3pm Injection 01.31.2009

Welcome back. We've got a pretty lengthy list of music this week for you all. There's no telling how long these links will stay live, so get'em or forget'em. Our selection so far has been pretty random, and we'd like to know what you want to hear in future 3pm Injections, so please feel free to post any thoughts, suggestions, ideas, etc. in the comments. See you next week with more mp3 links.

Update: I have no idea how this post got removed before, but I don't like it. Let's try this again...

Portal - Still Alive

Jay-Z Feat. Santogold - Brooklyn We Go Hard

Young Jeezy Feat. Pharrell - Rumor Has It

Mims - This Is Why I'm Hot

Kanye West - Stronger

M.I.A. - Paper Planes

Abba - The Name Of The Game

Kanye West - Love Lockdown

Young Jeezy Feat. Nas - My President Is Black

Ludacris Feat. T-Pain - One More Drink

Busta Rhymes Feat. Ron Brownz - Arab Money [2]

Chrisette Michele - Be OK

Overdub - Come As The Starlight

Overdub - Funky Town

BB King - The Thrill Is Gone

Lipps Inc. - Funky Town [2]

Beastie Boys - Shazam!

The Quantic Soul Orchestra - Assassin

William S. Burroughs - Things To Think About

Ads, Games, Tablets, and Panic?

We've Got Advertising...Again

After a long time without ads on the site, NET9 is trying to support itself in a more turbulent economy in a way that's not too turbulent to our readers. We've selected two advertisement models this time around: PayPerPost and Kontera. I don't expect much revenue from this change, but something is better than nothing in this day and time. It will be interesting to track some of the differences between the two approaches to advertising going forward as well.

Update: PayPerPost has been removed. Guess we don't conform to their terms of service. :)

More N-Gage Games On The Way

Cafe Sudoku just became available for download yesterday, and there are a few more big name games coming soon to N-Gage. Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition, Age Of Empires III, Prince Of Persia, Real Football 2009, and Yamake are all launching some time this year. The N-Gage game showroom is filling out quite nicely, and I can't wait for what's coming to the platform next.

Potential Internet Tablet Announcement

The TabletBlog.com believes a new Internet Tablet will be announced and/or released at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona. This could be Nokia's big surprise for the first quarter and the company's answer to the netbook phenomenon. We'll have to wait until February 16-19 to see if Nokia has a new tablet to add to its already amazing portfolio.

Mobile Industry: Don't Panic

Informa Telecoms & Media's Global Mobile Market Outlook assures the industry that there's no need for panic even in the economic downturn. Personally, I think certain areas of the industry are fairly safe (such as advertising and mobile software/services), while others (i.e. operators and some device makers) are viable candidates to commence doing the panic dance. It all comes down to what companies can endure the coming months as the economic crunch continues to affect the technology industry as a whole.

3pm Injection 01.25.2009

Okay everyone, this is a music mix you'll never see anywhere else. This one is dedicated to my cousin out in Louisiana somewhere. He knows who he is. Thanks for introducing me to Asha Bhosle. Enjoy these tracks while they're still fresh. See you next week with a new Injection.

Chabi Kho Jaye

Asha Bhosle - Dum Maro Dum

Requiem For A Dream - Theme

The Chemical Brothers - Shake Break Bounce

Cheb Khaled - Alech Taadi

Batman Begins - Myotis

MI2 - Injection

Wu Tang Clan - Wu Tang Clan Ain't Nothin' To Fuck Wit

Quick Mobile News Update

Android T-Mobile G2

Images of the possible Android G2 smartphone have been making there way around the web and from the looks of the device it would appear that there will be no hardware keyboard of any sort leading many to believe the update to Android, code-named "Cupcake", will be in this phone by default. Cupcake will bring the touch-screen keyboard feature necessary to use such a device as well as video recording and browser find functions. It looks like Android is growing quite nicely, and will soon be offered on a quickly expanding number of devices too.

Asphalt 4: Elite Racing Now On N-Gage

The follow up to Asphalt 3: Street Rules is now available. Asphalt 4 brings real-time Bluetooth multiplayer mode for true competition with your friends, 28 "real-life" cars and bikes, improved handling, and a new drift engine for some tighter turns on those crazy curves. To me the game looks graphically the same as its predecessor, and there's still no online multiplayer mode. The game is a good update to the series, but for $13.49 there's not enough substance to this racing sequel.

Followup On N-Gage Game Transfers

A while back there was a lot of frustration when many N-Gage gamers discovered game licenses they had purchased were locked to the phone purchased for, and since then Nokia has responded by implementing a one-time transfer of game licenses to a different phone. That's all good and fine for now, but we are still hopeful there will be an easy and potentially more flexible solution to moving one's N-Gage collection to another phone. All About N-Gage has more on this news.

Mobiola Web Camera 3 Mini Review

This week I turned my Nokia N81 8GB into a nice webcam using Mobiola's web camera application. Setup was pretty straightforward. Download the application to the computer and the S60 application to the phone. Connect via USB, WiFi, or Bluetooth. Change some settings of supported IM clients to use the Mobiola video source, and you're good to go. Video quality is very good, but I wish there was audio support as well. Finding a suitable location for the phone to capture video is a bit tricky, but the fact that the connection can be wireless offers more freedom of location choices.This is a great application. It just needs audio support, and it will be a perfect video conferencing solution for mobile warriors.

Nokia N97 Designer Answers Questions

I'm already pretty excited about the Nokia N97, and have been saving up for a device like this since I heard about S60 Touch UI. There have been a lot of questions from other bloggers interested in the device, and Axel Meyer, Head of Design at Nokia Nseries has the answers. Be sure to check out the informative and even inspiring video for the quick Q&A session.

Presidential Inauguration

3pm Lives!

Though its history is short, 3pm has had some of the most rapid growth I could have ever expected. It's very existence has greatly impacted NET9. Some ways good, and some bad. Anyhow, 3pm has been dormant for some time now, and we think it's time to wake it up again. Every week we will bring various mp3 links to NET9 in the form of 3pm Injections. Much of it will be music, but we may toss in some other interesting audio files your way as well. Of course everyone is welcome to add suggestions, opinions, links, and more in the comments section too. It's good to have 3pm back in action again. Enjoy the links.

T-Pain Feat. Akon - Bartender
Timbaland - The Way I Are

Rihanna - Rehab

Britney Spears - Womanizer [2]

50 Cent - Get Up

Blue Mambo - Mambo No.5

Ciara - Diva

Palm Pre: Last Chance For A First Impression

It has been the most recent and popular topic of discussion between some of my friends and myself, and it's obvious that we have different feelings about Palm's latest device. So much so that I have produced a list of some of my favorite responses to the common question of what my thoughts are about the Pre.

...still just a nicely polished rock at the bottom of a raging river...
...more than enough too late...
...brings just those features most future smartphones should have anyway...
...it's more like Palm Premature...
...I'm calling this the most interesting mobile device that I'm not interested in of the year...
...there's this thing called bad timing, and this is the absolute worse...
...ten bucks says you'll get or want something better before it's finally available...
...Dr. Seuss would be proud, Fisher Price will be jealous...
...but, will it blend?...
...I'll buy one when it costs less than the iPhone and is unlocked...
...tamagotchi 2.0?...
...solitaire could be pretty cool on it I guess...
...I predict six months to bring it to market, only one week of strong sales...

It's not so much that I'm pessimistic about Palm's big comeback, I just think the Pre is not intended to be a future phone. Sure, it has some nice ideas that make it shine ever so brightly, but it also lacks some important features many people will come to expect from their next mobile device. Only time will tell if Palm has the right stuff to stay the course this time around.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2009! We're ready for another eventful year in mobile technology here at NET9, and we hope to see some big announcements early on with CES running from January 8th through the 11th. Stay tuned for more great things to happen in the mobile space in the coming months. Happy New Year from NET9!