.Mac to MobileMe

Funny how so many seem inclined to interpret the latest .Mac outages to possibly be related to the upcoming upgrade to MobileMe. Maybe they are, but they also seem to me to be a bad indication of MobileMe's possible future uptime. Having the previous generation service down even more than usual in the weeks preceding the new service roll-out is not the best way to generate hype.

That said, I will consider MobileMe when it's available. Having services available between the native Mac apps, the web and my iPod touch would be nice. I've been using my iPod touch with the beta 2.0 OS at work and it's been nice having access to my work email and calendar wherever I am in the office.

More iPhone 3G pricing

Sounds like the 3G pricing is going to be even higher when you figure in SMS.

The original $20 iPhone data plan includes 200 SMSes. The new $30 3G plan does not. To get the 200 messages/month (and avoid paying 20-cents a message -- ouch!), you have to add $5/month. So that makes the 3G $15/month more expensive.

Over 24 months that's $360. Which is more than the $200 being saved initially when purchasing the phone.

iPhone 3G pricing

Okay folks, it's basic math: if the iPhone 3G is priced $200 less but you end up having to pay $240 more for the AT&T data plan over two years, you are not saving money! (Not without 10% annual inflation or something.) Yet the NY Times says "Apple Aims for the Masses With a Cheaper iPhone".

O-kay.

Beyond Good & Evil 2

More good gaming news: Ubisoft announced a sequel to a critically acclaimed game that did not do so well commercially. Hooray! Here's hoping this one does better in the market so there will be more following it.

Not that I have time these days to play games. Nor do I have a newer game console. But that would all work itself out. ;)

Oh, and there are still used copies of the first game out there. Quite the bargain!

Axon

The maker's of Britain's Axon tout the car can get over 80 miles per gallon, has lower carbon emissions and a cheaper price tag than Toyota's Prius.

Marketplace

This is with a regular gasoline engine, no hybrid technology. The trick is the auto body, made of carbon fiber and half the weight of a normal car.

Oddworld

Mmm.. Oddworld news.

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Update: Lorne Lanning confirms.

Java on Google App Engine?

Could Google be getting ready to solve the long-standing issue with Java application hosting by doing something revolutionary?

Podrazik goes on to predict that Google will release a reduced capability JSE and do something along the lines of Android (Dalvik) and GWT’s reduced Java API. (ONJava.com)

Given the difficulties of hosting Java, it would make sense for Google to offer a Java subset. Full Java would be better, but I'd be happy with a semi-familiar subset rather than having to jump into Python or Ruby.

OpenOffice 3.0 beta

OpenOffice 3.0 beta has been released.

The new OS X version eliminates the need to run OpenOffice through the X11 environment. Sun, which oversees OpenOffice, announced some time ago that native OS X support was high on its priority list and Mac users should be happy to hear the company is delivering on that promise.

Unfortunately the new OS X version was noticeably slower than NeoOffice, a Mac-specific OpenOffice offshoot, and most of the extensions I tried to install wouldn’t work. OpenOffice still has a way to go before it’s ready for everyday use on a Mac. For the time being NeoOffice remains the better choice for Mac OS X users, but at least OpenOffice is available now.

Wired

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter watching a DVD. And in the middle of the movie, apropos nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs around behind the screen. That seems like a cute moment. Maybe she's going back there to see if Dora is really back there or whatever. But that wasn't what she was doing. She started rooting around in the cables. And her dad said, "What you doing?" And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said, "Looking for the mouse."

Here's something four-year-olds know: A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken. Here's something four-year-olds know: Media that's targeted at you but doesn't include you may not be worth sitting still for.

From a great talk Clay Shirky gave at the recent Web 2.0 Expo. (You can watch the video here.)

I had a similar experience recently. After watching some videos on my iPod touch, my 4-year-old put it down and tried controlling the TV similarly, tapping the screen, dragging her finger across the screen. I imagine it was quite disappointing to her. Here she thought she had just learned a secret to controlling videos, all you have to do is tap the screen and away you go. Alas, it's not that way most of the time. Maybe when she has kids.

Silverlight @ Democratic Convention

Microsoft has also bought Silverlight's way into the Democratic Convention.  Is this something like a parent finding friends for its child instead of the child making its own?