Looks like we’ve got another browser to choose from.  Today at the WWDC conference in San Francisco Steve Jobs announced Safari 3.0 for Windows.  Check out the Apple store for the browser and other cool Mac stuff (did I mention that the new MacBook and MacBook Pros are awesome?)

 Interesting move for Apple! 

Ok be honest fellow gadget-lovers: What did you know of the Cisco iPhone before Apple released their iPhone?  As a web marketing guy I’ve been thinking that Cisco should write Apple a thank-you card for all of the publicity created for a rather run-of-the-mill wifi phone.  Today  I see they did one better.  I saw this ad on the homepage of CNET today:

To me this is hilarious.  I’m always amazed being in the internet advertising business how Linksys and many other large tech companies seem to have no idea that their main potential buyers are online.  Many still think that the best advertising they can ever get is print in the New York Times!

Don’t get me wrong, Apple stomping all over Cisco’s registered trademarks makes Steve Jobs nothing short of a jeans-and-black-turtle-neck wearing street thug.  I suppose that one could argue that Cisco was trying to capitalize on the i-anything phenomenon that Apple created with the iPod, but where is that going to stop?  Apple would have to sue 1/3 of all tech manufacturers!

Big picture: it’s too bad that it took Apple stealing the iPhone trademark and handing Cisco a ton of free publicity for them to finally get advertising online.  Maybe other tech companies can learn from this.

After the initial excitement wore off (see yesterday’s post) I came up with some questions/concerns regarding the iPhone:

• Will there be an unlocked iPhone? I know that as a Tmobile customer I can purchase a Palm Treo from Palm.com that is unlocked and stick my SIM in and be good to go. That would cost me $400 compared to joining Cingular for 2 years and getting it… well, for less.

Incidentally, my prediction is that Cingular will be the “official partner” in charge of selling the device but unlocked iPhones will also be available. With partners like Google, Yahoo and Cingular I bet Apple could practically give the thing away if it were in their best interest – any of those three would gladly pay to have you use their stuff so I think there is some serious wiggle room in the prices announced.

I think that in June Cingular will surprise everyone by pulling the “$150 rebate” to new customers trick. This deal allows them to get all of the release hype and get tons of new customers while still allowing Apple to sell to everyone. Personally, I’d give up a $150 rebate to avoid being locked into Cingular. I really hope I’m right on this.

• What’s the battery life on the thing? I was totally jazzed about the “Origami” project that Microsoft had going, but the reality was that the resulting UMPC’s only had (have) about a 3 hour battery life. This thing seems to do all the UMPC was supposed to do and more.

• Finger prints/smudges/scratches. What is the surface of the thing like? Will it be ugly after an hour?

• iPhone Applications. What is going to be available? It seems to me that now would be a great time for VersionTracker (world’s best Mac software site) to put up a “iPhone” tab and category. Maybe this will be exactly what some Mac developers need to revive their businesses (Apple makes being a developer pretty stressful… if you come up with an idea that they like enough they tend to integrate that feature into their OS and then you’re out of luck, or maybe rich if they buy you). Take a look at the booming Palm application space… there are something like 10,000 palm apps out there in the world. Are you ready (or even interested) Mac developers?

More later… let me know what you think!

Apple just announced their iPhone, which as it turns out may be the largest innovation of the year in Consumer Technology (which I find ironic sitting here in my hotel room in Las Vegas at CES). The iPhone, as Steve Jobs announced it, is really three devices in one: it’s a wide-screen ipod, mobile phone, and wireless internet communicator, all in one device. One huge thing this device also has: it runs OS X!

Further specs:

Touch Screen

2 megapixel camera

EDGE, GSM networks

8 meg storage

Remember the hype that surrounded the Microsoft Origami effort, and how the reality was much more disappointing than the promises? This iPhone may be the real deal. The potential implications for Apple and the world are huge, and here are a few that jump to mind:

Way more people will now be exposed to just how cool OS X is

The applications that this device supports could truely make it a laptop replacement

We may not have to carry around so much crap all of the time

There is WAY more to this device – Click here to check it out at the Apple Store

Should be an interesting 2007!

This is a rant that evidentially some of the internet already knows about, but I had to share my first-hand experience of why Vonage sucks.

I’m a sales person by trade. My company re-sells internet ad inventory on big sites who may want a little help from someone who knows tons about the online ad gig (no, this site doesn’t make any money). Also being a tech geek, I was all over VoIP. How cool is it that no matter where in the world I am I can make calls from my laptop just as if I’m at my office?! And FREE long distance?! Sounds pretty great, huh?

There’s more. The sound quality was pretty great (sometimes, as you’ll see). The voicemail system is phenomenal – when someone leaves you a message it’ll email you and give you the option of listening to it over the net. In fact all of the features are very cutting-edge.

So here’s the deal breaker: it’s not reliable, and you never know if you’re being heard. If you are in sales you know just how vital the phone is as a tool. Sure, email is good, but people still give you way more attention over the phone, especially if they want what you are selling. I spent an entire day calling top potential customers leaving voice messages for the ones that didn’t answer (20+). Toward the end of the day of calls, I finally got a hold of a real person. She couldn’t understand a word I was saying. I called myself on my cell phone and sure enough, I sounded like R2D2 on Star Wars. Every hot prospect I left a message for that day was greeted by my encrypted droid voice.

So free long-distance and a bunch of cool features for “only $24.95/mo” cost me who knows what in lost sales opportunities. Frustrated, I immediately jacked up my T-mobile coverage and switched the number on all correspondence to my cell number which now serves as my office phone (just as well, out of the “office” lots anyway).

After paying for two more months just to be sure that no business calls were coming on that line, I went to cancel Vonage today. No annual contract so no sweat, right? Yeah right. I was put though the ringer with sales people who were clearly trained well for just this scenario. It seems that they put almost effort into the “rescuing” of their pissed-off customers as they do on their lame commercials. After finally telling them that there was no way in the world that they were going to keep me as a customer the guy says, “OK sir, then the disconnect fee of $39.99 will be charged to the card on file”. Guess I missed that in the fine print. I had to pay them $40 bucks to cancel their sub-standard service on a “no annual contract” deal because I left before being with them for 12 months. Sounds like an annual contract to me -they say no, “just terms and conditions”.

Here’s my summary: Vonage has some pretty cool features that should be standard on all phone services who want to compete against wireless companies. They fail, however, at reliably providing the very most basic function of a telephone. As if this weren’t bad enough, they screw the consumer out of another $40 if you try to leave the “no annual contract” program before being around for a year. Sure its only $40, but HATE companies that lie, cheat and trick the consumer. For that reason, Vonage sucks and I’d really recommend against using Vonage for business.

Vonage: I hope this little post costs you more that the $40 you tricked me out of, you cheap, shifty jerks!

Check out this picture of a dell laptop that was “running a little hot”. Evidently, the laptop burst into flames and burned for 5 minutes with several explosions happening throughout the fiasco. I guess that’s why the industry is now calling these thinks “notebook computers” rather than “laptop computers”.

iLounge has a story on this video-screen add-on for your iPod Video. While I didn’t buy the iPod specifically for its video abilities, this thing seems to make the video feature much more usable. My only question is what happens when the video is in the 4:3 aspect ratio? Does this thing stretch it to fit 16:9 like my HDTV? Here’s iLuv’s website (iLuv if you follow this trackback can you comment on the aspect ratio thing?). One thing that kills me is during this video “revolution” is that so much of the content is still in 4:3 aspect ratio. I think it’s because some of the big networks are slow to convert. What gives CBS?

On a related note, why do manufacturers think that as the world starts to embrace gigantic big-screen HDTVs video on 2″ screens will also become appealing? I don’t get it.

This is a statement that I received via email today from XM Radio. Fight the RIAA! They love to bite the hand that feeds them!

Statement to XM Subscribers – The XM Nation

Everything we’ve done at XM since our first minute on the air is about giving you more choices. We provide more channels and music programming than any other network. We play all the music you want to hear including the artists you want to hear but can’t find on traditional FM radio. And we offer the best radios with the features you want for your cars, homes, and all places in between.

We’ve developed new radios — the Inno, Helix and NeXus — that take innovation to the next level in a totally legal way. Like TiVo, these devices give you the ability to enjoy the sports, talk and music programming whenever you want. And because they are portable, you can enjoy XM wherever you want.

The music industry wants to stop your ability to choose when and where you can listen. Their lawyers have filed a meritless lawsuit to try and stop you from enjoying these radios.

They don’t get it. These devices are clearly legal. Consumers have enjoyed the right to tape off the air for their personal use for decades, from reel-to-reel and the cassette to the VCR and TiVo.

Our new radios complement download services, they don’t replace them. If you want a copy of a song to transfer to other players or burn onto CDs, we make it easy for you to buy them through XM + Napster.

Satellite radio subscribers like you are law-abiding music consumers; a portion of your subscriber fee pays royalties directly to artists. Instead of going after pirates who don’t pay a cent, the record labels are attacking the radios used for the enjoyment of music by consumers like you. It’s misguided and wrong.

We will vigorously defend these radios and your right to enjoy them in court and before Congress, and we expect to win.

Thank you for your support.

Check out the efforts of the big telcos masquerading as a public service group calling themselves, “Hands off the Internet”. This group has put together a neato, trendy flash video that equates net-neutrality with government controlled internet. Here are a few screen-grabs of their little video:

This picture shows you and me, the average Joe so confused about net-neutrality that we don’t really know what to think.

Here we see that the evil internet corporations are using “the internet” without paying. If only we could somehow find out who the poor, victimized companies are who own those lines to people’s houses — then we could make sure that they get part of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s profits!

This one is my favorite. Here we see Google, Yahoo and Microsoft represented with so much cash that they don’t know what to do. Too bad that those evil internet companies take advantage of the nameless-faceless telcos so badly!

Here’s the reality of the situation. Telcos are developing routers that can “listen to” your internet traffic and they want to profit from what you surf. They want the right to charge Yahoo, Google and Microsoft for being successful. The problem is, where will they draw the line? Bloggers like you and I may have to pay a “blogging fee” if we get too popular. Isn’t it enough that we (and Yahoo, Google and Microsoft) pay for the bandwidth we use?

Here’s a more accurate analogy for you. Let’s take the telephone. Some people use the telephone to talk to their significant-other. Others use it to sell stuff and make money. Imagine if the telcos listened to all of your phone calls and charged you more if you were using it to make money

Another analogy: Suppose a study was conducted and it was found that Washers and Dryers are the largest drain of electricity in our homes. Imagine if the utility companies could charge Maytag, Whirlpool and the others appliance manufacturers more simply because people used the electricity THEY ALREADY PURCHASED to run appliances made by these companies

Bottom line: Telcos have as much right as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to develop content that consumers would want to consume. Just because they do not should not give them the right to use their virtual monopoly to penalize the companies that DO develop valuable content.

Reg Hardware, the hardware wing of “The Register” has a story entitled Samsung phone sported Mac OS X graphics. As the article states, it’s kind of ironic that Samsung has recently won the contract to build the iPod Nano. Could we be looking at a predecessor of the Apple iPhone or is Samsung just trying to get sued? Stay tuned…