Archive for the ‘Consumer Electronics’ Category

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95 Page AT&T er Cingular er AT&T Bill

Monday, November 26th, 2007

No, I don’t own an iPhone. But, I did buy a Blackberry Curve in September. This is the third bill I’ve received, and the previous ones were at the most 10 pages.

whoa att, save the trees already

Thankfully, AT&T has the environment at heart and will be removing pages documenting itemized details in the “coming months”.

phew! thank you AT&T

I can’t figure out anything that I may have done differently last month, except for keep the Curve in the non-Faraday Cage area of my house. It might also be related to the lack of any recent “Network Errors” requiring a battery-removing hard reboot.

Regardless, I don’t see any logic in documenting single packet-sized (1KB) data transactions. Most lines in this 95 page bill are 1KB requests (marked as “Out”).

Itemizing the origination and receipt of 1KB packets on a bill is a very “Bell-shaped Head” way of thinking about the Internet.

Personally, I will welcome our new wireless data overlords as soon as they invade.

Posted in Consumer Electronics, IP Media | Comments

The new Amazon.com AmazonBook eBook Doohickey

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
Minitel Image from Wikipedia
Minitel image from Wikipedia: Tieum

Firstly, I can’t call it a “Kindle” because it sounds like something you might need to start a fire. Doohickey sounds just right.

Amazon has decided to bring this $399 mobile eBook device to market with a modified iPod sales model — sell the device, sell content for the device at a nice iMall.

However, there is a pretty clear divergence. Amazon frees the device from requiring a tether (positive and negative points here).

Positive: Rather than requiring a PC to sync content the device from the iMall, the Doohickey uses a nice wireless phone connection that silently dials home to Amazon any time it needs something.

Negative: iTunes gives you a local copy of the asset you have purchased (or licensed, to use the media industry term). iTunes makes it easy for you to burn a copy of your movie or music so that you may listen to it in your car, on a stereo or wherever. You can also burn that CD back into iTunes without the Apple DRM, allowing you to use the DRM-free content on any device, anywhere you wish. Amazon’s iMall allows you to download your AmazonBook onto any other Amazon Doohickey, anytime you wish.

There are no plans to open up the proprietary Amazon eBook format, so if you wish to revisit your current AmazonBook in the future, you will need a Doohickey.

Actually, now I’ve spent all this time researching the Doohickey. The Doohickey is closer to this Minitel Terminal from France than an iPod. It has all the words you may ever need, but you’ll need the terminal and a few francs to retrieve them.

Posted in Consumer Electronics, DRM, Gadgets | Comments

“The Internet’s for old people”

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

The above statement was said by Mark Cuban at the CTAM (Cable Television Association for Marketing) Summit. Multichannel News reports he also declared, “The Internet’s dead. It’s over” and states that the only “new application” to emerge is YouTube.

Now, I realize that Mark was in a room full of cable industry execs and it would seem a likely place for him (or anyone) to announce that the Internet is dead and cable supreme, but what was he thinking?

There are dozens of new services using peer-to-peer technologies — like Joost, Grid Networks and Vuze to name just three. Pre-Internet, these services would not have been allowed to exist in a cable environment unless:

  1. the peer points existed on closed cable-owned and operated boxes
  2. used software owned and installed by the cable company
  3. only transfered media content that the cable company allowed subscribers to see (i.e. was compensated by media owners to deliver to subscribers)

There are dozens of new services that enable interactivity in the television-like world of broadband video distribution, for example:

  1. viddler (timeline tags — your own personal MST3K)
  2. brightcove (create a “channel”, monetize the channel and analyze statistics)
  3. Digg Video (influence the video zeitgeist)
  4. podcasting (be the tv)

Cable has done a really poor job of growing beyond their passive media delivery roots (of replicating the original passive over-the-air public broadcast in a private wire-bound spectrum).

It’s not coincidental that the number of “Interactive Television” startups exploded simultaneously to the acceptance and popularization of IP, the Internet and WWW as a communications and interactive media. The cable industry facilitated the creation of ITV Hype 2.0 (in the early 90s, ITV Hype 1.0 didn’t go so well) because if they didn’t they would have lost even more ad dollars and eyeballs to the Internet.

We’ve seen ten years since the mainstreaming of the Internet (and ITV Hype 2.0) and the open Internet is well into “Web 2.0″ while cable is still struggling with delivering the promise of “Interactivity 1.0″ (beyond pointing and clicking a remote to select a PPV on-demand movie — yay interactive tv!).

On the other hand, if Multichannel News misquoted Mark and his statement was restricted to the distribution and use of passive high definition television — he is correct, the Internet doesn’t enable the sustained distribution of 19.2mbps MPEG2 transport streams to the home in 99.99% of the world’s cities.

But the number and quality of pixels displayed on a television set does not equate to the sum total of the visual media experience. At the 1999 National Association of Broadcasters show, my team proved the acceptable visual media experience is flexible and will adapt to low quality if the subject matter is exclusive, informative and/or compelling.

The Internet allows for a much wider variety of exclusive, informative and compelling media. The Internet delivers this media to an ever increasing number of devices and network architectures.

Cable offers… Pay Per View… to your television.

Posted in Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, IP Media, IPTV, Media, Rants | Comments

Clan MacDying and its iTartan.

Saturday, July 21st, 2007

I took my 17″ powerbook into the 29th Street Apple store a couple months ago because the LCD was loose and images on the screen had a habit of jumping as I would move the LCD up and down — Oh, and it was also the last day of the computer’s Applecare policy.

When I received it back, the sales/genius said they had tightened the LCD and tightened the connections. The only problem was the screen was as jumpy as ever. I should have been a little more “forceful” in explaining to the sales/genius that the jumpiness had not been fixed before leaving the store.

The end result is that my 17″ Powerbook gets more entertaining every day:
MacTartan 1.0
The Apple iTartan

The powerbook now needs to express its inner tartan with annoying frequency and the time it takes me to convince it that we must work on non-tartany stuff together increases with every episode.

I have a dual G5 desktop. but that sits in my office and doesn’t work so well on the hammock. And I’ve given my 12″ powerbook to my mom. So that leaves me with the 17″ as the computer on which I’m most comfortable doing my work (I am writing this post on the 17″ right now, actually).

I’m afraid I’ll be joining the MacBook generation when this computer will no longer play nice.

Posted in Consumer Electronics, Gadgets | Comments

My ideal communications device
(AKA Jenn’s Communications Device Manifesto)

Monday, July 2nd, 2007

All the hype about Apple’s iPhone has me thinking about a device so cool and useful that I would do just about anything to own one. These are the features such a device would have:

Form factor

  1. The device would be about the size of an iPhone and weigh no more than 4oz.

Interface

  1. A high-definition screen, larger than 240×320 pixels — preferably 480×720 at 180dpi or higher. It would work in both portrait and landscape orientations.
  2. There would be on-screen virtual keys and also connect to a bluetooth keyboard.
  3. It would accept voice commands, including voice dialing.
  4. It would be capable of connecting to a bluetooth headset
  5. The video could be output into an external monitor (think airlines / desktops / tvs)
  6. The OS and Applications windowing API would allow for slick and reactive experience.

Memory and Storage

  1. There would be at least 2GB of RAM
  2. There would be at least 20GB of stateful storage (disk or solid state).
  3. There should also be a USB2.0 or Firewire port for external storage
  4. There should also be an API available to connect to WebFS or some other remote IP-based storage service.

Power

  1. The battery should be removable, with spares sold as accessories.
  2. Battery life should average 8-10 hours, regardless of voice or video use.
  3. There should be modular mains connectivity for worldwide AC options.
  4. There should be an option for Car, Boat and Plane DC power connectivity.

Multimedia

  1. There would be a camera with a resolution of at least 2MP. This would be used for taking photos or capturing video.
  2. It should be able to receive streaming video from files or broadcast
  3. It should be able to address my home media server(s) through a tethered sync or from any IP network
  4. there would be a stereo microphone.
  5. There would be sound input (line and mic) and output jacks (line and headphone).
  6. There would be a hardware OpenGL 3D render engine.
  7. There would be hardware H.264/MPEG 4 encoding and decoding. A FPGA/Media ASIC for future codec compatibility

Applications

   Productivity

  1. Email should be compatible with IMAP(S), POP3(S) and Exchange over IP
  2. Calendar should sync over IP with Exchange, .Mac, Yahoo or Google calendars and also have the option to sync via tether to my local Outlook/iCal
  3. My address/phone book, notes and lists should also sync over IP and/or tether.
  4. I should be able to plug in a GPS USB key and tie location into meetings/events in my calendar
  5. There should be an option to perform the above securely (OpenSSL, MSFT VPN and Cisco VPN compatible)
  6. The geek in me also wishes an SSH client — because my productivity often relies upon a command line.

   Internet

  1. There should be a full featured web browser with Javascript, Flash and a full Java Runtime Environment
  2. There should be freedom for developers to develop for the device platform, release open source applications or commercial applications as they desire
  3. There should be freedom for consumers to use open source or commercial applications upon the device as they desire
  4. There should be an open API that Internet software can utilize to plug into the camera, microphones, USB and A/V ports.

   Voice Calling

  1. 100% Voice over IP.
  2. Roaming and Long Distance constraints and rules would not be tied to the device.
  3. The phone number or network address should be temporarily or permanently assignable to other IP-based devices

   Video Calling/Conferencing/Receiving

  1. 100% Video over IP.
  2. Compatible with other IP-based video calling and conferencing standards as they are adopted
  3. Compatible (and addressable at no extra cost) with my IP Video Television services and subscriptions

Network Plan

  1. Membership/Subscription/Identification/Access Control should be performed and verified at the personal level rather than the device level. I should be able to replace my IP Communications device freely without pre-notifying the network operator and having to negotiate new device credentials.
  2. The communications device will never ever register itself on a cell/mobile operator’s voice network. Ideally, there will be no “Home Network” registration required and therefore no need to roam.
  3. The network service will actually be a network access aggregator who, through relationships with WiMax and WiFi network operators, will ensure that I have a near-seemless worldwide access experience at a flat rate price.
  4. There is no mandatory application or service feature bundling requirement from the network operator or aggregator. I am free to form application delivery relationships with anyone I wish, worldwide (including VOIP and Television).
  5. I am free to use any network-delivered applications or device-based features I wish without network owner/operator/aggregator interference.

Price

  1. The base device MSRP should be US$700.00 or less.
  2. The network subscription fee should be US$100.00/mo. or less.
  3. Alternately, network subscription fees could be subsidized by ads or traceable in-network affiliate-like purchase agreements or gifting by other services
  4. Application subscriptions should be US$20.00/mo. or less — or ad supported, or free.

Posted in Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, IP Media, IPTV, Media, Movies, Music | Comments

Segmentalism

Saturday, June 30th, 2007

Last iPhone post of the day.

It dawned on me, while I was reading another blog, that 1. AT&T owns and/or operates a rather large 10,000 hotspot WiFi network in the US (and possibly provides access to more through roaming partnerships); and 2. they aren’t bundling access into it for iPhone users.

This is incredibly dumb. AT&T had a killer opportunity to market their first “Wireless Double Play” device and access package and they blew it. AT&T already allows their DSL customers to access the AT&T WiFi network for an additional charge of $1.99 every month.

Someone at AT&T must have championed the “ancillary revenue” angle over delivering a practical solution and enabling customer convenience. Or, it could just be another example of one half of a large company not wanting to play nice with the other half. Or something.

The best WiFi deal for world travelers is the worldwide Wi-Fi service from Boingo Wireless for a flat rate subscription cost of US$39/mo. It includes unlimited roaming at over 100,000 hotspots around the world.

Posted in Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, IP Media | Comments

iSuck (aka Newgadgetus Brickitis)

Saturday, June 30th, 2007

I don’t believe I know of a single person who’s been able to activate their shiny new iPhone yet, almost 18 hours after they went on sale. Everyone is raving about the hardware, the software and the user interface — so I’d say Apple has another winner. But…

Where the iGlee tapers off is when the user experience touches the long tentacles of AT&T Wireless. It seems that AT&T wants to meet everyone in person, prior to activating their new iPhones.

In the future, I predict that access control and system authentication will be a more transparent process that credentials people rather than a device. This will prevent newgadgetus brickitis and allow people to experience media on a device of their choosing on any network wherever they are. Maybe then the AMP vision will be of value.

Update: Perhaps AT&T should dig into its archives and rework the old “AT&T You Will” slogan into “AT&T You May, Eventually… At Really Slow Speed — When We Get Around To It”:

Posted in Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, IP Media | Comments

Why I won’t be buying an iPhone for the foreseeable future.

Wednesday, June 27th, 2007
  1. I’m still happy with my Linux-based Motorola A780 that I picked up in Hong Kong two years ago. Why?
    • It is quad-band GSM, just like the iPhone. I can use it most anywhere in the world (except for countries like South Korea and Japan that are 100% CDMA).
    • It has never been “locked” by a North American mobile phone network. I have three SIM cards (Vodafone AU, pre-Cingular ATT Wireless, Virgin Mobile) that work equally well, whether I am in Australia, North America or Europe
    • I can shoot video or take pictures and store them on removable memory cards
    • I can send email and surf the web on the phone, using the touch-screen keyboard
    • It’s not 3G, but the EDGE network is good enough for a two year old phone
  2. The iPhone is locked to CingATT Wireless with no way of switching SIM credentials to a new native network. Travellers will be in perpetual roam mode and be forced to pay the subsequent roaming charges
  3. There is no J2ME, Java or any other third party language/runtime environment installed or available for the iPhone — Apple suggests developers use Safari as their entry point into the phone. My application ecosystem isn’t ready for an enforced web-delivered SaaS model yet.
  4. The phone is limited to CingATT Wireless’ EDGE network. I’ve used this network for the last two years, it is slow. I can’t imagine being locked into a $600 device, dependent upon EDGE for the next two years.

I may buy one once they add international credential configuration and they open up some access to the Mac OS running the phone itself — for developers and users. Third party IM, Slingbox, and VOIP/Skype clients would be nice also.

On the other hand, I may just wait to see what Motorola has up their Linux-based sleeves in the upcoming months.

Posted in Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, IP Media | Comments

And the award for most interactive (and funny) advertising goes to…

Friday, June 8th, 2007

Something Awful for:

Funny ad-like image from somethingawful

Seen while reading: The Art of Wikigroaning.

Posted in Consumer Electronics, Found, Life's Lessons | Comments

In other news…

Wednesday, May 9th, 2007

I found my long-lost Motorola HS820 bluetooth earpiece… in the pocket of a pair of jeans that has been sitting in my closet since the last time they were washed… hmmm.

Yes. I washed my “lost” earpiece.

I bought a Jabra BT250v two weeks ago and have found it to be a vastly superior replacement both in quality and in ambient noise cancellation (on the other side of the phonecall, according to people I speak with).

Posted in Announcements, Consumer Electronics, Gadgets | Comments

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