billso.com

According to a report in tomorrow’s Business Week, developers are building applications for the Google Phone. I mentioned the gPhone on 27 August. This 6 September article has additional details.

Of course, everyone has signed non-disclosure agreements (NDA) and Google management is doing its best to dispel these persistent rumors of a web-centric Linux-powered mobile phone.

Google and Apple have a fruitful partnership, as I mentioned on 21 June. But the mobile communications industry keeps growing, and Google needs new ways to increase its advertising revenue. The gPhone would provide a great opportunity to create a mobile advertising industry.

Google seems to building a platform that programmers can use to easily build mobile applications, with plenty of hooks into Google services like Gmail, Google Maps, and the Google Search engine.

If Google does open up this application programming interface (API) so that programmers can build true mobile applications that run on the gPhone and tap the Internet, it will be much easier for developers to distribute their gPhone software on the mobile Internet.

Compare this scenario with the Apple iPhone, which restricts developers to web-based mobile applications. Apple likes to lock down their hardware to keep it stable and secure. AT&T, like any sensible mobile carrier, wants to keep its network secure and free from rogue applications. It’s a classic walled garden.

The closed software model works for the iPod, but it remains to be seen if customers will tolerate a closed iPhone. Corporate customers want to add their own software to the iPhone, of course, but it’s so much easier when the API is open and available.

Google and Apple are each looking at the upcoming FCC auction for the analog television spectrum. Business Week speculated on their plans in this 10 September article. The winners of this auction would control a nice range of convenient, unused bandwidth in North America after television stations switch to HDTV transmission in early 2009. That spectrum is a great place to build a national mobile telecommunciations network that’s independent of the mobile phone carriers.

Given Apple’s closed model, it’s easy to guess that an Apple mobile network would feature Apple hardware, software and services, with Apple calling the shots on pricing.

Google, on the other hand, looks more likely to let multiple hardware vendors build compatible devices for the gPhone, and let software developers write the applications, as long as Google services are easy to bundle and use.

Building a new national mobile network would be an expensive proposition, especially as Sprint continues to plan its WiMax strategy. See this 28 August article and this 7 September article, both on Engadget, for more details. Clearwire, the current leader in WiMax deployment, continues with its national plans, as I described on 14 June. However, Clearwire stock took a beating Monday, as its joint work with Sprint hasn’t impressed investors yet, according to a 10 September report in Forbes. This 19 July Forbes article has some additional background on the Sprint-Clearwire national WiMax network.

WiMax makes sense for laptop users, because a laptop battery can deal with the radio modem’s power requirements.

Mobile phones need small batteries, however, and the analog television spectrum is an ideal place for residential wireless connectivity. If I were running a landline telephone company, I’d be worried.

I completed some tweaks to the blog Thursday evening, and they’re worth mentioning.

It’s easy to update articles in WordPress, the server software I use for this blog. Sometimes I edit an article to include new links or updated information.

The 3 September article on ad blocking is a good example. I updated that article today, and now the article’s header looks like this:

Notice the text that says “Updated” – this indicates when I changed this article.

I’ve also made it easier to see blog articles that have comments by adding a visible hyperlink after the article’s title. Sometimes I add comments to an article instead of updating the article itself, and sometimes user have added their own comments:

This screenshot also shows the new format I’m using to display articles on the home page and in search results.
An excerpt of the articles first words will appear, followed by the relevant hyperlinked tags. Just click the article title or the (more…) link to see the entire article. This is a good way to get additional clicks from readers, and to pull them deeper into a web site.

The excerpt isn’t a summary or abstract of the article. It’s just enough text to show the reader how the article begins.

I display excerpts on the home page and in search results to keep these pages small. This helps keep the site responsive and usable for readers with mobile device or limited bandwidth. Google Analytics has shown me that most users access this site at broadband speeds, but I want to accommodate all users, as discussed here.

Of course, the RSS feeds on this site will always display the entire article, including tags. Most RSS readers will also retrieve the updated version of each article.

According to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero has struck down parts of the revised USA Patriot Act. The specific sections allowed investigators to use a National Security Letter (NSL) to request customer records from Internet service providers (ISPs), telephone companies and public librariues. The USA Patriot Act allowed these requests to placed without a court order.

The ACLU filed a challenge to this law, and Marrero ruled that NSLs must go through a meaningful judicial review process to preserve the checks and balances established in the US Constitution.

Marrero, whose courtroom is a few blocks away from Ground Zero in New York City, had overturned the same provision in the original Patriot Act in 2004, but an appeals court returned the case to him for further review. Ars Technica has a brief discussion here.

The ruling affects the privacy of every Internet, telephone and public library user in the United States. ISPs can keep track of their user’s downloads and web activity. It’s easy, as the ISP also needs this information to maintain their networks and service levels.

Companies routinely monitor any Internet activity in their company. Again, this is necessary to provide a stable and secure corporate network. Any employee who doesn’t want their supervisor or IT staff “looking over their shoulder” as they surf the web should think twice about their Internet habits at work.

Frankly, some of this episode reads like an article from Project Censored, a group that compiles annual lists of “news that didn’t make the news”. It’s always fascinating reading, no matter which side of the political spectrum you occupy.

The Honolulu Weekly published the top 10 items in yesterday’s edition. A very long page with all 25 items is available here.

Last year I wrote an article on the Patriot Act for the Encyclopedia of Business Ethics, which is in press. I wrote several other articles for the same encyclopedia, and my honorarium for the project will buy me a brand new copy of the encyclopedia and, if I’m lucky, I’ll have a few coins left over for spam musubi.

Apple may not be announcing it tomorrow at their press conference, but the Gartner Group believes that an enterprise version of the iPhone is inevitable, according to ZDNet.

I discussed some of the enterprise issues that affect iPhone users on July 6. For a sole proprietor or a very small business that already uses Macs, iPhones may make sense, especially for new media and web design firms. iPhone doesn’t seem to work reliably with iTunes for Windows, from what I’ve read.

TCO: it all adds up

Another important consideration is total cost of ownership (TCO). TCO is a common benchmark for information systems managers that adds up the entire cost of a product, including associated services, maintenance, replacement costs and training. I discussed some of these issues in my June 27 and June 6 posts.

iPhone users must have their own computer with iTunes and a broadband connection. That’s the only means of activating an iPhone, establishing an account, syncing the iPhone, and updating the device.

Larger companies that deal with compliance issues may want to avoid the iPhone as a corporate device. iPhones are expensive to acquire and replace, have limited storage space, and offer limited support for Microsoft Exchange.

I was walking down Fort Street Mall this morning, when I saw 3 HPD officers, each on Segways and waiting for jaywalkers.

One patrolman was writing up a jaywalker by the McDonald’s on Fort and Hotel Street.

I would have taken a picture of the Segway crosswalk police, but I didn’t want to get a ticket either! Jaywalking tickets are now over US$100 apiece, you know.

Anyway, it is that time of year when Fort Street Mall is bursting with students. Hotel Street is restricted to buses and government vehicles, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy crossing during the day. It’s one of the busiest bus stops on the island. I’ve seen more than a few bus drivers honk and brake for pedestrians who jaywalked in front of their bus. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin has some safety tips in this August 26 article.

It is possible to hack a crosswalk signal with the right sequence of button presses  – almost every piece of hardware has an override.

But the Fort Street and Hotel signals cycle pretty quickly.

Not worth the jaywalking ticket, I’d say.