Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2009 > April > 06
Monday, April 6, 2009
Two from Time Warner talk more bandwidth cap details
Time Warner Cable is saying a lot today about its pot-stirring news of upcoming bandwidth caps.
First, let’s look at a new post on GigaOm in which Time Warner Cable spokesperson Jeff Simmermon says the following:
“Austin is a passionate and tech-savvy city, and the spirit that we’re approaching this (metered broadband) test with is that if it’s going to work, it has to work in a tech-savvy market where the use patterns are different.”
Interesting.
But if you REALLY want to get some insight into what’s going on in those Time Warner Cable brains, you need to read what TWC Chief Operating Officer Landel Hobbs says in this message.
There is some very good information about the higher-speed options that will be introduced with new infrastructure, but the thing we’re more interested in is whether Austin will be subject to the same kind of pricing/cap structure as Beaumont. To this, Hobbs says, “We have heard customer feedback, and understand that a 40 GB tier seems low to heavy Internet users. “
But in the next paragraph, he says that the company is working on a 100 GB “super-tier,” something we already heard. Rather than assure customers that the 100 GB tier won’t cost “significantly more” than the current top tier, Hobbs says only, “you have my word as Chief Operating Officer of Time Warner Cable that we will make this tier available to our customers.”
Yes. We already knew that. Thanks.
One question I raised before was whether the size of bandwidth caps and speed tiers would be tied to each other. On this, the news is more promising:
“Furthermore, I am convening a series of meetings this week to develop plans that will allow customers to choose among tiers that provide tradeoffs between speed and consumption. If one family prefers to have lower download speeds but a higher data tier, or vice-versa, we want them to be able to make that choice.”“We’d like to make enough speed and data tiers available so that it’s possible for customers to reduce their monthly Internet bill based on the choices they make. Obviously this is still in the planning stages and details are fuzzy, but this is a priority for me this week.”
So, there’s that.
Less successful, from a PR perspective, is a bit in the message comparing the current Internet pricing to going Dutch on a steak/salad lunch:
“As the amount of usage has dramatically diverged among users, this is becoming inherently unfair and not the way most consumers want to pay for goods they consume. When you go to lunch with a friend, do you split the bill in half if he gets the steak and you have a salad?”
All right, let’s talk about that for a second.
WHAT!?
Rather than trying to compare its pricing and services to the way cell phone companies sell minutes or the way that restaurants price their food, why not stick to comparing apples to apples? Why not talk about Internet pricing trends, the cost that Time Warner Cable pays to build out its network and what wholesale bandwidth costs it has to pass on.
Salad? Steak? Really?
Just when you think Time Warner Cable is grasping the almost uniformly negative reaction to tiered pricing, it trivializes the issue with a frankly lame comparison.
Not the way to go.
There’s also this bit, further up in the message:
“Our current pricing plans require all users to pay the same amount, whether they check email once a month or download six movies a day.
If someone is using Road Runner to check e-mail once a month, they’re paying too much for broadband, no matter what tier they’re on. Might I suggest a nice dial-up plan or a public library terminal?
If Time Warner Cable wants its customers to give this ongoing “test” a chance, they’re going to have to stop making weird, specious comparisons and choose their words more carefully.
Thoughts? You know where to post a comment.
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iPod Shuffle: third gen, designed for tiny’s sake
The first thing I thought when I opened up the small jewelery box-sized package of the new iPod Shuffle and gazed at the charcoal-colored slab of metal was, “I am going to lose that thing.”
I lose USB flash drives all the time (in truth, they always turn up, but still; if they aren’t in my work bag, I tend to lose track of them), and lately I’ve even been losing my iPhone, misplacing it on the bed or letting is slide under the car seat as I listen to podcasts on the road.
What chance does a music player about the size of a small stick of gum have in my hands?
None. None at all. But then, I don’t think I’m the audience for the third-generation iPod Shuffle, which costs $79. I have an iPhone and a 30 GB iPod. There’s probably not room in my heart for a third music player.
On the other hand, for someone who doesn’t need to carry around photos or videos and just wants a gym player that feels practically indestructible, the Shuffle is remarkably built.
Available in silver and slate, it packs a punch in its itty bitty package. It holds 4 Gigabytes worth of music and introduces VoiceOver, a feature that will read out to you over the earbuds what song and artist is playing and allows you to change playlists, something that can be tricks with a music player that has no screen.
Up top, the Shuffle has only a switch and a headphone jack. The switch turns the player off, plays songs in order or in shuffle mode. The headphone jack doubles as the place to plug in an included USB adapter to sync the Shuffle to iTunes.
The most controversial feature of the Shuffle is moving the controls to the included earbuds. Using a tiny controller near the right earbud, you can skip songs, hold down the center button to hear the VoiceOver information, adjust volume, alternate playlists and pause.
The downside? iPod earbuds are generally not knows for sounding great and switching to a better pair of headphones warrants a loss of control that only the most easygoing listener will likely tolerate.
I spoke to Greg Joswiak, Apple’s Vice President of iPod and iPhone Product Marketing about the radical changes in the Shuffle, which until now had all the buttons on the device and came in multiple colors.
First we talked about the size. “You see the pictures and you don’t get the full appreciation until you hold it in your hand and say, ‘Wow,’ ” he said.
Or, like I said, “I’m gonna lose this.”
Yogurt and pencil provided for scale
I am rather fond of the shiny metal clip on the device though. It has just the right amount of pressure and looks very nice.
As to the control change, Joswiak said the big breakthrough for the new Shuffle came from the iPhone, which also has buttons on its included earbuds to answer the phone or play and pause tracks.
“We built on that concept by adding volume control,” he said, “Developing that headset, it was really that controller that provided the breakthrough for us.”
That move, he said, allowed Apple to make the Shuffle half its previous size while also adding the capacity for about 1,000 songs.
The VoiceOver feature can speak in 14 different language (it auto-detects music based in other languages and speaks it in that voice).
What about the headphone issue? Joswiak said Apple sells its own in-ear version of the earbuds that provide higher-quality sound and the company is licensing its controller technology to allow other companies to make compatible headphones for the Shuffle. Of course, that means the $79 Shuffle costs a bit more than that if you want better sound and ultimate control.
Other changes? The sync cable has a much smaller cable, making it more ideal for travel. The Shuffle has 10 hours of battery life (shorter than the previous 12) and of course, loses the colorful appear of the previous generation.
“We try to make them in the colors that look best,” Joswiak said. Of course, that doesn’t mean we won’t taste the rainbow with future versions of the third-gen Shuffle.
So, after all that, what’s the final verdict? You could certainly clip the Shuffle to a secure place or take it to the gym and have a good listening experience (provided you’re fine with the included earbuds or are willing to spend more for an upgrade).
I found VoiceOver a great addition, one I hope finds its way to other iPods and iPhones. The voices I heard worked well without sounding overly robotic. And the way you access it, by simply holding down the center button on the headset, was simple and intuitive.
Less intuitive is the weird placement of the controls, near the right earbud, which means you’ll be reaching near your face every time you want to change songs or volume.
I also found the controls for changing playlists awkward. You hold down the center button, wait for the playlists to be read out loud and then click when you hear the one you like. I had podcasts mixed in and got confused by the repeat of long titles and ended up diving for the tiny paper manual to figure out what I was doing wrong.
Other than those minor issues, I think the Shuffle is nicely built and a decent buy at $79. There are some tradeoffs that will keep some shoppers away, but then, that’s why there’s the iPod Touch, Nano and other music players that aren’t even in the Apple universe.
As for me? You might want to take this one off my hands before I misplace it.
Artwork provided by my daughter.
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