I wrote What’s so smart about the iPhone? for ZDNet last month. Long’s cartoon hits the same points in a devastatingly accurate way.
I’ll have a report on the new Cingular 8525 Smartphone soon. I’ve been using it for about a month and am very, very happy with it.
It appears that I’ll be spending more time on the road this year than I have in the past couple years. That means I need to start thinking about how to stay productive (or at least amused) in airports, hotel rooms, and other normally non-productive, non-amusing places.
My local airport in Albuquerque has free Wi-Fi, bless their hearts. Denver, where I’m likely to sit around a lot while waiting for connections, doesn’t. Neither does Sea-Tac, if I recall correctly.
The prospect of giving T-Mobile or Cingular $9.99 for a day pass that will really only be good for an hour or so is pretty unpalatable, especially when I’m not being reimbursed by a deep-pocketed employer. On top of that, the $10-15 charge that most hotels levy for high-speed Internet access is pretty sucky too. With one long layover and a Net-unfriendly hotel , I could end up spending $25 a day.
So I’m thinking of signing up for a high-speed data plan from a wireless company. I already have a Cingular account, so their HSDPA-based BroadbandConnect sounds promising, but it also sounds like it’s still half-baked. I’d wind up using the slower Edge network for most of 2006, I suspect. But it should work just about everywhere I’m likely to go.
Or I could choose EV-DO from Verizon or Sprint. Unfortunately, neither one appears to offer service in my corner of the world yet.
Or I could save the $60 a month, wait a while, and learn how to work offline.
What would you do?
What a difference a year makes.
Last year, the organizers of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) refused to issue press credentials to bloggers. This year, they’re welcomed with open arms. I have my press pass already and will be at CES for four days.
A note to PR people trying to arrange meetings with me: It really helps if you make at least a slight effort to personalize the pitch. I’ve already received a half-dozen requests to set up meetings to see and discuss:
I think I can safely say I won’t be writing about any of these topics after CES.
Update: Looking for press credentials? Apply here.
In a comment to my earlier post on the Widget- Gadget food fight, PB reminded me about Active Desktop. The linked page from Microsoft’s, dated August 2001, includes this text:
The Microsoft Investor Ticker below is just one example of Active Desktop items—live content that Internet Explorer 4.0 lets you bring from the Web to your Active Desktop. Check out the list below. You’ll find cool items that deliver regularly updated news, entertainment, tools, and more.
I remember writing about Active Desktop in 1997, when I was working on a beta copy of Windows 98 and Internet Explorer 4.0.
And sure enough, a little poking around found this October 1997 article from Microsoft Systems Journal. It contains the first reference I can remember to Dynamic HTML, plus discussions of the Channel Definition Format (a very early use of XML that was a precursor to RSS), an Information Delivery API, support for Broadcast TV, and a bunch of other stuff that today we take for granted.
The Wikipedia entry for Active Desktop notes:
Active Desktop works much like desktop widget technology in that it allows users to place customized information on their desktop. [emphasis added]
Splat!
Oh lordy, I hate getting in the middle of Mac v. Windows food fights. I am not a Mac user, so I can’t speak from a position of authority, and the religious nature of the debate brings out trolls on both sides. But I really have to step into this one.
Yesterday, Microsoft announced the introduction of Windows Gadgets. The Gadgets Blog explains what they are:
What are Gadgets? Gadgets are a new category of mini-application designed to provide information, useful lookup, or enhance an application or service on your Windows PC or the Web. Examples might include a weather gadget running on your desktop or on your homepage, an RSS Gadget that pulls in your favorite feeds, or an extension of a business application providing just-in-time status on the pulse of your business.
This, of course, inspired guffaws, chortles, and snorts of derision from Mac experts like Dori Smith, who point out that this stuff was old news when Mac Widgets appeared in 2004. In fact, this page from Apple’s site sounds awfully familiar:
Dashboard is home to widgets: mini-applications that let you perform common tasks and provide you with fast access to information. With a single click, Dashboard appears, complete with widgets that bring you a world of information — real-time weather, stock tickers, flight information and more — instantly. Dashboard disappears just as easily, so you can get back to what you were doing.
Of course, Konfabulator fans could point out that this stuff has been available on the Windows desktop for some time.
And I could point out that I was running SideKick widgets (or whatever they were called then) on my MS-DOS PC in, like, 1987.
Now, to be fair, there are some things about the Microsoft implementation of gadgets that are genuinely new. It’s a unified development platform, not just an add-on. You can write Web-based gadgets for Start.com, which apparently will then work in any modern browser through the miracles of DHTML and Ajax. And gadgets can also be written for auxiliary displays, which will allow these mini-programs to pop up alerts in a tiny window on the outside of a notebook, or perhaps on a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone that’s in range of a Windows Vista computer, or even over a network connection.
But still…
Microsoft, would it kill you to actually mention the source of some of these ideas? Wouldn’t it actually help people understand how this new thing is different if you acknowledged the similarities to other things that have been around for a while? I’m just sayin’.
(And by the way, Mike, pointing out the Windows Vista Sidebar was announced years ago and that Apple stole the idea is probably not the strongest argument you could make. You have to ship it before it counts.)
I will now duck as the inevitable food fight breaks out in the comments section. Please be nice.
Prof. Froomkin steers me to a story about a guy who invented a “Fox Blocker”:
Sam Kimery …makes a little device the size of a thumb that you screw into your cable supply and which then blocks the Fox channel.
I would pay for that.
Sadly, he’s getting death threats.
I’ve been trolling eBay lately in search of a Windows SmartPhone. (Yes, I bought an Audiovox SMT5600 last year, but Judy fell in love with it, and being the loving husband that I am… Well, you can guess who’s using it now.) Anyway, I nearly fell out of my chair when I read this text:
I am selling an Audiovox SMT 5600… i came across this phone in a parking lot and called the owner and got no response… therefore i am selling it. This phone has ever bell and wistle anyone could ask for. Camera, Internet, Planner, Color, WINDOWS XP, and lots more. This phone is too much for me. I believe it is capable for world wide calling. It has some dings but nothing major. I do not have the charger but that is probably a 15 dollar quick fix. I have a case that it came with i will include that aswell. It has the SIM card in the back, and Blue-tooth capable. There is much more!!!
Did I mention that the seller has an eBay feedback rating of 0?
What I find most astonishing is that the item has attracted 8 bids so far. I don’t plan to bid on this one.
Last summer, I ran across a deal on the Creative TravelSound MP3 portable speaker system and, on an impulse, I bought one. It arrived via UPS a few days later, and I promptly set the box aside. Over the next few months, I took a few short trips, but never felt the motivation to throw this little unit into my traveling bag.
For this week’s trip to Redmond, I decided to give these little speakers a shot. I had read a lot of reviews before clicking the Buy button, and the consensus was overwhelmingly positive, but I was still skeptical. I used the short cable (included) to connect the headphone output of my MP3 player to the speaker’s inputs and cranked it up. What a treat! The sound is excellent for such a small package. It’s not going to replace my 5.1 surround system, but it’s more than good enough for traveling, and I’m finally able to listen to a little music while I catch up on e-mail in a hotel room instead of settling for whatever happens to be on TV. It has 32MB of flash memory as well, so it can hold a few songs and work without an external sound source. It also records voice, so I could use it for interviews if necessary.
These speakers are designed to run on 4 AA batteries, and Creative claims that they’ll play for 35 hours when they’re plugged into an external sound source. I decided not to buy the external power supply, because I don’t want to have to carry yet another AC adapter in my travel bag. Surprise! The adapter for my iRiver H120 music player works perfectly with these speakers, and it’s already in my bag. Connect power to the speakers for playback, and then switch the cable to the H120 to recharge. Perfect.
At nearly $90 through Amazon.com, this isn’t a bargain, but if you spend a lot of time on the road, you might be willing to pay the price. I paid roughly half that price, which was great for this unit. If all you want is playback, look at the Creative TravelSound 200, which appears to be the same speaker unit minus the MP3 player and voice recorder. At $42 with free shipping, I’d recommend it for any frequent traveler with a music player.
A Mail-In Rebate Junkie shares his secrets:
I am a mail-in rebate junkie. I have saved thousands of dollars through rebate offers. It’s a great way to get products at a reduced price, or sometimes even free! But I often question whether it’s worth my time. And apparently, I’m not alone. Web sites such as the ones here, here and here show that there is a high degree of universal frustration with the mail-in rebate process.
But that’s exactly what makes the mail-in rebate process so rewarding and exciting! The harder it is, the more discouraging it is for most people, and therefore fewer people wind up filing for or getting the rebates. And if fewer people get them, that means that the companies can afford to be more generous in the rebates that they offer — a bonanza for the true mail-in rebate warriors such as ourselves. So after years of climbing the rebate learning curve, I’ve decided to share my experiences, so that all of my fellow rebate junkies can benefit.
Most of this stuff is just plain common sense, but it’s a good checklist. Personally, I go out of my way not to buy a product if it has a mail-in rebate these days. I’ll make an exception for something like the Audiovox SMT5600 Smartphone or the Motorola MPx220 Smartphone, both of which have $150 rebates from Amazon and are on the short list for my next phone (I had an SMT5600, but Judy’s using it now). Trying to get $10 off on an antivirus program or $20 off on a new hard drive just feels like a sucker’s game to me. I’d rather just find a good price and be done with it.
(Via the indispensable Andrew Tobias, whose RSS feed is here.)
Jason, Marc, and the rest of the Weblogs,Inc. team are Blogging DEMO. I spent half of Monday at the show and will spend all of Tuesday. It’s an eclectic mix of products, most of them still under development and some of which might never see the light of day. But there’s no doubt that a few of the products I saw today will be huge hits in the next year or two.
I loved Vlog It.from Serious Magic. This is a video production tool that lets you create your own teleprompter, add special effects, and even use blue screen SFX to create the illusion that you’re broadcasting live from somewhere other than your cramped and cluttered home office. I usually scoff at the idea of homemade videos on the Internet, but this one convinced me that even I could do it and that you might actually want to watch it!
Motorola could have done without the model Hummer for their demo of iRadio, but the idea of having access to hundreds of channels of digital radio accessible in my car or on the phone sounds cool. I have no idea how this works, and I wonder how this differs from the iRadio announcements the same company made in 2000 and 2001.
In the Demo Pavilion, I saw an Outlook add-in called Outboxer that looked pretty sharp. If I ran a big corporation (or a little investment company), I’d look seriously at this utility, which helps prevent employees from sending out e-mail messages that contain inappropriate content or break Federal regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley.
And I would dearly love to replace my external USB drives with a Mirra storage device, which would simplify the task of getting all my data backed up effortlessly.
I’ll be gone all day Tuesday, so look for more on Wednesday.
Ed Bott 