Verizon shoots self in foot

Verizon Wireless will be releasing its own App Store shortly, and will be forcing any phone manufacturer to only feature the Verizon store on the phones it sells through Verizon. This move is unprecedented and very stupid.

There are currently a few big players in the App store market:

Apple - by far the largest

Blackberry

Google (via Android)

Palm

Currently 3 of these 4 only sell phones on one US carrier, with Blackberry selling on all US carriers. Verizon has basically taken away from its customers the hope of ever being able to activate an iPhone on their network and run the risk of Blackberry jumping ship.

I understand the business strategy behind this, but I think that Verizon is going completely against the grain and is unlikely to find success.

One thing to note is that customers would still be able to install another App store on the phone, it would just take another manual step that many customers won't know how to do.

Apple declares war against Palm

The battle has been taken to the next level. Apple has blocked the ability to sync the Pre with iTunes.

I am a bit surprised, I don't see any way that this will benefit Apple. Consider:

Apple is going to be portrayed as a complete bully. This is Apple vs. Microsoft all over again, with Apple taking Microsoft's place.

They are alienating Palm's small but growing userbase.

Apple is going to lose some customers out of this.

It will be interesting to see if any anti-trust actions are filed.

In the meantime, there are many options to Pre users, including Doubletwist and other media players. Or you can just go the dirty way and drag and drop.

More details on healthcare out of the house

Here is a good summary of the proposed changes to healthcare, which I support. Note that the funding will be provided by penalizing those who fail to purchase plans and also to employers that refuse to provide healthcare. Additionally there is a tax on singles making more than 250 or couples making more than 350. Very few people fall into this category, but as I've said previously, you'll see republicans making minimum wage complain about taxes.

The plan is good and nearly supports everyone. Let's get this passed.

Sotomayor a shoe in

In my one-thousandth post, I will report that Sonia Sotomayor is without a doubt going to be joining the Supreme Court. There is nearly zero republican opposition to this nominee, outside of the rightmost fringes of that party.

Over the next few days, we'll see some more confirmation hearings, but the GOP leaders in the Senate are not putting up a fight, meaning that we'll soon have Justice Sotomayor.

Nationals fire Manny Acta

The Washington Nationals fired manager Manny Acta today. The team has started 26-61 and is by far the worst team in baseball. Despite being a young guy with experience on good teams like the Mets, Manny was never able to turn around the team. Possibly because he was too nice of a guy.

After Frank Robinson had left the team around .500 two seasons in a row, you'd have thought some new blood would propel the Nats to winning, but the things have only gone down hill since Frank's high water days of 2005-2006.

My take on this season: the rotation is decent but very young, the bullpen is atrocious, the offense has improved at the expense of defect.

Newsweek commentary on Israeli Settlements

There is a new opinion piece in Newsweek about how to sell the American public on Israeli settlements. To me, this seems to be a completely inappropriate article for Newsweek.

Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories have been ruled as illegal by international organizations, and they are one of the main reasons why Israel continues to be perceived badly in the world at large.

Israeli settlements are similar to Iranian nuclear weapons: both are unacceptable, and trying to "sell" the American public on them should not be a published stratetgy in a news magazine.

National Park Lodges

Here is a nice slideshow of some of the best national park lodges. I have only stayed at one on the list, Big Meadows, at my favorite Nat'l Park, SNP.



Definitely a fun summer activity to travel to our country's most scenic places.