It’s iDay! Our live coverage of Apple’s “Latest Creation” event at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco is…live! (Sort of–we’ve been having tech difficulties, but it’s working at the moment.)
[UPDATE: Part way into the event, Cover It Live, our live event platform, stared working reliably again. My apologies to everyone who showed up during the glitchy period.]
“Insanity,” novelist Rita Mae Brown wrote, “is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” By that standard, the long history of tablet computers doesn’t quite count as insanity–manufacturers have tried a variety of form factors and features over the years. But the results are the same, over and over again: failure. It’s the classic example of a gadget that the industry keeps coming back to and reintroducing with all the hype it can muster–and which consumers keep rejecting.
Today, Apple is announcing its first true tablet. It took the company thirty-four years to get around to it, and it’s just about the only outfit in the business that abstained until now. Whether the device looks brilliant or misbegotten, all evidence suggests that there won’t be much that’s repetitious about it. Even so, it’s worth looking back at more than two decades of attempts to get tablets right–none of which really succeeded, and some of which failed on a monumental scale.
Technologist Long Zheng’s watchful eye caught a clue that points to the likely existence of an upcoming Zune phone, according to blog post he published today.
A Zune software update (version 4.2.202.0) includes a USB device driver package that reference hardware IDs for an as of yet unknown Microsoft Zune product. Zheng noted that USB body regulations forbid vendors from masking devices IDs, so the device must be from Microsoft. There are three variants of the ID that may point to different models, he added.
There has been a lot of speculation about whether or not Microsoft will make its own device. I was in the “yes” camp over a year ago, because I believe that Microsoft will attempt to maintain parity with Apple’s product mix. It acquired Sidekick creator Danger Inc., and tasked executive Roz Ho (former head of its Mac business unit) to absorb Danger into its Entertainment and Devices division.
It’s true that Microsoft’s Windows Mobile business model has been reliant on third parties, but that model hasn’t given the platform much wind in its sails as evidenced by the OS’s sinking market share. However, it isn’t exactly backing off from supporting its IHV partners. It’s also sticking to its story that it has no immediate plans to build a Zune phone.
Last year, it was reported that Microsoft was giving devices makers reference designs to use to build their own next generation Windows Mobile devices. It is also working on Zune-branded services, code-named “Pink,” “Skybox,” and “SkyMart,” to standardize the user experience across devices.
My bet is that Microsoft is in the mobile device market for the long haul. The fact that Apple is now selling a substantial number of connected devices, which contributes solidly to its bottom line, is not escaping Microsoft. It will try many things.
The company realizes that people are accessing information and services from a growing number of devices, and has technology planned to accommodate that change both in the short (Silverlight) and long term (Midori OS).
We are going to have to wait and see what Microsoft is doing; it’s a big company that has a lot of coals in the fire. Keep a close eye out on Mobile World Congress next month.
TechCrunch is down again–someone with hacking skills, a vendetta, and–it seems–a dislike for certain ad formats appears to have crippled the site for the second night running.
While many observers of the Catholic church speculated that Pope Benedict XVI’s time as the head of the church would be nowhere as revolutionary as that of his predecessor, The Holy See is making his own mark on the future of the church. Benedict has asked priests and ministers to employ new technologies to spread the church’s message even further than before.
The church’s “World Day for Social Communications” will take place on May 16, and according to the Vatican the topic will be “The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word.” Benedict believes that in order to keep the church relevant — especially among youth — digital mediums must be used effectively.
“Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word,” he wrote in a message posted to the Vatican website.
Of course, this would not replace the traditional service, but for those who may not be able to attend on a regular basis employing digital mediums will help the Church maintain a greater connection with its parishioners.
This is not the first time Benedict has discussed the potential for the Internet when it comes to the Catholic church: in last year’s message, he called on his priests and followers to begin using the Internet to spread the word of the church, however at the same time value the importance of real-life social interaction.
This is your almost-final reminder: I’ll be at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center tomorrow, Wednesday 27th at 10am PT to live blog Apple’s unofficial-but-yes-it’s-true tablet launch. Please join me at technologizer.com/appletablet for up-to-the-second coverage and conversation.
I kind of suspect that just about everyone who hangs out with me tomorrow morning will have multiple browser windows open so they can skim multiple sources of coverage. So what the heck–I’m making it easy. Our live page has links to the coverage pages at Engadget, Gdgt, Gizmodo, iLounge, Macworld, Slashgear, Ubergizmo, and Wired–and I may add more sources before the event starts. (Actually, feel free to suggest ’em.)
See you there, I hope!
One major problem with Xbox Live Arcade, Microsoft’s downloadable game service, is that you must deal in “Microsoft Points,” and they come in increments that usually cost more than the price of a game alone. A lawyer has now filed a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft for this practice.
Samuel Lassoff, of Horsham, Penn., argues that the Microsoft Points system effectively charges you for purchases you can’t make, because the leftover points are rarely enough to buy another game, InformationWeek reports. He calls this “a scheme” for Microsoft to “unjustly enrich itself through their fraudulent handling” of his account. It’s not clear how much money he’s seeking.
This issue of point systems — which applies to Nintendo’s Wii Shop channel as well — has been a pet peeve of mine and other gamers ever since Microsoft introduced Xbox Live Arcade. It’s as if you walked into Subway, and instead of paying $5 for a sandwich, you’re required to pay $6.25, and use the rest on a future purchase. And you’re charged $6.25 on the next visit as well, making it tough to escape the cycle of leftover credit.
In fairness, Microsoft lets you pay in exact dollars for its Games on Demand service, which offers large-scale games such as Mass Effect and Bioshock for download, but the company won’t commit to charging dollars for Xbox Live Arcade.
Last week, Xbox group product manager Aaron Greenberg told G4 that the point system was never meant to mislead customers, and that currency fluctuations and technical complexities make a switch challenging. Greenberg dodged the issue of overcharging in points, an issue that has nothing to do with currency.
I’m not a judge, but calling this method “fraudulent” seems like a long shot. “Greedy and unfair” seems more fitting, even though that won’t fly in court. Still, I’m glad someone’s ruffling Microsoft’s feathers over this. The point system can stay if it means consumers can pay exactly what they want, but I’m at the point where the current system is a deterrent, because I don’t want to get stuck with the extra credits. Maybe Lassoff’s lawsuit is the kick in the pants Microsoft needs.
Apple may still officially be “pondering” whether it should approve Google’s Google Voice app for iPhone, but there’s finally good news: Google has released an entirely Web-based version of the service (at m.google.com/voice). It works on the iPhone as well as Palm’s Pre and Pixi handsets, and brings a large chunk of the functionality of the native Voice apps for Android and BlackBerry to your phone’s browser.
This new version, like mobile Gmail, is among the most app-like browser services I’ve ever seen, period, letting you dial from your Google contacts list or a keypad, read and listen to messages, send text messages, and configure the app right within mobile Safari. When you make calls using it, the person who answers sees your Google Voice number, not the “real” one associated with your phone: Google makes an outgoing call from the iPhone, then reroutes it over a line of its own.
There’s only so far that a Web-based telephony app can go. On Android and BlackBerry, Google Voice can insert itself as your default phone interface, and it gets access to the contacts stored on your phone. On the iPhone, it stays a secondary interface and can’t see your local contacts. (You can, however, use Google Sync to sync your phone’s contacts with your Google Account.) When you make an outgoing call, your iPhone confirms you want to do so and shows Google’s routing number rather than the one you’re really calling–kind of confusing. And while the interface for wrangling messages is a vast improvement on the rudimentary one in the old Web-based Google Voice, it still send you out of Safari and into QuickTime when you want to listen to a message.
In short, the new Web-based Google Voice is impressive–but it doesn’t eliminate the value that a true native Google Voice for iPhone might bring. I’m gloomily assuming that its arrive eliminates whatever remaining chance there was that Apple might approve the app, unless the FCC decides to weigh in further. But I’m also relieved that around 80% of the Google Voice experience–just to pick a number at random–has landed on my iPhone.
Here’s a video Google produced about the new version. A few screens after the jump.
Uberblog TechCrunch appears to have been hacked. At the moment, I’m getting either a blank screen or a “We’ll be back shortly.” message. Right before that, though, I got this (bad word censored by me, but I bet you can figure it out):
Dupedb.com looks like a porn torrent site or or somesuch–all I know for sure is that it looked so disreputable that I turned around and left within seconds of getting there.
And…the site’s back up. At least as of this moment. Details on what happened to come, I hope.
[FURTHER UPDATE, 12:20am PT: It’s down again.]
[EVEN FURTHER UPDATE, 12:56am PT: Site’s down, new message is up.]
Engadget has taken note of the fact that Palm has seemingly removed the Treo Pro–the last Palm phone that wasn’t a WebOS phone–from its site. It’s the end of an era–the first decade and a half or so of Palm’s existence leading up to the announcement of WebOS and the Palm Pre a year ago.
Well, sort of. Palm hasn’t completely excised the Treo Pro from its Web site. It just removed the navigational links that help you find it. Google for “Treo Pro,” and the first link you get is to a page on Palm’s site where the Pro is apparently still for sale:
The Sprint link takes you to a page where the Pro is priced at $149.99–the same final cost as the Pre. There may be a rationale for buying the Pro–a phone that was sort of a nicely-refined dinosaur even when it shipped in 2008–over the Pre, but it’s escaping me right now.
Besides, the Treo Pro may have been a Treo in name, but it was a Windows Mobile phone. That meant it didn’t have the bloodline going back to the first PalmPilot. Even if it’s all been discontinued, it’s not a major moment in the history of Palm. The major moment came when the company’s final Palm OS device went off the market.
Or has it yet?
Google the word “Centro,” and you’ll find a Palm.page on the Centro, which I think was the final Palm OS phone:
While the page offers to help you buy a Centro, it seems to be a phantom–as far as I tell, the links don’t work. The major moment that was the passing of the final Palm OS phone came and went, and I didn’t even notice.
Except…the Centro isn’t quite gone yet. Sprint still sells it, for a final price of thirty bucks. I’m prepared to accept the possibility that Palm has stopped making the things and Sprint is blowing out the final production run, but it’s sort of endearing to see a Palm OS phone out there in the iPhone/Android/WebOS era. At least for a little while longer. And even though I don’t recommend buying it unless you really like the Palm OS, and maybe not even then…
