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Love the gadget, hate the gadget maker

  

Sometimes the big tech companies seem to compete to see who can alienate consumers the most. Google, which everyone used to love, launched its Nexus One phone without bothering to hire any customer service reps. That didn’t go over so well when the inevitable problems arose. 

About the time it got done wiping the egg of its face from Nexus One, Google angered other consumers with the launch of its Buzz social networking add-on to Gmail. Google took the liberty of browsing through Gmail users’ “Sent” folder and started sharing user information with anyone it decided to add to the social network. Google issued several public apologies and changed some of Buzz’ features after a class action lawsuit and uproar from Gmail users. 

Apple has a legendary core of loyal customers. But the company faces a growing chorus of complaints about customer service from the owners of faulty iPods and Macs. Last summer, the company took anti-consumer behavior to a low when it tried to silence a British man as a condition for refunding the purchase price of an iPod that had exploded.  

When it comes to torquing off the customers, it’s hard to beat Microsoft. A growing number of consumers have decided to pay inflated prices to buy Apple computers because they dislike Microsoft, its products and its customer service.  

After a recent hassle streaming Netflix movies to my TV via Microsoft’s Xbox 360. I was ready to add one more item on the “Why People Hate Microsoft” list. But after looking at everything in the light of day, I’m nominating Netflix to the list of companies that want to be hated as much as Microsoft. 

This latest run in started when a major craving for noir hit me. Netflix told me that all I needed was a compatible hardware device such as the Xbox 360 and I’d be watching Bogart in “Dead Reckoning” on the big living room flat screen in minutes. I signed up, fired up the Xbox, downloaded the Netflix software and …  

Instead of Bogie as a returning war hero, I got a message from Xbox Live that my Gold subscription had expired and I’d have to renew to watch Netflix movies on my TV. 

I can download Amazon Unbox movies from my PC and stream them to the living room TV through Windows Media Center and the 360. I can record TV shows on my PC and stream them through the Microsoft game console. I can watch live programming on my PC’s TV tuner and stream it through the Xbox. But Microsoft has crippled Xbox Live and Media Center to prevent me from streaming Netflix unless I sign up for a premium subscription. 

Crippled technology — when a company sells you hardware with some of its features intentionally disabled — bites. Microsoft is not the first company to do it. For years cell phone carriers have turned off features that would bypass revenue-generating data fees. Sony’s Blu-Ray has the ability to cripple the output of high-def movies on older HDTVs as part of a digital rights management scheme. But that doesn’t make Microsoft’s disabling of the 360 any less of a slap in the face to people like me who bought the gaming console but don’t want to pay for a subscription to the online gaming service. 

I went back and looked at Microsoft’s original announcement. They were clear that the Netflix feature — an exclusive at the time — was limited to paid subscribers. Since then Sony has begun offering a similar feature on its PlayStation 3 and Nintendo has announced a similar service for its Wii, coming this spring. Both of the competitors offer Netflix delivery for free. 

So I guess Microsoft’s off the hook. It’s a relatively free country. Maybe they’re making a good business decision. Maybe they’re making a bad marketing decision. But I’m left watching Netflix movies on my 20-inch desktop monitor.  

Instead of sprawling on my big ol’ comfy couch, I’m getting a crick in my neck from trying to put my feet up at my desk while watching movies halfway over my shoulder. I have to blame someone. 

What about Netflix? I went back and looked at the company’s website to read their marketing info carefully. Here’s what it says: 

“First connect your Netflix ready device to the Internet via an Ethernet cable (or Wi-Fi, if you have it.) Then plug it into your TV. Now you’re ready to select movies on your TV and watch instantly.” 

The web page shows three “Netflix ready devices” and there’s a picture of my 360. 

Not far away, I found my favorite line: “There’s no additional fee — it’s included in your membership.” 

I scrolled down the page. I was informed that the “Xbox 360 is the total entertainment experience” and I could “watch thousands of HD movies and TV episodes at the press of a button including titles streamed instantly from Netflix.” There was still no mention of the hidden fee. 

Finally on another page I was told that I would need an Xbox Live Gold membership, although there was no mention of the price. 

I’m no attorney so I don’t the legal definition of deceptive advertising, just like I don’t know the medical term for “crick in the neck” or the preferred marketing term for “alienated consumer.” But like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, I pretty much know it when I see it. 

 

iSlate vs. Kindle: Mobile screen smackdown

The Apple enthusiast community — cult is such an ugly word — buzzes louder every day anticipating the unveiling of a shiny new amulet. We won’t know exactly what it is until Steve Jobs finishes his conversation with the burning bush and descends from the mountain. But the soothsayers in the valley below have been busy casting yarrow stalks and reading tea leaves. “He who is called Jobs will unveil a tablet computer called the iSlate,” they say: “It will be bigger than an iPhone and smaller than a MacBook. It will revolutionize the way people read books and magazines and watch movies.” “All hail He-who-is-called-Jobs,” the community chants. 

The soothsayers are generally wrong. None predicted that the iPhone would be feature a big touch screen on its face and little else. Not one expected that it would be a device more for mobile Web browsing than for making phone calls. This time around these guys seem to forget that there’s already a device changing the way we read books and magazines. It’s called the Amazon Kindle. But even if they’re half right, it should be interesting. 

When Jobs came down from the mountain with the iPod, Apple entered a virtually unexploited market. There were dozens of MP3 players, but none had captured consumers’ hearts. When he unveiled the iPhone, it was a similar situation. Smartphones were just a niche segment of the cell phone world. 

An iSlate would face different conditions. The ground is well plowed. The Kindle had a breakout holiday season. Amazon says the device out sold the trendy Zhu Zhu hamsters and all other single products on its site for the holiday season. The online retailer doesn’t provide any sales figures to back the claim, but the Kindle has become the leader of the e-reader pack. 

And there is a pack. Before the holidays, Sony launched a new version of its Reader, which promptly sold out. Barnes & Noble joined the market with its Nook device, which also quickly sold out. At the Consumer Electronics Show at the beginning of the month, manufacturers took the wraps off several e-reader competitors, including two with big 11-inch displays, the Skiff from publisher Hearst and the Que from startup Plastic Logic. 

Assessing the Kindle against the rumored iSlate is a bit like comparing Apples to things that are not Apples. An iSlate would likely do more than any e-reader, playing music, displaying videos and photos and perhaps providing GPS navigation. The e-readers are optimized to master one task, displaying text. 

There’s been a lot of noise about the iPhone as an e-reader, but I don’t know any iPhone owners who have actually read a book on theirs. The screen is too small, like all LCD displays it has glare and it uses too much power. 

The rumored 10.1 inch screen would solve the size issue, but compound the power consumption problem. Another rumor says it will use more energy-efficient, state-of-the-art OLED technology. That would be cool, but would raise the price to around $2,000. 

The Kindle and other e-readers use technologies often described as electronic paper. They are reflective displays, which means they bounce sunlight or interior lighting to your eyeballs. In part because they don’t emit light, they have phenomenal battery lives. You could read War and Peace without recharging an electronic paper device. 

It’s possible, even probable, that the Kindle and iSlate will both succeed. But still the devices would be competitors. The optimal size for a portable device when it’s not in use is roughly equal to the dimensions of the typical pants pocket. Convincing consumers to part with hundreds of dollars for a mobile device too big to fit in a pocket is a challenge. Getting them to buy more than one is generally not going to happen. 

With Apple’s loyal fan base, an iSlate can be expected to sell well no matter what features it includes and what price it goes for. A few tech writers have already predicted that the iSlate will slay the Kindle. I doubt it. I think the fatal flaw of all e-readers is that they are designed to deliver text in a world where each day fewer people sit down to read. 

　

Home entertainment computer

I had a compelling, urgent need to watch the 1985 hit movie “Fletch” the other night. (Don’t ask.) No problem, I thought and headed off to fire up Amazon’s video rental service Unbox. My steel-trap memory had let slip the major plot points and pretty much everything else from the Chevy Chase classic. I’d also forgotten that I’d uninstalled Unbox. The Amazon program had installed itself in my startup folder and launched itself and wasted computer resources every time I turned on the PC.

So I reinstalled Unbox, found “Fletch” and clicked on “1-click rental.” Nothing happened. They didn’t have a 2-click option, so I clicked “1-click” again. And again. A little spinning thingee assured me that Unbox was working on my rental. In the interim, an email arrived from Amazon customer service. It said there was a problem verifying my credit card and provided a helpful link. I clicked and found the source of the problem. Instead of using my recently updated billing address — which they had — they used the address of my neice and nephew where eight years ago I’d shipped Christmas presents. The helpful link showed me the problem, but it was a dead end. There was no way for me to fix it.

I had to open another browser window, log in to Amazon, find my profile and kill out all the shipping addresses they’d clung to for no good reason. I activated the current address and went back to rent my movie. I ended up back at the screen with the useless spinning thingee. I shut down and then restarted my browser and ended up back at the screen with the useless spinning thingee. I fired off a profanity-laced email to customer support and rebooted the computer.

I didn’t start out to beat up on Amazon, although it’s been therapeutic. Unbox isn’t always that buggy. I really wanted to write about movie downloads, video on demand, now that Nintendo is rumored to be planning to expand its movie download system to North America.

Update:  1/14/09 — Nintendo and Netflix say they will offer streaming movies and TV through the Wii by this spring in an option will be available to U.S. Netflix subscribers who have a plan starting at $8.99 a month.

The concept, “press a button and rent a movie”, seems a surefire winner. But progress is so slow that you have to check the pulse every now and then to make sure it’s still alive. Cable companies, Netflix, and TiVo offer VOD services. Add in Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3  and seems like the dam is about to burst. But how many people actually use those services? Raise your hands if you’ve rented an on-demand movie. That’s what I thought. 

In the past, there were a number of road blocks. Internet connections were slow. There were few options and limited libraries available. The technology was clunky, particularly the part that delivered the movie from the PC to the TV. Most of those issues have faded. Windows Vista made it much easier to link the movie library on the PC hard drive to devices such as the Xbox 360. And you can skip that step entirely and rent movies directly from the 360 or PS3. 

If Nintendo does in fact join the fray, it could be a sign that the technology is going mainstream. Microsoft and Sony have deep pockets and both companies invest in areas where they expect growth, i.e. they buy  market share. Nintendo doesn’t give anything away. Microsoft and Sony lose money on their video game hardware systems in hopes of making it back on the sales of games. Nintendo makes money on the sales of its hardware and on the games. It’s a frugal company.

Nintendo was slow to embrace online gaming, but jumped in when the demand was strong. If they launch a download service it’s a pretty sure sign they have a briefcase full of market research saying it’s time. Nintendo’s Wii doesn’t support high definition so it would be interesting to see if that becomes a factor. Still, I watched “Fletch” at DVD quality. It looked pretty good on the big screen. I never did get a response from Amazon. I feel bad that I lost my temper and pulled out the truck driver vocabulary. But if the system’s broken and they can’t fix it, they aught to at least say they’re sorry.

Glacial technolgy

Sunday night while sitting in a bar watching the Cardinals play the Vikings I pulled out my phone to check the scores in my fantasy football league. Not exactly a bleeding-edge tech moment, but something that had been a long time coming.

Lots of people talk about the blazing speed of technological change, but it can also be slow. Obviously there have been been rapid impacts. Look at how many people ditched their land-line phones or cancelled newspaper subscriptions in recent years as a result of wireless and fixed Internet technologies. And remember how TV Guide and the Yellow Pages were cornerstones of the information infrastructure last year or the year before that? Despite these examples, there’s an argument that a lot of the change is really happening at glacial speed.  Take my fantasy football scores.

Roughly ten years ago, my buddies and I sat in the stands at a Cardinals game and tested an early WAP-enabled phone from Motorola. (WAP is engineering shorthand for “technically your phone is online, but the connection is unbearably slow.”) We called up live scores and individual stats, squinting against the sun to read anything on the tiny, monochrome screen. Guys in the seats next to us got interested and asked for updates on other games. It worked, but was excruciatingly slow. Eventually we got bored and went back to the game in front of us. I could tell from the reaction of my buddies and the guys around us that given the right setting, there was a demand for mobile data but the technology wasn’t there yet.

Another mobile technology emerged at about the same time, SMS, or texting. In the late 90′s, mobile carriers such as Verizon and industry analysts buzzed about SMS. Consumers didn’t. Teens in those bad old days hadn’t yet coined the phrase texting, let alone sexting. In 1998 I was in Europe when I saw my first texter. I had to wait about four years before I saw anyone using the technology here. I bought my first SMS-capable phone in 2003. My friend bought a similar phone. I sent my first text message to him. He called me back.

My friend now texts me far more than he calls. Actually I can’t remember the last time he called. These things take time. Today for a whole generation texting is the primary mode of communication.

A few key factors keep the tech industry running. Two of them are good engineering and hype. When the engineers cook up something cool and then make it work in the laboratory, the hype machine kicks into gear. “Someday …” it says in its seductive voice. When the first, imperfect products roll off the assmebly line it whispers “Today …” The key is not to get completely sucked in, but not completely discount the hype.

About the same time as WAP and SMS, Qualcomm sent me the “phone of the future” to play with. At the time, Qualcomm still made handsets and they merged one of theirs with a Palm PDA. In what might have been the first true smart phone, the device had a big touch pad that let me write email using Palm’s quirky Graffiti handwriting recognition system. Unfortunately it was a WAP phone, which meant it took longer to transmit an email than two write it. Qualcomm was right that smartphones were the way of the future. Apple’s future. Google’s future. The Qualcomm PDQ800, pictured upper left, was about 10 years ahead of its time. Qualcomm got out of the handset business and, well, these things take time.

A decade ago when I played with a WAP phone in Sun Devil Stadium, I had to squint and shade the display to read the screen. Last year I stood outside of Qualcomm’s headquarters in sunny Southern California and held a working demonstration of its Mirasol display in my hand that was visible in direct sunlight. I held up my Samsung Blackjack. Nothing. Qualcomm and another company, e-Ink, are competing to bring to market reflective displays that will let you read your phone’s screen when you are outside in daylight. What a concept.

When the hype machine begins to whisper “someday … someday …” relax. The time will come when you and I can sit in the middle of the Mojave Desert or Utah Salt Flats at high noon and read our fantasy football stats. When it starts to purr “today … today … ” wait about five years and then reach for your wallet.

tech stuff

 is this thing on? testing … testing 1 2 3