Filed under: Cellphones, Features, Wireless

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

In July, I discussed the confusion that results when carriers disable Bluetooth capabilities, specifically OBEX and DUN, which were not the names of two New York City detectives on the ’70s comedy Barney Miller. The column proposed that the Bluetooth Special Internet Group (SIG) step up efforts to ensure that a Bluetooth device is capable of what a consumer would expect it to do, and thus apply marketing pressure to the carriers.

That column led to a discussion with Mike Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG, who noted the range of capabilities that Bluetooth has acquired. For example, relatively few consumers are aware that their Bluetooth devices can print using the wireless technology or can stream stereo music using the A2DP profile. As a result, in June the SIG developed a set of five “experience icons” that cover five Bluetooth-enabled tasks — printing, input, headset, transfer and music.

Among the most useful in terms of carrier tampering will be file transfer, which has been blocked in the past. There’s no icon for dial-up networking yet, though. According to Foley, there is still more work to do on simplifying the use of a cell phone as an untethered modem.

While the introduction of the icons, which will be placed below the stylized Bluetooth “B” icon, will help savvy consumers better understand their devices capabilities, the SIG acknowledges that it will introduce a level of complexity. In the column on “True Bluetooth,” I noted how the composite PlayforSure icon has led to confusion, but the Bluetooth SIG has it somewhat easier in that most of its functions are distinct. In contrast, PlaysForSure’s composite logo, which devotes three lines in its icon to whether video can be obtained via subscription, rental or purchase, depends more on abstract business models.

On the other hand, with cell phones being such important devices to Bluetooth, the SIG must contend with carriers approving features that are already in cell phones. So, what happens, for example, if a manufacturer supports a Bluetooth feature that one network operator supports but another does not? In that case, according to Foley, the recommendation would be that the manufacturer’s and supporting operator’s Web site feature the appropriate icon while the operator that that does not support the feature omits that icon. Furthermore, there will likely be more icons to come. In addition to dial-up networking, future versions of Bluetooth based on ultra wideband technology would likely be able to stream video, leading to yet another icon.

So, the icons will raise awareness and possibly some confusion, but don’t directly address the carrier disabling issue. However, there is good news on that front, according to Foley. Based on customer feedback pressure and a more enlightened business strategy that recognizes the value in consumers’ relying more on their mobile phones, U.S. carriers should be stepping into line with their European counterparts and embracing the full functionality of Bluetooth as early as this fall. That’s an experience we’ll all be glad to share.

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, Misc. Gadgets

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

In their 1997 song Tubthumping, Chumbawumba sang, “I get knocked down but I get up again,” describing well the daily cycle of sleep and awakening. For many of us, that cycle renews with the aid of a nightstand staple now targeted by Chumby, likely not named after the one-hit wonder. Depicting a clock radio on its Web site, Chumby’s developers ask, “Um, this is the Internet era, isn’t it? Why is this still sitting next to my bed?” The answer is that primarily there haven’t been many alternatives until now, but also because alarm clocks are cheap and have easily understood and compelling functionality.

That is not yet true for Chumby, a broadband beanbag for Flash developers that promises a flexible feature list and exterior. According to Christine.net, Chumby has a 266 MHz ARM controller, 32MB of SDRAM, a 3.5-inch LCD with LED backlighting, stereo speakers, a headphone jack, and an ambient light sensor. It runs Flash Lite 2 (roughly equivalent to the functionality of Flash 7), and has a USB port and a squeeze sensor. Chumby looks a bit like a soft-shell TomTom Go, and its exterior can be personalized, BeDazzled, encrusted with Swarovski crystals or even replaced entirely with what could be — if it ever reaches iPod-like popularity — an ecosystem of enclosures.

When Chumby comes to market in 2007, it’s expected to cost less than $150 with “no hidden fees.” Chumby Industries is one of the first companies to hit upon the cost reductions enabled by focusing on Web feeds, which open a world of relevant information without needing a demanding and complex Web browser. Yet, the Chumby is still quite pricey for an alarm clock. Even the iHome iH5, which combines a clock radio with an iPod charging dock, can be found for about $100 (without the iPod, of course).

Still, the Chumby can do a lot more than then even an iPod-enabled clock radio. It can access your Flickr photos, display a Google calendar, or even stream enough of a Webcam feed to enable Dallas residents to alert Liverpool authorities. Chumby Industries is reaching out to hardware and Flash hackers and even crafts designers to expand Chumby’s functionality, which is sure to increase its appeal even more with early adopters. It even includes a “chumbilical” cable that connects to a hacker-friendly daughtercard. Who could take chumbrage at such creativity?

As one of its developers notes in its discussion forums, though, Chumby eventually wants 90 percent of its users to be ordinary consumers. That doesn’t mean that it needs to design around the Wal-Mart customer immediately or that the company needs to “chumb down” the device’s functionality, but it will need to hone its value proposition. The clock radio gets you up in the morning. Why should you pay five times that for a Chumby? The history of the internet appliance has had more dips than Chicken McNuggets. And if Chumby is cursed with an amorphous lifestyle name like “bedside companion,” some careless customers may be in for quite a surprise.

If Chumby can’t make its value easily understood, it could turn into one of those devices that geeks buy to send bits to nontechnical friends and relatives, such as the Ceiva digital photo frame or perhaps MSN TV. Unlike those products, Chumby won’t put off consumers by requiring a subscription, but its developers also hope to sell premium channels for which it will need a large installed base. So, hack away, Chumbians. In your quest to make these pliable portals a jumping jack to Flash, may you happen upon the compelling benefit or two that answers the question, “What can a good digital chum be?”

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: Desktops, Features, Laptops, Storage

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

At this week’s World Wide Developers’ Conference, Apple nary missed an opportunity to jest at how certain features in Vista bear similarity to those in Mac OS 10.4, recalling banners from the 2004 geek gathering enjoining the developers of Windows to “start their photocopiers.” However, the copy machines at Microsoft aren’t the only ones free of cobwebs. For example, a decade before Spotlight shone in Tiger, utilities such as On Locaiton provided classic Mac OS lightning-fast index-based searches. And Konfabulator, now owned by Yahoo, inspired Dashboard.

Spaces, slated for Leopard, promises to be merely the best-implemented in a long line of virtual desktops long known to Unix users and even made available as a PowerToy from those Windows wannabes. And what of Time Machine, the fourth-dimensional feature that was the WWDC showstopper? Among its predecessors are System Restore, a drably named subset of Time Machine’s functionality available since Windows ME; Rewind, a classic Mac OS utility once promised for Mac OS X; and GoBack, a PC utility that was purchased by Symantec. When I first saw GoBack, the earliest of these, which debuted at a DEMO conference, I thought it was one of the most ingenious pieces of software I’d ever seen — even without Time Machine’s extraterrestrial eye candy.

However, none of these utilities could claim Time Machine’s operating system integration or its visual appeal, the latter of which extends well beyond its galactic garnish. Time Machine is a restoration utility for the age of media content. Consumers, who frequently cite photos as the content type they are most concerned about losing, would be at a loss to recall the gibberish that digital cameras assign to photos. In addition to searching for deleted files with Spotlight, Time Machine enables them to browse a folder through a reverse chronology to find the missing file. Operating system-level support also enables applications like Address Book and iPhoto to browse back through time to find an accidentally deleted contact or “roll” of pictures.

Time Machine is one of those features that consumers hope they never have to use, but count on to work right when they do. Indeed, on a Mac with Boot Camp or virtualization software, Time Machine’s approach could make it more effective at bringing back lost Windows files or a botched installation than Microsoft’s System Restore does today. Were Microsoft to integrate backup and restore in Windows this seamlessly, they would have a much stronger case that the functionality was an operating system feature and not merely a bundled utility. As it is, Apple stands to profit more from the feature, giving new Mac owners a convincing reason to pick up an extra hard disk with their computers.

It took too long, but the Mac will finally have an integrated backup and restore application next year. Until then, Apple developers will need time to add features, fix bugs, and track down a universal binary of the flux capacitor.

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, 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.

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, Portable Audio

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

With all the recent coverage surrounding Microsoft’s rumored portable music player Zune, some may conclude that Engadget’s editors have highly active and detailed imaginations and exceptional Photoshop skills that they employ without hesitation in the traditionally slow summer tech news months. Others, however, may be convinced that Microsoft is following through on Steve Jobs’ prediction that the company will enter the market with its own branded player. The pictures of the Zune hardware show an attractive but not groundbreaking design, one that looks similar to a Gigabeat with a small wheel replacing its crosshairs, or a Sansa e200 with its wheel shrunk and a few extra buttons.

Much of the discussion around Zune has focused on the strategy shift it would mean for the software giant and the competition that it would bring to Microsoft’s current hardware partners. But the company’s continuous user interface refinement of Windows Mobile and expecially its deep pockets can let it fight the iPod in ways that its current partners simply can’t. Microsoft could best leverage its war chest via player subsidization, accessories and advertising.

Regarding player subsidization, if the Xbox consoles have been any precedent, it’s doubtful that Microsoft would lowball its player’s pricing too much. The company would likely rather bring out a full-featured device that wins the hearts of early adopters. However, it could subsidize expensive advanced features that may be a bit ahead of the market. The rumored inclusion of WiFi would enable Microsoft to play upon one of the benefits of subscription services - legal peer-to-peer music sharing among devices of licensed content — and allow a tighter level of integration with the Xbox 360. This could also drive a viral marketing effect. Indeed, Microsoft, more than any of its hardware partners, can justify subsidization because it could be considered investment in the future of the Windows Media licensing ecosystem - an interest in which its current partners are only tangentially vested — or the broader digital lifestyle campaign if Micrsoft eschews Playsforsure as rumored.

One intriguing rumor is that Microsoft would offer iTunes Music Store’s customers the option to repurchase all the songs they’ve bought as protected Windows Media files. This would certainly be a bold move that would remove one of Apple customers’ barriers to entry, but it smacks of the kind of win-at-all-costs freebiemania of the dotcom era. Surely, there are already customers who have spent hundreds of dollars or more at the iTumes Music Store. Completely reimbursing those customers would essentially amount to giving the player away. Imagine if Microsoft had offered a free Xbox game for every PlayStation 2 game purchased when it entered the video game console market.

On the accessories front, Microsoft has been driving efforts by the Consumer Electronics Association to define a standard docking interface, enabling command and control, charging and playback like the iPod’s. According to the company, USB currently simply lacks the technical strength to serve as a user interface for transferring music. While rumors have circulated that Microsoft has approached iPod peripheral makers, rest assured that Zune would ship with more than a slip pouch available for it in terms of accessories. Regardless of whether the likes of Griffin, DLO, Belkin and others sign on, Microsoft can afford to seed the market with its own branded products in advance of market acceptance and charge little or nothing to license the interface, aiming at another Apple revenue stream.

As for advertising, one can debate the effectiveness of Super Bowl advertising. These days, it seems there is more media coverage around a company deciding to make the big purchase at the big game than the ads themselves. Regardless, while we’ve seen companies like SanDisk, Creative and Samsung purchase outdoor ads for its players, though, Microsoft would bring its bankroll to broadcasting early and often. The company’s challenge will be to create a new music identity for its player the same way it forged an Xbox brand that in many ways stands apart from Microsoft.

In a recent conversation with an executive at a company that sells portable music players, I asked what he thought about the possibility of Microsoft entering his space. He put on a brave face, touting the benefits of market expansion and a halo effect, but noted that anything could happen with the entry of the proverbial “800-pound gorilla.” When I noted that in this market, Microsoft wasn’t the 800-pound gorilla, he replied that any company with tens of billions on the bank is an 800-pound gorilla. We’ll soon see whether it can drive Apple bananas.

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, Peripherals

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

“Hey there. Is this place new? I’ve been to this mall many times and never saw it before.”

“Yes, sir. Welcome to The Hewlepsmark Inkjet Printer Cartridge Experience.”

“No kidding. A whole location devoted to just to printer cartridges?”

“Not just any printer cartridges. Only Hewlepsmark inkjet printers. You see, after some failed early experiences with tech manufacturer-direct stores from Gateway and Microsoft, the past few years have seen Apple, Sony, Nokia, Palm, Nintendo, and now Pioneer move forward with their own retail stores. Even Dell and Samsung are using their own retail space to showcase their products. Soon we’re bound to see Coby Corner, Craighead, and jWINdow Shopping. It’s all the rage.

“So, we thought, as one of the world’s premiere printing companies, why not develop an environment where we can really reinforce the brand identity and provide a showcase for our great variety of inkjet colors, the best printer cartridge shopping experience possible. We also have weekly seminars, like the one next Wednesday about the link between third-party refill kits and gingivitis.”

“Really? I had no idea. Well, I guess this store isn’t a bad idea. I sometimes can’t find some of the specialty papers I use for my graphics arts projects.”

“Oooh, I’m sorry, We don’t have any papers here. Just printer cartridges.”

“I see. It’s kind of like that old sketch about the store that sells only Scotch tape.”

“Actually, the 3M store is just down the hall, over by the food court. You can’t miss it as it’s below a 30-foot cube made entirely of Post-It Notes.”

“Right. Well, it just so happens that I own one of your printers and its driver software has prevented me from opening any programs that can print until I get a new printer cartridge. It put up one of those little bubble alerts saying something about wanting to make sure I don’t get caught unable to share my output.”

“Ah, yes, that’s our new ‘proactive print protection’ feature. Pretty effective, don’t you think?”

“Well, it’s better than when my Phanatoshnysung Hi-Blue DVD player disabled my plasma TV when I tried to mod-chip it. It even used its on-disc printing technology to deliver a summons!”

“Ooooh, sorry to hear that, sir. Well, you said you’re in the market, then, for one of our cartridges? We have every one of our 16.7 million colors on display right over here.

“That’s great. I’d like a cyan, please, and I could use a new black ink cartridge as well. How much will that be?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, sir. We don’t actually sell any printer cartridges here.”

“What? But I thought this was a store?

“Actually, sir, this is the printer cartridge experience. We wouldn’t want to compete with our valued retail partners, so I can either print you out a list of local retailers that have your colors in stock or I can place an online order for you. Your printer cartridges would arrive in three to five business days.”

“Ugh, this is ridiculous. I just need to mail a letter. I’ll write it out.”

“Good luck with that. This location was the only Mont Blanc store in the mall.”

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, Gaming, Peripherals

 

If you purchase a Novint Falcon later this summer, your geekier friends may feel an unusual mixture of amazement and envy when they first see it. Where, they will wonder, did you score that Star Wars prop? When you break it to them that your new input device was not actually used in the iconic science fiction movie (despite sharing part of its name with Han Solo's ship), they may be a bit disappointed, but only until they use it

 

The Novint Falcon is one of the most promising PC interface peripherals to come along in years. The forward-facing base of the device resembles a half-sphere from which sprout three robotic arms that protrude and meet at a small vertical mount near its center. The mount can accommodate a variety of different controllers, one of which is a small doorknob-like grip. Novint explains, however, that others might include, for example, a trigger.

The three arms enable three degrees of freedom, enabling PC users to naturally and fluidly navigate a 3D virtual space such as a basketball court, checkerboard or galaxy. With just a few minutes of usage, one can easily see how the controller would be a natural for god games and real-time strategy games, and it could be the controller of choice for Spore, Will Wright's forthcoming spin on evolution. Novint also caters to professionals needing to manipulate simulations, but one wonders what a native 3D spatial interface to the PC might look like were the Falcon to be embraced as the mouse was by the Macintosh development team.

Were the Falcom simply one of the most intuitive 3D controllers ever produced, that would be appealing enough, but the product also incorporates sophisticated haptics or advanced force-feedback. Navigate into a wall and the controller will stop. Navigate through dense, bumpy or slick services and you'll feel it slow down, vibrate or "slip." The Falcon could even generate a realistic "pull" as I tossed a virtual ball attached to a virtual rubber band around the screen. When I asked Novint if it was concerned about the haptic patents held by Immersion Corp. that have caused problems for Sony and its Dual Shock controller; a company executive was unfazed, claiming that Novint's patents were filed nine years before Immersion's and that its product operated in 3D as opposed to 2D.

The Novint Falcon is designed to sell for about $100 but will be closer to $150 at its debut as the company starts to build manufacturing scale. Much like Nintendo's Wii controller, games will have to be designed with it in mind in order to get its maximum benefit. Other than that, its only disadvantage is its desk real estate which, while larger than your average gamepad, is comparable to that of a steering wheel. If Novint can build developer support for its innovative controller, its Falcon should land on shelves only for a short time before flying off them.

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.