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Author Archives: Jeremy Toeman

MacBooks are both trendy and good

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My friend Mark Evans wrote a blog post today entitled “Are MacBooks Just Trendy?” and I thought I’d write a completely unwarranted perspective myself. In his article, Mark ponders the value of the budget laptop buyer, who can pick up a lower-end Windows laptop for ~$500. He continues with…

Before the MacNation starts clamoring about how Macs are more stable, elegant, better designed, etc., the question that should be asked is whether the “regular” computer user needs a Mac to do what they need to do (browsing, e-mail, writing documents). In other words, can you avoid buying a Mac, and still have a satisfying computer experience?

The answer, I think, “Yes”.

First and foremost, while I did convert to the Mac last year (because the Sony Vaio VGN-SZ460 is such a wretched use of silicon it made the Foleo look like a good idea), I don’t consider myself a fanboy just yet (I even chastised them during CES a few months back). That said, however, considering the state of Windows Vista, I simply cannot endorse ANYONE buying a new machine that doesn’t run either XP or OS X.

The real question to me is what are you getting for your money, and I’m going to use the one example I have the most hands-on experience with: my mother. She bought a lower-end Dell last spring for ~1000, it has all the right speeds & feeds (dual core, 1GB RAM, DVD burner, etc). She hates it (possibly more than me and my Vaio!) because everything is slow, she gets alert messages all the time which make no sense to her, and even after I installed Picasa she has trouble managing the photos on her computer.

Again, I’m going to blame this on Vista, not Dell per se, but it doesn’t matter. My dad has a year old PC, his Logitech webcam crashes every third or so time he uses it. My mother-in-law just got a brand new budget PC, her Internet connection is no longer reliable. Even the Dell I was sent by Ed Bott as an example of a “good” Vista installation is unable to recognize two generic USB mice I tried (although it did boot in about 40 seconds, which was very impressive).

Is the MacBook trouble free? Absolutely not. For example, iMovie ’08 crashes on me everytime I run it unless I manually remove files from my preferences folder – a task my parents would be completely unable to do on a regular basis. MacOffice is still a far cry from Office XP/2003 (I’ll spare the discussion of Office Vista/2008). It isn’t perfect by a long shot.

But, it is reliable, and if you use OS X the way it wants to be used (because the other way around is a no-no), the MacBook is the best bargain computer on the market. For $1000 you get the same specs as a mid-range Windows laptop, except you get a computer than runs better and faster, all the time. It even tends to run Windows about as well as any Dell does, just in case you need to. The extra $500 is well worth it in the long run.

And as to the question of “is it trendy?” and the obvious “yes” response, there’s a reason for it. Look around Silicon Valley and many of the thought leaders you see have switched to a Mac. And they are happy they did. Further, there’s unquestionably a “trickle down” theory of high tech. As fashion starts in New York and moves West, technology starts in San Francisco and moves East.

The only other “trendy” PC I can think of is the eeePC. Oh, wait, and those red Dells. Because there’s nothing I want more than a bright fire engine red laptop sitting demurely on my desk. The real “question” in my eyes is this: what can Microsoft and the PC manufacturing industry do collectively to make a trendy Windows-based computer?

Does anyone have an answer? Bueller?

From Geocities to FriendFeeds: the (de?)evolution of self-expression and stalking on the Internet

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Ten years ago individuals seeking a form of online self-expression typically ended up at Geocities (or a similar site) and built a “home page”. It was typically gaudy, unreadable, and used some combination of the flash and marquee tag. Many of them linked to a Turkish(?) guy named Mahir. The Home Page fad went on through the 90s, then went fairly underground. Traffic remained high, but universally it seemed clear that home pages were (1) ugly, (2) boring, and (3) a frivolity at best.

But just as the Wii revived a dormant Nintendo, the 2000s rolled around and blogging “appeared” (and I know there are folks such as Dave Winer who’ve been blogging longer than that, but the main trend emerged a few years ago). WordPress (my blogging technology of choice – open source, extensible, free – what’s not to like?) has dropped the barrier to entry so low that I can start a blog in minutes and yet not have to sacrifice any form or function. Blogging got so big and exciting that Engadget got acquired by AOL, blogging networks such as b5media emerged, and blog tracking from startups like Technorati spread to the giant Google.

At the same time as “us older folks” got really into and excited about blogging, another world was experiencing unbelievable growth: social networks. Popularized by Friendster, then capitalized upon by MySpace and now Facebook (and even good ol bebo), there are hundreds of millions of users of social networks today. In a Geocitiesesque fashion, people again are flocking to the opportunity to create a distinct slice of themselves on the Internet, only this time not only are they creating ugly annoying pages, they are also finding new ways of embarrassing themselves long into the future.

But neither blogging nor social networking was really “enough” to last. 2007 saw massive changes in behaviors in both arenas. As blogging got bigger, our focus drifted. Where we used to read individual blogs to read individuals’ opinions, a massive shift to all-encompassing feed readers occurred. It’s become less about the ‘whose opinion do I want’ and more about ‘what’s an interesting headline?’. Blog aggregators such as TechMeme have also improved our ability to find trends (memes) in blog-to-blog “conversations” but yet have de-emphasized the importance of writing quality articles instead of just linkbaiting headlines.

Also, microblogs like Twitter gained popularity, giving writers the benefit of a limited structure (140 character entries), and again, distributed focus away from the individual and into the crowd. Social networking sites, led by Facebook, implemented platforms for building applications, most of which seem to involve being bitten by zombies and/or having a sheep (or worse, poop) thrown at one’s eye.

Next up are the layers on top of all these building blocks, and 2008 will be a big year for them. FriendFeed launched (as did SocialThing and Plaxo Pulse and others) as an aggregator of all of your online activities (other than social networking sites, which already do this independently). Louis Gray did a phenomenal job recruiting/inviting/involving the “a-list” bloggers (which I most certainly don’t belong in, but others like Scoble and Dave Winer do), though Mark Evans and Brian Solis have a lot more to say on that topic. I’m still not sure why/if I need FriendFeed (nor is Duncan Riley), nor if I plan to use it in the future (although I did sign up here), but at least I’m not judging from afar this time (as opposed to Twitter, which I still refuse to use).

By now I hope it’s clear why I regard this as both evolution and de-evolution. We have more flexibility, more control, more features, more zombies, but we also have less focus, less clarity, more clutter, and much much more confusion. Each new addition brings not just the functionality, but requires basic comprehension of the building block. Adam Ostrow yesterday blogged that FriendFeed “crossed the chasm” (a term implying moving from early adopters to the masses) but I couldn’t disagree more. My parents, as an example of “mass Internet users” are still barely comfortable taking pictures from Flickr and printing them at Shutterly or in a local store. The masses don’t know from Twitter, and are still just finding out that there are a lot of cats who have appetites for cheeseburgers and ride invisible bicycles.

One thing that these technologies seem to expose is humanity’s obsessions with other people. Never before has it been so easy to virtually stalk someone online (and by the way, it’s only a matter of time before some uber-lifestreamer experiences a home robbery by making their personal travel plans so easy to access). Never before has our work/life balance been so ridiculously far out of whack (and I’m not the only one who feels this way). Never before have we seen the individual have the opportunity to have microcircles of fame (or should that be microfame?), nor the obsessive-like compulsions to follow.

I think the part that concerns me the most is the extreme levels of digital divide that are emerging. It’s not just the technology barriers, it’s the inevitable social barriers that come along with it. The divide is growing, even amongst those who have access to the technology. And it’s going to get a lot worse for a lot of people, especially inside families (“mom, I so totally twittered that I was gonna be streaming live from the mall today, u r so lame!”).

There are times when I feel technology evolution is outpacing humanity’s ability to absorb, react, and evolve as a society. We are probably closer to being “one world” than ever before, yet we are also probably closer to being “six billion individuals” than ever before.

My Music Collection, Alphabetically

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While doing some testing for TuneUp, we hit the “play” button inside of iTunes on an office PC.  The volume was low enough that we didn’t really notice the music in the background for a while.  Somewhere in the middle of Billie Holiday’s performance of “All of Me” I realized that it was actually playing.  My entire 87GB music collection was queued up, in alphabetical by track name order (sorry, not in autobiographical!).  Decided to let it ride.

We’re almost 2 hours into the mix – it’s pretty interesting.  I highly recommend you give it a shot, just for the fun of it.  I’m going to try to to let it go all 30+ days to completion, unless I go crazy first…

Web 6.4 on display at Under the Radar next week

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Made ya look.

UTR logoSeriously, the tri-annual Under the Radar event is one of my few conference favorites. I like it because:

  • It’s local (ok, technically the peninsula is not really local, but I’ll cut them a break).
  • It’s highly unlikely that there will be any form of “witch-burning” during an interview.
  • Companies’ demos/pitches are short and sweet, and (typically) well-rehearsed. There’s nothing less fun than watching an exec fumble through a PPT that they haven’t practiced (again, there are in fact many things that are much less fun, but I have no metaphors in me right now).
  • The events are focused. This month’s is about Web Apps, so I can pretty well assume what topics will be covered (as opposed to, say, CES, which I also like, but where software, phones, gadgets, and car stereos all converge).
  • I’m moderating for half the day (the morning, for those of you who are curious).
  • For demonstrating companies, it doesn’t break the bank just to show up. Same deal for attendees.
  • Quite impressive batch of attendees includes lots of VCs, decision-makers, and press.
  • Two of Stage Two‘s clients (kwiry and DeviceVM) are presenting. If you have not checked both out yet, you really should. – cool stuff.
  • I can get ya $100 off! What’s not to like?

Hope to see some of you there!

TH-50PZ77U: should it stay or should it go?

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The good news: My new Panasonic plasma arrived. It’s really freaking sweet. I think that’s about the only proper description of it, as it’s not exactly “beautiful” since it’s electronics and it’s not artlike in a Macbook Air kind of way. I’d actually say that a nice plasma is the modern equivalent of a “bitchin Camaro”…

The bad news: Despite all my readings, somehow I missed the fact that the next-generation of Panasonic plasmas started shipping oh, say, 3 days after mine did. Augh! How did I miss it? Well, the 50″ units won’t ship until April, and I had stopped looking at 42″ displays already. My bad.

Good: I can return the 77U in the next 28 days for no fee.

Bad: I don’t really know if the 80U or 85U are really worth it. Here is my summary of the differences (or you can see the official comparison at Panasonic’s web site, which is much more impressive than I thought it would be when I first visited!):

P77U P80U P85U
List price $2800 $2500 $2700
Current street price $1600-$2000 $2300+ $2500+
Contrast ratio 10000:1 20000:1 30000:1
Panel tech G10 G11 G11
Moving Picture Resolution (??) N/A 900 lines or more 900 lines or more
480 Hz Sub-field Drive (??) N/A Yes Yes
24p Playback(2:3) (??) N/A Yes Yes
Deep Color (??) N/A Yes Yes
x.v.Color (??) N/A Yes Yes
HDMI inputs 2 rear 3 (1 front) 3 (1 side)
Screen Coating Anti-Glare Coating New Anti-Reflective Filter New Anti-Reflective Filte

Of the above, the biggest factors I can identify are:

  • New units have better contrast ratios. This is something which seems undetectable to us mortals, but is supposed to be “better”. Don’t know if I care.
  • Next generation panel technology. From some of the discussions I’ve read on AVSforum, there’s a belief that the new tech has more vivid whites and blacks.
  • Anti-reflective filter vs anti-glare coating. Panasonic added the anti-glare to the current generation for the first time, then dropped it for the next generation. This implies they either weren’t satisfied with it’s performance or have improved upon it with the new filters.

Am I missing anything obvious? Are these “non-issues” and I should put the topic to bed? I

Good: I feel like this is a no-lose situation. I got a great deal on my unit, and it looks awesome. So I either have a great unit, or a possibly slightly more greater unit.

Ultimately, here’s how I look at it: if I had purchased this unit and the new one wasn’t shipping until this Summer or later, there’d be no debate. But it’s already on display at Best Buy apparently, which is at least a little bit frustrating. Again, had I *known* about both models and made this decision based on price, then there’s no debate. But I can’t help already think I have something out of date on the day it arrived (as opposed to waiting the typical 30 days to feel that way).

Do Sony Vaios really suck, or is it just me?

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For the loyal fans, you know my feelings about Sony Vaios. For the newcomers, suffice it to say I went from loving them (even being quoted in Business 2.0 magazine about it) to loathing in a short 8 weeks last summer (you can read this summary to catch up). It’s become a bit of a running gag for me to mention it every few posts, but the truth is I am outraged at the fact that my $2500 is being used for exactly these purposes:

  • Print serving
  • Enabling my Drobo to be network-accessible
  • Playing some Call of Duty 2
  • Beta testing the TuneUp Media software (can’t wait to talk more about this one, and for continued disclosure’s sake, they are a client)

That’s it. That’s my less-than-a-year-old formerly top-of-the-line Vaio. And by the way, I’ve “upgraded” it to run Windows XP in order to perform the above tasks in a satisfactory manner.

When Ed Bott commented a few days offering to inspect the Vaio, I was instantly intrigued. My wife had been trying to put it up on eBay on our behalf (she’s the eBay/craigslister of the family), all we got was interest from a likely scammer (this person, who very cleverly has built some feedback by buying cheap items, then accidentally spilling the beans with us by sending two different emails asking for the same item, with two different addresses – one in the UK, the other in Nigeria – and offering two different prices. oops!). So we’ve taken down the listing, I’m finishing up the scrub on the Vaio today to make sure I didn’t leave any work-sensitive docs there, and I’m shipping it to Ed tomorrow.

Why, you may ask? Well, Ed wants to see it firsthand, see if there’s any saving grace to the “hunk o junk” (as I like to call it). Ed’s going to spend 30 days with the Vaio, during which I’ve told him he’s free to reinstall Vista (as many times as it might take) and try to see if there’s anything to be done with it. In the meantime, he’s going to send me a Dell laptop that he feels performs quite well. In all fairness, my only other Vista experiences are over the shoulders of others, including my mother who has a low-end Dell that I believe is class-action lawsuitable, considering how terrible it performs.

I have an open mind, and frankly I’d love to become impressed by Vista. I’d love to discover my two big experiences were random isolated occurrences, and it’s actually a really stable, fast operating system. Odds aren’t bad I’ll be buying a new notebook 30 days from now. But odds are pretty good right now that it’ll be a MacBook Pro. We’ll see what happens!

Is it time to kill voicemail?

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Remember back when voicemail came out?  I do.  At the time I had an answering machine with a little microcassette that, more likely than not, would accidentally pop out of the machine, intermittently delete messages, or simply choose not to record them in the first place.  There were digital options as well, the ones that used fancy schmancy microchips to record messages, adding a sweet touch of HAL-9000 to the voice of every recorded message.  And then one day our phone companies told us we could part ways with these relics, that they would do us the service of storing our messages for us, all for a low monthly fee.

And we parted ways with our crusty machinery.  We parted in droves.   We parted so fast that within months answering machines had lower resale value than HD-DVD players today.  This move may have actually marked the beginning of the “services” era, where companies started seeking out additional ways to make monthly money with only an incremental increase in services.  And I think we’re reaching one of those interesting inflection points where it’s time for some of those services, specifically voicemail, to start leaving our culture.

Why do I pick on useful, venerable voicemail?  The signs are in the air for its demise.  First, we’re seeing cell phones become the dominant phones in people’s lives, and I don’t have a stat to prove it, but I’d take a wager that home phone usage is on the downturn.  And with cell phones comes automatic caller-ID, automatic call history/logging, and the most blessed service of all, texting.

While nothing beats a phone call for catching up with a friend or loved one, and nothing beats a phone call for resolving an interpersonal dispute or a contract negotiation, or anything else that requires a lengthy conversation, nothing beats texting for a quick message.  If you take a moment to think about the majority of voicemails you receive, I’ll take another wager that the overwhelming majority of them could be reduced into three words:  Call Me Back (sticklers will now point out that the word Back is superfluous, but hey, I’m old-fashioned).  Even the rest of the blah-de-blah of the typical voicemail could be saved for after the return call anyway.

I love texting.  I love it for coordinating quick plans.  I love it for promising to return a call, even while on another call.  I love it for notifying someone I’m late, but en route.  I love it when I need to tell someone I can’t take their call because I’m on the bus, and I don’t want to be one of those bus cell phone people who carry on at length about inane things that nobody, caller included, cares about but the call must go on, heaven forbid an 18-27 year old sit on a bus for 20 minutes without talking to someone about nothing at all.

Texting is more productive too.  Time required to leave a “call me back” message AND listen to it?  Over a minute.  Texting the same thing? Seconds.  And if you don’t have an iPhone, how do you even know who those voicemails are from anyway? It’s a useful tool for informing people about things, whether it’s your followers on Twitter, or yourself on kwiry (disclosure: they are a client of mine).  Texting blows away Facebook poking for a “quick hi”.  It’s probably a great way for kids in school to cheat these days, although I have to assume those days are numbered.  I used to receive Habs score updates through texting (but I subscribed to the hockey package and it kept ruining my games!), and others get stock quotes through it.

Voicemail, on the other hand, is really not good for much.  Sure there are some messages that a text would be quite awkward to send.  I wonder if the future may hold for the transition from “we have to talk” (the worst four words in the English language) to “we have to text”?  For me, I’ll take a quick text over a long voicemail any day.  C U later!

Apple plays the speeds and feeds game

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Apple’s (disclosure: I own AAPL stock) long-awaited MacBook and MacBook Pro revisions were announced today, and surprised many by simply making upgrades.  While I’d have loved to have seen a whole new lineup of laptops, the reality is this move made a lot of sense for the company.  First, let’s not be so quick to forget that it’s been less than 2 months since they announced the Air, and it already has a competitor.  So for us to expect new form factors, designs, or massive changes to the “standard” lineup was not just optimistic, it probably didn’t make much business sense for Apple.

First, designing a product is expensive.  Apple invested a lot into the current MB and MBP lineups, and just finished the Air.  This all doesn’t come cheap (especially for a company that only invests 3% of sales into R&D efforts).  Like it or not, they are still the “up and comer” in the market, so they need to literally squeeze the profits out of every line they can.  It’s also likely that due to expanding sales volumes Apple is driving the costs of producing MBs down further and further, so they are enjoying economies of scale.  Creating a new chassis alone would mess that up.

Next, the company has made steady inroads into the overall laptop market, there’s no real business case for bringing out a whole new lineup.  The Air enables Apple to compete in the ultraportable AND ultrasexy computing spaces.  The MacBook Pro represents the “power laptop” and the MacBook is probably the best budget laptop on the market.  One has to examine the market opportunity (other than existing MB owners) before demanding a costly new revision to a fairly successful product.

So they are left playing the “speeds and feeds” game, wherein the upgrades are about numbers.  Bigger hard drives.  More RAM. Faster CPUs.  Same prices.  The goal here is to show how the units can perform (or outperform) PC counterparts.  I got my MacBook last August with 80GB of storage, which today is way too small – now it comes with 120GB standard.  These enhanced stats are good for the comparisons and the technically sophisticated shopper, but don’t really bring much “wow” to typical consumers.  It’s unlikely that my mom’s going to call me tonight all excited about the new Penryn-powered Mac she heard about.

Would I have loved to see Air-inspired MacBook Pros get announced today?  Sure.  Was I expecting it?  Eh, maybe a little bit.  Am I going to buy a Pro?  Now that’s the question I can’t answer yet.  I do know I’m feeling like my current MB isn’t enough (Photoshop loads slower than my Vaio!  No, I’m just kidding – nothing is slower than the Vaio, which I believe I have successfully sold to a potential scammer on eBay.  Awesome!).  I think I’m going to burrow back into wait-and-see mode for a few more weeks while I sort out the options.  But I’ll probably buy something, just, well, because!

IMDb, still Internetting like it's 1997

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God knows I’m not a big believer in all things 2.0, in fact, I’m not much of a believer in anything 2.0. However, amidst the muck and dreck there are some winners, and more importantly, underlying all the new rounded corners fanciness it’s become clear that the future of the Web is about open platforms and data sources all able to talk to each other. Flickr is better than Kodak Photo Gallery because they made it so easy for me to get to my photos through not only their site, but on my blog, Facebook, etc etc.

Before there was 2.0, in fact, before there was really dot-com, there was IMDB, the Internet-hosted paradise for film geeks.  I won’t see a movie without checking it’s IMDB score, and upon seeing one I’ll instantly dash off to read the trivia, and give it a rating myself.  At a dinner party if a movie gets mentioned and a debate about some actor starts, the laptop comes out, and off to IMDB we go (at a friends’ house I’ll usually just kwiry the movie instead, since they seem to find it rude if I go get their laptop just to prove them wrong).  It’s been that way for a decade or more, and unfortunately, nothing much has changed.

Amazon bought IMDB some years back, integrated shopping in a not-so-bad way too.  IMDB launched “pro” but it’s really for people in the movie business.  So rather than involve the community and become the de facto source for all movie data across all Web sites, IMDB sits on their closed, controlled, protected database, and sits on the sidelines as competitors emerge.

Want to build a movie app using their data?  No problem, you can license it here (and here’s their data format, mercifully updated from CSV into XML in the past few years).  There are discussion forums, but no RSS feeds to get the conversation elsewhere.  There is a “my movies” feature, but if you want it integrated into your blog, you have to use their widget (preview it here) which allows for zero customization.  There is an unbelievable wealth of data, a literal treasure trove of it, and it’s all locked away in their proprietary site.

Part of me thinks that after Amazon bought them they reduced the technical staff down to one or two people, who spend their time making sure the site works in new browsers (see? just like 1997!).  Part of me thinks there’s some crazy person in charge who believes keeping things status quo is the way to win.  I’d like to think there’s some big plan on opening up the platform (remember: open beats closed!), enabling richer applictions to emerge, and IMDB will escape its position as film nerd haven.

But most of me thinks the whole darn thing is locked in some server farm somewhere and nobody can figure out the captcha to get back in.

New plasma ordered: Panasonic TH-50PZ77U

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I wrote an article many moons ago about getting a new flatscreen.  Upon reviewing that post, looks like I stayed within my original criteria.  I have to say, this was one of the least pleasant purchasing decisions I’ve made in quite some time – harder that buying a new computer (easy choice: anything but a Vaio!) or a car.   It made me really look into some major flaws in the process of learning about consumer electronics products, which I will discuss in a moment.

First, I was about ready to drop the budget down to about $1500 to pick up a 46-47″ LCD from either Sharp or Samsung.  My friend Ryan Block is a big fan of the Sharps, and the reviews were pretty solid across the board.  Also, after sharing my CES flight with Bob O’Donnell (the displays analyst from IDC), I had given up on requiring 1080p in my set of needs, mostly because my room isn’t big enough for me to visibly tell the difference.

I researched across Amazon and CNET for reviews.  I even made a little spreadsheet with candidate models to compare prices, reviews, etc.  A Toshiba Regza floated into the mix, and after a chat with EngadgetHD’s Ben Drawbaugh, the Pioneer Kuro popped in as well.  This was a new one, as I had basically ruled out plasmas due to potential sun-brightness.  He has one himself, and after some more research, it seemed to be a winner virtually everywhere I looked (including this very interesting contrast article at Gizmodo).

I put the Kuro (5080HD) in my Amazon cart, updated my Facebook profile, then went to sleep ready to finalize the order.  Guess what I found out?  It got discontinued.  Yesterday!  Augh!  While on the phone with one online vendor (who confirmed the Kuro’s discontinuance), I was recommended the Panasonic unit (although he tried to upsell me some random stuff, so I went back to Amazon).  I chatted with Dave Zatz about it too, as he has a similar unit, and he also felt it was a no-lose option.  Order placed, thank you everybody who helped out!

In doing this research I realized (again) how terribly difficult this must be for random consumers.  I search across dot-coms like Amazon and shopping 2.0 sites like Wize and Retrevo, and all had similar flaws.  No site let me make a perfectly custom search (46-52″ screens, $1500-$2100 budget, etc), which was very disappointing.  No site has perfect data on release dates (Amazon lists the Panny as coming out in 2005, which seems more than a little odd).  No site has good crossindexing for customer support or services information, although Amazon does display an advertisement with a local installer (since I’m going to wall-mount it).

At least when you buy a car you can go to Edmunds, get the right price, have all the info, and know when the new models are coming.  Why is this so hard to duplicate in the consumer electronics world? Seems like quite an opportunity…

HD-DVD's loss does not dictate Blu-ray's win

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As Toshiba officially declares defeat on the HD-DVD format (leaving some 1.3 million people in a lurch), I’m not convinced this spells victory for Blu-ray. Does a single format benefit the industry, consumers and producers alike? Sure. Does it mean consumers will flock to buy Blu-ray players and disks? I think that’s a little less clear at this time.

I’m looking at the state of the industry:

  1. We have a new format that is higher quality than the existing, dominant format, but is most imperceptible to typical consumers.
  2. The current format has been around for several years, has achieved utter dominance, and was a clear improvement on the previous format.
  3. A format war has occurred, leaving most consumers sitting on the sidelines for a long time, minds filling with doubt.
  4. At the same time as the new format is gaining some traction, alternate media consumption methods have emerged.
  5. The cost difference to adopt the new format is fairly foreboding.
  6. There is a lack of content available in the new format.
  7. Specialized hardware is needed for the new format, and it’s not inexpensive.
  8. There is a lot of jargon and confusing terminology associated with the format.

Here’s what’s interesting (to me, at least) is the description I have above is applicable to not only Blu-ray, but also DVD-Audio. SACD. Laserdisc. Minidisc. HD Radio. I’m sure there are more if I dig deeper. Fundamentally, I believe the timing is simply not right for Blu-ray to win independent of other activities. Here are some specific concerns I have:

  • Consumers, for the most part, can barely tell the difference between an upscaled DVD image and a Blu-ray picture (especially not for $300).
  • They probably don’t have the confidence (yet) that the format is here to stay.
  • The content library is weak (it may be growing, but it’s presently weak – Amazon has 176 titles in the Action/Adventure category at the time of writing).
  • The 720p vs 1080i vs 1080p debate is full of inconsistencies and confusion as to true benefits to the consumer (made worse by companies using marketing terms like TrueHD and Full-HD).
  • Products like the iPod, Slingbox, and AppleTV and services like Hulu and even YouTube are giving consumers more options in how they choose to watch and consume content.
  • Also, the above technologies are all presenting wider content options in lower quality, thereby not reinforcing the need for a “better” HD format (just as the iPod/MP3 decimated the opportunity for DVD-Audio/SACD).

If some/many/all of these issues change rapidly, we might see Blu-ray emerge victorious. What could take it’s place? I don’t know, the question might go unanswered for quite some time.

The war may be lost for HD-DVD, but it is far from over for Blu-ray.

Verizon's New Plans? Success. LiveChat Customer Service? Fail.

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I saw over at Engadget today that Verizon has some new cell plans.  This is great news for Verizon customers like me who are being raked over the coals to enjoy their network.  And I’m not being (too) facetious here, it really is a great network, I only drop calls in two locations: (1) I-280 by Sand Hill Road (millions of VC dollars can’t get a good tower built???) and (2) inside the United terminal of JFK.  Otherwise, all is great.

I saw the new plans seemed quite attractive, but none quite meet my needs.  I have a “FamilyChoice” plan that my wife and I use to make calls throughout the US and Canada (where we go frequently).  It’s a little pricey, but very convenient for our needs.  The new plans are:

  • $100 – Nationwide Unlimited (voice)
  • $120 – Nationwide Select Unlimited (voice, SMS, MMS)
  • $140 – Nationwide Premium (voice, SMS, MMS, VZNav, VCAST, email)
  • $150 – Nationwide Email and Messaging (voice, SMS, MMS, and data)
  • $170 – Nationwide Global Email and Messaging (voice, SMS, MMS, and international data)
  • $200 – Family plan with two lines, $100 per additional line.

All look good, but no Canada.  After viewing the Verizon website for a while, I saw a chat window pop up, offering help.  I figured it would be easier than calling.  Here’s the transcript (verbatim, no edits made):

Antione.: Hello. Thank you for visiting our chat service.  May I help you with your order today?
You: hi
You: i am an existing customer, i have the America’s Choice FamilyPlan
You: so it’s 3000 minutes, for both USA and Canada
Antione.: How may I assist you today?
You: i heard there are new plans
You: whats the new equivalent for my plan?
Antione.: How many lines?
You: 2
Antione.: I recommend the Nationwide Family Share Basic 3000 minute plan. This plan includes unlimited nights & weekends so you can talk all you want on the nights and weekends. It also includes unlimited IN calling so you can talk free to any Verizon Wireless customer. This plan costs $149.99 per month and includes 2 lines. Will this plan work for you?
You: does it include canada?
Antione.: You can call to canada with our nationwide plans.
Antione.: How does that sound?
You: how about from canada?
You: (sorry about that delay, the window was hidden)
Antione.: Yes, you can call to canada with a nationwide plan.
You: how about calling FROM canada?
Antione.: One moment please.
Antione.: We do not have any family plans to allow you to call to canada.
You: so i shouldnt change from what i have today, right?
Antione.: You can keep your current plan if you would like.
Antione.: What features are important to you in a phone?
You: huh?
Antione.: Are you eligible for an upgrade?
You: why are you asking? does this impact my ability to make calls to/from Canada?
Antione.: I have not heard from you for a few moments.  Would you like me to keep this chat session open for you?
You: did you see my previous question?
Antione.: I was checking to see if you were eligible to upgrade your phone. Our family plans does not offer you to call to canada.
You: so the question had nothing to do with what I was asking about?
Antione.: We offer a single line that has the ability to call to canada. I am sorry about that, we do not offer any phones that will allow you to call canada with the family plan.
You: ok, thanks very much

Hmmm… I think my favorite part is the triple flip flop on whether or not Canada is supported.  It’s either that or the random shift from helping me into trying to get me to buy a new phone.  Thanks very much, Antione, for so much non-help.  I feel slightly dumber for having had that conversation.