MaisonBisson

Some are calling it the Jesus phone, but Jason Chen calls it a moral quandry, Gartner Group is <a href=“http://www.techworld.com/mobility/news/index.cfm?newsID=9252&pagtype=samechan" title=;Techworld.com - Gartner warns IT to avoid Apple’s iPhone”>telling IT to avoid it (really, because iTunes is scary to enterprise), Business 2.0’s Joshua Quittner is reminding the peeps it’s just a regular phone, and Wayne Smallman is whining that it doesn’t have a flash or telephoto lens. (Humor alert: one of those is supposed to be funny, and another is supposed to be hilarious.)

Analysts who claim “It doesn’t have any features that would make it successful as a business tool” must surely be on the pay of competing manufacturers or networks. The promise here is that the phone is an incredibly rich and portable network device; businesses that can’t find value in that are probably in decline anyway. Still it is expensive, and it is subject to all the vagaries of cell phone service, and it doesn’t have a laser.

AT&T’s current (reasonable) voice and smartphone data plans offer 900 minutes for $60 and unlimited data for an additional $20, but previous reports about the iPhone suggested that consumers should expect to pay $60/month for service, so we’re left to wonder what’s up.

Meanwhile, I’ve been asking AT&T users about their signal coverage. I’m on Verizon now and enjoyed pretty solid coverage throughout DC, even underground. Folks on AT&T, however, had spottier coverage, even above ground. And on the train home I found myself next to a passenger trying to conduct business on AT&T, but who was getting disconnected regularly. All the while, my phone showed plenty of signal.

And yet, USA Today says AT&T is “girding” for for launch, including investing in their network, so again we’re left to wonder.

update: the rate plans are out. $60 will get you 450 voice minutes and unlimited data, but all plans are limited to 200 SMS messages. Add $20 to double the talk time, and toss in another $10 for 2000 text messages or $20 for unlimited.

“The librarian as information priest is as dead as Elvis,” Needham said. The whole “gestalt” of the academic library has been set up like a church, he said, with various parts of a reading room acting like “the stations of the cross,” all leading up to the “alter of the reference desk,” where “you make supplication and if you are found worthy, you will be helped.”

Via.

Running down the up escalator = fun.

Landing upright = difficult.

escalator, running, up, down

• Black Adder = cider + Guinness
• Snakebite = cider + Harp

I’m not saying I want seat belts, but it always takes me a moment to get used to them not being there on a train.

MySpace, Second Life, and Twitter Are Doomed.

Google Gears: create web apps that work offline

I don’t know whether to thank the Pheonix or the fair organizers for this great ad copy, but I hope the Washington County Fair is as good in 2007 as it sounded in 2006:

An agricultural fair featuring tractor pulls, stage shows, crafts, and livestock, plus games and children’s contests. Adult events include arm-wrestling contests, dung throwing, lawnmower racing, and seed spitting. Live country concerts every night. Open Wed through Sat from 10 am to 10 pm, and on Sun until 9 pm. Admission $8, free for children under 10.

Just spotted: do hippie skirts and bluetooth headsets go together?

Star Wars stamps found at post office. Will the merchandizing ever end?

Report: civilian and military death toll in Iraq is up strongly after US “surge.”

Roy Pearson sues Custom Cleaners for $67 million over lost pants. Millions! Pants!

Local pride: New Hampshire ranks near the top of the list for quality of healthcare services, according to new report.

Just as climate change makes hurricanes more frequent and dangerous, NOAA says its best tracking satellite is failing and there’s no plan to replace it until 2012.

DeSoto report leaked.

The highest ranking UN official in Israel has warned that American pressure has “pummelled into submission” the UN’s role as an impartial Middle East negotiator in a damning confidential report.

Echos abound.

The neocons were right so far: civil war is erupting throughout the middle east and Iran is feeding the flames. Is this really what we (or anybody) wanted?

Paralyzed: they can blow our helicopters out of the sky, and now they’re [destroying the roads and bridges][2]. Are we prepared for [another surge in Iraq][3]?

[2]: http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BB12C79AD-2CBF-41AB-9B5E-5B80936A00D2%7D)&language=EN [3]: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/01/07/no-2-us-commander-in-ira_n_38040.html