Software
Ex-Google Mobile Product Manager Nails the G1 with Good Reason
Posted by Jesus Diaz at 11:45 PM on September 25, 2008
Ulf Waschbusch, who was Google's Mobile Product Manager until he recently left for MySpace Mobile, thinks the T-Mobile G1 sucks for a variety of reasons. He also points out the good stuff, but after seeing what's wrong in terms of interface, enterprise integration, data plan and its other flaws, especially compared with the competition, I absolutely agree with his views:

If you're flying one of Europe's many discount carriers and you're not violently hungover, you're probably doing something wrong--the cabins of those single-class A319s are bubbling tempests of unshowered, throbbing rage that always seem a fraction of a degree away from boiling over. Now on your sunrise flight from Krakow to Berlin, you can enjoy constant mobile phone blabbing from up to six surrounding seats thanks to the good folks at Ryanair, 3, and O2.
Say what you will about Windows Vista, but we think it's a little outlandish to advertise the product on a toilet. In an unnamed Russian city, ads for Vista appear right on the porcelain reading, "Windows Vista - the digital future starts here." We really hope it's an advertising agency's version of a prank. Otherwise, Microsoft appears to be after that "I pee standing up and often drink so much that I puke" demographic...which is probably pretty broad, honestly. [
Nine of the top ten selling notebooks on Amazon right now are netbooks. (The other spot is taken by Apple.) Call them underpowered, complain about their screens, but there's a reason why every PC manufacturer in the world has jumped on the
In a stunning move, the folks at Asus appear to be adding a fairly significant feature to one of their netbooks--built-in 3.75G HSUPA connectivity to the Atom-powered 8.9" Eee PC 901--without spinning off another 5 different model designations. The 3.75G chip will be in all 901s that ship from October onward.
According to the South China Morning Post, in China the iPhone 3G won't have 3G or Wi-Fi. China Mobile wants Apple to disable these two features. The first because they don't have a 3G network in place. The second nobody knows or can imagine why, but it simply makes the iPhone an almost-useless shiny brick. [
While SanDisk has made no official announcements, their 16GB MicroSD cards are popping up for sale at various internet retailers (at various prices, we might add). Ranging from $US80 to $US220 (we'd go with the $US80), prices will settle with more availability. But we're pretty excited to toss an iPhone's worth of flash storage into any
Content producers of
Motorola doesn't seem to have a great plan for the mobile space in the next few years, and these spy shots do little to assuage
Rail-happy Japan, a country that probably takes great joy in watching America's
Fresh from the arms-races-that-I-didn't-even-know-were-happening department comes Casio's latest venture in ultra-high density LCD panels, which has resulted in a 546ppi, 960x540, 2.0-inch TFT. To put that into real-world terms (or "iPhone terms" as they're called around here), that means that this display is over three times as dense as the iPhone's already lush 160ppi panel. A less useful (but more entertaining) way to explain this would be to say that if the tech could be scaled to suit a 40-inch widescreen TV, it would have a stunning resolution of 10800p.
So we've been inundated with
HappyWakeUp is a new mobile phone alarm app developed for S60 (the other open platform) that only wakes you when it knows you're in a light sleep cycle. How does it know? Well, Computerworld says HappyWakeUp actually uses the microphone from your phone to statistically analyse your sleep habits based on noises you make, and when placed under your pillow, it determines what phase of sleep you're in.
Seen at the Valley Fair Apple Store here in the Bay Area, some guy's protesting Apple for something or other while wearing a homemade iPhone costume. Did your mum help you make that costume, sir? Because you should really ask her for help—she'd be able to pick out a nicer typeface and better looking icons. Best of luck to your cause, whatever it is. [Thanks
Even as
The large elderly population in Japan has manufacturers clamouring to develop devices to assist them. Not surprisingly, they are coming up with some pretty unique ideas. Take this human airbag for instance. The airbag system is strapped onto the body and inflates in 0.1 seconds when it detects rapid movement toward the ground. Strangely, one pocket will be behind the head and another behind the hips—but there is no protection for a forward fall. So, Grandpa is on his own if he should trip and fall face-first in the street. Walk it off, Grandpa...walk it off. [
Some very talented individuals at the Japanese company Hot Toys have developed 1:6 scale Iron Man Mark I, II and III figures that feature an absolutely extraordinary level of detail. Seriously though—just look at Stark's face. Sure he looks kind of Japanese but I'll be damned if that is not the best Robert Downey Jr. has ever looked in tiny plastic form. Details are scarce, but more info is expected to be released sometime "soon." I can't wait to find out how much I can't afford to buy this!
Google made the
Tinker, a game available right now for free through the Windows Vista Ultimate Extras program, is probably the first Ultimate extra that people actually like. The previous couple—Sound Schemes and DreamScene moving wallpapers—were nice, but hardly worth the extra money people paid for the premium version of Vista. Download the 60-level obstacle course game right now from your automatic Windows Update. Here's hoping there are more Extras coming before Windows 7 hits.
Obviously, six Mac placeholders showing up in Future Shop's inventory system isn't a reason to jump to conclusions about new Macbooks—but it certainly doesn't do anything to dispel any of
For die-hard Yankee's fans like myself, this has definitely been a year to forget. I think everyone would agree that the season itself was a total disaster, and I'm sure that there are a lot of people that are sad to see the old stadium go. Lego artist