Bluetooth's Second Wave

Could there possibly be a more overhyped consumer technology in the last 20 years? The promise of Bluetooth has just not panned out. I've tried, and returned or sold, three different headsets for my cellphone. I've unpaired the phone from my wife's car. I've unpaired my cell from my Powerbook. My Bluetooth mouse never worked properly for anything that resembles mouse pointing. What is it with this technology? Now, we're promised the next wave? How about fixing the first wave?

As far as ideas go, Bluetooth was an amazing one....but it never lived up to its promise. I certainly don't have my hopes up that the second wave will live up to the bloated expectations set by the first.

My idea for Bluetooth is that it should be utilized sparingly, perhaps in the home or office. Pair your coffee mug at work with all the full pots in the office and you'll know whenever you're in range of a full pot. Or perhaps, put Bluetooth on every sock you own so you'll know where it's twin is within 5 feet.

iPhone "Unlocked": Why more companies don't follow Apple's lead

I can only imagine the "concern" that Apple must be conveying to AT&T who is signed up as the official distributor of iPhones in the US. The news release today that 25% (over 1M units) of all iPhones have been "unlocked" to work on other networks is terrible news to their partnership. Who knew that all these savvy gear jockeys would deconstruct the security and proprietary network schemae only to use their new ~$500 gadget freely across the wireless provider spectrum? Do you think that Apple will be kicking back some of that $500M in product revenue to AT&T to cover their losses?

This is the future folks. More companies need to break down these solo partnerships / distributorships and use open-source product release models so that our gadgets are not locked to an oligarchy or monopoly of service providers. I'm sure that the Linux crowd will agree with that. Now if I could only download DRM free music from iTunes...