5Words for Memorial Day, May 25th, 2009

Holidays are usually pretty quiet:

Google Earth honors the fallen.

Read Sprint’s Pre launch guide.

Lenovo to use Nvidia’s Ion.

More about AT&T’s Palm EOS.

Safari 4 practices poor housekeeping.

Goal one for Pre: browsing.

Gotta love the name “Wooo.”

iPhone-painted New Yorker cover.

Iran blocks Facebook. (Twitter? MySpace?)

A more Mac-like Linux.

Eucalyptus is Available–and Neat

I’m pleased–but not surprised–to report a happy ending to the tale of Eucalyptus, the iPhone e-reader that had been rejected from the iPhone App Store on the grounds that it could be used to download and read the Kama Sutra. Today, developer Jamie Montgomerie got a call from an Apple representative, and all was resolved. An uncensored version of Eucalyptus is now available from the App Store. (I won’t say anything snarky about Apple here–if you’ve made a mistake, it’s far better to correct it than to dig in your heels.) The iPhone already had an embarrassment of e-reader riches, but Eucalyptus is a welcome addition, with one of the prettiest, most functional user interfaces to date on any iPhone app.

Continue reading this story…

Eight Days to TWTRCON

Shameless plug: TWTRCON–the conference on how businesses can make the most of Twitter that I’m happy to say was my idea–is now just over a week away. It’ll be held at Hotel Nikko in San Francisco on Sunday, May 31st; the folks at conference organizer Modern Media have rounded up a terrific group of speakers, including industry luminaries such as MC Hammer, Shel Israel, Guy Kawasaki, Dave McClure, Jeremiah Owyang, and Steve Rubel, plus folks from major companies including Cisco, eBay, Comcast, Intuit, the Phoenix Suns, Wells Fargo, and more.

I’ll be twittering the whole thing, and hope to meet some of you there. And if you’re considering coming, here’s an incentive to seal the deal: Members of the Technologizer community get a 20 percent discount. Just register to attend at the TWTRCON site and use code TM02 at checkout to get the discount.

How Long Did It Take for the World to Identify Google as an AltaVista Killer?

Earlier this week, I mused about the fact that folks keep identifying new Web services as Google killers, and keep being dead wrong. Which got me to wondering: How quickly did the world realize that Google would come to dominate Web search in a way that few businesses have ever been dominated? Did anyone know from the get go that it would whip AltaVista and other once-mighty sites?

It’s still surprisingly hard to search the Web for information from a particular time period. But I found some early references to Google–mostly positive, and none of which were prescient enough to realize its implications.

Continue reading this story…

“Girlfriend, Wife and Mother” Enjoying the PS3, Sony Says

Sony is boasting about its downloadable movie and TV show offerings on the Playstation Network, telling Video Business that revenues are up 300 percent from the same time last year.

There also appears to be a new demographic in play. “We’re getting people in the households who hadn’t yet interacted with their [Playstation 3] in the past,” Eric Lampel, the Playstation Network’s director of operations, said. “This is the girlfriend, wife and mother.”

He points to the film Bride Wars as an example, as it became a top-ranked movie download after its April 28 release.

I suspect a hint of marketing in Lampel’s statements. Video Business notes that a hefty amount of PSN’s movie offerings are action and animation flicks — not exactly fare for the missus — and Lampel concedes that the service is “very game heavy.” It is a video game console, after all. There’s probably truth in what he says, but I think the “everyone’s digging it” idea is a deliberate message.

Sony has ambitions to expand the PS3′s role. Lampel said PSN wants to be a major source for original, mainstream (as in, not nerdy anime?) programming. He speaks of broadening the console’s audience “not necessarily around gaming” and mentions HBO’s exclusive content creation as a model worth following. Can you imagine the Playstation 3 churning out edgy dramas and comedies? Perhaps it could happen through cooperation with Sony Pictures.

One thing I’ll add, alluded to Lampel’s quote about wives and girlfriends: If the Playstation 3 (and the Xbox 360, for that matter) are going to gain broad appeal beyond the stereotypical college male gamer demographic, it’ll take those dedicted gamers to reel in the outsiders. That means the original content has to be so good, it’s worth evangelizing. Let’s see what Sony comes up with.

After Two Years, Microsoft’s Surface Tabletop Computer Hasn’t Revolutionized Anything. Yet.

When Microsoft unveiled its Surface tabletop computer two years ago, the company vowed to “break down traditional barriers between people and technology.” The revolution has not happened–yet. Microsoft is expanding Surface into new markets, but adoption has thus far been confined to customers in specific markets.

Last summer, the company embarked on pilot programs with AT&T and Sheraton Hotels that set specific goals. AT&T wanted to make its retail experience more enjoyable and engaging (selling more products in the process). Sheraton, meanwhile, was attempting to re-brand itself, and wanted to be associated with an innovative product, said Matthew Champagne, director of product management for the Surface team at Microsoft.

The AT&T pilot program ended one month ago, and its Surface units now sit in AT&T’s labs, he said, adding that Sheraton still has Surface deployed at its hotels. Beyond those tests, Microsoft has been targeting automotive dealerships, financial services, health care and hospitality services, and retailers, as well as the public sector.

Today, Surface is available in both the United States and Canada, in addition to 12 new markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Champagne said. However, the question remains: where can you find one in the wild?

Customers remain few in number, but Champagne noted that Surface has had a positive affect on its customers’ bottom line. The i-Bar in Harrah’s Rio Las Vegas casino experienced an 19% increase in sales after it deployed Surface, and Barclay’s Bank at Piccadilly Circus in the UK experienced a 50% increase in sales for one product through Surface, he said.

Other deployments can be found at Bank of America in Charlotte, NC (another pilot), and Cook Children’s Health System in Fort Worth, TX. Cook’s is using Surface to rehabilitate patients through interactions with objects and the PC’s ability to recognize them, he said.

First responders used Surface to coordinate their efforts at the 2009 Super Bowl in Tampa, FL. In that instance, Surface was integrated with mapping technology to provide authorities with a bird’s eye view of incidents that required their attention.

While Champagne did not say what new form factors Microsoft would introduce in the future, he did not rule it out smaller versions of Surface, saying that it would be a “natural progression” of the technology to become miniaturized.

Additionally, the company now has nearly 200 partners in the Surface ecosystem helping Microsoft to design new interaction roles for applications that leverage multi-touch, he added.

According to a recent BBC report, the next generation of the technology will not surface for another two to three years. It’s also possible that Microsoft is preparing a consumer version that would cost between $5,000-$10,000. (Current Surface setups typically cost $10,000.)

Surface could introduce a new paradigm for computing to the living room, but its cost remains prohibitive. It will be years before the typical household has computerized furniture a la Star Trek, but I believe that Microsoft has been pragmatic enough with its expectations for the technology that Surface will be around when that does happen.

In iPhone Gaming, Capcom’s An Unlikely Contender

After wading carefully into the waters of the iPhone and iPod Touch with a mobile take on Resident Evil, Capcom plans to go full bore with 10 more iPhone games between now and next March, Reuters reports.

The publisher only released Resident Evil: Degeneration earlier this month, but presumably it likes what it’s seeing so far.

Still, 10 games is a tall order, and as major game publishers go, only Electronic Arts has greater ambitions, planning 14 titles for the future. Even so, Capcom is distinct from EA and other heavyweights like Namco because of the kind of games it produces.

Aside from Resident Evil, Capcom is best known for the Street Fighter and Mega Man franchises. New hits include the futuristic shoot-em-up Lost Planet and the zombie game Dead Rising. These are neither casual games such as EA’s Tiger Woods and The Sims franchises nor popular rehashes such as Namco’s Pac-Man and Pole Position. Capcom’s games have always been geared towards the devoted gamer set, and unless a big change is coming, the company’s commitment to the iPhone could be significant.

It means that the kind of games you can play on the iPhone are changing. I haven’t tried Resident Evil: Degeneration, but I understand that it’s a bite-sized version the franchise’s hallmark zombie thrills. It may be “diversionary,” as Sony marketing executive Peter Dille once called iPhone gaming, but it could also signal the beginning of a shift away from Solitaire clones and bowling simulators.

That depends on whether other major publishers follow suit. A recent report by CNBC notes that Activision and Take Two have shied away from the iPhone because it isn’t a major profit generator for such large businesses — not yet, at least. Those two publishers are more akin to Capcom than EA, lacking a stable of casual games (with the exception of Activision’s Guitar Hero).

Capcom must see something in the iPhone that these other publishers don’t.  The company’s success or failure will factor greatly into how the iPhone evolves as a gaming platform.

Got a Question for AMD? Ask It Here. We’ll Get You an Answer.

I’m happy to announce that we’re cooking up a new Technologizer feature that will let members of the Technologizer community pose questions to tech companies–and I’m equally happy to report that the first company that’s agreed to field your queries is chipmaker AMD.

If you’ve got a question for AMD–about its products, the state of the chip race, the future of computing, or anything else–please post it as a comment here. We’ll collect the questions you post and publish a story soon with answers.

Also welcome: nominations for other companies who you’d like to have the chance to shoot questions at.

Not the Way to Start Your Palm Pre Launch

The Boy Genius Report claims that Best Buy will only receive about 4,250 Palm Pres for its launch on June 6–a pittance considering the retailer has at least 1,000 retail locations set to offer the device. If these initial shipment numbers are true, each store would receive four units, far less that what you’d think would be required for a successful launch. RadioShack is fairing no better–721 stores are slated to receive an average of two Pres.

It gets worse. Best Buy’s launch is supposedly scheduled to actually be in two phases: the first of which lasts about two months after the launch, and the company is specifically warning stores that replenishment may not happen once stores sell out–which they certainly will.

I’m sure hoping Sprint stores are getting much more than four devices per store. If they aren’t, I question whether the Pre is ready for prime time. Why hogtie your launch like this?

We have a request out for comment from Sprint to see if they will shed some light on the planned availability from company stores. Typically, companies will not disclose that information so we’re not holding our collective breath on that one.

If the rumors are true, it’s a shame no company can get its act together enough to both produce and market a device that can match the iPhone.

More on Windows 7 and Netbooks

Microsoft is still wrestling with the question of how to get Windows 7 onto dirt-cheap netbooks without crushing the profit margin it makes when it sells copies of Windows to PC manufacturers. Two pieces of scuttlebutt emerged today; one sounds promising for netbook buyers, and the other is kind of discouraging.

Promising scuttlebutt: Paul Thurrott is reporting–very briefly–that Microsoft has decided to lift the three-applications-at-a-time restriction from Windows 7 Starter Edition, the version of the OS that it expects to be popular on netbooks. While there were numerous exceptions to the limit, it’ll still be good news if it’s gone–as long as Microsoft doesn’t compensate by hobbling Starter Edition in some other way.

Discouraging scuttlebutt: A site called Tech ARM has what it says is a list of limitations that Microsoft will apply to machines that qualify to come with Windows 7 Starter Edition preinstalled. They’re tighter in some places than the similar restrictions for Windows XP, and laxer in others–but the one that sticks in my craw is the continuing requirement that netbooks ship with a maximum of 1GB of RAM. RAM’s cheap enough these days that there would surely be 2GB netbooks if Microsoft didn’t try to prevent them from shipping. And I know from my experience with my own Asus EeePC 1000HE that it’s a markedly more pleasing computer with the 2GB upgrade that I installed than it would have been with half the RAM.

There’s something basically unsettling about a software provider putting rules in place to discourage PC manufacturers from selling well-equipped PCs–especially when said software provider has a big ad campaign going that’s centered around specsmanship. I hope that the rumors are wrong–or if they’re right, that Microsoft takes yet another pass at figuring out how to put Windows on netbooks in a way that makes sense.

The T-Grid: Palm Pre vs. the Possible Next-Generation iPhone

The forty-eight hour period that begins on the morning of June 6th promises to be one of the most eventful in the history of smartphones to date. That’s when Sprint will begin selling the much-anticipated Palm Pre. And on June 8th, Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference will kick off with a keynote which most smart folks think will involve the announcement of the next-generation iPhone. Chances seem good that by late afternoon, the tech world’s biggest question will be this: Who has the hotter phone, Palm or Apple?

So it seemed like a good time to put together my first T-Grid in a while–and the first one that compares a product about which we know quite a lot (the Pre) against one that’s nothing more than a chimera of speculation so far (the next iPhone). The specs for the iPhone are based on rumors and informed guesswork, and almost certainly include both stuff that’s dead-on and stuff that will turn out to be sheer fantasy.

As usual with these T-Grids, I’m not claiming that you can use this one to determine which phone is superior. Actually, I think the most interesting differences between the two phones will relate to their software and user interfaces, and there’s no way to summarize most of that in a chart–especially when nobody’s had a chance to review the Pre, and the next iPhone remains shrouded in mystery. Still, it’s fun to start to think about how the two superphones may compare in terms of specs.

Continue reading this story…

5Words for Friday, May 22nd, 2009

I’d love a 32GB iPhone…

Savvy guesswork about next iPhone.

Gmail preview for slow connections.

Four Pres per Best Buy?

Is the Pre shortage intentional?

Share bundles with Google reader.

Twitter search: broken, broken, broken!

Is this Windows 7′s logo?

Windows 7′s netbook hardware limitations?

Microsoft vs. Apple in Alpha.

Intuit Turns Phones Into Credit Card Terminals

Ever do business with a mobile service provider such as a plumber or electrician who doesn’t accept credit cards, or tries to convince you to write a check instead? Isn’t it annoying? Intuit aims to make accepting credit cards on the go simpler and more affordable with GoPayment, a service it soft-launched a few months ago and formally announced today.

The notion of using a cell phone as a mobile credit card terminal isn’t new–here’s an iPhone app that accomplishes it. But Intuit says it’s most important to support the phones that mobile service company employees use in the real world–which tend to be flip models rather than the latest smartphones. So it offers a Web version of GoPayment that can work on any phone with a browser, and the list of phones it’s supporting with a slicker downloadable application version of GoPayment includes the Razr and various other flip phones (and the BlackBerry Curve) but not the iPhone. (I asked Intuit if it plans to launch an iPhone version, and the company wasn’t willing to say it was working on one…but it did acknowledge that it was logical to support popular phones, and the iPhone is, indeed, popular.)

Small businesses can use GoPayment without additional hardware by tapping out credit-card information on a phone’s keypad, but that’s kind of clunky and introduces the possibility of error, and receipts must be hand-written or sent via e-mail (GoPayment can do the latter automatically). So Intuit offers an optional Bluetooth card swiper for $145 and a Bluetooth swiper/printer for $219. Both are a lot cheaper than standalone wireless card terminals.

Intuit says that its transaction fees for businesses that use GoPayment, which start at 1.64% for transactions that involve a swiped card and 2.44% for ones tapped in on a phone, are competitive with other card-processing options. Oh, and it almost goes without saying that GoPayment offers integration with QuickBooks to get transactions on the books (Intuit told me that half of GoPayment customers are also QuickBook users).

Looks slick and useful–and I’ll be interested to see if any service company shows up at my house with GoPayment any time soon.

Google Logos Get…Attractive!

I’ve always found the Google logo–whose original incarnation was whipped up by cofounder Sergey Brin in an image editor, though it was later slicked up by designer Ruth Kedar–to to be a little on the nerdy side. (I actually guessed that Brin or Larry Page created it before I knew it for a fact.) And the endless modified versions that the company uses for various services, such as Google Docs, Google Maps, Google Video, and many more? They’re really crude.

None of which is a criticism–in fact, the logos are in tune with what makes Google so lovably Google-esque. Don’t use us because we’re pretty, I’ve always assumed they said. Use us because we’re useful.

So it is with a heavy heart that I report on the fact that Google is refreshing the look of its various logos, and the new versions look pretty good. Here’s the old Google Docs logo and the new one:

In a blog post, Google’s user-experience honcho Marissa Mayer says that the new logos are more consistent (both across products and across languages). I note that they also shift the emphasis of the branding by shrinking the “Google” and beefing up the modifier, making the various services look more like brands unto themselves. And darn it, they no longer look like someone put them together in a computer lab.

Mayer says that the revised logos will roll out across Google’s portfolio of services over the weeks to come.

Google Makes Chrome Speed Boost Boast. Who’s Next?

Google is boasting that an update to Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine and Webkit browsing component has yielded a significant improvement in performance. Yippee. Now, who’s next?

The renewed browser war resembles more of a game of leapfrog than the big-bang releases of the 1990′s when one version of Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator could change the balance of power in the browser wars overnight. Google says that Chrome is now 30% faster with today’s upgrade. That matches a performance claim made by Opera in about its new “Presto” rendering engine.

Two months ago, the Mozilla Foundation was bragging about how much snappier Firefox 3.5 will be over its predecessor. Apple, and many recent benchmarks conclude that Safari 4 is the title holder of ‘world’s fastest browser,’ and Microsoft has introduced Internet Explorer 8 by performing benchmarks of its own.

Irrespective of how many fewer milliseconds one of these browsers might take to render JavaScript, they are all getting better, in terms of standards support and performance. The real world implication is that each browser runs AJAX Web apps better than they did a year ago, and pages are being rendered with greater consistency.

Many of them have already have adopted parts of the upcoming HTML 5 specification–the lingua franca of the Web–even though it is far from being finalized. The working group responsible for it is open to breaking it up into smaller pieces.

For the first time in years, there is major innovation happening in the browsers due to increased competition. Opera has longo liked to play the role of innovator; now it’s matching wits against Apple and Google. Mozilla Firefox, the first browser to dent Microsoft’s seemingly immovable market share, is not longer the cock of the walk.

Not too long ago, it seemed as if browsers were maturing. All I can say, is that this latest round of competition is a very good thing for people who use (and create) Web apps, and those who care about standards.

The Next Online Music Revolution Is … CDs?

For $31 per year (Update: see the breakdown below), musicians both unknown and legendary will soon be able to get their CDs printed and sold through Amazon, no questions asked.

Following in the footsteps of CDBaby, but with a crucial difference, TuneCore and Amazon will launch an on-demand CD printing service, Wired’s Eliot Van Buskirk reports. The musician pays $31 per year for printing, labeling and delivery of a 10-track CD. Amazon sells the CDs for $8.98 each and keeps 60 percent. The rest goes to the musician.

In terms of keeping a low barrier to entry, CDBaby and TuneCore’s services are fairly similar — I could break down the differences in price and process, but I’m sure things will change once the two companies start competing. The real distinction is the muscle TuneCore brings to the table. Buskirk notes that Trent Reznor, Keith Richards and Joan Jett are already clients of TuneCore for other digitial distribution services, and they’ll likely be itching for yet another way to escape the major labels. With TuneCore, they only have to sell nine CDs each to break a profit, and they keep all the rights to their music.

Not that online printing is without drawbacks for consumers: The immediacy of purchasing a CD in a store is absent, and so is the chance to own something with elaborate packaging, as TuneCore’s liner note options are a fairly standard set of sleeves and inserts. Buskirk also raises the issue of selling CDs at a concert, but I don’t see why the band itself couldn’t order a thousand copies and sell them for a premium at the show.

Paramount to all this nitty-gritty is the not-so-novel idea that the music business as a whole is decentralizing. The cleverest musicians, big and small, are finding ways to advertise and sell products without major labels. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are capitalizing in spaces where the music industry was too big, dumb and slow to venture.

These monoliths will shrink, and companies like TuneCore will be the catalysts.

Update: So we’re all clear, TuneCore’s Peter Wells, who comments below, breaks the pricing down in an e-mail as 19.98 for a year of maintenance and storage of the physical CD, plus 99 cents per song, plus a flat fee of 99 cents to sell the album through Amazon, totalling roughly $31. An extra dollar distributes the song to iTunes as a digital download.