CES 2010: Hands-on with Qualcomm's Mirasol full-color e-reader screen
What is so fascinating about the display technology being developed for e-readers is that it gives us a long-range peek into the possible, and even likely, functionality of PCs several years down the road. Today, Amazon's Kindle series, Sony's Reader series, and Barnes & Noble's two readers all utilize electrophoretic "E-paper" displays, and we've found plenty of other screen technologies being employed in e-readers on the show floor at CES 2010. Some companies, like Jetbook makers Ectaco, favor technologies like passive TFT in their screens because they consume less power but supply color and support higher-frame rate animations.
But this week, Qualcomm said it's ready to begin selling screens using its own unique technology called interferometric modulation (IMOD), which Qualcomm's marketing director Cheryl Goodman told Betanews today is a reflective technique comparable to the prismatic effect created when a diamond is held up to a light.
The flip side of Nexus One: Low early marks for Google, the retailer
The revolution, if there is one, may not be automated. In the early going for Google's Nexus One phone, made by HTC and announced Tuesday, customers are learning that "support" for this phone is about as personal as Google Maps. Amid the immersive purchasing experience touted by Google executives during their Tuesday barn-raising ceremony, customers are discovering a definitive lack of the personal touch.
Exemplifying many of the problems early customers are having this week is a post this morning to the Nexus One support site by customer Martin Thorborg. He was paying full price for the unlocked phone, but had the simple problem of trying to get Google to ship the phone to his new address, after having moved since first creating his Google account. Attempts to change his shipping address with both Google and FedEx were all met with automated responses, telling him he was not allowed to cancel his order -- which he wasn't trying to do. Then later, FedEx sent him an automated message telling him he could not change the shipping address on his order "for security reasons."
Prediction for 2010-2011: The market for broadband-connected point-and-shoot cameras will grow
Last year at CES, I spoke to someone who very accurately predicted that we'd be seeing lots more e-readers and 3G connected netbooks at this year's CES.
At the time, I dismissed it because his company wasn't really unveiling anything, and I was too hung up on covering all the breaking announcements. Later in 2009, I spoke to him again, and he reminded me about the e-reader market blowing up. When we spoke then, the Kindle 2 had launched, and there were probably three or four big names promising new products, but that was it.
The science behind Qualcomm's 'mirasol' color e-book displays
It sounds like a cleaning product and looks like butterfly wings. It's "mirasol" (yes, lowercase m, isn't that cute?) and it uses a reflective technology, called interferometric modulation (IMOD). The technology uses microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology to imitate the way butterfly wings shimmer -- a process called biomimetics, or imitating things found in nature.
That's a mouthful. The question is, is it an eyeful?
CES 2010: Hands-on with the Atom-based Windows 7 Pegatron slate
During his CES 2010 keynote Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spent a little bit of time showing off the slate (or tablet, if you prefer) form factor, and Windows 7's integration with it. In addition to the top secret HP tablet which Microsoft told me was flown in just hours before the event and flown right back out again, Ballmer mentioned other slates with large screens.
One of them is the forthcoming Pegatron Slate, which I had the fortune of spending a good deal of time with this afternoon.
How close is 3D to a TV near you, really?
If this is CES, there must be 3D. Lots and lots of 3D. 3D televisions. 3D movies. 3D sporting events. Leave the exhibit hall and you expect the paintings on the wall to leap out at you. Never mind going to the bathroom.
And this year, they swear, will be the year you can have that thrilling experience at home, too.
XStreamHD begins pre-orders for its satellite HD system
We've been waiting for XStreamHD for over two years. 1080p high definition video with full 7.1 Dolby surround didn't sound possible over a satellite connection when we first spoke to the company, and after being in development for eight years, numerous delays and a false start at last year's CES, we lost hope in the company's ability to actually deliver on its promises.
But yesterday, XStreamHD began taking pre-orders for its Fixed Satellite System (FSS) hardware, and promises that it will land in homes on April 30, 2010.
Microsoft at CES: Finally, what to expect from Windows Mobile 7 and Windows Phone
Windows Mobile 7 is more than a year behind schedule, and Windows Mobile 6.5 has been dismissed by practically everyone in the media as a poor stopgap in Windows Mobile's hastened transition from an enterprise smartphone platform, to a smartphone platform for everyone.
But now that it is only two months away from its grand unveiling, Microsoft really isn't talking about Windows Mobile 7 specifically. However, Microsoft gave Betanews today a number of clues about what to expect toward its release, which show us what we can expect in the new, more consumer-oriented (and more than a bit tardy) mobile operating system.
Qualcomm CEO Jacobs reveals Chrome OS deal, color e-ink-like display
In his company's first-ever keynote address to the Consumer Electronics Show Friday morning, Qualcomm CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs made a kind of prediction that appears, given his position, to inevitably become a self-fulfilling prophecy: As consumer electronics devices throughout the home, mobile space, and workplace become endowed with systems-on-a-chip that are based on wireless phone reference designs, almost everything with an on-switch will inevitably become, at its core -- whether it's used for that purpose or not -- a telephone.
"Those same chips that we put...into the cell phone, those chips are now going to go into the consumer electronics devices themselves," Jacobs told attendees. "So we believe that consumer electronics devices are essentially going to be phones inside. I mean, they'll look different, right? Different shapes, different sensors, different buttons, a little different software. Fundamentally, inside though, they're going to be cell phones, I think. And it's Qualcomm that's helping to drive that innovation."
Yahoo: After years of struggling, IPTV is becoming a reality
For five years, Yahoo has been eying the TV screen as a potential platform. Now, after securing partnerships with all of the top TV makers and IP-based content providers, Yahoo has made its Widget Developer Kit publicly available.
The app store gold rush can now be extended to the TV, and fully IP-based television doesn't look that far away.
The hurdles facing Intel's 'AppUp' app store for Moblin and Windows netbooks
The phrase, "There's an app for that," has helped the Apple iPhone become one of the most popular smart phones in the world by making it easier for consumers to download applications, widgets, and gadgets. "The number of apps users can download, free or for a fee, has become a major selling point for mobile devices," said The Wall Street Journal. "Companies that lack an app marketplace, such as Palm Inc., have suffered for it."
"The opening of Apple Inc.'s App Store in 2007 was the catalyst that had the greatest effect on smartphone sales," said Money Morning. "Instead of just a phone with a few widgets like a Web browser and a music player, phones became remote controls, compasses, newspapers and cookbooks."
Three post-CES goals for Microsoft
This weekend, following the Consumer Electronics Show 2010, is when Microsoft executives should reassess the company's New Year's resolutions and reevaluate marketing and product development strategies. CES hasn't been particularly great for Microsoft, although it wasn't terrible either. Windows 7 Mobile was, once again, largely a no show. CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote failed to dazzle with exciting new products. Still, Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher for Microsoft Research, offered real vision discussing natural user interfaces. NUI is a great marketing concept, too.
I suggest three goals Microsoft should set for the next six months, until the end of fiscal 2010 on June 30 (I originally planned five but decided the post would be too long). They are presented in no order of importance.
CES 2010 The Story So Far: 'I'm a PC' is in jeopardy
If you're a 2.0 GHz quad-core notebook PC running Windows 7, the place you do not want to be showing yourself right now is the Consumer Electronics Show. Like any other year, CES is about platform evolution, sometimes revolution. Where the most concepts evolve is where the action revolves, and this year it's around the growing confidence that manufacturers have finally found a small form factor they can invest in and make money on.
Netbooks, throughout their brief history, have been cheap, rubber-stamp PCs. That won't be the case for very long, as both Intel and Qualcomm now have argued strong cases in favor of multicore connectivity devices with limited, though functional, computing power for the consumer. There will be strong competition in this field, with Intel's Atom head-to-head in the consumer space against Qualcomm's Snapdragon, and with OEMs everywhere testing both brands and favoring neither over the other at this early stage.
What makes these platforms lucrative is that OEMs can keep their handle on them after the devices are sold. This will especially be the case for netbooks running Google's Android and Intel's Moblin flavors of Linux. During his evening keynote yesterday, Intel's Paul Otellini demonstrated the developmental state of Moblin by way of its app store, which Intel is calling "AppUp." OEMs will be able to put their own flavor on these stores, however; so Dell, for instance, will have a different storefront from HP, even though many of the same apps will be available both places.
Qualcomm's multicore Snapdragon will battle Intel's Atom using AMD's factory
It may be the biggest partnership win outside of AMD that Global Foundries -- the new company managing AMD's former fabrication facilities -- may ever have, or need to have, and it will be the talk of CES in just a few hours: Qualcomm has signed an agreement to be Global Foundries next big customer, with plans to produce smartphone and smartbook components at Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany this year.
Fab 1 is AMD's former Fab 36 -- the main production facility for AMD's 45 nm quad-core CPUs, which Global Foundries produces for AMD today. It's one of the crown jewel facilities for fabricating multicore chips anywhere in the world, now being fitted for the high-k-plus-metal-gate process developed with IBM. With Global Foundries producing Snapdragon chips for Qualcomm -- as its CEO, Dr. Paul Jacobs, will likely make official during a CES keynote later this afternoon -- Qualcomm may not just go toe-to-toe against Intel's Atom both qualitatively and quantitatively, but may even have a leg up.
CES 2010: The 'chicken or egg' question of mobile user interfaces
With the growing popularity of Android, we're seeing a rapid increase in the emphasis that major mobile device makers put on their own branded user interfaces. Two years ago, Samsung showed the big effect a really polished UI can have with the introduction of its TouchWiz UI on Windows Mobile 6.1. Last year, companies such as LG, HTC, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung all unveiled new UIs that appeared on dozens of new devices.
Now, in the first weeks of calendar 2010, LG's S-Class UI can be found on most of its major smartphones. LG's S-Class UI appears on a majority of its smartphones, HTC is developing its Sense atop three mobile platforms, Sony Ericsson continues to make waves with "Rachael," and Motorola has introduced its second MotoBLUR device in what is expected to be a long line of them.
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