USB Chargeable Batteries?

These days you can seemingly get just about anything that operates off your USB port, from USB-powered coffee warmers to — well, this is a family site so we’ll stop there. Anyways, Moixa’s USBCell batteries are one of those items: they’re AA batteries which charge off of an available USB port on your computer.

At first glance, these batteries look like any other, just with neon green caps. But that cap pops off, revealing a USB plug which is inserted into the port on your computer. Charging takes a little bit of time — about five hours or so, and usable time is a little less than what you’d find in typical rechargable batteries, probably because of the smaller capacity.

(USBCells have a 1300mAh capacity — whereas these Nickel Metal Hydride batteries from RadioShack have a 2500mAh capacity. Obviously the latter batteries are going to last twice as long.)

Interesting concept though, and I’d think probably good for those emergency situations when you need some extra battery power. The batteries come in a pack of two and retail for about $15.

Kinect for Xbox 360 Gets a Real Price: $150

Microsoft has cleared up a couple of rumors about a new Xbox 360 model and the Kinect motion-sensing camera, revealing prices and details for both.

The Kinect camera, bundled with one game, will cost $150, the same price Microsoft posted as a “an estimate only” to its online store a month ago. The game is “Kinect Adventures,” a collection of minigames that includes jumping and ducking to avoid obstacles on a moving platform, and moving back and forth in a raft to navigate through rapids.

Microsoft also has a new Xbox 360 model coming August 3, priced at $200 without Kinect. Like the one spotted on Amazon Germany last week, the basic Xbox 360 has a 4 GB flash drive and built-in 802.11 n Wi-Fi. Later this year, the console will be bundled with Kinect and Kinect Adventures for $300. No word on whether the 250 GB console model will get a Kinect bundle.

I’m glad Microsoft went with Kinect Adventures for the console bundle. I tried it at E3, and though it’s not a shining example of what Kinect could be, it’s a better tech demo than Kinect Sports, another minigame collection that just seems too much like Wii Sports. (For that matter, running in place for the hurdles minigame was too much like the Power Pad.)

Microsoft is promising more than 15 games at launch, including Dance Central, arguably the best use of the technology yet. The game is like Guitar Hero for dance, prompting the player to perform full-body dance routines and scoring for accuracy. In another strike at the Wii, Dance Central will cost $50, not $60 like most Xbox 360 games.

Kinect is coming in November, with pre-orders available now. I’m interested in theory, but still waiting to be wowed by the software. That didn’t happen at E3.

Google Search Event Live Coverage

Quick reminder: I’ll be liveblogging Google’s search event starting at 9:30am PT this morning. (UPDATE: We’re live!)

MOG Goes Mobile

Music service MOG has launched the iPhone and Android apps I wrote about last month. For $9.99 a month, you get unlimited streaming and album downloads in your browser and on your device. And MOG has a unique “artist radio” feature that can play only songs by that artist, rather than the more typical combination of songs by the artist, related artists, vaguely-similar artists, and not-similar-at-all artists.

MOG offers a three-day trial that’s worth checking out. Nitpick on the iPhone edition: It’s been waiting for Apple approval for so long that it’s not an iOS 4 app. That means that it can’t play in the background while you use other programs. Once it has that feature, it should be a killer alternative to iTunes. (As should Rhapsody, which says it’s working on a multitasking version.)

Bye Bye Blockbuster

Salon’s Matt Zoller Seitz writes an only slightly premature eulogy for Blockbuster.

FileMaker Go(es) to the iPhone and iPad

Apple’s FileMaker subsidiary offers two database applications: Its namesake, FileMaker Pro (aimed mostly at business users) and Bento (meant mostly for consumers). Bento showed up on the iPhone in 2009 and was one of the first iPad apps. But FileMaker itself hasn’t been available for either of Apple’s iDevices until now.

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Inside the Apple/AT&T Relationship

Fred Vogelstein’s Wired story on Apple, the iPhone, and AT&T is a terrific read.

Amazon Sells More E-Books Than Hardcovers

Say what you will about the tactile pleasure of a hardcover book, but Amazon customers are choosing to read on their Kindles.

For every 100 hardcover books Amazon sold over the last three months, the retailer sold 143 Kindle books. In the last month, the pace has jumped to 180 Kindle books for every 100 hardcovers. Kindle book sales have tripled in the first half of 2010, compared to the same period last year.

Keep in mind that Amazon isn’t talking about paperbacks, so I’m assuming those still outsell e-books. But Amazon also counts hardcovers even if there isn’t a Kindle edition, and doesn’t count free, out-of-copyright Kindle books.

Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos says the rise in Kindle books over hardcovers is “astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months.” I say it’s more astounding given that anyone can purchase a hardcover from Amazon, but only Kindle owners or Kindle software users have use for an e-book.

I hope book publishers are encouraged, not frightened, by the news. They should be converting books into electronic form faster than ever to capitalize on the e-reader craze. But they might also liken e-books to paperbacks — both are less profitable than hardcovers — by delaying the digital versions to drum up hardcover sales.

Delaying the digital version of books is a bad move because there’s nothing comparable to hardcovers available in digital form. If publishers want to charge more for new releases — and they can with the agency model, which allows several major publishers to set their own e-book prices — that’s fine. But as Amazon’s latest numbers show, Kindle owners are determined to build their e-book libraries, and publishers should do everything they can not to hold those readers back.

Got Any Questions for Jason Fried of 37signals?

37signals–the creator of Basecamp, Highrise, and other popular workgroup services that work in your browser–has long been one of the most influential companies in the whole world of Web-based productivity. Cofounder Jason Fried is being interviewed in a free Webcast this Thursday, July 22nd at 11am PT. I’ve been invited to watch the interview and guest-tweet some thoughts as I do. (If you take in the Webcast yourself, you can tweet it from the video player yourself, and your tweets will be shared with the rest of the audience.)

Click here to go to the Webcast site and learn more about Jason Fried and the event.

If you have any questions for Fried–who’s full of strong opinions about Web design and modern business in general–leave a comment on this post. We’ll collect ‘em for the Webcast Thanks!

(Full disclosure: The interview with Jason Fried is sponsored by HP and is hosted on one of its sites. The Twitter hashtag for the event is #hpio.)

Apple Could Beat Microsoft in Revenue This Quarter

In terms of market capitalization, Apple has been ahead of Microsoft since May. In terms of real dollars made however, Redmond still is king. That may not be true for much longer: Apple is making strides that could put it ahead of Microsoft in terms of revenue, and highlight the company’s decade long rise from the ashes.

According to Fortune, analysts polled by Reuters expect Apple’s earnings revenues — which it reports Tuesday — to come in at about $14.62 billion for the quarter. On the other hand, analysts expect Microsoft to report $15.26 billion in revenues when it gives its quarterly numbers on Thursday.

Apple seems to have a habit of beating Wall Street expectations rather handily (last quarter, revenue numbers were some $1 billion higher than expected). So does Microsoft — but not to the extent that Apple manages to do. This all means it is a very real possibility that the Cupertino company may have made more money overall for the first time in history.

Does this really mean anything though? I’d argue it does. What it shows is Apple is a company that still appparently has upward potential, while Microsoft continues to be mired in the morass that it seems to have been in financially for much of the past decade. Look at some of the graphs in the Fortune article and you’ll see why.

Apple is certainly the darling of the tech press — we all can agree on that. But the data is now finally catching up to the hype that some of us journalists have heaped upon it I think. What remains to be seen is if there is anything that Microsoft can do in order to stay competitive.

The Case for Call of Duty Subscriptions

Every time an Activision executive talks about charging money to play Call of Duty games online, there’s a chorus of gamers who say the publisher’s digging its own grave. I don’t think Activision is that stupid, but I also don’t think the publisher’s detractors have fully considered how Call of Duty players might be lured to pay extra.

Subscription-based Call of Duty seems like question of “when,” not “if.” Activision-Blizzard chief executive Bobby Kotick told the Wall Street Journal in June that he’d like to have CoD subscriptions “tomorrow,” if he could snap his fingers and make a change. Chief Financial Officer Thomas Tippl confirmed last November that the company’s looking at more ways to monetize multiplayer. Most recently, a forum member at Xbox 360 Junkies posted video of an inactive “memberships” section while playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox Live.

Certainly, you could interpret this as evidence that Activision will at some point cut off free, online multiplayer and demand monthly payments from the millions of people hooked on the game. But I think what’s really coming into view is a freemium service, one where the average player can still enjoy Call of Duty for free, while those who wish to pay can enjoy extra features and benefits.

Continue reading this story…

Engadget Tries Windows Phone 7

Microsoft has begun to let outsiders–mostly developers–try Windows Phone 7, in the form of test phones from Asus, LG, and Samsung that run a prerelease version of the new operating system. It’s also shared these handsets with some journalists: Engadget’s Josh Topolsky has a long, interesting review of the OS in its current form. (Executive summary: It’s got a fresh and inventive interface with numerous smart touches…but critical missing features, such as cut-and-paste and multitasking for third-party apps, could make it feel half-baked by the time the first phones go on sale late this year.)

HP’s MagCloud Service Beefs Up, Lands on the iPad

Back in 2008, HP Labs launched MagCloud, a print-on-demand service designed to let anyone publish a magazine without much in the way of cost, resources, or risk. Today it’s launching some new features which let publishers use MagCloud for more ambitious creations–and distribute their works in both paper and iPad form.

MagCloud is aimed at amateurs and small-press types, as well as big brands–such as LIFE magazine–which want to produce special issues or bring old ones back into print. (LIFE offers a replica of its 1969 Woodstock issue.) It does for magazines what Lulu.com does for books: make it feasible to print and sell attractive color publications in quantities as small as one copy. Publishers upload their magazines in PDF form; whenever someone orders an issue, HP has one of a number of independent fulfillment centers print it using a high-speed HP Indigo printer, then ship it to the customer.

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Join Us for Google’s Tuesday Search Event

Tomorrow at 9:30am, Google is holding a press event at its San Francisco offices. Not surprisingly, it isn’t saying much about the topic other than that it involves search, that it’ll be “brief,” and that it features “a few new things we think you’ll be interested to see.” Marissa Mayer, the company’s VP of Search Products and User Experience, will preside.

I’ll be in the audience and will liveblog the news as it happens, and hope you’ll join me. Visit technologizer.com/google-search-event for our coverage.

Please Take Our Survey on the iPhone 4 and Apple’s Press Conference

So did Apple mollify the world with the press conference it held on Friday to respond to charges that the iPhone 4′s antenna design is seriously flawed? Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt has rounded up a bunch of reactions from journalists, bloggers, and analysts, and they range from enthusiastic thumbs up for Steve Jobs’ performance to severe unhappiness with it. One way or another, we’re not done talking about this.

As usual, I’m curious about what you think. So Technologizer is conducting a little survey that’s open to all interested parties–iPhone 4 owners (or people who bought and returned an iPhone 4), prospective iPhone owners, and anyone who paid attention to Apple’s press conference on Friday and formed opinions of it. If you have an iPhone 4, we’ll ask you some questions about it; if you have an opinion about Apple’s response, we’ll ask you to share it.

The survey will take just a few minutes to complete, and we’ll report on the results in a future story.

Take Technologizer’s iPhone 4 survey.

PCWorld Yanks iPhone 4 From Top Spot in Smartphone Chart

At Apple’s iPhone 4 press conference on Friday morning, Steve Jobs included PCWorld’s ranking of the handset as the top smartphone in his list of iPhone 4 achievements. But Jobs’ presentation and the measures Apple is taking to respond to the antenna controversy didn’t leave my former coworkers at PCW confident that its original recommendation had been validated.

Actually, they found the latest developments so lackluster that they bumped the iPhone 4 off the chart entirely. Its rating is now “pending,” and HTC’s EVO 4G is the #1 phone. (The iPhone 3GS remains on the chart, in the #8 slot.)

Continue reading this story…