Buzz Out Loud 768: Windows Mobile 7: Get fired up!
You never knew you had so many reasons to love Windows Mobile 7, but you'll find out a few of them today. Also, Amazon offers on-demand movie and TV streaming (on PCs and Macs both!), Microsoft explains the weird Halo no-show at E3...and the explanation is typical, baffling and infuriating. So, good work, Microsoft, as usual. Oh, and that asteroid that was going to kill us and then wasn't going to kill us? It's probably going to kill us, but we won't know for sure because we can't afford a subscription to New Scientist or a really big telescope.
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EPISODE 768 |
Episode 768
Amazon plans an online store for movies, TV shows
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/technology/17amazon.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007299.html
Microsoft explains Halo’s no-show at E3 game conference
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/07/halo-bungie-e3.html
Report: Lionsgate cranks open for YouTube
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9993159-93.html
YouTube on TiVo: It’s about time
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9993173-93.html
Unlocked iPhone 3G available for direct shipment from Hong Kong, no catch at all
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/17/unlocked-iphone-3g-available-for-direct-shipment-from-china-1/
Apple, Dell big winners as PC market shows healthy growth
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080716-apple-dell-big-winners-as-pc-market-shows-healthy-growth.html
Gmail reveals the names of all users
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/16/2220232&from=rss
Say goodbye to the computer mouse
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7508842.stm
Killer asteroid predictions ‘off by millions of miles’
http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg19926643.500-killer-asteroid-tracking-may-be-off-by-millions-of-miles.html
VOICE MAIL
Tommy Kingston
Why Sony might not be able to distribute movies in Canada.
Anonymous
However in Puerto Rico.
Emilio Mechanical Engineer
I got a mobile excitement for you.
Hey Buzz Crew,
I figured you might like this, or maybe not. A local TV station in the DFW Metroplex will be shutting of their analog tv broadcast later this month. TXA21 will shut off analog for two hours on July 23 to help people figure out if they’re digital ready. This is a smart thing I guess to make people realize digital is for real and coming.
One more thing, did you happen to see the picture where Woz was sitting in the VIP section on the Price is Right?
Love the show guys
Chris - the DFW airport aircraft fueler
Hey Buzz Crew,
I was talking with a co-worker the other day about iPhone data plans in Canada vs. the U.S. and that led to text message rates, so I mentioned the point from one of the recent Buzz Out Loud podcasts about using AIM to get around paying for text messages.
He just sent me an e-mail saying that the cost per gigabyte on any data plan (even the worst Rogers plan) is a bargain compared with the cost per GB that text messaging equates to. Here’s an example using a couple of AT&T’s plans:
If you assume a generous 1,024 bytes per message (only 160 bytes of that is the actual message, but allow room for headers, and so on):
- The $5 for 200 messages plan works out to $24,414 per gigabyte
- The 20 cents per message (i.e. no plan) works out to $195,312 per gigabyte
It made us laugh…
Love the show,
Chris, from Vancouver.
P.S. As I finish typing this, I’m having deja-vu from somewhere in the last several hundred episodes that I may have heard you cover something along these lines before–if so, I’m sorry, but it still made me laugh all over again…
Hey Buzz crew.
I wrote a few weeks ago (episode 743) about our having to switch our corporate phones to AT&T’s Enterprise Data Plan because we used GoodLink, which was $5 more than the regular “unlimited” data plan.
What we’ve learned since then is that the extra $5 is actually a Good-imposed service fee for secure transport service:
http://www.good.com/corp/int_products.php?id=402
Secure Transport Service (STS) - STS fees must be paid for each Good Messaging enabled handheld. STS fees are included in Good Data Plans purchased through Good carrier resellers (currently AT&T, Verizon, Telstra in Australia, Bell Mobility in Canada, and Telefónica O2 in the U.K.). For all other carriers, users require a Direct Secure Transport Service plan which is purchased directly from Good or a Motorola authorized reseller partner.
So, it looks like you’ve still got an unlimited data plan for $40 and the extra $5 (or some portion of it) is being passed on to Good (Motorola) by AT&T.
Hope that clears it up … it did for us anyway.
Jeremy
St. Pete, FL
Just because it isn’t flipped on at the same time that the U.S. store is doesn’t mean it’s not coming to Canada.
From the story directly: “Although the video rental/purchase service will not initially be available in Canada, a spokesperson for Sony Computer Entertainment Canada confirms that it will be coming to Canada at some point.”
http://www.marketnews.ca/news_detail.asp?nid=3909
Ben @ Liverpool, Nova Scotia
Molly Wood
engages in ruthless industry analysis in the form of the Daily Buzz,
the Buzz Report video, and, of course, Buzz Out Loud.
Tom
Merritt appears on CNET TV, specializing in help and how-to and the
ever popular Top 5 lists. He also co-hosts CNET's The Real Deal
podcast.
Jason
Howell can often be found producing Buzz Out Loud from the audio
studios at CNET, updating XML feeds from the comfort of his cubicle,
and saying "uh-oh" from time to time.
Dell Desktop Deals
http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=5575
So which part of Windows Mobile is unusable?
The CRTC (Canadian Radio/Television Commission) has kept its hands OFF the Internet.
It has authority to regulate as its name suggests, radio and television "broadcasting". Recently it has been making statements about getting involved with Internet issues since more and more audio and video is being delivered (Is that broadcasting?) via the Internet. The reasons Canadians cannot get these things are almost entirely imposed by US companies. ABC, NBC, and many others, including Apple, all claim copyright and licensing issues as reasons. That does not make a lot of sense considering the same ABC and NBC TV shows and the Hollywood produced movies are available in Canada on TV usually on the same day/time as in the US or in the case of movies the DVDs are available in Rogers and Blockbuster video stores on the same release dates as in the US . (Yes Blockbuster came here quite some time ago!) However, we cannot download them from the web sites of the US TV networks or sites such as HULU, just because we are in Canada and the US companies will not sell to us over the Internet! ITunes (Canada) offers hardly any US TV shows! We cannot buy them from iTunes US! Even when I was in the US recently I could not purchase anything from the iTunes US store! Reason? I am Canadian. No US address. Canadian Bank VISA Card etc. CRAZY? I think so! There is another reason that is generally lost in discussion of this issue. Many US companies will not ship products to Canada. Some behave as if Canada does not exist due to the notion that 36 million people is "too small a market". Even Amazon will not treat us right! AMAZON USA offers all kinds of products. AMAZON.CA offers books and CDS. That's about it! Music downloads that they offer in the USA are not available. It is very unfortunate that so many US businesses just do not "get it" when it comes to business in Canada or with Canadians.
The CRTC (Canadian Radio/Television Commission) has kept its hands OFF the Internet.
It has authority to regulate as its name suggests, radio and television "broadcasting". Recently it has been making statements about getting involved with Internet issues since more and more audio and video is being delivered (Is that broadcasting?) via the Internet. The reasons Canadians cannot get these things are almost entirely imposed by US companies. ABC, NBC, and many others, including Apple, all claim copyright and licensing issues as reasons. That does not make a lot of sense considering the same ABC and NBC TV shows and the Hollywood produced movies are available in Canada on TV usually on the same day/time as in the US or in the case of movies the DVDs are available in Rogers and Blockbuster video stores on the same release dates as in the US . (Yes Blockbuster came here quite some time ago!) However, we cannot download them from the web sites of the US TV networks or sites such as HULU, just because we are in Canada and the US companies will not sell to us over the Internet! ITunes (Canada) offers hardly any US TV shows! We cannot buy them from iTunes US! Even when I was in the US recently I could not purchase anything from the iTunes US store! Reason? I am Canadian. No US address. Canadian Bank VISA Card etc. CRAZY? I think so! There is another reason that is generally lost in discussion of this issue. Many US companies will not ship products to Canada. Some behave as if Canada does not exist due to the notion that 36 million people is "too small a market". Even Amazon will not treat us right! AMAZON USA offers all kinds of products. AMAZON.CA offers books and CDS. That's about it! Music downloads that they offer in the USA are not available. It is very unfortunate that so many US businesses just do not "get it" when it comes to business in Canada or with Canadians.
What are the Windows Mobile security issues? You know it has data encryption, remote wipe, password log-in enforcement, etc.? Have you seen this: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc137991(TechNet.10).aspx
Yeah, my Nokia N95 is pretty nice. I've gotten it to crash though, and it certainly had problems syncing data. That and its user interface is much more difficult to use than Windows Mobile. Try the smartphone usability speed tests on it if you want to prove me wrong. Switching applications and entering text is a major chore with that device. Heck, it can't even auto-complete contacts from the home screen for phone dialing (without 3rd party software).