Cool developments this week

I found out about a couple of cool things this week.

New York Times Desktop App

First, the New York Times now has a desktop app running on the Adobe AIR platform. I downloaded it, and it's pretty cool. It's about as close to the real thing that I've seen as far newspaper websites and mobile sites go. The most intriguing thing though is the fact that this app isn't free. The Times plans to charge $3.45/week for full access - and for the first time, I think this is something people might actually pay for. The app provides such a rich experience that I think people will (literally) buy into it. If it works for the Times, I'm really curious to see if it works for other newspapers, and especially local newspapers.

MiFi

The other development that's kinda gaining a lot of buzz is mifi. The idea here is that you'll be able to split a 3G signal with a portable router = no more reliance on DSL, cable, T1 lines. You'll be able to pitch the mifi device in the middle of a park, or at the beach, and your friends can surf the web while catching rays. So far, I've seen plans for a Sprint device and a Verizon device. I'm hoping that once these things come out, my parents (who live in a rural area) will be able to break out of their dial-up funk and catch some wireless broadband.

Death to voicemail

Today I ran across an article in the NY Times, which questioned the relevance of voicemail in the age of text messaging, email, and social networking.

I couldn't agree more - the continued use of voicemail should be questioned.

For months, I've been asking friends and family to quit leaving me voicemail...I've spent way too much time dialing the voicemail number, punching in my password, and listening to long, drawn-out messages about why I need to call someone back, when I should call them back, and what we need to talk about when I do call them back.

"Please leave a detailed message with your name, phone number, and the time that you called..."

Hahaha, are you serious???

Not only that, but I have to sift through ALL of the previous voicemails people have left (often they're new, because I refuse to take the time to check them), so that by the time I do go through my voicemail, it's at least a 15-minute process.

Case in point: This past weekend I was in downtown Detroit for the MSU basketball game v. UConn. The venue was loud, people were everywhere, lots of screaming and cheering, etc. - but somehow, friends managed to leave me at least two voicemails - the crazy thing was, these people were in the SAME building I was in, and to think that they actually thought I could hear their voicemail is somewhat hilarious...

Sending a text message is a whole lot easier...and quite frankly, 99 times out of 100 the caller ID suffices.

So here it is: I propose we all drop voicemail and get with the times - text message or no message will save us all a lot of wasted time and frustration.