LIVEdigitally

After reading “Ideas for the new iPod — loud and clear” by Howard Wolinksy, as well as the latest from Phil Swann, I thought I’d muse on what they may be announcing.  Here are my predictions:

 1) Widescreen iPod: this just makes sense.  The cool factor here would be Apple completely re-inventing their GUI, either with an all-touchscreen version, or possibly moving all the buttons to the edges or back of the unit.  This would allow them to keep the same form factor while improving the video display.  Plus it’s better than the video Scoble found about a Msft-designed iPod!

2) iTiVo: in an ideal world, Apple would buy TiVo, then make a nicer looking box with the basic TiVo GUI.  Then within a year they could put out a 2nd-generation unit that has very slickly merged some iPod-isms with some TiVo-isms.  I don’t think this will happen anytime soon, but an Apple-powered DVR does not seem likely, although I could easily predict the model would be about recording ON the Mac, as opposed to a brand new box in the living room…

3) iPhone: highly debatable topic here, will/should Apple make a mobile phone?  I think it’s possible (here’s a counterpoint), my theory goes like this: Apple worked with Moto to make a phone, but Moto screwed it up.  So then Moto made the SLVR, and did a good job of it.  But the whole time Apple guys were saying to themselves “we could blow this out” and now they’re doing it.  If we don’t see it this week, I still believe it’s in a lab somewhere!

4) OS X Mobile edition: Both Om Malik and Michael Gartenberg have been talking about Windows Mobile 5.0 a lot recently.  I’ve heard that there are already 100 different WM5 devices announced or shown so far.  Why should they have all the love?  It’s not a “typical” Apple thing to do, but then again, 10 years ago nobody would’ve predicted Apple running up a 90+% market share in MP3 players! 

5) Nothing!  Absolutely nothing!  Okay, by “nothing” I mean a new iBook with a bigger screen, or bigger hard drive.  Or an iPod with a 100GB hard drive… boring boring boring!

But then again, they might just crank out another iProduct…

While I previously reviewed the Shure E2c’s, I’ve actually been using the E4c’s for the past few months now. Frankly, they are simply my favorite overall headphones on the market. Why? Well, let me tell you!

Reason #1 – Sound Quality
They sound good. Very very good. After a very exhaustive, very thorough comparison with the Bose QuietComfort2′s in both quiet and loud environments, I found they sounded the same, if not better.

Reason #2 – Noise-Cancelling
These things make the world quiet. When I’m sitting on a flight and there’s a baby hollering nearby, I just don’t notice. Well, I do sometimes, but that’s usually when I find vomit in my lap (that’s not my own, of course).

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 It seems that everyone (and their mother) is using Flickr these days, and I must admit, I had never tried it.  After reading quite a few posts by Thomas Hawk who seems to love his Flickr, I decided to give it a shot and document the process.  If you don’t feel like reading all the way down, I will say right off the bat – I’m a convert!

You can see the step-by-step photos of me getting going with flickr.  I actually timed the entire process, which took a grand total of 10:15 to get a batch of photos uploaded, tagged, and active on my flickr site!

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I really like USB.  I carry a USB drive with me at most times, it’s great for quick file transfers and I keep a lot of my “commonly copied files” on it for easy use.  I know, I’m not as creative as those who figured out how to boot XP from USB, but that’s a little out of my scope anyways.  By the way, I like my Lexar Jumpdrive apparently a lot more than this guy likes his “HAL 9000″ drive.

I also have a USB (mini) cable with me, which I can use to charge my PPC6700 or BlackBerry (ugh, when I carry it – it’s awful – more some other time).  It also connects to my 8-in-1 flash drive adapter for reading various sticks/cards or to my digital camera for quick synch or webcam use.

So, when I flew Air Canada this morning, I was extremely surprised to see the USB port sitting in the back of the seat in front of me.  I tried plugging in a few things, with no response, but it left me extremely curious as to what I might be able to do with such a port.  If only I had the Barbie USB drive to try out!!!

By the way, if anyone from Air Canada is listening: if the screen is a touchscreen, how about using the USB port to let a traveler listen/watch their own media in-flight, with a simple touch-based interface?  I’ll help design a good one for free even!  Well, maybe not free, maybe a bunch of miles?

It’s always fun to catch a “BSOD moment” (although its not as great as some of these, and not technically a blue screen), even if you are really trying to figure out whether or not you should chance the slightly later, but possibly not delayed, flight.

I caught this one today in Chicago O’Hare.

 (the flight was on time)

It might be time to stop trying. 

I will quote, if I may, from a press release I was sent today.

PR: Are you ready for the coolest iPod experience yet?
JT: Heck, ya!

PR: Then crank up some tunes, plug in and watch the amazing iCar do its thing
JT: Ok, sounds interesting I guess… but tell me, does it rock?

PR: It rocks right to left, front to back, and up and down
JT: Get out! But wait, are those functioning doors???

PR: You can even manually open the doors and hood to create a whole new look
JT: This is far too awesome. Tell me though, I see rims. Do my keen eyes detect… spinners?

PR: real working spinner wheels, wild graphics, chrome accessories, big tires and stereo system
JT: Craziness! So what you’re saying is, it’s like a little toy car, only better, because it rocks, spins, and has working doors. Got any lights on that bad boy?

PR: Colored lights illuminate the wheel wells, rims, undercarriage, engine and trunk areas
JT: This is sounding too good to be true. Wait a sec, this is an iPod accessory, so how’s the sound? And tell me the tech specs so I know how to compare it to other, similarly rocking iPod-cars.

PR: the high-quality speaker pumps out the sound
JT: Hold on, that doesn’t give me much to go on. Anything else you can tell me on the sound quality, before I invest $34.99 in a Matchbox that I use to listen to mp3s in mono-sound, I want to be sure it sounds good!

PR: sound and vision unlike anything that’s come before
JT: Sign me up!

More info from Corgi

First the earth cooled. And, then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died, and they turned into oil. And, then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And they bought cell phones, which were about the size of my head.

Then, cell phones got a little smaller, a little more portable, and didn’t require their own power generators that you had to store in the trunk of your car.

And then something wonderful happened, and it was called…

StarTac.And we liked StarTac, and the world was good for a time.

But then StarTac became TimePort, and quickly got pulled from the market because everyone wanted to buy really narrow non-flip phones from a country that few Americans can tell apart from its neighbors (one of whom makes really good cheap furniture but only sells it in humongous stores that are guaranteed to have excessively long lines on the weekend, but I digress).

And then for a long time, things were bad.  One might call it the dark ages of cell phones.

Until those people who made StarTac got their collectives heads out of their collective rears, and all of a sudden had the coolest looking phone on Earth again.  Hello Moto! 

But at 3GSM, here’s some phones I saw:

I don’t know the actual name for this phone other than the “VK” label on it and it sells in Europe and Asia and we will never, ever, ever see it here in the US.  But it’s VERY small and very cool.  The picture is almost misleading since I don’t show anything with context, but suffice it to say it’s about the height of the Razr, yet thinner and clearly narrower.  Didn’t get to see it working, so I have no idea what operating system it runs or frankly if it even works, but it was sure “nano-like”.

Here you can see 3 phones from Newgen, a company I’ll cover a little more in a day or two.  These phones are all about the size of a lady’s compact, and were very interesting to look at.  This company is trying to come to the US with these units, so there is a glimmer of hope out there!

Another phone from Newgen, this time I think it’s pretty obvious how small it can be!  The phone on the far left is next to a Sliver and a Razor (which looks ridiculously huge in comparison).  It’s smaller and thinner than both.  It has no name, and the unit I was shown was a pure prototype, so it may never even exist.  But then again, it might have a million users in China by next week, and we’d never know the difference…

Another very interesting phone, this comes from NeoMagic.  I’ll write in a lot of detail about this one, as they have a GUI concept that I thought was fairly compelling.  The entire UI uses a touch screen with a built-in vibrating ‘alert’ as a physical feedback mechanism.  Very interesting, definitely worthy of more discussion.

Personally, I think we’re reaching the limit of what can be built and still be usable.  I, for one, cannot use a Razr.  The keys are too small and my grubby fingers are too big, not to mention the incredibly poor GUI Motorola insists on using.  I also won’t be happy with something super-tiny if I can’t feel it vibrate in my pocket (and not just for fun, that is).

I’ll take a Razr-sized phone with a revamped keypad (I need distinct buttons) and some better GUI features (I dare say WM5.0 would be my choice right now).  Either that or just go ahead and build it into my shoe.

Spent a few days out in Barcelona catching up on the latest in mobile technologies, ranging from watching live TV to interactive pornchat on your cell phone (just what we’ve all been waiting for).  I took a look at some of the latest and greatest phones, most of which seem to be fairly Moto-inspired, and rest assured, there are a decent amount of cool new cell phones that will never, ever see the light of day in the US!

The show was held at the Fira de Barcelona, a much better-looking place than the Vegas Convention Center, and divided into several different halls.  Hall 1 had Microsoft, Intel, Docomo, as well as your typical host of smaller companies.  In Hall 2 I found some providers, such as Telefonica Spain (branded Movistar), and a lot of content and services companies.  Hall 3 did not exist, and Halls 4 and 5 were for corporate/internal use.  Couldn’t find Halls 6 or 7 anywhere, but Hall 8 had Moto, Nortel, and all the other manufacturers.  Despite missing three halls, the show was large enough to occupy several days worth of wandering.

This was my first time attending the show, which used to be held in Cannes, France, but Barcelona “won” it starting this year.  Moving a tradeshow is a fairly big deal, apparently big enough to warrant a welcome by the King and Queen of Spain (I couldn’t help walking around humming “I’ve stood here before inside the pouring rain, with the world turning circles running ’round my brain…”

3GSM also featured your typical share of booth babes, but the ones that drew the most attention were at a company called Cboss.  Every 60 minutes a quick explanation of the company was given (no idea what they do still) then these 6 hypo-anorexic girls did a little dance. 

All-in-all, it was an interesting show, although I have to say I was a little disappointed at the lack of significantly interesting new phones.  I’ll post some seperate entries with specific devices or services I saw in the next couple of days.

Our old friend Jonas did something I am always nervous about doing – he installed a beta Web browser on his PC.  Quite adventurous in my opinion!  Anyhow, he took a look (or should I say listen) to Songbird, which is basically a rich media Web browser that incorporates audio files with Web sites. 

I know there is a lot of push toward convergence, and podcasting has certainly gained a ton of interest from people, but in my opinion this is the kind of idea that never really needed to come.  If I want to listen to something while surfing, why wouldn’t I just leave Windows Media Player (or something else) running?  Why can’t I just do this exact thing with a simple plug-in, or even frames on my Web site?

I don’t get it.  And from the sounds of things, neither did Jonas – although he’s a bit nicer about it than I am!

Hi,

If you’ve noticed the familiar look & feel of the site is gone, well, you are just as surprised as I was!  I did the upgrade to the newest version of WordPress, and, well, lost some of my template. 

The good news is i have backups.

The bad news is it’ll take a few days to fix.

The best news is we’ll have a new look and feel when done, leveraging the styling of the old with a new layout and organization.

I sure hope you like it.  I sure hope I like it!