Naysayers aside, at least in Baltimore, WiMax is up and running. A real review by an actual user is in the ether. No earth shattering benchmarks and a few hiccups, but at $50 for a combined mobile/base account (which we did not fully understand in our earlier report), It’s a deal I’d dump AT&T DSL for in a heartbeat here in the Fort Worth/Dallas area.

Set-up should be simple (just place the modem next to a window, plug things in and get going), but I had a few problems at first. When you first plug in the modem, it upgrades its firmware before you can get connected to the Internet, and that takes up to 15 minutes, according to the Computer Harbor sales guy. I guess I didn’t wait long enough for that, and my first attempt at installing the CD that comes with the hardware and then connecting to the service didn’t get me all the way to the public Internet.

The second attempt, a few minutes later, went smoother. After installing some software, new users are automatically taken to Sprint’s Xohm Website to select a service level and sign up. There are four options: home service, mobile service, a combination of those two and some pay-by-the-day service. I signed up for the combo service, which will set me back $50 per month with a promise of no hidden fees, a price Sprint says will be good for life since I’m an early customer. Otherwise, it will eventually cost $65 per month for the combo deal. Home service costs $25 for the first six months and $35 thereafter, while mobile service starts at $30 and will increase to $45 in six months. (Information Week)

Since we couldn’t communicate via email in to 60’s apparently the leadership of the US House of Representatives seems to believe that we don’t need it now. Email to individual representatives is being limited due to an overwhelming volume? Seriously now, we’re in the new millennium, not the 60’s. We have a right to petition our reps by email and that right should not be taken so lightly.

“We were trying to figure out a way that the House.gov website wouldn’t completely crash,” said Jeff Ventura, a spokesman for the Chief Administrative Office (CAO), which oversees the upkeep of the House website and member e-mail services.

The CAO issued a “Dear Colleague” letter Tuesday morning informing offices that it had placed a limit on the number of e-mails sent via the “Write Your Representative” function of the House website. It said the limit would be imposed during peak e-mail traffic hours.

“This measure has become temporarily necessary to ensure that Congressional websites are not completely disabled by the millions of e-mails flowing into the system,” the letter reads. (The Hill)

At the risk of sounding like one of the tin foil hat crowd, this “problem” is quickly solvable and I believe it’s a matter of a lack will to fix rather than lack of ability.  That is of course assuming Pelosi and Co want individual reps to see any voter email. Utility computing resources can be utilized within days, not weeks, to provide nearly limitless scalability on demand. The knowledge to do this or understand how to contract it out should be on staff today. If not, Speaker Pelosi or her staff can contact us at thirdpipe@gmail.com, and we’ll be happy to point her at someone who can make the email work, even under load.

No new laws should be passed until we can reach our representatives. Perhaps from Speaker Pelosi’s viewpoint only marching and carrying signs is an acceptable way to petition our government. That places her squarely among the Luddites who are still stuck in the 60’s.

Well another band, AC/DC has inked a deal with WalMart. WalMart yesterday shutdown its DRM based systems. They are no more. But back to the band. Not only the music but WalMart will also get an exclusive on an accompanying video game. –

By ROBERT LEVINE
Published: September 29, 2008

Just as Wal-Mart solidifies its power as a music industry hitmaker with an exclusive album from the rock band AC/DC, the chain is getting its first major exclusive video game to go with it.

MTV plans to announce on Tuesday that it has made a deal with the band and its label, Columbia Records, to create an AC/DC version of the channel’s popular Rock Band video game that will be sold in the United States only at Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and the Wal-Mart Web site (walmart.com).

The release of the video game AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack will give MTV a prominent role in the partnership between the rock group and the retailer to promote AC/DC’s forthcoming album, “Black Ice.” Wal-Mart will create a special area in each of its stores to display the new album and the new game, as well as the band’s other CDs, DVDs and T-shirts and other licensed clothing. Although this is Wal-Mart’s first significant exclusive video game, the chain has emerged as a force in the music business because of the promotional muscle it has put behind recent albums from the Eagles and Journey, which were available only in its stores. Such a partnership is especially important for AC/DC, since the band does not sell its music on Apple’s iTunes store.

The audio moguls better watch it. With WalMart’s buying power and technical savvy they just might horn in on the production side as well and cut them out.

Linky.

I be cruising through some political sites and ran across a very interesting graphic. It give a breakdown by state of households that are cellular only for communications

What I found interesting is the states where the cellular usage was the highest. Those states along the Canadian border make sense. Maybe even Maine. All because of their size and density. But how do you explain Mississippi having higher usage than Virginia? Or New Hampshire?

Its just a hmmmm.

Pollster has more and it makes for an interesting read on usage patterns regardless of politics.

The NY Sun is the first pulp paper to fall to a combination of factors. The Sun was a relatively new entrant in the NYC market, only in operation for a period of 7 years. Sadly they provided some of the best writing and balance of all the papers in that market –

It is my duty to report today that Ira Stoll and I and our partners have concluded that the Sun will cease publication. Our last number will be the issue dated September 30, the first day of Rosh Hashanah. I want you to know that Ira and I, and our partners, explored every possible way to avoid having to cease publication.

We have spoken with every individual who seemed to be a prospective partner, and everywhere we were received with courtesy and respect. I tend to be an optimist and held out hope for a favorable outcome as late as mid-afternoon today. But among other problems that we faced was the fact that this month, not to mention this week, has been one of the worst in a century in which to be trying to raise capital, and in the end we were out not only of money but time.

So we are at this sad moment. It is sad for any newspaper to go out of publication, and it is particularly sad for one that is as loved as much as all of us here love The New York Sun and the readers we have won in our six-and-a-half years of publication. But I want you to know that the decision to close the paper has not been an acrimonious one. It is a logical decision following a hard-headed assessment of our chances of meeting our goal of profitable publication in the near future.

This was always a risk, and all the greater is the heroism of our financial backers. Even at the end they were offering millions of dollars if we could find the partners we needed. I don’t mind saying to you, as I have to them, that I very much regret — I will always regret — that we were not able to return to them the capital that they invested in us. Yet we have not heard a single regret from any of them on this head, which underscores the fact that it was not only for the possibility of profit that they invested in this newspaper. They invested also for other ideals, as well.

They invested in the ideal of the scoop, the notion that news is the spirit of democracy, and in the principles for which we have stood in our editorial pages — limited and honest government, equality under our Constitution and the law, free markets, sound money, and a strong foreign policy in support of freedom and democracy. They liked the way the Sun reflected the dynamism of our city and spoke for its interests in the national debate.

They invested, too, in the joy with which you illuminated the cultural life of New York, in our willingness to spring to the defense of so many who are not always defended, in the thrill of our sports coverage, the verve and warmth of our society coverage, and in our efforts to bring together a community and give it voice.

The Sun decided to cease operations on its own accord. So it was not a ignominious end as I might expect of the NYT should they get that far. The Sun will have an orderly ramp down without too much disruption of their supply chain partners. If you have to go, better this way than on a rail of Hubris.

The Sun will be missed.

Linky

Is the communications darling of the executive set in a bit of trouble in the market? It appears so. Friday trading on RIMM was sharply down, with a $20 drop in share price. –

RIM’s stock plummeted from around $97 per share yesterday to around $72 per share this morning as Wall Streeters digested the company’s second-quarter earnings report. Although RIM’s numbers for the quarter were strong and within expectations, the company’s outlook for the coming quarter came in below investors’ hopes.

The news caused two investment firms to downgrade the company’s stock (though one, Credit Suisse, issued an upgrade).

UBS downgraded RIM shares to “Neutral” from “Buy” and cut the company’s price target almost in half, to $88 from $165.

The downward movement is blamed on product introduction and supply delays coupled with competition from the iPhone and pending Android introduction. I might add one trick pony to that list of woes. RIM has had a good product for years. But they have a single focus that is being eclipsed by newer products.

Eventually that single sourcing of the income stream is going to get them. Till then they remain viable. How long is the question.

Linky.

Well RCR does another one. ‘A for effort’ with the tag line that unsubsidized phones will not be the consumer choice. A peek –

The move also gives consumers an idea of what devices would cost if the carrier did not subsidize the price of the handset, which it then recoups during the term of the contract.

However, consumers have been brought up not expecting to have to pay for their devices, and with the current economic crisis slowly encompassing the country, showcasing higher prices for a phone probably will have little impact on consumers. Numerous analyst reports have shown that consumers typically pay less than $50 for their mobile phones, and in most cases consumers walk out of retail stores with a free handset, while at the same time complaining about the terms of attached contracts.

First let me lead with on the whole the article is balanced. Mr. Meyer give the nuts and bolts of the Verizon buy phone - MTM model. He then leaps to the blinding assumption that folks won’t go for it as they have been turned into mindless drones on cheap prices of subsidized phones. To a point I will buy the argument. But then again –

• First thing to point out is that carriers are not subsidizing the phone. A subsidy means that an actual price reduction is offered the consumer at the expense of someone else. Like crop subsidies on peanuts or sugar. But all the carriers are doing is spreading out the phones costs over a period of payments and in many cases adding the NPV costs plus some to the monthly rate.
• If the carrier is truthful for the actual carrier network sans the subsidization people can see the advantages.
• The market for phones would become more equalized. As it is right now a good chunk of used phones here head overseas. Those phones could be reused here on the same networks they were attached to just months ago. Just on a different account and user. When that happens, that it is easy and common for phones to be, using a used asset the price points of new phones will stall. That will force the mfrs to lower prices and meet new competition from overseas with cheaper and better products.
• Longer life use of a device would actually be good for the environment.

My observation is that this article views a world little different from 4 years ago. I see a world in the not too distant future where price pressures, bad economy, cheap imports and open systems like Android rewrite the landscape. If it happens Mr. Meyers article is but another fluff of bits wasted.

Linky.

The exchanges are down 2%. Congress is debating spending $700bn on a bail out plan for fat cats. The housing market is still in the tank. And now this —

By Antone Gonsalves
InformationWeek
September 26, 2008 06:18 PM

China has overtaken the United States as having the largest number of broadband lines in the world, a market research firm said Friday.

As of the end of August, the U.S. and China each had about 78 million high-speed lines, British researcher Point Topic said. But with the number of Chinese lines increasing at twice the rate of the U.S., China has since taken the crown.

“This is a major milestone for China,” Oliver Johnson, chief executive of Point Topic, said in a statement. “Launching people into space is spectacular, but having the biggest broadband market down here on earth means a lot more for building a modern, high-tech economy.”

China Thursday night launched three astronauts into space. China’s third manned space mission in five years is expected to include the country’s first attempt at a spacewalk, The New York Times reported.

When broadband use first surged in China, experts predicted the country would overtake the United States in 2006. However, growth in China leveled off, while the U.S. saw a speed up in the number of broadband lines, Point Topic said. Broadband grew in parallel for 18 months until the first quarter of this year, when China took a leap forward.

Thanks to the mismanagement in Congress, The FCC and coercion by CongressCritters at the trough of the Big Corps the expansion of broadband penetration in this country has stalled. We are so far in the hole now from a year ago, we would have to have a miracle to catch up. With the pending business downturn I suspect that this situation to get worse not better.

Linky.
HT: saschameinrath

Hard to believe, but true, Sprint’s Xohm access is now available in Baltimore. No big surprises in the initial offering. It’s a non-contract service, and you buy the necessary hardware at about $60 to $80. It’s not going to take on the duoploy’s fixed line services at a monthly rate of $50, but it may just shake things up in the EVDO/Edge/3G arena. More at the Xohm site.

Following an industry wide trend, the world’s largest music retailer quit selling DRM’d downloads back in February. The poor souls who ponied up for restricted downloads before then now how about two weeks to burn them to audio CD’s or lose them when the Big Wally shuts down its DRM servers.

We hope you are enjoying the increased music quality/bitrate and the improved usability of Walmart’s MP3 music downloads. We began offering MP3s in August 2007 and have offered only DRM (digital rights management) -free MP3s since February 2008. As the final stage of our transition to a full DRM-free MP3 download store, Walmart will be shutting down our digital rights management system that supports protected songs and albums purchased from our site.

If you have purchased protected WMA music files from our site prior to Feb 2008, we strongly recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you will be able to access them from any personal computer. This change does not impact songs or albums purchased after Feb 2008, as those are DRM-free. (Boing Boing)

To be fair to Wal Mart, they aren’t the first to do this. I’m waiting to see I tuines do the same. Still, just because everyone else did it, doesn’t make it right.