Rubber Chicken

I've never been an iPod fanboy. I appreciate the nice industrial design and think that it is a nifty device, but I've never bought one or seriously considered it. A few years back, before iPod had video, I bought an Archos player that I've had since then and still enjoy. When it comes time to replace it in the next year or two, I will probably buy something from Nokia.

They are getting so close to all of the features I want. First, it has to work really well as a phone (and would be a big plus if it worked with WiFi networks as well). Second, it needs to work fairly well (meaning a small keyboard) as an email device. Third, it has to be a compentent music player. Forth, it should be able to play video. Lastly, a nice camera (still or video) is a plus. Oh, and it all needs to cost me around $300.

You combine the Nokia N91, the 6136 and the E61 and we are in business.

Posted by Rob at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

T-mobile is introducing a mobile phone plan that is integrated with VOIP using a WiFi phone. The only complaint I have about T-mobile is their coverage which is merely adequate.I already use VOIP but would cancel in a heartbeat if this were available in 24014.

Posted by Rob at 08:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think they are going to have to add another clause to the definition of ubiquitous - see Starbucks. In our little city, we went from 0 to 2 in the past year and I bet we could support another 2 easily. I'd have to agree with They still have room to grow. So what if their coffee isn't the best - it is decent and you can always count on it.

Posted by Rob at 08:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Carr wrote a piece on Apex the other day. He also noted the similarity with SAP, but more from the perspective of vendor lock-in. Do people want to write apps in a proprietary language?

My conjecture is that all complex applications are married closely to whatever system they are developed on, whether commerical or open source, and that portablility is mostly an illusion for these types of systems. Once they are built, they aren't going anywhere without a lot of blood, sweat and tears. So, the choice is really one of which platform is going to be the best one for this application for the forseeable future? There are quite a number of applications where the answer could be Apex (or something like it).

Posted by Rob at 11:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In working with a friend on some business ideas he had, I looked into some IVR solutions earlier this year. There are some nice solutions out there, but everything seemed like an administrative pain in the rear. I'm starting a new contract with a local company and the first project on my plate is to do an IVR integration. Instead of hosting the IVR system themselves, they are going with a hosted solution.

They've picked angel.com as the IVR provider. Angel.com has a nice little API and some pre-cooked integration with Skype and salesforce.com. They have a simple-looking web services integration as well (which is what I'll be using). Pricing is per minute at $0.12/minute for local (703 area code) calls and $0.17 for toll free calls. I should have more to say on this after I've worked on the project for a bit, but it looks interesting.

Posted by Rob at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm a T-Mobile customer and pretty happy by most measures (although I have no idea what the new "Stick Together" slogan is all about - sounds kind of icky). Anyway, they are upgrading their data network from GPRS to UMTS. It'll be super-nice to see data rates go from 4-5k/sec to 384k. I guess I will stick around for that.

Posted by Rob at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Salesforce.com has introduced an interesting new API for their applications called Apex. They have created a new language that is sort of a cross between SQL and Java and hooked it into their existing application. So, you can override the existing behavior in the salesforce.com application. In many ways, this seems similar to user and customer exits familiar to SAP developers - they are even run in a virtual machine in a way that sounds a lot like the way ABAP is run in SAP. Neat stuff.

Posted by Rob at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It is true - everyone has a cell phone. The interesting part in the article wasn't that fact (which is painfully obvious) but the discussion of why 37 percent of people keep their landlines. Simply put, it is reliability. Western consumers expect 5 nines reliability out of their products and get upset with anything less. This might be a lesson for technology companies: reliability can be a differentiator.

Posted by Rob at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)