Scott Forstall is the Next Steve Jobs

Have you read the Wall Street Journal piece on Scott Forstall being fired? Maybe not since you're not subscribed to the Journal like me. So I read it on other sites like ABC News: Scott Forstall to Leave Apple.

In 1985, Steve Jobs got kicked out of Apple by John Sculley, then CEO, when Jobs tried to take control of things. And as we know, eventually Jobs came back to Apple and the rest is history.

Seems like to this point, Forstall was one of Jobs favorite and had similar tastes. Forstall was gaining power, and even rumored as the possible next CEO during Jobs last moments. Now, Forstall is being fired, but he's already cashed in his Apple shares so supposedly he has some money. Is he going to re-launch NeXT? And maybe 10 years later, or maybe more like 5 years in the era, is Forstall coming back to save Apple?

My gut feeling:

Scott Forstall is the next Steve Jobs. Tim Cook is the next John Sculley. Jony Ive is, well, Jony Ive.

I guess I missed my timing to sell-off my AAPL stocks. At least for another 5 to 10 years, maybe.

BTW, why did Tim Cook apologize for the Maps app? I think it was so pointless. I would side with Forstall who did not agree to apologize. Maps does suck, but it's no antenna-gate.

Japanese iPhone Users Get Battery/TV Tuner Pack

October 30th, SoftBank, the Japanese iPhone carrier made some announcements on improvements in hope of boosting iPhone sales. The announcement took place at SoftBank's press release event of their 2009 mobile phone lineup. 

The CEO admitted that there are three flaws with the iPhone:

1. Short battery life
2. Lack of 1-seg (digital TV broadcast)
3. Lack of "Emoji"; Japanese emoticons

It may seem hard to believe this in the U.S., but as I predicted, these are huge drawbacks for the Japanese market.

"TV & Battery" Pack

One of the big announcement was the "TV & Battery" pack for the iPhone.

Press release: 1-seg Viewable on the iPhone 3G!

This is a SoftBank genuine iPhone 3G accessory only for the Japanese market. Expected to be around $100 USD, this external miniature iPhone-looking device will weigh 80g and can provide one full battery charge.

And of course as the name implies, it is also a digital TV tuner. The iPhone will connect to this tuner via Wi-Fi and is viewable with a dedicated app yet to be released. It was mentioned that eventually TV shows will be recordable.

Emoji

And as we already know, "Emoji" emoticons are expected to be supported by the end of the year. Interestingly, this announcement made the Emoji rumors now official and 2.2 software very likely to be release by the end of this year.

Free Wi-Fi

As just happened in the U.S., Japanese iPhone owners will also be provided with free Wi-Fi access nationwide.

Press release: Free "Unlimited Wireless LAN Access" for iPhone 3G Users

Beginning November 4th, the service will be provided through SoftBank's "BB Mobile Point" hotspots;  approximately 3,500 locations, mainly at McDonald's. Better yet, after December 1st, access will be granted without entering username and password as credentials.

Now, is this really going to boost iPhone sales in Japan? I don't think so. Apple designs are industrial and cool but not cute; Japanese people like cute stuff. Maybe targeting business users or SMB would be a good idea. Enterprise, probably not. Apple will need to bring NTT DoCoMo on board for that market.

I am starting to wonder if Apple will eventually release variations for better lineup. And how much influence the Japanese market will have on Apple.

Also see: MyCom Journal article on this event ; CNET Japan photo report (Japanese)

Expect "Die Hard 2" Scenario to Come True

In the "Die Hard 2" movie (Wikipedia), the terrorists takes over an airport control tower and crashes a plane. Well, not exactly the same, but scientists has just proved that a similar thing may happen.

TechRadar.com: Scientists succeed in spoofing GPS signals

Nowadays, we are so dependent on GPS; so is the aviation world. You may be annoyed if your car gets misled and get lost on your way to an important meeting, but that doesn't compare to your plane being misled and crashing in to a mountain.

Pilots: please learn astronomical navigation techniques. Thanks.

First iPhone 3G Selling at 3PM Thursday, PDT

The first iPhone that will be sold to public should happen at 3pm Thursday, Pacific Time. This will be in Japan which is actually 7am Friday, Tokyo local time.

Reports state that by early afternoon here in California, there were more than 50 people in line at the SoftBank Omotesando store, the only location starting iPhone sales at 7am in Japan. Other stores are scheduled for noon on the same day.

Interestingly, the iPhone is expected to be available at virtually all stores that sell cell phones, according to SoftBank's announcement. In Japan, cell phones are usually sold through "channel stores", most of them being an electric appliance store, which exists in every city throughout the country.

Here are some links to iPhone websites or sites that may potentially report the initial launch in Japan:

• Official SoftBank iPhone 3G website
• http://www.ustream.tv/channel/17495
  Claims to be reporting live...
• http://www.iphone13.com/
  A blog about iPhone
• GIGAZINE
  Online IT magazine
• TBS News
  One of the major broadcast stations. Video rich compared to other broadcast stations in Japan.
• NHK News
  "Government property" national broadcast station.
• Yahoo! News - iPhone
  Yahoo! Japan's largest share holder is SoftBank; 40.16%. However, iPhone is treated no special on their site. Rather seems to be totally unrelated or ignored.

Hold Off on Blu-ray Just Yet

Nowadays, 1TB hard-drives are common consumer products. Thanks for the PMR technology researched by Tohoku University of Japan in 1976 and Toshiba applying this to HDD in 2004.

The same university now came up with a technology to increase the capacity of the current CD-ROM and DVD by 9 times. (The paper is not available in English on their website yet. See the announcement on Optics Express.) That means a single layer 4.7GB DVD can now potentially hold 42GB of data; way more than Blu-ray's 25GB capacity.

Okay, what do we name this? DVD, DVD-?, DVD+?... oh HD-DVD, no it died... Got it, DVD-KungFusion! No body beats me this time!

Toshiba and Sony, I suggest both parties to join the DVD-KF alliance. Thank you.

Japan to Realize "Minority Report"

Do you remember the Spielberg movie "Minority Report"? The tag line was:

What would you do if you were accused of a murder, you had not committed... yet?

Obviously a science-fiction movie in the U.S. is not the case in Japan. The Japanese government recently (June 11th) announced that it will put a budget for 2009 to research and implement a "crime notification system". No, it's not a system that alerts you when a crime is committed. It's a system that detects and alerts before the crime! A prevention system like the movie!

Did the Japanese find these people with the ability to foresee the future? No. The technology is to scan the Internet for any signs of heavy crime like murderer including suicide.

Hey, if you are visiting Japan, be careful what you mention in your emails or posts on the web...

CNET Japan: 総務省がネットの犯行予告を自動検知するシステム開発に着手

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.

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.

Hot News From Apple - Leopard and more...

Some hot news from Apple. Things we've all been waiting for...

1. Mac OS X Leopard gets a release date
   October 26, 6pm! Go and get it you Apple freaks! I'm going to try to wait until Apple releases a new MacBook. If I can wait...
2. iTunes Plus is now 99 cents a track
   The DRM-free iTunes Plus track is now 99 cents from previous $1.29. Are people going to complain about this as well?
3. Third party apps on the iPhone (includes iPod Touch)
   Finally Apple is going to release a SDK for third party application development on the iPhone. Steve says it will be available in February. Let's see what the hacking community does by then, and if that is going to impact Apple's release of the SDK. Also, wonder what the security strategy is and when Apple will give out more details...
   

Voyage of the Acorn (in New York)

There is a classic Japanese children's song about an adventure of an acorn that plunges into a pond.

Well, in this modern day, there is a real adventure of a manned submerging "acorn" spotted in New York.

(New York Times: An Artist and His Sub Surrender in Brooklyn)

At first, I thought this was kind of sad in that being adventurous nowadays is not easy. But after I read the article, I changed my mind. Actually, it's sad that these people don't know other better things to do... (Click on the title of this post to see a slide show on New York Times.)