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Switched On: The rules of Soda Club (Part 1)
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: The first rule of Soda Club is: beverage companies do not talk about Soda Club. Many Switched On columns have addressed devices that quench the thirst for digital entertainment. This one addresses a thirst that often develops while enjoying it, one that Americans often quench by drinking more than 55 billion liters of soda and seltzer each year.That statistic comes via Soda Club, which offers a system for making your own soda at home. It consists of one of three carbonating devices, specially designed reusable bottles, and a selection of 25 SodaMixes that, when combined with carbonated water, produce various flavors of soda. The company touts a number of advantages to this approach, including cost, convenience and environmental benefits. Soda Club, which requires no recurring membership fees like a music club, was started in 1991 but came to the US five years ago.The second rule of Soda Club is, supermarkets DO NOT TALK about Soda Club. Since everything in Soda Club is shipped to you, there's no more heavy lifting of cases or two-liter bottles. A stubby bottle of SodaMix can make abut 12 liters of soda and costs between $3 and $5, excluding shipping. Soda Club promotes that homemade sodas are less expensive than store-bought brands such as honk honk and honk honk (that's Coke and Pepsi). Soda Club also claims that even its non-diet soda mixes have 2/3 less sugar than store brands.
Switched On: Media centers engender extenders, relenters
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: A few weeks ago, HP announced that it was ending development of its Digital Entertainment Center line of A/V component form factor PCs. Normally, even a major manufacturer dropping a line of PCs wouldn't be cause for much industry introspection, but the continued struggle of the computer in the living room illustrates the challenges Microsoft has had in expanding the PC beyond its staples of desktops and notebooks, and why it may be increasingly turning inward to approaching new hardware markets. Before the great unification of Windows Vista, Microsoft created two forked, hardware-specific versions for Windows XP -- Tablet Edition and Media Center Edition. Both found their way onto millions of computers, but neither achieved Microsoft's most ambitious goals. Per its name, Tablet Edition was to usher in a new wave of ultrathin devices free of keyboards that would be positioned as the next wave of notebooks. However, to the extent that the operating system was adopted, it was primarily retrofitted onto "convertible" notebooks with swivel screens, making some of these "tablets" only slightly more sleek than the props carried by Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments. Undaunted, Microsoft has now decided that these devices should be half the height of those Tablet PCs, but its latest foray against the keyboard is driving backlash.
Switched On: Hollywood's remote control turns revenue off
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: Last week's Switched On compared two devices that only peripherally compete with each other today, but which represent different approaches to acquiring TV shows. In a fit of serendipity, the arrival of the Apple TV occurred just as Cablevision's remote DVR service (RS-DVR) got the smackdown from a U.S. District Court. I am not a lawyer, but I can understand the rationale. RS-DVR is a video equivalent of the music locker service that MP3.com tried at the beginning of 2000. A CNET article written slightly after that service's launch noted: MP3.com admits that it has created a database of some 45,000 unlicensed CDs that it serves through its My.MP3.com accounts. But company executives argue that it is toeing the legal line by offering tracks under the "fair use" exemption of the copyright law, which allows consumers to make copies for personal use. Now, substitute "Cablevision" for "MP3.com, "TV shows" for "45,000 unlicensed CDs," and "RS-DVR service" for "My.MP3.com accounts." Cablevision's legal defense differed from that of MP3.com's, though. Trying to leverage the established legality of DVRs, it claimed to offer the equivalent of a legally protected DVR device, whereas the court found that RS-DVR was a service -- not a device. Consumers lose because RS-DVR could have enabled cheaper deployment not only of basic virtual DVR service but of long-delayed advances such as virtual multi-room DVR. Which, interestingly, brings us back to Apple TV.
Switched On: Headless client found near tapeless box
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: Regardless of whether the halo effect may have enabled the iPod to spur Macintosh sales, it's hard to doubt that the iPod has influenced the perception of Apple TV. Indeed, in a case of two tails wagging a dog, Apple refers to both products as "iTunes accessories." Just as the iPod succeeded in what had been a slow category, some say, so will Apple TV. In fact, such bulls claim that Apple TV will be bigger than TiVo and satellite radio put together, not to mention Elvis, The Beatles, and Slim Whitman. Will Apple TV topple TiVo? The pioneering digital video recorder has hung in there against the odds with strong customer loyalty, but its fan base is small when compared to the Apple nation. How does the petite white place-shifter compare with the big black time-shifter?
Switched On: Must-see USB
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: Last week's Switched On discussed the latest incarnation of the Akimbo set-top box, which delivers internet programming to your television. This week's column looks at two products that turn the tables on that functionality, delivering broadcast television to your PC. Such products have been around for years, mostly as part of desktop video cards such as ATI's All-in-Wonder PCI bus cards. However, they are now available for laptops in form factors nearly as compact as some USB flash drives, making it easy to catch up on Judge Judy while you feign productivity at Starbucks. First up is ADS Technologies' MiniTV USB, which can receive analog NTSC broadcasts. The MiniTV is one of a trio of similarly proportioned USB products from ADS, which typically provides boxier video capture products. The tiny tuner's cousins include the Instant Video To-Go, which uses hardware-accelerated H.264 to convert video for use on iPods and other portable products such as compatible cell phones; and Instant FM, which can receive and record FM or internet radio. Unfortunately, unlike these products, MiniTV comes with an expiration date, as, the government is set to turn off analog broadcasts in 2009. After that, you can pawn it off to a CES media attendee by pretending it's a priceless 32MB USB digital press kit. (Switched On takes no responsibility for any trampling that may occur as a result of holding this giveaway 20 minutes before the end of press conferences by purveyors of flash memory or plasma televisions.)
Switched On: Akimbo's long tail adds big dogs
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: Capped by Google's $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube, 2006 was certainly the year that broadband video captured the Internet's imagination. Yet Internet-delivered video faces several challenges, among them how to route that pipe to the television where video has traditionally been consumed. One early marketplace answer came from Akimbo. The company's service and set-top box drew mixed reviews at its debut, with many finding value in he diversity of its content but disappointment in the uneven quality of the video and the set-top's performance. Akimbo came back for a second stab late last year with a new set-top, an RCA-branded IPTV receiver developed by Thomson's professional telecommunications division (which also brands the MSN TV set-top box. The good news is that the new set-top overcomes the glitches of the first-generation box and supports component video. However, Akimbo remains a standard-definition (at best) TV service. Setup is simple and straightforward; Akimbo offers an 802.11g adapter that plugs into one of the box's USB ports. And since everything on the service is downloaded, real-time throughput isn't much of an issue.
Switched On: Digital life vs. digital work
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: Microsoft designed Windows Vista to be the center of consumers' digital lives. The operating system supports myriad ways to store, organize and retrieve personal and premium content and opens the door to a nearly endless array of capabilities via add-on software. Powerful ultra mobile PCs such as the OQO Model 02 tantalize us with rich centralized access to nearly any digital resource. Unfortunately, not everyone can abide by the role of the PCs as open platforms for creativity and customization. Among them are IT professionals responsible for ensuring the reliability and security of a corporate tool. Sometimes, strict controls aren't simply a matter of corporate fiat. PC support staff in government, healthcare and financial services may need to impose PC restrictions to comply with the law. For such scenarios, Microsoft builds administrative controls into Vista Enterprise to keep appropriate resources from leaving a PC and inappropriate software and content from getting on it.In a subtle nod to life-work crossover, Microsoft offers Windows Vista Ultimate, which blends the premium version of its consumer operating system with some business-oriented features such as faxing. However, Vista Ultimate is really more about one-stop shopping for features in a premium-priced configuration and less about resolving the struggle for control between individual and enterprise.
Switched On: What of the Wii-buked?
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: Nintendo has been on an Apple-like hit parade since the disappointing market performance of the GameCube. The DS and DS Lite handily staved off highly touted competition from Sony. The PSP may have appealed to a different, if for now narrower, demographic, but units are units, and there's no escaping them when you're marketing a platform. The launch of the Wii has been nothing but magic mushrooms from the hype around the controller to the E3 reception to late-night Wii Tennis face-offs between Conan and Serena Williams. Check out this apologetic fan comment on Amazon's product page: "Graphics might not be high definition, but it looks very close to the Xbox 360 and PS3 when not running in HD mode. And definitively better than the original Xbox and PS2." Better than the Xbox and PS2, eh? That's setting the sensor bar pretty low for a system that shipped six years after the PS2. Yet, it's no suprise that the Wii has been highly sought. I thought it was the best consumer technology product of 2006. The Nintendo team has executed almost flawlessly, but the company has brushed aside criticisms regarding product shortages without so much as a flick from a Wiimote. Commenting earlier this month on the mayhem surrounding Sony's PlayStation 3's product launch shortages, Nintendo of America vice president of marketing and corporate affairs Perrin Kaplan noted that "we didn't have anyone in line that got shot waiting for our system. So there's one sign of the different approaches between our two companies."
Switched On: Radar love
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: Searching for nearby Zunes... None found.Searching for nearby Zunes... None found.Searching for nearby Zunes... "Lola" found. Sending "Hello" by Lionel Richie Receiving "Hi There" by KilldozerSending "Do You Come Here Often?" by The TornadosReceiving "I Get Around" by The Beach Boys Sending "Welcome To The Jungle" by Guns 'N' RosesSending "What Brings You Here?" by Sandra Knight
Universal poised to hop onto the Blu-ray bandwagon?
Ever since Universal's non announcements at CES this year there has been speculation that Universal's days of HD DVD exclusivity are numbered. Sure they came out and announced 100 titles without dates for 2007, but many still wonder when they will be released. Ross Rubin from The NPD Group writes Switched On and has an interesting analysis of why he thinks Universal is poised to hop on the Blu-ray bandwagon faster than you can say TotalHD disc. While this is nothing more than speculation, he has a point -- Universal is going to have a tough time ignoring the recent sales figures and the shear number of Blu-ray players PS3s. While most HD DVD proponents believe that HD DVD movies will outsell Blu-ray and Disney and Fox will be forced switche sides, there is little doubt that if Universal started to make Total HD discs that there would be an end in sight.
Switched On: Universal soldier
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: "Waswitchedon Post. Burnstein speaking." "I think your coverage of the next-generation DVD format wars could benefit from a more 'universal' perspective, Karl." "Huh?" "It's me, Disc Bloat." "Oh no, not you again! Been a while, Mr. Bloat, if that is your real name. Just fly back in your UFO after visiting Bat Boy in Loch Ness?" "Come on, Karl. Everyone knows that Bat Boy is now dwelling in the New York subway system." "All right, fill me in on what's going around the asylum these days." "Have you ever wondered, Karl, why Universal Studios is supporting only HD DVD?"
Switched On: A tube for toting your tunes
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: Here's to the frugal ones -- the discounters, the copycats, the bean counters, the followers who knock off established flagships, the ones who do things cheaply. They're not fond of design patents and they have no respect for the sine qua non. You can mock them, ridicule their brands, deride their usability or quality. But the only thing you can't do is lowball them. Because they sell things. They push the average price downward. And while some may see in them the parasitic blight of top-tier corporations, we see the efficiency of low overhead and outsourced manufacturing. Because the ones who are bold enough to try selling commoditized products for less are the ones who do.
