BlackMaster Wordpress Theme

Google powered phones could be debuted as soon as February, according to speculation by APC.It’s an interesting exercise in drawing the dots together to get to a completely unsupported conclusion, but there are some interesting facts APC has reported that are worth taking a look at:

You can bet that if Google’s handset partners lift the covers on their Android phones during the Mobile World Congress expo, which kicks off on February 11th in Barcelona - or if Google itself trots out a flock of phones to impress this annual powerhouse gathering of the global mobile industry (the company has booked two stands on the expo floor) - that these will be shiny snazzy models endowed with a very high ‘cool’ factor.

2007 definitely felt like it had its share of Internet woes.There was the mundane, such as Twitter’s frustrating downtime. And there were more dramatic moments, like when a truck slammed into a power transformer and brought down a significant part of the Internet. Through it all, Pingdom was there to quietly monitor when sites were live or not.

Today they summarized the major incidents on the Internet in 2007. In addition to the Twitter and Rackspace outages above, the report also mentions the multi-day Skype outage in August (it was Microsoft’s fault), the 365 Main outage in San Francisco, and other major Internet problems.

By the way, if you don’t recognize the image, it’s because you were never a Bloglines user. That guy, the Plumber, popped up whenever Bloglines was down, which was quite often back in 2005/2006. They may still have a lot of downtime, but we, along with a lot of other users, moved on to Google Reader last year.

Yahoo already has a 2008 election site with deep content on the candidates and issues. But digging through all that content to find relevant stats comparing the candidates can take awhile.This afternoon the Elections team launched a new part of the site, called which contains basic polling and funding stats for each candidate in one easy to read screen.Each candidate is listed, Democrats on the left and Republicans on the right. Next to each candidate’s picture are four basic stats:

1. recent polling results, based on aggregated poll averages from Real Clear Politics
2. “buzz” which shows the relative popularity based solely on Yahoo search queries
3. prediction market, which shows the likelihood of a candidate to win based on real world, real money bets placed at Intrade, an Irish company
4. total money raised for each candidate

Comparing the basic stats is fascinating. Ron Paul, for example, is only polling 4% versus other Republican candidates, but he has a whopping 37% relative to other candidates in searches. The prediction markets, though, are probably the most accurate data when it comes to predicting the actual winner of each primary. Hillary Clinton shows a current 61.3% likelihood of winning, even though she is only polling at 43%. When it comes to predictions, I’ll be watching the people betting real money vs. poll results.

Users can also click and see the data on a state-by-state basis, and see other demographic data. Click on any candidate and a pop up window appears with more detailed information (see screen shot below).

Saying that iPhone “changed the way we think about how mobile media devices should look, feel and perform,” Time Magazine put iPhone at the top of its list of “Top 10 Gadgets.” iPhone’s design, Time says, “is exceptional inside and out: It’s got a slick glass-and-stainless steel case and an elegant touch screen loaded with eye candy. It’s an iPod and a 2-megapixel camera. Images and video clips display vertically or horizontally—they reorient themselves depending on how you hold the thing. When the phone detects a wireless network within range—your own home wi-fi set up or somebody else’s—it lets you tap once to connect, and then proceed with your Web surfing, Google mapping, emailing and other activities.”

Saying that iPhone “changed the way we think about how mobile media devices should look, feel and perform,” Time Magazine put iPhone at the top of its list of “Top 10 Gadgets.” iPhone’s design, Time says, “is exceptional inside and out: It’s got a slick glass-and-stainless steel case and an elegant touch screen loaded with eye candy. It’s an iPod and a 2-megapixel camera. Images and video clips display vertically or horizontally—they reorient themselves depending on how you hold the thing. When the phone detects a wireless network within range—your own home wi-fi set up or somebody else’s—it lets you tap once to connect, and then proceed with your Web surfing, Google mapping, emailing and other activities.”