Netizen

Sunday, September 08, 2013

Through Nokia Microsoft Should Go Down The Food Chain

With Google Loon attempting free internet access in the remotest corners, the other piece of the puzzle is the smartphone. How cheap can you make it? There Nokia has an edge.

There is argument that the Windows mobile platform does not have a million apps like the iOS and Android do. Most people I know use less than 10 apps, and all the hit apps do exist on Windows Mobile. Windows is decent in mobile. It is workable.

The only way it could become a contender is if it were to go down the food chain with ridiculously cheap smartphones in the emerging markets. That might be the top benefit Microsoft could hope for from the Nokia acquisition, I think.

How cheap is cheap? Under 50 dollars. So, a super cheap smartphone that most people can save up and buy, free internet access from the skies, a Skype phone number that works just fine over the internet, and you get 80% of the world connected. I can't imagine a better boon for democracy, gender justice, and microfinance.

Skype Should Give Me A Free Phone Number

Image via CrunchBase

Skype should give me a free phone number like Google Voice does. And then they should get into a race to give me limitless voice calls over those numbers over data and WiFi. To kick the carriers out. They charge too much.

Skype already has great sound quality over long (read international) distances. A number would be nice to have unpaid for.

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Ingress: New York City: Top City

b5d962fa15b152933fdd651209e9725d2e477b0211c0b70931

Cassandra confirms my long held suspicions. NYC is the top Ingress city in the world. It has more portals than any other city. Or what? Glad to note almost 100 of the 1200 NYC portals are my submissions. About 80, to be precise. 130 plus of the NYC portals are on my home territory.