Category: Technology

I’m posting this from my new phone, the Incredible, using the WordPress Android app.

So far, so incredible…

The countdown to approval continues…

I’m still betting it never gets approved.

Want to program in a language you like? Better skip the iPhone. Is this policy just Apple being Big Brother, or are they just trying to screw Flash?

The good money is on both.

But thankfully there will be no porn store on the iPhone. Because that would be bad…

The iPad has provoked an outburst of publishing-business-model lunacy. $5 for Time? $17.99 for the WSJ? Give me a $#@%! break. The Marvel app is exquisite, but the two things you do with comics are read them and trade them; no longer. Earth to publishing-biz management: Check in again when you sober up.

Tim Bray

OK, I’ve been having fun with Google AdWords lately. I love the control it gives you and the incredible amount of statistics you get. I love being able to rotate ads to see exactly what verbage gets the most clicks.

For the record, this ad is our all time top click getter:

Origami Risk RMIS
Fast, Simple, Modern, Secure
A fresh approach to RMIS

But Google’s knowledge of your preferences can get annoying. As everyone knows, I’m looking for a new phone. I want the Nexus One on Verizon (hello? Verizon? any day now…).

Optimistically thinking the Nexus One would be released on Verizon, I recently did a Google search on “Nexus One cases”.

I swear to God, whatever site I go to now, I get a Google ad for Nexus One cases. This ad shows up everywhere. Honestly, I searched for that one time.

Leave me alone, I’m begging you…

Despite all the rumors, Verizon did not announce the Nexus One at the CTIA convention today. So I am bummed, especially because my Blackberry Pearl is just flat out dying on me. The trackball now prefers up to down. I find myself having to press the space key (shortcut for page down) and then scrolling up because scrolling down takes forever.

But I have to keep a sense of humor about things. I especially like the new Nexus One ads…

It is, after all, now available for AT&T…

and I quote:

The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger.

I hate it.

I hate it even though the iPhone hardware and software are great, because freedom’s not just another word for anything, nor is it an optional ingredient.

The big thing about the Web isn’t the technology, it’s that it’s the first-ever platform without a vendor (credit for first pointing this out goes to Dave Winer). From that follows almost everything that matters, and it matters a lot now, to a huge number of people. It’s the only kind of platform I want to help build.

– Tim Bray

Of course, he is now working for Google…

It’s not even official, but I’m still counting down until March 23rd, the day that Verizon will supposedly start carrying the Nexus One. And I realize that I’ll then have to order it from Google so I still need to add a few days for shipping, but I’m counting down anyway.

In truth, my Blackberry Pearl has been a very good phone. The smallest phone I’ve had in years (I had the original Treo). Like all Blackberries, it’s an email machine. Handles Twitter fine. I read books using Mobipocket. Syncs nicely with my Google calendar.

But it’s just getting old.

The keys stick. The over/under on how many times you have to press L to get a response is 3. The trackball randomly decides not to recognize up. But really, it’s the keys. Sending even the shortest text message is torture. Forget about replying to an email, I’ll read it, but wait until I can get to my computer to respond, unless the response is two words or less.

So I’m counting down. It’s pretty much inconceivable that I won’t love a Nexus One. I’m not comparing it to an iPhone, I’m comparing it to my Pearl. As long as the virtual keys don’t stick…