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Mutually Assured Destruction in Search

by Andrew McCaskey
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has a plan to kill Google by paying the top 1,000 sites a cool million each to leave the Google index and move to Microsoft. But could such a plan ever work, and would it be worth the risk to abandon Google?”

Anti-trust considerations aside, it might not be a good idea.

First of all even though Microsoft could find $45Bn in an offer for Yahoo, stockholders might be cautious about a billion or two. But,

it might be that Google wouldn’t stand still while its closest competitor tried to force the market away from its search engine. Maybe Google would up the stakes. After all, they have money too. Maybe the top sites could get Google into a bidding war with Microsoft, but would this be healthy for anyone except the companies that were the recipients of this largess?

Mutually Assured Destruction strategies just keep everyone’s nerves on edge. And once it went through all the legal appeals suits and countersuits it is likely to tie up such an approach in court for so many years that it wouldn’t matter to most of us for a long, long time.

Even Microsoft stockholders probably don’t like paying lawyers.

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Little Dog Robot- Boston Dynamics

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Connectify a Roundtable Hit

by Andrew McCaskey
RoundtableDemo

As I mentioned last week, Connectify.me is a new service that is going to turn into a game changer. And it offers real value and is going to sell more Windows 7 laptops to business users than any ad campaign.

We had Alex Giziz, CEO on our TPN Roundtable, and got some more insight into the free download for Windows7 that creates a wifi hotspot from a net connection. In his demo, he was able to create the site and link his iPod Touch into the laptop within a few seconds. The hotspot is secured by passphrase, and even if an intruder is able to guess the phrase or has left the group, the host is able to observe the real time participants on his machine.

If you are a mobile worker, you really can’t live without connectivity. Connectify is going to be an essential part of mobile professional’s toolkits for years to come.

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TPN Roundtable #53 – Connectify.me

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What Did We Learn Today ? 3D Deja Vu

by Andrew McCaskey
And Now Class, What Have We Learned Today ?

“The Financial Times is reporting that Sony is announcing 3D TVs for late 2010. It is an important boost for the 3D industry, It looks like the UK will be the pioneer market, as British Sky Broadcasting has said it would introduce a 3D satellite channel in the UK next year

It’s another glasses-based technology with “active shutter” being employed also employed on NVIDIA’s glasses. Expect to see 3D Bravia television sets, Vaio laptops, PS3s and Blu-ray disc players compatible with this technology.

The consumer electronics industry has yet to agree on a single 3D standard, posing the risk of a format war akin to that between VHS and Betamax or Blu-ray and HD-DVD standards.

There are several types of 3D technology. Sony has opted for “active shutter” technology, using electronic glasses containing tiny shutters that open and close rapidly in synch with the television image to create a 3D impression.

Cinema 3D uses “polarisation” technology with simpler glasses. However, this only works when viewers are at a certain angle to the screen, making it less suited to home viewing.

What have we learned today, class ? If the industry persists on another drag out standards battle, it appears not much.{sharethis}

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Autonomous Vehicle Research

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Five Years of the PodFather

by Andrew McCaskey
August 13, 2004

A milestone, of sorts – the fifth anniversary of the Adam Curry Podcast, ‘The Daily Source Code’. Wired magazine informs that Dave Winer Morning Coffee Notes preceeded by one day, but that the MTV personality was the celebrity voice that launched podcasting.

It is still an amazing set of techical tools for those of us who grew up in or around commercial radio and television broadcasting. In the late 90′s I had streaming content through SportWings Radio hosted at Live365 – on Shoutcast. RSS technology first came on my radar at Gnomedex 2003 and clicked during conversations October 1-2 of that year. By October 12, SlashdotReview podcast was on the air – and has been since that time.

We all owe a debt to Dave Winer for the underlying technology and to pioneers like KenRadio, Rob Greenlee and Doug Kaye who were in the space with streaming technologies years before.

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iPhone Compass PWN

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MS Word and Schmidt’s Exit

by Andrew McCaskey
MS Word and Google

The ARS Technica piece on Twenty Years of Word and news of the forced resignation and ousting of Google’s Eric Schmidt from Apple’s board are two data points that some of us don’t want to be reminded of. They are symptomatic of two types of change.

The premise of the first article is that MS Word, for all it’s benefits has come to the end of it’s run, because the world that it was designed to automate – the preparation of documents to be printed, mailed, reviewed, signed, posted, and filed is quickly departing.

In the late 1980′s, the add on vertical black and white display for the Mac SE, combined with Microsoft Word, provided the first true WYSIWYG – what was on the tube was exactly what would appear on the paper. And, after you printed it out on the laser printer and let the static grab the paper onto the screen, you could prove it. MS Word optimized the printed sheet, replicating an improved version of typewritten correspondence that had been the standard for business communications the previous one hundred twenty years. And as it became first more capable, then more bloated, and finally, in 2007, a Marlon Brando parody of itself.

Eric Schmidt’s departure was a recognition that Google – in the online, cloud app future – is the true competitor to Apple as much as it is to Microsoft. It’s one half of the double change from dedicated apps to distributed software and the move from desktop power to the irrelevance of which hardware can deliver the most pleasant browsing experience in a connected world.

Neither change is going to revolutionize our business life overnight, but one has crested the hill.

I just hope that future tools have good outline mode. That’s most of what I use Word for anyway. {sharethis}

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YellowBird 3D Imaging

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Marketing or Mass- Which Will Apple Choose

by Andrew McCaskey
Not a Pure Play

You can be assured that rumors of an expanded presence at Walmart by Apple are only partially true. A company with the marketing skills of Apple is not going to let any channel damage the brand. Pushing product through a pure play discount retailer – even as large as THE retailer from Bentonville is not a step that Apple is going to take.

As Walmart picks up the pieces of the Flat Screen TV business from Circuit City, there is speculation that there is room being made for a “store within a store” to bring in Apple products beyond the iPhone and iPod. You can be sure that if this happens, it is going to be segmented beyond the wildest dreams of a textbook author. Apple has, simply, too much to lose by becoming the loss leader on the endcap.

As long as the products remain innovative, the packaging remains distinctive and the experience becomes engaging, Apple will stay on course. The engagement that Apple has nourished with customers since the beginning will not be squandered, especially after the corporate near-death experience of the 1990′s. I have the original packaging of every major Apple product I have owned since 1989. Do you ?

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How To Convert Video Formats with Ubuntu

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Big Kindle ? Big Mistake

by Andrew McCaskey
Form Factor Matters

The most powerful argument for e-paper devices is mobility – and other than the ability to differentiate from some other portable readers, if the Kindle II is much larger, it is going to move quickly into the negative utility space. The last thing that a public transport rider needs is some sort of hard cased 11×17 inch or larger display to carry under the arm or try to wedge into a backpack.

The present size Kindle seems just about right, for most content – tradeoff between readability and stowability. Until the systems arrive that enable scroll-like flexible displays that can fold and pull out to full size – like a tabloid sized Newspaper and then be stowed back like a fold-up map- I am afraid that it’s going to be a showpiece. Meaning, a piece made mostly for show. ShareThis

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 05 May 2009 21:43 )

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Mitch Pirtle – KickApps

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Smokin’ Netbooks

by Andrew McCaskey
They are Going to Be Popular

Just not that popular. Unless the rest of the country is surviving the recession with a lot more optimism than I am seeing here in the industrial Midwest.

I am speaking of the proposal by AT&T to treat netbook computers as wireless appliances that will be hung from the ATT 3G network and heavily subsidized, in exactly the same manner as the regular cellphones. Your new PC would cost $99, after $350 rebate and with substantial penalty for breaking a two year service contract.

Here are a couple of reasons why this is going to be a lot more popular with marketeers pitching the concept than it will be with the public. They are great substitutes for EVDO cards and laptops for some traveling business people. They just are not going to provide the kick that the carriers hope for with the general public.

First, consider portability: The smartphone slips into jeans, backpack or jacket and is ready to go at a moments notice. Just like the smooth packaging of the Samsung Xacti cameras, cellphones scream out “take me along”. Even the sleekest netbook doesn’t have that mobility and while the charging cord in the automobile or wall wart is tolerated, a dangling brick charger is definitely not a part of the plan.

Second – Revenue points: The continuous moneymakers are Ring Tones and Bits. While some heavy users of netbooks will consume the bits, they are not going to generate the steady and trendy revenue that Ringtones represent. For every user who will hang on FaceBook or MySpace, through this device, there will be ten who also want to watch Hulu, play music and do a lot of multi-tasking that require more bandwidth and a huskier machine than the netbook is going to be able to provide. Oh by the way.. download some movies at the same time ? Probably not.

Third: The combination of lock-in contract and waiting for the rebate check combines two of the most despised elements of the wireless carrier marketplace. Net books are hot, but they are not iPhone hot when you push them through Radio Shack with an obsolete business model.

Only a marketeer who is smoking netbooks or something close could seek out a business model that pulls up those two elements of a sale in this economy.

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CES 2009 – BugLabs

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CES Unveiled – The Press Event

by Andrew McCaskey
The First Peek at CES

The magic price point is : $199 . That seems to be the conclusion that we reached as Todd Cochrane and I covered the initial Press Event at CES2009.

And if a manufacturer had any chance of getting to that point where people seem to be guessing what defines, “affordable”, that is where it gravitated. The automated Sign Language translator for the hearing impared. The Novatel wireless access point. The combination sunglasses/mp3 player and bluetooth headsets. The H.264 OEM chipsets for realtime encoding. And so forth.

Netbooks were, of course the main exception – as well as several companies that were aiming at the higher end of the automotive marketplace. Combination aftermarket units that integrated the GPS, DVD player, mp3 on CD, ipod and bluetooth into a single box. Or the new internet radio that used your 3G cellphone’s data plan. I guess that would also tweak the $200 price point – in overcharges on your cellphone data plan if you weren’t careful to set up an unlimited contract.

The themes officially presented by the CEA – that is to say – by management – for this CES headline the convergence of automobiles: HD Radio, 3D information and in-vehicle internet. In fact, with the HD-DVD and BluRay wars settled, the next things that the industry would like for us to head into is 3D. Of course, 3D demos have been the staple of shows for at least forty years, maybe more – so I am remaining resolutely skeptical. The idea of Nvidia grade graphics on automobile navigation devices is intriguing – and the data storage options are cetainly cheap enough.

For Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally will be a keynote speaker later this week – and is expected to present an update on Sync – a telematics system based on Microsoft technology. It’s one of the few brightspots in the US auto marketplace. That means – we might head to the automotive hall earlier in the week than our normal schedule.

The event seemed crowded, at least for the first hour – lots of good energy and nary a discouraging word. Of course, everyone was doing their job – pitching product, grabbing interviews, step and repeat. There was a little grumbling on the downsizing of the Press bags – in previous years during the Blue-Ray / HD-DVD wars Toshiba had spared no expense in mountain climber grade knapsacks. This year the bag is a sort of combination messenger bag / laptop bag. We had just been downsized.

The brightspot ? CEA kept the standards high. The food was excellent, and the shrimp were not downsized at all.

We all can use some brightspots !

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CES2009 Unveiled

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Slippery Content for Apple

by Andrew McCaskey
Slippery Content Apple TV’s Downfall PDF Print E-mail
Written by Andrew McCaskey
Sunday, 12 October 2008 21:03

Apple (formerly known as Apple Computer) is once again masterfully preparing the field of battle with the rumors and speculation that the next Apple product launch might feature a line of Apple branded HDTV receivers, with integrated Apple TV functionality. Reaction – even among those who like and are able to support the Apple brand premium consumers are likely to balk at this one. Apple is going to have to be able to leap into the early majoritycustomer group in digital television, and it looks like this group may not be as large as Apple or others might like.

First of all the component idea – technophiles and early adopters has enbled mix and match improvements around the edges. A strong surround sound speaker system and flat panel display would sustain multple upgrades of tuners, receivers, and program sources. The flat panel is a big investment that will be kept for years. And a lot of these consumers will be turned off by an integrate iMac like solution.

Well established brands such as Sony, Panasonic or Samsung could easily and quickly add the necessary hardware, so little advantage would be gained.

The most elusive and slippery part of all this is the distribution and content. Apple has a tremendous home court advantage withthe iTunes store. It is less clear that they have a firm grasp on the relationships to insure the right mix of content and pricing arrive at the consumer’s doorstep.

I’ve taken the downgrade to the Netflix/Roku system until this shakes out. I’ll watch SD streaming with a wide selection in preference to the forced purchases and limited selection available on iTunes that Apple TV has slide down to for the past six months.

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3D Sketching System

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