Melting clouds

Amazon claims its Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) "changes the economics of computing by allowing you to pay only for capacity that you actually use".

Quora, Foursquare, Reddit and co didn't pay much when, the other day, the said elastic snapped (or as Einstein would put it : EC2 = Mess*) : their customers couldn't reach the service.

Sony also faced down servers issues with its PlayStation Network, but the trouble went even further : it appears that accounts were hacked, password and credit card details potentially stolen. Not the best context for the Sony Tablet launch.

This tablet runs on Android, an OS under scrutiny these days, just like rival iPhone : users start wondering about what happens to the huge amount of data generated by their compulsive smartphone behaviors, and their blind acceptance of countless obscure authorizations. They're afraid of Apple and Google might abuse their power, and they're right. But they should be worrying even more about what might happen when really bad guys reach their supposedly safe place in the cloud.

mot-bile 2011

* not yet a car crash ("Amazon Cloud Drive, cloudn't it ?") ?

Sony Aino, Satio, Yari : PlayNow, twist, tilt, turn, smash... buzz ?

May 28, 2009 : Sony Ericsson decides to wake up, launch a new campaign, and issue a series of emphatic press clips announcing 3 new devices and one proprietary movie download platform. The message : believe it or not, we've got some Sony in our DNA and we ain't gonna let competitors claim the entertainment arena for themselves.

PlayNow™ arena intends to do with movies what iTunes did for iPod and iPhone with music. The user experience does seem as un-seamless as with the Apple platform in its early stage... but with a very small and short-lived catalogue :

"- Download movies to your computer from www.playnow-arena.com/movies
- Transfer them to your Sony Ericsson phone by ‘side loading’ them from your computer to your phone using your USB device
- Watch them as often as you like for up to 90 days. The specially formatted movies are not playable on any other device
- Choose from a selection of around 15 movies at any one time, with approximately four additional titles being added to the catalogue each month to replace outgoing content
- A total of up to 60 movies can be downloaded during a twelve month period
- The available movie catalogue will be a country-specific mix of classics and newer titles" ("PlayNow™ arena with movies brings feature films to mobile phones" - SonyEricsson PR 20090528)

Kick off : this June across Europe (UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands) with the W995 Walkman™. Besides, two of the tree devices introduced the same day support the new platform : the Aino and the Satio.


The Sony Ericsson Satio replaces the Sony Ericsson Idou exposed in Barcelona (a doomed brand if I ever saw one). It focuses on image : a 12 M pixel camera and a big fat memory.("Visual communication like never before with the Sony Ericsson Satio" - SonyEricsson PR 20090528)



The Sony Ericsson Aino focuses on "sound and vision". Don't misinterpret the "Remote Play for PLAYSTATION®3" feature as a Nintendo Wii remote copycat : you can mostly pair it with your console. PSP next gen becomes PSP Go, and Media Go™ / Media Home "helps you transfer, play and organise all your music, photos, videos and podcasts from your PC simply and effortlessly to enjoy directly on Aino via Wi-Fi™. No more wires, no more searching – always the latest fun." ("Sound and vision set free with the Sony Ericsson Aino" - SonyEricsson PR 20090528)



The Sony Ericsson Yari goes beyond the Aino, more into Wii territory : "Yari debuts Gesture gaming – forget about pushing buttons, with Gesture gaming you make the moves in front of the screen to get right in the middle of the action!" ("Twist, tilt, turn, smash - gesture gaming is here with the Sony Ericsson Yari" - SonyEricsson PR 20090528)


I can't see much disruption there. Except maybe for my eardrums.

Tetris turning 25... now that's distressing.

PlayStation Home, Sweet Home - Virtual Dissociative Identity Disorder

As Home hits shelves, employees hit home.

With a weird sense of timing, Sony launch PlayStation Home, a free 3D social networking service, a few days after inviting 16,000 of their staff to rediscover their own HomeSpace - provided they're lucky enough to avoid foreclosure (bonus: a fourth dimension included - time)...

Air France - KLM's Bluenity is taking off the same week. Yet another 2D, 2.0 social networking scheme. But there, you can pal around the terrorist who'll take the same plane as you, and even learn from him about the charms of Afghan mountains.

I suggest a new social networking concept : with VdId (Virtual Dissociative Identity Disorder), I will make all my online aliases meet each other. Who knows, they may find out some kind of common ground / common sense.