Joost Starts to Fade Away

Joost was supposed to be a major part of the future of TV. Instead, the streaming video service went from hot startup to a candidate for “Whatever Happen To?” lists surprisingly quickly. On Tuesday, news broke that it’s refocusing on providing white-label video services, losing its CEO, and laying off much of its staff.

What happened? A whole bunch of things. Over at GigaOM, Om Malik has a good analysis of why Joost will be remembered mostly for having failed to live up to expectations. (The first one that came to my mind–it’s on Om’s list–is summed up in the word Hulu. In many ways, that site turned out to be pretty much what Joost was supposed to be but never quite became.)

Learning to Leave Satellite Radio

I’ve been making noises about the idea of retiring my XM satellite radio receiver, canceling my account, and using my iPhone as an audio device in my car for a while now. The more XM charges and the less I like its programming, the more tempting the idea becomes. Now I’ve finally gone and taken a necessary step: figured out a workable way to pump my iPhone’s audio through my car stereo.

This was surprisingly difficult, which one reason why I’ve dawdled as long as I have. My car is a 2004 Mazda3, dating from an era in which cars didn’t come with iPhone integration and even mundane AUX ports were rare. (I did pay extra for a six-CD changer…which I ended up using maybe four times.) I went through an array of wireless FM transmitters for both my various iPods and my various satellite radios, and even the best ones were staticky hassles. I also spent more than $100 and a considerable amount of time on a fancy-schmancy kit that connected my iPod to my Mazda stereo system–it sounded greated, but caused the iPod to have some sort of digital nervous breakdown that rendered it unusable.

Continue reading this story…

Fail: “Social Networking For Grown-Ups”

My old man really digs Facebook. Days after opening an account, he started a group for his high school classmates and reconnected with college pals. Any time I visit my parents, he posts and tags the pictures. He comments on my best friends’ status updates.

So it doesn’t surprise me that TeeBeeDee, a social network designed exclusively for older folks, is shutting down by July 13. In a note on the site, founder Robin Wolaner said TeeBeeDee “lacked the resources to continue developing the product to meet the needs of our community.”

Translation: The site needs money, but it’s not generating revenue and no investors want to sink more money into it. PaidContent noted that the site, which was riding on $9 million in venture capital, only drew 70,000 unique visitors last month.

It’s not that “grown-ups,” as TeeBeeDee called its user base, aren’t interested in social networking. The New York Times reported in March that females 55 and older are the fastest-growing segment of Facebook, leaping in membership by 175 percent since last fall. Men over age 55 were in second place, increasing their numbers by 138 percent during the same period. The Times story is otherwise packed with anecdotes like the one I described about my dad.

So why would this crowd rather hang out on Facebook than TeeBeeDee? Certainly, word of mouth plays a role. While a niche site like TeeBeeDee has to market itself, Facebook’s userbase practically does that job on its own, be it through friends, family or stories in the media.

But even if more people knew about TeeBeeDee, I’m not sure it would succeed. After all, isn’t social networking on a Boomers-only Web site kind of like checking into a retirement home? It’s just more fun to mingle with everyone you know, even if they aren’t all grown-ups yet.

Palm Pre Selling Better than Expected: Analyst

Both Sprint and Palm have a lot riding on the Palm Pre. In Sprint’s case, the carrier desperately needs a hit to help it stop bleeding customers. For Palm, its much more serious: either the Pre is a success, or the company itself may fail.

According to Charter Equity Research analyst Edward Snyder, neither company has anything to worry about. While early estimates pegged initial Pre sales at 150,000 units, Snyder believes that the actual number is about twice that.

He says that his own checks show that demand for Palm’s touch screen device remains strong, and Palm is churning out about 15,000 Pres per day. At that rate, Sprint should have about 1 million of the devices to sell in the upcoming summer quarter. Neither Palm nor Sprint have so far commented on the report.

Comcast Turns to WiMAX in Portland

Comcast is using Clearwire’s network to offer its customers wireless high speed Internet in Portland, Oregon, and plans to launch the service in Chicago, Atlanta, and Philadelphia by the end of 2009. Called Comcast High-Speed 2go, it would offer speeds of up to 4 MBps.

To entice customers to sign up for the service, the cable provider is offering a “Fast Pack Metro” bundle deal which offers the 2go service along with 12 MBps home Internet for $49.99 per month for a full year. At the end of that period, the rate jumps to $73/month, which is still quite competitive considering.

Better yet, where Clearwire does not have service yet, Comcast is allowing those subscribing to the 2go service to add mobile 3G data nationwide for an extra $20 month. This part of the service is offered through Sprint, which owns a portion of Clearwire.

Adding WiMAX service to its portfolio gives Comcast a stake in the ever-more-competitive mobile data industry. With speeds of between 5 to 10 MBps possible, it gives the standard a leg up on LTE, which is the mobile data standard that most cellular providers have chosen.

While LTE rollouts are expected to begin in force in 2010 and beyond, WiMAX is already available in several major metropolitan markets. It will be interesting to watch over the next one to two years whether or not WiMAX can continue to be one step ahead of its competitor.

Worst. Tech. Commercial. Ever?

I’m still having trouble keeping solid food down after having been exposed to the Internet Explorer 8 ad that involves a woman projectile-vomiting after accidentally seeing a site her husband had been viewing. But I’m moving on from being appalled to trying to answer an important question: Is it the single worst commercial for a technology product ever?

Until now, this 1980s spot from Commodore Australia would have been my nominee for that honor:

But looking at it again–hey, it’s not bad. Yes, it’s cheesy–it feels like a Mentos commercial from a time before there were Mentos commercials. Yes, the combination of the notion of “Keeping up with the Commodore” and people smiling vacantly and making cryptic signs makes me wonder if some forgotten cult is involved. But at least it’s all cheery, and the song is so infectious that it’s now stuck in my head, which helps to block out the IE 8 ad.

Another plus: Nobody in it projectile-vomits.

Speaking of vomiting, it’s worth noting that the Microsoft ad isn’t the first one for a Web-related enterprise that involves spitting up. The E*TRADE baby tosses his cookies in this commercial, though in a more dignified, less forceful manner–and hey, he’s a baby:

That’s a bad ad, but not bad enough to rival the IE one.

Anyhow, the Internet Explorer 8 is revolting on multiple levels; it demeans both Internet Explorer and its users; it doesn’t even provide a terribly compelling argument for choosing IE, since private browsing is a standard feature in most modern browsers. It’s the first ad from Microsoft or any other major tech company I can think of that can accurately be described by the word fetid.

In short, it’s my new candidate for worst tech product ad of all time. Any other nominees?

[UPDATE: Microsoft has pulled the ad. Sorry, vomit-lovers...]

The Pirate Bay Sold for $7.8 Million

Well, you couldn’t say you didn’t see it coming. The Pirate Bay’s owners sentenced to one year jail terms, the site fined 30 million Swedish kronor. Obviously they needed a way to pay for those fines, and selling it off would be the easiest way to go. That’s what has happened — Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory will buy the site for 60 million SEK ($7.8 million).

Picking up The Pirate Bay brand is a huge get for Global Gaming factor, as it would have to do very little in the way of marketing due to its very strong brand. And unlike Napster, the site would never be taken down during the transition, meaning it would likely not lose much of its user base if any at all.

According to TorrentFreak, the change in ownership is scheduled to happen in August. Additionally, the new owners would likely take the site legal. This means that content owners would now get paid for their content being on TPB, a huge shift from the way the site previously worked.

Users would now need to pay for content, although they would be able to earn some revenue for sharing their own media files. In any case, GGF Hans Pandeya said that the change in business model was needed to satisfy “the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary.”

These changes are sure to ruffle the feathers of TPB’s long time users, which have grown accustomed to free content. However, one can not expect an illicit business model to last forever, don’t you think?

Either way, the site’s (now former?) owners remain defiant. “The old crew is still around in different ways. We will also not stop being active in the politics of the internets – quite the opposite. Now we’re fueling up for going into the next gear,” its owners said in a blog post.

Maybe part of that “next gear” is the Video Bay site we blogged about yesterday?

5Words for Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Pirate Bay: sold, going legit?

Firefox’s future: 2010 and beyond.

You’re European? Windows is pricey.

An iPhone 3GS decision helper.

Verizon BlackBerry Tour: July 12th.

Microsoft publishes Windows 7 videos.

I like this USB hub.

More universal chargers needed. Now!

Steve Jobs’s a lousy manager?

Who’s Using What on Technologizer?

Writing about Firefox 3.5 got me wondering: What’s the breakdown of browser usage on Technologizer right now? So I looked it up, courtesy of Google Analytics.

Over the last month, 50 percent of visitors have come via Firefox. Twenty-one percent have used IE, sixteen percent Safari, seven percent Chrome, two percent Opera, and four percent something else.

Continue reading this story…

Firefox 3.5: The Technologizer Review

Was it really fewer than five years ago that Firefox 1.0 debuted? Its arrival ended the dismal period in which only one browser–Microsoft’s mediocre Internet Explorer–seemed to be viable. With Firefox, Mozilla proved that millions of people were itching to adopt a better browser. And today, we find ourselves with multiple better browsers:  Not just Firefox, but also Google’s minimalist Chrome, Apple’s flashy Safari, the ever-inventive Opera, the highly social Flock, and even the no-longer-calcifying Internet Explorer 8.

All of which means that Firefox 3.5–which Mozilla plans to formally release today–is no longer a shoo-in for the distinction of being the favorite browser of browser fans. (As I write, Firefox 3.5 hasn’t replaced 3.0 yet on the Firefox home page, but the Windows and Mac versions are live on Mozilla’s FTP site.)

After having spent months with various pre-release versions of 3.5, though, I’m convinced that The Little Browser That Could remains the best choice for the widest array of folks. That’s as much for the virtues that Firefox has possessed for years as for new stuff: Version 3.5′ s improvements are about better speed, useful tweaks to existing features, catchup with other browsers, and early support for emerging Web standards. In other words, the browser sports no knockout new features. But the moves Mozilla has made are smart, and they’re more than enough for Firefox to keep pace with its fast-evolving rivals.

After thr jump, a look at what’s new in rough order of importance. Continue reading this story…

Microsoft’s Odd (and, in One Case, Utterly Revolting) Ads for Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 8 is a decent browser, but there’s a new ad for it (showing only online, according to Idsgn, which is where I read about it by way of Daring Fireball) that not only doesn’t make me want to use IE, but has me contemplating going door to door, beseeching my fellow human beings to avoid it.

Continue reading this story…

Is the Palm Pre Robust Enough?

Internet forums are atwitter about Palm Pre build quality issues. The revelation that the Palm Pre might be shoddy could not come at a worse time for the company, as it struggles to find sure financial footing.

A comment left at Palm enthusiast Web site Precentral.net sums up many of the quality problem that early adopters claim to be experiencing:

“Im [sic] on my THIRD pre (yellow box). Over the last two weeks, i’ve noticed an increasing amount of play with the screen. I’ve also noticed that on the left side of the device the two sections are separated enough that i can almost see the innards. When I push them together, you can hear squeaking. On top of that, the device came with a loose power button that doesn’t click nearly as firmly as that of other devices.”

Last week, RBC Capital analyst Mike Abramsky estimated that Palm has sold 150,000 Pre units so far. That is not as widely successful as the iPhone 3GS, but it’s a promising start. However, the Pre’s promise might fall short if it gains a reputation for being unreliable.

The iPhone is stiff competition, but Palm faces an additional challenge from RIM’s Blackberry Tour and new Android phones. Palm’s acclaimed WebOS operating system cannot keep pace on unreliable hardware. Meanwhile, Palm’s stock has become a new favorite of short sellers due to its dismal earnings report last week and lack of guidance about future Pre sales. Palm’s Pre could be its last best hope, but the company still has a huge challenge in front of it.

WSJ: Dell is Developing an Android Handheld

Rumors about a Dell handheld device of some sort have been circulating for ages, but the Wall Street Journal is reporting what seems to be more than mere rumor. It says that Dell is working on a handheld that will sport an ARM processor and run Google’s Android OS. It may come out in the second half this year, the Journal says. Or be delayed. Or never come out.

The Dell gadget would apparently be a rival for Apple’s extremely successful iPod Touch–a device that’s been around for two years and which still doesn’t have much in the way of direct competition, though it’ll get some later this year when Microsoft’s Zune HD appears. The Journal’s story points out that a Dell Android handheld would be an example of the Mobile Internet Device form factor championed by Intel–even if it runs a non-Intel CPU–but the most striking thing about MIDs so far is that that nobody who claims to make one has built anything that consumers want to buy in significant numbers. Apple made the Touch into a hit in part by blithely sidestepping all the mistakes the rest of the industry was making, such as trying to shoehorn full-strength operating systems onto tiny devices and giving them lame physical keyboards.

At this point in any story on Dell’s handheld plans, it’s mandatory to mention that it tried making MP3 players before and failed. But basing a new device on Android would be smart (it relieves Dell of most of the challenges of being a software company). And Dell picked up some interesting intellectual property and smart people when it acquired a mobile software/service company called Zing in 2007. Bottom line: Dell isn’t any more of an unlikely candidate to take in the iPod Touch than anyone else who seems to be planning to do so.

A Playstation Phone? Sooner Than You Think.

One of the most cherished Sony rumors surfaced again over the weekend, as Nikkei reported that the company is considering a cellphone and video game hybrid.

Rumor has it that Sony could bring together a project team as early as July to combine functions of an Ericsson phone with Sony’s gaming devices. Reuters, which spotted Nikkei’s article, didn’t use the “Playstation Phone” terminology, but that’s what everyone’s thinking. This is particularly interesting given that Sony refused to license the Playstation brand to Ericsson on a previous occasion because the technology wasn’t there.

So is the rumor true? It’s certainly not impossible, but all the retellings of this report missed an interesting tidbit from a week ago: Sony is already planning to integrate Playstation with an existing touch screen phone, the Satio.

Speaking at a press conference in Singapore, Hirokazu Ishizuka, head of Sony Ericsson’s Asia Pacific Region, said that “you can enjoy your PlayStation games so therefore this product is so powerful and we are very confident [of] this product’s success.” The report by ABS-CBN didn’t elaborate further except to say that gaming is part of a larger multimedia platform for the phone, which is due in about six months.

It’s not clear exactly what Ishizuka meant by his statement. We know the Satio’s PlayNow arena is a robust multimedia service, but it remains to be seen whether any Playstation branding will creep in.

ABS-CBN’s report would be perfect if Ishizuka was talking about the Aino, another Ericsson phone notable for its ability to remotely stream music and vidoes from a connected Playstation 3. Alas, we’ve got two phones that would for all intents and purposes be a Playstation Phone, if only they were mashed into one.

Verizon vs. Sprint vs. AT&T

Sprint claims to have “America’s most dependable 3G network.” Verizon says it has “America’s largest and most reliable wireless network.” AT&T says it has “the nation’s fastest 3G network.” With wireless, in other words, everybody’s a winner–if you ask the carriers themselves.

Which is why I admire what Mark Sullivan and my other PC World pals did: compare the three carries for upload speed, download speed, and reliability in thirteen cities. PCW conducted this ambitious real-world experiment in partnership with Novarum, using  Ixia’s IxChariot tool. As Mark says in his story, the results are only a snapshot of how the networks did on a given day, in the particular locations in the specific cities that PCW and Novarum visited. But they’re interesting nonetheless. And they tend to jibe with some of the anecdotal impressions that folks have about the three carriers:

–The performance varied a lot from city to city.

–Out of the 13 cities, Verizon got the highest reliability rating in seven and Sprint got the highest one in six. AT&T didn’t score highest in reliability in any cities, and was often far behind its two competitors.

–Verizon got the highest download score in seven cities; Sprint scored highest in four; AT&T in two.

–AT&T had the highest upload score in ten cities; Sprint was highest in two; Verizon in only one.

The most notable result is AT&T’s lackluster download score. AT&T told PCW that it stands by its claim of being the nation’s fastest 3G provider, based on results from two independent firms and tests involving a million road miles and a million data sessions. I don’t dispute its stance. But PCW’s experiment is a useful reminder that claims about “America” or “the nation” may or may not reflect what you get in your own hometown. And it might help to explain why AT&T is the only one of the big three carriers who never talks about dependability or reliability in its ads.

Steve Jobs is Officially Back at Work

Last week, a quote in an Apple press release was the first sign that Steve Jobs had done what he said he’d do back in January and ended his medical leave in late June. Now it’s official: Apple is saying that Jobs has returned to active duty, working a few days a week at the office and the remainder at home. It’s no surprise that the company isn’t saying much else, including discussing his liver transplant.

Others will blog (endlessly) about Jobs’ health, how many hours a week he’s really putting in, questions of shareholder disclosure, etc., etc., etc., etc. I have only one question: When will we next see a Steve Jobs keynote? Maybe soon; maybe not so soon. And maybe never, although I have no reason to think he’s done with them, and I certainly hope he isn’t. (And I hope it’s obvious that I know his impact on Apple product development is far more important than his impact on Apple product rollouts.)

I’m a bystander, not an Apple cheerleader. But I’m in favor of the tech world being interesting, and it would be a more boring place without Jobs keynotes…