It’s been about about four years since the original Entertainment PC was put together. There have been quite a few small changes and upgrades made since then, but it finally reached the point where things were starting to go south a bit too often with this box. Looking at the current conversion of human years to computer years, this box was about 40 years old. So I harvested some of the computer organs (drives), and set to work on building a machine that would first of all, function, and secondly, last a bit longer with a bit more upgrade flexibility. The issue with the previous computer was the case it was built with. Don’t get me wrong, I loved that case (Aopen EPC945-m8), but it was just a bit too locked together to be upgraded. It was purchased as a bare-bones machine, so it would be very very difficulty to pull out the motherboard, or swap out any vial components. The main issue with this was support for newer operating systems. Vista support for this box was poor, and Windows 7 was even worse, and from what I can tell Aopen has basically stopped support for this product, so new drivers weren’t going to happen. No new drivers meant no new OS (I tried Windows 7, and it wasn’t pretty), so it’s time to upgrade to a more flexible Home Theater PC (HTPC).

The Case:
OK, enough about the old box, what’s in the new one? The first thing I chose was the case. I wanted something that didn’t look like a computer, since it sits out in the open right under the TV. I looked at a handful of slim HTPC cases, and ultimately landed on the Moneual Black Aluminum MonCaso 312S. It got pretty good reviews, and was simply a case, and not a bare-bones system. That means I got to pick my own motherboard (micro-atx), power supply (atx), and all the rest of the guts for the machine. I did not want to run into any sort of incompatibilities in the future, and not be able swap every piece out for something else, something I wasn’t able to do with the old Aopen case. The case doesn’t have a whole lot of bells and whistles. It’s got a card reader, and several USB/Firewire ports on the front panel, and included a remote and IR receiver built in (so I don’t need to hang some ugly USB receiver off of it). Outside of a little difficulty getting hardware installed (which is inevitable in a case this small), I’m pretty happy with how the MonoCase 312 looks and performs.

The Guts:
Several items moved over from the old machine, the LG DVD/Blu-ray drive, the hard drive, and the video capture cards. Everything else needed to be purchased new though to get this new box up and running. I spent the most time determining what motherboard to put into it. I went back and fourth on weather or not I needed to get a dedicated video card like I had in the previous box (ATI Radeon 2400 HD). I ended up going with integrated video on the motherboard. I made that choice for two reasons: 1.) space- I only have one slot, and for heat reasons, I wanted to keep it open if I could. 2.) I didn’t really need much more power than what the integrated video provided. The motherboard I chose actually had more power than the stand-alone card on the old system. All it really needs to do is handle HD video, and the built in video (equivalent to ATI Radeon 4200HD) should be able to do that without breaking a sweat. If I wanted to play high end video games, it might be and issue, but first and foremost, this is a TV computer. Alright, so what motherboard did I end up going with? I went with the Gigabyte MA785GMT-UD2H. It basically had everything I needed, integrated video, good audio chip, lots of ports, along with pretty good reviews and a good price. This is an AMD board, so I ended up with an older AMD processor. Normally I’d go with Intel since I think they make a better chip at this point in time, but I grabbed an AMD Phenom II X2 545 Callisto 3.0GHz chip this time around. It’s a much more powerful chip than what I’ve got in the old box (which handles just fine), and I liked what AMD offered for motherboard packages in the form factor I needed better. Everything went together pretty well with one issue (that I probably should have researched a bit more to begin with). The CPU cooler I bought (Scythe SCSK-1100 Shuriken CPU Cooler (Rev. B)), did not fit with my DVD drive in place. The drive was a bit long, and ran into the fan on top, so I had to scrap the cooler and go with the stock one that came with the chip. It is a tiny bit louder, but not something I’m worrying about at this time.

Video Capture:
Video capture hasn’t changed too much with this new machine, but I still wanted to list what I’m using. I’ve got two Hauppauge Low Profile TV Tuner Cards (WINTV-PVR 150MCE-LP) that have been humming away without any problems for several years. These do the standard def. capture, and have been real work-horses. For HD capture, I’m still using the SiliconDust HDHomerun that I wrote about a couple years back. I did change how that box routes video to the HTPC though. Previously, I had a USB Ethernet adapter specifically for the HDHomerun (it delivers video via the network card). That USB adapter has always been a bit flaky, so I moved the HDHomerun up to one of our guest rooms and split the cable for both tuners in the HDHomerun. I plugged the device into our home network (we’ve got ports in every room), and now have two HD tuners where before there was one, and can access that HD video from any computer on our network, including the new HTPC down in the living room. The reason I didn’t have both tuners hooked up before was I couldn’t split the cable any more in the living room. It was already split four ways (TV, SD capture 1, SD capture 2, HDHomerun), and was already noticeably degraded. So by moving it up to an unused cable port in the bedroom, I’ve got higher quality SD in the living room, and now clean clear cable for HD coming from the bedroom. We can now record/view two HD channels at the same time.

Input:
There really isn’t anything new here with the recent build, outside of the new remote, but it’s really nothing special (just a generic windows media center remote). I did want to mention and upgrade I made in April to the keyboard though. I bought a Logitech diNovo Mini keyboard that I’m really happy with. I had issues with the previous MCE keyboard interfering with the TV (apparently they were both using the same IR signals). This new diNovo is bluetooth, and works really great! It also has a better, smaller form factor.

Software:
What on earth will this super-duper-TV-recording-video-watching beast run for software? That’s a good question, and one that probably should have been answers at the top of this article, since it is what prompted the hardware update to begin with. Quick answer: it’s running Windows 7 Media Center (for now). On the previous build, I had a somewhat clunky setup of Meedio, which has long since morphed into something totally different than what it was when I started (it has been sold, purchased by Yahoo, given up on by Yahoo, opened, and rewritten). For TV capture (the Tivo-like function), I was using an application called Stapstream BeyondTV previously, but that has recently been basically abandoned as well. Are you noticing a theme here? I took a look at the HTPC software landscape, and decided at this point in time, Windows 7 Media Center was the best way to go. It’s got a pretty big user community behind it, and works pretty well right out of the box. I also like that Microsoft has just opened up Media Center for CableCard use as well. That means I can hook it to HD cable from a provider without a cable box. Essentially the HTPC becomes the cable box with use of a CableCard from the cable company. Previously this was only available to computer manufacturers. I’m not using this feature now, but like the option for future upgrades. SiliconDust is working on a CableCard box, as well as a nice looking one from a company called Ceton. Some day I’ll be able to record shows in HD from channels other than the big networks. All in all, I’ve been happy with Media Center. It has a nice plug-in for Netflix streaming, as well as Internet TV. I’ve also worked Hulu Desktop into the mix, and connected Media Center to our SlingBox software as well. I still don’t like the proprietary format it records with, but haven’t run into any walls yet converting it to something more portable. They’ve done some nice interface things since the last time I played with it (XP Media Center), and it’s very easy to use without a lot of messing around. You shouldn’t need to read a manual to operate your TV. Generally I’ve been happy with Media Center, but if something better comes along, at least the machine itself is now flexible enough to run it.

Check out my HTPC (#2) Flickr Set for more images and information.

While flipping through some Palm Pre apps a little while back, I ran across a gem of an app (and a service) called Pixelpipe that has come in very handy. What I was looking for was a way to upload multiple photos to different sites all over the internet. My Palm Pre only allows you to upload one photo at a time to two photo services (Facebook or Photobucket) from inside their photo app. In additions to those to services, you can also email or text photos wherever you’d like. With those features, I can usually set up a way to get my photos where I need to since just about every photo/blogging service I use has some sort of interface to pick up a photo via email or mms. It’s just awkward sometimes to jump between multiple apps depending on where I need a photo to go. Luckily Pixelpipe makes none of that necessary.

I don’t use a whole lot of photo services, but did want the ability to sent multiple photos to multiple services at once with one fell swoop. The Pixelpipe app for the Pre does just that. First I set up an account on their site, and then add pipes. Pipes are connections to other other sites and services where you’d like to send your photos. For me, that just means Flickr, Facebook, and my blog (the “latest mobile photo” section in the upper right). If you’re looking for services beyond what I use, chances are Pixelpipe provides support for it. They’ve got a GIANT list of blogging and photo platforms to add pipes from. So once I’ve added my pipes and fired up the application, I can select multiple photos to send out to all my pipes, or just pick and choose which pipes I want to send the current set of photos to. I can then add a title and/or caption, hit send, and the images move their way through the pipes around the internets to all the places I’ve specified. It’s as easy as that.

So let’s say you don’t have a Palm Pre to install the app onto… no worries, they have tools for a large number of platforms (iPhone, Android, Nokia, IM, Windows, Linux, Mac). I’ve been really happy with this little app, and it’s taken a multiple step, multiple app process down to one simple app.

I ran across an interesting collection of facts and figures about things that happened with the Internet in 2009. It reminded me a bit about the Karl Fisch “Did You Know?/Shift Happens” videos that have been floating around for a few years (worth a watch if you haven’t seen it).

Some of my favorite stats:

• 126 million – The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
• 4 billion – Photos hosted by Flickr (October 2009).
• 12.2 billion – Videos viewed per month on YouTube in the US (November 2009).
• 234 million – The number of websites as of December 2009.

Ahhhh, our little internet is finally growing up.

What started a few years ago as a collection of helpful gift guides for my own gift giving has turned into a yearly endeavor. Here is the 2009 list. Most of these are geared more towards geeks and gadgets, but there are several for more general gift giving. If I run across more, I’ll keep this post up to date. Or if you know any that I missed, leave me a comment, and I’ll add ‘em to the list.

• CNET Holiday Gift Guide
• Ars Technica Holiday Gift Guide 2009
• 2009 Uncle Mark Gift Guide and Almanac
• ThinkGeek Holiday Gift Center 2009
• iLounge iPod + iPhone Buyer’s Guide 2010
• Gifts.com
• TreeHugger Holiday Gift Guide 2009
• Engadget’s Holiday Gift Guide, 2009
• NOTCOT Holiday Gift Guide
• MAKE Magazine Gift Guide 2009
• CrunchGear’s 2009 Holiday Gift Guide
• GizMine
• PC Magazine Holiday Gift Guide 2009
• ZDNet’s 2009 Holiday Tech Gift Guide
• Photo.net 2009 Holiday Gift Guide (photography gifts)
• 77 Righteous Gifts Under $77 from Core77 (warning: plays music)
• 2009 GeekDad Holiday Gift Guide
• Digital Trends Holiday Gift Guide 2009
• InfoWorld’s 2009 geek gadget gift guide
• New York Times ‘09 Holiday Gift Guide
• Ain’t It Cool News Quint’s Holiday Gift Guide 2009 (added 11/30/09)
  • Part 1: Books! Comics! Music! Electronics!
  • Part 2: DVDs! Blu-Rays! Toys! Video Games!
  • Part 3: Collectibles! Art! Shirts and Apparel! Rich Stuff! And Food!?!
• PC World Holiday Gift Guide 2009 (added 11/30/09)
• GeekSugar Gift Guides (added 11/30/09)
• Connected Reviews Holiday Gift Guide 2009 (added 11/30/09)
• BoingBoing Gift Guide 2009 (added 11/30/09)
  • Kids, Fiction, Gadgets & Stuff, Comics, Nonfiction, Comics Art/Books
• 2009 Holiday Smart Phone Gift Guide (12/3/09)
• Tom’s Hardware Gadget Gift Guide (12/3/09)
• Lifehacker’s 2009 Gift Guide, for the Lifehacker-Type in your Life (12/4/09)

After a recent computer upgrade (hardware and Windows 7), I decided to reevaluate what I was using for a remote backup solution. I’ve looked at a handful of solutions, and think I’ve found one that fits my needs quite nicely.

My Previous Solution
Before getting into what system I ended up with, I’ll got into a little detail on how I was backing things up before. First, what I back up is probably pretty common. I keep recent copies of my music, photos, and documents, as well as my e-mail in-boxes up in the cloud. I do this with a great little app called Alway Sync and Amazon S3. I set up three profiles in Alway Sync, one for documents, one for music and photos, and a third for email. I should probably clarify that my music collection is currently living on a separate machine serving music to all the computers in the house. That small piece was a bit of a sticking point for some solutions that I’ll outline below. Alway Sync watches certain directories (or mapped drives) for changes and then uploads those changes to my S3 account on a weekly basis. This solution has been working well for the past two or so years, and would probably have continued to work minus one small thing… price. Turns out I added too much stuff, and S3 charges by storage and transfer. Constantly adding to my music library, and taking photos (many times very large images saved in RAW format) has bumped up the storage I need to a level where it’s cheaper to go with another provider. Amazon S3 works great, but after getting my invoice for S3 last month, I decided to see if there was anything out there that was a little less expensive and provided the same level of backup and storage. Fortunately, I was able to find something, that worked just as well, and maybe even a little better than my previous solution.

Crashplan (my choice)
Crashplan is the service I ultimately decided to use. Feature wise, it was very close to  many of the other services I evaluated, but had a few things that put it over the top. Crashplan has a nice multi-platform application that doesn’t seem to be a resource hog. It also seems to give me a bit more control of the directories that I want to upload. It backs up your home directory by default, and lets you pick any other directories you want to add to that. The one thing that Crashplan doesn’t allow (outside of a somewhat messy hack) is the ability to select a mapped drive for backup. Initially I thought this would be a deal-killer, and ultimately ended up being the one piece missing from from all the other solutions I tried. It turns out I just wasn’t looking in the right place. Crashplan offers two types of backup plans. Once is individual – one computer, the other is a family plan that provides backup for several computers. With the family option, I didn’t need to figure out a way to back up the mapped drive from my primary machine, I could just set up an instance of Crashplan on the media server itself, as well as any other computer in the house. Storage-wise, Crashplan provides unlimited space, and doesn’t charge for throughput like S3 does. And pricing for Chashplan isn’t really any higher than any of the other solutions I looked at, and more importantly, it costs less per month than what I was paying for all my data on Amazon S3. Another nice feature in Crashplan in addition to backing up data to their servers, is the ability to backup to another computer somewhere else. So if you’re running the Crashplan app, and I’m running the Chrasplan app, we can select and approve each other’s machines as backup locations for the other (I’m not taking advantage of that feature, but it’s nice to have as an option). All those things put together made the choice easy.

Carbonite
Carbonite Backup is actually one of the first backup solutions I tried. They advertise on TWiT regularly, so I figured I’d give them a try. Features and price are just about the same as the other solutions I tried. They charge a little under $5/month, and have unlimited storage space. Where Carbonite fell a little short for my needs was in their software. The backup application seemed a little clunky, and as I mentioned above, didn’t give me the option to backup a mapped drive. They also don’t offer the family plan that Crashplan offers. Also, I felt their the software was a bit intrusive. It really gets it tentacles into your OS. It adds a little colored dot to folder icons in Windows showing the status of the update. Some people may thing this is a feature, but to me it took over a little bit too much of the OS. I guess I want the backup program to do it’s thing, and get out of the way. Carbonite looks to be a good solution, and seems to get good reviews around the ‘net, but it just didn’t quite work out for my needs.

BackBlaze
BackBlaze is very similar to Carbonite in terms of features and price. The service is $5/month for unlimited storage. It also does not back up mapped drives or network storage. They do at least provide an option for multiple computers, but they charge an additional $5/month for each computer. The other thing about BackBlaze (similar to Carbonite) that isn’t quite right for my purposes is the software. The software by default determines what it’s going to backup, and you have to go through and deselect the things you want removed. Again, this could be seen as a feature, it’s quick and easy right out of the box, but I didn’t want to deal with digging through the default directories. I think BackBlaze looks to be a good solution, just not for me. I’ve actually recommended BackBlaze to a couple people already.

Mozy
Mozy is the last solution on my list, and probably my least favorite. Mozy offers the same song and dance on price and features, $4.95/month for unlimited storage. Their software is OK, really not any better or worse than the others I tested. They are also lacking a multiple computer solution, or an option for network storage. Mozy was looking promising until I started reading some reviews. Apparently several people have had issues with restoring data from Mozy. One would think the restore (heaven forbid you need it) is the most important part of backing up your data. After reading these review, I gave up on exploring Mozy as a backup solution.

Since Apple released their official App Store in July of ‘08, everyone has been jumping on the App Store Bandwagon. Every couple of weeks you see some new company releasing an App Store for whatever platform they represent. Some make sense, and some are a little far-fetched.

LG Applicatoin Store
They’re selling apps for LG phones

HP Touchsmart App Store
HP is selling apps for their Touchsmart line of printers.

Android Market
Very similar to the iPhone App Store, Google sells apps for phone running their Android OS.

Samsung App Store
Samsung sells apps for their phones

Twitter App Store
A company called oneforty started an app store for all the applications out that interact with Twitter.

Blackberry App World
Of course Blackberry needs an app store to compete with the iPhone

Java App Store
This is an app store for applications written in Java

Palm WebOS App Catalog
If everyone else has one, then Palm needs an app store (excuse me, catalog) to sell WebOS apps.

Palm Software Store
Before the launch of the Palm Pre, Palm also had a “Software Store” for selling PalmOS Apps.

Windows Marketplace for Mobile
Not to be confused with Windows Marketplace (silly MS Marketing), Microsoft jumped into the game with an app store to sell apps for Windows Mobile devices.

Ovi Store
Ovi must mean “app” in Nokia

Archos AppsLib
Archos is distributing Apps for its (non-phone) Android devices.

Squeezebox App Gallery
This app store distributes apps for Logitech’s Squeezebox media player.

Sony Ericsson App Store
Selling apps for Sony Ericsson Phones

San Francisco App Store
That’s right, even the city of San Francisco is getting in on the action with an app showcase for apps using their city data.

Apps.gov
The federal government is also jumping on the bandwagon with apps.gov. They’re providing government data in the cloud and a place for apps that access and analyze that data in interesting ways.

I noticed Windows toolbar UI elements were disappearing a while ago. I think it started with the release of Internet Explorer 7, but was reminded of it again with the first preview shots of Firefox ver. 4.0 that came out last week. Is this now a trend? Have we seen the death of the standard windows toolbar? Where is my File, Edit, View menu?

Is the familiar UI we’ve known for years evolving… for better or worse?

Well, I went out an bought myself a Palm Pre. It’s a really good phone, but the major deciding factor was the great deal I currently have with Sprint. It just made it too hard to jump to another carrier to get another phone (*cough* iPhone *cough* AT&T). I held out on renewing the account until the phone was released, and then waited a week or so before making the purchase. Also the fact that I couldn’t get one (without camping out or getting up early) on release day helped the decision. I got on a waiting list and was able to get my hands on a new Palm Pre about a week after they came out (which was one month ago today). I’ve been planning to do a write-up with my impressions of the phone, but wanted to be able to actually live with it for a significant amount of time before writing. I feel like a month’s worth of daily use has given me enough time to truly get to know the ins and outs of the device. I can safely say that I’m extremely pleased with the Palm Pre. It’s a great device, but there are a few rough edges. But I think most of them can probably be chalked up to being version one of the device, and will hopefully be fixed with future updates.

Good: WebOS
In one sentence: WebOS is great! I am extremely happy with the OS running on the Palm Pre. It is elegant, well thought out, and very easy to use. I’m a big fan of the multitasking, or the “cards” metaphor that it uses. You open an app by touching it, then simply swipe up and throw the card away to close it. The UI is really different than anything else out there at the moment. I found myself taking advantage of the the multitasking right out of the box when setting up my email accounts. It was nice to be able to have the mail application running as well as multiple web “cards” open to look up server addresses. The gestures have become ingrained, and I find myself trying to use them when my iPod touch before realizing that that they’re not going to do anything. The shining star of the Palm Pre is definitely WebOS. If you haven’t tried it out, go visit a Sprint store and give it a spin. There are a lot of nice little touches built in that are way too numerous to mention here, but WebOS is definitely a great OS to work with.

Good: Hardware
Before I bought the Pre, I‘d seen quite a few photos and videos of the device, but you really don’t get a sense of how sleek it is until you hold it in your hand. It fits really well in your hand, and has a nice heft to it. The screen is a nice size, and the touch screen responds really well. The slide-out keyboard (another selling factor for me) works really well. I’m coming from a Treo 755p to this device, so I’m using to having a physical keyboard. The Pre is a bit smaller than the Treo, but I had no problem getting used to it very quickly. I like that there is a physical keyboard that I can slide out when I need it, but can leave it folded in when I’m just interacting with the touch screen alone.

Good: Browser
Apple set the bar very high for a mobile browser with the iPhone. Palm has taken most of the things that make Mobile Safari great and put them into the Pre. If you’ve ever used an iPhone or iPod Touch browser, you know what I’m talking about. Getting a full desktop browser feeling into the palm of your hand is probably one of the nicest features of the phone.

Good: Notification Bar
I honestly think this is one of my favorite parts of WebOS. When you get a notification for something, such as an email, or a text message, they show up really elegantly at the bottom of the screen in the notification bar. When they first appear, they pop up with a one-line description in the lower portion of the screen, keeping whatever application you have open. You can then touch it to make it larger (see more information about the notification), or you can swipe it away and go on with whatever you’re doing. If you get multiple notifications, they pile up in the lower portion of your screen, and show simply as tiny icons indication their type, allowing you to select later to go into the actual app, or swipe them away and ignore them. The notifications grab your attention, but don’t interrupt what you’re currently working on.

Good: Synergy
Synergy is the name that Palm gave their pull-everything-together-from-the-cloud-into-the-phone system. In a nutshell, what it does is pull contacts from various locations around the net (google contacts, Facebook, outlook, etc) and merges them together into the address book on the device. It sees that you have a Facebook friend named John Smith, and a Google contact named Jonathan Smith that share an email address. It assume they’re the same person, and makes one contact entry for them pulling all the contact data from either source. If that data changes, either on the device, or in the cloud, your phone is updated accordingly. This also works with the calendar, pulling all your calendars into one place, yet allowing your to split them up or view whichever you’re currently working on (i.e. home/work/holidays). It’s a really nice way to bring everything into one place, and keep it up to date. One area where it could improve (and I presume it will get added later) is more sources for data. Currently the Pre works with Google (docs/calendar/talk), Facebook, Microsoft Exchange, and AIM. I’d like to be able to hook in Yahoo and Microsoft (Hotmail/Messenger) as well, but I’m willing to bet that’s coming soon.

Good: Touchstone
Technically this isn’t part of the phone. It’s an accessory that you have to buy extra, but it is totally handy. The Touchstone is an induction charger for the Pre. So, you slap on a special back (battery cover), and drop the phone onto the magnetic touchstone, and it charges it for you. No messing with cables, just drop it on and charge. Even though it’s a great addition to the phone, I’d drop it in the “Bad” category for the high price tag. Luckily I had a gift card, so it wasn’t as painful of a purchase as it could have been. Ssuper-handy… but super-pricey.

Good: Quickies

• Fast!
• Screen is beautiful!
• GPS and TeleNav (turn by turn navigation)
• Email client is great!
• WiFi/Cell data switching works well (FAST)
• Good clear 3 mega-pixel camera (see photos from the Pre in my mobile gallery)

Bad: Battery
The Pre battery life ain’t that great. It isn’t unusable, but it’s not wonderful. I am probably a heavy user, and it gets me through the day… but just barely. The battery life is a tad bit worse than my Treo 755p (which wasn’t that great either). It gets me through the day, and I guess that’s good. There is definitely room for improvement (c’mon firmware update!!).

Bad: Note Sync
This one is really easy… notes don’t sync. You’d think with all the great synergy mumbo jumbo going on there would be some way I could enter notes (hello google notes?) without typing them manually into the phone.

Bad: Apps
The apps aren’t really that bad, in fact the apps currently available in the App Catalog are actually pretty good (woo hoo Evernote!). It’s the low number of apps that is bad. Again, the phone is young, and they haven’t opened up the SDK yet. I just need to have a little patience and wait a little longer. Palm has said the SDK will be released by the end of summer, so that will hopefully open the floodgates on the App Catalog.
UPDATE: The SDK has now been released – new apps added to catalog “sometime this fall.”

Bad: Bluetooth
There is bluetooth on the phone, but it can only be used for audio at the moment. It is stereo, and it does work with my bluetooth headset, but I’d really like to be able to transfer files with it… like I’ve been able to do with every single phone I’ve ever owned. This is nothing a firmware update can’t fix – the capability is there, it just need to be pulled out in the OS.

Bad: Video/Audio Player
The video and audio players do what they’re supposed to do, but are missing some polish in some certain areas. First of all, they don’t remember where you left off when playing media. I listen to a lot of podcasts (which the Pre can’t download BTW), and don’t want to have to fast forward (there is no scrub bar) to the place I left off in an hour long podcast. It is also missing a way to delete audio from the device from inside either player. I’d like to be able to remove a file without having to plug the phone into a computer. I think (hope) some of these features will come, but probably don’t use these apps as much as I would if they were there. I still carry around an iPod Nano when I want to listen to music of podcasts.

Bad: Quickies

• Can’t search email messages
• No data tethering
• The calendar app is a bit sluggish

Everything considered, I think the Palm Pre is a great phone. Is it an iPhone killer? I don’t think so, but I do believe it raises the smart phone bar, and does a good number of things better than the iPhone. I think any sort of real competition is good, and the Pre is the first phone that has really presented a challenge. There are some areas that need a bit more polish, but fortunately most of them should be able to be taken care of with a firmware update. It’s really just a matter of Palm actually doing it, and bringing the Pre up to the level it can easily be. I think many of the items in my “Bad” category can be chalked up to rushing the device out the door. Like I mentioned in my last Pre post, it was do or die for Palm with this device. They couldn’t afford to wait any longer to get it out, and some things may have suffered a bit because of that. So did Palm hit a home run with the Pre? I think they came pretty close, and time will tell as the device evolves and moves forward.

I just ran across one of the coolest uses of Google Earth I’ve seen. Planet in Action has created an online simulation built on top of Google Earth. You can pilot several barges, a re-fuel ship, a container ship, a cruise ship, or even a blimp. This looks to be a proof-of-concept type game according the the banners they have plastered on the boats you get to drive.

Investors wanted to bring this game to the next level.

Regardless, it is a pretty neat use of the Google Earth technology. I can’t way to see what games come out of this when/if they get their inivestors.

It’s that time of year again that I’m off to Austin, TX for another South by Southwest Interactive Conference. I’ll be collecting my notes on a side-blog again this year: http://sxsw.techory.com.

The SXSW Interactive Festival features five days of exciting panel content and amazing parties. Attracting digital creatives as well as visionary technology entrepreneurs, the event celebrates the best minds and the brightest personalities of emerging technology. Whether you are a hard-core geek, a dedicated content creator, a new media entrepreneur, or just someone who likes being around an extremely creative community, SXSW Interactive is for you!

Last week I was talking to a coworker of mine and somehow the conversation moved towards the possibility of the internet disappearing. She came out and asked  me what I would do if the internet was gone. It’s an interesting question to think about since the Internet has become such an important part of our lives. I know some people do without it, but personally, I think it would be difficult. Just think of all the things you encounter that require visiting a website for more information, or need an email address to register for something. At least in my life, I think I’d run into issues rather quickly. Firstly, I probably wouldn’t have a job, since basically I make stuff to put on the Internet. Secondly, I’d probably have much more free time, given that a large portion of my day is spent in front of a computer (working and playing). It would definitely be interesting, and I can probably say that I’d be spending my time in many different ways.

During the conversation where this came up, I kind of turned the question around, and asked what would happen if any technology were to suddenly disappear. What if we didn’t have cars to drive around? There would obviously be some difficulty getting from place to place, but we probably wouldn’t be stranded since we have some history to look back on without cars. I think the same thing would go for the Internet. We haven’t always had it, so we could obviously do without it. We’d just need to remember how things got done without bits and bytes flying through space. Things would be difficult at first, but we’d figure out how to get by. Some people would probably have an easier time than others if they’ve lived without a certain technology, or had been trained on doing their job before a certain technology existed. I think maybe the point I was making is that we’ll learn to adapt with what we have. I think this coworker was trying to get at how much people rely on the Internet for everything these days, but I think the argument could be made reliance on just about any advancement in technology. What happens if something disappears? We deal with it, and figure out another way to get by. At the very least it’s an interesting thing to think about as you move through your day. How many places do you rely on the internet to get things done?

There was another big announcement from last week’s Consumer Electronics Show that I have purposely held off commenting on. Palm announced their next generation phone, the Pre, and their new WebOS. The tech media has been touting this device as the best announcement of this year’s CES. Full disclaimer: I have owned and used a Palm device since the year 2000, which is one of the reasons I’ve been holding off on this post. I watched the palm keynote, and was extremely excited about this device, and wanted to let the hype wear off before commenting on it. I also wanted to wait until I could get my hands on everything that has been written about this thing to date, and not just drink the “Ooo-purdy-new-phone!” kool-aid. Well, I’ve been sitting on this for a few days now, and can honestly say I’m still very excited about this phone. That said, there are still many things we don’t know yet, but from everything I’ve read out there, this thing seems to be the real deal.

So what’s so great about this thing?

Hardware
Some people love the look of the Pre, some people think it’s kind of ugly. Personally, I like it. It’s got a nice organic shape, the rounded corners are everywhere, from hardware to software. Plus, the best part about this thing, it has a hardware keyboard. Like I mentioned above, I’ve had several Palm phones, the first cell phone I ever bought was a Treo 300, and I’ve upgraded to future Treos from there (300>600>650>755p), so a hardware keyboard is important to me. I could probably learn to use a software keyboard (ala iPhone), but if I’m torn between two exact phones, and one has a hardware keyboard, I’d probably prefer to go that route. I also really like how it gracefully slides out of the phone. Most of the navigation, and simple day to day activities can probably be accomplished with the touch screen, but when I need to type an email or txt message, it’s really nice to have the ability to slide out a full keyboard. The other nice is the touch screen (ha!). It extends below the screen’s viewable area (around the silver button at the bottom) for a gesture area, which is a vital part of the user experience. Otherwise, the hardware on this device is what you’d excpect from any modern smart phone.

• High-speed wireless (EV-DO Rev. A or HSDPA, depending on version)
• 802.11b / g WiFi with WPA, WPA2, 801.1x authentication
• 3.1-inch 24-bit color 480 x 320 display
• Built-in GPS
• Bluetooth 2.1 EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
• 3 megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• 8GB of internal storage (~7.4GB user available)
• MicroUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
• Proximity sensor for detecting when phone is near face
• Light sensor to automatically dim display
• Ringer mute switch
• Removable rechargeable battery
• Width: 59.5mm (2.3 inches) Height: 100.5mm (3.9 inches) Thickness: 16.95mm (0.67 inches)
• Weight: 135 grams (4.76 ounces)

This device has only just been announced, so these hardware details could still change before it becomes available.

Software
One of the things that palm has been working on for quite some time is their transition from their old tried and true PalmOS (Garnet) to a new Linux-based OS (codenamed Nova). They have been talking about this transition for several years, and have been plagued by delays, leaving many to wonder if it was vaporware. So, with their existing PalmOS getting extremely long in the tooth, Palm had to come forward with something truly amazing, or be prepared to curl up and slowly die. To tell you the truth, I was fully prepared for the later of those two options. I heard about the announcement at CES, but was ready to be underwhelmed. My phone contract is up in May, and I was ready to leave the platform for the first time in almost 10 years. Palm had been sitting dormant for way to long. There were too many players jumping ahead of them starting all the way back with Microsoft eating away at their handheld market (before they even started making smart phones). Now with the smart phone market really taking off, with iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile as the big players, it was hard to see how Palm could even think about taking that lead back (for some interesting history on how Palm whittled away their lead in this market, Engadget has some good historical perspective). Given all of that, Palm definitely came out swinging, and is definitely prepared to compete on the same level with the iPhones and the Androids already out there, maybe even pushing the bar a little higher. Nova, now officially named WebOS is definitely an impressive step forward.

The WebOS has some really cool things going for it, but again, we only know what Palm has told us, so until these get into people’s hands, it’s still up in the air. The interface on the Pre looks really impressive. Palm seems to have really taken the time to think through how you can and should interact with a handheld device. There has been a lot of thought put into using the Pre with one hand, for instance, if you touch and hold in the gesture area and then slowly move up the screen, you’ll get a floating quick launch-like bar of your favorite apps. These types of usability tweaks seem to be scattered throughout the entire OS. I guess this makes sense given that Palm pretty much invented the handheld interface, and these types of decisions are in their DNA. On top of the well thought out interactions, the UI design is beautiful. It looks like a modern smart phone.  Some other nice software features are true multitasking. Palm has created a great interface for multitasking on the device. They metaphor they use is a deck of cards spread out on the Pre’s “desktop” representing all of your open applications. You can flick through them, reorganize them, or close them all from one place. You can also set up a card or instance of the same application open multiple times. An example of this would be several cards of the browser application each open with a different website (kind of like a tabs interface in modern browsers). Another nice software feature in WebOS is how it handles alerts. Say you get a txt while you are writing an email message, or browsing the web. WebOS doesn’t take focus away from the task you’re in the middle of, it simply puts a small icon, or partial screen of the alert letting you handle it however you want. I think one of the truly great features of WebOS is how it uses the web (appropriately named eh?), or cloud to manage calendars and contact (and possibly more – we’ll see). The way this works is you’ve got contacts in all kinds of places on the Web (Gmail, Facebook, etc.). WebOS takes all of these collections of contacts and figures out where there are duplicates, or where a contact represents the same person, and brings it all into one place on the Pre. So if I have a contact on the device, and it sees there is a record of the same contact in facebook, yet maybe the Facebook contact has a different phone number not listed with the original, it pulls all that information together into one place. It does the same thing, pulling calendars together from across the web. If I have a work calendar on Exchange and a personal calendar in Google, it let’s me see it all together in one place on the Pre. I’m sure there are things I’m missing, but so far this software (what we’ve seen of it) looks really amazing. To see a good video demonstrating more of the UI, PreCentral.net has a great video of the device on their site.

There is one more piece of all this having to do with software. How difficult will the Pre be to develop for? That again, is a tough question to answer since many of the details haven’t been released yet. Palm claims that it will be very simple to do though, given the development environment is pretty much just web development. Palm has said it is all based on HTML 5, CSS, and javascript, and that everything they’ve demoed thus far was created using just that. The development environment was/is also a piece of whether or not this thing flies. Like I mentioned above, there are quite a few smart phones out there already established, all having their own development environment. Adding yet another way to make apps for a smart phone would just dilute that developer community more, most likely leaving Palm without quality apps. Choosing to go with technologies that millions of developers already know and use on a regular basis was very smart on their part. There is already a huge community out there to make apps for this new device. That does leave a few questions though. Exactly how powerful will this environment be given that it just uses web technologies. I think most common things can be created, but more complex development might take a bit more. A good example, and one were Apple’s iPhone really shines, is in games. It would most likely tough to create a well-made 3d game, like you see all across the iPhone App store with only web tools to do it with. It would some lower level access to the device to be able to do that. Maybe that will happen, it is still too early to tell what exactly Palm has up its sleeve. My guess is that most developers will be able to use the common web development environment to do what they need. For anything beyond that, I’m willing to be that Palm may have a little bit more complex SDK available, but with a few more hoops to jump through to get it.

Final Thoughts
I’ve mentioned several things that are cons on this device, but probably the biggest is we don’t know everything yet. Palm has been purposely tight-lipped on several things. What is the battery life on this thing going to be? At least they have a removable battery (yes, I’m looking at you when I say that iPod/iPhone!), but am I going to have to swap batteries in the middle of the day? How much is this going to cost? Palm is partnering exclusively with Sprint for the launch, which is fine with me since I use Sprint, and will have a contract end in May, but we don’t know how much this bad boy is going to run. Rumors say from $149-199 with a new contract or extension to $399-$499 without. If they’re smart they will price this thing at or below the price of the iPhone. Also, what kind of service plan will I need to use this? Will Sprint go AT&T on us and force us into a special (more expensive) Palm Pre plan? Will this thing only work with the cloud? The thing that makes this phone great is how well it works with the internet and data in the cloud. But, will it only work with the cloud? An example: I currently have an encrypted password application on my Treo that I sync between an encrypted password application on my desktop. This type of information I don’t want flying around the cloud, or being stored there. The cloud is great, but there is something to be said for a simply desktop sync when it’s called for. I guess we’ll wait and see how all of this lands. As we get closer to the release, (full) details of this device will finally make it into our hands.

Palm has been up and down a lot in their sordid history. They lead the way in the handheld market, and seemingly squandered it away over the years, building themselves up again with smart phone, but not without squandering that away as well. Before this announcement at CES, the death knells were definitely sounding for Palm. This was probably going to be their last time at bat, so they either had to hit it out of the park or lose the game. I think they did that with the announcement of the Pre and WebOS. The technology press has been a buzz since the keynote. I haven’t read much negative news about this thing. Some even call this thing an iPhone killer. I think saying that has become a little cliche lately, but if any device has a chance, I think this one does. Will I go right out and buy one of these when my contract is up? I doubt it. I like how it looks currently, but there are a lot of nice smart phones out there right now, and by the time I’m ready for one in a few months, who knows how much the landscape will change. I’m very impressed with the Pre, and what Palm has done, but we’ll have to see how it all looks when this device actually hits the ground.

Asus, the company that started the whole netbook trend announced a cool new product yesterday. It’s called the Eee Keyboard, and is an entire computer (HTPC) built into a keyboard.

The keyboard has a built-in touch screen where the number pad normally goes, which can display widgets, RSS feeds, calendars and more.  This thing will supposedly connect via wireless HDMI, making it a perfect little HTPC that can be carried from room to room, or TV to TV. Unfortunately this is only a prototype, and no official release has been announced, so who knows when or even if this thing will make it to the market. If it does, it look to be a pretty sweet little keyboard… err computer.

ASUS Press Release – Eee Keyboard
Being the first multi-media center enabled by ultra wideband HDMI, the Eee Keyboard is not only a fully-functional PC; it also serves as a hub that wirelessly connects all multimedia devices to utilize any monitor or TV as a viewing platform.

More info and photos:

• Asus releases EeePC Keyboard with Integrated Screen @ CES
  [TechWareLabs.com]
• Eee – that’s a lovely keyboard, pet!
  [beyondstandards.com]
• ASUS to reveal ‘Eee Keyboard’ with a 5-inch touchscreen and 32GB SSD
  [aving.net]
• Eee Keyboard: An Entire Touchscreen Home Theater PC
  [gizmodo.com]
• Cruchgear hand-on video of the keyboard in action

A happy Cyber Monday to you all! I started putting together lists of (geek) gift guides mainly for myself a few years back to help with my holiday shopping. So with the shopping season now officially upon us, here’s this years list. I’ve chosen these lists because they appeal to me, and the people on my shopping list. If you happen to know of any other guides that might be appropriate there, be sure to leave me a comment, and I’ll get them added to the list.

• CNET Holiday Gift Guide
• 2008 Ars Shoopping Guide
• 2009 Uncle Mark Gift Guide and Almanac
• ThinkGeek Holiday Gift Center 2008
• ExtremeTech’s Geek Gift Guide 2008
• iLounge iPod + iPhone Buyer’s Guide 2009
• Gifts.com
• TreeHugger Holiday Gift Guide 2008
  
• Cool Stuff: Your 2008 Holiday Gift Guide
• Engadget’s Holiday Gift Guide, 2008
• NOTCOT Holiday Gift Guide
• 2008 Kotaku Holiday Gift Guide
• MightyGoods Stocking Stuffers: for him for her
• MAKE Magazine Open Source Gift Guide
  • Electronic Kits $20 and Under
  • Alternative Energy Gift Guide
  • Chemistry Gift Guide
  • Music Makers Gift Guide
• CrunchGear’s 2008 Holiday Gift Guide
• GizMine
• Coolest Gadget Gift 2008 Guides
  • Electronics
  • Kitchen Gadgets
  • Eco-Friendly
• Lifehack 2008 Gift Guide
• PC Magazine Holiday Gift Guide 2008
• ZDNet’s 2008 Holiday Gift Guide
• Photo.net Holiday Gift Guide (photography gifts)
• 77 Design Gifts Under $77 from Core77
• Holiday Gift Guide: The 8 Best Green Gadget Gifts (12/11/08)
• The Ultimate Web Developer’s Christmas Wish List (12/17/08)

It’s quickly becoming that time of the year where you’re looking for those perfect holiday gifts. Gift cards are always an option for those hard to buy for people on your list. Best Buy and Target have just come out with new gift cards with some interesting extra features. Target now offers a gift card (for $50 or more) that is also a digital camera. Best Buy, not to be left out also has a dual featured card with a mini headphone jack that can also be used as speakers. I’m sure the secondary functions of both these cards (outside of buying merchandise) are pretty low quality. I guess this the gift(card) that truly does keep on giving.