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An iSlate Docking Station? A Virtual One Would Be Nice

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 20, 2010 at 11:41 am

With almost precisely one week to go until the-event-that-everyone-assumes-Apple-will-announce-its-tablet-at, I’m tempted to declare a moratorium on even discussing rumors about the tablet. And I’m instinctively distrustful of rumors reported by TheStreet.com’s Scott Moritz. Among other things, he’s the guy who ran an EXCLUSIVE that Verizon Wireless had decided to pass on Palm’s Pre and wouldn’t be selling it starting in January. Which must have come as startling news to Verizon, which will start selling the Pre this month.

Anyhow, Moritz has another EXCLUSIVE that says that Verizon will be selling the Apple tablet. Let’s just skip over that tidbit (which has been floating around for months) and reflect on another rumor buried in the story:

The Tablet will also include a docking station, according to Northeast Securities’ Kumar. This could be a crucial feature for consumers who harbor an ongoing love affair with keyboards. For those unsatisfied with touchscreen typing, a dock would connect to a keyboard and mouse.

I dunno whether there’s any truth there, which is why this post isn’t called something like Apple Tablet to Feature Docking Station.  But even if Steve Jobs strides onstage next Wednesday and never says anything about a docking station, it’s fun to toy with the idea.

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Wisdom of Crowds Webcast

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 20, 2010 at 9:13 am

Here’s the video replay of the interview with James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, which I guest-tweeted last week. (The replay version even includes all the tweets folks made commenting on the interview.) Thought-provoking stuff if you’re interested in how tapping the smarts of large groups of people can be a surer strategy for success than relying on the judgment of a handful of experts…

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Okay, Is Now the Time to Dump Cable TV?

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 20, 2010 at 2:17 am

A year ago, I toyed with the idea of getting rid of cable and doing all my TV watching online. In the end, I kept Comcast–partially out of lethargy, but mostly because (A) cable is still a much better source of news-related programming than the Web, and (B) I’m very comfortable with my TiVo.

Reason (A) still strikes me as a significant argument in favor of keeping cable. With reason (B), however, I may be at a crossroads. My TiVo HD, which never worked very well, now isn’t working at all–it crashes every few minutes. I’m still trying to troubleshoot it, but I suspect that the drive is bad and will need to be replaced. That’ll require an investment of money and time, and while I may go through with it, I’m also flirting with the notion of retiring the TiVo and giving up cable.

News remains the biggest argument against doing so: I still like the idea of having CNN, CSPAN, Fox News, MSNBC, and other newsy outlets readily available. On the other hand, some of this stuff is available in podcast form–albeit after a delay–and it’s not like I’m glued to TV news every night. (I do, however, like to gorge on it when breaking events warrant, whether they involve election night or a celebrity death or the moving tale of a small boy swept away in his father’s experimental balloon.)

If I cut the cable and give up TiVo, what should I replace them with? I’m still not sure. I like Roku. I own an Apple TV that I don’t use much but would probably enjoy if I made an effort to rediscover it. The Boxee Box looks promising.

But the one box that offers access to the widest variety of stuff–including an endless supply of free material–is a PC. So I’m also toying with the notion of connecting a Windows box or Mac Mini to my Vizio and using it for Netflix, Boxee, YouTube, video podcasts, and a whole lot more. The major downside: Even a cheap PC costs a lot more than a Roku or a Boxee Box. But hey, if I’m no longer tithing to Comcast I’ll have some newfound cash to spend.

I don’t need to give up cable. I can afford it, and there are times that I’m very glad I have it. But more and more, I feel guilty about spending as much I do each month given how little of it I end up watching. It feels wasteful, like filling up your plate at an all-you-can-eat buffet when you know you’re only going to take a bite or two.

Here’s the part where I ask for your advice. What would you do? What are you doing?

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Our Live Coverage of Apple’s Tablet Event

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 19, 2010 at 12:06 pm

A week from Thursday at 10am PT, I’ll be in the audience at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco as Apple announces its iSlate tablet. (Okay, it isn’t telling anyone it’s announcing a tablet, and the evidence it’s going to be called iSlate is extremely tenuous–but we need to call it something for the next eight days.)

As usual, I’ll use the excellent CoverItLive service to share the news as it happens. If you join me, I’ll try to answer your questions, too. These live events are a blast–just ask any of the thousands of folks who have been showing up for recent ones such as our coverage of Google’s Nexus One launch.

Here’s where to go for next week’s Apple coverage: technologizer.com/appletablet. Head there now, and you can request that we e-mail a reminder to you.

See you there, I hope!

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Windows Mobile Scuttlebutt

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 19, 2010 at 8:58 am

CrunchGear’s John Biggs has some alleged Windows Mobile 7 facts from a tipster, who says that it’s based on the Zune HD’s OS (potentially good–the HD is pretty darn slick) and won’t run existing Windows Mobile software. If so, Microsoft is rebooting Windows Mobile rather than upgrading it. Seems like as smart a strategy as any at this point…

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More Lala Speculation

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 19, 2010 at 8:39 am

Demented genius entrepreneur Michael Robertson thinks that Apple bought Lala to help it quickly offer a service that puts iTunes users’ existing music collections in the cloud. Makes sense that he’d think that makes sense: He founded MP3.com, which offered a similar service almost exactly a decade ago. (It was wonderful–and the music companies successfully sued it out of business almost immediately.)

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Interpreting Apple Invites

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 19, 2010 at 2:37 am

The tech press covers Apple like it does no other company. And one oddball, ongoing example of Apple exceptionalism is the fact that even its invitations to product launches are treated as major news. They’re also analyzed as if the minimalist words and imagery they contain will reveal precisely what Apple will announce, if only we can crack the code.

All of which gives me an excuse to…write about Apple invites as we wait for next week’s Apple product event to come around. “A Brief History of Apple Event Invites” recaps eight years of such invitations: what they said, what people thought they said, and whether expectations for the events in question had anything to do with the news that Apple actually released.

(Executive summary: Apple is often vague in its invites but never misleading, and it’s sometimes surprisingly straightforward.)

I’ll be at next week’s event and would be pleased to have the honor of your company for our live coverage. And if you’re in the mood to make predictions, participate in Technologizer’s Apple Tablet Prediction Project, and get a shot at winning a $100 Apple Store gift card.

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