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Category Archives: Gadgets

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.

Garmin wants $70 for a… map!?

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Let me open by saying I think my Nuvi 350 is one of my favorite devices.  While there are a few improvements I could point out, for the most part it works very intuitively and reliably.  With the exception of the one time I was trying to find a Dairy Queen (Blizzard? hells yes.) and I ended up outside of someone’s house while hearing “you have arrived.”  And the guy didn’t even have ice cream.  Fail.

Today I received the following email from Garmin:

Garmin is pleased to announce the new Map Update 2009 for North America. For the most up-to-date maps and navigation on your portable Garmin GPS unit, this is the software you want. This $69.99 update offers full coverage for the U.S, Canada and Puerto Rico – making it easy and convenient to update the detailed maps and latest points of interest into your compatible Garmin unit.

The update includes:

  • Over 8 million miles of road coverage
  • Updated, fully routable, detailed maps for the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico
  • Nearly 6 million points of interest
  • Postal code support for Canada

Purchase the Map Update 2009 today!

Now I’m sure Garmin is paying someone (Navteq?) for their maps & data, and have costs to recoup.  I have no problem with paying for an update, if the price is right.  And maybe back 10 years ago $70 was a fair price, but today it isn’t.  The Internet has effectively trashed the value of data to consumers, and price points need to reflect that changed mentality.

As I write this, the Nuvi 350 is $203 on Amazon, meaning new updates are over 1/3 the price of the hardware.  Whereas going to Google Maps is free, always.  Granted, my Nuvi is more convenient than printing maps, and I am willing to pay something.  How about $9.99?  Or maybe $19.99?  Those seem like a “fair” price to pay for a map update.

There’s simply no way in the current market to accept $69.99 as a fair market value for a map update. Especially in context of a certain new phone that’s going to cause even more issues for a slowly failing GPS market.

Sprint Mogul Review

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The HTC Mogul is a smartphone available on the Sprint network, which runs Windows Mobile 6 Professional. It is equipped will a full QWERTY slide-out keyboard, and a QVGA (240×320) touchscreen. The Mogul I’m using for review has the newest ROM upgrade which unlocked the GPS chip, and the EV-DO Rev-A data connection.
To get the new ROM update for your Mogul go here.

Listed are the rest of the phone’s important specs (taken from phonescoop.com)

Weight 5.8 oz
Dimensions 4.33″ x 2.32″ x 0.73″
Check out this iPhone vs Mogul size comparison
at sizeasy.
Battery Talk – 5.4 hours max. (324 minutes)
Standby – 340 hours max. (14.2 days)
Processor 400 MHz
Memory RAM – 64 MB
Storage – 162 MB
Connectivity Bluetooth – Supported Profiles: HFP, HSP, OPP, A2DP, AVRC, HID, PAN, SAP version 2.0
Wi-Fi – 802.11 b,g
Memory Card Slot Type microSD (TransFlash)
Camera Resolution 2+ megapixel

Like all other WM devices this phone works best with the Microsoft Exchange server. It flawlessly integrates all your information over the air, without needing to connect to any computer, ever. It can receive emails the instant they are in your inbox, add dates and times of accepted calendar invites directly into your calendar app, and sync your contact and task listings. Users who are looking to get these tasks done quickly and effectively are the ones looking into the HTC Mogul. This device is very powerful but it isn’t for everyone, below are my opinions which should help you decide whether this smartphone is right for you.

Hardware–
The Mogul is a very tactile phone. It has 5 programmable hardware buttons, a 5-way directional pad, 2 hardware softkeys, a call and end button, a start button, 2 “OK” buttons, a navigational dial, a full QWERTY slide out keyboard, and a hardware WiFi on/off switch. The device feels like a rather good size for my hand. It couldn’t hurt if it was a little bit thinner, but it doesn’t feel overwhelmingly thick. The phone feels very sturdy, but it is a little on the heavy side. This might be a problem for someone with children that like to use their phone every once in a while. My other concern about the physical hardware is the super flimsily battery cover.

One of the best features of the hardware is its slide out keyboard. It has a spring loaded action, which causes it to snap open and closed, making a solid clicking sound. The keys themselves are spaced out very well and give good feedback when typing. There are also 2 indicator lights, located at the top, that illuminate when the caps or the function locks are activated. This is a cool feature that makes typing on this device, that much easier.

The one down side about having a slide out keyboard and no keypad on the face of the device is that it is extremely difficult to type with one hand. There is an onscreen keyboard that lets a user do so, but the keyboard that comes standard is so small you end up hitting the wrong letter half the time. There are 3rd party onscreen keyboards, but each of them has its own flaws and they don’t seamlessly integrate with every application. For those of you that text and drive, this phone isn’t for you. (disclaimer: don’t text and drive, it is very dangerous to take your eyes of the road for extended periods of time.)

OS-
Windows Mobile 6 Professional is overwhelmingly decent right out of the box. It is a multi-tasking OS, meaning more than one application can run at a time. Due to only 64MB of RAM, the OS tends to lag a little between clicks and app changes. When a user is done with an application, they need to be sure they hit the “X”, to close the app, or else it will stay open and drain memory resources. This is a change that was added with the newest ROM update. On some occasions the phone requires a reboot, in order to function at normal speeds again. These lag and speed issues are ones that a user must learn to live with, or else they will find themselves looking to get a different phone, fast.

User Interface-
The user interface for WM6 is out dated; it takes its design cues from Windows XP. While one can accomplish all of the same tasks on its default setting, WM6 doesn’t start to shine until you step into the realm of customizing it and making it your own. Here are some before and after shots of my home screen.

Default HTC Mogul Home Screen Custom HTC Mogul Home Screen
Mogul Default Home Screen Mogul Custom Home Screen

As you can see on the left I have the default home screen with some basic information that a user needs. On the right is my customized home screen with a nice big clock along with email, text message, and missed call buttons. Below that are 3 big tabs that give me access to, this home screen, a weather screen, and a quick launch screen with shortcuts to 9 most used programs. Since the Mogul has 5 programmable hardware buttons, with this home screen plug-in, once my phone is turned on and unlocked, I am no more than 2 click away from 20 different programs. Which makes navigating much faster than the default home screen.

This home screen plug-in was actually taken from the HTC Touch and adapted to work on other HTC WM6 smartphones. A web community called XDA-Developers, made this and other HTC apps conversions possible.

The home screen is only the beginning of the modification I have made to my WM6 Mogul UI. I installed threaded text messaging, an iPhone-like contacts app, a new skin for the phone screen, a new system font, a single click app that changes my phone from ring to vibrate, and an HTC on screen keyboard. The great thing about WM6 on an HTC smartphone, is that with the xda-developers community and other sites like it, there are endless possibilities of the looks and applications you can add to your smartphone.

Must have app-
The absolute best application that every owner needs to add to this phone is Google Maps. Since it has a GPS chip you can use the app to find your current location, which takes about 10-15 sec. Once it has that, you can search your area for whatever business or address you are looking for. If you like, you can then get directions from your current GPS location to the location you just searched for. With this app it’s truly amazing how fast you can find places and get directions from your current location.

Highlights-
-The full QWERTY slide out keyboard, gives users a rather quick and easy way to type on this device. The downfall is the lack of a quality onscreen keyboard for the times that a user would want to use one hand to type.

-Over the air syncing makes this phone a much needed tool for user working at a business with the Microsoft Exchange server.

-This phone begs to be customized, therefore if a user doesn’t have the time or skill to do so, their user experience won’t be at its optimal level.

-The ability to multi-task on this phone lets user accomplish multiple things at a time. The downfall is that its RAM is limited and causes the phone to lag when too many things are running.

-Google Maps with the updated ROM that unlocks the GPS chip, makes this phone a valuable tool for traveling business users.

Final thoughts-
Overall I think that the HTC Mogul is a great smartphone with tremendous power. This device is perfect for business users that do a decent amount of traveling. The Mogul is also a good fit for users that enjoy tweaking out their phones and spending time to customize them. Casual and beginner smartphone users, might find this phone a little too overwhelming.

Hopefully I have given you enough information for you to decide whether or not this smartphone could be the right smartphone for you. If you still need more information, I recommend, like I do with every smartphone, try it out before you commit to purchasing it. Since every service provider has a 30 day return policy, anyone can sign up for a new phone, return it within the 30 days, and only pay for the service used in that time period. This will help you know for sure you like the phone before you port your phone number and/or get locked into a 2 year agreement.

So what's a G1 iPhone worth now?

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As all humans across the planet are now aware, there’s a $199 3G iPhone (with GPS) available come June 11th.  John Biggs observes, that’s with a 2-year contract, but I don’t really feel that makes a difference since most typical consumers are re-upping contracts as they buy phones anyway.  $199 is an amazing price point, one sure to help get Apple to hit their previously-hard-to-reach volume numbers.  Let’s look at what you get for $199 now:

  • Arguably the best phone on the market, at a very competitive price to all “trendy” phones, making it affordable to non-professionals alike.
  • A GPS device.
  • A 3G mobile Internet + email device.
  • An 8GB MP3 and video player.
  • Access to a fairly big supply music, movies/TV shows, and now games and other applications.

All in all, not too shabby.  I’m still not running out to buy one (no Verizon, still want a keyboard, etc.), but I’m more tempted than ever.  It’s exactly the right price point to move large volumes of phones (here you can compare it to other top-priced AT&T phones.  Yes, that IS a RAZR in the mix, wow!).  It’s the same price as a Treo (shudder).  Incidentally, looking back a year I was about half-right on my G1 and G2 phone predictions.  Oh well, live and learn.

After some random, informal, and ridiculously unscientific polling, my hunch is a lot of first-generation iPhone users are going to wait until about 12:03am on the 11th to buy the 3G iPhone.  But what are they gonna do with the old ones?

Can’t really resell em (unless they’re unlocked) for any real value.  Again, I don’t view the 2-year contract as any kind of deterrent, and therefore it won’t help spur sales at near price points ($179, $149, even $99).  They’re still listed above $300 on eBay, but that will definitely change in the near future.  My hunch is the price settles in somewhere right around $80.  This makes an all-in early adopter program run a grand total of $718 ($599 + $199 – $80), not to mention the $100 iStore coupon.

One Gadget to Rule Them All?

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Am I the only one who’s found the entire industry surrounding gadgetry and computers has a certain amount of ennui around it? I blame (and not in a bad way, so read this through to the end people) Apple. Seems like ever since Jobs first unveiled the iPhone back in January 2007 that nothing’s even come close to being, well, interesting. I don’t even have an iPhone (and until they ship one on Verizon or until AT&T offers a US+Canada plan, I won’t have one), but I find it one of the most interesting and compelling products on the market.

I wonder how long it’s really going to take other manufacturing companies to start playing the game the same way as Apple does. Granted, not everyone can sport a black mock-T the same way, but they can certainly (1) hire great product designers, (2) have a great vision, (3) execute on that vision, and (4) build the same buzz. But nobody is doing it. Nobody. It’s as if the entire consumer electronics and PC industry look at Apple and just shrug their shoulders. This is, in a word, sad.

When Gretzky played hockey he was arguably the best player to ever lace up his skates. When he played, his teammates played better and the competition tried harder. Our industry seems to have the opposite reaction. “Competing” products come nowhere close, and for no good reason. This is the part that stymies me the most – it’s not exactly like Apple is perfect or anywhere close. While I’ve personally given up on Windows, I can create a huge list of complaints I have about OS X. The original iPhone has terrible problems dealing with corporate email (not to mention the accidental generation of multi-thousand-dollar bills from time to time). These flaws are opportunities for competitors.

Due to my attending CES year after year, my email address has saturated to the entirety of the consumer electronics PR lists. I get virtually all press releases, sneak previews, glimpses, and other news from major CE and PC manufacturers (other than Apple, interestingly). Is it surprising to any of my readers if I “unveil” that practically none of these companies even attempt buzz or drama? There’s no excitement, there’s just press releases and media events. Now I do happen to believe you can’t build too much interest around mediocre products, so this issue goes hand-in-hand with the “where are the great products” topic.

We’re a few hours away from Steve Jobs’ keynote at this year’s WWDC event. I’ll be watching live-ish from Engadget (not Twitter, which is neither reliable nor efficient for this type of information), using TechCrunch as my backup site should Engadget go down (or someone in my office hollers out something that they read on TC before Eng got it!). I’m sure I’ll be somewhat wowed, and somewhat not, because not everything will be exciting ZOMG news. But who cares? It’s Apple up at bat, and they are pointing to the bleachers while the other guys are still practicing their bunts.

ps – congrats to Sling Media for getting the iPhone version of the SlingPlayer ready!

pps – I own some AAPL stock, but I also own some Sony and other CE/PC companies as well.

Come to Maker's Faire, Build Gadgets and More!

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If you haven’t heard of Maker’s Faire before, check out details here (don’t worry, I’ll wait for you before continuing).  I tried describing it on the phone to a friend earlier today, I said “it’s like a big county fair except instead of people throwing small items at smaller targets, you see them building flamethrowers and personal helicopters and solar-powered stuff.”  It really isn’t the easiest thing to describe, but if you have any shred of childhood creativity left, it’s the kinda place you should go for a few hours this weekend.

I say all that, but now, wait for it, the truth is, oh boy, I’ve never been.  As I mentioned on the Bug Labs blog today, I’ve managed to miss it year after year.  I really believe that MAKE magazine and the corresponding event represent the best possibilities of “growing up”.  Yes, I was one of those kids who took apart toys then put them back together again, albeit slightly worse than when I started (and even threw them out my bedroom window, just to see what might happen).  I still have a huge bag of Lego sitting in my closet waiting for my son to get old enough to not eat them.

Tickets are only $25, though Scott Beale’s going to give away a few to some lucky folks.  I’ll be at the Bug Labs “booth” along with others from the team.  We’ll make some gadgets, hack some gear, and try to find a way to hook the BUG up to a flamethrower.  Please join!

22 Predictions About iPhone 2.0

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Wouldn’t it be fun if they name it iPhone ][? It won’t happen, but … Then they could even have a mini-upgrade iPhone ][+! Okay, that’s enough geekiniscing for the day.

Spent the day hiking in Marin and having a BBQ with some old friends, somehow the iPhone came up as a topic numerous times, despite none of us being iPhone owners. There’ve been rumors aplenty about an iPhone 2.0, and I think it’s a pretty safe bet something‘s coming. As always, Steve’s playing it close to the chest, which is part of what makes Apple such a fun/special company (disclaimers: (1) I own Apple stock, (2) I own a MacBook, (3) I don’t own an iPod or iPhone, (4) I’m one of those guys that was fairly anti-Mac until mid-last year, (5) I don’t own any black turtlenecks).

In the day of chatting, a few ideas came through our conversations. I’ve decided to go throw my stage in the ground, even though I may be 4 or more months early on any timing. Further, I’m adding a little “likelihood” to each prediction.

  1. I believe Apple will have 2 different iPhones available on the market simultaneously (not just v1 and v2, but two distinct models with a lot of similarities). Likely
  2. At least one of these models will have a keyboard and will take on BlackBerry/Windows Mobile more aggressively in the business market. Possible
  3. 3G. I Garontee!
  4. Video recording. Very likely
  5. Deeper .mac integration will be built-into the phone(s). Very likely
  6. Put the above three statements together for a built-in live video streaming feature. Possible
  7. Bluetooth tethering will be possible. Likely
  8. A 4+ megapixel camera will be included. Possible
  9. One model will be somewhat smaller/lighter/thinner than the 1.0 model. Likely
  10. Microsoft will have some type of Office for iPhone available to coincide with the launch. Possible
  11. It will not have two cameras (Steve won’t even allow them to put two buttons on it!). Not a chance
  12. The battery still won’t be replacable. Likely
  13. Real GPS is included. Possible

And now for some more outlandish possibilities. All are a bit more… out there. Warning: to my more serious readers, this list gets increasingly goofy. If in a hurry, it’s probably best to skip it altogether.

  1. It might come in multiple colors.
  2. They include an ATSC tuner for live, real-time HDTV reception.
  3. They skip 3G but include Wimax support.
  4. Instead of just two (or one) models, Apple introduces two different distinct lines of iPhones. The second is a much smaller unit – think “iPhone Nano” – but is still all-touchscreen. In an even wackier move, it’s a flip-phone.
  5. They make the screen capable of playing 720p resolution video. Again, the more extreme prediction has an HDMI connector and IR interface and doubles as an AppleTV.
  6. It has an infrared emitter and supports the TV-B-Gone technology. Just kidding.
  7. Apple massively updates the .mac infrastructure to include mobile social networking features for iPhone users. This probably won’t be heavily used as iPhone people can actually feel the aura of other nearby iPhone people…
  8. Voice-operation for all controls. As a downside it has the voice of Marvin from Hitchhiker’s, and after 90 days of use goes crazy, HAL 9000-style. After this point, one in every ten times the user touches the screen the iPhone starts playing Rick Astley at max volume.
  9. Rather than continue support for YouTube, all videos are sourced from 1938Media, who Apple becomes a sponsor for and Loren introduces a Fake Steve Jobs puppet.
  10. Forget touchscreen, instead consider these three words: rotary dial interface.

Dash Seems Cool, But Can It Go the Distance?

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I’ve followed Dash, the Internet-enabled GPS company, for quite some time (I even tried to be a beta tester), as I utterly love the concept. GPS receivers should obviously have Internet access to download new maps, get traffic data, and then of course do some more clever things. Like have my entire address book and calendar built-in. And have Internet services that call my phone when it’s time to leave if I want to make my next meeting on time. I completely expect the category to standardize around these services in the next few years. In the meantime, Dash is trying to be first to market and grab a comfortable spot.

First, here’s the state of the GPS market as I see it (as it pertains to Dash)

  1. Dash is competing with massively entrenched, well-known players (Garmin, TomTom, Magellan, Mio, Pioneer, Sony, others, and of course, all the in-car receivers). The best of these companies (listed above in order) make great products, most of which are extremely well-liked by consumers.
  2. In my opinion, enabling Internet access into a GPS unit is at best a sustainable innovation. In other words, this isn’t a revolution, it’s an evolution, and Garmin/TomTom/others probably already have working prototypes with similar functionality.
  3. Major players are spending a lot of money on advertising (Garmin does Superbowl commercials!).
  4. It is likely to suffer as an industry as GPS-enabled cell phones become widely available and affordable (which is probably why Garmin has introduced a phone, and is simultaneously facing revenue/sales problems).

So if I interpret these signs, I see a startup attempting to enter a commodity industry with a product that I’ll label as “slightly better”. Before any Dash fans roar at me, I’m not trying to say they haven’t made a great product, as I haven’t used it at all – the key point here is the consumer perception of their product. In other words, to the average Joe about to buy a GPS receiver, the Dash only stands out with one additional feature, and that feature is fairly complicated, which drastically diminishes its true value in comparison.

It’s getting mixed user reviews on Amazon (with 4-ish stars and is placing nicely in the top-25 for GPS), Engadget’s happy, and Walt sorta likes it, the combination of which isn’t enough to help push it over the top. Somehow this Silicon Valley startup needs to get out of the Valley and into millions and millions of peoples’ cars before the rest of the industry catches up. Personally, I don’t see how they get there in time.

At a personal level, friends have challenged me on my doubts, making Slingbox-to-Sony comparisons. Here are the quick differences:

  • Slingbox/Sony LFTV was a brand new category to define – Dash is an existing, huge one (that may actually be on the verge of decline).
  • Sony’s product was terrible (sure I’m biased, but virtually every single user and professional review backs up this comment), whereas companies like Garmin/TomTom make great products. Further, these products are cheaper than Dash.
  • Slingbox averages 4.5 stars from Amazon users (181 reviews as of this writing), and had massive impact from strong word of mouth effects, yet Dash’s user reviews are nowhere near as glowing.
  • Slingbox had an instant “I get it, I need it” (or “I don’t need it”) response when people heard about it, one that left almost no room for discussion. Dash has to define itself around existing categories with incremental (albeit cool) technologies. Worse still, Dash has a monthly/annual service fee.

Part of me really wants to see Dash overcome these odds. Another part of me thinks this is a whole lot of money chasing an excessively elusive goal. I believe the company’s best chance at mere survival is through licensing, which is another tricky path to follow on its own.

I hate to say it, but I believe this is one of those disappointing moments where good technology doesn’t appear to have the legs it’s going to need to survive for the long haul. Can Dash navigate these windy roads? Will I come up with yet another terrible pun? Can this post get any longer? Only time will tell.

Updated: while re-reading this, I realized I’m leaving out a key point here: it is entirely possible that the cost structure for running Dash as a company is low enough that they do not need to be a top player in the space. It could be a healthy company without being as big as the Garmin/TomTom/other pool…

The Casio EX-F1. It will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

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For years I’ve envisioned a future of digital cameras that would be smart enough to take more than one picture at a time, but instead would simply take a stream of pictures that you’d select from a little later.  I didn’t have all the details worked out, but it seemed like the logical evolution.  When I read David Pogue’s column a few minutes ago, it looks like the guys at Casio have in fact worked it out:

It takes 60 pictures per second (not 60 frames of a compressed movie file, which is different), all are 6MP.

After taking, you can keep em, delete em, or pick manually.

Per Pogue: “In pre-record mode, you half-press the shutter button when you’re awaiting an event that’s unpredictable: a breaching whale, a geyser’s eruption or a 5-year-old batter connecting with the ball. The camera silently, repeatedly records 60 shots a second, immediately discarding the old to make room for the new.

When you finally press the shutter button fully, the camera simply preserves the most recent shots, thus effectively photographing an event that, technically speaking, you missed.” – WOW!

It also has a motion detector.

For a full review, go back to David’s article, it’s very balanced and thorough.

Will I really buy one?  I don’t know, I still don’t like the idea of a big bulky camera to lug around.  I’m also not sure if this is exactly up the alley of a “prosumer” such as Thomas Hawk, as Pogue laments about the quality of the actual picture-taking-thingamajig inside the camera.

But this definitely marks the future of the entire category.  In fact it’ll always be features and functions like these that keep the digital camera sector enough steps ahead of cell phones to remain extremely relevant.  Me likey.