iPhone review - and thorough

A through review of the iPhone? I’ve found it (in 5 parts so far), by Paul Thurrott on his SuperSite. Be sure to read all five parts (and compare it to what you know of the 8525). Here’s some excerpt to get you there:

As a long-time PDA and smart phone user, I have certain expectations of any mobile device. These expectations revolve around such mundane tasks as synchronizing with my PIM data and allowing me to access the Internet, through the phone’s Internet connection, with my notebook computers. As it turns out, my current smart phone, a Motorola Q used via Verizon’s high-speed EV-DO network, is much more capable than the iPhone in this regard.

But before I get critical, understand this: The technology in the iPhone is of a completely different caliber than anything found in any smart phone currently being sold in the US. Indeed, the iPhone is a technological crossroads joining traditional smart phones (i.e. pre-iPhone smart phones) with the Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC), Microsoft’s ultra-mobile computing platform. So we’re talking about a device that is head and shoulders, technologically, above most other portable devices of this size. With technology, of course, comes some complexity. But Apple is good at making things simple, even if it often does so at the expense of functionality.

So let’s take a look at the core technology Apple put in the iPhone, not just to revel in what it is, but rather to discover how it impacts users in the real world.

SEC to Dell: Dude You’re Getting a Continuing Probe

Per Bloomberg,

Dell Inc. shares rose after the computer maker completed a yearlong investigation into accounting errors and admitted executives manipulated financial results to meet quarterly earnings goals.

I see that CFO Don Carty pulled one out of the play-down-a-probe playbook, in stating:

“This is not a happy story for Dell or one that we’re proud of,” Carty said yesterday. “Both the leadership team of the company and the board feel that we have taken the necessary remedial action.”

Mr. Carty is likely a terrific and honest CFO, and maybe the snafu was an honest mistake (I mean this literally, not to be read tongue in cheek), but it bothers me how reminiscent this is of the play-book apparently consulted by the folks featured in a book I enjoyed a couple summers back — “Smartest Guys in the Room“. If you know even the highlights, you know that one didn’t end so well for lots of folks.

Again, Mr. Carty and Dell? probably great people … I’ve bought dozens of their machines and have known them to be a decent company (in my limited consumer capacity), but just once, I want to hear the CFO (the COO or the CEO) stand and deliver, “We cannot give any names due to privacy rights, but I can tell you we fired everyone involved, we’re taking responsibility to the shareholders, and we will make this right.”

American Airlines vs Google (Galaxy vs Red Bulls)

From AP online,

DALLAS - American Airlines is suing Google Inc. over the Internet company’s sale of keywords ads for rivals triggered by its own trademarks.

American filed a lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth seeking unspecified damages.

A Google visitor who enters certain words or phrases that American trademarked - for example, Aadvantage, the name of its frequent-flier program - will get links to American’s Web site but also its rivals under “sponsored links” - targeted ads that appear alongside the regular search results.

Google makes most of its money from such keyword ads.

So, do internet shopping sites subject themselves to liability when they suggest to buyers that “those who bought Widget X, also bought Widget Y”?

Better yet, perhaps the L.A. Galaxy could sue the N.Y. Red Bulls on a similar theory.  Here’s how the idea goes:  last night, Giant Stadiums (and the  Red Bulls) enjoyed nearly 55,000 additional ticket sales above their average — no doubt attributable to the appearance (and start) of David Beckham; did not the Red Bulls exploit — become unlawfully enriched — by the Galaxy’s renowned million-dollar-a-week hire of Beckham.  Maybe the attorneys for American Airlines (assuming they are outside counsel) would take on the cause.

Vornado Fan: Sutton Bet Against the Eggheads

The Wichita Eagle highlights the story of the Vornado fan’s origin and manufacture in Wichita:

After the war, Sutton hired a research company to investigate the feasibility of manufacturing fans.

The research company sent him a $30,000 invoice and told him not to build the fans.

Sutton didn’t listen. He believed more in the power of aerodynamics.

His company eventually evolved into Vornadofan Corporation and was one of the world’s largest manufacturers of fans and air conditioners.

Mortgage Meltdown: was the writing on the wall

The N.Y. Times (primary authors NELSON D. SCHWARTZ and VIKAS BAJAJ; reporting contributed by Jenny Anderson, Eric Dash and Gretchen Morgenson) presents an excellent inquiry (and perhaps answers) regarding How Missed Signs Contributed to a Mortgage Meltdown.  Apparently, while some saw the writing on the wall (and only precious few reacted), others say there is nothing anomalous about the warning signs predicating the current serious downturn in the subprime mortgage market:

The blame game is already beginning. The spotlight will focus first on rating agencies like Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, because the mortgage-backed bonds that plunged in value in recent weeks were highly rated by these agencies until they downgraded billions worth of them in July.

A Toll on the Economy

Other companies face far more immediate problems. Countrywide Financial, the nation’s largest independent mortgage lender, found itself fending off reports this month that bankruptcy could be looming as its stock plunged 41 percent.

Yet as recently as March, Angelo R. Mozilo, the chief executive of Countrywide, appeared on CNBC and proclaimed that worries about the subprime sector were “clearly an overreaction.” He promised that “this will be great for Countrywide at the end of the day, because all the irrational competitors will be gone.”

Paul Potts: Nessun Dorma

This does not need words.

(So, I’m Johnny-come-lately to this story, but in any event, if this performance doesn’t touch you, perhaps you should have your barometer checked.)

Cha-Fring!!! to the Tune of $12Million (& Fring on 8525/Mobile 5.0)

Updated news from Techcrunch reports:

VOIP start-up Fring has closed an estimated $12 million second round, led by US VC fund North Bridge Venture Partners. VenFin and previous investors Pitango, Veritas and Yossi Vardi also participated. If the investment estimate is accurate, it would be one of the larger rounds for a VOIP company.

Fring is a mobile application for Windows and Symbian phones that uses VOIP to make cheap/free mobile calls and instant message. Unlike Jajah, but like Truphone, Fring sends calls and chats over Wi-Fi internet access or your 3G or GPRS Internet data plan …

This writer will tell you, having the AT&T 8525 for more than a month before finding/adding Fring? (What’s the opposite of “priceless”?) It’s no wonder folks are handing over money.  Making VOIP calls or chatting over wifi or your (better be unlimited) cellular data plan, integration with voice/chat Skype, GoogleTalk, MSN … all I can say is when I wifi-Fring-Jott my soccer team to text their parents that the game has not rained out because rain cannot survive this heat, they’ll never know what hit ‘em.

Isn’t it Fringing wonderful.