OK, so I like the idea of my social network(s) revolving around my email but one problem (among many) that needs to be solved is the issue of ‘presence’ across all email platforms. My friends are spread across Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail etc. I am kind of experiencing Inbox 2.0 already in Gmail but those outside Gmail drop out of view when ideally they should be as visible as my Gmail contacts. The issue of cross-platform presence is nicely dealt with by Meebo so I’m sure it can be sorted by Gmail.

For someone like me who has conspired to run a very manageable email inbox, the idea of a social network around my email makes sense. Even more so given that I spend most of my time online inside Gmail/ GTalk and to some extent the better version of iGoogle - Netvibes. A year from now I can guarantee I will still be using my email but will I be so immersed in Facebook?

I don’t care what anyone says, I will wait for a Google Android-powered mobile phone. As much as I’m drawn to Apple’s iPhone it’s too expensive, closed and there’s too much carrier lock-in. An Android-based device will give me the device I want, the way I want it, on the carrier I want. Now, that’s worth waiting for.

I enjoy Jason Calacanis. I guess it’s his downright cheek which makes him entertaining. If you view everything he does in terms of self promotion and publicity then it all makes perfect sense.

There’s a lot of talk at the moment about what Google is planning to do in the face of the popularity of Facebook. I believe that what Google will slowly roll out is exactly what they have been planning to roll out before Facebook exploded.

Their task is relatively simple - just let users join the dots between their existing products and keep the results nice and open - a la Google Maps. I can envisage people unconsciously rolling their own tailor-made networks, free from the silo-ed nature of Facebook, just by linking together their own personal combination of Google products. We’ll decide what combination of Talk, Desktop, Gmail, Reader, Video, Maps, Notebook, Jaiku, Shared Items, Blogger, Calendar, Orkut etc. etc - you get the idea - is right for us and our friends.

And it will happen slowly and gradually. One day we’ll wake up and suddenly realise Google is at the heart of our social network and we didn’t even notice.

Random thought: iGoogle - the place where it all happens.

Of course I do.

Can’t touch this!

Well, I finally got me a Nokia N95 and it hasn’t disappointed. It does everything I could want and it has effectively replaced my iPod which I now view now as such a closed, dumb device (unless the next generation has built in wi-fi).

As a phone it’s predictably excellent but it really comes into it’s own when the wi-fi is activated. I download and play audio and video podcasts effortlessly. With the 2GB microSD card in place I have room for hundreds of tunes. I can upload photos and videos to the web using third-party app’ Shozu. The still/ video camera is superb. The 5 mega-pixel Carl Zeiss lens shoots wonderful stills and captures astounding 4 mega-pixel video.

I’ve installed Opera Mini to browse the web, the Gmail app for email and Jajah for Voip,  Fring for free Skype voice calls and messaging and Jaiku just for fun.

Really, some day all mobiles devices will be made this way.

Microsoft’s Silverlight will change the way we use the web. Good overveiws at TalkCrunch and ScobleShow. Look out Google!

Could the new Nokia N95 be the answer to my audio/ video podcast needs? It would appear so. Now, I’ve just got to get me one.

My iPod died yesterday. Initially I was really pissed off but then realised I used it mostly to listen to podcasts which I can do almost as easily on my Nokia N70 phone. Problem solved.

It also had over 5,000 tracks on which are stored in iTunes but what do I use to listen to them on the go now? Question is do I get a new iPod for all my songs and to watch all the video podcasts I now subscribe to but don’t get a chance to see?

Twitter now allows users to send direct messages to followers. A great idea to cut out some of the noise.

30Boxes and Netvibes are the two best web services hands down.

I’m using Netvibes as a full-on media consumption and creation manager and as such it’s proving to be amazing.

I can upload, store and playback mp3s. I can do all my show preparation right up to recording (for which I use Castblaster) and then use it to manage all post recording managing and posting.

I also use it read all my RSS feeds as well as watch all the video content I subscribe to which it plays right in the page. I used to live in Google Reader but right now I can’t see me going outside Netvibes. Pageflakes is for geeks. Netvibes is for the rest of us.

Interesting Wired column. As a humanist, the author likens the devotion to Apple/ Mac products and the Steve Jobs keynotes as a form of emotive worship.

As more of an atheist/ humanist than anything else, who’d have thought that my interests would have widened to include theology as well as technology. What’s interesting is that far from nibbling away at my secular beliefs the more I delve into theology the more it reinforces my atheism.

One overriding thing I keep hearing from those with religious faith is that things described in sacred texts such as heaven, hell, virgin birth, resurrection, miracles etc. are notions which actually reside within an individuals mind and serve to aid one’s faith in whichever way one requires.

If this carries on doesn’t this inevitably lead to the notion that religious faith is all a product of the human mind and not that of an external god.

The Apple iPhone - a perfect example of more most definitely being less.