Yahoo employee Twitters his Firing !! – New Form of Literature

This is going to read like one of those “complete the sentence” jokes ….

You know the world is changing when….

A Yahoo employee gets fired and twitters the whole thing….

! layoffs today, I’m “impacted”. I’m heading into work to pack my desk, get my severance paperwork and hand in my badge…more to come. about 10 hours ago

On the plus side, my commute just got a lot shorter. about 10 hours ago.

Ironic that I just got my PC repaired yesterday. Won’t be needing that anymore. about 9 hours ago.

Walking around saying good bye to some great people and good friends. about 9 hours ago

Waiting for the call from HR so I can go pick up my paperwork….C’mon, c’mon! I’m busy here! Let’s get this over with. about 8 hours ago

This is a serious downer. Trying to drown it in free lattes. Which I will miss. about 8 hours ago

Thanks to everyone sending the positive tweets. I’ve got plenty of free time now so just let me know if you want to meet up for lunch. about 8 hours ago

Ugh. I have a 1GB flash drive and 2GB files to back up. That is teh suck. about 7 hours ago

Heading into my HR meeting. The room is called Lucy. Cute, eh? about 7 hours ago

Finishing meeting with HR. Need to go clear out desk now. about 6 hours ago

Dammit. I was hoping to hook up the free Flickr Pro account before I got canned. Major fail. about 6 hours ago

Taking my last walk through URLs. Remember that time we sat in that booth to review ad yields? That was great… about 6 hours ago

Lots of whispered conversations. Like people are afraid to ask who’s gone. about 4 hours ago

Dear Blackberry, What great times we had. I’ll miss you. At least until tonight when I stop on my way home and buy an iPhone. Love, Me about 4 hours ago

Oh…and my badge. He’s going to take that too. Will I be able to get a latte for the road still? about 4 hours ago

I’m going dark in a few minutes. The HR guy is on his way over to confiscate my laptop. about 4 hours ago

Last free triple non-fat latte from Beantrees. Sniff. about 3 hours ago

Signing off from Yahoo!. Fade to black… about 3 hours ago

Celebrating unemployment with a giant margarita at Chevy’s. 5 minutes ago

 

See Ryans Twitter Stream Here 

Nokia’s Aeon: A “full surface screen” Concept Phone

I love nokia for one reason and one only…Their tireless persuit of the simplest user experience and the most un-daunting phone.

This is the Concept for Nokia’s Aeon Mobile Phone: “A full surface screen” with no physical buttons whatsoever. (And its Beautiful)

A sad day for Y!

A recent report i read stated that Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay suggested in a research report that Yahoo could be worth nearly $39 a share, or about 44 percent more than its current price, in a breakup scenario.

But using valuations for comparable companies, Lindsay came to the conclusion that Yahoo’s display advertising business, i.e. revenue derived from the sale of banners, video ads and other graphical ads, was worth about $25.5 billion. He estimated that Yahoo’s search business would be worth $15.6 billion and that various subscription services, such as music and personals, would be worth approximately $1.3 billion.

Lindsay added Yahoo’s $1.6 billion in cash to these totals and also included the value of Yahoo’s investments in Yahoo! Japan and Alibaba, a Chinese online commerce company that is set to soon go public in Hong Kong, to come up with a total value of the company of $54.3 billion, or $38.65 a share.

Nonetheless, Lindsay did not think that it was likely that Yahoo would be interested in splitting up or selling the entire company to a third party.

Several analysts and investors are hoping that Yahoo will do something drastic, though, instead of simply staying the course. Yahoo’s stock has been on a roller-coaster ride this year. Although shares are up more than 6 percent year-to-date, the stock is down nearly 20 percent from the year-to-date high it set in May.

 Read the entire story here

iPhone Rebate Offer Extended and Deconstructed…

Building on my previous post…

(heres what Gizmodo is reporting)

Steve Jobs and Apple announced the $100 Store Credit “rebate” for all iPhone owners that were eager enough to buy an iPhone when it first came out. The early adopters had enough faith in the company to buy early, even though it cost a good $500/$600. It’s a great gesture, in theory, but let’s analyze why they did this.

Third, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.

Taken at face value, it’s a great gesture to the early adopters, without which the iPhone would have tanked at launch. But if we dig a little deeper, we find out that there’s not much loss in the decision.

$100 doesn’t go a long way in Apple land. It can get you a keyboard and 3/5 of a mouse. It can you get an iPod shuffle and almost an entire set of spare headphones. It will buy you 5/6 of a Bluetooth headset. And this is just the cheapest items. Most people will use this $100 on something more expensive, like a Mac mini or as more of an incentive to buy a MacBook Pro or an iMac. Either way, the money’s going back to Apple.

While we’re poking around, what’s up with the sudden price drop? What other product have you seen that dropped $200, or 1/3 of its price, only two months after it was launched? Did that product do well? Was it because the product was selling so fantastically that the manufacturer needed to drop the price? Probably not.

We’re not complaining about “only” being offered $100 in rebate certificates. No, not at all. We think it’s a great offer and a great gesture. But whether they did this because they really care about their customers, or they did this because people complained really, really loudly, is known only to Apple….

End of Deconstruct….

Yes Apple !! Demand is CREATED. – New iPods Lauched

OK, so now i have to go get myself one of these NEW iPods. Why ? Because i am compelled to. Im leaning towards the new iPod Touch (which is an iPhone without the phone for those who came in late – In addition to the touch screen , it comes with wifi, safari and youtube). 

 What i want to know is if apple could come out with an 8Gb and 16Gb version of the iPod touch a month or two after the iPhone launched, then why didnt they just launch the iPhone in an 8Gb variant right of the bat ? ( draw your own conclusions)

In additon to the touch, there are new iPod Nanos which arent as nano but nicer looking , less likely to get scratched and more likely to be used to watch videos now that the screens arent that small.

Anyway, the new line of ipods look stellar. I will get one  and thats that !!

Here are photos for you to drool over:

Web Versions at the Speed of Light

Ok so you’ve finally wrapped your brain around the concept that is Web 2.0 and you no doubt making a diligent effort to stay abreast of all the happenings in the space. Ajax is old news , ruby on rails doesnt excite you anymore, your’e wondering how long Facebook will stay “cool” before someone else comes in to tear the rug out from under Mark Zuckermans Feet.

Good News !! Microformats and Web 3.0 are here  and in effect!!

Many argue that the evolution of Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 will be quick and invisible to the user. The Web 3.0 or the Semantic Web will be a web of DATA and wont be part of the web you know today.

Mull on this :

“Today you can see your photographs, appointments  on your calendar, email on demand but can you  see your photos in a calendar to see what you were  doing when you took them? “

You cant…Because we don’t have a web of data. Because data is controlled by applications, and each application keeps it to itself.

The Semantic Web is about common formats for integration and combination of data drawn from diverse sources, where on the original Web mainly concentrated on the interchange of documents.
It is  about language for recording how the data relates to real world objects. That allows a person, or a machine, to start off in one database, and then move through an unending set of relational databases (connected not by wires but by being about the same thing.”)

Now that we know what the Semantic Web is at a high level… lets talk Microformats !!

The official microformats.org web site defines microformats thus:

“Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards.”

Through the use of these widely adopted standards, publishers can encode additional semantics into the HTML markup of web pages. This gives the pages meaning above and beyond the face value of the HTML elements, allowing them to be consumed, remixed, and mashed up. For example, by adding some semantic markup to a web page that describes an upcoming event, properties such as the event dates can easily be extracted and used by other services and software, like calendars and personal organizers.Microformats are all about representing semantic information encoded within a web page, allowing that information to be leveraged in ways that were possibly never conceived by the original publisher. The idea to put more semantic information directly into HTML is nothing new — people in the web industry have been discussing this concept for over ten years — but, through the efforts of many volunteers, enough documentation, support, code libraries, and tools have been created to generate significant momentum behind microformats. The idea is finally becoming reality.

microformats are:

• a way of thinking about data
• design principles for formats
• adapted to current behaviors and usage patterns (“Pave the cow paths.”)
• highly correlated with semantic XHTML, AKA the real world semantics, AKA lowercase semantic web, AKA lossless XHTML
• a set of simple open data format standards that many are actively developing and implementing for more/better structured blogging and web microcontent publishing in general.
• “An evolutionary revolution”
• all the above.

microformats are not:

• a new language
• infinitely extensible and open-ended
• an attempt to get everyone to change their behavior and rewrite their tools
• a whole new approach that throws away what already works today
• a panacea for all taxonomies, ontologies, and other such abstractions
• defining the whole world, or even just boiling the ocean
• any of the above

the microformats principles

• solve a specific problem
• start as simple as possible
• design for humans first, machines second
• reuse building blocks from widely adopted standards
• modularity / embeddability
• enable and encourage decentralized development, content, services

Heres a Cheat Sheet:

Read more at http://microformats.org

Its official: The Nokia N95 (8Gb) is a reality

Ive been waiting and watching the web for confirmation on the rumours that nokia was launching an 8Gb version of the N95. Finally (!!! big sigh !!!) the wait paid off.

Check out the soon to be launched Black N95. (It will be mine - Even if I have to go to Europe in October to get it )

Phone Specs

iPhone Unlocked – Swan song for AT&T and Apple

So the word on the web is that the iPhone has finally been cracked!

A company called iPhoneSIMfree.com called a popular blog site to prove their claim that they cracked Apple’s iPhone SIM lock system, and prove it they did. The six-man team had been working non-stop since launch day, and they’re officially the first to break Apple’s SIM locks on the iPhone with software. 

Here is a “Before and After” Shot of the Settings Pane which shows “T-Mobile” as the Carrier.

Heres a link to the Original Article

New Motorola RAZAR 2 Launched

So the new Motorola RAZAR 2 was just launched and the word is that Mototola is banking on it to revive its flagging revenues. The TVC is edgy and the design looks fresh so Round 1 to Motorola.

 Available in 3.6Mbps HSDPA, EV-DO, and GSM / EDGE variants as the V9, V9m, and V8 respectively, the GSM and CDMA versions of the device comes in 2 millimeters slimmer than its predecessor and — on some versions, anyway — will be the second to use Motorola’s new Linux-based platform (the first being the Z6). It includes something Moto is calling “Crystal Talk” technology that automatically adjusts volume and tone based on ambient noise. Other features include external music controls, haptics (read: vibration) for tactile feedback when external touchscreen keys are pressed, a full HTML browser, 2 megapixel cam, the full suite of Bluetooth profiles, Windows Media Player sync, a 2-inch QVGA external display, 2.2-inch QVGA internal display, and twice the screen resolution of the original RAZR. GSM versions start shipping in early July, with CDMA following up later in the summer.

In the USA, Verizon Wireless was the first to announce the RAZR’s successor at a price of $299.99, though that’s after a 50 dollar rebate. As always, there will be a two-year service agreement with the purchase of the phone.

Ill post a more detailed review after i have held it in my gadget greedy hands.

Bluetooth Watch from Seiko

When i first saw this prototype of Seiko’s bluetooth watch i was blown away by its looks. Now that i have seen what it can do first hand i can say with every conviction that it is a master piece of engineering.

First unveiled as a prototype in 2001, it has come a long way in terms of both design and function.

The watch displays Network signal strength, Battery life and new Message. Upon loading a special software from Seiko Instruments on your phone the watch can display the Message subject and the Sender’s name. When you receive a call or SMS the watch can play a melody and even vibrate. In case the phone goes outside the Bluetooth range the watch sounds an audible alert.

Yes its rather “clock” like and would look ridiculous on a petite wrist but the pros of having it (like not having to pull my cell phone out for a call i didnt want to answer in the first place) far outweigh the cons.

All i can say is Viva Japan ! Im buyin it ! << Watch the Video >>