Speedlink and TTFN...

I'm sorry to report that it's time to retire this blog, at least for now. Sorry, because it's a really exciting time for mobile content and the tramplers of hype.

Back in this post, I reported that I'd become a part-time professional blogger, and announced Mobile Discontent as a rough "practice" version of the blog to come. It's been a month and I think I'm practiced enough, but my employer is taking longer than anticipated to set up its official blog page. And since our deal was that I would get paid by the posting day, well...

Meanwhile, I've gotten a small flotilla of paying freelance work, and that has to take priority for now.

Sorry, Internet! I hope to be back on this soon. But what the Hell, let's give you a little going-away present: speedlink sexytime!

Don't count him out yet. Bill Gates is feeling the old competitive fires with Steve Jobs.

Oh, and there's another player in this space whose name rhymes with "frugal" but means the opposite.

Both of the above could be good news for mobile content developers, who are going to have to adjust to Jobs' software environment, which is even more closed than the infamous Windows 95. Quoth Jobs: "We define everything that is on the phone."

I'm not sure I could have called that: the big loser in the ApplePhone story appears to be the Blackberry. Other big losers: Pear Networks and Kumquantico! HA HA HA HA HA! See, I'm trying to make you not miss me.

Observing the iPhone, Voeveo boldly predicts that DUHHHHHHHHHH.

This is very interesting. I had no idea that songwriting royalties for CDs were only 9.1 cents per sale, and now the same can be said of the ringtone market. Wired bloggers mull some of the ramifications, but I think they're overreacting when it comes to personal use. The recording industry doesn't really care about individuals, it cares about aggregate action, and until there's a ringtone-sharing Morpheus, personal ringtone use is probably going to fly under the radar. Of course, a ringtone-sharing Morpheus is so Web 3.0, so we're probably only safe for another couple weeks, actually.

Hey, teenagers! Want a better world? What's your vision? "My own army of Lindsay Lohan clones" may not be what this charity is going for.

Hot, up and coming wrestling federation signs exclusive deal with mobile-content distributor you've never even freakin' heard of. But we know how this works: now New Motion can call itself "TNA's distributor" and parlay that into the next deal. If TNA starts calling itself "as seen on New Motion," we'll know the deal's in trouble.

Finally, in the name of "fun over news value," let's give the last word to my current addiction, those time-travelin' Time Friends: Click for popup image.

And that's it. Thanks for watchin'. Hope to see you again soon!

iPhone and Moco: Further Thoughts

Let's be serious and thoughtful today.

The most important move I see here is that Steve Jobs is trying to make phones COOL. When most executives try making anything cool, we shake our heads and cluck our tongues and relish a sense of superiority: they may make more money than us, but they Just Don't Get It. Well, Steve Gets It. Steve Jobs knows cool.

The last few years, the Internet has been cool, but your phone merely a tool. This is the challenge moco developers have kept trying to push past: how to sell entertainment through a medium that most people continue to view as strictly functional. Apple may have removed this hurdle.

Or they may have just triggered an entertainment singularity of sorts, effectively merging mobile content with all other content. There are things that can only be done in mobile, of course, but the overwhelming majority of our entertainment seems to be medium-agnostic. Just give The Matrix a screen-- two square inches or IMAX-wide, it doesn't care. Apple's technological openness could break down an even bigger hurdle to moco's development: its thousand different phone formats.

But I hope that zirconia is really, really scratch-resistant. My last iPod had problems on that front, and since the new iPhone is pretty much all screen, there is no way to do incidental damage to it.

Well, the summer release gives moco developers lots of time to come up with apps for it. I imagine we'll be hearing from them soon. Let's see what they have to say Monday, when we bring back the speedlinkery!

Apartment-Hunting With Mobile...

Like a lot of other people, I'm sure, I snap pictures when I'm looking at new apartments. They're handy for later comparison. When I'm discussing places with friends, it's a lot easier to show them pictures or even a floor plan than to say "oh, it's 803 square feet."

So, I asked, why don't realtors cut out the middleman and send pictures of the place directly to my phone? Better yet: why isn't there a channel for such pictures?

As it turns out, they do, and there is... for house-buying, but so far as I can tell, not yet for apartments. Hmmmm-mm? Surely there's enough money in leasing to justify such a venture...

iPhone Reaction Roundup

Well, that was easy. The iPhone is now a reality, meaning one of my predictions for 2007 has come true within a few days of my making it. I even said "Apple needs another home run," and TIME Magazine, describing it in detail, is calling it "a home run."

Engadget can't stop drooling: " Yeah, we said it: 'iPhone,' the name the entire free world had all but unanimously christened it from the time it'd been nothing more than a twinkle in Stevie J's eye (comments, Cisco?). Sweet, glorious..."

Engadget is referring to the fact that Cisco owns the "iPhone" trademark, which could be an, ahem, complication in the marketing of this device-- but let's keep the focus where it belongs right now. The technology is amazing (check the TIME piece for details), and the implications for mobile content are what we'll all scramble to discover this year. I'll have some more thoughts about that tomorrow.

You know a tech story is big when even webcomics pull their heads out of the latest video game and movie releases to pick up on it. Their reactions range from catatonia to proud hypocrisy, with Jerry Holkins, as usual, the most eloquent. Take it away, Tycho:

Despite the savageries I have borne for purchasing a Zune, I did buy it for a reason, and I held this reason tight in my palm like a mystic amulet...

But I didn't just purchase the wrong [MP3 player], at the wrong time: I purchased it virtually on the brink of its dissolution. I can hardly look at it now, it's like holding a dead squirrel. On its 4:3 screen - the exact ratio of obsolescence - I can see destroyed futures. I don't have to tell you that the iPhone is the future of that platform, as opposed to an aberration. iPods just have touch interfaces now, multipoint touch interfaces with clever gesture controls that you use to manipulate a rich video environment on a screen that is best in show.

I wonder what the mood is at the Microsoft booth over at CES - I would imagine that it is apocalyptic.

Indeed. Back in my predictions list, I also said people wouldn't be laughing at the Zune for much longer, using Holkins' own strip as an example.

I am less sanguine about that prediction than I was.

Where Are The Creative Jobs In Mobile Content?

Here and here and here and here and here and here. All posted this week. I'll be really interested to see what The New York Times' hire gets up to.

(Yep, short post today. Apartment hunting! About which, more tomorrow!)

Interesting Results For The Search "Mobile Sex"

Sometimes jutaposing your particular topic with a cultural obsession will yield some interesting insights into both. And here I thought ALL it would turn up was porn!

Granted, if that's your thing, it's hard to do better than the Mobile Sex Channel. Three screens in, this link definitely becomes NSFW. All the others are work-safe unless otherwise noted.

Bollywood actors are discovering a revolution in techno-paparazzi.

Actual quote: "Unlock the hidden pleasures in your mobile phone with the Purring Kitty! Instantly turn your cell phone into a discreet vibrating personal 'masseur' - turn your phone's vibrations on at will!" The app displays a picture of a cat while doing its thing. Similar but not work-safe: Vibrafoon.

Social-network king MySpace is taking its reputation as a haven for sexual predators just as seriously as it should. Problem: MySpace is mobile now. Mobile phones can be stolen more easily than identities or IP addresses. Related: every mobile-buying parent's nightmare.

"Yes, all this new technology is very exciting, but what does it mean for PHONE SEX?" Regina Lynn speculates in the last couple of grafs.

You know you've been covering mobile for a while when you can ask about the sex appeal of PHONES THEMSELVES without giggling.

Here's a good idea: mobile sex ed.

Here's a bad idea: banning cell phones for prostitutes in a country where prostitution is legal. Let me restate: making it illegal for you to possess a phone based on your legal occupation. The article is a couple of years old and this seems not to have gone anywhere, thank goodness.

And here's a REALLY bad idea. (This one is kind of on the edge between work-safe and not work-safe.) I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to go there.

Test.

Test post.