Hasta La Gadget!

When deciding how to bring technologies to market, companies face the decision of whether to offer them in its own products, pursuing a strategy of vertical integration, or license constituent elements for inclusion in others’ products. In the wireless operating system space, Apple, RIM and Palm (since Web OS) have chosen the former strategy while Symbian, Google (via Android and Chrome OS) and Microsoft have generally pursued the latter. It is difficult, if not unwise, for a licensing company to compete with its partners. Attempting to avoid this dynamic led to the disastrous split of Palm, Inc. into the PalmSource software company and PalmOne hardware company back in 2003. With the imminent release of its teen-targeted, social networking handset, though, Microsoft is seeking to have its Kin and eat it, too.

Continue reading Switched On: Kin dread spirit

Switched On: Kin dread spirit originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

A few months ago, some videos leaked from Microsoft showed a book-like device with two touch screens and a stylus. The user is seen researching, creating and designing content in a manner that looks both intuitive and innovative. Called Courier, the product doesn’t (yet) exist beyond the conceptual videos, but it shows Microsoft is thinking in some new ways. Ross Rubin discussed Courier’s role for creative professionals last week but I think there’s even more at stake here — I think the concept shows computing models are evolving. Here’s what Courier represents to the market:

The pen isn’t dead. The pen’s been searching for a place in computing for more than a decade. We’ve seen experiments in all different types of pen computing from the PC to the PDA and the phone. They’ve all pretty much failed, and today’s hot commodity is capacitive touch. Microsoft’s Courier video shows how the pen can play a prominent role in the evolution of computing interfaces. While fingers are great for many things, there are tasks better served by the ability to manipulate at the pixel level. Handwriting and the ability to take written notes is one of them. Content creation and painting is another. It’s clear Microsoft knows all this — in addition to Courier, there’s the Deskterity project that melds pen and touch on Surface.

Continue reading Entelligence: What can Courier teach the market?

Entelligence: What can Courier teach the market? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

When Apple announced the iPad, Steve Jobs positioned it in the space directly between the laptop and phone. That greatly interests me because there are moments in my life where my phone is too small and my laptop too large. While the iPad clearly won’t replace my phone anytime soon, my question is: Can it replace my laptop on occasion and serve as a content creation as well as content consumption tool?

A few weeks ago, I deliberately left my laptop at home for a week of heavy business travel. Instead, I relied mostly on three phones: an iPhone, a Pre and an HD2. And now I’ve been using a production iPad for the four activities that were difficult and uncomfortable on my phone. Here’s what I learned.

Continue reading Entelligence: the iPad as a productivity tool

Entelligence: the iPad as a productivity tool originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Apr 2010 12:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

The idea of multitasking on mobile devices has been a hot topic for years. It’s been debated since the early days of smartphones, when devices such as the Treo based on Palm OS could not handle more than one task at a time, while handsets based on the Windows Mobile platform had the capability. The issue reached a crescendo with the release of the iPhone (and more recently with the iPad) and lack of multitasking capability for third party apps. This week it’s come up once again, with news from MIX10 that Microsoft would not support multitasking for third party apps on Windows Phone 7 Series, at least initially.

Continue reading Entelligence: Mobile multitasking is mostly a myth

Entelligence: Mobile multitasking is mostly a myth originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” I’d paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke’s famous quote for the CE market by saying that any sufficiently advanced new product needs to look like it just came off the Starship Enterprise. I’d say Microsoft Surface was a product that met my definition as well as Clarke’s when it launched a few years back — and it should have changed computing quite a bit. Sadly, I haven’t spoken to the Surface team in a long time and it looks like it may never go anywhere in the end.

The Surface concept was great. It was a Windows PC inside a table with a 30″ touchscreen on top, and cameras that could sense what’s happening on screen. The result is you could use a Surface device just by touching the screen with your finger — but unlike other large touch screens at the time, Surface was multitouch, so you could use all your fingers at the same time. More importantly, multiple users could engage with each other. It was a PC but didn’t look or run like a PC, which was genius — you’d never know it was running Windows, but there was no development learning curve. It was totally optimized for that big honking touch surface area, and applications that worked with it — I’m sure it could run Office, but that’s not something it’s was ever likely to do. Surface was PC evolution happening in real time. It’s really something you needed to see up close and in thirty seconds before the light bulb went on. Sadly, most people have never seen or worked with a Surface unit. Beyond a small retail rollout at AT&T stores in NY that seems to have ended, the last time I saw one was the Edelman PR offices, where it sat like a large coffee table and did pretty much nothing.

Continue reading Entelligence: Will Surface ever surface?

Entelligence: Will Surface ever surface? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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