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Easy Outdoor Ambiance: Light 'n Go Bonfire Log
Summer's coming... and bonfires on the beach have never been easier. Just bring the Light 'n Go Bonfire Log, light the wick, and enjoy the ambiance.
The Light 'n Go Bonfire Log is an all natural birch stump that is kiln dried, fitted with an internal wick, and engineered to light with just one match. The jumbo log can burn for more than two hours, while the standard log can burn for an hour and a half.
For easy entertaining, you can even throw the log into your fireplace at home or your firepit in the backyard. No more stacking firewood or nudging your partner to toss in another log!
Find It: Light 'n Go Bonfire Log, $12.98 at Home Depot (and select Albertsons locations)
Via: Los Angeles Times
• Tips for Cleaner, Better Burning Firewood
• A New Way To Split Firewood
• 5 Green Fire Log Options
(Images: Essay Group)


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BOSTON, Mass.—Rhode Island College (8-0, 2-0 Little East) jumped out to a 3-0 lead after doubles play and despite a valiant effort in singles, UMass Boston women's tennis (2-5, 0-2 Little East) couldn't manage a comeback, as the Beacons fell 6-3 Saturday afternoon at the B.C. High Tennis Courts.
Senior Anitra Kloczewiak (Newton, Mass.) and freshmen Nuha Muntasser (Braintree, Mass.) and Kathleen Conroy (Quincy, Mass.) all earned singles victories, but the Beacons couldn't offset two close doubles losses.
The undefeated Anchorwomen opened the match with a dominant 8-1 doubles victory at number three doubles, as Chelsea Brown and Tressa Cannata downed Conroy and Kelsey Shea (West Bridgewater, Mass.).
The next two doubles matches would be much closer, as Rhode Island College overcame five total match points to earn wins at number one and two doubles.
Rhode Island College's pair of Julie Reddy and Noelle Tiberi defeated Muntasser and Solveig Castelli (Precojo, France) 9-7 at number two doubles. And in the most competitive doubles match, the Anchorwomen's top pair of Sadie Campanelle and Jorgie Martin needed a tiebreaker to defeat Kloczewiak and co-captain Samantha Counts (Bridgewater, Mass.) 9-8 (10-8).
Rhode Island College pushed their lead to 4-0, when Cannata defeated Counts 6-1, 6-0.
Tiberi clinched the victory for the road team with a victory at number five singles, when she downed Nurcin Celebi (Istanbul, Turkey) 6-3, 6-1.
The Anchorwomen earned their sixth and final point of the day at number four singles, as Reddy just barely managed to hang on against Castelli 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).
From there it was all Beacons, as UMass Boston earned wins in the final three matches of the day.
Muntasser picked up her third straight singles win at number one singles 6-4, 6-3, while Kloczewiak earned her fourth straight win at number two singles with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 win.
Conroy capped off the day with a 6-3, 6-4 win at number six singles to move to 2-2 on the year.
UMass Boston will return to action Tuesday afternoon when they host the University of Southern Maine at 3 p.m.

subset: commoncrawl


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Vote for Babe of the Week — Carrissa, Natasha, Ilanna, Jess, Amy, Isabella and Sarah
It's that time again! 7 women, one awesome decision. Who will be crowned 'Babe of the Week?'
The closer we get to summer, the more excited we get for bikini season, because bikinis are just water-resistant underwear that women are allowed to wear in public, and we love seeing women in their underwear. We've selected some pics of these babes that reflect our enthusiasm. Check out all seven babes below, and vote for your favorite at the bottom.
Carrissa Shereen
Natasha Recasas
Ilanna Suicide
Jess Davies
Amy Skylar
Isabella David
Sarah Clayton
Here's the deal: At the end of the week, each Babe of the Day will compete for your votes and the winner will become Babe of the Week. Each week's winner will then face off to become Babe of the Month, and those winners will then duke it out for – you guessed it – the Babe of the Year title. Only those lucky ladies will be inducted into GuySpeed's Hall of Fame, an honor reserved for the hottest of babes.


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WHAT IS IT? Join users, developers, trainers, staff, and tech support for Wordfast's 5th annual user conference. The program will feature three days of Wordfast training and workshops, other software integration sessions, keynote speeches, one-to-one meetings with experts, and more. The evenings will be spent networking and celebrating Wordfast's 20-year anniversary. WHEN AND WHERE IS IT? The 2019 edition of Wordfast Forward will take place in Sainte-Luce, Martinique on March 21-23, 2019.Click for Full Participation
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Author Notes: I stuffed an avocado with sauteed grape tomato and shallots and topped with sauteed bread crumbs, heated in the broiler for a short time and topped with a poached egg. It was delicious, the avocado was barely warmed, and the tomato, shallot and breadcrumbs were lightly browned and the bread crumbs a little crunchy. It's a wonderful contrast to the creamy smooth avocado and runny poached eggs. Very simple to make and as easy to make for 1 as it is for a crowd. The proportions don't have to be exact make enough for how many avocado's.you make. You can become as creative as you like. —sdebrango
Food52 Review: The final product of this recipe is really delicious, and I just made a couple of small changes. I used half of a large heirloom tomato, chopped (grape tomatoes seemed a bit large to stuff into the avocado halves). It was difficult to effectively stuff the avocado and get it in under the broiler, so I wound up scooping out the avocado halves and placing each half in a small ramekin. I broiled the avocado+tomato/shallot+breadcrumb mixture and then topped it with a fried egg. This is a fantastic quick light meal or snack! The simple flavors come together beautifully (the lime is essential, in my opinion, as are fresh breadcrumbs). Definitely a keeper! —sarahmc
Serves: 2
ripe avocado halved
cup grape tomatoes halved
lobe of the shallot chopped
cup fresh breadcrumbs
olive oil for pan
salt and pepper to taste
large eggs poached or fried
lime (for the avocado)
- Add olive oil to saute pan and add the chopped shallot, when it has softened add the tomatoes and saute just until the tomatoes start to soften and give off a little of their juices, season with salt and pepper. Remove from pan and add the bread crumbs.saute until they have absorbed the oil and are lightly browned. Remove from pan
- Turn oven to broil, place rack in the middle of the oven. Line a baking sheet with foil. Cut your avocado in half, squeeze the lime on both halves, sprinkle each with a pinch of sea salt. Fill the cavity with the tomato and shallots, top with bread crumbs and place in oven for approximately a minute just so it's warmed and the crumbs are golden brown.
- Top with poached or fried egg and enjoy.
- This recipe is a Community Pick!
- This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Avocados


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The California Department of Pesticide Regulation has proposed registering methyl iodide as a pesticide in California to the dismay of scientists and environmental groups, who say it is so toxic that even chemists are reluctant to handle it. Susan Kegley, a consulting scientist for Pesticide Action Network, a nonprofit public interest group in San Francisco, said approving methyl iodide would be a flirtation with disaster no matter how many safeguards are in place. "This stuff just kills everything," said Kegley, a chemist, who pointed out that even low doses have caused neurological damage and fetal death in laboratory animals. "It is a known carcinogen."
readMORE» San Francisco Chronicle, 06/02/10


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I am sure that most of you, weather you be Atheists of Theists have heard a whole lot about God's Will. This is thrown out like verbal diarrhea every time that someone dies or a natural disaster occurs. I have often questioned why people are so quick to say that a kid that gets caught in the crossfire of a gang shooting received a "gift" and that it was God's Will that she get shot and killed in a park. How is that a gift? What proof is there that she is in a better place? Who are you to make such claims? It may sound nice and comforting at the time, but it is not all that it is cracked up to be. As the title of this post implies, I am going to be talking about God's will and our own freedom. Does God's Will take away our freedom?
To start let us look at the Frankfurt Cases. This is a thought experiment that involves two cases that are identical, except for one part.
Case 1
There are two men: Smith and Jones. Smith is pointing a gun at Jones and is deciding whether or not to shoot him. There is also an evil demon that COULD control the outcome. In this case Jones decides not to shoot Jones, however the evil demon forces Smith to pull the trigger and kill Jones.
Case 2
There are two men: Smith and Jones. Smith is pointing a gun at Jones and is deciding whether or not to shoot him. There is also an evil demon that COULD control the outcome. In this case Smith decides to shoot Jones with his own free will, and the evil demon does nothing.
Take a good look at these cases. What do you notice? First off, they are identical except for one part, which is where the evil demon comes in. The other thing is that the outcome was the same, but the method of getting to that outcome was different. If it was Smith's choice to shoot Jones or if the evil demon commanded him to, the result was the exact same. So, my question is, if "God's Will be done" then the end result will always be the same. So are we really free to make our own decision? If we are, what is the point of making them if it is just going to achieve God's Will in the end?
Another thing that I question is how a person would know what God's Will is. I really don't have a concrete answer for how one would definitively know what God's Will is, but I can speculate as to why it would be appealing to chalk up the bad things in life it "it was God's Will".
The same sort of thing happens (in someone's mind) when there is a conspiracy about something like 9/11. Sometimes when something horrible happens it scares people, which is normal. However, being humans it is in our nature to want an explanation of why something happened. In the case of conspiracy theories Jodi Dean says,
People hate thinking about, in the flash on an eye terrorist bomber...
I think that the same thing happens in the minds of Theists when a natural disaster, like Hurricane Katrina, occurs. It is much more comforting to think that there is a plan in place. People don't like to think that bad things can just happen, they would rather be optimistic about some plan that would take them to a better place (heaven supposedly, but I'll save that for another post). Michael Martin said it best in his book Atheism: A Philosophical Justification -
If pessimism is justified by the evidence, then we must be pessimistic. If we are optimistic when pessimism is justified, we are irrational.
If you are a Theist or an Atheist, please leave your comments and opinions, I would love to know more about the topic from all perspectives. Bear in mind, however, I will research what you say if I think that you haven't done your research.
Views: 1419
I can only talk from my experience, I live in a country where rape and murder is common. When My grandmother was murderd in 1993. Comments were that , I't was God's will, That she is in a better place, God felt it was time for her to come home. When my husband was murderd in Oktober 1998 Comments were.It' was the work of Satan, He is sitting at Gods side, God only chooses the special ones, It was God's will and the list goes on. And God will not put a burden on me that he will not give me the strength to carry. It is a test of my faith. What got me was. WHY would he be such a selfish self important ASS, to use all the above reasons to take my children then 1 year and 6 months old and the other 5 years old father away. And then expect me to feal special because he chose me and my children to treat to this faith finding, test, and gift of picking his most presious flower. There is no logic to thinking or reasoning that some god sits up there and make these desicions not at random but picking them of like a sniper as it fits his mood or whim. No thinking person can accept this and belief this.
"It is much more comforting to think that there is a plan in place. People don't like to think that bad things can just happen, they would rather be optimistic about some plan that would take them to a better place (heaven supposedly, but I'll save that for another post)."
I used to work for the County State Court back home a few years ago and it was common to get people calling in from all over saying that they had just been arrested on a Bench Warrant for a ticket in our county. Sometimes these people would be coming back from vacation out of the country and get arrested at the airport and then sent to jail in our state. Needless to say it was a very stressful time for them, but they would call looking for information on how to get their license reinstated, old copies showing that they had payed the ticket years ago faxed somewhere, or just generally in need of help or information. The one thing I noticed is how often people's attitudes changed as soon as I said that I would take care of them on my end. It's an experience that's left me wondering how prevalent that shift in feelings is among all people when you know you you can count on someone else, and whether that plays into the idea of "divine guardian" so to speak.
@archaeopteryx That is what I am trying to argue for.
@Jorita I am sorry for your loss. No one should have to go through something like that, and to make it worse be told that it is part of some sick plan by a "loving" God who seems to get less loving each and every day (and seems like he was never loving, or just not there <-- which seems to be the most reasonable option).
@Sagacious Hawk, that is some valuable insight. I think you are right and that knowing that there is someone out there who is going to help you when you are going through something difficult is the best thing in the world. We have all been there at one point in time when you just need someone to help you figure your life out and what you are going to do next. the "divine guardian" aspect is comforting and honestly I think some people just need that because they cannot view the world without it. In my opinion it is a sad thing to need.
It seems like a coping mechanism of sorts; a way to detach themselves from the pain and/or disasters in their lives. There is also the "It's in God's hands now" comment people make all the time. That always gets an automatic eyeroll from me.
Religion has always been filled with superstition, and the things that humans can not explain contributed to a god. In time of drought our farmers have a day of prayer for rain, all the christians would gather and pray for this and when it rains they will have a day of giving thanks to god. The Zulu have a goddess Nomkhubulwana that they worship in spring and if they don't do rituals to please her their crops will fail. The Intsikizi is the ground hornbill bird if this is killed it wil cause great floods. The one common thing you find is that they all belief that they are reliant on good fortune from the different gods and bad fortune or the wrath of a god if sertain rituals is not performed. Christians belief that if they don't live their life according to the bible and pray and worship god bad things will happen to them or this explains why bad things happen , and the same for when good things happen. I find it interesting that the Nguni and other African cultures have the same perspective. They also share some of the same laws as the biblical laws even though they only came into contact with Christianity in the 18 00's Their belief in the uThixo predates christianity. I truly belief that religion is culturaly inheretid , and springs from the ancient times when we had no explantion for natural events, such as sicknes, death, drought, floods ect. And today in a modern world where we have explanations for these , people still kling to superstitious beliefs from those times.
Is god, if one exists, free?
@SamRedmond, I confess I didn't understand the point of those cases.
From a theist's perspective, of course it's not God's Will when humans choose to do bad things. Yes, sometimes foolish people try to say that to comfort people, but I'm not sure to what end. Humans have free will, and if a human chooses to sin by killing another human that's not God's will, or God's plan, which is why it's just fine to capture and punish the jerk.
The Christian perspective is that what we do matters. Our choices really affect things. They can really help people and society and the world, or really hurt people and society and the world. In the tale of Adam and Eve, their choices matter. They bring death into the world, and unmake God's intent. They cause pain, and purgatory, and their example leads to the hell of having one of their children murder another, just as our choices of casual racist language can lead others to take grievous racial actions, our venial lack of kindness to an Asperger's kid or our paranoia in stockpiling weapons can lead to the hell of having kindergartners shot to death in Newtown.
Not God's will. Not God's plan.
That's why teaching right from wrong, good from wickedness is important. That's why trying to discern God's will matters. Because the harm we do and the hell we cause is real.
In the tale of Adam and Eve, their choices matter
Do you believe in the story of Genesis and the Garden of Eden? I'm just trying to work out where your beliefs do lie, not where they don't lie.


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DaiMon Tarr was the commander of a Ferengi D'Kora-class marauder responsible for the theft of a T-9 energy converter from an unmanned Federation outpost on Gamma Tauri IV, in 2364.
Tarr's starship was later pursued by the USS Enterprise-D in an attempt to recover the energy converter, it was finally able to confront the Marauder in the Delphi Ardu star system. Soon thereafter, both ships were incapacitated by an unknown energy beam from a nearby planet, later discovered to be a former outpost of the Tkon Empire. Tarr and Captain Jean-Luc Picard both agreed to send away teams to the planet in order to disable the energy beam.
His team attacked the Federation away team, and were stopped by the Portal, a guardian of the Tkon Empire. At first the Portal was going to destroy Tarr and his ship, but after listening to Commander William T. Riker who led the Federation away team, the Portal freed Tarr and his ship. Following this encounter Tarr agreed to return the stolen energy converter. (TNG: "The Last Outpost")


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vmedia needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 104 designs submitted by 22 freelance designers.
We need a logo for a visual media production company. The name of the company is Emergent Visual Media.
Emergent Visual Media
We are looking for an eye catching yet profession and elegant for a visual media production company. The company is designed to offer video production work to clients. We are very open to all submissions and will give feedbacks accordingly.
- Item 1...We don't have any particular restrictions on color schemes or designes. We are very open and will give feedbacks to designers as needed.
- Item 1...We don't want the standard cliche logos being created for video production company's. The name of the company is Emergent so we will like something that will go along the line of our name.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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This homestay is located in a small Bhutia (Buddhist) village in Sikkim's Southern district. It's one of North-East India's best kept secrets and has gained recognition largely due to word-of-mouth publicity. The village with its breathtaking landscapes and touching hospitality serves as a great conduit between Gangtok and Pelling. But even in its own right, this is a beautiful holiday spot which offers travelers an experience unlike any other.Read more
CheersBye © 2019


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RN Jobs >> Browse Articles >> Medical Research/Science
MIT Olfactory Research Could Produce Artificial Noses
Levi Beckerson / Daily Tech
October 01, 2008
The olfactory system is one of the oldest and definitely the most complex of a human's sensory equipment. It is not; however, anywhere near the most complex as far as Earth-based life goes.
A human's olfactory system is driven by about 400 active genes, which express proteins called olfactory receptors. By comparison, mankind's faithful canine companions have over 1,000 of these task specific genes dedicated to their sniffing abilities.
The complexity of the olfactory system has kept it one of the least understood biological systems. To compound this, olfactory proteins are remarkably difficult to study outside of the body as their composition makes them hydrophobic and causes them to lose their structure in water-based solutions.
A group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology may have solved this problem of delicate structures. The project, known as MIT RealNose, MIT in this case representing microfluidic-integrated transduction, has been able to successfully harvest the proteins by utilizing a hydrophobic detergent solution, wheat germ extract and a multi-step purification process. The scientists were able to successfully produce enough of the protein structures via the process to begin functional and structural analysis.
"The main barrier to studying smell is that we haven't been able to make enough receptors and purify them to homogeneity," explains MIT student Brian Cook. "Now, it's finally available as a raw material for people to utilize, and should enable many new studies into smell research."
Understanding the nose and the developing the ability to build them from the bottom up may help produce better detection systems for anything from dangerous chemicals to medical conditions. A remotely operated artificial nose could replace bomb-sniffing dogs, keeping them and their partners out of harm's reach.


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Expertise On Demand
28 Jun 2007, 11:59PM PT
21 Jun 2007, 12:00AM PT
Closed: 28 Jun 2007, 11:59PM PT
Earn up to $150 for Insights on this case.
12 Insights
White Paper For Techdirt: How To Respond To The iPhone? by Martin Edic
Friday, June 22nd, 2007 @ 10:35AM
There is one significant change embodied in the iPhone: Wireless access that is not controlled by the carrier. This is huge because they got AT&T to agree to this which means they can't charge the consumer for every little web service. No more extras for chat, SMS, video channels, Internet, email (web-based), etc. Because the browser appears to be a full-fledged version of Safari, any web service available for Safari should work and be free on any free wireless connection. This is a huge change and one which the other carriers must be tearing their hair out over. That's why they're having problems getting a partner in Europe.
It also drives the release of Safari for Windows. Windows app developers moving to web apps can now ensure they work in Safari so they can enter the iPhone ecosystem. It's a Trojan horse approach to acquiring support among Windows users and developers.
Finally you cannot underestimate the marketing they are doing. I have already overheard three different conversations in malls with teenage girls talking about iPhone commercials. This is the market of the future and once they use this technology there will be no going back. No one is going to pay extra for wireless access on a phone again.
White Paper For Techdirt: How To Respond To The iPhone? by Rob Newby
Friday, June 22nd, 2007 @ 12:31PM
Apple are marketing the iPhone as a "revolutionary new phone", but really it's just like any other phone at the moment, with Mac-like features. The only thing Apple is doing right now that is different to anyone else is creating a cool brand. That's the key though, Apple have sat back, watched everyone else do it cheaper, quicker, faster, more, then come along with a well developed, good looking, cool product. That's what they did with the iPod, and now everyone has one. That's what they will do with phones. It will be this summer's must have accessory, and they have timed it exactly for this. I don't think that's really anything that needs further wondering about, they know their market.
This is the market they have cornered gradually over the years, whilst Microsoft became the geeks, Apple stayed cool. And it is one which will never disappear for them if they play it properly, only become larger. So, the affect on the rest of the market is for them to either try to become more fashionable (hard), or to become niche products - not something the mobile phone industry has yet had to do. Until now they have just had demand at incredible rates, so the quality and diversity of their products has been pretty hit and miss. Some phones, like the Nokia 6230, Motorola RAZR, etc. have been very popular across the board, some have been popular with women, Samsung A800 for example, some have bombed completely. There are other niches of course, but it has been very much a case of bulk buying by operators to give away with specially targeted packages, the phones haven't really had to be anything special. Now we all have our packages, complete with tie-ins and discounts, home phone, broadband and television packages, we need something on top. Apple will have that cornered whilst everyone else tries to catch up on "cool".
The device vendors will be crazy to try and beat Apple at their own "cool" game. These people will not succeed easily. The new niches will be the traditional ones: very low-end commodity type phones for kids and people with less ready cash, very high end "luxury" phones, (expect to see some stupid offerings co-branded with Cartier, Tiffany's, etc.), and established PDAs being able to keep in with the "PC vs Mac" argument. Some people are very attached to their PDAs, but these will need to be updated.
I don't see this particularly as an operator issue, unless the device vendors get in early and tie themselves to a particular service. They may have tie-ins already due to previous deals, in which case they will be OK for a while, but it will not mean any new sales, and I expect most operators will be wary of this by now.
White Paper For Techdirt: How To Respond To The iPhone? by Vinaya HS
Monday, June 25th, 2007 @ 3:02AM
Derek Kerton
Wed Jun 27 6:25pm
|Quality post, as usual. And I agree that this is the 10x change.
I just disagree that it caught us sleeping. Clearly you and I, and many others, are on board. What's more, I've been begging for a shake-up like this since 2002, and we've been beleiving the iPhone rumors for years. Sure, a few key stakeholders are sleeping, and those people are will be getting their wake-up call shortly.
White Paper For Techdirt: How To Respond To The iPhone? by Steve Litchfield
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 @ 3:42AM
The Apple iPhone, of course, comes at the whole arena of smartphones completely from left-field and seemingly reinvents everything. And, although the iPhone has some huge omissions and flaws, there are some lessons from which existing smartphone manufacturers and smartphone owners can draw.
Apple's cleverness is not, in my opinion in the way they've produced the first practical mass market capacitive touchscreen device(!), although that's an impressive start, but in the way they've managed not to over complicate the whole idea of a smartphone.
Because S60, UIQ, Palm OS and Windows Mobile have 'grown up', so to speak, evolving over many years, features and functions have been incrementally added, to the point where something of the simplicity of the iPhone seems a breath of fresh air. Now, there's a direct relationship between simplicity and ease of use, between functionality and complexity, but in Apple's case they've bent this usually straightforward relationship, allowing perhaps 70% of (say) a S60 smartphone's power and functions while being twice as easy to use, for a newcomer at least.
Of course, it's that last 20% of functionality which is the most techy and the hardest to introduce in a non-confusing way, which is where the challenge lies for the likes of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and HTC (to name the top 4 smartphone makers in terms of market share).
The iPhone has raised the bar in terms of ease of use, as many observers have already commented. It's not just about having a touchscreen (which is why the HTC Touch will fail miserably) - it's about keeping the user in the loop about what options are available at every single point. It's all very well an application on a S60 or Windows Mobile 6 device having 100 different functions and menu options, but if only 10% of them ever get used because most people never find them, then there's a big usability issue to overcome.
In addition to greater use of context-sensitive menus (from which items which aren't relevant are omitted), there's scope for hiding many application functions behind an 'Advanced' menu or on-screen button, so that users themselves can decide which bits to use and which to ignore. Perhaps applications could themselves be run in 'novice' or 'advanced' mode, along the lines of what Eudora Mail did five or six years ago. With 'Novice' set as a system-wide setting, new users would get along faster and could graduate to 'Advanced' when they felt ready.
Steve Litchfield, 27 June 2007
White Paper For Techdirt: How To Respond To The iPhone? by Derek Kerton
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 @ 6:15PM
The iPhone isn't yet released, and the hype bandwagon is running at full steam. And for once, sign me up. I'll run shotgun on that bandwagon. Why do I think the iPhone is worthy of the hype:
How can I say this when I don't even know if you will buy one or not? Well, it's simple. It's like the advent of Local Number Portability - for those customers who changed providers, they were able to access a different phone, feature, or pricing plan that they wanted. But for all those who did NOT switch, they also benefited from the fact that the carriers needed to suddenly respond to the fact that they had to compete for existing customers. Customer benefits such as "rollover minutes" and VZW's pro-rated early-exit fees are direct results of WLNP-based competitive responses.
In a similar vein, the iPhone is forcing all other phone vendors and carriers to up their game. Responses have been numerous such as Sony EricssonW580, W200, or the older K790a (all much cheaper), the Helio Ocean (a great multimedia 3G phone), the HTC Touch. And with AT&T set to have a much more compelling music service through iTunes, Sprint and Verizon have to completely re-think their mobile music stores. Do you really think their drops in prices were made in a vacuum.
So, my point is that even before it's release, other competitors have doubled their efforts, lowered prices, and improved devices in anticipation of the Apple device. That's already done - in the bag. Imagine what happens to the market if the iPhone actually IS successful and other vendors copy the best practices from it.
Talk about important. The carriers have had an iron grip on device design, features, and a furiously tenacious grip on content and services that they make available to their subscribers. This has been to the great detriment of the wireless Value Added Services industry (just ask any developer, off the record, when there isn't a carrier within earshot). By being autocratic and trying to control everything, they have stifled creativity. By taking 50% cuts of all VAS, they have snuffed incentives. But that is about to change. You would think that in a competitive market (which I believe wireless is), you would have one or more carriers compete by...giving customers what they want! (duh) Hutch 3UK did it. Yet what we have, in most markets including the US, is an oligopolists Prisoner's Dilemma: all carriers are choking the market in a similar way, and none have defected from this silent pact. Driven by fear, they think this is best for them. Yet, when one of them defects, the game is over and they will all end up worse off. And AT&T has flinched.
The iTunes model will work around the carriers (somewhat) and we can expect to see more music, video, and content get on the phones through a batch-sync over USB. Because of this, the carrier has relinquished some power to Apple. When customers learn of how easy it can be to get more from their device, they will flock to this model (note I say 'model' if not necessarily the iPhone.) Other carriers will not be able to compete with AT&T on a VAS basis until they tear down their walled gardens.
Content providers, SaaS providers, application vendors, all of them finally will get a little bit of power. And certainly a new power player, Apple, will have entered the game. With Apple demonstrating a method of being a power-player, is it long before Nokia, Moto, Sammy, S-E etc. all want a similar role?
Carriers often launch apps and content on an exclusive basis. Think Shakira videos and ringtones with VZW, or SMS that was not inter-carriers, or VZW PTT. Each one was launched in the hope of differentiating from competitors, and stealing subscribers from those competitors. Yet we've seen these apps come and go - and NONE have been important enough to steal customers, and any good ones are quickly matched by competitors. It remains that the only thing that actually drives churn is bad service from a current provider (negative differentiators). Hyped up phone features that were supposed to rock our worlds. But in reality, so far, only two non-voice apps have been remotely "killer". That's SMS and email, and no carrier really has any differentiation in these.
But this is different. The iPhone IS probably the first positive differentiator that WILL churn customers. We know this from research, analogical evidence, and the fact that a million people have requested the device from AT&T. Four days before the launch, people are camping in front of AT&T and Apple stores. Has that ever happened before in the telecom space? eBay and Craigslist have "professional waiters" offering to hold a place in line for a fee. But if you want an iPhone, you'll need to switch to AT&T. That's powerful.
And it goes beyond those who churn to AT&T for an iPhone. The brand cachet gained by AT&T will be significant. They will be cool again (wait, were they ever?). People will enter AT&T stores just to have a look. Minus one subscriber for VZW and plus one sub for AT&T - each churner is a double victory. I clearly think that the exclusive deal is good for AT&T because of the reasons listed above, and I think it is actually a painless move because of the below...
And there will be ancillary benefits. We think that the carriers historic desire for control has been self-destructive. We think they have shrunk the pie, and claimed a big piece. Apple is forcing AT&T to open up, and they will be the first carrier to do so, and have a leadership advantage in the new, larger pie. More content, more services, more activity, more revenue. Hey, I warned you I was on the bandwagon.
Of course, this is theirs to lose. If the phone totally flops, or if the network flops (as AT&T Wireless did when their new subscriber provisioning system failed years ago), they will have a lot of egg on their faces. BTW, I also think the exclusive deal is a positive for Apple, because they could never have negotiated for as tough terms from carrier without offering exclusivity. Yet without the terms Apple extracted, this whole event would be ho-hum.
Foreign concept, but that's what Apple does. Well, OK, Apple isn't 100% committed either, as we know they benefit from locking down the music with DRM that also locks it to iPods, but hey, they are a radical step in the right direction vis a vis the telecom industry. The iPhone does, and will continue to innovate in ways the customer wants, with less restrictions put in by what the telco wants. The end result is better overall for society - even if it is not better for ever individual stakeholder.
Finally - a phone made by a company for whom UI is the leading feature. Motorola, Nokia, et al can say what they want about how important they think UI is. It just isn't to them. Not compared to Apple. And the reality is that it IS the most important thing in any device. Every other feature is hidden behind the UI. Current state telephones started with features and functions, and build a UI around them. The iPhone is different: eschewing any legacy processes, this device was built from the UI down. This avoids the silos that plague conventional devices.
Now, I have some issues with the iPhone UI, don't get me wrong. I hate devices that have just one hardware button. There are some functions that I want one click away, with tactile feedback. I want to be able to move a few switches with the device in my pocket. But that's a relatively small gripe.
A lot has been made of the fact that this phone only has an EDGE modem. But space/power/cost trade-offs must be made. And those complaining about this have just bought in too much to the 3G hype. Don't get me wrong, 3G is awesome when needed, like a laptop modem. But Blackberry, for example, works perfectly well on the 19,800kbps Mobitex network. The key is to having little need for fast data, and a slick UI that hides the latency. RIM figured it out, and got a 7-year head-start in the mobile email space.
So why doesn't the iPhone NEED 3G? Well, the notion is not that users will be actively using data-traffic-intensive applications while mobile. The notion is that they will sideload a variety of content and apps from their desktop into the device. How stupid is that? Let me see...using a 480Mbps (USB) connection that is free for data traffic vs. using a 600Kbps 3G connection that uses battery, increases hardware costs, and is billed by the carrier. If that's stupid, then call me Gump. 3G will come in later devices, as the market determines.
No Keyboard. Well, this one hurts the device for the most active email users. But there is a clever text input mechanism, so for SMS messages and short entries, it works fine. And is this device really targeting the Blackberry crowd. I don't think so. RIM can relax and sit this one out, for now. This is clearly a consumer device, and keyboards are mostly an enterprise feature.
The other cool thing about this is that phones have historically been a utilitarian part of the network. The industry name we use for them is "terminals". We see them as the end point on the network, linked to the network provider and provisioned by them. But with the iPhone, the mobile phone is becoming Consumer Electronics for real. Phones will start to be devices bought by consumers, and simply connected to a network. Call it a pipe, if you will. From there, what's next? Gameboys connected to the network, cameras? What other CE will follow this leader.
That said, it's not for me. I find that phone choice is made mostly by the second priority rule. You haven't heard of that rule because I just made it up. But basically almost everyone's first priority for a mobile phone is voice connectivity. But every phone delivers that. So people end up choosing the kind of phone they carry by their second priority. These range from:
But a phone today, being the size it is, cannot be great at ALL these things. Compromises have to be made. So some are better at one thing, and others at another thing. For me, my second priority is email, and I don't consider the iPhone a contender.
Derek Kerton
Thu Jun 28 10:34am
|OK, so I didn't hit the question very much in there. Here's an addendum:
How it changes the rest of the market:
Carriers: AT&T will actually attract customers away from other carriers. Their brand will improve. They will see increased use of VAS because of the benefit of tearing down their walled garden. That benefit is clearly visible to developers and consumers, but even though carriers "don't get it" it will actually benefit AT&T as well. AT&T's brand will improve. Other carriers will need to respond by offering better mobile media services, at lower prices. Other carriers will need to respond by making content more accessible on their devices using all the available ports (Bluetooth, USB, SD) not just the antenna port. They will need to lower their walled gardens.
Market Prices: The acceptable market price for mobile music and mobile video will be lowered to the iTunes standard.
Mobile Video Plans: MediaFLO and DVB-H mobile video broadcast efforts will suffer compared to the price and simplicity of the iTunes sideload. Few will pay $15/mo for broadcast TV when others can sideload TV shows with PVR functionality for $1 a pop.
Device Vendors: Other device vendors will need to scramble to catch up with the iPhone's features and slick UI. But Apple will continue to innovate, so they will remain one step behind for a while. They will lose market share. But on the upside for the Nokias, and seldom mentioned, Apple has broken the grip the Telco had on the device supply chain. Other vendors can take advantage of the breach in the wall, and sneak features through (don't forget that carriers block any feature/content that threatens their preferred biz model).
Media Companies / Developers:
Now they've got a channel into the moble device that isn't bottlenecked by the...um..less informed carriers. They have an easy route to distribute and monetize their content. They are, without a doubt, sick and tired of carriers getting in their way, and then taking 50%. Wow, 50%! Apple makes basically nothing on the iTunes content, charging instead for the hardware. Does that sound appealing for a content company, or what?!
Given the various strengths and weaknesses of the iPhone, how will other device vendors and mobile operators respond?
RIM: Some competitors are outside the iPhone's reach initially. The iPhone is world-changing, yes, but it IS a device with only one hardware button. This doesn't bode well for working on extensive email or word documents. People want tactile feedback when they type. For the moment, keyboard devices are largely unthreatened (Treo, RIM). But high-end consumer phones are going to lose customers to the iPhone.
Pricing: As a weakness, price is probably the iPhone's greatest. But consumers have indicated a willingness to pay for Consumer Electronics, especially great products. The price will definitely reduce the market for the i, and leave ample opportunity for the other vendors. If they produce a good product, it will almost certainly be not-as-good. But it may be a better value if it only comes in at 2-3 hundred dollars. This should be their goal: a second-best product at hundreds of dollars less.
Battery: Other vendors are making fun of the iPhone's battery. I heard a Motorola exec make a poke at it last week on stage, but I think that's a red herring. I don't think the iPhone battery is bad at all. The only real problem is that it is not replaceable. This will manifest itself in a couple of years when the cells wear down. But this IS a weakness they are trying to poke at...sour grapes in my mind.
Mobile Operators: lower music prices. Allowing music to be moved to phones over Local networks. Lower video prices. Adjusting video plans. Emphasizing price advantages of their products over a iPhone+service TCO (Even though TCO of a similar device+service+content package from them is probably higher.) Carriers will not likely lower their service prices to compete with iPhone, but will try to offer competing devices and services. They will lose some customers to AT&T.
Vinaya HS
Thu Jun 28 8:18pm
|Thoughtful insight indeed.
But do you think the device vendors will get anywhere by trying to ape the iPhone's features? I think it's time for Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson et al. to do some deep soul searching and get back on the innovation train they were, once upon a time, known to be the engines of.
I too agree that the iPhone is not immediately attacking RIM's market segment. For now, the iPhone is being projected more as a data-centric consumer device and not as an enterprise-level device. I don't see users dumping their Blackberries anytime soon.
I've never been a big fan of ring tones. But iTunes is sure to change the ring tone market in a BIG way. Why would you pay top dollar for a 10-second clip when you can get the real thing dirt cheap on iTunes?
White Paper For Techdirt: How To Respond To The iPhone? by Brent Lamphier
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 @ 8:41PM
$500 plus $60 per month
What'd you pay for your last phone. I paid $50 for my Motorola Razor, which was the hot phone, and it took a lot to get me to fork over the $50 and not take the phone they were giving away for free.
For years now there have been two major options in cellphones. You get the hot free one offered with your plan, or you pay a few hundred for a blackberry type device.
The t-mobile sidekick was hot 2 years ago, when those typically selecting the free phone option paid $200 for a cool flip device.
500. For a phone (yeah, Mr. Jobs, it's an iPod and an Internet Device too). It's a cool, expensive phone. It will sell. Really well.
Phones are cool again.
What THAT means is that Motorola can create a really awesome phone for about $300 and NOT give it away for free. It means that technological development in the US, all the cool devices have been in South Korea for years, will start popping up, because there's MONEY to be made...and people will SPEND money again.
"Wow look how cool this phone is, it does even more than the iPhone and is only 200" No more freemiums to sign people up for 2 year plans.
How Verizon, T-Mobile, Motorola, Samsung et all should respond: Do one thing REALLY cool. The iPhone may be spreading itselfto thin. Forget music, Apple is king. Apple is not the king of the internet, or games (how bout a PSP enabled phone that's smaller?), or email, or gps...be the BEST at one of those...corner a small market, and let iPhone users deal with the 2 hour battery life.
White Paper For Techdirt: How To Respond To The iPhone? by Rafe Blandford
Thursday, June 28th, 2007 @ 7:54AM
Other manufacturers will look at the iPhone and note the importance of two things: the user experience given through the user interface and the importance of marketing. The iPhone, outside its creen, has only a mid level specification; the majority of the innovation is in the user interface and software. The wider applicability of this software innovation is open to question. It is too early to evaluate the success or failure of the iPhone user experience model and it is worth noting that several usage scenarios are not handled well by the current implementation (e.g. one handed use, use with gloves, glance lookups). Furthermore such a user interface is not necessarily suited to mass market devices. To a certain extent a touch driven interface dictates a large screen and places limits on both form factors and the minimum size of the device. It is also worth considering how far the current implementation can be extended with new features before it becomes unwieldy to use. Apple has sensibly focused on core features, but in order to be sucessful outside of the US market it will have to extend current features and functionality. Maintaining the same ease of use and Apple ethos will be difficult as Apple moves out of its traditional areas of expertise.
However it is clear that the iPhone will give manufacturers and software providers a reason to reassess their current offerings. Apple has offered alternative directions to investigate and while these may not be new Apple's very use of them legitimises them as areas for further study.
Marketing is perhaps the area that both manufacturers and operators could pay close attention to. Apple has managed to generate a large amount of pre-publicity about the iPhone. While some of this is down to its status as innovative product rational assessment of its competitors would suggest the innovation angle is over exaggerated, there are a variety of devices that can do more. The importance of a loyal community, especially a web-based one has been clearly demonstrated. Numerous blogs, forums postings and mainstream media sites have examined and deconstructed every detail. Apple has also sort to educated potential users about the benefits of the device - something which is rarely seen from other high end phone manufacturers. Even potentially negative areas (such as the lack of true third party developer support) have been spun in a positive way. Of course replicating this marketing juggernaut is extremely difficult, but it is an area that is worth pursuing.
Operators will like the iPhone because of the high level of awareness around it. The awareness of its capabilities will help increase consumer awareness of non-communication features in phones. This should have a beneficial knock on effect on other models. I would expect to see increased sales of high end handsets. This effect will likely be most noticeable in the US where the consumer market (as opposed to enterprise) for high end phones is relatively small.
However operators will also be distinctly unimpressed by the revenue generation prospects of the iPhone for themselves out side of the phone contract. Operators are well aware then revenue from voice and data can only decline and thus are actively seeking other revenue generating areas. With the iPhone these areas are controlled and monopolised by Apple. More over Apple seeks to promote its own branding over that of the operators. Operators will be very wary of becoming nothing more than 'pipe' providers.
Operators seeking to build software software platform strategies and build future growth around ecosystem of mobile companies will also be wary of Apple's desire to control the product end to end. It makes it difficult for anyone other than Apple to innovate and that is very dangerous for the industry as a whole.
However despite all of this it is worth noting that the importance of the iPhone is easily overstated. If it reaches it sales target it will still only represent 1% of phone sales. There will be more successful product out there and though they may not receive the same media attention they are just able (often more so) to add to the bottom line.
Vinaya HS
Thu Jun 28 8:31pm
|I don't agree when you say that Apple's desire to control the product end to end is very dangerous for the industry. What innovation have you seen from the other device vendors who have bowed down to the whims of the carriers?
It is perfectly reasonable for Apple to have end to end control over their product. Apple thrives on exclusivity and it is easy to mistake this for dominance.
Also, does Apple interfere with the way AT&T builds and maintains its cellular network?
Rafe Blandford
Fri Jun 29 2:45am
|I think both carriers and operators have provided a lot of innovation.
Nokia entire S60 platform represents a considerable innovation and they are continuing to build stuff around this. For example they today announced a new service to allow you to order photo prints directly from your phone. An install is necessary, but I imagine it will be a default item in future phones. Whether operators choose to allow this in locked phones or would provide their own solution is of course unclear. You could look at other Nokia initiatives such as Video Sharing or Content Loader. The forthcoming Bluetooth Low Power was originally a Nokia research product. Similarly Sony Ericsson has created a strong market for its Walkman brand by creating a music experience and innovating around it (TrackID, use of accelerometers, etc.).
Operators have also sort to innovate themselves. Operator portals and the download of extra software, services and ringtones were all innovation at one time and new services continue to emerge.
Much innovation comes from third parties which the bigger companies license. For example Orange through its Orange Partner program uses a large number of products to enhance its offering. Abaxia for HomeScreens, Musiwave for its music platform/ products. Orange is especially notable because it carries out a triple/ quad play strategy and some of it services cross multiple segments (e.g. Pikeo photo sharing is both web and mobile enabled, Video content in France is broadcast over the web, IPTV and to mobile). Much of this comes from companies working together.
Apple may consider it perfectly reasonable to have end to end control, but I very much doubt operators would agree.
The point I was trying to make is that iPhone model is different from all of this. Apple will only work with those it wants too. This can be considered a good and a bad thing of course, but does change the industry.
Note I think you have to draw a distinction between the US and the rest of the world / Europe. The US does have the same innovation in its carriers. Whether it is less mature is open to debate, but it is definitely different.
White Paper For Techdirt: How To Respond To The iPhone? by Tim Marman
Thursday, June 28th, 2007 @ 9:02AM
Om Malik says that, in a sense, the iPhone has already changed the mobile business because they're "making it okay to experiment with new ideas, and throw out previously taboo notions."
A likely area for innovation is with optical sensors and touch interfaces, which Nokia CTO Tero Ojanpera predicts "will be the next big things." Based on past experience, many have expressed concern that the on-screen keyboard of the iPhone will not be as efficient as the tactile physical keyboards of most of today's smartphones. Apple has demonstrated a number of innovative features designed to improve the accuracy and efficiency using the iPhone keyboard. For example, the prediction engine recognizes common misspellings and generally adapts the keyboard to the task at hand. Building on these kinds of improvements, other device manufacturers will turn to other common complaints such as tactile feedback and smudging. An adaptable on-screen keyboard that somehow provides tactile feedback might finally overtake an actual physical keyboard.
Aside from features, I think we're also likely to see a shift in the distribution model for phones, particularly with the GSM carriers that have less control over what devices join their network. In that sense, the activation could prove to be one fo the most important changes that the iPhone brings. Unlike other phones that require a service contract, you can simply walk in and purchase the iPhone in any Apple or AT&T store. The phone and service contract is then activated through iTunes, allowing you to start a new line of service or transfer an existing line from your computer at home.
Of course, the iPhone must be activated with AT&T today, effectively tying the service and device. Recently, we saw Verizon employ such a strategy securing exclusive distribution contracts for various Windows Mobile smartphones. Many switched to, or stayed with, Verizon for a device that was simply not available with a different carrier. Ultimately, I see a shift towards a model where the device purchase and service contract are separate purchases. This is something Apple can easily do within iTunes once their exclusivity agreement with AT&T expires. We've already seen a move towards this model for high-end devices, as Dell recently began selling unlocked Nokia phones. The iPhone and its offspring represent a shift away from the mobile phone a mere commodity.
If the mobile phone is truly to be more than a commodity, other manufacturers will have to reduce the number of models and focus more on building individual, strong brands based around a handful of SKUs. This is something that Apple has traditionally done well - offering very few models and in most cases the choice was between one or two capacities and perhaps a few different colors. The sheer volume of devices that many other manufacturers put out can be create the - perception that any one device is not that important, and thus dilutes the strength of the device brand. Underpinning this is also Apple's emphasis on design, simplicity and beauty, and I expect the next generation of mobile devices to focus a lot on these elements.
Vinaya HS
Thu Jun 28 8:38pm
|Yup. That's exactly what happens in India. We buy the phone and then have a bunch of network operators to choose from. Don't like Operator A? No problem. Operator B will be at your doorstep in minutes. In the long run, I believe this is the model most mobile markets will turn to.
White Paper For Techdirt: How To Respond To The iPhone? by Joseph Hunkins
Thursday, June 28th, 2007 @ 12:03PM
The iPhone is clearly poised to be a successful product and very likely to set a powerful new standard for hand held devices. The extremely innovative touchscreen user interface and navigation of the "real web" and not just the mobile web was particularly insightful.
The bar has now been set very high for high-end mobile devices making both of these two responses likely:
1) Embrace the iPhone. Apple's iPhone will clearly set a new standard and for other companies, which can now save years of prototyping. As reviews come in minor changes should be made to accommodate user needs and concerns, but clearly the iPhone is meeting a powerful need at the high end mobile phone market. Maximizing the size of the viewing screen without adding weight and bulk is a key challenge of mobile devices and this area could be ripe for innovation as screen technologies improve. An interesting accessory for the iPhone would be a way to expand the screen size several times, perhaps using new thin plasma technologies, although initially this approach seems extravagant, and far more likely are simple cheap "iCopycat" approaches that will in some ways be analogous to the legion of MP3 players that are much cheaper than the Apple iPOD but somewhat less elegant in design and functionality. iPod has remained the key MP3 player standard thanks to Apple's initial powerful hardware and marketing play. The iPhone has the potential to do the same thing in the mobile phone space though I'd predict it will be harder for Apple to dominate this far more complex and lucrative space.
Treo and Blackberry, as the current leaders in the high end phone market, are potentially most threatened by the iPhone. Both are certainly watching the response to the iPhone carefully. They will be collecting extensive hardware and consumer behavior information before making significant changes to their existing successful formats. As a Treo 650 owner I don't plan to switch to the iPhone immediately, but I'm extremely impressed by the *dramatic* superiority of the iPhone user interface to the Treos. Especially compelling is the large screen for internet browing. I certainly hope Treo copies Apple's brilliant functionality in future phones. If they do not I, and certainly many other Treo users, will switch to the iPhone or other devices that better accommodate the need for quality surfing. The Treos limitations as a browsing device and it's failure as a viable laptop modem have been extremely disappointing to me and I suspect to many other users. The best advice to mobile makers right now is "Copy the iPhone!". A killer device would have iPhone functionality but cost much less. Although it seems highly unlikely that a phone maker could create most of the iPhone features yet offer it at a price in the mobile sweetspot of $150, this move could immediately threaten Apple's market. Cost and size appear to be the only two serious roadblocks to the iPhone capturing a huge segment of the mobile market in a short time.
2) iGnore the iPhone and "feature hungry" users and focus on those who just want basic phone functionality - calls, pictures, and text messaging. Much of the mobile market remains unlikely for at least the next several years to require and be willing to pay for devices that show video and take videos. Web surfing and email are close to becoming standard features but they are not quite there yet, thus there is still some room for simpler devices though this market is likely shrinking and is spread across a large number of companies and phone makers.
The huge advantage of dispensing with these iThings is that you can obtain a very small form factor. Thus there is a limited amount of room for innovation in the "just a phone please" space along the lines of lighter, thinner, more stylish phones, though there currently exists a rich assortment of phones and it seems unlikely a company could create a "breakthrough" simple device that was significantly better than those that are available now. Possible significant improvements would be along the lines of *better voice quality*, *high camera quality*, and *longer range* all in the small form factor.
Summary points:
Apple's iPhone has set a new standard for high end mobile phones with an extraordinary interface and rich feature set. Competing with the iPhone will require similar features and rely on the advantages of observing the reactions of users and markets to the iPhone.
Treo and Blackberry should consider the iPhone a "shot over the bow", and offer significant innovation in their own devices to avoid a potential rapid loss of market share. Customer loyalty will extend the period they have for iPhone-like innovations but it will not eliminat the need for those innovations.
The market for lower end devices is likely to shrink but not quickly, so current makers should continue to innovate in this space to capture the many users who are not in the market for high-end phones.
White Paper For Techdirt: How To Respond To The iPhone? by Andy Brudtkuhl
Thursday, June 28th, 2007 @ 12:50PM
Many manufacturers are already working on their iPhone clones but as we have seen with iPod-like mp3 players they likely will not prevail. Why? Apple has a powerful brand in consumer electronics (think Sony in the 90's) that is unlikely to be deterred for the foreseeable future. It's quite obvious that it will succeed in the consumer market. But it's success is likely to come much later for several reasons: 1) it's expensive 2) people who have bought a 4g iPod in the last few years are unlikely to fork over more cash for the "same" device 3) other than early adopters, consumers are fearful of version 1, and 4) everyone knows 2G iPhones will be released in the next year.
The iPhone will help push the 'smartphone' to the masses but will unlikely be successful in the business user's hands - which is where the entire market for this type of connected phone is. Although Apple will very likely create the market for consumers it will be a slow growth area not picking up until the 2G or 3G iPhones arrive over the next couple years. Still at that time I think we will see a market segmentation between consumer and business users.
One of the biggest changes the iPhone will bring, aside from pushing hardware innovation, is the mass migration to mobile web connectivity. It's been heralded for years and although successful in Asia has not caught on in the United States. Now web developers must make it a priority to ensure their websites are accessible via mobile devices like the iPhone.
White Paper For Techdirt: How To Respond To The iPhone? by Johan Hjelm
Thursday, June 28th, 2007 @ 7:02PM
Not having tried the iPhone, it is hard to say whether it is better or worse than other phones. Designing a mobile phone is not that easy, after all. And while it may have some interesting features, those are sure to turn off as many users as they turn on. Just look to the plethora of phone models introduced every quarter in Japan, some of which have much more interesting features than the iPhone, and look at which survive. Users are surprisingly conservative, and their tolerance threshold for even the smallest malfunction incredibly low. That is why phones still have buttons (the SonyEricsson P900 series, and the P800 before it, had touch screens (P800 was some five years ago now) - not a great feature as it turned out).
That said, tweaking is always good but the real difference the iPhone can make is becoming open for applications developers. Other smartphones have problems with this. The Symbian phones sacrifice the openness for security in the system (i.e. they make certain you always can make a call, but this may detract from the ability of applications to work). The Windows phones, well, they sometimes work, and the OS is hardly as robust as you could wish for this type of applicaitons.
Mac OS X is of course really robust, has a well-established developer community, and would be able to handle phone-based interrupts really well (by the way, this may sound silly that you are required to receive and make phone calls, but it is actually a legal requirement - you MUST be able to make 911 or similar calls as long as the phone can be switched on at all. And in choosing between being banned from selling the phone, and letting developers muck around with the core, what do you choose?). So, that will be the sole feature which can make the iPhone great.
Other than that, it is a nice piece of styling, but do not overestimate that. Nokia will trump them with next years models. If not them, SonyEricsson or Samsung. To change the industry, and have staying power, they have to have openness.
Hope this helps.
White Paper For Techdirt: How To Respond To The iPhone? by sandeepchandur
Thursday, June 28th, 2007 @ 11:06PM


text:
"Canadian Bulldog" is a working professional in the Toronto area who has a sort Jekyll & Hyde thing going. By day, he works as a business journalist with a background in editing community newspapers and newsletters. By night (and whenever else he can fit it in), he is an inept wrestling "mark" who bombards professional wrestlers and their associates with outrageous prank e-mails.
SLAM! Wrestling caught up with Bulldog after the release of his self-published anthology, Thanks for the Compliment!!! Canadian Bulldog's Nuttiest Letters Ever! EVER!!! and was fortunate enough to speak with the business journalist side of his personality.
"My character is like an eight-year-old mark," Bulldog explains. "He doesn't know the difference between what's a work and what's not. He gets almost all the names and facts wrong." Using this shield of ignorance, Bulldog manages to write some very funny letters and get even funnier responses from some of pro wrestling's biggest names. The fun part of the book is that he does it without a hint of nastiness, generally refusing to get into any insulting exchanges with his targets.
The main reason for this "clean fun" approach is that Bulldog has respect for the people he's pranking. "If somebody was to email you or me and ask some of these ridiculous things, you would only expect to flip out. Most of them just ignore the email. I don't take it personally -- these people are quite busy in their personal lives and careers, and I'm just happy to get any kind of response. But the more frustrated they get the better it is for me."
It's possible that the most frustrated wrestler in Bulldog's compilation is New Jack, who did not respond well to the request made of him. "I asked him to show up at my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary and jump off of a balcony," Bulldog recounts, "and just the pure profanity of his response was wonderful." In that sense, Bulldog is playing himself off as a traditional heel character -- he wants the jeers that come with pushing the right buttons.
Sometimes, he's pleasantly surprised by how much attention he receives in return. "I accused Brian Kendrick of pocketing my wristwatch," he says of a particularly funny e-mail exchange. "The fact that he took time out of his day to write such a long response I thought that was amazing."
Bulldog had been posting his letters in columns on Online Onslaught and The W when he started seeing potential to take his joke even further. "When I started off doing this I would email somebody and get a response, and then I would just leave it," he remembers. "And then I got advice from people reading the columns to see how far I could take some of these things."
This testing of limits is evident in such exchanges as letters between Bulldog and "Webmaster Kurt", who responded to Bulldog's inquires for putting "Playboy" Buddy Rose into a Diet Supplement infomercial. "[Kurt] was passing off Buddy Rose like he was Ted DiBiase or something, with his limos and how he cleans up at the casino. The guy just got on my nerves and I'm sure I got on his nerves as well." It was the only really nasty discussion in the book, and as such it was interesting to read as Bulldog dropped out of his character for a moment to trade down and dirty insults with one of his targets.
It's safe to say, however, that Bulldog doesn't get personal unless the person on the other end starts it first. In fact, Bulldog is very cognizant of the fact that he is getting positive responses from some wrestlers who are truly in tough looking for work. "You'll notice a recurring theme that if I see [interest], especially from someone who is struggling a bit, I'll kill it off pretty quickly," he admits. The usual story is that a board of governors or investors change their mind and the show Bulldog was planning falls apart. Still, it's pretty flattering to Bulldog that he does get taken seriously at time. "There was [a response] from Malia Hosaka where I was promoting a show in outer space," he remembers with a laugh. "I tried that one on a couple of people and got no response, and didn't expect any. When I got her totally buying into the idea I was blown away."
It isn't just that wrestlers will occasionally respond with genuine interest, either. Some will respond with info as personal as a home phone number and other details. "I've got a list of contacts that would make some independent promoters jealous," Bulldog brags, admitting that he was a little taken aback by how responsive some of his targets were. "With some of them I could understand as they are legitimately looking for work. When you get a home phone number for Bobby Heenan, a guy that doesn't need the money -- that was surprising." Building the initial list of contact emails was easier than Bulldog was expecting. "The emails just come off of the wrestler's own websites. Some of it is a bit of research and guesswork, and sometimes I go through the agents and managers."
Bulldog has been following wrestling for 20 years, ever since his grandmother introduced the sport to himself and his brother. Now Bulldog has a nearly five-year-old son named Noah, who gets a special dedication in the opening of the book. Does this mean that Noah sits down beside his dad to watch wrestling these days? "Absolutely not," he replies without hesitation. "When I started watching it in 1985 it was a lot tamer than it is now. There's so much adult content in it now." He also laments the lack of humour, or at least the lack of successful attempts at humour, in today's wrestling. "The companies very rarely try and make something funny that actually succeeds. When the WWE tries to do something funny it tends to make you groan. If you go back to the Attitude era there were definitely things that worked."
A lot of Bulldog's humour does work, thanks in part to the consistency of character which is evident throughout the book. Along with certain running jokes and catchphrases, Bulldog also fashions his replies in a deliberately predictable manner, a technique that allows the reader to share in the fun of the e-mails. In the end, after all, these letters are just about having fun, as Bulldog explains: "When first started doing this, my brother said I've got to do a book, but I wasn't convinced. I never had any big fancy plans for this. This was just something where I had the content, and it was just a matter of putting the stuff together."
As to the future of Bulldog and his pranks, he doesn't see them taking over from the writing job that forces him into using his alias. Considering that all of this stems from little more than a part-time hobby, he's been overwhelmed with the positive response he's received to the release of his book. He is also planning on taking his comedy writing to the next level. "I'm starting a parody of all the wrestling biographies that are out there," he explains, clearly enthused about the concept. "I'm making it about my career -- which technically never existed."
Seeing as Bulldog's strength is in making up people and events and making them funny, a phony biography seems the next logical step. (Though Kane's just-released WWE biography fits the bill too.) If he can then continue to put out solid material, a legitimate biography might be in order some day -- minus the phony name, of course.
Dave Hillhouse is a screenwriter living in St. Catharines, Ontario. That is his real name and no, he did not steal your watch. Of course, any other accusations can be
sent to email@example.com.


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Taylor Swift Invites James Taylor, Selena Gomez to the Stage in New York
On Tuesday, Taylor Swift wrapped up the U.S. leg of her Speak Now Tour with a second showing at New York City's Madison Square Garden, and as expected, she went out with a bang. The 21-year-old country-pop hitmaker invited two guests to the stage to help her close out the tour: her best friend Selena Gomez and the legendary James Taylor.
Swift teased the millions of fans outside of the Big Apple who couldn't attend by tweeting photos of her guests' dressing room signs, but that was nothing compared to the excitement inside of the Garden. The 'Ours' songstress told the audience that being that it was her final show in the States, their concert was an extra special occasion.
"On special occasions you want to be surrounded by your friends," she continued, teasing Gomez's introduction. "And one of my best friends, she is such an amazing singer. We, in the four years of being best friends, have never sung on stage together, and I think that is just such a shame. So it just so happens … It just so happens Selena's here tonight."
As the room shook with screams, Gomez — whose boyfriend Justin Bieber performed with Swift during her four-day run in Los Angeles — took the stage to perform her hit song 'Who Says.' Together, she and the main act danced around in sparkly dresses as the sold out crowd sang in unison.
But Swift saved perhaps the best act, or at least the best story, for last. As she sat on her couch at the center of the stage, she began to recall her school girl days of being in chorus class. She informed the audience that she once told her mother she didn't like any of the songs they would sing — except one. "Just because we get to sing this song, it's my favorite class," she added, calling 'Fire and Rain' "probably one of the most fantastic, amazing songs I've ever heard in my life."
That was the same moment when her mom told her, for the first time, that she is actually named after James Taylor. Swift teased the crowd, "The funny thing about playing Madison Square Garden is that magical, magical things can happen. You never know if James Taylor might just walk out onstage," enticing the five-time Grammy winner to take the stage beside her and perform her favorite song.
The 'Fire and Rain' duet led into Swift's 2009 single 'Fifteen,' accompanied by Mr. Taylor on guitar. Following the show, she tweeted, "I have so much to be thankful for this year. I'm leaving New York, replaying this tour in my mind. I love you all so much."
The Speak Now World Tour picks up overseas in March in Australia.
Watch Taylor Swift Perform 'Fire and Rain' With James Taylor
Watch Taylor Swift Perform 'Who Says' With Selena Gomez


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Michael Sloan
Zen/Nimbus week 2 on tor.com
Link to today's new comic here.
A new comic will be posted each week on tor.com throughout the summer. The comics will be archived on tor.com so that you can see the progression of the series. I hope you'll take a look.
tor.com is "a site for news and discussion of science fiction, fantasy, and all the things that interest SF and fantasy readers".


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Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!
If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It's free!
Tuesday February 7, 2012 12:07 pm
Amazon planning to open a brick and mortar store in Seattle
Posted by Andrey Malskiy Categories: Corporate News, Handhelds, Rumors
Here at Gear Live, we have a love affiar with Amazon. They've got our credit card numbers, our accounts are Prime, and the Kindles flow like wine. However, unless you choose overnight shipping, you still have to wait for the items you purchased. It's a small price ot pay for the convenience, but for some, instant gratifiction is what's missing. That may even be changing with Amazon, as the company will be venturing into the brick and mortar store business.
Those lucky enough to live in the Seattle area (that's us!) may soon be seeing an Amazon store popping up at a local mall. Amazon is exploring the idea, kind of a trial and error run, to see if they have a profitable market in physical stores. Amazon wants to provide an Apple-like store experience for consumers who want to buy a Kindle, for example. This is a brilliant move on Amazon's part, as the Kindle currently is not under its full control in retail, being left to the whims of a retail associate at Target or Best Buy who likely don't know much about it.
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IUCN Member Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC) announces a sustainable tourism project in partnership with the tour operator Go Barefoot in order to help protect the biodiversity of the Southern Caucasus. Armenia's nature and biodiversity are presented in this month's IUCN Europe Country Focus.
The 2012 UN Earth Summit and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) identified tourism as a key sector to achieve sustainable development and a greener economy by channeling investments for energy and water efficiency, climate-change mitigation, waste reduction, the conservation of biodiversity and cultural heritage, plus, the strengthening of links with local cultures.
Sustainable tourism as a nature-based solution helps preserve the environment while improving the well-being of local people. This new way of travelling is about uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel by minimizing impacts, building environmental and cultural awareness and respect, and providing direct financial benefits for conservation and local communities.
In this context, FPWC will collaborate with the UK-based sustainable travel operator Go Barefoot to launch a new ecotourism project which aims to be a model for similar initiatives across the Caucasus.
The partnering organisations have developed ecologically and culturally oriented experiences that highlight the region's beauty, traditions, history, and challenges. The proposed itineraries focus around FPWC's Caucasus Wildlife Refuge, a 2000 hectares private protected area in the vicinity of Khosrov Forest State Reserve supported by the IUCN NL. The project uses tourism as a tool to ensure the conservation of its biodiversity, including the Caucasian Leopard, and the ongoing development of a new eco-training centre for local community. This partnership also aims at offering local people with new working opportunities linked to tourism, hospitality, and conservation.
Read more about Armenia and learn about the efforts of IUCN Members working there.


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Floyd Mayweather Training In Las Vegas For Mayweather vs. Maidana
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Saturday, May 26, 2012
* Cardboard Shoe Box Play House With Egg Carton Furniture
Today, I wanted to share "E"s cardboard box play house with you.
She spent an entire afternoon and part of an evening working
on it and I think it is adorable!
She found this nice big shoe box in our garage recycling pile
and wanted to make a little play doll house out of it.
Of course as soon as she decided to make a play house, her little sister wanted
to make one too so she found a second box for "C" and divided her time
to help her sister make a little house too.
She drew a door and windows on the back wall of the shoebox house
and asked me to help her cut them out with my craft knife.
She added a handle on top to make it portable.
Then, she attached it to the box with a couple of brads.
"E" wanted to make furniture out of egg cartons like
the cute egg carton furniture we saw
So, I helped her cut the egg cartons apart and she fit them together
into the pieces of furniture she wanted for her little house.
Here is the bed made out of egg cartons with a little basket on top.
These are the chairs, coffee table, and couch.
After the furniture was assembled she got to work
painting it with washable acrylic craft paint.
The artist at work.
Love that turquoise and green comforter!
She decided to paint the house too.
After the paint dried, she added details with permanent marker.
She used "wood grain" contact paper to make the wooden front door
and the "hardwood" floors.
Scrapbooking stickers were used as flowers.
It is a perfect little house for some of our Calico Critters.
See the little button burners on the stove?
That's a tiny "I Heart Art" poster on the wall.
Mama bunny making the bed -- the cat always gets in the way,
just like our house!
Tiny painting.
(She made curtains too- they're on in the corner of the photo.)
Home Sweet (Tiny) Home!
Pink and Green Mama
Posted by pink and green mama MaryLea
Labels: Cardboard Box Crafts, Create, Egg Carton Fun, Homemade Toys, Play, Recycle Crafts
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John Francis O'Brien, son of former Court of Appeals Judge Denis O'Brien and chief of the appellate bureau of the New York City Corporation Counsel's office, probably started his workday in late 1926 with a scan of newspaper articles about labor strife in Britain, or maybe he reviewed a few appellate decisions published the day before. He would have looked forward to a quiet day that would permit him time to polish a brief or contemplate the City's litigation strategy. What he least expected was a phone call, out of the blue, from Governor Al Smith, whom he had never met. The call was to offer O'Brien a chance to join the highest appellate court in the state as an Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals. That dramatic phone call was the official start of O'Brien's judicial career, but the roots of that career extended much farther back.
O'Brien was born to then-Alderman Denis O'Brien (later a Judge of the Court of Appeals) and his wife, Margaret McCahil O'Brien, on June 13, 1874 in Watertown, New York. Young O'Brien started the long journey to the Court by attending Watertown public schools. He entered Georgetown University for his undergraduate education, where he earned his AB in 1896. O'Brien then directly entered New York Law School. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1898, the same year he graduated law school.
Upon graduation, O'Brien's first job was as an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of New York. The position must have suited him, because he remained with that office through eleven Corporation Counsels, eventually rising to become Chief of the office's appeals bureau in 1920 (note that this was well after O'Brien's father had retired from the Court of Appeals). As the City's top appellate litigator, O'Brien appeared frequently before the Court, and impressed the judges there tremendously with the clarity and brevity of his arguments.
While working for the Corporation Counsel, O'Brien also impressed Hilda LeGrand Lockwood, descendant of a wealthy and accomplished New England family, who married him in 1914. They would have two children, Katherine L. (also called Kathleen) and Francis.
In 1926, when Benjamin Cardozo was elevated to the Chief Judge's seat, Governor Al Smith (Democrat) offered the nomination for Cardozo's former spot on the Court to Victor J. Dowling, then a Justice of the Supreme Court, Appellate Division. When Justice Dowling turned down the post, Governor Smith took the unusual tack of asking Chief Judge Frank Hiscock of the Court of Appeals whom he and his colleagues recommended for Cardozo's replacement as Associate Judge. They unanimously suggested O'Brien. Governor Smith embraced the Court's advice and called 52-year-old O'Brien at his municipal office, without warning, to give the good news. O'Brien was startled to get the call, but the governor assured him that "I know all about what you have been doing in your job. . . . Your future associates on the bench have told me all about that and have recommended you for the appointment."1
O'Brien, a Tammany Hall Democrat like Smith, accepted the appointment and joined the Court on January 20, 1927. With filial devotion, he chose to wear his father's robe and sit in his father's chair. That spring, O'Brien earned additional regalia when Syracuse University awarded him its honorary Doctor of Laws Degree.
Not long after he joined the Court by appointment, O'Brien was compelled to run for his seat in the 1927 election. During that summer, before the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions, Governor Smith worked to convince the Republican party that it should cross-endorse Judge O'Brien. After considerable politicking, with successive tit-for-tat deals made and breached, the Republicans finally agreed to nominate Judge O'Brien, all in the name of nonpartisan treatment for candidates for the Court of Appeals.
O'Brien's candidacy was helped along by his identity as a Roman Catholic, because there were no others on the Court of that religion and political feeling at the time supported keeping one Catholic on the Court. One behind-the-scenes power broker had warned Governor Smith that Judge John Hogan's departure from the Court left no Catholic on the Court, and that "the Cathedral [i.e., Catholic Archbishop of New York Joseph Cardinal Hayes] will not sit idly by."2 O'Brien's religion, of course, "pleased the cardinal."3 The backing of the cardinal for O'Brien softened the partisan rancor connected with Judge Cardozo's elevation to the Chief Judge's seat and allowed the Republicans to cross-endorse O'Brien. Once both major parties was his, O'Brien handily defeated the Socialist candidate, Hezekiah Wilcox, and won the right to keep his seat for fourteen years.
O'Brien's position as a judge offered him and his family far greater social prestige than they had maintained when he worked for the City. By the time Katherine O'Brien was a teenager, with the Great Depression still winding down, the O'Brien family's rise from its rural roots was clear: her débutante ball was a major Manhattan social occasion, and parties in her honor were reported in the New York Times.4
Judge O'Brien's opinions on the court were best known for his concise writing style. The judge took brevity so seriously that he refused to use a typewriter, on the theory that the ease of writing with it promoted prolixity. He produced several noteworthy writings. In an appeal from a first-degree murder conviction, the Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of conviction because it was based on a confession by the defendant after he had been detained for thirty-six hours in the police station.5 The Court suspected that the defendant's allegations that he had been beaten, threatened, and deprived of food or drink during those long hours were true. To oppose brutal police tactics, what the newspapers called the "third degree," the Court suppressed the confession. Judge O'Brien dissented, arguing that the confession remained credible.
In contrast, Judge O'Brien garnered a majority of the Court for his opinion upholding New York City's efforts to resist a fare increase on the IRT rail line.6 O'Brien also wrote for the Court in denying the admissibility of lie detector tests offered by the defense, unless supported by expert testimony.7
Judge O'Brien served until the spring of 1939, when illness forced him to take an unofficial leave from his responsibilities. Finally, on December 7, 1939, he sent his resignation to Governor Lehman, intending it to take effect on the last day of the year. In his letter, O'Brien explained that he had over-exerted himself during the summer of 1938, presumably because of strenuous physical activity at the family summer home in Sugar Hill, a fashionable town in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. O'Brien died of a heart attack on Christmas Day, 1939, less than one week before he would have left state service. His funeral service was at St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan, and his remains were buried at Norwalk, Connecticut.
Sadly, because he died before his term expired, Judge O'Brien's family lost a sizable pension. If the judge had lived through the end of the year, his widow would have been entitled to $128,000, but instead she received just $44,735. Hilda O'Brien, disappointed by this capricious result, sued the state Comptroller, ultimately forcing the Court of Appeals to decide against her in a unanimous opinion explaining that no special rule could be applied to the O'Brien family other than what applied to other state workers in a similar situation.8
Judge O'Brien had two children: Katherine L. and Francis. No descendants of those children have been identified.
This biography appears in The Judges of the New York Court of Appeals: A Biographical History, ed. Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt (New York: Fordham University Press, 2007). It has not been updated since publication.
Sources Consulted
"Appeals Court Hits 'Third Degree' Here," New York Times at 25 (Feb 10, 1932).
"Archbishop Hayes Denounces Ku Klux," New York Times at 8 (Oct 17, 1921).
"Bench in Tribute to Judge O'Brien," New York Times at 21 (Dec 28, 1939).
"Early Death Cut Pension," New York Times at 16 (Dec 29, 1939).
"Estates Appraised," New York Times at 46 (May 1, 1941).
George Martin, CCB: The Life and Century of Charles C. Burlingham: New York's First Citizen: 1858-1959 (New York 2005).
In Memoriam, 282 NY ix (1940).
"Judge O'Brien Elected to the Appeals Court," New York Times at 5 (Nov 9, 1927).
"Judge J.F. O'Brien, 65, Native of City, Dies," Watertown Daily Times (Dec 26, 1939).
"Judge J.F. O'Brien Dies at Home Here," New York Times (Dec 26, 1939).
"Judge John Francis O'Brien," 5 NYL Rev ii (1927).
"Kathleen O'Brien Honored at Party," New York Times at 20 (Dec 3, 1934).
"O'Brien, John Francis," 42 National Cyclopaedia of American Biography Being the History of the United States 218 (1958).
"O'Brien, Ill, Quits the Appeals Court," New York Times at 23 (Dec 8, 1939).
"Parties to Unite on Judge O'Brien," New York Times at 13 (May 5, 1927).
"Republicans Fail to Endorse O'Brien," New York Times at 20 (Jun. 11, 1927).
"Republicans Drop Support of O'Brien," New York Times at 25 (Jul 13, 1927).
"Republicans Cool to Smith Challenge," New York Times at 25 (Jun. 17, 1927).
"Smith Puts O'Brien on Appeals Bench," New York Times at 4 (Jan 19, 1927).
"Smith Hits Back on Judgeship Issue," New York Times at 21 (Jun. 13, 1927).
"Smith Ire is 'Bunk,' Republicans Say," New York Times at 29 (Jun. 15, 1927).
"Wills for Probate," New York Times at 21 (Jan 10, 1940).
Published Writings
Judge O'Brien has no known published writings.