How I’d Pay for the Playstation Network

Sony’s been grumbling a bit lately about how it’d like to charge monthly fees for the Playstation Network, not for the online gaming and video downloads that Playstation 3 and PSP owners already enjoy, but for additional services.

The first mention came a few weeks ago in a Sony investors’ conference slide, and re-emerged in a Nikkei interview with Sony’s Masayuki Chatani. The company has avoided specifics, which makes me think Sony is still toying with ideas. Seems like a good opportunity to toss out a few ideas of my own. Here are some ways I could be persuaded to pay for PSN:

Help me replace cable: Instead of forking over $200 for a Boxee Box, I’d consider a monthly payment — say $20 — to Sony, especially if the service went above and beyond existing free Web TV offerings. Throw in live sports, and the deal is sealed. Licensing TV content is a sticky mess, so I’m calling this one unlikely in the near future.

Give me game rentals: I’m somewhat happy paying $25 per month for GameFly, but I’d be happier if Sony let me skip GameFly’s occasionally unbearable wait times by offering full game rentals for download. Because the service would only include Sony consoles, pricing would have to be less than GameFly, or more creative. Maybe a certain dollar figure for a limited number of play hours every month. I’d say this is unlikely, but Sony reportedly surveyed PSP owners about a game rental program in May, so it’s not absurd.

Stream me some indie games: The Playstation Network is home to some great small-scale games, such as Flower, Noby Noby Boy and the PixelJunk series. I’d think Sony has more control over these titles than big-budget releases, so why not let PSN subscribers play an unlimited amount of them every month?

All of This, Plus: If Sony could roll my entire wishlist into one attractive package, I could be persuaded to pay as much as $60 a month for it all (after all, I’d be relying on the service for television and a lot of gaming), but I’d like some perks in return. Maybe a monthly discount on a particular retail game, or a free movie download. Incentives go a long way towards keeping the customer roped in; GameFly’s discounts on used games are one of the reasons I’ve never canceled my subscription.

Am I asking for too much?

The Killers!

In this blog post (which I learned of via John Gruber), Darby Lines says that the tech media is unnaturally obsessed with killers–products which are supposed to come along and topple an iPhone, a Google, or another massively popular product through sheer force of quality, marketing, strongarm tactics, or some combination thereof.

He’s right that the whole idea is sort of pointless. As I wrote back in this piece, killers are exceedingly rare–and it seems like even the smartest tech watchers aren’t very good at identifying them until the killing is largely done.

But Lines’ piece got me wondering: Just which products have we fixated on the notion of some other new product killing most often? I decided to try to rank them based on Googleosity: The frequency with which terms such as “iPhone Killer,” “Twitter Killer,” and “Facebook Killer” show up in the Google index.

This is an exceptionally crude experiment–all of the results include some pages (lots of them, actually) that have nothing to do with product-killing. And some terms, such as Xbox Killer and Craiglist Killer pull up so many items about violent death that it’s pointless to include them at all.

But hey, let’s try this again, for the first 35 gadgets, services, and software products that came to my mind.

Continue reading this story…

Did Microsoft China Steal Code?

Microsoft may soon find itself on the opposite end of an intellectual property dispute than it’s used to facing. Canada-based microblogging service Plurk is crying foul, saying Microsoft China has stolen it’s code. In a blog post on Monday, the company claims that as much as 80 percent of the code for Microsoft’s competing service Juku is actually code for Plurk.

They may be onto something too. A cursory comparison of Juku and Plurk even at face value seems to indicate some striking similarities. Take for example the user interface, shown below:

As you can see, the UI looks very similar. Plurk claims that this has caused the company some trouble: users have questioned the service wondering if the two companies had struck some type of partnership. Plurk says it isn’t bothered by clones, but Microsoft China has gone a bit too far.

“There will always be exceptional circumstances where we feel wholly wronged, both legally and more important, morally, and this one just happens to be one of those rare cases,” the company said. “That it is Microsoft doing the copying in broad daylight makes it even more incredulous.”

Plurk is exploring its options as we speak, but it certainly seems as if this is headed to some type of court standoff if Microsoft doesn’t explain itself awfully quick. It has no partnership at all with the company — and Plurk was quick to point out in its blog that it has no problem working with partners.

All we’re getting from Microsoft at this point is that “we’re looking into the matter.” Well Redmond better look quick — this is pretty darn blatant. It’s somewhat not surprising that an event like this is coming out of China, however. We all know the country’s history when it comes to electronic piracy. But to have it come out of Microsoft  certainly reflects on the management of the Chinese arm of the world’s biggest software company.

Updates to come as we find out more.

Googlephone. Plus a Contract. No Big Whoop?

Latest Googlephone rumor: Reuters is now reporting that Google’s Nexus One will be sold at a subsidized price on T-Mobile, possibly starting as soon as January 5th. Even if it’s also available unlocked and without a discount, a Googlephone that’s sold primarily through a carrier using the current contract-price business model sounds like it’s a lot less likely to be a game-changer. It might not amount to that much more than an HTC phone sold through T-Mobile, with a heavier quotient of Google in its its DNA (is that a mixed metaphor?) than usual…

iPhone Lock Screen Widgets? Yes, Please!

Folks with jailbroken iPhones are getting cool widgets that show up when the phone is locked, before you swipe to regain access to its full functionality. I really, really hope that something similar is one of the major attractions in iPhone OS 4.0…

A Concept Phone Worth Keeping an Eye On

Synaptics, which makes a significant percentage of the world’s touchscreens and even more of its laptop touchpads, has announced Fuse, a platform and concept phone that aims to help figure out what next-generation smartphones might look and feel like.

It’s a joint venture with chipmaker Texas Instruments, interface designers TheAlloy and TAT, and haptic-feedback technology provider Immersion.  And it combines multiple interesting touches, both familiar (multi-touch) and new (my favorite: You can swipe your finger around on the back of the phone to control the interface).

PCMag.com’s Sascha Segan did a nice video explainer on the phone’s features, which I’ll borrow right here (here’s his story).

I haven’t laid eyes or hands on the Fuse yet, and every smartphone on the market today–good or bad–proves that pleasing experiences are about 90 percent integration and execution and only ten percent cool technology. But I’m looking forward to seeing it in person, and seeing the ideas it contains turn into features in shipping phones. Synaptics says it’ll demo its concept version at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show; look for phones based on it to show up starting in mid-2010.

US, Russia Begin Cyberwar Talks

In a sign that the two countries are attempting to avert some type of Cold War cyberwar-style, the US and Russia have entered into talks over military action in cyberspace according to the New York Times. With cyberweaponry becoming a reality and attacks on government computers increasing, news of such talks makes a lot of sense.

The two countries also plan to discuss Internet security, which obviously would be important to keeping government servers safer. Talks began last month, and continued publicly through a UN security conference held a few weeks ago in Geneva. There is disagreement on how it should be handled: the Russians think cybersecurity could best be dealt with through treaties, where the US says the nature of cyberspace requires a more fluid approach.

Russia says that the US is moving towards its position, however NYT sources say that is a mischaracterization. Either way, both sides acknowledge that there is movement which is a departure from the years of the Bush Administration.

Bush refused to talk to the Russians on the topic, and it probably had something to do with the fact that the US is one of the countries developing cyberweapons. The Russians have been insisting on a “cyberterrorism ban” however, which has been characterized by the US as a restriction of free speech. This could have been another reason why Bush and Co. would not talk.

While Russia is obviously nowhere near the superpower that it was in the days of the USSR, seeing the two sides sitting down on this topic is quite heartening. Cybercrime is on the rise, and its only a matter of time before our wars begin to be fought not only on the battlefield but on the Internet as well.

Those interested in waging war know that in our ever-more-connected society, attacking the Internet is a smart strategy. It is essential in my opinion that governments start working together in order to cut this off at the pass, which will have much greater benefits further down the road for sure.

5Words: Gizmodo’s Guide to Google Voice

Google Voice how-to guide.

Hey, ViewSonic is making netbooks.

iMacs are backordered, Apple apologizes.

Seagate hard drives get thinner.

Inside the Nook (yes, literally!).

What will become of TiVo?

Microsoft China really likes Plurk.

Stockholm and Oslo get LTE.

________________________

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More 2010 Predictions Needed

We’re still seeking your tech-related predictions for the year ahead–and one lucky predictor is going to win Olive’s Olive 4 Hi-Fi Music Server, a cool product and a $1499 value. Head here to make your predictions and enter the contest–it’s easy and fun. Just be sure and do it before this Wednesday, December 16th at 5pm PT, since that’s when the contest closes and we start work on a story based on your 2010 forecasts.

I’m Tweeting a Webcast Today

Shameless self-promotion: I’m guest-tweeting another Webcast. This one’s a conversation with Richard Florida, the influential author of The Rise of the Creative Class and Who’s Your City?. He’ll be discussing how companies can benefit from artists, musicians, engineers, and scientists–the “creative class.”

The Webcast is today at 2pm ET; you can watch it, view tweets from me and others, and tweet it yourself by going here. Hope to see some of you there…

The Googlephone: What We Know, May Know, and Don’t Know

It’s been a busy weekend for the rumor known as the Googlephone, which has been around for years in one form or another and has recently appeared to be firming up into something that just might be real. Very little is official, but we know a few things for sure, more scuttlebutt has emerged, and it’s still fun to ask questions even if we have no way of answering them yet.

Herewith, a quick recap of where we are as of early Monday morning:

What we know

• Last week, Google doled out Android phones to employees. It admitted as much in a blog post Saturday morning, which used Silicon Valley’s always-appetizing metaphor of eating one’s own dogfood to explain that the phones were being used to test “new mobile features and capabilities.”
• The phone apparently is the one in the photo to the right (which I stole from this Twitpic). That would appear to make it a version of an upcoming HTC phone known as the Passion.
• It’s got a trackball, obviously. If it’s a Passion variant, it also lacks a physical keyboard. It’s a GSM phone, which means it’ll work on AT&T and T-Mobile but not Verizon or Sprint. And Engadget has some more photos and says that it runs Android 2,1,  adds “3D elements to the app tray,” and has Web-OS-style previews of all the home screens. In another post, it says it has MicroSD, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 7.2mbps down and 2-MBps up.
• It’s named (or at least code-named) the Nexus One.

What we may know

• TechCrunch says it’ll be sold unlocked–direct by Google and at retailers–and adds the following details: “The phone is ‘really, really fast,’ says someone who has seen one in action. It runs on a Snapdragon chip, has a super high-resolution OLED touchscreen, is thinner than the iPhone, has no keyboard, and two mics. The mic on the back of the phone helps eliminate background noise, and it also has a ‘weirdly’ large camera for a phone. And if you don’t like the touchscreen keyboard, a voice-to-text feature is supposed to let you dictate emails and notes by speaking directly into the phone.”
• All Things Digital’s Peter Kafka is reporting that Google plans to sell the phone without a subsidy from a wireless carrier–but that T-Mobile will help market it. He doesn’t have much in the way of details.

What we don’t know

• Is it transcendent? Or at least significantly better than the best Android phone to date, Verizon’s Droid? A Googlephone that’s modestly better than the competition is going to be a disappointment.
• How much will it cost? If Google is simply selling it unlocked and trying to make a profit the old fashioned way–by charging more for the hardware than it costs to make–this phone is almost certainly going to cost $500 or more.
• Does Google have some radical business model up its sleeve? If the user interface involved Google ads, might it sell the handset at a remarkably low price–or at least one similar to what you’d pay a carrier for a phone on a two-year contract–and make its profit through the commercial messages you’re exposed to?
• How will Google’s partners feel about a Googlephone? If it’s manufactured by HTC and marketed in part by T-Mobile, they’re okay with it, I guess. But how about Verizon and Sprint and Motorola and Sony Ericsson and Samsung and every other company that’s selling or making Android phones? Will they accept a Googlephone willingly, grumble about it, or punish Google by taking their OS business elsewhere?
• Can an unlocked, unsubsidized phone be a mainstream hit in the U.S.? I like to buy ‘em myself when possible–I just don’t like committing to a carrier if I can avoid it–but I don’t have a lot of company. Would Google sell a Googlephone that’s a poor-selling niche offering? Or is it going to try to change the way America buys phones?
• Did Google think it could give Googlephones to vast quantities of its own employees and keep them secret? Or was it all a devious plot to whip up excitement while appearing to keep the phone hush-hush?
• Is Sascha Segan right? The PCMag.com writer says that everybody’s hyperventilating over what’s probably minor news: this is just a new HTC phone running a new version of Android, and possibly an unsubsidized T-Mobile phone that won’t appeal to many folks.

I still count myself as a supporter of the idea of the Googlephone:  I think most of the fresh ideas that’ll change phones over the next few years will come from companies other than the incumbent wireless carriers and hardware manufacturers, and I’d like to see Google’s vision of what a phone can be in its purest form. You gotta figure that another shoe’s going to drop–maybe several of them. At the very latest, I figure we’ll know all by mid-February, when Mobile World Congress, the phone industry’s big show, gets underway in Barcelona.

Any other Googlephone guesses, wishes, or doubts?

Kindle Goes International

Amazon, which started selling the Kindle internationally back in October without fully localizing it, is now distributing the Kindle iPhone app in sixty countries. Good news for folks around the world who are interested in reading bestsellers and other recent, still-in-copyright tomes on their iPhones. (I have a Kindle but do most of my Kindling on my iPhone these days–reading a few pages at a time when I’m in line at the grocery store or otherwise confronted with a sliver of free time I can devote to a book.)

John Gruber on Randall Stross on AT&T

Radical notion deconstructed: Does AT&T really have the nation’s best wireless network?

A Quick Note

If you see some very short, no-headline posts from here on out–like this one–don’t panic. I’m experimenting with doing more super-brief posts throughout the day, usually pointing to something interesting elsewhere on the Web. I wanna call your attention to things Technologizer may not cover, and most of these items will be so short that I figure a headline would be superfluous…

Starting Over With Facebook

My friend (and blogging hero) Dan Gillmor doesn’t like last week’s changes at Facebook to privacy settings and the default state thereof. So he took a drastic, fascinating step: He decided to delete his account and start over.

When Bad Things Happen to Good Products

Technology companies are awfully fond of comparing their work to poetry and art. Unlike most poets and artists, though, techies seem incapable of leaving well enough alone.

In fact, the industry’s whole business model depends on rendering last year’s model obsolete and convincing customers to fork over money for something visibly different. True, that strategy often yields worthy products–but it has also been known to prompt “upgrades” that were new but hardly improved.

Herewith, a look at ten disappointing (and sometimes disastrous) updates to formerly winning hardware, software, and services. No, this list doesn’t include the most legendary cruddy upgrades of them all, Windows Me andWindows Vista. (Covering them would have been like shooting operating systems in a barrel.)

Continue reading this story…