Android Emulator Screencast

Here is a video of the Android Emulator (Android is the name of the just announced open source Google operating system for handsets). -



And if you are in an exploring mood, you can download the Android SDK at this Google site. It includes the Android Emulator. You can play with it to get a feel of what the operating system has to offer.

Pen Phone Design is Smallest Yet

From Gizmodo -




There have been pen phone concepts before, even a few working products, but none as slim and small as the one shown above. It is not a finished product yet but the company wants to gauge interest in such a device. What do you think?

HTC shipping out 50000 mobiles with Google OS?

From Engadget -

A UBS analyst is reportedly confirming that HTC will ship about 50,000 cellphones running on a mobile OS made by Google by the end of this year. Analyst Benjamin Schachter also suggested that the first batch wouldn't "be for sale" -- rather, they'd be used exclusively by developers "to understand how the software works."

These reports also help substantiate the belief that Google will likely be focusing on software, and furthermore, Mr. Schachter insinuated that he wouldn't be too awfully shocked if another handset maker (such as LG, imagine that) also jumped in to provide hardware.

Free cellular calls. No cell towers needed. Say bye-bye to your service provider.

From Neoseeker -

TerraNet, a Swedish company, has begun testing of their new peer-2-peer calling system. No service provider needed, no cell towers required, just a fully charged cellphone and other users are all that is required.

Their system uses modified handsets to roam out over a cellular mesh network to find peers within 2km of range. Once a peer is found, your cell call is passed through that peer and up to a maximum of seven hops in total until you're connected. Though the system probably wont be implemented in large cities, TerraNet has pointed out that this P2P calling feature would be sufficient to cover a small rural village or a disaster area. The modified handset are currently undergoing some field testing in both Tanzania and Ecuador.

As mentioned earlier, the handsets in question do require the TerraNet hardware to function in this mesh network calling mode. TerraNet is hopeful that cell phone manufacturers will begin adopting this technology in future revisions of their phones. So far only Ericsson has signed on.

7 Reasons Why Microsoft is DOOMED

From Ask Rea Maor -

#1. Their business model is a dead-end. - Back when Microsoft first started business in 1980, software as a commodity was still a fuzzy concept. Now, in 2007, the concept of software as a commodity is rapidly wearing off again. Today, it’s all about the service and maintenance - something that Microsoft isn’t prepared to deal with.

#2. They flunk at Web 2.0. - Another shift in the technology market is the much-hyped web app. More and more programs can be downloaded from a server and run in a web browser, rendering the OS less important. Meanwhile, the biggest stake MS has ever had in the Internet user-space is its Internet Explorer.

#3. They’re running out of friends. - They’ve been brought up on multiple anti-trust charges. They have been the subject of 130 lawsuits, too. IBM, their former friend, now values Linux above them. And then there’s Sun, Apple, Google, and Oracle, who are flat-out competitors while favoring at least open source, if not Linux.

#4. They only have a couple of cash cows to work with. - Their two products that they stay afloat on is Windows and Office. All other products are also-rans. MSN, Zune, MS Surface, etc. And the XBox is selling well… at a loss.

#5. People are hating on Vista. - We didn’t even see this many people mad about Windows ME.

#6. Their stock isn’t rising any more. - This is not to say “this week”, but rather over the last seven years.

#7. PC makers are starting to turn their backs on Microsoft. - Sure, small-time markets have offered alternatives to Microsoft, but when a giant PC seller like Dell starts selling Ubuntu machines, that’s another big sign. HP has followed suit.

More details at the site.

News Corp's Fox to launch free MySpace mobile

From Yahoo! News -

NEW YORK (Reuters) Mon Sep 24, 8:54 AM ET - Fox Interactive Media said on Monday it plans to launch ad-supported versions of MySpace and other properties for free on cell phones.

MySpace will let its users send and receive messages, comment on pictures, post bulletins, update blogs, find friends and update their mood status on cell phones.

MySpace, which attracts some 80 million unique visitors per month in the US alone, will offer a free version of its mobile application. A more fully featured version is available to paying customers of AT&T Helio.

Millennial Media will provide the mobile advertising technology to support the new products.

A Facebook for the Few

From The New York Times -

Erik Wachtmeister, the Web site’s founder, in Stockholm.

If more proof were needed that the rich are different, it could be found on aSmallWorld.net, an invitation-only social networking site.

“I need to rent 20 very luxury sports cars for an event in Switzerland on the 6th September,” a member wrote recently on the Forum, aSmallWorld’s popular nucleus. “The cars should be: Maserati — Ferrari — Lamborghini — Aston Martin ONLY!”

Another announced: “If anyone is looking for a private island, I now have one available for purchase in Fiji.”

Founded four years ago, the site, promoted as a Facebook for the social elite, has grown from about 500 members to about 150,000 registered users.

The site functions much like an inscrutable co-op board: its members, who pay no fee, induct newcomers on the basis of education, profession and most important, their network of personal contacts. Users are mostly young — 32 on average. Many have graduate degrees and a taste for living extravagantly on more than one continent. Sixty-five percent are from Europe, 20 percent from the U.S. and the rest scattered around the globe.

Advertisers were scarce at first. But in the last six months, luxury brands have come on board after a push from investors, including the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

The site drew a flurry of media attention last year, when Mr. Weinstein purchased a minority stake through the Weinstein Company, projecting that aSmallWorld’s membership could grow to a million within a year or two. SmallWorld is his sole investment in an Internet property.

The draw is “direct access to some of the world’s most influential tastemakers,” a community of early adopters and a natural market for Weinstein's films, books and fashions.

“We’re dealing with a group of people that moves in social migration around the planet,” said Joe Robinson, the new chief executive. “From the point of view of a Mercedes-Benz or a Piaget, that makes this an enormous marketing opportunity.”

The Weinstein Company introduced Mr. Robinson, a former advertising executive with Fox Interactive Media, the owner of MySpace, to court advertisers like Lufthansa, Land Rover, Credit Suisse, Moët & Chandon and Burberry. Olivier Stip, the vice president of marketing for Cartier North America, said that an advertisement placed in June generated lively traffic for the jeweler’s Love collection.

Advertising rates are competitive with those of Forbes.com and Style.com. On average, clients spend $20,000 to $50,000 a month. The company also arranges dinners and tastings where members can sample advertisers’ products. For one recent gathering, Rémy Martin supplied 4,000 bottles of its premium Cognac, valued at $200 each.

But the presence of advertisers raises questions about just whom they are reaching and whether this business model works. Mr. Robinson said 35 percent of aSmallWorld members log in every day. But Andrew Lipsman, a senior analyst at comScore Network, a company that rates online usage, said that it is hard to track the number of unique visitors because the site is relatively small. “If there are a couple of hundred thousand registered users,” he said, “probably only a fraction are visiting the site regularly.” Compare that with Facebook, which in July had 30.6 million unique visitors, a number that has doubled since last year, Mr. Lipsman said.

Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research in Foster City, Calif., said that for advertisers trying to concentrate on a group of influential people, a special-interest publication makes sense. “I liken advertising on aSmallWorld to advertising in the Harvard Business School alumni report,” she said. “For luxury advertisers, the online options are fairly limited.”

Skeptics are not sure just who is getting the message. “For truly wealthy consumers, time is the ultimate luxury,” said Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing, which researches luxury brands. “These people are not going to waste it hanging about on a social networking site.”

The company does not publish members’ income or net worth, so their actual spending power is difficult to gauge. Hollywood strivers, fashion models, financiers and minor European royalty have been admitted inside its virtual velvet rope. But users also include publicists and party promoters who use the site as a personal database. In theory, they are just a few clicks away from Mr. Weinstein, a member, or boldface names like Naomi Campbell, Quentin Tarantino and Frédéric Fekkai.

The site has drawn enough notice to breed its share of copycats. Milton Pedraza of the Luxury Institute, a New York research group, plans to introduce Luxury Ratings.com early next year as an advertising-free, gated online community; members will pay an annual subscribers’ fee of $250. He says members will each have a net worth in the millions or tens of millions. “They are not only resilient,” he said, “they are nearly immune to a housing or stock market downturn.”