Bailout for Newspapers? Not So Fast

NEW YORK  — President Barack Obama seemed to offer newspapers a trace of hope recently when he said he would be “happy to look at” proposals in Congress designed to help the beleaguered industry. But those proposals, such as the Newspaper Revitalization Act, don’t seem to be at the top of the industry priorities in Washington.

“The discussion of it is well-intentioned because there is recognition that newspapers serve our democracy,” said Paul Boyle, senior VP-public policy at the Newspaper Association of America. “But we are not asking for a specific handout, bailout, financial assistance, what have you.”

The Newspaper Revitalization Act, introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) last March, would allow newspapers to operate as nonprofits and enjoy the tax benefits that come along with that status. Some newspaper publishers and editors dislike the act because papers that accepted the tax breaks for nonprofits would be barred from making political endorsements.

“While understandably applicable to most nonprofits, such restrictions would be the death of the opinion pages of newspapers and very possibly the death of newspapers themselves,” the Cape Cod Times argued.

The act wouldn’t undo the industry’s troubles in any case, according to the newspaper association. “We generally support the concept but feel that it has limited application,” Mr. Boyle said. “It would apply to a handful of markets where a newspaper might be for sale and there might be folks within the community who might want to buy it and try to get foundations and civic support around the newspaper. But for the most part newspapers are for-profit businesses.”

So the Newspaper Association of America is pursuing efforts that would benefit all kinds of for-profit businesses — including newspapers. One big goal, for example, is legislation that would let big businesses apply their net operating losses to their taxable income going back five years instead of the current two years. Businesses with revenue under $15 million got that break in the economic stimulus package, but the newspaper association and many others want the provision extended and expanded to larger businesses.

Another big issue, particularly next year, is pension relief. The stock market’s decline means companies may need to use cash reserves to meet federal funding minimums for their pension funds, the association said, instead of protecting jobs or investing in business activities.

The newspaper association said members of its board will be on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to talk about both of those issues.

palm pre goes on sale first in new york

We just got to witness history, folks: Alfredo Rodriguez waited an hour in the miserable New York rain for the privilege of snapping up his Sprint store’s very first retail Pre at this evening’s invite-only Premier customers event. The man paid in cold hard cash, and after a tedious 40 minute purchase process that involved a bit of activation, some nice tutorials, a quick address book sideload from his old Touch Diamond and whole lot of peripheral upsell, Alfredo was one of the world’s first satisfied Pre customers. The last time we saw him Alfredo was still playing with his new phone, and gives the device two thumbs up. He’s particularly digging the keyboard — what Touch Diamond user wouldn’t? — and the flip-up mirror. Word on the street was that there were about 80 units available at the store, but while we couldn’t squeeze an official number out of Sprint, they did confirm that they’ll have units available for the launch tomorrow as well. Be sure to let us know how your own local launch treats you!

Nokia Asks Advertisers to Brand its Phones

 

If you brand it, they will buy. That’s the hope of Finnish handset maker Nokia, which is hoping mobile devices wrapped in a corporate logos will appeal to U.S. consumers.

For an undisclosed fee, the world’s biggest cellphone maker is offering advertisers the right to brand the mobile handset. Advertisers choose a Nokia phone that complements their demographic target, splash the handsets and the accessories with their visual identities, embed some mobile content into it and wrap it all up in packaging plastered with their logo.

 

 

CALLING COKE FANS: Branded cellphone.

 

The program, set to launch in the U.S. in the second half of 2009, comes from Nokia Interactive, the cellphone maker’s ad-selling arm. Nokia’s ability to preload content on the advertisers’ behalf is the linchpin of its custom-device strategy — the prize for the consumer is, presumably, access to that original content. Brands may also subsidize the cost of a handset.

 

The idea is for brands to put “content in the hands of the most potent brand advocates — people who like the brand … so much that they want to be seen with it,” said David Kohl, Nokia interactive head of sales-Americas.

The 18-month-old program has seen some early success in its initial testing ground in Brazil, but a U.S. launch would certainly require some tweaking. When it arrives, the program will test how far consumers here are willing to go to interact with brands — and experts say value and relevance are the operative keys.

Select audiences
”If you ask advertisers, ‘Would you like to brand a phone?’ I think it’d be difficult to find one who says no. The question is: Is this something that’s got enough value for consumers to change from the phone they already have?” said Maria Mandel, Ogilvy’s executive director-digital innovation. She said this program would appeal to brands that want to reach a select, targeted audience, build buzz or create a loyalty tool.

In Brazil, the branded phones are priced between $70 and $200 and sold through retailers that market them with in-store promotions and co-op advertising programs involving Nokia.

One of the program’s best-selling phones belongs to Unilever’s Seda personal-care brand, which used a limited-edition pink Nokia phone to refresh its brand and launch a teen shampoo line. The $100 device, which came bundled with games, trial-size shampoos and exclusive music by a popular Brazilian band, sold out within two months; it eventually sold 200,000 units between April and December, according to Nokia.

Unilever media director Maria-Luisa Lopez said Seda tapped into branded handsets to get closer to its customers, and plans to brand more Nokia phones in the future. “The project … was one of the ways to increase relevance to our consumers — being with them, speaking their language, with the colors, sounds and shapes they love the most,” Ms. Lopez said. Nokia says the branded-handset program is profitable and that it has sold millions of the branded devices.

But Brazil’s mobile economics favor the program’s success in ways that the U.S. may not. There, consumers pay dearly for mobile internet access and content (songs cost $3 a pop), but stateside content is cheap or free and rarely the top reason to purchase a handset.

Distribution could also be a challenge. Brazilians, who overwhelmingly prepay for their mobile talk time, can buy handsets without carrier oversight, but in the U.S., people typically buy phones through carriers, who subsidize the handsets in exchange for signing a service contract. In fact, experts say Disney and ESPN’s attempts to sell branded handsets earlier this decade went nowhere because they lacked wide distribution. Nokia said it is in talks with T-Mobile and AT&T regarding distribution of the branded sets.

Trade-offs
Ultimately, the program’s success will likely come down to what consumers get in exchange for carrying a brand-plastered handset. In the U.S., the branded phones will cost the same or cheaper than the unbranded one of the same model.

“I’m not sure if consumers would want their mobile experience to be a commercial-advertising experience,” said Mike Slusar, a former AT&T executive who now consults on brand management and licensing. “Their preference is to brand their own phones.”

As Forrester research analyst Charles Golvin pointed out, consumers are savvy: “If they’re being co-opted as a brand spokesman, they expect some compensation in the way of increased subsidies.”

While Nokia’s program has the attention of retail, entertainment and package-goods advertisers, not everyone is into it. For example, said Mr. Kohl, automakers are still scratching their heads: “It’s not clicking with them to the same degree as it is with a Coke.”

For now, entertainment companies are among Nokia’s low-hanging fruit because they view mobile as a key promotional channel for their movies and music. Mr. Kohl said Nokia is working on possible joint partnerships, including one that marries a cable network with a fashion retailer.

 

The Top 100 Most Expensive “Web Design” Adwords

It appears that the most expensive web design adwords are connected to local search.В DesignersВ pay a lot for keywords like ‘<city / stateВ name>В web design’.В 

For example, the most expensive ‘web design’ adword is ‘connecticut web design’, costs $49.71. Next is ‘houston web design’ for $27.87, after Houston comes ‘california web design’ for $19.63 and ‘boston web design’ for $18.16.

ThisВ is the tableВ of the top 100 web design google adwords, as of September 18, 2006:

Rank	Keyword	Minimum Bid	Top Bid
1	connecticut web design	$0.30	$49.71
2	houston web design	$0.30	$27.87
3	california web design	$0.30	$19.63
4	boston web design	$0.30	$18.16
5	portland web design	$0.40	$16.11
6	web design hosting	$0.20	$15.08
7	philadelphia web design	$0.30	$14.89
8	rhode island web design	$0.20	$14.88
9	internet web site design	$1.00	$14.54
10	atlanta web design	$0.30	$14.48
11	commercial web design	$0.20	$16.06
12	web design and hosting	$0.20	$14.77
13	web site design	$0.20	$14.20
14	web design chicago	$0.30	$14.03
15	ecommerce web site design	$1.00	$13.70
16	real estate web design	$0.10	$13.88
17	web server design	$0.20	$14.46
18	new jersey web design	$0.30	$13.73
19	web design classes	$0.15	$13.16
20	attorney web design	$0.15	$12.72
21	design a web site	$0.15	$12.72
22	web page design prices	$0.15	$12.57
23	mortgage web design	$0.15	$12.48
24	county web design	$0.30	$12.43
25	small business web design	$0.20	$12.58
26	web design san diego	$0.20	$12.50
27	ecommerce web design	$0.20	$12.25
28	design my own web site	$0.20	$12.13
29	web design michigan	$0.40	$11.64
30	washington dc web design	$0.15	$11.45
31	web design georgia	$0.30	$11.31
32	new york web design	$0.20	$11.12
33	corporate web design	$0.15	$10.79
34	online web design	$0.20	$10.67
35	web design development	$0.30	$10.50
36	web design certification	$0.20	$10.46
37	web site design development	$1.00	$10.84
38	affordable web site design	$1.00	$10.43
39	business web design	$0.20	$10.73
40	web design companies	$0.20	$10.01
41	web design austin	$0.20	$10.40
42	web site design seattle	$0.20	$9.28
43	best web site design	$0.30	$9.53
44	web design firms	$0.15	$8.99
45	top web design	$0.15	$9.55
46	web design school	$0.20	$8.84
47	web design and development	$0.30	$8.83
48	business web page design	$0.30	$8.81
49	web design services	$0.15	$9.50
50	cheap web design	$0.10	$9.06
51	web design sites	$0.20	$8.66
52	creative web design	$0.20	$8.63
53	web design website	$0.20	$8.93
54	professional web design	$0.20	$8.42
55	web design company	$0.20	$8.42
56	affordable web design	$0.30	$8.27
57	web design firm	$0.20	$8.23
58	cincinnati web design	$0.40	$8.13
59	web site design firm	$1.00	$8.13
60	web site design services	$1.00	$8.21
61	web design training	$0.15	$8.08
62	web design minnesota	$0.20	$8.38
63	web design class	$0.20	$7.91
64	web design agencies	$0.15	$7.85
65	great web site design	$0.30	$7.84
66	web design consultant	$0.20	$7.84
67	web design courses	$0.15	$7.83
68	design web	$0.20	$8.21
69	web design course	$0.15	$7.76
70	web site design prices	$0.15	$7.75
71	custom web design	$0.20	$7.59
72	ny web design	$0.20	$7.59
73	web design builder	$0.20	$7.58
74	hampshire web design	$0.30	$7.33
75	web graphic design	$0.20	$7.90
76	best web design	$0.20	$7.26
77	web site design firms	$1.00	$7.16
78	web designers	$0.15	$7.34
79	asp web design	$0.20	$7.04
80	frontpage web design	$0.20	$6.94
81	web design content	$0.20	$6.91
82	web design advertising	$0.20	$6.89
83	learning web design	$0.20	$6.91
84	design a web page	$0.20	$6.84
85	indiana web design	$0.50	$6.80
86	designing a web page	$0.20	$6.79
87	church web site design	$0.20	$6.74
88	design web page	$0.20	$6.84
89	web page design programs	$0.20	$6.46
90	web site designers	$0.15	$6.42
91	learn web design	$0.20	$6.33
92	adult web site design	$0.15	$7.52
93	award winning web design	$0.15	$6.22
94	marketing web design	$0.20	$6.21
95	web design studio	$0.20	$6.12
96	web design san francisco	$0.20	$6.08
97	web design career	$0.20	$6.06
98	web site design software	$0.20	$6.26
99	vermont web design	$0.50	$6.02
100	tulsa web design	$0.20	$5.89

post by compster

online Display-Ad Spending will fall in 2009

 

For a year, we’ve listened to analysts passionately explain how online adlistened to analysts passionately explain how

 

online ad spending will power through any broader economic and advertising weakness. Eyeballs are moving online, this story went (goes), ad dollars will follow. Online advertising is accountable. Online advertising is the future. Blah, blah, blah.

It’s time we woke up and faced reality. Online display-ad spending will fall in 2009, probably sharply. It will probably fall again in 2010. Hundreds of startups counting on advertising as a business model will be flattened. Yahoo, CNET, AOL, and other big display-ad properties will  get hammered. Legions of me-too video sites will croak.  Ad networks, the “hey, let’s just start an Internet company!” flavor of this second dotcom boom, will get decimated.

This is why Nick Denton, the CEO of the highly profitable Gawker Media, just blew out so much of his staff. Nick’s no fool, and his only concern at this point is that he didn’t go far enough. This is why Yahoo will almost certainly fire too few employees when it announces its mass layoffs this week. This is why the value of AOL, MSN, and other second-tier properties will continue to atrophy.

How do we know online display ad spending will fall? Because by Q2 of this year it had already slowed sharply–to mid-single digit growth–and that was before things even began to get bad.

According to IAB, the growth of non-search online ad spending (display, classifieds, lead-gen) was 14% in Q1 and 5% in Q2. 5%! That’s before the horrific fall-off in consumer spending in September.  We’ll be lucky if non-search spending is up year-over-year in Q3. By Q4, it will almost certainly be negative.

How much has online display ad growth already deteriorated? Take a look at this chart from PriceWaterhouse . For the last three years, Q1 spending has been higher than Q4 of the prior year and Q2 was higher than Q1. This year, both numbers are down (see the two righthand columns). Again–that’s before things really got bad.  (And this is total spending, which includes the still-growing search).

 

Now, look at how Q2 revenue has behaved over the years.  See that 25% dip from 2000-2002? The coming drop probably won’t be that bad, but it will be bad. And it will last at least two years. (These numbers, by the way, are all online advertising, not just display.)

 

How bad will the online display ad market fare over the next couple of years? At this point, we would estimate at least a 10% drop next year and probably more. (20% is not inconceivable).  Again, the overall market fell 25% from 2000-2002.  There are many reasons why this falloff should not be be so extreme–namely, that half of online ad customers won’t go bankrupt this time. On the other hand, there are many reasons why this falloff could be worse: The general economy is going to get clobbered in this recession–something that didn’t happen last time.

 

So, what’s the smart amount of spending decline to plan for? We think about 10% next year and slightly more in 2010, with the possibility that things could get a lot worse. We would also plan on the decline lasting at least two years. The country isn’t going to dig itself out of this economic hole quickly.

written my compster CEO

ODELL TAYLOR

Steave Jobs health Problems

SEATTLE (AP) — Even as Apple Inc. acknowledges that all is not well, the extent of Steve Jobs’ health problems remains a closely guarded secret.

Related Quotes

Symbol	Price	Change
AAPL	85.33	-2.38

The Apple chief executive, a cancer survivor, said Wednesday he is taking medical leave until June, a move that sent the company’s shares plunging 7 percent.

Apple’s chief operating officer, Tim Cook, will take over Jobs’ responsibilities while he is on leave, though Jobs said he plans to remain involved in major strategic decisions.

The announcement marks a reversal from just a week ago, when Jobs, 53, tried to assure investors and employees his recent weight loss was caused by an easily treatable hormone deficiency.

“The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors,” Jobs said in a statement last week. Once tests revealed the problem, Jobs said he began a “relatively simple and straightforward” treatment and insisted he would remain at Apple’s helm.

But investors weren’t reassured. Nor do Jobs’ medical issues seem to be quite so simple.

“Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well,” Jobs wrote in an e-mail to employees Wednesday. “In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.”

Apple’s shares have surged and tumbled over the last year in step with rumors or news about the CEO’s health and his gaunt appearance. While the top executive’s health is an issue for investors in any company, at Apple the level of concern reaches fever pitch because Jobs has a hand in everything from ideas for new products to the way they’re marketed.

Jobs co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak in 1976 at the dawn of the personal computer revolution. He was forced from the company in 1985 but returned as CEO in 1997, slashing unprofitable product lines and helping rescue the company from financial ruin.

Since then, under Jobs’ demanding leadership, Apple has churned out a string of sleek gadgets, from the iMac and the iPod to a new line of aluminum-covered Macbooks and the coveted iPhone. Many investors fear that without Jobs, Apple would not be able to sustain its growth or its high-end minimalist style.

Last week, Jobs said his disclosure of his hormone problem was “more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say” about his health. It came on the eve of Macworld, the biggest Apple trade show of the year, at which Jobs traditionally delivered the keynote address to throngs of avid fans. In December, Apple said Jobs would not take the stage as usual, stoking more rumors. Jobs said he hoped the health update would allow everyone to relax and enjoy the event.

Even so, the limited amount of information in that announcement did little to soothe Wall Street’s nerves. Medical experts not involved in Jobs’ treatment said it was unclear what was behind his weight loss, but some specialists said Jobs’ past pancreatic cancer could be the problem.

Apple’s history of keeping information about Jobs’ health under wraps is only increasing the speculation. The company waited until after Jobs underwent surgery in 2004 to treat a very rare form of pancreatic cancer — an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor — before alerting investors. That type of cancer is easily cured if diagnosed early, unlike the deadlier and more common adenocarcinoma.

And last summer, Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple insisted Jobs’ weight loss was due to a common bug, even as The New York Times cited anonymous sources who said Jobs had undergone “a surgical procedure” to address the problem.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling would not elaborate on Jobs’ condition or what he discovered in the past week.

“They’ll tell you the least they can tell you,” longtime industry analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technology Associates said after Jobs’ disclosure Wednesday. “They’re trying to have it both ways, to protect their guy’s privacy and feelings and at the same time somehow signal the market.”

Cook, who ran Apple for two months in 2004 when Jobs was recovering from his cancer surgery, is seen as one of Jobs’ most likely successors, along with Apple’s top marketing executive, Philip Schiller. American Technology Research analyst Brian Marshall — who last week predicted Jobs would step down this year — said Wednesday’s announcement tips the bets in Cook’s favor.

“The company has been soft-signaling to the Street for a while now that Steve Jobs is not going to be CEO forever,” he said. “This will be sort of a trial period for Cook to be chief executive.”

Cook, 48, lacks Jobs’ charisma and showmanship, but is seen as a solid pick.

“Tim Cook is a very experienced and highly regarded chief operating officer,” said Calyon Securities analyst Shebly Seyrafi. “He’s qualified.”

Apple’s shares slid $6.03, 7.1 percent, to $79.30 in extended trading after Jobs announced his leave. That left the shares near their 52-week low, well off the high of $192.24 reached over the past year.

Compster.net ceo Odell Taylorin New York contributed to this report.

 

what should you pay for SEO

 

As someone who gets to spend a lot of time comparing notes with owners of search marketing firms, as well as referring a lot of people seeking SEO services, I have a somewhat strong grasp on the pricing & cost structures of the SEO business. That said, it’s a very big world out there in search, and while my knowledge comes from a few dozen companies and a couple hundred referrals, there’s no scientific or survey data contained in this post – it’s all experience and intuition.

I’m trying to save you from situations like this one

I wanted to explore the world of SEO pricing models from both sides of the issue, so let’s dive right in. First off, we’ll take a look at how SEO companies commonly price their services, then look at how businesses and organizations should expect to pay for SEO.

The 7 Most Popular SEO Pricing Models

• Hourly Consulting
  The simplest way to price a project is to charge by the hour. Rates in SEO vary with the lowest, entry level folks around $40-50, mid-tier consultants around $100-$200 and high-demand firms & people from $300-500. SEOmoz is obviously actively trying to limit our clients by going way outside the norm and charging $1000 / hour.
• Project-Based Consulting
  Many SEOs will use the business model common to web development agencies and charge a flat fee (often in several chunks over the course of a project). The total price is based on an estimate of time, effort and personel involved in the project. At SEOmoz we often charge in this fashion for a site review + keyword research + consulting time or for an on-site SEO training series.
• Contract Services
  Plenty of SEOs offer dozens of individual services, such as Debra Mastaler’s directory submission service, Eric Ward’s link building & publicity campaigns or Jessie Strichiola’s SEO assessment services. These offerings present a single price for a set amount of work, though I have little doubt that many of them are customized and have modified pricing based on the factors discussed in the next section.
• Standard Profit Sharing
  Some limited number of SEO providers offer profit sharing based compensation. These frequently include a relatively small down payment to begin work and then a percentage of revenues (usually before non-essential expenses) from sales through the website. This can be a good option for SEOs who have great confidence in their abilities and are ready to assume a significant share of risk. We at SEOmoz have tried this in the past with mixed results – one big problem is that you’ll need to ensure that the business operations, outside of the website, are running on all cylinders, which really doesn’t fit well with the job of SEO.
• Modified Profit Sharing
  As above, but modified profit sharing typically includes a clause that gives the SEO firm a cut prior to any expenses and may even set minimums of payment. Other modifications could make the deal similar to a Pay-Per-Action (PPA) or Pay-Per-Lead, the latter of which can be a better way to limit risk. Both SEOs and those seeking their services should be wary of any kind of profit-sharing deal. It’s akin to a real business partnership in many ways and shouldn’t be treated with any less weight.
• Monthly Retainer
  A few good SEO firms I know use a basic monthly retainer with a standard workload package (or several options). My friends up in Quebec modify this system so that during development, marketing & ongoing maintenance, different prices are charged as part of the retainer. This can be a very good model for companies seeking to retain clients over a long period of time, but it can also be abused by those who claim (hopefully falsely) that the site will “lose its rankings” if the customer cancels.
• Pay for Rankings
  This is one of the more interesting strategies that SEOs employ. The idea being that you pay one price for reaching, say, page 2 of a particular result, another price for position 10, 9, 8 and so on, usually with particular bonuses for #1-3 rankings. It really only makes sense for companies seeking to rank for a particular set of terms/phrases that they know converts quite highly. I suspect that searches like DUI Attorney Orange County might fit well into this system.
• Pay for Traffic
  As with pay-per-ranking, a traffic payment system treats SEO very much like PPC. I like this model in some respects, because it does measure the SEO’s work, but it can get messy as the quality of traffic isn’t measured here (of course, this usually only counts search engine traffic, but still…).

With those covered, let’s dive into the prices themselves. If you’re in the market for SEO services, there’s a lot of factors that can affect what you should expect to pay, not to mention the great number of formats an SEO contract might take (as noted above). The following can all affect the price you might pay for organic optimization consulting or hands-on services:

• Size & Complexity of Website
• Size of Brand/Organization
• Difficulty of Project / Competitiveness of Rankings
• Personality Issues (if you’re a very controlling personality, expect a generally higher price)
• Reputation, Notability & Demand for the SEO Firm

The prices themselves are all across the board, but here’s my take on the general ranges:

Service	Low End	Mid Range	High End
Site Review + Consulting	$500	$2,500	$10,000
Hands-On Editing of Pages/Code	$2,000	$10,000	$50,000
Manual Link Building Campaign	$500	$5,000	$20,000
1-Day SEO Training Seminar	$750	$4,000	$12,000
Keyword Research Package	$100	$500	$2,000
Viral Content Development + Mktg	$1,000	$7,500	$20,000
Web Design, Development + Mktg	$5,000	$25,000	$100K+
Monthly Retainer for Ongoing SEO	$2,500	$7,500	$20,000+

You might see the incredibly wide discrepancy of prices above and think, if you’re a potential client, that the prices on the high end are evil, greedy SEOs gouging customers foolish enough to fall for their machinations. Likewise, if you’re an SEO, you might look and think that some of the folks on the low end or mid range are insane to offer such valuable, time-consuming services for so little.

And thus, balance is achieved

palm pre

The new-ness is underway, and Palm just debuted its long(est) awaited all-new handset, the Palm Pre. The curvy touchscreen handset has a 3.1-inch 320 x 480 multitouch display, with a silver center button down below and touch sensitivity all down the face — the lower part is for “gestures.” A full QWERTY keyboard slides out from the phone in a portrait orientation, and you can flip the phone on its side for accelerometer-sensed widescreen browsing. The phone is running Palm’s all-new webOS platform, with TI’s new OMAP CPU under the hood — which Palm claims provides laptop-style power, and which juices the phones smooth transitions, scrolling and “deck of cards” app-switching. Other internal specs include EV-DO Rev. A, 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth with A2DP and 8GB of built-in flash storage. There’s a 3 megapixel camera with LED flash, mass storage-friendly microUSB plug and a good ol’ 3.5mm headphone jack, but most exciting is the wireless charger — a first for a mainstream phone. More shots are after the break, including a fancy FCC diagram depicting a removable battery. The phone is exclusive at launch for Sprint in the first half of 2009, no word on price just yet.

stay tune for more review on the palm pre from compster blog

Palm Pre Specifications

• High-speed connectivity (EVDO Rev. A or UMTS HSDPA)
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• Integrated GPS
• Large 3.1-inch touch screen with a vibrant 24-bit color 320×480 resolution HVGA display
• Gesture area, which enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation
• Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• Email, including Outlook EAS (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers), as well as personal email support (POP3, IMAP)
• Robust messaging support (IM, SMS and MMS capabilities)
• High-performance, desktop-class web browser
• Great multimedia experience and performance (pictures, video playback, music), featuring a 3-megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field, and a standard 3.5mm headset jack
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
• 8GB of internal user storage (~7.4GB user available)
• USB mass storage mode
• MicroUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
• Proximity sensor, which automatically disables the touch screen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear
• Light sensor, which dims the display if the ambient light is dark, such as at night or in a movie theater, to reduce power usage
• Accelerometer, which automatically orients web pages and photos to your perspective
• Ringer switch, which easily silences the device with one touch
• Removable, rechargeable battery
• Dimensions: 59.57mm (W) x 100.53mm (L, closed) x 16.95mm (D) [2.35 inches (W) x 3.96 inches (L, closed) x 0.67 inches (D)]
• Weight: ~135 grams [4.76 ounces]
• [Pre Product Page at Palm]

WOHM is here but how good is it? and is it worth buying

 

 

That’s the idea behind a new service from Sprint called Xohm, which takes Wi-Fi to its logical extreme. Fittingly, the technology behind it is called WiMax. Although it isn’t widely deployed in the United States, a test run of the service in Baltimore, where it was recently introduced, suggests that it could one day become a solid option for getting things done online and even making phone calls while on the go.

Of course, there are plenty of reasons the technology could also become a historical footnote, not the least of which is that it won’t work everywhere in a given city, much less all over the country. So-called mobile hot spot Internet services sold by cell carriers, including Sprint, have much greater range. But for those living in an area Xohm covers — the service arrives in Washington and Chicago in the coming months, with Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Fort Worth and Providence, R.I., to follow — the monthly outlay of $35 to $65 could be well worth it.

For $35, subscribers get home broadband service that they can share among multiple computers; $45 lets you connect at home or on the road with one laptop or other mobile device, and $65 broadens that to cover multiple devices. The prospect of getting speedy wireless service outside your house while also tearing up your contract with your home Internet service may appeal to many, because that combination is not available with data services from cell carriers.

Actually, most Xohm customers will have to pay something beyond that. To receive the signal, you need a Windows laptop with a WiMax chip, and only eight WiMax-ready machines are on the market. (The cheapest is a Lenovo SL500 for $570. I used a $2,560 Lenovo X301.)

If you don’t own one of those, you’ll need a wireless dongle or PC card ($60), and to set up a home network, you need a Xohm router ($80). If you’re just stopping into a Xohm city and you have the right equipment, you can buy 24-hour access for $10.

Once you are in a coverage area, the service works much like a home Wi-Fi connection, where you don’t need to type in a password each time you log on. Rather, after you sign up, the network recognizes your device whenever you’re in range of the signal.

When I visited Baltimore last week, Xohm operated at broadband speed no matter what kind of demands I put on it. I opened multiple browser windows, simultaneously streaming videos in each, without a hiccup. I ducked into alleys and hotel room corners and the connection still sped along nicely.

So how does the speed stack up against wired and unwired competitors? Time Warner, which charges about $50 a month for cable Internet service, averaged 3 megabits a second for downloading in New York on Monday, and 1 megabit a second for uploading, according to Keynote Systems, a mobile and Internet monitoring firm. Xohm’s connections can be faster than that; the company is aiming to provide 4 megabits a second for downloading and 1.5 for uploads.

Wireless Internet services from cell carriers come in various speeds, but AT&T’s Broadband Connect service, as an example, is much slower than Xohm. It averages 400 to 700 kilobits a second for downloads, and a maximum of 384 kilobits a second for uploads. That service costs $20 to $60 a month depending on data use.

Individual results, as they say in weight-loss and investing seminars, may vary. Because Xohm was turned on only last month, I shared the WiMax signal with just a handful of people. But soon the network will be carrying the load of thousands of file-swapping, video-downloading bandwidth hogs. Xohm says that once the system has more users, it will either add more transmission towers or offer tiered service, forcing some people to pay more for faster data speeds.

The type of device you use will also affect speed — and here’s where the WiMax story starts to get more interesting, or more complicated, depending on your stance. Xohm says that because WiMax chips are cheaper to produce than the communications chips in many smartphones, it expects manufacturers to introduce an array of new devices that can connect to the Web.

The first such device is the Nokia N810 WiMax Edition, a hand-held PC of sorts that went on sale last week for $493. The Nokia is a little bigger and a lot heavier than an iPhone, and it includes a big touch screen, but you can’t use it to make standard cellphone calls. Rather, you use it with Internet telephony software like Skype or Gizmo5, and simply make calls or set up video chats that way.

Video chats and phone calls over wireless Internet signals can be unstable, said Julie Ask, an analyst with Forrester Research, and it remains to be seen how reliable they’ll be on Xohm. Web surfing on the Nokia was noticeably quicker than on a 3G iPhone, but it wasn’t exactly fast. Watching NFL.com video highlights on the Nokia, I had a flashback to the days of 56k modems, when everything moved in fits and starts.

Those with an N810 may find the quality of Internet calls good enough to consider ditching their landlines. Chances are, though, if you can afford a nearly $500 gadget like this, you’re not looking to scrimp on the monthly phone bill.

 

A home network would require a Xohm router.

Instant-messaging applications on the N810 operated smoothly. (SMS fans are out of luck, because Xohm is not plugged into a conventional cell network.)

WiMax is already operating in other parts of the world, where cities like Seoul and Amsterdam are bathed in its waves. In the United States, however, Wi-Fi dominates — so much so that analysts like Ms. Ask, from Forrester, say WiMax could have a hard time competing. If your home city doesn’t have WiMax service, you might want to hold off springing for a new laptop with a built-in WiMax receiver and wait to see if the market comes to you.

If you want to roll the dice, though, devices that pick up Xohm’s signal will also handle Wi-Fi, and will even go so far as to hand off the connection to Wi-Fi if that signal is stronger.

As for those in the suburbs who want a WiMax experience, the outlook isn’t bright. Only urban areas have enough potential customers to justify the cost of building these networks, which means less choice, less competition and higher Internet prices for country dwellers.

Quick Calls

If you’re a text-messaging newcomer who can’t quite figure out how to type a word on a traditional number pad, device makers are meeting you halfway. The Pantech Matrix, which AT&T introduced last week for $80, is the first of four new phones from the carrier that include the traditional “qwerty” keyboard layout. Slide the Matrix’s screen vertically, and a typical phone keypad appears. Slide it horizontally, and the bigger keyboard sets you up for easy text messaging … While the debut of BlackBerry’s first touch-screen device, the Storm, got lots of attention recently, the company also quietly began selling its first flip phone, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip. The phone, available from T-Mobile for $150, features a keyboard that’s significantly bigger than the original Pearl, plus a bigger screen. When closed, it’s slightly thicker and slightly shorter than the earlier model … If you’d rather not be partly responsible for someone else’s cellphone-related auto accident, a solution could be on the way. The Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Aegis Mobility, a mobile technology company, announced software that will tell a caller when the other party is moving at car speeds. The technology has already hit the baltimore area.

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