Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant
Dell’s Adamo XPS laptop: unboxing and hands-on
Representatives from Dell Inc. visited the American-Statesman this morning an hour before unveiling to the world the new Adamo XPS laptop.
We’ve seen glimpses of the laptop before, most notably at Austin City Limits festival, but this was the first time I’ve gotten my hands on it and see it up close.
The laptop is only 9.99mm thick and, design-wise it’s breathtaking. The entire bottom half of the laptop folds into a recess in front of the 13.4”-inch screen. The slim computer starts at $1,799 and that gets you 4 Gigabytes of DDR3 memory, a 1.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a 128-GB solid-state drive, Wireless-N and a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit edition installed.
The most interesting design characteristic of the Adamo XPS is that the keyboard rises on a hinge to give it an angled profile. I pressed against the keyboard and it has a bit of give — it doesn’t seem too stiff, but at the same time, despite its aluminum construction, I’d be worried about putting too much weight on it. At the very least, it’s a good way to wean yourself off of laying your palms below the keyboard, as I tend to do with my Macbook.
In any case, here’s a video where you can make your own impressions on the ambitiously designed little laptop from Dell:
Image from Dell’s Flickr stream.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Computers, Gadgets
AT&T confirms 3G outage this a.m. in parts of Texas
I got several messages this morning from iPhone users complaining that they weren’t getting 3G service early this morning.
AT&T confirmed that there were outages in Austin, San Antonio in Harlingen and said the equipment issue has been resolved. In a statement e-mailed from AT&T representative Mike Barger, the company said:
“Due to an equipment issue that began this morning, 3G data service for some customers in Austin, San Antonio and Harlingen may have been disrupted. The issue was resolved around 9 a.m. and service was fully restored. We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers.”
I didn’t notice the outage because I was at home on a Wi-Fi network at the time, but when I checked after 9 a.m., 3G service seemed to be working fine in New Braunfels and up IH-35 to Austin.
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Motorola Droid: hands-on video
Verizon Wireless allowed the American-Statesman to take a sneak peak at the new Motorola Droid smartphone. It debuts Friday with the Great Hills Trail Verizon Wireless store opening up at 11 p.m. tonight to offer the phone to early customers at midnight.
Other area stores will open at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning and retail sales manager Trevor Bissell says the company is expecting lines for the device, which competes most directly with Apple’s iPhone, as you might have noticed in recent ads.
Verizon let us borrow the phone and I’ll be posting more about my thoughts on it soon. My first impression is that hardware-wise, it feels a little heavy and dense, with harder angles than the iPhone.
That said, it has a beautiful, big screen (larger than Apple’s phone) and the Google Android operating system runs smoothly and quickly on it. It’s very tightly integrated with Gmail, Google Calendar and other Google services and I was pleased with the phone’s Web surfing speed. I’m still not a fan of tiny physical keyboards but this one has nice, large well-spaced-out keys for those who can’t handle an on-screen virtual keyboard.
One major annoyance: a sound effect that says in a creepy, deep robot voice, “DROID!” is cute at first and very annoying after the third or fourth listen. It’s easy to disable.
Like I said, I’ll post more about it soon. It’s far too early to say whether it’s better or worse than an iPhone, but it certainly has some unique features that might make iPhone users jealous.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Gadgets, Phones, Shopping
AT&T sues over Verizon’s 3G map ads
AT&T has filed a suit against Verizon over that company’s commercials featuring colorful maps comparing their 3G wireless service to AT&T’s.
The maps suggest that Verizon has five times the 3G wireless coverage of AT&T, but in the suit, AT&T believes that commercials misleading suggest that the white areas of the AT&T map make it look as if no wireless coverage is available in large parts of the country.
And, of course, it didn’t take long for a clever headline writer to suggest that in such matters of disagreement, “There’s a lawsuit for that.”
What do you think? Were you misled by the commercials or did you get that it was talking specifically about 3G areas? Let us know in the comments.
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The Linkdown for Monday, Nov. 2
The LInkdown can’t believe it’s already the month that turkeys fear. Wasn’t it just July a minute ago?
Here is the Internet reading you should be doing today:
Coolest news of the week: Austin’s Eugene Hsu (pictured at right) of Challenge Games has accepted a Seattle job as merchandise marketing manager for the Cheezburger Network. We’ll miss him, but hope he gets lots of $$$ from those LOL guys.
- The creators of the very funny Fake AP Stylebook account on Twitter have been unmasked by Wired.
- Awesome wedding gift story with a tech/GPS twist.
- The Texas Wireless Summit is on Thursday.
- Austin’s Game Salad has introduced a $99 Express membership plan for would-be iPhone game publishers.
- A playable demo for “God of War III” for PlayStation 3 will be included on the Blu-ray version of “District 9.” Nice!
- Is Apple working on a $30-a-month TV subscription service? That would be a game-changer.
- Stuff from the paper: 10 scariest social media monsters (with great illustrations), “Fairy Godmother Academy” and its digital team and Tech Monday story on how smartphones are edging out gadgets like the Slacker G2 music player.
- Last week’s NPR All Tech Considered was about e-books like the new Barnes & Noble Nook.
- Site tries to take the pain out of doing an office Secret Santa.
- Roku has introduced a new $129 streaming device that now includes Wireless-N Wi-Fi.
- The next Austin Bleetup is Thursday at Mohawk. You can RSVP here.
- NCsoft’s “Aion” topped the PC game sales charts in its debut. Meanwhile, ex-NCsofter Richard Garriott is still really into space stuff.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Internet, Videogames
Thoughts from Innotech
I spent half the day at Innotech Austin, a one-day conference that melds elements of business, technology and marketing, among other subjects.
I’m not a business reporter anymore, so I’m always a little leery of events with such a heavy business emphasis, but on the other hand, I love to be around tech people and hear their thoughts on presentations or just socialize with people I normally only see on Twitter or Facebook.
It would be impossible for me to review Innotech as a whole since there were typically six panels going on at once and I was only able to attend half the day, but from my quick peek around the expo floor and attendance in a few panels, it was obvious that social media is a dominant topic — it was the subject of a luncheon presentation from an Intel social media guru and a fiery presentation from self-described social media ninja Giovanni Galucci. (Never mind that ninjas are supposed to be covert about their identity).
Galucci is a great, energetic speaker, but other presenters I saw were not (or, in one unfortunate case, came across like an olde-timey snake oil salesman).
It reminded me how hard it is for someone to put on a good presentation for a mixed tech and business audience. It’s a problem that plagues South by Southwest Interactive — panels and Core Conversations with fantastic-sounding speakers often turn out to be boring or preaching to the choir in actual practice.
One person whom I greatly respect and who attends lots of conferences of this sort told me today, “I want to hear about stuff I don’t already know.”
It’s a common problem — how do you keep the tech and social media from getting bored with information they already know while not overwhelming audience members with less knowledge?
At South by Southwest, I raved about Guy Kawasaki, who made for one of the most entertaining Q&A presenters I’ve ever seen at the conference. Though his sparring partner, Chris Anderson, was not nearly so charismatic, Kawasaki did an expert job of keeping the tone light, but the subject matter deep and focused. He was fun and unpredictable.
I say this as someone who’s giving a presentation tomorrow to a group of college journalism students; I watched with an extra-careful eye today, wondering if I was relying too much on a PowerPoint slide show and if I’d fall into some of the presentation traps I saw seeing right in front of me.
It’s very, very difficult to give a good presentation to a large tech crowd these days. It’s gotten to the point where an engaging, thought-provoking panel that really gives everyone in the room new knowledge has, sadly, become the exception and not the rule.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Internet, SXSW 2009, SXSW 2010
Smartphones on the radio
I appeared (in audio form) this morning on NPR’s “On Point with Tom Ashbrook” in an hour-long discussion called “Going Mobile.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, exactly, but it turned out to be a wide-ranging discussion about where the smartphone market is going, how we’re adapting to these new technologies as humans, what the future might hold and what listeners thing about the mobile revolution.
It didn’t hurt that my fellow guests were Mahalo.com founder Jason Calacanis and Wired New York City bureau chief John Abell.
What I got out of it was that there’s lots of curiosity about Motorola’s upcoming Droid phone (and the Android platform in general), about what the future holds for mobile apps and how we’ll continue to adapt our lives as these technologies take over our daily work and home habits.
I was surprised by the number of callers who were bullish about smartphones; I was expecting more of a backlash, honestly. Very cool discussion, though. Go have a listen if you have the time.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Gadgets, Internet, Phones
The iPods, the Zune HD
Back when there were just a few MP3 music players on the market, it was easy to make a recommendation on the best one — it often came down to price and features.
But in the post-iPod age, there’s much more nuance. Do you want a music device that can also download apps, play video games and serve as a mobile Internet device? Do you want a music player that can also shoot video, but is still small enough to fit in a tiny pocket? How about a music player that can play HD videos on your television and can download a practically unlimited amount of music for a monthly fee?
In this way, buying a portable music players is a lot like buying a computer or car — there’s a popular model from two of the big players — Apple and Microsoft — for just about anyone at prices ranging from just over $50 to about $400.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been test driving Apple’s new line of music players including its revamped iPod Nano, the iPod Touch (which recently received a slight speed boost on some models) and its iPod Shuffle, which remains largely the same as the last time we wrote about it, but is now available in new colors and in a 4-gigabyte stainless-steel version.
Microsoft also sent us their latest salvo in the music wars: the Zune HD. While the previous versions of the Zune have barely made a dent in Apple’s music player empire, the HD model should definitely have an audience with some of its very strong features.
Here’s are my thoughts on each.
The iPods
When Apple announced its new iPod upgrades, the biggest changes were in the iPod Nano, the thin, oval-curved, colorful music player.
The iPod Nano.
Not only did the Nano gain the ability to shoot video — only the iPhone 3GS among Apple’s mobile products shares that features — is now has an FM tuner that can pause and rewind live radio broadcasts, a voice recorder, Nike+ integration and a pedometer feature. It comes in nine colors and costs $149 for an 8-gigabyte version and $179 for a 16-gigabyte version. (That choice is a no-brainer: if you’re buying a Nano, spend the extra $30 for double the memory.)
If you’ve seen the iPod Nano before, the physical design is not much different that the last generation — it’s got a pleasing metallic finish, a curvy, design and a small, but bright screen that plays videos and displays photos. The Nano has also picked up the Shuffle’s trick of reading out the names of artists, songs and playlists with its “VoiceOver” feature.
The biggest change, of course, is the ability to record video. A very tiny camera lens on the bottom left side of the back records pretty decent-quality video. When I heard about this new feature, I thought that such a small, light device would be too hard to shoot video on because you’d have constant shaking from tying to hold the Nano still. I shot two videos, indoor and outdoor and you can judge for yourself on the video quality and image stability:
Will it replace your Flip video player or camcorder? Probably not. But if you carry a Nano with you, you’re likely to find yourself relying on it more and more for spontaneous video shooting, the way I do with my iPhone 3GS.
The built-in FM tuner is also a surprise. I took Apple to task from introducing an old technology far too late to its iPods, but it’s hard to argue with how it’s implemented. A plugged-in set of earbuds or headphones serves as the antenna and the Nano picks up FM signals well and plays them clearly. The 15-minute buffer, which allows you to rewind or pause live radio is very nicely done and you can also flag songs you hear on the radio to download later from iTunes. It’s a great feature I thought would be extraneous; instead, I’m pressed with how well it works.
Of all the devices in this roundup, the iPod Nano seems to me to be the clear choice for someone looking for a decently priced, but powerful music player. If you don’t need apps, Internet access or a large touchscreen, the Nano is the best of the bunch in its combination of price, portability and features.
The Shuffle, as I mentioned before, went through minimum changes, but is now available in colors that aren’t so easy to lose in a gadget satchel or even on a dark-colored desk. It’s still a very good player for hitting the gym or a long road trip. I’m still not a fan of keeping the controls on the included earbuds (I never use Apple earbuds; they usually don’t have great sound), but there are other headphones available that incorporate Shuffle controls. Of course, having to buy them separately negates some of the value of a $59 or $79 music player.
The iPod Shuffle.
Other than the iPhone 3GS, Apple would say that the iPod Touch is its top-of-the-line iPod and it recently got a speed boost that makes it snappier, a boon for those designing 3-D game apps for the Touch and iPhone. The 8-gigabyte model ($199) remains at the same speed, but the other two iPod Touch models — 32-GB ($299) and 64-GB ($399) — get the speed boost. It’s most noticeable when doing Web surfing, playing some graphics-intensive games and navigating the icon menus on the home screen.
It’s pretty much the same iPod Touch that Apple says has sold more then 20 million units. Of course, it has access to Apple’s large library of apps (though some aimed at the iPhone don’t work with the Touch).
The iPod Touch.
Many, myself included, were surprised that the upgraded Touch devices did not incorporate a new camera the way the Nano does. Some have speculated that Apple had technical troubles making it happen in time for the September unveiling, but Stan Ng, senior director of iPod product marketing, told me that wasn’t the case.
“Our focus was in the update to the iPod Touch was driving down the price as much as we could without adding anything else,” Ng said. “It’s the most affordable thing to get (people) to the App Store.”
That’s great, but an iPod Touch that still can’t shoot video is a bit of a disappointment. At the very least, the $399 high-end Touch should have included that feature.
It’s easy to begin believing that the iPod is starting to lose relevance as the iPhone and music players and smartphones from other companies evolve, but there’s no denying there’s a gigantic market of accessories, a continually growing list of apps that work on the iPod Touch and new features on the Nano that seem just enough to keep Apple’s dominance in digital music going.
They’re still elegantly designed, have great software and simply work well. It’s very hard to recommend against Apple’s dominating lineup of iPods.
The Microsoft Zune
…But that doesn’t mean we won’t try.
Microsoft’s Zune music player brand has become a bit of a joke as it has failed to catch fire even with those who dislike Apple’s iPod dominance.
But the new Zune HD is serious business. It aligns most closely with the iPod Touch — it has a large, bright touch screen, can download (a very limited number of) apps and has a built-in Web browser.
By far the best feature on the Zune HD is its exceptionally bright, inviting OLED screen. Colors pop more than they do on the Touch and browsing photos and watching video on it is a joy.
The Zune HD also includes HD radio, allowing you to listen to sub-stations on FM frequencies and to glance at station messages and song/artist titles. It’s a nice, rare feature in a portable music player and some may find it the Zune HD’s strongest selling point.
With an accessory dock (sold separately), it can also play high-definition videos on a connected HDTV screen.
The Zune can also be hooked up to a $14.99-a-month unlimited music download service from Microsoft. If you’re tired of your music library and want to connect to a fire hose of new music, this is a good way to do it. The music will only be accessible for as long as you keep this subscription, but it opens up a world of new music, TV shows and other content for a flat rate. With the service you also get 10 permanent music downloads a month. It’s a very good deal for anyone with a small music collection who doesn’t want to invest in creating their own digital music library.
Some will love the Zune HD’s slick, modern menus which have large-typeface words that fly in and out of range, but hang around in the top of the screen in case you want to go back to a previous menu. When playing music, you can see a lovely artist image in addition to the usual cover art. In some ways, it’s more intuitive than the dated click-wheel menus on the Nano.
The Zune HD.
That’s the good. Now comes the bad news about the Zune HD: it’s tied to Microsoft’s Zune software, which in some ways is a complete trainwreck. While a recent 4.0 update is a vast improvement over the previous version, I found Zune 4.0 to be buggy, filled with too many menus that seem at cross purposes and simply hard to use. It’s so over-designed that it actually doesn’t look like it belongs in a Windows operating system environment. Even the flashy new Windows 7 feels vastly different from the lovely, but hard-to-navigate Zune software.
It also is software that isn’t available on the Mac, making the Zune HD effectively a PC-only product without jumping through some major hoops.
The Microsoft Zune software.
It takes a while to simply figure out how to get music, videos and other content onto the Zune using the software. And even then, some video formats won’t convert properly to play on the Zune HD or take a very long time to do so. On the other hand, it can sync wirelessly over Wi-Fi to your computer’s library, something none of the iPods can do at this point.
The Web browser included in the Zune is not nearly as easy to use as the iPod Touch’s Safari browser (which is probably the best mobile browser today) and there are only a handful of apps that are available for the Zune HD.
Using the Zune as a music player was a great experience — it gives you plenty of screen eye candy and sounds good. But other non-music-related features were more problematic. The device’s “Social” features didn’t seem very useful to me and I’m not sure why the device has buttons on the side that DON’T control volume.
Nevertheless, I think the hardware is nicely designed, the screen is absolutely gorgeous and for all the Apple haters out there, the Zune HD is a perfectly good alternative to the iPod Touch. It’ll get better with more apps and refinements to the Zune software, but it would be foolhardy to believe we’ll see it catch up to the kind of refinements Apple has made to the App Store and to iTunes anytime soon.
The Zune HD
At $229 and $289 (for 16-GB and 32-GB models), the Zune HD also seems slightly overpriced given the competition it’s up against. At $199 and $249, it would be a much stronger candidate for your gadget-buying dollar. (It doesn’t help that the AV dock, for connecting it to an HDTV for video/photo watching is a ridiculous $90 extra. And it doesn’t even have the capability to rotate photos you’re viewing on it.)
The Zune still isn’t an iPod killer, but it’s the closest Microsoft has come so far in catching up with Apple on the music player front.
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Goodbye, GeoCities
Today, Yahoo is shutting down GeoCities, the online equivalent of bulldozing a long-abandoned slum.
In its heyday (forgetting for a moment that GeoCities was derided even then) of the mid-to-late 1990s, GeoCities was a home for those dipping their toes into the World Wide Web.
It didn’t take long before the predominantly ugly, blinking-text-laden, amateur-created Web pages become synonymous with bad Web design. Among today’s 2.0 Web geeks, GeoCities is more punchline than warm memory; you’d say it like you say “Parachute pants” or “‘Miami Vice’ 5-o’clock shadow.”
Let’s not forget that GeoCities was very useful to a great number of people in its time and contained treasure troves of information back when the Internet was a barren landscape of tiny oases.
The L.A. Times has a nice appreciation of GeoCities.
So long, GeoCities.
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Review: ‘Brütal Legend’
The new video game “Brütal Legend” opens like the first track on Metallica’s “…And Justice For All”: It’s a potent, energetic blast of rock that widens your eyes and puts you in the mood.
“Legend,” which stars Jack Black and was developed by revered game-industry imp Tim Schafer is a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy that tries to graft a wide range of gameplay styles into a funny, loving tribute to metal music.
Unfortunately, the actual game itself — the one you play with a console game controller — doesn’t match up to the inspired milieu and the impressive voice acting, graphics, soundtrack and stellar script.
Black plays roadie Eddie Riggs (who looks in the game like Meatloaf by way of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” perhaps an intentional homage), who finds himself waging a war against demons and a fey glam-rock poseur in an almost-medieval metal world of giant amps, literal headbanging rock slaves and demonic landscapes that wouldn’t look out of place on an Iron Maiden album cover.
Riggs must help free an enslaved world; he does it not with bullets and punches but with guitar licks and giant rock stages. It’s a brilliant idea, and for the first two or three hours of the game, it’s easy to believe that the game will be a perfect mix of narrative and fun gaming.
But the game begins to break down by trying to do too many things; it has elements of rhythm games (Eddie gets power-ups when you press button combinations in time with a music chart), has elements of large-scale action like “God of War,” has several driving-game challenges and, ultimately, becomes a giant real-time strategy game involving huge outdoor concert stages.
While it means you won’t get bored playing through the fairly short single-player part of the game, it also becomes frustrating to keep up with all the different kinds of controls and rules for all the different kinds of play. You wish the game would settle into a groove of consistent gameplay, but instead, it feels as if “Brütal Legend” is making up the rules as it goes along. And the core endgame is the giant real-time strategy bits that are the most frustrating to actually play. It’s very easy to lose control of what your army of roadies and headbangers are doing at any given moment.
That said, there’s lots to love: Jack Black is brilliant as Eddie. He’s much less annoying than he’s been in some movies — as he showed in “Kung Fu Panda,” he’s a fantastic voice actor and he doesn’t overplay the character. The game’s storyline is full of clever moments and funny lines (many of them dirty enough to earn the the game a Mature rating). The main menu screen is a fantastically conceived album cover that opens and offers its sleeves to display game options. Leading into it is a live-action mini-movie featuring Black.
Schafer, who gets a lifetime pass for his work on game classics like “Grim Fandango” and “Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle” has crafted a game that, despite its flaws, is still attractive and wholly original. And the voice work from Tim Curry and rock stars Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford, Lita Ford and Lemmy Kilmister are a joy to hear. It’s a world gamers should hope to return to; a sequel with more focused gameplay would be worth pursuing.
“Brütal Legend” is definitely a worthy rental, but like a concert that ends without any encores, it leaves you wanting more.
“Brütal Legend”
$60, for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
Rating: M for Mature
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Videogames
Slacker.com getting out of the music hardware business
Slacker, the company with Austin ties that focuses on music streaming, is discontinuing its G2 portable music player next year, the company’s president Jim Cady told the Wall Street Journal.
The music player, which competes with Apple’s iPod, MIcrosoft’s Zune and other portable music devices, will apparently be pushed to the side as the company focuses on its paid music streaming service, social networking (it recently introduced Twitter integration to its online service) and mobile apps for devices like the iPhone, BlackBerry and Sony Bravia TVs.
The G2 device was introduced in 2007, but was delayed until early 2008, when it finally began shipping to customers.
Slacker is based in San Diego, but has ties to Central Texas, including funding from Austin Ventures. It recently raised another $3 million in venture funding.
So long, G2. We’ll let you know if we hear more about what happened to Slacker’s hardware plans.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Applications, Austin, Gadgets, Shopping
The Linkdown for Thursday, Oct. 22
The Linkdown was in hog heaven this week with new Apple hardware and the release of “Windows 7.” But then The Linkdown thought, “What’s going on over on the rest of the Web?” This is what The Linkdown found and now shares with you:
- Is an Apple tablet the key to the future of digital comic books? Andy Ihnatko thinks so.
- You can now share whole folders in Google Docs.
- Austin-based GetYa Learn On, LLC and Abilene Christian University have developed an iPhone app called “Statistics 1.”
- NCsoft seems to have a hit on its hands. Its new MMO “Aion,” was the No. 1-selling PC game in September.
- There’s now a mobile app for the kid-friendly video Web site ZuiTube.
- Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 list includes Austin companies Zebra Imagine, Inc., Medical Present Value, Inc., @hand Software Corp., NetQoS, Inc., Surgient, Inc., LibreDigital and SolarWinds, Inc.
- Memo to Rails developers: The Rails Performance in the Cloud Roadshow comes to Austin on Oct. 29.
- New tech news site: GeekChicDaily. That’s “Chic,” not “Chick.”
- My favorite Halloween video ever (not scary, just awesome): Michael McDonald is trickin’ it to the treat.
- Austin’s Wi-Fi Alliance announces specs for peer-to-peer Wi-Fi.
- A bit late on this one, but LiveStrong’s work with “Blame Drew’s Cancer.”
- Writer’s Bar Camp, Saturday in Bryan.
- Slacker.com now features Twitter integration.
- On my NPR segment this week: “Windows 7,” eco-phones and Finland’s right-to-Internet move.
- Hulu will likely charge for content at some point, possibly as early as next year.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Internet
Digital Contrarian: Five ways Microsoft could still screw up Windows 7
The reviews are in and the news is good for Microsoft: the latest version of its operating system, “Windows 7,” hits stores Thursday and tech reviewers seem smitten with “7.” The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Engadget, CNet and others have bestowed praise on it. The snarky gadget site Gizmodo.com used the headline, “Windows 7 Review: You Can Quit Complaining Now.”
On the praise, I can’t disagree. Microsoft sent us a 64-bit copy of “Windows 7 Ultimate” several weeks ago and after a fear-filled ordeal getting my Windows XP desktop ready for the hard drive wipe and migration, I’m a happy camper. “Windows 7” is Microsoft’s attempt at a do-over on its last major revision, Windows Vista, which debuted in early 2007. I avoided the public-relations disaster that was Vista on the advice of negative reviews and friends who used it and grew frustrated with its quirks and sluggish performance.
For me on a pretty high-end PC, “Windows 7” runs fast, doesn’t crash, handles all the software I was running before with a minimum of compatibility issues, and is a big leap forward in attractive, streamlined design. I like the way hovering over a taskbar icon brings up a tiny preview of open windows. I like that I can shake a window and make every other Window on the desktop disappear. I find myself using my Windows 7 PC more often than I used to as it feels, in general, less frustrating to deal with. My MacBook is probably pretty jealous.
That being said, “Windows 7” could still go awry for Microsoft, a company that knows a thing or two about taking a good thing and running it into the ground. There is the matter of Apple, a company that just had its best financial quarter ever and that has all but convinced the buying public that its Mac computers are hipper and smarter than PCs.
“Windows 7” is good, but is it good enough to make people go out and buy new PCs (or bother upgrading their XP or Vista machines)? Here are five ways Microsoft could still lose with “Windows 7’:
1. Continuing to confuse customers — As it did with Vista, Microsoft released multiple versions of “7” with names like, “Starter,” “Home Premium,” “Business” and “Ultimate,” all with different prices, different features and different target audiences. It’s a horrible strategy, and one that serves no one but Microsoft. Release one great version of “Windows 7” and price it fairly for the broadest possible audience. It worked for Apple with the September release of “Snow Leopard,” an update to its Mac OS operating system, which works on all Apple computers that are currently sold.
2. Tone-deaf marketing and advertising — Microsoft had a point with its “Laptop hunter” TV commercials, focusing on the price differences between Macs and some Windows PCs. But the commercials came across as shrill and whiny. Most Windows ads only serve to remind people how much better Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” ads are. And a recent attempt to get people to throw “Windows 7” launch parties for a copy of the OS felt desperate and sad. Microsoft has a great spokeswoman in pint-sized, 4-year-old “Kylie.” Microsoft would do well to stick with Kylie and quit bringing up Apple in its ads.
3. Not wooing XP users — There are many more Windows XP users than Vista users, but Microsoft had made it much harder for those with Windows XP to upgrade. In my case, I had to do a full backup, erase my hard drive and reinstall all of my software, a process that took me an entire week. Microsoft suggests XP users buy a new PC instead; ha ha, good one, Microsoft. The company needs to convince XP users that “Windows 7” is worth the hassle without trying to extract more money out of people’s wallets.
4. Losing the virus war — The more people who get “Windows 7,” the more chance you’ll see viruses and malware that specifically targets vulnerabilities unique to this new operating system. One major virus outbreak targeting it could wipe out Microsoft’s credibility on security in “Windows 7.” They’d do well to keep working to make its security airtight. (Or at least more secure than XP and Vista have been.)
5. Avoiding the bloat — Microsoft wisely has stripped several applications out of Windows that not everybody uses like Windows Messenger and Windows Movie Maker, making them available as optional online downloads. While some users may feel they’re getting less than they bargained for, anything that helps create a more streamlined, less cluttered interface is a step in the right direction. In future updates and patches for “Windows 7,” Microsoft needs to remember that and avoid the temptation of adding extraneous, resource-hogging features and applications that we don’t really need.
I like “Windows 7.” A lot. It’s the first time in a long while that I’ve felt the Mac operating system has some real competition for my computing time. Let’s hope Microsoft plays it smart and doesn’t find a way to mess up a good thing.
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Apple fires across the bow before Windows 7 launch
Yesterday, Apple followed up its strongest quarterly earnings ever with a salvo of product tweaks aimed at continuing the company’s momentum going as Microsoft rolls out its new operating system, Windows 7, on Thursday.
Among the new stuff was “Magic Mouse,” a wireless computer mouse that has no physical buttons, but instead relies on the same kind of multi-touch technology users have become accustomed to on the iPhone and on the trackpads of Mac laptops.
Apple also tweaked the design of its white MacBook, making it a “Unibody” design that uses one piece of plastic for the main case (similar to the aluminum cases on its MacBook Pros.)
The iMac computer got a new design with widescreen monitors at new screen sizes (21.5” and 27”), with upgraded specs that go all the way up to a quad-core processor with an upgraded ATI graphics card (the highest-end 27” model starts at $2,000).
The Mac Mini also got some love with speed upgrades and a new “Mac Mini Server” that can be used to stream video and other content. It costs $1,000.
There were also upgrades to the company’s Time Capsule and Airport Extreme products (slight Wi-Fi speed increases from a tweaked antenna design) and a new version of the $19 Apple remote, now available in an aluminum design.
I went to check out the new products yesterday at the Apple Store at the Domain, but unfortunately, none were on the floor. The new MacBooks had arrived, a store associate told me, but they weren’t on display yet. The other products, including Magic Mouse were still being shipped to the store.
The mouse is certainly tantalizing (if it works as promised), but these are mostly small upgrades designed to make those considering a new Windows 7 PC think twice. And they should — although I’m a fan of Windows 7 (I’ll have a full review posted by tomorrow), Mac OS is still a powerful, refined operating system and with every hardware refresh, Apple makes its Macs more desirable at their respective prices.
If you’re shopping for a new PC or Mac, there’s no sense in rushing. Wait a week or two and see what kind of offers the Windows 7 rollout brings and take a look at Apple’s new crop. It’s a pretty good time to buy a computer, but we’ll probably be seeing even better deals from both sides before the holidays.
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Two tech commercials charge aggressively into the holiday season
Over the weekend, I caught two commercials involving tech products that seemed to follow me wherever I went. I saw the commercials at the gym, I saw them at home and I read about them on tech blogs.
The first one was for the Powermat, a device that wireless charges cell phones, portable game systems and other devices (wireless if you have the right adapter, but more about that in a moment).
We ran a review of Powermat and a lower-priced competitor in today’s paper. The commercial below expresses the “WOW!” factor, but I worry that people who see the commercial (which, by the way, is extremely tacky) won’t grasp the downsides of a product like Powermat.
For one thing, it’s not completely wireless unless you purchase separate sleeves or cases for your devices on top of the $99 price of the main Powermat device (which can charge three devices at a time).
The Powermat comes with three little “Powercubes,” white blocks that can connect to your phone, PDA or other devices via a tiny wire and interchangeable connectors. The Powercube lies on the Powermat and charges the device through that little cable. Unfortunately, it’s not really wireless if a wire is involved.
The sleeves, sold separate, cost about $30 each and double as a case. They eliminate the need for the Powercubes and, as such, are more true to the promise of the Powermat. If, say, you have a BlackBerry, you can buy a sleeve for it and keep it on all the time and lay it on the Powermat to do the promised wireless charging.
Obviously, buying all those sleeve/cases can add up (three devices, three sleeves… oh, that’s about another $100) and they’re not particularly attractive as device cases. The one for the iPhone has a pass-through connector for mini-USB syncing, but you’ll have to take the Powermat sleeve off to use any of the thousands of other accessories that use the ubiquitous squat iPod connector.
The store display I saw at Target had plenty of these device sleeves right next to the device, so many I’m underestimating people’s ability to understand how it works. It’s certainly great technology, but it will be even more impressive when smartphones and other electronics have the ability to charge wirelessly built in. I’m sure it’s a technology we’ll see commonly used in the next three to five years, if not sooner.
Did I mention the commercial itself is pretty tacky? Here it is:
The other commercial I saw is for the upcoming Motorola Droid phone, which is clearly positioning itself as the Google Android platform’s answer to the iPhone. The commercial points out the things Apple’s phone doesn’t do, hinting at all the features the Droid will do.
Will it deliver on the promise? Hard to tell when we can’t even see the phone itself in the commercials.
As a shot across the bow, though, it seems very effective. My curiosity is definitely piqued.
Here’s the Droid commercial:
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
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First set of SXSWi ‘10 panels announced
The first batch of panels for South by Southwest 2010 have been posted this morning on the official site.
SXSW says that more than 2,300 panel ideas were submitted via its Panel Picker and that a second round of panels will be announced on Nov. 9. In all, more than 300 panels will be part of the fest March 12-16.
Among the panels that caught my eye in this set of about 110 were, “2009 Iran Election: Women’s Revolution? Twitter Revolution?,” “From Trolls to Stars: The Commenter Ecosystem,” “Media Armageddon: What Happens When the New York Times Dies,” and “What Guys are Doing to Get More Girls in Tech!”
Also sprinkled in the list are panels whose topics I feel like I’ve seen 3 or 4 times before, or panels that are mostly about a Web celebrity who has already spoken at SXSWi, which is unfortunate.
For newcomers to the fest, this is a tantalizing early list, but for those who’ve attended before, a lot of the panels listed so far either seem too general (“Future of Context”) or panels that have literally been on the schedule in some form or fashion for 10 years (“Writing Web Content For A Living”).
Excited to see how the next batch of panels varies from this one.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Internet, SXSW, SXSW 2010
Gaming On at Mohawk
“Game On” is not only the set of words you can see next to a gigantic, terrifying representation of my head on the side of the highway, but also the name of last night’s Austin Chronicle/South by Southwest Interactive ScreenBurn event.
Upstairs at The Mohawk, Game Over Videogames had the inside lounge area covered with old-school Mario and Sonic games as well as four-player “GoldenEye 007” for the Nintendo 64 set up.
Wizards of the Coast had a “Magic: The Gathering” tabletop set up in anticipation of this weekend’s big Pro Tour tournament at the Austin Convention Center. (Free for you to go check out.)
Challenge Games showed off their brand-new Facebook 3-D football game, “Gridiron Live,” which has already been written up in TechCrunch. It’s free to play but tokens can be purchased to add players and capabilities. You can play against friends or single-player against the CPU.
The company said they have another big Facebook game in the works, to be released in a month or two.
Axelo showed off their new PC “BAT” controller, which brings tilt-sensitive motion controls (like the PlayStation 3 SIXAXIS) to Windows. It worked nicely in a flight combat game I tried. It’s going to be priced about $120, but a special introductory price will bring it closer to $79.
There were lots of iPhone and Wii games on display, 8-bit music and a “Rock Band” guitar tournament (no love for drummers, unfortunately).
Good time, good space — let’s keep these big video game events coming, Austin.
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Michael Dell and I agree on something
Although Dell recently slipped to No. 3 in the list of the world’s top PC manufacturers (HP tops the heap and Acer just passed the Round Rock-based company), the company’s CEO Michael Dell is pretty bullish.
In a recent Silicon Valley dinner appearance, he said he’s confident Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows 7 (out Oct. 22) will will change people’s attitudes.
“… if you get the latest processor technology and Office 2010 with it, you will love your PC again. It’s a dramatic improvement,” he said.
Love! That’s a strong word.
However, with some reservations, I agree with him. Since I went through the process of upgrading my main desktop computer to Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit), I’ve had smooth sailing and good performance.
I find myself using that computer more than my trusty Macbook lately, even though the desktop is upstairs, away from our main living area and bedrooms. Software installations I was dreading have gone off without a hitch and even a tricky remote networking setup my wife needed to install to do some telecommuting worked flawlessly.
All the pain I was prepared for in a new, bug-filled OS have failed to materialize.
Does that mean I’m in love? It’s too early to tell, but I can say with confidence that I’m deeply In LIke with Windows 7. Microsoft has a tendency for over-reach and there’s still time for them to mess up a good thing with bad marketing or patches that introduce quirks.
And I’m recounting my experience on a very high-end PC whose hardware has been tweaked for gaming bliss. Less clear is how well Win7 will hold up on feeble netbooks or older computers that aren’t as speedy under the hood.
If they stay on track and have a good launch, though, it will be very easy for PC owners with the right hardware to feel even more affection for 7.
I’ll have a full write-up on it next week.
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People are still asking: What is Google Wave?
I’ve been playing with Google Wave for about a week now, since a kind Twitter soul was nice enough to send me one of the coveted invites that have been limited to several hundred thousand (at last count) since it debuted.
I’m going to keep this short and simple because the hype on Google Wave has been deafening and the more people who aren’t using Wave hear about it, the more confusing I imagine it seems.
Billed early on as a mash-up of e-mail, IM, Twitter and myriad other things we use now, I think I can safely say it boils down to something much simpler and easy to grasp: Google Wave is like a set of supercharged chat rooms stuffed into your e-mail inbox.
It’s structured like e-mail with a stack of “Waves”: each one contains information about who’s in that message string (with helpful user icons), a date, whether there are attachments and how many actual messages are in each Wave.
When you click on a Wave, a window opens to the right of it and that’s where you can type messages, engage in video chats, start a poll, invite more people to join the Wave and attach files, photos and other media. It’s here that Google Wave most resembles a chat room and one of the fun things about it is that you can see messages being typed in real-time, kind of like the old 9600-baud modem days.
Each window (contacts, inbox, etc.) can be minimized, giving more screen real estate to whatever part of Wave you want to focus on. Unlike instant messaging, though, the messages in each Wave stay structured and stored like e-mail — if you close Wave and come back to it, those chats will remain active and you can pick up right where you left off (or read new bits contributed by other people who have access to that Wave).
That’s all. It’s not as mysterious as people are making it out to be.
However… we are seeing Google Wave with a very limited number of so-called “Gadgets” and “Extensions.” These currently include a Google Map that can be updated by anyone in a Wave, video conferencing, but the potential is that developers will add their own tools to Wave that will, say, include a gadget for including a Twitter stream or playing a Facebook-style game.
In that way, Google Wave is very exciting: it could be to Google what the App Store has become for Apple: a limitless platform that serves as the medium for all kinds of independent development, under the Wave umbrella.
It’s got amazing potential, but right now, and especially with the small number of people on it to communicate with, it still feels very, very early. Give it six months and we’ll see if it lives up to its promise.
Below: some screen shots of the inbox and Wave view:
Want more info and details? Lifehacker has an excellent first look feature that goes into more depth than you may need.
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T-Mobile Sidekick users: you have my sympathies
Over the weekend, many users of T-Mobile Sidekick devices learned that problems they were having with their phones recently were probably due to a massive server meltdown that might cause all of their personal data (phone numbers, photos, settings) to be deleted.
The problem? The phone stores that data on its servers, rather than on the hardware itself, and apparently Danger, the Microsoft-owned company that makes the Sidekick, didn’t have a proper backup. Microsoft warned customers that they might not get their data back and that they shouldn’t remove the device’s battery or allow it to run out of juice before the issue was resolved.
CNet ran a piece featuring Sidekick users telling their horror stories. Puts a knot in your stomach, doesn’t it?
Sales of Sidekick devices were halted today and the brand, in my estimation at least, looks pretty damaged by this data failure.
But at least there’s a silver lining. Hiptop3, a site that’s been following the debacle, says that some customers are reporting having their data restores, so maybe Danger found a way to retrieve some of the information.
One thing’s for sure: ALWAYS have a back-up of your phone data, no matter how much trouble it takes. Until we live in a perfect world, don’t trust your most important data to the cloud.
I’m told on Twitter that the Sidekick is especially popular among the deaf, an added wrinkle to a story that already looks like a big black eye for Microsoft/Danger. As a friend of mine said on Twitter, you should beware when you buy a product from a company called “Danger.”
If you lost your phone data, I’m very sorry for you. It’s not fun at all to deal with a data loss like that.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Gadgets, Phones
The Linkdown for Friday, Oct. 9
The Linkdown is happy not to have had to clean Dillo Dirt off The Linkdown’s feet. That stuff sounds gross.
Links to make it all feel better:
- Local video game tournaments: teen tournament at Round Rock Library noon tomorrow and a “Pac-Man” tourney at 3 p.m. Sunday at Gamerz Video Game Exchange at Lakeline Mall.
- Upcoming guest authors for the game “City of Heroes” will be Bill Willingham, creator of the comic book “Fables,” Rooster Teeth (“Red vs. Blue”) and Scott Kurtz of the “PvP” online comic strip.
- Fusebox Festival event next Friday.
- Popular Mechanics just announced its 2009 Breakthrough Awards
- Austin’s Miro Quartet has its own free app.
- Dell partners with Major League Baseball and nail polish company OPI on laptop designs.
- U-verse ranks highly in overall satisfaction, according to J.D. Power and Associates.
- Austin Public Library offers TumbleBook Library, animated, interactive books for kids.
- More photos from Dell at Austin City Limits Fest.
- San Antonio’s Rackspace brings in some tech heavy-hitters.
- “World of Warcraft” card game and miniatures game tournaments are this weekend in Austin (starting today!) and are free to go watch. It’s at the Convention Center.
- That’s followed by a big “Magic: The Gathering” pro tournament next weekend.
- I revisited the topic of scanning in business cards and also talked about Disney digital books and a bag that can save your wet electronics on NPR’s “All Tech Considered” this week.
Oh, and this is pretty cool, too:
(It comes from this site, and I found out about it from my brother, via this person).
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Thanks for the update, however, 3G is still going haywire for iPhone owners in the Cedar Park/Avery Ranch area. Up and Down all afternoon yesterday, through the night, and this a.m. also.
My neighbors have confirmed that its not just my phone...
... read the full comment by Steve | Comment on AT&T confirms 3G outage this a.m. in parts of Texas Read AT&T confirms 3G outage this a.m. in parts of Texas
Nice video, Omar. I look forward to your review. I just upgraded to the HTC Hero (Android-based phone from Sprint), and so far I'm pretty impressed with the ease of use, the speed and functionality, and the amount of apps already available.
My biggest
... read the full comment by Robbie | Comment on Motorola Droid: hands-on video Read Motorola Droid: hands-on video
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