Google’s blog on Monday says, “Here comes Google TV.” If you go through the announcement carefully, you find that there’s a lot of words, but not much in terms of astounding content. Worse, the Logitech manufactured “Revue” came out this week. That’s the hardware Goole TV runs on. It’s only US$299. With a nice big wireless keyboard for your lap and a tiny touch pad. And you’ll have to take your TV system apart to insert the Revue between the DVR and the TV. A lot of people, including me, think this is all too much for adoption beyond a few hundred thousand uber-geeks.
Also, it appears that if you don’t want to use the Revue’s keyboard, you can use this remote from Sony. That’ll get the average living room TV watcher very excited, right?
Logitech Revue (Credit: Logitech)
While Apple has engaged in strong measures to protect the privacy of iPhone customers and denies approval for apps that don’t play by the rules, there may be some potential for harm if the user, carelessly, supplies personal information to an app that’s out to collect info on you. Here’s a story from engadget that explains the potential problem. Read and heed.
One of the big complaints TV customers have about 3D systems is that they require special glasses, only one pair is typically supplied, and more are expensive. For some people, 3D viewing can cause severe headaches. This week, Toshiba unveiled a TV that doesn’t require special glasses at all. The problem? The TVs are small, 12- and 20-inches, and you’ll have to sit close and in just the right spot. Plus, these early models are very expensive. Critics have not been kind to Toshiba, but Toshiba’s efforts do provide hope that, some day, we’ll have 3D TV sets that don’t require special glasses. Here’s a YouTube video with more.
I’m not rushing out to buy one of the current 3D models, neither are many other skeptics, and I assume Apple is closely following all this kerfuffle.
Toshiba 3D demo from YouTube video
We know that Android is coming on strong. However, it’s not always easy to characterize the success of Android. Is it making money for anyone but Google? How does one put the various products and market share in perspective against the competition? Often, the best way to analyze that is with a chart, and I love charts that tell a story. Here’s one that plots market share against profit share for eight phone vendors, 2007 compared to 2010. Nokia and Samsung seem to be fading in the mobile phone market. Guess who the star is?
In addition, some of the analysis regarding the success of Android doesn’t take into account the data for the first full quarter of sales for the iPhone 4. Before that, sales of the 3GS were probably less than they could have been — in anticipation of the iPhone 4. Analysts think that Apple may have sold at least 10 million and maybe 12-13 million iPhone 4s in (Fiscal) Q4. Let’s look at the situation when Apple announces its earnings October 18 and again in January. Then we’ll have some really good numbers for Apple. Check Philip Elmer-DeWitt’s “How hot was the iPhone 4 in Q4?”
Would you like to have a smaller iPhone? I don’t think it’s a good idea because the modern smartphone is designed to browse the Internet and read mail. But AppleInsider reports that one analyst, Shaw Wu, thinks that Apple is working on models that are both larger and smaller. Jason O’Grady picked up on that and published some older concept photos at The Apple Core. I think it’s just research by Apple for products that aren’t going to ship any time soon. What do you think?
If you thought that you already had too many choices for Internet-based movies, like Apple TV, Roku, Xbox and so on, think again. DRIRECTV has jumped into the game and launched: “Cinema Plus.” Those customers who have a DIRECTV DVR with Ethernet can access this service. Being a DIRECTV customer, I’ll have to check this out. Here’s an announcement from TVPredictions and here’s a link to more info.
Cinema Plus from DIRECTV
Finally, for a Friday laugh, a reader sent me a link to this YouTube video for a fantastic new iPhone app that creates a 3D hologram of anything you can photograph. This is a must-see video.
And with that, have a great autumn weekend!
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