Archive | June, 2010
Initial Random Thoughts on the iPhone 4
I’ve had an iPhone 4 for around eight hours now, and have come to the conclusion that writing anything that reads like a review would be premature at this point. Too much of what’s important–video and photo quality, performance, battery life, and more–is dangeous to judge based on first impressions. (And multitasking, one of the key new features, might take weeks to get a grip on–I want to try multitasking-enabled versions of all my favorite apps.)
Herewith, some disorganized first impressions from my time with the phone so far:
- The guy who sold me my phone at the Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco, Gabriel, was the same dude who I bought an iPhone 3GS from last year–and he instantly remembered me and greeted me like an old pal. (No, I don’t think he knew I’m a blogger.) My favorite Apple Store moment ever; a great retail experience, period.
- One of the major pieces of news so far involves apparent mysterious dropped calls if you touch the bottom left-hand corner of the phone. As a southpaw, I was rattled by the prospect–but I’ve tried repeatedly to intentionally trigger the issue, and have failed.
- I also don’t see any yellow spots on the screen. (Worst product-quality problem I’ve noticed to date: The protective plastic on the phone’s front and back was weirdly greasy and grubby. as if someone at Foxconn was eating Junior Mints while working the assembly line.)
iPhone Antennas: The Inside Story
24. June 2010
Fascinating details on the antennas in the iPhone 4, previous iPhones, and phones in general–and why fanastic reception isn’t job #1.
Slightly Creepy: Frame Wizard Makes Still Pictures Move
24. June 2010
One of the more interesting items being demoed Wednesday in New York was FaceCake’s Frame Wizard, a picture frame that does more than just cycle through your pictures with pretty transitions. The technology has been out for a little over a year, but the company appears to be again pushing it as we come into the holiday season.
Here’s a video shot on YouTube of the picture frames so you get an idea of what it does — its better illustrated by this then me telling you about it:
Just How Dirty is Your Cell Phone?
24. June 2010
Put the bottom of your shoe to your face. Now, before you ask “has Ed gone plum crazy,” hear me out. Putting your cell phone there is just as unsanitary: that’s how much bacteria lives on those devices according to some microbiologists. Now that you’re thoroughly grossed out, here’s a possible solution–Violight’s UV cell phone sanitizer.
The company has been producing UV toothbrush sanitizers since it’s founding in 2004. Ultraviolet light is a fairly reliable sanitizer, and has seen increasing use when aiming to kill off bacteria. Violight claims its own system eradicates about 99.9 percent of these bad guys, including e.coli, strep, salmonella, listeria and even the H1N1 flu virus in a matter of minutes.
Nümi Key Looks to Cure Loyalty Card Hell
24. June 2010
As a way to generate return visits, more and more retailers are developing loyalty card programs. There’s just one problem with this: after awhile, the consumer is carrying possibly dozens of the things, and they easily get lost. I know I frequently never have the right one when I need it, or just forget altogether to bring it in the first place.
Cupertino-based Mobeam saw a potential market here and has capitalized on it by creating the Nümi Key, a keychain device that includes a patented LED system which “beams” the loyalty card information into a checkout scanner in a readable format. Altogether, the device holds about 50 different barcodes.
Using the device is as simple as using the navigation buttons to find the store’s loyalty card, pointing the device at the barcode scanner, and pressing the red button in the center. As long as the store uses a laser checkout scanner, it will work, at least in theory.
ThinkEco’s Modlet Aims to Gauge your Power Consumption
24. June 2010
Walking around the CEA Line Show and the Pepcom media event that were held in New York on Wednesday, it became clear to me that several companies see a potential market in creating “smart power outlets.” These are not just your normal plug-it-in-and-forget it surge protectors, but actually allow you to monitor usage and even turn plugged in appliances and electronics on and off.
Belkin’s Conserve Insight is one of those products, as well as Tenrehte’s PicoWatt. But the simplest and most powerful smart outlet is the Modlet by ThinkEco.
The device is a two outlet power strip that plays a dual role as a timer and power consumption meter. The device uses a form of wireless networking (802.15.4, or Zigbee) to connect to a USB dongle that is plugged into your computer, and will send information including power consumption and cost and timer information to and from the device.
BitBop TV for BlackBerry Goes Live
24. June 2010
Got a BlackBerry and feeling a little left out of the excitement this week? Here’s something to cheer you up: a cool service that’s only for BlackBerries right now. BitBop, a TV service that was previously available only as a closed beta, has opened up. And so far it only runs on RIM’s phones: the Bold, the Curve, and the Tour.
Greetings from the iLine
24. June 2010
The first time I waited in line for an iPhone, it was sort of fun. Kind of. This my fourth go-round–fifth if you count the iPad–and it’s turned into mundane work. So I’ve been tweeting occasional updates but haven’t felt the urge to record the whole experience for posterity here. (In case you were wondering: It’s cold out here, and I’m typing this standing up.)
The good news is that I’m maybe thirty people from the front of the iLine. And quite an iLine it is–by 6am it wrapped around the Stonestown Galleria here in San Francisco…I assume it’s reached at least Marie Callender’s by now, if not Pet Food Express.
I’ll file further reports if events warrant. But I hope you won’t hear from me again until I’m basking in the warmth of my living room, iPhone 4 in hand.
Getting Started With Google Voice
24. June 2010
For the last year or so, Google Voice (formerly called Grand Central, a name I loved) was available only if someone invited you. Yeah, I know; I never did. It’s now open to everyone in the United States (stop whining) and I suggest you look at it.
I’ve hot-linked some of the features I talk about to short YouTube videos that’ll give you more details.
The basics: Google Voice gives you a local number with tons of rich features that becomes the one number you’ll use. You configure Google Voice with all your other phones — smart or dumb cell phones and landlines, at home or work – and, based on who’s calling, have Google Voice route the call directly to voicemail or any of your phones. If you don’t know where you’ll be — say, work, home, or mobile — Google Voice can ring all your numbers; you pick up the one that’s handiest.
YouTube Wins Viacom Case
23. June 2010
A U.S. District Court Judge has ruled in favor of Google and against Viacom in the latter’s lawsuit over copyrighted videos on YouTube. Seems that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act–a law which usually seems to work in favor of copyright owners–absolves Google of blame for unauthorized uploading of videos as long as it deletes specific examples it knows about.
I’m not reflexively anti-giant media company, but it was tough to side with Viacom in this case. It says it plans to appeal, so it’s not over just yet.
Third IE9 Platform Preview: Let the Hardware Acceleration Wars Begin
23. June 2010
Microsoft is continuing with its interesting one-step-at-a-time Internet Explorer 9 strategy: It’s releasing its third “Platform Preview” of the browser today. This isn’t a full-blown browser–it’s IE9′s new rendering engine, with HTML5 capabilities, hardware-accelerated graphics, and other goodies, plus enough of a front end that developers and browser junkies can get a taste of what’s to come. New features in this update include support for HTML5 video and further overall speed tweaks.
As with the previous previews, Microsoft has a test drive site which lets you download the IE9 preview and check out demos you can run in any browser. They’re all cool examples of the richer, more interactive Web that’s still a work in progress–and the ones involving animation, not surprisingly, tend to run radically faster and smoother in IE9 than in other browsers. They certainly did at a Microsoft event I attended this morning, where a bevy of computers ranging from an underpowered little netbook to a six-core desktop machine ran the Platform Preview.
Verizon’s Droid X is Official
23. June 2010
At an event in New York City–which I watched via Webcast from here in San Francisco–Verizon Wireless just announced the Droid X, its latest Motorola Android smartphone. I’ve given up trying to determine if any particular Android phone is the most impressive one to day–the honor changes every few weeks–but the X is clearly among the top ones so far in terms of sheer specs. It’s got a 1-GHz TI CPI, a big 4.3″ LCD display with 854-by-480 resolution in a thin case, 512MB of RAM, both 8GB of fixed storage and a 16GB MicroSD card, HDMI out, an 8MP camera that does 720p video, Android 2.1 (2.2 will come along late in the summer), and the ability to act as a wireless hotspot for up to five devices.
[NOTE/UPDATE: Verizon made a big deal out of the X supporting Flash--Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen was in New York for the unveiling--but it's not shipping with Flash. Instead, it's "Flash ready," which is a total misnomer: Flash requires Android 2.2, which the X doesn't yet have. But this phone will run Flash. Eventually.]
The X will go for $199.99 after a $100 rebate with a two-year contract, and Verizon customers whose contracts are up in 2010 can get it for that price. Data plans cost $29.99 for “unlimited” access; the Wi-Fi hotspot feature is $20 extra a month for 2GB of data.
Oh, and it doesn’t go on sale until July 15th…although you don’t need an advanced degree in marketing to figure out why Verizon is announcing it today.
More thoughts–including hands-on impressions–soon.
Microsoft’s Shady Kinect Pricing: What Gives?
23. June 2010
Microsoft let E3 come and go without a word on the price of Kinect for Xbox 360, but now the Microsoft Store lists a tentative price of $150 for the motion-sensing camera.
“Official pricing has not been announced,” warns the site. “$149.99 is an estimate only and subject to change.” MSNBC cites a Microsoft representative who said that price is based on retailer estimates. Last week, Gamestop started selling Kinect for pre-order, also for $150.
As PC World’s Matt Peckham speculates, Microsoft wants to start selling these things ASAP, and it’s better to offer a worst-case price and drop it before launch if necessary.
Still, why hold off on an official price during the big show? I can guess at a few reasons:
- Microsoft really hasn’t figured out pricing yet, or thinks it can bring the cost down between now and November 4.
- Microsoft is still figuring out bundles — both with Xbox 360 hardware and with Kinect games — and doesn’t want to make a big announcement on pricing until everything’s squared away.
- The general attitude in the press is that $150 is too expensive for Kinect (I beg to differ). Announcing a price at E3 could’ve derailed the product’s flashy debut.
- A tentative price lets Microsoft see how many people are interested by the E3 buzz alone.
I imagine the answer is a combination of all those factors, but its kind of silly to sell something at a placeholder price in any case. I hope Kinect’s real price stops being a mystery in a week or so.
Origami Remembered
23. June 2010
Good story by Cnet’s Ina Fried: Microsoft figured out that something sort of like the iPad would become important years before folks started to talk about an “Apple tablet,” but failed to build it with its hardware partners.
I think it’s hard to overestimate just how much Microsoft’s tablet strategy–slightly modifying Windows to run on radically new types of hardware–damaged its prospects over the past decade or so.
The First iPhone 4 Reviews: Spoilers Ahead!
22. June 2010
It must be Apple Product Release Week–the first reviews of the iPhone 4 are out, shortly before the first consumers get their mitts on the thing. As usual, these reviews are from a handful of writers for big-name traditional media outlets and blogs–the ones that Apple provided with pre-release access to the product. And as usual, the iPhone 4 has already been discussed so widely, in such detail–sometimes by people who got a bit of hands on time with one at Apple’s launch event–that the likelihood of any astonishing revelations in these reviews was always low.
All the reviewers think the iPhone 4 is outstanding; all of them point out limitations such as FaceTime’s Wi-Fi-only functionality; all detail the major features which we already knew about. But they all share at least one or two non-obvious thoughts or two based on real hands-on experience.
If you don’t like spoilers, go off and read the reviews in their entirety before proceeding with this post. If you are okay with spoilers, read on–and then read the full reviews anyhow. I recommend them all…
Firefox Gets Crash Protection
22. June 2010
Mozilla has released Firefox 3.6.4, a security and stability update with one significant new feature: Crash protection designed to stop Flash, SilverLight, and QuickTime from taking the whole browser with them when they choke. The new capability mirrors one which was a much-touted one in Google’s Chrome from the start.
(Semi-related side note: On OS X, for me, Chrome’s crash protection doesn’t stop Flash from frequently freaking out in a manner that renders the browser unusable until I manually kill and relaunch it. Technically, it’s not crashing–but the end result is just as irritating.)
Firefox’s crash protection is for Windows and Linux only; it won’t reach OS X until Firefox 4 ships. If you try it and notice a difference–or don’t–let us know.
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