Archive | October, 2010
Cisco Unveils ūmi, an HD Videophone for your TV
Maybe 2010 is going to be remembered as the year when consumer videophones got real–or at least closer to real than they’ve ever been before. First there was Apple’s FaceTime. And today Cisco is announcing an ambitious home videoconferencing system.
It’s called ūmi (that’s you-me), and it’s a setup for making high-definition video calls using your wireless network and broadband connection. It includes a 1080p camera (with a remote-controllable lens that can zoom, pan, and tilt), a set-top box, and a remote control. It’s based on some of the technologies that Cisco has used for years in its business-oriented telepresence products, but wrapped up in an experience designed for consumers. And it reminds me of the scenarios in Cisco’s entertaining but confusing TV ads with Ellen Page, except it’s a real consumer product which is about to hit the market.
The Internet TV Box Wars Go On
6. October 2010
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Nice, very detailed comparison review of Roku and Apple TV by Dan Rayburn (who gives the nod to Roku).
The BlackBerry-Like Droid Pro
6. October 2010
Once upon a time–like a decade ago–portrait-oriented, non-slider QWERTY keyboards were the newest, coolest thing in phones. In the post-iPhone era, however, they seemed to have been decisively trumped by full-touchscreen designs. But if you ask me, QWERTY got so rare that it looks cool all over again in Motorola’s new Droid Pro for Verizon, which was announced yesterday.
SlideRocket’s New Interactive Features: Powerful, Not PowerPoint-esque
5. October 2010
Of all the classic productivity tools that have made their way onto the Web, presentations may be the most immature. Most contenders pretty much try to replicate the basics of PowerPoint in the browser, including Google Docs, Zoho Show, and Microsoft’s own PowerPoint Web App. It’s not easy–PowerPoint-like fancy graphics and interactivity are tough to achieve, especially if you’re doing so using only HTML and AJAX techniques.
End result: None of the aforementioned Web-based PowerPoint rivals are anywhere near as good as PowerPoint. I can’t imagine anyone who’s very serious about presentations using any of them full-time.
But what if replicating PowerPoint wasn’t really the idea? Enter SlideRocket, a Web-based presentation service that provides many (though not all) of PowerPoint’s core tools but really focuses on collaborative, Web-based communications that go beyond anything offered by Microsoft. (For instance, it has a media manager that lets a company update images across all the presentations in all its presentations instantly–for instance, if its logo changes.)
SlideRocket does its thing using an interface built in Flash, which lets it deliver an exceptionally rich interface and set of features. It’s one of the slickest, most ambitious productivity apps you’ll ever see in your browser–and it’s easy to learn and use even though its look and feel owe little to PowerPoint. It’s releasing a new version today that takes the whole service in an even more interesting, less PowerPoint-esque direction.
FLO TV is Officially…in Limbo
5. October 2010
Yesterday’s rumor was true: FLO TV is discontinuing its direct-to-consumer service. Actually, it’s not that straightforward. Owner Qualcomm says it’s suspending sales of devices and considering its options, but that service will continue through the spring of 2011 and that it’ll issue refunds if appropriate. To quote an old bit Bob Newhart bit, the service has died…but not quite.
Call of Duty 3D Won’t Be Gaming’s Avatar
5. October 2010
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By several accounts, Call of Duty: Black Ops looks pretty awesome in 3D.
The raves are already in from journalists at USA Today, Kotaku, UGO, and Joystiq, all of whom sampled Call of Duty’s 3D effects at a preview event, and gave their approval despite a few complaints of mild discomfort. Activision announced today that the game, which arrives November 9 for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC, will include a 3D option for all platforms.
Enthusiasm from the press will certainly help to push interest in 3D televisions, but Call of Duty: Black Ops isn’t as gifted a 3D salesman as the film Avatar. Unlike movies, video games don’t have a theater for selling the experience.
What If the Mac Were Invented Today?
5. October 2010
Over at Techland (where I’m guestblogging a couple of times a week–come visit!) I wrote about the tendency of lots of pundits to assume that the smartphone wars will inevitably repeat the PC wars, with Apple’s tightly-managed iPhone getting trounced by the widely-dispersed Android ecosystem. In the Techland post, I explain why I don’t think that’s a given. One big reason why is the existence of the Internet–if all phones end up being portals to an open-standards Net, there’s no particular reason why multiple platforms can’t thrive.
With bigger, traditional computers, we’re already largely there. For operating systems, the Web is a diplomatic place where it doesn’t really matter what OS you’re using as long as you’ve got a modern browser. And nearly all peripherals such as printers, cameras, and networking gizmos work equally well with Windows and Macs. It’s wildly different from the 1980s and 1990s, when the computing universe rotated around Microsoft’s platform and there were lots of things which Macheads simply could not do.
How Panasonic’s Jungle Portable Game Device Can Survive
5. October 2010
Panasonic has barely announced the Jungle, a tank-like portable game console, and already the skepticism is piling up.
Rightfully so; the Jungle comes at a time when smartphones endanger handheld game consoles (and all standalone mobile gadgets). It also has an oddball concept of supporting massive multiplayer online games, and brings the bitter taste of the 3DO, Panasonic’s failed home console from the mid-1990s.
But I prefer optimism. The Linux-based Jungle reminds me of the Pandora handheld, which is finding some niche success, and it has potential for major content partnerships, like the marquis title Battlestar Galactica Online. And according to Gizmodo’s unnamed source, the Jungle has an awesome screen, a touch pad, a D-pad and a keyboard — basically everything you need to play games. I’m not ready to write off the Jungle until we know more about it. In the meantime, I can think of several ways the Jungle could be taken more seriously.
Darren Murph, Record-Setting Blogger
5. October 2010
I’m not sure how many blog posts I’ve written–or how many discrete items of prose counting magazine articles, book chapters, and other random stuff. But I’m quite positive the total count would be far less than 17,212, the number that got Engadget’s Darren Murph into the Guinness Book of World Records. (I assume that speedbloggers such as Instapundit have blogged even more, but Murph’s award says it’s for “contracted” blog posts–which I suppose means items that he received individual payment for.)
iPhone vs. Android: The State of the Smartphone Wars (and More to Come)
5. October 2010
It’s Tuesday, so there’s a new Technologizer column up over at TIME.com. This one’s on iPhone vs. Android, and as I wrote it yesterday, I realized that I had bitten off a pretty gigantic topic for one 700-word column. It ended up being a 1,000 word column, but even then, I could have written on for another 2,000 or 3,000 words. Considering how fast both platforms are changing, the shelf life of this column will be short, so it’s a topic I’ll come back to repeatedly.
Actually, I might return to the smartphone wars as soon as next week. I got an e-mail from a reader who assumed that the fact I don’t mention Windows Phone 7 in the column was a sign I was a Microsoft hater. Nope–I just chose to focus on the big battle well underway between two platforms that are already on the market. I’ll be at the Windows Phone 7 launch in New York next Monday–stay tuned for live coverage of it, and for lots more thoughts about Windows Phone and its chances of success.
Lenovo Celebrates 60 Millionth ThinkPad With Optimus Graphics
4. October 2010
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Celebrating the sales of sixty million ThinkPads over the past eighteen years, Lenovo on Wednesday announced immediate plans to add Nvidia’s Optimus graphics to T Series models, and talked long-time intentions for innovations in areas such as location awareness and VoIP. I was briefed on the news by Dilip Bhatia, Lenovo’s VP of ThinkPad marketing.
Starting today, Lenovo will outfit three models of T Series laptops with Optimus, a technology aimed at automatically switching between a built-in discrete graphics chipset — for games and other apps that demand high performance graphics — and an integrated graphics chipset, for faster PC performance and longer battery life.
Like the Pre, But No Keys?
4. October 2010
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I’ve assumed ever since the Palm Pre turned out not to be a blockbuster that there would be a more iPhone-like WebOS phone. PreCentral has published some scuttlebutt along those lines.
LG Backs Off Android 2.2 Tablet; Pressure’s on, Samsung!
4. October 2010
Last we heard about LG’s Android tablet, marketing vice president Chang Ma was promising that it’d be better than the iPad. Now, the tablet is reportedly on hold while LG looks for a better version of Google’s mobile operating system.
LG is squeamish about Android 2.2, also known as Froyo, an unnamed company official told Reuters, and is talking with Google to figure out the best version to run instead. Google’s director of mobile products, Hugo Barra, told TechRadar last month that Android 2.2 is “not optimized for use on tablets.” In all likelihood, LG will use Android 3.0, which is rumored to support tablets in earnest.
All of this puts Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, an Android 2.2 tablet and the de facto iPad rival of the moment, in an awkward position. Barra’s comments were embarrassing enough for Samsung, which plans to sell the Galaxy Tab through wireless carriers this holiday season. LG’s vote of no confidence in Froyo raises more red flags.
What this mainly comes down to, as Harry pointed out in his Galaxy Tab hands-on, is apps. Samsung has developed a batch of its own to make the best of a 7-inch display, but the Android Market offers only smartphones apps, enlarged to fill the screen or centered in the middle of a thick, black border. It’s not the ideal tablet experience, but it’s something.
The Galaxy Tab is a gambit. Samsung must be fully aware that soon after Google announces a tablet-friendly version of Android, the market’s going to be flooded with devices. To avoid becoming part of the pack, of which LG is now a part, Samsung is committed to firing first — optimized experience be damned.
Windows Family Pack is Back
4. October 2010
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One of Microsoft’s most appealing products–the Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack–is back for an unspecified period.
Is FLO TV Dead? Are Standalone Mobile Gadgets Dead, Period?
4. October 2010
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PaidContent.org’s Staci Kramer is reporting that Qualcomm is shutting down the direct-to-consumer version of FLO TV, its mobile TV service that provides a broadcast-like experience on the FLO TV Personal TV gadget, in-car systems, and a handful of smartphones. Judging from the FLO TV site, she’s right: It seems to have been scrubbed of all “where to buy” information except for that pertaining to Verizon and AT&T phones, which remain available for now.
FLO TV was–can we speak of it in the past tense yet?–a classic example of the right product at the wrong time. Judged on its merits, it was quite impressive: It delivered live TV with no hiccups, and Qualcomm lined up an impressive roster of big-name content partners. If it had been around a decade ago, it might have been an iPod-like hit. But in the age of plentiful Internet video on smartphones, it felt pricey and a tad retro. And one neat device that could have made it more appealing to more people–Mophie’s FLO TV jacket for iPhones, which was announced in January at CES–hasn’t shipped, and now presumably never will.
A Stinky Old Plan for Video Game Smell-O-Vision
4. October 2010
Scent is pretty much an untouchable dimension for multimedia. I doubt that many people pine for the ability to whiff what they’re seeing on the screen in front of them, and besides, delivering smell is impractical outside of big-ticket events.
Decades ago, Hideo Kojima, who’s best known for directing the Metal Gear Solid series of games, had a solution for the latter issue, at least. According to a post on Twitter, found by Kotaku, Kojima wanted the stench of blood to hover over Snatcher, one of his earliest games.
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6. October 2010
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