Twenty-seven months of my son's life has been spent in Iraq! He left there today after a fifteen month tour! His 2nd deployment as the 1st one was for 12 months.  He is a Sargaent in the Army!  Friday he leaves Kuwait bound for Colorado.  Thursday his mom and I leave Tennessee bound for Colorado! fourteen hundred miles is a long way to travel in a tiny sports car too!  But it's his sports car, and at the end of the journey we get to see him! 

Tonight I laid out all the necessaries for this trip: 

• A Canon Digital Camera
• A cheap, small HP camera
• The Flip Mino Video Recorder
• A Tom Tom GPS
• The Zune
• A Laptop

Yesterday was a hard day for me!  Besides being swamped with my real job, Palm was at CES unveiling it's new smart phone.  The same smart phone that persons in the industry have been waiting on them to do for the last ten years!!!  Well, they did it! And what they demo'ed might very well be the home run that the company has been so desparately needing.  This new Palm "Pre" will debut on Sprint's network in the first half of this year. There are several unknowns at this time . . . Will developers spend time building for this new platform?  Palm's market share is not what it used to be, and most are too busy building apps for iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile.

I am wondering what the fellows over at Microsoft were thinking when they watched the Palm demo, and then look at their own aging Operating System . . . . I am optimistic about Palm and it's chances in the market!  If they can introduce this device at around the $300 mark, and get developers behind the platform, I believe we have a winner here! Something that is more than capable of competing with the big three once more. (Microsoft, RIM, and iPhone) I am enjoying Windows Mobile and my HTC Fuze but when I am ready to upgrade, I might just return to you Palm.  This should be fun to watch!  Best of luck guys!

The cool thing about Twitter is how you can get your messages right to your phone, through your SMS service!  That bad thing about that is, that once you are following several, your phone is constantly buzzing!  But I have found a happy middle ground for my HTC Touch device. It's called PockeTwit and the best news here, is that it is freeware! Before arriving at this conclusion, I test drove several applications designed to let you follow your "Tweets" through your mobile data connection. And I admit that all were pretty good.  But the cream of the crop is certainly PockeTwit! Now I get the messages that I need/want to get through the SMS service, and when time allows, I open up PockeTwit and follow everyone!

The versatility of this app is amazing! Basically anything that you can do with Twitter, you can do with this app! You can post pictures to Twitpic,  document your location through your GPS, and even search for Tweets close to you using your GPS!

 Just Duke - Administration [Joomla!]

On January 5th, 2008, I sat down and wrote what I thought we would see around mobile technology in the year coming.  Today I opened up that list and looked it over:  Let's see how I did!  I said:

•  Microsoft will show us Windows Mobile 6.1, which will be nothing to get excited about!  If you like the OS now, you will like it better.  If you hate it now, you still will.  Meanwhile, I expect HTC to continue to hit us at least once a quarter with new models running WM. And I expect to see a couple of new players introduce smartphones running the Microsoft OS.  Also, I expect a few players to introduce mobile units that blur the line even further between Mobile Phone a Personal Media Players, as companies try their best to stand out from the crowd by offering "do all" phones to include media and games along with smartphone communications.

Pretty much a no-brainer! It's pretty much standard fare the way Microsoft and it's hardware partners do Business. New Players? It seems like every phone manufacturer out there offers at least one WM option! I might have missed the "blur the line even further between Mobile Phone a Personal Media Players" however. That hasn't come about like I thought it would.  However, HTC has taken the WM OS and done wonders with it as far as how the OS acts and reacts! 

• Most of the buzz this year, will be about iPhone 2.  Lots of the buzz will be about features  and additions that really should have been introduced in the first iPhone.  High Speed internet, more open to 3rd party development, more hype over nothing much. Look for this to start in about two more weeks when Jobs take the stage to tell all the World about his plans for the coming year!  Then look for the bombardment of hype similar to last years iPhone announcement.  

• Mobile Linux!  I expect to see devices running Google's Android by summer, and I expect to hear a Linux announcement or two from Palm, but I doubt we will actually see anything really new from Palm this year!  Meanwhile, Access Linux should make it to market with their OS and a couple of hardware manufacturers.  And I really believe that 2009 will be the year for the "Linux Phone"

The Android phone from Google and T-Mobile was big news, and we are just now starting to see and hear the Palm Teasers for CES 09. We haven't heard much from Access Linux however. And with the rumors out about other hardware manufacturers bringing Android OS phones to market, I still believe 2009 will be a huge year for Linux and Mobile.

• Palm will not introduce a new Treo running Palm OS this year! Any 'innovation" we will see from that company will probably take place in their new "Centro" line. Maybe a GSM version of that phone probably available in different colors. The Treo brand will see at least one and maybe two new Treos running Window Mobile. 

 Again, a no-brainer!  Poor Palm!  The company that started it all, probably isn't going to survive! They hold a special place in my heart though and I am pulling so hard for them.  I would love to see them return to their glory days!  Once upon a time, they rocked! What happened?

• Blackberry will become even more consumer friendly by incorporating more media apps and maybe even touch screen technolgies to better compete with that segment of the market. 

Of course, you had to be living under a rock for the last few months not to have seen the "Storm" commercials! Touch Screen technology, and no keyboard! Although reviews for this device have not been favorable, I honestly believe that Black Berry has something to build upon with this new device and direction.

• The Cheap PC.  Remember when we used to see those cheap desktops in the stores for about $200 complete?  This year, I expect to see the $200 Laptop!  Asus introduced the Eee PC.  A linux based unit with a 4 gig flash drive for $400.  This unit has sold really well since its introduction, and don't think that players such as HP and Dell haven't noticed!  I really expect this segment to heat up and Asus to have some real competition by summer, and rock bottom prices for these units by the 2008 Christmas Season.  But I also expect Asus to introduce a few more Linux Eee PCs this year and continue to lead this segment of the market. I expect  UMPC players such as Sony and HTC to also introduce UMPC's that look more like the Asus Eee than a tablet with a thumb board attached.

I guess this is one that I missed! Although the price has dropped on the "netbook" PC. We are a long way from that $200 mark. Asus has more netbook models that one can keep up with and some of those enter mid-priced territory.  But almost everyone who builds a laptop has joined the game and the competition is tight! I must admit that the HP mini1000 has tempted me a time or two for his size, weight and overall handiness. Still, most of these are hitting somewhere between $350 and $500. And I doubt that this year will bring these babies to the $200 pricepoint either.

 So there you have it!  My 2008 predictions and the results!  I am going to give myself a pat on the back!  Not bad Duke!

I few days ago, I posted an article about a company out of China offering a case for the iPhone Nano. There was much speculation across the net as to whether or not Apple was releasing a new form factor to the coveted iPhone. Today a photo has appeared that shows this new phone. 

A good photoshop job? A concept that is being spread as fact? Macworld believes it is not a real product. Others aren't so sure. Me, I am on the fence.  I don't see the value in offering a smaller iPhone. Unless it is indeed a $99 iPhone. I am guessing that this question won't be answered until after MacWorld.