iPhone Alternatives

Ever since my post back in June about iPhone alternatives, I’ve been tracking the Net to see what might be coming down the pike and thought I’d share some data.

At this point, there seem to be four serious, potential options on the horizon. All of these devices should be in the US by the end of September (purportedly). None of them are currently shipping in the US, so one should probably consider the specs not entirely finalized. YMMV.

Unless you have truly stupendous eyesight, click on the table below for some summary data on these beasties:

The first group of three phones include full QWERTY keyboards. The second group of three phones do not include a tactile keyboard. The Treo 750 and Apple iPhone 3G are included for comparative purposes. I found the V(olume) column to be a rather interesting comparator.

The HTC Touch Pro is effectively the HTC Touch Diamond with a keyboard and a microSD slot. Kudos HTC on hitting both markets. You can purportedly buy an unlocked Touch Diamond today for $730 to $830. Unlocked pre-orders of the Touch Pro seem to be running $800 to $1000.

The SonyEricsson XPERIA X1 looks like a killer device with an insane display. Rumors are that it’s manufactured for S/E by HTC. Unlocked pre-orders seem to be running $900 to $1000.

The Samsung “Omnia” SGH-i900 looks like a compelling device on the face of it, but the display resolution, quite frankly, compared to the other emerging offerings, sucks. Perhaps they’ll address this before it ships. Unlocked pre-orders seem to be running $800 to $900.

The Sun Bubble?

Since 90 percent of PV sales in 2007 were to subsidized markets, one must ask the question: is that really a market?

My friend Lee Barken wrote a great article for GreenBiz.com last week that provides some educational perspective on where the photovoltaics market is and where it might be going. Very interesting read.

Scroobying

Or is it Pip-ing?

I’ve blogged and twittered various lyric snippets from dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip over the last few months. I’ve been totally into these guys since the first time I saw/heard Thou Shalt Always Kill, and every new tune I uncover just cements the foundation of their sharpness (though they are, of course, “just a band”).

Their album Angles was finally released a few weeks ago. It’s still a bitch to find in the US.

Net-net, I’m completely enamored of their work. It’s fun, insightful, entertaining, thought-provoking, and fresh. They’re real guys without real attitude. I can’t recommend them enough. You can listen to lots of their stuff on their MySpace page.

Spend some time with Mr. Pip!

Autostrade Hogs!

Last week, Harley-Davidson announced they were acquiring MV Agusta. My head spun.

I assume that the overlap in their markets is something along the line of zero percent. That said, it does seem like a generally intelligent move to help diversify their product offering. This could be a huge win for consumer access, as MV’s dealership network is anemic and HD’s is definitely not.

The deal will purportedly cost HD $109M of which $70M is existing debt that HD will be presumably retiring. It is consistently entertaining to watch non-Italian companies try to run Italian companies. Hopefully HD will fare better at it than other similar historical examples.

Hats off to Claudio Castiglioni and Massimo Tamburini! This all will presumably give Ducati a run for their money in a couple years. Nothing like competition to benefit the consumer!

Quote of the Day

Problems don’t age well.

Jamie Dimon, CEO JP Morgan Chase

If This Doesn’t Make You Smile…

… then you need to seriously consider lots of medication. With a tip of the hat to Ray. Enjoy!

The News About The News

This chart should concern you.

Lynchian Muzak

I brought my daughter to the Natick Mall Collection for a birthday party. As I walked around, I realized that the low-key music playing throughout the mall collection was a Muzak-i-fied version of the theme to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Two things immediately struck me like a brick. First, anybody familiar with Angelo Badalamenti’s compositions knows that Muzak-i-fying them is a truly amusing concept - I laughed out loud when I realized what I was listening to! Second, I think the programmers at Muzak (or whomever feeds the mall collection) must be under the age of 30 or they’d realize the bizarreness of running the Twin Peaks theme at a lux mall collection.

She’s dead!

Wrapped in plastic!

Oooh - I must have those cute black sling-backs!

Facebook IM - Useful!

With my conversion from Trillian to Pidgin, I have been using (quite a bit) the Facebook IM service, now that I have ultra-trivial access to it. When Facebook’s IM service originally launched, I was not terribly interested since I don’t live inside Facebook and my list of Facebook friends is a teensy microcosm of the folks I regularly IM with.

But having Facebook as “just another” IM protocol alongside AIM, Y!M, Skype, MSN, et. al. makes the process completely transparent. If I want to have a quick text with Brad, my multi-protocol IM client (Pidgin) let’s me talk to him wherever he happens to be online - and sometimes that’s Facebook and not Y!M or Skype.

Facebook’s touting of itself as a “Social Utility” is starting to ring truer with functionality like this.

There’s something profound to be said about this exercise. It has to do with the inevitable process we’re going through now and in the near future to detach message from medium and put the users in a ton more control of their communications. More on that later…

Pidgin Convert

After two concerted-but-aborted attempts to wean myself off of Trillian in the last year or so, I finally think I’ve done it. I’m a Pidgin user now. Pidgin doesn’t support audio and video like Trillian does, but I find that I use Skype almost exclusively for online audio and video conversations these days, so those features weren’t key. Otherwise, the apps are damn similar - including the once or twice per day crashes - but c’est la vie.

The Skype IM integration and Facebook IM integration are just great on Pidgin - I’m way impressed. Lots of other neat plugins too!

Do check it out if you’re looking for a multi-protocol IM client.