Author Archive | Ed Oswald

Texting Rotting Teen Brains

Posted by Ed Oswald on May 26, 2009 at 9:55 am

As interpersonal commnication dies even further with our ever more voracious appetite for communicating by electronic means, the issue of health is coming back up once again.

Psychologists and physicians are beginning to worry that our teens are becoming distracted, sleep deprived, and even anxious as a result of an increase in the use of texting, the New York Times reports.

Studies are showng that some teens may be sending hundreds of texts every day. With such little time available during the day, you’ve got to think some of these kids are texting well into the night.

Long before texting, Moms were complaining about their kids not getting enough sleep. Their newfound affinity for texting is probably making that much worse. Some doctors are going as far to argue that texting is slowing the seperation process from our parents, as it allows kids to stay in touch with their parents that much easier.

The rise of text messaging is rather recent, so its really hard to say exactly if its having any kind of effect on our health. However, frequent texters are sometimes experiencing issues akin to repetitive stress injuries, especially in the thumbs.

Are we blaming too much on the kids, though? Look at some parents, connected to the world via their BlackBerrys and iPhones. Some of us are just as addicted to our devices, and you know what they say: people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

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Systemax Scoops Up another Big Brand in Circuit City

Posted by Ed Oswald on May 25, 2009 at 2:10 pm

Circuit CityThought you heard the last of Circuit City? Think again.

Systemax completed the acquisition of the rights to the name on May 19, and relaunched circuitcity.com over the holiday weekend. Old customers will begin receive e-mails from the new owners beginning June 9, although they are being given until that time to choose to opt out.

All assets were sold to Systemax for $14 million USD, plus “a share of future revenue generated utilizing those assets over a 30-month period,” a minimum of $3 million USD according to the press release announcing the new site launch.

CircuitCity.com had a message on it for quite awhile promising some new version of the site, although it wasn’t very clear how it would return. The new version seems not much different from the old — it retains the old color scheme and general layout, although it does seem to have a TigerDirect like feel.

It’s new overlords will not honor warranties or service products from the old Circuit City, it should be noted. Regardless, it is moving on with a new mantra for the brand: “Lower Prices, Wider Selection, Faster Shipping, World Class Service!”

(No solace to the 30,000 employees left go, eh?)

Systemax is certainly on a roll — it now owns the two biggest retail names in electronics next to Best Buy: Circuit City as well as CompUSA. The company bought the latter brand last year for about $30 million USD and began reopening select retail locations two months ago.

It appears we won’t see any reopenings of Circuit Citys in the near future, however Systemax is making a smart move in using a very familiar brand name to lure customers in. Yes, it essentially is a reskinned Tiger Direct/CompUSA, but who cares if you’re their shareholders right? Money is money.

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Microsoft Advertising Its Way to Top of Search

Posted by Ed Oswald on May 25, 2009 at 1:10 pm

Well, I’m not sure why it thinks it would work any different this time, but Microsoft at it again trying to advertise its way to better search marketshare with the search engine supposedly now known as Bing (previously known as Kumo). Altogether, about $80 to $100 million will be spent to promote the latest reboot, Advertising Age is reporting.

Microsoft will ask consumers to rethink what search is. Instead of directly going after its competitors, it will challenge consumers to think if search really does work as well as they thought.

If it does go as far as reports claim, it would be the largest ad campaign for any search product yet. You’d have to think that the saturation–ads will appear online, on TV and radio, and in the print–would at least cause a good portion of consumers to at least give the new search contender a look.

Consumers are generally happy with their searches. About two-thirds of all users are satisfied with search performance, although four in 10 searches require refinement to get what the user wants.

Bing’s (or Kumo, whatever) challenge if it is going to take on Google in this manner is to eliminate the need for refinement. So far from what we’re hearing it seems that it does seem to answer this to some extent, but it’s not a massive difference.

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Neat: New Yorker Cover Painted on iPhone

Posted by Ed Oswald on May 25, 2009 at 10:59 am

CV1_TNY_06_01_09.inddWhen you look at this week’s New Yorker cover, you may initially think it was a watercolor. But it’s not — its done digitally, and on top of that, on the iPhone no less.

Artist Jorge Columbo created the New York street scene on a program called Brushes. It is a petite 1.9MB art application available through the App Store.

He stood on 42nd Street creating the scene in about an hour, according to the New York Times.

According to Columbo, he purchased the app after getting his iPhone to keep himself “entertained.” Well, it seems he’s done more than that now that one of his digital works is now gracing one of the country’s most notable arts and entertainment magazines.

Columbo also captured the process of creating the artwork through a special feature within Brushes, which shows his methodical process of creating the scene layer by layer.

(You can see the video at the New Yorker website.)

This cover art will not be the last of the artist’s iPhone artwork. The magazine said it would host a new creation from Columbo each week on its website.

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Not the Way to Start Your Palm Pre Launch

Posted by Ed Oswald on May 22, 2009 at 1:28 pm

Palm PreThe Boy Genius Report claims that Best Buy will only receive about 4,250 Palm Pres for its launch on June 6–a pittance considering the retailer has at least 1,000 retail locations set to offer the device. If these initial shipment numbers are true, each store would receive four units, far less that what you’d think would be required for a successful launch. RadioShack is fairing no better–721 stores are slated to receive an average of two Pres.

It gets worse. Best Buy’s launch is supposedly scheduled to actually be in two phases: the first of which lasts about two months after the launch, and the company is specifically warning stores that replenishment may not happen once stores sell out–which they certainly will.

I’m sure hoping Sprint stores are getting much more than four devices per store. If they aren’t, I question whether the Pre is ready for prime time. Why hogtie your launch like this?

We have a request out for comment from Sprint to see if they will shed some light on the planned availability from company stores. Typically, companies will not disclose that information so we’re not holding our collective breath on that one.

If the rumors are true, it’s a shame no company can get its act together enough to both produce and market a device that can match the iPhone.

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Air Force: No, GPS Will Not Fail

Posted by Ed Oswald on May 21, 2009 at 12:42 pm

The Air Force has begun work to allay fears of GPS system failure following a GAO report last week that the system stands a risk of deteriorating starting in 2010. In a scheduled online forum over Twitter on the topic, the armed services branch said in no uncertain terms that GPS is not going anywhere.

“No, the GPS will not go down. GAO points out, there is potential risk associated with a degradation in GPS performance,”Col. Dave Buckman, AFSPC command lead for Position, Navigation and Timing said over Twitter.

Buckman continued by saying that he agreed with the agency that there was risk of performance issues, however the Air Force Space Command was indeed working to prevent any disruptions.

GAO officials have charged that budget overruns and a lack of oversight has put the system at risk. It’s apparent that the report stung hard enough that officials overseeing our system felt the need to respond to it.

“We definitely need to keep this in perspective . Since 1995, GPS has never failed to exceed performance standards,” Buckman argued.

I agree with the Air Force’s assessment. While cost overruns and oversight issues are handicapping the upgrades to a aging system, the GAO’s report came across as a little too much Chicken Little.

At the same time, its a lesson in government accountability that hopefully our new president is going to correct.

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Oprah Plugs Skype

Posted by Ed Oswald on May 21, 2009 at 10:31 am

skypelogoI’m not exactly sure what Oprah’s affinity as of late for putting her media weight behind several techologies, but she’s doing it again with Skype, the popular VoIP service.

Oprah’s show does use Skype on certain occassions to interview guests and the company is a sponsor, but producers stress that had nothing to do with Oprah selecting the technology to cover in a show.

Instead, “the idea originated from our producers who wanted to see what extreme places they could Skype into and also how they could use this far-reaching technology to surprise viewers,” a Harpo spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.

Some of the spots Oprah will be interviewing guests from are a Canadian town near the North Pole, a submarine, and a Wi-Fi equipped Virgin America plane. It should be mentioned that Virgin actually forbids Skype video chats typically in flights, but I guess Mr. Branson is making an exception for the Queen of All Media.

I don’t think Skype will get the boost that Kindle did from its Oprah debut as the technology is much more established. However it certainly won’t hurt either.

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Google Suggest: Weren’t We Doing This Already?

Posted by Ed Oswald on May 21, 2009 at 9:03 am

It’s always somewhat amusing when companies roll out old features as new ones. Essentially, that’s what Google Suggest is. The company has rejiggered a feature that has long been available through the Google search field and prettied it up a bit.

Essentially the changes build on prexisting functionality. Google has made the feature personalized, which would cull your web history (if you have a Google account and are signed in, Google does track your searches) and add previous search terms into the suggestion list.

Another feature is navigational suggestions. When you type a search term in that may be closely related to an actual site, the site is populated in the returns, which allows you to go directly to that site without searching through the results for it.

This goes even further with Google actually even looking through AdSense ads for returns. It says the ads in Google Suggest would appear similar to the way they do on the results pages, with a “Sponsored Link” mark and colored background.

Google says that functionality is being tested and is not open to all advertisers. If it works well, it could be expanded but the company isn’t expanding too much on its plans there.

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Wal-Mart Beefing Up Electronics Departments

Posted by Ed Oswald on May 18, 2009 at 10:15 am

wmlogoWal-Mart is making a move to become a premier electronics destination and gain share in the wake of Circuit City’s demise. Beginning this week, the electronics departments in all 3,500+ stores will get a facelift.

Wal-Mart and Amazon seem to have been the biggest beneficiaries of Circuit City’s fall, splitting the company’s business rather evenly. Best Buy has not seemed to gain much at all, even though it was expected to by analysts.

Displays will be roomier, and top brands will get their own distinct sections. The moves are a continuation of Wal-Mart electronics expansion, this time apparently aimed at making the department more sophisticated.

One thing that will make computer manufacturers happy is a new laptop section where consumers will be able to try out the products. Many were not happy with Wal-Mart’s strategy of keeping them locked away to prevent shoplifting: this would bring them more in line with what other electronics retailers do.

The recession has definitely helped out the retailer: consumers that normally would not shop there have turned to Wal-Mart in search of better deals. Company executives see this, and are making an honest effort to step up their game to keep these new shoppers when the economy improves.

Changes in consumer behavior is also being noticed by the manufacturers themselves: Wal-Mart is now able to compete for first runs of new products, whereas before they weren’t even considered.

(Hat tip: Wall Street Journal)

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GPS System May Start Deteriorating Next Year

Posted by Ed Oswald on May 15, 2009 at 10:58 am

The GPS system is beginning to show its age, and like some of the elderly among us, may begin losing its way beginning in 2010. This is due to the aging of the satellies themselves, some of which have been in operation for close to 20 years.

According to the Government Accountability Office, the Air Force is beginning to fall behind in targets to replace aging equipment. Part of this has to do with the fact that some of these projects have not had decent oversight, while others have gone well over budget.

The next scheduled lauch of a GPS satellite is in November. This would be more than three years behind schedule, the GAO reports. According to its research, the probability of keeping all 24 satellites in the air drops below 95 percent next year, and down to 80 percent in the following two years. If these problems continue long term, the probability of a a fully-functional GPS system in 2017 is only 10 percent.

As these satellites fail, GPS will become less and less accurate as a result.

What may need to be looked at now is international cooperation. The EU is busy building Galileo, and Russia and China are also working on their own GPS system.

Of course, since GPS has a military use as well, the US Government may not be all too excited to let overseas systems in. However, if we can’t fix our own problems here, it may be the only viable option.

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