InfoTart

Sure, it grabbed 9% market share in its first week, outpacing the former #2 player from Sansa. But it still trailed 12 flavors of iPod and a few flavors of the Sansa on Amazon.com:

Gizmodo: Zune Not Exactly Tearing Up the Charts

The question now seems to be what kind of momentum will the Zune pick up? Will it be like most movies that hit the cinemplex: big in the first week, then sales fall off the cliff for the second week? Or will it be like “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” — slowly, ever so patiently gathering steam to ultimately set sales records in its class?

Or — the most entertaining and karma-laden option of all — will it occupy a permanent niche in the market? Perhaps making decent sales in a market dominated by a single player, where the sales folks break out the champagne when sales reach double digits, but otherwise mostly maintaining sales somewhere in the single digits.

I went into Target in Boston the week after it launched. The Target has 2 Zunes on an end cap in the electronics dept. with lots of shiny accessories. The Sony PS2, Nintento Wii, and Microsoft Xbox all had kids around them. But the Zunes? Huddling together for warmth beneath the cold fluorescent lights. Lonely and ignored.

After the Target visit, my bet is on Scenario #3.

Microsoft is patient enough, and has pockets deep enough, to fund even a money losing device well into the third millennium if they want to. Perhaps things would change radically if they actually brought out a radical, market changing device…

This review of the next generation of the Windows Mobile 6 OS is on my list of things to read this week:

Windows Mobile 6 Review at Mobile-Review.com

Okay, this is probably me being unfairly judgmental since I haven’t even read the review yet (it printed out at over 10 pages and it was a busy day…), but what’s really new in the look and feel department? Well, some fancy new icons. A prettier new default theme. But so what? The UI components are still butt-ugly. Look at how the tab pages render — all blocky and so 1980’s.

Scanning through the article, it looks like the predictive text feature has been enhanced at least. Thank God! The current implementation on Qwerty devices (like the Motorola Q) totally blows. It’s difficult to work with on an email product because in the To field of a new email, we want to show potential email address matches from your address book when you type an “S” (like sally@duncan.com), not random English works like “Salt” or “Sadist”. Sadly, the OS doesn’t let us (as software developers) turn off the predictive text feature on individual text fields. It’s either on for the whole device or off for the whole device.

One of my colleagues has turned the predictive text feature off for his qwerty Windows device because it’s so unpleasant to use. I’d love to see one of the secret internal Microsoft usability test reports on that feature…

How long until the Apple iPhone drops?

My guess is that it’ll be announced at the January MacWorld. It’s early first quarter, so plenty of room for sales during Q1. Plus, there have been a gazillion leaks among hardware manufacturers and others in the know that more than 4 million units are being queued up for Q1. Too bad they’d miss the holiday sales frenzy with a January announcement…

And as the following article discusses, there may very well in fact be TWO new Apple iPhone devices launched:

Apple workinng on two iPhone models at VNUnet.com

I heard the other day that not only is there another Finnish mobile phone company, but they’ve also just released a new device with a very silly product name. It’s not that pretty either. It’s called the Twig and the company’s name is Benefon. The cool thing is that it has built in GPS, though.

Twig Review at UberPhone Blog

By the way, when I tell people I work for Nokia, they often think that it’s a Japanese or Korean company. Silly people — it’s actually a Finnish company!

I didn’t eat out once today. I ate breakfast at home, brought my lunch to work, and made dinner at home.

I know, it seems silly to point it out. But this bachelor eats out at least once almost every day, so it actually is kind of remarkable…  

I joined Google’s AdSense program recently for solo another project I’m working on. So to gain some experience with it, I just implemented it on InfoTart. Thankfully, it appears to be working okay and the site hasn’t broken yet…

I couldn’t have done it quite so easily without the help of Wayne at Acme Technologies who wrote the AdSense-Deluxe plugin for WordPress. *whew!*

For the plugin download and installation instructions, go to:

http://www.acmetech.com/blog/2005/07/26/adsense-deluxe-wordpress-plugin/

Before heading to Diesel Cafe last night to get some work done, Bruce and I had dinner at this amazingly good little Tibetan restaurant just a few doors down.

The place is called Martsa on Elm and appears to be run by a Tibetan family. Considering how tasty our dinner was, it seems that after Junior took our order, Grandma was in the kitchen whipping it up. Fantastic! I love small, family-run places like this that make genuine, good food.

I ordered the Shamday, which was little chunks of beef with potato, carrots, peas, and spinish in a mild Tibetan curry sauce. Served with rice, it was brilliant! I ordered a steamed bun (no filling) and mopped up every drop of the sauce with it.

Bruce ordered the Chicken Chili dish which was crispy fried chicken pieces sauteed inn onions and tomatoes, and served with lots of green, red and yellow peppers. Bruce loved it. I’m not a fan of peppers, but the chicken and its sauce was really good, I have to admit.

Bruce and I both ordered a traditional Tibetan tea which is blended with butter, milk and lightly salted. It was different… but still quite good. It’s definitely worth a try.

Overall, the dishes reminded me of an interesting mix of (American style) Chinese and Indian, which is probably not fair for a comparison. This was the first Tibetan restaurant I think I’ve ever been to, and I have to say that both Bruce and I were raving about our inexpensive meal. (Most entrees are under $10.)

Our server was Tibetan and provided helpful answers to our questions when we asked for advice on dishes and a bread side dish.

I loved this place and look forward to going again soon. And from the way the place filled up as we were finishing our delicious meal, it seems that it’s quite popular.

Martsa on Elm
233-A Elm Street
Davis Square in Somerville (Near Diesel Cafe)
617-666-0660

It’s 9 pm Saturday night and I’m posting this from Diesel Cafe in Somerville on my Nokia E61. Jeez, this device rocks!

Diesel is chock full of people. The coffee and music both are great. That is a great thing about the Diesel. The coffee is actually good! That’s kind of a rarity among indie cafes in Boston. Seattle this ain’t. After all, Boston *is* Ground Zero for Dunkin’ Donuts and their weak ass coffee.

Some older guy was sketching Bruce and me. When he left, I was hoping he’d give it to us, but no such luck.

I’m brainstorming topics for a workshop on mobile UI design and Bruce is working on his discrete math homework. It’s actually not a bad way to spend a Saturday night, despite the lack of disco music!

Who knew that Chelsea had a really good theater company?? I’ve been in Boston for almost 7 years and I swear I’d never heard of them before.

But there they are. The Chelsea Theatre Works has a fantastic building smack in the middle of Chelsea Center. The building used to be the old Odd Fellows hall. They’ve done a great job of remodeling the building and modernizing it, too.

Check out their web site to learn more about the Arthur Miller tragic play, “A View from the Bridge.” All I’ll say is that the acting was better than what you’d expect from a small theater company like this. The guy who played the main character, Eddie, was fantastic. The actor’s name is Jeff Gill and he commanded every scene. Tickets are just $15 in advance or $18 at the door and worth every penny.

Afterwards, my two friends and I went down the street to Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican restaurant with a great reputation. Unfortunately, we just had drinks so I didn’t have a chance to sample their food. But the margarita was good (on the rocks, no salt). And a few minutes after sitting down, most of the cast and crew came in for nibblies and drinks, too. Very cool.

Check out “A View from the Bridge” and enjoy its many parallels to life in immigrant-dominated Chelsea in the shadow of the Tobin Bridge. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00, Sunday matinees at 3:00 through December 10. See the web site for more information:

http://www.theatrezone.org/

By the way, I couldn’t find a web site, but I found a review for it at Yelp. They’re located at 139 Winnisimmet St. in Chelsea, about a block from the police station. Next time I go to a play there, I’ll definitely have to head to Cinco de Mayo first for dinner to finally see what all the chatter is about.