Hasta La Gadget!

Lower Manhattan, Pearl Street, the Financial District. A Starbucks with broad windows, great for people watching. Sipping my $5 flavored coffee, I watched a homeless man sit on the sidewalk. I liked him immediately: his sharp gaze and thoughtful expression. When I left, I squatted down next to him and put five bucks in his jar, contributing the cost of my first-world coffee to the man’s case for survival.

We talked. He knew his tech, this man of no possessions, describing his favorite productivity gadgets of the past decade, scorning Apple for form over function. He had been living on the street day and night for two years. My five dollars was “huge,” he said. I knew that was true only microcosmically. He liked cigars. That’s where the cash would go.

Meanwhile, Starbucks had recently cut a deal with Square, one of the hottest startup stories of the season, so that people with five dollars to spend on coffee needn’t pull out a wallet and ponder their privilege.

Continue reading Editorial: Square gets the attention, but credit cards rule

Filed under: Tablets, Wireless, Software

Editorial: Square gets the attention, but credit cards rule originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Nintendo’s Wii U will be launching with an ample number of video games to whet your appetite.

According to the venerable game company, a whopping 23 games will be available for the Wii U when it launches on November 18. New Super Mario Bros. U will of course be the leading title, but several third-party developers have also chipped in with games of their own.

I have to say, I’m awfully impressed. I know that I’ve been somewhat tough on the Wii U here on Slashgear, saying that you shouldn’t preorder the device just yet, but perhaps this game lineup could change my mind. For once, Nintendo seems to understand the importance of third-parties, with 19 of the titles coming from a company other than the Mario maker.

I’m a firm believer that game libraries define video game consoles. And I’m also a firm believer that without a solid launch lineup of titles that appeal to all kinds of gamers, it’ll be difficult for a console to get off the ground.

The Wii U’s launch lineup appears to check all of the boxes gamers would expect. There are the kid-focused titles, of course, but you’ll also find some adult games, like Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Assassin’s Creed III. Add that to the new Darksiders and Arkham City and I think you have a solid game lineup.

And for those of us who still look back fondly at the old days of console launches that included all kinds of fighting games, having Tekken Tag Tournament 2 available on launch day just feels, well, right.

Now, I’m sure that there are some folks out there that look at this game lineup and worry. After all, many of the games, like Assassin’s Creed III, have been ported to the Wii U from other consoles. But I don’t necessarily think that’s such a problem. As Wii owners know all too well, we’ve been deprived of really great games available on other consoles. Finally, we can enjoy them on Nintendo hardware.

“I’m not blinded by reality here”

I suppose I should also point out that I’m not blinded by reality here. I know that Nintendo’s launch lineup doesn’t necessarily indicate that we’ll have hardcore games available over the long haul, and developers will love to support it. But I do think it’s a step in the right direction, especially coming off the Wii, which has proven notorious for its lack of appealing third-party titles.

After looking at the Wii U’s launch lineup, I have to admit that I’m a bit more excited at the prospects of this console than I was before. I’m not entirely sure that the Wii U will be able to hold up over the long haul as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 come out, but for now, I think Nintendo’s console will actually be another suitable gaming option.

That’s good news for us gamers. Once again, I’ll be able to enjoy games on three consoles, and not just two.

Why the Wii U’s Launch Lineup Is Impressive is written by Don Reisinger & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The tablet market is heating up, and for once it’s not Apple, or Google, or Samsung doing the shaking, but booksellers Barnes & Noble. The new NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ may carry the same name as B&N tablets of before, but they’re worlds apart in hardware and clarity of software ecosystem. Not content to chase Amazon and Apple on price alone, there’s an apparently legitimate attempt on B&N’s part to tune each model to the audience most likely to be interested in it, rather than chasing some imaginatively aspirational but likely non-existent “perfect” consumer.

Barnes & Noble’s first big surprise was the hardware package it had put together. Both new NOOK tablets are lighter than the competition, comfortable to hold, and well priced; the NOOK HD may look heavy on the bezel, but it makes it easier to grip like a paperback book, while the NOOK HD+ is half the price of the new iPad but still manages to feel roughly as solid as Apple’s slate.

The screen quality is what really catches your attention, though, with both the 1440 x 900 of the HD and the 1920 x 1280 of the HD+ looking not only crisp and sharp, but having great viewing angles and – thanks to the optically-laminated glass – graphics that seem to float just beneath your fingertip. If the Nexus 7 feels like it has made some quality compromises to hit Google’s price target, B&N has somehow managed to achieve its own competitive pricing without your fingers feeling it.

As for the software, that’s the second strong punch. It’s reskinned Android, something Google and the Android faithful might object to, but which makes sense for a media tablet like the NOOK and the sort of audience that B&N is aiming for. Sensibly it’s not bells & whistles for the sake of UI differentiation, but instead a number of modifications some of which Google could do worse than to borrow for core Android.

So, there’s multi-user profiles, because B&N’s customers didn’t want to buy a new NOOK for everyone in the house, but still wanted to allow everyone to use the tablet pretty much as they see fit. You obviously get access to the retailer’s curated app, movie, TV show, and ebook stores, but you can also lock them down – just as you can the browser, email, or any other apps – so that you can leave the HD and HD+ in the hands of your offspring without worrying about them accessing something they shouldn’t be seeing, or indeed charging dozens of downloads to your card. But, there’s also cross-profile sharing of purchased content, so that mom and dad can each read Fifty Shades of Grey without having to buy their own copy.

Although Amazon’s sales success – and the likely success of the NOOK HD and HD+ – may seem unusual at first glance, they’re arguably just evidence that few other Android tablet manufacturers have quite grasped what Apple did so well with the iPad. Like the iPod worked as a conduit for music sales, and the iPhone opened up the mobile app market, so the iPad put multimedia and software purchases in your face. Selling people a single piece of hardware is a way to make money once, but regularly selling them content to enjoy on it is a revenue stream that keeps on giving.

Even Google’s Nexus 7, blessed with a competitive price, seemed to be getting the message on the value of content. Rather than apps like the browser and Gmail, the Google Play media downloads were put front-and-center by default on the Nexus 7′s homescreen: big widgets leading into movie, music, and ebook downloads.

Google and ASUS may not quite be treating the 7-inch tablet as a loss-leader, but they’re under no illusion about where the ongoing revenue stream comes from. Even the bundled free credit of $25 toward Play purchases was only added to accounts which register a credit card, Google’s way of encouraging paid downloads rather than free app grabs.

Barnes & Noble’s initial success will depend largely on how well stocked it can make its electronic stores. If users can’t find the content they want, they’ll look elsewhere. However, it also needs to adequately leverage its physical stores, still a differentiator from rivals like Amazon. Ironically, given B&N is best known for selling books, that didn’t work so well with ebooks, but the company could do more with DVDs and Blu-ray if it can play up the UltraViolet angle.

Buy a physical copy of a movie with the UltraViolet logo (or, indeed, whip one off the shelf of your collection at home) and you can instantly unlock a digital version through the NOOK Video store. So far UltraViolet has failed to gain any noticeable traction, but a tightly-integrated brick & mortar retailer/digital device duo could tip that in Barnes & Noble’s favor.

The NOOK HD and HD+ still have a battle ahead of them. The iPad has captured mindshare among those who don’t really care about the technology side, and for whom “iPad” and “tablet” are fast becoming interchangeable, while Amazon has a wealth of digital content for the Kindle Fire HD. Competitive pricing and eye-catching hardware is a good place to start, however, and the NOOK HD and HD+ already do enough to eclipse much of the Android tablet line-up for the mass market.

NOOK HD and the B&N ecosystem gamble is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Every Apple launch has a sting in the tail, and for iPhone 5 and iOS 6 it’s Maps. Ditching Google Maps and instead turning to a self-made alternative makes sense in terms of longevity, but it meant hitting reset on what had come to be relied upon as a solid and predictable user experience. Apple was going to have to take a PR hit at some point, there was no escaping it. The step back in detail from Google Maps, which has had years of refinement, to the first-gen Maps app of iOS 6, is unavoidably obvious, particularly to those outside of US cities.

Sites such as “The Amazing iOS 6 Maps” highlight the more extreme examples; for everyday users, it’s more likely to be a case of a few confusing directions or mis-labeled locations that introduce a hiccup into their navigation. Turn-by-turn navigation assuages some of the pain, but it only takes one or two bad experiences with moldy data to leave users unconvinced that an app can do the job.

Obviously Apple has to address its patchy data and poor merging of map, satellite, and points-of-interest. What will be interesting is how it chooses to do that. Google has been relatively self-sufficient in its map development, sending out a fleet of Street View cars for instance, but Apple could easily augment its own data gathering with its army of iPhone owners.

Don’t underestimate the loyalty of iOS users and the potential for crowd-sourced data to flood Apple’s servers – if, that is, the company can make it easy enough. There’s already the ability to report errors in Maps’ data from within the app, flagging up wrong street labeling or missing locations, but Apple could build on that with more proactive location-gathering tools. Meanwhile, Apple’s new Panorama feature in the camera app – pumping out high-resolution, seamlessly-joined scenes – could, if suitably geotagged, be repurposed to create Google Street View-rivaling sidewalk level imagery. It would take a huge quantity of data to actually fill in all the gaps, but there are a whole lot of iOS users out there.

“Apple could rely on platform zealots and mercenary interest”

OpenStreetMap is an example of how crowd-sourcing data can come to rival “traditional” business plans. Apple, meanwhile, is in a position to rely not only on enthusiastic platform zealots but somewhat more mercenary interest too: free iTunes credit, perhaps, for those who submit the most new Maps data, or who make the most accurate edits, or who generally contribute the greatest value to the product each week or month.

There’s a lot you can do by passively watching how people move about with their smartphones. Figuring out the most popular routes, for instance, or identifying points where the physical road doesn’t quite match up with where your map data thinks the road is. Conversely, you can spot where that map data might have confused a road with, say, a train track – something iOS 6 Maps has been accused of – based on infrequency of use. Bake in some location ID – checking-in with FourSquare, for instance, or similar services – and you’ve got point-of-interest refinement too.

Apple is playing catch-up. That’s not a position the company is unused to, however, and it has a track record of learning from rivals and delivering a solid and appealing alternative in its own right. What could make the difference from existing mapping services is how much Apple leverages the dedication and ubiquity of its own users, harnessing them into a cellularly-obsessed workforce both contributing to, and benefiting from, a crowd-sourced location system that Apple alone controls.

The iPhone 5 crowd could help Apple Maps find its way is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A war is brewing in the mobile space.

No, that war isn’t Apple against Samsung or Google versus Microsoft. Those battles have been raging for months, and chances are, they won’t end anytime soon. The latest – and perhaps most vicious battle – is now being waged between Apple fans and Samsung fans.

If you’ve been following the mobile space lately, you know that Apple fans have taken it upon themselves to target Samsung smartphone fans, discounting their choice in product, hammering the Android operating system, and criticizing them in nearly every way imaginable. In some forums across the Web, even Mama jokes aren’t off the table.

The trouble started last week after Samsung released an ad showing the differences between its Samsung Galaxy S III and the iPhone 5. The company claimed that its product comes with all of the bells and whistles Apple’s alternative doesn’t, making it the better choice for consumers.

Apple fans, of course, responded with outrage, taking aim at every Samsung fan they could. They argued that Android is a loser, Samsung “copies” Apple’s products, and the only reason any company has been able to make some cash in the mobile market is because of the iPhone maker’s innovation in 2007. Without Apple, the fans say, there would be no Samsung or Android.

“It’s clear that a real war is on”

Of course, the Apple reaction to Samsung’s fan charges is nothing new. For years, Apple’s fans have been taking anyone to task that would even come close to criticizing their favorite company. What has been most surprising, however, has been the swift and vicious attacks Samsung has leveled against Apple, making clear that a real war is on.

But does that war make much sense? Sure, Apple’s fans believe the iPhone 5 is the best smartphone on the market. And while there are countless Android-based devices, Samsung’s faithful fully believe that the Galaxy S III is tops. Both sides are loyal. And they are flanked by millions.

Still, the fact remains that if you buy an iPhone 5, you’re going to be pleased with the device. And if you pick up a Samsung Galaxy S III, you’ll be just as happy with that product. If either side is getting anything right, it’s that the products they support really are the best in the world.

So, why fight so hard for something that, at the end of the day, just doesn’t matter? Apple fans can’t change the minds of Samsung fans, and vice versa. For some people, Apple’s products, no matter how nice, will never grace their homes. For others, the same holds true for Samsung devices. And believe it or not, it’s fine if people disagree on the smartphone they most desire.

Call me insensitive to the plight of iPhone owners, but I think there are much bigger problems in the world than dealing with the oh-so-awful Samsung Galaxy S III owners.

So they like a different device than you. Who cares? It’s not like they’re espousing the values of owning a BlackBerry.

Is there really a good reason for Samsung and Apple fans to hate each other? is written by Don Reisinger & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.