Palm Pre premiers at CES, people love it

I have to admit, I'd given up on Palm as a cell phone leader. I didn't even really know that this phone was going to happen.

Then, all of a sudden it's here. The blogs are going crazy right now. I haven't had a chance to read in-depth about it, but it definitely looks cool. Full QWERTY and mult-touch...nice.

The links are below if you want to give it a look yourself.

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The perfect set-top box: it's about the pipes and the remote

What would the ideal set top box have in it?
It definitely needs tv, maybe games, and it has to connect to my existing downloaded content and the most importantly it needs the internet (a DVD player would be nice, too, in the short term).

#1 on the list is definitely television content. There is hardly a way for anyone to do without the content regularly delivered via the cableco. Most content can be had on demand, but the live events and news are always going to need to be streamed. The 'guide' that shows you what is on and when is probably the biggest advancement of content consumption since the tv was invented. And yet, the potential is so much higher.

What about a google search? Or relevant information about what I'm watching? What about bringing my fantasy team into a page on the guide that updates in real time while I watch football (it's been possible for at least 2 years)? What about the recipe being made on the cooking show I'm watching? Or the IMDB page for the movie I'm watching? Maybe overlay it on the screen. Yahoo is still working on tv widgets, which is the beginning of a solution.

The point is there is lots of secondary content relevant to what I'm watching on tv that would be great to have along side it. There are opportunities for ads in the guide, which might bring the gatekeeping cablecos along. The box could provide suggestions of what to watch (like TiVo) but from the full content library (Hulu, Netflix, etc), not just previously recorded programs.

Which gets me back to a point I've been making for a long time: cable cos suck. By making it so hard for people to hack their own set-top box together, they have limited innovation substantially. There's nothing about what I've suggested above that you couldn't already do on your pc. The hard part today is incorporating the tv, which the cable companies walled-in (CableCARD was a poor attempt to fix that).

The biggest problem with existing set-top boxes is that they can only have one cable input, compared to the cableco box that has two (so you can record one thing while watching something else). Any 3rd party set-top box you get you has to take the one output that would normally go to the TV and be in the middle, which eliminates the two source possibility. This has managed to get me to pay them $7 a month per box. TiVo charges $12 per month. I do believe that they have a better product and it would be worth paying more for, except that they can't get two sources if you have digital cable. Has a culture that used to buy VCRs and DVD players really abandoned the hardware model? I'm not that sure. So, why can't people continue to pay a portion of a monthly charge to the cable company with the rest going to a company like TiVo, who also gets to sell the hardware. I really think people would pay for a the right hardware with the right software (I still believe Boxee could be that software).

With Obama talking about national broadband, there is a chance we can cut the power of cablecos and make everyone get a richer experience. It's possible, we nationalized the highways once-but that's another post (hopefully coming soon, but requiring actual research).

So, how would you control the ideal box I've been describing which has tons of different features and configurations. With a touch screen remote (like the ipod touch-which I mentioned wanting to use as a remote way back when). But, the tv experience is often a lean-back experience, the tactile feel of a real remote makes browsing without looking away from the tv much easier. Well, you could do like the old palms and have people learn different gestures to do specific tasks, or a swipe across the screen could change modes. But that might not be ideal. I think I would want like 4-5 physical keys to switch to my favorite settings/modes and a home screen with everything else. But, that's a more tactical implementation discussion. I believe people would get past it or that you could solve the browsing issues by having a full keyboard as well.

The remote really is the key. You could get Picture-In-Picture with the remote as a screen with little speaker to keep an eye/ear on when the game comes back from commercial. It could be where you keep your fantasy scores (or otherwise replace the laptop on the coffee table). The finger flick of the iphone would be a good way to browse the program guide without bringing it up on the screen if desired.

The beauty of the touchscreen interface is that its a blank canvas so you can do anything with it. The question is whether we are over engineering this solution. I might be in this exercise, but I think we could all stand to get more from our tv experience.

How would you change it?

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New Blackberries and Google Phone are coming

Some updates about more iPhone competitors that I think sound cool:

1. They are launching a cool new phone called the Blackberry Storm on Verizon in November (Engadget)
   
2. Blackberry will launch an Application Center
3. Berrystore already launched for free applications to help get going
   
4. The Blackbery Bold is launching on AT&T on October 27th
   
5. The G1 (Google phone) launches on T-Mobile (Mossberg, Pogue)
   

As you all know by now,  I want a non-iPhone to 'win'. I don't like the way Apple deals with its customers. I don't like their 'walled garden' approach. I do admit the hardware is cool looking (but overpriced). Anyways, I'll save my mac critique for another post.

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Trade you an iPhone for a Curve? Ummm....

Reader Justin writes in:

What bberry did you end up getting? I'm getting ready to start medical school this fall and I want to be smart phone equipped before I arrive. I'm pretty keen on the new iPhone, but I know that proper due diligence requires me to look into the RIM options. You seem pretty happy with yours based on your blog--if you had to choose again now, with the 3G iPhone about to roll out, would you choose similarly again?

Thanks for the question, Justin. I got the Blackberry Curve and I love it. I've actually done quite a bit of customizing since I got it to make it the best cell phone I can imagine having. So, I will NOT be getting the new iPhone, despite its improved 3G speeds.

Here's why:

First, the iPhone does not have a native instant messaging app. I use Google Talk for the Blackberry constantly. I LOVE being on IM all the time, its infinitely better than text messaging (I talked about it here). So, even though Google Talk signs out sometimes when you lose reception (e.g., the subway), I still have Blackberry's proprietary BBM system that fills the gap and delivers messages when you get back in range. Seriously, I think this is the deal breaker for me. Not only does the iPhone not have mobile IM, it doesn't even come with text messages anymore, so the price becomes substantially more expensive while the usability actually decreases on my favorite feature. I know that Google Talk just launched an iPhone version, but I don't hear great things about it.
Reviews of iPhone Gtalk at VentureBeat, TechCrunch, GigaOM, CNet and Lifehacker

Second, the mobile internet. I thought this would be the game changer for the iPhone. However, the pages I use most frequently when I'm on the move are typically formatted for my blackberry (ESPN, Google Reader). I also just downloaded Opera Mini, which brings the FULL browsing experience to the blackberry (and is completely free). The navigation is not as cool as the iPhone finger flick, but the keypad and ball work just fine for moving and zooming. Opera Mini has a feature of saving pages down to the MicroSD card that I've installed. That makes offline reading possible, and opens the potential for me to read my RSS feeds on the subway (which is something I really want). Granted, it's still EDGE network, but I can deal with it (and frankly 3G still doesn't seem like it will be as fast as my home wifi connection, so it may be a bit overhyped). Also, I've grown to distrust Apple with their 'we control the ecosystem approach' and don't think they'll really let people put a web browser that is not Safari on their iPhones. And, Mozilla is working on a mobile browser that could be pretty sweet.

Third, the first reviews for the 3G iPhone indicate that it has poor battery life. That's part of the reason Apple does not let apps run in the background. The battery on my Curve lasts for almost 2 days of normal use (from morning day 1 to night day 2), which includes much mobile web browsing and instant messaging, a little bit of talking and taking a few pictures. The iPhone battery is said to last 10 hours with the 3G turned off and only 5 hours with it on! To me, that is in no way going to get it done.
Reviews of iPhone 3G from David Pogue, NYTimes and Walt Mossberg, WSJ

Fourth, the big benefit of the new iPhone is the app store, which is just launching and available to old iPhone owners as well. And, Blackberry has had developers writing apps for it for some time already (like Opera Mini or Google Maps). Also, there are a few other programs that I have tried to varying degrees of success. I wrote about voice enabled services, and I really want to like them, but they don't really have use for me since I basically never drive. GigaOM reviews Vlingo.

I really like having a physical keyboard. I haven't used the iPhone keyboard that much, but I do have some difficulty with it (though I'm sure I could get used to it). What makes me nervous about it is that in my effort to type more quickly, as I move my fingers to type, I would hit every key as though I dragged them along the keyboard. I haven't tried this, so I don't know, but I could imagine that I would have to lift my fingers a bit more and that would annoy me (though this has to be slightly insane on my part). Also, there is NO CUT AND PASTE on the iPhone. That amazes me as an oversight. I use cut and paste all over the place with my phone for emails, IM, text messages and adding contact information (so I don't constantly have to ask for people's addresses).

Admittedly, I have never had an iPhone, so I haven't been able to set it up to match what I want like I have with my Blackberry. I've set up the smart keys on the side of my Curve to launch the programs that I use most often and I've got my icons arranged in order of use. I use email a lot, so it goes first, etc. I feel like the blackberry has a lot of customization possibilities where the iPhone may not. The iPhone may get more options with new software from the app store, etc, but those will likely cost real money. But, I have to admit that the iPhone apps for jailbroken phones that are already out there seem pretty sweet (though I haven't met anyone who took the risk of jailbreaking).

All of this said, I may consider picking up a used iPhone 1.0 for cheap if the price is sweet enough (circa $50), though I mostly want to use it to remote control my computer. But, I have to admit, I think the games look really cool (sorry, brickbreaker).

Justin, I hope that answers your questions. And, if you decide on the iPhone anyways, I definitely want to hear all about it.

Design and the Elastic Mind

I went to this exhibit at the MoMA today. It was fantastic. I highly recommend that everyone take a look at it. If you can't make it to the museum, take a look at the online exhibits which are also interesting, though seeing them all in person adds a good bit of context. Some of these things are not as original as others. For example, the Painstation is a rip off of James Bond in Never Say Never Again. But, for the most part, these are some really cool ideas (along with a lot of absolutely certifiable ones)

Some recs: LASER TAG, Sketch Furniture, Flight Patterns and Dressing the Meat of Tommorrow

It also reminded me of a design competition that I had read about. This other exhibit was focused on sustainable gadgets. I thought these were really cool, and am ready to buy myself one of these lamps. These other entries are also really cool.

Anyways, take a look at those, and let me know if you've read anything else cool about how we might be living with technology in the future. And if you get to the MoMA (or the website) let me know what exhibits did you find most interesting.