Author Archive | Ed Oswald

DARPA Offers $40,000 to Spot Ten Red Balloons

Posted by Ed Oswald on December 4, 2009 at 1:26 pm

The Defense Department’s DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) program will be looking at how information spreads virally on the internet through a contest looking to see who can be the first to correctly spot ten red weather balloons around the country.

These balloons will be launched from “readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roads” on Saturday. Those wishing to participate in the contest must first register at DARPA’s website and would have until December 14 to complete their submissions.

The agency hopes to understand how information goes viral. Specifically, the website says the effort “will explore the roles the Internet and social networking play in the timely communication, wide-area team-building, and urgent mobilization required to solve broad-scope, time-critical problems.”

Participants are already harnessing the social aspects of the Internet in order to compete. Websites such as ispyaredballoon.com have popped up to centralize and verify reports, and in some cases, if a team wins the winnings would be divided among those who correctly report balloon locations.

DARPA has made sure that no one person would be able to spot all of the balloons, thus they would be spread out pretty far across the entire country, according to reports. About 1,500 have signed up to participate, with another 1,000 expected to register before the contest begins.

It will certainly be interesting to see how this contest pans out, as it could have some real world implications. Obviously, the Defense Department would like to understand how information spreads — especially to assist in counterterrorism measures.

We’d like to know if you spot a balloon tomorrow. Let us know here in the comments. (Maybe we should have a Technologizer team?)

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Another Day, Another Bing-is-Better-Than-Google “Study”

Posted by Ed Oswald on December 3, 2009 at 10:32 pm

For the amount of time Microsoft spends lately beating us over the heads with how much better its Bing search engine is than Google, you’d think they would be in first place already. One of its latest examples is an effort by the Redmond company to convince us all that two-thirds of Google searchers would probably switch to its search engine if given the chance.

Microsoft has taken to its YouTube page for its latest schtick. In a three-minute video, the company says it recruited a “qualitative research firm” and had fifteen participants use Bing exclusively for a week. The company was not revealed as the sponsor of the study until after these folks told the researchers whether they’d stick with Bing or go back to their old search engine.

Continue Reading →

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A Path to Save Blockbuster?

Posted by Ed Oswald on December 1, 2009 at 9:50 pm

Is copying Redbox’s strategy a way for Blockbuster to survive? I’m beginning to think so.

Earlier this week, I rented from a Redbox for the first time. I have walked by these kiosks in our area for well over a year now, and in recent months they’ve become quite numerous — Redbox lists 19 of them within 10 miles of my house alone. The allure of a movie for just a buck a night is just too good of a deal to pass up.

While entering my selections into the kiosk — Star Trek and Angels & Demons — I couldn’t help but wonder why Blockbuster wasn’t doing the same thing. Heck, it costs you $5 to rent these same movies at their stores no matter whether you return them the next day or however long your local store allows the movies to be out.

It’s for this reason why Blockbuster is struggling. In this new world, it no longer is worthwhile to have a storefront because of the overhead costs. Think about it. Netflix has considerably less infrastructure costs because all its business is online and only needs shipping warehouses to serve its customers; Redbox has even less overhead since it essentially freeloads off the locations where its kiosks sit.

There’s just no way that the company can be on a level playing field with its competitors because of this. Tuesday’s news of the company partnering with NCR to place 200 “Blockbuster Express” kiosks in Duane Reade Drugstores across New York City could arguably be Blockbuster’s path to salvation.

When the company is done, about 2,500 kiosks will be up and running around the country. Each will hold about 900 DVDs, which will give the movie retailer an opportunity to offer a wider selection than that of Redbox, which can only hold about 500 discs.

As the company moves to this system, it will allow Blockbuster to continue closing down its retail locations, which have become its Achilles heel. This will stink for those employees that could soon find themselves out of a job, but its just a reality of our modern digital economy.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how Redbox responds. Blockbuster eliminated its competition by simply being able to offer a broader selection of movies than its smaller competitors, and now the company that arguably pioneered the movie rental kiosk finds itself in the same situation.

One thing it has so far as an advantage over Blockbuster is scale — some 17,500 kiosks are located in McDonald’s, Wal Marts, Walgreens, and other grocery and drug stores around the country. Blockbuster will need to quickly ramp up to legitimately compete.

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Yes Microsofties, Apple In-Store Sales May Be Down, But…

Posted by Ed Oswald on November 30, 2009 at 10:50 am

Microsofties could barely contain their glee when this video made the rounds of the Internet over the weekend. As you can see, it shows a tale of two stores: the Mission Viejo Apple store practically barren while the Microsoft Store in that mall (yes, the one with the dancing employees) is buzzing with activity.

Some of us probably brushed this off as an isolated incident, as Apple really does not have a blockbuster product this holiday season to draw the crazed Black Friday masses in. But according to Piper Jaffray Apple analyst Gene Munster, his research is showing that slowness at Apple Stores may have actually been the norm.

About 8.3 Macs per hour were sold at retail that day at stores visited by Munster’s team, well down from the 13 per hour rate last year. However, it would be fair to note that Best Buy’s Apple “store-within-a-store” has expanded significantly and a few more Apple Stores have opened since last year.

(Some of Apple’s partners were also offering much better discounts on Apple products than the company was, too…)

Before Redmond starts dancing in the streets, take this into account. Analysis of Apple’s online store performance shows 39 percent year over year growth in sales. This outperformed the entire e-commerce sector by three times. Munster says that this online jump should be more than enough to offset any losses at retail.

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Core i7 iMacs Showing Up Cracked, DOA

Posted by Ed Oswald on November 24, 2009 at 11:39 am

Apple has a bit of a quality assurance problem on its hands, according to press reports. Several publications are reporting that the new iMacs based on Intel’s Core i7 platform are inoperable out of the box, and some have even appeared with cracked LCD screens.

While the cracking issue is definitely not associated with the new Intel chip, the booting issue very well could be. Making matters worse for Apple, tech blog Engadget was one of the (un)lucky recipients of one of these faulty iMacs. According to reports on Apple’s own support forums, Cupertino is estimating a two-week wait on getting out replacement Macs to these customers.

While the cause of the screen cracks–which commonly appear on the lower left hand corner–is unknown, speculation points to the packaging. The cardboard box is delivered undamaged, so the problem could be in the packing or just simply the fragility of these new larger models.

Apple has not commented on the issue so far.

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Sidekick Sales Resuming

Posted by Ed Oswald on November 17, 2009 at 10:46 am

If you’re brave enough to want a Sidekick from T-Mobile after last month’s data loss fiasco, wait no longer. The carrier has resumed sales of the device, even throwing a price cut in for good measure. The older Sidekick 2008 is $49.99, and the fancier Sidekick LX will retail for $149.99, both with a two-year contract commitment. The meager price drops (about $25) may not be enough for many to take a chance on the company, however.

At least two states, California and Washington, are in the process of suing the company over the data loss. T-Mobile itself has done a little damage control by giving $100 credits to unhappy customers. All in all, October was a month the carrier would like to forget. Let’s just hope this time they have a backup…

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Dear Microsoft: Stop Trying So Hard

Posted by Ed Oswald on November 16, 2009 at 11:01 pm

Maybe it’s just me, but these days Microsoft seems to be trying as hard as possible to be cool. Obviously shaken up by the less-than-flattering image Apple’s Get a Mac ads have given it, everything it does these days seems just contrived to draw attention to itself so it can say, “Hey look! We can be cool too!”

Look at the company’s recent moves: everything it has done lately has been in response to Apple. Windows 7? Inspired by Mac OS X — even something some within Microsoft are prepared to admit. Microsoft Stores? Strangely Apple-like, their Geniuses are called “Answer desk experts.” Even their commercials these days are direct responses to Apple branding.

But one thing you won’t see Apple doing (or needing to do for that matter) is drawing attention to themselves, like the folks in Mission Viejo, Calif. seem intent on doing. I’m sorry, this is just bizarre. See for yourself.

This is why Apple succeeds where Microsoft fails: it doesn’t need gimmicky schticks to sell its wares.

Personally I would have walked out when this started. I’m there to buy a computer, not see some sideshow.

Either you like it or you don’t is Apple’s way. It also inspires an aura of confidence in itself, that its products sell themselves without any need for pomp and circumstance. Its no coincidence that the most successful products are a little cocky in their advertising: the confidence is transferable to the consumer.

Microsoft seems not to have figured this all out yet. When it does, somebody please let me know.

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Boxee Inks Deal to Launch Set-top Box

Posted by Ed Oswald on November 12, 2009 at 10:23 am

boxee_logoBoxee has signed a deal with an unnamed manufacturer to produce a set-top box compatible with its service, the company has said. The device will have its public debut (in mockup form, at least) at a December 7 meetup in NYC. Boxee says it would also reveal more details on the set-top unit at that time.

The deal has been in the works since the 2009 CES, according to CEO Avner Ronen. Ronen disclosed in a blog post that during the show, Boxee met with several manufacturers interested in integrating the Boxee service into an existing set top box or completely new unit.

Technologizer will be at the Boxee meetup next month, so stay tuned…

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Nokia N-Gage Gets the Boot

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 30, 2009 at 11:49 am

Nokia logoWhen Nokia failed to generate enough buzz with its gaming phone offerings under the N-Gage name, it switched gears in 2008 to offer the platform instead as a gaming service. It now appears that strategy was a failure as well: N-Gage is set to be phased out in 2010.

Games would be able to be purchased through September of next year. The community site attached to the N-Gage platform would stay online through 2010, Nokia said. A complete exit from gaming is not happening however: the manufacturer said its Ovi service would still offer a selection of games.

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iPhone App is Not Rhapsody’s Panacea

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 29, 2009 at 11:15 pm

reallogoIf you measure Rhaspody for iPhone’s success by the downloads it has accumulated — over a half million — it would be a hit. But looking at Real’s quarterly results, which reported subscriber numbers for the service, a different story is told. Rhapsody is still steadily losing subscribers, definitely not good news for the company.

Around 700,000 or so are paying accounts, down from about 750,000 in the previous quarter, and 800,000 the quarter before that. Obviously, from the steady decline, Rhapsody for iPhone has had little effect if any on Real’s bottom line.

In fact, in the results conference call, CEO Rob Glaser admitted that it was not seeing “a significant number” of new signups as a result of its iPhone venture.

The results show that a large majority of those who downloaded the application (myself included) did so just to check it out, obviously with no intention to sign up. What does this mean overall for Rhapsody? Hard to tell exactly, but I’d venture to guess consumers are finding other means to get their music fix, whether it be legal or illegal.

Let’s not call it an abject failure just yet and give Real the benefit of the doubt and another quarter. Either way, these early results are not promising.

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