Week of January 3, 2006

Motorola Launches The iRadio Phone

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006

Motorola kicks off the new year with another step in mobile phone convergence. We've already seen the Rockr, Motorola's digital music player/phone combo. Well, the iRadio takes the approach of uploading music from six different Internet radio stations while docked for recharging. The listener can then listen to the music on his or her phone while out of the house.

Motorola has taken an interesting approach to getting around bandwidth issues, as the iRadio is not truly streaming or a real radio (the music is played off of storage in the phone). The six station limit should be more than enough for most people.

The Future Portal: The AJAX Desktop

Wednesday, January 4th, 2006

AJAX is not just a house cleaner, it is the acronym for asynchronomous javascript and XML, and it describes bleeding edge web technology, which allows the user unbelievable control over the web. You'll be hearing a lot about AJAX in the future for lots of applications, but the current rage is custom portals. Think of an AJAX portal as MyYahoo with much simpler and rich customization.

Here are some links to a handful of AJAX portals: www.netvibes.com, www.protopage.com, www.live.com, and www.goowy.com (which is actually a combination of Flash and AJAX).

Yahoo Is TV

Thursday, January 5th, 2006

Further blurring the lines between media, Yahoo has announced that it will be broadcasting a reality series via its web portal within the next few months. It will be entitled "Wow House."

So Much For The Small Screen

Friday, January 6th, 2006

M:Metrics has reported that cell phones with bigger screens are responsible for more web0 and content-related downloads than other phones. The interesting question is how big of a screen do you realistically need for users to feel comfortable consuming video on their cell phones. The short answer: Bigger than they are now.

Who Says Advertising Is Down?

Friday, December 2nd, 2005

You certainly don't say it if you are in the Internet business. A recent IAB/Pricewaterhouse Cooper survey found that third quarter 2005 Internet ad revenue is up over 33% from the third quarter in 2004. The third quarter was also the first time that online advertising surpassed $3 billion. If the fourth quarter expands on this total, total Internet advertising could surpass $12 billion for 2005.