Very soon, your cell phone may double as your boarding pass. Read more here.

Scandal sheet

The good: Internet news/gossip pioneer Matt Drudge (who demonstrated the power of the 'net in 1998 when he broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal) is out with a mobile version of his Drudge Report.

The bad: User has to scroll through two screens of the right-wing gadfly's self-puffery before getting to the headlines.

The ugly: This is the first time I noticed how much he looks like Peewee Herman. Hint: Don't sit next to him in a movie theater.

Know where you are

Google Maps (for Mobile) now offers location-awareness without GPS by triangulating cell signals. While you're at it, check out this cool Google Maps blog.

Porno to go

Mobile technology is opening the doors to whole new categories of perversion.

Update

Yahoo predicts a mass migration to mobiles over the next 10 years.

Pay-by-phone technology takes a step forward with the introduction of a secure mobile signature. Still to be seen if such an application carries water legally.

Danah Boyd posts an interesting article about how pricing plans affect texting culture (insofar as there is such a thing).

Mobile lust

Just in time for the holidays, Forbes Magazine offers a list of sexy mobile phones you can't get in the United States.

Trends

An AP/AOL poll shows teens use instant messaging and cell phones to say things they wouldn't say face-to-face. (Maybe this is a good way for parents to ask, "How was your day?") Meanwhile, businesses crack down on rude cell phone users.

Promising developments

Looks like Google has put to rest the long-rumored gPhone. But what it's offering instead could be far more revolutionary: Android, an open-source mobile phone platform based on the Linux operating system. Why should we care? Because Android could wrench control of the software on your mobile phone away from your carrier (since when does Verizon know anything about GUIs?) and put it in control of the real experts: the open-source development community. Flash Lite promises to do the same thing with content.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but the result could be an explosion of functionality and content on mobile devices that has been heretofore stifled by U.S. carriers' iron-fisted (and hamhanded) control over everything that appears on your handset's screen.

Potpourri

Opera Mini 4 is out, and it looks like it's borrowing a page from Apple's iPhone. It boasts full Web page views, along with other features. Check it out here. It's a free download.

Meanwhile, MobileCrunch reports that mobiles are elbowing out PC's in Japan, leading some to predict the personal computer's demise there. (We've all heard that one before.)

Finally, the first app for the rumored Googlephone has been leaked, and it's a doozy: It'll help you find that late-night beer you're craving. (No word on whether it'll work in Connecticut, where draconian Blue Laws shutter the package stores at 9 p.m.)

This isn't technically a post about mobile media, but it's still pretty darn interesting. Someone dug up an archive of the first Web page ever posted. I remember this period, and lots of people were talking about things like "Gopher" and "FTP" without really understanding what they were (unless they were true, dyed-in-the-wool, nerds).

Flash for lightweights

Wanna try Flash Lite? Check out this primer. And here's a paper on designing for mobile devices.

I fought the law ...

I recently had the unpleasant experience of being stopped by the police and illegally searched because I was doing something totally legal on public property: shooting video of Bridgeport Harbor. So I sympathize with this dude, who got his stones busted just for watching a movie on his iPhone.

Barring all

The technology chief of the New York Times' parent company is betting on bar codes as a way for future mobiles to interact with the rest of the world -- even print newspapers. Makes sense. Here's the story.

Vonaphone offers Second Life service

The boundaries between SL and RL continue to blur.

History repeating itself?

Apple has come a long way over the years. But one of the reasons it's not where Microsoft is now is because the company has always insisted on control over both the hardware and software. Where Bill Gates encouraged one and all to install Windows on any machine that could handle it, Steve Jobs insisted on vertical integration: Apple software running on Apple machines. There are benefits to this approach -- one company, one vision, one product. But the drawbacks are painfully obvious when you look at Apple's single-digit share in the personal computer market.

So here's what I'm getting at: Is Apple risking repeating history by blocking third-party developers on the iPhone?

Rude Rudy?

It's one thing to interrupt a conversation to take a cell call. It's another to interrupt a speech before the NRA -- especially if you're a presidential candidate. Or is the former NYC mayor using his phone as a prop?

iPhone learning new tricks?

Amid all the iPhone hype, a few observers noted that the gotta-have gizmos come without IM or picture messaging. Heck, even my little cheapest-I-could-find LG has picture messaging. Well, a little birdie tells me more features may be on the way.

Signs of convergence

Answering Machine + Myspace
Google + Ma Bell
Bluetooth + Burqa

Utterly, totally off-topic ...

... but it's my blog and I'll post whatever I want on it!!

Flash update

Good news: Upcoming Flash technology will allow your mobile to display funky Flash presentations -- like this one ... or this classic Miss Muffy video.

Updating a classic

I enjoy the convenience and mobility of a cell phone just as much as the next guy. Who'd'a thunk 30 years ago that you could answer the phone while trimming the hedges without a mad dash into the house?

Well, call me old fashioned, but there's something I miss about the old Ma Bell contraption hanging on the wall. Ever tried to cradle a cell phone between your ear and your shoulder? It's a good way to develop a crick in your neck. Well, this guy has the solution.

Going Mobile

Is the iPhone a breakthrough or just a lot of hype? When we look back at it 10 years from now, we'll probably see it as a turning point in popularizing the mobile Web in the United States, according to ReadWriteWeb, which lists mobile Web among its Top 10 future Web trends.

In other news, is that your parking meter calling?

Mobile mock-up

This is my take on a mobile Web site for a newspaper -- in this case, my former employer, the Connecticut Post. The real site is not optimized for mobile, so if you want to see what it looks like in a mobile browser, visit the Opera Mini emulator and plug in the URL: http://www.connpost.com/ .

Imagine ...

Imagine a wireless Web with common protocols, interchangeable handsets and no early-termination fees. That's the vision of the Wireless Consumer Protection Bill, which is expected to be introduced in the Senate. It's likely to face strong opposition from the Blue Meanies in the wireless industry.

Ooops!

Heh. This is classic. For the life of me I can't remember the username and password I used to generate my blog for this little experiment. (Is this a problem caused by the mobile sign-up process? I think maybe it is.) In any case, here's a link to the old site, and we'll just take it from there.