Engadget pokes some fun at Irish kids with the news that they're getting fat on text messaging. I find that odd considering how I've observed my 14 year old nephew divert a large percentage of his pocket money to mobile top-ups, money which he used to previously spend on sweets, crisps and soft drinks. Just can't win, can they?
EirePreneur
Doing microbusiness in Ireland.
October 21, 2004
Vodafone roaming costs in Spain
My Vodafone bill came in the post this morning so it was time to see how much my Canary Islands mobile roaming excesses had bloated it. Happily not by too much!
Text messages back home to Irish mobiles, mostly via the Airtel network, cost 29.7 eurocent each. But a text to my business partner in the USA cost only 20.6c. A 49 second mobile (in Spain) to landline (in Ireland) call, at 8:30 in the evening, cost 73c. A roaming call from a mobile in Ireland, duration 1 minute 17 seconds cost 85c to receive.
But this is the one I really dreaded - the GRPS connections for posting photos via mobile email to the online family album. Well, I needn't have worried - the first batch of photos amounted to 75kb and cost 78c while the second batch was 149kb in size and cost 156c. So, only a fraction more than 1c per kb which isn't exactly cheap but certainly not as bad as I'd feared.
October 20, 2004
Ukrainian-Irish business ties
Interfax reports that prospects for creating a Ukrainian-Irish business association were discussed in the course of a meeting of businessmen from Ukraine and Ireland that took place at Ukraine's embassy in Ireland
Agreement was reached to the effect that the association to be set up on the basis of an Irish consulting company will give assistance to Ukrainian and Irish businessmen, provide them with consultative services, as well as the required business information on a wide range of questions.The meeting also covered prospects for establishing close business ties of Irish entrepreneurs with their Ukrainian partners, the press service reported.
October 19, 2004
The Podcasting ecosystem
Its just incredible to watch the speed with which the Podcasting ecosystem is flourishing. I believe it barely registered on Google at all only a few short weeks ago and now it yields 107,000 results. Dave Winer added a ping server yesterday to track the 'Last 100 podcasts' and on the list I saw OpenPodcast.org - a dynamically generated podcast to which anyone at all can contribute. It expects "short" segments (under 5 minutes) which will be included in the feed as they are received. Think of it as an audio wiki or time-shifted unmoderated call-in show.
I think this is the most important trend I've seen on the internet since the blooming of the blogosphere. Bernie Goldbach thinks Irish podcasting will explode before Christmas and I hope Bernie himself is part of it, because his wide ranging insights on the Irish and international IT scene would make for a better 'raido' show than anything currently available over the airwaves in this country.
u2Pod
Forbes.com reports that Irish supergroup U2 has signed a pioneering deal with Apple Computer to sell custom iPods and give exclusive rights to sell all the songs from their new album online through Apple's iTunes Music Store for at least the first few weeks following a release.
"Sources close to the group say the U2 edition of the popular digital music player will come preloaded with the band's new album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, along with portions of the Irish supergroup's 25-year catalogue. The iPods will be black and will be made available the same week as the band's 11th studio album, which is slated to be released in the U.S. by Universal Music Group's Interscope Records on November 23."
I worked in Apple Computer in Cork for a year, at a time when the company was going through an all time low. So I get a huge buzz now following their ongoing rebound and reinvention, and their efforts to reinvent the music industry. Go Apple, go!
October 18, 2004
Batteries recharged
Back from Lanzarote and only very slowing revving up. It's amazing how much I unwound this time compared with last year. The secret? Not looking at a computer monitor for a full week. In fact last week was the first in nearly 5 years that I've done that. A rest for the eyes and a rest for the mind. I totally recommend it for anyone and especially for any entrepreneur.
This was also the first time I took a cameraphone on holiday and not having researched it beforehand I wasn't sure what to expect. It turns out that MMS didn't work but email did. That meant that I was able to update our private family album blog (using TypePad) live from the field. Not that I could find any fields in Lanzarote ;-)
My family and friends at home were delighted to get instant digital postcards of our tours around the island, including, of course, the trek up Timanfaya National Park. I'm sure I'm going to get a mild cardiac arrest when I see my Vodafone bill but it will have been worth it for novelty value alone.
One thing that struck me as odd, regarding roaming with my mobile, was the fact that I received all three welcome messages from Amena, Telefonica Movistar, and Vodafone ES in a burst on my 4th day on the island! Each of these messages provided useful information in English about how to contact customer support but wasn't it a bit late? Is that the norm when roaming?
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