photo credit: MobileBurn
I’ve come to the realization that I desperately want the T-Mobile G1. Last year I was itching for a new phone, and ended up grabbing a Helio Ocean in November. But, let’s face it, the Ocean is so 2007 by this point–not to mention that Helio has since been bought out by Virgin Mobile, which makes their future (along with that of a potential Ocean successor) somewhat murky. Along comes the G1–which retains the Oceans oh-so-necessary QWERTY slider keyboard–and, conveniently enough, seems to improve on all the features of the Ocean.
Evolving from Dual Sliders
The defining characteristic of the Helio Ocean is the phone’s dual slider configuration. Slide up vertically and the phone reveals a standard number pad. Slide horizontally, and you get a QWERTY keyboard. While ingenious (it required the invention of a new type of triangular spring), this configuration also makes the Ocean a bit bulkier than some other phones. [Technology Review ran a large feature covering the Ocean's design in 2007, and it's well worth their site's annoying registration.]
The G1 improves on this design by foregoing the number pad (which I never use anyway), and instead relies on a larger, touch-enabled screen. Unfortunately for Helio, the first generation iPhone was released only a few months after the Ocean, which rendered the Ocean’s slider configuration almost instantly obsolete. Since the iPhone, touch screens have become the new milestone for cellphone manufacturers. Word is that the Ocean 2 is retaining the dual slider configuration, and won’t feature a touch screen. If that’s the case, then Helio has truly learned nothing from the iPhone’s success.
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In a recent post over at CNet Digital Home, Don Reisinger argues that Microsoft should make Xbox Live free. To an extent, I actually agree with him. Of course, I don’t think the situation is as clear-cut as Reisinger believes. Yes, Xbox Live will eventually be free, but that won’t happen until Microsoft has a legitimate reason to do so. And no, the current multiplayer implementations by Nintendo and Sony in no way compete with XBL.
Wii vs 360
First off, let’s just forget about Nintendo. It’s clear from their ridiculous friend code system that they have no interest in achieving the same sort of seamless multiplayer integration that Microsoft has done with Live. Nintendo is far too steeped in their irrational “family friendly” corporate philosophy–to the point where I don’t believe they want to help gamers connect with one another.
Case in point: Nintendo made a big announcement last year declaring that they were going to simplify Wii online play by using Gamespy’s technology. But for some strange reason, I can’t find any further reference to that partnership besides the initial press release. And even if they did secretly start implementing Gamespy’s technology, it’s still based on friend codes–the biggest part of Nintendo’s multiplayer failure thus far. Read more…
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In an attempt to move in a different direction from the rest of the blogosphere, I was going to write something about how strange it was that the ill-fated search engine Cuil was covered so widely in mainstream press. Unfortunately, it looks like ReadWriteWeb beat me to it.
I encourage you to read their piece, because it pretty much covers everything I had in mind. But I will say this: Cuil was the first story I heard on NPR when I woke up Monday morning, and I was constantly asked about it throughout the day by non-tech folk who had read about it in other mainstream sources. That sort of coverage truly surprised me because, for the most part, Cuil seemed like many other geeky startups that the blogosphere adores, but average internet users generally ignore.
The Trouble with Tech Bloggers…
But enough has been said about Cuil’s fail whale of a launch. Instead, check out this recent post by Sarah Lacy, who uses the Cuil launch to discuss a problematic trend in the technology blogosphere. She believes that the obsessive rush to break news before other sites, coupled with the obcenely short hype-cycle of online tech journalism, is ultimately not very useful readers:
At some point, the tech blogosphere has to break itself from the junky-like addiction of having to get a story two seconds before the competitor. Can it really drive that much traffic when every other blogger got the same pre-brief? Isn’t it better to wait a bit, use the service and write something smarter?
If we’ve got a 20-second hype cycle in the Valley, that’s not Cuil’s fault. And I don’t think it’s serving readers well either. If we write something is amazing in the morning and then total junk in the afternoon, does anyone looking to tech blogs for analysis keep coming back?
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Today Sony announced that they would be selling and renting video content over the Playstation Store, and I suppose if this was a year ago, that news would have actually been somewhat interesting. But coming off the recent Netflix/Xbox 360 announcement, wherein the 360 would become a Netflix streaming device this fall a la the Roku, any impact from Sony’s announcement has been practically nullified. The sad thing is that this isn’t a new trend for Sony with the PS3, and along with the constant delays of Home, it’s clear that this situation isn’t going to improve anytime soon.
As I’ve stated before, Sony’s main competition this generation is Microsoft. Nintendo is clearly off in their own territory with the success of the Wii, and neither Microsoft nor Sony would gain much by competing directly with the Wii’s low price, motion controls, and mainstream appeal. Instead, they need to scrap it out for dominance among the more regular and hardcore gaming crowds.
In this particular fight, it seems the Playstation 3 will always be left behind. Sony started off a year after the 360, and they also didn’t have the benefit of a strong online platform in the PS2 generation like Microsoft did with the Xbox 1. MS learned a lot from the original implementation of Live, and in doing so they were able to craft a much more polished product for the 360. We may take it for granted now, but I’ll always consider the 360 Live’s focus on online multiplayer to be a major turning point for console gaming. Read more…
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