twofones

Twitter & T-Mobile

The more we use things like text and picture messaging the more we come to expect that they will always work for us - like email or making a call. 

But the fact of the matter is that SMS services (and by "services" I'm talking about things that require 5-digit shortcodes to work: news alerts, sports scores, voting for something on a tv show) are not air-tight technology. 

Most companies use a third-party "SMS aggregator" to deliver and receives messages from multiple carriers.  These aggregators - companies like mBlox, Ericsson, and SinglePoint - have systems that bind to multiple carriers messaging systems and they are in a constant state of managing traffic flow, provisioning new shortcodes, and keeping up with the various changes that both their clients and carriers make on an ongoing basis.

Most of the time things so swimmingly.  But sometimes they don't.  This is why we test things like contests and voting time and time again before a big on-air event.

Earlier this weekend Twitter stopped working on T-Mobile and nobody could figure out why.  It seemed that T-Mobile had suddenly decided to cut off the service.  Which, of course, sent the blogosphere into a tailspin. 

Techcrunch had an article on it yesterday.  Mashable did as well.  The post on the front page of Digg announced that "T-Mobile Turns Off Twitter".  As you can tell from the comments in these posts, people were upset.  Very upset.  They wanted to know if T-Mobile had shut down Twitter for good.

Thankfully the good folks over at Twitter set the record straight today, letting us know that it was a technical issue, not a policy one.  And today the problem seemed to be solved completely:

Update (12/15 3p): We're still working on this and believe it to be a technical issue happening between T-Mobile and the folks who help run our text messaging. At this time we do not believe it to be a policy issue (as has been speculated). We're hoping for a resolution soon and will let you know when we know more.

Update (12/15 4:30p): We've received word that the issue has been resolved.  We'll continue to watch this closely and let you know if anything changes.

So one thing we learn from this is that mobile technology is imperfect and that we can't always jump to conspiracy theories when something goes awry.  But the other big takeaway for me is just how much of an issue wireless net neutrality really is.  When the Twitter community thought that T-Mobile was shutting off Twitter they just about lost their minds.  As the likes of Verizon and AT&T pledge ever-increasing "openness" this is a good case-study for them to pay attention to.

I'm Back

So it's been a while since I've written here but I have a pretty good excuse I think (see above.)  My daughter Alexandra was born 3 months ago and with that and work and the holidays it's been hectic.  Too hectic to blog.

But I'm making a pre-new year's resolution to get back in saddle and start at this again.  Hoping to focus more on shorter-form than longer-form entries (I've had some 3,000+ word posts in the past) but who knows.  The last time around I found the more I posted the easier it got to post and I look forward to getting my mojo on.  Maybe I'll try something like Tumblr as well.

In the meantime I'll just be trying to slowly rebuild readers and get this show back on the road.  It's nice to be back.

Trailers

I haven't blogged in weeks I know.  I haven't reviewed the iPhone, written about Urge/Rhapsody/Verizon,  or said anything about my new role at MTVN or the fact that I'm about to have a baby any day now.  And dealing with all of that at once would be a tad overwhelming I think, so instead I'm going to write about movie trailers.  Specifically the one for Good Luck Chuck.

Good Luck Chuck is a Dane Cooke / Jessica Alba movie coming out in a few weeks and the premise is pretty straight-forward.  From IMDB:

In order to keep the woman of his dreams from falling for another guy, Charlie Logan has to break the curse that has made him wildly popular with single women: Sleep with Charlie once, and the next man you meet will be your true love.

If you went to see a comedy in July you may have seen this trailer, which pretty much follows the log line above to the letter:

(if you're reading this in an RSS aggregator or on email, click here to view.)

The reaction in the theater when I saw the trailer was a pretty unanimous groan.  I've got to assume that the studio got the feedback because last weekend I went to see Superbad and there was a new trailer for Good Luck Chuck that looks like an entirely different film:

(again, click here to see if you can't view above.)

The movie advertised above doesn't seem to be about Chuck at all!  Looks like it's entirely about Jessica Alba, her clumsiness, and her knack for causing harm to others (notably Dane Cook.)  No magic, no rampant sex, no curse-breaking.  It's a different premise altogether.

I love seeing trailer editors work their magic to cull what they can from a film to try to tell its story in under :03 minutes.  The two trailers from Chuck are great examples of how two totally different stories can be told from the same material.

This has been a wonderfully creative genre for amateur film-makers online.  Some of the best of the category are The Shining re-imagined as a comedy and the absolutely brilliant Scary Mary - Marry Poppins as a creepy horror flick. 

Although it's been around for a while I just came across what may be my all-time favorite thus far, Office Space as a drama:

It's amazing what you can do with a little music, a voice-over, and some titles.

3D Mailbox

I'm sorry, but i just couldn't resist.

TechCrunch calls it the "Worst.  App.  Ever."  The good people over at Digg can't say enough about it in the aptly titled post: This is a Joke, Right?

Apparently it is not a joke but is, instead, the most absurd promo for the most absurd product on the internet.

There's an email world beyond the one we know, where every message is exciting and every minute is an adventure.  Please to enjoy:

My iPhone Saga

I didn't intend to get an iPhone yesterday.  I figured I'd be able to order one online, or just wait a few weeks and pick one up when the madness died down.  From what I understood they were shipping an enormous amount of devices.  This wasn't like trying to get a Wii before Christmas.  There'd be supply.

It didn't quite work out that way, however.

I work in Times Square and was planning on seeing a play with my wife on 59th & Park at 8pm last night.  On a whim I called over to the AT&T store on 52nd & Park, just to gauge the madness.  They informed that the line really wasn't that bad, maybe 40 people. 

That seemed remarkably short to me so I figured, why not give it a shot?

I ended up being #53 on line and the experience of being there was alone worth the wait.  There were reporters, cameras, gossip and rumor about other lines at other stores, and even some fighting (two interns at the front of the line had been sent to hold spaces for their their two bosses and a dozen of their bosses' friends.  Massive arguments ensued over whether this was cutting or simply place-holding; AT&T security eventually let them in despite booing, hissing, and multiple threats from the crowd.)

It was hard not to get caught up in the excitement.  It seemed like stores were running out already, people had been waiting for hours, days.  There was chanting, helicopters, live lineblogs from around the country.  At this point I HAD TO HAVE ONE NOW.

The line started moving at 6pm and then abruptly ground to a halt when the AT&T sales network went down.  Apparently this was happening all over town and it sent the crowd outside the store into a panic spiral.  Store windows were banged on.  Derogatory remarks were made about AT&T.  We were told that the Apple store in Soho had sold over 150 devices before our store was even able to sell 5.  It got ugly.

The computers came back up and the line started moving again but it was still a remarkably slow process.  I give AT&T a lot of credit for taking the plunge with this device in such a huge way, but they they are clearly not at all set up for this kind of product launch.  The store would only allow 6 people in at any one time and each purchase seemed like an eternity when watched through the window from the line outside.

When my group finally got to the front of the line we were given some terrible news: they'd sold out of the 8 gig iPhones and only had 4 gig devices left.

People went nuts.  A surprising number walked away.  I'm not even sure whey they make a 4 gig iPhone (except perhaps, as one person on line in front of me surmised, it was to make the 8 gig model seem less ridiculously expensive by comparison) but it was clear that nobody wanted one.

At this point it was 7:45pm.  My play started in :15 mins.  I was not going to leave without an iPhone.  So figured I'd eat when served and picked one up. 

I ran out of the store :10 mins later and hopped in a pedicab which got me to the theater just in time for curtain.  The play was Rabbit, part of 59E59's excellent Brits Off Broadway series and it was really great.  But I had a hard time concentrating on the performance.  I was having massive remorse and regret that I'd purchased the 4 gig model.  I felt like I'd been taken advantage of.  I felt robbed.

Hope was not lost.  During the play I was getting emails from friends that iPhones were still available in the 5th Ave Apple Store.  My ever-patient wife agreed yes, it would be worth our walking over to the store after the play to check the situation if only so I'd shut up about it.

It turned out there was no line at all.  We walked through a corridor of applauding Apple Store employees chanting, "YES!  iPHONE!  GO GET ONE!" (For real.)  I went right up to a counter, swapped out the 4 gig for the 8, and was out of there about :5 mins later.

Buzzing with excitement I speed home and updated iTunes to get the phone to activate only to encounter the same iTunes 3.7 bug that is plaguing thousands of others.  No help online.  No help from Apple Care.  No hope in sight. 

By 1am I did manage to get the iPhone up and running, but I still can't use iTunes without multiple continuous error messages.  This issue seems pretty widespread and from what I understand Apple is working furiously on a fix.  And to be fair, many people had a much harder time getting their devices up and running than I did, especially when trying to port from another account (AT&T or otherwise.) 

If you don't have one yet my advice is wait it out for a little bit.  AT&T is feeling the pressure of millions of accounts attempting to activate over the weekend.  Apple is frantic about their buggy iTunes, which it is necessary to run to get the phone to work.  And all of this is happening with the July 4th holiday around the corner.  I suppose, all things considered, this is to be expected.  It is a one of the biggest, most anticipated, and complex consumer product launches ever.  They'll get the hang of it in time.

So how do I like the iPhone?  Stay tuned for the review...

New iPhone Ads

I really don't want to be an Apple fanboy.  I swear.  But the new iPhone ads that came out today are just spectacular. 

John Gruber at Daring Fireball points out something interesting: no other mobile phone is advertised by showing off the user-interface.  That's a big deal.  These are as much tutorials as they are image spots.  And you want one desperately before you even know it's a phone.

The calamari ad is my favorite, of course.

We'll see how these hold up in-market.  The world was salivating over the Apple TV as well and that hasn't quite lived up to expectations.  But still; I can't stop watching the ads.  In HD.  On my iMac.  (What was that about not being an Apple fanboy?)

Carnival of the Mobilists #76

It is my distinct pleasure to host the seventy-sixth edition of the Carnival of the Mobilists. 

The goal of this carnival (and of blog carnivals in general) is to expose you, dear reader, to other mobile-focued bloggers that you might enjoy.

Each month the carnival's host receives submissions from like-minded bloggers to feature on his or her own blog.  The host is meant to pick a favorite post but there were so many interesting ones that I just couldn't decide.  Sorry!  For more on the Carnival of the Mobilists check out their site.

And on to the posts:

• Ricky Cadden, the Symbian Guru, wants us to know that the GooglePhone is real.  How does he know this?  Because it’s already here.  Check out his post for a solid run-down of Google’s (and Yahoo’s) strategy in the space.
  

• Ted Wugofski also covers Google but from the apps vs. browser angle.  He uses a great term - “intermittently connected” - to describe the kinds of apps made possible by Google Gears (AJAX), Flash, and others.  Always on?  How about, sometimes on...  He’s right on here – browsing is important for mobile, but is it enough?

• Speaking of Mobile Ajax - Ajit Jaokar, Rocco Georgi, and Bryan Rieger have put together the definitive Mobile Ajax FAQ over at the recently re-launched Horizon Channel (Open Garden’s sister site.)  This FAQ is so deep and thorough that it’s impossible to summarize.  Suffice it to say if you have any questions at all about Mobile Ajax, you’ll find your answers here.

• And if you have any questions on how operators handle handset customization - Andreas has your answers.  He writes a long and thoughtful piece at Vision Mobile on a new strategy in handset customization – Container Projects.  No formal announcements or fanfare on this strategy from operators, but Andreas susses out this trend after an in-depth analysis of the current operator-driven handset customization status quo.  Will this new strategy succeed?  The answer may surprise you.

• Jag at Route 79 writes about mobile widgets.  He does so in the super-simple, non-technical style of the rest of Route 79, what Jag calls a “coffee-table London blog site that promotes the use of mobile phone as an everyday tool for assisting in the creation of conversation and art.”  Tapas as an analogy for widgets; I love it.

• From the not-so-technical, to the very much so, C. Enrique Ortiz examines OSGi (from Wikipedia: the OSGi Alliance is an open standards organization that has specified a Java-based service platform that can be remotely managed.)  Enrique looks at OSGi Mobile and it’s place in the mobile Java development environment.

• David Beers has an interesting take on Palm’s latest gadget – the Foleo “mobile companion”.  It’s not a Blackberry or Palm, not a PC or Ultra-Mobile PC – but something in-between.  And it looks like David has found the perfect pitchperson for this new device category – his wife.

• Michael Mace also covers the Foleo in his round up of mobile news.  As far as he's concerned the device competes with the PC and as well it should, as it pretty much is a PC.  "It may be crazy, but it's a craziness I like," he says.  Do you agree?

• Are web 2.0 apps well-suited for mobile devices?  Maybe not, says Malcolm Lithgow.  In Part II of his epic Smart Phone or Mobile Browser saga, Malcolm writes about mobile applications in general, and web-based apps in particular - going through responsiveness, reliability, privacy, and the pros and cons for web 2.0 apps as they address all of the above.

• Sick of the XYZ 2.0 meme?  So is my buddy Rudy De Waele, but it doesn't stop him from reporting back from the Digital Music 2.0 Conference in Barcelona this week with his thoughts on the subject.  Seems like a lot of folks in the industry still aren't feeling the digital and mobile sea-change that is rocking the music world and Rudy does what he can to set 'em straight! 

• Dennis at WAP review has some thoughts on whether mobile WAP start-up Frog is like a set of training wheels for the mobile web.  Dead simple layout, super easy navigation – but only available to users of high-end smartphones?  Dennis explains…

• In this post, Caroline Lewko, CEO of the Wireless Industry Partnership, interviews Earl Lum the founder and President of EJL Wireless Research on the subject of Mobile Advertising.  Earl has a new report on the subject which attempts to cut through some of the hype in this red hot space.

• Chetan Sharma of Always On Real-Time Access writes a great summary of the TiE Seattle’s annual mobile event.  I love posts like this that really make you feel like you were there.  Chetan covers a keynote by Cole Brodman, Chief Development Officer at T-Mobile USA and provides blow-by-blow on a panel of folks from Media, OZ, UIEvolition, and more as they tackle challenges and strategies for mobile content monetization.  This post is filled with great stats as well.

• On the lighter side, Judy Breck discusses the “clickers” that are being tested out in movie theaters to allow patrons to tattle on annoying moviegoers.  She then imagines what this might look like as a mobile app.  Phones being used to stop people from using phones...

• Tim Trent has a bit of a rant on the ban on mobile phones in hospitals (in many parts of hospitals, anyway, according to Tim you can use mobiles in general wards and public areas of most UK hospitals – not so in the US.)  Do mobile phones really upset delicate hospital equipment?  I’m not sure we know.  But Tim certainly does have an opinion!

• Finally, Kiran Bellubbi at SmallDoses writes about being a big believer in the "constant and total collaboration between application developers and carriers."  He may not be filled with love for all of their business practices but carriers are the gatekeepers after all.  And besides, with the looming threat of citywide WiFi carriers may end up way more beholden to application developers than they are now.

It's been a blast hosting this week; thanks for checking out the carnival.  And be sure to catch next week's which will be hosted by the Zach at Symbian in Motion.

Twittering the MTV Movie Awards

The MTV Movie Awards are this Sunday, and they'll be live for the first time ever.  In keeping with the "liveness" of the event, the good people from MTV's sketch comedy show Human Giant will be Twitering from the show! 

From the description on their blog:

All of us are going to be Twittering throughout the night. We’ll be on the red carpet, backstage at the show and hitting the after parties, so you know we’ll have lots to say about it all. Stuff like who was robbed, who hooked up with who, who drank too many soda pops, etc. Hit us back with your replies too on the friends’ feed.

To follow-along text FOLLOW HUMANGIANT to 40404.  They'll be twittering before, during, and after the show.  And, of course, don't forget to watch!  Sunday June 3 at 8PM/7C on MTV. 

I Heart Facebook

When Friendster launched almost five years ago, I jumped in with both feet.  As did almost everyone else I knew it seemed.  Within months of signing up I'd managed to reconnect with old friends from high school, college, summer camp, previous jobs, etc. 

The issue with the site was that after signing up and assembling your friends there wasn't a whole lot else to do.  You could send people messages but one-to-one messaging quickly migrated to email. 

Of course, MySpace came to market in July of '03 and we all pretty much know the story from there.

But MySpace never caught on amongst my Friendster freinds.  It was too much work.  We were all too old.  And while it seemed a great platform to market yourself, your band, your book, your film, etc. it wasn't really the clean, easy, personal, semi-private, connection to real-life friends that I was looking for.

One year later, Facebook came along.  Facebook looked like it made good on the Friendster promise but it was limited to college students.  Growth was explosive and we all know the story there too...

Last September Facebook opened up its doors to anyone with an email address to much sturm and drang and the objections of many active college users.  At the time I was pretty skeptical that Facebook could make the leap as well.  It seemed like the user-base had been well-defined as college students, and that letting in the unwashed masses ran a real risk of disturbing the delicate balance that is an online community.

Turns out I was wrong.  Facebook isn't one community.  It's a million communities, some big, some tiny.  And more than anything Facebook is an extremely powerful tool-set (and even more powerful open API) for managing your communities and articulating your connections with other people.

I've been using the site for a few months now and am really impressed by the the web 2.0 openness of it all: I RSS my blog into the site, I RSS status updates out of it, I one-click import pictures from Flickr, I use a firefox plug-in to manage my friends.  I'm also impressed by all of the privacy features and functionality - pretty much anything can be made private or public and there are tiers of whom you allow to see what.

I don't think I'm the only grown-up who's discovering this.  I was a little uneasy at first signing up for a "college" site but the growth of non-collegiate users has been so great as to moot that concern.  And I think other people in my demo/psycho-graphic are finding the same thing, if the exponential rate of Facebook invites I've been receiving these past few months is any indication.

Eric Eldon over at Venture Wire recently wrote a good post summing up some of Facebook's recent growth story:

Facebook is now at more than 20 million registered users, up from 7.5 million users last July, the company told me. (In coming months, Facebook told me, it will begin reporting the number of actual users, or those who have logged into the site in the previous 30 days.) As mentioned, it now has about 1.5 billion page views a day, up from 1 billion page views day last month, it told me. Finally, it has more than 1.3 billion photos on the site, more than the 1 billion last month.

The caveat here of course is that this game is constantly changing.  UK social networking leader Bebo has been on a tear lately and is rumored to be in acquisition talks with Yahoo.  Korean juggernaut Cyworld has come to storm the US.  MySpace has launched video channels.  Even Friendster is back on a roll (especially in Southeast Asia, where they all but own the social networking market...)

But for this snapshot in time and from a purely personal perspective (as is everything on this blog, of course) I'm making camp at Facebook for now.  Come find me there and we can write on each other's walls.

The Avett Brothers

They've been called punk-country, grunge-grass, alt-rock-folk.  Someone behind me at their show last night called them the Sonic Youth of bluegrass. 

However you want to classify their music, The Avett Brothers are my new favorite band.

A few months ago I was reading this New York Magazine article about the cast of Spring Awakening (directed by my old friend Michael Mayer and definitely worth checking out if you haven't already...)  In the article, cast member John Gallagher, who plays wild-haired Moritz, talked about being obsessed by a band called The Avett Brothers.  I figured he looked the kind of guy who'd like music I was into so I picked up their album, Four Thieves Gone, from eMusic.  I haven't been able to stop listening to it.

The band is from North Carolina and two of them are in fact brothers (the guitar and banjo on the right in the picture above...)  The brothers had an up-and-coming punk band called Nemo and played country and bluegrass on the side.  At some point the band went bust and the brothers hooked up with an upright bassist and stuck with their banjo and acoustic guitar, at which point The Avett Brothers was born.

They play with an energy I've never seen in country/bluegrass and rarely even in rock as of late.  Scott Avett does things with a banjo that are just out of control.  He thrashed the thing so hard last night that the roadies just had to keep bringing out new ones for him song after song to keep repairing strings and keeping in tune.

At one point they brought out gravel-voiced local guitarist Paleface, along with a bow-toting cellist, and a drummer to join the fun; you're talking three guitars at this point, bass and cello being attacked with bows, two harmonicas going, beat of the drum barely keeping up with the beat of the crowd stomping on the ground - it was just bliss.  Here's a great review of a show they did in Philly two nights ago (and where I snagged the pic on this post from...)

They also have a slower and more mellow side, as evidenced by their latest album, Emotionalism, which comes out this Tuesday.  They're on tour to promote the CD, and did a gig on Conan Friday that I wish I'd caught.

I like the new album a lot, although Four Thieves Gone is still my favorite.  Here's the link to their page on FoxyTunes which features everything Avett from Google, YouTube, Last.FM, Hype Machine, etc. all in one place for your easy consumption.  And catch these guys the next time they play in your town.  You won't regret it.