The Smooth DJ

Recommended.

Engadget roundup here.

What's good: Faster. A lot faster. And the 8GB is now $199 (a $200 drop). Funky new social software aps. My favorite: Geo-tagging photos using the GPS.

Bad stuff: No cut-and-paste. No MMS and no Video recording (not a big deal to me, but probably a nice feature to have with a YouTube direct upload feature).

Shadiness: 2-Year AT&T Contract with data plans $10 more expensive than iPhone 1.0 (inline with AT&T data plans with other smartphones). That's $240 more in the total cost of ownership over the life of your contract. In total, you're looking at an outlay of $1900 ($80/month) on the cheapest talk plan. Of course, with taxes and fees and the stupid extra cost for SMS messaging, the total cost will be over $2K.

Does that mean we won't expect a major hardware update from Apple for two years (as to not piss off their customers who buy the iPhone 2.0)? Meh, I wouldn't bet on it. Apple flies through product development cycles in 12-18 months, and that's always been a big part of their competitive advantage.

So, iPhone 1.0 lasts one year and has zero resale vale - ouch! Some people spent $600 on that.

Wired debunks.

Money Quote:

"Ringing the phones doesn't help because they're interfering with each other and receiving a signal [from a cellphone tower] -- not transmitting it," he said. Furthermore, while it is possible to heat with sound, it's not likely to happen at the low volume emitted by a mobile phone. "It would be like gathering opera singers together to sing, and trying to make the corn pop," Bloomfield said.

Released today. Download here.

I'm trying out Clipmarks below.....

clipped from clipmarks.com

What can I do with Clipmarks?

Post anything you clip directly to your blog.

It's by far the quickest way to update your blog with compelling things you find on the web. Supports Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, LiveJournal and more.

For the first time, Facebook has surpassed MySpace in number of unique visitors. What's surprising here is that Facebook has had an onslaught of international visitors, but still lags MySpace heavily in the US.

The international popularity is unexpected since Facebook has not done localization (although they do offer translations of the English interface - far from ideal). MySpace, however, has offices around the world and has attempted true localization of their platform (MySpace Japan, for example).

This is great news for Facebook, but the prize is winning the US visitor battle. Why? That's where online advertiser dollars live.

HatTip: TechCrunch.

Casual, Bay Area rap legend and Heiro crew member. His first album "Fear Itself" [1994, Jive Records] was widely panned by critics at the time. I thought it was good then and it's even better now. Why? Because they don't make hip-hop like this anymore.

With Shaq's infamous return to the mic this week, some don't remember just how prolific an MC he is:

According to Nielsen SoundScan, which monitors U.S. record sales, Shaq-Fu's six albums have sold a total of 20 copies this year. . . .

Not to be missed. Go here. Sir Ken Robinson below - one of my favs.

I'm checking out the book Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. It's about social technology's impact on branding.

Check out Fastcompany's review here.

And from an interview with author Li, something I hope will happen sooner than later:

How will social networking look five years from now?

Instead of going to a certain place like Facebook or MySpace to be social with your friends, your friends will go to wherever you need them to be. If I'm reading a book review on Amazon, I'll be able to see my friends' reviews -- even if those reviews are written on a blog someplace else. There will definitely be platforms, but the key thing is they won't be walled gardens.