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: Features, Peripherals, Wireless

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

During the spring CTIA conference of 2005, a Switched On column expressed hope for Bluetooth. Bluetooth phones were becoming more broadly available in the US and headsets were becoming more affordable, trends that have continued. However, the potential of Bluetooth has been cut short by carriers that have disabled or “crippled” parts of it functionality. The two most common profiles that carriers have disabled are DUN (dial-up networking) which lets you use your Bluetooth handset as a wireless modem, and OBEX (object exchange), which lets you wirelessly trade files between your handset and PC.

DUN is generally disabled to prevent users from taking advantage of data plans intended for the kind of relatively light data usage patterns of a smartphone, whereas some carriers disable OBEX to prevent circumventing cellular-based transfer services, like Verizon, for instance, and photos. While carriers have eased up on some of the profile disabling, the Sidekick 3, for example, supports only headset and file sharing functions.

Communicating Bluetooth compatibility has always offered a dilemma because the wireless technology encompasses several different benefits. Do you go the route of the WiFi Alliance and offer one logo that might leave out details such as operating frequency, and speed or do you go the PlaysForSure route and offer a confusing composite badge that details all the capabilities?

Be it via cost-cutting or carrier caprice, though, consumers are getting a warped idea of what Bluetooth is and what it can do. Putting aside newer features such as A2DP audio and EDR enhanced speed, the Bluetooth SIG needs to confront the issue of phones not supporting the expected features of DUN and OBEX — features that could conceivably interfere with carrier revenue models. That’s why it should reward carriers that support phones with these capabilities via a “True Bluetooth” certification.

“True Bluetooth” would tell consumers that a specific phone on a specific network offers the essential - if not full — promise of what a Bluetooth phone should be. Promotion of “True Bluetooth” would be done via the handset manufacturers that have been most aggressive in supporting Bluetooth such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson. These companies are motivated to have carriers support the features that they’ve spent valuable development time engineering.

Carriers would also benefit from “True Bluetooth” as they would have a simple way to distinguish phones where they support features such as DUN from those that don’t, and market the right handsets to advanced users who want to use these features without resorting to hacks. It’s high time the Bluetooth SIG put some teeth back in Bluetooth with “True Bluetooth” — the way to hold its standard to a higher one.

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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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Filed under: Features, Home Entertainment

Nonetheless, while adoption of Media Center has grown significantly as it has become a more popular option on high-end PCs, relatively few of these PCs have tuner cards integrated into them, and fewer still are actively being connected to a television. Meedio, then, at least as it exists today, is a long way from solidifying Yahoo’s “third screen.” Contrast this with TiVo’s customers, virtually all of whom access its services via a real television — televisions that are increasingly relying on a brain for their content as much as PC monitors.

That makes TiVo, which shares Google’s affinity for Linux, a more attractive acquisition candidate for the cash-flush search king, one that would leapfrog Yahoo! when Google seems focused on recreating much of it. Just as Microsoft subsidizes TV schedule content fees for Media Center, Google could do so for “GiVo” and once again offer customers and prospective customers an opportunity to enjoy the service without the now-inescapable subscription fees, thus providing a more differentiated alternative to cable DVR.

In return, Google could employ its knack for non-intrusive advertising to capture millions of more eyeballs, treating recorded shows, actors, directors and the rest of TiVo’s metadata playground as targeted keywords. TiVo, which has had only one profitable quarter in its history, would find its white (or blue, red, yellow and green) knight.

Without the sketchy proposition of an integrated Web browser, a Google-powered TiVo would lack the clickthrough immediacy of the Web, but at least part of the purpose of a “three screen” strategy is to stimulate cross-platform services. Selected ads could take the form of short videos or bookmarks that could show up in a PC-based Web feed or cell phone Java application.

The real winners would be TiVo users. First, of course, Google’s search technology would instantly improve TiVo’s usability. The large library of video that the company is hosting could also be presented in an Akimbo-like interface; existing TiVo hooks in Picasa could be enhanced to enable photos sharing across the Internet to other TiVo devices. Google’s Web savvy and communication infrastructure (Google Talk and Gmail) would also likely usher in new functionality, like the ability to tag shows that friends could opt in to record. Hooks to Blogger could make it trivial to comment on last night’s episode of Lost (complete perhaps with screen shots).

Google, which seeks to index the world’s information, would gain a treasure trove of data and relevance. Post-acquisition, Google could display screen shot links to relevant TV shows or perhaps even commercials in response to a Web search. Clicking their icons on a Google’s Web results page would schedule a recording. Of course, Google could also pursue deals with cable and satellite providers, and the company’s content and service focus, and freedom from subscription fees, would likely make a Google-owned TiVo a more attractive partner than today’s independent company.

TiVo is a CableCard slot away from its best shot at controlling the televisions of its viewers. So, Google, in your search for a television strategy, are you feeling lucky?

Please also see the following stories on TiVo and Google: Google has plans for TV, too?, TiVo to score big deal with either Google or Yahoo?

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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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Filed under: Digital Cameras, Features

Plugging the USB port into a Windows PC prompts you to use the browsing software resident on the device. The interface, created in Adobe (nee Macromedia) Director software, is similar to the one on the DVD-ROMs created from Pure Digital’s processing retailers, and makes it easy to share video clips with friends via email, automatically downsizing them to save download time. Unlike with the disposable camcorder, there is no option to have the video hosted and transcoded on the fly for the best platform and bandwidth, but Pure Digital says it is working on adding that functionality.

Advanced users can dispense with all this, of course, and just drag video files from the camcorder’s icon since it mounts like a USB flash drive. And Apple fans: the Point and Shoot camcorder can now be the other white little digital media gadget you carry with you everywhere; the camcorder comes with Mac OS X software.

Until now, the flash camcorder space has been bifurcated between high-end options from the likes of Panasonic and Sanyo that can cost $600 or more after a beefy SD card, and what I call “cramcorders” — gadgets that do a generally poor job at a variety of tasks including taking photos and playing music. The Point and Shoot camcorder is affordable and singularly focused. In fact, according to Pure Digital, its reliance on a relatively low-resolution sensor helps avoid the noise problems in low-light video common among even more expensive offerings; I was impressed with the low amount of noise in indoor video. Furthermore, the Point and Shoot camcorder captures video at VGA, four times the resolution of its disposable doppelganger.

The result is video that lies between acceptable indoors, where more compression artifacts can be noticed, and good outdoors. Whereas Pure Digital overpromised with the quality of its initial disposable offering, it offers credible video quality with this follow-up, good enough for its target of “everyday video.” When compared with video captured by a Canon PowerShot SD400, the digital camera’s superior optics and lower compression created a sharper image, but again the Pure Digital offering excelled in reducing low-light noise.

Digital cameras will be the toughest competition for the new device. While they offer as good if not better daytime video, though, their bundled software isn’t tuned to handling video the way Pure Digital’s is, and whereas most PC novices would never be able to create a DVD from a digital camera’s video clips, the same service providers that can master DVDs from the disposable camcorders can also do so with this one (although it remains expensive). For those looking for a straightforward way to take decent digital video, it’s a winner.

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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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Filed under: Home Entertainment

So, what happens when you mix Squeezebox 3.0 with Web 2.0? Between setting up the Squeezebox and SlimServer and registering for both the Pandora and SqueezeNetwork services, there's a timely tax to enjoy new tracks. With the exception of online music store links, those familiar with Pandora's Web interface will find the Squeezebox implementation a nearly perfect functional recreation; you can even add songs to the Web-hosted favorites list.

However, the mirroring of Pandora's interface is, to invoke the detective cliché, a bit too perfect. For while Pandora maintains an isolated existence on an island of Flash code online, it yearns to be free among your digital music library via the Squeezebox.

Rather than have to enter the SqueezeNetwork service and choose Pandora to listen to prefabricated channels you've set up on the Web, it would be great to have Pandora generate channels based on whatever song or artist playing on the Squeezebox at the touch of a remote control button. Pandora's API and the company's willingness to let third parties experiment with it -- as evidenced by its blessing a mashup with complementary service last.fm -- could facilitate this integration.

Nevertheless, and in spite of its walled garden and SlimServer's warts, adding the delightful and affordable Pandora service expands the Squeezebox's already impressive functionality to include superior music discovery. Unlike the ills of humanity that escaped from the mythological Pandora's box, this is a secret that deserves to get out.

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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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Filed under: Features, GPS

Indeed, it has been possible to bring together these functions for years through those perennial
jacks-of-all-trades, PDAs. Garmin has tried several GPS / PDA hybrids and Palm has pushed a GPS it as a key accessory
for its abstractly named LifeDrive Mobile Manager. But GPS customers have shown a preference for dedicated devices.
Probably the best example of this convergence today is the Garmin nuvi. This popular, sleek navigation product includes
a photo viewer and MP3 and Audible audiobook support as well as some travel-friendly features such as a world travel
clock and currency and measurement converters. The nuvi is pricey, but other newcomers to the market like Korea’s
FineDigital are also embracing the slim portable GPS form factor.

While the nuvi 300’s screen isn’t large
compared to other GPS devices and lacks the hard disk of competitors from Magellan and Lowrence, its screen is larger
than that of the video iPod’s and has the same resolution. What would be unthinkable for hanging around your neck while
jogging is a better form factor for watching videos or looking at navigation maps, but manufacturers might struggle in
marketing a product that has two distinct usage scenarios: in the car and outside of it.

On the surface,
combining video and GPS may seem like creating a Frankendevice. The last thing anyone wants to encourage is distracted
driving, but some simple electronics could prevent video on the main screen while attached to a suction mount. Besides,
several of today’s DVD-based in-dash GPS systems such as those from Pioneer already support DVD video for delivery to
passengers’ screens. As shrinking storage prices make such products more practical, portable GPS systems may do the
same using high-speed wireless technologies such as ultra wideband.

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Ross
Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm href="http://www.npdtechworld.com/">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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Filed under: Desktops, Features, Laptops

"You look me straight in the iSight when you talk to me. Is that understood, maggot, or do I have to
create a Keynote presentation for you?"

"No, sir! Cinema-quality effects that animate text,
graphics and slides are not necessary, sir!"

"Louder, maggot! Whattsa matter? You install the
volume limiter on your iPod?"

"SIR! NO, SIR!"

"Now, you’re gonna have to
understand a few things before you engage the enemy. The enemy will do anything it can to kill your morale. It will
show its flag whenever you try to boot it. The enemy is not beyond using viral agents. The enemy will not shy from
spying on your personal information. The enemy is not human. It cannot understand us, at least not without software
such as Mediafour’s MacDrive. And the strongest among us have been known to cower with a three-finger salute when
confronted with its fearsome Blue Screen of Death. War is Dell.

"You there, hiding in front of the
glass!"

"Yes, sir?"

"You are uninstalling a program and the enemy offers to
remove DLLs that are no longer needed! Do you agree to it?"

"Sure, sir. I don’t see why
not."

"Well, look who stepped out from behind the Genius Bar! You stupid maggot! You’re as slow as
Photoshop under Rosetta; I’ve seen Automator scripts smarter than you! You never trust the enemy! Now drop and give me
20 right-clicks!"

"But, sir, my MacBook Pro has no right mouse button!"

"40
right clicks! If I wanted to look at something full of hot air, I’d have bought me a G5! Now DROP before I use this
iPod HiFi to knock you into the middle of the Macworld 2007 keynote!

"All right, now! I want this group
to disappear like application in Exposé. March through the steps needed to install XP on your Mac. March! And I
want to hear that marching song as you do it! Mac OS Ten-Hut!"

"PC vendors had their say! />Vista missed the holiday!
I don’t know but I’ve been told
Leopard’s master will reach gold!
XP is what
we will tame!
Virtual PC is so lame!
Sound off! Menu bar!
Sound off! Taskbar!
1-2-3-4. We
are… Dual Corps!"

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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 href="mailto:fliptheswitch@gmail.com">fliptheswitch@gmail.com.

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Filed under: Features, Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds

Sony has great distribution for its devices, but does it really understand the publishing industry? When Steve Jobs announced the addition of Disney content to the iTunes Music Store, he joked, "Hey, I know these guys." Such is the case with Adobe and major publishers, all of which are surely Adobe customers. Many magazines and books are already laid out with Adobe software; for those that are not, it's trivial to convert them into PDFs.

When compared with Sony or Apple, Adobe also doesn't have much of a consumer brand, and it's even less of a device or service brand, but these days just about anyone can outsource design to firms such as IDEO and manufacturing to companies such as Flextronics. Having a software legacy didn't prevent Microsoft from producing its own branded hardware video game console or a sophisticated subscription service to accompany it.

Xbox has been a big money loser for Microsoft to date. However, the investment required to create an e-book ecosystem would be much lower, and the competition wouldn't be as fierce or entrenched. Furthermore, much of the early market would be in professional and educational markets, where Adobe has a stronger brand. Furthermore, Adobe wouldn't be trying to unseat a dominant platform, as Microsoft continues to try to do to the PlayStation.

Indeed, Microsoft, which has dabbled in the e-book market before, is now mounting its most extensive assault to date on the Adobe empire, taking on everything from PDF to Flash with its Metro file format slated for Windows Vista and a trio of design tools. If Adobe waits until these products have a huge installed base, it could jeopardize its position of strength from which it could jump-start this market.

Once upon a time in Silicon Valley, a company that had created a breakthrough page-description language decided to enter a new market developing publishing applications. Adobe products are where many publications are produced; they could also be where they are consumed.

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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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