Email Address Prejudice

Lifehacker wrote about your Email Address Prejudice some weeks ago. And I find myself thinking about this blog post when I write emails to friends using some of the old email services like AOL, Hotmail and in Norway online.no and c2i.net. For me the email and especially the domain are important. I have been using the rygh.no-domain for email the last 9 years. Having my personal domain shows the ownership of the address to whoever is sending me emails. But I still find the Gmail interface being very attractive, so I have hocked my domain up with Google Apps. Using cutting edge technology and being up-to-date is important for me – and for me people who stay on Hotmail and other “legacy email providers” is showing me that they don’t care. And for a lot people that is fine. I don’t care that they don’t care. But they put themselves in a specific category when it comes to technology. To give an example – I wouldn't give a web designer the assignment to redesign my website if his contact information included a Hotmail address. Gmail works for now but the grace period is fading!

Update 21:21CET:
Just read about the facebook planning to launch webmail. Do you think facebook webmail will be a hit for the mass market? Or do you think it will get a marginal share of the user? I am skeptic. I feel that I would like to keep the possibility to walk away from facebook if they do to drastic changes to their privacy policy. It makes sense for facebook as they can keep users on site for even more communication and social activities. However... I don't like the idea that they push a mail-account on me. I would like to prefer where I get emails. And I don't feel that a facebook.com-mail address will be something I would like to share to anyone. Do you think "fmail" be something big?

Laptop without DVD-player

I have now for about a month used an ultra portable laptop without DVD-player. And I don’t need it. I installed windows 7, office 2010 with a DVD-player in the docking… but since then haven’t there been any need for it. I have an USB 2.0 disk with my backup (including basic software for work (VPN, anti-virus etc.), and I download the rest from an internal software server. Probably the next time I’ll need it is when I want to make a backup of a DVD, or want to play a DVD on the laptop when traveling. The second is an issue – as the point of an ultra portable is not to bring anything else but the small computer. So I’ll need to plan for my “movie needs”. But what else isn’t needed anymore? When did you use the modem-port on your laptop? And as most 3G-cards (if you haven’t 3G available on the motherboard) is an USB device, what do you use the PCMCIA slot for? I used to connect the memory card from my Nikon in the PCMCIA-slot, but after I got a 10cm USB cable, I just connect the camera directly to the laptop. More and more of the content and software is available online, and we (almost) don’t use cables to connect to the net anymore.

Buying a new mobile

I posted a blog post yesterday about the mobile I have ordered. I have received some feedback on it that I would like to address. First of all this isn’t a multimedia phone. I don’t need another multimedia phone – I need a one with the ability to be my work phone – that equals calls and SMS.

The battery information for the Samsung C5212:

• 600minuttes talk time (on 2G)
• 280hours standby

Compared the iPhone (3G S) have the following:

• 720minuttes talk time (on 2G)
• 300minuttes talk time (on 3G)
• Up to 300 hours standby

So with 2G enabled on both phones the IPhone is in the lead on battery usage – but you don’t put your iPhone in 2G-mode. And you don’t need an iPhone if you just use it for calls. But if you do the size of the phone will be a key factor when you compare it.

• Samsung C5212: 98.2g (112.7 x 48.6 x 14.3mm)
• iPhone 3G S: 135g (115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm)

 

And the iPhone is 37.6% heavier. But of course it is a multimedia tool – not just a phone. But that is not what I need at work. The other comment was the design of the phone. “It looks like something from nineties”. Do you remember what the mobiles looked like back then? This phone isn’t a fashion statement. It isn’t a status symbol like some people says the Apple product is. It is a practical mobile with one key function – and that is the possibility to have two SIM-cards.

I think we’ll see that mobiles will be even more differentiated as we go forward. Very basic phones will be available at a very low cost, the smart mobiles will be smarter and the multimedia phones will get the power of computers and cameras. And we’ll see products like this that have the possibility to fix a specific need. If this functionality gets popular – then Nokia and Apple can’t afford not adopting this; the problem is that this functionally isn’t something the operators would like to sponsor as it enables the end user be unfaithful to the mobile carrier.

Dual SIM Mobile!

I have in several years operated with two mobile numbers, one for work and one for my personal life. Both phones are based on Symbian and I have installed an application that can forward SMS. So I can bring only one handset with me. I used only the work number for outgoing calls for a while, but after I changed my work number, I decided that I wanted my friends to call and get calls from the same number; and that way they don’t have to care about me changing work number. My experience is that the persons at work that needs to call me – they easily change the number they need to call to get in touch with me. You want to keep your friends updated with your number, and the best way to accomplish that is to not change your contact details. So basically I have been carrying around with two mobile phones.

And here is where Dual SIM functionality is very handy. I have known about phones with this functionality for years, but they haven’t been sold in Norway. But now they are coming available. In addition to solving my mobile setup – this type of phone is great if you travel cross-country as you can use the second SIM slot for a local number, or you can have a different SIM with a better price plan for data in the other slot. This will make these phones more and more popular – and maybe they will be an industry standard in the end.

I just put in an order for the new Samsung C5212 DueS. It is candy formed, but I didn’t buy it based on its appearance. It isn’t an iPhone – it is a work horse. I have been a Nokia user for years just interrupted by a year on HTC. I have used Samsung briefly in the past when my Nokia was broken – but I have always ended up with buying from Nokia in the end. But this time I’ll give Samsung a try. Maybe this is my first step away from phones made in the Nordic?

It isn’t an iPhone – it is a work horse.

Details:

• 1.3 mega pixel camera
• 2.2 inch TFT display
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP stereo support
• microSD memory card expansion supporting up to 8GB
• integrated stereo FM radio in addition to a built-in MP3 music player.
• Quad band GSM connectivity with GPRS/EDGE

The phone has less web functionality than my current two phones. It doesn’t have 3G or WiFi – but this phone is to be used for the basics – calling and SMS. I will still keep my E75 for surfing/email, keeping a twin SIM from Telenor in it. The Elprice.no-site says it will be shipped from them tomorrow – but elprice.no says on twitter that they expect the phones to be ready for shipment in the end of the month. So we’ll see when I get it – and I’ll write a review!

Why Dagbladet will not be around in 24 months

Dagbladet as we know it today is gone in two years, or even more aggressively – it will not survive 2010 if not the owners take drastic actions. Reducing your staff to face fewer customers is a very challenging process. You need to ensure that you only cut non critical functions. And who should select what is critical functions?

Dagbladet needs to decide what they want to be in 2 years. Do they want to be a paper with focus on news or a website with focus on news? Or they can choose to be a provider of culture, sports or politics. It can be a mix of them, but they need to decide – what is our main platform; and for whom do we write. Trying to cut costs to stay where they are today will only bring the end closer.

Dagbladet will need to be saved by their owners. The owners need to decide if the newspaper should be saved as it is today – and in that case they need to invest heavily in making Dagbladet more powerful than VG. Or they need to decide that VG is a too powerful competitor in Norway – and that there is only room for one big tabloid. Take can change the format to a magazine – or they can be even bolder – and stop printing the printed edition as of tomorrow. Being the first newspaper that is available only online could save the brand and the ideas.

With Weave – why do we need delicious?

Mozilla Labs have created a sync-add-on to Firefox named Weave that they state will: “seamlessly bridge your desktop and Mobile Firefox experience”. This add-on synchronizes your bookmarks, saved passwords, browsing history and open browser tabs. The question is if you trust the guys behind Firefox with storing your private information on their servers. They say they will keep it encrypted – but in the end it is all about trust.

Get Weave Sync here if you trust them.

So, with Weave – do we need other syncing tools? How about delicious – will this change the way people use delicious? I share all my bookmarks on delicious (some I mark private) – but every time I find something I would like to find again – I bookmark and tag it. Will you drop your current bookmarking service for Weave?
(Btw… Weave isn’t a good name after Google created wave… - they should rebrand it).

The iPad makes me want an iPhone

First of all; I just added iPad to my dictionary in Word. Guess the word will stay around longer than this installation or even this laptop. I still don’t think the iPad will solve anything for me, but that is because I need something bigger or smaller. Where should I use just a screen? When I am at my computer not working, I probably use twitter, messenger or write something for my blog – I need a keyboard. When I don’t type, I read – and reading can be done on a smaller screen. I don’t need to see the page as big as it would have been in a magazine or in book.
So why do I say that the iPad makes me want an iPhone?

The deals Apple is going to make with editors from printed media will change the game. You will in iTunes or in the App store get access to a lot of information that will (for a period) be exclusive for this platform. Having the latest “Da vinci code”-book in your pocket is tempting. So from a multimedia perspective the iPhone could be my iPad.

Free SMS from Google

With Google Voice you get a lot of features. It is a very advanced voicemail. But it is more than that. It is your personal secretary. It routes your calls to the phone you have at hand – giving you the option to have only one “official” number, but being available on different networks at different times. You can use it to screen, and you can get your voicemail transcribed as text forwarded to your email account.

Everything is very Googleish – and I just love it.

SMS to international numbers now work – so I have been testing it; and it is a very handy solution. Google Voice gives you the opportunity to forward the incoming SMS via email or to another mobile (US number only). This way you can be fully operative when you are in the states, and you can stay connected even when you return to Europe. Currently the fact that you will send SMS from a US number makes it less interesting when I communicate with fellow Norwegians in Norway. But the technology, the way of having ONE number that works cross mobile, skype-id, office-line, VoIP etc… it just perfect. And if it can be the real crossover between classic SMS and just Short Messaging where you’ll communicate one-to-one person and not one-to-one phone is just perfect. People stay connected in one way or the other. It makes sense to have a digital information hub that includes voice!

Cost of electronic messaging

Financial theory says that the cost of an item should be the cost of producing one more unit. And the cost of SMS should be much more than the cost of sending email. So put it this way – if the telecom companies invited emails today – we would have been charged per email… but we’ll probably not have spam – as you could only email the people that had accepted you. But why does SMS still cost *a lot*?

Prices vary from company to company – and you get discounts and bonuses as in other countries. But a competitive price for one SMS is 0.5 kroners equal to 0.08$. A MMS costs about 2 kroners (0.33$). Cost of data traffic (3G/GPRS) on my subscription is limited to 10NOK per day as long as I use less than 200mb. The days I don’t use it I don’t pay anything – and if I have more traffic than 200mb the connection rate will be reduced – or I can decide to pay for an upgrade. The point is that you can send data traffic equal one SMS a lot of times within 200mb of data. One standard SMS contains 140 bytes (1120 bits) of data. As mobiles use 7 not 8 bit characters you can chose between 128 characters (8 bit characters would have given 256). With 1120bits divided on 7 the total space in one SMS is 160 characters. This equals 0,13671875Kbytes. So if a SMS was priced as data traffic … the cost per SMS would be:

0,13671875Kbytes = 0.0001335144mbytes

Price per MB is 20kr, giving us the price per sms (in data traffic): 0,00267kr. So how can we explain the difference between almost nothing and 0.5 kroners? It is premium data. It is one two one communication – and you are guaranteed that the receiver will see it (if everything works). But the price point isn’t fare. The price point should go down equal data traffic. So what can consumers do?

We can choose between two strategies; and as long as we all chose the same we’ll win. One way is that we all change provider to the cheapest SMS provider. If we show that we are price sensitive we’ll drive down the price. Great competition has always been a good way to drive down the price.

Or we can replace SMS with a trusted data-based platform (like your inbox on Facebook). The point is that we want the technology to be easy. In these days this can be solved by applications installed on our mobiles. But we’ll need everybody to adapt to this new way – or find a hybrid that makes it possible to convert some of us first. I have been testing Google Voice, and as they provide SMS this can be an option for many. If somebody created an application for the different mobile platforms – we could easily send the SMS via a service like Google Voice, let us call this SMS 2.0. If the receiver is using Google Voice (or a compatible service) the message is routed cost free to the user via this network – if the user is a SMS 1.0-user (basic SMS) you pay best price the SMS 2.0 provider can give you.

My RyghSMS service provide an option for people to receive SMS when somebody sends a Direct Message (DM) to them via twitter. I buy SMS bulk from clickatell- currently the price is quoted as 0,288kroners per SMS (however the price is different cross the networks). If somebody buys a lot of these bulk messages and include them in the application - we'll drive down the price of SMS also for the "classic" way of sending SMS.

The iPad is a cool gadget, but you don’t need it

You have your laptop and your mobile – do you really need a something in-between? A too big to carry-around mobile-OS based gadget? I am 100% positive to new ways of doing things, but this time I think the hype is just hype – and not a new brilliant idea from Jobs&co. If this gadget becomes mainstream, it is only because people want it because of the hype; the feeling of having something cool – not because it solves anything.

So, I would really like to know when people write about the iPad… What type of computer to you use? (Windows, Linux or OSX). And what mobile do you use? iPhone?? Knowing what the writer has will show if the writer is an Apple evangelist – somebody that will probably be positive even if the product solves nothing. I use Windows 7 on my work laptop and I have to cellphones: Nokia E75 and Nokia N82. I could buy a private laptop (so I am in the market for a lightweight laptop) – but this iPad isn’t it – it could have been the Apple Air… but it is too expensive.