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Switched On: Three days without Google Glass
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. The television. The PC. The cellphone. We take the things in these sentence fragments for granted today, but they took many years to enter the mainstream. Could Google Glass herald the next great product that we will one day wonder how we lived without? Based on three days of not using the product, you may want to ask someone else.
Switched On: Extreme takeover, Home edition
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Facebook's management doesn't see any dichotomy in the phrase, "Go big or go home," at least as far as it might pertain to Facebook Home. After being dogged for years with questions about whether the Land o' Likes would create its own smartphone despite consistent denials, the company explained that its own phone wouldn't give it the reach it would need for its more than 1 billion members. With the exceptions of the iPhone and the Galaxy S series, a successful handset today might sell 20 million units. That's a number that many services would dream of reaching, but it's just one-fiftieth of Facebook's user base. And yet, Facebook Home will start out factory-installed on only one device: the HTC First, a mid-range Android device available exclusively from AT&T. Home is also available as a download from Google Play for a handful of other popular Android handsets, including the Galaxy S III.
Switched On: Unconventional, but not uncompromising
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. For T-Mobile, March went out like a lion, a roaring one. With passion for both invention and invective, T-Mobile roared against the contract during its UnCarrier announcement. The nation's fourth-largest (post-carrier) wireless operator will support its move away from contracts with a television spot that shows it as one of four bad guys riding into town to get people to do things their way, but then trades in its "black hat" for a magenta one as it no longer seeks to enforce those policies. T-Mobile says to watch carefully as each of the other bad guys has a distinct personality that reflects one of its main competitors. T-Mobile is in a battle for getting consumers onto a network that is described as 4G, but evaluating the appeal of its announcement comes down to looking at four S's - subsidy, selection, speed and simplicity.
Switched On: Chrome on the range
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. If Chrome OS didn't start out with an inferiority complex living in the shadow of the massive adoption of its cousin Android, and with Eric Schmidt dismissing the hardware that would run it as cheap and interchangeable, the hardware companies that were early to adopt it didn't help matters. Chrome OS arrived on devices that weren't priced competitively against then-popular netbooks. Since then, though, the Chrome hardware story has been on a steady upswing. Thanks to Acer, Chromebooks broke the $200 price point. Thanks to Samsung, they made the leap to the ARM architecture, enabling longer battery life in a thin form factor. And thanks to HP and Lenovo, Chromebooks have joined the portfolios of two of the biggest names in corporate computing. While it may be nowhere near Android's scale in terms of overall devices, Chrome OS is now offered by three of 2012's top Windows PC manufacturers. That is certainly enough to show up on Microsoft's radar. Into this fray comes the Chromebook Pixel and it has clearly learned from other successful ecosystems.
Switched On: A 4K in the road
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. The past decade has now seen at least three industry-wide technologies vie for the future of television -- HD, 3D and now 4K or UHD. The first of these -- HD -- represented a massive change for television that affected nearly every aspect of the TV experience from how it was captured to how it was consumed. A decade later, it is nearly impossible to purchase a TV that does not support high-definition. The second -- 3D -- was a mixed bag. While the technology became commonplace on high-end TVs, it has remained relevant for only a small fraction of programming. The question, then, is which of these paths, if either, 4K will follow.
Switched On: Moving forward with leaning back
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Just a few months have passed between the introduction of the Droid DNA and the new HTC One, but it seems that HTC has been turned upside down in that time. While the Droid DNA was introduced in conjunction with Verizon and can't be a wholly representative picture of how HTC might have introduced the device otherwise, it was a spec- and design-driven product -- a 5-inch, 1080p display with a 440-ppi density that appeared to spill over onto sides that included a microperforation. In contrast, little was said about the HTC One hardware itself until later in the device's introduction, surprising because the HTC One is not only the most attractive handset the company has ever built, but also certainly one of the most attractive on the market. While it is an Android device, the casing builds upon the tapered, Windows Phone-inspired 8X, substituting aluminum for polycarbonate. That said, there is also the spillover glass effect found on the Droid DNA. The HTC One retains the 1080p display found in the Droid DNA. However, since the screen is smaller, the pixel density is even higher (468 ppi) than in that record-breaking device.
Switched On: An ARM's race with Intel
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. As one would hope in dealing with two products that share the same name, Microsoft has maintained strong consistency between the Surface with Windows RT and Surface Pro. Allowing for a bit of girth variation, there's a similar industrial design as well as common features that have been nearly universally lauded (the snap-on keyboards) and lambasted (the underwhelming cameras). There's also an identical user interface as far as "modern" Windows apps are concerned. This has created an interesting lab test to see what customers really want from a Windows tablet in 2013. The early and unsurprising results indicate that it's really backward compatibility -- even at a premium of half the battery life and nearly double the price. Lenovo, which offers its Yoga 11 convertible as a Windows RT tablet, will also bring out the device in a Windows 8 version. Indeed, if one is attracted to some of the advantages that Windows RT offers on its ARM-based variants, such as the Snap and Share features, multiple devices with integrated keyboards, broad driver support and desktop Office compatibility, its toughest competitor is Windows 8.
Switched On: Compromising positions
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Windows powers tablets and PCs. It supports desktop and "Windows 8-style" apps using touch and keyboard / mouse and can run on x86 and ARM CPUs. You can even get it on hardware from Microsoft and third parties. Microsoft refers to this as creating a "no-compromise" operating system. Some of its users will run Windows on an Intel Ultrabook, which an Intel blog post has referred to as a "no-compromise" notebook. But it won't run on the Google Nexus 7, which Google describes as a "no-compromise" Android tablet. And it certainly won't run on a Wang 2200 SVP from the early 1980s, which was hailed by a sales brochure as "the low-cost, no-compromise computer."
Switched On: The 2012 Switchies, Part 2
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. The last Switched On covered some of the major Switchie awards for the year, but there are many other products to recognize: The "Category's Meow" Award for Best New Category Creation goes to Supermechanical's TWINE, a small blue box that can relay information about its environment via WiFi to a website. Its fellow Kickstarter project Ninja Blocks followed suit with a more proactive two-way link to pick up an Honorable Mention. The "Mulligans Do" Award for Best Product Revamp goes to the Apple iPod family. After a bit of staidness in the venerable iPod nano, Apple came back with larger screens and slender profiles on both the iPod nano and iPod touch. Honorable mentions go to the Kindle family of e- readers, particularly the Kindle Paperwhite, and the Samsung Galaxy S line of smartphones from Samsung, which took a huge leap forward with the Galaxy S III.
Switched On: The 2012 Switchies, Part 1
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. It's that special time of year between the holiday sales and the pre-CES hype that presents an opportunity to consider some of the most innovative devices of the year. Switched On is proud to present the Saluting Wares Improving Technology's Contribution to Humanity awards, also known as The Switchies. This year marks the seventh annual Switchies, which are decided based on a rigorous examination of the opinion of me, and do not reflect the opinion of Engadget or its editors. For that latter honor, nominees will need to win an Engadget Award. This week's Switched On will cover many of the major award categories while next week's will cover some of the more obscure ones. Let's roll out the red carpet then.
Switched On: The roads to home automation
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. At a dinner event several years ago, a former editor-in-chief of a major computing trade magazine told attendees that his first published article was about home automation. That article ran back in 1979 -- just two years after the debut of the Apple II and two years before the introduction of the IBM PC. Indeed, in its early days, home automation, like the PC, was confined to hobbyists more concerned with being able to do things rather than their practical value. However, the PC proved itself first in business and then with games, word processing and the consumer web as the internet grew. Meanwhile, home automation has largely remained the province of the very wealthy and corporations. Indeed, we're still likely many years away from all of us having smart homes, but there are signs of that future approaching and putting the squeeze on today's high-end installations both from above and below.
Reality Absorption Field: Apple's wireless way
While it was announced amidst the October departure of Scott Forstall, the news that Bob Mansfield would un-retire to oversee all of the company's semiconductor and wireless work didn't get as much attention. Obviously, we are moving toward an increasingly wireless future. The technologies Apple chooses to adopt and how it adopts them will play big roles in terms of its platforms' capabilities and compatibility. Short-Range In 2012, we saw Apple gain a lot of attention for a new Lightning cable connector to replace its venerable 30-pin iPod interface. But while iPhone watchers were contemplating adapters and docks, phones from competitors such as HTC and Nokia adopted wireless charging and NFC. Apple passed on NFC in the iPhone 5 -- somewhat justifiably, from a pure payments perspective. Nonetheless, NFC has other applications as Samsung has been showing off in its commercials. While a bit late to the Bluetooth party, Apple has become an enthusiastic backer, supporting the technology well throughout the product line and being one of the first companies to implement Bluetooth Smart, the low-power version of the technology that is now finding its way into such objects as activity monitors, watches, and even light bulbs. While Apple will likely eventually adopt NFC, there is work going on in the Bluetooth camp on standards that could compete with NFC. Apple, of course, would prefer to deal with one radio instead of two. Medium-Range With the introduction of its first AirPort cards for the iBook way back in 1999, Apple led the industry in supporting Wi-Fi. Apple's efforts helped push the technology ahead of what was then a promising competing standard called HomeRF, backed by Intel. Nowadays, Wi-Fi is available throughout Apple's product line as it is for many other tech companies, and Apple has built AirPlay on top of it. It seems likely that Apple will support the next generation of Wi-Fi, 802.11ac. It remains to be seen, though, if Apple will support Wi-Fi Display and Wi-Fi Direct as it has adopted its own alternatives in AirPlay and AirDrop (although these are not necessarily mutually exclusive). AirDrop in particular seems like a promising way to easily move files between a Mac and iDevice without having to go through iTunes; hopefully this will be addressed now that the OS X and iOS teams are united under one manager. There are also other "whole-home" wireless technologies that Apple has heretofore passed on such as Zigbee or Z-Wave. These low-power radio technologies are at the heart of many security and home automation installations. But Apple will likely continue to refrain. Wi-Fi gateways can bridge control between iPhones and these products, and Bluetooth is becoming more competitive in terms of battery life. Long-Range In 2012, the third-generation iPad marked Apple's late jump onto the LTE bandwagon and the strong indication that the 4G technology would be the wireless foundation of the iPhone, which it was. LTE also made its way into the iPad mini, serving as a differentiator from inexpensive 7" tablets such as the Amazon Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet HD that lacked any cellular radio. Apple is already supporting LTE on many different bands across the three models of iPhones and iPads. More may be coming in the next generation of cellular-equipped products now that T-Mobile USA seems set to carry the company's products in 2013. However, it likely also has its eye on technologies, such as DIDO from Rearden Labs, that claim to leapfrog well-accepted standards like LTE. As wireless technologies continue to work their way into more objects and become cheaper and faster, Mac and iOS apps will be able to monitor, communicate with, and control a broader array of devices than ever before. Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research, a research and advisory firm focusing on consumer technology adoption. He shares commentary at Techspressive and on Twitter at @rossrubin. Views expressed in Reality Absorption Field are his own.
Switched On: The Blind Men and the Surface Pro
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. When Microsoft announced the Surface RT, it seemed clear that the ARM-based product -- with its precious adornments such as the kickstand and, of course, typing covers -- sought to appeal to those wanting to do more than is typically done with tablets. Microsoft, straight-faced, calls the Surface RT a PC, but with a connotation that it is trying to transform. There's less ambiguity around the Surface Pro. It has a capable Intel processor and runs virtually any Windows app. While someone from an earlier time might not recognize it as a PC turned off (especially with a closed Touch Cover), booting it up into Outlook would provide a convincing case. In the story of the blind men and the elephant, the protagonists each discover some element of the majestic animal and draw conclusions about its nature without understanding the bigger (literally, in that case) picture. Now that we know the size of the Surface Pro's elephant in terms of how much it might feed from our wallets, its relative value and competitiveness will vary greatly depending upon which assumptions prospective buyers have when considering the product.
Switched On: The next microplatform
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. The case for rich operating systems supporting a wide range of applications has been proven out among PCs, tablets and smartphones. But the jury is still out for other devices such as televisions. While Samsung pushes ahead on attracting apps to its Smart TVs using its own platform and LG, Sony and Vizio align with Google TV, there are still reasons to believe that the smart TV will fail to have tremendous impact as Switched On discussed last year. Blu-ray players, video game consoles and cheap boxes from Apple, Roku, Netgear and others allow consumers to expand their video options while integrated networking provides gateways to content from smartphones, tablets and PCs.
Switched On: The time is right for Xbox Surface
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Rumors have swirled that Microsoft is developing a high-powered 7-inch gaming tablet dubbed Xbox Surface, the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup of Microsoft's homegrown hardware brands. Such a move would change the landscape of Microsoft's Xbox and portable game initiatives. It would mark a reversal for the company, which has stayed out of the increasingly challenging handheld space in favor of promoting Windows Phone as part of its ecosystem battle. However, it would be in keeping with Steve Ballmer's promise (or is it OEM warning?) to expect more hardware from Microsoft. As the tablet was partly Apple's answer to the netbook, it could also be Microsoft's answer to the PlayStation Vita.
Switched On: Missed app-ortunity
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. This week marks Switched On's eighth anniversary. It's difficult to remember as jam-packed a week in terms of industry announcements from major OS providers as the recent seven-day stretch that included a bevy of hardware announcements from Apple, a new tablet and OS upgrade from Google, and two major operating system releases as well as an unprecedented hardware release from Microsoft. Of course, as would be expected from these dominant digital ecosystem stewards, all of the new products included elements of hardware, software and services, even if they were sometimes implicit. But each company could have done significantly more to highlight new third-party apps that were really taking advantage of that combination.
Switched On: Tablets and tradeoffs
This week saw the debut of two ARM-powered tablets by old rivals. One eschews traditional desktop input methods; the other embraces them. One occupies the high end of pricing in its class; the other is competitive with the market leader. One had the engineering goal of fitting in one hand; the other comes with a kickstand for being set on a desk or table. But perhaps the biggest contrast between the iPad mini and the Surface RT approaches is how well they take advantage of the hardware and software momentum of their predecessors.
Switched On: Sell the hardware, attract the apps
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Microsoft has finally revealed details on the pricing for the all-singing, all-dancing Surface RT. True to Steve Ballmer's word, the Windows RT device is priced competitively with the iPad. It is, in fact, the same price as the entry-level, now not-so "new iPad" and with double the flash memory, an advantage that may change by the time the Surface ships. The commercial shows off the device's signature hardware features -- the kickstand and touch keyboard cover -- and plays up the "click" they make when they attach to the Surface, which is of course similar to the "click" made when an Apple Smart Cover connects to an iPad. And in a bit of irony for a product that is more focused on tapping than the mouse clicks of the desktop mouse, its campaign slogan is "click in." (It also raises the question as to why people would be constantly attaching the sold-separately touch keyboard when it doubles as a cover, but it is a commercial after all.) While expensive relative to the price of the device, Microsoft's keyboard covers represent an extension of one of Apple's best-conceived iPad accessories (the Smart Cover) and far exceed one of Apple's worst (the original iPad keyboard dock).
Switched On: Android's tablet troubles
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. If Google had to pick a device category in which it wanted Android to dominate, it would certainly be mobile phones for many reasons. Indeed, the original band of Android backers was dubbed the Open Handset Alliance. However, a strong position in tablets would not only have helped to round out the Android ecosystem, it would also have created a beachhead from which to take on Microsoft prior to the launch of its tablet strategy. Alas for Google, sales of Android tablets have been lackluster and several PC-centric licensees -- including Acer, Dell, Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba and even Android standard-bearer Samsung -- are hoping to improve their standing in the tablet market with imminent products based on Windows.
Switched On: iOS 6 gets back from the app
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Apple's App Store has more smartphone apps than those of its competitors. But the sheer size of the library is not the only source of consternation for Google or Microsoft, which would both readily concede that it's also important to obtain the kind of key apps, optimized apps and platform-first apps the iPhone enjoys. The iPhone's commanding marketplace lead is due to several factors. These include the huge number and historical affluence of its users and the ease of its App Store. The iPhone, though, was not the first phone to have apps. In fact, in its early days, it didn't have apps at all as the company urged developers to create optimized web apps for the platform similar to what Mozilla is now advocating for its streamlined mobile operating system Boot2Gecko. Apple originally put its efforts into creating archetypical apps for tasks such as calling, browsing, email and mapping. Rather than open the iPhone to third-party developers at first, it handpicked partners for various features, such as Google for maps and Yahoo for weather and stocks.
