Friday Roundup
Here’s a smathering of web goodness for a beauitful Friday afternoon:
Vodaphone Dumps Carphone Warehouse: In what is sure to damage the entire proposition of Carphone Warehouse, Vodaphone tells Carphone Warehouse they can’t sell their plans anymore. For those folks who are not familiar with Carphone Warehouse, they are a retailer that sells mobile phones and service plans for all five of the major UK carriers as well as all the prepaid options. The proposition here is that you have a third party that can help a consumer navigate through the maze of plans, features, and so on, and come up with the best plan for you. Losing one of your carriers, particularly one as dominant as Vodaphone, is bound to impact your bottom line. Personally I don’t buy from these so-called indirect dealers because I personally know what I want. However, for the uninformed consumer, these places are useful.
Bigger IS Better: GigaOM himself writes a piece on Web Worker Daily about how Apple says bigger monitors are better. Well of course Apple is going to say that, they sell a 30 inch behemoth! And for certain kinds of work, I have to agree with them. Unfortunately, I can’t afford a 30 inch monitor, so I settle for using two monitors. I also bridge two computers together using a program called Synergy, so I basically get three screens on two different computers.
at&t-Bellsouth Deal On Hold: It looks like that fifth FCC Commissioner who recused himself made the FCC vote on the at&t-Bellsouth merger a tie. Two commissioners want concessions, two don’t. I’m sure this will sort itself out relatively quickly.
MobileStick is Cool: Today I got a briefing from the guys at BridgePort Networks about their MobileStick technology. It uses both a client-end piece (namely the USB drive a softphone and an embedded SIM chip) and a network-end piece that ties it into the mobile phone network. The basic idea is: one number can reach you on your computer or your normal mobile handset. SMS also works across it as well. Certainly a different approach than UMA takes to solve the problem, and I think it will be a winner.
Make Frozen Legos: Okay, this isn’t tech, but it’s still cool. My son would get a real kick out of lego-shaped ice cubes!
