Friday, January 25th, 2008
by Greg Gackle, Principal
© GAH, Inc.

I received an iPhone for Christmas and a month of use has convinced me Apple only called it a phone to remove any association with the ill-fated Newton handheld computer.

I’ve used it to make phone calls, but the vast amount of time spent with the device has been checking the Internet and email, and using the mapping, weather and stock widgets.

The device for Internet browsing is slow-going over the AT&T Edge network, but the growing availability of Wi-Fi in the community makes it a very fast and convenient on-the-go web device. Did you know even the Hy-Vee Food Store on Devils Glen and Middle has free Wi-Fi service available? The Wi-Fi connections are automatic, so there’s no fiddling needed other than to choose which network you want to use.

Another smart move by Apple and AT&T was to bundle data with voice service and make the data service unlimited. No worries about using the device where ever and whenever you’re out and about.

And, one more thing. The Google maps widget for locating businesses/addresses and finding directions anywhere is truly amazing. Coupled with satellite imagery overlays, you can navigate at the city block level viewing buildings, roads and intersections while getting detailed turn-by-turn directions.

And, while we’re talking about mobile Internet

The wait for an industrial strength Wi-Fi network (WiMAX) in the Quad Cities is nearly over.

Quad Cities Online is in the final phase of testing its WiMAX (Nortel) network installation. The QC Online network will utilize three base stations at Black Hawk College, downtown Moline and downtown Rock Island, and can provide wireless broadband coverage to a large geographic area (yet undefined by QC Online) with much less equipment than Wi-Fi networks serving a similar sized area. For additional info: CLICK HERE.

The speed and pricing options for the WiMax service have not yet been announced. QC Online and others have been offering “line-of-site” wireless broadband for some time, but the WiMAX network should provide much greater coverage and higher wireless speeds for businesses and individuals.

Local news web traffic takes strange twist

A recent check of Quantcast’s web ranking site provided a strange result: WQAD-TV’s site ranked first among local news providers. A closer look at the statistics, though, shows a huge run-up in page views last October to more than 5 million over a three to four week period. The averages of visitors, page views and unique visitors is now back down to a more normal level, but the sky high numbers from back then are still distorting the rankings.

Here is the breakdown of local news sites:
Site | Ranking | Monthly page views | Visits per month | Unique visitors per month

WQAD.com 5105 1.6 million 734,000 573,000
QCTimes.com 7351 3.25 million 820,000 331,000
KWQC.com 28,992 474,000 198,000 77,000
QCOnline.com 38,534 832,000 232,000 57,192
WHBF.com 113,002 92,800 21,200 17,834

For comparision, Deere & Company’s site (deere.com) remains far and away the most visited “local” web site with 31 million pages views, 2 million visits and just over 1 million unique visitors each month. The site ranks 2,491 in the Quantcast model.