Hasta La Gadget!

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

In its introductory press release, here’s what Sony has to say about the Dash, a “personal Internet viewer” that it announced at CES: “Featuring a vivid 7-inch color touch screen… Dash utilizes an existing home wireless connection to continuously deliver Internet content to its viewers.” And according to its SonyStyle.com site, here’s what that Dash has to say about itself: “I use over 1,500 free apps and your Wi-Fi connection to deliver the information and entertainment you crave… right to your bedroom, kitchen or office.” But Dash also has something to say about Sony, and for the most part, it’s an encouraging message.

Dash was one of the more distinct category-blurring products to emerge from Las Vegas in January. Its hardware is a hybrid between an alarm clock and digital picture frame and its content is a content mashup between Chumby widgets and Sony’s Bravia Internet Video Link offering. Dash was introduced just a few months after HP introduced its DreamScreen, another product that provides “glanceable” information from the cloud.

Continue reading Switched On: Sony’s forward Dash

Switched On: Sony’s forward Dash originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

At the introduction of the iPad, Steve Jobs showed a simple slide illustrating one of the burning questions in the industry for many years. On the left was a smartphone. On the right was a laptop. And in the middle was a gap. Apple, like many companies in the PC industry, was seeking to create a product that filled this gap. Indeed, the iPad itself reflects elements of the Apple devices that flank it. Its enclosure resembles the silver metallic enclosure of a MacBook Pro, but inside, it has the ARM processor architecture and operating system of the iPhone.

But the iPad is but the latest in a long line of products and would-be general-purpose devices that seeks to fill this gap, most of them short-lived. Some of the more recent ones include the aborted Palm Foleo, the Sony Mylo, Nokia Internet Tablets, UMPCs, and MIDs. Why are so many companies convinced there is opportunity in these products?

Let’s turn back the clock to 2002, the year Handspring launched its first smartphone, the monochrome 160 x 160-pixel Treo 180. It was the year that Verizon Wireless launched the first 3G network in the U.S. and the year MobileStar declared bankruptcy after deploying public Wi-Fi throughout many Starbucks locations in 2001. In 2002, PC World awarded its World Class Award for ultralight notebooks to the Fujitsu LifeBook P-2000. It was less than three pounds and had a 10.6-inch screen, but was 1.6-inches thick and had a starting price of $1,499. And it couldn’t access Facebook, Hulu, YouTube or Engadget — because they didn’t exist.

Continue reading Switched On: Mined the gap

Switched On: Mined the gap originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

Without a doubt, 3D was the keystone feature touted by every major TV and Blu-ray player manufacturer at CES 2010. But the 3D technology we’ll see this year asks more of consumers than previous reinventions. As with HD, they will need new TVs, new video sources, and optimized content like Avatar to make the experience worthwhile.

But consumers will also likely need glasses — and not particularly fashionable glasses — to experience the 3D effect. It’s a lot to ask customers, given just-completed 10-year transition to digital and high-definition television. Compare that to the roughly 30-year gap that separated the mainstream arrival of color and the first HDTV in the U.S.

It also remains to be seen how strong of a marketing push major electronics companies will put behind 3D. The shift to HD was aided by a government mandate that coincided with the shift from over-the-air analog broadcasts to digital broadcasts. And before there was much HD content on television, consumers embraced the dramatic form-factor shift from CRT to flat-panel televisions — HD often just came along for the ride.

Continue reading Switched On: The two sides of 3DTV

Switched On: The two sides of 3DTV originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Multi-room music has a long history as the province of the wealthy, the corporate, and those with the forethought to build or buy new construction with the structured wiring to support it. But over the past few years a number of companies have tried various wireless technologies to bring multi-room music closer to the masses. Some companies have used proprietary wireless systems while others have used WiFi, and yet others have tried both approaches in different products at different times.

Those approaches, though, now face competition from a new ingredient brand called Rocketboost. While it may sound like a powdered nutritional supplement that Jamba Juice adds to smoothies, Rocketboost uses the second generation of a wireless audio technology dubbed AudioMagic 2G, which developer Avnera claims is the first multipoint to multipoint HD wireless audio platform. Indeed, AudioMagic 2G can support up to five sources and nine receivers — significantly shy of Sonos’s 32 zones, but enough to cover many homes. Each Rocketboost receiver has, at minimum, a button to cycle through active sources, and the standard also supports displays that would enable more flexibility in source selection, particularly AudioMagic 2G has a data channel for sending information about a source and the content it is playing.

Continue reading Switched On: Multi-room music’s rocket ride

Switched On: Multi-room music’s rocket ride originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

The short history of digital content includes several examples of on-the-go services like Audible and Slacker that were started out on own devices before expanding to others, But FLO TV, which started its service on handsets from Verizon and then AT&T, has gone the other way. After being stalled by the digital TV transition delay that held up spectrum it needed to launch and expand service in several markets, FLO TV has launched a dedicated $250 device, the HTC-branded Personal Television, even as it seeks to expand the number of handsets supporting its receiver.

Like a Kindle, iPod nano, or Flip camcorder, the pocketable Personal TV has a straightforward, optimized purpose. And for technophiles who live in a world of Hulu, TV-on-DVDs and Apple TV, it recalls a simpler time when TV content and device were an integrated pair. Turn on the device, press a GPS-style safety disclaimer, and you’re watching TV. Apart from power and volume/mute controls, it has only a single front-mounted button brings up the electronic programming guide, which can be navigated by touching and swiping its 3.5-inch touchscreen. A laptop battery-style power status button lights up a series of LEDs to let you know how much charge is left in the device.

Continue reading Switched On: The TV is personal again

Switched On: The TV is personal again originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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