After being rejected by Apple, coder Alex Sokirynsky said he'd be an Android convert. The wannabe iPhone developer recently gained widespread attention when Apple rejected his application Podcaster -- because it allegedly "duplicates" iTunes. Then, Sokirynsky tried to sell his application through other means, and Apple shut down his operation. As a result, Sokirnysky on Tuesday announced in a blog post (before removing it, presumably in light of Apple's new non-disclosure policy regarding rejections) that he would cease developing applications for Apple and code for Android instead.
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/will-google-and.html
Yep looks like Apple is blowing a major lead with their 'rough treatment' of iPhone developers.
It's not up and running yet but check out www.MobileAppStore.com in the next few weeks for a new community site that will be set up to provide a forum for reviewing and recommending mobile applications but also a community that will allow mobile application developers to communicate with each other without fear of retribution.
Cheers,
Dean
Friday, September 26, 2008
CTIA CSC 6 month growth chart
This ppt graphic shows you exactly what is wrong with the USA sms market - telcos who have no idea about how to implement a vibrant sms csc ecology, or are choosing ‘not’ to implement what’s required for various reasons.
A Common Short Code or CSC is the 5 or 6 digit number you text in for commercial sms 'interactions', so it may be text to vote, or text for information etc etc
Go to the UK and you'll find thousands of these neat campaigns, in Australia and Asia whilst not as many, also have a lot of them.
In the USA there are only 3145 for the whole country...... (and as shown below apaethetic growth for the last 6 months)
Carriers and CTIA already know what the issues are and how to fix them (hell i personally told them what the issues were when i met with them as part of the work I did for http://www.tractionplatform.com/ over 2 years ago)
- costs are too high (currently costs $1,000 per month to lease a CSC).
- implementation hurdles are too complex (currently 3 different 'people' have to sign off on the use and functionality of your CSC campaign).
Change both of these and you'll have both standard and premium csc campaigns booming and offering interesting and innovative content..... instead of just late night smut applications.
Cheers,
Dean
A Common Short Code or CSC is the 5 or 6 digit number you text in for commercial sms 'interactions', so it may be text to vote, or text for information etc etc
Go to the UK and you'll find thousands of these neat campaigns, in Australia and Asia whilst not as many, also have a lot of them.
In the USA there are only 3145 for the whole country...... (and as shown below apaethetic growth for the last 6 months)
Carriers and CTIA already know what the issues are and how to fix them (hell i personally told them what the issues were when i met with them as part of the work I did for http://www.tractionplatform.com/ over 2 years ago)
- costs are too high (currently costs $1,000 per month to lease a CSC).
- implementation hurdles are too complex (currently 3 different 'people' have to sign off on the use and functionality of your CSC campaign).
Change both of these and you'll have both standard and premium csc campaigns booming and offering interesting and innovative content..... instead of just late night smut applications.
Cheers,
Dean
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Skype and Asterisk 'kissing in a tree'
Just announced at Astricon a few hours ago Skype and Asterisk have decided to roll out a beta application for a special 'Asterisk-Skype client'.
http://www.digium.com/en/mediacenter/viewpress/Digium-and-Skype-Collaborate-to-Bring-Skype-to-Business-Phone-Systems
Basically what this means is that there will be a special 'Skype client' that can only install on to an Asterisk server.
This means that you will be able to receive 'Skype calls' directly on your Asterisk server, this is pretty cool because you can route these calls the same way you would an ordinary telephone call eg, drop it into an IVR, conference room, voicemail etc
The best part is I could set up a Skype user account for my business and when someone calls this number it will ring all of the Polycom IP phones in the office or if no one is here to answer will divert the calls to my voicemail or out another line to my cell phone - the person at the other end (eg the Skype user) wont even know that they are being redirected to a desk phone for answering.
Or of course I can just 'log in' to my regular Skype account from my SIP desktop phone handset but not sure how this would work when I'm roaming remotely on my laptop and want to receive calls there instead.
Pretty neat huh.
Also in case you are wondering this special Skype client wont be used for handling 3rd party Skype routing traffic, eg your Asterisk server will only be carrying your own Skype traffic.
Oh and you can also use Skype channel for your outbound call routing but as Asterisk users get their voip so cheap that's not really going to make that big a deal.
Beta sign ups being accepted now at http://www.astricon.net/skype .
Cheers,
Dean
PS in case you are an Asterisk newbie without a clue go spend 60's here www.Cognation.net/Asterisk
http://www.digium.com/en/mediacenter/viewpress/Digium-and-Skype-Collaborate-to-Bring-Skype-to-Business-Phone-Systems
Basically what this means is that there will be a special 'Skype client' that can only install on to an Asterisk server.
This means that you will be able to receive 'Skype calls' directly on your Asterisk server, this is pretty cool because you can route these calls the same way you would an ordinary telephone call eg, drop it into an IVR, conference room, voicemail etc
The best part is I could set up a Skype user account for my business and when someone calls this number it will ring all of the Polycom IP phones in the office or if no one is here to answer will divert the calls to my voicemail or out another line to my cell phone - the person at the other end (eg the Skype user) wont even know that they are being redirected to a desk phone for answering.
Or of course I can just 'log in' to my regular Skype account from my SIP desktop phone handset but not sure how this would work when I'm roaming remotely on my laptop and want to receive calls there instead.
Pretty neat huh.
Also in case you are wondering this special Skype client wont be used for handling 3rd party Skype routing traffic, eg your Asterisk server will only be carrying your own Skype traffic.
Oh and you can also use Skype channel for your outbound call routing but as Asterisk users get their voip so cheap that's not really going to make that big a deal.
Beta sign ups being accepted now at http://www.astricon.net/skype .
Cheers,
Dean
PS in case you are an Asterisk newbie without a clue go spend 60's here www.Cognation.net/Asterisk
Do You Know What the Problem With CDMA is?
I'm a Cingular customer but i noticed that the HTC Touch Pro is only available from Sprint at the moment.
So when I noticed a Sprint mailer in the post box I thought I'd flick through it.
Take a look at this picture and tell me if you cant work out what is wrong with CDMA
So when I noticed a Sprint mailer in the post box I thought I'd flick through it.
Take a look at this picture and tell me if you cant work out what is wrong with CDMA
Yep you got it.... world coverage includes all the countries of the world like USA, Canada and Mexico, and not something like USA and 212 other countries globally.
BTW I hear that Iraq also now uses CDMA (some senator shoe-horned it into a funding bill for the war that they had to use CDMA to 'support usa businesses'), of course that means that they now use a different handset type to all of their neighbours....... though I hear Iran will also be forced to implement CDMA once they are 'liberated' which should be any day now :)
Cheers,
Dean
Reasons why Android is better
ROLF - as good a reason as any.
Seriously though this gets to the core of why Android is better than iPhone - people don't like to be told what they can and cant do otherwise we'd live in zero crime clean and sterile cities.
Cheers,
Dean
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Change in online music royalties
According to this article in MediaPost there has been a major change in online music royalties. This covers streaming only and not downloads.
This week, the parties disclosed the exact terms of the agreement, which remained confidential until a draft version was drawn up for the Copyright Board. The settlement effectively averted a lawsuit that threatened to disrupt the growth of online radio.
Per the terms of the agreement, online music services will pay 10.5% of their total revenues to the musicians and studios that own songs played or temporarily downloaded online.
Previously, the Recording Industry Association of America had demanded a per-play royalty of $0.0019 per song for streaming and temporary downloads, which many online radio services complained would drive them out of business.
So my question is, what happens for sites that have no revenue? Also how do they police sites like Yahoo that offer streaming music...eg. do they collect 10.5% of all Yahoo revenue or JUST the Yahoo music site?
And if i want to offer unlimited streaming of any music track ever produced for $10 per month on a subscription basis (as per my content cloudification article http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/cloudification-of-your-content.html ) does this mean that i only have to pay the RIAA $1.05 per month for each of my subscribers?
At that rate what about if I set up a P2P torrent company that encrypted the content so only allowed streaming from the proprietary player and not downloading so apart from the initial/ongoing seeding bandwidth charges the costs of delivery is born by the users and i charged a license fee of $1 per month.....would the RIAA be happy with 10.05c per month?
Cheers,
Dean
This week, the parties disclosed the exact terms of the agreement, which remained confidential until a draft version was drawn up for the Copyright Board. The settlement effectively averted a lawsuit that threatened to disrupt the growth of online radio.
Per the terms of the agreement, online music services will pay 10.5% of their total revenues to the musicians and studios that own songs played or temporarily downloaded online.
Previously, the Recording Industry Association of America had demanded a per-play royalty of $0.0019 per song for streaming and temporary downloads, which many online radio services complained would drive them out of business.
So my question is, what happens for sites that have no revenue? Also how do they police sites like Yahoo that offer streaming music...eg. do they collect 10.5% of all Yahoo revenue or JUST the Yahoo music site?
And if i want to offer unlimited streaming of any music track ever produced for $10 per month on a subscription basis (as per my content cloudification article http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/cloudification-of-your-content.html ) does this mean that i only have to pay the RIAA $1.05 per month for each of my subscribers?
At that rate what about if I set up a P2P torrent company that encrypted the content so only allowed streaming from the proprietary player and not downloading so apart from the initial/ongoing seeding bandwidth charges the costs of delivery is born by the users and i charged a license fee of $1 per month.....would the RIAA be happy with 10.05c per month?
Cheers,
Dean
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
New York City May Raise Property Tax
The mayor is talking about increasing property taxes in order to cover the shortfall from the downturn in the financial market.
www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/nyregion/23tax.html
I have my own idea around this.
One of the differences I've noticed about New York compared to Sydney is the amount of fallow or under utilised space in New York.
Either buildings are left un-renovated and decrepit or are operating as a single level retail or renovated and in good condition but unlived in.
In Sydney especially as close to the CBD as we live here on 120th st pretty much 90% of the buildings have been renovated or maximum utilisation which is why we have have great suburbs as this is the natural expansion out.
In New York slum landlords counting on capital growth are happy to just let their buildings waste away until they hit 'the big payday' and sell out. In the mean time however both quality of life is lower and taxes go unrealised.
The other issue is that people keep an apartment in the city but they claim it as their second residence so that they dont have to pay income taxes as a NY resident. Now I dont care if you are or aren't fudging your taxes, I just mean you spend a substantial amount of time outside of the city and therefore dont bring revenue into the city through living here (eg. groceries, restaurants, sales tax etc)
So my proposal is this;
"If you own a property in New York BUT you claim it as your secondary residence eg. your home in CT or The Hamptons is your primary home" then you have to pay a factor of 2 x normal property taxes.
"If you own a property in New York BUT the building is abandoned and not operational then you have to pay a factor of 3 x normal property taxes.
www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/nyregion/23tax.html
I have my own idea around this.
One of the differences I've noticed about New York compared to Sydney is the amount of fallow or under utilised space in New York.
Either buildings are left un-renovated and decrepit or are operating as a single level retail or renovated and in good condition but unlived in.
In Sydney especially as close to the CBD as we live here on 120th st pretty much 90% of the buildings have been renovated or maximum utilisation which is why we have have great suburbs as this is the natural expansion out.
In New York slum landlords counting on capital growth are happy to just let their buildings waste away until they hit 'the big payday' and sell out. In the mean time however both quality of life is lower and taxes go unrealised.
The other issue is that people keep an apartment in the city but they claim it as their second residence so that they dont have to pay income taxes as a NY resident. Now I dont care if you are or aren't fudging your taxes, I just mean you spend a substantial amount of time outside of the city and therefore dont bring revenue into the city through living here (eg. groceries, restaurants, sales tax etc)
So my proposal is this;
"If you own a property in New York BUT you claim it as your secondary residence eg. your home in CT or The Hamptons is your primary home" then you have to pay a factor of 2 x normal property taxes.
"If you own a property in New York BUT the building is abandoned and not operational then you have to pay a factor of 3 x normal property taxes.
This will take care of abandoned or under utilised buildings pretty quickly.
Cheers,
Dean
Monday, September 22, 2008
Charlie Gasparino
Charlie Gasparino just said one of the smartest things I have ever heard from a financial reporter;
"Wall Street as we know it has changed forever, it is now no longer Wall Street New York but Wall Street North Carolina (the HQ of one of the main 'retail' bank that bought one of the investment banks) and that this may not be necessarily a bad thing because the bonuses and salaries being paid to the Wall Street investment bankers are gone forever.
It is obvious that the risks being taken by these investment banks is not commensurately in line with the rewards (eg. interest returned) being returned by these exotic and highly leveraged investments.
Any additional risk has to deliver additional reward and the amount being returned just hasn't delivered, and these risks don't deserve the annual bonuses being paid".
I'm paraphrasing it a little but this is exactly the way I feel - you should sink or swim based on your roi. Dont deliver the roi......back to flipping burgers for you.
Cheers,
Dean
"Wall Street as we know it has changed forever, it is now no longer Wall Street New York but Wall Street North Carolina (the HQ of one of the main 'retail' bank that bought one of the investment banks) and that this may not be necessarily a bad thing because the bonuses and salaries being paid to the Wall Street investment bankers are gone forever.
It is obvious that the risks being taken by these investment banks is not commensurately in line with the rewards (eg. interest returned) being returned by these exotic and highly leveraged investments.
Any additional risk has to deliver additional reward and the amount being returned just hasn't delivered, and these risks don't deserve the annual bonuses being paid".
I'm paraphrasing it a little but this is exactly the way I feel - you should sink or swim based on your roi. Dont deliver the roi......back to flipping burgers for you.
Cheers,
Dean
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Cisco Acquires Jabber.com
Wow – now this interesting
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/19/cisco-acquires-jabber-for-enterprise-im/
I wonder what this means in the long run for the open development of this platform?
Just to be clear - they have acquired Jabber.com the company not Jabber.org the open XMPP standard.
So I guess they have bought 'developer expertise' and bums on seats by buying the company, and apart from obviously 'bringing industry and investor attention' on the other development companies in the space (Jive, Openfire,Tigasse etc) I'm wondering what this means for the long term.
As some of you know I've been working on a XMPP based website that I'm going to be looking for an 'A' round of funding in January next year so I'm not sure what this means for us at the moment.
BTW for those of you who dont know what Jabber is there is a great explanation on the ReadWriteWeb site below
Jabber Explained In Simpler Terms
In simple terms and to the best of my understanding, the http protocol used by web pages is said to be inefficient because it requires a user's machine to poll a server periodically to see if any new information is available.
Quite often there is nothing new and energy has been wasted. Think of how often Gmail checks to see if you've got any new emails (every two minutes) or how many times your RSS reader pings all of your feeds to see if they contain any new items. Meanwhile, the time between polling leads to a delay in updates.
That might seem like a small burden to you, but multiply that times everyone using these services and there's a lot of inefficiency. Sometimes that inefficiency can define the technical limits of what a service is able to do. On an individual level, I know I'm unable to use Google Reader because I have enough subscriptions that it times out checking every single one of them for new information. I wish it would just chill out and wait!
This is not a problem experienced in the world of Instant Messaging. While there are too many IM protocols in the world, a growing number of IM clients, including Google Talk, use the open standard Jabber, or XMPP.
XMPP lets one party signal to any XMPP server that it is available to receive any new information that's being delivered. When another party sends new content through the XMPP server, the message is passed on immediately and automatically to all recipients who are marked as available, basically.
There are also some major benefits to be gained when building data backbone platforms, eg trading desk applications where information is being 'sourced' from a site and updated across multiple interfaces.
One of the more innovative uses I've seen for XMPP over the last few months is the use in a web based game that chess moves are communicated via xmpp to ajax based web clients.
So i get that Cisco didn't buy jabber.com engineers to implement a Cisco IM platform for their retail clients and that they must have something much bigger in mind.
You could possible see different cisco devices communicating with each other (or even using an api to communicate with other manufacturers devices) eg, you might have an XMPP api to 'discover' appliance functionality or to communicate status updates.
Cheers,
Dean
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/19/cisco-acquires-jabber-for-enterprise-im/
I wonder what this means in the long run for the open development of this platform?
Just to be clear - they have acquired Jabber.com the company not Jabber.org the open XMPP standard.
So I guess they have bought 'developer expertise' and bums on seats by buying the company, and apart from obviously 'bringing industry and investor attention' on the other development companies in the space (Jive, Openfire,Tigasse etc) I'm wondering what this means for the long term.
As some of you know I've been working on a XMPP based website that I'm going to be looking for an 'A' round of funding in January next year so I'm not sure what this means for us at the moment.
BTW for those of you who dont know what Jabber is there is a great explanation on the ReadWriteWeb site below
Jabber Explained In Simpler Terms
In simple terms and to the best of my understanding, the http protocol used by web pages is said to be inefficient because it requires a user's machine to poll a server periodically to see if any new information is available.
Quite often there is nothing new and energy has been wasted. Think of how often Gmail checks to see if you've got any new emails (every two minutes) or how many times your RSS reader pings all of your feeds to see if they contain any new items. Meanwhile, the time between polling leads to a delay in updates.
That might seem like a small burden to you, but multiply that times everyone using these services and there's a lot of inefficiency. Sometimes that inefficiency can define the technical limits of what a service is able to do. On an individual level, I know I'm unable to use Google Reader because I have enough subscriptions that it times out checking every single one of them for new information. I wish it would just chill out and wait!
This is not a problem experienced in the world of Instant Messaging. While there are too many IM protocols in the world, a growing number of IM clients, including Google Talk, use the open standard Jabber, or XMPP.
XMPP lets one party signal to any XMPP server that it is available to receive any new information that's being delivered. When another party sends new content through the XMPP server, the message is passed on immediately and automatically to all recipients who are marked as available, basically.
There are also some major benefits to be gained when building data backbone platforms, eg trading desk applications where information is being 'sourced' from a site and updated across multiple interfaces.
One of the more innovative uses I've seen for XMPP over the last few months is the use in a web based game that chess moves are communicated via xmpp to ajax based web clients.
So i get that Cisco didn't buy jabber.com engineers to implement a Cisco IM platform for their retail clients and that they must have something much bigger in mind.
You could possible see different cisco devices communicating with each other (or even using an api to communicate with other manufacturers devices) eg, you might have an XMPP api to 'discover' appliance functionality or to communicate status updates.
Cheers,
Dean
Friday, September 19, 2008
AT&T devCentral Competition
Thought this might interest some of you.
Super curious why they are saying no iPhone apps can be entered?? Lol what just because a platform finally becomes easy to develop for it becomes disqualified :)
Regards,
Dean Collins
From: AT&T Developer Program [mailto:developer.program@cingular.com]
Sent: Friday, 19 September 2008 2:31 PM
To: Dean Collins
Subject: devCentral Alert: Turning passions into reality: AT&T's Fast-Pitch Contest
Have you developed a new wireless application that would be a great enhancement for consumers?* Would you like to win money and industry recognition for your innovation—plus showcase your application to more than 70 million AT&T wireless subscribers? If you're 18 or older and live in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or Vermont, you can enter the Fast-Pitch 2008 New England Contest for the chance to earn a cash prize and turn your creation into a commercial reality.
Enter by September 30, 2008, at the Fast-Pitch New England Web site.
If you're selected as a finalist, you'll be able to pitch your idea to a panel of AT&T business representatives and industry partners, who will determine the winner.
Want to learn more?Visit the Fast-Pitch New England Web site for contest rules and to learn more about Fast-Pitch 2008 New England.
The first-prize winner will receive:
• $10,000
• One-month placement on AT&T's devCentral and Choice Web sites
• PR coverage
Fast-track review for possible distribution via one of AT&T's wireless application distribution portals.
Two runner-up prizes of $5,000 each will also be awarded. The deadline for entries is coming up fast, so be sure to enter today!
*Note that applications for Apple iPhones are not being solicited for this particular event.
© AT&T 2008. All rights reserved.
Super curious why they are saying no iPhone apps can be entered?? Lol what just because a platform finally becomes easy to develop for it becomes disqualified :)
Regards,
Dean Collins
From: AT&T Developer Program [mailto:developer.program@cingular.com]
Sent: Friday, 19 September 2008 2:31 PM
To: Dean Collins
Subject: devCentral Alert: Turning passions into reality: AT&T's Fast-Pitch Contest
Have you developed a new wireless application that would be a great enhancement for consumers?* Would you like to win money and industry recognition for your innovation—plus showcase your application to more than 70 million AT&T wireless subscribers? If you're 18 or older and live in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or Vermont, you can enter the Fast-Pitch 2008 New England Contest for the chance to earn a cash prize and turn your creation into a commercial reality.
Enter by September 30, 2008, at the Fast-Pitch New England Web site.
If you're selected as a finalist, you'll be able to pitch your idea to a panel of AT&T business representatives and industry partners, who will determine the winner.
Want to learn more?Visit the Fast-Pitch New England Web site for contest rules and to learn more about Fast-Pitch 2008 New England.
The first-prize winner will receive:
• $10,000
• One-month placement on AT&T's devCentral and Choice Web sites
• PR coverage
Fast-track review for possible distribution via one of AT&T's wireless application distribution portals.
Two runner-up prizes of $5,000 each will also be awarded. The deadline for entries is coming up fast, so be sure to enter today!
*Note that applications for Apple iPhones are not being solicited for this particular event.
© AT&T 2008. All rights reserved.
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