The Newspaper Museum

Back in the day, I was one of those entrepreneurial urchins with a burlap sack over my shoulder taking a daily walk through the neighborhood to unload sheets of inked paper on people's doorsteps. I still see a paper on the sidewalk every once in awhile but those days are likely numbered. As Conde-Nast sheds 68-year old Gourmet Magazine this week, Jim Tyree's solo bid appears to be the last hope for the Sun-Times.

Is that kind of shift in the crystal ball for phone carriers as well, to what David Pogue calls "the right thing?" AT&T has announced it will allow VOIP as a service on its iPhones, which will certainly spread to Palm and other smartphones faster than a gps app. Even more than GoogleVoice, this development promises at the very least to change the way we think about minutes and calling plans.

Just Jott A Voicemail To My E-mail

When the iPhone came out, one of the spiffs Apple touted was the ability to organize your voicemails like e-mails.

But what if your voicemails came to your inbox and you could read them, hear them, forward them or archive them? That might be enough to switch to AT&T... or maybe not. Save that dilemma for another day - you can do it with Jott.

You can also transcribe a reminder to be sent to your phone or computer on a given date, or transcribe notes in the car on your phone as you're coming back from a meeting. In the messages I've sent so far the voice recognition works remarkably well, although I haven't used it long enough to be the poster child for Jott.

But maybe you will. Try it out here.

If iWoz the CEO...

So if the other Steve (Wozniak) of Apple were the CEO, he says he wouldn't have dropped the price or offered the store credit rebate on the iPhone. Of course, he bought twenty of them that he's eventually planning to give away.

Actually some people are now more upset with the recent change to their AT&T bills to "simplify" them by taking off call detail (at no extra charge)! "Press one to continue in English..."

I think the marketing team at Apple could have done better.

Pour another cup of coffee for the other impending rollout -- Halo 3 hits the shelves at midnight tonight in the US after three years since the last version. Microsoft is expecting a $150 million return on their $25-40 million investment within the first 24 hours. A million copies are pre-ordered at $60. For reference, the iPhone went to 1 million units in two months and nine days. Stay tuned...

ASiQ Inflight - Just in Time for the iPhone

If you've been wondering what the holdup is in getting inflight internet access, here's an update in anticipation of ASiQ's low-cost solution within the next couple months.
Just in time for you to try it out on your new iPhone, depending on where you stand in Rogers' diffusion of innovations -- and your current contract with Verizon (whose service wins hands-down over AT&T but where Steve Jobs couldn't agree on the terms of the deal).