Hedgehogging

Hedge*hog*ing v. Interrupting conversations in an office environment by poking your head over the top of the cube.
Major props to all involved in this story: If you built a tower, wrote some software, etc., give yourself a pat on the back. Take the day off. You deserve it. The Associated Press has a story about how police used a cellphone to track down a 10-year-old boy with a serious heart defect and his mom to tell them a heart was available. The boy and his mother were at a concert, and she had her cellphone on, but the volume turned down. When the hospital couldn’t reach the family, they called the Pennsylvania State Police, which called Sprint Nextel, which used GPS to track down the mother. The police interrupted the concert to find the mom and son and tell them the good news. The son was in critical but stable condition after the surgery.
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Ed Zander is nothing if not a fighter. Just days after investors denied Carl Icahn’s attempt to gain a seat on Motorola’s board, which Zander publicly rallied against, Moto’s chief claimed the beleaguered handset manufacturer was not worried about the pending launch of Apple’s iPhone and that in fact Apple should be more worried about Motorola. Here’s hoping that Motorola’s new handsets that are scheduled to be unveiled this week can backup Zander’s bravado.
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Maybe, just maybe, I’m out of the loop, but I’m skeptical about a recent prediction. Iain Gillot’s iGR Research just came out with a report that found that between 50% and 70% of children ages 12 to 14 have their own cellphones. I believe that and have a healthy respect for Iain. But iGR is predicting that the new handset battleground is for children 10 and under. Other researchers have said the same thing. I must be missing something because I have an 11-year-old and she begs for a cellphone. (She even went so far last week as to color a piece of driftwood like a phone and carry it around in her purse. (How sad is that?) But there are certain things about 11-year-olds. She doesn’t really use a purse. She doesn’t actually get to go many places without an adult present. She is just being allowed to stay home alone for short periods of time. (And a call is placed to the next-door neighbor explaining as much.) It’s the same with her friends. Indeed, a child has to be 11 to be certified to baby-sit by the Red Cross. (This is a rite of passage for 11-year-olds.) I have a difficult time believing that parents are going to shell out money-even for prepaid service-for a child under 10. Because no matter how much technology advances, a child under 10 still needs adult supervision. So in order for significant adoption in the under-10 market, one has to assume that parents no longer subscribe to landline phone service so the child needs her own cellphone to make calls, rather than use the parent’s phone. Or that cellphone service becomes dirt cheap. Or that parents become so manipulated by their children that they buy them cellphone service just to shut them up, rather than wait for when the child has a real need for a phone.
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Astute reader Ashley pointed out last week that Verizon Wireless issued a press release about Bon Jovi around the same time that the rock group appeared on the TV show “American Idol.” Ashley’s hunch paid off this week when Verizon Wireless issued another press release detailing the top 10 Bee Gees songs downloaded through its Vcast Music service-at the very same time the Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb appeared on “American Idol.” So there you go: Verizon Wireless is mad that AT&T is getting all the love from Ryan Seacrest. Poor VZW.
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T-Mobile USA is currently running a promotion where all of its customers can send unlimited text, picture, video and instant messages on Mother’s Day. The stated reason is so that its customers can connect with their mother on Mother’s Day. Yup, I know my mother would just love to get a video message on her cellphone from me on Mother’s Day. Of course, first my mom would have to buy a cellphone, then she would have to learn how to turn it on, then she would have to read the instruction booklet to figure out how to open and watch a video message, and then she would ask me what the heck a video message is. Then she would kindly ask me to call her on her landline phone, because that would just be easier, dear.