Fake Steve's Hubris

You've got to love Fake Steve Jobs:

"See this great article on Wired.com about how the music companies are now desperately trying to prop up some other online retailer as the alternative to Apple, and even sacrificing DRM to do it. Money quote from Edgar Bronfman Jr. where he admits that consumers now care more about their choice of music player than they do about the music itself: "Never before in the history of content has the hardware been more valuable than the software. You think about the VCR or the video cassette -- the video cassette always had more value than the VCR that you shoved it into. Apple has been able to turn that model on its head."

Yes we have. Ain't we cool?"

Why Mahalo Sucks

Take a look at Mahalo.com's search return for the iPhone. The page is dominated by outdated information, the most prominent is an ancient YouTube video of a CBS news report from prior to the phone's release. The most-asked question about Mahalo's user-generated search results was how they would keep the information up-to-date. I've heard Mahalo's creators promise that it would not be a problem, citing Wikipedia as an example. They have obviously failed in the near term. If they can't even keep information on a hot topic like the iPhone relevant, Mahalo may have to find other ways to survive.

Toward that end, it's interesting to note that the the Mahalo iPhone page came up on the second page of Google results for the iPhone. So, it seems that Mahalo is becoming an SEO rather than a search engine.

NY Times' Miguel Helft: Google's Pacific Cable No Big Deal

In a recent blog post titled "Google's Cables Make Unnecessary Waves," The New York Times' Miguel Helft makes the case that news of Google's involvement in laying new cable across the Pacific Ocean is no big deal.

"But my sources told me that Google has long considered becoming part owner of undersea cables, not as part of some new telecom venture, but rather because it needs the bandwidth to move massive amounts of digital information between its data centers around the world. The company already leases capacity in underwater cables, and owning some of the cables outright might prove cheaper than paying rents."

First off, Google isn't trying to start a "new telecom venture," they already have one. Google is currently using their own routers and dark fiber to send their data across the country, which is what a telecom does. Google is cutting out the cost of using other middlemen (other telecoms). Telecoms also own fiber and routers and make money by charging companies like Google to use their hardware. If Helft is talking about Google becoming an ISP, then yes, this news isn't of much interest. But if we're talking about Google expanding its ownership of the hardware backbone that is the Internet, then it is big news. A basic understanding of how the Internet works and what the definition of telecom is could have helped Helft out. His sources tipped him in the right direction, but he failed to connect the dots.

Costco & Lord of the Rings

I bought the 4-disc Lord of the Rings: Return of the King extended edition for $10.99 at Costco. Not bad.

Poor Cell Phone Reception In Your Apartment?

Sprint is offering a solution for those who get poor cell reception in their homes. The Sprint Airave serves as a kind of cell phone extender, but instead of connecting with cell phone towers miles away, you connect to a device that is like a modem that makes your call over the internet. Looks like the service costs $50 for the equipment and $15 a month for the service. That on top of my cell phone bill? I think I'll just stand next to a window. I could really use a product like this with AT&T Wireless and my iPhone--the Airave is Sprint only.

Firefox Works Better on a Mac

I had to take my MacBook in for repairs, so I had to use my old Windows XP Dell for a couple weeks. My god, Firefox 2 eats up tons of memory and crashes like crazy on Windows machines. It works great on my MacBook. I'm not sure who to curse or who to praise.

See Mark Cuban's latest post,"Once You Go Mac," on Blog Maverick.

Georgia Font

Why is Georgia my favorite font? Because it's one of the most readable fonts that's readily available to everyone. From Wikipedia:

"[Georgia] is designed for clarity on a computer monitor even at small sizes, partially due to a relatively large x-height."

Link: Wikipedia article on Georgia font.

Trimming the RSS Feed Fat

One RSS feed deleted today: Federated Media. There was too much noise from this one, and the stories were always 3 days old.

One RSS feed added: Leoville.com/blog. Leo LaPorte's blog.

Starbucks Downloading Hints at Future Business Model

Apple's new wifi downloading at Starbucks is an interesting business model. First, the cost of setting up the service seems minimal. The infrastructure is already in place at each Starbucks via their wifi. All Apple has to supply is the software. If this service ends up a dud, all that Starbucks will suffer are the labor charges associated handling the service.

It becomes even more interesting if Apple expands this technology to other venues. Any place that has a high iPod-carrying customer base should be interested in this technology. Any club or concert venue could sell concert goers a recording from the soundboard or even a copy the band's album. New bands could offer a free single (the first one is always free) or their 5 song ep for whatever they want to charge. Bands would have the advantage of the spontaneous sale, the I-'ve-gotta-have-it-now buying fever that strikes ever y decent American. Most bands already sell CDs at their shows, but those CDs require the band's own capital to purchase before they sell, and can be a loss even they go unsold at the end of a tour.

Bars with jukeboxes could add this feature.

This could also fit into Mark Cuban's idea of going to see a movie and bringing home the DVD. Why not download the DVD over wifi as you sip a cup of joe and talk about the film in the Cineplex's Starbucks cafe?

In general, wifi gadgets with attached memory open up lots of new possibilities. It will be up to the seller to figure out ways to spur sales at their stores. This technology doesn't have to be limited to Apple, but it looks like they've got a foot in the door with their wifi iPods.

Google Reader

RSS readers are an incredibly useful tool. One great reader that I use is Google Reader. The first rule of RSS readers is that you can't subscribe to heavy news sites like CNN.com. Why? Because if you don't check your feeds consistenly, you'll have 200 news stories waiting, just from one site. And most of the stories are just noise. It's best to stick with feeds that deliver between 2-10 stories a day.

My current web browsing routine is skimming through my Google Reader feeds quickly by using the "n" key. If I'm at work, I merely read the headlines and add a star (the "s" key) to anything interesting for later reading.

If I'm at home, I open the interesting stories in another tab, but stay in the Reader window until I've gone through all the feeds. When I'm finished with that, I go tab to tab.

A couple suggested sites which feature great RSS feeds:

Official Google Reader Blog
Boing Boing
Ars Technica
Engadget (warning: this site is "noisy" sometimes. Lots of weird product announcements)
Daring Fireball