Leopard Update: 10.5.3 Released

Apple has finally released Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.3. Interestingly, this update adds a feature which you can sync your Address Book with Google Contacts; contact information in your Gmail account.

The catch is, however, that you need an iPhone to use this feature. I really wonder why this is the case. Technical reasons? I don't think so. Apple probably wants to sell you an iPhone if you don't have one yet, because you want to sync your Address Book with Google Contacts so bad...

And, don't get too excited. This does not sync iCal and Google Calendar. That's a third party's job.

Pandora Radio - Free & Clean Online Radio

Many may already know, but I recently discovered a cool Internet radio station. It's "my station"!

Ok, so what this is is...
Pandora Radio has a huge database of music from all genre which each music is carefully analyzied by "The Music Genome Project". This database is then used to find music of your preference. "Doesn't sound anything new", you say?

True, other music services usually has "recommendation" features, but this analysis is beyond genre, artist names or the looks of the band. Also, it's very quick to get started. Just search one song by an artist name and it will start to play music from various artists like a radio station. Then you can give "thumbs up" to selections that you liked. Another great thing is, you can create as many "stations" as you like. So the music selection is NOT from all of your favorite songs mixed together, but you can create different flavors of your preference. You might like country and alternatives, but that doesn't mean you want to listen to both mixed together all the time, right?

Pandora has a very simple and clean interface. I find the selections by Pandora very appealing and helps me find artists that I did not know, yet sounds that matches my taste. Give it a try, or listen to my stations!

Note: Pandora uses Adobe Flash and your account information is stored there. Information stored in Flash seems to be shared across all users and browsers on the computer so be sure to sign out if you want to keep your information private.

"iPhone is going to dominate the mobile phone market."

I have to say, iPhone is going to dominate the mobile phone market.

Apple, today, announced the iPhone SDK which allows developers to create native applications. They also announced that in the next iPhone software release, it would be enterprise compatible by supporting Microsoft Exchange and Cisco IPsec VPN. This will be all built-in to the iPhone software, available by default.

Now, all this with the proven design of the iPhone hardware/software/user interface, what device could possibly beat the iPhone?

Personally, for the general public, enterprise, I think the Exchange support was an unexpected surprise. This probably is going to easily push iPhone share at a sky rocketing degree. I see many asking IT for an iPhone and you can really feel the demand. I also hear IT usually saying no to this, but they have no reason to do that anymore.

Louis Vuitton Sells Fresh Roses (with monogram)

Louis Vuitton is selling fresh roses with the monogram print on it. No kidding...

Unfortunately, this is sold only in Japan. But in case that's no problem for you:

Sold at Louis Vuitton stores in Tokyo
Available thru 3/13 and 3/16/2008
$40/each

For details, go to Louis Vuitton's website and navigate to the Japanese store.

GrandCentral Up-to-dates

As a "telecommunication 2.0" preacher, here are some updates regarding to Google's telephony service, "GrandCentral".

Click2Call Has Been Alive

I posted earlier that Click2Call may have been dropped, but Vincent@GrandCentral quickly posted a comment that it was not the case. And true, I am still able to use this feature; it may just have been a glitch.

Another thing was the lack of documentation regarding Click2Call. It doesn't mention this name, but it's now described in the help.

Forwarding Number Can Be Shared

Finally something new! One inconvenience was that a forwarding number could only be activated with one account, or one GC number. But now, a forwarding number can be used on multiple accounts, according to GC Blog.

Example:
My roommate and I each have a GC number. We want to forward that to the same home phone that we share.
Before, this was not possible, but now it's allowed.

My wife and I each had a GC number and was impacted by this limitation so I really have to try this out.

Other Help Documentation Updates

Some articles seems to be added in the help center including mentions about iPhone. This is good. At least this confirms that Goolge is putting some effort to make GC compatible with iPhone.

Although minor, it's good to see some updates so that we know Google is not ditching services after they acquire them.

Google Involved in Trans-Pacific Cable Construction

Google is a member of a consortium for constructing a new trans-pacific cable system named "Unity". This 10,000km cable system, connecting Tokyo and LA, has a capacity of up to 7.68 Tbps and is estimated to cost US$300 million. It's expected to be in operation by early 2010.

According to KDDI, a member of this consortium and a tier-1 provider in Japan, each member of the consortium will individually operate a fiber pair. Wow! So, Google is probably going to have its very own 960 Gbps hard link between its two offices across the pacific. I wonder what Google is going to do with this. Hopefully it's not just for TelePresence...

Interesting how a software company like Google can suddenly get deeply involved in a network infrastructure business. Of course this is nothing new; Wi-Fi access is another one Google is involved it and potentially wireless mobile services. More reasons for telcos to get scared of software giants.

Apple Drops Xserve RAID

If you follow the link above, you will see for yourself.

No, this is no interest for the general public, but Apple dropped their Xserve RAID. Instead, they updated their Xsan software and partnered with Promise for the RAID hardware.

(RAID is a technology that brings big storage space and high performance for server use. This news means that we can no longer buy this hardware as an Apple brand, in which Apple was never popular in this field anyways...)

I was wondering how far Apple would go with their server hardware business and I think Apple has made the right choice of depending on a 3rd party. Although, I don't know if Promise was the right one to partner with... BTW, the Promise RAID is nothing compared to Apple's Xserve RAID, designwise for sure...

Good bye, Apple Xserver RAID.

Hello, Promise RAID...