As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t really been blogging that much. Quite frankly, it’s because there hasn’t been much that’s inspired me to write, at least that I can write about in any sort of public forum. Or when I have taken the time to write, I often fall asleep while doing it.

That isn’t to say there hasn’t been a lot going on. Plenty of stuff crossing the blogosphere and my inbox. Much of it doesn’t seem to break through my current signal-to-noise threshold. I can intellectually see why some of these things are important, but I just don’t feel it enough to write.

Maybe my “ooh, new shiny thing” modus operandi is changing. Maybe all that is “new” isn’t quite so shiny anymore. I see a lot of “me too” out there. I just don’t see anything that makes me stand up and say now that’s cool. The speed to cool has increased from seconds to hours, and even then the “cool” is lukewarm.

Or maybe between the confluence of current events, both global and those that have a more direct impact on me. As they say, It’s complicated. It’s not something I can–or should–get into here.

What’s interesting is that I’ve been spending more time in Facebook: something I’ve only begrudingly adopted. I can see why Facebook is popular. Sure, you have to do some work to weed out the noise, and it has walled garden issues, but the fact is, people I know are there, including some I would not expect. My boss and his boss both use Facebook.

I’m trying to find my thrill, reawaken my passion as it were. Maybe I should take a cue from my body and just sleep more, leaving this blogging thing alone until the malaise passes? Anything the peanut gallery can suggest to shake this off?

I have never understood why one needs to change the clock twice a year to “save daylight.” You have the same amount of daylight, you’re just timeshifting it. You’re not saving it.

I was lucky enough to live in Hawaii for a few years. One of the benefits of living there, besides the fact my allergies were a non-issue, was that there was no Daylight Saving Time. I didn’t have to change the clocks twice a year. Time just was.

And that’s the way it should be. Especially since we can’t agree on when to do it. Since I’ve been alive, the Daylight Saving rules have changed twice, and yes I was old enough to be conscious of both changes

Different countries have different rules, of course. Some sensible countries like Japan and China don’t bother with this Daylight Saving rubbish. Let’s just enact permanent Daylight Saving Time and get on with it!

Charlie Schick over on the Nokia Conversations blog discusses a topic that comes up often as companies try to wrestle with the new world order created by blogs, wikis, Twitter, Facebook, and the lot: how to promote your brand in these mediums without harming the brand in the process. There’s a fine line there for sure. Too much and you’re a spammer. Too little and it’s ineffective.

To be perfectly clear, I also work at Nokia, and I am proud to work there. It’s certainly not in my job description to promote Nokia–after all, I’m a techie, not a marketing/PR guy–but I feel it’s every employee’s responsibility to promote their employer in an appropriate manner.

I certainly promote Nokia’s products and services I use and believe in. I will raise points about our products and services that might have been missed in the discussions. I’m usually clear about where I work, though it’s not like I hide who I am, either. Five minutes on Google will clear things up if there’s any doubt.

While I may be helping to build the Nokia brand in some small way, I am also building my own brand as well. If all I do is say how wondeful Nokia’s products are, then my own brand is tarnished and my words will carry less weight in the social networks, ultimately damaging Nokia’s brand as well. This means I’m not going to go out of my way to post good comments about Nokia everywhere, nor am I going to post as anyone but myself. I’m also not going to ignore the fact the Nokia N96 has some software quality issues and that Nokia Maps is a FAIL experience for me.

At the end of the day, the conversation about Nokia–and just about every other company out there–is going on right now. If you’re going to participate in the conversation, you can’t attempt to dominate it. Each participant–vendor or otherwise–must be on equal footing. Put the facts out there, but be honest about who you are and what your stake is in it all. It’s the responsile thing to do.

One of the things that was a shame about the implosion of Pulvermedia earlier in the year was many, many talented folks were suddenly out of a job. Of course, with the down economy, a lot of people are either in that boat or soon will be.

However, it’s nice to hear, according to Andy Abramson, that Carl Ford and Scott Kargman, two of the biggest names involved in the old VON conferences outside of Jeff Pulver himself, are teaming up with TMC’s Rich Tehrani to produce the 4G Wireless Evolution Website and a conference in Miami next February.

I probably won’t be able to go to this event, but I bet it will be a smashing success!

If you’re a Mac or Linux person and you want to run Windows apps without a Windows license, then the folks at Codeweavers have a deal for you. Today–and today only–until midnight GMT-5, you can get your own, fully functional copy of Codeweavers Crossover Linux or Mac for free.

Why are they doing this? It was a publicity stunt. The folks at Codeweavers challenged George Bush to do something to improve our lot in his last months of his presidency. Whether he was ultimately responsible for gas prices plummeting a buck over the past month or not is irrelevant, but the folks at Codeweavers saw that one of their goals was meant and they are keeping to their word.

The Codeweavers Crossover product is a commercial version of Wine, which is an open-source project that allows Windows executables to run on non-Windows systems. It’s not perfect, since it is a cleanroom implementation of the Windows API and they haven’t got bug-for-bug compatibility yet. However, it does run some specific applications like Microsoft Office reasonably well. It also runs Internet Explorer, which is useful in and of itself.

The main thing you get with Crossover is a much nicer installation process for Windows applications. It knows about the most common applications and is able to configure itself for an optimal installation. It makes the application installation process a bit easier.

The other amazing part about about this is that you also get a year of support with this freebie. This entitles you to technical support as well as a year of updates on the product. Quite righteous!

Back in May, I wanted to write about Hop-On and their $10 mobile phone. However, one of my blogmates on the blog I was writing on at the time beat me to the punch. Good thing, as it appears this handset may not really exist.

Pat Phelan has been trying to connect with Hop-On for over a year to, presumably, get signed up to distribute the thing. Pat Phelan claims that both phone numbers were disconnected and emails to them go unanswered. While I did get a PBX that answered the phone (sorry, Pat), I have no reason to test their email system out.

Pat Phelan called out a number of bloggers that wrote about Hop-On basically regurgitating their press release without doing any investigation. While I can’t claim I’ve never done that before, in this case, all one has to do is apply a bit of critical thinking skills.

While I currently work for the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world, I don’t do a whole lot with phones. However, I’ve done some research on what it costs to make mobile phones–just in terms of raw materials. Based on the confidential information I’ve come cross, I would call into question the ability for Hop-On–or any company–to make a phone that sells for $10 and makes a profit without some kind of subsidy.

Most bloggers don’t have access to that kind of information. Instead, let’s just look at a comparable product, say an extra handset for your wireless phone system in your house. For all intents and purposes, they use similar materials: plastic casing, a speaker, a microphone, a battery, some kind of PC board and electronics to drive it, and some kind of radio. Some kind of LCD screen is optional. Retail price: while it varies based on a number of factors, these handsets can be had for as little as $25, though it is generally more.

The two functional differences between a handset for your home phone and a mobile phone handset are: the size–mobile phones are usually smaller–and the radio used. My horse sense tells me that the cost differential of the radio is probably negligable, but making a phone smaller does increase the cost.

And then, of course, there is the small issue of manufacturing enough of them that the cost of production is low. Nokia has cranked out 200 million of the Nokia 1100 series phones, and the price has not come anywhere near $10–except when it is subsidized by Tracfone and similar carriers.

No matter how I look at this, something just doesn’t add up. While I’m not exactly calling Hop-On a bunch of shysters trying to sell me a bridge, I am highly skeptical of their claims that they are able to make a $10 phone. All we’ve seen from this company are press releases. I don’t think any actual product has shipped.

But of course, Hop-On isn’t the point of this story. The point is: far too many bloggers don’t do their homework. They simply take statements–or press releases–at face value without thinking it through. And no matter how I approach this Hop-On thing, I just can’t help but think something doesn’t add up.

Now, if the Hop-On folks want to prove me (or Pat Phelan) wrong, by all means, do it. We’ll be the first to admit we were wrong. What about the rest of you bloggers out there?

Here we go again:

Global IP Solutions Launches VideoEngine™ Mobile: This will, in theory, make it easier to provide high-quality video calling from mobile phones. This launched for Windows Mobile on 13 October and is coming soon for other platforms. Me, I’d just like the ability to do any video calling on a mobile phone. That’s what I get for living in North America.

SnapYap Offers Flash-Based Video Calling: Seems like another competitor for SightSpeed that doesn’t require you to install software. Unfortnately, the video quality is NOT SightSpeed, but if you want to give it a try anyway, you can “call” me or leave a message on: http://www.snapyap.com/call/phoneboy

TringMe Now Offering VoiceXML: In addition to offering a Flash widget to make click-to-call possible from our website, they also now offer developers the ability to script an application with VoiceXML. So where’s the business model?

The Academy Relaunches Website: Several current and former Nokia colleagues are involved in a project called The Academy where a number of videos are posted related to configuring security appliactions. The website has been relaunched and it’s shaping up to be a great resource for the security geeks out there. Now, where’s some videos on Sourcefire, Peter?

Fring Working With moblikom Austria: The PR speak: Fring and moblikom Austria announced on October 21st the launch of a bespoke version of fring’s mobile internet communication (MVoIP) and community service, that in addition to the full the fring feature-set is also enabling mobilkom Austria to provide their users  a mobile internet community, packed with Intenret experiences with mVoIP, Chat, presence and more. Good for them, hope Fring gets some revenue out of it, because I don’t see their business model otherwise.

The folks behind the S60 blogs have done a couple of sensible things: moved off of Movable Type and collapsed the various blogs into two: a developer blog called S60 Developer and a consumer blog called S60 Living. While this means my old blog The Convergence Zone is no more, I am an author on S60 Living and will, when time permits and while I am still a Nokia employee, write about Nokia/S60 things there.

My inbox is growing! Bad email practices are obviously taking over. Here’s a few things:

Jaxtr Goes 2.0, Adds Subscription Model: On September 30th, the folks at Jaxtr launched their new subscription-level services, making it easier (and cheaper) for members to make cheap calls through their mobile phone. While I’m sure there are people willing to do this, the fundamental problem I have with all toll bypass solutions is they involve changing your calling patterns. Clearly without using software on the mobile handset–which is a positive for Jaxtr–some changes in calling patterns have to occur. I’m not quite as cold as I once was on Jaxtr’s business model. Cautiously optimistic is the word I’d use.

Palringo Pushing IM Over Texting, Adding Location Information: Clearly with the mobile operators in North America charging us an arm and a leg to text, IM is a way around the SMS tax. Palringo provides a nice multi-IM experience on the mobile handset, and now will begin offering location-based information alongside your status messages. The location based stuff will start on Windows Mobile, but will roll out to other supported phones by the end of the year. Looking forward to trying the Nokia S60 version when it becomes available.

A Good Discount on WalkingHotSpot Available: WalkingHotSpot is a way to turn your Nokia S60 or Windows Mobile device into a hotspot! It’s similar to JoikuSpot, with many of the same limitations. A 7-day trial is available, but you can pay either $6.95 a month or $24.99 a year. However, I can get you the program for $9.99 for the lifetime of the phone! Send an email to dwelch AT phoneboy.com with the subject WalkingHotSpot Discount and I’ll set at least two of you up–more if the folks at WalkingHotSpot allow it.

Fring on iPhone: Yet another multi-IM client for your mobile phone, except it also does voice. And now, it does it on the iPhone, complete with calling over WiFi and availability in Apple’s App Store. I don’t have an iPhone, but the reports from my friends on Twitter have been generally positive.

IVONA Has A New Voice: IVONA has a text-to-speech program that sounds pretty good. They even recently announced a new voice was available, this guy “Eric” from the west coast of the United States. Regardless, the inflection on these text-to-speech systems are all wrong. They are improving, but still all wrong.

Image via CrunchBase

GigaOm and DSL Reports are both reporting on new and improved speeds for people with Comcast cable internet. They are essentially doubling their Performance and Performance Plus tiers from 6Mbps down/1Mbps up and 8/2 to 12Mbps down/2Mbps up and 16/2 respectively–without a price increase. They will also be offering a 22Mbps/5Mbps and 50Mbps/10Mbps tiers, which will require a new DOCSIS 3.0 modem to take advantage of.

The speeds are not available yet, but may start being available in select markets in a few weeks time. Based on my conversations with local Comcast folks, we’ll probably get them here in my neck of the woods fairly quickly.

I read the comments to both posts. I see people get all bent out of shape about the 250GB “usage limit” that Comcast has put into their new terms of service. Om Malik even suggests in a comment to his post that overage charges are forthcoming.

While I know it’s subject to change, Comcast has been pretty consistently saying how they really aren’t changing any of their previous practices except they are now being explicit about what the limits are. Using more than 250gb in a month doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get a letter from them about too much usage. It will only matter if you’re in the top percentile of bandwidth users.

Meanwhile, if Comcast hoses me too badly, CenturyTel is working to increase speeds. I talked with the local technicians here in Gig Harbor and they said that fiber was already rolling out to new developments in the area. Not sure how they are going to upgrade the existing developments, but it is in the plans. When they do, it’s going to be at least 30mb–bare minimum needed for proper video support.

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