I have a bunch of smaller thoughts today, so I figured I’d write them up rather than focus on any particular topic. I’m pretty sure I have… wow, shinny object… some kind of undiagnosed ADD.
Google Goes after the Work at Home Scammers
A few months back, I wrote about the Google Work at Home Scam. Companies were using Google’s good name to try to seem reputable and trick people into giving them money. I noticed this morning that Google is going after them. They found a great example of one of the scammers using a site that looks like a newspaper site from a Los Angeles. At least we might see the end of it soon.
Last Week to take Advantage of CollegeAdvantage’s free $50
It’s the last week to get your free $50 from CollegeAdvantage and it only takes a few minutes. It expires on December 15th, but let’s face it, if you don’t do it today, it will probably get pushed aside during the craziness of the holidays, right?
The CrunchPad JooJoo looks cool, but…
Also from CNet, this moring, I read about the JooJoo web pad. It’s pretty close to what a friend and I thought would be a big hit… in 1998. For those who don’t know about it, it used to be the CrunchPad developed in collaboration with TechCrunch, but that relationship somehow desolved. The product itself is just a big 12″ screen that’s almost like an iPhone, but it only browses the web. You can have it in your home for $499.
CNet noted that there isn’t much of a market for such a device. It’s not made for students, businessmen or any demographic they could think of. It costs more than a netbook, but does less since it’s limited to browsing the web.
I’ve been thinking about it, and really something like this may be the next step for a company like Palm. They could put their new WebOS on it so that it can do more than just browse the web. They also could use their partnership with cell phone companies to provide more connectivity than just WiFi. If they could get it down to a Palm Pixi-like price of $25
Why Palm and not Apple? Well, Apple is rumored to come out with one of these as well. However, I think Palm’s WebOS is better suited for the new resolution since the web technology it’s built on is designed with diferent screen resolutions in mind. More importantly though, the multitasking ability of the WebOS would allow it work much like a full fledged computer. Also WebOs should be getting Adobe Flash soon and that’s becoming key for using several websites effectively.
It is wonderful that Google as now taken steps to protect their name. Most of these work at home are scams.
The JooJoo sounds like an interesting first step in the large device touch screen mobil computing. My biggest concern with a device like this is how crippled will they be. The JooJoo sounds like it will be a device that doesn’t have a lot of functionality.
For the OS of a device like this I am going to have to believe that a mobile phone OS is not the right way to go. There are too many limitations. For devices like this to succeed they are going to need to be at least as powerful as a low end laptop because that is what they will be competing against in the market place.
That’s a good point about the mobile phone OS. At least Palm’s webOS is Linux at the core, which is the same as JooJoo. One thing that I like about phone OSes is that they are instant on which is something this needs.