Will someone port this to the LifeDrive? Or Symbian?

WinMobile Torrent is out for pocketPC. I don't understand why they have released this for the PocketPC platform when there are no PocktPC's with mass storage devices The LifeDrive or a Symbian based device seem like far more likely candidates for a mobile bittorrent client. We're still waiting.

IPhoning?

Forbes reports the rumour that Apple is not only working together with Motorola to develop a new phone tuned to iTunes but that they're also looking into launching an Apple phone network. Nobody expects Apple to build a new network (they couldn't without a license anyway, and as far as I know, the FCC's not selling new licenses and Apple's not in a position to bid for an existing network), rather the expectation is that they would do a deal with Sprint (this is what Disney has done). This way they could brand Sprint's network and sell the service as their own.

I'm not sure about the logic of this one. Most virtual network operators in Europe operate at the bottom end of the market and that's one place where I can't imagine Apple wanting to operate.

On the other hand, the American celular market is markedly different from the European market. Most of the European virtual network operators are companies with strong distribution/retail networks while the US market is apparently going to be served with high profile brands hoping to push content. I feel that the Europeans have a better model - just look at the attempts made by content owners at setting up proprietary portals and ISP's during the dot com era.

Whither goes the DVD

Businessweek's asking what's happening to the DVD market. It seems that the pace of sales growth in the DVD market is slowing, and in some cases is even dopping off. Now that Dreamworks is reporting a drop in earnings, partly due to lower DVD sales it seems that the DVD market really is running into trouble.

Normally, this kind of business news isn't interesting to gadget lovers since it concerns content. What's more, now that we're all salivating over the possibilities of UMD and HD-DVD technologies, who cares about what happens to the old-timey DVD? The reason this development is interesting is that it seems directly related to the fragmentation in the device market. There's only 24 hours in a day and that means that all the new technologies have to compete for our attention.

On another note, I'm glad to see that BusinessWeek didn't spin the story that the drop in DVD sales is related to 'online piracy'. Rather, their analysis is that besides the fact that DVD viewing is having to compete with ever more different types of amusement the DVD distributors are also to blame. The market is apparently being smothered with library releases of both TV content as well as movie content with movies moving from cinema to DVD in record times. Lets keep this in mind as we wait for the movie industry to start spinning this story as a 'piracy is killing us poor producers' story.