Author Archive | Ed Oswald

Boxee Gears Up For Beta Debut

Posted by Ed Oswald on March 26, 2009 at 7:39 pm

BoxeeBoxee has spent an awful long time in “alpha.” Thus its users will likely be much relieved to know that the application is finally planning to move into beta during this summer. The company is promising that it will be worth the wait, and isn’t exactly disclosing all it plans.

Certainly for being in alpha the application is quite robust. And for whatever reason, it has certainly developed a loyal following if the well-attended meetup in NYC was any indication.

What we do know of whats coming in the product is this:

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iTunes Price Hike Set to Take Effect on April 7

Posted by Ed Oswald on March 26, 2009 at 8:49 am

ituneslogoGet ready for it. If you like any current music, it would probably be a really good idea to buy it right now. This is because Apple appears to be set to institute variable pricing beginning on April 7. The price of most popular music would go up to $1.29, including some classic tracks.

In all fairness to Apple, we should also state that some tracks will actually become cheaper at 69 cents apiece, but it is not clear how and what the record industry plans to charge. Package deals of music would also be offered.

I think raising the prices for digital music is a big mistake. 99 cents is a good price (and a fair one too) considering the overhead is much less. I do support however making older tracks cheaper: that just makes good sense.

We’ll know pretty much right away if this price hike will work. A good thing to watch will be P2P traffic: if it spikes, we know consumers are turning back to piracy rather than pay more money. iTunes has a big enough userbase to cause such a shift.

Hopefully like Apple says, most tracks will stay at 99 cents. But I’m not holding my breath as the record industry has proven to be a greedy bunch.

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Hulu Users Grow by 42%, Advertising Likely Helped

Posted by Ed Oswald on March 25, 2009 at 10:45 am

The Super Bowl ad featuring Alec Baldwin probably worked wonders for Hulu — comScore reported the site jumped two positions to become the fourth most watched video site with 34.7 million visitors viewing about 333 million videos during the period.

Hulu’s growth came among a 12 percent drop overall in the number of videos viewed on the web. However comScore says that this was more a function of the shorter month rather than any discernable change in online video viewing habits.

Obviously Google sites, which includes YouTube, stood at #1 with 99.4 million viewers watching a staggering 5.3 billion videos. The next closest was Fox Interactive (MySpace, etc.) with 463 million videos viewed and 53.8 million visitors.

Hulu has continued to advertise past the spot with Alec, and I’ve seen these commercials several times outside of the Super Bowl. Whatever you think of the site, you have to hand it to them for a effective advertising campaign that is unique and fresh.

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Initial Impressions of Boxee NYC

Posted by Ed Oswald on March 25, 2009 at 2:11 am

boxeenyc1Well, this post came a little later than I had hoped (car troubles on the way home), but here were my initial impressions of what I saw Tuesday night in NYC. This was definitely a good showing people wise for Boxee — the company reportedly had 1,000 RSVPs. I don’t think everyone showed up, but there were at least 400-500 folks in attendance.

The presentation was marred by glitches, both with the system itself (shows why they’re still in alpha yet), and on the production side. They also tried for the first time to stream the event live over Boxee, which was probably why there were so many issues.

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On The Way to Boxee NYC

Posted by Ed Oswald on March 24, 2009 at 1:00 pm

So I’m en route with a friend to NYC with a friend to hit up the Boxee meetup. Not exactly sure what we’re going to see, but I am expecting to hear at least a bit about the new upcoming beta from execs Avner Ronen and Whitney Hess.

At least two partners are expected to show up, including representatives from NextNewNetworks, who will show off their music video service, and Blip.tv.

Of course there will be giveaways, food, and music. Maybe I’ll be able to snag an exec to ask them a few questions, we’ll see. Anything you all would like to know?

Boxee is saying that a surprise partner will be making an appearance. I’m hoping it’s Hulu playing nice, but I doubt it since they have their own set top box now…

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IE Users Seem to be Returning to the Familiar

Posted by Ed Oswald on March 23, 2009 at 11:28 am

Internet Explorer LogoWith the launch of IE8 on Thursday, a fairly decent chunk of the Web surfing populace at least tried out Microsoft’s latest and greatest. However, it appears many have made the decision to downgrade to IE7. While IE8 reached a high of 2.6% over the weekend, it has since fallen nearly a half a percentage point, says Net Applications.

This drop could be explained by curious surfers opting to return to the previous version. It would not be entirely out of the question — IE8’s new features may be a bit too much for some to take the time to get used to, and some users have reported issues in rendering certain websites properly, even those created with Microsoft’s own Publisher tool.

As a whole, IE has been struggling in the face of increased competition from Mozilla’s Firefox. It’s share of the market has fallen to about 67%, down 8 points in the past year alone and well off its highs of nearly 90% in the early part of this decade.

In other words, IE8 needs to be a hit. I don’t think anybody — including myself — expected Firefox to have much more than a 15 or 20 percent market share. Well, it passed the 20 percent mark four months ago and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon.

Add Apple’s increasing popularity, and the iPhone with it, and who would have expected Safari to have an 8 percent market share either?

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Apple Bids Adieu To Bluetooth Headset

Posted by Ed Oswald on March 23, 2009 at 9:10 am

iphone-bluetooth-headsetThe Cupertino company quietly discontinued its in-house Bluetooth headset, according to Apple Store watchers. The product has been labeled as such since Saturday. It is still for sale, however.

It’s not clear why the headset is being discontinued, and there are several completely logical reasons why this happened. First could be a move to clear old stock for a refresh to the iPhone lineup expected by many later this year.

Another possibility is Apple may be exiting the accessory market altogether in an effort to focus on the phones themselves. With increased competition enroute from devices like the Palm Pre, Cupertino will have its hands full. Makes sense.

There’s not much evidence either that the device ever actually sold very well. It’s initial selling price of $129 in 2007 was rather steep, and Apple actually reduced the price the following year to $99.

It’s also been criticized by some for poor battery life and range, and a lack of voice activated dialing.

There’s also a third rumor, which AppleInsider is pushing (although they are not confirming it yet): there may have been some type of recall. Apple has reportedly been recalling existing inventory, but has not given any reasoning.

Why they may be doing that is not known. Either way, it’s bye-bye to the Apple Bluetooth Headset. I don’t know, but I would have probably opted for a cheaper alternative anyway if I would have needed one.

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Ballmer Takes on the "Apple Tax"

Posted by Ed Oswald on March 20, 2009 at 9:32 am

03-16ballmer-peoleready_lgMicrosoft CEO Steve Ballmer can’t seem to help himself when it comes to talking smack on Apple. His latest comments came at a media summit in New York held by publisher McGraw-Hill, where he claimed Apple consumers pay an extra $500 for the Apple logo. He seems to infer that the economic conditions have helped Windows turn the tide against the Cupertino juggernaut. He also took the opportunity to prove both his Microsoft and American gravitas too.

We now know that the Ballmer family does not own a single Apple product, and he drives American cars. I don’t know, but that almost seemed a subtle dig in and of itself towards the Apple faithful. What does the stereotypical user drive? Volvos, Volkswagens, BMW’s… in other words, foreign cars.

Yes, Ballmer is outspoken. But sometimes I look at this guy, and am reminded of this video — and I just don’t take some of what he says all too seriously.

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Sony Cozies Up to Google to Fight Amazon

Posted by Ed Oswald on March 19, 2009 at 9:08 am

sonyreaderNo doubt Sony is beginning to feel the heat from Amazon. While its Sony Reader was on the market much longer than Amazon’s Kindle has been, in the short time Amazon’s device has been with us it has taken the e-book world by storm.

Suddenly Sony is finding itself in a position it probably would rather not be in: take on Amazon directly or risk being relegated to also-ran status against its growing competitor.

Well, the first move in what will probably be a multi-step response is a partnership with Google. Sony will initially offer about 500,000 copyright-free books for its device that have been scanned by Google’s book search service.

Reader users would also be happy to hear all these titles would be made available for free. Most of Kindle’s titles are priced at $9.99 and above.

As per copyright law, Google will not be able to offer full versions of books that still have copyright. However, its collection before 1923 would be made available to the Sony Reader.

With these new books, the Reader would catapult past the Kindle for most titles available. Amazon only offers about 250,000 books, but has taken the business model of offering only the most popular and current titles. Sony would have about 600,000 titles available after Google’s digitized library is added.

Is this a good move? It remains to be seen. One thing that Sony has going for it is the fact that it can be sold internationally fairly easy. The Kindle uses CDMA technology, which is rarely used outside of the North American continent.

While the Reader needs to be tethered to a computer to download books, it can do this anywhere. Sony could exploit this weakness to its advantage if it so desired. Amazon, you might want to start considering a GSM version, no?

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HTC Has Three Android Phones on Tap for 2009

Posted by Ed Oswald on March 17, 2009 at 9:01 am

HTC MagicDevelopment on the Android platform is not slowing down by any means for Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC. As well as releasing the second generation model of the T-Mobile G1 later this year, at least two other Android-based phones are scheduled for a 2009 release.

The G2 will go on sale first in April in Europe through Vodafone. The other two models do not apparently have a firm release date. In any case, HTC’s disclosure that it has at least three phones in the pipeline confirm rumors that the company was moving full speed ahead with Android.

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