The Mike Abundo Effect

I just watched the New York press conference announcing the T-Mobile G1, the first handset to use Google’s Android mobile OS. It’ll be available October 22 in the US, November in the UK, and Q1 ‘09 across Europe. Price is $179 with a two-year T-Mobile contract. Two data plans available: $25 with unlimited data and some SMS, $35 with unlimited data and SMS.

Aside from the previously leaked details, Google released the rest of the specs and launch apps. The G1 avoids the pitfalls of the iPhone keyboard by including a slide-out QWERTY keyboard aside from the touchscreen. Additional notes from the presscon: Read the rest of this entry »

Now that Microsoft is dropping their utterly pointless Seinfeld ads, perhaps they can learn to make a point while still being funny. Pointlessness may be the hallmark of Seinfeld’s humor, but advertising shouldn’t be pointless, and humor doesn’t have to be pointless. Take for instance the Mac switch ad parodies by TrueNuff. They make me glad I’m not a Mac fanboy.

That takes care of the consumer market. What about the enterprise market, where Microsoft has a huge stake? You can use pointed humor there, too. For years, IBM ads have made enterprise computing hilarious. Read the rest of this entry »