Saturday, January 07, 2006

Back in Prague ...

Well, my 3-week trip back to the USA has come to an end -- it was, as always, great to visit family and good friends (especially my best friend's "newly released" baby girl Zoey). It seems those "extra large" portions one gets in the US when eating out has caught up to me -- I gained like 5 lbs in 3 weeks, all around the gut! Ooh, M&M Cookies and Peanut Butter Balls aside, it was cool.

From the tech front, it was also educational. I saw, for the first time in the states (keep in mind I come back once or twice a year for business/pleasure), people constantly looking down at their phones for SMSs (or Texting messages as Americans say). One night, while hanging back in a well-patroned pub, I saw no less than 10 people within a 15 second walk starring at their phones and typing SMSs. It was pretty surreal, considering I've only been seeing such behavior in Europe (since 1999). It may have taken 5 years, but SMS has finally established itself in the US market. Bravo my fellow Amiks!

I also noticed a lot of Bluetooth headsets. That's good news, if for anything in means that phones are Bluetooth wireless technology enabled, and will eventually be working with Jellingspot. I do say eventually, because the choice of phones in the US market (from carriers) is horrid. The phones are still pretty darn primative (Motorola just makes crap IMHO ...). Whatever the case, it seems evolution is "progressing" in the US, even if at a snail's pace.

All in all, it was cool ... I enjoyed the time with my family and friends, and as always, it was fun window shopping to see what the market is bringing to folks on the tech front.

As an aside, my new Ipod Nano is doing well, but the fact that I'm FORCED to use iTunes to add music and pictures still pisses me off. If Apple can pull their head out of their butt, and allow me to drag and drop music into folders, AND play WMA files without the need to convert, and I might say nicer things about Apple (if the old argument that Microsoft was a bully, Apple people can NO LONGER use that lame excuse).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it can't be place then your home, it's good to travel, to get new impressions, but then to come back home...

Anonymous said...

it's nice to travel and get new impressions and know something new, for example about sms, I also didn't know it.