As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I almost love my Sprint Mogul smartphone. When I was doing research on what my next phone should be, the Mogul jumped to the top of the heap because it had great Internet connectivity (Sprint’s EVDO network) and a very good mobile browser (Mobile IE 6.0).

But there are some things that just don’t work well. One of them is the X or close button on the menu bar. By default, Windows Mobile minimizes applications when the X button is tapped. That means the application will not be closed and it will stay running in the background memory of your Windows Mobile device. If you open up too many windows, your device may start slowing down. And if that starts happening, you may need to do a soft re-boot of the phone.

Instead of dealing with this hassle, I use one of my favorite Windows Mobile applications: X-Button for Pocket PC. This tiny piece of software lets you take control over the X button so that applications really close, not stay minimized.

Finding this piece of software, isn’t very easy. You generally have to Google it to find it (Use terms like “HTC X Button” for example.) The results usually come back from online forums, (like XDA Developers.com SprintMogul.net or FreeWarePocketPC.net), where you can read postings, but have to register as a forum member in order to download any software. Here are the places where I’ve found them available:

FreeWarePocketPC: http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/get-htc-x-button-v1-50.html
XDA Developers: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=330046

I am using the 1.0 version, however, I’ve seen 1.5 and 2.0 versions available.

Although this is the software I use, there are lots of applications that can do this. Some of them are bundled with other utilities, which usually cost about $30. But X-Button is a free, small and doesn’t add anything to your menus or modify how things look. It just works.

If anyone else has their own favorite X-button software, please comment below and let me know about it.

Technorati Tags: Sprint, Mogul, smartphone, X-button, X Button, Sprint Mogul

Popularity: 19% [?]

Paid content on the web is difficult, but it can be done. (Digital Media Wire)

Getting Internet video into HD quality by SwarmCast. (Technology Review)

Striking Hollywood writers going to Internet for work and venture capital money. (LA Times)

YouTube adding Live video soon. (Digital Media Wire)

Akimbo dropping set-top box strategy. (Digital Media Wire)

Consumers clicking on mobile ads. (CED Magazine)

Consumers buying more digital music, but overall music is down. (NPD press release)

Popularity: 40% [?]

Looks like Internet ad revenue is still growing and even outpacing traditional media. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, advertising revenues from 2007 were about $21.1 billion, which is up 25% over 2006’s $16.9 billion.

Technorati Tags: IAB, research, advertising, Internet advertising, Internet Advertising Bureau

Popularity: 26% [?]

According to Juniper Research, the worldwide mobile music market will hit $17.5 billion by 2012. Much of the growth will be by rental music services as well as downloads.

Juniper also said that Asia will be the largest marketplace for mobile music over the next five years, accounting for around 43% of sales per year. Ringtone saless, they say, will fall; they currently account for 62% of the mobile music market but by 2012, Juniper expects it to account for only 38%.

The company said that the popularity of the iPhone is pushing the mobile music business. But I wonder how many people use the iPhone as their music player. As a phone, it works well but as a music player it’s not quite a replacement for your 160GB iPod Classic. Although it does come with 8GB ($399) and 16GB ($499) versions, it can’t hold all your music. So many people will have both an iPhone and an iPod.

I would buy an iPhone tomorrow if it had at least 80GB for my music. My current phone, the Spring Mogul, also acts as a music player, but I’ve never treated it as one. I do hold a handful of songs, but it’s mostly for fun and showing off to friends and family. It only has a 512MB mini SD card, so it doesn’t hold very much. But I use my phone as a phone and Internet-enabled device. And I have a separate iPod for my music.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Isn’t it ironic? A company puts out a press release with the results of a survey showing that over half of respondents are not familiar with the term IPTV. Yet they themselves don’t know what the term IPTV means.

The survey said that more than half of respondents didn’t know what IPTV meant, yet 92% have watched YouTube.

For the record: YouTube is not IPTV. IPTV means broadcast TV delivered over a managed network (or walled garden) using Internet protocols (IP). Thus the term IPTV. YouTube is Internet video. That’s because it’s delivered over the public Internet. Internet video is just a “best effort” delivery since it’s not managed.

But really, it’s not the fault of the company. The term IPTV is often mis-understood by lots of people. I would have thought, however, that a company doing a survey on Internet video would understand the difference.

Another way to distinguish IPTV from Internet video: IPTV is about delivering linear broadcast TV. The survey talked about Internet user-generated content and YouTube. It’s just not the same, and one way to keep the two sides different is not to mix up the terms.

The company that did the survey, WebsEdge, is a content creator that’s in the business of putting videos on the Internet. However, since they barely understand the difference between IPTV and Internet video, how can their customers? Or a regular consumer?

I had a call with Stephen Horn, the CEO of WebsEdge where he admitted that they may have mixed up the terms. But he held fast to the results of the survey and didn’t think he got anything wrong.

I think the press release and the survey are invalid and don’t make any sense.

It just makes me wonder how companies can put out press releases like this that claim any kind of validity.

I even am beginning to wonder about how the survey was conducted. Did they use scientific methods? The press release simply says:

“The survey, conducted in late 2007 in New York City, asked 225 residents about their attitudes and knowledge of IPTV.”

At the end of the press release it states:

“The survey was conducted in midtown Manhattan, New York.”

What kind of questions did they ask? When I asked Stephen about how the survey was conducted I got a vague answer that they’d get back to me. It’s been a few days, and I still haven’t heard anything about how it was conducted. Did they simply walk up to people in the streets? Who knows.

It doesn’t really matter, really. Yet another reason not to take this “survey” seriously.

Bonus: If you feel like reading it, you can see the PDF of the full press release here.

Popularity: 17% [?]