Three InSight

Thanks to Best Western in Kwanah, Texas for lending Michael their business center for a half an hour.

Verizon DROID commercial launches focused on the flaws in the iPhone. For all of the things iPhone doesn't do, DROID does. The ad starts out like an Apple ad, but deteriorates in a scifi like coolness. Will it live up to Verizon's claims? We both like the approach, but you probably have to be a geek to get it. The "There's a map for that" ads are better. It's more about the network than the device in most cases. The worst part of the iPhone is AT&T in the US. Any network provider would have suffered the same network fate. Beware Verizon should you get the iPhone. DROID and Pre are similar in focusing on what the iPhone doesn't do, and should be focusing on what their benefits are. Where's the Pre now? How many Twitter apps? 30? Michael has half of them installed.

Dave recounts his Blogworld Expo experience. It was a great event, they did a great job. It's about hanging in the hallways and after parties. Criticism 1: When going to a party, it shouldn't be in a club with the volume cranked to 12. It was impossible to communicate. Criticism 2: last year the closing speaker was Mark Cuban. He was witty, and was a take no prisoners kind of guy. This year it was Kevin Pollack. He was crude, and unexpected - video clips shown with 700 people, should have been more PG, not X. Leo Laporte was on Adam Carolla's podcast suggesting that "new media" is the media. Is Blogworld the mainstream now since "new media" is the media? Sharlene Lee said she was going to the Web 2.0 conference on Facebook. Aren't we on to the next thing? Move on, new media is the media. The 140 conference had a breathtaking list of speakers. CES will have an iPod and iPhone section. Over all it was like going to home coming. There were really cool people, most of which Dave knew, but he met plenty of new people. Business was being done, Dave has a few new opportunities because of it. He had fun hanging out with friends.

State of the blogosphere from Technorati. The survey tries to get a sense of where new media and blogging are. Survey was comprised of 3000 bloggers and found that 10% were self employed 10% were corporate, and the majority were doing it to serve attract clients and share their expertise. 60% were 18 to 44, but what were the other 40%? AARP bracket maybe? They have an average of four blogs. Aliza Sherman was on Blipcasts and maintains six blogs. 73% agree that blogs are being taken more seriously, the inverse is also interesting. 60% agree that most people will get news from blogs in the next 5 years. Wordpress can have static pages and it turns a blog in to a website. The number one use of Twitter is to promote their blog or promote their business. Not present was giving to the community or creating a dialog. Top reasons: market business, share links, understand topics and interact with readers. We haven't seen the questions, but it's not about engagement, it's about promotion for the respondents. Depending on the surveyed it might make sense. What is a blog? Does Twitter count? Posterous? Can you clarify what a blog is? Dave suggests is a set of tools to accomplish goals, a content management system, presenting data in a temporal (typically newest to oldest).

Balloon boy hoax. Silver balloon with a six year old inside? It felt like someone was gaming the system to Dave from the start. Michael tweeted that when the balloon lands it'd be promoting a balloon festival. It was a scary thought for a father of a 5yr old. It wasn't really possible, but logic was lost on the prospect. The father should be prosecuted legally. He was simply looking for publicity and will make money even if he's fined heavily. He caused $300k in expenses. He'll probably be on SNL, Letterman, and get a book deal. Mission accomplished and there's no way to take it back, unfortunately.

It's been an interesting week. Focus on new media, old media is adapting nicely. They're coming around. It's only going to get better from here. CES has been more and more about new media and web based services. It's a wrap.

FTC Regulations - a whole lot of buzz out nothing? Is it to target the late night advertisers that promise results with no accountability? Is it punishing everyone for the sake of a few? Will it raise the reputation of the blogosphere? Are these regulations targeted at bloggers that aren't accustomed to traditional print regulations?

Macworld and PC World don't disclose the sources? Were the products paid for out of pocket or provided by the manufacturer? Dave reviews products that he's paid for harder than those provided for review. Doyle recounts his days at Maxtor where they expected the review units back due to publication policy, but wished they hadn't had to deal with the returns. They end up losing money on the units. In Australia, several review units were shipped with no expectation of return.

Ultimately these regulations will have no affect. Though the precedent in cases is that they'll go after the larger fish, first.

Windows 7. Launch parties around? Microsoft is sending kits with the Ultimate version included. It's better than Windows Vista, and XP. Wait to make a purchase until it ships natively. This is a plumbing update to XP though Vista. Max OS X Snow Leopard is a plumbing update too, with little visible on the desktop. No PowerPC support in Snow Leopard. Did Leo Laporte call it a service pack? Snow Leopard has some small compatibility issues, nothing major. Dave had to install it twice.

We've all left Microsoft Office for Apple's iWork suite. Dave is having trouble adjusting from Entourage. Windows 7 has no email client - get Windows Live to get the missing software (email, anti-virus, etc.). Microsoft Antivirus has spawned a new free antivirus industry. Windows XP SP 2 turned on the firewall by default, ending many type of infections. None of use run anti-virus on our Macs. Time Capsule/Machine is the great undoer.

Google Wave. Flying blind. If your community isn't invited, it makes less sense. What is Google Wave. Is it profound? Scoble says it's a non event. Other say it's the best. Collaboration on a document - wiki with live comments? Interesting on an enterprise level? Doyle is afraid of the preview typing - afraid we'll see what he's really thinking. No one wants to. :)

Encapsulating conversation is interesting to Dave. Concerned that everyone would have to live in the Google universe. It's brand new, will other software integrate with the APIs? Chicken egg problem? It just opened to 100,000 people. Bottom line? Jury is still out.

Blogworld: Dave and Doyle are going, and are running a workshop. People will put you on Twitter or Linked in - they want to focus on what the C suite needs to know to get there and make it useful. Dave thinks BW is terrific, and can't wait to go. Michael isn't going, but his Twitter stream is. Doyle liked hanging with the leaders in the industry. Dave took his own Jones soda bottles last year (provided by Jones Soda, full disclosure :). Doyle drops an S bomb. If you're thinking about going, go, best show in 2008. Dave wasn't impressed with SXSW - he's old. Doyle and Michael haven' been. Dave's favorite show is CES and thinks you should still go to experience the back halls (which is hidden from most people.) They focus on the least expensive items, not the coolest, but the most innovative. We all watched the streams to find out what was going on. There's also the social side, the after parties and clubs. Apple is rumored to be attending.

Show called at 25 minutes. Thanks for joining us! Thanks to the B-Side Lounge in Boulder, CO.