Home Networking - A Killer Connection?

iSuppli has just released a Q1 2007 consumer demand report titled “Home Networking: In Search of a Killer Connection" with some very interesting survey results. The report says Home Networking will grow at a projected rate of 33% per year through 2011 as illustrated in the graph below (report source abstract linked here ).

Here's more from the report:

- The current global penetration rate of Home Networking is 3%

- WiFi will be the most common technology for home networking.

- Home networking is rapidly moving beyond just computer and printer connectivity. The big move over the next few years will be in entertainment devices like DVD recorders, set-top boxes, digital televisions, Digital Video Recorders, and video game consoles.

- 61% of the people surveyed want to connect their TV's to the Internet.

And here's a quote from the report:

The migration toward a ubiquitous consumer-friendly home network is still in its infancy. Today, home networking is essentially limited to the sharing of multiple PCs with the home broadband gateway. iSuppli believes this is just the tip of the iceberg. Many consumer appliances are now being designed with interconnectivity foremost in mind, andmore are expected over the next couple of years.

We've all been predicting this and anxiously waiting - it's happening - are you, your academic programs and your students ready?

Who's Watching Online Video?

On July 25, 2007 Pew/Internet released a new Technology and Media Use report with some fascinating information. Here's highlights quoted from the report:

- 57% of online adults have used the Internet to watch or download video, and 19% do so on a typical day.
- Three-quarters of broadband users (74%) who have high-speed connections at both home and work watch or download video online.
- More than half of online video viewers (57%) share links to the video they find with others, and three in four (75%) say they receive links to watch video that others have sent to them.
- Video viewers who actively exploit the participatory features of online video, such as rating content, posting feedback or uploading video, make up the motivated minority of the online video audience.
- Three in four young adult Internet users (18-29) watch or download video online. - News video is the most popular category for everyone except young adults.
- Professional videos are preferred to amateur productions online, but amateur content appeals to coveted segments of the young male audience.
- 8% of Internet users say they have uploaded a video file online for others to watch. - Most video viewers watch at home, but one in four report at-work viewing.
- Half of young adult video viewers say they watch video on YouTube.

How they watch:

- Most have watched online video with other people.

- More than half share links to the video they find with others.
- Three in four video viewers receive links to online video.
- One in ten have posted video links to websites or blogs.
- One in five have rated video or posted comments after watching online.

What users prefer:

- Young men are among those least likely to express a preference for professionally-produced video.
- 37% of adult Internet users report online news video viewing and 10% say they watch news video on a typical day.
- News video is the most popular category for everyone except young adults.
- Comedy and humorous videos attract the largest number of young adult viewers - 56% of young adults prefer these.
- With bite-sized clips, music videos also draw young audiences online.
- Animation and cartoons garner the young male audience.
- Full-length movies and TV shows are still making their way online.
- Political content resonates most with active viewers who rate or comment on video.
- One in eight Internet users watch or download commercials online.
- Young male users are the most likely to say they have watched or downloaded adult video online.
- Few pay to access online video.

I wonder how many faculty are using on-line video in their courses. I also wonder how many employers are using on-line video to enhance and grow their business.

We hear a lot of discussion in the academic community about blocking online video sites like YouTube - some IT Directors say it sucks up too much campus bandwidth. As we reach out to young adults, especially in the academic community, blocking sites like YouTube does not appear to be a very good idea.

You can download and read the excellent 28 page Pew/Internet report linked here.

And.......... it's not just the "young adults" watching this stuff - as a former VW owner here's one of my YouTube favorites!


Enjoy:)

*****
Listen to Mike Q and my latest podcast "Skype, More Skype, Goodbye Copper and Casual Gaming" linked here.

Google Joins Sprint and Clearwire in WiMAX Initiative

Today Google and Sprint have announced a partnership - Sprint has agreed to provide Open Standard Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to Google, allowing Google to develop applications on Sprint web-enabled devices. Services developed for the WiMAX network will include search, e-mail, calendaring, and social networking. The Sprint/Clearwire WiMAX network is scheduled to launch early 2008. Here's a quote from Yahoo Technology News:

.... analysts were quick to point out that the cooperative agreement doesn't exclude the two companies from competing against each other down the road.

"It's an absolute no-brainer" for Google to increase its presence in the wireless sector by working with as many operators as possible and helping them customize services," said Andy Buss, principle analyst with Canalys.com. "But Google is looking to become an operator in its own right."

"It would be good for Google to control its own platform," he said. "They need to make some risk-sharing investments in the underlying networks to have a say in how they're architectured and developed."

In Europe, Buss didn't rule out the possibility of Google becoming a mobile virtual network operator, piggybacking on existing networks. This approach, he said, would allow the company to establish a "consistent" level of expertise across highly fragmented Europe.

In a separate but related topic Google is also in the market for some spectrum of it's own. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be auctioning off the valuable 700MHz range frequency spectrum next year. There is a lot of political positioning happening now and I'll write about it in a future blog so there is not confusion.

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Listen to Mike Q and my latest podcast "Skype, More Skype, Goodbye Copper and Casual Gaming" linked here.

Verizon Text Messaging Record

Verizon Wireless reported this week that, in the month of June 2007, their network sent and received more than 10 billion text messages - a record in the American SMS market. In addition Verizon Wireless customers also sent and received over 200 million photo- and video-based multimedia messages in the same month.

Use of text messaging with inexpensive unlimited plans and text friendly phones - available from every provider - has been close to exponential in growth over the past year. As a comparison, during the fourth quarter of 2006 (this is a three month period), Verizon Wireless customers sent and received 17.7 billion text messages and over 353 million picture and video messages.

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Listen to Mike Q and my latest podcast "Skype, More Skype, Goodbye Copper and Casual Gaming" linked here.

Sprint and Clearwire Partner on WiMAX Initiative

A few days ago Sprint and Clearwire announced plans to work together in the buildout of a national WIMAX network.

According to a press release on Sprint's website:

"The WiMAX network is being designed to deliver mobile broadband services in urban, suburban and rural markets, and enable significantly greater depth and breadth of services. The arrangement also is expected to enable each company to increase capital efficiency and reduce overall network development and operating costs".

"Sprint Nextel and Clearwire expect to build their respective portions of the nationwide network, and enable roaming between the respective territories. The companies also will work jointly on product and service evolution, shared infrastructure, branding, marketing and distribution. Additionally, the companies intend to exchange selected 2.5 GHz spectrum in order to optimize build-out, development and operation of the network".

I've blogged about WiMAX and Clearwire last September - that blog is linked here. In that blog I described how Clearwire, under Craig O. McCaw's direction, had quietly purchased enough licensed radio spectrum to build a national WiMAX network. Last September I also discussed how Sprint had commtted to the buildout of a national WiMAX network, at that time in competition to Clearwire.

Here's more from July 2007 the Sprint press release:

"Under the network build-out plan, Sprint Nextel will focus its efforts primarily on geographic areas covering approximately 185 million people, including 75 percent of the people located in the 50 largest markets, while Clearwire will focus on areas covering approximately 115 million people. Initially, the two companies expect to build out network coverage to approximately 100 million people by the end of 2008, with seamless roaming enabled between the deployed areas".

"...Sprint Nextel expects to commence the initial stage of its mobile WiMAX network deployments by year-end 2007 and both companies expect to launch commercial service in the first half of 2008. The companies individually are working with a broad range of manufacturers including Intel, Motorola, Samsung, Nokia and others to create an ecosystem of chips, products and software designed to provide mobile WiMAX access".

I think we'll see more of these kinds of partnerships develop as providers combine forces to offer customers higher bandwidths in wider coverage areas. I wish I has bought some stock last September!

*****
Listen to Mike Q and my latest podcast "Skype, More Skype, Goodbye Copper and Casual Gaming" linked here.

Casual Gaming = Big Business

The Hollywood Reporter has reported that Nickelodeon will make an investment of $100 million in the development of casual games. Casual games are games that are typically played for a few minutes at a time - examples include puzzle and card games. This announcement was made by Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group President Cyma Zarghami at the Casual Connect Gaming Conference yesterday in Seattle. Zarghami is quoted:

"Particularly in the kids' space, with more than 86% of kids 8 to 14 gaming online, we see great momentum for online casual gaming,"

Also, according to The Reporter:

"Included in the Nickelodeon initiative is myNoggin, a preschool educational game in the form of a subscription service; an expansion of the Nicktropolis multiplayer games franchise; Nick Gaming Club, Nickelodeon's first subscription offering featuring multiplayer games with 3-D avatars; the-NGames.com, a casual gaming site geared toward female teens; and the transformation of the site Neopets.com to NeoStudios, a property centering on the creation of new online virtual world experiences".

In addition, the Casual Game Association (CGA) has released some preliminary data from their Casual Games 2007 Report. Here's a few preliminary data highlights from a MCV press release:

The number of games being submitted to major online portals has doubled over the past two years, suggesting an increase in new publishers developing more titles.

In 2006 the most popular casual games were Mystery Case Files, Diner Dash, Cake Mania, Bejeweled and Slingo.

Women still make up the majority (74%) of all paying players online with men now represent about half of the much-larger non-paying player universe.

The number of games being submitted to major online portals has doubled over the past two years, suggesting an increase in new publishers developing more titles.

The rapid growth of the casual games market has prompted companies to create games for more audiences and also for more platforms, including the Internet, PC and Macintosh computers, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo DS, Wii and even mobile phones and PDAs.

The full CGA report will be released in the fall - if you are interested in receiving a copy watch the CGA website at http://www.casualgamesassociation.org or send an email to datastudy@casualgamesassociation.org

Goodbye Copper?

There’s been some recent press about Verizon and their FIOS product installation. FIOS is a fiber optic network service that delivers voice, video and data services. You may also see it referred to as a Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) or Fiber to the Home (FTTH) service that Verizon is selling and installing in select markets in 16 different states.

Most who have the service installed are extremely happy with the bandwidth and cost when compared to lower bandwidth DSL and Cable Modem services. The product has become so popular that it is even being used as a selling point by real estate agents when marketing homes.

A few are complaining though. It appears Verizon, when installing the FIOS service, is cutting out the existing copper lines leaving the customer with only one option – fiber and FIOS. There are a couple of good reasons from a business perspective for Verizon to do this. The first is the existing copper wiring is old and requires a significant amount of maintenance – Verizon spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year just maintaining the existing “copper plant” and it makes sense to remove it when it is replaced. The second reason is the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which requires the telephone companies (like Verizon) share their existing copper lines with competitors. There is no current legal requirement for Verizon to share new fiber optic lines with anyone.

In fairness to Verizon, there is a three step notification process for people who sign up for the FIOS service. According to the International Herald Tribune, customers are told by the Verizon sales person, it is indicated in the sales contract and the customer is told by the technician that the copper will be cut out. Currently, Verizon is publicly stating they will replace removed copper if a FIOS customer wished to revert back to copper service.

Also according to the International Herald Tribune, Verizon has filed more than 100 notices with the Federal Communications Commission to retire portions of copper throughout its network.

I can understand the customer concerns about lack of choice and some technical issues like battery back-up and also Verizon’s concerns about having to maintain two separate networks.

Some Interesting Skype Alternatives

Network Computing recently published a piece evaluating 6 Skype Alternatives here. Each alternative adds enhanced features that Skype currelty does not offer. Here's the list:

Grand Central - This product allows you to select one phone number and link up to six phone numbers you enter into your user profile. For example, you can set your Grand Central account to ring both your office phone and your cell phone. The one you pick up is the one that connects the call.
Grand Central was acquired by Google a few days ago (Mike Q was the first to tip me off) and is currently taking number reservations on their website.

TalkPlus - TalkPlus is sort of the opposite of Grand Central - it allows you to have several phone numbers that all ring to one phone. TalkPlus is inexpensive but not free. They currently offer number in 32 different countries and especially looks like a great product if someone has relatives in other parts of the world.

Jajah - I've blogged on Jajah in the past - see link here. Jajah provides a paid service that allows calls to be routed to landline/cell to landline/cell in many parts of the world without long distance fees. Here's how it works: Let's say I'm a Jajah customer and I want to call my brother who is living in London. I log into my Jajah account at jajah.com, enter my brother's landline or cell number and my landline or cell number. Jajah makes the connection and rings my phone and then my brothers phone over connections that are local to each of us.

Talkster - Talkster's paid service provides calls from phones to to voice-enabled instant-messaging services like GoogleTalk and Yahoo IM. One of the neat things about Talkster is that it allows you to see your friends presence (whether or not they are on IM) using you mobile phone browser.

Jangl - Jangl is a currently free service (even for international calls) that works similar to Jajah - it connects phone network end-points. The difference is Jangl does not require that you know the number you want to call. Jangl uses semi-permanent phone numbers and allows people to call you that don't know your permanent number.

Jaxtr - Jaxtr is similar to Jangl with a flashier user interface. It is also currently a free service for domestic and international calls. Both Jangl and Jaxtr's anonymity features cater to the "social networker" market.

Each of these products offer features and functionality beyond current Skype offerings - it will be very interesting to see what Google does with Grand Central.

*****
Listen to Mike Q and my latest podcast "One Week with the iPhone" linked here.

Skype Everywhere

There have been a couple of interesting Skype product upgrades/releases over the past few days.

The first is SoonR Talk, an AJAX enabled application that allows Skype to run on the iPhone and other mobile devices.

The second is the release of Skype on the Nokia N800 Internet tablet. The small hand-held device connects to available Wi-Fi networks that we're all finding just about everywhere these days.

Here's a Yahoo News quote from Gartner analyst Elroy Jopling:

"We will see more Skype and similar free Wi-Fi phone services moving into mobile devices in the U.S. and Europe, he said, although Europe could adopt it more quickly. However, he said he expects to see "mobile operators put up as many roadblocks as they can" in both places".

Both of these products allow free Skype voice calls from anywhere to anywhere with Wi-Fi access.

I'll be finishing my Day 2/3 NCTT Conference blog tomorrow - the Conference was EXCELLENT!

*****
Listen to Mike Q and my latest podcast "One Week with the iPhone" linked here.

Blogging from The NCTT Summer Conference - Day 1

We're into Day 1 of our summer conference and it has started out extremely well. We're running it this year at the Verizon Conference Center in Marlborough, MA. At the conference we have attendees representing 23 individual states and Canada. This morning Karl Kapp kicked us off with an excellent presentation based on his latest book Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning. To the right is a picture of Karl during his presentation.

This is from Karl's website:

Gadgets, Games, and Gizmos for Learning is an innovative book that provides practical and original solutions to the impending boomer/gamer knowledge and skills transfer gap. The book outlines how gamer values such as the use of cheat codes, the love of gadgets, the need to play games, and the desire to be constantly connected can be used as methods for moving information from the heads of the boomers to the fingertips and gadgets of the gamers. As organizations begin to think strategically about how to attract, retain, and train new talent, this book will be an invaluable resource.

In his presentation Karl challenged the common belief that gamer habits can have a negative effect in our classrooms and workplaces and suggested many ways their expertise can be used to enhance the learning and work experience.

After Karl we followed with a couple of great presentations from Vince Dinoto from Jefferson Community and Technical College in Kentucky and Terry Bartelt from Fox Valley Technical College.

Terry did a great presentation on his Multimedia Learning Object NSF Project and is shown presenting to the left. Terry and Fox Valley Technical College have developed over 200 learning objects on electronics technology topics. Learning objects are animated multimedia instruments presented on a computer, and are accessible at no charge on the internet. Through an NSF grant, over 300 more of them will be created for automation, robotics, mechanics, fluid power and process control.

Vince did and excellent presentation on Internet GIS. The presentation explored both web-based and data driven Internet GIS. In addition the concept of server based GIS was discussed.

Later we had Devin McLaughlin from Apple do a two part session on Virtualization for the Macintosh. Devin and the group explored the options for running multiple operating systems on Apple Macintosh Intel Computers. Over a year ago Apple started shipping Apple Macintosh Computers with Intel chips. This has made running the Mac OS and Windows on the same machine a reality. Participants learned about the options for running both environments on the Mac and how to easily deploy these machines.

After lunch Pierre Thiry from City College of San Francisco and Steven Barndollar from Juniper Networks discussed the Juniper University Center program. In January City College became the first Juniper Networks University Center in the United States and has been piloting the two courses: Operating Juniper Routers in the Enterprise and Advanced Juniper Routers in the Enterprise this past Spring. The presentation focused on a description of the curriculum, equipment and training needed to implement this pilot project and on the lessons learned in this first year implementation.

In addition NCTT CoPI Jim Downing presented on Fiber Optics, the Physical Layer, and the Classroom. Jim's presentation looked at the connection between fiber-optics (at the physical layer) and the next few layers in the OSI model. Beginning with the differences and similarities between basic media (copper, fiber, wireless) connections, the presentation showed the importance of understanding the differences and realizing how technically vast the physical layer is. Highlights included teaching decibels using a systems approach, defining the important differences between media, and explaining the layer 1-2-3 connections.

Peter Saflund from The Saflund Institute, Steven Budd from Springfield Technical Community College and Laura Qaissaunee from Brookdale Community College ran their extremely popular Steps to Successful ATE Proposal Preparation two part workshop once again. These sessions are always a crowd favorite with attendees learning critical steps in successful ATE proposal preparation with practice critical review of proposal segments and practice writing for clarity for successful review.

Robert Mortenson from The University of Nebraska at Omaha, Dennis Kirlin from the Midwest Center for Information Technology and Jeanne L. Surface from the AIM Institute discussed Mapping Research Evidence to Investigative Questions in their session. Their presentation described the results of a National Science Foundation funded ATE Center's efforts to respond to using "Key Questions of Interest" in the evaluative process. It provided a description of the processes used and the logic model developed to respond to a change in the NSF's evaluation paradigm.

Paula Velluto from Bunker Hill Community College then demonstated her Computer Forensics In a Box. This presentation frocused on crime and evidence gathered from an ensuing investigation that needs analysis. Participants observed the crime, reviewed the evidence, determined the connections, and reported back on their findings. CFATE(an NSF ATE Project) in a Box is a recruitment activity that is used for High School and Middle School students to introduce them to the field of Computer Forensics.

Next, Joseph T. Nairn and Mark Indelicato from Rochester Institute of Technology presented on the Avenues to Further Education program at RIT.

A national leader in engineering technology education, Rochester Institute of Technology provides many opportunities for students coming out of two year programs looking to further their education at the bachelor's or master's level. Joe and Mark discussed the portfolio of telecom-related certificates and degrees that accommodate community college graduates with the flexibility to earn a degree online from RIT.

We finished Day 1 with a cocktail hour sponsored by Juniper Networks - thanks Juniper!

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Note: As more pictures become available I'll be updating this post! Also, if you are reading at www.nctt.org/blog, you may not be able to see the pictures. To see the pictures go directly to http://ictcenter.blogspot.com

New Federal Regulations will Have Impact On Open Source Wireless Devices

On July 6, 2007, new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations in the United States went into effect on devices that use software-defined radio (SDR) technologies. These devices include wireless access points, cell phones, PDA's, wireless network cards, etc. The FCC ruling will make it more difficult for manufacturers to get approval for these types of devices in this country. Accoring to the FCC the regulations are based primarily on safety and will attempt to stop users from doing things like modifying the source code of the devices to boost power or change frequencies of the devices.

Some of the most popular SDR devices among network savvy users on the market today are the Linksys WRT54G series wireless access points. These were the first, and still most popular, consumer devices to have their source code released, allowing users to make modifications and essentially "soup up" the performance of the router. There are numerous third party firmware projects for these devices with a good active list maintained on Wikipedia linked here. Currently the three most popular firmware replacements are Alchemy and Talisman produced by Sveasoft, and DD-WRT.

The Open Source WRT54G Story linked here, describes the history of the device and also describes how you can "turn a $60 router into a $600 router". Here's a couple of quotes from the article:

"While routers used to be the domain of networking specialists, they’ve gone mainstream along with residential broadband. Commodity routers can be had for as little as – well, "free after rebate” in some cases, and often not much more. To keep them cheap, consumer-grade vendors like Linksys repackage designs from OEM vendors rather than design the hardware and software in-house".

"The tradeoff for these sub-$100 routers can be reliability, particularly in the coding of the firmware – the software “brain” that controls the router’s functions. Consumer-grade firmware may be buggy, and may be limited in functionality compared to commercial-grade routers designed for business such as those made by Cisco and SonicWall".

This is very interesting - according to a piece on LinuxDevices.com linked here:

"A summary document published by the FCC suggests that the new regulations were actually proposed by Cisco, a vendor of wireless cards and other networking equipment. The summary document suggests that because of the new rules, SDR device vendors who use open-source software in certain capacities could face challenges getting FCC approval".

You can read the 2500 word FCC summary document linked here.

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has responded with a white paper saying the the FCC has little regulation authority of hardware devices and the FCC is stifling software development with this regulation. The SFLC white paper is linked here.


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Listen to Mike Q and my latest podcast "One Week with the iPhone" linked here.

Condoleezza Rice, Linkin Park and Technology

Yesterday CNBC ran a series of interviews of interviews with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In the interviews CNBC's Maria Bartiromo asks Rice a number of really good questions and I found Rice's answers fascinating. You can watch the 5 part interview series by searching on Rice's last name here.

At one point Rice was asked about the use of a Blackberry by Bartiromo. Rice's response was she is not allowed to touch technology any more - she has people that do those kinds of things for her! This got me thinking what if:

- What if she had a Blackberry and someone else got their hands on it?
- What if someone could intercept her emails?
- Could someone assume her identity online?
- If there was a compromise, how long would it take before someone realized?

This comes after reading an excellent article in the June 2007 issue of WIRED Magazine titled Linkin Park's Mysterious Cyberstalker. In the article report David Kushner describes how the online identity of Chester Charlie Bennington, lead singer of Linkin Park, was assumed by a Sandia National Labs computer technician. Sandia is a a top secret nuclear lab!

It took Chester a year to get his (and ultimately his wife's) identity back after he hired digital evidence, forensics and investigation expert Konstantinos "Gus" Dimitrelos. David Kushner was also interviewed by NPR on the Linkin Park WIRED article - that interview is linked here.

Fascinating stuff - I can understand why high level government officials are kept away from communications technologies.

Mike Q's Podcast Interview: One Week with the iPhone

Listen to our latest podcast where we take a look at the iPhone from a users perspective after 1 week. Find it at www.nctt.org/podcast and also find it on iTunes by going into the Music Store, going to the Podcast section and searching on "Snyder" or "Qaissaunee".

You can also listen directly to the stream by turning up your speakers, following http://gsnyder.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=232754 and clicking on the little grey POD icon. The interview is a little over 34 minutes long.

Hands-On iPhone Impressions

I was in Providence, RI on the fourth visiting my daughter and we ended up heading over to the Mall downtown for some lunch. There's an Apple store in the mall and - of course - we just had to get some hands-on time with the iPhone. They had a bunch of them out for people to play with and the four of us (12 year old, 15 year old, my wife and I) each ended up with one for about an hour. Here's our impressions:

Overall User Interface - Excellent. Extremely intuitive.I enjoyed the pinch zoom ans stretch features and I love the way the screen re-orients itself as it is rotated back and forth between portrait and landscape. I also love flicking the pages around - much easier than my Mobile PC device scroll bars.

Size - Perfect. Small enough to fit in a pocket and big enough so I can see everything on the screen.

Display - WOW - Incredible. Fingerprints - not an issue.

Multitouch Keyboard - Excellent interface. I've heard some negatives about it but, in our opinion, it is easier to use than a Blackberry keyboard.

Voice Quality - Incredible. You could actually make voice calls right from the demos on the floor. Both ends crystal clear.

Comfort - when held to the ear like a regular phone - excellent. And.... it was cool to the touch on my ear (the heat of my current phone drives me crazy)!

Email - Very Good basic email features and functions. You cannot BCC right now. The intelligent keyboard using predictive techniques is excellent. SSL and encrypted authentication are also supported.

Safari - Very good. I'm a Firefox fan - can't give it an excellent! Seriously, I was very impressed. On the down side - at this time Safari does not support Flash, Java, or QuickTime plug-ins.

iPod - this is a new interface, it is different than the iPod! In portrait orientation there are four buttons at the bottom of the screen that you can "shortcut" with your favorite functions. When you rient the device into landscape you get a "Cover Flow" view showing album covers that you flick as you move through them.

Speed - it starts and shuts down fast. I could not test the AT&T EDGE network because we were on a Wi-Fi connection in the store.

Widgets - these are what Apple calls the applications currently on the iPhone. The 2 Megapixel camera is a step up from any phone I have ever had. Mike has a pic he took with his posted here. There is a weather widget, a stock widget and - as you all konw - a uTube widget. All very easy to use.

It was very interesting to watch people come up and pick out up for the first time. Amazing to watch the looks on their faces and see them focus on figuring out how to use it. It is incredible intuitive - no instructions, nobody showing people how to start using it. Old timers, kids - doesn't matter - everyone I watched picked it up and immediately started using it. It was even more interesting to watch people try and put it down and, once they did, have them come back for more in 5 or 10 minutes.

One father with a couple of young children (I'm guessing around 10 years old) was dragged in by his kids. The kids each picked up one of the demos with him rolling his eyes. Within two minutes he had one in his hands and all I kept hearing was "Wow!" and "Look at this!".

After I put it down for the last time I pulled out my Razor and I could feel myself technologically taking a massive leap backwards...... as I called Cingular in an attempt to break my current phone contract......

Why Verizon Rejected the iPhone

Most realize Verizon had the first shot at the iPhone and many have been scratching their heads (Why didn't Verizon take it?) since the January Macworld iPhone announcement. The Register has an interesting post here. The piece quotes Verizon Communications president and chief operating officer Denny Strigl as follows:

"The iPhone product is something we are happy we aren't the first to market with."

It looks like the deal killers for Verizon were Apple's demands for call revenue sharing, the control of distribution channels and also customer service. The Register also quotes another Verizon vice president, Jim Gerace:

"We said no. We have nothing bad to say about the Apple iPhone. We just couldn't reach
a deal that was mutually beneficial."

According the The Register - Cingular claims this deal was cut two years ago when the iPhone was just a mock-up.

I'm going to stick my neck out and predict an announcement soon by Microsoft and Verizon......