The iPhone

That's it! That's what Apple should do! Release the iPhone, but not through a specific carrier! Leave them unlocked (GSM, of course) and you can insert the SIM card from your existing carrier into it.

Brilliant!

Granted, the iPhone wouldn't be subsidized by a wireless contract, but if people are willing to spend $300 for an iPod, why not get an iPhone that does that, and more (with perhaps a smaller capacity), for roughly the same price?

Granted, I'm assuming it would be roughly the same price. If you can get a Treo for about $300 with a service activation, it would seem that an iPhone that isn't compatible/as compatible with the general PC market would be a big enough disadvantage to keep the cost lower.

Then again, Sony Ericsson released the W800i which would essentially do most of the same things as said iPhone, and SE was selling it without a contract for $500. Apple does have amazing memory hookups though, so that price could go down, or at the very least should include a heck of a lot more than the 2 GB card that came with the W800i.

Let's break it down, shall we? To make a decent cell phone doesn't cost all that much. As far as the reception-factor goes, you can get free phones that work just fine as phones, but aren't loaded with features. Apple has the MAJOR hookups with batteries, flash memory and screens. Heck, use a vertical 5G iPod screen. Now all you're lacking is a camera (I would expect at least a 1 megapixel) and an GUI (OS X/iTunes-inspired, no doubt). The battery connector would be the same as an iPod, so you could still sync to a computer and use your third party iPod accessories with it.

It's also important to remember that there is talk of Apple creating its own MVNO. The only problem with that is they'd probably choose Cingular. The question then arises: do I love Apple more than I hate Cingular? I honestly don't know.

Maybe they won't go with Cingular. I mean, the ROKR wasn't exactly a whopping success... would Cingular cut them any kind of deal if they wanted to create an MVNO? Hehehe... perhaps Stevie J. leverages his ties at Disney to give Cingular inexpensive content in exchange for a reduced MVNO lease.

Steve, if you're reading this, first of all know that you're my hero. Second, please, please, please make the iPhone affordable and for the love of all that is pearly and white, DON'T GO THROUGH CINGULAR!

UPDATE:
Hey Apple, want some extra battery life for that iPhone? Check out what NEC's put together: 50 hours of music playback on a cell phone. Click here.

A big practical joke

I was spacing out for a bit just now, and had a thought: what if you could make gigantic, fake Godzilla legs and attach them to some kind of hydraulic lift on the roof of a building. When you turn it on, it would make it look like Godzilla was walking past your building to the people working inside.

Wow. That'd be cool.

OK. Back to work.

Man flesh

I gave a talk in church today (it was stunnning... everyone was translated) which gave me an opportunity to view the congregation from the stand. This raises the question: why must all old men expose six inches of their pasty white shin skin when they cross their legs? Seriously. This old guy was sitting in the front row, and his brilliantly white leg was reflecting the chapel lights to such a degree that I found myself squinting. Can't they tell their pant leg is hiked up, exposing a harshly contrasted dress sock and sun-depraved leg? Don't they feel a draft or something?

My wife supposes they just don't care. Old people tend to not care about a lot of stuff they should probably care about. Like the fact that they can't drive.

The missing fish

How does one lose a fish? It's not like a dog that can dig under the fence and run away, nor a cat that is simply too stupid to find its way home. No, losing a fish is not so easy to do, but always results in the same inevitable fate: the fish dies.

Such is the speculated case with Jeremy's now-presumed-dead fish, Jackie Chan. Jeremy came back to work one day to find that Mr. Chan had vacated his little home. Fish have been known to leap from their watery confines, but here's the mystery of it all: the body was never found.

Jeremy searched high and low in his office, even using a flashlight to search in crevasses which no mortal fish could leap to. The nearest body of water is the bathroom which is located down a hallway, through the lobby, into the foier, through a door and into a stall. Impossible!

Then again, this fish was named Jackie Chan.

I call upon my faithful readers (all four of you) to keep an eye out for Jackie. If he can escape his bowl, and the office in which he was housed, there's no telling where he could be.

P.S. It should be noted that Brett has a theory that Jackie was such a ravenous fighting fish that he actually ate himself.

Windows Live Mail

As many know, or could easily deduce from this blog, I like to try out the latest and greatest. Windows Live (www.live.com) is their answer to Google's search engine, and Live Mail is their answer to Gmail. I'd love to preview Microsoft's response to everything Google so I'm definitely interested when this appears in my Hotmail inbox (click to zoom):


Way to go Microsoft! You've got me interested and excited about your new product! I am ready and willing to "join now".

What's this? I try to click the big, orange, desiged-very-similarly-to-Apple's-OS-buttons-but-with-poor-off-
centered-typography-button and...nothing.

What Microsoft? It doesn't work? You sent out a busted e-mail to your target audience? Or was it never supposed to work and is simply misleading? Either way, it's frustrating and disappointing... two adjectives I've come to associate with Microsoft.

UPDATE:
Brett was able to log into his Live Mail account and let me check it out. The verdict? Blah. Sure it uses AJAX now, but it basically looks like a stripped down version of Hotmail.

Super Dell Snapped

The headline says it all. Visit my friend Brett's Blog for the details and a link to KSL's nightly news report on the subject. It's definitely worth your time.

P.S. Say Super Dell, isn't that your logo with an OS X desktop background?

Nameless

We have a client, who shall remain nameless (literally). We were asked to name their lodging establishment in Park City. With only two days, we thought we came up with some decent names. Here was the client's response (the type-o's are his):

"In my opinion, all suggested names STINK. Try again. How do these names reflect everything that you queried us about at the last meeting? How about: "The warm, fuzzy, great servi\ce Park City ski and summer resort hotel".? or TWFGSPCSASRH?

- Client's Name

P. S. You experts can do better than the names that you have suggested."

There you have it folks. So the next time you head east on I-80 and drive through Park City, keep an eye out for The Warm, Fuzzy, Great Servi/ce Park City Ski and Summer Resort Hotel. They're very professional and I hear the service is excellent.