Global Nerdy » Mobile and Wireless

Verizon’s Ironic Pop-Up Ad

Joey deVilla — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 17:58:25 +0000

Newspaper articles, pop-up ads and random number generators are a never-ending source of amusement. Consider the screenshot below, in which a Verizon pop-up ad blocks your view of an article about Verizon blocking the New York Times article Verizon Blocks Messages of Abortion Rights Group:

Image courtesy of Raypride.

This is out-of-date news now: Verizon has reversed its stance and will now NARAL to use its mobile network to distribute opt-in SMS news alerts to its subscribers.

BikeBerrying

Joey deVilla — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:39:47 +0000

Say hello — and probably goodbye — to my friend, Globe and Mail writer Jeff Gray, with whom I worked at the Queen’s Journal (a.k.a. “The Urinal”), the official student paper of Crazy Go Nuts University. He BikeBerries — that is, uses his BlackBerry while bicycling:

As a columnist who has suggested that cyclists should wear helmets, and shouldn’t use iPods in downtown traffic, I can’t very well come out in favour of using cellphones and BlackBerrys on the roads. Of course you shouldn’t. And it seems that sensible people have figured this out.

Still, gliding on your bike on a little side street, with no one coming, typing “ok” and pressing send? No harm done.

Dude, it’s even easier to pull over when you’re on a bike. Just do it, or else I’m posting those photos from the Journal staff party. You know, the “tongue” ones.

Did a Blabby Google Employee Spill the Beans About the gPhone?

Joey deVilla — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:04:35 +0000

Michael Bazely writes that a loose-lipped Google employee at the Apple Store in Emeryville confirmed the existence of the fabled gPhone:

So I’m standing in the Emeryville Apple store today trying to troubleshoot a problem with a sales rep when a young woman bolts up to us saying she wants an iPhone. Like, now. After some back-and-forthing about the particulars, she says she’s a Google employee and she was going to wait for a demo of the gPhone, but it turns out Google’s only letting 30 people test it internally and she’s not one of them. So she’s going with the iPhone instead.

At which point, the Apple rep and I exchange glances and he says “gPhone? So it’s real, huh?” And the Google gal realizes she’s probably said too much and changes the subject.

Take this with a grain of salt. Spreading gPhone rumours at the Apple Store sounds like something that an ambitious viral marketer might try or something I might do if I were much younger and really, really, really bored.

Is it Illegal to Make My Own Ringtones from Music I Bought? (No. Mostly.)

Joey deVilla — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:55:32 +0000

That’s the answer, courtesy of an Engadget interview with Apple VP Phil Schiller. Strangely enough, some thanks goes to those enemies of fair use, the RIAA:

Well, the RIAA wanted to be able to distribute ringtones of its artists without having to pay them big money to do so (surprised?), and it won a decision last year before the Copyright Office saying that ringtones weren’t “derivative works,” meaning they didn’t infringe on the copyright of the songwriter. It’s a little more complicated than that, but essentially, if the RIAA hadn’t won, ringtones would cost even more, since no one would be able to make them without a license from the songwriter.

Everything has a catch, and ringtones are no exception:

If you’re making a ringtone from an MP3 file that you’ve ripped from a CD you’ve purchased, you’re in the clear. Just don’t sell or distribute it.
If you’re making a ringtone from a file you purchased from the iTunes Music Store, you’re breaking the law! Here’s Engadget’s explanation:

Judging from the fact that the iTMS EULA prohibits the use of downloaded files as ringtones, we’d say it’s more than likely because Apple’s contracts with the various labels represented in the iTMS specifically forbid it. We haven’t seen them, but we’d bet that ringtones — and the licenses for using songs as ringtones — have their own lengthy section in Apple’s contracts, and that Apple isn’t allowed to sell files for use as ringtones without coughing up more dough. Steve has said as much, after all. Otherwise the selection would include more than just the 500,000 songs you can get right now.

While we at Global Nerdy stress that you should obey all local laws, who’s going to know if that ringtone you made came from a ripped CD or an iTunes purchased tune?

iPod Touch: This Thing is Going to Be Huge!

Joey deVilla — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:01:44 +0000

The phone functionality of the iPhone has been the least interesting thing to me, especially given:

The “not-yet” availability of iPhone service here in Canada
The ridiculously high cost mobile data rates here in Canada
The fact that I have a perfectly good phone — a rather nice Motorola KRZR that I got only earlier this year

I care even less about its built-in camera. I’m one of those guys who carries a half-decent point-and-shoot digicam wherever I go, and until phone cameras get better, I’m going to stick with my Lumix.

For me, the really interesting things about the iPhone have been the functions that are currently performed by my trusty Powerbook and iPod nano:

Its PDA-like features
Audio and video playback
WiFi and Safari

The web browser has been of particular interest to me. In the age of Web 2.0/Ajax/web applications/whatever you want to call it, having net access and a browser as fully-featured and good-looking as Safari makes the iPhone the mobile computing platform that tablet computers wish they were.

If only the iPhone didn’t come saddled with the phone (and the commensurate cost)…

Photo courtesy of Gizmodo Live.

My wish has been granted! At the “The Beat Goes On” event held today, Steve Jobs announced the iPod Touch, which for all intents and purposes is the iPhone minus the phone and camera. There are two models:

An 8GB model selling for US$299
A 16GB model selling for US$399

I’m sure you’re going to see lists of its features all over the Web, so I’ll skip that part. Instead, I’ll simply list some thoughts on this nifty new gadget:

That pre-emptive Zune price drop looks pretty pathetic now. I’m reminded of Sean Connery’s line from The Untouchables: Microsoft just brought a knife to a gun fight.
Early iPhone adopters who got the 4GB might get that IIvx’d feeling. The Mac IIvx is a special computer in Mac lore in that it was a machine that was undone by cost-saving shortcuts and getting discontinued a mere 4 months after its release. People who shelled out US$600 for the 8GB iPhone might be annoyed that a mere 2 months later, the price has been dropped to $399. However, that very special IIvx feeling is for people who bought the 4GB model, which I assume will be discontinued.
Remember what Steve Yegge wrote about JavaScript? To referesh your memory:

“JavaScript is probably the most important language in the world today. Funny, huh? You’d think it would be Java or C++ or something. But I think it just might be JavaScript.”

Given that the iPod Touch is a very portable Ajax platform and likely to influence the design of other mobile browsers, if JavaScript wasn’t the most important programming language in the world when Steve said so, it is now.
Remember the promise of tablet computers? It just got much closer to being fulfilled, if in an unexpected way.

I Want to Know What the Other 1 Out of 10 are Thinking

Joey deVilla — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:39:50 +0000

According to a Harris Interactive Survey, 9 out of 10 Americans say that texting while driving should be banned. What I want to know is what the other 1 out of 10 are thinking.

iPhone + Travel = Expensive

Joey deVilla — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:05:32 +0000

Here’s a story contributed by Dave Stolte who wrote in to BoingBoing:

I have a caveat emptor to top them all. I purchased an iPhone on opening day to use in lieu of a cumbersome laptop while traveling in Ireland and England for two weeks in early July. AT&T promises “easy, affordable, and convenient plans” in their advertising… turns out I got two out of three.

On the way to the airport, I activated the per-use international roaming data plan – the only one offered to me. The rep quoted me $.005 per KB but did not disclose what that would translate to in layman’s language (i.e., X amount per e-mail, X amount per web page, etc.). I’m a web developer as part of my career and I couldn’t even tell you how many KB the average web page is, no less a text message to my son, an e-mail with a photo to my mother, or a quick check of Google Maps. That’s part one of the trap. However, I now pay $40 per month for unlimited data usage on the iPhone, so really — how much could it be? $100 at the most, right?

Keep reading.

As we know, the iPhone can’t be unlocked to use a European provider’s SIM card for more reasonable rates while traveling. There’s part two of the trap.

To be safe, I went online to My Account at AT&T a couple days into the trip and again a week later and was told “usage data is currently unavailable”… and that’s part three. I had no way of knowing specific usage data until I received my bill over the last weekend.

A bill for $3000.

There’s more — click here for the full story.

I Wouldn’t Want to Try This With an iPhone

Joey deVilla — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 05:00:33 +0000

It was the geek party trick of the evening. I was standing by the beer fridge at Friday’s b5media office-warming party when someone asked where the bottle opener was. Not seeing one in sight, Chris whipped out his Blackberry and used it to open a beer bottle. I had my camera handy and shot this video:

Chris says that Blackberries are tough. Once, in a fit of anger, he hurled his Blackberry into his truck — he cracked his windshield, but the Blackberry was unahrmed. After opening a couple of beer bottles, he showed me his Blackberry: it had some gouge marks where it had made contact with the bottlecap, but it was working just fine.

Actually, It’s Canadian Telcos’ Preferred Means of Payment

Joey deVilla — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:26:42 +0000

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

For reference, see:

Michael Geist in the Toronto Star — Time to revamp mobile Internet pricing
Michael Geist — Canada’s Communications Outlook: Average at Best
Thomas Purves — Canada Worse than 3rd World Countries when it comes to Mobile Data Access
Information Echo — A Collossal Ripoff – Mobile Data in Canada

Plato Predicted That Mobile Phones Would Make Us Dumb, Too

Joey deVilla — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 18:31:01 +0000

You shouldn’t worry at all about the alarmist report in the Telegraph claiming that relying on your mobile’s address book to remember all your phone numbers and email addresses is “dumbing us down”. Reading and believing it is a far bigger threat to your smarts.

I’m not worried because I remember what a guy named Plato said about writing: that by writing things down rather than committing them to memory, we’d create forgetful people and everything would go downhill from there:

If men learn [writing], it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks. What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder. And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows.

Hand-Knit iPhone

Joey deVilla — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:10:10 +0000

Well, this beats my hand-drawn iPhone or Jason Kottke’s carboard iPhone: it’s a hand-knit iPhone created by Greg’s (from the blog DaddyTypes.com) mom!

Sound Like a Player with These iPhone Ringtones

Joey deVilla — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:16:29 +0000

Whoo-hoo! I got an iPhone! See?

I can dream, can’t I?

Okay, I didn’t. I’m holding off for a while:

partly because I’m doing just fine with the Motorola KRZR that got sent to me as part of a campaign to reach bloggers,
partly because I’m holding off until later revisions of the iPhone come out
partly because mobile data charges in Canada are ridiculous
and partly because it’s not available here yet.

But that doesn’t mean that I’m missing out on all the iPhone niceties. A kind soul just sent me a .zip file containing all the default iPhone ringtones [2.1 MB], and I now share them with you. Enjoy!

You Know What Big Hands Mean…Smaller iPhone!

Joey deVilla — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 00:52:59 +0000

My co-worker James “Yes, that’s my real name” Koole pointed this out to me earlier this week, and now BoingBoing is pointing to a blog entry that does a bang-on comparison of earlier and later iPhone ads. In the later ads, the iPhone looks smaller because the hands holding it are larger. Almost freakishly so, in fact:

You know what big hands mean…

Here’s what we imagine the hand model for the “Rev B” iPhone looks like: