TotallyOz

One of the things I like about Bangkok GoGo bars is their fast movement across the stage so that in any one song, you get to see most of the boys. In Pattaya, the movements are very slow and often a new boys does not enter the stage until a new song starts. This means that the majority of the boys stay on stage for about 10 or more songs. If I have someone I think is cute sitting down waiting, the likelihood of me waiting 10 songs is nil. I asked Mamasan Rose last night about this as she has worked in both places and she said that there are fewer boys in one bar and so they tend to spread them out. To me, I much prefer the faster viewing. I know some like to sit in a bar and watch the boys on stage, but for me, I get bored quick and rarely stay in any one bar for more than 15 minutes. I can't see sitting there for 3 hours. To each his own. My favorite way the boys move is one of the ladyboy bars in NanaPlaza. They seem to pounce on the stage when they want to show off their goods and they wander around the stage when they want and dance and have a good time. I do wonder what most of you prefer?

I had a headache a few days ago and thought I would follow TravelerJim's advice and use my insurance for a nice plan they offer at Bangkok Pattaya. I had the Happy Brain Package. It was 16,000 baht and included a MRI and Ultrasound. It has had blood work, EKG and about 20 other things that were checked. All in all, I think this was an excellent package. I have done their heart package before and this one was great as well. I told my family after the visit if I ever get sick, this is the hospital I want to be in. I know some have horror stories about it but I have always liked the treatment I get there and the atmosphere is great. Keep an eye out for their special packages as they are not always online and I saw this one only after I was at the Dental Clinic.

I wandered last night into Boyztown. The BF was home with his son and I wanted to see what the bars were offering. I first went to BBB as I wanted a muscle boy. I sat for a while and did not see anyone I wanted (other than a cute ladyboy). BoyzBoyzBoyz is a great bar. It has a wonderful atmosphere and the decorations are great. It is very comfortable to sit and relax and no one bothers you. The guys are handsome and strong. The drinks were 160 baht for a diet coke. FunnyBoys is always one of my favorites. In my opinion, this is one of (if not the) best run bar in Pattaya. There are always cute boys, the staff is great, the atmosphere is great and the place runs like a well-oiled machine. I wish all the owners of other bars would go in this place and take notes. While I did like the bar, I did not find what I wanted there so I moved on. I was planning to go to Bubbles and Lucky7. But, a boy sitting on the porch at ToyBoy caught my eye. I went over and chatting and went inside. The place is very nice. Drinks were 140 baht for a Diet Coke. The boy sat and we chatted. I decided to take him home. This is my first short time in Thailand since arriving. As soon as we got home, he dropped his clothes and sat on my couch. He started to play a video game and we chatted a bit. He was not shy in the least. While sex was good, it was not fantastic. He is not a well-oiled machine and perhaps this is what I found attractive in him. He was not mechanical and his movements left much to be desired. However, I really enjoyed my time with him. His 30 minute shower make me wonder if I was that horrible for him or if he just loved the bathtub. Perhaps a mixture of both. But, he did call me to come in with him, "Farang, come here," he said with bubbles all over his face. Boyztown was quite in general and not as many boys as I have seen. But, I had a good time! As often has been said, "It only takes one boy to make or break your night."

Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- Thousands of anti-government protesters have once again brought Thailand's capital to a standstill, as they seek to unseat a leadership -- led by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva -- they say is illegitimate and undemocratic. They support Thaksin Shinawatra, who was prime minister from 2001 to 2006, before he was ousted in a bloodless coup. After his removal, he continued to play a role in Thai politics -- even from outside of the southeast Asian nation. What is happening now? Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency April 7, hours after anti-government demonstrators (known as "red shirts" for the clothes they wear) stormed the country's parliament. Three days later, the deadliest clash in more than a decade between protesters (in this case the "red shirts") and the military erupted, leading to the deaths of more than two dozen demonstrators and military forces. Media and analysts in Thailand say civil war may be looming, with another group called the "multi-colored shirts" (supporters of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva). They are displeased with the disruption caused by the red shirt protests. They are generally middle-class city dwellers. They are not pro- or anti-government, they simply want the government to shut down the reds to end the violence and interruptions to daily life. The red and multi-colored shirts have clashed in Silom Road, Bangkok's business and financial district. Meanwhile, Thailand's independent election commission has recommended the dissolution of Abhisit's Democrat Party after accusing the party of accepting an $8 million campaign donation from a private company and mishandling funds allocated to it by the commission. The ruling still must be reviewed by the country's attorney general's office and its Constitution Court. A democrat party spokesman maintains the party has fully complied with all laws concerning the uses of funds during the election campaign and the party says it will fight the recommendation. Haven't these protests been going on for a long time? Yes, Thailand has been embroiled in political chaos for years and many here are growing weary with the instability. Ever since Thaksin came to power, there have been protesters opposing his allegedly corrupt and autocratic rule. Those protesters donned yellow shirts (the color of the king) and occupied the two main airports in Bangkok, until finally the pro-Thaksin government was brought down by a court ruling. In revenge Thaksin's supporters copied the yellow shirt tactics and took to the streets in red shirts. Why do the sides divide on colors? It's an easy way for them to create an identity. It all started with the yellow shirts wearing a color associated with Monday, the day of the week that Thailand's revered king was born on. That was designed to show their allegiance to the king, and more broadly the traditional elite which has dominated Thai politics for years. Thaksin's supporters then picked a color to distinguish themselves from the yellow-shirts. Why are they arguing? Essentially this is a classic power struggle. It's easy to portray this as simply rich against poor, but it is much more complicated than that, as illustrated by the fact that the reds leader is in fact a multi-billionaire. Thaksin rode to power by enacting populist policies which gained huge support from the rural poor. His radical approach ruffled a lot of feathers among the elite, who felt he was in danger of becoming too big for his boots, and could erode their position. The "civil society" also become concerned over allegations of corruption and his brutal war on drugs, which saw summary executions. He was also criticized for his heavy handed response to violence in the Muslim dominated south. Finally the army decided to oust him in a coup, which had the backing of the aristocratic elite and much of the middle class, who were becoming uneasy with the cult of personality growing around Thaksin. That set the stage for an embittered power struggle, between Thaksin loyalists and those loyal to the army, aristocracy and their traditional Democrat Party. What are the wider implications of the protests? If the divisions in Thailand can't be healed it could lead to a deteriorating security situation which would have wider implications for the region. Thailand's relations with Cambodia are especially frosty since Thaksin was appointed economic adviser to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. The worst case scenario would see Cambodia drawn into the dispute, with Thaksin using the country as a political base, adding to the already considerable tensions on the border. So who is Thaksin? Visionary leader or venal despot: Opinions vary, like the color of the shirts his supporters and detractors wear. If you sport red, you think Thaksin was the only prime minister to offer the rural poor a voice and real benefits; if you wear yellow, you view him as akin to Ferdinand Marcos: greedy, self-serving and dangerous. What is not in dispute is that he won two elections, was the only Thai prime minister to serve a full-term in office and is still hugely popular. But critics say he bought his support and was only in politics to help himself. What is he accused of? In 2008 he was found guilty and sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for a land deal that enabled his wife to buy a valuable city plot for a fraction of its true value. The case currently being considered by the Supreme Court relates to the transfer of shares in his communications company Shin Corporation. The prosecution alleges he illegally transferred the shares to his family, who then sold them to the Singapore government's Temasek without paying tax. The court will also rule on whether Thaksin's government implemented policies that benefited his businesses, including a low interest loan from the Thai government to the Myanmar government to buy equipment from Shin Corp, a change in tax laws that benefited Shin Corp and changes to satellite laws that helped Shin Corp. What does Thaksin's defense team say? The defense team argues that neither Thaksin nor his wife owned the Shin Corp shares while he was prime minister, selling them to their son before he took office. It was their son who decided to sell Shin Corp to the Singaporeans. The defense also claims that the Assets Scrutiny Committee -- which has led the investigation in this case -- was politically motivated, having been appointed after the coup that ousted Thaksin, and therefore was biased against him. How much money is at stake? 76.6 billion baht (about US$2.3 billion dollars). That is the total value of his and his family's assets that are currently frozen in Thailand. But there is speculation that he has a great deal more money elsewhere. For the rest of the article: Explainer: What are the protests in Thailand about? - CNN.com

I have heard many talk about the Dancing Boys of Afghanistan and while I have not seen the documentary yet, it is now on Itunes for those interested. It is a documentary on children who are sold into slavery for dancing as well as sexual abuse. What is a very taboo subject in countries like this is often practiced in the open and protected by the authorities. As I have said, I have yet to see this ABC news special but have read about it on another board and many wanted to view this and can't seem to see it. ITunes has made this possible. To make this topic relevant to Gay Thaiiland, I once saw a guy from Afghanistan in Pattaya and he was dancing. I wonder if he is a part of this documentary.

The AOT asked for 3,000 baht. I passed. The regular taxis were charging 1500 baht. I knew I should have arranged a taxi before but I didn't and there were no men waiting there trying to coax me into a car. When I saw the car I cringed. It was horrible. Old, ugly, beaten up and not clean. I did not want to offend the man and say his taxi was a piece of shit so I got in. MISTAKE When you don't like something, NEVER get in. The air con was bad and the car bumped up and down the whole way. At the first toll he told me he had no money and could I give him 100 baht to pay for the tolls and take out of money for the ride. I agreed (what choice did I have). About 30 minutes later, he asked to stop for gas and I agreed. Again, guess what? No money for gas and could he borrow 800 baht. What choice did I have. He took an awful road into Pattaya to save a few baht from tolls and I was pissed. I could not wait to get to Pattaya. I did tip him 50 baht but that is the least I have ever tipped a driver. And, I learned a valuable lesson. Have my guys I use in Bangkok meet me there from now on. Never again will I be unprepared. Anyone else have any taxi horror stories?

The BF and I want to hit all the real Ladyboy bars. I have seen many of them in the area and they are outside of the Gay areas. 1. Can anyone tell us of any all ladyboy bars in Pattaya? Please add as many to list as you know of. 2. Anyone want to join us when we get this organized for a night of fun?

I recently had the pleasure of taking Bangkok Air. I usually travel on Thai air when I am in Asia but my travel agent suggested I give them a try. Their price for a business class seat was quite a bit better than Thai Air. They also offered free changes to any segment of the ticket. When I checked in at the airport, they gave me a Fast Track through immigration. I have flown with Thai Business and never gotten that ticket. I also have flown with NWA and Delta Business and didn't get the Fast Track through immigration. Is this an option for all the airlines and they give it out sometimes or when you travel Business are you supposed to get one though certain airlines? The lounge in Bangkok was nice. Good food (not gourmet). Good Free WiFi. I liked the way it was decorated. It was not big but it was very clean and looked great. When it was time to board they put me in a special van and drove me to the plane. We were a good 5 minutes ahead of those in economy. The food on the plane was OK for airline food. The flight attendants were very nice and helpful. All in all, I really enjoyed my experience with Bangkok Air. Anyone else like it? Hate it? Had a different experience?

I have a project I am working on with some friends in the USA and we are trying to find a list of charities that are primarily involved in the gay community and meeting the needs of the gay community in Thailand. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I was able to drive to lunch today on the motorcycle for the first time today without getting wet. It was a wonderful feeling. I did love Songkran and I had a blast. I played every day for several hours and would love to do it more but also am quite happy to take a break. It is interesting to me the amount of commercialism that is associated with this holiday. I can't even count the amount of money I spend on water guns, masks, power, food, water, Ice, etc. etc. etc. The holiday really reminds me of a wet version of Halloween. I am not sure where the masks came into the holiday but they seem to be more popular this year then when I first started coming to Thailand. I hope that everyone had a fantastic holiday season! To those of you that left for foreign lands to avoid the madness, welcome home!

The BF and I had a discussion about safety during Songkran and I begged him over and over to please drive safe. I once talked to another lad about this and he said that he would get a do over if he died. I don't like the idea of a do over and he asked what I thought happened. I said Nothing. His face just starred at me as if "stupid falang," What do you think happens after death?

I made a request recently for moderators and so far 2 wonderful guys have volunteered. The latest one is Jomtien. He is someone I know and trust and is a great guy and I know will be a wonderful asset to the board. Welcome Jomtien as Moderator for the website! We appreciate your willingness to help the board!

Songkran is the Thai New Year and the start of the Rainy Season. Thais celebrate this with water fights in every town and village. Me, wanting to be Thai, as well as a real kid at heart, I really love this holiday. Today I had the boyfriend rent us a truck and some HUGE containers to hold water. This would make it easy for us to shoot the water without constantly having to refill. We still had to refill at least 5 times as well as get large blocks of ice to make sure our water had an extra sting. J We went to Bang San as they were having a huge water fight in that area. I didn't realize that the city was over 1 hours from Pattaya and as we were a group of 8 all sitting in the back of a pick up truck, I was not worried UNTIL the truck started zipping down the highway at over 100K per hour. At that point, I wandered if I had the last codicil of my will ready and had made sure my family knew to cremate my body if it was ran over by a 18 wheeler. We made the ride fine, with quite a few Hail Mary's and one close call almost hitting a dog and my head hitting the front of the pick up. But, with my family tells me I have a hard head so I guess it was well protected. Once into the city, the fun began. I love it. I had so much fun with the water and with the Thai people. I did not see one other foreigner all day and all the Thais wanted to be sure they gave me the white cream for good luck and then douse me with water. I had entire trucks gunning for me. The route was less than 2 miles and took us over 3 hours. We had so many water battles that I can't keep track. The boys had fun! I had fun. The city was loud with yells of laughter, loud music and merriness. If you have never experienced Songkran, go outside of the major cities and go to where the Thais go. You will love it and it really is an experience you will never forget!

This entire article fascinated me. Am I the only one that this worries? Google and an alliance of privacy groups have come to Yahoo's aid by helping the Web portal fend off broad requests from the U.S. Department of Justice for e-mail messages, CNET has learned. In a brief filed Tuesday afternoon, the coalition says a search warrant signed by a judge is necessary before the FBI or other police agencies can read the contents of Yahoo Mail messages--a position that puts those companies directly at odds with the Obama administration. Yahoo has been quietly fighting prosecutors' requests in front of a federal judge in Colorado, with many documents filed under seal. Tuesday's brief from Google and the other groups aims to buttress Yahoo's position by saying users who store their e-mail in the cloud enjoy a reasonable expectation of privacy protected by the U.S. Constitution. "Society expects and relies on the privacy of e-mail messages just as it relies on the privacy of the telephone system," the friend-of-the-court brief says. "Indeed, the largest e-mail services are popular precisely because they offer users huge amounts of computer disk space in the Internet 'cloud' whine which users can warehouse their e-mails for perpetual storage." The coalition also includes the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Progress and Freedom Foundation, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, and TRUSTe. For its part, the Justice Department has taken a legalistic approach: a 17-page brief it filed last month acknowledges that federal law requires search warrants for messages in "electronic storage" that are less than 181 days old. But, Assistant U.S. Attorney Pegeen Rhyne writes in a government brief, the Yahoo Mail messages don't meet that definition. "Previously opened e-mail is not in 'electronic storage,'" Rhyne wrote in a motion filed last month. "This court should therefore require Yahoo to comply with the order and produce the specified communications in the targeted accounts." (The Justice Department's position is that what's known as a 2703(d) order--not as privacy-protective the rules for search warrants--should let police read e-mail.) On December 3, 2009, U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer ordered Yahoo to hand to prosecutors certain records including the contents of e-mail messages. Yahoo divulged some of the data but refused to turn over e-mail that had been previously viewed, accessed, or downloaded and was less than 181 days old. A Yahoo representative declined to comment. "This case is about protecting the privacy rights of all Internet users," a Google representative said in a statement provided to CNET on Tuesday. "E-mail stored in the cloud should have the same level of protection as the same information stored by a person at home." That is, in fact, the broader goal of the groups filing Tuesday's brief. They're also behind the new Digital Due Process Coalition, which wants police to be able to obtain private communications (and the location of Americans' cell phones) only when armed with a search warrant. Under a 1986 law written in the pre-Internet era, Internet users enjoy more privacy rights if they store data locally, a legal hiccup that these companies fear could slow the shift to cloud-based services unless it's changed. The judge should "reject the government's attempted end-run around the Fourth Amendment and require it to obtain a search warrant based on probable cause before searching and seizing e-mails without prior notice to the account holder," the coalition brief filed Tuesday says. The Bill of Rights' Fourth Amendment, of course, prohibits "unreasonable" searches. The legal push in Colorado federal court, and a parallel legislative effort in Congress to update the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, is likely to put the coalition at odds with the Obama administration. A few weeks ago, for instance, Justice Department prosecutors told a federal appeals court that Americans enjoy no reasonable expectation of privacy in their mobile device's location and that no search warrant should be required to access location logs. The U.S. Attorney's office in Colorado did not immediately respond to a request for comment. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20002423-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

I had given an older version of PS3 to a boy special who is no longer special. So, I needed another one for this trip. I went to Tuk Com yesterday and bought one. They are currently 12,000 baht for the 250G model. I wanted this version as it is smaller than the one I had before and easier for me to carry. A few things about this unit. The PS3 is not unlocked and you can't play copy games. It is an original device and they have not found a way to unlock this successfully yet. I have heard that it is possible to unlock but the first time you go online the unit is then blocked from ever going online again. If you are looking to buy the cheap 100 baht games, the PS3 is not the unit for you. Stores still carry the PS2 which you can get cheap games from. The PS3 is great fun for the BF as he can go online with it and play with friends or strangers. For example, last night he played soccer for hours with people from all over the world in a tournament. The online games do require an account with Sony but that is free. You can also pay to download movies, games, etc similar to ITunes. The games are a bit cheaper than you can buy in Thailand so it might be worth it. The Wii is another option if you want copy games as you can get these for 80-100 baht at Tuk Com. I love the Wii. But, on my last trip we plugged it into the outlet without a converter and it blew. They are very inexpensive and I think better to buy in USA or overseas than Thailand.

FYI: Those of us who love this place and use it as our regular food stop should take note. Salt and Pepper will be closed for 3 days for the holiday on April 17, 18, 19. I hope the owners enjoy their holiday and have a great time with their family and friends!

What is the easiest way to see what shows are on UBC at what time? I like American Idol and several other shows. I am trying to plan my schedule for these things. Any suggestions?

This is a question I get often. I am not sure where people's minds are when they ask questions like this. Perhaps they have learned to avoid thinking with their big brain totally and started to rely on thinking with the little one? Perhaps they think it is an appropriate question to ask in a land of gogo bars? Perhaps it is a socially acceptable question? What do you think? If someone asks you this question what is your response? What if you have been with the guy for say 7 years and your friend knows that? Does that make the question any worst or better? I am just curious to see what others think before I give my own humble opinion.

We have eaten at the Canton Restaurant in Central Festival several times and always been happy with the food. Canton is a Chinese restaurant and has good Dim Sum. It is open from 10 - 10 and the price is very reasonable. We normally get out of the place at about 200 baht a head. It is casual as are all places I have eaten at Central Festival. It is hard to find good Chinese food in the area and I like this place. 6 Fl. Central Festival Pattaya Between 2nd Road and Beach Road - Closer to the Movie House than the beach road

(CNN) -- Actress Dixie Carter, best known for her role as Julia Sugarbaker on the TV show "Designing Women," has died, her agent said Saturday. She was 70. No other details were provided. Carter was drawn to roles portraying steely Southern women. One of her more recent roles included a guest appearance on the show "Desperate Housewives," for which she was nominated for an Emmy in 2007. "This has been a terrible blow to our family," her husband, the actor Hal Holbrook, told "Entertainment Tonight." "We would appreciate everyone understanding that this is a private family tragedy." Carter and Holbrook met while filming the CBS-TV movie, "The Killing of Randy Webster." Carter was born in 1939 in McLemoresville, Tennessee. In addition to her role as feisty Julia Sugarbaker, she's been on other television series including "Family Law" and "Diff'rent Strokes." For the entire article: http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/10/dixie.carter.obit/index.html?hpt=T2

(CNN) -- Actress Dixie Carter, best known for her role as Julia Sugarbaker on the TV show "Designing Women," has died, her agent said Saturday. She was 70. No other details were provided. Carter was drawn to roles portraying steely Southern women. One of her more recent roles included a guest appearance on the show "Desperate Housewives," for which she was nominated for an Emmy in 2007. "This has been a terrible blow to our family," her husband, the actor Hal Holbrook, told "Entertainment Tonight." "We would appreciate everyone understanding that this is a private family tragedy." Carter and Holbrook met while filming the CBS-TV movie, "The Killing of Randy Webster." Carter was born in 1939 in McLemoresville, Tennessee. In addition to her role as feisty Julia Sugarbaker, she's been on other television series including "Family Law" and "Diff'rent Strokes." For the rest of the story: 'Designing Women' star Dixie Carter dies - CNN.com

I knew him really well and thought he was a great guy and always fun to talk to and hang out with. This is way too young to die. My heart goes out to his friends and family.

This is a great thing you are doing. I wish I was in the USA to attend. I know you guys will have a wonderful time.

The Grocery Store at Central Festival on Beach Road is quite nice. It is a bit more expensive than others in the area but if convenient, it has a nice selection of fruits, meats, Farang food, handmade items etc. I asked and they said they didn't deliver but not sure if the lady understood me. This is located on the very bottom of the shopping center. If you enter on Beach Road, take the outside escalator down and it is right there.

I love my Iphone and use it in Thailand everyday not only to make calls but to get e-mails, surf, play games, etc. There is a new version of the OS coming out. I wonder how long it will take for the Thai guys to crack this one? And we begin. Steve Jobs is on stage. He's giving a few updates First, iPad. He's showing his favorite reviews, from Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal, and Baig at USA Today. Today, Apple has sold about 450,000 iPads. He says Best Buy is out of stock, Apple stores selling them as fast as they can get them in. Users downloaded 250,000 iBooks titles the first day, now more than 600,000 to date. Users have downloaded more than 3.5 million iPad apps. He says people are loving the product – shows a photo of a little girl hugging one in an Apple store. Now on to the App Store. More than 3,500 iPad apps in the store. He's showing a bunch of apps now, including Major League Baseball, various games, Etrade and IMDB. He's showing a bunch of news apps now, including Time magazine, our sister pub, and the New York Times and Popular Science. Jobs gives special attention to Netflix. There are now more than 185,000 apps in the app store. Now he's talking about how Apple has won the JD Power award for smartphones the last three years. Now he's calling out Net Applications' numbers on browser use, pointing out that the iPhone has 64% of the mobile browsing market as far as use. Apple has sold 50 million iPhones and 85 million iPhones and iPod touches. Now, on to OS 4. Developer preview comes out today, official version ships in summer. 1,500 new APIs. Developers will have access to calendar, in-app SMS, full map overlays, full access to still and video camera, and more. There are more than 100 new user features, including creating playlists, tap to focus on video, gift apps, spell check, Bluetooth keyboards, file & delete mail search, places in photos, 5x digital zoom and home screen wallpaper. Apple is going to focus on seven "tentpole" features today. The first is multitasking. (Finally!) We weren't the first to this party, but we're going to be the best, Jobs says – similar to cut and paste. It's really easy to do multitasking in a way that drains battery life. It's also easy to do it in a way that sucks the performance from your foreground app. Apple has figured out how to do it and avoid those things. That's what took us a little longer, he says, but I think we nailed it. Now, a demo. He's launching mail, looking at a message. Touches a link in the message and goes to the browser. Now he wants to get back to mail. He double-clicks the home button, and the window rises and shows the apps that are running. Now he goes to eBay, checks his auction. Now he goes to play Tap Tap Revenge. Now he goes back to the website and mail, then goes back to the game. It always takes him back to where he was in any app. (Lots of applause here.) So that is our multitasking UI, he says; and it's really wonderful. (Still a lot of questions about exactly how this works.) Steve Jobs sounds better than he has in a long time, by the way. Scott Forstall is coming out to give us some more detail on Apple's multitasking implementation. He explains that Apple is providing seven multitasking services. First, background audio. He's talking about Pandora as the most popular music streaming app. Until now, if you closed the app to do something else, the music stop. No longer. Pandora founder Tim Westergren is coming up to talk about it. Tim says the iPhone has singlehandedly changed the direction of Pandora, making it mobile and so much more useful. "It was this completely transformative moment for us. … Our growth rate doubled overnight." He says it took his developers one day to make Pandora's iPhone app background aware. He's demoing it, showing that he can skip songs. He can also go to buy a song that's playing from iTunes, even as the song is playing. (As a Pandora iPhone user, I can tell you this is great. Android and Palm have had this for a while.) Now, Skype. You can stay in a call and use other apps. Even if you're not running Skype in the foreground, you can receive Skype calls. David Ponsford from Skype is up to demo. He says Skype has more than half a billion users. (This is a very important feature that will appeal to a lot of business customers.) Even in another app, if someone calls a notification pops up and you can pop over to Skype to answer. While he's on the call, he goes to OpenTable to pick a spot to eat. (I wonder what happens if another call from the main phone app comes in at the same time? He doesn't say.) On to background location. (This is really important for turn-by-turn direction apps and check-in apps like Loopt, Foursquare and Gowalla.) Forstall demos a GPS system working while music is playing in the background. Apple came up with a cell tower solution that allows these apps to work without having GPS on all the time – because GPS is a major power drain. Apple came up with a way to wake up location apps and tell them your location as soon as you move. Apple is adding an icon indicator to the top menu bar that shows if any app is tracking your location, and a location services menu that lets the user control what apps can access location, and let you know if any app has tried to locate you. Background notifications are next. Apple has pushed more than 10 billion push notifications in less than a year since the feature came out. Now Apple is adding a new feature called "local notifications" that doesn't require I link through Apple's servers. For example, a TV app can notify you when a show is about to start. Next, task completion: Basically, programs can finish uploading something even after you close it. Fast app switching: Quickly move between apps without having to relaunch them. Now he's wrapping up the multitasking talk. Steve Jobs is back. He's going to talk about folders. It's a better way to organize apps. He's going to make a folder with games in it. He pushes his finger on an app, drags one app on top of another and it instantly makes a folder. It automatically names the folder based on the category they came from in the app store. (This is very cool, very useful, and unlike anything Apple's competitors have implemented in their OSes.) You can even put folders in the dock. As an aside, he demoing how you can change the iPhone's wallpaper. You can set the home screen or lock screen, or both to display the wallpaper. (Others have had this feature for a while.) "An incredibly great drag-and-drop UI," he says. Yep. Now Jobs is on to Mail. First he's going to talk about unified inbox. You can have multiple accounts all feeding into one inbox, and you can now use multiple exchange accounts. You can also switch quickly between inboxes if you want to keep them separate. There's mail threading now, too. (This is important. Gmail has made this a must-have feature.) You can now choose to open inbox attachments using a third-party app. (Again, Steve Jobs has a lot of his old stamina back. He's doing longer stretches of the presentation than he has recently.) Now Apple is adding iBooks to the iPhone. It looks much like it does on the iPad. He's showing the Winnie the Pooh book. (Looks good. This is trouble for Amazon.) You can buy a book once and read it on any of your devices. Current page and bookmarks will wirelessly sync. As with the iPad, Winnie the Pooh will come free with the iBooks iPhone app. Scott Forstall is back to talk about enterprise features. There's better encryption in email, and making APIs available to allow app developers to encrypt data in apps. Apple is also improving mobile device management. Now enterprises can easily manage iPhones like they do BlackBerrys and Windows Mobile phones. There will also be wireless app distribution, allowing companies to wirelessly push apps to devices. Also multiple exchange accounts now supported, VPN and more. Now on to Game Center. He's showing Apple has more than 10x more games than PSP and Nintendo. This will allow you to find people to play games with, and compare your progress on leaderboards. It will be available "later this year," he says. This is huge. Steve Jobs is back. The final big feature is iAd. Mobile advertising built in to OS 4. He's explaining what this is. "We think most of this mobile advertising really sucks," he says, "and we thought we could make some contributions." He says that on a mobile device "search is not where it's at. … They're spending all their time in apps." (Google just got slapped.) The average iPhone user spends 30 minutes a day using apps. An ad every three minutes would be 10 ads per device per day. Apple will soon have 100 million devices, which roughs out to 1 billion ad impressions per day, he says. "We want to change the quality of the advertising." The ads on the web today are not capable of delivering emotion, Jobs says, which is why most ad dollars still flow to TV. Apple wants to be more interactive than TV ads, but deliver just as much emotion. He also wants to bring ads that keep you in the app. The result is that people don't click on ads, because they don't want to be yanked out of apps. "We have figured out how to do interactive and video content without ever taking you out of your app," he says, which will make people more willing to look at ads. "Apple is going to sell and host the ads," he says, "and give developers an industry standard 60% of the revenue." (Now it's all-out war with Google … and Microsoft for that matter. I wouldn't be surprised if competitors try to raise legal concerns here.) He's demoing a Toy Story ad Apple built in HTML5. You can navigate within the ad as if it were a standalone app, even put video in there. There's even a game in the ad. And the ad includes free wallpaper and a map that shows nearby theaters where the movie is playing. There's also a game that you can buy from within the ad. "Have you ever seen an ad like this?" Jobs asks. He pauses. "Anything even close?" (Nice to see him this comfortable on stage again. He's cracking wise and everything.) Now he's showing a Nike ad that Apple built. You can look at the history of various shoes, design your own shoe, find stores that carry them, view video. Now showing a Target ad that does a lot of the same stuff – design your own dorm room, buy the stuff. "It's that simple. And again, I can return to my app anytime I want. … We think this is going to be pretty exciting." (The 60/40 revenue split here in iAd is really interesting. Apple stands to make a LOT of money here, and a lot of enemies.) OS 4 ships this summer for 3GS and iPod touch 3rd generation – those will be able to do everything. 3G and iPod touch 2G won't do multitasking. "The hardware just won't support it," he says. For more: http://brainstormtec...uarters/?hpt=T2