Morning Paper

Update: Sprint Mogul Update

Small update concerning the new update for the Sprint Mogul.  Reader "GoodThingsToLife" informs me that the update is available for download.  Try it here:

(Thanks GoodThings)

Vote for your favorite Web 2.0 apps

Are you a big user of web apps, like Gmail, Google Calendar, Yahoo! Mail, Picasa, Flikr, YouMail, BitTorrent, YouTube,  Ebay or a ton of others?  I am.  If you are too, let them know by casting your vote for the WebWare 100 in anticipation of the Web 2.0 Expo coming up April 22-25 in San Francisco.

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A Word On The Strategy Analytics Crowning Of The Palm Centro

Earlier this week I said I would post my thoughts on my week of use with the Centro. I still intend to do that later today so stay tuned. But first I wanted to have a little say about the story that's making its way around the webs. Strategy Analytics Wireless Device Lab released it's findings from a survey they conducted in which they claim over half of the people they asked said the Palm Centro and the Samsung i760 have the most appealing design.

--- “The Samsung i760 and Palm Centro top the purchase likelihood table for those seeking a multifunction, fully integrated device,” according to Paul Brown, Senior User Experience Analyst at Strategy Analytics. “The Nokia Prism is perceived as the most feminine and fun new product, appealing to our Voice + Music segment.”---

This of course sent the iPhone community reeling, and with good cause. Let's be real here, the Centro doesn't come close to the iPhone. But Take a look at the original post. The iPhone is not mentioned. From the read it seems clear to me that the iPhone, SideKick, the Blackberry Curve, Pearl or HTC Touch were not choices for their subjects to choose from. Here are the choices.

Palm Centro
Samsung i760
LG Rumor
Nokia Prism
Pantech C810

Out of that line-up it's easy to see why the Palm Centro would be choice #1. Since we broke the Centro, then "Gandolf" the response was very negative all the way until the very first Palm sanctioned Centro/Treo500v photos showed up. At that point sentiment began to change a bit. But, when we broke the LG Rumor, Then "Messenger Slider", the response was very positive and has remained so to this date. I find it telling that the article refers to the Rumor as "performing strongly".

I am sure that if the aforementioned Blackberry devices, HTC and iPhone were included, the outcome would be completely different. The article leaves much to the imagination which is the problem with it. It doesn't state how many took place in the survey, it could have been ten people and to view the report you have to go through a bunch of sign up crap, which makes it suspect.

Even though this article and survey is extremely missleading, the Palm Centro is without a doubt the best choice out of that five phone line-up.

strategyanalytics

Visual Voicemail Works On Sprint: Callwave

"PLEASE CLICK HERE "MORNINPAPER.COM" FOR VISUAL VOICEMAIL POST. THIS POST HAS BEEN MOVED TO OUR NEW SITE: SEE YOU THERE, THANK YOU"

No Fly "Clothes" Zone on Southwest Airlines

Okay let me get this right.  This woman, Kyla Ebbert, 23, a college student and Hooters waitress from  San Diego was almost thrown off a Southwest Airlines flight yesterday because her clothes were too reveling.  You have got to be kidding me.  I am sure we have all seen people in the airport and thought to ourselves, who dressed this person.  Apparently they got her out of her seat after she was buckled in and made her come up to the front of the plane and told her she needed to change her clothes.  She explained that she didn't have any other clothes with her.  They then told her to go to the gift shop and buy something to change into and catch the next flight.  She told them that she was on her way to a doctors appointment and couldn't not miss it.  So they gave her a blanket to wrap herself up in and she was escorted back to her seat and continued on her way to Tucson.  She said she was so humiliated because everyone on the plane knew what was going on.  I think if Southwest Airlines are going to start scrutinizing what clothes people are wearing on the flights, they need look no further than their own backyard on this one.  The crew members in their bermuda shorts and polo shirts, enough said.  There is no class on Southwest Airlines.   So who was the person who complained????  Come forth you chicken!

Hey Xiino Developers, Contact Me!

Back in May I wrote an article "Xiino, When Will You Update!?". Since I have had a few readers comment and email me over their frustration with the developers. I think the majority of folks who put Xiino on their Treo loved it. Sure it's ugly as hell, but it's super, super fast and very reliable. In my mind it's light years beyond Blazer.

But it has not been updated since 2005/04/13. A lot of readers have told me they have tried to contct the developers and have yet to receive any answer back.

So I am making a public plea to the Developers of Xiino to please drop me a line and tell me what's up with Xiino! There are a number of Palm users who want to know, including myself. We would like to see it updated for the newer Palm devices, and with a much better UI.

You have a Lot of people wanting it so I hope you are building it. Again, drop on by and let me know, so I can let the Palm community know. Thanks!

HYPNOSIS... LAS VEGAS STYLE BABY!

SPOILER WARNING: THIS ARTICLE REVEALS THINGS ABOUT THIS SHOW. IF YOU DON'T CARE, READ ON!

Ever been hypnotized before? You want to? Well if you ever get the urge to let a stranger put you in a state of consciousness where you're awake yet you're mind is controlled by a voice, and of course make a fool of yourself while people laugh hysterically at you or I should say at what you're doing, then step into the Paris Hotel in Vegas and sit on stage at the Anthony Cools Experience. ...READ MORE...

AT&T & the iPhone: Where are the numbers?

Numerous tech sites have picked up on a published report citing about 25% of current iPhone owners did so by switching carriers and probably eating their early cancellation fees to get the latest offering from Apple. This report, linked back to AppleInsider has made its way to just about every tech blog since Thursday. But something hasn't sat right with me since clicking on the Read link in the post last week.

First and foremost, this is not an anti-iPhone post, nor is it questioning the credibility of the various sites or even the report they all quote from the American Technology Research (ATR) company. ATR is a private company that will analyse data at the behest of the company signing the check. Nothing wrong with that, it's one of the ways business gets done.

My concern is, however, the postings are listing something as fact that has yet to proven since ATR themselves are using "unnamed sources" as the basis for their own report.  While anecdotal evidence and even my own reasoning would assume this has to be a fact, it has yet to be backed by hard numbers.

Especially with more than two weeks since "iPhone Day", there should be some real hard numbers than simply "unnamed sources."

Stay with me here. I need to run some numbers.

Apple sold a lot of iPhones on June 29th and the days following. Apple and AT&T are probably happily counting their money as we speak. But the thing really bugging me is how rosy is the news for AT&T in comparison to how many phones were sold?

Any thinking person would find it hard NOT to believe AT&T picked up new customers with the iPhone. There is enough logic and anecdotal evidence to go around. But AT&T has been surprisingly mum about the whole topic. The only "hard" evidence we can find to back up my own suspicion and the suspicion of many is a study citing unnamed sources.

Apple doesn't care which carrier you were with before buying the iPhone, just as they didn't care what MP3 player you were using before you picked up your iPod. Bottom line. Apple made the device and stands to reap the biggest financial reward. But AT&T as a company needs to care. Are they on the losing end of this proposition?

AT&T reportedly has 63 million subscribers on their network. I am one of them. According to TechCrunch, the last published figures put sales of the iPhone at 700,000. (There have obviously been more since then but these are the only official numbers at the moment.)

The numbers reported represent between 11% and 12% of AT&T current customers. Which means if all the iPhone purchasers were already AT&T customers, that is the number that opted for the iPhone. Which isn't bad to get 12% of your current customer base to switch to your new product offering.

Where it really gets interesting though is if you look at the unnamed sources from the ATR citing as many as 25% of those coming from other carriers.

Twenty five percent of the 700,000 is 175,000 new subscribers for AT&T. Not bad for a one day total, but not so great in the grand scheme of things.

According to USA Today, AT&T added 6.9 million subscribers in 2006.  That's a lot of new subscribers, albeit those numbers have to include the combined Cingular / AT&T merger. Still, 6.9 million is nothing to sneeze at.

But only 175,000 new subscribers after the biggest build up in consumer tech product thus far? And if you subtract that number from the 700,000, you end up with 525,000 of current AT&T customers opting for the iPhone which is less than 10%.

Not exactly the out of the park home run for AT&T for what Gizmodo refers to as the Jesusphone. Which is the reason I think AT&T is being quiet and not taking out full page ads anywhere talking about how they are trumping the competition. This wasn't exactly the slam dunk many outsiders thought it would be.

On the surface, saying 25% switched from another carrier for the iPhone sounds great. That is, until you run the numbers. Then you see AT&T doesn't have a whole lot to be boasting about.

I think the iPhone will be important for a paradigm shift of design, ease of use and for continually showing every other company in every other business how marketing and delivering on your promises works. 

I'm sure in the long run AT&T will continue to see customer and revenue growth. But I'm thinking now that the euphoria has started to recede, AT&T may be wondering what happened to their expected landslide victory in the wireless carrier  race.

CELEBRITY SEX TAPES: BIG BUSINESS OR MEDIA BOOSTER?

Another Sex Tape Scandal! This time it's Nick Lacey and girlfriend Vanessa Minnillo. I wonder what this tape will do for his career. My bet, it can only help it. By now, we all know of these celebrity sex tapes, Paris Hilton probably being the most notorious of all. Now whether you’ve seen them or not, really isn’t the point of these tapes surfacing. ...Continued...

Reader Opinion: iPhone vs Treo600/650/700p

Aaron, a Morning Paper regular has commented on an earlier post, or should I say rant, about all of the iPhone and Treo comparisons going on. He makes a couple of very interesting points that go beyond my Palm assertion.

)--I am a self confessed Windows person as you well know. But I have to hand it to Apple they will probably build in all of the widgets, gadgets and third party apps that make Palm and Windows Mobile so usuable and thereby continue to build on their success because neither Palm nor Microsoft can get a clue.

Both companies have been pawning off making their core OS more usable by saying it is the responsibility of third party developers. Dumb, dumb and dumberer.

It should be part of corporate pride to make your OS the best it can be out of the box, something Apple clearly understands but Palm and Microsoft do not.

That's why Apple is gaining. It's so simple. Palm and Microsoft deserve to be losing their market share. I hope they wake up before it is too late.

Thanks for the feedback Aaron!