I am very conflicted by Steve Jobs iPology. You see I bought the iPhone on day one. Normally, I would say they told me the price, I paid it, and I moved on no big deal. I am/was happy that I purchased the iPhone it's been a very cool choice for me. However, when Steve issued his apology he made me think twice.

I will be attending the Ajax World Conference next week in Santa Clara. I will also be at the opening reception on Monday and the conference party on Tuesday. Over the weekend Jesse Liberty blogged about this as well 'If you are going to be at AJAXWorld, look for me on Twitter, and let's see if we can set up a meeting or a lunch.' Other faculty members, according to the Ajax World website, who will be at these parties include...

'With this program, advertisers can connect with the growing number of mobile publishers, ultimately providing users with an enhanced mobile experience that helps them find what they are looking for more quickly and efficiently on the go,' said Google, as it yesterday announced AdSense for Mobile, a program that contextually targets ads to mobile website content.

According to the first European brand value study, presented in Vienna by the European Brand Institute, Europe's most valuable brand is Nokia, which the study estimates is worth $40.6 billion. Nokia came ahead of Euro-giants like LVMH, Unilever, Telefonica, Vodafone, Mercedes-Benz, Deutsche Telekom, BMW, France Telecom and inBEV.

One of the last things that I keep my Palm 650 for is it's ability to record calls, which is very handy when you are having a conference call and need to review your call later or take notes -of course always ensure you ask the people you are speaking to whether they are OK with this! To date I've never found a product that could do this easily and efficiently on Windows Mobile.

So, picture this situation. I'm sitting in my living room poking around catching up on news feeds and reading the latest of my favorite comic strips. In the background is one of those cheezy star-watching shows like Entertainment Tonight or whatever - I usually let those shows slip into the background as 'white noise' so imagine my surprise when my geeky sense (similar to spidey sense, only instead of warning me about impending danger, it alerts me to the presence of possible technology nearby!) starts tingling. 'I must be going mad... I could've sworn that not 30 seconds after hearing the phrase Britney Spears on TV, I heard someone say Microsoft Silverlight.'

I've been a big proponent of smartphone technology for a long time, and have been chasing the 'perfect smartphone' for a while. Specifically, I've been hooked on using Windows Smartphone devices, because of the seamless integration with Outlook and the resulting automatic synchronization of all my contacts, calendar entries, tasks, notes, and e-mail over the air. And my favorite Smartphone so far was the Cingular/AT&T 8525. To meet a new business partner on the road, enter their contact details into the smartphone, and find the same person automatically in Outlook when you get back to the office is simply great - same goes for calendar entries.

The on-again, off-again Google Phone or 'gPhone' rumors are likely to come to halt for the forseeable future. That's because Google's Head of Research since 2006, Dr Peter Norvig, has told journalists in the UK that he doesn't think Google has any research ambition toward hardware, saying: 'You know we want to work everywhere and be neutral. That neutrality is important.'

'They have periodic updates on their data files, and they translate into megabucks,' Levy said. 'This is akin to your bank having automatic access to your ATM machine and is siphoning money out during all times of the day and night without your knowledge.' Actually, no. Its nothing even remotely like that. Surely one can appreciate the man's anger, but statements like this indicate ignorance of how technology works. There is one single common thread here that you'll see. Here's a quote from another article that referred to the source article: Because the iPhone, according to this Newsday story, checks for service updates and email whether it's turned on or off.

Sony officially announced a new cross-breed between robot and MP3 player (so far in Japan only). The Rolly is a hand-sized device that not only plays your tracks but also dances to the music. In other words, it's a dancing iPod killer-wannabe...

A quick refresh on Thinlet. Thinlet is a XUL styled UI development tool in which the UI can be designed using XML and the business logic is kept cleanly separate. From a Java class perspective, the version of Thinlet I used was MIDP 1.0 compliant and was pretty easy to work with, with most of the effort going into the business logic translation and some effort around the XML logic hooks.

So, for those of you who were on the fence about building iPhone applications using Web 2.0 technologies, think about this: Your potential list of application users is about to grow beyond users of the iPhone, and will include a crapload of people buying new iPods. If you think about the ubiquitous nature of WiFi (well, semi-ubiquitous), you're going to have people with iPod Touches hitting your application from coffee shops, airports, offices, hotel lobbies, hotel rooms, conference and convention centers, and a lot of restaurants.

As interest in mobile AJAX gathers in the wake of the Apple iPhone release, the ICEfaces open source project is poised to deliver mobile AJAX solutions today. Come to this presentation and find out why the server-centric nature of the ICEfaces technology provides inherent advantages in the mobile space. During the discussion you will get a brief overview of the ICEfaces technology, and will see how it is applicable to resource-constrained mobile devices. You will also see a live demonstration of a mobile ICEfaces application running on both the Safari and Opera mobile browsers. Finally, you will learn about some of the emerging best practices for mobile AJAX application design, and get a a glimpse of the ICEfaces roadmap for mobile AJAX.

SYS-CON Events announced today that 'AJAXWorld Conference & Expo 2007 West' main sponsorship opportunities are now sold-out! Limited number of expo and event sponsorship opportunities that are still available are expected to be completely sold before the end of the month. The new sponsors who joined the conference this week, and are not yet listed on the conference Website, will also be announced later in the week.

I will be teaching a one day Bootcamp course on Ajax at the AJAXWorld Conference in Santa Clara, California on September 23, 2007. Details are at http://aja xbootcamp.sys-con.com I will be expanding the Ajax construction tools section from the Ajax Bootcamp I taught in New York at the SOA World conference. I am very impressed with TIBCO GI and Sun jMaki

iPhone, whatever its sales, was disruptive from the moment Steve Jobs first showed it off in January. It immediately started redefining the smartphone business and focused the attention of smartphone makers on the importance of software, according to serial entrepreneur Pauline Alker, the CEO of a la Mobile, the Venrock-backed developer of what is supposed to be the first Linux software stack for smart devices ready to deliver. IPhone's pushing smartphones up the evolutionary ladder from voice-centric gadgets with limited data functions into sophisticated multimedia devices deploying a broad range of enterprise and consumer applications. But the increased use of data-rich applications leaves mobile devices vulnerable to security threats - even the loss of a phone can represent a threat to the personal and corporate data stored on it.

I usually skip BarCamp and other hackathon coding events because they consume a lot of time and I don't usually get as much accomplished as I do at my desk. That said, when a major new platform like the iPhone gets released, an event such as the iPhone Dev Camp seems like a great idea to collaborate and get up to speed as quickly as possible. If Apple's WWDC from last week is any indication, this will be the most in demand BarCamp event ever, and should be a great event to build iPhone apps.

So yesterday I was happily catching up on my RSS feeds when I noticed that there was some Apple buzz. I took a look and saw some photos of the new iPod Touch, which is basically an iPhone that can only use WiFi instead of EDGE and obviously has no phone in it. It's quite impressive-looking. Then I noticed that Apple is no longer going to make any more 4GB iPhones, they're selling off their remaining stock at discount. Then I noticed that Apple has dropped the price of the 8GB iPhones by $200.

If you take a look at the success of the Nintendo Wii, you'll see an innovative device with an incredibly compelling user interaction design (the Wiimote, nunchuck, steering wheels, fitness pads, etc). The device itself has what the industry might actually refer to as 'last gen' hardware. The video card is weak relative to the PS3 and Xbox 360, it doesn't come with built-in LAN (though you can buy a LAN/USB adapter for it), it has less memory and less processor power than the PS3 and Xbox 360. Yet, despite these so-called deficiencies, everybody seems to love their Wii, and it's actually gaining a lot of momentum sales-wise while the others are slowing down.

Dojo Toolkit Co-Creator Dylan Schiemann, Laszlo Systems Co-Founder & Chief Interface Architect Bret Simister, Alacrity Ventures Founder Christopher Allen, UI Architect Joe Johnson, Laszlo Sr. Software Engineer Ben Shine, Vodafone Senior Technology Strategist Daniel Appelquist, Next-Gen Web Solutions specialist Matthew David, and more. These are the high-caliber speakers lined up by SYS-CON Events to speak in the iPhone Applications track at AJAXWorld Conference & Expo 2007 West taking place next month at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA ? one of just ten simultaneous content-rich tracks at biggest version yet of the world?s leading AJAX, Rich Internet Applications & Web 2.0 event.

We're working on an iPhone-optimized version of Ta-da List. As I was working on some UI ideas, Ryan and I were talking about some of really cool things about designing for the iPhone. I remarked that I loved the constraints. For example, we know the exact screen size/resolution, we know the exact typeface, we know how the face renders on the screen, we know the colors, we know the browser, etc. Then Ryan nailed it: Designing for the iPhone is like a hybrid of print and web design.

The inaugural iTVCon - Internet Video Conference & Expo (November 12-13, 2007) is building out its program and the Conference Advisory Board is busy sorting through the hundreds of proposals for technical and strategic sessions that have been coming in. Final deadline for proposals is September 10, 2007.

Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, is going to brief journalists today at the BBC's headquarters in London and at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. It is expected he'll announce a new full-screen version of the Video iPod. Jobs will be hoping that a revamped iPod product line can help push Apple back over the 20 million-units-per quarter threshhold.

Tomorrow Apple is going to announce something new, people say it's an iPod of some sort, and there are rumors that its big innovation is that it supports digital radio, with a tie-in to the Apple site that sells music. Okay, that's all speculation, let's get that objection out of the way. But in case it's true, let me be the first to say: Apple is chickenshit!

'It's likely that the speed of the iPhone's rise to competitive dominance in its segment is unprecedented in the history of the mobile-handset market,' said a report by research group iSuppli yesterday, as it was revealed that Apple's iPhone outsold every other type of smartphone in the United States in July, its first full month on sale.

The perennial rumors of a mobile phone from Google are currently in full flower with the Engadget blog claiming to have heard from reliable sources that Google's been working on a Linux mobile device OS and shopping it around to carriers and handset makers and that it could go public with the news any day now. And to think Google CEO Eric Schmidt sits on Apple's board. Supposedly the creature would emerge from wherever Google put its 2005 acquisition of Android, the mobile software company.

Nokia launched this week a new brand, Ovi (Finnish for 'door'), for its Internet-based initiatives in the direction of photos, maps, music and games. In a clear challenge to Apple, Nokia will - in Europe anyway - launch its very own Nokia Music Store in Q4 2007.

'In conjunction with Oracle's ERP, supply chain, inventory management and network discovery solutions, Oracle plans to provide service providers the ability to improve their network ROI and increase their operational efficiency as they launch, deploy and profit from next-generation IP services,' said Oracle SVP and General Manager, Bhaskar Gorti, as Oracle this week announced that it has agreed to acquire Netsure Telecom Limited.

Eating blackberries is easy; but eating BlackBerry would be more challenging. That was the conclusion of one analyst commenting on the rumors this week that Microsoft might be thinking of buying BlackBerry-maker RIM. Barry Richards of Paradigm Capital in Toronto told The Canadian Press that, in view of RIM's colossal $50BN market cap, 'We are running out of possible acquirors and we are now left with Cisco, Microsoft, IBM and maybe Nokia.'

'The service is faster and more direct than accessing eBay via the mobile internet, as updates are sent automatically without the customer having to proactively monitor their bid,' Ian Jordan, head of product development, operations and innovation at eBay UK, told a UK technology reporter as eBay launched an SMS alert service that tells users when they've been outbid on an item.

Skype is blaming a 'massive restart of our users' computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they rebooted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update' for its system being down for two or three days last week. Well, that and a software bug in its own network resource allocation algorithm that prevented Skype's self-healing P2P network from healing itself.

'The availability of Windows Live services for Nokia's devices demonstrates our commitment to delivering great mobile experiences and extending people's online lives - taking it from the PC to the device,' said Steve Berkowitz, SVP of the Online Services Business from Microsoft, as Nokia and Microsoft this morning announced that they have joined together 'to provide customers with a new suite of Windows Live services specifically designed for Nokia devices.'

Skype now says that the instability of its network that began on Thursday, followed by what it calls 'critical disruption,' was triggered by a massive restart of Sykpe users' computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update.

'Take a deep breath. Skype is back to normal.' With these two sentences, the management of Skype announced the company's return from the worldwide outage that began early Thursday afternoon as users around the world began to find they couldn't log on and make phone calls or send instant messages.

Microsoft's latest Office for the Mac, which hasn't seen an upgrade since Office 2004, has been pushed out until Macworld in mid-January so bugs can be fixed, losing Microsoft the Christmas shoppers. Last year Office on Apple represented 20% of the money spent on Office in US retail shops and on the web.

AJAXWorld Conference & Expo 2007 East sponsors included: Laszlo Systems (Diamond Sponsor), JackBe (Platinum Sponsor), Adobe (Platinum Sponsor), Cynergy (Platinum Sponsor), Backbase (Gold Sponsor) Google (Gold Sponsor), Nexaweb (Gold Sponsor), ICEsoft (Gold Sponsor), Oracle (Gold Sponsor), Helmi Technologies (Gold Sponsor), JetBrains (Gold Sponsor), TIBCO (Gold Sponsor), Kapow Technologies (Gold Sponsor), Sun Microsystems (Silver Sponsor), Parasoft (Silver Sponsor), Servoy (Silver Sponsor), Etelos (Silver Sponsor), Microsoft (Expo Plus Sponsor), Lightstreamer (Exhibitor Plus Sponsor), IT Mill (Exhibitor Plus Sponsor), FrogLogic (Exhibitor Plus Sponsor), ThinWire (Expo Sponsor), Quasar Tecnologies (Expo Sponsor), Zapatec (Exhibitor Plus Sponsor), MB Technologies Bindows (Exhibitor), OpenSpot (Exhibitor), ILOG (Exhibitor), Passport Corporation (Exhibitor), Addison-Wesley (Exhibitor), The Thomson Corporation (Exhibitor), Isomorphic Software-SmartClient (Exhibitor), Universal Mind (Exhibitor), Farata Systems (Exhibitor Plus), Manning Publications (AJAX Book Sponsor), Apress (AJAX Book Sponsor), Conference Guru (Media Sponsor), Flash Goddess (Media Sponsor), AJAXWorld Magazine (Media Sponsor), Web 2.0 Journal (Media Sponsor), SYS-CON.TV (Media Sponsor), IT Mill (Media Sponsor), Methods & Tools (Media Sponsor), Web 2.0 Journal (Media Sponsor), and OASIS (Association Sponsor).

Sybase 365 has announced its mobile banking services are available to financial institutions in the Americas, extending its reach from Asia and Europe. In addition, the company commissioned a mobile banking survey across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, demonstrating the growing mobile banking trend.

Sybase Chairman, CEO, and President John Chen discussed his company's overall strategy, as well as key aspects of ASE 15.0 and Sybase's growing wireless business in an exclusive interview with SYS.CON.TV. He also went into the challenges and opportunities offered by China today.

'The Unwired Enterprise is already a reality - now we are taking it to the next level, enabling companies to easily develop and deploy mobile applications that extend the reach of business-critical information to users on the front lines,' said John Chen, chairman, CEO and president of Sybase.

Sybase iAnywhere highlighted opportunities at TechWave 2007 for the use of Information Anywhere suite mobile management and security technology in virtualized environments. Meeting demand for multi-tenancy and hosted applications, partners can leverage virtualization technology to increase security and scalability of management services based on Information Anywhere mobile management technology.