Archives For Mobile

Apple’s iPhone… 5 Years Later

Dave Zatz —  January 9, 2012 — 5 Comments

Back in the days when the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and Macworld overlapped, with Apple actually participating in their namesake convention, news out of San Francisco derailed the events in Vegas January 9th, 2007. While an iPhone announcement wasn’t entirely a surprise, given years of speculation and rumor, the elegant simplicity of both its hardware and software was unlike anything we’d ever before encountered… or even imagined was possible in the mobile space. So despite launching at $500 – $600 without wireless carrier subsidies, as we’re accustomed to in the US , here’s what I concluded:

If the iPhone works as advertised, they’re going to sell a ton and really bring “smart phones” to the masses

Indeed, the iPhone has revolutionized the mobile industry. And then some. But I’ve never been part of the technological masses, dwelling more on the bleeding edge. Which is why, while the iPhone’s sex appeal tempted and I closely monitored its launch, I was something of a late adopter. Steve Jobs proclamation that Apple was five years ahead of the competition didn’t move me as I couldn’t see comfortably downgrading from 3G speeds to 2G EDGE and giving up Exchange synchronization or third party apps, like SlingPlayer Mobile. Not to mention the reservations I had in using a completely virtual keyboard and forgoing my trusty stylus. Of course, at some point I could no longer combat the allure and augmented my phone collection with a first gen iPhone. But it wasn’t actually until 2010 that I declared Apple’s mobile operating system feature complete and, along with GPS nav and improved camera optics, made the iPhone my primary mobile companion.

In regards to what comes next… The iPhone app ecosystem is massive and something many of us have come to rely upon – making it difficult to completely abandon Apple at this point. Yet, Siri doesn’t wow me and I pine for better notifications, widgets, and a larger screen. I assume Apple’s cooking up new solutions which will once again inspire and amaze me, but we seem to have returned to a place in time where I’ll take on additional handsets for gadget lust fulfillment.

In Apple, Mobile
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CES TV News: Android, Mobile and 3D Sans Glasses

Mari Silbey —  January 9, 2012 — 4 Comments

Here’s the thing about CES. Most of what we hear is stuff we’ve heard before. The big question is always whether this time it’s for real or not. In this year’s early announcements, we get news that Lenovo is launching a TV set with Android 4.0, Belkin is starting a line of accessories to give existing smartphones and tablets the ability to tune into the new Dyle mobile TV service, and Toshiba is on track to  bring its autostereoscopic 3DTV to American shores this quarter. Now, any bets on which products will actually gain traction in 2012? Personally, I’d keep my Vegas winnings tucked away for now.

On the Android front, Lenovo is releasing its Ice-Cream-Sandwich TV set in China, with no word yet on a US debut. Beyond that, however, we’ve seen no evidence that consumers care about Android access on their living-room flat screens. Google certainly hasn’t made a go of it yet with Google TV, and the TV app environment in general is still pretty lackluster. There are lots of apps, but mostly what people watch is Netflix. While experts predict the next three years will be big for connected TV sales, we still haven’t seen a shake-out among TV app environments. Consumers won’t show a preference until somebody demonstrates a TV marketplace with several notably superior apps not available elsewhere. (i.e. apps with really good content a la HBO Go) I doubt Android’s going to be able to do that in 2012.

Dyle TV is an interesting one. The Mobile Content Venture announced just last week that it would start delivering live TV to MetroPCS subscribers, and at CES, Belkin is introducing a line of accessories designed to make existing devices capable of receiving the Dyle mobile DTV service. Unfortunately, broadcast mobile TV services don’t have the best track record. Continue Reading…

In Gadgets, HDTV, Industry, Mobile
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TiVo Releases Android App

Dave Zatz —  January 6, 2012 — 4 Comments

tivo-android

Hot on the heels of TiVo’s Premiere software update, the DVR purveyors have also just pushed out an Android app to the Market. Although, back in June of 2011, we were told it was coming soon… but, as with most TiVo initiatives these days, a little patience is required. The TiVo companion app, designed for Android 2.1 or higher smartphones and 7″ tablets, is quite similar to its iPhone brethren, featuring:

  • Browse the channel guide without interrupting the show you’re watching
  • Schedule TV show/movie recordings and ongoing (Season Pass®) recordings
  •  Browse your recorded shows list and play a show from the App
  •  Search across TV, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video & Blockbuster —and see integrated results on Demand to find what you are looking for
  • Explore cast and crew while watching a show
  • Comment about what you’re watching on Facebook or Twitter
  • Use a TiVo remote control replica or our intuitive, gesture-based remote control
  • Manage your ongoing (Season Pass®) recordings and your To-Do List
  • Delete and reprioritize recordings for your favorite shows
  • Instantly schedule, search and browse for shows while you’re away from home
The new TiVo Android app is visually appealing and, like its iOS predecessors, may be the best way to actually manage your TiVo (assuming you have a Premiere). Yet, I still prefer the speed and flexibility of the guide found in Verizon’s FiOS TV apps.

 

In Mobile, Software, TiVo
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A Look Back at CES 2011 – Where Are They Now?

Mari Silbey —  January 3, 2012 — 3 Comments

As we roll inevitably toward another Consumer Electronics Show, it’s instructive to look back at what made headlines only a year ago. Some of the products announced then have come and gone. Others are still waiting in the wings for a launch date. Here are five stories we covered at CES 2011 with a look at what’s changed in the 12 months since.

The nPower PEG was one of the coolest green gizmos demoed at CES last year. The Personal Energy Generator stores your kinetic energy and lets you use it as back-up power for your mobile gadgets. According to reps at CES, one minute of walking time could translate into one minute of listening time on an iPod Nano. Unfortunately, while the PEG was on back-order last January, it’s still only in available in limited quantities today. According to the website, “Each week – as we assemble nPower® PEG units in our Cleveland, OH facility – we contact individuals on this reservation list to let them know that their PEG is ready.” That hardly sounds like a model built to scale.

Both Dave and I fell in love with the Yahoo Connected TV platform over successive years at CES. However, I was well aware last January when watching a demo of Yahoo’s latest technology that the company was unlikely to live up to its television potential. Too many promises; too few deployments.  Today, after much delay, the Yahoo Connected TV Store is finally available to consumers on Sony and Toshiba TVs. According to Yahoo’s blog post on November 2nd, the platform offers premium paid TV apps in addition to 180+ free apps, and Yahoo expects to its TV Store to reach “millions of TVs in the coming months.” Call me skeptical, but isn’t everyone and their mother offering connected TV apps now? Perhaps Yahoo can make things work with the help of its broadcast interactivity tech, but given competition from the likes of Shazam and Invidi, there’s a tough road ahead.  Continue Reading…

In Broadband, Gadgets, Industry, Mobile
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Discovering Read It Later

Mari Silbey —  December 13, 2011 — 5 Comments

I am seriously late to the game on this one, but if it took me this long to discover Read It Later, I’m guessing that others have missed it as well. And this app is worth even some very-belated attention.

Read It Later does just what you’d expect it to do. It allows you to mark articles online for later reading. This is particularly handy for me as I tend to open up 30 or 40 browser tabs in the course of catching up on my Twitter feed. Now instead of keeping those tabs open, I can scan some stories immediately, then click a link to save others to my reading list for later. I downloaded the software first on my PC, but have since added the pro version ($2.99) on my Android phone as well. The app syncs across devices so my reading list now follows me wherever I go.

Read It Later’s been around since at least 2007, and it offers an API that’s used by many, many other popular apps, including press darlings Flipboard and Pulse. However, whether you use RIL’s daughter apps or not, the original is one of the simplest and most effective online productivity tools I’ve ever downloaded. Here are some of the features I like best:

  • One-click access- I’m always a link away from my reading list
  • Reading archive- access to older articles I’ve already marked as read
  • Mobile-optimized- an optimized view of articles on my phone’s small screen (you can also see an article in its original layout)
  • Filter and search- ability to search reading list and filter stories by title, site or tag
  • Offline reading- mobile app downloads articles for offline reading

If you’re looking for a way to control the information overflow, check out Read It Later. It’s available for all web browsers and the iOS and Android platforms. If you’re primarily an iOS user, Instapaper is a noted and worthy competitor, with some additional Kindle integration.

In Mobile, Software
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