I/O: Tech Introvert - Keep your eyes open and your mouth shut...
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August 13, 2009

Zune HD Would Have Been Huge in 2006


The lickable hotness of the Zune HD cannot be denied. But to be a successful gadget, you've got to bring more to the table than just hotness. You've got to give people a reason to cough up the cash. From the Zune HD press release:

  • Built-in HD Radio™ receiver. Allows you to listen to higher-quality sound than is available from traditional radio channels, as well as access additional programming through HD2 and HD3 multicast channels from many of your favorite local FM radio stations at no extra cost.
  • HD video output capabilities. Supports HD video playback from the device through a premium HDMI A/V docking station (sold separately) directly to an HDTV in 720p, making it easy to enjoy better-than-DVD-quality video on your own big screen at home.
  • OLED touch screen. Allows you to easily flip through music, movies and other content. The 3.3-inch glass screen and 16:9 widescreen format display (480x272 resolution) offer a premium viewing experience.
  • Built-in Wi-Fi. Allows for browsing, streaming or downloading new music from Zune Marketplace.
  • Internet browser. Full-screen Web browsing, optimized for the multitouch screen with zoom-in and zoom-out gestures.
  • Accessories, at home and on the road. Zune HD and AV Dock charges and syncs players while playing supported 720p HD videos on HDTVs. Play HD Radio, music and podcasts from your Zune HD device through your car stereo using the Zune Premium Car Pack.
Sick display, WiFi, Web Browser, online music store, built-in radio. A device like this would have ruled the world, selling millions of units and ending up stealing back a huge chunk of media player market share for Microsoft...in 2006. That's ~ 1 year before Apple released it's first iPod Touch and changed mobile media devices forever. 

Sure with Zune's bad ass Nvidia Tegra processor, the screen is going to dampen any geek who lays eyes upon it. But what's the point? Downloadable band photos? Zune's video store is horrific, and watching old episodes of Monk on your OLED screen or via HDMI won't change that. Unless Microsoft has something up it's sleeve, like an exclusive Netflix streaming deal or Flash browser support, I don't see a compelling reason to buy a Zune HD. Apple's devices currently do things like provide GPS driving directions, manage my budget, create spreadsheets and stream live NY Yankee games. And if I ask them to slum it, they'll even lower themselves to simply playing audio + video. Given the choice, which would you spend your money on?

HD radio? People actually still listen to radio with services like Pandora, Last.FM, Spotify out there? Really??

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Filed under  //   iPhone   iPod Touch   Media Players   Zune HD  

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August 5, 2009

Songbird Throws In the Towel


I've been a longtime user of Songbird, the free media player built on Mozilla technology. The player made some great strides over the past couple of years, packing in features and actually appearing to be a valid alternative to iTunes. That changed today as a blog post revealed that Songbird was open-sourcing their iPod Device Support Add-on, essentially cutting off official support for the most popular media devices in the world.

"Given our limited resources, we’ve decided to support iTunes Import/Export with our own development time, while opening the source to our iPod add-on to the community so other developers can extend and enhance it"... 
"This also means QA won’t be testing against iPods anymore so we’ll need your support to help keep us in the loop on what’s working and what’s not."

And that's pretty much that as far as Songbird becoming an iTunes-killer. And I've run out of reasons to keep it installed, which makes me sad. But I don't blame the Songbird guys. Attempting to integrate with or develop against anything Apple produces is an exercise in futility. Maybe the open-source nerds will be able to run with this thing and Songbird will thrive. One thing is for sure, iTunes isn't going anywhere. For now.

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Filed under  //   iPod Touch   iTunes   Songbird  

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August 5, 2009

The Apple Tablet is Going to Melt Faces


The buzz around the rumored Apple tablet grows by the day, but overall reaction has been mixed. Many are anticipating that it will end in disaster, just as many other ventures into tablet computing have. I think the world is ready for a tablet, and Apple is in the perfect position to deliver yet another life-changing device.

The iPhone isn't a Phone Anymore
At some point, many iPhone and iPod Touch owners realize that the primary function of their device has become secondary; where the amount of time using their device as a computer begins to dwarf the amount of time using it as a phone or media player. This is the prime explanation why millions of people have gleefully allowed AT&T to ruin their phone calls for years without ditching their iPhone. We simply don't care about the phone part as much. I reached this point some time ago with my iPod Touch. I spend a few hours each week listening to my music library, but a few hours each day doing other things. Checking email, browsing the web, reading an ebook, calculating a budget, booking a flight, listening to web radio...last night I watched the Yankees game live on my goddamn iPod. The iPhone is no longer a phone, it's a computer of sorts. That's how people are using them. So the iPhone OS is already proven as a valid (and popular) app platform.

The iTablet as the Ultimate Media Device
Let me know if this sounds familiar- I have a MacBook and a PC laptop packed TO THE GILLS with pricey software. They sit idle each night as more and more of my daily tasks are accommodated by my iPod Touch. I can grab the Touch and in a few clicks get the information I need. The only times I fire up a laptop are:
  1. When I need more screen real estate.
  2. When I need to view Flash.
  3. When I need more computing power or better I/O.
The Apple tablet can eliminate #1 and #2, but it can't compete with #3. And it shouldn't even try. The iTablet shouldn't try to be a "MacBook with a touchscreen". Instead it should just keep pushing in the current iPhone OS direction, with focus on making it the ultimate media device. The lack of computing power problem will gradually be solved by the cloud.

The Cloud Makes the Tablet Relevant
Add the cloud to the tablet and, as Satchmo used to say, "you has Jazz". Yesterday I used my iPod to work on my budget spreadsheet in Google Docs. Again, I used my media player with it's 3.5 inch display to work on a spreadsheet. And it wasn't an unpleasant experience. That's a testament to Google's web apps, and also highlights the point that as web apps becoming more powerful the need for computing power becomes less important. Sure, I'll still grab the laptop if I need dev tools to get my job done. But since more and more of my daily tasks are being shifted to the web, a tablet makes more sense now than it has in the past. This trend will continue.

So Why Not Use a Netbook?
Sex appeal. Packing the Apple Tablet with media-centric features and a big, glorious display is going to blow any netbook experience away. Can you imagine sitting on the commuter train streaming Netflix on this thing? Or flipping full-color pages of Newsweek on your flat panel tablet as people look at you like you're from the effing future? Game over, man. This thing will sell. The only way the Apple Tablet bombs is if Apple tries to cram OS X in there and make it a netbook.

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Filed under  //   Apple   Apple Tablet   iPhone   iPhone OS   iPod Touch  

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