Filed under: Cellphones

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

As Switched On exemplified in the frenzy of mobile Ts and primary Gs last week, much of the attention focused on the involvement of Google and comparisons to the iPhone. Searching Google for “‘T-Mobile G1′ Apple” yields over 6.7 million results on Google. Searching for “‘T-Mobile G1′ HTC” yields only 3.4 million.

Given that the phone is being branded “T-Mobile G1 with Google,” the temptation is to say that HTC, which has long vowed to step into the white light from behind the white label, has failed to capitalize on one of the best branding opportunities in handset history. However, there would have been limits as to how much spotlight it could have stolen in the wake of media fascination with Google and one can have only so many brands listed in the name of a phone. Wireless carriers are among the biggest television advertisers, and Google is the biggest advertising powerhouse online. Together they will fund the G1 marketing push. The stakes were just too high for HTC to significantly advance its branding status with T-Mobile, which has used its carrier brand for such HTC handsets as the Dash, Wing and Shadow.

But there are more paradoxes in HTC’s first Android handset.

Continue reading Switched On: The T-Mobile G1 — by Google and what’s-their-names

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Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment

While we knew these new Sharp Aquos HDTVs were coming, we had no idea how thin and bright they were in person. Today at CEATEC 2008 Sharp officially announced its LC-65XS1U-S (65-inch) and LC-52XS1U-S (52-inch) AQUOS LCD HDTVs right at CEATEC Japan’s opening bell. The displays’ 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and 1080P panel are nice and all, but we now know they measure in at a super gaunt 2.28-cm (0.9-inch) depth and are outfitted with a 2.1-channel, three-way five-speaker system that Sharp jointly developed with Pioneer. Meanwhile, Sharp boasts some serious energy savings with the new displays, promising a 26% reduction in power consumption. Expect them to hit stores in Japan October 15 in limited numbers for an undisclosed (read: ’spensive) price. Check the emaciated photos in the gallery if you’re so inclined.

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Filed under: Cellphones

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

In the 1999 geek classic, “Pirates of Silicon Valley”, an Apple employee watching the famous “1984″ commercial with Steve Jobs points to the Big Brother character — intended to represent IBM — and then points to Bill Gates of Microsoft, whom Jobs has just introduced as part of Apple’s family. The silent message is that the real threat to Apple is Microsoft, not IBM, and indeed the following scene depicts Jobs confronting Gates after Jobs sees Windows 1.0 running on an NEC PC.

That scene, set in 1983, could be easily recreated 25 years later, substituting the iPhone for the Macintosh, Microsoft for IBM as the iPhone’s perceived threat, and Google for Microsoft as the iPhone’s more serious threat. Like Microsoft in 1983, Google is a key Apple partner in 2008. The iPhone features Google Maps, GMail and Google as its default Web search engine, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt even sits on Apple’s board of directors. And also like Microsoft in 1983, Google is working fervently to create a wide range of competitors to Apple’s iPhone. None of these may ever match the integrated experience of Apple’s iPhone, but it’s clear that the first Android phone has come closer to the iPhone experience than Windows 1.0 did to the original Macintosh operating system.

Nevertheless, Google’s task is a lot more daunting than Microsoft’s was at the dawn of Windows for several reasons.

Continue reading Switched On: With friends like Google, does Apple need Microsoft?

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Filed under: Cellphones

Continue reading T-Mobile G1 video hands-on

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Filed under: Laptops, Media PCs

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

Even as Microsoft continues to support broadcasting standards around the world to bolster Media Center’s support for broadcast television, the future of noisy, black 17-inch-wide boxes sharing a cramped cabinet with your stereo receiver remains in jeopardy. Indeed, the future of the living room PC may be sitting in your lap.

When Microsoft announced the Media Center edition of Windows XP, it was in some ways the desktop counterpart to the Tablet PC mutation. Whereas the Tablet PC was envisioned as a new form factor for notebooks, Media Center held the promise of transforming the desktop into its own new form factor. Indeed, in one of Bil Gates’s final CES keynotes promoting innovative PC designs, he didn’t mention desktops at all, referring to stationary computers as “entertainment PCs” in an AV component style.

But while a few companies continue to sell Media Center PCs explicitly designed for connection to a television — among them Sony, Alienware, and companies targeting custom installers such as Niveus Media, the form factor hasn’t taken off for a variety of reasons. Microsoft, in turn, has focused more on Media Center Extenders such as the Xbox 360 and HP MediaSmart Connect to bring the Media Center experience to the big-screen TV. And despite some technological improvements coming to help the cause, that situation is unlikely to change dramatically.

Continue reading Switched On: Rethinking the living room PC

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

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

The oldest of the “three screens” — television - is generally far from the wisest. Sure, an endless array of set-top boxes and AV components packed with processors have appeared in the last few decades to use its screen as a surrogate, and now a high-definition, display for video games, PC content, Web pages, multimedia, videoconferencing and other entertainment. But while much television programming — especially news and sports programs - has become cluttered with contextual trivia and tickers, the core TV viewing experience has remained stubbornly passive. Now, though, with backers citing the need to reclaim appeal from PCs and cell phones — especially among multitasking kids, teens and young adults — the first screen is fighting back.

Correctly recognizing that upconverting DVDs posed a serious challenge to high-definition discs, the backers of HD-DVD focused on the mandatory Internet connectivity of its players and support of it in some of its late content (the movie 300 was one of the best showcases). In HD-DVD’s defeat, the Blu-ray camp has picked up the cause via BD-Live, part of the Blu-ray 2.0 specification. A forthcoming title that will take advantage of the Internet connectivity is Disney’s 50th anniversary platinum release of its classic Sleeping Beauty. And it is not your wicked stepmother’s princess.

Continue reading Switched On: Net-enabled movies pit a blue ray versus a true way

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals

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

With all the hoopla around the iPhone 3G, the finger has taken center stage as the input device of choice on the go. However, last week’s column on the prospects of the Livescribe Pulse was actually the penultimate one on the subject of smart pens — at least two alternatives have entered the market. Both are based heavily on reference designs from Israeli companies that have taken a different approach than Livescribe.

Rather than relying on a camera to read small dots on special paper, these pens work with practically any paper. And unlike the bulky Pulse with its ostentatious display, they are practically indistinguishable from normal pens and both come with software that can do a decent job of converting handwriting to text. The tradeoff is that some of the electronics have been offloaded to a small receiver that must be positioned on the paper, creating a two-piece solution.

IOGEAR’s Mobile Digital Scribe, powered by Pegasus Technology, is a follow-on from a similar earlier product that required that the receiver be tethered to the PC. The Scribe can still function this way. In fact, when connected to a PC, the pen can be used to scribble (presumably for quick doodles, otherwise why not just use the keyboard?) just as its tethered predecessor could. Writing appears on an on-screen note that appears as soon as the writer begins to write, and the software can have these pages “float” on the screen as sticky notes..

Continue reading Switched On: More options for getting from scribble to screen

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

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

The first iPhone arrived at a time that suggested Apple needed to protect its iPod franchise — but Apple delivered something that was much more than an MP3 player that could make phone calls. You probably won’t be editing any iMovies on it for some time, but in the iPhone Apple has essentially delivered Macintosh 2.0. It’s portable. It’s affordable. It’s connected. And it runs OS X, complete with its own breakthrough pointing device, your finger. Whereas the first Mac came with productivity applications MacWrite and MacPaint, the iPhone came with applications for Web surfing, e-mail, and consuming media, the evolution of what much personal computing has become.

Furthermore, Apple has shown that it has learned from mistakes it made with the first Mac. Whereas early monochrome Macs were a tough sell for game developers, Apple has highlighted games as some of the most impressive early third-party applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. And whereas Apple was notorious for keeping Mac prices high for many years, the next-generation iPhone takes advantage of carrier subsidies for an out-of-pocket price of $200 in the US (and even less or free in some countries). Despite the many changes that have transformed the software industry since 1984, the iPhone, along with its SDK, development tools and app store, have the potential to bring the work of OS X developers to millions of people who don’t own Macs — that is, if Apple lets them.

Continue reading Switched On: The iPhone’s iFunnel

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Filed under: GPS, Wireless

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

The last Switched On discussed the traffic-fighting prowess of the Dash Express, now available for only $299. Its leading ad hoc local information querying and traffic-finding capabilities represent the best potential to transform the portable navigation device from a product used primarily for unfamiliar terrain, to an everyday tool to expedite getting to point B.

When it debuted online at Amazon, it shared prime real estate with another transparently-connected consumer electronics device: the Amazon Kindle. But besides their completely divergent uses, the Dash carries more than the weight of a couple of extra radios in its cranium. The unfortunate part of the Dash Express is that the device’s unusual size takes up a good chunk of windshield real estate and, of course, serves as an even larger advertisement to thieves.

Dash has the ability to remotely kill stolen Dash Expresses, but there is still the risk of a break-in. In many ways, Dash’s service is a better match for an in-dash navigation unit such as the Pioneer AVIC series, but these expensive devices represent a small fraction of the navigation aftermarket.

Continue reading Switched On: Dash delivers open roads, open questions (Part 2)

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

6:16PM PT - The joint’s filling up! Clearly no one’s on stage yet, though, so don’t go too far.

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Filed under: Peripherals

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

The last Switched On discussed GreenPlug, a startup that is trying to create a new standard for universal AC adapters. The environmental benefits GreenPlug offers are enormous, like the reduction of power caused by keeping energy flowing to a fully charged device, and the great reduction in waste currently caused by the need to keep manufacturing, shipping and disposing of the billions of AC adapters produced every year (many of which are practically wed to a single product).

Even without GreenPlug, there has been significant movement over the past few years toward the acceptance of the mini-USB port as a connection standard for portable devices. Sony, for example, now offers USB charging on devices such as the PSP and Sony eReader, where others previously required proprietary adapters. The USB Implementers’ Forum is working on new guidelines to ensure better compatibility for chargers and devices using the popular port that was designed first for data transfer. And there is now legislation in place in China that mandates that any phone sold there must enable USB charging.

However, USB has limits in terms of the wattage that it can deliver and can’t charge, for example, notebook PCs, as well as many camcorders, digital cameras, and other products. Nonetheless, in a nod to the growing momentum around the USB connector for cell phones and other low-power gizmos, GreenPlug has designed its connector to resemble a mini-USB port. A GreenPlug adapter can charge mini-USB products that don’t have its chip, even though it won’t offer power-saving benefits in that circumstance.

Continue reading Switched On: Green Plug tries to replace the worry warts (Part 2)

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Filed under: Peripherals

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

The best and most popular portable electronics products don’t work for long without them, but the general consumer sentiment toward AC adapters is evident in the terms of endearment such as “bricks” and “wall warts” given to them. They’re referred to with even more colorful language when they’re accidentally left behind on a trip or are otherwise unavailable when needed.

But if a startup GreenPlug has its way, future portable electronics products may not come with an AC adapter, much like many printers today don’t come with a USB cable. With engineering talent that ran design for Apple’s DC power systems for the iPod and the MagSafe connector, GreenPlug is taking on one of gadetry’s holy grails - a universal connector that can work on practically any portable electronics device. GreenPlug would turn the frequently forgotten and mismatched AC adapter into an accessory ecosystem. The company envisions DC charging hubs that would be available in conference tables at the workplace and in tables and walls at coffee shops.

Continue reading Swtched On: Green Plug tries to replace the worry warts (Part 1)

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Since about 20,000 people — the overwhelming majority of voters in yesterday’s poll — apparently want to see me in pain trying to get in shape with Wii Fit, it looks like it’s time to suck it up and do this thing. Although I’d like to start by disclaiming that I’ve never really worked out with any regularity, I’m not exactly known for my physical coordination, and in school I always came pretty close to flunking PE — so really, I’m kind of Nintendo’s ideal customer.

Methodology

• I’ll be working with Wii Fit out about 20 game-minutes a day, 7 days a week.
• My program will consist of five minutes each of routines and games from the four fitness categories: strength training, aerobics, yoga, and balance games.
• As a control, I won’t be dramatically changing up my eating habits. I’m already a reasonably healthy eater, so any physical changes will be more easily attributable to the Wii Fit regimen.
• I have about a week of travel scheduled this month, so for whatever days I miss on Wii Fit I’ll be extending the trial.
• I’ll chart my changes in weight, BMI, coordination, etc. and thoughts on the experience in a weekly update for the next five weeks.

Current stats
Height: 6-feet
Weight: 174.5 pounds
Frame: small-to-medium
BMI according to Wii Fit: 23.65 (upper cusp of normal)
Wii Fit “Body age”: 36

Wii Fit goal (you have to set a goal for yourself)
Target weight: 169.5 pounds
Target BMI: 22.96
Target date: 6/12

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Ever wonder where Zunes are designed? Well, right now it’s all done in a fairly non-descript and temporary office building on Microsoft’s sprawling campus in Redmond. (Soon enough a few hundred Zune employees will be packing up and moving to a new building that’s currently under construction, though.) We recently got a chance to peek around the cube farm and spend some time with employees in the laid-back Zune lounge — check it out!

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Filed under: Laptops

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

The US smartphone market may continue to be dominated by mobile platforms from Apple, Microsoft, and RIM, but Linux has been creeping into ever more mobile devices in the last few years. Some Motorola RAZR 2 models have donned a Tux, Palm is looking to Linux to drive its next-generation consumer smartphones, and Android’s backers hope to spread it to an even wider array of handsets. Linux is also driving many avant garde connected consumer electronics devices such as the Chumby, Nokia N810, Amazon Kindle, Dash Express, and whatever the fertile minds tinkering with Bug Labs’ modules are envisioning,. Even the remote control that houses the user interface of Logitech’s Squeezebox Duet is a Linux computer.

However, none of these products are intended for as flexible a range of uses as a notebook PC, where Linux is being tested as a tool to achieve lower price points on a new generation of low-cost but style-conscious ultaportables. ASUS set the pace with Xandros on the Eee PC, and HP has tapped Novel SuSE Linux for the 2133 Mini-Note, but whereas the Eee’s positioning has been somewhat of a loose hybrid between an adult OLPC and the Nintendo Wii’s culture of global inclusion, the HP Mini-Note has been strongly focused on reckless, immature students while acknowledging potential for senior executives that have been known to share their temperament.

Continue reading Switched On: The Linux ultraportable opportunity

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Filed under: Cellphones

From the (tiny) desk of the editor:

Yesterday Motorola CEO Greg Brown told board members and shareholders that, among a lot of other bad news, the company is no closer to finding someone to lead the company’s rotting cellphone business (which Moto is in the middle of spinning off as its “Mobile Devices” unit). One shareholder remarked, “You’re not doing your job that you’re paid for. Either put up or get out.” That investor, like the rest of us, has witnessed the slow-mo train wreck that’s been that handset business in the days since the RAZR peaked; the things brought to light in the insider letter I published on Engadget just reinforces the fact that it’s time for a change at the top. Some even suggested that I take over Motorola’s handset business. I thought it over — okay, I’ll bite if Greg does.

The problem with so many American technology companies today — especially in the mobile space — is that while they have no dearth of business acumen at the top of the pyramid, they’re typically dry on vision and foresight. They spend brief periods of time innovating, and then milk a technology, brand, patent, or some combination therein for as long as they can get away with it (or in Moto’s case, way longer). They play it safe and go for the easy money. Motorola’s handset business has come to define this in the gadget world.

Continue reading Motorola’s cellphone business needs a new leader: okay, I’m in.

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Filed under: Cellphones

We’ve got a few more details on the Touch Diamond to keep your motor running. Check it out!

• The Touch Diamond makes use of GPU accelerated procedural graphics, so you will not see a backward-compatible TouchFlow 3D update for the current Touch. It’s capable of doing 7-8mil polygons per second (not that many games or apps will make use of that right now).
• HTC has made hiding WinMo away something of a priority; CMO John Wang stated, “You wouldn’t even know this device was Windows Mobile. You would just think it’s TouchFlow 3D.”
• HTC totally reworked the WinMo virtual keyboard (as you can see above). Definitely not the best laid out we’ve seen (okay, it looks kind of messy), but it’s instantly lightyears ahead of what WinMo had before.
• Opera “reflows” web formatting, which HTC is pitching hard. Basically it just reformats and wraps text on zoom — unlike, say, the iPhone.
• Unfortunately, the device still uses a resistive touchscreen, while the controls below are capacitive. That really ought to be flipped around.
• And of course, we had to ask about Android: the first device is (still) coming later this year, but it will not br in the form of the Diamond.

Oh, and don’t forget to check out the hands-on (with video).

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Ariel Waldman contributes Movie Gadget Friday, where she highlights the lovable and lame gadgets from the world of cinema.

Previously on Movie Gadget Friday, we went thirteen years into the future of failed technology with Johnny Mnemonic. Gearing down from cyberpunk grunge to the post-apocalyptic Australian outback, this week we dust off the many dune gadgets and gas-guzzlers in The Road Warrior to take a closer look at the details. Known as the sequel to Mad Max, this leather-lust film takes the fight for survival by way of modded-out motors seriously (down to the skull hood ornaments). While electronics are scarce in this 1981 film, the ever-present tinkering and modification of hardware throughout more than keeps our attention.

The Interceptor
From dune buggies to Desotos, custom-built cars are scrapped together from scavenged materials and outfitted with nitrous oxide tanks and whatever weapons and are within reach. The Interceptor features two large tanks strapped to the trunk and an impressive roll cage built for brutal road battles. Modded from an original 1973 XB GT Ford Falcon Coupe and fitted with an impressive supercharger, Max’s machine is capable of extreme speeds at the flip of a switch. Known as the last of the V8s, the vehicle contains a booby-trapped destruction device under the trunk in case of emergency. Other vehicles worth honorable hardware mentions are Pappagallo’s custom-built scrap car with two Ford 351 engines, and the red Ford F100 featuring a boat windshield and some serious cobra door decals. More after the break.

Continue reading Movie Gadget Friday: The Road Warrior

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Filed under: Cellphones, Interviews

We recently got a chance to briefly sit down with Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, who definitely ranks among the geekier and more sincere CEOs we’ve had the privilege to meet. We discussed the long-missing JavaFX Mobile platform Sun promised a while back, as well as Java on the iPhone, and doing battle with Microsoft as an open source software vendor. Check it out over on Engadget Mobile!

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Got a hankering for glossy imagery of those new Samsung S3 and S2 DAPs. We’ve got the hookup, so knock yourself out. How the photographer made those pebbles look matte we’ll never know.

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