Hasta La Gadget!

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

Oh, e-readers are e-readers. And tablets are tablets. And surely the twain shall meet. Indeed, they already have, with the iPad hosting not only its own integrated bookstore, but client software from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and others. Barnes & Noble, in turn, describes its new Nook Color as a “readers’ tablet.” But these devices and their affiliated digital bookstores are all chasing the same avid readers of bestsellers. These readers read mostly for leisure or self-directed enrichment as they can fit it in to their schedules.

But those who sell e-readers and tablets would really like to tap into a market of people who have to read versus want to read — not just the low-stakes novellas of Amazon singles, but hefty, cumbersome, expensive, perpetually obsolete tomes that are assigned to 19 million full-time college students annually. The National Association of College Stores estimates that the average full-time college student spends nearly $700 per year on course materials. For the 2008-2009 school year, the average new textbook price was $64. And the mean gross margin on course materials for a college bookstore is 27 percent.

That is a prize worth pursuing. But can a device dedicated to the way students study survive amidst an onslaught of tablets from every corner of the PC, consumer electronics and cell phone industries? Kno thinks the answer is yes.

Continue reading Switched On: Getting from Kno to yes, part 1

Switched On: Getting from Kno to yes, part 1 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Nov 2010 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.

Remember those early wireless headsets, the ones that made people look like they had been assimilated by The Borg? Few would seek to return to those days for the benefit of bridging a handset and one’s ears. But what if one could also bridge a handset and one’s eyes? That’s essentially the promise of Looxcie, a Bluetoooth headset that integrates a video camera to enable passive video capture.

Looxcie’s creators note that using the device requires less encumbrance than even a Flip camcorder. Still, there’s no getting around it — the Looxcie is no spy gadget. Accepting the state of the technology for what it is, the designers chose to embrace its size rather than try to minimize it. The protuberance that houses the boom mike and lens of the product swells toward an end that includes a red recording light. The extension in a glossy white, perhaps an homage to massive telephoto zoom lenses like those from Canon.

Continue reading Switched On: A Looxcie into lifecasting’s future

Switched On: A Looxcie into lifecasting’s future originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Oct 2010 18:30:00 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.

In the short history of smartphones, handsets carrying all but one of the major operating systems have been available to multiple U.S. carriers. That exception is iOS, for which the iPhone has been the only model. Of course, the iPhone’s close cousin, the iPod touch, is available regardless of carrier (or service fees, for that matter), and has sometimes been referred to as “the iPhone for Verizon users.” Ultimately, though, it’s not. While the iPod touch provides access to a dizzying array of functionality that will likely expand this fall, its lack of an integrated cellular radio and attendant voice calling features means that it cannot assume that primary role in one’s digital life in the same way that many smartphones have.

For this reason, the notion of a Verizon iPhone remains one of the hottest rumors in the industry, with many assuming that it would cause a fundamental shift in the competitive landscape. But there are many reasons that a Verizon iPhone may take years to arrive — if it ever does — and may not create nearly the disruption that it has on AT&T.

Continue reading Switched On: Getting real about a phone that’s not (part 1)

Switched On: Getting real about a phone that’s not (part 1) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Sep 2010 17:30:00 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 the most-predicted announcement from Apple’s September 1 press event is the addition of two cameras to the iPod touch. Long before Apple revealed its FaceTime videoconferencing software with the iPhone 4, various disassemblers noticed that there seemed to be a place left open for a camera in the last iPod touch, despite Apple’s claim that the product didn’t “need more stuff.” Nonetheless, few could deny the usefulness of such an add-on, particularly when paired with the touch’s relatively generous internal memory capacity.

Now, though, adding image and video capture to the touch makes even more sense. Apple’s FaceTime video chat software is Wi-Fi-only, and while 3G support would certainly make It more useful on the go, imbuing the iPod touch with the ability to make video calls greatly expands Apple’s addressable market with FaceTime, brings the touch into a whole new category and possibly makes it the first affordable, carrier-independent mass market videophone.

Continue reading Switched On: FaceTime prepares for prime time

Switched On: FaceTime prepares for prime time originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 18:00:00 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.

The moon has only four major phases, but as the Zune — that satellite around Microsoft’s gravitational pull — enters a familiar fifth phase, what some consider a pale reflection of the iPod has made few waves despite inspiring its share of romantics. Zune began as a new salvo against the iPod as Microsoft grew frustrated in its attempts to make inroads versus Apple’s soaring digital media device with its abysmally named and convoluted PlaysForSure rights management scheme. PlaysForSure had actually achieved some level of acceptance on digital music players and even handsets, but as Steve Ballmer has explained, devices that sell in the tens of millions of units per year — as opposed to hundreds of millions like PCs and handsets (Kin notwithstanding) — can be a good opportunity for vertical integration of hardware and software.

And so was born Zune, welcoming us to the social with its chunky profile, brown color option, “double shot” facade and the quirky and later abandoned WiFi-based song-squirting sharing feature. Its next major iteration introduced the “squircle” — a rounded square clickable trackpad that surpassed the click wheel just as Apple was gearing up for the game-changing iPod touch: strike two.

Continue reading Switched On: ZuneForSure

Switched On: ZuneForSure originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Aug 2010 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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