Steve Jobs and Apple should be ashamed of themselves for taking such draconian legal action against bloggers who have the balls to spill the beans on Apple's new products. Apple's argument that bloggers aren't protected by free speech provisions under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because they are not "legitimate members of the press." may be technically accurate but it's absurd - particuarly since several bloggers were given accreditation during the Republican Party convention.
Apple is supposed to be the consumer-friendly company that thumbs its nose at the industry Goliaths (a.k.a. Microsoft) so the world can enjoy better technology. So what's Apple thinking? Given it only has 3% of the personal computer market, it can use all the buzz it can get. Maybe Jobs is so high
on the commercial glow of the iPod that he actually believes bloggers could undermine his company's success.
Time to take a pill and get a reality check, Steve.
P.S. Please please don't sue me, although it would be an interesting legal test to see if blogs written by newspaper journalists are protected the First Amendment.

For all the excitement these days about gambling, particularly Texas Hold'em poker, it should be no surprise wireless betting is poised to explode. In a new report, Juniper Research estimates mobile gambling revenue will soar to $19.3-billion by 2009 from $2-billion in 2005. Of the 2009 forecast, Jupiter
estimates about 40% will be on lotteries, 35% on sports and 25% on casino-style gambling. Juniper analyst Windsor Holden says lotteries will be big business because governments are more relaxed about this activity - probably because lotteries generate a lot of money for cash-strapped governments and are seen as entertainment as opposed to gambling. "Given the ubiquity of the lottery culture, it will only require a very small percentage of players to buy their tickets via the mobile handset for the resulting global revenues to run into billions of dollars," he says. The Juniper reports is a nice complement to the Yankee Group's forecast last year on the potential for wireless pornography. Yankee Group estimates
mobile porn could be worth $1-billion by 2008.
Bottom line: vice sells.

Hoping to make a splash as Spring VON kicks off, Vonage is poised to announce it has blown through the 500,000 subscriber mark. If the company can maintain its momentum - and doesn't suffer from any more embarassing network outages - its year-end target of 1M customers seems attainable.
So what do Vonage's subscriber numbers mean - other than sales are running at an annualized rate of about US$150M? For one, Vonage has a critical mass of users - at least in the U.S. From a strategic position, its easily the 'Amazon.com" of its market, and able to do an IPO when and if that day comes. It's also a more attractive acquisition target for anyone who has the appetite these days to spend $1.5 billion to $2 billion.
In Canada, Vonage is apparently doing well, although it is impossible to quantify because the company doesn't release actual subscriber numbers. If the Canadians market reaches the 250K customers target forecast by some analysts, my guess is Vonage will have 50K to 100K customers.