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Switched On: 101 columns

Filed under: SwitchedOn,switched on — Ryan Block @ 2:27 pm

A couple of years ago we asked Ross Rubin, classic technology witticist and noted analyst for NPD, to do a weekly column for us. We dubbed it Switched On, which debuted exactly two years ago this Friday. Since then he’s written over a hundred editions of his weekly column — a hundred and one to be exact, and a hundred two as of his next column later today — which continue to endlessly delight and amuse those who tune in weekly for his humorous insights on technology. Here’s to another two, Ross!

P.S. -Click on for the entire Switched On archive!

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Switched On: Abbott and Costello meet HP’s board

Filed under: RossRubin,SwitchedOn,Who'sOnFirst,abbott,board,costello,dunn,hp,humor,hurd,ross rubin,switched on,who's on first — Ross Rubin @ 3:17 pm

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.

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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Switched On: The Chumby challenge

Filed under: Ross,RossRubin,Rubin,SwitchedOn,chumby,switched on — Ross Rubin @ 7:33 pm

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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Switched On: The music, the money and Microsoft

Filed under: Apple,Funding,Ross,RossRubin,Rubin,SwitchedOn,iPod,microsoft,mp3,switched on,zune — Ross Rubin @ 5:59 pm

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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Switched On: Biting back for Bluetooth

Filed under: Bluetooth,RossRubin,SwitchedOn,Wireless,a2dp,dun,features,obex,ross rubin,switched on — Ross Rubin @ 6:27 pm

Filed under: Features, Peripherals, Wireless

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

bluetooth logo 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.

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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Switched On: TiVo should be on Google’s wish list

Filed under: RossRubin,SwitchedOn,google,ross rubin,switched on,tivo — Ross Rubin @ 5:36 pm

Filed under: Features, Home Entertainment

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

TiVo logo In late 2004, a popular and provocative Flash animation of a fictional exhibit from the “Museum of Media History” described a news blog fantasy of 2014. Google, following a merger with Amazon to form Googlezon, defeats The New York Times in an landmark Supreme Court copyright battle, and creates the Evolving Personalized Information Construct, a Microsoft-trumping mashup of its various news, blogging, and storage sites and TiVo.

Yes, TiVo. Don’t you remember that Googlezon bought TiVo in 2004? Where have you been for the past two years? Reality? How the Googlezon of 2014 uses TiVo is not made apparent in this fictional history of media, but how the Google of 2006 could use such a company is becoming more clear, particularly since its rival Yahoo purchased the assets of Meedio. Meedio was one of a handful of Windows software companies, along with SageTV and SnapStream, that created software similar to Microsoft Windows’ Media Center interface. SnapStream, in fact, was so far out in front of Microsoft that the operating system company showcased the software at the debut of Windows XP as an innovative use of the platform.

This, however, has not discouraged Yahoo, which is now giving away Meedio’s software as part of Yahoo! Go, a bid to have the lifestyle Web site’s brand, aggregated content, and services available through desktop widgets (following Yahoo!’s purchase of Konfabulator last year), cell phones, and now apparently television.

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?

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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Switched On: With flash camcorder, Pure Digital shoots and scores

Filed under: PureDigital,RossRubin,SwitchedOn,features,pure digital,ross rubin,switched on — Ross Rubin @ 12:44 pm

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Features

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

When Pure Digital released its disposable camcorder last year, I praised its size, simplicity, and services integration. My two main quibbles with the product were price (particularly since you needed to order an expensive DVD to get your video out of it) and especially quality. Putting its QVGA output on a DVD was like waxing a floor that needs to be sanded – it won’t do anything to fix the rough spots.

There was a large price and value gap between the disposable camcorder and even low-end offerings from Canon, Sony and the like. Now Pure Digital has aimed squarely at the center of that gap with the Point and Shoot Camcorder aimed at “everyday video.” While the PureDigital one will initially be sold exculsively at Target for about $130, Thomson Consumer Electronics will also release a version under an RCA brand needing to appear more forward-focused while not alienating its mainstream customer base.

The Point and Shoot Camcorder looks very similar to its disposable predecessor and retains most of its predecessor’s simple interface. There is still no menu button, for example. The most noteworthy hardware difference is a spring-loaded “pop-out” USB port that snaps from flush with the unit’s side to a 90-degree angle after you push on a sliding switch. It’s a playful gimmick that complements the product’s casual appeal, but I wonder about its durability.

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.

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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Switched On: Reaching beyond retro

Filed under: Nintendo,SwitchedOn,e3,switched on,wii — Ross Rubin @ 2:45 pm

Filed under: Features, Gaming

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

I’ve already grown to like the name, but mostly negative reaction has greeted Nintendo’s offical moniker for the console formerly code-named Revolution. “Wii” is certainly Nintendo’s highest-concept name ever for a console. Apart from a fair amount of mispronunciation that Nintendo concedes the system will receive, though (I heard someone ask today if it’s called “W2,” and nothing says “fun” like an IRS form), the literal name of this game is not the figurative one.

A year ago, I commented on the Big Three console companies’ efforts to court the casual gamer. Microsoft, for example, continues to tout initiatives such as Xbox Live Arcade as a way of bringing new (or maybe old) gamers into the fold. Microsoft cites the high conversion rates for the addictive Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved – a frenetic cross between Asteroids and Robotron — as evidence that casual gaming has a home on the testosterone-siphoned Xbox 360.

However, while Microsoft touts the high adoption rate of Xbox Live as evidence that the Xbox 360 is bringing in new family members playng casual games, it concedes that such games are attracting other family members after its high-powered retail software has opened the front door for the 360. On the other hand, while it may not be expanding the gamer audience, Xbox Live’s easily, if slowly available, game demo downloads embody the mixture of quick pickup and advanced graphics I advocated a year ago, and the company’s commitment to work with independent developers announced yesterday will be a shot in the arm for this genre-worn industry.

Nintendo has been hammering home that Wii’s name is consistent with its “virtual console” backward compatibility and controller design that will broaden its appeal beyond the core console fanboy. After all, “GameCube,” while uninspiring, could not have been more descriptive, and that didn’t help Nintendo escape a distant third place in the home console market even with a lower priced offering.

One problem has been that far too often Nintendo’s definition of inclusion has reverted to its lowest common denominator of the kiddie core audience, and those players nostalgic to relive their days in it. Nintendo has proven adept at furthering its platforms’ agendas with its first-party titles, such has been the case with the varied input methods of the Nintendo DS. But it also tends to fall back to the easy money of its franchises, and it will need to move beyond that to become truly inclusive. On the other hand, some of the more adult-oriented DS games, such as the brain-training series, have moved beyond kitsch without racing to the extreme of the horror genre..

Using motion-sensor controllers as proxies for real-world objects is not new. For several years, XaviX has sold a system that includes controllers that simulate baseball bats, ping pong paddles, and even a bowling ball. What Nntendo has added, though, is the flexibility and convenience of having one controller mirror many different devices and the advanced graphics of a next-generation console.

To do even more to capture the inclusiveness of early-day consoles, Nintendo should consider returning to an inviting feature of those machines, including a second controller and a game, one that demonstrates its unique operation. The playful Wii Sports games the company showed at E3 would work well without any chance of cannibalizing a more realistic league-licensed title from the likes of Electronic Arts or 2K Games.

Microsoft and Sony are investing millions in sophisticated multiplayer networks that allow strangers to play with each other, but a long-abandoned key to making family gaming fun again is out-of-the-box matchmaking for moms, dads and siblings.

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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Switched On: Pandora’s Box (Part 2)

Filed under: Home Entertainment,HomeEntertainment,RossRubin,SwitchedOn,pandora,ross rubin,squeezebox,switched on — Ross Rubin @ 2:22 pm

Filed under: Home Entertainment

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

Last week's column discussed Slim Devices' elegant Squeezebox hardware, its versatile but complex server software, and SqueezeNetwork, the companion online service through which the hardware accesses the Pandora music recommendation service. Pandora is considered by some to be a "Web 2.0" site -- the blanket term we're all aware of referring to a startup that generates more RSS than revenue.

But Pandora's recommendation engine is the best I've tried. Unlike many others, it doesn't rely directly on the purchase behavior or music ownership of other people, be they friends or fellow customers. Rather, it leverages data from the Music Genome Project, a collaboration begun in 2000 to classify music via its attributes. In fact, some criticize Pandora for being "too good" at matching a song's style, and while there is a case that Pandora should include a control for how strictly it should match a given song or artist, users can at least create up to 100 different channels and diversify them by adding names of songs or artists to the mix.

Pandora can offer a depth of detail as to which musical attributes it chose when recommending a song. However, it doesn't seem to account for at least some important factors, such as the qualities of a singer's voice. Pandora offers a free tier of service, but access via SqueezeNetwork requires a subscription, which costs between $3 and $4 per month. The low subscription price is worth it for at least a few months, but Pandora needs to greatly expand its catalog to keep subscribers interested. Fortunately, Squeezebox owners get a three-month trial of the premium service, a $12 value.

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.

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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Switched On: Get the show on the road

Filed under: Columns,ConvergedDevices,GPS,MRobe,RossRubin,SwitchedOn,converged devices,convergence,features,garmin,iPod,lifedrive,m robe,nuvi,olympus,palm,ross rubin,switched on — Ryan Block @ 12:17 pm

Filed under: Features, GPS

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

src="http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/04/garmin_nuvi.jpg" alt="" />Digital convergence makes for some strange
bedfellows; these often turn out to be little more than a one-thing fling. Last year, for example, Olympus fumbled
after spending big on a SuperBowl ad with the m:Robe 500, an attractive hard disk-based digital music and photo display
device with a camera unworthy of the company’s heritage. The m:Robe 500 could not play video, but its large screen
indicated a dilemma common to many products in this emerging category. Go too small and you have an unsatisfying visual
experience. Design a player too large and you lose portability.

The most successful digital portable video
player to date has been Apple’s iPod with video, the apologetic name of which serves as evidence that Apple was
unwilling to compromise the device’s appealing size for a very large screen. But Apple’s competitors have been missing
the mark in terms of targeting the video player at a market that has embraced wisps of products such as the iPod nano.
Forget the jogger; the driver is a better target for portable video.

As the portable
audio market has been adding such features as PIMs, podcasts, and pictures, the portable GPS market has also been
adding functionality while shrinking size and prices. As a result, the traditional boundaries between automotive and
personal navigation products is starting to blur and the product category has attracted domestic interest from Sony,
JVC, and other consumer electronics companies.

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.

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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Switched On: Boot Camp – The Miffing Manual

Filed under: Apple,BootCamp,DualBoot,OperatingSystem,RossRubin,SwitchedOn,Windows,boot camp,dual boot,operating system,os x,osx,ross rubin,switched on — Ross Rubin @ 8:38 am

Filed under: Desktops, Features, Laptops

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

"All right! Listen up, maggot! Welcome to Fort Dragg. I am your Commanding
Microsoft Office-er Sgt. Pepper! How do you like that for trademark infringement, Apple Corps? I bet you came here
today because you wanted to serve your computer company by beta testing Boot Camp? Well, let me tell you something. It
ain’t gonna be easy, you puke!

"Over the next 50 minutes, I will become your father, your mother, your
Apple Specialist, your third-tier tech support person, and your best friend! Your heart may belong to Apple but your
butt belongs to me! Your precious vendor won’t support other operating systems, so you better be quicker than a
FireWire 800 port, because if you ain’t, you just may blow your disk up with your laser mouse.

"You
come here as a sack of rotting apples unfit to touch a scroll ball! But I will tear down your hard drive into
partitions until you cry. You will feel the burn like a driver CD. You will break like compatibility with classic Mac
applications. Your identity will be so far gone that Spotlight won’t be able to find it. Remember, there is no Windows
ME in ‘team.’ If you can reset your system clock, you will leave with a time-killing, dual-booting, PC game-running
machine! Do you hear me!?"

"Sir! Yes, sir!"

"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!"

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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Switched On: Why Adobe should cook the books

Filed under: ElectronicInk,RossRubin,SonyReader,SwitchedOn,adobe,e-book,e-books,e-ink,eBooks,ebook,electronic ink,pdf,publishing,reader,ross rubin,sony reader,switched on — Ross Rubin @ 9:32 pm

Filed under: Features, Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds

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

Now that Adobe has finished applying the magic eraser tool to its longtime graphics rival Macromedia, it needs to enter or create new markets to continue growth beyond its dominant position in professional publishing. With the recent focus on what is admittedly the nascent e-book market, Adobe is looking at a unique window in which it could step up and become a market leader. However, it had better hurry, because Microsoft is getting tired of staring at the walls when it comes to this market.

The recent interest in e-books is due to the commercialization of electronic ink, which enables thin, crisp, paper-like monochrome (and soon color) displays that require a fraction of the power needed by LCDs. While their refresh rate makes them prohibitively slow for any kind of animation, they are the best technology for the medium developed to date and have attracted the attention of Sony and iRex, a spinoff of Philips.

Electronic ink is the kind of disruptor that has allowed opportunistic companies to seize markets. Sony, for example, capitalized on the CD-ROM with the original PlayStation and entered the digital camera market via the floppy disk with its first Mavica cameras. Apple, of course, leveraged the 1.8-inch hard drive with its first iPod.

Adobe is, in fact, already in the e-book business. but it is not providing a complete solution, which would require an end-user device. Sony's Reader will support the display of PDFs, but the electronics giant will use its own proprietary format and its own online service for distribution of content. The e-book market -- like the online music and video markets prior to the entry of Apple -- is so immature that it's just waiting for a company to step up with an integrated solution.

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.

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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October 25, 2006

Switched On: 101 columns

October 11, 2006

Switched On: Abbott and Costello meet HP’s board

August 30, 2006

Switched On: The Chumby challenge

July 19, 2006

Switched On: The music, the money and Microsoft

July 12, 2006

Switched On: Biting back for Bluetooth

May 24, 2006

Switched On: TiVo should be on Google’s wish list

May 17, 2006

Switched On: With flash camcorder, Pure Digital shoots and scores

May 10, 2006

Switched On: Reaching beyond retro

May 3, 2006

Switched On: Pandora’s Box (Part 2)

April 19, 2006

Switched On: Get the show on the road

April 12, 2006

Switched On: Boot Camp – The Miffing Manual

April 5, 2006

Switched On: Why Adobe should cook the books

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