...we had more game-changers like Apple in the world.

A post over at Small Surfaces pretty much sums up the feeling that most mobile web developers have had since the iPhone was announced in Feb. 2007.  Why bother developing for those crappy, crippled mobile browsers that nobody uses to begin with?  The PC didn't really take off until consumers were given a GUI.  Mobile web was basically ignored until consumers were given a true, desktop-class web browser in their pocket and now you're seeing crazy numbers like 25% of it's suddenly expanding mobile banking users at Bank of America are using iPhone.  The bank has said that the iPhone is forcing the bank to rapidly adapt it's mobile banking strategy to accommodate what was once a small, relatively stagnant group of customers.  Russell Beattie, the man behind Mowser: the mobile browser laments:

Now the question you might be asking is why not stick with it a little longer? Get a contract or something and tough it out since it's "only" been a year, and many companies have had to struggle for a lot longer than that before taking off. Beyond the fact that I'm irretrievably in debt, the general answer is that I don't actually believe in the "Mobile Web" anymore, and therefore am less inclined to spend time and effort in a market I think is limited at best, and dying at worst. I'm talking specifically about sites that are geared 100% towards mobile phones and have little to no PC web presence. Two years ago I was convinced that the mobile web would continue to evolve in the West to mimic what was happening in countries like Japan and Korea, but it hasn't happened, and now I'm sure it isn't going to.

In other words, I think anyone currently developing sites using XHTML-MP markup, no Javascript, geared towards cellular connections and two inch screens are simply wasting their time, and I'm tired of wasting my time.

Read more here.

...organizational silos were a thing of the past.

Frogblog has a great piece on Org Chart 2.0 that essentially predicts an end to the losely federated enterprise organizations and a new era of integration and shared purpose that traverses corporate boundaries.

The strain is showing on the traditional silo’d organizational structure. I believe we will soon see the emergence of new companies formed in this environment and they will look quite different than what we have seen for the last decades. For these companies, thinking systemically and about user experience will be as natural as breathing. They will treat complex systems as inherent to their structure and creators of value, rather than as headaches to be avoided and territories to be fought over by silo’d clans.

Read more here.

...more people would share their looney Zune experiences.

Oh this is a good read for anyone that's ever wondered why the Zune sits collecting dust on most Wal-Mart and Toys R Us shelves.  This is my favorite excerpt but it gets so much better...

In the software itself, there are way too many menu options--without the Zune plugged in, there's a two-line menu with five separate options: Collection, Device, Marketplace, Social, and Disc on the top line, and then Music, Playlists, Videos, Pictures, Podcasts on the second line. Plug the device in, and there's one more menu option once you click Device (Status).

Check out the rest here.

Lotus Notes For Mac: Should It Look & Feel Like Mac?

IBM is asking if Mac users want their Lotus Notes client for Mac to actually look and feel like a Mac application. Weigh in for yourselves.

read more | digg story

Rockin' Your Roadtrip

My good comrade Mister Falcon has posted a fun read about a song that gets him going while he's going.  He's provoked me now to dig through my iTunes library and find some great driving tunes.  I'll post my playlist here when compiled.  

Mister Falcon says:

Why does Superchunk rock so hard after all of this time? I am not talking about post "Foolish" Superchunk. I am talking about rockin' out, good times Superchunk. I'm talking about the seminal Slack Motherfucker. I'm talking about Precision Auto. I'm talking about Tower. Always good for a pick-me-up while driving to work, or otherwise.

Read on for some more thought-provoking indie rock drag racing down memory lane.

True Innovation

A japanese grocer has solved a problem that found them without enough room for all of their watermelons. What did the farmers do to move more inventory? Why the created square watermelons of course. This is a prime example of completely disconnecting yourself from convention and coming up with a new and better was to do things. Innovation, folks. Enjoy.



This from Financial Hack:

“Japanese grocery stores had a problem. They are much smaller than their US counterparts and therefore don’t have room to waste. Watermelons, big and round, wasted a lot of space. Most people would simply tell the grocery stores that watermelons grow round and there is nothing that can be done about it. That is how I would assume the vast majority of people would respond. But some Japanese farmers took a different approach. If the supermarkets wanted a square watermelon, they asked themselves, “How can we provide one?” It wasn’t long before they invented the square watermelon.

The solution to the problem of round watermelons wasn’t nearly as difficult to solve for those who didn’t assume the problem was impossible to begin with and simply asked how it could be done. It turns out that all you need to do is place them into a square box when they are growing and the watermelon will take on the shape of the box.

This made the grocery stores happy and had the added benefit that it was much easier and cost effective to ship the watermelons. Consumers also loved them because they took less space in their refrigerators which are much smaller than those in the US meaning that the growers could charge a premium price for them.

Read on to get some great points about this story.

and we're back...

I decided last night to completely start from scratch.  My thoughts had been reduced to a trickle due to some nagging life issues that I'm slowly but surely dealing with.  Hopefully as I put them behind me, I can once again begin to offer up my unfiltered thoughts on tech pop culture.