Exploring the impact of broadband and technology on our lives, our businesses, and our communities.
The brilliance of the Kindle
I was given a Kindle for Father's Day. I had thought about getting one for a while, but have become risk averse when it comes to new gadgets. There is always some new gadget that is supposed to save me time and money, and they almost never do. And I read a lot on airplanes, and they don't make you turn off your old-fashioned paper book during take off and landing. But I had a three day business trip just after the weekend, so I took the Kindle along.
I was hooked almost instantly.
- It was easy to read and easy on the eyes, unlike my iPhone. I hear people say they read books on their iPhone, but reading for more than a few minutes on an iPhone gives me a headache--small screen and the transmissive imaging technology are a bad mix. The Kindle (I have the cheap ad-supported one) uses e-ink, which uses reflective imaging, just like paper.
- It is small and light, and holds a charge for so long that you don't need another charger or even a charging cable. It really adds less weight than a single paperback book, and takes up a lot less space--another plus.
- Buying books is dead simple. I logged into my Amazon account via my laptop, bought a book for five bucks, switched to the Kindle, turned the WiFi on, and in less than 10 seconds the newly purchased book was on the Kindle.
- The ads are innocuous. When you turn the Kindle off, a full screen ad appears. When you turn the Kindle back on, the ad disappears. The ads never appear while reading.
Just as the iPad disrupted the market for PCs (PC sales have been declining since the iPad was released), and just as the iPod disrupted the music market, the Kindle has begun to disrupt the publishing market. Amazon has made it very easy for authors to self-publish ebooks via the Kindle, and the winners are readers, and the losers are the traditional publishing houses.
Paper books still have some useful qualities, but I can't think of a single reason to ever buy another paperback book. I hardly ever re-read paperbacks. Apple's approach to ebooks is entirely different, with that company focusing on the ability of the iPad to display and integrate text, video, audio, and images. I still don't have an iPad, because for business, the iPad still can't replace my laptop when traveling. But my Kindle will be with me on every trip. It is a marvelously-designed device.
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Why wireless can't replace fiber
As part of Verizon's restructuring of its cellular service to allow for shared data plans, the company is going to offer free texting, but overall, your monthly cellular bill could be higher. Verizon is getting rid of unlimited data plans and replacing them with "pay by the drink" plans that will meter bandwidth use. As little as a couple of hours of video streaming (think one Netflix movie) would push bandwidth right through the 6 gigabyte monthly package, leading to sharply higher charges for that month.
It's really a question of physics. It is much cheaper to deliver bandwidth over fiber, and always will be. As I have been saying for a long long time, wireless is important for mobile access, but we all need fiber at home and at work. Nothing is going to change that.
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Verizon rolls out shared data plans
In what will surely cause an uptick in the sale of smartphones, Verizon has rolled out a shared data plan. This will be popular with families with teenagers who have been clamoring for a smartphone, as the parents (known to the kids as "the wallet") may be willing to pay the $10/phone base fee rather than the old $25 or $30 per phone data charge. AT&T is expected to roll out a similar plan.
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New iPhone users leaving Androids, Blackberries
A new study says that a whopping 38% of new iPhone buyers were former Android and Blackberry users, suggesting that Apple's combination of good hardware and excellent software integration continues to set a high bar for competitors.
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South Carolina to businesses: Stay away--we have lousy broadband and high prices
Following the success of getting legislators to outlaw competitive broadband in North Carolina, incumbents are busy trying to outlaw competition in South Carolina. That legislators would agree to support legislation that so obviously anti-business, anti-growth, and anti-jobs is baffling. Surely it is not that hard to raise campaign funds that legislators would vote against jobs and economic development. Stop the Cap! has the whole story.
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Death of TV: Part XXXV: The collapse of the TV business
Here is an interesting article that highlights what Apple might have planned for the Apple TV. Anyone that thinks the cable TV companies are going to automagically solve our broadband problems should read this.
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Is Apple about to upset the camera market?
MacRumors reports a rumor (heh) that Apple might be working on a break-through new digital camera that would be based on the camera software and technology in the iPhone. Speculation is that the supposed Apple camera would have an entirely different form factor than the typical digital cameras, all of which are designed around the legacy form factor of the analog film SLR.
I have an iPhone 4S, and I can attest that the camera software takes astoundingly good pictures--better than my $150 point and shoot digital camera. And it is much easier to use.
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Don't take your laptop overseas
The FBI says that you might want to leave your laptop home when traveling overseas. The latest scam is from criminals who set up bogus WiFi networks that look just like the real hotel network. When you fire up your laptop, you get what looks like the real hotel login page, but it is a fake one that immediately loads zombie malware onto your computer. Another trick they use is to have a fake "software update needed" window pop up. Everyone is now so used to getting these automatic software update notices that criminals are taking advantage of the fact that everyone automatically clicks "OK" for these upgrades. The same thing happens: instead of an upgrade, your laptop gets loaded with malware that starts capturing credit card numbers and login information.
Be careful out there.
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Virginia wants data centers
The Virginia state legislature has passed bills providing new incentives to locate data centers in Virginia. The rapid adoption of Software as a Service (SaaS) and cloud-based data and services is creating demand for places to put all the data. And with data centers, there are jobs:
“With his signature on this legislation, Governor McDonnell has further positioned Loudoun County as a world class location for the data center industry’s leading operators,” Loudoun County Chamber President & CEO Tony Howard said. “The Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce fought hard for this legislation because it will provide our County a powerful new competitive advantage that can be used to generate significant new commercial investments and create many new high-paying jobs that will be needed to build, service and operate these high tech data centers.
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Bandwidth caps change behavior, discourage use
Georgia Tech and Microsoft have released a study that confirms what most of us already knew: bandwidth caps discourage people from using broadband productively. Bandwidth caps are great for inflating the profit margins of the incumbents when someone runs over their limit and starts incurring more charges, but if you want your business community and your work from home business start ups to be as productive as possible, saddling them with outdated 20th century infrastructure that limits what they can do is not the way to go.
Design Nine helps our clients build modern broadband networks that can deliver as much bandwidth as any business or home-based worker might need--affordably. It's not that hard, but it does require the right business model, the right long term financial plan, and a network architecture that can deliver Gigabit bandwidth affordably without crippling economic development.
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