Technology

Strategy / Technology — 5 Comments
14
Jun 10

Dell exposes itself in public

In case anyone missed the news, Dell is entering the tablet market — sort of — with a mini-5-inch touchscreen device called the Streak.

The name is actually perfect. Just as “streakers” used to run through public places stark naked, the Streak does a darn good job of exposing the real Dell: a company that wishes it could innovate, but lacks a few essential ingredients.

Let’s back up a bit to fully appreciate this one. We’ve got phones and we’ve got laptops. Apple just shook things up by putting a brand new product — iPad — in that space between a phone and laptop.

Now Dell comes along and puts the Streak in some imagined space between a phone and an iPad. Might they next put a product between a phone and the Streak? With a little luck, this could go on forever.

The Streak is too big to be a good phone and too small to be a good tablet. It is truly the Dell version of innovation — a faint echo of someone else’s good idea.

Dell’s problem is that they’re not an innovator, they’re a money-making machine. And unfortunately, they’re a money-making machine that doesn’t make any money. The revolution they created — the direct sales model — has long since been bettered by others. With an almost invisible profit margin, they can only make money when they sell products by the zillion. And that’s not so easy these days.

“If only we could be seen as an innovator,” Dell thinks, “then people would be willing to pay more for our products.” Bingo. That’s Apple’s not-so-secret secret. But wishing you could be an innovator doesn’t make you one. Dell has been wishing for a few years now, and all we get are wild colors for our laptops, me-too smart phones and a super-thin computer that costs too much and impresses too little.

What Dell really needs is a product that will stand out from their current product line. By all appearances, the Streak is going to fit right in.

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Apple News / Naming / Technology — 9 Comments
9
Jun 10

Welcome, iPhone 4

Despite the lost prototype fiasco, I thought the iPhone 4 intro was still pretty darn interesting. Guess there’s a bit of a difference between Gizmodo ripping the cover off and Steve Jobs walking us through the features. Some quick reactions to the phone, the event and the marketing:

A4 processor. Thank you! If iPhone performance = iPad performance, I will be euphoric.

24% thinner. Excellent. I hereby cease secretly envying my son’s iPod touch.

FaceTime, the technology. Totally love it. Dual switchable cameras and no-setup software are so very Apple. And tremendously cool.

FaceTime, the video. Anyone notice that Apple seems to be getting sappier as it gets bigger? I miss the edgier stuff. Whatever, maybe I know too much about how ads get made for my own good. Since the phone isn’t shipping yet, I assume we’re looking at actors from central casting getting misty-eyed on cue. But that’s just me.

iPhone 4, the video. Polished and professional. But, as noted in the past, these launch videos have become formulaic. Same cast of characters, familiar hyperbole. Wish they’d stray just once to prove it can be done. Apple = creativity.

The Glitch. It’s a shame, but meaningless in the end. Once, when Bill Gates publicly suffered a horrible tech problem on stage, we agency mischief-makers turned it into a 30-second ad for Apple. Steve wasn’t interested. “This stuff happens to all of us,” he said. Let’s see if the courtesy is returned.

Renaming the OS. In a post back at launch time, I thought it odd that something called iPhone OS would power things that weren’t phones. That mismatch is indicative of the thinking in effect when the moniker was selected. This was just a no-brainer — with three i-devices running the same OS, the new name is perfect. iOS forever.

Retina Display. Can’t wait to see it in person.

5-Megapixel Camera. Pixels aren’t everything, but all the camera improvements together should bump up the quality nicely. I may actually start using this camera.

iMovie. I love surprises. iMovie for iPhone was a good one. In glorious 30fps 720p. Well done.

Unified Mailbox. Good lord, what took you so long.

Folders. My app screens had become agonizingly complicated. Much appreciated.

iBookstore. Will please many, but not me. I’ve tried to read on an iPhone and it’s too damn tiny. If the gods meant us to read on iPhone, they would never have given us iPad.

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Technology — 5 Comments
7
Jun 10

Battle of the Steves

"PCs in greater and greater number"

Probably the last thing this world needs is a demonstration of the difference between Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer. Nonetheless, we got a pretty good one at the D8 Conference.

One of Jobs’ more interesting moments was his view of the PC’s future. He noted that trucks were largely replaced by cars only when cars sprouted consumer amenities. We still need trucks, but not for as many things. Similarly, we will continue to need PCs, but not for as many things. Tablet-like devices will just make most things so much easier.

Seems pretty obvious.

Then comes Ballmer’s interview. His duty, of course, is to disagree with Jobs. Hearing Mossberg’s summary of Jobs’ statement, Ballmer jumps in. “People will be using PCs in greater and greater number for many years to come,” he says, but “I think PCs will continue to shift in form factors.” He goes on talking about changes in “semiconductor infrastructure” (now he’s talking our language) to support Windows in different devices, and so on.

Aha. So iPads won’t rule the world. PCs will still be around, but in a different form. Mossberg presses Ballmer by asking if the iPad is actually a PC by this argument, to which Ballmer says, “of course it is.”

So what’s Ballmer’s point again? He’s basically just agreed with Jobs that future devices will take different forms than conventional PCs. He’s just insisting that we continue to call them PCs. Now that’s leadership.

Personally, I wish politicians and corporate executives would learn that being human is more important than disagreeing with their competitors. Ballmer would score more points if he simply said, “I don’t disagree with what Steve Jobs said on this stage. New devices will obviously take over many of the PC’s functions, and Microsoft is working hard to build this future.” He could always hope nobody mentions the now-abandoned Courier project.

My point is that disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing is conventional, uninspiring and pointless. If Microsoft wants to help build the future, they’re not going to do it by clinging to words like “PC.”

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Apple News / Strategy / Technology — 5 Comments
3
Jun 10

Steve @ D8: even better than email

You know, it was really good to see Steve Jobs take questions at D8 on Tuesday. Not because he elaborated on interesting topics (which he did) — more because he did a pretty good job of being human.

It’s one thing to see glimpses of the real Steve in his responses to customers’ emails (and the simple fact that he answers emails at all). But this was far more revealing: an informal conversation with a guy most people know only from what others write about him.

Watching these videos won’t make you Steve’s best buddy. However, his off-the-cuff remarks will definitely give you a greater appreciation for what makes him tick.

A few of my own reactions to his remarks:

The thrill factor. I felt all warm and fuzzy when Steve mentioned how thrilled he was to receive an email from some guy in the UK who’d just bought an iPad and thinks it’s the coolest thing he ever brought home. This is the real Steve. He loves knowing that people love his products. Ask Michael Dell what gives him the biggest thrill.

Apple values. Steve took care to point out that Apple’s values haven’t changed over the years. I know this is true, and I know this is what makes Apple’s success different. They are not easily sidetracked, and they don’t know how to compromise. They will actually spend more to get something right. You probably know how rare this is.

The lost prototype. When the iPhone prototype went missing, Steve said he had received advice from people he trusts to the effect of “let it slide.” After careful thought, he decided he couldn’t let it slide. He’d rather quit. This is compatible with the preceding point about Apple’s values. When you let one thing slide, there will always be another and another — and pretty soon you’re making “okay” products instead of great ones. Thank you, Steve, for having conviction.

The publishing revolution. Talking about iPad’s potential impact on publishing, Steve says he doesn’t want to see us “descend into a nation of bloggers,” that the world needs great editorial. Hear, hear. Not to trash my blogging brothers, but honestly — man cannot live on blogs alone. (Whoops, two male references in a single sentence.) Editorial is hugely important.

Retiring the PC. I agree 100% with Steve’s assessment of the future for iPads and PCs (meaning non-Macs and Macs). As iPads and other devices mature, the need for PCs will fade. Those with vested interests in PCs will indeed become “uneasy” with this, and that’s putting it nicely. No doubt Apple and Steve will be attacked mercilessly for pushing things ahead — and no doubt they will be proven right in the end.

The We factor. Okay, I do have one bone to pick. Talking about how the tablet idea actually came before the iPhone, Steve broke the cardinal rule of teamwork: “Always say we, never say I.” He took an awful lot of credit there with comments like “I saw this,” “I thought that” and “then I decided” leading up to these decisions. I’m sure he’s technically correct — but in the past he has gone out of his way to be we-oriented. Watch it, Steve.

Products as “packages.” Everyone needs to appreciate what Steve said about product design. With every new product, Apple has to pick and choose which technology to include. Going with the cheapest or most popular is a very Dell-like thing to do. Apple instead seeks out the technologies that have the most life ahead of them — and Flash didn’t make the cut. Abandoning Flash surely wasn’t an easy decision. But then losing the floppy drive wasn’t either.

Let the customers decide. As Steve points out, it’s up to the customers to decide if Apple has put together the right package of technologies. If they don’t like it, they won’t buy it, and then Apple would have to rethink its decisions. If it sells like hotcakes, then they must have gotten it right. I think this is the only real answer to the critics who feel varying degrees of outrage over Flash, App Store approvals or whatever. If Apple has made some gruesome mistake, they’re going to pay for it. Chances of that happening: slim.

Good seeing you, Steve. Let’s do it again soon.

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Strategy / Technology — 4 Comments
19
May 10

Adobe’s theater of the absurd

Companies do show their character when they enter into combat as Adobe and Apple have done. In theory, high-stakes pressure brings out the best in both sides.

Just a theory, mind you.

Apple gave us a straightforward open letter. Adobe rants about defending freedom, trots out the founders and even summons the ghost of Flash past.

On their truth about Flash page, Adobe “sets the record straight” and “clears up the misconceptions” — starting with this:

Touch. The Adobe Flash Player runtime was actually originally created as a technology for tablets with touch interfaces, and today, it has support for working on touch-based devices.

Wow. Shocker. Didn’t know that. Eager to learn more about Flash’s touch-DNA, I clicked read more, which whisked me to the personal, non-Adobe blog of Flash product manager Mike Chambers. Mike addresses the Top Flash Misconceptions, his first being that Flash doesn’t work on touch screens. “Ironic,” he says, because “Flash was originally created specifically for tablets with touch inputs.”

Yes. So I’ve heard. But again, there’s no further info, so I click yet another link to go deeper. Now I’m at Adobe’s official The History of Flash. However, I’m dumped in the middle of a story that obviously started elsewhere, where the writer speaks in first person but is never identified. Summoning my formidable detective skills, I check the address bar and see the name John Gay, a pioneer of Flash.

He’s talking about his work in pen computing, which had its origins in 1993, and how Macromedia’s Flash still contained much of the code that was written for pen computers. Okay. Thanks for sharing.

It’s interesting that Adobe opens its argument with the flourish that Flash was originally created for touch-based tablets — when the connection is so tenuous and so totally irrelevant to the issues today. Compare this again to the way Apple has presented its argument against Flash. Crisp and to the point.

After following these convoluted links, I’m actually more amazed with Flash than I was before. I was under the impression this technology had only been failing with touch devices for about three years. Turns out it’s more like 17.

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Advertising / Technology — 18 Comments
17
May 10

Adobe: fighting logic with advertising

Aha. So the fight over Flash has turned into this: Apple’s CEO vs. Adobe’s ad agency.

On one side, Steve Jobs lays out his facts in an open letter. On the other, Adobe’s agency plays with design and poetic meter.

Apple states its case for the cost of a few electrons. Adobe spends a king’s ransom on full-page ads in major newspapers.

Sorry, this isn’t debate — it’s just an ad campaign. Even worse, it’s a campaign in which Adobe wraps itself in the flag of freedom, and casts itself as the champion of three million developers. (Three million developers who just happen to keep Adobe’s cash flow flowing.)

I’m sure Adobe would love to turn this into a debate about freedom — anything other than a debate about the merits of Flash. Problem is, freedom is not the issue. Creating the best user experience on iPhone is. And Adobe has failed to rise to that occasion for three years.

Both sides in this debate rely on proprietary technology. Steve Jobs, in his open letter, says Flash is proprietary, but adds, “Apple has many proprietary products too.” He goes on to explain that Apple can’t allow its mobile app development to depend on other companies which may or may not keep pace with iPhone’s capabilities. Since Adobe has failed to deliver a functional Flash for any mobile platform even today, that’s a valid concern.

Apple is 100% guilty of being controlling, and bless their little hearts for it.

“Create-once/deploy-everwhere” apps may have some appeal for developers, but homogenization is not a user advantage. Apple is doing what they’ve done forever — trying to create the best user experience. In doing so, they’re actually the only company who does provide choice.

Apple’s walled (and well manicured) garden of mobile devices is the choice beyond BlackBerrys, Droids, Nexus Ones and what-have-you. It offers that choice to users and developers. Apple’s ever-growing number of customers don’t seem to mind the exclusion of Flash, nor do its ever-growing number of happy shareholders.

When iPhones, iPods and iPads begin to falter, Apple might have reason to re-think their strategy. But even then that would require an Adobe capable of making Flash work right. At this point, all Apple can see are rising sales and an Internet that’s showing signs of moving away from Flash.

True, they also see a bunch of whiny ads from Adobe. But somehow I doubt they’re about to join the movement.

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Strategy / Technology — 7 Comments
13
May 10

Microsoft: creating an alternate reality

I suppose it makes sense. If your current reality seems sufficiently gloomy, why not just create a new one?

Microsoft did.

With Windows Phone 7 delayed till next year, competitors leaving them in the dust, and no one exactly clamoring for Microsoft to save the day — they decided to invent their own market.

Not only did Microsoft imagine their own group of hungry consumers, they invented a phone to sell to them. Two phones, actually. These are the new Kin One and Kin Two that I blogged about a while back — phones designed especially for the “social generation.”

Now comes a study that takes a long, detailed look at the social habits of teens. Its message to Microsoft: better get cracking on Kin Three.

Two of the survey’s key findings don’t bode well for a Kin landslide. Or even a Kin trickle, for that matter. Text messaging, at 72%, is by far the #1 way for teens to connect. It is also the #1 missing feature on both Kins.

46% play games, which are also nonexistent on the Kins. No apps either. What Kin offers is a camera and connections to three social networking sites chosen by Microsoft. Even then, it only connects to the Internet every 15 minutes.

In my own survey of random respondents in this dimension, I find that people might be interested in a less-featured smartphone if it were priced way below the others. However, indications are that the Kins will sell for near the price of a $99 iPhone and require a normal data plan.

So the social generation will likely have to choose between a phone that truly does what they do (and is infinitely expandable with apps), and a Kin that does little of what they do. How agonizing a decision that will be.

In an alternate universe somewhere, I’m sure they’ll be lining up around the block to buy a Kin. Microsoft should take solace in that — and leave this reality to those who know how to innovate.

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Technology — 12 Comments
3
May 10

iPad killers take a time-out

One day, they may get around to it

I need to un-think something I thought few months ago. Shortly after CES, I expressed the opinion that iPad wouldn’t be able to muscle its way in as easily as iPhone did.

That only seemed logical. At iPhone’s launch, its features were a surprise to everyone. It took Apple’s competitors a good year or two to even begin catching up. When iPad launched, its features were a surprise to almost no one. Surely the combatants would never allow themselves to get hoodwinked so easily again.

There would be no head start for Apple this time around. HP was working on Slate, running a form of Windows. Microsoft was working on Courier, with its cool “journal” motif. Video teasers abounded. Everyone and his mother showed off a tablet at CES.

Now iPad is a few months old, Apple has already shipped its millionth device, and the other devices are… mysteriously missing in action. Astonishingly, the competition is sliding backward instead of moving forward.

In one week, we learned that both HP and Microsoft are bailing on their respective tablets. HP is no doubt re-tooling to make Palm’s WebOS the foundation for their mobile products. That should help them (one day), though it does send them back to square one. Not sure what Microsoft’s plan is, and I’ve given up trying to understand them.

Is it my imagination, or did Apple just get a free pass to run away with it for the first year? Well, not exactly. The Google tablet is still warming up in the wings. At least they have the Android OS, which is a good sign. But so far, all we’ve seen from Google is the same kind of concept and teaser videos we were treated to by HP and Microsoft. And that’s a bad sign.

Looking back, I guess I gave the competition too much credit. It was a silly thing to do, and I promise it won’t happen again.

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Technology — 6 Comments
28
Apr 10

Ode to the floppy disk

The Observatory’s flag is at half-mast today.

Our old friend, the floppy disk, has just received some highly upsetting news. On March 11, 2011, Sony will be pulling the plug once and for all.

It’s a sad ending for the little plasticky thing we once put on such a high pedestal.

The floppy was always on standby. It rode in our shirt pockets, adding nary an ounce. It had a playful sense of humor, hiding in places we could never find.

It packed twice as much into its muscular body as those flimsy 5.25-inch floppies ever did.

Yet still, there was always this undercurrent of disrespect.

We’d call it floppy, even though it wasn’t. We’d write on it. Messily. Then trash it because it didn’t look so good.

After years of companionship, we left it for that “other disk.” The Zip was a momentary pleasure, yet it blinded us.

Floppies were fruitful, multiplying like rabbits. They’d pay us back at the rate of $5/shoebox at garage sales and flea markets. Then one day, even the Salvation Army wouldn’t take them.

Farewell, dear friend. You deserved better than this. May you find the happiness on eBay that you were denied in that ratty case I kept next to my computer.

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Technology — 4 Comments
22
Apr 10

Hunting for iPhone prototypes in the wild

My heart goes out to the Apple engineer who chose the wrong moment to have a memory lapse, and screwed up an Apple product launch like no one has ever done before. I’m sure it will be a birthday he remembers.

I do believe the story is exactly what it appears to be. A genuine mistake by a young guy who must be very, very, very sorry at this moment. I don’t buy the evil-Apple theories. (“This is an Apple plot to create more buzz!”) However, I do believe there’s another part to this story that isn’t getting any press.

This guy isn’t working alone. If Apple is testing the 4G iPhone outside of the lab, surely they’re not entrusting the whole operation to one 27-year-old, beer-drinking, Facebook enthusiast.

Trust me, the 4G iPhones are among us. In bars, restaurants, cafés and on the street. Who knows how many there are, but they’re out there — just waiting to be discovered. It’s not likely you’ll find one abandoned on a barstool (it never hurts to check), but if you look hard enough, you may hit pay dirt.

So be vigilant. You may well become the next person to spot a secret iPhone. Fame and fortune awaits. Here are some tips to help you snare the big one:

1. Look for an iPhone interface on a phone that looks way too blocky. That’s a clever disguise from those sneaky Apple engineers.

2. Look for the most nervous-looking phone user in the room. Does he/she seem to glance left, right and behind before using it?

3. Ingratiate yourself by buying the suspect a drink. Then say, “Hey, can I play with your iPhone?” If the person leaves quickly, follow in pursuit. You’ve got a live one.

4. Pretend you’re one of them. Stealthily sit next to the phone user, look subsersive and speak in hushed tones, “How’s your 4G doing? Mine’s working out great.” You may get an incriminating response.

5. Listen to other people’s conversations whenever possible. If you hear something like, “Wow, I’m really digging my new secret 4G iPhone prototype,” notify Gizmodo.com immediately. It’s payday.

Good luck, and happy hunting.

One last tip: if you haven’t yet had your fill of iPhone prototype silliness, Scoopertino has a different spin on it today.

(In case you’ve been in an isolation booth these past few days, here’s the story of the lost iPhone.)
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