I happen to be heavily involved in a
book about followership as it pertains to leadership and one of the
principles we’ve been discussing lately is that those in the
followership role have an obligation to step forward and challenge the
leader when necessary. This line of thinking spurred an exceptional
vision call that I had with our team last Friday that centered around
them challenging me more. Often times I have felt like my team is
reluctant to challenge me because I am the boss, because I sign the
checks.
While rumors about the Motorola [NYSE:MOT] MING phones have been leaking from the flagging phonemaker pretty readily, Moto finally got official today and announced specs for the two MING models: the A1600 and the A1800. The handsets are essentially the same, with the exception of a couple of upgrades on the A1800; both feature a 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen (with stylus input), a 3MP camera, Bluetooth, a microSD slot, FM radio, and built-in GPS (no WiFi, however.)
Just last month, Sirius [NASDAQ:SIRI] Satellite Radio submitted its Starmate 5, a personal satellite radio player, to the FCC. Its rival, XM [NASDAQ:XMSR], seems poised to respond in kind. Codenamed "Phoenix," XM's personal player is reportedly smaller than Pioneer's existing XM player, the Inno, with a larger screen and slicker, updated interface. Manipulation of that interface is achieved via a rotating wheel input not unlike the iPod or SkyFi 2 players; other details include a microSD slot for MP3 tunes and the possibility for WiFi support.
The newest addition to Nokia's [NYSE: NOK] N-series, the N78, is now available for purchase at Nokia's flagship stores in New York and Chicago. The candybar device sports HSDPA connecticity and a 3.2-megapixel camera, along with assisted GPS -- the same technology to be featured in the iPhone 3G, which uses cell tower and WiFi network data to assist a satellite GPS transponder in finding a given phone's location. Online retailers will also be getting the phone this week; the street price looks to be about $560.
According to the often-reliable rumor mill the Boy Genius Report, Motorola [NYSE: MOT] is staking its future on the success of one single new phone. If that phone doesn't succeed wildly, BGR reports, Motorola will put itself up for sale.
Well folks, today we at FastCompany.TV launched PhotoCycle, which Robert Scoble, Rocky Barbanica and I have been working on behind the scenes for months. Here’s the short version of the back-story:
In a speech today at Fresno State University, John McCain proposed a $300 million government prize for the development of an alternative car battery. He called for a more efficient and affordable battery than those currently powering our hybrid vehicles, saying the reward would be “a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency.” Read more
Never ones to follow convention, Sony [NYSE:SNE] has released another iteration of its cylindrical media center PCs, ready to be juxtaposed with all the rectangular boxes sitting beneath your rectangular TV. To further set themselves apart, the low-end model, the VGX-TP1D, comes only in white. It makes up for the faux pas by featuring a zippy parts spec: a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo T8100 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, and GeForce 8400M GT graphics.
Apple would have consumers believe that the iPhone should act as a phone and iPod replacement, but JVC [NYSE: MC] has widely picked up on the fact that there are plenty of Apple buyers out there with more than one i-device. For those folks who want to charge and display two of 'em at once, JVC has announced the $150 NX-PN7, which is essentially an iPod dock speaker system with two docks. It also features an AM/FM radio, alarm clock, timer and video out port.
Canadian smartphone maker RIM [NASDAQ: RIMM] is reportedly expanding its BlackBerry Internet Service in preparation for its next generation of BlackBerry devices, which will require a more feature-rich Internet experience than previous generations of the device. The most salient upgrade is support for HTML emails, a long-awaited revision that many users have been asking for since the first generation of BlackBerrys. The new BIS, which is being dubbed version 2.5, will also include OTA upgrades and calendar improvements as well as a handful of new -- though yet unnamed -- features.