Graeme Thickins on Tech

Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Innovation (Page 64 of 77)

Predictions for Macworld

January 6, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Okay, while I’m on the plane to CES, I thought I’d write about — what else? — the next big show after this one… 🙂 It’s actually an even more significant event — in news terms, anyway. I’m of course talking about Macworld. Wish I could travel to that one, too, but I just can’t afford to be away that long from work and other matters back home. Stevejobs Nonetheless, I’m sure anxiously following all the talk about what will be announced later next week in SF by his royal supremeness, Chairman Steve. And I’m sure I’ll be spending some time in the next few days in Vegas talking with people about what they think is coming.

But my favorite prediction so far is from my longtime colleague, designer Randy Geise, who heads GeiseDesign in the Twin Cities. He’s a huge Apple follower and a fanatically loyal Mac enthusiast, and I’ve found he gets these predictions right more often than not. Here’s his take on what’s we can expect this time:

“Ok, I’m going to go out on a limb about MacWorld…

“I don’t think the iPhone will be ready and I think Jobs would more than likely do a special event for that like he did for iPod and other major hardware introductions. In addition to a whole lot of things, including software and the iTV, I’m betting he has finalized the exclusive agreement with The Beatles, and his ‘one more thing’ will be a limited edition Beatles iPod (ordered blank or pre-filled with all The Beatles’ songs, including some we haven’t heard). Like the ‘red’ iPods, where a certain amount goes to charity, this iPod will be tied into breast cancer charities (since Linda died from that). I don’t think McCartney will make a live appearance but will do a transatlantic iChat with Jobs. This will also tie into the iTV, as all the Beatles’ movies will be available on iTunes and ready to be streamed to your HDtv via iTV.”

What Randy thinks would be “the perfect MacWorld keynote” this time is the following sequence of events:
1) Numbers/performance review.
2) Updated iLife with each app getting something, especially more podcasting features.
3) Updated iWork with spreadsheet and database added (replaces Appleworks).
4) Leopard review/preview/date.
5) iTV intro, shipping now or shortly.
6) Announcement of the exclusive Beatles deal including a Beatles iPod, bare or loaded with every Beatles song ever recorded. Jobs gets McCartney on iChat for an interview.
7) He gets up, announces “one more thing,” pulls out an iPhone, continues his live video chat with Paul, where he announces that, in addition to songs, all The Beatles’ movies are now available for download and streaming over iTV.
8) He demos the phone features and announce pricing and availability.

Says Randy: “I don’t really think The Beatles thing is that far-fetched. From what I’ve read, the whole British copyright law has changed and shortened the lifespan — so, in order to monetize their portfolio, The Beatles have to get their stuff out in wide circulation before it hits the public domain. And there have been rumors, for quite some time, that Jobs has a deal.”

Hope you’re right, Randy — hey, I’m ready for some iBeatles! We’ll know in less than a week….

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Why I’m Going to CES

January 6, 2007 / / 1 Comment

Unless you just returned from a desert island somewhere, perhaps you’ve heard there’s a big trade show coming up in Las Vegas? Though I was a frequent attendee of what many consider its predecessor event, Comdex, I’ve largely ignored CES — never attended it. The most I ever even paid attention to it was in January 2000, when I was part of the team that conceived and planned the brand-new Best Buy web site, which our fearless leader of the then-subsidiary, BestBuy.com (John Walden), presented in prototype form to analysts and press. I did watch a live webcast of that from BBY headquarters in Eden Prairie, MN, which was a very big deal for us.

A few weeks ago, however, I thought maybe it would be interesting to at least experience all the hoopla — so I could say I’ve seen it at least once. But, since then, I’ve really been on the fence trying to decide if I should go. Well, I am hopping on a plane today. Here’s why:

Not because I like Las Vegas or gambling. (I really, really don’t.) Not because I pretend to cover consumer electronics very well (it’s not a major focus of my blog). Not because I like gadgets. (Well, it’s not really about liking — it’s much more about not having the time or money to invest in all that stuff.) And certainly not because I like TV — in fact, I mostly hate it. So, it’s also not because I like home theater, or large-screen HDTVs, or set top boxes, or even high-end audio, either. And, I’m certainly not going because I like gaming.

Now, CES does hype itself this year by saying it’s where “content meets technology,” or something like that. Hey, content I like! But what they mean is largely digital content that plays on TVs, gaming consoles, and all those gadgets that I don’t get to play with all day long like Walt Mossberg does. But, okay, I do like cell phones and wireless and certain online or wireless consumer services categories, I guess, which are also covered somewhat at CES.

But, after all the considerations and the wondering if I really should take the time out, why I’m going to Las Vegas for a few days is simply this: “BlogHaus.” It’s an event/happening that Robert Scoble has been telling us about for the last month. (See more about it here on the PodTech site.) Bloghaus At last count, some 150 of us bloggers will be converging there to hang out in an upper-floor suite at the Bellagio, on Seagate’s dime. It’s a 24 x7 press room-slash-hangout-slash-party for bloggers of every stripe! Hey, who needs the show floor and all the sore feet that go along with it! Someone recently called this event “probably the best, and longest, blogger meetup ever”! I’m really looking forward to it, to seeing old friends and meeting new ones, and will certainly do some live blogging from there.

If you’ll be there, too, and would like to hook up, email me at graeme (at) thickins (dot) com. And if you can’t be, but have any questions or suggestions for me, let me know that, too — by email, or in a comment. Vegas, here I come!

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Conferences I Plan to Blog…

December 20, 2006 / / 0 Comments

Just to update you, o faithful blog readers, I thought I’d mention what conferences I’ll be blogging from in coming weeks and months. First of all, I’m happy to report I’ve been accepted again as a press registrant at the DEMO 2007 event, which is January 30 – February 1. This will be about my fourth DEMO event. Demo07banner The venue this year was switched from Phoenix to Palm Desert, California, which should be a glorious locale at this time of year (especially when I’ll be escaping Minnesota winter!). I always look forward to this conference, not only because 70 of the hottest startups in the country pitch their businesses here, but because it attracts so much buzz and media attention, more than virtually any other event all year long. The media list is like a who’s who. As always, companies you’ll be reading about a year, two years, three years from now will first be heard from at DEMO. And I’ll do my best to report the highlights for you… [See categories to the right for my coverage of both DEMO events in 2006.]

Another event I’m thinking about covering (but not sure yet if I can break away) is the big momma of ’em all: CES …which used to stand for Consumer Electronics Show, but now wants to be so much more (see theme). Being a content guy, how could I not like this one? Haven’t been to Vegas in a while — caught an Interop show there a couple years ago, and of course attended many Comdex events back in the day. CES, by the way, may be big, but it still doesn’t draw as many people as Comdex did in its heydey. Nonetheless, the show is today the “world’s largest tradeshow for consumer technology and North America’s largest annual tradeshow of any kind.” Get this: it will feature 2700 exhibitors covering floorspace the equivalent of 35 football fields(!), and will have 140,000 attendees — 25,000 of them from other countries. Ces07logotheme Those attendees will include manufacturers, retailers, content providers and creators, broadband developers, wireless carriers, cable and satellite TV providers, installers, engineers, corporate buyers, government leaders, financial analysts and the media. [How could I not like pal-in’ around with those installers, huh? Cable guys attend this thing?? Maybe I should reconsider….] Anyway, there will be a ton of press at this one, and the bloggers will outnumber them — guaranteed. The combined total will easily be in the thousands. Robert Scoble, the well known author and former head blogger at Microsoft, who’s now VP of Media Development at Podtech, will even have his own suite where bloggers can hang out. Here’s what he said on his blog: “By the way, our BlogHaus at CES will be open to ANY blogger, not just those ‘blessed’ by Microsoft or some other company. You just need to have me put your name on the list so you can get up to our suite.” I did.

Finally, I’m looking out to March and thinking I’d love to blog ETech again. O’Reilly is my favorite publisher and conference producer. [You’ll note I recommend many of its books under the “Reading” subhead at the right. Disclosure: I do get free books from time to time, but only post those I really find of value.] Oreillyetechlogo I’ve really enjoyed reporting on this conference in the past, and love running into my old blog buddies there, like Doc Searls and David Weinberger. Sure, it’s a developer event. But, as I’ve said before, some of my best friends are developers…. 🙂 And this event draws an awesome, a-list of attendees, too, at all levels, and many other great bloggers. Anyway, it would be fun to capture it again for y’all, and I hope to get out to San Diego for it in late March. [Okay, it’s an excuse to hang out again at my favorite beach, too 🙂 … ]

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Speaking of Design: This Is iPhone?

December 19, 2006 / / 0 Comments

Oh, how we’ve waited and waited, so long, for the perpetually rumored “iPhone” product from Apple. Only to read yesterday that Apple doesn’t even own the damn trademark! What a cruel hoax. Turns out it’s been owned since 2000 by Cisco, after they acquired IngoGear. [Though, for some strange reason, Apple does own the www.iPhone.org domain, which takes you to a MacBook page. What’s with that? Is Steve Jobs going weird in his old age?]

Well, anyway, you all know how into design Cisco is….[that was a joke]. Please try to stifle your oohs and aahs, friends, but here are the new models, in all their glory, as introed yesterday by the Linksys unit of Cisco:

Linksysiphones_1

Read more of the gory details here, here and here.

These things don’t even look like they come from the same company, let alone the same product family. I thought they hired some wiz-bang new senior VP of something or other there at Cisco who was gonna drag them kicking and screaming into the wonderful, design-conscious world of consumer tech products? And this is what we get? Steve Jobs must be laughing his ass off….

Bad design, bad marketing, ho-hum introduction. All attached to a name that everyone’s just been hanging on, waiting, to hear big, big things about.

Another marketing misfire. Two in one day. They’re everywhere, people….

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Sony Design: Holiday Feast

December 19, 2006 / / 0 Comments

One of the coolest, most colorful [can you say red?] holiday promotions I’ve seen this season is Sony’s Holiday 2006 campaign, featuring Michelle Wie. They pulled out all the stops on this one, even slipping in some tie-ins to the recently released Sony Pictures “007” film, Casino Royale. Sonyholiday06page

I first saw this campaign in a very nice, glossy Sunday newspaper insert, which jumped right out at me. It was a gorgeous piece. So, I just had to visit the special site they set up at “www.Sony.com/Holiday”. There’s no arguing that Sony remains a big player in design in consumer electronics. And studies rank the Sony brand among the very top recognized brands in the world, year after year. No doubt they’re pulling big traffic, and sales, with this promotion.

The coolest product I saw in this lineup was the Vaio UX Micro PC, which literally fits in a Christmas stocking! It sounds like a pretty amazing computer, despite its small size, with a full sliding keyboard. [Two photos included here.]Sonyvaiouxchristmas Street price is about $1700. For connectivity, it has both Wi-Fi and Cingular Edge Network functionality built-in (if you get an account from Cingular), the combination of which will give you Internet access just about anywhere you could ever want to work. Yes! For Windows machines, the Vaio lineup is flat-out THE most impressive of all from a hardware design standpoint, with the UX shown as the smallest (far left) in the product line diagram.

Sonyvaiofullline

Check out the colors of some other Vaio models, including the AR Series and the C Series. With certain of these, you not only can choose color or pattern, but custom engraving as well. Laptops for the upwardly mobile, tres chic, I guess! Sonyvaioarcseries
Flip one of these babies open in the airport and watch heads turn. The C Series colors include pink, green, white, or your choice of five eye-popping “Graphic Splash” limited-edition designs, which are available in Green Storm, Red Storm, Blue Streaks, Angel, and Pink Swirl. Each features a widescreen display. Sonycseries5colors

But you want more, you say? How about accessories such the Vaio speakers shown, or the “James Bond 007 TX Spy Gear bundle”….which will provide “all the tools you need on your next mission.” Sonyspeakers007 The limited-edition kit shown includes Vaio TX notebook, a privacy screen, and and Cybershot digital camera, which are all are packaged in a stylish aluminum attachĂ© case. Get this: also included is an exclusive welcome letter and a serialized glass photo certificate verifying it’s a real Sony Vaio notebook. Hey, that glass certificate will look good as you strike a pose with your martini glass, no? Shaken, not stirred, of course… And here’s a shot of yet another James Bond/Casino Royale product bundle offered on the site, this one including the above UX Micro PC model. Sonyspygear

Now, as a good reviewer, let me tell you what I found wrong with all of this. Sony knows design, and has for a long time. I’ll give ya that. But they’re certainly no Apple (in many ways). Let’s look at a few things. First of all, what does Michelle Wie, a 17-year old golfer, have to do with all this? I don’t get it. And isn’t her last name awfully suggestive of “Wii,” a competitive product to Sony’s PSP? What’s more, the Sony site they send me to is really slow-loading….even on a good broadband connection. There’s a mysterious lag time after you click to go to a new page, which is extremely annoying. Is the site too Flash-heavy? Or maybe it has something to do with the platform it’s built on (all the URLs have “Intershop” in them). But I would ask, what does this annoyance do to the “brand promise”?

What really amazed me, however, was this: one of the coolest products featured in the Sunday supplement — right on the cover — was nowhere to be found on Sony’s site! That was the red Cybershot camera. I searched and searched, using the model number and every other method I knew. Zip. Only black or silver. No message that the red was sold out (if that could possibly be the case). Simply nothing. And this is the showcase product on the cover of the newspaper flyer! Beats the hell outta me.

Guess we’ll have to put James Bond on that one….

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