Engadget Podcast 173 - 12.07.2009
By Trent Wolbe 
posted December 7th 2009 11:30AM
posted December 7th 2009 11:30AM
Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Guests: Chris Ziegler, Michael Gartenberg
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: BetaClubFieldTrip - You Belong With Me
Hear the podcast
00:02:00 - Entelligence: What's the future of Nokia?
00:02:30 - Nokia promises to take "Symbian user interface to a new level" in 2010, Maemo 6 in 2H
00:02:33 - Nokia offers sneak peek at improved 2010 Symbian user interface
00:02:35 - Nokia slashing smartphone lineup in half for 2010
00:02:40 - Nokia launching only one Maemo device in 2010?
00:16:00 - Nokia asks own blog readers what their favorite part of the X6 is, gets funny answer
00:34:55 - Nokia Booklet 3G review
00:42:43 - Comcast takes control of NBC, promises not to crush Hulu
01:01:10 - Time Inc. shows off magazine tablet demo, plans future anger about 70/30 profit split
01:05:38 - Hearst launching Skiff distribution system and Kindle competitor 'by publishers, for publishers,' thinks you'll want it too
01:16:30 - The CrunchPad disappears in a puff of vapor
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Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget
Nerdly request: What's the breakdown of direct downloads for the various podcast file formats (MP3, AAC, OGG)?
I feel fairly betrayed and expect to be compensated
@Waveblade
Whatever happened to nokia love?
Yay it's about time guys!
Finally. I'm tired of re-replaying my boooooring gdgt podcast. Engadget, FTW.
Thanks guys. Better late than never.
I'm more upset to see that Chris Ziegler has time to be on this podcast when his very own hasn't updated in over a month. Come on.
@rashawty I know, I know, I deserve the hate. We're trying to get one out soon!
@Chris Ziegler
I only hate because i love the show and need a fix.
Yeah, I definitely prefer "Know-key-uh"
"-You know guys? Have you seen the n900? Gosh it is AMAZING...
But if we say this then our image as MacLovers will be discredited...
What should we do? The podcast is coming and we need to come up with something quick...
-I KNOW!!! Lets just talk non-sense, confuse the listeners, give the typical nokia bashing and then wrap it up with some tire analogy right?
-YEAH!!!!"
Having said that, WORA, in Qt, is meant to be closely tied to Nokia phones and not as crazy as the process for J2ME was.
I get it you like to make cheap jokes on Nokias expense just to satisfy the Mac loving community here (hey guys... peace) but you dont seem to mention also the inconsistencies with other vendors and worse than anything the bizarre App approval process...
.Some valid points though, the biggest media network, or whatever was the quote, is a joke indeed... they better pay more attention to that.
Funny,
Since day one Nokia have said that they have two smartphone platforms: Symbian and Maemo.
Yet Engadget folk (and other people too) just don't get it and keep nagging about how Nokia should have a clear strategy: "Drop Symbian", "Focus in one platform", etc.
Perhaps you guys should really realize that Nokia has and will have two "smartphone" platforms. And the strategy is clear. Maemo for "internet devices" and Symbian for rest smartphones. And atm. these analysts also manage to forget the fact that Nokia has S30/S40/etc. platforms as well. Amazing :o, more than two platforms :o.
I think "Nokia is like Apple in 1996" pretty much summed up this thing. You guys just don't get it. Don't blame Nokia for your own stupidity.
(And yes, if symbian app dev decides to tick the Nokia 1100 and 1200 in OVI and therefore Nokia 1100 user ends up with non-working app, it's devs fault. Of course Nokia should take measures to end stupid devs doing things like this but...)
@(Unverified) I think we understand that's the strategy they're publicly standing behind, but as Michael says, companies are committed to their strategy right up until they say they aren't.
And the real question is, WHY two platforms? You can't argue that Maemo is more "expensive" than Symbian so it doesn't make sense to relegate it to premium devices, especially considering that the 770, N800, and N810 all prove that it can run effectively on older, cheaper hardware.
@Chris Ziegler
Consumers don't care if there is 100 platforms. It's just you couple of bloggers.
Funny fanboi stuff from Josh: I think, I think... I thank satan it's just Josh and again just few other bloggers.
Oh and that Josh's "real consumers" about booklet. What a joke.
@Paullll They don't care about the platforms, you're right -- but they care about the net effect, which is fewer quality apps.
@Chris Ziegler
Symbian will come in all kind of different form factors (like android), and therefore will be more difficult to develop for. On the other hand maemo devices will be more coherent (just my guess). Also symbian will be cheaper because it also runs well on cheaper hardware. If you sell millions of devices every dollar you save in hardware results in big profits (Only apple can sell overpriced hardware ;-)). It makes perfect sense to have two systems, especially when you have Qt for both of em.
How can you say Comcast buying NBC is a good thing. Its a good thing for comcast subscribers. Once NBC content is removed from Verizon FiOS HD and On Demand, and Hulu is made some app on Comcasts homepage then you will see the issue. Its that Comcast has full incentive to lock out other providers from that content. Comcast bought my local Bost Fox Sports Network Channel. It took Government involvement to get Comcast to allow Verizon an HD feed of that channel which it already had when it was FSN and not CSN, and it was probably only because the Judge didn't have Comcast and wanted to watch the Celtics in HD. I dont trust any ISP either that wants me to pay for the gigabit of traffic. if I get a 20/10 connection I expect to be allowed to max out that connection 24/7.
Everything you Said about Nokia in the US can be said about Motorola in Europe.
Nokia completely missed the touchscreen trend. They still make the
best non-touch phones though (just think of all the eseries), also because symbian is overall still the best non-touch system (in my opinion). In 2010 they will jump on the touchscreen-bandwagon, big companies move slowly. Also their services are not that bad, not best in class (compared to google and apple) but overall a decent package.
At least they are not becoming an irrelevant hardware-manufacturer like sony ericsson, motorola, htc, samsung etc..
@Lavoe You should realy realize (as the engadget guys try to tell themselves too) that the world is big and the US is only 5% of the customers.
The EU has like 20% more people now than the US, and although some nations aren't hat wealthy some US states aren't either let's face it, if you live on the street in NYC or boston or detroit or whatever without a 'permanent address' you don't likely buy an iphone and subscribe to AT&T.
And I think that in europe the smart phones that are most wanted are HTC and such and not apple, so a european might say apple is insignificant in the market, same for the asian regions, I think other companies than apple rule the roost there.
Someone should get the real numbers of where the money/sales are instead of us all guessing.
Apple is far more popular than HTC in Europe. Motorola on the other hand is insignificant over here.
Also it's quite funny that the engadget-editors know a lot less about the business than me :-)
I hope who-ever was smoking during the recording of the podcast (i heard the zippo) owns Apple products that need servicing....
Speaking as an occasional Nokia owner and everyday user, support worker.
But then you're the only country in the world that Nokia doesn't dominate in sales figures so WTF do you know.
Nilay Patel, professional contrarian and internet pundit. Here's a clue. Having a different opinion than others doesn't make it right, Stop trying to get booked for commentary on MSNBC. So, we are going to accept some kind of insane media consolidation to "solve" the internet on the TV "problem". Get a clue.
Comcast/NBC deal. Media consolidation. Bad. Comcast. Internet throttling. Bad. Clearly, clearly, the corporation has the precedent of denying and limiting its service to its customers. What you think that they are going to do when they are not only controlling the pipes but also the content?
GET A CLUE!!
Their first thought will be profit, and I think there's more profit to be made not tying the NBC content to their pipes, the profit (and running cost coverage) comes from ads and sales, and ads need an as large as possible audience and sales needs many takers.
So yeah they might be nasty but even the meanest dog doesn't often bite himself.
What they might do is charge third parties more for having the content maybe.
Here's what it sounded like to me:
"Only apple is real and everybody has to be a KIRF of apple, why don't they just make a KIRF iphone, it's the only model that can exist."
You know that the americans like to tie themselves down and lock themselves in subscriptions and pay for what should be free and max their CC's might be true but over in the EU and most of the rest of the world people don't like that, that's why in the US they originally didn't have internet like we know it now but AOL and compuserve as a layer on top of internet charging people for what was free basically, and americans love that stuff, the rest of the world not.
And it's true that nokia should not neglect the US I don't think emulating apple is the answer, BUT since americans want that kind of thing what nokia should do in the US is pretend to be emulating apple, to be 'acceptable' and then sneak in their own philosophy that way.
But I do agree that they jump around a bit in regards to what their flagship is though.
Michael Gartenberg offers very interesting perspective on things! You should have him more often on the show. In general I think this weeks podcast was a lot more informative!
I would pay for an engadget subscription. Also, android love for the engadget show please.
great podcast as usual. this one was really interesting, you guys should invite other people more often.