Imagine Being Censored - The Frustration

I guess the biggest feeling I'll have is frustration should anything on the Internet be censored?  That's what the good citizenry of China, Iran, and other less than free societies are going through these days.

In China, there is the practice of self-censorship where the companies police themselves and citizens are encourage to watch one another. It's 2010 but I think if I were in any of these countries, it'll feel rather like 1984.

Now, I want to note the difference between the government from the people. I also want to note the circumstances. Whether you're reading this from the comfortable of a cafe on the streets of France or Italy, Starbucks in downtown Chicago, or from Barnes & Noble in West LA, we cannot possibly know how we react if our governments suddenly decree what we can or cannot know about the world.

I've spoken and debated to a few smart folks about this. I hope you don't see this as American arrogance. I'm just as average as you can go and as far as smarts go. But I tried to put myself in the shoes of someone in China or Iran. Knowing even just a fraction of what the world is about. And yet, there is a fortress built by the government.

The gatekeepers there tell us that we are safe within these walls. That order must be maintained. Safety from what? Order for who? Imagine the frustration of knowing that there is so much more beyond the walls of the fortress. That the purpose isn't to keep out a horde of disruptive social ideals but to keep the mass within the fortress from venturing out, seeking knowledge and, for better or worse, learning about the world.

It has been the long standing policy of the United States foreign policy towards China as one of engagement. China has come a long way since Deng Xiaoping but, suddenly, flushed with cash and growing economic and political might, Beijing has decide that it has gone far enough.

Hooray for Google for standing up to old guards in the Chinese Politburo, its many censor apparatuses, and against those who manned the towers of Great Firewall of China. Whether you think Google has done this for the sake of "doing no evil" (I can argue that Google hasn't been completely faithful to that mantra) or because its search business in China has hit a wall against incumbent Baidu, Google has started something that I hope many governments and foreign companies will follow and finish.

Note: I rather be talking about the iPad and its potential impact on mobile computing, Verizon and Google teaming up against minimal government interference, or LTE deployment, but censorship affects all of us no matter where we live.

iPad Makes It Into Prime Time (Modern Family on ABC)

Check out this video of the iPad in this espisode of Modern Family.

Pay close attention to the candles in the cake displayed on the iPad's screen.

Enjoy.

iPad: How It Will Improve My Mobile Experience

I'm less than 3 days away from totally changing my mobile habits. And with good reasons. First, unless you've been living on a part of the planet Earth where with no means of outside communication for the last couple of months, then you know that we're fast approaching iPad Day as I like to call it, April 3rd.

Bright and early Saturday morning, I'm gonna head over to my Apple store (yes, I own a couple of shares of AAPL so I like to think I own at least a couple of screws that's holding the place together) and with a large coffee in hand, wait until 9am for my reserved 32GB iPad.

Here’s how I envision my mobile life changing because of this:

• No longer worry about the 4-5 hours I’m limited to on my Macbook. I can now safely work through the day on the 10 hours of battery life on the iPad. It’s no Macbook but it’ll do 80% of what I need done.
• If I’m at a coffee shop or Borders, I’m going to be fine sitting somewhere without tables. The small footprint on the Macbook has always worked for me. And like the iPhone, the iPad will do just fine as I cradle it in my hands.
• Wi-Fi. It’s everywhere now. I can only think of three places I frequent that I don’t have access to the Internet. But that’s fine. I’ll have my G1 or iPhone with me. Plus, I can tether with the G1 that will soon support HSPA 7.2.
• iPhone 4.0. I know there is no concrete information about 4.0 but I think it’ll find in a lot of holes and silence critics who live out their days only to complain about things. I don’t know what new features iPhone 4.0 will have. Knowing Apple, we’re going to be happy about it. Plus, competitive pressure from Android is enough to light a fire under Jobs.
• On some occasions, I’ll need my Macbook but I think I’ll be carry the iPad around more. With the Macbook coming in 4.5 lbs and the iPad at 1.5 lbs, my backpack will be a whole 3 lbs lighter.
• VOIP. I’ll initially have the WiFi only version of the iPad. I’ve also placed an order for the 3G version. Just this morning, Goober announced that they’ve got VOIP solutions for users. I’ve got a few months left on my T-Mobile contract. Depending on how robust whatever VOIP I go with, I just might get rid of my phone contract.
• Sitting. As I’ve said above, being able to hold the iPad up is a plus given its weight and small foot print. If you watch Steve Jobs sitting there hold the iPad, you can actually improve your posture, instead of bending over your laptop.
• The iPad is always on. The Macbook I’ve got I can put to sleep but waking up, while it’s quick for the most part, can take a while depending on how much applications I’ve got open. If I need to show someone something or look up stuff quickly, I merely have to press the home button and I’m there. Instantaneously.
• 32GB.  I'm currently limited to 16GB on my iPhone and 1GB on my G1.  Wow, the space.  What will I do?  Movies.  Check.  Special apps for the iPad?  Check.  How about a few episodes of my favorite TV or anime shows?  Done.  I only went with the 32GB because I'm sure I'll upgrade once a version of the iPad comes out with a frontal camera so there's no need to go with the 64GB now.  Plus, the 16GB would be too limited for my current needs.

I think I’ll likely modify and augment my mobile experience further once I’ve had some time to play with my iPad. I’m also looking forward to see what hardware developers come up with using Android.

What I really want to see if Chrome OS. So far, the demos for Chrome OS has been lame but I’m confident that Google has learned quite a bit from the iPhone and their experiences developing for Android. We’ll know later this year if things pan out as I hope.

Starting Sat morning, be prepared to be bombarded with iPad picture, news, and analysis. Not just from me but everyone else as well.

After iPad, Who's Next?

This iPad week whether mobile warriors from other camps like it or not. But it'll be over eventually and another platform will get the attention. So who might that be?

Amazon with Kindle? Sony with a slew of Viao tablets powered by PSP 2? Nintendo surprising us with DS tablet or Microsoft mashing Zune, Xbox , and WM7 into a revolutionary alternative to mobile computing?

How about HTC, Dell and HP? Well, I don't have much hope for these three based on what I see near-term but I like to be surprised.

More at Onxo Mobile Devices for analysis on who has the best chance of offering a complete mobile computing experience.

First WiMax Phone From Sprint Cannot Talk & Surf At The Same Time

Here's the quick rundown:  When Sprint announced the HTC EVO last week, it really catapulted the 3rd place wireless provider to the front of the class as far as next generation mobile network is concerned.

Even T-Mobile made waves with its HSPA+ network plans.

But it was still EVO that made every mobile warrior salivate.  But HTC just told us that the handset can only allow the user to either talk or surf the Web, but not both.

More at On Android.

List of Top Ten News Sources

In reading a Washington Post article about Glen Beck, who I agree is a clown, it gave us the top ten places the Web audience goes to get their news.

1. Yahoo News - no surprise here
2. MSNBC - not bad.  the website is very good but the broadcast really has bad, placing lasts behind Fox News and CNN.  
3. AOL - this is a bit of a surprise.  I'm rooting for them because of their history.  
4. CNN - good source of news.  sometimes information is hard to find.  I think CNN can charge online users for exclusive live broadcasts to what they've got on television.
5. NY Times - coming in at 5, this does offer the paper hope of being able to charge for content.
6. Google News - this is surprising.  But I have noticed that I go there quite a bit more because of how it organizes similar articles on topics I want to read about
7. Fox News - given the perceived "anger" at the governmental establishment (incumbents).  Right or not, it does offer an online forum for right of center (and further right) readers to go read about a different take on news than from CNN or the NY Times
8. ABC News - this is surprisingly low for them.  I don't know how they can fix this.
9. Washington Post - it has been marginalized and read mainly among more elite and educated.  Mainstream folks aren't going to come here to find anything they can't find more easily from Yahoo or AOL.
10. USA Today - they've tried social media components over the year but I guess it hasn't worked out.  Still, not bad.

A few sites that haven't made this list includes CBS News, WSJ, or one of the few wired services.

The trend will continue to show a diffusion as users, specifically mobile Internet users, become more Web savy and continue to look for news that geared towards their specific interests, for instance, politics and mobile techs like the iPhone.

It'll be sites like Politco and Drudge that provide political news, Engadget and Gizmodo for the latest on tech gadgets, and other media or social sites that are tailored specifically with speciality interests for their audience.

It isn't unheard of for many of the smaller sites to break news before even mainstream media (yes, including Fox News).  Last year's breaking news on Michael Jackson is a prime example of a specialty site breaking news before others did.  TMZ broke the news hours before anyone else, including the resourceful local LA media knew what was going on.

In the future, we'll see more of this.  Meanwhile, I continue to troll these top sites as well as media sites via my RSS readers.

More at Washington Post (again, coming in at number 9).

Telecom Conference Ends But Surprising; WiMax Dominated

Verizon. Hey, AT&T. It was Sprint. Yeah, it was Sprint that hit you. Oh, and while you were down, it was T-Mobile that kick sand in your face.

While Verizon and AT&T were talking. Just talking, Sprint "sprints" on and put more distance between it and the rest of the field. It remains in 3rd place but no one is saying that is isn't trying.

First, WiMax will be coming to additional markets, including some big ones: Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and about another dozen major cities. No more small towns in Texas, thank you very much.

Oh, Evo? Not "evil". HTC EVO, the first Wimax, 4G, -ready handset. It runs Android, has a huge 4.3" screen (Droid at 3.7", iPhone 3GS at 3.5'), and it's ready for video-conferencing with front facing camera. Okay, there have been other handsets with webcams but none of them run on a 4G network.

What has AT&T and Verizon been talking about? Nothing new. Innovation this. Innovation that. Nothing new. A lot of trash talking if that. Oh, they're waiting for more wireless spectrum.

Meanwhile, Sprint is telling everyone all is good and they've got enough bandwidth for everyone. Including, it appars, video conferencing.

Now about T-Mobile? HSPA+ is almost ready and it's going to be turned on in a matter of months. And they claim it is comparable to WiMax. We'll see if that pans out. Nevertheless, for the 4th place carrier, that came late to the 3G party, it has certainly made strides. HSPA+ will be up and running in about 100 cities in 2010.

Meanwhile, AT&T continued to talk over everyone but provided no firm dates on LTE and, for that matter, when iPhone tethering would be available. As far as matching T-Mobile's HSPA+, AT&T isn't going to try. It's CTO was talking about HSPA 7.2 - theoretically maxing out at 7.2mbps.

This is good I suppose. CEO of Deutsche Telekom, parent company, of T-Mobile USA stated he was looking to have the iPhone on T-Mobile's network later this year or early next year. I'm currently with T-Mobile. Guess who I'm rooting for.

As for Verizon Wireless, the largest wireless provider in terms of the number of subscribers, is trying to move to LTE as fast as it can. Second place AT&T can afford to wait it out a bit, as can T-Mobile, but VW cannot. Even now, it has the slowest 3G speed of the big four.

VW is placing it 4G bet on LTE. It hopes to have LTE up and running in 25-30 cities, covering 100 million users by the end of 2010. In real world terms, expect half that number.

This is where we are and where we can expect for the rest of 2010. Sprint and T-Mobile will be playing offense while AT&T and VW play defense for the wireless market. Coming out of CTIA, you can feel a shift how these four providers are perceived.

It is entirely conceivable that AT&T will end 2010 with the slowest wireless broadband network while Sprint chomps away at the end of the market that demands speed with T-Mobile cleaning up.

What's the immediate impact on mobile warriors? On the hardware front, I am drooling over the potential of the HTC EVO and how others, including Apple will try to catch up to what is obviously another major shift in the mobile market.

On the wireless broadband front, who doesn't like speed. Sprint and T-Mobile aren't talking about rationing or tiered access while At&T and Verizon, well, continue to talk. See, this is why we need competition. We are going to see major speed increase in the second half of 2010. With this extra bandwidth, we are likely to see apps that will take advantage of the increased speed.

For now, we wait until that happens.

More at Yahoo News. A most read that pretty summarizes some of my thoughts.