Dear TiVo and Cisco:
You’re not Apple. Stop trying to be. You haven’t earned 1/10th of the mind-share Apple has earned for creating their simple, easy to use products. So cut the ridiculous hype and earn it the hard way – by providing a simple user experience that still delivers the important features while leaving behind the 10% of features that are used less than 1% of the time.
Hyperbolic invites and talk about how you’re going to change the world when you’re just releasing a new revision of an existing product make you look stupid. If you aren’t even going to bother entering or creating a new product category, you should just frame it in more humble terms (our best X ever!). It looks like the lesson of the Segway has been forgotten or willfully ignored. Even the short-lived hype around the recent Bloom Energy generator should be instructive on how not to unveil products, or at least how to do it in a reasonable manner without promising to change the world and fall short.
Posted in Apple.
Tagged with cisco, tivo.
New reports (PDF) indicate (via GM-Volt) that the cost of lithium-ion batteries for automotive applications (like the Tesla Roadster, Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf) are coming down faster than was previously expected. At a recent conference, A123 stated that they were negotiating contracts for automotive Li-Ion batteries for 2012 delivery at under $400/kWh, a reduction of almost 40% over 2009 prices ($650/kWh) in only 3 years. If the trend holds, a report published in-part by the National Academy of Sciences would be way off since it estimates the $400/kWh price point wont be hit until 2020, 8 years later.
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Posted in Electric Vehicles.
Tagged with leaf, tesla, Volt.
TiVo announced their new TiVo Premiere model today. The unit added a lot of what was needed to improve the TiVo experience and bring it into the 21st century, but not everything is in place. Is it enough to overcome being stymied by CableLabs and their slow progress?
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Posted in Digital Entertainment, Television.
Tagged with tivo, tivo premiere, tivo series 4.
By the end of the decade, connected devices will outnumber computers and smartphones on the internet. From monitoring devices like smart meters for the power grid, wireless picture frames, cars and their navigation systems, and even more things that haven’t been invented yet. We might laugh at the Tweeting Scale, but its these types of devices that will dominate our future.
Essentially, the internet goes from something you sit down at a computer to use to something that connects everything in our daily life together.
Posted in The Awesome Future.
The Bloom Energy “Server” was officially announced today (and yes, I think its stupid to call it a server, its a generator). But the hype that has built in only three days (since Sunday’s 60 Minutes feature) is hard to sort out. So here are ten quick facts about the Bloom Energy Server.
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Posted in energy.
Tagged with bloom energy.
Mitsubishi, in a field of many otherwise less-than-reputable companies, has unveiled and demonstrated an Ultracpacitor. Previously, I haven’t paid much attention to this category of devices because most of the most hyped solutions have been vaporware. However, Mitsubishi has demonstrated it, and has an otherwise good reputation (they build everything from cars, to regional jets). How does it play into the 21st century of vehicular transport?
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Posted in Hybrid Vehicles.
Tagged with mitsubishi, ultracapacitors.
So I’ve been working on an advanced web application for a while now. Using Google Gears and the advanced features it uses like client-side DB storage,Javascript worker threads, and offline storage. The first parts of the app, developing the server-side code in ASP.NET MVC, the basic UI design and how users interacted with the app for high-speed data input, went just fine. The problem specifically is Javascript worker threads, and the inability to debug them from any browser.
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Posted in My Creations.
Tagged with google gears, html5.
I’ve discussed previously what I think might be in store next year for the iPhone. And I’ve seen incredibly ridiculous lists of dumb ideas for the next iPhone OS software. But I’ve been spending more time with brand new iPhone users lately, as well as seeing what other mobile OS vendors are doing, and have got their thoughts and put together a list of ideas.
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Posted in Apple.
Tagged with iphone.
Earlier this week, Lenovo announced a new line of cheaper workstations. It occurred to me that it would be possible for Apple to create a cheaper Mac Pro product. Lets see what it would look like and would Apple do it?
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Posted in Apple.
Tagged with xmac.