Games to drive 3G mobiles. Mobile firms are hoping that better games on phones will persuade people to buy new 3G handsets. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

My first use of the "post" feature on the "news" tab for radio. Here's what led me here:

- Seems everyone's talking about RSS. ("Everyone" is Adrian Bateman http://www.visiontech.ltd.uk/2003/02/25.html#a201 who I found via .NET guy http://dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com/. Since I usually see only the tip of the iceberg in such matters, I imagine that a big iceberg of debate exists.)

- A luxury once sampled becomes a necessity. So of course I need to try it. What is RSS? What does it do for me? Will I stop using my browser, stop reading web pages?  If these questions are answerable, they aren't quickly answerable. Someone will have to let me stand behind their computer and watch to really *get it*.

- Baby step #1 is to find out if I have RSS. Is this weblog that I'm writing an RSS feed? I tried subscribing to myself in News...Subscribe by first doing a right-click "Copy Shortcut" on the big XML button at the bottom of this page. After subscribing, the list is unchanged.

- Baby step #2 is to explore the default feeds I'm subscribed to. Wow, what credibility to get on the default subscribe list. Who are these people? Okay, I guess some guy named Adam Curry gets to be on the default becuase he has a low user number (#000001 or something like that). And I guess scripting.com gets to be on because Winer has earned his keep by inventing Radio etc.

What would merit a large debate on the what and the how of RSS is if it actually does something - not just a platform or a set of protocols, but a benefit to the consumer. I'm sure it's very arguable that this benefit is there, all you have to do is spend tons of time customizing your aggregator.

There should be something for RSS like Netflix: you have stories in your queue, you rate them, you get more customized recommendations.

Oh, and why did I link to the BBC news up at the top of this post? Because it makes sense: people are still looking for the killer app for portables. It's encouraging, it tells me to keep going, that it's worth all the specialized proprietary technology to get something cool going on a variety of devices.

comment []6:53:57 PM