Engadget http://www.engadget.com Engadget http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif Engadget http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[Interview with Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz on Engadget Mobile]]>http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/02/interview-with-sun-ceo-jonathan-schwartz-on-engadget-mobile/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/02/interview-with-sun-ceo-jonathan-schwartz-on-engadget-mobile/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/02/interview-with-sun-ceo-jonathan-schwartz-on-engadget-mobile/#comments
We recently got a chance to briefly sit down with Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, who definitely ranks among the geekier and more sincere CEOs we've had the privilege to meet. We discussed the long-missing JavaFX Mobile platform Sun promised a while back, as well as Java on the iPhone, and doing battle with Microsoft as an open source software vendor. Check it out over on Engadget Mobile!

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Interview with Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz on Engadget Mobile originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 May 2008 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featuredInterviewsjavajavafx mobileJavafxMobilejonathan schwartzJonathanSchwartzsunFri, 02 May 2008 14:09:00 EST<![CDATA[Bill Gates: the exit interview]]>http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/07/bill-gates-the-exit-interview/http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/07/bill-gates-the-exit-interview/http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/07/bill-gates-the-exit-interview/#comments
We've been fortunate enough to sit down with Sir Bill a number of times over the years -- and even been lucky enough to call him a fan. While we're certainly hoping this won't be our last run-in, we couldn't help but feel a little sentimental knowing that chances are the next time we see him, he'll no longer be in charge of Microsoft. This time around we talked a little about his historic 2007 sit-down with Steve Jobs, his plans for the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, and even a bit about what he'll be up to in his new part-time gig at Microsoft.

Thanks so much for meeting with us. I appreciate it. So I was at the keynote last night and I saw the video that you did. Being that you're looking for a job, I just wanted to let you know we're always hiring--

Excellent --

... looking for editors anytime. I know you've written some stuff for the Guardian recently--

Well I love your stuff.

You know where to find me.

Ok.

[Laughter]

So I was at D this year and obviously you and Jobs were at it as well. And you guys got up on stage together, I think that was -- besides being a really historic moment -- very emotional for a lot of people in the audience. I want to know what it was like for you personally. I think a lot of people were confused as to whether or it was truly bittersweet, or just bitter. I felt it was really bittersweet.

Oh, I like Steve. And I've always been extremely complimentary of the impact he's had on the industry. Part of it, in terms of that whole crowd though, is that the personal computer industry was started by people who were very young and there was a set of people who believed in it and all kind of grew up together. So Steve and I are virtually the same age -- he's a little bit older, he got into it about three years after we had done the original personal computer stuff -- and he was my sixteenth customer for the BASIC interpreter. I had done the Commodore six months before, if you remember that, I had done the TRS-80 eight months before, and then they needed the floating point basic. I came out and I actually worked more with Woz -- Steve wasn't a hands-on engineer involved in that thing -- because Woz had been trying to do his own BASIC but just couldn't get it done.

So we've always worked together on various things. When Steve did the Mac, that was our closest relationship. That was about thirty people at Microsoft, twenty people at Apple betting on moving the graphical interface into the mainstream. That was a phenomenal experience because we did the only 3rd party software that was on that machine the day that it shipped. And when they went 512 [kilobytes of memory], we did some stuff. They thought [Lotus] Jazz was going to the breakthrough product, but we showed them that Excel was the breakthrough product. So there's always been good back and forth. I am very sincere that Steve has unique skills that I just don't have at all and it's been phenomenal to see how he has been able to make a difference with what he's done.

Continue reading Bill Gates: the exit interview

Bill Gates: the exit interview originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bill gatesBillGatesCESces 2008Ces2008featuresInterviewsMon, 07 Jan 2008 19:34:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Peter Chou, CEO of HTC]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/10/the-engadget-interview-peter-chou-ceo-of-htc/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/10/the-engadget-interview-peter-chou-ceo-of-htc/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/10/the-engadget-interview-peter-chou-ceo-of-htc/#comments
If you were to make a shortlist of Engadget's most sought after executives, Peter Chou, CEO of arguably the most advanced cellphone manufacturer in the world, HTC, would be right near the top. We finally got a chance to sit down with the man who helped reshape what a cellphone could be (and in doing so put Windows Mobile on the map), and discussed HTC's new partnership with Google on Android, whether WinMo has a stagnant platform, challenges for companies trying to break into the US wireless market, and even the 700MHz spectrum auction. Talking with Peter was definitely a high point for us, check it out.

Thank you for sitting down with us.

Thank you! You have a very successful site.

Thank you. Yeah, well, we do our best, it's a lot of fun. So, Android is obviously huge news for you guys.

This is a significant announcement for us.

I assume that you guys have been working on this with Google for quite some time.

Yep. That's true.

Are we talking about, say, over a year that this has been in the works?

Two years. More than two years.

Then you've have been playing with Android, I imagine. If not on the HTC device (or devices) that you are working on, then at least some kind of build of the software. You've been fooling around with it and know what its like...

Yeah.

We didn't get too much of a sense of what this software is going to be about and what it's really like as a core experience. Can you tell me anything that you really like that Google has done with Android? And the things that you think that Android is really going to excel in? Things that you will be able to leverage in HTC hardware?

Maybe you can get a little more information [from the SDK]. But this is trying to be a more optimized experience of Google applications, and obviously the internet experience will be more optimized. So there are some things that I still think today are being... well, I'm a veteran in this industry and we've been working on this stuff for ten years and really waiting to see something which can really enhance the internet experience in these mobile devices. I believe in this system and I'm excited about its ability to perform well.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Peter Chou, CEO of HTC

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The Engadget Interview: Peter Chou, CEO of HTC originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Dec 2007 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featureshtcInterviewspeter chouPeterChouMon, 10 Dec 2007 12:00:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/26/the-engadget-interview-ralph-de-la-vega-ceo-of-atandt-mobility/http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/26/the-engadget-interview-ralph-de-la-vega-ceo-of-atandt-mobility/http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/26/the-engadget-interview-ralph-de-la-vega-ceo-of-atandt-mobility/#comments
We recently got a chance to sit down with none other than long time AT&T veteran and freshly anointed CEO of the top wireless carrier in the country, Ralph de la Vega. There was almost too much to discuss, but we were able to get his take on Android and the Open Handset Alliance (specifically, why AT&T isn't a part of it -- yet), the 700MHz spectrum auction in January, their groundbreaking partnership with Apple, and the many reasons the US wireless market does and doesn't seem to suck so badly. Basically, anyone who gives a damn about cellphones or wireless needs to hear what this man has to say.

Thank you very much for meeting with us.

It's my pleasure. My pleasure!

So I am really curious to know what device you carry.

I switch devices every few weeks. Because I think that I need to try the latest device as my customers are trying them, so you'll see me switching. I have now the latest Blackberry, the 8820 with WiFi -- the latest one that came out. When I go back to my office, I have a Q sitting on my desk and my biggest difficulty is making the switch because they each work a little bit different. And so, I punish myself to learn them just because I feel I need to try the devices that my customers are trying. So I've got a whole stack of them and as I get time I just take out the SIM and put the new one in and I go. Because I think that's my duty.

That's actually a pretty admirable way of approaching it, but in terms of preference though, if you could just pick one, what would it be?

Well for business today, the BlackBerry is my preference. For entertainment, the iPhone has no equal. You know, if I'm taking something on a personal vacation that takes my music and my videos, then the iPhone just has no equal.

I'm curious to know if you could tell me a little bit about the role that you played in bringing Apple to AT&T. Starting up their whole deal, getting the iPhone on AT&T -- you know, where you sat.

At the time I was the Chief Operating Officer of Cingular Wireless. I was leading the team that met with Apple to figure out how we could make this work and it was a very, very exciting time. We actually started our relationship with Apple way before the iPhone, but a lot of people have never written about that. And that relationship started when we launched the ROKR, which was the first phone with iTunes -- made by Motorola but certified by us, put into the network with iTunes, which was the first [cellphone] in the country that had iTunes capability. We always viewed that would be something that our customers would want, and the reason we even got started was because all of the philosophy we have, that if the customer wants their music from iTunes, we ought to let them have it from iTunes.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility

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The Engadget Interview: Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>attfeaturesInterviewsralph de la vegaRalphDeLaVegaMon, 26 Nov 2007 12:14:00 EST<![CDATA[Leopard vs. Vista: feature chart showdown]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/27/leopard-vs-vista-feature-chart-showdown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/27/leopard-vs-vista-feature-chart-showdown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/27/leopard-vs-vista-feature-chart-showdown/#comments
There's no doubt, Vista and Leopard are both extremely advanced, feature rich consumer operating systems. But way back in January when Vista launched knew we had little choice but pit the two in a head to head chartngraph Thunderdome competition. We know we're not even going to be able to stop the epic fanboy arguments about break out over this one, so we just ask that you try to keep it fair. Leopard vs. Vista: it's on.

Continue reading Leopard vs. Vista: feature chart showdown

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Leopard vs. Vista: feature chart showdown originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Oct 2007 16:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>applefeaturesInterviewsleopardmicrosoftos xOsXvistawindowsSat, 27 Oct 2007 16:36:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Phil Schiller, Apple Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/06/the-engadget-interview-phil-schiller-apple-senior-vp-of-worldw/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/06/the-engadget-interview-phil-schiller-apple-senior-vp-of-worldw/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/06/the-engadget-interview-phil-schiller-apple-senior-vp-of-worldw/#commentsAt this week's Apple event we got a rare chance to speak with one of the most well regarded and tight-lipped veeps in the biz, Apple's Phil Schiller. It's never fun knowing you have to throw half your questions right out because of how good these guys are at keeping mum, but we did get Phil to tell us a little about what he thinks of the iPhone unlock market, 3rd party iPhone apps, the future of hard drive based iPods in an increasingly flash based world, and how he expects iTunes to fare after the departure of NBC. Read on!

Thanks for meeting with us.... So let's get into the product stuff. Steve on stage today kept insisting that the iPhone is still the best iPod that you guys make.

Yes. It's the top of the line.

Well, the touch now has more storage, sans the phone. I mean it's basically exactly the same device. It has all of the same media software and has the browser and YouTube and all that. So why is the iPhone now still the best iPod?

Because it also has the phone. So you get the internet device and an iPod and a phone all in one thing. So you're right. Its not that it can do anything more than an iPod, except that you can certainly do your internet surfing also on the cellular network in addition to WiFi -- so that you have that part of it. It does a little bit more in terms of an internet device because of that access and it has a phone and both they are both as capable in terms of iPods. So, for that reason it's still the top of the line. But if your focus is primarily a touch iPod then sure we have something that's just as good and has added benefit of being amazingly thin. Look at the thinness!

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Phil Schiller, Apple Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing

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The Engadget Interview: Phil Schiller, Apple Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Sep 2007 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>applefeaturesInterviewsphil schillerPhilSchillerportable audioportableaudioThu, 06 Sep 2007 17:01:00 EST<![CDATA[A few words with Real's Rob Glaser about Rhapsody America]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/21/a-few-words-with-reals-rob-glaser-about-rhapsody-america/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/21/a-few-words-with-reals-rob-glaser-about-rhapsody-america/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/21/a-few-words-with-reals-rob-glaser-about-rhapsody-america/#commentsWe got a few minutes to chat (once again) with Real's Rob Glaser today, who was kind enough to answer a few lingering questions about Real's freshly announced music alliance with MTV and Verizon called Rhapsody America.
  • On Urge and integrating with Rhapsody, "The Urge brand will be retired... but we wanted to be welcoming and loving to existing Urge subscribers" who are now making the migration to Rhapsody.
  • On Rhapsody and MTV's strange bedfellows partnership: "Philosophically we have very similar views...", Real intends to leverage "MTV's expertise in genres and content curation", but technologically Real's Rhapsody platform will continue to be what the venture builds off.
  • For example, one unannounced iteration of that integration would be with "MTV's Top 20 video countdown -- you'll be able to see the countdown and get music directly in Rhapsody."
  • On PlaysForSure: "PFS is a legacy system that Microsoft abandoned when they went to Zune." With the Clix2 Rhapsody, Real and iRiver "picked up the mantle of innovation that MS chose to abandon."
  • Will real continue to support PFS? "Yes, as long as there is a high volume of devices and we can extend them, we see no reason to stop supporting the legacy architecture."
  • On DRM-free music sales: "We think in the long term DRM-free music delivers the best consumer experience, solves the interoperability problem, and better connects with consumers psychologically." Damn skippy.

A few words with Real's Rob Glaser about Rhapsody America originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Aug 2007 17:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featuresInterviewsrealrhapsodyrhapsody americaRhapsodyAmericarob glaserRobGlaserTue, 21 Aug 2007 17:38:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Sean McCarthy, CEO of Steorn]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/17/the-engadget-interview-sean-mccarthy-ceo-of-steorn/http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/17/the-engadget-interview-sean-mccarthy-ceo-of-steorn/http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/17/the-engadget-interview-sean-mccarthy-ceo-of-steorn/#comments
Today's interview is a first for Engadget in a couple ways: we've never talked with an executive whose company doesn't actually make or sell something, nor have we talked with anyone whose technology is theoretically infeasible. Still, we've all had our chance to criticize Steorn for its scientifically heretical claim to the invention of a perpetual motion machine, its failed live demonstration of that machine, and so on. So now it's time to turn the mic over to Steorn's CEO Sean McCarthy, where he discusses his belief in the potential of Steorn's Orbo technology, his feelings about the scientific community and skeptics at large, and what happens next for the supposed free energy company.

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. I'm sure that you're very busy, especially after the last couple of weeks--

I've had better weeks.

Yeah, I would imagine. But before we actually get started talking about the technology [Orbo] or anything like that I think that a lot of people would probably like to know a little bit more about the company. So what can you tell us about Steorn that we don't already know? I mean we know that it was a company that was founded not to break the laws of thermodynamics but rather technological means.

The company was founded by myself and three other guys back in 2000 and it was basically three of us had come from a company that I had been working with for a year and the Irish economy was doing well so we decided we'd set up a tech company with no real objective. We started working in the early days just helping people manage some of their big e-commerce spend. So it would primarily be contract management, so for example where corporate would be spending vast amounts of money on e-commerce projects.

But that day was over so we came in to restructure the contracts and try to manage them into a more realistic burn rate. So we did that with probably some of Ireland's biggest corporate e-commerce sites including people like Banks of Ireland and so on. In 2001 we were asked to get involved in the development of some anti-counterfeit technology for credit cards and basically that became the mainstay of our business both in terms of developing anti-counterfeit systems for optical disks and for plastic cards and also doing an awful lot of forensics and expert witnessing for law enforcements across Europe.

 I see. So then you stumbled upon this technology by--

An awful lot of the work we would have done would have been done in ATM fraud, which is a very widespread fraud in the UK and in Ireland and across Europe, and from working with the police they have quite a different view on the crime than for example a bank, and the police's prime objective is to catch the bad guys. So we started looking at covert surveillance equipment to monitor high risk ATMs, because clearly what the law enforcement wanted to do was to get evidence of a person physically committing a crime and it was during the development of some covert CCTV cameras that we were looking at basically very mobile devices -- so we wanted wireless image transmission and also not to have to worry about wiring them up to anything. So we initially looked at solar cells and we looked at augmenting solar cells to extend the battery life of the system with winter at the top of these were lamp post sized devices. So it was during that we started really playing around with magnetic systems and that's where we began to notice some strange anomalies and got caught in this weird and wonderful world OU. [Over unity, aka free energy.] Sometimes we wish we hadn't but we have.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Sean McCarthy, CEO of Steorn

The Engadget Interview: Sean McCarthy, CEO of Steorn originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featuresInterviewsorbosean mccarthySeanMccarthysteornTue, 17 Jul 2007 12:12:00 EST<![CDATA[Engadget & Joystiq interview: Peter Moore, head of Xbox]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/13/engadget-and-joystiq-interview-peter-moore-head-of-xbox/http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/13/engadget-and-joystiq-interview-peter-moore-head-of-xbox/http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/13/engadget-and-joystiq-interview-peter-moore-head-of-xbox/#comments
We got another opportunity to catch up with our pal Peter Moore, the man at the top of the heap over at Microsof'ts Xbox division. We chatted it up about the usual stuff: games, Microsoft's E3 presence, the 360 warranty debacle, and what's up with all the special edition stuff Microsoft keeps pumping out.

So, any new tattoos this year?

None. Out of limbs. You were there the other night...

What, no chest piece? You've got legs, too.

No, my PR handlers would -- well, I'm game for a lot of stuff, and then they go, "No, I don't think so."

You could do full sleeves, the back...

I think the next thing would be what's (horribly) called a tramp stamp... [laughter]

So no tramp stamp for Peter Moore, unfortunately. So last time when we spoke with you last year, your competition hadn't launched yet. So you guys were kind of in a unique position to be the first next gen company out of the gate. Your system, you know you have a lot of second wave titles showing up. Even though the Wii was certainly a phenomenon at last year's E3, there was a lot of excitement about the Xbox. So now here we are, a little over a year later obviously and your competition has launched, in your own press conference your materials show that the Wii is -- not by much -- outselling the 360.
Numbers don't lie!

So where do you think the 360 stands in terms of your competition? You have the Wii that's actually outselling the 360 and you have the PlayStation 3 which obviously isn't although, sales have increased after the price drop. So where...
Apparently they have. I haven't seen any independent data that supports that.

Continue reading Engadget & Joystiq interview: Peter Moore, head of Xbox

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Engadget & Joystiq interview: Peter Moore, head of Xbox originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jul 2007 17:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featuresInterviewsmicrosoftpeter moorePeterMoorexbox 360Xbox360Fri, 13 Jul 2007 17:02:00 EST<![CDATA[Engadget & Joystiq interview: Kaz Hirai and Jack Tretton, Presidents, Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc., and America]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/13/engadget-and-joystiq-interview-kaz-hirai-and-jack-tretton-presid/http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/13/engadget-and-joystiq-interview-kaz-hirai-and-jack-tretton-presid/http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/13/engadget-and-joystiq-interview-kaz-hirai-and-jack-tretton-presid/#comments
We got a rare chance to sit down and talk shop with recently-named Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. President Kaz Hirai, and his US successor, Jack Tretton. These two had a lot to say, and we were more than happy to let them talk about where the PS3's going in terms of hardware, software, and services, why Sony's E3 presence this year is so radically different than last year, even a little bit about how things have been at PlayStation HQ post-Kutaragi -- check it out!

So out of all the three press conferences we've been writing up, we're giving each one a grade based on a new highly scientific Mega Man ranking system. Sony is our last one, but chronologically so we haven't gotten there yet. But this press conference had a much different tone then let's say last year's E3 press conference. How much did you guys look at last year's, how should we say, performance, and decide that you needed to do something different? What kind of decision making process was that?

Jack: Well obviously I was not as intimately involved in planning last year's press conference as I was in this one, but it's funny now that you look at that perspective and you see some of the other press conferences and how people are conducting themselves. I think companies are very proud of their success and they want to tell everybody how successful you are. But what you realize is that everybody already knows that and no one really cares. They want to know how you are going to be successful going forward. And so we've certainly taken our fair share of heat about, you know, the performance of PlayStation 3 in the first six to eight months, and I guess we wanted to focus our message on really telling you why PlayStation 3 is going to be successful going forward.

And its all about content, its about games, and I think going through that experience, you know, the light bulb goes off, and you go oh, wait a minute, its really all about the content and what we're going to do going forward to keep our platforms relevant. Its not about what we did 10 years ago, its not about how many units we've sold here or there. So clearly I think for points of reference and perspective we wanted to point some things out that we really wanted that press conference geared towards why people are going to want to buy games and buy our platforms and that was kind of the theme and the central message. I give Dave [Karraker, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, SCEA] a lot of credit for building off of that theme and coordinating tremendous amounts of presentations and content through the whole thing. But hopefully we've stayed on message and we've gotten the point across.

So why no word about rumble?

Jack: Well, I guess at this point the SIXAXIS controller is something that we're comfortable with and we've certainly settled our differences with Immersion. Is it something that can happen down the road? Absolutely. But the bottom line is we haven't made that decision and we didn't have anything to announce or introduce. Will we down the road? Possibly, but it's unbeknownst to me if we have a rumble controller coming out.

Oh I think you'd know before anyone!

[laughter] Well, you'd be surprised! It's a big company...

Continue reading Engadget & Joystiq interview: Kaz Hirai and Jack Tretton, Presidents, Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc., and America

Engadget & Joystiq interview: Kaz Hirai and Jack Tretton, Presidents, Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc., and America originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jul 2007 11:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featuresInterviewsjack trettonJackTrettonkaz hiraiKazHiraiplaystationplaystation 3Playstation3ps3sonyFri, 13 Jul 2007 11:34:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Jocelyn Vigreux, President of TomTom USA]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/02/the-engadget-interview-jocelyn-vigreux-president-of-tomtom-usa/http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/02/the-engadget-interview-jocelyn-vigreux-president-of-tomtom-usa/http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/02/the-engadget-interview-jocelyn-vigreux-president-of-tomtom-usa/#commentsGPS is becoming ever more prevalent in our lives -- the cost of a handheld unit has plummeted in recent years, more and more cellphones are coming with GPS built-in, and millions and millions of new cars ship with integrated nav units. So it seemed like a good time to sit down with Jocelyn Vigreux, the president of TomTom USA. He chatted with us about the company's recently-introduced MapShare feature, the new TomTom GO 720, and whether or not standalone GPS devices have a future.

Thanks for taking the time to speak with me this afternoon. Tell me about MapShare.

Well, MapShare is a technology that TomTom is introducing that allows TomTom users to dynamically change map attributes directly on their device. There are five or six things that you can do right now. One is to offer block-by-block traffic directions for a given street; it's also possible to reverse traffic direction for a given street., change the name of a street, edit POI's by changing their position, changing their names, or changing a phone number.

This is something that's looking at navigation from just a step ahead. It's kind of Navigation 2.0. It is really empowering to users to create better maps. The second part of this, which brings all the power to this feature, is being able to not only share this with the community of TomTom users out there -- so I will be sharing my changes, I will be sharing what I have done on my device -- but I'll also be able to take advantage of what the rest of the community all around the world has done.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Jocelyn Vigreux, President of TomTom USA

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The Engadget Interview: Jocelyn Vigreux, President of TomTom USA originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featuresgpsinterviewInterviewstomtomMon, 02 Jul 2007 12:57:00 EST<![CDATA[Video: interview with Steve Wozniak!]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/29/video-interview-with-steve-wozniak/http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/29/video-interview-with-steve-wozniak/http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/29/video-interview-with-steve-wozniak/#comments We caught up with the one and only Steve Wozniak waiting in line to take an iPhone (or six) home. He even gave a bunch of people in line shirts and signed line badges. Aw, how nice!

[MP4] Download in wide VGA
[AVI] Download in wide VGA

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Video: interview with Steve Wozniak! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>appleengadget videoEngadgetVideofeaturesinterviewInterviewsiphonesteve wozniakSteveWozniakFri, 29 Jun 2007 18:12:00 EST<![CDATA[SolidAlliance CEO interviewed: seems sane]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/11/solidalliance-ceo-interviewed-seems-sane/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/11/solidalliance-ceo-interviewed-seems-sane/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/11/solidalliance-ceo-interviewed-seems-sane/#comments
The only thing that could be possibly trump an interview with the CEO of Thanko, is an interview with the CEO from Japan's SolidAlliance. You know, SolidA, the eccentric kooks behind the original USB Sushi and other such master crapsmanship. Mister Karahara sat down with Akihabara News to display the best of the best. Who knew that the Ghost Detector really worked!? According to Kawahara-san a lot of customers have "actually found a ghost, just try it." Okaaay. Unfortunately, the UFO Detector has not been so successful; SolidAlliance has "not heard of people finding the UFO, yet. But if you have any feedback, just call us." Oh... we will, we will, right after we get off the horn with the French space agency. See the full interview after the break.

Continue reading SolidAlliance CEO interviewed: seems sane

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SolidAlliance CEO interviewed: seems sane originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>interviewInterviewsjapansolid allianceSolidAllianceWed, 11 Apr 2007 08:31:00 EST<![CDATA[Real interview with Fake Steve Jobs]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/01/real-interview-with-fake-steve-jobs/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/01/real-interview-with-fake-steve-jobs/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/01/real-interview-with-fake-steve-jobs/#commentsWe got a precious few minutes to sit down and talk to the man himself. That's right, we landed a real interview with Fake Steve Jobs. In it, "El Jobso" reminisces about his drug-addled youth, what he does to the traitorous wretches that leak Apple products before they're launched, the questions they ask you when you apply for a job at Apple, and even how he really feels about my girlfriend. Not to be missed!

So, thanks for the interview, Steve.

You're most welcome. Namaste.

So, what's the hardest thing about being Steve Jobs?

The constant pressure and sh*tstorm of a million distractions. Eurotards, Microtards, longhairs. Not to mention the SEC and US Attorney's office. Oh and Greenpeace. I hate Greenpeace. Really -- a lot.

What about people that ask you for tech support? Do you get that very often? Because my shuffle has been acting up...

Yes all the time. Luckily, however, I actually know almost nothing about computers. And people who know me know that. So they don't ask. But yes, strangers come up to me all the time.

Do they ever confuse you for the character actors that portray you on SNL and now Mad TV?

Yes and it drives me nuts. Or people will go, You know, you look a lot like Steve Jobs. But honestly, usually people do know who I am, and they get all weird and nervous around me, which i have to admit, never gets old. I love it.

I was really into NeXT, whatever happened with that?

Well, we had some issues around pricing. Like, we figured out what the product should cost, and then we multiplied that by four and set our prices that way. Turns out we were over-overpricing. When I returned to Apple we figured out how to overprice correctly. About 50% more than the reasonable price is about what people are wiling to pay to get a product that makes them cooler than everyone else. So now instedad of over-overpricing, we're just overpricing. And as our results indicate, it's working.

Continue reading Real interview with Fake Steve Jobs

Real interview with Fake Steve Jobs originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Apr 2007 11:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>fake steve jobsFakeSteveJobsfeaturesInterviewssteve jobsSteveJobsSun, 01 Apr 2007 11:22:00 EST<![CDATA[A lunchtime chat with Bill Gates at CES]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/a-lunchtime-chat-with-bill-gates-at-ces/http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/a-lunchtime-chat-with-bill-gates-at-ces/http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/a-lunchtime-chat-with-bill-gates-at-ces/#comments
So yes my good pal Chris Grant (of Joystiq) and I got a chance to briefly sit down with Robert Scoble, Brian Lam, and Brian Crescente to chat with Bill Gates before his annual CES keynote. We couldn't include everyone's questions here (for the full video go check out ScobleShow), but we've got a full transcript of our questions spanning such topics as the advantages of vertical integration in the Zune and Xbox 360, DRM, net neutrality, and Microsoft's direction after Bill's eventual departure. You know, the light stuff.

This may be the last time Engadget gets to speak with you. I don't know exactly what ...

No, no, it won't be. I promise.

So you'll be around in 2008? You'll deliver the keynote?

I'm full time until mid-2008. And we're mixing it up a little bit. Robbie's doing a big part of the keynote tonight. We'll have even more than one chance to talk between now and when I'm not full-time.

Ultimately when you do depart, what do you want your legacy as a technologist with Microsoft to be?

Microsoft's always been about software that empowers people. What could happen over the next ten years is probably even bigger than what's happened throughout the entire history as we get speech and vision. And we're just getting rid of constraints. Storage constraints. Resolution constraints. At the end of my keynote ... everything that I talk about product-wise is all here and now, this year kind of stuff. Almost everything's shipping except the Home Server, the photo stitching thing, but everything is here. I take this thing where I show and say if you have projection throughout the home and it can project onto the walls and surfaces -- what kind of things can you do? There's no specific thing, but I've done some neat things like student tablet that in terms of the few projects that Ray and Steve have picked for me to still be involved in, like the tablets since I've been very involved in that. The switch is I go from being the person who's looking at the overall thing and how the pieces stick together -- making sure they're not missing pieces or duplicating pieces -- and Ozzie picks up that. I go to where I'll have a few project very focused and he's got the total driving overview of how it all comes together.

Continue reading A lunchtime chat with Bill Gates at CES

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A lunchtime chat with Bill Gates at CES originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Jan 2007 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bill gatesBillGatesCESfeaturesInterviewsMon, 08 Jan 2007 14:01:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Peter Dille, Sony Computer Entertainment's SVP of Marketing]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/06/the-engadget-interview-peter-dille-sony-computer-entertainment/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/06/the-engadget-interview-peter-dille-sony-computer-entertainment/http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/06/the-engadget-interview-peter-dille-sony-computer-entertainment/#commentsLast week, between extended PS3 sessions, we got a chance to sit down with Sony Computer Entertainment America's Senior Vice President of Marketing, Peter Dille, who chatted candidly with us about Sony's ambitions (and failures) in the market, design decisions made with the console, and where the PlayStation platform is going both handheld and console.

Thanks for meeting with me today. So I think maybe my biggest question right now is the amount of consoles that are coming in to the States and Japan. I mean, they've been getting cut and on launch day and we're now down to 480,000 worldwide?

I don't know that there's anything new to talk about there. I'm trying to recall the last public statement about the launch number.

Last one, I think, was last week. Japan went down by something like 20,000 units.

Yeah, I think that's right. There's not a whole lot to add in terms of the public position there. We've kinda gone on record to say Blu-ray has been a challenge to manufacture. I think Jack [Tretton, co-chief operating officer of Sony Computer Entertainment of America] had some comments about that recently. I think the good news is we'll focus on day one, and then making sure there's a steady flow of hardware in weeks two, three, and four, and consumers don't have any big draws out of stock. So, that's kinda what we'll focus on, and as I said, we're gonna monitor that on a day by day, week by week basis, and steer the production based on each territory. What we know is that demand is going to outstrip the supply for some time.

So, it's really -- it's a high class problem, and we'd rather have this than the alternative. But it's still something that we'll have to deal with, and we don't want consumers to be put off by this. It's one of the reasons we're not encouraging retailers to do reservation lists -- because if we did, we'd probably have situations where a consumer couldn't even get a shot or get in with these things for six or eight months, and that's something that we'd like to avoid.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Peter Dille, Sony Computer Entertainment's SVP of Marketing

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The Engadget Interview: Peter Dille, Sony Computer Entertainment's SVP of Marketing originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Nov 2006 16:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featuresInterviewspeter dillePeterDilleplaystationplaystation 3Playstation3ps3sceasonyMon, 06 Nov 2006 16:14:00 EST<![CDATA[Interview with John Hodgman, the PC from those "Get a Mac" ads]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/05/interview-with-john-hodgman-the-pc-from-those-get-a-mac-ads/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/05/interview-with-john-hodgman-the-pc-from-those-get-a-mac-ads/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/05/interview-with-john-hodgman-the-pc-from-those-get-a-mac-ads/#comments Yup, we interviewed that guy. But John Hodgman isn't just a metaphorical stand-in for the PC (even though that's what we mainly asked him about), he's also an editor at the New York Times Magazine and a contributor to the Daily Show. Read on to find out whether he's really a PC user, Microsoft's attempts to recruit him, and how he got the gig in the first place.

So first things first: Mac or PC?

Here is the joke that is absolutely apt, though I once promised I would never make it: "I play one on TV, but I am not a PC." It is true. I am first of all: not a computer, but a human being; and second of all: a Mac user, almost exclusively, since 1984. There was a brief period in the wilderness between 1997 and 2003. Let us not speak of it.

Continue reading Interview with John Hodgman, the PC from those "Get a Mac" ads

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Interview with John Hodgman, the PC from those "Get a Mac" ads originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featurefeaturesget a macGetAMacinterviewsjohn hodgmanJohnHodgmanpctv commercialTvCommercialThu, 05 Oct 2006 14:26:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Viodentia, creator of FairUse4WM]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/25/the-engadget-interview-viodentia-creator-of-fairuse4wm/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/25/the-engadget-interview-viodentia-creator-of-fairuse4wm/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/25/the-engadget-interview-viodentia-creator-of-fairuse4wm/#commentsInstead of our usual run of interviews with industry luminaries and the like, today we're aiming the camera a different direction. We had a few things to ask the person whom we've identified as Viodentia, the creator of FairUse4WM -- the thorn in Microsoft's (and Yahoo's, and Napster's, and Real's, etc.) digital media business for a month now. Seems at once likely and not that the big DRM scheme developed by the largest software company was broken and broken again by a single person, but here we are -- and here's what Viodentia had to say about the digital music business, where Microsoft went wrong with PlaysForSure, and what s/he thinks about this latest memo and patch.

Thanks for granting this interview. So FairUse4WM caused quite a stir. How long did it take you to crack Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM? Was anyone else involved?

Finding a way to extract key information took about a couple of weeks of spare time. Going from a prototype to a more general tool took a couple of months. I am the only developer, although my friends served as early beta testers and sounding boards, and with the initial release I've gotten to know some very helpful people.

So apart from any ideological or political distaste you may have for DRM, do you have any personal reasons for wanting to crack Windows Media DRM? Like, are you a Rhapsody or Napster subscriber?

No, due to geographic location, I'm unable to subscribe to those services. Only my selfish rationale is the challenge in pitting my skills against the industry leader.

Without revealing the secret sauce, what were the fundamental flaws with PlaysForSure that allowed you to break it? Did Microsoft know about these flaws?

Once code is released, there's really nothing secret anymore -- Microsoft didn't follow standard security practices, and left sensitive data unencrypted on the stack while calling routines out of kernel32.dll. Even when they fix this by changing malloc() to alloca(), it'll still be a big task to audit other sensitive routines for DLL calls. On a theoretical level, they have to send the decryption keys outside of their control, and their only defense is through obfuscation.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Viodentia, creator of FairUse4WM

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The Engadget Interview: Viodentia, creator of FairUse4WM originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Sep 2006 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>anti-drmdrmfairuse4wmfeaturesInterviewsportable audioportable videoportableaudioportablevideoviodentiaMon, 25 Sep 2006 13:03:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: J Allard, Microsoft Corporate Vice President]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/14/the-engadget-interview-j-allard-microsoft-corporate-vice-presi/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/14/the-engadget-interview-j-allard-microsoft-corporate-vice-presi/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/14/the-engadget-interview-j-allard-microsoft-corporate-vice-presi/#comments We only got a mere 20 minutes of his time, but Peter and I got a chance to talk to the one and only J Allard about the Zune, digital media, and the direction Microsoft is taking things in what could be their most public marketplace battle since the browser wars. We'll let J do the talking.

So, you guys have heard an awful lot about Zune already leading up to the press release, what can we clarify?

Well, we've been following it pretty closely, obviously, since we first started hearing about it. Obviously today is the big unveiling, and we wanted to get a better idea of Zune not just as a device, but as a platform, and where you guys want to take all this stuff. So maybe you can start off by giving us an overview of where the device is, and where you see it going both as a device and as a platform.

Sure, I think it's a great question the way you phrased it because we actually really think about Zune more as a platform than a device; you used both those two key words. If you step back a little bit in terms of where we're going as a company and where we think we can move forward with the industry in the entertainment space, we have this idea of connected entertainment. You're too familiar with the transition from analog to digital, we think there's a transition that goes one step beyond that called "connected," where the community gets to have greater participation with their entertainment experiences. We want to bring that across all forms of entertainment. What we're doing with Xbox and Xbox Live in the gaming space, what we're doing with MS TV and the Media Center in the television space, and Zune is really our first foray into a deep connected music experience. The first product we'll introduce this holiday will be a connected one -- that's why we put in WiFi in every device, because we think those connected experiences are really going to signal what the future of the music industry looks like, and the future of television and film and everything else. And the community wants to play a big part in it. So while we're starting now and sharing between devices where you can share songs with your friends (3 plays for 3 days), and sort of get the recommendations of your trusted circle of friends and experience and discover new music. You guys know all too well 802.11 devices there are out there. Think about what else we can connect to. Think about all the other scenarios we could do, whether location-based, etc. The device itself is intended to be a future-proof platform that's part of this connected entertainment world where entertainment will become more personal, more interactive, and more engaged with community.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: J Allard, Microsoft Corporate Vice President

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The Engadget Interview: J Allard, Microsoft Corporate Vice President originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Sep 2006 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>digital mediaDigitalMediafeaturesinterviewInterviewsj allardJAllardportable audioportable videoportableaudioportablevideozuneThu, 14 Sep 2006 13:58:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: iriver America President Jonathan Sasse]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/17/the-engadget-interview-iriver-america-president-jonathan-sasse/http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/17/the-engadget-interview-iriver-america-president-jonathan-sasse/http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/17/the-engadget-interview-iriver-america-president-jonathan-sasse/#commentsWe recently had the chance to sit down with iriver America President Jonathan Sasse, who gave us an refreshingly candid take on the company's recently relaunched clix portable media player, its close relationship with MTV's new URGE music download service, and the uphill struggle to increase share in a market dominated by the iPod:

Thanks for sitting down with me this afternoon. There's a lot to talk about, but the big news is that iriver just re-launched the U10 as the clix and announced a relationship with URGE, MTV's new music download service. Could you give us an overview of both the launch and the relationship with URGE, and how it came about?

The launch is going well and the response has been great. Obviously there's been a lot of great reviews. The interesting thing with the clix is that it's a lot more than a new name for the U10.

I've noticed some improvements in the UI.

Yeah, the UI's been changed a lot. The hardware's actually different, too. We upgraded the processor, and obviously the memory and the price are different, too.

It all goes back to late last year. Microsoft came to us and let us know that they we're going to do a new version of Windows Media Player that's gonna be dramatically different than Windows Media Player 10 in a much more visual way and from an experience standpoint.

They also said that they would have a new service partner, though they didn't say who at the time. They said, "We've got somebody that's pretty big and can make a big impact in this space and we'd like to bring you guys on board to help be a great device on that system."

They knew the service had to be really good, but at the end of the day they couldn't just have a smattering of devices that they just grabbed any type of device and plugged it in and said, "There you go."

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The Engadget Interview: iriver America President Jonathan Sasse originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Jul 2006 14:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>clixInterviewsiriverjonathan sasseJonathanSassemtvportable audioportable videoportableaudioportablevideoURGEMon, 17 Jul 2006 14:39:00 EST<![CDATA[Wiimote getting more changes?]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/18/wiimote-getting-more-changes/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/18/wiimote-getting-more-changes/http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/18/wiimote-getting-more-changes/#comments
Take this for what you will, but IGN is reporting that a comment made by the esteemed Shigeru Miyamoto in an interview with Japan's Famitsu may indicate that the supposed "final design" of the Wii controller that we saw at E3 isn't so final after all. Responding to a question about problems the company had in developing the Wiimote, Miyamoto stated that in fact "we're still debating on the area of how many buttons to use," which could be taken to mean that Nintendo has PS3-like changes in mind for the controller before the console ships. Of course, it could just as easily mean that although the design has been finalized, the Wii development team still discusses its merits and detriments amongst themselves, and the fact that the interview was translated over from the native Japanese only further muddies the issue, as Miyamoto's comments may have been taken out of context or lost the meaning he intended. Like we said, this is all just pie-in-the-sky speculation for now, and we're mainly passing it along so you don't freak out if you go to pick up your new Wii in a few months and the controller doesn't look exactly like you've been daydreaming it would.

[Thanks, Dave Z.]

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Wiimote getting more changes? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Jun 2006 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>controllerse3gaminggossipinterviewsnintendoredesignsrumorsshigeru miyamotoShigeruMiyamotovideogameswiiwiimoteSun, 18 Jun 2006 19:30:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Microsoft's Shane Kim]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/16/the-engadget-and-joystiq-interview-microsofts-shane-kim/http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/16/the-engadget-and-joystiq-interview-microsofts-shane-kim/http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/16/the-engadget-and-joystiq-interview-microsofts-shane-kim/#comments If you haven't already watched the video, now you can read the transcription of our interview with Shane Kim, General Manager of Microsoft Game Studios. During E3, Vlad Cole and I got some time to sit down and ask him about some of the biggest questions facing Microsoft's early entrant into the next-gen console wars, like whether there are any more developer acquisitions lined up, which Xbox Live Arcade titles will show up on Vista with Live Anywhere, what are the plans for ad-supported gaming, and just how many paid subscribers does Xbox Live has.

We're corroborating with several sources: is Peter Moore's [Grand Theft Auto 4] tattoo real?

You know, I wasn't there when it was put on there, it's a very personal thing so I can neither confirm nor deny.

Okay... so it's real. Prior to E3, people were really looking forward to actual demonstrations of the Wii controller. That was the big buzz coming into the show and, after they unveiled it, I think people were more or less satisfied with it. So how do you think you fared versus that intense excitement towards that controller?

I think we fared extremely well.  One of the big things we talked about yesterday was all the momentum we're going to have this next generation. We're going to have 10 million units in consumers' hands before the competitor even ships unit one. We're well on our way to 6 million connected members on Xbox Live and we're going to have 160 games in the market by the end of the year. We've got great momentum. We had Bill Gates attend E3 for the first time ever to announce the vision of Live anywhere. Again, demonstrating leadership in the online space isn't just about what we've achieved to date, but also about how we're going to take that forward across multiple platforms and devices. And finally, first and foremost, it's about the games and the content. Yesterday we started with Gears of War and ended with Halo 3, and we sprinkled in a little bit of Fable 2, Forza 2, Alan Wake, and, oh by the way, the Grand Theft Auto 4 announcement as well. So I think from the content standpoint we're definitely doing great there. So, better online, better content, and better pricing than some of the competition; we feel good about where we're at.
Do you think it's important to win E3?  I think most people say you have, at least in terms of the keynotes. 

I think it's always great to be recognized for what you're doing, whether it's at E3 or any other point. Sometimes I worry there's too much importance placed on that but since people are saying we won this year, I'll say it's a great thing we won E3.

Continue reading The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Microsoft's Shane Kim

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The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Microsoft's Shane Kim originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 May 2006 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>E3interviewsMicrosoftMicrosoft Game StudiosMicrosoftGameStudiosShane KimShaneKimXbox 360Xbox360Tue, 16 May 2006 19:30:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/15/the-engadget-and-joystiq-interview-nintendos-perrin-kaplan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/15/the-engadget-and-joystiq-interview-nintendos-perrin-kaplan/http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/15/the-engadget-and-joystiq-interview-nintendos-perrin-kaplan/#comments On the last day of E3 we got to sit down with Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo of America's Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Affairs. We still had a lot of questions for her to field after interviewing Miyamoto-san the day before, specifically regarding the naming of the Wii (yeah, we had to ask), what Nintendo's online strategy actually is, what they're doing with launching first party titles like Smash Bros. on the Wii, why the GameCube was suspiciously absent this year, and exactly where homebrew gaming fits into the final equation.

So I guess we should get started. Thank you very much for meeting us. Everybody here has this badge that says "what's your brain age?" so I'm curious to know what your brain age is.

Oh my gosh, I haven't played in a good couple of weeks. I guess down to 30 or so.

Really?

Yeah, I need to work on it. Our President [Satoru Iwata] is very proud that his is 20.

Today is the last day, everything is pretty much behind us. How do you guys think you fared?

Even better than we thought. I think we were all really excited coming in, with pretty much trying to say to people, "It's not about what you see, you have to try it," which is why our theme is "playing equals believing." I think you really have to try and take the products for a ride yourself. And that people are embracing that and lining up at record lengths and number of hours and really enjoying it -- saying it was worth the wait is fantastic.

One of the things I've been hearing from a lot of people in the industry is they felt that Sony really fell flat this year, and I was curious to know what you think they could have done better.

That's a hard one. I have my own personal rule: I don't hold a media briefing that's over 60 minutes. I think it's really hard to have a captive audience be engaged that long. Even in school, I could have had the most stimulating presentation from a teacher and an hour starts to get a long time. That's probably one thing I would do differently. But their product line is what their product line is and their approach is their approach, so what I would do differently is really hard for me to say because we're over here doing something really different and it feels really great. I think being innovative, at least for us, is exciting.

Continue reading The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan

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The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 May 2006 16:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>e3featuresinterviewsnintendoperrin kaplanPerrinKaplanwiiMon, 15 May 2006 16:42:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Microsoft's Peter Moore]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/12/the-engadget-and-joystiq-interview-microsofts-peter-moore/http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/12/the-engadget-and-joystiq-interview-microsofts-peter-moore/http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/12/the-engadget-and-joystiq-interview-microsofts-peter-moore/#comments
This morning, Vlad Cole and I had an opportunity to chat with Microsoft's Peter Moore, the man responsible for marketing the Xbox 360. When we last pinned him down at CES, there were still so many unanswered questions about the competition. After Sony and Nintendo's keynotes at E3, not to mention their own, the time was ripe to ask him about a portable Xbox, the Nintendo Wii complementing the Xbox 360, the Sony Dual Shake controller, and where he got that ink on his arm.

Forgive me if I interrupt you, if I hear something that I already heard at the press briefing, I might cut your answer short a little bit. Congratulations on Gears of War. Everyone is saying it looks and plays awesome. It actually appears to be head and shoulders above everything we're seeing on the show floor. Is that a conscious choice to keep it off the floor itself, so that the comparison gap doesn't pop?

No, not really. I think the idea is that the game deserves hands-on. We're trying to show it to as many people as we can up here. The team at Epic is really so conscious of the quality of what they're doing and presenting that bringing them up here, we'll get thousands of people through in the end, they churn people through pretty quickly, there was no conscious effort, no.

So where are the rest of the games that look this good?

Here? That depends on your ... you tell me. What is it that you think is missing?

There does appear to be a gap in quality between that and everything else. It's just head and shoulders above. We're wondering if there are other titles that will match that by the time they come out.

Quality of gameplay, graphics, depth, immersion? It's all subjective. I'm biased on all of them. Games like Crackdown: different visual style, different genre. But, it's coming together really well.  Mass Effect. I was on some blogs last night where people are spending some time on it and are really impressed with it. Dave Perry and a few other people wrote some really strong stories about Mass Effect. That's a weird question ... I mean, which of my children do I love more?

Continue reading The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Microsoft's Peter Moore

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The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Microsoft's Peter Moore originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 May 2006 23:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>E3featuresInterviewsJoystiqMicrosoftMSFTPeter MoorePeterMooreXbox 360Xbox360Fri, 12 May 2006 23:15:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto (again!)]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/11/the-engadget-and-joystiq-interview-nintendos-shigeru-miyamoto-a/http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/11/the-engadget-and-joystiq-interview-nintendos-shigeru-miyamoto-a/http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/11/the-engadget-and-joystiq-interview-nintendos-shigeru-miyamoto-a/#comments When we found out Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to give us a second round to ask him about the latest in the world of Nintendo here at E3, I found that same inner-child fanboy Peter reminisced about when we last interviewed him start to emerge. Suddenly I wanted to play all those games I grew up on again, but we had to know how he thinks the Wii is going to change the future of gaming. Vlad Cole and I somehow managed to pull ourselves together long enough to ask him about whether the sedentary gaming world is ready for full-body frenetic gameplay, how he's influencing the next generation of Nintendo games and game designers, the media agendas of the 360 and PlayStation 3, and even a little on HD gaming.

So, thank you very much for meeting with us, I really appreciate it. The Wii represents a major step forward for Nintendo in terms of functionality and capabilities. One of the things we're really curious to know is what Wii is going to enable you as a game maker to create that you've never been able to create before.

Well, I think the greatest strength of the Wii is that it allows you to create games that are very intuitive and very easy to pick up and play, such that people who've never played a video game before can easily pick up the controller and start playing. And that's kind of the concept behind the games like Tennis and Golf and Baseball and the Wii Sports Series, and these are really kind of the very basic games that we're looking at doing.

And then of course thinking about the types of games that the gamers have come to know and play over the years, the unique features of the Wii controller, such as the direct pointing device on the Wii Remote will allow gamers to now more directly interact with the types of game screens that they've seen, where they're pointing directly at a place on screen to interact with it.

Is there a type of game that even now you still can't or for whatever reason create?

I can't think of any off the top of my head. I don't really have any ideas that stew in my brain for long periods of time. I really just focus on what I'm working on at the moment.

The one thing that I have been thinking about for a long time is this problem we've had with 3D games, where as we've been making 3D games, 3D worlds and the control schemes have becomes so complicated. People who don't play games can't easily jump into those interactive worlds and experience them. And I think we've been able to overcome some of that difficulty with the functionality of the Wii controller. So now as we go forward and create software I have to continue to think of ideas of how to take advantage of that to overcome that barrier.

Continue reading The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto (again!)

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The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto (again!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 May 2006 20:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featuresinterviewInterviewsmiyamotonintendoshigeru miyamotoShigeruMiyamotowiiThu, 11 May 2006 20:08:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Sky Dayton, Helio CEO]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/17/the-engadget-interview-sky-dayton-helio-ceo/http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/17/the-engadget-interview-sky-dayton-helio-ceo/http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/17/the-engadget-interview-sky-dayton-helio-ceo/#commentsOk, so CTIA, the big wireless industry trade show that Ryan and I went to earlier this month, didn't exactly knock our socks off, but we were lucky enough to sit down with Sky Dayton, the serial entrepreneur behind EarthLink and Boingo. Dayton's latest venture is Helio, a youth-oriented (yeah, we know...) MVNO that's all set to launch this spring.

Thanks so much for taking some time to speak with us; I'm sure it's been a busy week for you here at CTIA. Could you tell us about Helio? I know you're getting ready to launch soon.

Helio is a new mobile brand designed for young, passionate consumers that have really been missing out on cool stuff; not just in terms of technology, but in terms of services -- some of which are available elsewhere in other countries like Korea, and some of which we're just inventing and that are totally new. We don't have the word "wireless" or "mobile" in our name -- it's just Helio. That's because for young, passionate consumers today, it's just as much about fashion and lifestyle as it is technology, and saying the word "wireless" is a little bit redundant. Of course it's wireless. We never had a concept that there was a wire.

What we're doing is starting with a technological lead with a platform from Korea, from SK Telecom, probably the most advanced wireless market in the world and bringing a basis of innovation here. Then we're taking that and creating some interesting stuff with that.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Sky Dayton, Helio CEO

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The Engadget Interview: Sky Dayton, Helio CEO originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Apr 2006 13:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>cell phonecell phonesCellPhoneCellPhonesctiaev-dofeatureshelioherointerviewinterviewskickflipmvnosky daytonSkyDaytonMon, 17 Apr 2006 13:12:00 EST<![CDATA[The Clicker: A sitdown with Microsoft's Joe Belfiore (Part I)]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/02/the-clicker-a-sitdown-with-microsofts-joe-belfiore-part-i/http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/02/the-clicker-a-sitdown-with-microsofts-joe-belfiore-part-i/http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/02/the-clicker-a-sitdown-with-microsofts-joe-belfiore-part-i/#commentsEvery Thursday Stephen Speicher contributes The Clicker, a weekly opinion column on entertainment and technology:

You might not know the name Joe Belfiore, but chances are you know his work. As the VP in charge of Microsoft's eHome division, Joe has been instrumental in helping to grow Microsoft's dream of a media-rich computing experience into a SKU, Media Center Edition, that at last tally has sold over 6.5 million copies.

This week I sat down with Joe. What did I learn? Quite a bit. I learned that even though Joe is one of the key industry-leaders in the DVR space, his wife wears the remote in their family. I learned that, perhaps, producing a "Digital Cable Ready" computer might not be as difficult as you think. But, most importantly, I learned that if you spend an hour with a fast-talker who is incredibly passionate about his work, be prepared to do some editing.

Below are some highlights from the discussion:

Continue reading The Clicker: A sitdown with Microsoft's Joe Belfiore (Part I)

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The Clicker: A sitdown with Microsoft's Joe Belfiore (Part I) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Mar 2006 22:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featuresInterviewsJoe BelfioreJoeBelfioreMedia Center PCmedia pcmedia pcsMediaCenterPcmediapcmediapcsThu, 02 Mar 2006 22:35:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Reggie Fils-Aime, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Nintendo]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/20/the-engadget-interview-reggie-fils-aime-executive-vice-preside/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/20/the-engadget-interview-reggie-fils-aime-executive-vice-preside/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/20/the-engadget-interview-reggie-fils-aime-executive-vice-preside/#commentsReggie Fils-AimeI hardly ever agree to do phone interviews - there's something about actually being able to sit face-to-face with someone that makes a conversation flow - but when Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo's Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, calls, you gotta accept the charges. Read on to see what Reggie has to say about the new Nintendo DS (and how it's not "unreasonable" to assume that a third DS is in the works), the current state of the Revolution (and how that really is just a code name), how they're planning to introduce a new franchise on the level of Zelda/Mario/Nintendogs at E3 this year, how underwhelmed he was by the Xbox 360, and how he absolutely, positively has not seen that Nintendo ON video that was circulating last year.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to chat with me today, I know you have a very busy schedule right now. One of the first things I wanted to ask you about is the new Nintendo DS Lite which was announced in Japan a couple of weeks ago. Is this what the DS should have been when it was first introduced back in 2004?

When the DS was first announced our focus really was on communicating to consumers and to developers the innovation that's in that unit: two screens, a touch screen, voice activation. And we've certainly done that to the tune of multi-millions of units sold across the world. We really a leadership position in every market we compete in versus our competition.

In terms of the physical unit itself, from the day we first showed pictures we've been ongoing making tweaks and adjustments, looking to get it as beautiful and as distinctive as possible. What we showed at E3 ended up being different than what we launched with. And certainly what this iteration represents is our ongoing effort to leverage product design to make our innovations and products as attractive as possible.

We will continue to make ongoing adjustments and tweaks to our product design, always with the eye of the consumer in mind.

Does that mean we could probably expect a third iteration of the DS about 18 months from now?

I wouldn't say that that's an unreasonable assumption. Look at how many times we've improved on the Game Boy Advance in terms of the look, the feel, screen changes, and everything else. We believe that type of constant innovation is critical to driving this industry, and certainly if you look at the world wide sales of Game Boy Advance, I don't think anyone would disagree.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Reggie Fils-Aime, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Nintendo

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The Engadget Interview: Reggie Fils-Aime, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Nintendo originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Feb 2006 12:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>InterviewsMon, 20 Feb 2006 12:54:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Cesar Vohringer, Chief Technology Officer for Philips Consumer Electronics Business]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/30/the-engadget-interview-cesar-vohringer-chief-technology-office/http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/30/the-engadget-interview-cesar-vohringer-chief-technology-office/http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/30/the-engadget-interview-cesar-vohringer-chief-technology-office/#commentsWe had the opportunity to sit down with Cesar Vohringer, Chief Technology Officer for Philips Consumer Electronics Business to chew the fat about the changing face of consumer electronics industry, the quest for interoperable DRMs, the winner of Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD, and the future of technology as home and mobile entertainment converge.

Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today.

My pleasure.

Philips has a long history of successful innovation resulting in revolutionary consumer products: Compact Audio Cassette, Compact Disc, and even Senseo coffee makers to name a few. How do you foster innovation at Philips and which companies do you look to as the model for innovation?

If you look at Philips' long history, you'll see that the company was conceived and actually began to evolve, centered on technology. And some of these innovations come very much out of technology: the compact audio and compact discs, clearly. Well, if you begin to look more recently, then you begin to see a mix of innovations, which are technology innovations with innovations that are much consumer centric, or consumer-driven innovations, utilizing in some cases a very innovative technology.

You mentioned one example right now -- the Senseo coffee maker, for instance, is an innovation of putting together available technologies and making it easy, simple, friendly and of good quality for the consumers. But there's nothing revolutionary about the technology the Senseo uses. You can say the proposition is innovative. Also with the Ambilight TV. It's again putting together available technologies but providing the user with a viewing experience which he enjoys. And this came out of a lot of consumer research, out of our home lab - we have a home lab here in our Innovation Campus where we portray a number of these innovative concepts, and we have people living in that for days and experiencing that and giving us feedback. So I think that over the last few years there has been a lot of effort put in the company to take a user centric innovation approach and to begin to balance the technology strength of the company with the consumer insight.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Cesar Vohringer, Chief Technology Officer for Philips Consumer Electronics Business

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The Engadget Interview: Cesar Vohringer, Chief Technology Officer for Philips Consumer Electronics Business originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jan 2006 12:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featuresInterviewsMon, 30 Jan 2006 12:41:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Peter Moore, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/23/the-engadget-interview-peter-moore-corporate-vice-president-of/http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/23/the-engadget-interview-peter-moore-corporate-vice-president-of/http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/23/the-engadget-interview-peter-moore-corporate-vice-president-of/#commentsPeter Moore Xbox MicrosoftThis interview is a bit of a straggler from CES, but a couple of weeks ago James Ransom-Wiley from Joystiq and I were able to sit down and chat with Peter Moore, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division (translation: he's in charge of marketing for the Xbox). Read on to hear what he has to say about the Xbox 360's forthcoming HD-DVD drive, how long we'll have to wait to see a truly console-defining title, his thoughts on the 360's Japanese launch, and how they're getting ready to go head-to-head with the PlayStation 3 later this year.

Thanks for taking a few minutes out of your schedule today.

My pleasure.

We know CES is pretty insane, so we really appreciate it. So how has it gone so far? It's been a couple months now since the launch of the Xbox 360.

Yeah, actually it's only been six weeks.

Has it really only been six weeks?

Yeah.

Funny how it feels like it's been a lot longer.

Yeah, it feels like a lifetime. That's because we went November 22nd and then we went December 2nd in Europe, and then, of course, we were all to Japan on December 10th. So clearly in the western world in particular it's phenomenal.

And our biggest challenge, as I said at the keynote with Bill Gates, is meeting demand. We are continuing to expedite as many consoles into Europe, in particular, where demand is even heavier than it is in the United States -- as difficult as that is to believe. We're doing everything we can to meet that demand, and hopefully later on in the Spring you'll be able to actually walk in and buy one off the shelf.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Peter Moore, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division

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The Engadget Interview: Peter Moore, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2006 12:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>CESInterviewsMon, 23 Jan 2006 12:21:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Bill Gates (again!)]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/09/the-engadget-interview-bill-gates-again/http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/09/the-engadget-interview-bill-gates-again/http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/09/the-engadget-interview-bill-gates-again/#commentsBill Gates
CES wasn't only about crazy gadget news and booth tours - we also scored a second chance to sit down with our new best friend Bill Gates and ask him all about the big announcements he made during his keynote last Wednesday. Read on to find out what he had to say about online video download subscription services, whether or not he was happy with the launch of the Xbox 360, which Xbox 360 games he's been playing, how he still thinks there's time to avoid a format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, why he doesn't think that Apple's switch to Intel chips makes a difference for Microsoft, and how he is now, finally, a Treo user.

Thanks, it's good to sit down with you again, I hope you're having a good time at CES.

Oh, it's always fun.

Before we start, I wanted to congratulate you and your wife on being named by Time as their Persons of the Year along with Bono.

Thank you.

First off, I wanted to talk about some of the stuff you talked about your keynote, specifically Vongo, which is going to be the first of what I presume will be several online video subscription services that will be announced in the next few months. It's similar to the ToGo services that are available already for music, but do you think that online video download subscriptions have a greater chance of being successful than the rental model has so far been for music? Are customers already used to the idea of renting movies, but it's taking them some time to getting used to the idea of renting music?

Yeah, I mean, movies are a bit different in the sense that it's often that you'll want to see it once, and then having it in a library wouldn't be that critical to you, whereas with music you're going to want to listen to it many, many times. In fact, you can hear it once on the radio and get that sample, so it's the ongoing use that's the real value there.

Video is clearly behind music. It's not as easy today to get your videos on your disk and manage them that way, that's why there's this Managed Copy thing that we do with the HD-DVD guys to make sure that you can always do that. We're getting more of it on the Internet so it's easy to sign up and use, getting the portable devices so it's quick and easy to download; there's a lot of work that we and others are doing, but that's going to be a mainstream scenario.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Bill Gates (again!)

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The Engadget Interview: Bill Gates (again!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jan 2006 12:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>CEShdtvInterviewsmedia pcmedia pcsmediapcmediapcsportable audioportable videoportableaudioportablevideoMon, 09 Jan 2006 12:02:00 EST<![CDATA[Backstage at the Google press conference]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/07/backstage-at-the-google-press-conference/http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/07/backstage-at-the-google-press-conference/http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/07/backstage-at-the-google-press-conference/#comments
The real action was in the green room last night.  Onstage, Robin Williams had zapped audience members who challenged Larry Page with questions at the company's keynote.  But Larry and Google CEO Eric Schmidt faced the world's toughest tech journos on their own afterwards at an invite-only press conference.  Google's event staff tracked our liveblog during the keynote and invited us after the show to join a dozen reporters from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and others.  These guys made us look like pussycats.  Our notes are after the jump.

Continue reading Backstage at the Google press conference

Backstage at the Google press conference originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Jan 2006 16:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>CESfeaturesInterviewsSat, 07 Jan 2006 16:14:00 EST<![CDATA[Engadget Podcast 059 - 01.06.2006]]>http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/06/engadget-podcast-059-01-06-2006/http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/06/engadget-podcast-059-01-06-2006/http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/06/engadget-podcast-059-01-06-2006/#commentsPodcast logo

UPDATE: OUR RSS FEED IS EXPERIENCING SOME DIFFICULTIES, BUT RATHER THAN CONTINUE TO WITHOLD THE PODCAST, WE'RE POSTING IT. WE'RE WORKING ON IT, THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE!

On our second day of CES coverage we didn't exactly get much more sleep, but we did manage to have the best keynote coverage of anyone anywhere. Marc Perton, our resident keynote ninja, sits down with Peter to talk about his day spent with Moto, Dell, Samsung and Sony. Besides the keynotes, we pontificate on Verizon finally adding V CAST Music, SanDisk rocking two new MP3 players, and TiVo yanking a keynote at what looks like the last minute. Plus, Peter interviews Dell CEO Michael Dell (yeah, that Michael Dell). The Engadget podcast from CES is a-go!

Get the podcast
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Hosts
Peter Rojas and Ryan Block

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Randall Bennett

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38:54, 17.8 MB, MP3

Program
03:33 TiVo announces the Series 3 DVR, but kills their press conference
05:20 Verizon VCAST Music
06:02 Sandisk intros new PMPs
07:09 Recap of Intel's keynote
16:17 Marc Perton on Sony's keynote
20:42 ... and on Michael Dell's Keynote
25:59 ... and on Samsung's press event
28:14 ... and also on Motorola's press event
33:09 Interview with Dell CEO Michael Dell

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Engadget Podcast 059 - 01.06.2006 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jan 2006 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>cesces 2006ces2006dellintelinterviewInterviewsmedia pcmedia pcsmediapcmediapcsmichael dellMichaelDellmotorolapodcastssamsungsandisksonytivovcastFri, 06 Jan 2006 22:30:00 ESTEngadget Podcast 059Engadget38:54<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Rob Glaser, founder and CEO of RealNetworks]]>http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/19/the-engadget-interview-rob-glaser-founder-and-ceo-of-realnetwo/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/19/the-engadget-interview-rob-glaser-founder-and-ceo-of-realnetwo/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/19/the-engadget-interview-rob-glaser-founder-and-ceo-of-realnetwo/#commentsWe sat down with RealNetworks founder and CEO Rob Glaser during our recent trip to Seattle and chatted with him for an hour or so about the state of the digital music industry, Rhapsody's new web services, and his company's strategy going forward. Read on to find out why Rob thinks that the iPod's reign will soon be coming to an end, why he's not worried about Yahoo Music Unlimited, and how he wishes that the major labels would take a two-year break from DRM.

Rob GlaserThanks for taking the time to sit down with me today. I wanted to start off by asking you about Rhapsody To Go, your subscription service for portable devices. Other companies like Yahoo and Napster offer similar PlaysForSure-based subscription services, but with everyone using essentially the same DRM technology, how does Real stand out? Is Real doing enough to differentiate itself from Yahoo, which offers a similar service at a cut-rate price?

Well, we have differentiation on a couple of different levels. The first I will mention is the editorial. People say, "Hey, it's great that I can actually get not just unlimited access to a million and a half songs, but I can also get it in a relevant way where I go to a band like Aerosmith, and it tells me that the Rolling Stones were one of their influences, and it tells me who their contemporaries were. It shows me that link to Run-DMC/Aerosmith's 'Walk this Way,'" One of the things that people love about Rhapsody is this sense of connectedness; in fact, our full subscribers listen to over 200 songs a month per subscriber. We've never heard our competitors quote the numbers of songs their subscribers listen to because it'd be much less.

Do you mean they're downloading 200 songs per month?

That they play over 200 songs a month, whether it's streamed or downloaded. It doesn't matter because you get access to it either way. Initially, it was just streaming. Now, we support both modes, and, in fact, the usage has stayed strong. It's crept up a little bit, which is a bit of a surprise because the user base is growing. You'd think that because it might be an early adopter thing that the number per user would come down.

So that tells us that people like the experience and use it much more, on average, than any of our competitors. With regards to the technology piece, we actually do have a very differentiated technology in that we have a set of DRM technology, which we call Harmony, that allows for playback on a broader range of portable devices than anybody else.

That that includes supporting the Microsoft devices, both on a individual track download basis and a subscription basis. We do that is because there are a set of devices that have that support, but we also support other devices like Palm Treos that have the native support for our Helix digital rights manager, and we also continue to support the iPod for people that want to take tracks and move them to the iPod. We're the only people, other than Apple, that have that support, so we have quite a differentiation from the technology standpoint.

The last thing I'll say with the technology is to look at the work we've done with Sonos, which is to bring an integrative subscription service directly to a smart in home device. Your readers would probably know more than most about just how great a product it is. We have one in our home and everybody who has it says it's just changed the way they think about getting digital music through their home. With Rhapsody directly integrated into the service you can get access to any of your playlists, you can get access to any of the music that you've specified directly on the device, and we're talking to Sonos about doing an even deeper integration.

Really, we can do that because we have the end-to end technology, and aren't gonna be just a passive packager of other peoples' digital rights management technology. We integrate with other DRM's because we want to get consumers the richest experience, but there is quite a differentiation in the technology, and I think that will be increasingly visible to consumers.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Rob Glaser, founder and CEO of RealNetworks

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The Engadget Interview: Rob Glaser, founder and CEO of RealNetworks originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Dec 2005 13:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>Interviewsportable audioportableaudioMon, 19 Dec 2005 13:50:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Paul Griffin, CEO/founder of Griffin Technology]]>http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/14/the-engadget-interview-paul-griffin-ceo-founder-of-griffin/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/14/the-engadget-interview-paul-griffin-ceo-founder-of-griffin/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/14/the-engadget-interview-paul-griffin-ceo-founder-of-griffin/#commentsFor this week's Engadget Interview, veteran journalist J.D. Lasica bumped into Paul Griffin, CEO of Griffin Technology, at the Portable Media Expo and Podcasting Conference in Ontario, Calif., on Friday. The self-effacing Griffin discusses the panoply of products his company puts out for gadget lovers, Apple's dominance in the portable music market, and what's ahead for Griffin in the peripherals space.

Paul GriffinHow long ago did you found your company?

We started 13 years ago.

What products did you start out focusing on?

We started off making video adapters and later on started making serial adapters. We've been focused since the early days on making connectivity products, and later on we began making stand-alone products or peripherals that didn't rely on just a single product but on things like a USB bus.

Where are your headquarters? How many employees?

We're in Nashville, Tenn., and we have 60 to 70 employees now. About half our employees are in R&D, including me. I don't even get involved in sales or marketing distribution areas.

Whenever I think of Griffin I think of an entire buffet of products. But do you have one main product line?

There are several products I really love that we did for the iPod. We did the iTrip and the iTalk and the SmartDeck, and we have a couple of new variations that are really interesting. These are all products that in one way or another were fairly novel and different ideas. Our hearts are really into it.


Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Paul Griffin, CEO/founder of Griffin Technology

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The Engadget Interview: Paul Griffin, CEO/founder of Griffin Technology originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Nov 2005 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>Interviewsportable audioportableaudioMon, 14 Nov 2005 15:10:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: David Steel, Vice President of Marketing for Samsung Electronics' Digital Media Business]]>http://www.engadget.com/2005/10/17/the-engadget-interview-david-steel-vice-president-of/http://www.engadget.com/2005/10/17/the-engadget-interview-david-steel-vice-president-of/http://www.engadget.com/2005/10/17/the-engadget-interview-david-steel-vice-president-of/#commentsWe recently sat down with David Steel, Vice President of Marketing for Samsung Electronics' Digital Media Business, and were able to rap with him for an hour about competing (and not competing) with Apple, the future of portable video, why Samsung might not introduce a dual-format Blu-ray/HD-DVD player, how much longer we'll have to wait to buy an OLED TV, and why they're so much more receptive to open standards than their arch-rival Sony.

David Steel SamsungOne of the first questions I wanted to ask you about is related to MP3 players and digital audio. Samsung's semiconductor business is supplying flash modules to Apple for the iPod nano, reportedly at extremely discounted prices. How does this affect Samsung's MP3 player business? Is there a conflict between these two divisions of the company?

To start, obviously I can't talk about some of these commercial relationships between the semiconductor side and any of their costumers for flash memory. We certainly have a big interest in flash memory on the consumer electronics side of the business and have really seen the growth of flash memory. Previously some of these smaller MP3 players that were using hard disk drives we now want to move over to larger capacity flash memory. There certainly is a strategic goal there in really trying to hasten the growth of flash memory in players. That's really coming from the component side, rather than from the [consumer electronics] side.

All of this interest in flash is quite helpful to us because it boosts the industry in a place where we want to see it go. So I mean, don't think that all the time this is just a competition between Samsung and Apple. I think something that can grow the market, particularly in flash memory players, is good for everyone. I don't see this as a conflict - the semiconductor guys are growing their sales in flash memory products while we're also significantly growing sales in MP3 players.

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The Engadget Interview: David Steel, Vice President of Marketing for Samsung Electronics' Digital Media Business originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Oct 2005 13:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featureshdtvInterviewsportable audioportable videoportableaudioportablevideoMon, 17 Oct 2005 13:05:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto]]>http://www.engadget.com/2005/10/03/the-engadget-amp-joystiq-interview-nintendos-shigeru/http://www.engadget.com/2005/10/03/the-engadget-amp-joystiq-interview-nintendos-shigeru/http://www.engadget.com/2005/10/03/the-engadget-amp-joystiq-interview-nintendos-shigeru/#commentsIf there's one sure way to a reduce me to the ten-year-old Nintendo fanboy I once was, that's to offer me a chance to kick it with Shigeru Miyamoto, the man who created Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., and Legend of Zelda and in the process (nearly) single-handedly transformed the video game industry forever. We recently sat down with master himself and tried to stay cool, calm, and collected just long enough to ask him some questions about Nintendogs, the new Revolution controller, the future of wireless gaming, what makes Nintendo different from its competitors, whether Mario is in too many games, and of course, that notorious Nintendo ON video that was floating around the interweb a few months back.

Shigeru MiyamotoThank you so much for taking the time to meet with me this morning. The first thing I wanted to ask you about was Nintendogs, which has been a big hit for Nintendo-specifically about the inspiration for the game and what inspiration you might have found in earlier games.

Well with development, you spend usually one to two years on a game. But in actuality, you kind of have ideas that are floating around in your head for three, four, even five years before that. In my case, oftentimes I'll just have an object sitting my desk that'll be sitting there for a long time, and I'll kind of interact with it and it will spur ideas. In this case, about four years ago, my family and I bought a dog and started taking care of it and that became the impetus for this project.

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The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Oct 2005 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featuresInterviewsMon, 03 Oct 2005 13:20:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Michael Robertson, CEO of SIPphone]]>http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/12/the-engadget-interview-michael-robertson-ceo-of-sipphone/http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/12/the-engadget-interview-michael-robertson-ceo-of-sipphone/http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/12/the-engadget-interview-michael-robertson-ceo-of-sipphone/#commentsFor this week's Engadget Interview, veteran journalist J.D. Lasica spoke with SIPphone Inc. CEO Michael Robertson about his startup company's battle against Skype (which was purchased by eBay earlier today), the Gizmo Project, open standards, and the coming era of always-on, always-connected voice communication.

Let's start with a quick backgrounder on SIPphone.

Michael Robertson

SIPphone was started two years ago in San Diego. The goal was to bring Voice Over IP to the mass market. But more than VoIP, the goal was to emphasize SIP, which is an open standards signaling protocol. The goal was to push voice to be more like email and less like instant messaging. With email, you have an email address and you can email anyone in the world and they can email you back. Contrast that with IM, where if you're on MSN I can't instant-message you because you're on Yahoo or someone's on AOL.

At SIPphone we do several things. We run a directory, what people in IP land call a proxy server. This is the server that connects two people. We help SIP hardware manufacturers - these are routers, adapters, and even wi-fi SIPphones. When you buy one of those devices and you plug it in, it has to connect to a directory so it can connect calls and give you a dial phone, so we work with them to make those auto-configure.

And very recently we released software that uses our directory called Gizmo Project. That's in Mac, Windows, and we just added Linux last week.

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The Engadget Interview: Michael Robertson, CEO of SIPphone originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2005 14:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>InterviewsMon, 12 Sep 2005 14:23:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Christian Bubenheim, general manager, Magellan Consumer Products]]>http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/08/the-engadget-interview-christian-bubenheim-general-manager/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/08/the-engadget-interview-christian-bubenheim-general-manager/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/08/the-engadget-interview-christian-bubenheim-general-manager/#commentsFor this week's Engadget Interview, veteran journalist J.D. Lasica spoke with Christian Bubenheim, vice president and general manager, Thales' Magellan Consumer Products Business about portable GPS systems, how you use them in the wild, and how to find your car in Shea Stadium's parking lot.

Christian BubenheimWhy don't you give us the nickel tour of Thales and Magellan?

Thales Navigation is the result of four GPS companies that came together over the past few years. The business really comprises three business units: Magellan on the consumer side, which includes outdoor handheld products and vehicle navigation; on the professional side we service survey and GIS or mapping customers, and on the OEM side selling into the automotive industry, avionics, lots of consumer electronics providers, and we do that through lots of different chipsets and black-box products. We have 13 locations around the world, about 650 employees, and we are sold through more than 20,000 retail locations.

Lay out for me the landscape for GPS devices. How big is this marketplace? Have we reached a tipping point yet where GPS navigation is becoming a mainstream activity?

The technology of GPS has been around for a long time. From a consumer standpoint, we definitely have reached a tipping point in the area of vehicle navigation. From region to region, the adoption rates and penetration are different. The Japanese market is the most advanced in vehicle navigation, followed by the European market and then, last, with a couple of years to catch up, is the North American market.

The tipping point where we see the biggest growth in vehicle navigation has been portable aftermarket products. Those are dedicated devices like the Magellan RoadMate that the consumer can buy in a consumer electronics outlet or club warehouse, put into his car and get up and running very quickly. It's usually a windshield installation or dashboard mount, but there's no professional installation necessary, you just turn it on and go.

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The Engadget Interview: Christian Bubenheim, general manager, Magellan Consumer Products originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Aug 2005 15:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>featuresInterviewsMon, 08 Aug 2005 15:04:00 EST<![CDATA[The Engadget Interview: Blake Krikorian, CEO of Sling Media]]>http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/18/the-engadget-interview-blake-krikorian-ceo-of-sling-media/http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/18/the-engadget-interview-blake-krikorian-ceo-of-sling-media/http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/18/the-engadget-interview-blake-krikorian-ceo-of-sling-media/#commentsFor this week's Engadget Interview, veteran journalist J.D. Lasica spoke with Sling Media CEO Blake Krikorian about the rollout of the Slingbox, its disruptive effects on Hollywood business models, the notions of place-shifting and personal broadcasting, and an announcement he's making right here on Engadget about support for a new operating system.

Blake KrikorianThis week I'll be combining my questions with a few that our readers have posted on the site.

I saw those, and I was like, "Wow! Pretty impressive."

Let's start with the basics. How many employees do you have, where are you located, and when did Sling Media get started?

We have 30 to 40 folks. We're headquartered in San Mateo in the Bay Area, as well as in Bangalore, India. We merged with DiTango a year ago.

How did you get interested in this space personally?

Myself and several other folks on the team have been in this digital convergence space for about 15 years. I started out in this field at a company called General Magic-a spinout from Apple-back in the early 90s. We were out to create an operating system and programming language for a variety of devices as well as a new electronic marketplace. This is before the Web came along.

Where did the idea for the Slingbox come from?

Five years before founding Sling Media, I had a company with my brother Jason called id8 Group Holdings. We were advising many large, established companies in this convergence space: Microsoft, Samsung, Toshiba. We helped them define new products. We were traveling quite a bit in the summer of 2002 and we were pretty diehard San Francisco Giants fans. That was the year they finally wound up going to the Series, before falling apart in the sixth game. We were on the road and just dying to watch the ballgames.

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The Engadget Interview: Blake Krikorian, CEO of Sling Media originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jul 2005 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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