Eight CES Hits and Misses

I have four more blurbs about cool products I found at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show.

In the Drink

The day will come when you drop your digital camera into the pool–or if you use your phone in the bathroom, it’ll land in some odd place. Here are products to dry them out. Pour the ingredients of Dry All into an airtight container with your wet gadget and wait for 48 hours. The other method is to slip your device into a Bheestie bag and hang loose for up to 72 hours. Neither product will help unless it’s used immediately. Crossing your fingers might add to the drying process. Both products cost $20 and–pardon my LOL–no, I haven’t tested either.

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In Standard Def, Mass Effect 2 Has Trouble With Words

Count me among the legions of gamers who are totally sucked in to Mass Effect 2. It’s not the combat — a Gears of War-Star Wars cocktail — but the branching, choose-your-own dialog that hooked me. I’ve probably spent more time conversing with the galaxy’s countless creatures than I have shooting up baddies.

Unfortunately, players who own standard definition televisions — even big ones — complain that the text in Mass Effect 2 is too small to read. There’s a lengthy thread on the topic in developer Bioware’s forums, and Ars Technica’s Ben Kuchera, who picked up on the story, said he’s getting hit with e-mails from upset gamers.

High definition allows game developers to include text in smaller sizes, freeing up screen real estate for other, arguably more important things. But in Mass Effect 2, text is front-and-center. The game routinely bombards players with conversation choices, many of them crucial to the outcome of the game. In addition, players can spend hours in the game reading up on alien races, unexplored planets, historic locations, notable people and the (un)scientific phenomena that give characters their special powers. I can imagine how frustrating illegible text would be.

This isn’t the first time text posed a problem for gaming in standard definition. In 2008, players complained that the font in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts was too hard to read. Originally, developer Rare said the issue would be too expensive to fix, but they ultimately caved and released an update. I ran into this issue with several games a few years ago, before making the leap to HD.

The question is, should game developers put in extra man hours to accommodate standard definition text? For now, I think an option for big text is reasonable. Leichtman Research Group says nearly 50 percent of U.S. homes have at least one HDTV, not enough to leave stragglers out in the cold for a text-heavy game like Mass Effect. I don’t know the technical challenges adding optional large fonts to a game, but Bioware isn’t rushing; The company’s message board moderator said small text was a design choice, and said not to expect a fix in the near future.

E-Reader Owners: Happy!

I think the iPad’s impact on the market for dedicated e-readers such as Amazon’s Kindle is going to be gigantic. But here’s interesting research from NPD saying that almost everybody who’s invested in an e-reader is a happy camper. I wonder if that’ll change once the the iPad is out and it’s clearer how extensive Apple’s content offerings will be?

5Words: Verizon’s Non-Droid Android Phone

Verizon. Android. But not Droid.

Hey, what’s RIM working on?

Why are iMacs shipping slowly?

Spawn’s “SlingBox for games” ships.

Google celebrates Norman Rockwell’s birthday.

Apple TV: just a hobby.

Where’s 3G Skype for iPhone?

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I Love the Eighties!

I spent a couple of my formative years as a tech journalist working at InfoWorld–the publication which may have taught more to more tech journalists than any other. Thanks to Google Books, its entire print run is now available to peruse–including the early issues that document many of personal computing’s defining moments.

Even if you never read any of the articles, the early magazine-format covers are wonderfully evocative. I’ve compiled some of my favorites (from way before I worked there) into a gallery.

View The Golden Age of InfoWorld Covers slide show.

The Golden Age of InfoWorld Covers, 1984-1985

Back in the 1980s, if you wanted to stay particularly up-to-date on the PC business, you read a newsweekly–and there was a high chance that the newsweekly you read was IDG’s InfoWorld. Among the most venerable and successful computing publications–it started in 1978 and thrives online today–InfoWorld was famous back then for its frequent format changes. In 1984 and 1985, it adopted a BusinessWeek-like look and feel. The issues from this era may not have been the best issues of InfoWorld ever, but they’re the most fun ones to revisit. (Thanks to Google Books, revisiting InfoWorld’s entire print run is now easy.)

These mid-80s covers are miniature time capsules. Here are a bunch that capture the period in all its innovative, innocent, silly glory. Click on the covers to read the issues.

(Full disclosure: I’m an InfoWorld alum, having worked there from 1992-1994. It seems like half the people I know in tech journalism are ex-InfoWorlders, such as Calendar Swamp proprietor Scott Mace, author of several of the stories here.)

A Modest Proposal for Sony’s PSP, and the Marketing Thereof

Nintendo and Sony reacted predictably to the iPad’s debut last week — that is, they blew it off.

Sony’s comments, in particular, deserve scrutiny, because PSP sales fell further last year than any other console. It’s harder to find fault with Nintendo’s remarks when the Nintendo DS continues to outsell every gaming machine on the market. John Koller, Sony Computer Entertainment’s director of hardware marketing, said Apple’s gaming presence has been “a net positive” for Sony. “When people want a deeper, richer console, they start playing on a PSP,” he told the Wall Street Journal.

Sony’s been saying this for a while. The company believes that the PSP offers deep gaming experiences while the iPhone is shallow. That is increasingly less true as games like Assassin’s Creed and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars end up on Apple’s devices. Besides, ignoring consumers who liken portable games to snacks isn’t wise. That’s probably why Sony introduced PSP Minis, a downloadable catalog of cheap, small-scale games, albeit more expensive than the same games on the iPhone.

So here’s what I propose: Instead of trying to position the PSP as the major leagues to the iPhone’s farm team, Sony should exploit the one real advantage it has. I’m talking about buttons.

We’re entering an age where buttons are marginalized. The Wii threw out many of them. Nintendo DS games often focus on the touch screen. Microsoft’s Project Natal will do away with buttons entirely. Play any console game that’s been ported to the iPhone, and you’ll miss the D-Pad’s tactile feedback. Someone’s got to stand up against the erosion of gaming’s most time-honored tradition.

It might as well be Sony, whose PSP is blissfully set in its ways. Mr. Koller, I propose that you ditch the silly marketing jargon and say something that gamers really understand: “Button mashers, welcome home.”

iPhone File Frustration: Solution Impending?

Everybody grouses about the lack of multitasking for third-party apps on the iPhone (and iPad). But another limitation of the current platform is at least as limiting: The data sandboxing files that hobbles third-party apps’ ability to move files on and off the iPhone or share them with other applications.

Today, there’s both bad news and good news on this front. Bad news: Apple made e-book reader Stanza (owned by Amazon.com) remove a feature for transferring books via USB, on the grounds that it violated the iPhone developer agreement.

Good news: Ars Technica is reporting that iPhone OS 3.2, the version on the iPad, has a shared-storage folder that’s accessible to third-party apps–including computer apps that can see the folder when the iPhone is attached via USB. If that shows up on the iPhone (which it presumably will) it’ll go a significant way towards reducing the every-app-is-an-island feel that iPhone software tends to have.

As long as I’m at it, another request: The iPhone/iPad e-mail clients should allow detaching of attachments into this shared folder, so that applications such as word processors and spreadsheets can get easy access to documents for editing. Maybe this is in iPhone OS 3.2 and I just don’t know about it yet–I’d assume that Apple would want it for the iPad versions of the iWork apps, and it would be a major bummer if Apple apps could get at attachments and other programs couldn’t…

How Much 3G is Enough 3G?

When Steve Jobs explained the pricing for the iPad’s AT&T 3G broadband last week, he said that 250MB of data would run $14.99 a month, and unlimited access was $29.99–but that most folks would find the $14.99 plan more than adequate. My immediate reaction was that 250MB seemed ludicrously low.

Turns out that Glenn Fleishman had a similar reaction, but when he checked out his iPhone usage stats, he learned he uses an average of 270MB of 3G data month–just a little bit over the $14.99 plan’s limit. His post shares some worthwhile information about the iPad and its plans (actually, lack of information in some cases–as Glenn points out, neither Apple nor AT&T is yet saying what happens when you exceed the 250MB).

Glenn’s piece prompted me to check my own iPhone stats: In the 7.3 months I’ve owned an iPhone 3GS, I’ve used an average of 450MB of data a month–close to twice the limit. I also own a Verizon EVDO adapter which I use with my laptops; with that, I consume several gigabytes of data a month (but have never bumped up against the plan’s 5GB maximum).

Paying for AT&T phone service and AT&T iPad 3G and Verizon 3G would be a giant chunk of change every month. If I end up an iPad user, my smartest move might be to trade in my EVDO adapter for a MiFi mobile hotspot that would provide wireless broadband to my laptops and an iPad–even at the same time.

Of course, it’s still a bit hard to judge what typical data consumption will be on an iPad–it’s neither a phone nor a notebook. Do you think you could get by on a quarter-gigabyte a month?

The Nexus One Gets Multi-Touch

Good news for owners of Google’s Nexus One phone, and maybe for smartphone users in general: Google is rolling out a software update for the phone that, among other things, enables multi-touch input in the browser and other apps. Up until now, multi-touch has been mysteriously missing from Android phones sold in the U.S., leading some to wonder whether Google fretted about being sued by Apple. Here’s hoping that everyone involved agrees that multi-touch should be a basic feature of every device with the technical capability to support it…

The Future of Flash

Did irritation with Adobe Flash reach some sort of tipping point over the past few days? Probably not. But the heated debate about the near-pervasive plug-in for video, animation, and interactivity has made for fascinating reading.

When Steve Jobs sat on stage using an iPad that clearly didn’t support Flash, the discussion of Flash and iPhone OS instantly shifted from “Will Apple ever allow Flash on iPhone OS?” to “What does it mean for Flash that Apple will never allow it on iPhone OS?” to, in some cases, “What does it mean for the Web that Flash is on its way out?“

Over the weekend, dogpile on the rabbit syndrome set in. Adobe employees blogged in defense of Flash, but if the software got a stirring defense from anyone else, I didn’t come across it. Even the thoughts from Flash supporters tended to be bleak.

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Nirvana! In a Phone!

For several years now, I’ve been telling people that I think the future of personal computing and communications involves all desktops and most laptops eventually going away, and the PC becoming a smartphone with a continuous broadband connection. When we need more display real estate and a good keyboard, we’ll use screens and keyboards which will be conveniently located all over the place, which can instantly make a wireless connection with our smartphone.

We’re not there yet. Actually we’ve got a long way to go until we get there. But here’s an interesting piece by VentureBeat’s Anthony Ha about the Nirvana project–whose goal is to bring parts of this idea to reality right now…

5Words: E-Reader Runs Afoul of Apple

Apple kills e-reader’s USB sharing.

Twitter attack forces password changes.

Report: Facebook threatens corporate security.

Engadget temporarily shuts off comments.

A new Sega console, kinda.

iPhone market share down slightly.

Facebook: no Muppet photos, please.

Apple fixes iMac flicker. Again.

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Gartenberg on iPad

Nice Engadget column by my friend Michael Gartenberg on why the iPad–whether it’s ultimately a blockbuster, a bust, or something in between–is so much more coherent a product than just about any other tablet in the decades-long history of tablet computers…

In Japan, More Xbox 360 Storage Than Necessary

It’s a time-honored geek tradition to lust after gadgets released in Japan, but I wouldn’t waste any desire on Microsoft’s 250 GB Xbox 360 hard drive.

The drive will be sold as a standalone product in Japan starting March 11 for roughly $170, according to this Impress press release. Stateside, Microsoft currently sells a 120 GB hard drive for $150.

Microsoft could bring the 250 GB drive to western markets soon, but not necessarily as a standalone product. Last month, Kotaku reported that the Xbox 360 Elite, which includes a 120 GB drive, was out of stock at Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Gamestop. This suggests that Microsoft is clearing out inventory to make room for Xbox 360s with bigger drives.

I could see why Microsoft would want to pack 250 GB hard drives into its consoles. The basic Playstation 3 slim includes a 120 GB drive, so Microsoft would have one more selling point for the Xbox 360. A standalone drive could theoretically follow, just to even things out.

But to the original point, a 250 GB HDD isn’t necessary, especially if you’ve already got a 120 GB drive. So much of the Xbox 360 is streaming, including 1080p videos in the Zune Marketplace, Netflix Instant Watch movies, Last.fm music and your PC’s entire music and video library. I’ll admit that my Xbox 360′s 20 GB drive feels cramped (though I still have about 5 GB left), but latecomers who got a 60 GB or 120 GB drive won’t have that problem.

Extra storage is best-suited for people who install lots of games to the hard drive and never uninstall them, download insane amounts of Xbox Live Arcade or On Demand games and prefer to put all their music and movies directly on the console. If all three scenarios don’t apply, I imagine 120 GB will be enough, especially given the price of Xbox 360 hard drives as a whole.

Macworld Without Apple: Coming Next Week

Somewhere, in another universe, Macworld Expo San Francisco 2010 was held in early January. The biggest news out of the event, by a factor of something like 20,000%, was Steve Jobs’ unveiling of the iPad–a moment that got the conference front-page coverage in newspapers around the world.

Okay, back to this reality. In December 2008. Apple announced that Macworld 2009 would be the last one with an Apple keynote (by Phil Schiller) and Apple on the show floor. Many Applewatchers took the news to spell the end of the show, and IDG, Macworld’s owner, spent a year regrouping and reimagining Macworld, attempting to make the show a success without the presence of the irreplaceable company that defined it for its first quarter century.

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