I’ve been told I’m a ‘long format blogger’ – most of my posts are fairly long (typically overly so). As a result my posts tend to take a while to write, which means I need to block out (too much) time to get them up. And I seem to have less and less free time all the time these days, plus by the time I’m writing something, it seems like a thousand others have already written something related to what I’d write. While I know I shouldn’t feel biased by others’ writings, at the end of the day I feel that if I’m not saying something original, what’s the point?
So in an effort to get some thoughts across, I’m going to try to do the occasional “roundup” post on a few topics all at once. This is the first of said posts.
- Rock Band, Beatles Edition
I’m not sure which game I’m more excited about, this or Modern Warfare 2. I love The Beatles music, and I love Rock Band, so that’s a huge win. Plus I like the idea of a non-hard core version of Rock Band. If you haven’t seen the preview, check it out here: - Social Gaming
The new enhancements to the Xbox Dashboard include integration with Facebook and Twitter. I have a feeling most of the features will be overkill and rarely used by the majority of Xbox owners, but there is a clear improvement needed to integrating social networking and gaming. The key missing element in my opinion is an easier way to find your friends within the Xbox Live experience. Hopefully direct integration with the services I use for networking will help me find and connect with people in my gaming world. - beeTV
A startup raised another $8 million to provide recommendations for watching TV shows. This is now 10 consecutive years of me watching companies try to enter this space and fail. Further, these guys are doing deals with cable and set-top companies, two segments notoriously perilous for relying on for a business to succeed. Who knows, maybe these guys will find that magic touch, but my hunch is (a) there isn’t a real problem in this space, and (b) making a sustainable income stream will be extremely challenging. - Crunchpad
I applaud the crunch team for their efforts on building the Crunchpad. But I have concerns over the device itself. First, the market – I don’t see a web tablet (at any price) effectively replacing a laptop for simple surfing, it doesn’t make sense. Second, the usage – it’s either going to be tiring to hold it up, or it goes into the lap, which again, brings the laptop back into the scene. Ultimately I see it as a “bread machine” type of gadget (purchased, used for a little while, then slowly migrating out of daily life until it gets regifted). I’ll be curious to see what comes of it. - Palm Pre
Reviews are saying it’s solid. Sprint’s said they anticpate a shortage. I believe both statements are accurate. But I also believe it will never supplant the iPhone or BlackBerry, and I also believe the initial orders placed by Sprint are in low volumes relative to those products. I think the product is probably going to be pretty solid, but I think it’s too-little, too-late for Palm. I know back in the day I didn’t think people would switch to AT&T for the iPhone (I was wrong), but I can’t imagine iPhone people switching to Sprint for the Pre. Maybe I’ll be wrong again…
Well, that’s my first attempt at a “ripped from the headlines” kind of post. Feedback, comments, and spirited debate are very welcome.
so do I – I love the Beatles!
I’ve been holding off buying Rock Band because it’s expensive and if I had it I’d need to find time to play it. But the Beatles version is really calling to me…
re: Palm Pre – I’m not getting nearly the battery life that Peter Svensson is getting on his, but the multi-tasking and information management features on the Pre are really second to none. The Pre doesn’t need to supplant the iPhone or BlackBerry to succeed, it just needs enough people to upgrade from a Sanyo / LG / Samsung / Nokia featurephone to it. It’s not a zero sum game, not yet at least.
I’m one of those who switched to Sprint just for the Pre, but there were a lot of things that went into my doing so–my contract with T-Mobile had expired recently, T-Mo didn’t offer 3G in my area yet (which I learned well after a CSR lied and said they did at one point), and in general I felt like T-Mo’s customer service, which had kept me loyal for years, had gone downhill.
With those caveats in mind, though, I was super-stoked for the Pre, and so far it’s everything I wanted it to be, for the most part. I think you’re right that it’s not going to magically unseat the iPhone or Blackberry overnight, but it’s a great first start.