Today's mobile phones are packed in ever-smaller packaging, with more emphasis on providers to give more focus to e-mail, music playback, and Web surfing than standard phone functions.

Ever call a business after hours, find there's no operator to help, and get prompted to "Dial by name" using the dial by name directory? It sounds easy, assuming you have a standard touch-tone phone, but on the way home today, I found myself in a conundrum, trying to dial by name using my BlackBerry. I was prompted to enter the first three digits of the contact's last name.

Looking down at my BlackBerry, I entered the person's name on the keypad. Of course, the "QWERTY" like keyboard didn't do squat. The computer voice came again: "Please enter the first three letters of the person's last name." I looked down at the BlackBerry again - and had to visualize what letters were on a standard touchtone phone's number keys (2: ABC, 3:DEF and so on). Lucky for me, I got it right.

As more and more consumers turn to BlackBerry and iPhone and other "smart phones", and they get "dumber" at some basic tasks, I'm thinking "Dial By Name" directories and phone numbers that include alphabetical characters. (I.E. 1-800-GOOG-411) are going to get less relevant over time. It certainly wasn't all that relevant for me tonight.

With VMWare Fusion, I've now got the option to run Windows XP, Linux and Mac OS X, all at once, on one single speedy MacBook Pro. I've had the software for about 24 hours now, and can't say enough good things about it. With that said, I tried to post a quick summary over on The Apple Blog.

See: VMWare Fusion On Mac Delivers My Best Windows Experience Ever

For years, I've watched Apple stock closely, often as an investor, and always as a fan of the brand and the company. Over the last decade or so, it's no secret the company has grown to command significant respect for its innovation and dramatically rising sales. Yet, oddly, many in the financial community and elsewhere can't seem to get one basic thing right - the Apple stock ticker. (AAPL)

All too often, I see stories about Apple citing the company's ticker as APPL, instead of AAPL. It doesn't seem like much to be sure, but it can't be dismissed as a typo after years and years of seeing it happen. As the company's stock is at all time highs, above $160 a share, and sporting a market cap approaching $150 billion, it's time the company got more respect, and authors got the ticker right. A - A - P - L. AAPL.

That's the background behind my most recent contribution to The Apple Blog, titled Dudes, It’s AAPL, Not APPL!. Per agreement with them, I will not be cross-posting the piece, but instead, have provided a link. Enjoy.

As flawed as Alexa's Web statistics can be, a quick array of searches displays a very clear message - that traditional media portals, including CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and even more trendy media monoliths, like ESPN.com, are dramatically slipping in overall rankings, losing visitors to new media by the droves - no matter how you dice the data.

Sites that used to be among the top visited sites in all the Web have plummeted, as fickle Web visitors have turned their attention away from the brands they once relied on to new brands that have taken their place, including, unsurprisingly, Facebook, YouTube, and major blogs, like TechCrunch and Engadget.

This change, according to Alexa's statistics, has accelerated, first starting in 2005, and at an increasing pace over the last two years.

For example: CNN, a top 20 site as recently as the second half of 2005, has plummeted below 100, nearing 120th overall.



The New York Times, a top 50 site in early 2006, has roller coastered down to nearly 300 overall.



The Washington Post, a rising star in 2005, peaked below 150 in early 2006, and has collapsed to nearly 1,000 today.



It's not just an East Coast phenomenon. The LA Times, one of the top 500 sites on the Web just 18 months ago, has recently seen its ranking dip below the 2,000 level, with no sign of a rebound.



Moving north, SFGate.com, home to the San Francisco Chronicle, has paralleled the LA Times fall, from above 500 at the beginning of last year, to nearly 2,000 overall today.



And the drop isn't limited to only newspaper sites. ESPN.com, part of the Go.com corporate family, representing 60+% of the network's traffic, according to Alexa, has dropped from the top 20 levels to around 50 today.



This isn't to say all is bad. In the place of old media, Web visitors are taking their traffic elsewhere. One major stop: YouTube - a top 5 site that was virtually nowhere just two years ago.



TechCrunch, invisible before the end of 2005, has catapulted into the top 1,000, passing up both the LA Times and SFGate.com site, set to pass the Washington Post next.



Engadget, from the 6,000 range in 2005 to between 500 and 1,000 overall today.



Facebook, a rising star, from 100,000 in 2005 to a top 8 site today. (Ignore the blip)



What does this overly long set of Alexa graphs mean? It means that what we've all suspected is true. Old media brands have not capitalized on the early success and traffic brought their way in the fledgling days of the Web. As their traffic has stagnated, and in many cases dropped significantly, more agile, interactive, forms of media have risen up to take their place. While there's still a need for investigative journalism and on the spot reporting, still the realm of the mainstream media, Web aficionados are all too happy to look elsewhere, for news, for entertainment, and for engagement.