Apple updates!

Yesterday Apple updated a bunch of products.  Most were just hardware updates (CPU speed bumps, graphics card updates, more RAM etc.) and there are so many to mention that I’ll just have to refer you to Apple.com or MacRumors if you want to see the nitty-gritty details.  Just know that if you were in the market for an iMac, Mac Pro or Mac Mini now’s probably the time to take the plunge.  I’m just happy because the iMac wasn’t significantly updated, no aesthetic redesign or anything, so I’m still pleased with my 24″ 3.06ghz iMac from last July.

What I did find interesting was a lesser-noted addition to Apple’s product line: the new wired wireless keyboard.  It’s basically a wired version of of their wireless keyboard which means that it’s shrunken down and has no number pad.  To me this is pretty odd.  The justification of forgoing a number pad on my wireless keyboard was that it was exactly that: wireless.  Who’s going to buy the same keyboard but now it has a wire and no numpad?  Dunno, like I said, it just seems goofy to me.

What most excites me about these updates is what wasn’t updated.  This smacks of “clearing the road for WWDC” to me.  With these updates they can get all of their spec-bumps out of the way and save the flashy stuff for WWDC.  After all, announcing a new iMac that looks just like the old iMac but is slightly faster doesn’t really excite audiences at a keynote.  Instead they can roll out the new version of the iPhone, which I’m hotly anticipating.  We might even see something a little more over-the-top like the iTablet everyone’s talking about these days.  Honestly though, if at WWDC they just spend a whole 2 hours talking about a new rev of the iPhone and how cool all of its new features are, I’ll be happy.

If you think about it, the iPhone is the perfect product for WWDC.  At a developers conference you should talk about what developers are developing for, right?  Increasingly that’s the iPhone.  How many millions of applications have been downloaded from the App Store?  Sure, standard desktop applications are still important but iPhone apps are the new hotness right now.

Windows Mobile 6.5 – the new WinMo user interface

This is interesting.  Everyone knows that Windows Mobile has been looking a little long in the tooth as phone manufacturers race to compete with the iPhone’s touch interface.  I’m happy to say that with 6.5 Windows Mobile will also enter the manual touch market.  The new homescreen does a horizontal scroll to move through the user’s day (whether you’re navigating through emails, appointments, text messages, or photos) – it sort of reminds me of the Xbox 360’s interface in ways.  It’s a unique way of navigating though, and from what I’ve seen it’s my favorite part of the OS.

From there you can go to the new start menu which houses your applications.  The applications are now arranged in honeycomb-shaped bubbles making each a little more accessible with your finger.  That’s cool because anyone who has used an older WinMo phone can attest that they’re difficult to navigate without a stylus most of the time.

The only thing I’m a little concerned about is that the scrolling seemed a little chunky at times.  It didn’t flow as well as the iPhone’s scrolling.  They’ve also worked in the classic “snap-back” for menus, so that when you reach the top or bottom of a menu the content will snap up or down.  I think Palm is in some hot water for incorporating that feature because Apple has a patent on it, so I wonder if Apple will go after Microsoft now too.  Here’s the video:

Windows Mobile 6.5 Running on HTC from Jesus Diaz on Vimeo.

Photos of the next-generation iPhone?

Just a quick post, I thought this was interesting.

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/02/12/leaked-photos-of-next-generation-iphone/

I’d like to see a switch to matte in the design of the phone.  Otherwise there isn’t much info to be gleaned from these shots, whether real or fake.

Steve Jobs, Windows 7 and the Palm Pre

CES 2009

Today I’m going to continue our trip through early-2009 conventions by talking about some of the announcements from CES that I thought were interesting.

Let’s start with the keynote.  This was the first year that Bill Gates wasn’t the headliner, but I think Steve Ballmer did a good job as far as Microsoft keynotes go.  They didn’t really announce much, and a lot of the cool stuff was just review of what we’ve known for a while.  It seemed like a sort of “State of the Union” Microsoft style, where-in the crew informed the crowd about all of the great things the company has been up to for the past year.  The highlight was definitely the demo of Windows 7, as well as the (predictable) announcement that the Windows 7 public beta would be out soon.  It’s out now and I’ve had an opportunity to play with it a bit, but that’s for another day.  To see the demo, you can check it out here:

http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/events/ces/default.aspx

The other major announcement that’s caught a lot of people by surprise was the “rebirth” of Palm in the form of the Palm Pre.  I have to say I met this bit of news with a great deal of anticipation, but then I watched the presentation and I was stunned.  The Palm Pre (running Palm’s new Web OS) is, in my opinion, the first true competitor to the iPhone.  Of course this is all speculation right now because a device looking cool in a demonstration and actually being cool in your hand are two different things, but Palm seems to be the first company since Apple to use the “Apple approach” in creating a touchscreen smartphone.  The OS looks great, featuring an easy-to-manipulate interface and some features that might even have iPhone users drooling.  I’ll save the details for a later post so I can dedicate enough words to the device to do it justice.  Just know I was impressed.  You can view the Palm presentation here:

http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pre/palm-pre-ces.html

Other than that most of the announcements were hardware and gadget-based.  It’s impossible to do a complete rundown of all of the devices that were announced, so instead I’ll just mention a couple of the things that caught my eye.  Firstly, the Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds is worth mentioning because it has a freakin’ slide-out screen!  Pretty cool.  Also pretty expensive.  This new laptop is meant to be a desktop replacement, and finally solves the conundrum of enhancing a laptop’s monitor size without sacrificing portability.  It’s obvious you can hook most laptops up to an external display, but as I mentioned, you lose the ability to roam because your computer is tethered to that display.  The W700ds solves this problem by having a 10″ slide-out display, giving the user a whole lot of LCD goodness.  It’s a little niche, but apparently the W700ds has been targeted towards artists since it has built-in Wacom functionality.  Not to mention a $3,663 starting price tag.  Ouch.

Camera and display technology was also a big hit this year at CES, but I’m going to stay with notebook computers.  The Dell Adamo looks quite stunning.  It’s a very thin machine sporting an almost Macbook Air-like quality to it.  The Adamo has been branded a “luxury laptop.”  It’s extremely thin and has some industrial design that’s only rivaled by Apple’s line of notebooks.  Dell was kind of sketchy on the details but it seemed to me that the notebook wouldn’t be the only computer or device in the line, perhaps they’re looking to debut some multimedia devices with it as well?  At any rate this is a product to keep your eyes on, if only because it looks so cool.

Now Playing:
Flogging Molly – Laura
Prince of Persia

Flip Mino HD review

Here’s my more formal review of the Flip Mino HD, in video form of course.  Check out my previous post by clicking here if you’d like to see the video quality.

Flip Mino HD Review Part 1

Flip Mino HD Review Part 2

Flip Mino HD – Down By The Bay

Happy new year!  I  know we agreed not to get each other any gifts this year, but I just couldn’t help picking up this beautiful HD video for you, my dearest reader.  Remember to click the HD button on the right after you start the video to see it in true high definition.  Enjoy!

Flip Mino HD – Down By The Bay from David Kemick on Vimeo.

I wish you all the best in the new year!

To HD or not to (Flip Mino) HD, that is the question

I’ve been thinking about getting a Flip Video camcorder for a while now, pretty much ever since I started uploading videos to YouTube.  It seems to be the perfect mobile pocket recorder, a device I could take with me anywhere to record a quick little something.  When their Mino version came out the purchase became a necessity.  The thing is just too damn small and sexy to not own.  Then, to add to the heartache, the folks at Pure Digital put out an HD version of the thing.  What’s a geek to do?

The cool thing about the normal Flip Mino is that it’s relatively cheap.  For the 2GB (60 minutes of video) version you pay around $160.  Not bad at all.  It’s also got around 4 hours of battery life, slightly older editing software, and a smaller CMOS sensor.  The HD version is practically identical, but has 4GB of memory (also 60 minutes, but 60 minutes of HD video) and the battery life is cut in half.  Now, the battery life doesn’t bother me.  If I can only record 60 minutes of video at a time does it really matter if my battery lasts 2 hours instead of 4?  The biggest issue is that the Mino HD can cost as much as $230, and as you approach the $300 mark you might be better off picking up a higher-quality camcorder or a digital camera which shoots video.

So you might be asking yourself why even bother with the HD?  Well, as I mentioned I like to put my videos on YouTube.  YouTube has recently moved to a widescreen format, allowing HD-quality video uploads.  Unfortunately the original Mino doesn’t have a setting for recording in widescreen and the HD does, so unless you’re into black bars and low-quality video, the HD is the way to go.  That’s the only difference between the two, really.  As the names suggest the Mino HD is meant for taking HD video and the Mino is not.

So which is better?  Is it worth ponying up an extra $60 for widescreen and 1280×720 resolution video, or should you save some cash and go with 4:3 with a resolution of 640×480?  I’m leaning towards the former.  The way I see it, no one has ever wished their camcorder shot lower-quality video.  It might be worth the extra investment now so that I don’t end up spending money on another device down the road.

Now Playing:
Korpiklaani – Spring Dance
Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Castle Crashers

Google’s Android takes the stage

On Tuesday, T-Mobile had their event to launch the first Google Android phone on the market.  Coming to the US on October 22nd, the T-Mobile HTC G1 will be available in most T-Mobile stores for $179 ($20 less than the iPhone 3G) and, of course, will feature Google’s Android operating system.  So, what does that mean?  Well, aside from having great compatibility with Google’s applications (they described a normal Gmail experience – labels, email search, even Google Talk) they’re pushing the open sourced nature of the Android operating system.

Most people, whether fair or not, are looking at Google’s Android as a competitor to Apple’s iPhone.  It’s a hard justification to make since Android is just an operating system while the iPhone encapsulates both hardware and software, but given the nature of the two companies it’s an easy conclusion to jump to (both are traditionally tech companies now trying to make a bid in the mobile phone industry).  The only reason I mention this is because, as I said, Android is open source.  That’s a completely different approach than the one Apple took obviously.  Android will have the benefit of having developers making 3rd-party applications from day 1 as opposed to Apple’s delayed delivery of the App Store this year.  My only question is the certification process with Android applications.  Sure Apple’s system is generally a closed one, but that enables certification of applications so the store isn’t filled with garbage that no one wants.  Of course you could assume that Android apps will basically be regulated by users.  If you go to download an application and everyone is saying it’s terrible, chances are you’ll stay away from it.

Anyways, back to the G1 and the T-Mobile event.  When I started watching the stream one of the first things the representative from T-Mobile mentioned was that they were offering a $25 limited data plan and a $35 full data plan.  This news made me very excited.  After all, a $35 phone plan with unlimited data?  What’s not to love?  When Android was first announced there were a lot of musings about Google maybe giving free service with some ad placement, but cheap service was fine for me.  At least it would have been – one of the attendees was smart enough to ask whether their $25/$35 plans were standalone, or if they required a standard voice plan as well.  They require a voice plan.  So then, the T-Mobile plan is only slightly cheaper than the iPhone’s data plans.  That’s too bad, because I think if they had come out with cheap 3G access they could have gained a lot of interest from consumers still on the fence about getting an iPhone.

Some of the specifications of the G1 I noted while watching the stream were that it’s compatible with Microsoft document formats, it does have wifi built-in despite being meant for 3G, and it has a fully-functioning web browser (like Safari) based on webkit.  Webkit is the base for Google Chrome so that’s not entirely unexpected, and the representative from T-Mobile even referred to Android’s web browser as a sort of “Chrome Lite.”  The device also supports most audio file formats, even the default iTunes AAC, but it won’t work with iTunes DRM-locked songs.  There’s built-in GPS, an accelerometer, an application store (called the App Market), a touchscreen, and of course a camera.  So, at a glance, the G1 is comparable in features to the iPhone.

The question really comes down to user interface I think.  I’ll give Google props for not going the obvious route and blatantly copying the iPhone, but instead taking their own approach.  It looks kind of similar to a PC desktop to me…not necessarily a variant of Windows, but it definitely has a ring of “this is your PC desktop on a phone.”  The icons look like standard desktop icons.  The applications don’t have that same uniformity as iPhone applications share with the rest of the phone’s user interface.  Still I can’t comment much on the UI because I haven’t used one, I can only go off of what I’ve seen in videos like this:

So then, is the G1 important?  Yes.  It gives a lot of promise to people looking for an alternative and open source variation of the iPhone.  As I mentioned it shares a lot of the same features, just maybe not in as pretty of a package.  Given the open-source nature of the project there’s no doubt in my mind that many of the issues I have with the Android operating system will be worked out in time, and for an initial release Android and the G1 are looking pretty good.  I’m hoping that Google works on bringing an Android-enabled device to Verizon sometime soon, because who knows – I might just get my own Google Android phone in the future.

Now Playing:
Deftones – If Only Tonight We Could Sleep (The Cure cover)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

Apple’s “Let’s Rock” iPod and iTunes Event

I was very interested to see what sort of new products would be unveiled by Apple on Tuesday, and I have to say, there’s some interesting news based on what they showed us.  If you were following any speculation leading up to the event then there isn’t much in the way of surprise, but what I’m most interested in is the way they’re trying to market some of their products moving forward.  Let’s start with iTunes.

iTunes 8.0 was officially released Tuesday, as always a free download, and it brings some new functionality to the old standby application which the bulk of people turn to for their music management.  Firstly, you get a new gridview for music that’s very similar to the layout of the stacks gridview.  Really this was sort of already implemented into iTunes with the App Store though.  If you have downloaded any applications for your iPhone or iPod Touch you’ll have noticed that the applications tab basically lists your installed mobile apps in a gridview.  Take that feature and apply it to your music albums and you get the idea.  They also brought NBC back to iTunes so if you’re hankering for some new episodes of The Office this Fall you can get them from iTunes for $1.99 (standard definition) or $2.99 (high definition).  Apple has also figured out how to make the high definition content viewable on your computer so if you don’t have an Apple TV you won’t be left out.

The most important feature added in iTunes 8.0 is Genius.  Genius does its best to create playlists for you based on certain songs in your music collection, similar to how Pandora or Last.fm work.  So for example, if I’m listening to a Deftones song and I would like to make a playlist of 25 songs that Genius thinks is similar to it, I click the Genius bar and bam – all of the songs that are similar to my Deftones track are ready to be played in succession.  The only downside is that, since Genius is only limited to your iTunes library (despite making recommendations from the iTunes store) you won’t get as many accurate matches as you do from Pandora or Last.fm (services which pull from their own, expansive libraries of music).  Right now I’m listening to a Genius playlist based on the song by Deftones called “Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event,” a relatively mellow song, and so Genius has pulled in 24 other songs it thinks are similar.  Some matches are spot on like A Perfect Circle’s “Vanishing” or Team Sleep’s “Our Ride to the Rectory,” while others are a little more questionable.  For instance, how is DragonForce’s much heavier “My Spirit Will Go On” or “Storming the Burning Fields” similar to “Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event?”  Both are heavy power metal songs where as, like I said, “Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event” is a melodic and atmospheric piano piece for the most part.  Intriguing to say the least.

Still, Apple promises that as more and more users use Genius it will become smarter over time (it makes records of everyone’s iTunes libraries anonymously).  I still wish there was a way to approve or disapprove matches though.  In any case Apple’s event on Tuesday wasn’t all about iTunes – there was plenty of iPod news to go along.  First off, to no one’s surprise, they showed off the new version of the iPod Nano.  Gone is the “iPod Phat” design from last year and now we get a nice tall, skinny version of the tiny player with a nice curved design and widescreen display.  The Nano even has some accelerometer functionality.  Steve Jobs showed how you could shake the Nano in order to initiate a shuffle of your music!  As cool as it sounds I think this feature might suffer from the Nintendo Wii complex; that is it sounds cool in theory but is anyone going to want to shake about their MP3 player in public?  The Nanos come in a plethora of new colors as well, ranging from professional-looking black and aluminum to  the more fun pink, orange and (my personal favorite) green variants.

Next up is the iPod Touch.  Now, I just got an iPod Touch not too long ago so I was sort of hoping in the back of my mind that the updates wouldn’t be too significant.  Needless to say I’m a little disappointed.  Aside from getting a much-needed price drop the Touches were also graced with a bit of a hardware design and new hardware features that I’m envious of.  The most notable features are the new volume rocker and external speaker, two features that I’d honestly love to have on my 1st generation iPod Touch.  The physical volume rocker is kind of obvious – it would be nice to be able to change volume without having to even take the device out of my pocket – but the external speaker is a justified phenomena that you might not understand unless you have an iPod Touch or iPhone.

I’m not sure if the same is true for most iPod Touch users but I find myself carrying mine without headphones.  There’s so much you can do with the iPod Touch that doesn’t require them that I find myself content to just browse the internet, check my email and use applications rather than listen to music or watch videos.  Still, it’s that one time when you’d like to have your headphones with you and you don’t that makes you realize how important the external speaker is.  For example, what if you want to watch a YouTube video?  You don’t really need great sound to watch a YouTube video, just something passable.  However if you’re like me and you tend to leave your headphones behind then you’re kind of stuck.  The external speaker is perfect for that.  Basically what it does is make the iPod Touch more of a portable computer than just an iPod that also has computer-esque features.

I think one important thing to note about the new iPod Touch is how Apple has chosen to market it.  It’s no secret that the App Store is full of a bunch of different games, some of which are free and others that cost money.  Because of this they dedicated an entire portion of their presentation to showing off some upcoming games for the iPod Touch, and have labeled the iPod Touch the “funnest iPod yet!”  Sounds to me like they’re going after some of the portable gaming market.  Maybe they were inspired when John Carmack noted that Apple’s mobile offerings are more powerful than either the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP?  I think the fundamental difference between the iPod Touch and other portable gaming consoles is that Apple wants to sell hardware, not software.  Sony and Nintendo are glad that you’re purchasing their systems but where they really make money is on the games.  Is the same true for Apple?  A lot of the games, as I mentioned, are free or relatively cheap.  I’m not sure how that will figure into their strategy but it may have an impact.

Apple made some other announcements of course, such as that of the iPhone and iPod Touch firmware 2.1 release this week, the iPod Classic moving to just one SKU, a 120GB model.  Neither announcements are really that important I don’t think (the update is mostly bug fixes/Genius integration, and the iPod Classic is probably product phase-out).  So that’s it really.  No huge changes, just some expected news that was leaked by Kevin Rose and others well before the actual event in true Apple style.  There is one last part of the keynote I wanted to share though, and that’s Steve Jobs poking fun at some of the unrest about his health.  After WWDC questions were flying as to whether Mr. Jobs had been stricken with cancer again, and to that he simply replied “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”  Well said, I think.

If you want to watch the keynote you can now view the quicktime version by clicking here.

Now Playing:
DragonForce – My Spirit Will Go On
Crysis