Ron Guest

I heard a debate last week over an analyst’s claim that the iPad was cannibalizing sales of not just netbooks but also a whole range of consumer electronics devices - including TVs. I don’t put much credence in that claim but it did kick off a train of thought and it didn’t take me long to realize my iPhone actually had saved me money (or in analyst speak cannibalized sales of other devices). So herein I tally up expense-avoidance I attribute to my little “pocket computer”.

My old Canon SD450 point & shoot delivers images that are nearly always disappointing and I was keeping my eye on the Canon S90 as a replacement. With my old iPhone 3G I would have pulled the trigger before the holiday season. But the iPhone 4’s camera is a big improvement, and is superior to the SD450, plus has the huge benefit of satisfying the adage that “the best camera is the one you have with you.” Savings: $400

The second purchase I’ve avoided is a new laptop. My Titanium PowerBook is 7 years old and although it still works like a charm it is so hopelessly out-of-date as to be useless. It can’t even join my wireless network since it doesn’t support WPA. The OS is terribly backwards as well. Lacks FW800 and USB2 ports. Dot dot dot. I have a Windows laptop from my employer but I’m a stickler for not putting personal info on it or using it for personal tasks. So a refurbished MacBook Pro was on my list for use when traveling or just away from home for awhile. Although the iPhone can’t do everything I’d expect the laptop to do it comes close enough that I no longer have a MacBook on my shopping list. Savings: $1,000

My family really loves its music and we want it now and we want it here (here being wherever we are at home, including our home gym, or when running errands etc). Of course we all know the iPhone is an excellent iPod but also when combined with iTunes and the little Airport Express it provides a great whole-home audio streamer synced with our playlists. You can thank Airplay and Home Sharing for this. Just download the iPhone Remote app and you can pipe your music to one room or the whole house complete with visual playlists, album art and more. As a bonus you can stream to the new AppleTV as well. No need for an expensive one-trick-pony solution like Sonos. Savings: $500+

Finally, lest you think Apple is completely benefiting from this train of thought, I have not purchased an iPad. Like a laptop, the iPad can be used in ways the iPhone can’t. But overall the iPhone provides a good enough solution and satisfies the need for a a portable “cool factor” gadget. Savings: $600+

I can’t wait to run and tell my wife how much money I’ve saved in buying my iPhone 4! Hey, the reasoning is at least as good as what I hear from her about how much money she “saved” buying stuff that is “on sale.”

I don't like Flash and wouldn't care how badly Microsoft drove it into the ground. But even though I don't use Photoshop much, since adopting Aperture 3, for the sake of my many friends who are absolutely in love with it I sure hope Ballmer keeps his sweaty hands, and other body parts, away from Adobe.

via Microsoft and Adobe Chiefs Meet to Discuss Apple - NYTimes.com.

Logitech announced their GoogleTV device - pretty clear they are aiming for a different market than Apple is with the AppleTV. I like the keyboard but overall this device at this price point is something I would not have considered. It will definitely appeal to the techie and tinkering crowd more than the AppleTV does.

Further update on my AppleTV experience - took less than a week to be asked "can we have this on the other TVs too?". Another pleasant surprise - Netflix has a number of Thai language action movies.

Logitech Revue With Google TV.

The Wall Street Journal is stating that Apple will start mass producing the iPhone for Verizon before this year is over. There have been a lot of rumors about this one (some of which were clearly false). But the WSJ has a pretty good track record so in spite of Verizon recently hinting the iPhone wasn't on deck this report does give some real reason to hope.

Via: WSJ

The title of this post will likely warm your heart, if you’re an Apple fan, or irritate the heck out of you if you’re neutral or a hater. Still, I write on and if you can stomach it read on because the ending may surprise you :-)

I first want to point out this isn’t my first dip-of-the-toe in the waters of alternative entertainment distribution (i.e. non-cable/satellite). For about a year now I’ve experimented with a whole range of solutions having variously run Plex, Boxee, XBMC and some homegrown “media centers” on a computer connected to our main HDTV. All of these prior solutions failed, based on my criteria, as they didn’t meet the meets-min usability for our family - namely to be friendly, easy to use, and bulletproof for my 6 year old and preferably even for my 2 year old. Several of the media center solutions even failed the test for me, a tech geek, as they were too unstable or required too much administrative overhead in order to see the real benefit. I’m convinced most of these solutions are for the sort of guy or gal who would buy an old Alfa Romeo. You simply have to love working on it in order to find it a good experience.

Enter the new AppleTV. I rarely buy the first generation of a new Apple product - still don’t own an iPad, took me a couple years to decide an iPhone was worth it, and so on. And make no mistake - this new AppleTV shares nothing but a name with the “hobby” version and is indeed a first generation product. Yet as soon as the announcement of the new AppleTV was out I immediately entered a pre-order and started preparing for it by relocating the media center computer, picking up an extra HDMI cable, and so on.

So I was ready to plug the AppleTV into our system the moment it arrived. My first impression was how small it is, second was how cool the combination of matte and glossy black finish looked. As always Apple showed design chops even though the AppleTV will generally be hidden once installed. In my case I plugged in an Ethernet cable (Gigabit), an HDMI cable and the power and I was immediately greeted by a very slick and clean UI. The only thing I didn’t like during the setup phase, and have to imagine Apple will soon address and Apple has already addressed, is the fact entering user names and passwords (for accounts like Netflix, YouTube, Flickr, etc.) is very tedious. Tons of scrolling and clicking. The same day the AppleTV arrived Apple released an update to the iPhone/iPad Remote application enabling you to do your typing on the virtual keyboard. Very nice! Here’s a summary of my opinion - read on for the gory details.

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The most striking aspect of the AppleTV has been it’s stability. The family has used it for hours and we have yet to see a streaming glitch or UI problem. I presume the device is using it’s hefty amount of RAM to do unusually large buffering. Performance of Netflix streaming to the AppleTV is definitely more reliable than to any of the computers connected to the same network (which use Flash and Silverlight I believe). YouTube streaming works equally well.

iTunes rentals are pretty convenient but be warned it asks for the CVV code on the back of your credit card. For adults I think that is a fine solution. But to allow kiddos to rent content, if you’re a trusting parent, a user-settable code would be preferable.

iTunes rental image quality is outstanding at 720p. Yeah, our set is 1080p and so it isn’t quite as good as we could get with a directly connected 1080p source. But at 720p the image quality is superior to nearly all cable and satellite distributed content and is superior to the Roku based on the comparisons I’ve seen. Playing a rented iTunes movie and comparing it to the same movie streamed by Netflix really highlights the inferior technology Netflix uses even over a solid network connection. Of course for the price of two average iTunes movie rentals you get to stream all the Netflix content you can handle for a month…

We’re also using the AppleTV to stream content from our own library stored on a Mac Mini used as a server. We have DVDs, family movies, TV shows and a large photo library (used as our screensaver). Getting this to work is brain-dead simple since you only need to turn on Home Sharing on the AppleTV and computer to make this happen. I did notice, however, that the AppleTV does not see iTunes media on our NAS which uses Firefly. Home Sharing is apparently required and at least for now that is a closed protocol.

So what do I think about this $99 purchase? For this family of 4 (mom, dad, and children 6 and 2 years old) it is a great addition. It is immediately usable with no training required even for the 6 year old. It seems bulletproof. It successfully delivers the content we care about and, with the Remote app, even searching of contacts and content is a breeze. But in the end this review isn’t particularly about the AppleTV - it’s about the Revolution in content distribution. For the first time it is obvious that the technology needed to divorce ourselves from the communistic content control of the cable and satellite companies is ready for the mainstream. I’ve seen a few people slam the AppleTV as being “handicapped” so only suitable for “mom” or “grandma”. Frankly, that is the point of a  revolution - it must be populist and hence meaningful and beneficial to masses. Apple has proved it is doable. I’m sure Google and the typical cast of characters will follow suit. Well, except Microsoft. They can never get anything right for consumers.

Wow, the AppleTV is just as small as they say. In the pictures below I have a iPhone 3G in a rubber case next to the device for comparison. Mouse over the photos for descriptive text.

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With my family equally anxious to start using the new AppleTV I knew I needed to get ahead of the curve and complete the prep work. In my case this meant relocating the Mac Mini, which serves as a media server/streamer/backup device, from the entertainment center in the family room to a cabinet in the upstairs playroom. I had earlier done some upstairs prep work, namely installing a UPS, power strip and Ethernet cable. Completing the Mini’s relocation took a bit longer than expected since there was an issue with the cat 5e cable. While at it I set up the Mac Mini with a Bluetooth Apple keyboard and used a spare monitor as a  temporary display. (The Mini used to be connected to a TV which served as a display). Seemed straightforward enough until…

I did a file system check on the 2TB external drive using Disk Utility and found not only were there file system errors but to make it worse Disk Utility couldn’t repair them. This was Defcon 4 from the family standpoint as the 2TB external drive holds the media streamed throughout the house, sync’d to iPhones, and would be a key source for the AppleTV. Fortunately I have backups :-) So I kicked off restores from my backups and let them run overnight.

As of this morning the backup is nearly done - most importantly all the entertainment media has been restored - and FedEx is reporting that my AppleTV is on a truck in da hood and should arrive within 2 hours. Let the fun begin!

According to this Bloomberg article Nokia has the largest R&D budget ($7.7B) in the industry. They definitely are not able to bring innovation of that magnitude to the market, largely due to their hubris and tendency to rigidity. With a CEO who is a former Microsoftie and a CTO from Sun, can big-company West Coast thinking turn the bloat around?

I’m a bit slow today. Just noticed today’s announcement included the fact iPad users will soon be able to edit Google Docs. This is sweetness…

Second, today we demonstrated new mobile editing capabilities for Google Docs on the Android platform and the iPad. In the next few weeks, co-workers around the world will soon be able to co-edit files simultaneously from an even wider array of devices.

via Official Google Blog.

Google announced today they are making a form of two factor authentication available for Enterprise/Cloud customers. Frankly, this is long overdue. I’m still frustrated and a bit mystified at how slowly service providers are moving to help prevent phishing, identity theft, etc. So many easy steps could be taken. Still, this is a welcome sign at least for one customer segment. Though I find it baffling they are claiming this as their own security innovation…

I’m currently setting up my own domain and will eventually this site will not be entirely content-free. For now, enjoy the emptiness :-)