June 18, 2008
Has the Softbank iPhone pricing plan been leaked? According to What Japan Thinks a purported confidential memo detailing Softbank’s pricing structure for the iPhone has made its way to the web.
“A number of Japanese blogs are publishing what purports to be a confidential memo from SoftBank on the pricing plan for the new 3G iPhone. Assuming the memo to be genuine, what they are offering is as follows.”
What Japan Thinks has the full translation and breakdown of the memo, explaining the various pricing which is claimed to be tied to the iPhone’s eventual release in the Japanese market on July 11, 2008.
In short, it boils down to roughly 10,695 yen per month, or about $100/mo, for the iPhone with an unlimited data plan and MobileMe mail. You read that correctly folks: $100/mo on top of the $199 the iPhone handset will set you back. Softbank will try to tie all iPhone purchases to a 2-year contract, which has the potential impact of costing consumers roughly $2600 just for the basics.
That is pretty damn expensive in and of itself, but especially for a personal monthly mobile plan, and especially here in Japan. What the fuck is Softbank thinking? Surely they are not interested in selling iPhone’s in Japan if this plan is realized. Makes me wonder if docomo will ever offer an iPhone, because I could potentially see them as a much better partner than Softbank.
Selling the iPhone in Japan is going to be difficult to begin with. Japan already a well established market for powerful mobile devices. The phones we have here do far more than most phones in any other country. Granted, no keitai has as elegant an interface as the iPhone has, nor do any have Safari-like browsers. But Japanese devices have a lot more functionality than your average US mobile phone. Comparatively, feature-for-feature, the iPhone is definitely not a knockout punch in the Japanese market.
The younger generation, which is driving keitai sales in Japan, have feature prerequisites which will make iPhone adoption difficult. The iPhone lacks standard emoji (the wacky emoticons seen on all Japanese keitai), mobile wallet (making payments with your keitai much like a credit card), 1-seg TV tuners and more; these features are completely absent from the iPhone yet Softbank plans to charge an arm, leg and your spleen for the iPhone?
Additionally, the iPhone is much larger physically when compared to other keitai. Add to the fact that the handset lacks “necessary” features and it becomes almost self-evident that the iPhone will be a potential major failure in the huge Japanese market.
If this purported memo is true, and this is in fact the pricing structure, then I find it hard to believe that Japan will sell many of these little critters. I have been craving an iPhone since day 1, and have patiently waited for over a year to hear news of the iPhone’s release in Japan. After reading this, assuming it is true, I have to truly question whether or not purchasing an iPhone is a worthwhile decision.
I must admit my extreme disappointment. After waiting as long as we have had to wait in Japan, I have to say I expected more. Although I was afraid Softbank would “win” the “war” for the device I never thought they would go balls-to-the-wall and charge such a high price for the near-holy grail of mobile computing. Assuming the worst, purchasing an iPhone in Japan may only be for those very dedicated few who will blindly follow Steve Jobs regardless of price.
I can only hope this memo is outdated or a fake, with more reasonable heads prevailing. Until we know for sure, I can only be cautiously optimistic.
May 24, 2008
I am one of the FriendFeed early adopters, signing up for the service the moment I heard about it after they initially launched their closed beta. I’m not too sure when I started mucking around with FriendFeed but I can tell you that I fell in love with it immediately. The simple interface and ability to aggregate my various social interactions from around the net really excited my geek-loving loins.
But my interest with FriendFeed stems from more than an interest in what many call lifestreaming or aggregating. I really adore FriendFeed because I love the idea of aggregation. I really wanted to launch a similar lifestream-like net-interaction aggregation site. Right after Chris Davis released his lifestream plug-in for Wordpress I thought it would be a lot of fun to create a site which aggregates peoples interactivity, essentially similar to what FriendFeed is currently doing. Through my own lack of free time I was never able to get far on the site. If you think you might be interested, head over to lifestre.am for a quick looksie.
But I digress.
What I really want to talk about is using FriendFeed over Twitter. The latter has been plagued by horrible outages essentially throughout it’s entire life. I can not really think of a solid period of time where Twitter has not seen a lot of downtime.
This is in start contrast to FriendFeed, which I have yet to see go down hard like we are all so used to seeing with Twitter. It’s no wonder either; the guys behind FriendFeed helped engineer Google Reader and Gmail. These folks know what they’re doing, and know about scalability. This is not to say the Twitter folks are clueless; in fact, quite the opposite. The same team which brought us Twitter also brought us Blogger…another exceptional service.
FriendFeed can be used in much the same manner which Twitter can be used, but without the limitations or downtime. I propose using FriendFeed over Twitter by building a Twitter-like interface for FriendFeed which makes sole use of FriendFeed entries for micro-blogging. Rather than having this interface display the aggregated data which you see on FriendFeed, it should only display “friendfeed” generated data from the “share something” dialog within FriendFeed.
Using an interface, and FriendFeed data, in such a manner should be a simple, drop-dead, drop-in replacement for Twitter. The nice thing about such an idea, at least in my mind, is following conversations on FriendFeed is so much easier thanks to commenting on entries whereas on Twitter it’s quite difficult unless a conversational search engine is used. Developing such an interface should be fairly easy, thanks to the FriendFeed API.
I think this type of interface is important for two reasons. For one, it is a dead simple replacement for Twitter, performing the same “communications platform” functions which Twitter currently handles decently. More importantly, the noise is removed from FriendFeed, allowing people to focus on a single, well executed idea. I love all that noise, and find much of it very valuable, but quite a few people who adore Twitters minimalism and simplicity point to FriendFeed’s noise as a reason for disliking the site. It is vital to offer a more simplistic, less noisy interface in order for FriendFeed to see widespread adoption…and this idea accomplishes just that.
Given the nature of the lack of free time I have I do not know if I can pull this off. It seems like FriendFeed could do a great job integrating this in to their own interface somehow, but I get the feeling a third-party developer will need to do the leg work ahead of time.
What do you think? Will such an idea work? Is it even worthwhile? More importantly, do you even use Twitter?
May 4, 2008
I am elated to read about the talks breaking down between Microsoft and Yahoo!. I can only imagine that most Yahoo! employees are relieved, or will be once they hear the news. The past couple months have been extremely hectic and stress-filled, wondering and waiting for the evil business machinations to work themselves out like a chess game gone wrong.
Microsoft will announce shortly that they have withdrawn their offer to acquire Yahoo. Talks between the two companies and their advisors broke down earlier today, according to a source close to Microsoft, after a failure to come to agreement on price and other terms.
Bus seriously, from a realistic perspective, the deal never made any sense whatsoever. An acquisition and merge of this magnitude was bound for failure, even if the deal went through. Microsoft is just too incapable of adapting for the web, so they shot for the largest smart company who was perceived as being “in trouble.” Yahoo! apparently fit that profile.
The culture at the two companies are completely polar opposites. Microsoft is mired in red tape and politics whereas Yahoo! aims to get things done. Yahoo!’s employees actually enjoy working for the company, many of them never considering working for Microsoft because of the evil business practices of the corporate behemoth. On the other hand, Microsoft employees work for the company because of the excellent salary and benefits. I have not found too many Microsoft employees who take a huge amount of pride in their work, which is completely contrary to almost any Yahoo! employee.
Could you really see these Yahoo! employee’s taking pride in working for Microsoft, especially if the acquisition was completed under hostile terms? I know I sure as hell never expected the Yahoos to be happy about the prospect of working for one of the most despised companies in the technology sector. Having been through similar moves, I know Microsoft and Yahoo! are better off having not completed this ill-fated acquisition.
It should be interesting to see what final straw broke the proverbial camel’s back, sending both parties on their merry way with their tails between their legs.
Most people commenting on the fallout of the acquisition attempt are saying this is a Microsoft victory. I beg to differ; the fact that Microsoft walked away whimpering gives me the impression that Yahoo! is the big winner here. David told Goliath where to stick it, Goliath listened and walked away like the bitch he really is behind closed doors.
Surely Yahoo! will see this as a victory as well, potentially using the outcome to revitalize the company. That can only be a good thing(tm) because Google needs real competition!
May 1, 2008
The excellent 9rules blogging network relaunched today, opting to shift focus back to where it belonged all along: the content. All the superfluous features which were added in the previous incarnation have been stripped away, finally allowing posts from the very members that comprise the network to be front and center for all visitors to see. Many would argue that 9rules should never have shied away from their roots in the first place; what’s done is done, and it feels much better to see the Triad steer the ship in this new albeit old direction.
All the Notes, Clips and other “fluff” designed to keep people on the 9rules.com domain has been migrated to Chawlk. If you are yearning to participate in a community-like site which offers a low signal-to-noise ratio then definitely check out Chawlk. Since the site is not “mainstream” you will not find the standard internet trolls devouring newbs ever 17th second. But enough of Chawlk.
I really adore what Tyme, Scrivs and Mike have done with 9rules. By allowing the network to focus on the members I get the feeling members will have a newfound invigoration to focus on providing top notch content. After all, the content is what makes 9rules so uniquely exciting and refreshing.
The updated minimalistic design definitely aids in presenting the content in a much better manner than 9rules ever has done previously. Add in the ability to customize which communities interest you the most, and you can see why the new-yet-old-yet-new 9rules is just the change the network needed to be revitalized. Hopefully 9rules will recapture much of the charm it had in it’s heyday.
My hat is off to the great 9rules team of Tyme, Scrivs and Mike. Congrats on a wickedly cool update. You guys have always and will always rock!
April 13, 2008
I have been playing with the Firefox 3 betas on my Windows box at work ever since Beta 4 was released for mass consumption. At home I am primarily a Mac user, essentially performing 98.6% of my home work on my MacBook Pro. At home I am extremely dependent upon the del.icio.us Bookmarks extension for Firefox, using it as both my bookmark manager and to post links to del.icio.us almost daily.
It was because of the lack of a FF3 compatible extension that I did not make the move to using Firefox 3 on a regular basis at home until I recently ran across an alpha version of the extension released for testing purposes.
It was approximately 4 days ago that I made the move to start using Firefox 3 as my primary browser at home. I have always been fond of Firefox on OSX even though it looks horrible in OSX, mainly because of the ease of extensibility. Although Safari 3 is blindingly fast, I am exceedingly reliant upon del.icio.us for my bookmarking, opting not to use local browser-based bookmark solutions.
The default theme in Firefox 3 on OSX, while appearing much more OSX-like in look-and-feel, still leaves a lot to be desired. The huge “back” button seems pretty pointless to me; I do not think people need to be treated as if they are idiots, thus leading to the design of a larger-than-life “back” button so that people can easily find the one button used dramatically more often than any other browser button.
In addition, much of what John Gruber has said regarding Firefox 3 vs. Safari 3 resonates. I agree with many of his points against Firefox 3, with some of the complaints being far more annoying than others, especially when trying to use Firefox 3 on a regular basis.
But I digress.
Since I dislike the way the default Firefox 3 theme looks, I opted to install what is probably the best set of alternative FF3 themes available today: GrApple Yummy by Aronnax. I have been an Aronnax fan ever since his first set of native OSX-like themes for Firefox 2. He is an extremely talented Firefox theme designer who offers a lot of free goodwill to the community.
After using Firefox 3 with GrApple Yummy for the past few days I have found one particular annoyance which is, well, annoying me to no end. I am using the default theme While using Firefox 2 I never had a problem with accidentally clicking the “close tab” button. Granted there were times where I did click the close tab button even though I intended to click the tab itself. But that was the exception, and only in very rare circumstances. The point is that in the few cases this happened, I clicked the close button rather than near the close button.
I’ve noticed that the frequency in which I accidentally closed tabs has increased exponentially since installing the GrApple Yummy theme. I may have 15 tabs open, all displayed at once, click to jump to a new tab and wham, the tab disappears and I have to add extra sets to reopen the tab. This is a waste of time which should not be necessary!
After doing some minor investigating it appears the problem with the close tab buttons is due to the hotspot area being larger than the button itself. Here is what the default tabbar looks like when a bunch of tabs are open:
Take a look at how wide the hover hotspot has been defined:
It is blatantly obvious the region which defines the hotspot for the close tab button does not match the actual size of the close tab button itself. Either that or Firefox 3 is not properly interpreting the region definition, and then incorrectly enlarging the area which defines the close button. This creates an effect whereby the close button acts larger than it really is, increasing the frequency in which someone accidentally closes a tab even though the tab was clicked and not the close tab button.
I have faith that Aronnax will fix this bug within due time, but thought I would offer my thoughts about this bug in the event someone else was experiencing similar issues. It sure seems like an easy fix to a relatively small issue in the grand scheme of things.
Are you using Firefox 3 on OSX? If so, do you use the default theme or a third-party theme?
April 9, 2008
I have been running this blog for the past few years under the mantra of posting about any topic which I thought was worth writing about. There has never been a particular focus for this blog. Throughout the thousands of posts running rampant around this part of town I’ve posted about my family, Japan, politics, technology and whatever else came to my whack-ass head. If you have been following me throughout the years then you know I’ve never discriminated on the content I post. All topics are fair game!
Although this technique has worked well up until now, I have reached a point where continuing with the status-quo will do more harm than good for the site.
I have decided to break posting up across a variety of sites, each one focused on specific topics. The “one-size-fits-all” mentality I have employed is no longer a viable manner to post to the site any longer. A break-up of sorts is going to be a good thing both for you the reader, and me the writer, because you will know exactly what to expect when I post. No more, “is this moron posting about his damn family again?” Well, not here anyways!
So how am I going about this “break-up” of content?
jarkolicious.com is now effectively a technology focused blog, where I will write about technology-related issues such as applications (both OS and web based) reviews, web development and other similar items of interest. The focus of jarkolicious.com will solely be technology and geek related stuff; all political, family, personal and other such matters will be moved off-site.
My personal site, which I am essentially using as a tumblelog or even slightly enhanced lifestream, is now located at scott.jarkoff.com. My personal site will be specifically used for all my personal and family related posts. When Anthony busts out first place in his next track meet, and I crank out a nifty iMovie-based-flick out of our meager videocam efforts, I will share that with the world on Scott Jarkoff. When you think about it, a site named “Scott Jarkoff” should be about my personal life, not a site named jarkolicious, no?
At the moment these are the only sites I plan to break the information across. No single site I operate will aggregate the posts from across this makeshift network.
I do plan to sift through the thousands of posts here on jarkolicious.com and remove those which no longer fit within the criteria for being published on the site. Most of the posts will simply be migrated to my personal site, while others may just end up deleted altogether. I am not tied to a specific action at this juncture. This effort will probably take a few days, possibly a week, so please bear with me while I do a little housecleaning.
Many thanks to all of you who visit on a regular basis, those who have supported me throughout the years and those who have offered insight for direction of the site. Methinks this is a smart move, and a move which will enrich the site, which in turn assists everyone involved.
