Filed under: Features

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about echnology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

Lou: Hey, Abbott, there’s sure been a lot of hullabaloo around HP’s board of directors lately.

Bud: That’s right, Costello. I’ve been reading all about it.

Lou: Ah, then maybe you can help sort it all out for me. Now, the person who used to be HP’s chairman, what’s her name? Bud: Dunn.

Lou: What do you mean, done? You didn’t tell me!

Bud: I just did. Dunn!

Lou: You just did it again!

Bud: Did what?

Lou: Not tell me her name before you finished!

Bud: Oh, sure I did. Stop being ridiculous.

Lou: You’re not very nice to me, Abbott. Why can’t I be heard?

Bud: Because he’s the CEO.

Lou: Hurd?

Bud: Every word you said.

Lou: You mean to tell me the CEO is Hurd.

Bud: Absolutely.

Lou: He’s Hurd everywhere he goes.

Bud: Of course

Lou: He’s Hurd every time, right?

Bud: Well, if he articulates clearly enough, I suppose.

Lou: What does THAT mean?

Bud: You asked me if the man can speak well.

Lou: I did no such thing! Anyway, this Hurd, he’s a good CEO?

Bud: Oh, yes, very good.

Lou: The employees at HP? They respect him?

Bud: Very much so.

Lou: So the HP employees, they follow this Hurd?

Bud: Oh, they’d never do that!

Lou: What do you mean!?

Bud: C’mon, Costello. HP is a very innovative company, They take pride in not following any herd.

Lou: But you just said they respect him!

Bud: They do!

Lou: So they do what the CEO tells them to do?

Bud: Sure, after the CEO is done.

Lou: Dunn is the CEO?

Bud: No, that’s the ex-chairman.

Lou: Who’s the ex-chairman?

Bud: Dunn.

Lou: You did it to me again, Abbott!

Bud: Did what?

Lou: Ah, forget it! So, why is there so much controversy?

Bud: Well, the Board authorized a contractor that engaged in pretexting.

Lou: Pretexting? But I thought you said HP was innovative!

Bud: I did.

Lou: Their computers can handle music, animation and video, right?

Bud: They sure can.

Lou: So what’s wrong with a little pretexting? I do that on my cell phone all the time before I send an SMS.

Bud: Costello, you don’t get it. Contractors posed as employees so they could record what was overheard.

Lou: What could be over Hurd? He’s the CEO!

Bud: Well, as a Board member, he wasn’t over Dunn.

Lou: Why couldn’t he be over Dunn?

Bud: Well, if he overdid things, he would be ineffective like Dunn was.

Lou: Why wasn’t Dunn effective?

Bud: Because the contractors were off the mark.

Lou: I thought Mark is the CEO!

Bud: Of course he is.

Lou: All right, now I’ve got it! Hurd is the CEO and Dunn was the chairman.

Bud: That’s right, Costello!

Lou: Wow, I’ve finally got it down pat.

Bud: I’m not Pat. She’s the ex-chairman.

Lou: Pat is?

Bud: Of course.

Lou: Not Dunn?

Bud: Actually, I am done.

Lou: You’re Dunn?

Bud: No, that’s…

Bud and Lou: the ex-chairman!

Lou: Well, it’s too bad about this Dunn person. Sounds like she’ll need to be looking for jobs.

Bud: Actually, Jobs is… oh, never mind.

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Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group and a contributing editor for LAPTOP. Views expressed in Switched On are his own. Feedback is welcome at fliptheswitch@gmail.com.

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

And in other news, it’s a chilly 32 degrees in Hell today, and we just saw a winged pig buzz by our window.

[Thanks, Mikami]

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Features, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about the future of technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

At Microsoft, we know that customers appreciate the importance of choice and compatibility. If you’re in the market for a new digital media player, look for the logo that ensures interoperability with a wide variety of players from our valued partners and wretched competitors such as Creative, Samsung, iRiver, Archos and Sandisk. PlaysForSure means that you won’t be locked into one company’s digital media player. On the other hand, isn’t that worth the convenience and elegant integration you’d get with a sweet, sweet Zune player?

PlaysForSure also means that you’ll have access to the widest variety of digital music stores, so you can choose from content offered by Napster and Yahoo! Music or, for an even better experience, you can take advantage of the great integration of MTV Networks’ Urge with Windows Media Player 11 — an experience so good that we’d just as soon pass on it in favor of a whole new music management application that will integrate with our own player and store. Finally, we’ll have something to compete with that company that owns MSN Music. There are also a number of excellent PlaysForSure video services such as CinemaNow and Vongo that we’re going to trounce with the service supporting Zune.

One of the best features of PlaysForSure is the ability to subscribe to all the music you want for a low monthly fee. But that becomes really cool when you can share that music wirelessly with other subscribers, and for that PlaysForSure will be as useful as a broken m:robe 500. PlaysForSure also won’t do much to ensure a wide variety of dockable accessories, another area where Zune will beat the skins off any PlaysForSure player

PlaysForSure isn’t just about portable media either. Using certified digital media receivers such as those from Roku and Slim Devices, you can stream protected audio from your PC to any room in the house. That kind of functionality is tough to beat, but we feel up to the challenge.

So look for the PlaysForSure logo with its five-part badge system that’s significantly easier to figure out than the homeland security threat level indicator. In fact, look hard for it, because you won’t find it anywhere on our own digital music player. Remember that if your player doesn’t support PlaysForSure, you risk purchasing the product with the broadest industry support or ours, which we think will be the best on the market.

If you’d like more information on PlaysForSure, head on over to your PC and check out the PlaysForSure web site. Or you may want to wait until the next Super Bowl when traffic will be low as we’ll be driving it somewhere else entirely.

Microsoft. Your products. Our prerogative.

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Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group and a contributing editor for LAPTOP. Views expressed in Switched On are his own. Feedback is welcome at fliptheswitch@gmail.com.

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