iPhone rate plans announced (updated)

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1. iPhone rate plans announced (updated) - 2007-06-26 09:27:24-04
   The other shoe has dropped and Apple has announced the rate plans for iPhone. The iPhone plans are metioned in the activation and sync video and in an Apple press release and are relatively affordable. 450 minutes = $60 per month 900 minutes = $80 per month 1350 minutes = $100 per month The surprise is that all three plans include unlimited data, visual voicemail and 200 SMS text messages. I would have preferred to have unlimited SMS included in that price, but that's me. 1500 SMS text messages will cost an extra US$10 per month and unlimited SMS will cost an extra US$20 per month. [poll=51]
   
2. Apple drops Ringtones tab from iTunes (updated) - 2007-06-26 09:47:52-04
   Apple shows a slightly different interface for the iPhone portion of iTunes in the new Activation and Sync video posted today. It appears that Apple has dropped support for ringtone managment via iTunes in the launch version of iTunes for iPhone. Here's a screen grab from Job's iPhone demonstration at Macworld Expo in January. You can see a video clip showing this screen, it happens with about 1:16 remaining in the clip. In it you can clearly see a "Ringtones" tab (third from the left) and a tab for "Personal." Apple appears to have dropped both the "Ringtones" and the "Personal" tabs from the iTunes interface seen in the Activation and Sync video posted today. The new "Info" tab is...
   
3. Does open source need a trademark? - 2007-06-26 10:07:20-04
   The logo to the right is a lie.  The term "open source," by itself, is not the trademarked property of the Open Source Initiative or anyone else. So Centric CRM is ready to fight for its right to stay at the open source party. Who is to say they cannot? And make it stick? SocialText, while trying to get approval for its Common Public Attribution License, is also wondering what it should call itself in the meantime. Much of the fight is  over the question of mandating "attribution," telling users where the software you're using came from. It's not part of the Open Source Definition, but a subset of firms which call themselves Commercial Open Source think it should be. (Maybe...
   
4. Composite Software tackles the speeds and feeds angle of SOA - 2007-06-26 10:09:35-04
   As the amount of enterprise data explodes, so does the need to access this data from disparate and widely flung sources, increasing the market for data integration and management. Composite Software this week announced a major release of its Composite Information Server (CIS), as well as a Composite Active Cluster, designed to enable companies to further scale their data services deployments. Composite Software provides on-demand data integration. Its CIS 4.5 -- the first major release since CIS 4.0 was announced last November -- and the new Active Cluster will extend capabilities for creating, publishing, and consuming data for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and data virtualization. It is aimed at such data-intensive industries as financial services, pharmaceutical/biotech, e-commerce, telecom, and government....
   
5. An SOA built without Web services! - 2007-06-26 10:20:11-04
   Last week, I posted some thoughts about divorcing Web services from service-oriented architecture. The two work together, but aren't necessarily the same. Lo and behold, this story from TechTarget comes up -- SOA is now being employed for the monitoring controls for the world's largest particle accelerator, but employing Java-based technologies , not Web services. And all seems to be humming along nicely. As the system is built on Java Message Service and Enterprise Java Beans-based services, with nary a Web service in sight. "This is very much event-driven SOA, but there are no Web services in use," said Hub Vandervoort, CTO of the Enterprise Infrastructure Division at Progress Software Corp., which supplied the JMS technology. Particle accelerators at the...
   
6. Today's Internet radio boycott won't matter - 2007-06-26 10:25:25-04
   Yes, I know its a cliche to call today's Internet music radio boycott "the day the music died," but actually that's not much of a stretch. Backgrounder: numerous Internet radio stations- from large ones operated by Yahoo and MTV to smaller ones operated out of garages- fall silent today in protest of high royalty rates a panel of copyright judges say they will have to pay the recording industry starting July 15. These judges ruled that online radio stations should pay the recording industry every time a song is heard by a listener, in addition to a $500 minimum monthly amount for each channel they operate. Oh, and pay back through January, 2006. I have a couple of thoughts...
   
7. Google calendar updates - 2007-06-26 10:49:52-04
   Google has recently added a couple of very nice new features to the Google Calendar application. Since the beginning of the year, I've been using Google Calendar as the "glue" that binds all of my devices witht he assistance of some helpful utilities including Spanning Sync for Mac OS X and SyncMyCal for Outlook on my Windows Vista devices. Plaxo has recently made a public beta of version 3.0 of their online address book and calendar tool available and it to can create a sync point with Google Calendar. I expect we'll continue to see integrations like this as the API Google has exposed for Calendar is (by reports from my developer friends) very easy to work with. New in...
   
8. Installing Linux - The joy of live CDs - 2007-06-26 11:10:29-04
   Yesterday I went through various distributions and architectures for a Linux installation, focusing in particular on OpenSUSE. Before we go through the actual installation of OpenSUSE (and Linux in general), there is one type of distribution that I failed to mention in yesterday's post: the Live CD. Live CDs are a great tool for those new to Linux, since they allow you to test a given distribution without actually affecting your existing system. Unfortunately, there isn't a live CD for OpenSUSE at this time. However, Ubuntu and Kubuntu offer great live CDs. These are downloaded and burned in exactly the same manner as described in yesterday's post, yet when your computer boots from them (again, assuming that you have your...
   
9. A robot that travels through the body - 2007-06-26 11:45:31-04
   The reference to the 1966 movie "Fantastic Voyage" is maybe too obvious. But Israeli scientists have developed a 1-millimeter-diameter medical robot that will be able to crawl within our veins and arteries. It's too early to know when this medical robot is allowed to explore a real human being. But the researchers think it could be used to fight some cancers. They even envision groups of robots working simultaneously to fight metastases. You can see above "an artist's rendition of what the tiny submarine robot would look like." (Credit: Unknown, via the Jerusalem Post) This miniature robot has been developed by Dr. Nir Schwalb of the College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel and Oded Salomon of the mechanical engineering...
   
10. iPhone activation and sync - 2007-06-26 11:46:45-04
    Apple has released a video that takes us through the iPhone activation and sync process.  Here are some of the highlights: Online activation iPhone owners will activate their iPhones with AT&T via iTunes. Works for new and existing customers Both new and existing AT&T customers will be able to activate the iPhone using iTunes.  Options available are: Replace a phone on my account with this iPhone Add a new line to my existing account Activate one iPhone now Activate two or more iPhones on an Individual or FamilyTalk Plan Transfer an existing mobile number Process takes up to 6 hours. The Plans Plans for the iPhone start at $59.99 per month for 450 minutes of talk time, 5,000 night and weekend minutes and 200 SMS text...
    
11. The search antitrust ball is back in DOJ, states' court - 2007-06-26 12:29:44-04
    During a June 26 Microsoft antitrust-compliance status hearing, a U.S. Districut Court judge said she'll look to the U.S. Department of Justice and state attorneys general for guidance, re: Google's latest antitrust-related complaints against Microsoft. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said Tuesday she expected the plaintiffs (the DOJ and states) to act on behalf of consumers, in terms of monitoring Microsoft's complaince with terms from a 2002 final judgement in its antitrust battle. On June 25, Google filed an amicus brief, asking Judge Kollar-Kotelly to extend antitrust oversight of Microsoft, as well as to force Microsoft to provide more specifics regarding its plans to alter Windows Vista's integrated desktop search technology in order to improve the performance of rival, third-party...
    
12. Will the real 'Switzerland' of the Social Web please stand-up - 2007-06-26 12:33:17-04
    Although he wasn't completely satisfied with his testing of the service, Robert Scoble sees Plaxo as the "new Switzerland of social networks." Wrote Scoble (he has video too): I really want to love the new Plaxo. The 18-minute demo I got last week is awesome — see it embedded above.... ...It's now a Web service. In fact you can use Plaxo without loading any software. All to manage your contacts. For someone like me that still has most of my contacts in Outlook the new Plaxo is a godsend. It lets me move my contacts, my calendar data, and other things out of Outlook and onto other platforms. You can move things over to Google, AIM, Yahoo, the Mac's iCal,...
    
13. The iPhone will be compatible with Microsoft Exchange, after all - 2007-06-26 13:39:35-04
    Apple's iPhone is going to be compatible with Microsoft Exchange Server, after all. Earlier this month, a number of articles and analyst reports claimed that Apple's iPhone would not be compatible with Exchange Server, Research in Motion's Blackberry servers and Motorola's Good Technology e-mail servers. While I can't speak to Apple's plans regarding Blackberry and Good, my sources are saying Apple can and will make the iPhone compatible with Exchange Server. Here's what I'm hearing: Apple will announce this week -- possibly as soon as June 27 -- that it has licensed the Exchange ActiveSync licensing protocol. Via the licensing arrangement, Apple iPhone users will be able to connect to Exchange Server and make use of its wireless messaging and...
    
14. Using RIAs for Fun and Profit: Air New Zealand - 2007-06-26 14:24:46-04
    I just saw a neat little RIA over on the Air New Zealand site called How far can I go?. It looks like it was built for travelers who have a specific budget and want to know how far their money will get them. The first pick the originating city and then use a slider on the right side to adjust the amount of money they have to spend. As they move the slider the map in the center zooms in and out showing routes they can afford. If you're flying out of Wellington and you've got $2230 to blow, you can come to San Francisco but if you've just got $65 to spend your choices are a bit more...
    
15. Pump-and-dump spammers turn to PDFs - 2007-06-26 14:37:27-04
    Anti-virus researchers at McAfee are reporting a massive wave of "pump-and-dump" stock spam -- with a interesting twist. Instead of attaching image (.gif) files touting the penny stock, the spammers are now using PDF files with randomly generated subject lines, sender names and blank message bodies. McAfee's Nick Kelly said the appearance of PDF-based spam makes sense for the spammers because the automation of PDF files is easier than other documents formats. ALSO SEE: Pump-and-dump bot war? How lucrative is pump-and-dump spam?
    
16. LinkedIn just now embracing APIs? Thank the competition, not 'open' thinking - 2007-06-26 15:00:06-04
    Over the weekend, a fairly significant meme surfaced in the blogosphere regarding Linked.com's decision to offer developers programatic access to its services through application programming interfaces. Iin his blog entry LinkedIn to open up to developers, my colleague Dan Farber wrote: I talked to LinkedIn founder and Chairman Reid Hoffman on Friday at the Supernova 2007 conference about Facebook's rapid growth and potential incursion into his territory. He told me that over next 9 months LinkedIn would deliver APIs for developers, ostensibly to make it more of platform like Facebook, and create a way for users who spend more time socially in Facebook to get LlinkedIn notifications. Dave Winer picked up on the news, inserting some interesting ideas for the...
    
17. The iPhone security non-story - 2007-06-26 15:17:28-04
    David Maynor is hoarding his Safari browser flaws with his eyes on the iPhone. As far back as January, hackers were asking questions about the iPhone CPU and preparing for attack scenarios. The first hacker that breaks into the iPhone will generate lots of headlines/publicity but that's right about where this story ends. According to this NetworkWorld piece, Gartner will add to the ridiculous hypefest next Monday with a warning to enterprises: We're telling IT executives to not support it because Apple has no intentions of supporting (iPhone use in) the enterprise," Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney says. "This is basically a cellular iPod with some other capabilities and it's important that it be recognized as such." Do we really need...
    
18. Wow! eBay's full of iPhone junk! - 2007-06-26 15:30:45-04
    The iPhone launch is still a few days away but that doesn't stop eBay being flooded with iPhone related junk.  At the low end of the price scale you have your "For iPod Video 30 60 80GB iPhone Zune AV TV 3.5mm Cable" (amazing how the seller managed to get the word "iPhone" into there) and silicone skin cover cases in every color in the 'bow (start your bidding at $0.01!).  Interspersed amongst the cables and the cases are opportunists selling a random selection of iPhone related @ hotmail.com and @gmail.com email addresses, with at least one seller claiming that the email addresses are "Apple Certified Domain!". The higher end of the price spectrum is also taken up by a bunch...
    
19. Google Docs launching new version tomorrow - 2007-06-26 15:49:08-04
    Tomorrow when you log into Google Docs it will "look different" according to the official blog. They are saying that the new version is in direct response to suggestions they have received by users like us. What could the changes include? Here is what the announcement on their help group says: That's right, very soon we're going to launch a new Docs list -- a wish fulfilled for those of us who've wanted an easier way to organize and manage our documents and spreadsheets. Why are we announcing the launch of our new Docs list before it has actually arrived, you ask? Simple -- with a change this big, we want to prepare you, so you're not overwhelmed by the...
    
20. 802.11n Draft 2.0 gear still a neighbor killer - 2007-06-26 16:12:23-04
    As we get to the final draft stages of the 802.11n standard, it was thought that the neighbor interference issues have been put to rest by the Draft 2.0.  The new standard supposedly has a strict ban on dual-channel operation whenever any legacy devices are operating.  The product is suppose to back off from 40 MHz wide bands to 20 MHz so that it isn't hogging most of the 2.4 GHz spectrum.  The only problem is that it doesn't work according to Tim Higgins' tests.  Without this functionality working, 802.11n products are simply a legal way to jam your neighbor's 802.11b/g Access Points. The problem here is that consumers don't know that this causes their neighbor problems and even if they did, it "isn't their problem" since...