Hasta La Gadget!

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

At the launch of the new iPad – superior for video chat, group presentations, and cutting cake — Apple didn’t miss a few opportunities to rub salt in the open air vents of Microsoft’s tablet efforts. Apple noted that sales of the iPad have exceeded those of every other tablet PC ever sold, and that Microsoft (along with other competitors) were chasing doomed strategies that extended outmoded models.

Microsoft has been clear that it will continue to use its “desktop” operating system – Windows – rather than its mobile operating system – the device-specifying Windows Phone 7 – as its operating system for tablets. Considering the critical importance of an intuitive touchscreen UI on tablet — where Windows Phone 7 excels and desktop Windows has struggled — this seems risky on its face. But it is important to remember from Microsoft’s perspective that the question is not whether Windows is the best choice for tablets but whether it is a better choice for Microsoft than Windows Phone. While the company faces an uphill battle regardless of which OS it chooses, its flagship could be the better answer for several reasons.

Continue reading Switched On: Padded Windows

Switched On: Padded Windows originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 19:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Perhaps it bore repeating for the shock value to sink in, but Nokia CEO Stephen Elop missed nary an opportunity to defend his company’s choice of Windows Phone as its future smartphone foundation. Nokia, he said, was making “a big bet” on Microsoft and vice versa. However, Windows Phone is only one leg of Nokia’s strategy moving forward. Its “next billion” initiative is tied to handsets in which Nokia and Microsoft interests do not meet. And Nokia’s third task, creating or planning for the next disruption, will keep the company tethered to the MeeGo operating system.

Indeed, the Wall Street Journal‘s behind-the-scenes look at how the Microsoft-Nokia alliance came to be, revealed how close it came to not being at all. Nokia seriously considered Android as the operating system of choice for its smartphones, and was only persuaded differently by a big check and an exceptional flexibility to make changes to the Windows Phone 7 operating system. Because, for all the attention around Nokia’s selection of Windows Phone, it ultimately neither guarantees Nokia’s success nor dooms it to failure in the US smartphone market. Here’s what will:

Continue reading Switched On: Nokia’s Windows of opportunity

Switched On: Nokia’s Windows of opportunity originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Feb 2011 19:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

One thing that has set Sony apart from its home console rivals has been the extended lifecycles of its hardware. Riding the momentum of a massive install base, both the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 each kept selling strong nearly a decade after their debut, and years after their respective successors were introduced. In fact, as late as 2009, Audiovox began offering a PS2 integrated into an aftermarket ovehead car video system with a 10″ screen. Sony could pursue this strategy in home consoles because the PS2 was the runaway unit volume leader of its generation. Not so with the PSP.

When Sony introduced the PlayStation Portable, it entered a portable console market with fierce, entrenched competition from the incumbent Nintendo, and the powerful widescreen handheld was outsold by the Nintendo DS and its later derivatives. Sony couldn’t attain the market share it needed to steamroll existing competition.

With Sony’s announcements this week, however, the PlayStation purveyors seem to have found a way to take their one-two punch on the road with a strategy that takes the PSP and segments its evolution.

Continue reading Switched On: A suite segment for PlayStation games

Switched On: A suite segment for PlayStation games originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Jan 2011 23:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

And so, at Steve Ballmer’s keynote, the company announced that the next version of Windows will support not only x86 offerings from Intel and AMD – themselves moving closer to ARM-like system-on-chips – but ARM designs from companies such as Qualcomm and NVIDIA as well. Microsoft noted that the new chip support was requested by its partners, implying that PC companies want to take advantage of the long battery life and thin form factors enabled by ARM architectures, but also bring along Windows’ broad driver and software support. Microsoft clearly considers the tablet another PC, albeit one that Windows’ hardware and user interface layer needs to support better. However, in striking back at Android evolution, Microsoft risks collateral damage to its own mobile OS. Can Windows Phone 7 co-exist with a ARM-based version of the real thing?

Continue reading Switched On: Making the call on Windows Phone 7

Switched On: Making the call on Windows Phone 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Jan 2011 19:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Switched On presents a short quiz to determine your content-delivery personality.

It’s most important that my on-demand entertainment:
a) is easy and accessible
b) is not blocked
c) is available at the optimum bitrate
d) offers a new navigation paradigm
e) advances the species

The place I usually find entertainment is:
a) the cloud
b) my PC
c) the NAS connected to my TV
d) the long tail of the Web
e) Madagascar

Continue reading Switched On: Which connected TV box are you?

Switched On: Which connected TV box are you? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Dec 2010 20:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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