Southwest Virginia Blogs

Microsoft's Zune music player is taking a drubbing from reviewers. The list of things that don't work or are awkward is so long that it is hard to imagine how it could have happened.

Most of the problems have to do with the desktop computer that one might use to load music onto a Zune. Microsoft requires a certain OS configuration (minimum of XP with SP2) and a fairly hefty hardware set up (e.g. 1.5 gig of memory). There are a lot of home users that may not have the right box before they get started. Microsoft also forces you to use IE 7 to download the music--you can't use Firefox, which according to one reviewer, eliminates 40% of users in Germany and 20% in Australia, and about 10% in the U.S. Why on earth would a company deliberately alienate tens of millions of customers that way?

But wait, it gets worse. Zune does not work with Microsoft's own Windows Media Player (WMP). For some mysterious reason, the company chose not to do a simple upgrade of the WMP, but instead created an entirely new piece of hard to install software with FEWER features than WMP. Huh? But wait, it gets worse. You cannot buy music from the Zunes Marketplace (the equivalent of the iTunes Music Store) with a credit card. Instead, you have to buy "Zune Points," which is great for Microsoft (kind of like a gift card, where you have to spend the money up front), but just another road block for customers.

The much touted WiFi only works with other Zunes, and anything you beam to a friend disappears after three days, which kind of makes sense with licensed music, but the Zune will take a free recording--even something you made yourself--and if you beam it to someone else, it also disappears in three days. So Microsoft basically hijacks your own stuff without your permission.

The critics are predicting the Zune will die a quick death. I am not so sure. Microsoft has a long history of releasing poorly designed Version 1.0 stuff and then slowly (and painfully) making changes that improve the product. Time will tell, but so far, the Zune is not getting anyone excited. If the Zune is any indication, it shows that Microsoft is failing to adjust to an expanding marketplace with more competition (e.g. Google) and less reliance on the desktop (e.g. Web apps). Most of the problems with the Zune have to do with what appears to be an intentional plan on the part of Microsoft to force their customers to do things the Microsoft way, in a world where the company no longer has the kind of monopoly power to do that.

Commercial airliners are about to become the biggest and most expensive iPod accessory yet. Several airlines are going to provide integrated iPod docks for both charging your iPod and for accessing content. Newer airplanes with LCD panels built into the seat backs will be able to display video content from your iPod.

So before you leave, you load up your iPod with a couple of movies you have wanted to watch. Once you are on the plane, you plug your iPod into a dock on your seat arm, and presto, you can watch your own movies on your seat back screen. Pretty cool.

Commercial airliners are about to become the biggest and most expensive iPod accessory yet. Several airlines are going to provide integrated iPod docks for both charging your iPod and for accessing content. Newer airplanes with LCD panels built into the seat backs will be able to display video content from your iPod.

So before you leave, you load up your iPod with a couple of movies you have wanted to watch. Once you are on the plane, you plug your iPod into a dock on your seat arm, and presto, you can watch your own movies on your seat back screen. Pretty cool.

Commercial airliners are about to become the biggest and most expensive iPod accessory yet. Several airlines are going to provide integrated iPod docks for both charging your iPod and for accessing content. Newer airplanes with LCD panels built into the seat backs will be able to display video content from your iPod.

So before you leave, you load up your iPod with a couple of movies you have wanted to watch. Once you are on the plane, you plug your iPod into a dock on your seat arm, and presto, you can watch your own movies on your seat back screen. Pretty cool.

This falls squarely into the "What were they thinking?" category. USA Today has an article in today's paper about the Hubble space telescope, which is now relatively old and needs upgrades and repairs. Yet NASA and its "high tech" contractors built many parts of the device in a way that makes it almost impossible to repair or upgrade in space!!

So they are designing and building a SPACE-based device and never thought to ask themselves, "How will this be fixed or upgraded?" Just an example of why it is so important to do due diligence with technology vendors. The fact that they are building high tech equipment does not mean they know what they are doing. This is especially true with communitywide broadband systems. Many vendors are simply selling repurposed corporate and institutional network gear that may work okay for small and pilot community projects, but the stuff does not scale up well to support multiple service providers or thousands of subscribers. You have to take the time to check out vendors and their promises (Disclaimer: Design Nine helps communities do just this--we make sure the hardware and systems you are buying fit the job).

This falls squarely into the "What were they thinking?" category. USA Today has an article in today's paper about the Hubble space telescope, which is now relatively old and needs upgrades and repairs. Yet NASA and its "high tech" contractors built many parts of the device in a way that makes it almost impossible to repair or upgrade in space!!

So they are designing and building a SPACE-based device and never thought to ask themselves, "How will this be fixed or upgraded?" Just an example of why it is so important to do due diligence with technology vendors. The fact that they are building high tech equipment does not mean they know what they are doing. This is especially true with communitywide broadband systems. Many vendors are simply selling repurposed corporate and institutional network gear that may work okay for small and pilot community projects, but the stuff does not scale up well to support multiple service providers or thousands of subscribers. You have to take the time to check out vendors and their promises (Disclaimer: Design Nine helps communities do just this--we make sure the hardware and systems you are buying fit the job).

This falls squarely into the "What were they thinking?" category. USA Today has an article in today's paper about the Hubble space telescope, which is now relatively old and needs upgrades and repairs. Yet NASA and its "high tech" contractors built many parts of the device in a way that makes it almost impossible to repair or upgrade in space!!

So they are designing and building a SPACE-based device and never thought to ask themselves, "How will this be fixed or upgraded?" Just an example of why it is so important to do due diligence with technology vendors. The fact that they are building high tech equipment does not mean they know what they are doing. This is especially true with communitywide broadband systems. Many vendors are simply selling repurposed corporate and institutional network gear that may work okay for small and pilot community projects, but the stuff does not scale up well to support multiple service providers or thousands of subscribers. You have to take the time to check out vendors and their promises (Disclaimer: Design Nine helps communities do just this--we make sure the hardware and systems you are buying fit the job).

I have become pretty jaded about new gadgets. Most of them represent technology in search of a problem, and I just don't need anything else that requires batteries, a charger, a dock, and that weighs me down in airports. But a new Bluetooth watch is actually pretty interesting. The watch will talk wirelessly to some models of cellphones. If you get a phone call, instead of having to fish your phone out of your pocket or bag, this watch will vibrate, and it will show the Caller ID information on the watch display. A button on the side of the watch will let you silence the call and send the caller to your voicemail. This would be particularly nice during meetings, where you may not want to appear rude by fumbling with the phone.

I have become pretty jaded about new gadgets. Most of them represent technology in search of a problem, and I just don't need anything else that requires batteries, a charger, a dock, and that weighs me down in airports. But a new Bluetooth watch is actually pretty interesting. The watch will talk wirelessly to some models of cellphones. If you get a phone call, instead of having to fish your phone out of your pocket or bag, this watch will vibrate, and it will show the Caller ID information on the watch display. A button on the side of the watch will let you silence the call and send the caller to your voicemail. This would be particularly nice during meetings, where you may not want to appear rude by fumbling with the phone.

The popular TV show Mythbusters tackled the challenge of cracking locks that use fingerprint scanning technology, and quickly discovered three easy ways to fool a fingerprint scanner. One them involved nothing more than a copy machine and warm spit.

Regrettably, some hardware vendors do better on the marketing and sales side than on the product side, and buyers have to beware. This is much like the Diebold voting machine scandal, where supposedly "high security" voting machines can be easily tampered with right inside the voting booth to change votes invisibly. The irony in both situations is that long established mechanical technology (mechanical locks have been around for at least two thousand years, and mechanical voting machines have decades of use) is probably more resistant to tampering than the newer, more expensive, and more maintenance and failure prone electronic devices. Adding a microchip and an display screen to a device does not automatically make it better, and as we have seen with these locks and voting machines, adding electronics can make things worse....much worse.

The popular TV show Mythbusters tackled the challenge of cracking locks that use fingerprint scanning technology, and quickly discovered three easy ways to fool a fingerprint scanner. One them involved nothing more than a copy machine and warm spit.

Regrettably, some hardware vendors do better on the marketing and sales side than on the product side, and buyers have to beware. This is much like the Diebold voting machine scandal, where supposedly "high security" voting machines can be easily tampered with right inside the voting booth to change votes invisibly. The irony in both situations is that long established mechanical technology (mechanical locks have been around for at least two thousand years, and mechanical voting machines have decades of use) is probably more resistant to tampering than the newer, more expensive, and more maintenance and failure prone electronic devices. Adding a microchip and an display screen to a device does not automatically make it better, and as we have seen with these locks and voting machines, adding electronics can make things worse....much worse.

The popular TV show Mythbusters tackled the challenge of cracking locks that use fingerprint scanning technology, and quickly discovered three easy ways to fool a fingerprint scanner. One them involved nothing more than a copy machine and warm spit.

Regrettably, some hardware vendors do better on the marketing and sales side than on the product side, and buyers have to beware. This is much like the Diebold voting machine scandal, where supposedly "high security" voting machines can be easily tampered with right inside the voting booth to change votes invisibly. The irony in both situations is that long established mechanical technology (mechanical locks have been around for at least two thousand years, and mechanical voting machines have decades of use) is probably more resistant to tampering than the newer, more expensive, and more maintenance and failure prone electronic devices. Adding a microchip and an display screen to a device does not automatically make it better, and as we have seen with these locks and voting machines, adding electronics can make things worse....much worse.

If you like blue jeans and have a spare $250, you might want to pick up a pair of Levi Redwire (TM) jeans. They have a built in docking cradle for iPods that lets you pull the iPod out of a special pocket while it is playing. Why a cradle? The jeans also have an integrated iPod controller that sits outside the pocket, so that you can have your iPod safely tucking inside the pants but still access the controls. It also comes with a retractable headphone unit to help keep your headphone cord from becoming tangled.

Presumably all of the electronics in these pants are removable so that you can wash them. And these pants will likely spur a thousand variants of the very old joke, "Is that an iPod in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"

If you like blue jeans and have a spare $250, you might want to pick up a pair of Levi Redwire (TM) jeans. They have a built in docking cradle for iPods that lets you pull the iPod out of a special pocket while it is playing. Why a cradle? The jeans also have an integrated iPod controller that sits outside the pocket, so that you can have your iPod safely tucking inside the pants but still access the controls. It also comes with a retractable headphone unit to help keep your headphone cord from becoming tangled.

Presumably all of the electronics in these pants are removable so that you can wash them. And these pants will likely spur a thousand variants of the very old joke, "Is that an iPod in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"

Microsoft has released details of its long-awaited music player, and it is pretty interesting. It's called Zune, and is obviously trying to beat the iPod by adding stuff that the iPod does not have. Included extras are WiFi networking, a slightly bigger screen, and an FM receiver. It comes in three colors, including brown, and I have to say that from the pictures, brown seems like an awfully unattractive choice.

The iPod has long been criticized for not having an FM tuner, but I do not think this is a particularly big selling feature. Other music players have offered this and it has not helped their sales. The underlying issue is that once you have all your music loaded on a portable music player, FM radio seems tedious and bland by comparison.

The Zune Marketplace (think iTunes Store) will selll music and videos, and the WiFi features allows you to share music and movies on a "sample" basis with nearby friends; it is not clear exactly how the "sample" sharing will work. In any case, it will be interesting to see how Zune does.

Microsoft has released details of its long-awaited music player, and it is pretty interesting. It's called Zune, and is obviously trying to beat the iPod by adding stuff that the iPod does not have. Included extras are WiFi networking, a slightly bigger screen, and an FM receiver. It comes in three colors, including brown, and I have to say that from the pictures, brown seems like an awfully unattractive choice.

The iPod has long been criticized for not having an FM tuner, but I do not think this is a particularly big selling feature. Other music players have offered this and it has not helped their sales. The underlying issue is that once you have all your music loaded on a portable music player, FM radio seems tedious and bland by comparison.

The Zune Marketplace (think iTunes Store) will selll music and videos, and the WiFi features allows you to share music and movies on a "sample" basis with nearby friends; it is not clear exactly how the "sample" sharing will work. In any case, it will be interesting to see how Zune does.

Microsoft has released details of its long-awaited music player, and it is pretty interesting. It's called Zune, and is obviously trying to beat the iPod by adding stuff that the iPod does not have. Included extras are WiFi networking, a slightly bigger screen, and an FM receiver. It comes in three colors, including brown, and I have to say that from the pictures, brown seems like an awfully unattractive choice.

The iPod has long been criticized for not having an FM tuner, but I do not think this is a particularly big selling feature. Other music players have offered this and it has not helped their sales. The underlying issue is that once you have all your music loaded on a portable music player, FM radio seems tedious and bland by comparison.

The Zune Marketplace (think iTunes Store) will selll music and videos, and the WiFi features allows you to share music and movies on a "sample" basis with nearby friends; it is not clear exactly how the "sample" sharing will work. In any case, it will be interesting to see how Zune does.

Apple announced a slew of new and upgraded products yesterday that disappointed some Apple fans who had hoped for an iPod phone. Pundits have begun yet another "Apple is becoming obsolete" mantra, but beating up on Apple is nothing new, and for nearly thirty years, the pundits have almost always been wrong about Apple. With cellphones challenging the iPod as a music player and Microsoft's new music player about to be released, it is easy to see why you might think Apple's best music days are behind it.

But yesterday will likely prove the pundits wrong again. While no new "gotta have it" devices were announced yesterday, the fullness of Apple's multimedia strategy has emerged, in many small ways, mostly with Apple's superb design leading the way.

The iPod Shuffle, the smallest iPod, was long overdue for an upgrade, and Apple made the diminutive player even smaller; it is now no bigger than an oversize postage stamp, and instead of somewhat cheap-looking plastic, it is housed in a beautiful brushed aluminum case with a built in clip--perfect for people who want to carry music but don't want another big gadget to lug around. This new Shuffle is also likely to be popular with sports enthusiasts.

The iPod nano, which has been wildly popular but heavily criticized for its easily scratchable case, has been redesigned in durable aluminum and now comes in five colors, along with more capacity and longer battery life.

The full size iPod has a 60% brighter screen, longer battery life, lower prices, and increased capacity for better handling of movies. Apple also rolled out a revamped iTunes Store that now sells music, audio books, podcasts, TV shows, and full length movies. This was no surprise, but Apple's design efforts for the store are stunning. You use the new iTunes software to access the store and shop for content, and the two work together extraordinarily well. Among the additions to iTunes is the ability to capture cover art for both music and videos, and a new cover art browsing feature is really impossible to describe in words--I did not pay much attention to it as I read about it, but when I saw it working on my computer, I was awestruck, and with more than 30 years of technology use under my belt, that's pretty hard to do.

Apple has labored for years to slowly integrate media as part of the "computer," and the work is beginning to pay off. The seamless integration of hardware, software, and content can't really be appreciated until it is experienced, and if Apple wins the media wars, it will not be because of any single product or service, but because of an end to end commitment to detail and design that bigger companies like HP and Microsoft have never mastered.

Apple also previewed a $299 box that connects to your TV, stereo, or HD flat panel television; the device has both cabled Ethernet and wireless network access so you can stream music, TV shows, or movies from your computer to your TV. This is where Apple is diverging from the rest of the industry. Microsoft's media vision is that the computer becomes the TV, which means you end up with the computer NEXT to the TV, which is not where most people want to use the computer for other tasks like email, the Web, and work. Apple's vision is that the computer can be anywhere in the home, and you can effortlessly pull your music and video to wherever you want to use it.

Community economic development check: In just about every rural community I have ever been in, leaders talk about the need to attract and retain young people. But when I ask for a show of hands to see how many of these leaders have iPods or have used iTunes, it is ordinary for none of them to have an iPod or to be familiar with how these devices are used. But virtually everyone under thirty has a music player, and nearly 80% of those have an iPod. If you want to attract and retain young people in your community, you need to know what interests them and why. Step One of a revamped economic development plan: Buy each of your key leaders an iPod and install iTunes on their computer (yes, it runs on Windows).

Apple announced a slew of new and upgraded products yesterday that disappointed some Apple fans who had hoped for an iPod phone. Pundits have begun yet another "Apple is becoming obsolete" mantra, but beating up on Apple is nothing new, and for nearly thirty years, the pundits have almost always been wrong about Apple. With cellphones challenging the iPod as a music player and Microsoft's new music player about to be released, it is easy to see why you might think Apple's best music days are behind it.

But yesterday will likely prove the pundits wrong again. While no new "gotta have it" devices were announced yesterday, the fullness of Apple's multimedia strategy has emerged, in many small ways, mostly with Apple's superb design leading the way.

The iPod Shuffle, the smallest iPod, was long overdue for an upgrade, and Apple made the diminutive player even smaller; it is now no bigger than an oversize postage stamp, and instead of somewhat cheap-looking plastic, it is housed in a beautiful brushed aluminum case with a built in clip--perfect for people who want to carry music but don't want another big gadget to lug around. This new Shuffle is also likely to be popular with sports enthusiasts.

The iPod nano, which has been wildly popular but heavily criticized for its easily scratchable case, has been redesigned in durable aluminum and now comes in five colors, along with more capacity and longer battery life.

The full size iPod has a 60% brighter screen, longer battery life, lower prices, and increased capacity for better handling of movies. Apple also rolled out a revamped iTunes Store that now sells music, audio books, podcasts, TV shows, and full length movies. This was no surprise, but Apple's design efforts for the store are stunning. You use the new iTunes software to access the store and shop for content, and the two work together extraordinarily well. Among the additions to iTunes is the ability to capture cover art for both music and videos, and a new cover art browsing feature is really impossible to describe in words--I did not pay much attention to it as I read about it, but when I saw it working on my computer, I was awestruck, and with more than 30 years of technology use under my belt, that's pretty hard to do.

Apple has labored for years to slowly integrate media as part of the "computer," and the work is beginning to pay off. The seamless integration of hardware, software, and content can't really be appreciated until it is experienced, and if Apple wins the media wars, it will not be because of any single product or service, but because of an end to end commitment to detail and design that bigger companies like HP and Microsoft have never mastered.

Apple also previewed a $299 box that connects to your TV, stereo, or HD flat panel television; the device has both cabled Ethernet and wireless network access so you can stream music, TV shows, or movies from your computer to your TV. This is where Apple is diverging from the rest of the industry. Microsoft's media vision is that the computer becomes the TV, which means you end up with the computer NEXT to the TV, which is not where most people want to use the computer for other tasks like email, the Web, and work. Apple's vision is that the computer can be anywhere in the home, and you can effortlessly pull your music and video to wherever you want to use it.

Community economic development check: In just about every rural community I have ever been in, leaders talk about the need to attract and retain young people. But when I ask for a show of hands to see how many of these leaders have iPods or have used iTunes, it is ordinary for none of them to have an iPod or to be familiar with how these devices are used. But virtually everyone under thirty has a music player, and nearly 80% of those have an iPod. If you want to attract and retain young people in your community, you need to know what interests them and why. Step One of a revamped economic development plan: Buy each of your key leaders an iPod and install iTunes on their computer (yes, it runs on Windows).

Amazon is offering an eBook. Dozens of companies lost their shirts with ebooks in the late nineties. Back then, laptops were expensive and PDAs had tiny screens and were hard to read (Apple's Newton was the exception). So many thought that ebooks--light, portable readers--would catch on. But the number of titles available for any given platform were limited, and too many manufacturers opted for proprietary book formats that made publishing a nightmare. A successful book might have to be made available in several different formats. At least one company (I can't remember the name) had the good sense to adopt PDF as the file format, but nonetheless, ebooks never really caught on.

File formats were just part of the problem. There was also digital rights management, the mechanics of buying, downloading, and installling the files was another, battery life was yet another issue, finally, some were awkward to use. It's hard to beat books, which have had hundreds of years of design packed into the format.

Amazon's design has a keyboard (for taking notes, which was usually impossible with earlier ebook systems), probably uses e-ink, which extends battery life, and comes with EVDO wireless, meaning you can download books easily and probably also does email and other common chores.

It will be interesting to see how this does. If Amazon can afford to play the "give away the razor, make money on the blades" game and sell it cheap with the hope of making it up on book sales, it could catch on--if the books are cheap enough.

Despite the popularity of online music sites like iTunes, music prices did not come down any because music publishing houses were and still are greedy--they want all the money they used to make on CD sales, but they no longer have any distribution costs. If book publishers take the same route, Amazon may have tough sledding. And if it is hard for authors and publishers to prepare a manuscript for the ebook, it may be even worse.

Having said all that, I think ebooks are inevitable. A lot of books are read once and discarded, and many technical books have time sensitive material that becomes less useful in just a year or two. And the high cost of college textbooks could be brought down with cheap ebooks. So we will have ebooks; what is uncertain is what platform we will read them on. Most of us don't want both a laptop and a second ebook "thing." We'd rather have a single device that serves as both, and a tablet computer would do nicely.