baby yaara
above is the reason i have not been blogging for the past week..
yaara was born on July 18th at 1:15am in the morning. she came out almost 4 weeks early..
you can find more pictures here.
Archive for July, 2006
coming zune
so it's official. microsoft will release an "ipod killer" by the end of the year.
there is a pretty, and very unmicrosoft like teaser site comingzune.com that was put up by microsoft. if this is an indication to the approach they are taking with zune, then there are reasons to be optimistic.
i really hope they'll come out with a great device, and will be able to put a dent into apple's market share.
“the situation”
in israel people are always talking about "the situation" usually referring to the armed conflict with the arab countries and in the occupied terriorties. in (the rare) times when the military conflict is getting less headlines and the country is calm "the situation" can broaden to include the economic conditions, but again this rare.
these days when people talk about "the situation" they clearly refer to the military conflict, plus "the situation" conversation dominate the public and private discourse.
i too find myself discussing "the situation" with all my friends and work colleagues. we actually start the conversation by asking each other, whomever gets to it first, "so what do you say about the situation in the country?" (which is also interesting that israelis call israel "the country" like new-yorkers call new-york "the city" as if it is the only country/city in the world).
below are my thoughts about "the situation".
my basic assumptions:
- israel should not accept a status quo where its cities and citizens are being attacked with rockets (whether it is by hamas in the south, or by hezbollah in the north)
- israel must retaliate when soldiers are being attacked and kidnapped on an internationally recognized border (UN resolution 1559) with a sovereign country (lebanon)
- neither hamas nor hezbollah anticipated the scale of the israeli reaction
- israel is taking advantage of the recent kidnapping to try and achieve much broader strategic goals (essentially creating a new status quo with both hamas and hezbollah)
the burning questions (and my short answers):
- will the current conflict escalate to a full blown war involving Syria? Iran? [i don't think so]
- how much is iran involved in the decision making of the hezbollah? [i think their role mostly has to do with supplying funds and weapons, and less in the way of how to put them into use (beside broad guidelines, such as inflict as much damage as you can on israel..)]
- does israel know what it is trying to achieve in its military operation? [i am not sure]
- how long before the "world" will make israel stop the assault? [anywhere between a few days to a couple of weeks]
- will the status quo change after this eruption of violence? [i think it will, in the sense that both parties will have a much better of understanding of the price involved in escalation]
- how will the west (world?) going to deal with iran and syria (as it is pretty clear that they are actively supporting and to a certain extent directing the hezbollah actions) [i think that thanks to the brilliant middle east policy of Bush iran does not have much to worry about at this stage…]
cingular blocking paypal, credit cards
from FierceWireless:
Cingular: Aggregators offering PayPal will be shut off
Cingular has tightened control of its aggregators' billing practices by prohibiting credit card, PayPal-like services or any billing service other than the Direct Bill option. According to a memo sent to Cingular's aggregator partners and obtained by FierceMobileContent: "…the current Cingular Wireless Customer Experience Policy…prohibit[s] the options of credit card and/or Paypal services for payment of content to Cingular Wireless customers. Please be aware that Cingular customers should always and only be offered the Direct Bill option for payment of content and/or services. Any programs that offer Paypal and/or credit card options to Cingular Wireless customers will be escalated and reviewed by Cingular Wireless for possible immediate shut off." While Cingular wouldn't comment on the leaked memo, Jay Emmet, president-Americas for mBlox, said, "We are aligning ourselves with Cingular's new requirements."
The crackdown on third-party billing options comes close on the heels of PayPal's recent launch of its Text2Buy program, and the memo references PayPal by name more than once. However, PayPal says that program enables users to purchase hard goods like t-shirts, posters, etc. and not "content" or a "service." The crackdown then mostly speaks to the larger issues of revenue leakage and the potential bypassing of carriers' billing mechanisms as off-deck content continues to gain momentum in the U.S. "Revenue leakage" refers to lost revenue from the sales of content or services because of faults in billing procedures. Obviously, being the sole billing mechanism gives Cingular a greater ability to stop revenue leakage. T-Mobile's policy on third party billing has always been that they are cool with it, for the most part, as long as they still get a cut–they charge their aggregators a small percentage for any transaction that goes through a third party.
this is very disappointing, but not surprising since the carriers see a real threat from paypal and the credit card companies.
the carriers charge off-deck (i.e. companies selling content/services directly to the end-users and not through the carrier's own portal) content providers 30%-40% of the transaction value for processing payments and presenting them on the user's phone bill. by comparison paypal, google and the credit card companies charge low single digit percentage (ebay/google ~ 2%).
they are afraid that paypal and the cc companies will make it easy for content providers to charge their users directly, bypassing the carrier's billing system and paying a much more reasonable fee.
the greediness of the carriers is bad for the mobile content industry. naturally the real innovation is taking place outside the carrier's walled garden. by charging such a high fee just for processing payments the carriers are making it much harder for companies to make money from selling mobile content, thus limiting the amount of dollars that can be invested in further innovation, and preventing certain business models from working.
blocking paypal and other payment mechanisms is similar to ISPs saying that all payments must go through them, and that users can not use paypal on the Internet. sounds crazy right?
i don't believe it is never a good policy (in the long term) to try and stifle innovation and limit end-users options. instead of spending their time trying to block the competition, they should focus on making their payment processing more affordable and user-friendly, so companies will continue to work with them. the carriers currently have the advantage (certainly in terms of user experience), but their greed might cause them to drive both the companies and the end-users away.
first thoughts on firefox 2.0 beta
i have played with the new firefox 2.0 beta for a few days.
here is what i like:
- integrated spellcheck (awesome!)
- the new search bar (with suggestions and history)
- re-opening a tab you just closed..
- better crash handling (restores session, including tabs and input fields)
what i don't like:
- i need to use the "better crash handling" way too often… they have serious stability issues
- i don't know. i expected more. doesn't have the new browser smell if you know what i mean.
tips for microsoft’s upcoming “ipod killer”
there have been many companies that announced they are launching an "iPod Killer" over the past couple of years, but iPod's market share continues to grow, and most of those "killers" are long buried and forgotten. now microsoft joins the fray and is coming up with its own MP3 player.
i read this article that is giving microsoft some tips on how they can try and take market share away from iPod, so i thought i'll try to offer them some tips, too
1. Form Factor is more important than features
take a lesson from Motorola's success with RAZR. Motorola proved that when it comes to a mobile phone the mass market cares more about the form factor than the features. rather than come up with the latest and greatest features they chose to focus on building the coolest looking device.
and it worked. people didn't care about the features and the ease-of-use of the software, they just wanted to use the coolest looking device.
microsoft should try to come up with a more appealing design for its device (slim seems to be "in"). if the picture below reflects their final design i think they may have not done enough..
2. Brand is more important than Form Factor
more important than form factor is the brand. iPod continue to prove this point. people don't even compare its with Creative, Samsung or Sony devices, they don't bother to look at those other brands. they just want their iPod, because that's what everybody else has. this is the toughest hurdle microsoft (or any other competitor) has to clear.
generating coolness is far from an exact science. and microsoft has some brand challenges to deal with.. i think their best chance is to try and work through influential grassroots, and one way to get the support of these guys is by implementing #3 - #5..
3. DRM is evil
many people are upset (the french parliament, too..) about the walled garden apple has built with iPod and iTunes. i can't play music i downloaded from iTunes on other devices, and i can't play music i bought from other services on my iPod.
this is a typical apple/steve jobs strategy and one that has lead to apple losing the PC business to microsoft. if apple is not careful they can see this market evaporate for them as well.
if microsoft can pick up the glove and lead the charge for an open, user-friendly, minimal DRM eco-system (maybe give a strong embrace to creative commons?). it may give them the "street cred" they so desperately lacking and start generating some real support from the users.
4. something better than itunes, embrace Podcasts and Vodcasts
the iTunes software sucks. it is heavy, slow and cumbersome. microsoft should offer a simpler version of the windows media player to manage the device, and create an easy-to-use interface to access podcasts and vodcasts. the podcast support in iTunes is an after-thought and it looks that way.
5. open yourself to the developers community
the iPod/iTunes is a closed environment, making it very difficult for developers (whether it is small companies or individuals) to create extensions and innovate.
microsoft should make its device and desktop software open to the developer community, so new features could be introduced and let the device/service be used in ways microsoft did not envision themselves.
6. WiFi, connectivity
iPod is really lacking connectivity. i would add to an MP3 player both WiFi and wireless data (EDGE?) capabilities. it will enable people to purchase music and videos, as well as download podcasts and vodcasts to their devices.
in addition they should let people share content between the devices (goes back to the DRM issues). they could do some really cool stuff with sharing over WiF
7. FM radio
not a great technology innovation, but really missing from the iPod.
if they implement all of the above i think they can generate some real buzz and get users excited. can't promise them millions of users, but i'll do my share and buy one.
congress moves against online gambling
congress has passed legislation (house voted 317-93) trying to further limit online gambling, but carving out state run lotteries and horse racing???
i don't see why they are trying to fight it. makes much more sense to regulate the field, let the states/federal government take their piece of the action (like any respectable mob organization), and give the people the freedom to lose all their money.
carving out lotteries and horse race betting is obviously without any real merit.
MySpace is #1 site in the US
according to HitWise MySpace has passed Yahoo! and Google as the most visited site in the US. if you look at the growth in popularity of MySpace over the past couple of years i guess you shouldn't be surprised.
i find it amazing. and it is also the reason i love the Internet so much. that a company can come out of nowhere with a relatively low investment and shake up the industry.
this comes as news are circulating about Bebo rejecting a $550M acquisition from a company in the UK. if i was at the head of Bebo i would have sold. you never know when the bubble is going to burst, and with such a tag price both VCs and founders should be ok.. (facebook is also rumored to have rejected an offer of around $1B).
i guess MySpace winning the #1 spot will not make these guys think they are worth any less…
why not let people sell their organs?
in this weekend's edition of the new-york times sunday magazine there is an article by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner (the guys that wrote Freakonomics). they are writing about the issue of organ transplants and why it makes sense to look beyond the taboo and allow people to sell their organs.
they make the case that this will benefit all of the involved, since today there is a significant backlog of people waiting on a transplant, there are people willing to donate (or rather sell) their organs, but this type of trade is illegal. they also mention that even in Europe where some countries have an "opt-out" policy (where someone needs to specifically say he is not willing to donate his organs in case he dies, otherwise the organs will be used) there is still a shortage.
the obvious argument against letting people sell their organs is that it will create a situation where the poor will be selling their organs to get a bit more cash, and the rich will be able to enjoy it. their answer is that while it is a unfortunate deprive the poor of potential revenues?
i have a problem with just letting people trade organs, because of the rich vs. poor situation. i think a possible solution can be to put a system together where people who pay for a transplant will have to pay double the price, the additional funds to be used to fund a transplant for someone with no means. this will create a system that essentially for every "rich" guy getting a transplant, a "poor" person will get one too.
there will remain the problem of the poor selling their organs, and sometime maybe doing so in a moment of weakness (either because they were pressured, didn't realize what they are getting themselves into, were in a vulnerable mental state, etc.), but i think the system can try to prevent these cases and overall i agree with the authors that the current system is very problematic
veoh sued by adult entertainment company
veoh a video sharing site (ala YouTube) was sued by Io Group a company that produces adult video.
the lawsuit claims that veoh has allowed users to upload Io produced videos to its site, generating significant traffic and revenues out of content that was illegally uploaded to the site.
this could end up being a very important case for the video sharing industry, as it may set a precedent to the liability these sites have for the content that is being uploaded by the users. today most of the copyrighted content that is being uploaded are short clips from TV shows, movie trailers, sport highlights, etc. in these cases i believe the uploads while violate the copyright are actually serving as a great promotional tool.
in case of adult content the story is quite different. these companies have been hit hard by the file sharing phenomenon (much harder than the big movie studios), and are now losing audience to these video sharing sites. the average porn user does not need a full 1hr film to get-off, but can use a much shorter film easily uploaded to the likes of veoh or youtube.
so i guess the lawsuit has merit. the movie/tv studios are likely to follow very closely as this has implications on them too, sooner rather than later it will be easy to upload and consume full length tv shows and movies in this way, and this is a serious threat to the studios.
the major studios are likely to end up coming with deals with the leading video sharing sites, splitting ad revenues. the porn industry will have a harder time, since they work in a different model.
will be interesting to follow this lawsuit and see where it ends.
