Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2008 > January
January 2008
Accenture demos giant touch screen
Austin’s Accenture showed off a giant-screen application it’s hoping to sell to government agencies.
The demo was at the Government Technology 2008 conference over at the Convention Center. It’ll be on display until 4 p.m. tomorrow.
The screen, made of several panels, isn’t a true touch-screen. Instead, the unit works by recognizing interruptions in light about an inch in front of the video panels. The advantage to that is that the size of the screen can be much larger. The downside is that the screen seems sensitive to lighting conditions and isn’t always 100 percent responsive to touch. The employees showing the demo sometimes had difficulty moving objects on the screen around.
Nevertheless, the demo was impressive: movable menus on screen (see the video) can be used to update data on the fly, using databases to simulate scenarios. A government agency might use something like this in an emergency, say a hurricane, to decide how to route traffic and resources across the state.
A second demo showed a military application (not shown in the video, unfortunately) that included interactive mapping, video from military units and drones and lots of intel.
You can only imagine what could be done with something like this in video games or interactive store demos. It’s a bit “Minority Report,” eh?
Here’s the video:
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Dell saying goodbye to mall kiosks
Dell Inc. is eliminating its mall kiosks, taking it out of the bustling retail area that includes those funky plastic birds that fly around in a circle and cheap gold jewelry stands where you buy gifts for your girlfriend when you’re 15 years old.
The Dell kiosk at Barton Springs Square mall was always a welcome sight for me: I enjoyed checking out the large flat-panel monitor and the multiple printers. But I never actually saw anyone buy an item at one of these kiosks, which may be part of the problem.
If this ends up being a good business decision for Dell, I’m all for shutting these things down, especially if it makes more room for scrumptious cheeses and sausages from our friends at Hickory Farms.
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New NCsoft president drops some management knowledge on us
Curious to know where NCsoft, Austin’s game-weaving company, is headed?
Chris Chung, the new president of NCsoft North America writes a very nice blog post on the company’s “Dev Corner” describing his management philosophy (“It’s taking care of the people”) and expressing excitement about the company’s slate of upcoming games, including its first project for the PlayStation 3.
He writes:
Simply put: my job is to make sure that the employees here at NCsoft do what they do best and that the management team takes care of their needs so we can continue to produce great products for this industry.
Chung has been at the company since 2003 and took over for Robert Garriott in December. Garriott is now working on global planning and development for NCsoft.
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Multiple computers + one iPhone and using Tracks To-Do list
I wrote last week about getting an iPhone, and one of the things I hadn’t figured out yet was how to synchronize multiple computers to an iPhone and how to share contacts/datebook information across multiple computers.
Readers to the rescue! David Wyatt sent me two links that got me up and running on the multiple computer front.
Macworld explains how to do it and even posted a helpful video showing the process. The video is viewable directly on the iPhone, which is, well, it’s delicious, frankly.
Using the tips in the video I was able to sync up selected songs and videos from my Windows XP desktop computer (which is what I use to sync my iPod video), but to keep my contacts, iCal information and photos from my Macbook. The one tricky thing is that podcasts are separate from music and videos. I’m grabbing music and videos from the desktop, but loading podcasts into the iPhone from the Macbook.
You’ve got to be careful in checking/unchecking those boxes to make sure you’re not wiping out something. iTunes only wipes out information that’s being synchronized specifically and doesn’t erase everything, even if the warning menus might lead you to believe that.
Thanks, David! I still haven’t tackled synchronizing Google Calendar to iCal, but that’s my next project.
A few people asked me to give them a link to “Tracks,” an online piece of Ruby on Rails software I mentioned in Sarah Lindner’s Getting Things Done column.
Information about Tracks, an online to-do/task manager, is available here.
You can install it on your own server, which is way too complicated for me, so I’m using a public server at this address. Tracks.tra.in offers free accounts. I went ahead and sent the server’s owner a Paypal donation last year after using it for a while to help offset his costs.
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More on ‘Getting Things Done’ with author David Allen
“Getting Things Done” author David Allen spoke to us for a story about the GTD phenomenon that ran in Sunday’s Life & Arts section (you can read Sarah Lindner’s companion Life Guide column about GTD here).
Here’s a longer chunk of our interview, in which Allen talks about his forthcoming sequel to the 2001 book as well as how GTD has taken off in the tech community:
American-Statesman: What is it about GTD that has struck such a chord among tech industry people and bloggers in particular?
David Allen: I think there’s several reasons. One is it’s a systemic approach to self-management, much like running subroutines. “Let me run a sub-routine on it: what is it, what’s the next action, is it actionable? The whole workflow process that’s part of GTD I think fits very well with the mindset. There’s a procedure, a process you can put things through that improves situations. Another reason is the tech people are almost as lazy as I am. “Gee, how automated can we get stuff so we don’t have to spend extra time and energy?” It’s an enabling industry — the whole point of computers is to enable people to be more productive.
There tends to be either a value set or a mindset with that group of people that resonates to the fact that the stuff really does make things easier for people and Improves productivity.
GTD sort of turbocharges people’s own favorite cool gear. You don’t have to give anything up. GTD was probably the first non-tech meme that spread though the tech world. But I think it’s because in the tech world, for the most part, software and applications are not designed the way the brain works. There’s been a few paradigmatical shifts in software. I think spreadsheets were one; word processors were another. Mind mapping is another one as well — things that allow you to use the computer to access right-brain stuff. The computer hasn’t really changed a whole lot in terms of helping you think. As a matter of fact, it just speeds stuff up. If you’re brain is foggy, all it’s going to do is increase the fog. GTD is something that helps bring a valuable way to think and a process that’s systemic into that world.
Do people lose some of the effectiveness of GTD by only adopting some of the lessons in the book and not others or by trying to “hack” GTD to suit their own needs without fully embracing the whole concept or even reading the book?
I don’t know. It kind of depends on what you mean by “GTD.” Getting Things Done is just about improving how you get things done. If you’ve got a way that makes things easier-faster-better that produces a result with less input, that’s GTD, I don’t care what it is. You could implement a little of this: If you just write 10 percent more out of your head that you’ve been keeping in your head, your life will improve and change and that’s GTD.
That said, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. There’s very few people walking around with truly everything out of their head. They’re not really truly trusting their systems for their complete remembering and reminding and not truly freeing up their head. Until you do that you’re not truly accessing all the value and all the power that this model has for you. Even people who read the book still don’t do that because that’s a big, big habit change for people.
What do you think of all the software applications that have been developed to help people apply GTD to their lives?
There are over 100 software applications that purport to support GTD. For the most part, they’re just list managers. Well, how many ways can you create a list? A lot of them are training wheels. Once you get it, you don’t need it. As a matter of fact, they get in the way. You have to do too much thinking with too much structure, just to automate yourself. It’s a lot easier to just hand-write a list than to try to input it into the computer.
Are there any you think are worth using?
No. Come on, I don’t have time to to do due diligence. I just trust in the marketplace the stuff will sift out. I haven’t seen a whole lot out there that’s made a big difference in that regard. how much faster and slicker can you make a list? Ultimately, there’ll be a shakeout.
Programmers say, “David came up with a whole process that makes things so much easier. Let’s get rid of the mind’s necessity to think about anything.” GTD is about freeing up your mind to do a lot more of the higher-level stuff that you can’t replace by the computer. Intuitive decision making and a lot of interconnections. There are so many subtle and sophisticated interconnections that will happen just looking at your wedding or your trip to Hawaii on your calendar than any kind of software could possibly hope to match. What are the right placeholders to get so my brain doesn’t have to manage those, but use those to facilitate more sophisticated thinking? As soon as you have to stop to think to input stuff, you’re dead! You don’t have time to think. You need to have already thought.
What’s the minimal but core thinking you have to do so that you know what the content is that needs to populate your system, but no more? If you try to do more, that’s what most of the software does. It requires you to do more thinking thank you really need.
Your site Davidco.com now incorporates videos, blogs, downloadable tools and other updates. Has this made the idea of an updated book version of “Getting Things Done” or a sequel to it something that’s not a possibility?
The big challenge is implementing it. It’s all in the book. I’m in the middle of writing a third book right now, sort of the sequel to “GTD.” Like GTD cubed. An awful lot of people got it, but got that they didn’t get it yet. There were people who got it, but don’t really realize how many applications there are to those principles. The principle of getting stuff out of your head is going to help you start to get control of your family, a relationship, your department, your company. It’s distributed cognition. What’s in (the book) wouldn’t change. I wouldn’t re-write anything. Nobody’s said any of that is wrong. It’s just there’s a lot more depth to what that means if you understand those five phases how you get control and six levels of how you get perspective.
I think there’s been a big underutilization, I think, of GTD as well as an under-implementation of it. That’s where we’re going now. It took me 25 years to figure out what I figured out. It might take another 25 years to figure out how to distribute the education in such a way that people really get it. There’s nothing in that book you couldn’t have learned and implemented by the time you were 12. The spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak.
Nobody has said, “David, you’re wrong.” They say, “Gee, David, that’s wonderful, I just don’t have time to do it.” So they just quit. Or they just implement a certain amount. That makes them feel happy and giddy. They can only handle a certain amount of that, so they stop.
Nothing in your head is a fabulous place to be. But it feels very strange and it feels very awkward. People will quit just because it’s out of their comfort zone; people will tend to slough off with this stuff and let the stuff mount up again. They go back to creating that gnawing sense of anxiety. How often do you do a weekly review? If you’ve gotten to a monthly weekly review, you’re way ahead of the game. To do it once a week, to go through all your stuff, will lift you up to a new level of perspective and control. That’s a huge habit that even people who really got (GTD) — they still haven’t gotten that one yet.
When is the new book due out?
January 2009. There’s a working title, but I won’t give it out yet. It’s directly related to the first book.
So much has happened with technology world since the book was published in 2001 — Gmail, the iPhone, more options for moving data portably or online. Are these tools making it easier for people to get things done and worth updating the original book in include?
No! What’s new? How many more chapters can you write about a list? (Laughs.) Except don’t get in the way and by the way the technology’s gonna bother you more than it’s going to help.
Are you surprised at all by how successful “Getting Things Done” has been?
It’s funny — it depends on what side of the bed I get up on. Some days I get up in the morning and wonder how come this has only sold a million copies and it’s only in 28 languages. There’s a lot more people on the planet who could use this. On the other side, I’m surprised anybody got it — there’s so much crap and noise out there. It’s difficult. Unless you experience GTD as a real experience, it’s hard to know its value.
What’s most surprising is that the book continues to sell even more every year. It’s still in the top 100 books at Amazon of all their books. It was number 53 this morning. We don’t do anything to promote it. Once it hit paperback, it really took off. People read it and said, “I wish everybody around me got this.” They’ll buy 20 for their staff. Wouldn’t life be nice if everyone around you if adopted the principles as well? There’s a natural tendency to want to spread the work. Merlin (Mann of 43folders.com) made his whole company out of this. How many of us are victims of other people’s lack of focus and control?
What are you getting done today?
Working on the new book. Right now, I’m walking around and watching two little Cavalier King Charles spaniels play with each other. It’s so cute. They’re beautiful little puppies. One belongs to my assistant. I’m walking around underneath my oaks on a wonderfully cool sunny morning in Ojai, California.
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Notes from a new iPhone user
Six months later, I finally got one.
Yes, it was expensive. Yes, I have no excuse for going back on my proclamation that no phone is worth $400-$600, unless you’re a heavy corporate user. (Once you count taxes and the ridiculous piling on of an $18 service fee plus accessories, you’re talking about quite a bit more.)
But whining about the price of the iPhone doesn’t change the fact that it’s a beautiful, useful, amazingly well-designed product, a phone I was able to get up and running with in a stunningly short amount of time.
When I switched from an old Sprint handset to an AT&T account with a RAZR, it took me literally hours to get my phone number ported, to get my service plan in place and to get my phone replaced when the one I bought turned out to be a dud. It took multiple phone calls and days of aggravation.
Switching from the RAZR to the iPhone took less than five minutes, all done on my Macbook through iTunes. “Your phone is activated,” the pretty screen said in friendly large letters. I was good to go, but then I was already an AT&T customer.
I applied the most recent update and was off the the races, putting baby photos on the phone, syncing my small laptop iTunes music library and trying out some videos.
At one point I figured I could try the phone and take it back within the 14-day window if I figured out the iPhone just wasn’t for me. Unless it breaks somehow, that’s not going to happen. I’m in awe.
The good:
- The Web browser is so effective it puts any other cell-phone based Web experience I’ve seen to shame. Switching through multiple browser windows is a cinch, and being able to place bookmarks for Web sites directly onto the iPhone’s home page (some sites even have cute iPhone-friendly icons), makes it even handier.
- Wi-Fi is very fast, and EDGE is not as poky as I’d feared. iPhone-optimized Webapps like the ones for Facebook and Google are at tolerable speeds, even on EDGE.
- Awesome screen resolution and eye candy. Transitions between menus and general design are stellar.
- iPod functions, which I thought were darn-near perfect on the fifth-generation iPod Video are even slicker and more refined here. I do miss the scroll wheel and being able to operate an iPod without looking at the screen at all, but that’s the trade-off for a huge, brilliant widescreen display.
- YouTube is surprisingly speedy, even over EDGE, and it feels complete, even with the videos being translated a non-Flash format. I have yet to search for a video that is on YouTube’s Web site but not on the iPhone version of YouTube.
- Activation was speedy and trouble-free.
- Apple’s packaging is, as always, apt to give you goosebumps.
The not-so-good:
- The white dock that comes with the iPhone just doesn’t go. It could have been black and a lot slicker.
- The virtual keyboard is not as bad as I’d feared, but I still find myself slowed down by typos from pressing the wrong key with my thumbs.
- The headphones, despite including some handy remote functions, still sound cruddy (relative to nicer, more expensive earbuds). And the recessed headphone hole means you’ll need some sort of dongle or adapter to plug in your nicer non-Apple headphones. I still need to pick one up.
- The phone is very thin, but it’s still a bit big to fit comfortably in the pocket. That’s one thing I’ll miss about the RAZR.
- No iChat!? Making text messages look like instant messages is a poor substitute. Luckily, there’s a site called JiveTalk that is a handy replacement and requires no hacking to use. It would have been nice if Apple had included something like this in the phone’s software.
The bad:
- Battery life. I haven’t made any long phone calls and I can still see my battery life dwindling before my eyes with just basic Web browsing and e-mail checking. Phone calls and video are an even bigger drain.
- There’s an option to “manually” put music or movies, but if you have multiple computers, you can easily wipe out big swaths of videos or music by accident from the iPhone, as I did the other night. That stuff is easily replaced, but it’s confusing what stuff is to be synced and what stuff can be dragged manually. I’d love to pluck music from my desktop and contacts from my laptop, but so far I haven’t been able to do it without erasing something.
- Likewise, it would be nice to have an online version of iCal that didn’t require a subscription to .Mac. Instead, I’ll have to find a way to synchronize with Google Calendar, which I can use on multiple computers, with iCal, which sits on the phone as my datebook. I sure do miss the Palm Pilot datebook.
Overall, I love it, but I’m looking for some good tweaks and tricks. If you know any, post them in the comments.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment Categories: Baby-daddy, Gadgets, Internet, Phones
Wi-Fi slakes on a plane
Southwest Airlines and American Airlines are taking steps to roll out in-plane Wi-Fi Internet service, which I’d imagine will cost about $10-$15 per flight.
If you’ve ever been thirsty, parched for Internet service on a long flight, this is great news.
This will be particularly good for those who want to get a lot of work done in the air (what a great time to catch up on e-mails), but I can’t imagine the problems it’s going to cause when fliers are busted viewing inappropriate content. I imagine there’ll be some content filtering going on. I’d love to see the episode of “Airline” that deals with that.
The airlines still aren’t cool with people making phone calls on flights, though. Will wily Internet users find ways to use Skype or some other form of voice-over-IP to get around this?
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Taking the iPhone plunge
You know how when you have a kid (talking to the parents now, I suppose), it seems like everybody in the world is suddenly pregnant or giving a kid a bottle? And how when you decide what new car to buy, you suddenly see that model parked in every garage, driving by on every street corner?
Well, last week I finally decided to get an iPhone. Now I’m seeing it everywhere: in blog posts, on the street, in my dreams.
I waited past Christmas and, more importantly, past Macworld, thinking a new version (3G? 16 GB of memory?) would be introduced.
It wasn’t.
In fact, Apple’s strategy has been to keep rolling out new features to improve the first-generation product, silencing early critics by addressing shortcomings like not being able to send text messages to multiple recipients (fixed in the most recent update) or making maps more robust, with faux-GPS locating.
So I’ve watched the product improve and become more ubiquitous, and have seen my little black RAZR get increasingly flaky (or maybe it’s that I’m just starting to notice it).
Today, I went to Jo’s on Second Street and it looked like everyone there was playing with their iPhone. Nobody was cursing at their iPhone. It looked like love.
So, I’m going back on my promise to myself (forged back in the days when I bought an easily tarnished Sprint clamshell phone) that I would never again pay $300 for a phone. Technically, I’m not paying $300. I’m paying $400.
But it’s money I’ve been saving and a product that has broken down the defenses of my fickle, demanding tech heart. It doesn’t hurt that I saw these awesome designs I can decorate you with.
I think I love you, iPhone. Let’s get together.
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More Gamecock fighting: Mike Wilson vs. John Romero
A post on Id Software co-founder John Romero’s blog about Austin’s Gamecock Media Group’s upcoming release schedule was met with a scorching response from Gamecock chief Mike Wilson.
Romero and Wilson worked together at Ion Storm, and judging from the ugly, ugly back-and-forth, they did not become BFFs while working on such games as the much-reviled “Daikatana.”
Romero sought to shut down the flame war a few days later, but in the eyes of gamers, this is a train wreck of epic proportions. He said WIlson e-mailed him to apologize, but based on the extremely personal nature of the attacks (warning to those following the links: it gets ugly), we can’t imagine there aren’t some hard feelings left.
We also can’t help wondering whether Romero will make it to the South by Southwest Interactive Festival and whether the two veteran game developers may have words to share with each other.
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Getting Interviews Done with David Allen; Time Warner’s Internet pricing experiment
One of the more exciting things that happened around here this week for me is that I got to interview David Allen, of “Getting Things Done” fame, for an upcoming Life & Arts story about “GTD.”
Allen, who is often called a guru of personal productivity, is very direct and often blunt, even by phone, about how people are using GTD (often incorrectly and inefficiently) and the proliferation of software applications that use GTD as their model (mostly useless and nothing more than glorified to-do list builders, he says).
He dropped some major news that will be of interest to GTD fans, but I’m saving that for the article, which runs in late January. In the meantime, you can hear a quick excerpt from the interview in this MP3 file of David Allen from our Thursday chat.
This story about Time Warner’s experiment in setting high-speed Internet pricing based on usage should be cause for concern for any heavy movie/TV show downloaders or file sharers.
Heck, it should be cause for concern for everybody, coming as it does on the heels of Apple’s iTunes movie rentals announcement. The fees for downloading HD movies and TV shows could be astronomical if you’re paying for the content on top of penalty fees for breaking your bandwidth limit. Suddenly that episode of “The Real Housewives of Orange County” doesn’t seem quite so palatable.
Basing this on nothing so much as gut instinct, I am going to go out on a limb and predict that this pricing idea won’t make it out of Beaumont. With the competition heating up between cable providers, satellite servers and phone companies to deliver bundled services, I don’t think Time Warner will risk alienating its very vocal customers (including me) with what could turn into a pricing nightmare for some.
Even with some sort of “bandwidth meter” to keep track of your data transfers, the last thing Internet users want is to have to continually worry whether they’re downloading too much, especially in this era of readily available music, movies and TV shows. The less customers (especially less tech-savvy customers) have to worry about that sort of the thing, the better for the entire tech industry. You think it’s hard to get grandma online now…?
Did you catch the lineup of South by Southwest Interactive keynoters? As one of my editors said the other day of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, “I wonder what a billionaire 23-year-old does on a visit to Austin.”
Mexican martinis? That’s what I’d do.
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25-second video review of ‘Jenga’ for Nintendo Wii
A review I wrote of the game “Jenga: World Tour” for the Nintendo Wii ran in the paper on Tuesday, but if you’re one of those people who Steve Jobs says doesn’t read anymore, then I’ve got a video version for you that’ll only take 25 seconds of your time:
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Texans sue over Xbox Live; Tom Cruise is huge online
MTV online, which is increasingly becoming a place for gaming journalism, has posted an interview with the lawyer for some Texans who are suing Microsoft for their spotty Xbox Live service over the holidays.
Houston lawyer Jason Gibson says his clients are just looking for a portion of their $50 annual fee back for the trouble the site’s outages over the holidays caused them. “They take the money for the subscriptions, but they don’t make sure that the service is going to be there,” he is quoted as saying in the article.
Heard about the Tom Cruise online video yet?
A video that has variously been posted on Gawker, Radar Online, Defamer and YouTube has got the Web aflame with chatter about Cruise and about Scientology. It’s unclear if the video will stay on the sites that have it up as they’re being threatened with legal action, but it seems futile to fight the video at this point. It’s out there. The technology is available for people to grab a Web video and keep it for themselves and repost elsewhere later.
The Cruise incident has got me thinking about the power of online video: how quickly is spreads, how impossible it is to suppress and how it speaks more convincingly than any text describing it ever could. Whether posting it online in the first place with the intent of making Cruise look ridiculous is cruel is beside the point. People will watch it, if only to judge for themselves.
This is just one example of a video that isn’t even close to running through its full life cycle yet. I imagine we’ll be hearing about it for months to come; it’s going to become part of the pop culture consciousness.
I was doubtful yesterday when Apple announced movie rentals and the ability of its Apple TV box to access video podcasts. But it points in the right direction: increasingly people will want instant access to this kind of video on their TV, not just on their computer.
Whether videos like this are good for us is a whole other discussion.
Permalink | | Categories: Internet, Movies & DVDs, TV, Videogames
It is time to panic: Scrabulous in danger
Reuters is reporting that Scrabulous, the incredibly addictive Scrabble game played by many on Facebook, is being threatened by Scrabble owner Mattel Inc. in the U.K. They have asked Facebook to remove the application.
Hasbro owns Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada, according to the article. Will they follow suit?
This means one thing, of course — finish up those Scrabulous games, quick, before it’s too late!
Permalink | | Categories: Internet
Breaking down Macworld: a letdown after ‘07 edition?
Maybe it was a coincidence, but it felt like the whole Internet was slowing down and crashing as Steve Jobs was telling the world what Apple had up its sleeve in this morning’s Macworld keynote address. Gadget blogs covering the event slowed to a crawl. Twitter.com went down. After last year’s monumental iPhone announcement, it’s clear: When Steve Jobs asks for 90 minutes of our time, the Internet sits and listens.
This year, though, I find myself underwhelmed on the whole. The Jobs Reality Distortion Field has worn off more quickly than usual and a few items presented seem flat-out ridiculous to me. Jobs and Apple aren’t perfect, and in this presentation, at least, some flaws showed.
Let’s go point by point:
The Macbook Air: Certainly design-wise, this new ultra-thin laptop is revolutionary. But I think it’s going to be one of Apple’s most divisive products, not a home-run like the iPhone. In his keynote, Jobs said the goal was to create a thin, light laptop without the compromises that have plagued past devices from competitors. Well, I think the Macbook Air makes too many compromises for its $1,799 price. It’s got a less powerful processor than the lowest-end Macbook. It had two gigabytes of memory standard (that’s good!) but only a measly 80 GB hard drive (that’s bad!). If you want to side-grade to a 64 GB flash drive, which would theoretically be faster and use less power, you’re talking about a $1,000 upgrade cost. You read that right. The next step up from the $1,799 basic version of the Macbook Air is $3,098! What does that extra money buy you? Just the flash drive and a slightly faster Intel processor (1.8 GHz instead of 1.6). What else is missing? You’ll get only one USB port, no Ethernet port at all (you’ll be forced to go completely wireless-Internet) and no optical drive. You won’t be able to read or burn CDs or DVDs without an external $99 add-on drive. You’ll only be able to install disc-based software using a program called Remote Disc, which involves borrowing the optical drive from another computer. And the battery on it can’t be easily replaced. Anyone who’s owned a laptop for a few years knows the battery eventually wears down and needs replacing. Much like the iPhone and iPod, you’ll have to take it in and have someone swap the battery for you. The price? $129. Someone will buy this computer: It’s too slim and pretty for people to ignore. But the performance and features that have been stripped out just sound like a lot of inconveniences in the making. For people who only use their laptop for e-mail and a little Web browsing on the go, this sounds like an expensive, but fashionable choice. The backlit keyboard sounds great, as does the larger multi-touch trackpad. But these features don’t make up for what’s missing. I sense that this one could be a bust.
Time Capsule: Great idea, great price, great timing. I believe this year will be a watershed one for data storage. We have so much data accumulating — photos, videos, e-mail and music — that we need a secure, easy-to-access place to store it all. The combination Apple Extreme Router and high-capacity hard drive, priced at $299 and $499 is an example of what Apple does best: sensing what customers need before they anticipate it themselves. Sure, there are plenty of external hard drives, but how many of them come with a speedy wireless-N router and the software to do backups over Windows and Mac PCs? Let’s just hope the software works as promised.
iPhone upgrades: I was surprised that no faster 3G iPhone was announced for 2008, or that at least a memory bump for the device (16 GB, please?) was unveiled. The upgrades to the operating system do make the $400 even more attractive than ever, and iPhone geeks will certainly appreciate the new mapping options. Still, this feels like a let-down after a full year since the original iPhone announcement.
iPod Touch upgrades: Mail, maps, stocks, notes and weather are nice, but making current owners shell out $20 for the upgrade is bush-league and not at all in line with the free software updates being offered for the iPhone and Apple TV. Why single out the iPod Touch for this pay-to-upgrade? I have a feeling most iPod Touch users will ignore the software upgrade and keep listening to their music without being interrupted by e-mails or weather information.
Movie rentals: Unless you’re an Apple die-hard who had an iPod Touch or Video, an iPhone and an Apple TV, I don’t know that this is something to get so excited about. It’s great news that Steve Jobs convinced all the major movie studios to play ball, but I don’t think Apple is doing anything here that makes digital movie rentals any more palatable than what Amazon is doing with Unbox or what Netflix is rolling out. It’s a good option for impulse rentals, but the so-called “HD” versions, priced more than the $2.99 and $3.99 movie rentals are on the low end of the HD resolution scale (1280 x 720) and can’t be watched on an iPod or iPhone if they’re rented or purchased on an Apple TV first. I just don’t think movie rentals are going to be a huge move for Apple with the 24-hour restriction and increasing rollout of video-on-demand services on cable and satellite. There’s also the matter of new releases being made available only a full month after a DVD release. I think most people will opt for DVD new releases instead.
Apple TV: Lowering the price to $229 ($329 for the larger hard drive version ) is a good move, tweaking the interface is always welcome and allowing one-button movie rentals and purchases is a step in the right direction. Being able to view photos from Flickr.com is a welcome addition. So why does this box still feel unfinished? This is a product that already feels like its run its course and without any hardware updates, I don’t think Apple is going to turn its fortunes around with a price drop and a few new features.
Predictions roundup:
I said there was a 77 percent chance Apple would introduce an ultra-portable Macbook. Right!
I said there was an 80 percent change that Apple would announce Wi-Max or 3G high-speed wireless Internet capabilities in all its future devices. Dead wrong. Oops.
I predicted a 20 percent chance Apple would introduce a new version of the iPhone. Mostly right on this. New software update, but no new iPhone.
I said there was a 30 percent chance Apple would introduce a new version of the Apple TV. There was no hardware upgrade, but Apple called its new software enhancements “Apple TV Take Two.” We’ll call this one a draw.
I predicted a 68 percent chance that Apple would announce the end of digital rights management (DRM) on iTunes. Dead wrong again. Too bad for Apple.
I predicted a 100 percent chance Apple would announce movie rentals for iTunes. Woo hoo!
I predicted a 5 percent chance Apple would announce a tablet Mac or touch-screen computer. No announcement made. Right on this one.
I was 70 percent sure Apple would announce the Beatles catalog being available on iTunes. I was so sure on this one! But wrong.
What do you think? Were you disappointed in the Macworld announcements and waiting for “One more thing” that would blow us all away? Post your comments down below.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Applications, Computers, Gadgets, Internet, Movies & DVDs, Phones, Shopping
Gamecock relocates independent games expo to SXSW Interactive
Score one for South by Southwestern Interactive.
The lovable, fowl-mouthed troublemakers at Austin’s Gamecock Media Group are bringing their Expo for Interactive Entertainment, Independent and Original (EIEIO) to South by Southwest. It’s the second year for the expo, which made its debut at last year’s scaled-down Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles.
The event will be held noon Thursday, March 6, at Stubb’s. I would imagine barbecue will be served (and beer!) as upcoming games from the publisher like “Hail to the Chimp,” “Mushroom Men” and “Dungeon Hero” are shown off. Here’s a list of upcoming titles and when they’re expected to be released.
What’s that? “Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball?” I’m so there.
Permalink | | Categories: Austin, SXSW, Videogames
Steve Jobs’ Macworld announcements: the quick and dirty
Here are the highlights from Macworld with info from the live-blogs at TechCrunch and Engadget. (I might use Gizmodo, but I worry that they’ll find a way to interrupt Steve Jobs’ presentation):
- Time Capsule — A mash-up of Apple’s Airport Extreme router and a wireless hard drive in the shape of a Mac Mini called “Time Capsule.” It’ll be able to do wireless backups from any computer in the house. $299 for a 500 GB version and $499 for a 1-terabyte (about 1,000 GB) version.
- New iPhone features — Location mapping using triangulation and wireless hotspot locations. The ability to send text messages to multiple recipients. The ability to move icons around on the home screen. Nothing surprising here.
- New iPod Touch features — Mail, maps, stocks, notes, and weather as well as chapters for movies and lyrics for songs (these last two also apply to the iPhone). The catch: This will come installed in new iPod Touches, but will cost $20 to upgrade for existing iPod Touch owners. Ooh, burn!
- Movie rentals via iTunes — Also not a surprise, but it sounds like all the major movie studios are on board. 24 hour movie rentals, $2.99 for older movies, $3.99 for new releases. A dollar more each for HD versions.
- Interface tweaks to the Apple TV — A software/interface updates puts more emphasis on movies and YouTube. You can buy/rent movies directly through the Apple TV and view free HD podcasts. No computer necessary. Called “Apple TV Take 2.”
- The biggie: The Macbook Air — Jobs calls it the “world’s thinnest notebook.” 13.4-inch display, thin enough to fit in a manila envelope. It comes with an 80 GB hard drive or an optional 64 GB solid-state drive. Tiny. Only powered by a 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel processor which sounds a little weak-sauce to me. No optical drive; it’s optional for $99. I love the design, but this sounds pretty underpowered compared to even the lowliest current Macbook. Price: $1,799. Ouch. Thin is expensive.
More analysis later. There’s not as much to digest here as we thought and much of this was already predicted.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Computers, Gadgets, Internet, Movies & DVDs, Phones
Odds maker: What does Steve Jobs have in store for Macworld?
It’s been a year since Steve Jobs dropped some tight science on the world with the announcement of the iPhone. We all know what happened after that fateful January day. But now, everyone is expecting Apple’s head turtleneck to unveil something just as mindblowing when he takes the stage tomorrow at Macworld (around 11 a.m.).
There’ve been plenty of rumors about what will be presented. A few of those rumors have fallen by the wayside with recent product announcements. For instance, a hardware refresh to Apple’s hardcore Mac Pro desktop last week means it probably means there won’t be any Mac Pro hardware updates at the press event.
I’m borrowing a page from “Pardon the Interruption” and offering odds on what will be unveiled tomorrow. Keep in mind, I’m not truly psychic. My powers of perception are no more mystical than, say… Mystikal’s.
Chances Steve Jobs will…
…unveil an ultra-portable version of the Macbook: 77 percent. Rumors sprouting from supposed manufacturing leaks and patent applications seemed to point to a portable sub-notebook device with a 13-inch screen and Wi-Max Internet capabilities (more on that below). As with the leaked images of the most recent iPod Nano (the “Fatty”), these rumors have been too persistent to ignore. If Apple doesn’t debut some kind of mini-notebook, a lot of people are going to be disappointed. This laptop would, of course, be sleek and super-thin and would expand on Apple’s touch-pad capabilities with new goodies.
…announce Wi-Max or 3G high-speed wireless Internet capabilities in all its future devices: 80 percent. This one I’m most sure about given banners already seen at Macworld bearing the slogan, “There’s something in the air.” The service, in our wildest dreams, would be free, subsidized by hardware costs as it is with the high-speed wireless Internet used on Amazon’s Kindle reader. I would imagine this would also be a big selling point for the next iPhone.
…introduce a new version of the iPhone: 20 percent. This one’s unlikely. Remember the uproar that followed when Steve Jobs dropped the price of the iPhone by $200? Imagine the wrath of current iPhone owners if Apple introduced a whole new piece of iPhone hardware. Instead, expect to see free operating system enhancements to the current iPhone, including new iPhone software from Apple and outside developers like Google. I’d expect to hear an announcement of the long-awaited 3G- (or Wi-Max) capable iPhone for later this year.
…introduce a new version of the Apple TV: 30 percent. Again, I don’t think Apple is ready to redesign the hardware on this one even though some media streamers introduced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show trump the little silver box in capabilities and price. Instead, expect to see more software updates for the underperforming device, expanding its capabilities and adding movie rentals and other next-gen iTunes features.
…announce the end of digital rights management (DRM) on iTunes: 68 percent. Call me an optimist, but I think that with Sony BMG’s recent announcement that it’s dropping copy protection on digital music, the ball is in Apple’s court to do away with its own DRM. At the very least, Apple needs to do this to stay competitive with Amazon’s growing MP3 store.
…announce movie rentals for iTunes: 100 percent. This one’s a sure bet with Steve Jobs hustling to get more movie studios on board. I think the studios are a lot more willing to go with him on movie rentals than they are on movie purchases.
…announce his retirement from Apple: 0 percent. Are you kidding? Dude’s on a roll.
…announce a tablet Mac/touch-screen computer: 5 percent. Unlikely. Even the rumormongers don’t think this one’s ready for prime-time.
…announce that the Beatles library is available on iTunes: 70 percent. This rumor’s been around so long that people have almost forgotten about it. Led Zeppelin’s greatest hits CD is on iTunes as is the new Radiohead (older albums are expected to follow from EMI). The Beatles are the last great holdout and Paul McCartney said late last year that a digital release was imminent. Macworld would be the place for that announcement to be made.
What are your predictions? Comment below and let’s see how we did tomorrow after the Steve Jobs keynote.
Permalink | | Categories: Computers, Gadgets, Internet, Movies & DVDs, Phones
Gadget site rattles trade show with TV prank
Gizmodo.com has been one of the gadget blogs that I’ve been reading for a few years and it’s one that I’ve linked to frequently on this site. In the past, I found them to have a healthy sense of humor and skepticism about the press-release-heavy world of consumer technology.
Today, I removed them from my RSS feed reader. The primary reason was a prank the site pulled at the Consumer Electronics Show that has caused a stir in the blogging world. Titled “Confessions: “the Meanest Thing Gizmodo Did at CES,” it features a video prank. Using a gadget called TV-B-Gone, staffers from Gizmodo turned off televisions at the trade show, interrupting presentations and displays. Hilarious, right?
The video struck me as funny at first, and then annoying and lame. I know a lot of people who work electronics trade shows, and most of them will tell you it’s long hours and days of being on your feet and talking. They really don’t need a third-rate gadget blog making their jobs more difficult for a few online chuckles. Everyone likes to goof on companies that pour so much money and effort into what amount to bloated sales pitches. But embarrassing people who are on stage putting their jobs and reputations on the line veers wildly away from journalism and blogging and into cruelty.
The blog post has so far garnered 636 comments, ranging from disgust to Gizmodo supporters telling everyone else to lighten up. A lame addendum to the post said “sorry,” especially to Motorola, but it sure doesn’t make it sound like Gizmodo won’t pull something like this again, given the chance.
Bloggers who cover the electronics and video game industry have typically been treated with less regard than traditional media. It’s hard to get a press pass for a big convention without established credentials, and even then bloggers are often given different press accommodations than print or broadcast media. Gizmodo’s stunt won’t help the cause of bloggers, and I wouldn’t be surprised if editor Briam Lam and company (owned by Gawker Media) are banned from next year’s CES, or even the upcoming Macworld.
For me, it was an excuse to purge from my daily reads a site that has been sliding into sophomoric, negative and increasingly not-safe-for-work coverage for the last year. Here are a few of today’s “tech news” headlines on Gizmodo: “Gizmodo’s Very, Very NSFW Porn Convention Adventure,” “Even More Booth Babes from CES 2008” and “Hands-on With FyreTV, the Best Porn in the Living Room Solution Yet (NSFW).” By trying to be the Maxim or “Jackass” of gadget blogs, the site has blown its credibility and will no doubt lose some readers.
Who knows — maybe the prank will earn them the devotion of 12-year-olds and socially stunted tech geeks. Maybe they’ll even get a little bump in traffic.
I do know that I won’t be reading. Engadget and Techcrunch do a better job covering tech news without the immature pranks.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Gadgets, Internet
Shopping in China via Austin on video
To go with today’s Life & Arts story I wrote about Austin’s Shangby.com, which allows customers to shop for jewelry directly from China, here’s a video that shows what shoppers see what they shop on the site:
Permalink | | Categories: Austin, Internet, Shopping
What I learned at Geek Austin happy hour
Going out on a work night has become a luxury for me, a planned, carefully coordinated event that involves more strategy than Hillary Clinton’s push in New Hampshire.
I have a 5-month-old, and I’m in charge of picking her up from day care and driving her to New Braunfels with as little incident as possible. (Remind me to tell you about the flat tire we had one time; mad fire ants were involved.)
So nine times out of 10 I turn down going to happy hours or anything else that isn’t absolutely necessary. It was only because of insistent and very humorous e-mail from Lynn Bender that I gave up quality road time with the baby to RSVP for the Geek Austin happy hour, held last night at J. Black’s Feel Good Lounge (how good? Ask me after two beers.) on Sixth Street. Do you know how long it’s been since I was on Sixth Street? I had to ask a friend whether they still serve liquor there.
Anyway, the happy hour was well-attended and certainly not a waste of my night. It was almost worth coming home, looking into my baby’s face and hearing her say, “I have forgotten who you are. Hope you had fun at your happy hour. Also: Change me.”
Here are a few things I learned from the handful of people I got to meet:
- Lynn Bender is a dude. A very nice, social dude and generous host. It has been so long since I’ve talked to Lynn face-to-face that I had forgotten not only what he looked like, but his gender. So when he and I started talking and I didn’t look at his name tag and I mentioned that I ought to say hi to Lynn Bender for inviting me and he said, “I’m Lynn Bender,” well … let’s just say it was not my best moment. I blame lack of sleep. Darn baby!
- John Melanson of Cirrus Logic Inc. is the nicest hippie-techie I’ve met in a long time. He’s shifting his focus from audio/video stuff to environmental tech and is looking for engineers. If you are an engineer who wants to save the world, one green digital signal processor at a time, you should contact John.
- Twitter friends SheilaS, ATXRyan (a former co-worker at the Statesman) and Jmetcalf27 came up and chatted, and it was nice to have a conversation with them that wasn’t limited to 140 characters.
- Philip Wheat from Microsoft Corp.’s Austin offices gave me the lowdown on the PhizzPop Design Challenge, which will have its finals held at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival. I missed the Austin finals in December (SEE: Baby, Stunted Socializing Caused by — ABOVE), but I plan to see the national finals at the festival.
- Tori Breitling and Julie Gomoll are opening a coffee shop downtown near the Omni Hotel called “Launchpad Coworking” that’ll be mobile-worker-friendly. They plan to open it in early July and couldn’t have been nicer.
- Photos from the event are already up on Flickr.
I’ll plan to be at the next Geek Austin event, babysitter-permitting.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Austin, Baby-daddy, Food, Internet, SXSW
Want to volunteer for South by Southwest Interactive?
From Joe Gross over on the Music Blog:
South by Southwest is putting out its annual call for volunteer opportunities for the music, film and interactive conferences, which run from March 7 to 16.Jobs range from festival production to conference activities including registration, information, technical support and more. Day and night positions are available.Volunteers must be able to work a minimum of 30 hours or four nights during the event, depending on their crew type.
Applications are available online. Crew selections will take place at the volunteer call from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m Jan. 20 at the downtown Hilton’s Austin Grand Ballroom. Those unable to attend should contact the SXSW volunteer coordinator at vol@sxsw.com or call or (512) 467-7979. For more information, check out http://sxsw.com/volunteer.
Permalink | | Categories: Austin, SXSW
The iPhone: not a silver bullet for AT&T?
I would have thought that having 2007’s most coveted tech device on your side must count for something, but according to the news, AT&T is seeing its consumer business slow down.
No mention of the iPhone is made in the article, but you have to wonder if the exclusivity deal AT&T made with Apple is tipped so much in favor of Steve Jobs and Co. that revenue from it barely registers on its bottom line.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Gadgets, Phones
Bill Gates says goodbye with help from Bono, McConaughey, Obama, Clinton…
In case you haven’t seen it floating around online yet, here’s the official video of Bill Gates’ Consumer Electronics Show keynote video, which is definitely worth a few chuckles. It features Jon Stewart, Bono, Matthew McConaughey, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, among others.
Unfortunately, if you can’t see the video below, you’ll have to install Microsoft’s Flash video competitor, Silverlight. On my installation, I had to read a lengthy license agreement, download a big file, set up a folder for the installation and restart my browser. Even in trying to get the word out that Gates is just an everyman kind of guy, there’s work to be done by the viewer. Oh, Microsoft.
Bill’s Last Day: The CES Keynote video
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Internet
Dish Network to roll out more HD in Austin and freeze some pricing
Dish Network announced it is expanding its high-definition TV service to offer 100 high-definition channels and is freezing some of its subscription package pricing until 2009.
Austin will be one of 11 of the first U.S. markets to get the new HD channels, the company announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It is increasing the number of national HD channels it carries to 100, up from 76, and is bringing local high-definition channels to 65 new markets, bringing that number to 100 markets.
One hundred seems to be the magic number among TV content providers. Last year, competitor DirecTV boasted that it would offer 100 HD channels by the end of 2007. Currently, it offers about 85 and plans to have HD local channels in 76 markets by the middle of this year. Both companies are locked in fierce battle with cable operators such as Time Warner, who are also rolling out high-definition channels. All are looking to serve the growing number of households buying up high-definition TV sets and looking for programming that takes advantage of an HDTV’s ability to display a clearer, higher-resolution image than standard televisions.
Dish Network gave no timetable about when the new HD channels would be rolled out, what new channels will be added or what pricing would be. The company said in a news release that new HD packages would be available starting Feb. 1, with packages “as low as $10.” Calls and e-mails to Dish Network were not returned on Monday.
The company also said on Monday that it will waive activation fees and freeze the pricing on some of its existing programming packages until 2009. It did not say whether this would include prices for new HD tiers of programming.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Austin, Gadgets, TV
Ginormous Texas bridal cake sculpture featured on CNN.com
Last month, I wrote about Elizabeth Bonura for “Masters of their Domains” about her work on the site she owns, weddingsculptures.com.
Now, her work is being featured on CNN’s Web site, specifically the life-size bridal sculpture/wedding cake she helped create.
If you are not impressed by this, maybe you just don’t like cake.
Permalink | | Categories: Austin, Internet
Planning ahead for SXSW Interactive
Before you blink, it’ll be Friday March 7, the day South by Southwest Interactive starts.
Last year’s event was the first one I’d attended in a few years (I had my hands full running the newsroom of ¡ahora sí!), and I found the conference to be much refreshed from the doldrums of the early 2000s, when the tech bubble gave way to a digital hangover.
This year looks to build on the momentum of 2007 and I’m already seeing lots of blog posts and Twitter tweets from people planning on attending. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at panels we’re excited about, giving updates on news announcements related to the festival, and helping map out strategies for getting the most out of the fest. If they can get the wireless Internet access fixed at the Convention Center, this might be the best SXSWi ever!
Here’s a few links to get started on the fest:
The meat and potatoes, or if you prefer the protein and starches, of the festival are the panels and keynotes. Here’s the list of confirmed speakers, keynotes and list of panels by category. Opening remarks will be given by Henry Jenkins, co-director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT and writer of “Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide.”
There’s also the popular Screenburn Arcade and presentations and the Web Awards.
If you plan to attend and haven’t registered yet, do it by Friday. Prices go up on that day for all badges.
And lastly, if you Twitter and you’re going to SXSW, add your name to this Wiki page with your contact info. We’ll see you at the fest.
Permalink | | Categories: Austin, Internet, SXSW
Xbox Live sputters, apologizes
A surge of new subscribers has apparently toppled the stability of Microsoft’s ordinarily tasty Xbox Live online gaming service, the place where “Halo 3” players go to… well, to kill other “Halo 3” players.
The holidays have not been kind to Microsoft’s already stuffed servers, which not only set up online matches between Xbox 360 players, but also allows players to download game demos, HD-quality movies and TV shows, and all manner of bonus game content for several hundred titles.
I didn’t notice the server burps: I’ve been lately finishing up “Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction” (great game, lousy ending) and picking back up where I left off on “Heavenly Sword” on the PlayStation 3. I’m also still playing the stellar PC version of “Team Fortress 2” from “The Orange Box.” Except for the HD-DVD drive add-on, my 360 has been collecting dust lately.
But for dedicated players, Xbox Live going down is like losing your hot water or air conditioning. It’s the engine that drives all the online play and communication among 360 players, and losing it during the crucial holidays (when gamers settle back in a work vacation stupor to play for hours and hours) is ill timing for Microsoft.
The company has been refreshingly transparent about its troubles. Microsoft evangelist Larry Hryb, better known to gamers as Major Nelson, has been Twitter’ing non-stop about the problems and has kept players up-to-date on the situation on his blog. The company is offering a free Xbox Live game to make up for the troubles; no word yet on which game will be offered and how soon it’ll be (“Weeks” doesn’t sound too comforting).
It’s reminiscent of another recent video game technical problem that had to be quickly resolved with a free game giveaway for some customers. Increasingly, video game companies are in the business of keeping repeat customers happy and creating goodwill where there is frustration and anger.
Permalink | | Categories: Videogames
Wireless HD, big home storage and more: What’s Next in ‘08
Just before New Year’s, I posted a list of technologies that made my 2007. Now here are some things I’m looking forward to in 2008.
Bear in mind that I’m not a financial analyst or a soothsayer. Most of these predications are based on current trends and holding up a finger to try to figure out which way the wind is blowing. We’ll know a lot more about the year ahead after Apple Inc. announces its new wares at Macworld this month and after the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
Wireless HD — There’s already some buzz about this technology going into CES. First the trend was to take all that high-definition information and squeeze it into one wire that can carry both sound and video (the current fave, HDMI). Now there’s a move to eliminate the wire altogether and create technology that can transmit high-def signals between devices wirelessly (say, from your cable box to your wall-mounted plasma TV set). Similarly some media streaming boxes can receive HD-quality videos, photos or music from a home server or PC and display it on your television. Both of these will likely be expensive at first (most media streamers are about $200 to $300 now and offer limited functionality with the myriad file formats you may have), but as with all things in home theater, prices probably will fall quickly, and the technology may become ubiquitous.
Teeny laptops — The big rumor going into Macworld is that Apple will unveil a 13-inch ultraportable notebook computer or tablet PC. It would feature a large touchpad that would incorporate some of the gesture-based technology featured in the iPhone. For a portable device, 13 inches is not that small. Let’s think of something bigger than an iPhone or BlackBerry but smaller than a small laptop. You start to get into a space where interfaces, storage and the simple logistics of carrying it around become a problem. What do you do with a device that doesn’t fit in your pocket or purse, but it is too small to bust out a laptop bag? Such was the unfortunate problem with Palm’s Foleo device, which was greeted with derision when it was announced last year. Let’s hope that if Apple is going in this direction, the company figures out a way to make it work without a $2,500+ price tag.
Big, honkin’ wired storage — I’m convinced this will be the year when we see a killer device for home storage at a reasonable price. The Drobo has gained some acclaim for its ease of use: you plug hard drives into it and it automatically backs up data and acts as readily available storage. But obviously these devices aren’t so easy to create, as Microsoft Corp. recently learned with its Home Server product. Our dream device would hold a terrabyte of data (about 1,000 gigabytes), be easily available on a home network through a secure wireless or Ethernet connection and would automatically back up its data to an off-site data center for true peace of mind. It would be as easy to set up as Apple’s Time Machine and would cost less than $500. We’d like a pony, too, while we’re dreaming.
Attack of the iPhone clones — I expect to hear a lot about mobile phones that incorporate full-screen touch technology and plenty of storage for music and video from CES. It’s been a year since the iPhone was originally announced, and that’s just enough time for other companies to have borrowed some of those ideas and incorporated them into new phone designs. Will Apple itself trump them with a new version of the iPhone? I doubt it, at least in the near term. If we see a new iPhone soon, it’ll be a refinement of the concept with a few new bells and whistles, not a total redesign.
HD-DVD or Blu-ray? How about both? — As many consumers continue to sit out the next-generation DVD format war, PC makers will start to make the decision easier with combo drives that play both formats. Hewlett-Packard Co. just announced a PC model that does that, and there’s speculation that Apple will either refresh its entire computer line with Blu-ray-playing optical drives or drives that play both formats. Microsoft, too, may be incorporating built-in HD-DVD drives into new versions of the Xbox 360 console. That rumor has been around a while, but this year it finally feels as if it could really happen. Now if we can just get those combo players for the living room to dip below $500…
Cable/satellite/fiber showdown — The war to offer HD programming will heat up even more as cable companies, satellite TV providers, phone companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon’s FIOS service all compete for your TV/phone/Internet service dollars. I foresee a price war, lots of deals seeking to lock you in to a two-year commitment and more feature-rich DVR and on-demand technologies. It’ll be a good time to shop around as these behemoths compete with one another and other media threats such as downloadable movie rentals (like Netflix’s set-top box) and other Internet-based content.
Big, big, big, big TVs — According to reports, a 150-inch Panasonic HDTV will be shown at CES. Is this the beginning of the end of our civilization? Maybe not, but people want giant TVs, and 60-inch LCDs are no longer just a dream. Bigger TVs will of course continue to get cheaper, but it won’t be out of the realm of possibility to start seeing TVs in stores pushing 80 or 100 inches.
Got any predictions for the year ahead? Post them below in the comments.
Permalink | | Categories: Applications, Computers, Gadgets, Internet, Movies & DVDs, Phones, TV
Austin technology featured on ‘Rachael Ray Show’
In case you’re still catching up from the holidays (so are we: we haven’t even had any eggnog yet!), you might have missed this: Austin company Shangby.com was featured on the “Rachael Ray Show” in December.
If Rachael Ray’s incredibly enthusiastic voice doesn’t drive you from the room, you can see a video of the technology being demonstrated. Using Shangby, shoppers can purchase items from Shanghai, China. Some shoppers get to interact with Shangby’s personal shoppers via online video as they make their jewelry purchases.
We spoke to Shangby chief executive Steve Bell recently and a story I’m writing about the company runs next week in Life & Arts. Stay tuned!
