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Monthly Archives: July 2008

Stop Trusting the Internet!

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I’m going to summarize this entire blog post in 12 seconds for the attention-span-deprived members of my audience:

The Internet is full of tubes, not facts on 12seconds.tv

As is too-often repeated but still ever so appropriate, “with great power comes great responsibility” (it comes from Spiderman). The Internet, but more specifically user-generated content such as blogs, tweets, and vlogs, allows anyone to become a content source. The more one has followers/readers/viewers, the more ‘power’ one has. When I blogged a few months ago that Macbooks would take a 50% share of all laptops, I had a variety of comments show up here (most of which completely missed the point I was trying to make, but that’s a different story). I have a handful of readers, so this didn’t really go anywhere – but had an a-list blogger written the same story, who knows where it’d end up.

Example #1: an earthquake occurred in Los Angeles today. The news spread quickly by both “official channels” and individuals using blogs and twitter. A story went up over at VentureBeat which included a reference to a video posted on 12seconds.tv entitled “5.8 LA Earthquake Recreation 36th Floor.” I added the bolded “recreation” myself for emphasis here because many people took the video as fact. Despite it not looking very “earthquake-ish” and despite it posting 30 minutes after the quake was over. Now the VB article’s been updated, but it has since spawned a post decrying the video as “fake”.

I’m pointing this out because not only did the VB author miss the title of the video (which is understandable), but the follow-up blogger did as well, despite the fact that he was clearly trying to determine whether or not it’s a fake. The power of the original article was so strong that even the title of the video wasn’t enough to make someone researching the topic realize it was baloney.

Example #2: Urban legends. How on earth do these still circulate??? My wife is on a mailing list with thousands of mothers in the Bay Area, they recently got sent an email talking about McDonald’s play pens and hypodermic needles. A simple google search for “McDonald’s Ball Pit” reveals link after link decrying the story as fake. Yet it continues to circulate to and from intelligent people all over the place. Need a better example? How about one tweet to instantly convince 50,000 people that Jared Fogle (Subway Jared) is dead (he’s not). One word here: snopes.

Example #3: Today I saw the following headline on FriendFeed: “20% of Primetime Television Now Watched Online” with a link to this article. Now I don’t read SearchEngineWatch, so I have no idea why they’re covering such a topic, but that’s not quite the topic du jour. The person sharing the article has now propagated the story, and his followers (and the followers of whomever then reshares it) will all be wandering around on- and off-line sharing the fact that 20% of TV is being watched online. Only one problem: it’s not. I did one more google search for the firm quoted in the article (Integrated Media Measurement Inc.) and one click later found this finding: “IMMI finds more than 20 percent of panel members watch some prime time programming online” (again, emphasis for effect). While this is still an important statistics, it is a far cry different from the headline being shared (one which is, in my opinion, quite hard to believe anyway, but that’s another matter). Updated: it’s sad to say, but Reuters now has the “20%” story, and yes, they have it wrong.

I know it’s a lot of fun to be on the cutting edge of information. It’s also fun to learn a new fact and rapidly share it along to your friends and family. But whatever happened to double-checking a source? Let’s face it, the news is more about entertainment and ad revenue than it is about reporting facts and accuracy. Just because it happened online doesn’t make it real. As they say, entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.

Hasbro Made the Right Business Decision

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It’s probably not a fun thing to do, telling a half million people that they cannot play a game they love, especially when it’s your game.  Only it wasn’t Hasbro’s game they were playing, exactly, it was a copy of Hasbro’s game.  Hasbro actually purchased the US/Canadian rights to the Scrabble brand many years ago, and for that reason alone is 100%, undoubtably justified in their decision to kill Scrabulous.  But, as Mathew Ingram asked, is it right?  I say yes (and I’m not alone).

First, they were protecting their brand.  While this is a highly-scrutinized activity by the public and media, if you own a brand/trademark you must protect it.  This isn’t just about “a cool homage to their game” it’s about the long-term strength of the name Scrabble (TM).  Had Scrabulous been allowed to continue, this would have set a precedent whereby other companies could also mimic the name and board design and gameplay rules. Like it or not, Hasbro has paid money for these assets, has worked hard to promote these assets, and deserves to have them.

Further on this point, Scrabulous has directly shown that derivative works can become popular.  This makes the threat to the Scrabble brand even more visible.  It’s one thing to have the janky “San-Fran-opoly” games sold in Fisherman’s Wharf where the gameplay is not quite the same as Monopoly, and as a result, nowhere nearly as good in quality (if you don’t believe me and actually own one of these knockoffs, go take a look at the dust on it relative to the real Monopoly/variant set you own).  So Scrabulous showed hands-down just how dangerous a good knockoff can be!

Don Reisinger wrote a good article on the topic, but I disagree with this point:

Instead of embracing the past and clinging to its faulty hope that Scrabble will somehow beat Scrabulous, Hasbro should have realized that the latter has over 500,000 active users at any given time – far more than those playing the board game – and could quite easily monetize that game and enjoy an even greater Return on Investment than it will by shutting it down.

I think it’s safe to say that while a few of the Scrabulous users won’t come back to play Scrabble, the majority won’t give a damn about who did what to who.  The people who were addicted to playing will still be addicted to playing.  Further, anyone coming to Facebook who searches “Scrabble” will naturally find it.  I’m not a big believer that the bulk of current users are as concerned about “the community” as other bloggers make it sound.

This all may sound a little funny coming from me, as both a “community guy” as well as a discordant voice when it comes to copyright issues.  But this isn’t about copyright per se, and I just don’t think the Scrabulous guys (whose product I do appreciate) exactly “deserve” anything here, regardless of their attempts to talk to Hasbro etc.  There are plenty of opportunities to go create games, people do it every day (and I hope that those talented programmers take their skills to build something new and exciting).

Just as we must protect individuals and consumers from large corporations throwing muscle around (big media, oil, insurance, healthcare, food production, etc), companies too deserve the right to protect their assets when threatened.  There’s obviously a fine and delicate line to watch here, but I believe in this case Hasbro is on the right side of that line.

How-To: Design a Killer Dual-Screen Laptop

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When I got my original Vaio (the good one, not 2.0 aka “the trainwreck”) I was amazed by the thinness of the screen (even next to an Air it’s a very thin screen). I distinctly recall the day I dreamed up a dual-screen laptop, one that would work inside the existing context of Windows (or OS X) and be extremely helpful for a variety of different types of users. Since then I’ve heard of numerous forays into the Dual-Screen Laptop space, and in each case I simply don’t understand the efforts.

Three out of four of the concepts I’ve read about use one screen as a big “touchpad”, the other as a traditional display (here, here, and here). The fourth has a very bizarre “folding half-screen” approach, which just looks like it should be called the Picasso edition.

I believe the correct approach to a dual-screen laptop isn’t about replacing the keyboard, it just doesn’t seem like a high-want item. I’m a decent typist, but I don’t think I’d do well on an all-touch screen-keyboard (a la iPhone). Instead, I think about how people use both laptops *and* desktops with dual-monitors, and what options would make sense in a single unit.

So, without further adieu, here is my little “Recipe For Success” to built a useful dual-screen laptop (along with my terrible photoshopped prototype image):

Start by thinking of a thin-screened laptop like the (now former) Sony Vaio SZ series. Imagine on the side (left or right – you pick) a hinge, and on the other side a clasp. You release the clasp, then a second screen swivels out (via hinge) to appear next to your original screen. Attentive readers will realize at this moment that the screen is facing away from the user, which means the hinge needs a swivel as well (just like on a tablet PC). That’s the basics, but read on for it to all make a bit more sense. Also, I’m not stating that this configuration is for everyone, but, like a mini-notebook, it should appeal to… some?

First it gives the user an instant two-monitor setup, very familiar to many desk setups. Nothing like extra screen space when you spend your working hours with one. It probably wouldn’t work too well back in coach, but in a Starbucks or at home, would be a great solution.

Also, since there is a hinge/swivel mechanism it can be used to create a second screen facing away from the user. Super handy for anyone doing frequent presentations. If it’s not clear by now, the other fringe benefit here is this second screen works just like a second monitor, so it would be compatible with Windows XP or Vista (if necessary, ugh) with no special/new drivers.

If we want to get fancy, let’s make the secondary screen touch-sensitive, then we have a tablet interface running while we are at it. Not sure what the impact is to cost/feasibility here, but my hunch is it would be the least of the design concerns.

Clearly this isn’t the budget laptop, and this won’t be interesting to quite a few readers. But I have a hunch there’s a few people reading right now who really really want one. Chalk me up on the list.

12seconds.tv launches in alpha

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Let me disclaim in no uncertain terms that this site was started by some very close friends, and I am personally involved as well.  I mean for this post to be informational.  I want both of my readers to know about 12seconds.

As you will see from their blog post, 12seconds.tv is launching their public alpha today.

12seconds is the brainchild of some friends in Santa Cruz who love the web, love technology, love twitter, love their iPhones, and can’t help but start company after company.  This is serial entrepreneurship at its best.  The basic idea behind 12seconds is video status, being able to record and share little moments from your life.  Use a webcam or cell phone you can record videos up to twelve seconds long.  That’s it.

You can link your videos to your Twitter account, so anyone who follows you there can receive will receive videos through your Twitter feed.  Friends can also visit your 12seconds page directly, or subscribe to your 12secondsRSS feed. You do NOT have to be a member of the site in order to watch other people’s videos. Request an invitation to join the site here.

This idea is a cool one, especially if you have a cell phone that records video. It’s easy to imagine being out at a bar with friends, out on the street where you see something funny, or at a Bar Mitzvah during the Haftorah service and wanting to publish the moment and share it with friends. What if you’re on vacation at the grand canyon and standing over that crazy skywalk platform? What a cool moment to share with friends and loved ones.  Here’s a link to my 12seconds channel.  Here’s Jeremy’s channel.

This is also posted at: http://1to10reviews.com

How-to: Automatic URL Shortening with Bit.ly and TextExpander

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Hi, my name is jonathanpberger and I’ll be covering all sorts of nerdy topics here on LiveDigitally. Got comments? Questions? Rants? You can drop me a line at jpb@livedigitally.com or see what else I’m up to on my Twitter feed, my homepage, or my tumbleblog.

One of my can’t-live-without-it time-and-keystroke-saving apps (TextExpander) got bumped to version 2.3 today. It’s a minor update: a few bug-fixes and a new snippet group for Accented Words (like “rosé”, “olé”, “sauté”, or “jalapeño”). But I got to playing around, and saw a cool video demonstrating how to use TextExpander for another time-and-keystroke-saver: URL-Shortening.

URL-Shortening may not seem like a big deal, but it comes in handy when you’re dealing with space restrictions (like Twitter’s 140 character-limit), you want to tidy up some messy links, or you’re trying to RickRoll someone. It’s one of those possibly-extraneous activities that makes life a tiny little bit easier, but only when it’s effortless to employ. Enter TextExpander.

Jack-Daniyel Strong has a great tip for shortening URLs using TinyURL, TextExpander, and Applescript. After setting it up, you can shorten URLs by

1) copying the URL to the clipboard, and 2) typing a preset abbreviation. It’s that easy.

I’ve adapted his technique for the new kid on the URL-shortening block, Bit.ly (which everyone is gushing over), and which provides a host of neat features like History, Click/Referrer tracking, thumbnails, mirroring, and best of all, a robust API. Continue reading →

Wireless HDTV R&D Update: Tons of Spending, Tiny Market

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Saw a thread on Techmeme this morning about wireless HDTV technology. Looks like some big companies are banding together to provide (yet another) wireless HDTV service. Over at Crave I read that while it’s a year away (read: 2-5 years away), it’ll be fairly low-cost, as in ~$100 (read: ~$500) per set to enable the technology. There’s also multiple competing standards, and as MG points out, two of the companies involved are participating in both platforms (updated: now both PCMag and Ars weigh in as well). This is a lot of big companies spending big budgets to build multiple technologies and standards in the space.

I ask “why?”.

Seriously. What’s the point here? So people can one day wirelessly stream video from a hard drive/PC in one room of their house to the plasma display in another room? Really? Don’t get me wrong, it sure sounds like a fun idea, and there’ll be some percent of the market willing to do it, but most definitely not the majority.

The other argument for it is just to have a short range, enabling me to “cut the cables” from my plasma to my HD set top box. Only one catch here: very few people will be willing to upgrade both their boxes and sets just to hide one cable, especially considering they still need the power cord! While the WAF is certainly a powerful force in every home, I don’t think anyone can argue that a plasma should be replaced to reduce a single cable.

I’m sure I’m missing some points here, but having spent the better part of 8 years working with organizations like UPnP and DLNA, it seems like neither the “connected home” nor “interoperability” are initiatives which win (ask Apple how interoperable the iPod is). There’s a lot of money being spent on R&D labs for this type of technology. Whenever it gets out of the labs it will need to go into *massive* testing before any cable company even considers distributing a box with new technology (ever wonder why it took Comcast 3 years to ship a DVR? it wasn’t a lack of technology, it was testing, and even then they still did a mediocre job with it). As a final point on the market opportunity here, just remember how well this must be testing in focus groups…

Would you like it if your plasma display worked wirelessly (not including power), and only cost $100 more?

Golly, sure I would!

Would you be willing to replace your cable box if you could get one that didn’t need any wires to hook up to your plasma?

Gee whiz, absolutely!

Anyone notice that the #1 seller of plasma TVs is not a participant here? Considering how well Vizio’s taken over the market, it seems pretty clear that customers are trying to save $100 by purchasing a brand they’ve never heard of before. But $100 for wifi HDTV streaming to/from nebulous devices with multiple standards? Yeah, that’ll happen.

What if Apple invented and sold the Segway?

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Steve Jobs on SegwaySo I was walking around Downtown Chicago last weekend, the very same weekend Apple pushed 1 million iPhone 3G units out the door, and saw a police officer stroll by on his government issued Segway, which got me thinking. What if the on-top-of-the-world tech giant invented, marketed, and sold the Segway today. Would Apple be able to push the 50,000 to 100,000 units out the door that Segway Inc. expected to sell in its first year of sales? I think the answer is 100% yes. Well, maybe 90%.

-Design Design Design
Apple has a knack for taking products to their limit of how good they can look. When Steve Jobs got a first look at the Segway back in 2003, he said, “Its shape is not innovative, it’s not elegant, it doesn’t feel anthropomorphic.” (For those of us that needed to look up that word: anthropomorphic adj. – resembling or made to resemble a human form.) If Jobs and his designers were to design the Segway, it would, for sure, be better in those three areas. Of course there would be a snazzy placement of a light up Apple logo, causing all the Apple lovers to eat it right up.

Also, the most important design & production point, Apple would be able to get enough of a mass production discount to keep the cost of the device down. They would shoot to have these priced at $2,999.00 (or as low as $77.00 a month). Crossing that $3,000.00 price point, for the base unit, is too scary for consumers.

-Bandwagon
With the popularity of Apple now, and the way people are eagerly handing over their credit cards for anything with an Apple logo on it, they would easily be able to push 100,000 units out the door in a year. I know some of you are saying, “Hey don’t push that overzealous bandwagon theory into this argument, everyone that buys an Apple product knows exactly what they are buying!!!” Well let me present to you this sample dialogue told to me by my co-worker that was waiting in line for his iPhone 3G.

20 something woman waiting in line, gets approached by what is assumed to be her mother.

Mother: What are you waiting in line for?
Daughter: Oh this new Apple phone. It’s cool, its got a touch screen, plays MP3, it’s really cool.
Mother: Really?! Maybe I want one of those too!
Daughter: Yeah, you should get one! Wait with me!

Woman and her Mother wait in line. An Apple associate comes by to answer questions.

Mother: What’s the deal with this phone?
Apple Associate: Ma’am the Apple iPhone is the most advanced cell phone on the market now, it has fully integrated PUSH email, calendar, and contacts. Along with real web browsing, an app store, and now integrated GPS.
Daughter: Oh really?! GPS, I had no idea it could do ANY of that!
*(Words are approximated, but idea is the same – Thanks Dave)

This was probably a common occurrence within the lines and lines of people waiting for the iPhone.

There are some of you saying, there are plenty of Apple products that Apple sells that don’t reach the numbers you are talking about. You are correct, but with the iPhone-like hype the Segway got when it was originally announced, Apple would be able to quickly turn that hype into sales. They have built up a well enough rapport with consumers, that as long as there is a line to get it, a cool factor, and an Apple logo on the side of it, people will shell out the cash/credit for it.

-Marketing is King
Apple is a marketing juggernaut and would have to assert its dollars in this area in order to make this product sell. They would saturate the movie and television market, making it look like everyone in our society uses a Segway on a daily basis. With the right ad campaign, they would be able to make everyone in the world think they were morons for wanting to walk anywhere. Commercials, billboards, and subway cars would all be screaming at us, “Soon there will be 2 kinds of people. Those who walk, and those who walk different.” Other ads will be telling us to purchase this new transportation device because, “It just goes”.

With the skyrocketing fuel prices, and the big push for “Being Green”, electric powered transportation is the “new black”. (Ironically, all of Apple’s successful gadgets come in black!) Apple would need to leverage this in their marketing and let people know, “Not only is this the coolest gadget IN the world, it’s the coolest gadget FOR the world.” A perfect example of this is the Honda Civic Hybrid. The Civic was already one of the coolest cars for teens and 20-somethings. But make it “Green”, and you got yourself a car that you have to get on a waiting list to buy.

Whether you agree with me or not, it seems like something just might be a brewing on this front, since on July 7th, the former CTO of Segway, Doug Fields, left to join Apple (JT: maybe this new hire has to do with the unknown “future product transition”).

Hopefully Fields can get this project on a roll. I know I speak for most when I say that we are just so tired of walking everywhere, and we don’t want to look like the biggest nerds ever, on a non-anthropomorphic Segway.

Kindle Review: Good but I Prefer Books

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JT with Amazon KindleDespite me writing a rather scathing commentary on the Kindle when it debuted, Amazon recently sent me a loaner to try out for a couple of weeks. Without a doubt, I will say I enjoyed using the Kindle in a variety of locales, and it’s a rather well-thought-out product (more eye-catching action photos are all at the bottom of this post). I’ll also state up front I feel it’s overpriced, the content (books and blogs) are also overpriced, and I still don’t believe books are in any danger of vanishing in the short term.

Let’s start with the good. The packaging is great, it has a very “book-y” feel to it, it’s very inviting, and also looks professional enough to go along with the price of the unit. The OOBE (out of box experience) was also well done, as the first “boot” of the Kindle had a nice “Welcome Jeremy” letter from Jeff Bezos (thought I’m pretty sure it wasn’t unique). While there are a few quirks to the user interface, the learning curve was fairly close to zero, I’d be surprised to see someone needing a lot of help to get started.

Glowing KindleBrowsing the Amazon store on “Whispernet” works great, I was able to easily find numerous lists of books that were interesting to me from a variety of criteria (most popular, newest, etc). There’s a well-done integration with my Amazon.com account, so I didn’t need to register anything new to pay for titles. Also, the download speed for content (books, web pages, etc) was much better than I anticipated, definitely fast enough to provide a decent experience.

Reading books was also quite pleasant. If you’ve never seen an e-ink interface, it’s much slower than LCD (think about a second per page – it’s definitely noticeable). That’s the con, the pro is that is looks very close to paper-like and uses almost no power. I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t change the font density or size, as it used a spacing that ended up making me feel like I was reading one of my 1-year-old’s jumbo books with 3 sentences per page. There’s also no backlighting (not even Indiglo), which I think is an essential feature for a 2nd Edition.

Funky Kindle!The Kindle is fairly light, and feels nice to hold in your hands. That said, it can be awkward to hold one-handed (ex: on the bus) and I think it should have a strap on the back so you can slide your palm into it without worrying about dropping it. The buttons click well, though I feel the keyboard is in the way a lot of the time, and think it could be better suited as a slide-out or other ‘hidden’ key setup. The primary navigation wheel is nicely responsive, though definitely has oddities in the on-screen menus.

Now for my short list of problems, and they have little to do with the gadget itself. First up it’s a half-closed system. I don’t like Amazon charging for blogs I want to read, especially when they are free on every other platform possible. Secondly is the price for books themselves. While $9.99 is a bargain compared to a $19.99 (or higher) new hardcover, it’s not great relative to $6.99 and less for softcover, and laughable next to used book prices. That plus the sticker price for the device itself and we’re well beyond yuppie territory. At current pricing I’d say the product is really only for those with ready supplies of disposable income.

Kindle at Warp SpeedWhile I believe the Kindle is probably one of the better e-book readers on the market, I am still (very) squeamish about the category. While it’s nice to have the ability to have hundreds of books with you on a long trip, it’s not nice to worry about dropping a Kindle in the bathtub (or the beach, pool, forest, or basically anywhere else). As the “all the books I want” argument tends to be the big point for those in favor of e-readers, I’ve truly never known that as a real issue. I’m an avid and fairly fast book reader, and even on my three-week honeymoon I didn’t run out of books on the trip, and I wasn’t exactly overburdened in my luggage.

Some specific product recommendations for a “2nd edition“:

  • Allow me to customize the font size/weight (will really help users with poor eyesight)
  • One word: backlight
  • Redesign the front to have the keyboard hidden when not in use (slide-out?)
  • Put a strap on the back of the reader that I can slide my hand into for comfort
  • Automatically synchronize my wishlist from Amazon.com
  • Ship the Kindle with samples of books that are currently popular
  • Have the ability to auto-subscribe to certain book ‘feeds’ for sample delivery
  • Offer a subscription model for all-you-can-read pricing
  • Set a precedent with a peer-to-peer licensed and monetized “used eBook” system (use an open market for it, give a %age of the resale price back to the publisher. it’ll work, trust me)

Kindle during a lovely beach sunsetIn summary, I think the Kindle is a good product but trapped inside the wrong price points and business model around e-books. If you are like me, and buy most of your books used, it’s definitely going to seem like a ludicrously priced gadget. If, on the other hand, you buy two or more new hardcover books a month, it’s worth checking out (probably pays itself off in about a year or so). Overall the good user experience combined with the auto-download features with a huge library behind it absolutely make the Kindle a great e-reader. That said, I’m still opting for used books for my personal needs, and I’m still pretty bearish on the whole concept of e-readers.

And now… zany Kindle photos!
Le Kindle
Kindle while rollercoastering
Kindle on the Moon

The iPhone 3G proves that there is no economic downturn

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$4 gas (in the northeast, anyway), bank collapses, sluggish economic growth, pundits predicting recessions, bear markets, $140 oil, $900 gold, rampant foreclosures, and a plummeting dollar!

Oh my.

But for those of you quaking at the specter of Depression, or waiting in line at a California bank to retrieve your hard-earned cash (where you are reading this post on your 3G-enabled mobile device, natch), or those who are convinced that their money is surely safer in a mason jar under the mattress than an FDIC-insured institution, let me offer these comforting statistics:

Don’t read this as an indictment of the people who stood in line. I’ll happily admit I know these wait times because, in my desperate need to 3G-ify myself, I made no fewer than five calls to various Apple stores over the weekend, even stopping by one on the way to the beach on Sunday to see whether their line was less than ten hours – it was, at a mere four, but they had capped the line because lucky Mr. Minute 240 represented the last phone they had in stock.

Folks, there is nothing to worry about. Our gadget-driven economy has never been stronger. As long as we fanboys can find both the scratch and the time, including taking a day off from work(!), to queue up by the sweaty thousands for a shot at the latest shiny bauble (OK, mobile communications device with blazing fast TM internet access, location-awareness, and a shiny, shiny interface), we can find a way to ensure tha the American economy remains a juggernaut. Jeremy posited that Apple is really the only company that can do hype right, but I don’t think he’s taken it far enough. Buttressed by Jobs-obsessed tech acolytes like you and me, the company has the ability to single-handledly (multi-touchedly?) drive the consumer engine of this great nation until our worries of collapsing mortgage giants and $100 fill-ups are things that we tell to our kids via a Sling application running on the latest 5G Apple iBrain.

But first things first: can someone give me a ride to the Apple store? I’m kinda short on gas money these days.

The "Hidden" Costs of an iPhone?

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Hi, this is David Speiser.  I’m going to be contributing to LD on occasion.  I’d love to hear your comments and opinions.  Please feel free to say hi, and tell me what you think.

Today I’m thinking about the cost of a new iPhone 3G.  Many people were astounded by the drastic price reduction Steve Jobs announced at the 2008 WWDC.  $200 for an iPhone with 3G data speeds and built-in GPS?  Sweet.

Since then however, many people have cried foul.  Or at the least they’ve discoursed on the hidden costs of the new iPhone, specifically charges for data service.  Anthony Ha at VenturebBeat covered this issue regarding the actual cost of the phone over the lifetime of the mandatory 2 year contract.  Anthony and MG Siegler also note the increase in the cost of text messaging.  About THAT part I agree with them.  It is uber-lame to charge so much for texting, especially when it’s so cheap to do.  Walt Mossberg also offered up a review at All Things Digital.  One of his less positive comments was in regards to battery life.

What I want to say is this: I don’t think these “hidden costs” are hidden or inappropriate.  And I’ll tell you why.

First, there’s the data costs.  Yes they’re higher.  But you know what?  We’re probably going to be transmitting a LOT more data than we used to.  Personally I will be using email much more often, both to read and to send, now that the speed is more functional. I also expect to make more use of the web browser since websites should now load at usable speeds even when not connected to WiFi.  All that data transfer is going to cost more money, so I think it’s sensible to charge more for the data plan.

Also, and this is not a scientific test, but it makes sense to me that if Walt was using the device to check email and browse the web more (and faster) than was possible with the G1 iPhone, then the battery is going to exhaust more quickly.  Did you ever notice that if you’re mousing and typing a lot on your laptop when you’re running off the battery, the battery drains more quickly than if you leave it sitting alone or mostly just read emails?  Same deal applies to the phone.  If you’re leaving it in your pocket a lot of the time because the web browser’s too slow, you’re going to save a lot of juice and make it through the day on one charge. If you’re checking and sending more email and visiting more websites because you can, the battery will drain faster.  Now I believe that 3G data activity also affects power usage differently than Edge data activity, but my point remains.  If you’re using the phone more, you’re going to drain the battery faster.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I’d prefer that the cost for the data plan remained the same.  Heck, I’d rather it was cheaper, or free.  And I’d love a longer battery life, infinity + 1 if I could have it.  But I can’t.  And I don’t think these costs are hidden or inappropriate.  To me, the pretty much make perfect sense.

The FriendFeed Drinking Game

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If you aren’t on FriendFeed yet, it’s understandable, as it really is for a niche (as it stands today – who knows where it goes in the future).  Here’s a link to my profile if you want to check it out.  If you have no interest whatsoever, you should probable skip along to the next article.  BUT, for those of us drinking the yummy FriendFeed kool-aid, here’s a fun little “drinking game” (now my 2nd attempt at one) to coincide nicely with time spent on the site.

Every time…

  • a discussion about FriendFeed has more than 10 comments, take a drink!
  • a discussion about Twitter has more than 10 comments, take a drink!
  • a discussion about FriendFeed vs Twitter has more than 2 comments, take 2 drinks!
  • Louis Gray brings an additional 100 users to FriendFeed, take a drink!
  • you see the same article shared by more than 5 people, take a drink!
  • you refresh your FriendFeed page and see no changes, take 2 drinks!
  • you comment on or like something without reading it, take a drink!
  • pictures of babies make the “best of the day” list, take a drink!
  • you hide an entire service, take 2 drinks!
  • you block someone, take a drink!
  • you use FriendFeed to ask other FriendFeed users about a FriendFeed feature, take a drink!
  • you like something, but the content is something you really don’t “like”, take a drink!
  • you follow someone, comment on something, or like something just so the person notices you, take a drink!
  • you follow someone who you don’t know or have any direct connection to in the non-FriendFeed world, take a drink!
  • you add another service to your FriendFeed profile, take 2 drinks!
  • your FriendFeed home page is 90% content from Scoble, TechCrunch, Loic, Dave Winer, Jason Calacanis or Scoble (worth saying twice), chug it!
  • you share something TO FriendFeed from multiple services (blog, greader, delicious, etc), chug it!
  • you discover a new feature in FriendFeed that’s really cool but hard to find in the murky UI, take a drink!
  • you see someone link to or refer to a FriendFeed thread as “the conversation”, take 2 drinks!
  • you realize you actually are getting a lot less work done due to spending time on FriendFeed, finish the bottle!

Any other suggestions?  Add them as comments.  If you add them on the inevitable FriendFeed thread instead, take a drink.