It’s been a long time since I’ve made a post HERE. Yes, I meant to put ‘here’ in all caps because I’ve been active, in fact more than ever. But as everybody reading this already knows (that’s all 20 of you), personal blogs – where somebody rambles on for 500 words – are really not where the action, and definitely not the readers, are spending time. We’re all on Facebook or Twitter now; and for kicks I’ve even started a new MySpace page – as a new personality all together (in the name of marketing research of course!).

So to any of my old friends, and definitely to any new ones I haven’t met yet – friend me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter (johnstarky). And if you’re in Seattle please forgot all this digital connection garbage and let’s meet up in person. I look forward to re-connecting. Cheers.

Just finished a great weekend in Singapore. Not only were a friend and I perched out only 5 meters from the track at Formula 1's first ever night race, but we got to hang out with good gadget friends at Yum Cha - my favorite local Dim Sum restaurant. In fact, I think I spent the entire weekend drooling over fast cars, food and devices - HTC showed the entire upcoming Touch line-up as well as the G1 Android phone. Here are some of the guys who crossed chopsticks with us: Pocket PC Singapore, MobiFrance, Mobique, and DC Mobile. Was fun hanging out guys! Oh, and here are some F1 pics :)

Pretty cool, first video-teaser from Sony-Ericsson. There has been so much hype for the upcoming Xperia X1 that some have questioned if it will live up to expectations... Well the final line in this video (assuming it's Johnny speaking) is "it's not a hoax."

This is the first of a much bigger advertising campaign (click the picture for the original/high-resolution version).  What did you think of it? It was intended to intrigue people, get folks feeling peculiarly interested in understanding what it's all about...

Wow, this is a beauty! My very brief summary: a melding of slick Diamond design, a non-touch-screen UI (which is the easier-to-use version of Windows Mobile) with elements of TouchFlo 3D, stuffed into a HTC Vox-like hardware - although much slimmer, like it should have always been. And I thought I was settled on buying the HTC Touch Diamond Pro - now I'm second-guessing myself. What do you think?

In June I had the chance to spend a few days in Tokyo. The guys at Akihabara News invited me over to chat about Windows Mobile. As always, Alex and I had a fun time bantering about on all things mobile. Click on the picture below and have a listen - apparently he's going to do a three-part series with our conversation: I can't for the life of me remember what we talked about for that long; but then again, once I start talking with friends about gadgets the hours just fly by :)

Yeah, it's been a long time. My excuse: I've been traveling non-stop since the middle of June when I left Singapore for Beijing, then Tokyo, Seattle, Colorado, back to Seattle, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Seattle, San Diego and then back to Singapore. It didn't seem so bad when I planned it all: a mix of work and vacation. But I'm exhausted. I've now had a week to catch-up in the office in Singapore and tomorrow I'm off to Seattle again. I keep telling myself that things will settle down in a few months - but I've been using that line for 10 years now :)

But to be honest, I'm having fun - and I'd be bored if I wasn't running full-speed and globetrotting. Here's my summer (thus far!) in pictures.

Colorado Monument	Sea World, San Diego
Easy Riders, Canada	Zune & Diamond on board
Lego Land	Singapore!

I had been here once before, but was escorted by a few wannabe-geeks who got bored after an hour walking the streets of Electronics Paradise: that is Akihabara Electric Town in Tokyo.

This time I went alone, spent eight hours walking through shop after shop, quickly becoming desensitized to the schoolgirl-costumed girls handing out coupons, the crowds shamelessly shoving, and the rain that poured. I was in Akihabara - the candy store district for grown-ups.

I sadly finished the day having bought very little. I eyed many compact HD video cameras, phones of every shape in bright colors (check out the new Sharp Willcom units here that run Windows Mobile) that played high-quality wireless TV, games for my XBOX 360 and PSP, and a million and one computer accessories. In the end, format and voltage worries kept me at bay. But, I still had a thoroughly satisfying day of drooling over gadgets. If you're ever in Tokyo, Akihabara is a must visit for any fellow geeks!

I know that rising airline ticket prices are putting some major hurt in everyone's wallets. However, I was reminded about another kind of airline hurt yesterday when I flew from Singapore to Beijing: that's the literal PAIN IN YOUR [INSERT PERSONAL WORD HERE] kind of hurt from the lousy seats and layouts of too many planes today.

What frustrated me most is that I wasn't flying some low-cost airline - this was Singapore Airlines. Their older planes are configured similarly to many other mainstream carriers today (I know from personal experience that it's like United, Northwest, American, British Airways, KLM, etc.):

• After an hour or so lots of surprising lumbar support appears - you know, the type that comes when the foam has fallen out of older seats so it's just your precious flesh against a metal frame.
• It seems like the seat to your left and right are quite spacious, but the one you were so lucky to nab has an unwanted heater box on the floor, the curtain to the next class keeps flipping against your head, or every passer-by bumps into you because the aisle location changes direction at your knees.
• Then there are those planes where the back 10 rows have a jet engine directly outside the window: if you didn't bring ear plugs you'll be deaf for 24 hours after you land.
• Probably the worst seat location is right outside the toilets. I've had some Alaska and United flights where the fumes were enough to kill you.

Anyway, in the middle of my flight last night I remembered a great resource - a must-use tool for any traveler; I stopped using it over the past year because I'm always on Singapore Airlines and I'd never - until last night - had a bad seat. Try out Seat Guru - it will save your back, butt, nose, ears and sanity :)

This morning at the office I received what I thought to be a mistaken shipment: a good-size wood crate addressed to me from Korea. I was expecting a couple of OMNIA phones to show next week at Communicasia where I'm speaking - but the box here totally threw me.

I've only had a few minutes to play with the phone, but my early impressions are:

• Snappy performance
• Gorgeous WVGA screen
• Interesting widgets you move around on the home screen - need to play with these a bit more; you get a bunch of customization options, still curious about usability
• Best camera I've ever used on a Windows Mobile phone. Some people might say that isn't saying much; however, at a glance the image quality appears better than the big shooter on my Nokia N82 with a Zeiss lens.
• Overall great build quality/craftsmanship: it feels like you're holding a high-end phone

For an actual review visit CNET; Michael over at MobileBurn has a good overview and pics as well. If you're in the market for a new smartphone it's a great time to shop around: The HTC Touch Diamond (got one of these last week - WOW!), the OMNIA, Apple is about to make a big announcement, and I know Nokia has a few phones to unveil next week too...  Good times!

I see a lot of phones, so many that I can tend to be a bit critical of things most people would consider minor, if at all. However, the new HTC Diamond (The Unwired has several good reviews) has got me feeling like a kid on Christmas morning.

Check out the video on HTC's website - this one is a must have...

Yeah, I know there have been lots of lists like this published over the years. But I thought this one was interesting as it was published by CRI, a Chinese news site. There are of course some expected locations, but the order is a bit different than what Western surveys have produced...

1. Tokyo, Japan
2. Seoul, South Korea
3. Singapore!
4. Hong Kong, China
5. San Francisco, USA
6. Seattle, USA
7. Helsinki, Finland
8. Bangalore, India
9. Munich, Germany
10. Tel Aviv, Israel

I understand why handset manufacturers keep changing the connectors for phones: they make a lot of money on accessories. I could easily pick on them for being money-mongers, but hey - they've got to make money somewhere.

However, this week, as all of us citizens of the planet observed Earth Day, I started thinking about how many chargers and headsets I've got piling up, and the cases of them I've thrown out over the years. I'm sure I'm not the only one, in fact I wonder how much waste is created by all of these chargers? The picture here from MobiFrance gives you the idea, and if you read French the story is a cry to OEMs to do their part to save the planet: think about our future before making another obsolete charger - the industry needs to get together and pick a standard (mini-USB please), we can't afford not to...

It would be interesting to hear if any of you read reports from IT analysts. A group of us are speaking today at a Microsoft analyst conference in Singapore. We're walking through Microsoft's overall mobility strategy for businesses. I know this is a topic that puts many of you to sleep - I'll even admit to a few yawns on occasion - but we've done some things that are working well for a lot of companies. Of course, we have more work ahead when it comes to individuals, and I think Windows Mobile 6.1 is a good step, as will several other iterations happening in the near future.

Anyway, if you have any burning questions you'd like me to pose to the analyst community please let me know - happy to make you part of the demo and conversation!

I got a very unexpected birthday gift from my friends at www.MobiFrance.com: a hilarious "Red Eye" T-shirt. Should I wear this to the next Apple fan club meeting?  :)

Beyond great gadget posts, these guys sell some cool gear - check them out!

THANKS GUYS!

It's been a busy week, one when we FINALLY went official with Windows Mobile 6.1 - an update that has been available on XDA Dev Forum for a long time (along with everybody else's software too)...

I'm a big fan of this update. From a feature standpoint the things you'll really notice are threaded SMS and an improved browser. But from a usability perspective I think this update is BIG - the new home-screen really means one-button/one-finger access to the most-used things on a phone. But rather than blabber on about all of this, take a look at a video interview I did with John Chan at CNET here in Singapore this week.

Let me know what you think.

I've been fortunate enough to travel to many countries throughout N. America, Europe and much of Asia. While many of these trips have been on a corporate expense account or part of a semi-luxurious family holiday, I've always made it a point to 'get real' and do the 'local thing' as much as time would permit. I also spent a couple of years on a mission in my early college days 'getting very real' and more recently was able to work with Unitus (a nonprofit micro-finance company).

Despite my past experiences, I was quite moved by the people I met and observed this past week as we traveled throughout Hanoi and many mountain villages in the far north of Vietnam. People there have very little, but they are at peace, value their family, and are generally happy - more so than I've experienced and observed in many "1st world" countries where people and businesses have an abundance and yet are stressed and depressed because of overwhelming debt... my mind often turned to the reality that money does NOT buy happiness.

Now of course, money can buy health, education and opportunities. Thanks to individual donations, a slowly growing number of outside business investments (to be fair, the government has been very controlling to date), some religious groups, the Vietnamese government, and UNICEF there are many basic services now being offered - in the poor villages in particular - such as health care, schooling, improved housing and modern farming practices.

For me, and probably everyone reading my blog, the basic needs plus many wants have been met. After this point, what do we choose to do? I believe that a good portion of our happiness is a result of us finding a 'balance.' I think 'balance' is self-defined; my personal equilibrium is something I thought much of this week... How am I spending my time? Isn't time all that we really own?