Eminem: Recovery

Assange: An Information Bin Laden? I Think Not

Image by New Media Days via FlickrFor the past week word was he was hiding in a cave in Great Britain. Now looks like he has been caught. If he had a lawyer he was in touch with on British soil, I mean. It was only a matter of time.

The only time I got alarmed was when he yesterday threatened to let go the thermonuclear weapon. He was going to give people the encryption key so they could see everything he had managed to get. I was not worried about more private talk important people might have had. There were information sources in countries with shady regimes. If they knew who you were, you likely disappeared, and not voluntarily like Assange did.

Nexus S: The Best Phone Out There

TechCrunch: TechCrunch Review: Google Nexus S a “clean” install of Android..... will become the reference phone for this generation of Android. ..... significantly faster than the Nexus One (and most current generation phones), has a high-end AMOLED 400 x 800 resolution screen that is second only to the iPhone 4 ...... dead simple to set up ..... it’s Google’s various apps, some of which are unavailable for the iPhone, that make it the best phone on the market today. .... very thin and light – just 4.55 ounces ..... significantly svelter than the EVO or the Droid X ..... 6+ hours of heavy voice/data usage ..... gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, proximity sensor, haptic feedback and a light sensor ..... 16 GB of internal flash memory .... Google’s noise cancellation software is also present. When combined with the excellent audio hardware it results in very high quality calls. In test calls from my car the recipient said they heard very little background noise – the iPhone in particular performed terribly in a similar test. ..... So far, not one dropped call..... Nexus S comes with the Google Voice app pre-installed ..... the UI hasn’t seen a ground-up redesign (that’s coming in Honeycomb) .... If the iPhone is 8/10 on text input, the Nexus One is probably 5/10 and the Nexus S is a solid 6/10. .... the real test with us is whether we continue to use it after a post. The EVO and the Droid X were quickly forgotten for us. Michael tested the iPhone 4 but its lack of point to point navigation and unwillingness to play well with Google Voice made him ultimately give it up after a month and move back to the Nexus One ....... The Nexus S will almost certainly be his go-to phone for the next few months. Michael is leaving today for a week in Europe, and taking only this phone with him. The fact that it’s unlocked means he can add a sim card once he is in Paris and continue to use it without extravagant additional charges. ..... Google’s voice search/input applications and Google Navigation continue to make Android phones in general significantly better mobile devices than the iPhone. ..... It is better than the iPhone in most ways.

Nexus S Is Da Bomb

Google: Nexus

Nexus S

If Google could only go into the wireless broadband supported by ads market itself, this phone could be practically free. The idea that you have to pay for phone calls is ridiculous. The technology is already there.

Nexus: Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube.

Tumblr Down, Tumblr Up

Image via CrunchBase

Business Insider: TUMBLR IS BACK!: an extended outage that started yesterday.... Tumblr's twitter account says: "The recovering database cluster is online and healthy. We're incrementally opening up access to blogs while monitoring performance."

This downtime was significant because (1) it went on and on and on, it lasted a while and (2) enemies of Tumblr had publicly warned a few weeks back that they would take it down. Right now I don't know if the downtime was due to overuse, or some act of those enemies. I am about to go dig up on the story.

Zuckerberg On CBS

I like Zuckerberg. I do. I really do. I like him a lot actually. People like him show up a few a decade at most. He is special that way. Just like Steve Jobs is special. I think Zuck is going to keep innovating at the pace he has been innovating. He is in the driving seat like the Google founders have not been.

Mark Suster: The Social Network: Facebook To Fragmentation

Image via WikipediaMark Suster's three pieces on TechCrunch are a nice summary of what has happened, and what is happening, although if any of this is news to you, I have to ask, where have you been?

When he starts talking about the future, it gets trickier. Social has so much buzz right now that it is hard to imagine the post-social buzz. But that there will be is for sure. There always has been. Social itself will morph. Social is one thing. Social and mobile as a combo is a case of two plus two being five. To that cocktail add local and global and you end up with two plus two equals 22. And it is not easy to figure out.

One good news is I see many, many players emerging.

Google's Failure To Purchase GroupOn Shows Google Is No Monopoly

Image via WikipediaFacebook is the most serious competition Google ever faced, and Facebook is not your classic search engine, it is not a ten blue links company. Although it is blue!

Look at how Facebook has gone after Google by not going after Google like one bull after another. The web as a whole is too fluid a place, too open to innovation for any company to manage to pull a monopoly on there.

$160 Smartphone From India: No Contract, No Subsidy

http://www.myfirstandroid.com
Facebook, Twitter

Fred Wilson On Android And HTML5

Image by Lachlan Hardy via FlickrIf how often I visit a particular blog is the way to measure, Fred Wilson very much continues to be my favorite solo blogger. He does have a home base advantage in that both of us are New Yorkers, but his standing in the blogosphere is obvious. Yesterday his blog post was the top featured story at TechMeme when I visited it, which was in the evening.

Wait, Did They Say Froth?

Image via WikipediaI wrote and published this last post - Bubble Talk Goes On: It's An Overshoot - before I read the Fred Wilson post or the New York Times story. I wrote my blog post after skimming the two headlines. I winged it, as you might put it.

Bubble Talk Goes On: It's An Overshoot

Image via WikipediaFred Wilson: Invest In The Mess
New York Times: A Silicon Bubble Shows Signs Of Reinflating
The Day I Got Called Sean Parker
Did Not Meet Fred Wilson, But Met Mazy Dar
Angel Bubbles: No Bubbles
Bubble, Boom Or Froth?

Fred has said repeatedly that what we are seeing is a bubble. First thing I say is this is not a yes no question. Is this a bubble? If you force ask me, my answer is no. This is not a bubble. This is hyperactivity. Will many angel investors lose money? Sure. But that does not make it a bubble. Even a top notch VC like Fred Wilson expects one third of his portfolio to go down under. And these are companies that he did not invest in on day one knowing they will go down. You think you picked a winner, you give them sufficient money and guidance, you go to bat for them, and they still go down. If Fred Wilson is at peace with a 33% failure rate, there are VCs whose failure rates are 66% and 90%. Most VCs fail. Most entrepreneurs fail. By some estimates as many as 90% of new businesses fail within a year of getting launched. Looks like 10% is all capitalism needs to survive.