Why Tech Conferences are Now the Worst Place to Demo Tech Products

Back in May, I attended Google’s I|O conference at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. It was an eminently worthwhile event, but wireless connectivity issues were a persistent problem–demos during both of the show’s keynotes were messed up by the difficulty of establishing a reliable connection in a room packed with geeks brandishing smartphones, notebooks., and MiFis.

A few weeks later, Apple’s WWDC convened in the same conference hall. Nobody knows how to orchestrate a demo like Steve Jobs, but when he attempted to show off the iPhone 4, he couldn’t get Safari to load Web pages. The poor guy was reduced to pleading with attendees to shut down their Wi-Fi and said there were 527 MiFi-type wireless routers in the room.

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Sprint + T-Mobile? LTE Holds the Key

When rumors of Sprint and T-Mobile first cropped up in March 2008 thanks to Merril Lynch analysts, quite a few pundits out there thought it was a perfect idea to get the carrier on equal footing with its much bigger competitors. There’s a huge problem however with this marriage: cellular technology.

In current form, a Sprint and T-Mobile merger would be a hodgepodge. You’d have a CDMA network (Sprint), an iDEN network (Nextel), and a GSM network (T-Mobile). None of these technologies are really compatible, nor is there a phone out there that could successfully jump from one tower and technology to another.

But of all people, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has started the conversation anew. He told the Financial Times Tuesday that a pairing would have some “logic” to it. How? Pretty simple — Sprint could viably build an LTE network to partner with its WiMAX efforts, and T-Mobile is also on the path to the same technology as well.

(It should be mentioned that within say two to three years, the topic of cellular technology is going to be pretty much moot as all the major carriers save Sprint have considerable LTE plans. Benefit to the consumer? You bet. Manufacturers won’t have to worry about producing two versions of the same phone.)

Sprint is serious about its LTE move: it is already seeking bids to deploy the technology over its network. This is not to say it’s forgetting about WiMAX: the way the FT is reporting, it sounds like that’s part of what Sprint is looking for bidders to do.

No matter what the talk is, the only way T-Mobile would be able to effectively compete with either Verizon or AT&T is through a merger. It’s running short of spectrum — always an issue for the nation’s fourth biggest carrier — and coverage still remains spotty even after nearly a decade on US soil.

In one fell swoop, those problems could be alleviated. But the sticking point still remains the technology. No LTE for Sprint will mean no merger, and I think that’s pretty clear.

The iPhone 4′s Crippling/Non-Crippling Problem/Non-Problem

Engadget’s Nilay Patel surveyed Engadget contributors and some other folks (including me) about the iPhone 4 and whether they’ve encountered the grip of death issue. The bottom line is…there is no bottom line! Some people have detected no problem whatsoever and some (like me) have seen it in certain circumstances. Nobody finds it a gotcha so enormous as to render the phone useless.

Even if Nilay’s story doesn’t clear things up, it’s good reading.

Google: The Panda Theory

Why hasn’t Google been terribly successful at creating social apps, at least until now? It’s because Google users are like Pandas.

HP Windows 7 Slate: It’s Alive?

HP still hasn’t said boo about its slate plans since the company acquired Palm, and Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer didn’t mention HP during his Worldwide Partners Conference keynote this week, when talking about Windows 7 slate PCs.

So why was HP listed as one of many companies releasing Windows 7 slates this year?

The image here was screengrabbed from the live feed of Ballmer’s keynote, and tipped to Engadget over Twitter. Microsoft doesn’t have the recordings of its keynotes online yet, so I can’t validate this myself. If it’s accurate — and not just an oversight by whoever put together Ballmer’s keynote slides — it opens up a couple possibilities:

On one hand, perhaps the HP Windows slate is not dead, as rumored and generally suspected due to HP’s silence on the matter. Maybe HP just went back to the drawing board after seeing what the iPad could do, or put the Windows 7 slate on the backburner to fast-track a WebOS tablet.

On the other hand, the images above Microsoft’s list of partners includes a swiveling tablet with a keyboard. HP has already built one of those, running Windows 7, the Touchsmart tm2. I wouldn’t be shocked if HP updated that laptop in the fall, and Microsoft called it a slate for the sake of promoting Windows 7′s touch-friendliness.

In any case, with more than 20 companies building Windows 7 slates this year, debating the mortality of an HP entrant is moot. The idea was novel when HP was the only major company openly talking about an iPad competitor, but that’s hardly the case anymore. I’d be more interested to hear about a WebOS tablet at this point; at least it’ll stand out from the crowd.

Will Mobile Devices Kill the Web?

Advertising Age’s Steve Rubel says it’s time to get ready for the end of the Web as we knew it.

Google Links Up Picnik and Picasa

Back in March, Google acquired Picnik, the online image editor that’s long been one of my favorite Web apps, period. It was pretty obvious that the company would link up Picnik with its Picasa Web Albums photo sharing service. And today, it’s announcing that it’s done so.

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The iPhone 4 Grip of Death: I’m a Believer

It took three weeks of real-world use before I figured it out. But I’m finally convinced that the iPhone 4′s antenna problem is real, that it’s affecting my phone in certain situations, and that there’s no scenario in which Apple is done responding to this issue.

I spent yesterday at the MobileBeat 2010 conference at San Francisco’s Palace hotel. The hotel is in the South of Market neighborhood, where making phone calls on an iPhone over AT&T can be an iffy proposition in the best of circumstances. And over the course of the day, I ducked out of the conference several times to make important calls.

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Nintendo 3DS Has a Clever Defense Against Used Games

While game publishers slowly make used games less attractive to buy, Nintendo’s 3DS will encourage people to hang on to the games they’ve got.

Speaking to Wired, Nintendo 3DS platform producer Hideki Konno talked about a feature called “Tag Mode.”  Basically, it’ll allow two 3DS owners to wirelessly share game data from the handheld’s internal storage. So to swap profiles in Animal Crossing, for instance, users won’t need to keep the actual game cartridge handy.

Wired’s Chris Kohler said this sounds like a way to extend the life cycles of games, and Konno agreed, saying Tag Mode ” will bring consumers a sense of wanting to play a game again, after they get new data from games that they’d forgotten about.” To think of this in a business sense, gamers will be encouraged to hang onto the games they’ve played, on the chance that another 3DS owner will have something awesome to share.

That’s one less game for GameStop to sell at Nintendo’s expense. It’s a similar idea to downloadable content, with two differences: Tag Mode won’t require any development after a game’s release, and it probably won’t cost players anything extra.

There aren’t enough details on Tag Mode to know whether it’ll work, but I like the gesture in light of what other publishers are doing. In May, EA Sports announced that it will charge $10 extra for online play unless the game is purchased new. THQ followed with a similar policy, charging $5 for online play to second-hand owners of UFC Undisputed 2010.

Over time, I think we’ll see more publishers go this route, but I’d rather see them encourage customers to keep new games rather then discourage them from buying used ones. Tag Mode probably won’t distinguish between new and used games, but it could at least slow the cycle of trade-ins without punishing customers.

Microsoft Releases Windows 7 SP1 Beta, Gives Windows XP a Reprieve (Yup, Another One)

[CORRECTION: A Microsoft representative contacted me to say that the 2020 end to Windows XP downgrade rights mentioned below is inaccurate. As of now, the plan is for the downgrade option to go away when Windows 7 is no longer for sale--still a long reprieve, but not that long.]

Microsoft is holding its Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington DC. It chose the event to announce the release of a beta version of Windows 7 SP1. The beta is aimed at developers and tech pros, consists of fixes rather than new features, and isn’t a huge deal–especially if you’ve been installing Windows Update’s updates all along. Unlike Windows Vista, Windows 7 was polished enough even in its initial incarnation that it doesn’t cry out for immediate radical surgery.

Here’s some news that will please some folks, though: The company has given Windows XP yet another reprieve. (I’ve lost track of how many times it’s announced a final deadline for the OS’s availability and then extended it, but it long ago began to feel like Groundhog Day.)

Microsoft has been allowing PC manufacturers to let purchases of Windows 7 “downgrade” their new machines to XP, but this privilege was due to expire soon. As Computerworld’s Gregg Keizer explains, however, buyers of computers with Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate will now be able to downgrade to XP until January of 2020.

That’s more than eighteen years after XP shipped, and should be enough of a stay of execution for almost everybody. In fact, 2020 is so far into the future that anyone who thinks that he or she has a firm grasp on what computing will be like by then is either a whole lot smarter than I am or a whole lot dumber.

Seems like a smart move on Microsoft’s part. For companies that don’t want to part with XP just yet, an end to downgrade privileges would have been a compelling reason to avoid Windows 7. Now it’s a non-issue–and tech journalists like me get to stop writing stories about XP’s fate for almost a decade. Cool!

Report: BlackBerry Tablet Is The Real Deal

My colleague Tim Conneally over at Betanews has a scoop that has seen a bit of play in the tech media over this past weekend: the BlackBerry Tablet is indeed real. While there have been a few stories that quote a research report by Rodman & Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar, this is the first one I’ve seen that appparently sources somebody from within the company.

The device will have a 7-inch screen and run on a 1GHz processor, and include a front and back facing camera for video-conferencing. Tim adds that his source also says RIM plans to add Flash support to the device, complete with a hardware-based Flash accelerator. If true, it certainly would be interesting to see how Apple responds, given it has been so adamantly against Flash.

No further details have been given about any possible date of launch, but speculation is that it would be released during the holiday season. “Seasonal buying has done wonders for devices like the Motorola Droid which launched during last year’s holiday season and went on to become the best-selling Android phone to date,” Tim writes.

I’m not sure what to make of any potential BlackBerry-powered tablet, or venture a guess on how well it might do. But I think it would probably be a worthy alternative to the iPad for enterprise environments that already employ RIM’s line of smartphones.

It’s Skype vs. Fring in VoIP War of the Words

Looks like Fring made too many waves by updating its iPhone app to support two-way video chat. After a short time when iPhone 4 owners could use Fring to video chat with desktop PCs using Skype, Fring pulled all Skype support, at first temporarily, but now for good.

Both sides of this relationship gone sour tell different stories. Fring says it was blocked by Skype in an “anti-competitive ambush.” Skype says that’s not true, but claims Fring violated terms of use for its API, and was damaging the Skype brand by temporarily pulling support. No matter who’s telling the truth, iPhone 4 owners can’t make video calls to PCs anymore.

As long as Skype and Fring are slinging mud at each other, let’s look at some other iPhone-to-PC video calling scenarios that would render this break-up obsolete:

It’s possible that other platforms will adopt Apple’s Facetime, which is an open standard. Facetime desktop software seems like a no-brainer, but it needs to allow PC-to-PC calling or it’ll never get the widespread adoption Skype currently enjoys.

Google Talk is in the opposite position. It’s all over PCs through an optional plug-in for Gmail, iGoogle and Orkut, but lacks two-way video support on phones. Still, adding support could cause more friction with Apple and with Sprint, which uses Qik for video chat on the HTC Evo 4G.

Skype could theoretically support video chat for iPhone 4 some day, but the company has dragged its feet on several iPhone features, including 3G calling, which finally arrived in May, and iOS4 multitasking, which is still missing. The company gave Gizmodo a murky answer on video calling for mobile phones, which read, in part, “We’re betting big on video, and we intend to set the bar on mobile video calling.” Whatever that means.

Then there’s Fring. Like Facetime, Fring desperately needs a desktop application, I’d say even more so than Facetime because the software already supports Android and Symbian video calling as well. The Skype fiasco proves that Fring can’t lean too heavily on third-parties, so if Fring really wants the spotlight — and to swing at Skype — it needs to move onto the one platform Skype has dominated, the PC.

FaceTime Takes Center Stage in New iPhone 4 Ads

Perhaps the amount of negative publicity surrounding the iPhone 4 has forced Apple to go for the sentimental in its latest crop of ads for the device, or perhaps it’s just coincidence. Either way, FaceTime is given top billing and it seems as if the company is serious about video calling.

Four ads have been released: “Smile,” a father reassuring his teenage daughter that the braces she just got aren’t that bad; “Meet Her,” a grandfather seeing his new grandchild for the first time; “Big News,” a wife telling her husband that she’s finally pregnant; and “Haircut,” a boyfriend telling her girlfriend that even though her hair is really short its still “cute.”

There’s no announcer voice, just the interaction. It lets the feature speak for itself, which I think probably does a lot more to convince the viewer that this is something you want rather than some voice telling you this is what you need.

Some have said these ads are a little too personal; I would have to disagree. In a time where advertisers seem to rely too much on humor, having somebody market something on a level like this seems refreshing to me.

We have all four ads here for you to view after the break. I’d like to hear what you think.

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Sprint’s Supply Issues May Erase 4G Advantage

For a carrier that made so much of being the first to 4G, it’s own issues with keeping 4G handsets in stock may end up costing it the lead in the race towards faster wireless speeds. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse was surprising candid about the company’s issues in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that appeared in Monday’s edition.

About 300,000 units of the EVO 4G have already sold since its early June release, and phone manufacturer HTC is having trouble keeping up with demand. Now Sprint cannot even promise a solid ship date to customers attempting to purchase it online, and good luck trying to find it in its retail stores.

Another 4G-compatible phone is on the way, dubbed “The Epic”, but is likely not going to be available for several months. That doesn’t help Sprint at all.

These issues likely mean that Sprint will only have a few months of lead time before competitors start turning on their own 4G networks. Verizon should start rolling out its LTE network in select cities by the end of the year, and AT&T plans to begin offering 4G services in 2011. T-Mobile, while far behind in 3G, has been rumored to move straight to its own 4G plans next year as well in a bid to stay competitive.

EVO 4G supply issues aren’t HTC’s only problem, as it has multiple phones in its portfolio that are doing well. Verizon’s Droid Incredible is another example. These shortages are not even the company’s fault: it lies in the parts necessary to build the phone which HTC doesn’t produce itself, such as the touch screen.

One thing is clear: the next several months will be critical for Sprint. If it cannot get its act together soon, it will once again find itself ceding ground to its rivals. A shame for a company who a year ago seemed so far ahead.

Another BlackBerry 6 Tease

RIM has posted another video demo of BlackBerry 6, the OS upgrade it says will show up later this summer. As with the earlier one, it looks neat–but it’s presented in the form of a floating screen that isn’t surrounded by a phone, and focuses more on showing cool stuff whipping by then on providing a detailed walkthrough of what’s new.

Techmeme Makes the Times

Nice profile of Techmeme–the single best site for tech news–by The New York Times’s Claire Cain Miller.