The G1, With Google Android
Androids
The G1 from T-Mobile is the first available phone that uses Google’s Android operating system. Think of it as the iPhone for the rest of us. The phone itself is made by HTC, a leading maker of smartphones. It is currently only available through T-Mobile, following the Apple model of locking in with a services provider.
Hopefully that will change soon.
Within days of being available for pre-sale, T-Mobile had to triple their original order for the phones, selling more than 1.5 million units. Add in another 1 million pre-orders from T-Mobile retail outlets and the demand grows to more than two and a half million phones already sold.
With some analysts predicting that iPhone sales would top 16 million units in 2008, the 2.5 million pre-orders for the G1 may not sound impressive. But when you consider that the phone is not even being shipped yet, that’s a sign of pretty strong demand for the alternative product.
With the biggest retail shopping days of the year still ahead of us, it’s possible that the G1 could double that number to 5 million units. That would give an estimated yearly sales rate of more than 20 million phones, dwarfing the groundbreaking iPhone.
I am Jon, and yeah, I’ll probably own one of these. I’ll be an Android.
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October 13th, 2008
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Jon |
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Image via WikipediaShifting The Center
There will be new jobs. And if I don’t miss, my guess is there will be lots of them. And I think the folks who get those jobs are lucky people, because I think those jobs will be fun.
The universe seems to constantly carry on a sublime balancing act. But since what it’s balancing is life, a force that never sits still, it has to constantly shift its center, its fulcrum, to correct for the movements life creates.
This constant movement of the center makes things seem very unstable sometimes, but it’s good to remember that it’s a natural thing.
Think of a pendulum. It will swing exactly as far to one side as the other if no other force is acting on it.
Using The Force
This mess will all balance out. Soon we will all be talking about the next global crisis, which is the real one… the climate crisis.
Everyone knows that the best way to fight the climate crisis is to eliminate our production of greenhouse gases. It will be exactly that which will propel the next financial boom around the world.
Green technology investment has not slowed during this financial crisis and in fact is expected to grow 20% next year. It will emerge as one of the leading industries of our future.
Even China, the nation everybody points to as the biggest problem (after US), seems to be re-thinking its stance on coal as an energy source. As reported by ClimateProgress and ChinaDaily China has halted all but two of its Coal-to-Liquids projects.
In a notice posted on its website on September 4, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said that, apart from two projects operated by the Shenhua Group, none could go ahead before receiving official approval, because CTL is “a technology-, talent- and capital-intensive project at an experimental stage with high business risks.”
All those people and all of us as well are still going to need that energy. And we will get it. We just won’t be getting it from the places we have been for the past couple of centuries.
The New Normal
It’s obvious that things are going to change a bit. But things will also stay the same. We’ll have some really rough times for awhile, and then things will get slightly better – you’ll feel normal again. And then a bit better yet until pretty soon, you’re bored on your drive to work.
But even that will be a little different. Here’s what Ian Kennedy(everwas.com), who leaves Yahoo this week for a new job at Nokia, says about the future of your ride to work.
Imagine this use case. Your phone knows your alarm goes off at 6am every morning, that you drive the San Mateo bridge every weekday on your way to work at around 7:30am. It’s entirely possible for your phone to automatically check traffic conditions before you leave sometime after you awake and let you know that there is heavier than normal traffic and suggest an alternate route and read it out to you in a phone call, while you drive. If you’ve got your calendar in there, there is no reason that your phone can’t offer to call ahead and let the people in your first meeting know that you’re running late. All the pieces are in place to make this happen, automatically, right on your device. That’s the kind of service that will enhance your life, that’s the kind of service suite I’m excited to build.
.
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I am Jon, and I think that’s something to look forward to.
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October 10th, 2008
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Image by Getty Images via Daylife
UPDATE:
Due to a coolant malfunction, the first collisions in the LHC have been postponed until the spring of 2009.
Spock’s Eyebrow
The human race seems rather fascinated by the LHC today. This morning, the 1st beams focused around the 27km facility were called an unqualified success. Over the next several weeks preparations will be made to produce the 1st collisions, scheduled for October.
Researching for future pieces about the individual experiments planned for the LHC, I’ve come across some interesting, even fascinating details about the whole LHC program. Much of this stuff won’t fit easily into those future articles, so I’m just posting a huge blockquote here as background info. You can read more interesting stuff over at the CERN website. As you’re reading through these, don’t be surprised if you raise your eyebrow and mutter to yourself, “Fascinating…”
“10 Fascinating Facts About The LHC
Fact 1: When the 27-km long circular tunnel was excavated, between Lake
Geneva and the Jura mountain range, the two ends met up to within 1 cm.
Fact 2: Each of the 6400 superconducting filaments of niobium–titanium
in the cable produced for the LHC is about 0.007 mm thick, about 10 times
thinner than a normal human hair. If you added all the filaments together
they would stretch to the Sun and back five times with enough left over for
a few trips to the Moon.
Fact 3: All protons accelerated at CERN are obtained from standard hydro-
gen. Although proton beams at the LHC are very intense, only 2 nanograms
of hydrogen(*) are accelerated each day. Therefore, it would take the LHC
about 1 million years to accelerate 1 gram of hydrogen.
Fact 4: The central part of the LHC will be the world’s largest fridge. At a
temperature colder than deep outer space, it will contain iron, steel and the
all important superconducting coils.
Fact 5: The pressure in the beam pipes of the LHC will be about ten times
lower than on the Moon. This is an ultrahigh vacuum.
Fact 6: Protons at full energy in the LHC will be traveling at 0.999999991
times the speed of light. Each proton will go round the 27 km ring more than
11 000 times a second.
Fact 7: At full energy, each of the two proton beams in the LHC will have a
total energy equivalent to a 400 t train (like the French TGV) traveling at
150 km/h. This is enough energy to melt 500 kg of copper.
Fact 8: The Sun never sets on the ATLAS collaboration. Scientists working on
the experiment come from every continent in the world, except Antarctica.
Fact 9: The CMS magnet system contains about 10 000 t of iron, which is
more iron than in the Eiffel Tower.
Fact 10:The data recorded by each of the big experiments at the LHC will
be enough to ill around 100 000 DVDs every year.
(*)the total mass of protons is calculated at rest”
There’s lots more fascinating stuff to be found over at the CERN website. Some of it I’ll be writing about here @ Wordout over the next month or so, but like it says at the top of this page, it’s best when viewed with your own two eyes.
So use that link up there and head on over to CERN. Their site is great for everyone, regardless of your education, age or location. I’ve been bounding around in there for days now, and I am still finding great little jewels of knowledge and fun.
I am, and ever will be, just Jon.
Want more about the LHC? Check out LHC Live – 1st Beam A Success or CERN LHC Goes Live
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September 10th, 2008
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Developing Tech, Earth and Space |
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