It almost sounds like a Monty Python skit except that it isn't really funny. Apple product users worldwide are reporting exploding and sparking iPhone and iPods in what's becoming an all-too-familiar story over the past few years. [...]

After a bit of a delay I'm going to wrap up this series tonight. In the last segment, I finished up describing the struggle between file independence and data management, ending with the usefulness of metadata and touching on Cory Doctorow's dissension on that topic. [...]

[...] I've been very pessimistic on Nokia's future prospects in the United States but there's no distinction in that stance; so has just about every other pundit. It seems like every time Nokia had something novel to offer, whether it be new devices like the promising internet tablets or a potentially hot service like Ovi, the ball wound up fumbled... [...]

In part one of this series I touched on the conflict between the order of databases and the freedom of files. The latter are fiercely hoarded and guarded by information workers who in many cases don't really care about the object so much as the information it conveys. But what are files, and why does this issue of managing their chaos even exist?

I'm going to take a break from my series on the data cloud and interrupt with a request from my readership. I'm putting together a presentation proposal for the Maemo Summit 2009, titled "From corporations to communities: responsible and effective engagement" and could use some opinions and experience. If you have anything to offer on the items below, feel free to comment! [...]

[...] What I discovered shocked me although I really should not have been surprised: the vast majority of our mission-critical business data was sequestered in spreadsheets and shared virally via emails [...]

Back in 2007 I had what I thought at the time was a unique brainstorm in the area of computing and communications. Noting the quickening convergence between PCs and cell phones, I suggested that the obvious next step would be to bridge the two in a way that had not yet been done: shrink the PC down to a credit-card sized contraption about 5 mm or so thick and encapsulate it in a format that allowed it to pe plugged in, PC card style, into an array of device "skins" [...]

The wild bunch at maemo talk know well by now that I've been a hardcore advocate of Nokia's internet tablets ever since a fellow engineer quietly placed a preproduction 770 on my desk a few years ago. I have been on a rabid one-man mission to promote the touchscreen tablets ever since [...]

[...] The largest US telecommunications companies, Verizon and AT&T, have struggled to fit wireless access into their business models (although AT&T has done better of late). The concern, of course, revolves around monetization-- once a widespread, reliable and easy-to-access WiFi infrastructure gained traction, smaller service providers would have the incentive and the means to compete with the bigger players... the latter of which appear to develop allergies to free markets once they reach critical mass. [...]

I last wrote about what companies could do to make large-screen Mobile Internet Devices (regardless of producer or actual name) more attractive to consumers. To spare you having to read the epic piece, in summary my analysis is that everything comes down to the out-of-the-box experience. Average users do not want to configure or code-- at the most they want to install and go, with a ready path to any available installations [...]