Google Plays 700 UP
July 12, 2007
There is a new game being played that I call 700 UP. The move to digital television in the U.S. has freed up wireless spectrum in the 700 MHz range that will be auctioned off this year. The major wireless carriers will be bidding as expected but what is interesting is that Google is lobbying to influence the rules of the auction. On the Google Public Policy blog they have a post promoting a set of open platform rules. Read the rest of this entry »
HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray
July 6, 2007
In the comments on the VHS vs. Betamax post, DasL asks:
so, what’s the main factor going to be that wins the hd dvd vs. bLue-ray battLe?
apparentLy bLockbuster is going to be supporting bLue-ray:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6762621.stm
I think this is a very different battle than the VHS vs. Betamax one. Technically HD-DVD and Blu-Ray offer equivalent features and user experience. Assuming neither has a cost advantage the choice comes down to…. well, its like Donkey in the movie Shrek jumping up and down saying “Pick Me! Pick Me!”. The HD-DVD and Blu-Ray donkeys are not nearly as loveable as the Shrek Donkey though.
I don’t think Blockbuster or NetFlix support matters. The studios or distributors can pick sides for now but when push comes to shove they are not going to forgo sales if one technology catches on (except for maybe Sony).
The Sony PS3 game console could have made a difference if it caught on since it includes a Blu-Ray drive but Nintendo made a Wii little obstacle in the way of Sony’s plan of world domination (good for Nintendo by the way).
So I’m guessing neither will “win” but the question becomes do one or both of the high def competitors “starve to death”. I think this battle is more like WMA vs. AAC in the music player space. Neither offers an advantage to the consumer just compatibility headaches.
Will download alternatives win? I dunno but I don’t think they will try to offer 15+ GB downloads to compete with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. The value proposition is very different for movie downloads.
Is there some other factor that would make you choose either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD?
VHS vs. Betamax
July 3, 2007
I love the VHS vs. Betamax story. Both technologies are effectively dead but the fact that Betamax died much sooner is the interesting part. Actually, the interesting part of this story is that it is a wonderful case study of how the mind works (or perhaps doesn’t work).
One reoccurring meme that comes up in various articles I have read goes like this: “VHS won the video tape war despite Betamax being a superior technology”.
WHAT IS BEST – Our minds have a funny way of determining what is best when multiple variables are involved. In the video tape wars, some of the competing variables were 1) video quality, 2) tape length, 3) vendor choice, and 4) cost. But here we are years later and a large number of commentators on the “video tape war” can’t get beyond Video Quality. Ultimately, tape length proved to be a more important factor because of an unforseen emergent property; movie rentals. A Hollywood movie can fit on a single 120 minute VHS tape but not a 60 minute Betamax tape.
WHAT WE WANT - the funny thing about the VHS/Betamax machines is that they were designed first and foremost as “recorders”. When people imagined using the technology they always thought about recording. Recording TV shows, TV movies, and football games. Its what we THINK WE WANT. We never figured out that it didn’t work all that well. So all VHS/Betamax machines included a TV Tuner and write heads and a clock and a really bad interface to start recording at a certain time.
LESSONS LEARNED – VHS won because of its 120 minute tape length and Blockbuster Video (maybe porn). We paid for and lived with extra recording technology junk because that is how we saw ourselves using it.
NOTE: I know the proprietary nature of Betamax was a big part too but that aspect says more about how the minds at Sony work rather than how our minds work.
iPhone a New Form Factor (Part II)
June 29, 2007
I made the claim, in part I, that the iPhone will be a new core form factor for mobile phones (the “earphone” and “QWERTY” phone being the other two).
Some of the limitations of the iPhone form factor have been pointed out on this blog as well as numerous other sites. The core issues being:
- too wide to put to your ear (problem with all QWERTY and other PDA type devices as well)
- screen input is a pain
- 8 GB flash is too small for videos and large music collections (Nano size storage)
- EDGE data network speed too slow for fancy pants browser
- 320 x 480 screen not enough resolution for fancy pants browser
- cost is very high for a youth oriented device
Over the last few years we have seen all kinds of new smartphone form factors (just think HTC and Nokia) that did not develop widespread appeal. So why do I think the iPhone is different?
Because it has a fun and usable user interface, iPod music capability with iTunes sync, and WiFi. Think of a young urbanite that uses public transportation and shares an apartment with room mates…. lets call her Y. Urbanite. Y. Urbanite has her white iPhone earbuds (with new fancy pants clicky mic) in her ears for a large part of her day. She listens to music when she is working out at the gym, music/podcasts for her commute to work on the subway, and she listens to music while browsing the net over the WiFi connection she shares with her roomates at home. For Y. Urbanite the iPhone is the perfect device.
From what I’ve seen, the multi-touch interface works well with HTML pages as long as you are connected over WiFi. The cost of the device is high but presumably Y. Urbanite already has a Mac/PC for syncing with iTunes to begin with so I’m sure she will figure out how to pay for it. iTunes is used for syncing. Life is good.
There will be alot of techno-geeks buying an iPhone at first but ultimately I think Y. Urbanite will be replacing her current “earphone” and iPod for an iPhone. The iPhone is not a tool like the Blackberry, it is a cool way to fill spare time.
iPhone a New Form Factor (Part I)
June 29, 2007
This is not the iPhone, it is an LG-325 that runs on Bell Mobility’s CDMA network in Canada. Bell Mobility is the quintessential “walled garden” service provider where the carrier has complete control over what software runs on the phone. What I lose in flexibility I gain in cost because I subscribe to a Bell Mobility unlimited browsing plan for $7 (CDN) per month. If you can live with the OpenWave browser on a tiny screen at slow speed, it is a great option. The “killer feature” which makes it unlikely that I will trade in this aging bit of technology is AMPS, that is, analog service. Digital service is spotty enough in some of the areas that I spend time in or drive through that I believe it is a safety feature that I do not want to give up.
So why am I talking about my goofy little phone on the day the iPhone is available to the public (at least for our friends south of the border)? It is a comparison exercise. I think this phone represents an important form factor for mobile phones and I now believe the iPhone is a new form factor. Read the rest of this entry »
Xbox 360 Spring Update: First Impressions
May 9, 2007
I posted about the Xbox 360 spring update when it was first announced by Microsoft. The update is here so I had an opportunity to test it out. Read the rest of this entry »
JavaFX
May 8, 2007
Sun announced JavaFX which inventor Chris Oliver describes in his blog.
My project is called F3 which stands for “Form follows function”, and its purpose was to explore making GUI programming easier in general.
F3 is actually a declarative Java scripting language with static typing for good IDE support and compile-time error reporting (unlike JavaScript…), type-inference, declarative syntax, and automatic data-binding with full support for 2d graphics and standard Swing components as well as declarative animation. You can also import java classes, create new Java objects, call their methods, and implement Java interfaces.
F3 was the original name for what is now JavaFX. Apparently Sun/Java/JavaFX has thrown its hat into the ring to battle newly announced Microsoft/Silverlight and Adobe/Apollo/Flash.
JavaFX is a scripting language but it is not Javascript running in the JVM…. no sir. Read the rest of this entry »
Silverlight: Intranet Platform
May 4, 2007
Jeremy Zawodny says the key feature of Silverlight is the compact CLR.
They’ve decided to change the game–or at least bet that the game is changing. When they deliver a browser-based version of Microsoft Office, you can bet your ass that it’ll be built to run in the .NET CLR that Silverlight offers. It’ll work in Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and maybe even Opera. On both Macs and Windows boxes.
He goes on to clarify that this is mostly important in the intranet. Read the rest of this entry »
Microsoft Silverlight
May 2, 2007
Microsoft announced Silverlight on Monday. Robert Scoble says “Microsoft rebooted the Web“. So I’ve read a bit about Silverlight as well as Adobe Apollo (the main competitor), watched some vodcasts, and I think I’ve slowly formed an opinion. Read the rest of this entry »
Google Presentations
April 17, 2007
Google has announced their PowerPoint competitor which will be named Presentations. Presentations will be part of the Docs & Spreadsheets family and it will be released this summer.
We’ve already freed those of you working in teams from the burdens of version control and email attachment overload when going back and forth on word processing and spreadsheets. It just made sense to add presentations to the mix; after all, when you create slides, you’re almost always going to share them. Now students, writers, teachers, organizers, and, well, just about everyone who uses a computer can look forward to having real-time, web-based collaboration across even more common business document formats.
Hmmmm…. I think multi-machine access and collaboration are great features. There is a very common use case, however, where you are standing in the front of a room with a projector and a laptop and you don’t want or need connectivity. Easily solved with an export feature. I hope Google does not forget the importance of offline presentations. On second thought, I’m sure they’ll get it right. Never mind.
Digital Entertainment Ecosystem: Spring Update
April 15, 2007
The Xbox 360 Spring Update looks like it might include a few items that address the limitations I outlined in my Digital Entertainment Ecosystem: XBox 360 post. A subset of points that apply to my Digital Entertainment Ecosystem:
- Added H.264 video support: Up to 10 Mbps peak, Baseline, Main, and High profiles with 2 channel AAC LC.
- Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 5 Mbps peak, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC.
- Bookmarks are stored for each video that the user plays remembering the users last location in the file as well as the aspect ratio that the user choose for that file.
- Windows Media protected content (WM-DRM) can now be streamed from the PC to the console. If the WM-DRM license is missing or corrupted then a specific error message is displayed to the user. Bookmarking is also stored for protected content.
The support of H.264 and MPEG-4 is huge and will reduce the need for Transcode 360 for me. Bookmarks are useful but I imagine they will not extend to audio podcasts the way iTunes/iPod bookmarks do.
The final point about WM-DRM doesn’t make alot of sense. The Xbox 360 does play WM-DRM audio from Windows Media Connect (plain Jane PC) it just will not stream Video, any kind of video, from Windows Media Connect (only Media Center PC).
Future Lines of Communication
April 5, 2007
I’m really glad I took this photo. I have a suspicion that years from now I’m going to look fondly at it. Normally I go through hoops to keep power lines, phone lines, and TV antennas out of my shots. This image reminds me that maybe this obsession is a little misguided.
Have you ever come across a really old newspaper? The news from that time seems trivial but the ad for some “magic for mom in the kitchen” fascinates me. I wonder if some of these infrastructure “eyesores” will not turn out to be the same kind of cute from an age long gone :-)
Samsung Ubicell
April 2, 2007
Samsung announced the Ubicell for Sprint’s CDMA network. This is like a WiFi access point for your cell phone. It connects to your DSL or Cable Modem connection allowing your cell phone calls to be made over TCP/IP thus avoiding cell phone towers altogether. The following pdf says the Samsung Ubicell is for WCDMA/HSPDA so it looks like they will offer them for different wireless technologies. The question is why? Why do customers want/need it? Why do carriers want to offer it?
I think customers might want it for the following reasons:
- cheap calls – if carriers can offer free or low pricing
- good signal – some people have terrible coverage in their homes
- high speed data – EVDO/HSPDA speeds when you are at home
- one phone
So what about the wireless carrier:
- defensive move against phones with WiFi
- defensive move against Skype and other VOIP offers
- get customers to move away from landline phone carriers
Its kind of an interesting technology. Will it get adopted? Time will tell.
