| HeraldNet - Snohomish County's online news source |
 THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2008 3:09 pm |
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• Nevermind the robots, fear the ants! May 14 • Robots begin commanding humans May 14 • Xbox keeps its lead May 14 • XP flip-flops, clones on video and more April 25 • Wii won't be discounted April 25 |
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Nevermind the robots, fear the ants! So that thing about robots taking over may be overblown. But it turns out that ants are trying to take over by attacking our high technology. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment NEW! Robots begin commanding humans OK, so I kid. I haven't been convinced by decades of sci fi movies that all robots are evil. Though I still have mixed feelings about that bumbot. But the Detroit Symphony allowed a Honda-built robot named ASIMO to conduct it on Tuesday night. The reports are that it did OK. Here's the musically minded bot in action: Honda has been showing off its robots for years, with hopes of finding a commercial market for these things in the not-too-distant future. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment NEW!
The gaming console stories so far this year have been dominated by headlines about the Wii, which still is selling out in some places and is going off store shelves faster than the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. But today's headlines belong to Microsoft's Xbox 360, which is the first of the three big consoles to have sold 10 million units in the U.S. Of course, of the three, it also was released first, in late 2005. The PS3 and the Wii came out in 2006. Key quote: "History has shown us that the first company to reach 10 million in console sales wins the generation battle," said Don Mattrick, a Microsoft senior vice president who heads the company's Xbox business. Maybe. The only problem is nothing seems poised to stop the Wii's momentum right now. The Wii already is the best-seller among the three consoles worldwide. And with 8.8 million units sold in the U.S., it won't be long before it surpasses the 10-million unit mark. Lagging behind is the PS3, which hasn't yet sold 5 million units in the U.S. But Sony's apparently feeling defensive about that 10 million figure. It is predicting it will sell 10 million units worldwide this year. That seems possible, though Sony has to be disappointed with the overall sales of the PS3. At least one observer predicts the current crop of gaming consoles collectively will hit their sales peak next year. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment NEW!
XP flip-flops, clones on video and more There's a bunch of updates today to stories I've posted about the past couple weeks. So, in the spirit of the overused end-of-the-week roundup, here we go: ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment NEW!
The big gaming console headlines today are about Nintendo's announcement that it won't be lowering the Wii's price anytime soon. As my 5-year-old likes to say when confronted by obvious news: Well, duh. After all, the Wii still is racking up blistering sales totals, outpacing sales of both the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360. And of those three, it's already the least expensive at about $250. And, according to Nintendo of America's president, the average Wii sits on a store shelf for only an hour before it's purchased these days. But, as BusinessWeek says (and it's my favorite phrase of the week in a business story): "not all is jolly in Nintendo-land." The portable Nintendo gaming system, the DS, is expected to see sales shrink a bit this year. And if the economy keeps slowing, the Wii is the most prone of the "big three" consoles to see its sales affected, analysts say. For now, however, it's not hard to understand why Nintendo is tempted to keep its prices steady and watch the big bucks keep rolling in. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment NEW!
Sony thought the PlayStation 3 was going to be the big hit among the latest generation of game consoles. With its great graphics and features, Sony hoped it would trounce the Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii. The PS3 been a success, of course, but the Wii has been the runaway hit. The latest sales numbers from March reinforce that. Last month, Nintendo sold 721,000 Wii consoles, compared to 257,000 PS3s. The PS3 was outsold also by the Xbox 360. There also have been some stumbles on Sony's part. Twice before, it has launched and then shut down online content services for the PS3 due to disappointing sales. Well, Sony's apparently ready to try its luck at online content services a third time. According to "sources," the new service could deliver TV shows and movies from the Internet to the PS3 as early as this summer. Microsoft already has a head start at this, as Xbox 360 owners have access to lots of online video through a similar subscription service. The L.A. Times story also points out that Sony's corporate culture and its aggressive copyright protection moves haven't helped the company be innovative in the online content arena. Key quote: "Sony has this blessing and curse of [having] some of the world's smartest intellectual property lawyers, who've never built or marketed a product in their life, who are good at saying, 'no,' " said Richard Doherty, senior analyst at consultancy Envisioneering Group in Seaford, N.Y. "The sun never sets on the Sony lawyers, they're around the world, in Tokyo, London, New York." ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment NEW!
The Apple clone saga So this week's Apple geek-centric soap opera - the emergence of Psystar and its Apple computer clones - hasn't died down much. Finally, Psystar's president seems to be talking more to fight skeptics. Today, Forbes' tech columnist interviewed the guy, who talks about the company's latest glitch. It's having trouble processing credit card payments after already being forced to change vendors for that service. Forbes' Brian Caulfield also gets an expert to offer advice on how Psystar can start to shut up the non-believers. TechNewsWorld has a good summary of the whole Psystar saga for those who haven't been following it. It may take a week or so more before the world finds out once and for all if all this is real, as that's when the first orders of the so-called Open Computer should start arriving on customers' doorsteps. One thing hasn't changed: Apple's not talking about whether it plans to sue or not. No comment at all yet. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment NEW! Consumers fight back online In yesterday's post, I included a link to Comcastmustdie.com, which has become one of the best-known "consumer frustration" Web sites. It was created by Bob Garfield, a columnist for Advertising Age and co-host of public radio's weekly "On the Media" show. He usually sounds like a reasonable man, but Comcast's customer service trifled with him one too many times and he vented his rage into creating the Web site. BusinessWeek recently wrote about "consumer vigilantes" such as Garfield who have harnessed the power of the Web, YouTube and e-mail to get attention - and sometimes resolution to their problems - faster and more effectively than if they made a phone call and or sent a complaint letter. Comcast admits in that story that they now track and try to fix problems posted on Garfield's site. It's nice to see consumers using the Webosphere to fight back; it's something that warms the hearts of anyone - which is just about everyone, actually - who has battled against a big company to get a bill fixed or a technical problem resolved. I haven't had such problems with Comcast personally, but there's a big phone company that serves Snohomish County, starts with a V and rhymes with "horizon" that has on occasion made me want to tear my hair out. One last thing: This YouTube video was created for Comcastmustdie.com, but it's relatable to anyone who's spent days on the phone trying to resolve a billing or service problem. And, in the interest of fairness, here's one that vents against Verizon. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment NEW!
Comcast skips FCC hearing I almost feel sorry for Comcast. Almost. It's not fashionable to feel sorry for a big nationwide cable provider. Witness this popular Web site. A few months ago, Comcast was accused of violating the "net neutrality" doctrine when users discovered Comcast's high-speed Internet service was slowing or blocking high-bandwidth traffic from file-sharing provider BitTorrent. The company has since said it won't do that anymore. But the FCC still has concerns about what Comcast was doing and whether other Internet service providers are picking and choosing what traffic to slow. So the commission decided to hold hearings on the topic. In what turned out to be one of the worst public image moves ever, Comcast hired people to fill seats at the standing-room-only hearing. That made the company look like it was trying to kill any debate over its practices. Comcast got a slew of bad publicity. Which it deserved for that bone-headed move. So today was the second FCC hearing on the subject, this time at Stanford University in California. And Comcast just decided to skip the whole thing. To be fair, the other big cable Internet providers also skipped. But Comcast's absence was noticed the most. Bloggers and others are predictably piqued. So let me be a contrarian, kind of like this guy. After the PR disaster this whole thing has been for Comcast and with the FCC looking like it's divided anyway over whether new rules are needed, the company probably didn't have much to gain by showing up today. The bigger issue of net neutrality has been popping up regularly in recent years, especially as the sharing of music, video and other large files over the Internet has led to more network congestion. The FCC commissioners seem split over whether new rules are needed, but they apparently heard loud and clear today from the defenders of net neutrality. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment NEW! Apple clone a scam, a hoax, or neither? So that exciting news about a low-priced computer that runs Apple's operating system? Yeah ... um ... you might just want to forget I blogged anything about that. Because it might all be a scam. Or not. Gizmodo has been all over this and recommends potential buyers stay away from Psystar. Read the whole post, it's being constantly updated with new details. The warning signs are there: No one had ever really heard of Psystar until a couple days ago, the corporate address kept changing, the owners weren't returning many calls from the online press, etc. But at least one guy has talked to Psystar's president. He responds to the skepticism and Gizmodo's "investigation" of the company. The biggest surprise in all this so far? Apple has been deadly quiet to the press about Psystar's potential rival computer and whether it plans to sue. There are too many bloggers and online news sources having a field day commenting and speculating on the Open Computer and Psystar. Here's a round-up of what's out there. Meanwhile, if you're dubious about all this, but you still want a cheaper Apple computer AND you're a technical genius of sorts, why not build your own Mac? ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment NEW! |
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