Site news soon!

Email me @ mike@morrowplanet.com if you’d like one.

Update: my supply of beta codes for Dropbox is gone! Thanks.

Landline phone makers are trying awfully hard to be relevant in a market where, increasingly, the landline phone is an anachronism. In a quick poll, 4 out of 5 of my colleagues under age 30 have no landline at all, and use their mobile phone exclusively. Of those I asked over 30, myself included, zero use a mobile exclusively. Interesting, but not surprising.

The first thing you’ll notice if you shop for a landline phone is that most try very hard not to look like landline phones. Most are tiny black candybars, like mobiles, or intentionally retro-looking handsets that wouldn’t be out of place in a Bogart film.

The next thing you’ll likely notice is that, for the most part, they all are almost exactly the same. Same frequencies used, same technologies, same buttons. Or are they?

This is where things get interesting, because the buttons aren’t all exactly the same. In fact, we found some GE phones actively marketing a different button. A Google button. A GOOG-411 button.

If you really stop to think about it, that’s a headspinner. Thomson is selling a GE-branded phone with a button to automatically dial directory assistance from a search company. Turns out I had missed an announcement earlier in the year:

"While some people still use the ‘phone book,’ most traditional paper versions these days are remarkably incomplete and do not fit today’s fast paced lifestyle," said Tom Bratton, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Thomson Consumer Network Solutions. "In America alone, more than $18 million is spent on business information calls daily! That amounts to about $7 billion dollars spent per year. We believe that consumers will appreciate the ability to use GOOG-411, making free business information calls at the push of a single button."

"We are pleased that Thomson has incorporated Google’s powerful local search service into their latest line of phones," said Marc Vanlerberghe, Director of Mobile Marketing of Google, Inc. "GOOG-411 connects users to businesses for no charge. We believe that users will appreciate the ease, speed and simplicity of finding and connecting with businesses at the push of one button. Google is committed to making information useful and accessible when and where our users need it, whether it is on a desktop machine, a mobile device, or a landline handset."

(full media release)

Here’s Engadget on the announcement. Also SlipperyBrick.

The GOOG-411 button may or may not be helpful to consumers, but it certainly is good for Google. It furthers the perception of Google as the de facto repository for information on anything, anywhere, and does so in a pretty innovative way.

Please reply in the comments or email me.

(I also asked this request on the twitter)

Thanks!

All that being said, I’ve been really inspired by John Flowers’ Life Zero. Even more than the site itself, I’ve particularly enjoyed the new podcast he’s launched to support it (iTunes link | mp3 link). It’s really interesting to hear folks talk through some of these lifestyle design issues (the podcast also features Ben Durbin, whom you may know if you listen to the equally interesting MacBreak Tech). If you haven’t checked out Life Zero, I encourage you to do so.

One of the things I love about Roach’s books (though something that many critics dislike) is the way she approaches quirky scientific research and breezily translates it into slightly sly cocktail party stories. Bonk is no different, though given its subject matter I can think of very few circumstances, at least among my circle, where many of these stories would come up. Not a book for the prude or the squeamish, Bonk is nevertheless quite a bit of fun.

Here’s a good interview with Mary Roach about Bonk.

And while we’re at it…

Now, you know me: I’m a lifelong reader with a passion for technology. My lust for gadgetry and tech stuff is rivaled only by the length of my Amazon wishlist and the size of my to-be-read pile on my nightstand. So why haven’t I ever been interested in e-book readers?

It’s not that I mind reading on a screen. Indeed, a fairly significant part of my day involves reading text on a screen—whether its email and copy at work, feeds and news at home, or tweets and email on my iPhone, I’m reading digital text near constantly.

Ah! Right there, perhaps, is an answer. When 98% of the words I read or write to make a living, stay informed, or manage our household affairs happen on-screen, there is an additional layer of escapism to holding a book, feeling the paper, and laying down in bed to read. I’m protecting that childlike part of me that loves to read for the mere wonder of it all from the part of me that is just another Internet-addicted infovore surrounded by black text on a white screen. Perhaps.

To get everything out in the open, I’m right now very close to buying an Amazon Kindle. I got a little closer when Sony came out with theirs a few years back, but the Kindle is the first device that has really captured my attention. As someone who always has at least two books on his person at almost all times and who agonizes about which books to bring along on a trip, I really like the idea of a smallish device with an entire library on-board, ready for any reading whim that may strike. I love the idea of decreasing the amount of physical clutter in our home that my book addiction creates (and I know my wife will appreciate this too!). I even like the idea that reading a book on-screen may even be helpful to the environment. I like the idea of searchable, easily retrievable notes and annotations, and the promise of instant, wireless delivery of a passing fancy. And the cost doesn’t bother too badly. I recently discovered some savings bonds I was given as a child that could easily pay for the Kindle without dipping into our budget, and the Kindle books themselves cost less than their treeware counterparts.

So could I be afraid that I’ll like an e-book reader too much? I think that may be closer to the truth. As a bibliophile, what does it mean if I prefer this new experience to the more tactile act of reading a paper book?

No answers now, but I’m leaning closer and closer to trying. If I take the plunge, I will keep you posted here on what happens, and how it feels along the way.

But that would cheapen this super-tight, violent, and alarmingly nuanced first novel. Barlow never goes for the easy or the cliche, in what would seem fertile ground for such gimmicks: a rival-gang-werewolf-love-story in modern day Los Angeles. Instead Sharp Teeth is defiant in its originality, all the way down to its free verse, epic poem conceit.

Like the city it (in part) depicts, Sharp Teeth is a book of contradictions. Tender affection, explosive violence. Animal brutality and touching humanity. Language that was clearly painstakingly crafted and edited, but (like all great writing) seemingly effortless in execution.

I read a lot, and this is the most unique book I’ve read in awhile. It kept me up late, which these days is the highest compliment I can pay an author. While not for the squeamish, it is destined to build a pack of rabid fans. (see? I couldn’t resist!)

Sharp Teeth has gotten a lot of attention around the web, but I would strongly recommend a few links in particular.

• Toby Barlow himself writes about the novel in HuffPo:
  

  I certainly didn’t write my book to get published. In fact, I seriously handicapped my chances by writing my novel in free verse. Not really a “marketable proposition.” Yes, it was a love story, and yes it involved dogs (and who doesn’t love dogs?) But they were blood-thirsty werewolf-ish dogs who played cards, busted up crystal meth labs, and every so often ate people alive. Not exactly Benji. Not exactly My Dog Skip.

• Jeff Vandermeer interviews Barlow (in verse, of course) for Amazon’s Omnivoracious
  
• Rick Kleffel’s interview by for The Agony Column with Barlow’s editor, Jennifer Barth (mp3 link) [this is actually what prompted me to buy the book]
• And The Agony Column interview with Barlow himself (mp3 link)