This is your brain on: Venture Capital and Technology
I agree completely with this article from the folks at Cool Tools.
This thing actually works.
We do have an herb garden, which works so much better than buying herbs at the grocery store for $1.69 a throw. However, when the herbs are not growing, we’re using this thing to eek out a little more life.
This was a wedding gift for us, not on our registry, that really surprised us with its utility. Highly recommended.
So, I’m at the Sharks hockey game last night, and I notice a guy a couple rows in front of me using a Sony Vaio UX Micro PC. Hey, it’s the Bay Area. People bring high-tech gadgets to hockey games. That’s just how we roll out here.
No big deal, right?
Well, I look a bit closer, and the device appears to be running Mac OS X! WTF?
Furthermore, the Dock appears to be a Leopard Dock, not a Tiger Dock, so I think the device is running Mac OS X 10.5, even…
Geeks.
Sheesh.
Of course, then I get a pang of jealousy.
After all, it is a 1.2 pound device running Leopard…
Geeks (including me).
Sheesh.
Poking around on Google, I find an old article about getting Mac OS X (which they call Mac OSuX for this device) on the Sony Vaio UX. Lots of scary stuff in there. Just get a Macbook Air. The picture above is from jkOnTheRun (i.e., is not a picture of the guy a couple rows in front of me).
So, you know what this means?
It means that you can develop iPhone applications on your mobile phone!
Only in the Bay Area…
Tags: Sony, Vaio, Sony Vaio UX, Micro PC, Apple, Mac OS X, Leopard, Tiger, Mac OS, iPhone SDK, Brian Berliner, brianberliner
That was much faster than I had anticipated.
I wrote about the Apple iPhone SDK and how I thought it was going to revolutionize the mobile application market.
At that time, Apple released the first Beta of the iPhone SDK, which was very functional, but did not include a working Interface Builder application. That meant that you would have to roll your own User Interface elements using Cocoa Touch. No big deal for now, but it sure would be much nicer to have IB available.
And, now it is.
Kudos to Apple for moving quickly to get this out.
I am extremely impressed by Apple’s execution of their iPhone strategy and developer program. There will be a shitload of high-quality and reasonably priced applications for this device.
Thanks to Ars Technica for catching the announcement for me.
Tags: Apple, iPhone, iPhone SDK, SDK, Software Development Kit, Mobile, Platform, Programming, Interface Builder, IB, Brian Berliner, brianberliner
OK.
We broke down.
We got a Wii.
I’m not a big gamer. I do own a PSP, but I rarely play. I don’t own any other consoles, though my daughter did have a Playstation 2 for a while, and I spent way too many hours playing Grand Theft Auto. Oh, and I used to play Doom when it first came out on the PC. Mostly deathmatch with my co-workers at Sun Microsystems. Sun had a great (internal) multiplayer Doom system back in the mid-1990’s - it even ran on Solaris! I even had short bouts with Quake and Descent. Yeah, I’m old.
OK, so maybe I’m a bit of a gamer.
I am Male, after all.
But, I never really liked the current game controllers. The controller interface to the games is way too complicated and unnatural. Yeah, we’re back to that "old" thing…
So, my evil strategy for getting a Wii was to wait for my wife to decide that we really needed it. And, a couple of weeks back, the Sunday Best Buy ad said that each store had 15 in stock, so we pounced and got it!
And, the results are in.
The Wii is incredibly accessible to kids of all ages.
I went to Oregon to visit with my folks. They are in their 70’s. We had a blast playing golf and bowling, with an occasional tennis match thrown in. But nobody wanted to box against me. Tons of good laughs. Well worth the price.
And, since the Wii is such a small package, it was very easy to tote along with us. It’s my new, favorite, mobile gaming platform!
Recommended.
Tags: Nintendo, Wii, Nintendo Wii, Mobile, Gaming, Wii Sports, Brian Berliner, brianberliner
Sharpcast, founded in 2004 and funded in 2006, has just announced the launch of their SugarSync product (formerly known as Project Hummingbird).
Similar to the products I talked about last week in the article, "FolderShare, Dropbox, Syncplicity, Oh My…", SugarSync is a tool that keeps your files synchronized across multiple computers (PC & Mac today, maybe Linux as well someday), including mobile devices.
One of the things that sets Sharpcast apart from the others is the support for many mobile platforms. They support Brew, J2ME, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian (coming soon). I don’t really think that the mobile aspect of this is where the market is right now, but I could be wrong. And, Sharpcast certainly has enough VC money to address the perceived needs of the mobile users. In any case, Sharpcast certainly has a big enough market with just the Universal Sync service.
Sharpcast charges $9.99/month or $99.99/year for their basic plan, which includes 30GB of storage in the cloud. I have 40GB of music, 30GB of photos, and 50GB of documents, so for me to use the service for just that (not counting my 450GB of camcorder video), I would need the Business Plan, which runs $499.99 yearly and covers 250GB of storage in the cloud.
Yikes! That’s pricey.
For data protection, I think I’ll just buy another Time Machine drive.
A Note About Sharpcast Photos:
Sharpcast has had a product in the market for a couple years now known as Sharpcast Photos. Focused on synchronizing just your photos between your computers and mobile devices. A subset of what SugarSync provides, to be sure. However, it does not appear that Sharpcast Photos has gained many subscribers. The site https://www.sharpcastphotos.com/ doesn’t even register traffic on Quantcast or Compete.com. Does anyone have any paid subscriber data for Sharpcast Photos?
When Sharpcast Photos was first released, my feeling was that they had priced themselves out of the market. The cost is $5.99/month or $64.99/year, which is a bit steep for just photo protection - especially since the sharing part was limited to their photo sharing service. Perhaps the limited subscriber base backs that up. Anyone?
Tags: Sharpcast, Photos, Sharpcast Photos, SugarSync, Dropbox, FolderShare, Syncplicity, Synchronization, Sync, Brian Berliner, brianberliner
Not sure how I missed this one… But, I had been looking for a good, FREE, application for my Nokia E61 to do Instant Messaging on Yahoo! Messenger. And, I found one, and much more, in Fring.
From GigaOm on 10 Apps To Have For Your Symbian S60 Phone:
Fring — A multi-protocol IM client that currently supports AIM, Skype, Yahoo, MSN, Google Talk and Twitter, and features a SIP client. Fring seamlessly uses your data connection to allow you to IM or call contacts if they are on Google Talk or Skype. Fring also recently launched a feature that allows you to send files over Wi-Fi and 3G connection to your contacts. Very cool.
I just need the Yahoo IM connection, but I also tried Fring through my Skype account calling a landline, and it worked just fine (voice quality was about what you would expect - not great, but certainly understandable).
Well, Apple finally released the iPhone SDK, or at least a Beta version.
Apple took quite a beating when they released the iPhone without an SDK back in June 2007. What were they thinking? Back then, they released a set of guidelines for building web-based applications that, when run through Mobile Safari, would sorta, kinda look like an iPhone application. That’s not gonna fly…
Then, they released the iPhone SDK (Beta). I downloaded it immediately and built my first test application.
Holy crap.
The wait was definitely worth it.
They knocked the ball out of the park!
They exceeded my expectations in almost every dimension.
Yeah, sure. There are plenty of things not to like about this first version of the iPhone SDK, and many have already ripped the failings to shred:
But, they’re missing the bigger picture. They are lost in the details.
Here’s some of what is absolutely great about the Apple Mobile Platform:
I own a Nokia E61. It runs Symbian. Until last week, Symbian was the best thing going for Mobile OS development. Not anymore. And don’t even get me started about Windows Mobile… Ugh.
The iPhone, and this oh so restrictive SDK, will be THE mobile platform for the mass market (and the enterprise).
What we saw today was the beginning of two-decades of mobile domination by Apple. What Microsoft and Windows was to the desktop, Apple and Touch will be to mobile.
I completely agree.
And have doubled-down on my AAPL stock.
Stay tuned for more. We’ll get to Android later.
I’ve owned my 2007 Toyota Prius for 5 months now. And, it still (mostly) makes me happy. The GPS NAV system is the biggest disappointment. The car does have more "pep" than I expected, so I guess it all balances out. Everything else is about what I expected.
In 5 months, I have driven about 7,500 miles. The electronic MPG gauge tells me that I get about 46.0 MPG on average. I drive about 80% Highway miles and 20% City miles. I have never seen a whole tank get either of the two EPA stated values for the car (which, I believe, are 51 MPG Highway and 60 MPG City).
What you are seeing reported here are real-world MPG numbers. I drive the car hard, just like I would drive any car. I do end up speeding more often than I would like. And, just FYI, the car was once running smooth for a brief moment at 91 MPH. Performance is excellent for a car with so little horsepower.
Don’t get me wrong, though. This is a commuter car first and foremost. It does not handle well in the corners (but, my other car is a Porsche, so there really is no comparison). When you get in it, you should be in fuel-conserving commuter mode.
And, with the HOV car-pool sticker, I am even more pleased with my purchase.
In other reading…
+ 
Lifehacker asks if a hybrid is worth the money. They reference an excellent article written by OmniNerd, which is worth a read by anyone considering the purchase of a hybrid vehicle.
Since I recently purchased a 2007 Toyota Prius hybrid, I thought I’d comment.
First, the OmniNerd article is very well written and researched. Many thanks to the author. The conclusion is basically that the cost of hybrids is higher than the return you will achieve through the reduction of gas consumption. I think this conclusion doesn’t surprise most people, but it’s great to back it up with some good math.
OmniNerd also points out that hybrid batteries will need to be replaced in 8-10 years. They did not add this cost to the total cost of ownership of a hybrid vehicle in their calculations. If they did, the hybrids would have looked even worse. However, they do note that hybrids appear to be holding their value better than a comparable non-hybrid.
For me, the cost of the vehicle is a sunk cost — I save until I can buy a car, then pay cash. I’m a delayed gratification kind of guy. As such, the OmniNerd calculations of the loan payments versus a paid-off 1999 Honda don’t really factor into my mind. For those that are financing, the monthly payments certainly would.
For me, I feel like I have an extra $25 in my wallet every time that I visit the pump now. I like that feeling. I’m 6-weeks into ownership of the Prius with 2,400 miles on the beast already. Overall mileage for me is currently 47.7 MPG. Your mileage may vary.
OmniNerd neglects to mention the lower emissions as a value of the hybrids — one that is harder to put a price on. The stats on the windshield showed the Prius to have one-fifth to one-tenth fewer emissions than non-hybrids. I like that feeling, too. Whenever I sit at a 3-minute stop light with the engine completely off and think about the 50 other cars around me chugging gas and spewing emissions while we wait our turn, then multiply that number times the hundreds of thousands of red lights across the world at that very moment, it certainly makes me think.
Who has done that math?
It’s gotta add up.
Oh, and OmniNerd has no way to calculate the value I receive by using the carpool lanes because I drive a low-emissions high-mileage vehicle. Lower stress, longer life.
So, yeah, I paid more up-front than a comparable non-hybrid car. No argument about that. But, I was happy to do so for all the other benefits.
Finally, Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive really is a masterful piece of engineering. Hybrids will become a natural part of most cars in the next 5-10 years. Battery technology will also improve in that time (I look forward to the introduction of Lithium-Ion batteries, naturally), and you will see common MPG ratings of 80+ MPG within 5 years (perhaps much sooner).
So, back to the math. If we all doubled our mileage, our oil consumption would drop in half. That’s easy math. Triple it and it drops to one-third. You get the idea. Progress continues, and I welcome it. I’m happy to support the innovators.
‘Nuff said.
