New (sqatty) Nano

I love the Idea of video in the new Nanos, as does everyone else. However, not to question the brilliant Mr. Ives, but it seems as though this would have been the next logical step.

Granted, the 3rd generatinon Nanos are not as "square" in person as they seem to be in pictures. It just seems a little wrong.

Balmer was right

And by right, I mean embarasingly wrong.
One in Three Americans Wants an iPhone

Thirty-two percent of those surveyed who do not currently own an iPhone stated that they do intend to purchase one, with 8 percent planning to purchase in the next three months and 22 percent planning to purchase "some time in the future" the researchers said.

And just a reminder as to what Mr. Balmer so confidently said.



Not only did they spend $600 on a phone, but they're happy they did. USA Today wrote:

In one of the first such studies, 90% of 200 owners said they were “extremely” or “very” satisfied with their phone. […] The findings are “pretty much off the charts,” says Jason Kramer, Interpret’s chief strategy officer.

Also worty of note. It seems from early numbers that nearly half of new iPhone purchasers are switching from other carriers. That's huge! In one week Apple helped AT-T convert 250,000 users, a third of which paid nearly $150 to break a contract. Imagine how many are waiting for their contracts to end or for a V2 iPhone.

Thanks Stacey.

Broadcast Yourself...on Apple TV

You can save yourself some reading by looking at the image to the right, but this is going to be big. And I called it.

Things aren't looking so good for other media extenders. They need to hurry.

DRM Free iTunes

iTunes 7.2 (iTunes Plus) is now available. Apple will finally sell DRM-free music from the only record company willing to offer it, EMI.

DRM-free tracks will cost $1.29 each, instead of $0.99 per track you normally pay. The extra thirty cents buys you better audio quality than the standard DRM'ed tracks (256 kbps AAC versus 128 kbs AAC). You can expect larger data downloads as your audio files expand to nearly twice the size to accommodate those extra bits. The 256 encodings do sound better and you now have the freedome to do whatever you want, as many times as you want with your purchaced EMI tracks.

And so it begins.

Nooo, I can't go back

No commercial skipping...I don't like the way this is looking.

ESPN, ABC, Cox to Test VOD with No Ad Skipping

Philips TV-advert enforcer

Microsoft Making Money

For the first time, the XBox is expected to be profitable in 2008. How refreshing that Microsoft will finally start making money. Everyone knows that Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, and that Microsoft makes a lot of money. But I read some statistics from a Yahoo Business article recently that helped put their profitability in perspective.

Microsoft announced their quarterly revenue of $14.4 billion and net income of $4.93 billion. That means Microsoft made $55 million a day of pure profit. The article goes on to help us understand what kind of money that is.

Do some quick math and you'll learn it takes Microsoft only about...

• four days to exceed Starbucks' quarterly net income of $205 million.
• one week to exceed Nike's quarterly net income of $350.8 million.
• two weeks to exceed McDonalds' quarterly net income of $762 million.
• two weeks to exceed Apple's quarterly net income of $770 million.
• 18 days to exceed Google's quarterly net income of $1 billion.
• 23 days to exceed Coca-Cola's quarterly net income of $1.26 billion.
• five weeks to exceed IBM's quarterly net income of $1.85 billion.
• 10 weeks to exceed Wal-Mart's quarterly net income of $3.9 billion.

The Wow certainly does start now. With this kind of revenue and these sized pockets, they can afford to sit on unprofitable products (like the XBox and Zune) until Sony or Apple screws up and they are profitable. Good for them.

Three weeks to make more money than Coka-Cola?

Not so Creative

I appreciate the Zune, the Zen, and the Sansa in the MP3 player marketplace. Although I would never buy one, it forces Apple (and everyone else) to make better products, to innovate ahead of the curve. However, the reason I would never buy one, is the other products offer no real incentive, they are lacking the refinement and development. When you are behind the ball, that's all you have. They don't make a better product, and they don't have anything new.

This point is made loud and clear with Creative Lab's new Zen Stone.
If it’s not completely obvious, it is a weak, tardy attempt to get a piece of the micro MP3 player market that Apple is nearly alone in. Make no mistakes about it, this is an iPod Shuffle replica, it's a knockoff, a hack. They try to throw you off the trail by disguising it in a crazy new material and moving the nearly identical navigation circle to the complete opposite side of the device. In my opinion they’re not much different than cheap Korean knock off’s.

The frustrating thing is, having seven months to replicate the Shuffle, Creative Labs still hasn’t been able to improve on it. They weren’t even able to strip it of it’s “smallest MP3 player” title, and it has 2 hrs less battery life. Aesthetics are relative, but we all know it’s not as pretty. It’s better looking than the previous Shuffle, but alas it’s a year and a half late for that. Not to mention you won’t have the array of Shuffle accessories, to keep you from losing your postage stamp player.

If there where any doubts that it is a cheap copy. Creative’s site states:

Choose how you want to listen to your music! Push the dedicated random button for shuffle playback, play your music in the order you like or repeat your favorite song over and over again?

You mean there is a mode that allows me to randomly SHUFFLE the songs on my micro MP3 player? Creative indeed!

Creative chairman and CEO Sim Wong Hoo says (ha-ha "Hoo says"):

The Creative ZEN Stone, at just $39.99, opens up a huge new market for MP3 players. This is an incredible price for everyone to get a superior quality MP3 player capable of holding up to 250 songs.

First of all, please let me know what makes this a superior quality MP3 player. Second, I appreciate the price of MP3 players, and electronics in general dropping. They might as well movie tickets are nearly $10. However Creative hopes to move these not by offering something cooler or different, but by simply underselling the Shuffle. This doesn’t work.

Update:
I forgot to mention that Mr Hoo made this statement In January of 2005 when the Shuffle Debuted.

So I think the whole industry will just laugh at it, because the flash people – it’s worse than the cheapest Chinese player. Even the cheap, cheap Chinese brand today has display and has FM.

iGrill

Can anyone tell me why this is a good idea? Wouldn't it be a better idea to get a standard portable ipod speaker dock, with undoubtedly better speakers, and take it with me not only when I grill, but everywhere else I choose? With 10 watt speakers and no touch sensative controls, I'm not sold. Aren't there any activities that we engage where we don't need to have some sort of connectivity to an iPod? Do everyday products need to be catered to, or made for MP3 players all of a sudden for some reason? For a premium nonetheless. Just some thoughts.

IPod accessories are getting ridiculous, and I'm not quite sure how most of these companies can afford to make products of which have to contend with hundreds of competitors. Oh well, have a healthy BBQ.

Dude, your getting Linux

Speaking of offering alternative Operating Systems to Vista, Dell confirmed that it will offer Linux on select Dell models.

I’m no Linux cheerleader, but I’m glad to see things moving in this direction and Linux (open source alternatives in general) getting more public exposure. For most people, that is non geeks (and even often geeks), Linux is painful. Weather it be lack of software support, mainstream titles, or the 1992 style UI’s. This could help change that.

So what’s the big deal? Linux is already free, what is this this going to change? I’m glad you asked. First of all you can buy a new Dell without Windows which you are otherwise forced to buy with a new machine, lower price. This will give Linux more recognition, press, and interest. Most importantly, it will increase developer (software and driver) support, for an eventually more widely accepted, more usable, Linux. These two factors (depending on it’s popularity through Dell and otherwise) could force Microsoft to both acknowledge and respect the open source community and reflect this in their quality and pricing. Oh yeah, it would also be nice of Apple to release a Linux iTunes, but they don't want Linux to succeed any more than Microsoft.

A wider adoption of Linux could also forces the open standards issue a little more which is something Microsoft tends to ignore when it’s convenient or when it helps their sales model.

It’s nice to see Dell bucking Microsoft and Intel, it keeps everyone honest.

As a side note according to Dells profile page, Michael Dell's home laptop runs Ubuntu. It's okay Mike, you don't need any street cred.

More Photoshop PS3 Benchmarks

Arstechnica
Interesting.

CS3 Mac vs. Windows

hansv.com
This is the comparison I've been waiting for.
It's prelimenary, but insightful.

Dell resurects XP

Dell brings back XP on home systems.

This is surprising. By surprising I mean overwhelmingly expected.

I don't know what made them think home users would tolerate the same incompatibility and stability issues that businesses wouldn't.

Sony VAIO G

Now that I've ripped Sony, allow me to praise them for a bit. Second only to Apple, Sony makes the best computer hardware right now. To continue this reputation, their new VAIO G has a host of features that make it the new ultra portable to beat.

The 12.1" display VAIO G actually beat Apple to the Solid State Disk (SSD) storage with a 32 GB SSD that has been rumored lately to be in a new ultra mobile MacBook. This is probably the most significant feature not only because of it's weight reduction (the G weighs in at just under 2 lbs) but because of the speed of SSD storage over hard drive based storage and much lower power consumption. The G notebook gets an amazing 6 hrs of battery life, if the Sony battery doesn't blow up that is.

Other features include: a carbon fiber shell (not the fake Acer kind), Wireless, Bluetooth, multicard reader, and your choice of a Celeron or Core Solo processor. There is also the option of a DVD burner and 6 cell battery which provides an unbelievable 12 hrs of battery life.

In the ultra portable realm the Lenovo X Series has always been my favorite, but the new Sony G is the new hotness. It's far to early to say that the G is better at this time, but it's surely worth watching. They're both overpriced but with the addition of SSD on the new models the G is in the nearly unobtainable stratosphere at nearly $2300 for the base model. But hey, I'm wiling to buy pretty much anything with carbon fiber.

The Future of Television

Although DLP and LCOS technology for rear projection televisions looks very good, the future of televisions is obviously moving quickly to flat panel technologies. Currently Plasma and LCD technologies are the only options, that’s about to change.

With LCD offering higher resolutions and coming up quickly to bridge the quality gap between itself and Plasma, it seems as though the tides are changing for high definition. However, there are new players emerging and they are looking very promising.

First is “Laser” TV. Yes it’s hard to say without air quotes. Novalux Inc. is one of the pioneers of this technology. They claim that laser televisions will offer many benefits over Plasma LCD and CRT televisions, including half the productions cost, double the color range, and three quarters less power consumption. WOW. Sign me up, not only does it have these benefits, but it uses a laser. Is there anything that uses a laser that’s not cool? Although they have not formally announced a product Sony said this of the product they showed at this years CES:

At CES we had a laser TV beside a plasma TV, an LCD TV and a traditional UHP lamp TV,” said Niven, speaking about Novalux’s showroom in at this year’s CES. “So that’s four TVs lined up running our own produced high definition content, and I mean, it was a no brainer. The laser TV had a way, way better picture than any of the other conventional technologies.

The downside to laser technology is that it requires (for now) a deeper cabinet. Not as deep as standard rear projection televisions, it’s 8-10 inch profile is able to be hung on a wall, but not nearly as sexy as the current 3-6 inch flat panels. Which brings me to the next contender.

OLED televisions seem to be around the corner as well. The new OLED TV’s announced by Sony and Samsung are super thin. They also boast of richer colors, wider viewing angle and lower power requirements. The OLED televisions are plagued by short lifespans however. The technology has matured quite a bit since the cell phones and car audio displays of 2002, but will still undergo some growing pains to reach the home theater.

Both of these technologies are slated to be available in 2008. Visually everyone seems to agree that Laser and OLED televisions are superior to the current offerings, and Plasma and LCD have almost hit their peak of evolution. It will be interesting to see how the market is influence by these new televisions. But I’ll sit on my Plasma savings for another year.

Sony's Woes

Sony's CEO Howard Stringer offered some explanation of why the company he works for has done such a good job of sucking over the last five years or so. This prompted me to rant a bit about something I've been meaning to write about for some time.

Sony has missteped so many times in the last few years it's hard to know where to begin. Their proprietary, go through us, Sony is the hub of all electronic entertainment approach to everything has led to the rise and fall of a handful of trademarks that starts with a product that sets a thesis statement for my point…the Betamax. Since that well documented failure Sony has stubbornly used the same mentality and marketing approach, and subsequently failed with: ATRAC, the MiniDisk, UMD and the currently failing PSP, the Connect Digital Music project, the SACD format which died along side it's rival DVD Audio and the Sony Network Walkman, which when finally introduced didn’t even support MP3 files. These failures are complimented by further stupidity such as their stubbornness to even enter the digital audio market (which Stringer mentions in a more flattering way), shipping a rootkit on one of their audio CD’s and recently, exploding batteries.

The Sony Corp. CEO revealed that a lot of the negativity surrounding both recent challenges for the company is the result of internal strife in the company and a cultural disconnect between Sony CEO Howard Stringer and his Japanese executive team.

Sony is just one big dysfunctional foreign exchange family right now, they need some counseling quick. The Nintendo Wii is saturating entry level gaming devices. The Xbox is stronger than ever and was in the marketplace sooner, once again due to a Sony debacle. One they may never be able to recover from. The HD disk wars are far from over. Stringer seems to be overly optimistic about Blu-Ray, but I’m not, even though they have gained some ground lately and technically offer a superior product (like Betamax). Not to mention the success or failure of one of these two products could, and probably will impact that of the other. The PS3 uses Blu-Ray disks and if the PS3 where booming, that many more people would automatically be Blu-Ray movie users.

I don’t hate Sony. Everyone (over the age of 20) has fond memories of their Walkman. Sony's Trinitron technology is legendary. Up until recently they have had the best gaming console bar none. They make great digital cameras (despite the proprietary Memory Sticks) and video cameras. Strangely enough their VAIO computers, although overpriced, are great as well as stylish and finally their line of Bravia XBR LCD televisions are arguably the best on the market. However something needs to change at a very high level for Sony to get back on track, recover from their recent blunders and regain the love of this geek and I’m sure many others.

Optimus Keyboard Debut

The much talked about and little seen of, fabled, OLED keyed, Optimus Keyboard is finaly going to make a public appearance at CeBIT in Germany in the coming weeks. This in theory, is one of the coolest peripherals ever. Supposedly they will have a working model.

We'll see if it lives up to the hype. It will be priced slightly above far to much and a bit less than the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua.

Cover Flow

Itunes 7.1 is out. The updates are minor, including Apple TV functionality, minor sorting options, and full screen cover flow, which is really nice. Cover flow is the primary method of music navigation on the new iPhone, and rumored to be a firmware update to the 5th gen iPods as well (I don't know if this is real, but if not, it's a great job).


I sure hope Mr. Jonathan del Strother was well compensated by Apple for his Cover Flow application, they can't seem to use it enough, and rightfully so.

Vista Backgrounds

Vista (unlike it's predecessors) comes with an array of great Desktop Backgrounds. Hamad Darwish, the photographer responsible for many of them. He has posted photos from the Microsoft Photoshoot up on Flickr. Pretty cool.

All of the pictures on the site were taken in Oregon during a 10 to 12-day period. Darwish chose 15 images from over 6,000 RAW files from his Canon D20, and from those Microsoft would choose 5.

Photoshop Lightroom

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is now Available. Lightroom is a full featured application that allows photographers the ability to manage, adjust, and presenting large volumes of digital photographs. Lightroom and Apples Aperture are the premier software titles for this right now, they blow any other RAW capture handler out of the water. O'Reilly has some good reviews including some comparisons between the two apps. For now it seems a matter of oppinion, however, strangely enough Lightroom seems to be the more intuative app.

Both of these applications will retail for $300 (Lightroom is $200 until the end of April). If that's a bit rich for your blood, there are other photo management and editing programs for the casual shutterbug. Adobe Photoshop Elements for Windows and Mac, ACDSee Pro and the free Picasa from Google (which is good and couldn't be cheaper) just to name a few. Speaking of free it's getting more and more difficult for these companies to make worthwhile commercial products that can compete with the built in tools like Windows Photo Gallery and iPhoto.

Airport Extreme Reviewed

Macworld reviewed the new Airport Extreme Base Station. This product is long overdue, but understandably delayed due to the whole 802.11n standard fiasco.

This is a welcome product for Mac and Windows users alike. The printer and external hard drive sharing feature is awesome. I however do expect Apple to quietly upgrade this product before the end of the year due to the glaring lack of Gigabit Ethernet (what the heck) and the possibility of the ratified n standard.