March 22, 2007
Hang around enough media mailing lists long enough and you will find yourself mysteriously added to some that border on your areas of focus, but are just valuable enough for some reason to justify the inertia of failing to unsubscribe. An example for me is Telecoms Korea, which requires a subscription for news on arguably the world’s most advanced wireless country.
Every so often, Telecoms Korea will throw out an inflammatory headline. Unfortunately, my coding skillz aren’t up to creating the picklists, so I’ll just list the ingredients here for making your own:
Column 1:
Samsung, LG, Pantech, KT, SK Telecom, The Korean government
says
Column 2:
CDMA, GSM, WiBro, GPS
is
Column 3:
losing, dead, dying, dead in five years
AppleTV adopts something I’ve been calling for for a long time in the digital media adapter market — a “sync and store” architecture. Yet, it also supports streaming, which is particularly good for ad hoc content sharing. When I wrote about Brookstone’s SongCube for Engadget last September, the same month in which AppleTV (then iTV) was announced, I noted “The inclusion of networking capability so that the SongCube could be loaded and ideally synchronized over a home network would greatly benefit the product.” (Even though the column was posted after the Apple event, it was written before it and certainly before I knew that AppleTV would have a hard drive.) I also was relativley lenient on the product’s user interface — advanced for a stereo but primitive compared to most modern portable digital audio players.
AppleTV, which costs the same as the SongCube but lacks speakers, addresses both of these issues. However, there’s another catch — you need a screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio. So, I’m thinking there’s room in the market for one of those companies that did the add-on flip-up LCD screens for the GameCube and Xbox like Pelican Accessories (or perhaps a Mac peripherals maker like Griffin?) to do a similar product for the AppleTV. Add a pair of powered multimedia speakers and — voila — you have the slickest shelf system ever.
Years ago, I tried matching up Apple’s PowerCD with Apple’s old gray powered speakers for a different-looking bedroom CD player, but could never get it to work for some reason.
March 17, 2007
A year ago, I wrote my first Out of the Box post on Sony’s HDRadio-free, XM-Sirius-free, and stereo-free table radio — a simple device befitting a simple medium. Now I’m close to my 150th post here. That works out to about one post every two and a half days in the blog’s first year (although it didn’t really go public until about January). I’m a bit surprised by that since I didn’t think there was that much I wanted to comment on publicly outside of my two columns.
In fact, my affinity for the column format is so deeply rooted from my college newspaper days that I wasn’t even sure I would like writing shorter posts. Even though I’m also approaching my 150th Switched On column for Engadget, I’ve written only one “typical” post. Yet, writing OOTB, as it’s known here around OOTB HQ (see?) has indeed been a lot of fun and has even proven useful for developing a few longer pieces that became columns.
Because it had an intentionally under-the-radar start, Out of the Box was never treated the chorus of welcomes to the blogosphere that sometimes greet new bloggers, so if any of you loyal readers with traffic wouldn’t mind passing along the kinds of presents measured by Google Analytics, the birthday blog would be most appreciative.
I’ve tried to stay on-topic in terms of consumer technology, not chiming in on every juicy bit of comment-bait out there in the blogosphere, yet I really admire how some bloggers, such as Jeremy and Scoble, have mastered the art of seamlessly and often humorously blending original content, archival references, blogosphere retort and personal updates. One habit that would certainly help would be becoming a more diligent and efficient feed reader.
Special thanks go to Eileen for helping me with hosting and technical configuration. So, what will the second year bring? A redesign? (I hope at some point.) Funnier tag line? Burnt feeds? Futile ads? Guest bloggers? Podcasts? A companion blog? Pimping out with every blotchke covered by TechCrunch? Acquisiiton by Federated Media? Late presidential bid on a national free Wi-Fi platform? My being mistaken for some other Ross? Who can say?
You can. After all, comments are on.
March 16, 2007
Over at meeblog, the reverse chronological organ of the exceptional Web-based IM app meebo, Seth confesses to a few bloopers during a recent series of meetups in Boston and Toronto that in part demonstrate some limits of technology. In Toronto, he used Google Maps to find a Starbucks for the gathering, only to discover later that it was one of those mini-Starbucks inside an office building that had already closed for the day. However, one of the attendees had a piece of good ol’ fashioned analog paper, that he marked with a writing implement to inform attendees of the new venue. It will be a long time before e-paper becomes so disposable.
On Windows Mobile, Google Maps has the ability to link to venue phone numbers that you can call with a button press. Had Seth taken advantage of it, he could have confirmed the suitability of the locale.
March 12, 2007
Thomson Consumer Electronics today announced the RCA DTA800, a digital television adapter to prolong the life of analog TV sets that haven’t succumbed to set-top boxes from satellite, cable or IPTV providers. As you can see, it will look great in your living room if you keep it on a mirror-shined green floor.
Speaking of green, Thomson claims that this bringer of broadcasts is energy-efficient. And further speaking of green, Thomson notes that the device should qualify for the two $40 coupons that the federal government will provide to ease the digital transition. Since my main TVs are obediently tethered to TimeWarner Cable awaiting the great Verizon liberation (wait, that just doesn’t sound right), I haven’t had much exposure with over-the-air digital television, but I tried out a PC adapter recently and was delighted with the quality of unprecedented reception in the heart (OK, perhaps an aorta) of New York City. I’ll take two; here’s my gift card from Uncle Sam.
Ryan Block shares that the CompUSA where he had his first job is closing and recounts some of the lowpoints of his time there as he dispenses some consumer advice. My local CompUSA is closing, too, as are all New York stores east of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. I suppose I’m lucky that my neighborhood has a Circuit City, Target, Best Buy, P.C. Richard and two Radio Shacks all within walking distance so it’s usually pretty easy to find the occasional electronic necessity or washing machine. When I moved here, there was a Nobody Beats the Wiz as well. I do wish we had an office supply store a bit closer, though.
My local CompUSA is actually located in a cool triangular extension of a nearby office building, which contributes to a high-tech look. I don’t think its replacement will do the space as much justice. Those familiar with Manhattan might consider it similar to the Sprint store jutting out of the front (side?) of the Flatiron Building, but this is a much larger space with two floors. I’ll try to get a picture before it closes.
In any case, it turns out Ryan and I have something else in common beyond Engadget. My first job was also at a computer retail store , albeit a long-gone small Apple-only dealer of ill repute, not a chain. There’s now a Houston’s restaurant where it once stood. I can assure you that CompUSA is a paragon of business ethics compared to some of the shenanigans that went on there. The store was “featured” on Arnold Diaz’ Shame on You watchdog segment and for reasons that were not the most egregious of its management’s indiscretions.
I also worked in service (and later the store’s very nice training facility) although I only occasionally took in machines. I mostly did repairs and installations (TOPS anyone?). Two of the senior service guys were an odd couple if ever there was one — a brash and boastful Army reservist and and a quiet sarcastic French sophisticate.
One of my favorite exchanges took place when the former was strutting around the department and crowed, “I’m good at everythng I try!” The other muttered under his breath, “Have you ever tried shutting up?”
In Engadget, Conrad Quilty-Harper covers the promising blueChute Bluetooth-enabled electronic ink prototype by E Ink, which developed the display technology for the Sony Reader. Conrad notes that the device overview says that potential advanced functionality for the display would depend on “software which probably won’t ever get written.” Now there is some fine evangelism! Or perhaps the advanced technologists have enlisted Marvin, the depressed android from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, to write their promotional copy.
In any case, the point is taken, but this technology needs to crawl before it can sprint with wireless widgets. Were it inexpensive enough, a simple printer driver would probably be all that would be needed to transfer hundreds of pages of information to such a device.
I saw a Google ad today that took me to Danny’s Scam Review, which links to two, er, questionable sites. (Hmm, let’s see, they use the same exact floating banner as Danny’s Scan Review. Could they possibly be related?) Anyway, the noteworthy part is when “Danny” writes, “I was scammed by 37 different ‘get rich quick schemes’ and I lost over $4800 in 3 months.”
Right, that’s just the type of savvy individual from which I’m eager to take advice.
Vivitar’s forthcoming waterproof camera has pretty weak specs (why is the SD card limited to 1 GB?) and a deisgn aesthetic a bit reminiscent of the late KBGear’s JamCam for kids, but a cheap waterproof camera may be just the thing to address one of the last refuges of disposable cameras — the casual underwater photographer on vacation. We’ll see if the image quality is up to it. At $233, it’s not there yet, but at $99, many consumers might just take the plunge, so to speak. That price would also put it below many underwater casings for more popular offerings.
March 10, 2007
I’m delighted to see that my college friend, fellow former Cornell Daily Sun columnist, author and economics commentator Daniel Gross is. (I’ve been, too.) Dan runs some numbers in Slate and determines that the market for functional wristwear is on the decline. Indeed, the humble watch is often overlooked when thinking about competition among portable multifunction gadgets, especially cell phones, that have more glamorous cannibalistic features such as playing digital music and games, taking video and even GPS capabilities.
Dan focuses attention on Fossil, in particular its now somewhat ironically named Relic brand of basic timepieces. Dan provides a strong case that — unlike with digital cameras, iPods or DS Lites – cell phones and their tethered digital rivals may indeed be cleaning the clock of watches.
