BBerries do a good job in separating the two issues.
• iPhone Apps: printing directly to printer (PC).  BBs need to make this type of Apps very cheap by manufacturers.
• Multiple Screens: B&N’s eReader (CNet).  Rumored to be using Android.  How big a disadvantage does RIM have if they don’t have a foot on those other screens?  iPhones/Androids/java/javafx/windows can.  Ditto about netbooks, like the  Nokia Booklet 3G (ChipChick).
• How to upgrade a BBOS (BR, CB).  Upgrading in general is quite confusing to newbies, see comments at CB.
• Peer-to-peer WiFi (PCWorld).  About time!  Why did it take so long?  Vendor politics?
• BB Developer Resources… found!
• BB using JIRA!  (use my DevZone id!)
• Mobile Application Design Considerations for Java Developers (link)  Tuesday 20th, 2pm PT.
• Cliq review at Gizmodo.  So-so

Thursday

• Early review (WSJ/AllThingsDigital)
• Bunch of Storm2 reviews (G) (CB-review) (CB-specs) (ChannelWeb) (Electronista) (iPhoneBlog) (InformationWeek) (CNet) (Bloomberg).  Reviews are positive, but not super-strong…
• Supposedly coming to Verizon Soon (BGR) (YY)
• Storm2 Official Page @ RIM
• Augmented Reality is pretty close to being useful.  See Layar@Engadget
• ChannelWeb on 11 BB Apps worth checking.
• Gizmodo has an angry post on RIM, their relationship to Engadget/Gizmodo, and the lack of Storm2s for review.  Not a good relationship to have with the press.

Friday

• Where is Verizon’s Storm2 Announcement? (CB)
• Facebook 1.7 for BB (CB)  Also see My Comparison Post with iPhone Client.
• BBs for UK Police (Engadget)
• Walmart.CA has a mobile site More volume / BigBox vendors getting into this space (Best Buy earlier with mIQ).
• Interesting article at Gizmodo on the impact of the Apple AppStore in the per-unit price of Apps and its potential impact in the industry.

Saturday

• Droid attack @ Verizon (Engadget)  (Engadget2) This is sooner than I was expecting.
• Funny that Gizmodo defends Apple. Not sure why, but Gizmodo is very pro-iPhone.  You would expect them to try to play a bit more neutral.
• Pre at Verizon next year (BGR)
• In-App Store Purchases (eWeek) (Engadget)

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