The Far Side of Tech

In the midst of all the Firefox 3 debut insanity, a tweet by blogger Louis Gray got me thinking. At the time everyone was trying to download Firefox 3, but most were failing miserably due to Mozilla’s servers collapsing. Gray casually suggested in his tweet that we download Safari instead. I considered the thought, especially since Safari is also a good escape from Firefox 2’s tiresome memory and CPU hogging, but then quickly realized that it was impossible.

I realized then something I should have noticed long ago: I could never abandon Firefox. This isn’t out of some illogical fanboyism, or a naive belief in the almighty nature of open source code. No, I could never abandon Firefox because of one key feature that no other web browser can compete with: Extensions.

Yes folks, I’m a Firefox extension addict. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: markhoekstra

How sad it is that the biggest news to come from the Zune front in the past few months is anything but positive: Word is out that Gamestop has stopped selling Zunes.

Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long, not because the Zune 2 is a worthless player (despite what some other news reports seem to love implying), but because it was a dumb idea to sell the Zune 2 in a freaking video game store in the first place. I’m sure some genius marketing drone figured it was a good spot because 1) Gamestop fit the target Zune demographic, 2) they could easily market it as a companion product with the Xbox 360, and 3) they didn’t have any iPod competition. The rest of us saw the futility in that move from the very beginning.

I can only assume that the Gamestop deal wasn’t a large part of Microsoft’s Zune strategy, if only because it would be truly dumb if it was. And let’s not forget the fact that the Zune is still readily available in major stores.

But come to think of it, I haven’t heard much regarding the Zune 2 ever since Microsoft launched Zune Originals program, a service which lets you customize your Zune 2 with artwork by famous hipster types. While it’s certainly cooler than the bland metallic backside of the iPod, it’s certainly not a feature that will convert the iPod faithful or lure away first-time customers to the portable music player scene.

The Zune Store is finally beginning to shape up by adding some television content, but it’s still playing a desperate game of catchup with Apple’s iTunes Store. While MS has always had the $14.99 monthly music subscription model to lord over Apple, it’s simply a matter of time before Steve Jobs decides to implement something similar.

So I suppose the question to ask now is clear: What the heck is Microsoft doing with the Zune? Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This post is a semi-sequel to “Who the Heck is Going to Buy the $599 80GB PS3″

Perhaps the worst kept secret in recent console gaming history, we now know that the $499 60GB PS3 is soon-to-be extinct. The newly announced $599 80GB PS3 (with Motorstorm bundled) well then remain the only PS3 package in stores. Still, a glaring question remains unanswered:

Will the 80GB model drop to the $499 price point once the 60GB models are gone?

We know that there are supposedly a few months worth of 60GB stock left, but is that enough time to justify a price drop on the 80GB model? This is perhaps the best outcome of this whole fiasco, and honestly the most likely. They can minimize the price to $499 very easily by simply ceasing to include Motorstorm in the future.

If, however, the 80GB remains at $599, then it becomes yet another PR debacle for Sony. After all, they knowingly led us to believe the $499 60GB was a “price-drop”, not a “clearance sale” (as Joystiq puts it). Even if they never said anything directly many people on Sony’s end knew that this was going to happen — clearly making it a lie of omission.

The aftermath of this announcement to execute the 60GB model has yet to be fully seen, but I suspect that even the prospect of losing out on the $499 deal is enough to convince informed gamers that they need to get the 60GB unit. Could this be exactly what Sony wanted? The complete lack of demand for the 60GB unit at its former $599 price point is certainly well-documented — could this be a sort of artificial jump-start for demand?

All Sony has to do to drive these desperation-induced sales is to stay quiet on its real plans for the 80GB PS3. Given this recent announcement from Dave Karraker at SCEA, it sounds like that’s exactly what’s going to happen:

“We won’t be making any further announcements regarding our PS3 model hardware strategy in North America until the 60GB model is exhausted and market conditions are evaluated.”

Hell, they could probably even continue to secretly produce the 60GB unit until there’s a convenient time for them to cut it loose… At this point, could you really put it past them?

Upgrade 1: 7/15/07 11:00AM

Also, let’s not forget that this is the last PS3 model with the Emotion Engine chip built-in, making it the last PS3 that is fully backwards-compatible with PS2 games. That gives the 60GB unit more than just a price-point advantage, it actually has a hardware advantage over the 80GB unit. Personally, I’d much rather have guaranteed backwards-compatibility than a mere 20GB extra of space — especially when the hard drive is user-upgradeable as well.

Sony really needs to think a bit more about their pricing schemes. First, the PS3 was too expensive: The former $599 model which featured a 60GB hard drive has really been the only model worth owning since launch — so much so that Sony discontinued the $499 20GB model altogether. Now they’re dropping the 60GB model to $499 and introducing a new superfluous SKU, a $599 80GB model. This begs the question: Why?!

Sure, the new 80GB model comes with a free copy of Motorstorm, one of the few must-have PS3 titles thus far, but even then you’re paying $40 for an extra 20GB of storage which you will most likely not need. Unlike the 20GB/60GB models, wherein the more expensive model featured Wi-Fi and media card slots, the only difference between the new 80GB model and the 60GB is the disk space. That’s it.

I predict we’ll see history repeat itself, and this 80GB model will go the way of the 20GB model simply because there’s very little reason to justify the extra cost if you don’t want Motorstorm. If Motorstorm is on your radar, then the deal may be a bit more tempting.

Let’s not forget that the PS3 is expandable with any 2.5″ (laptop-sized) SATA hard drive. You could just as easily buy the $499 60GB PS3 and upgrade in a year or two when you find yourself running low on disk space. At that point, you’ll probably be able to find a 200GB laptop hard drive for $100 or under. Right now you can get a 120GB laptop drive for that price.

Despite the existence of the 80GB option, the 60GB model will remain the more important one because it’s now that much closer to being price competitive with the $399 Xbox 360 Premium and the $480 Xbox 360 Elite. It’s a vast improvement over the previous premium for being a PS3 owner, that’s for sure.

Update 1: It seems that the $499 PS3 has it’s days numbered, so I suppose that answers the question posited in this post. Everyone will be buying an 80GB PS3 for $599 because Sony has gone completely mad.

Note: This post is a semi-prequel to “Sony Drops the 60GB PS3: Brilliant Marketing Scheme, or Are They Insane?“