Smart phones for Gaming
Sony Ericsson’s ran a Super Bowl ad for the Playstation phone - Xperia Play.



Steve Ballmer Microsoft talked about extending the XBOX experience to the Windows Mobile 7 phones at CES.

I believe that we will be seeing more mobile devices that, besides performing the core functions (phone, e-mail, photo / video, etc.) extremely well, will be tuned to a specific use-case: gamers, bloggers, sales persons, accountants, senior citizens, etc. It is very hard to find the right set of mobile applications that best service a function. Further, these applications are not integrated to work seamlessly. I expect a whole slew of devices built (or pre-configured) to enhance the productivity or the experience of a particular user group.

CES 2011
I enjoyed the show much more than last year. My top-5 list:

1. Video over the top is gaining momentum. It is integrated with TVs, DVD players, game controllers, and on stand-alone devices (roku, apple TV, boxee, logitech revue, etc.).
2. Smart TVs The world has finally moved beyond TVs with web-browser access. TV manufacturers are embracing the app store model with apps for Netflix, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo TV, Comcast Xfinity, Interactive white board, etc. Samsung made the biggest splash and seems to be leading in Smart TVs. They are offering access to content on Samsung TVs, PCs, Tablets and Smartphones. It seems to be a closed solution like the one from apple. They did bring a lot of partners on the stage (Time Warner, Comcast, Hulu, etc.).
   
3. Microsoft Xbox 360 and Kinect are now central to Microsoft strategy and product suite. Gesture and voice control on these devices works very well. Microsoft sold 8M Kinect units in 60 days. Windows 7 phone is also being hitched to the Xbox. I believe that Kinect presents as huge step forward in human / technology interface. Microsoft is the only one with a commercial product using the human body as a controller. This is one area where they have a significant lead in the market place.
   
4. 4G LTE from Verizon presents a huge opportunity for new products leveraging real mobile broadband access. Tablet experience with video and animation may finally be good on a cellular connection. Google, Verizon and Motorola are partnering to challenge Apple. Consumer excitement about 4G LTE was demonstrated by a huge crowd at the Verizon booth. The quality of video conferencing on 4G was also quite impressive.
5. Android continues to enjoy fast evolution and broad adoption
   

Other interesting technologies and News:

1. Several products with glasses free 3D HD phones and TVs (Toshiba, Samsung, LG, Intel, etc) were on display. The technology is still not ready for prime time but it is very promising and might be what is required for 3D HD to take off.
   
2. Microsoft unveiled a new version of the Surface computer. It was 4 inches thick and looked cool. They claim that the camera has now been embedded in the display. I will like to learn more about how the technology they are using.
   
3. Android tablets were every where but not very impressive. There was an interesting Motorola announcement of an tablet based on Android v3 (honeycomb). There were several inexpensive tablets from Korea and China.
4. The blackberry PlayBook tablet was actually quite good. However, I am not sure if they can attract the developer community to build on the platform. iOS and Andriod have their full attention.
5. No tablet from Microsoft
6. Google chrome OS seemed lame
7. I did not see any new e-book readers. The functionality seem to be migrating to the tablets. Google demonstrated a nice eBook app on Android 3.
8. Saw some very impressive tiny LED projectors. I believe that projectors will some day converge with smartphones and tablets presenting an easy way to show and share media with others on small devices
   
9. Smartphones as payment devices might finally arrive in the US in 2011 ... haven't we heard that before!
   
10. Large scale 3D displays from Sony and Samsung were very cool. I was amazed by the quality of 3D on large wall displays
11. Nokia and Sony are in trouble. HTC also seems to be losing out to Samsung and Motorola
    
12. Many smart appliances were on display: LG, Samsung, Haier. I am not sure if consumers will really use web-connected ovens?
13. No major Chinese manufacturer on the scene yet (Haier?)

Overall, the trip was worthwhile and fun!

Pic: Samsung TVs merge with a Seurat painting ... very attractive!

Eric Schmidt
Attended a keynote address by Eric at the CIO Summit hosted by Sierra Ventures. A few thoughts that stayed with me:

• Google TV - Google has developed an OS for televisions. If successful, we will finally have Internet Browsing capability on televisions
• Andriod continues to grow fast. The free licensing policy has attracted a lot of device manufacturers. I believe that this poses a real threat to Apple. For now, iOS is a significantly better user experience.
  
• Voice translation Eric talked about a demo where an English speaking person conversed in (near) real-time with a German speaking person to buy shoes. The is in in its infancy but, give it a few years, and we might actually be able to speak with anyone in any language.
• Instant Search speeds-up an already blazingly fast Google search. Up next "read our mind"!
• 4G on mobile devices will open opportunities for a whole new set of businesses and functionality. Verizon is planning a major splash soon and AT&T will follow suit. Get ready to buy new devices and spend more. I am so happy about my iPad / MiFi decision.
• Enterprise revenue continues to be a tiny part of revenues at Google. A few years ago, Eric was surprised that Enterprise customers would even consider GMail.

Very interesting!

Personalization vs. Privacy
It seems that the internet has collected enough information on all of us to successfully read our minds without typing a Google search! I was just reading about another interesting technology (Solariat) that reviews questions in social networking conversations and identifies conversations elsewhere on the web that might have an answer - Look, no search!

Everyone I know tries hard to maintain their privacy: What should be my facebook settings?, etc. Organizations worry about how not to cross the line with their customers. The fact that each one of us has a different "line" for each question makes the decision very hard and complex. Any generic decisions applied across a large number of consumers are bound to not satisfy anyone.

One answer would be to give a user an easy enough way to control their "lines". However, marketers (read $$) seem to have more sway over the privacy decisions at internet sites than the non-paying consumers. Did you read who won when Microsoft was evaluating default privacy settings in IE (wsj article)? Why am I not surprised?

The pic has nothing to do with the post ... a couple of interesting wines we tried recently ... sharing a bit of personal info :-)

CES 2010
I really enjoyed my trip to CES after 2 years.

What I loved:

• 3D Plasma TVs from Panasonic; 6.9 mm thin LED TV from LG (I did not manage to check-out Sony's 3D TVs)
• 3D movies (clip from How to train a Dragon from Dreamworks)
• real-time 3D movie editing on Intel platforms
• Project Natal (coverage on cnet) at Microsoft (human body as game controller)
• Nokia's approach to impacting the lives of the poorest while building a very successful global company (Project Progress with lonely planet has some excellent stories and videos)

What I Liked:

• Netbook from Nokia
• Netbook from Sony
• Blackberry Presenter
• Flo TV from Qualcomm
  
• New Intel processors
• Ford's approach towards building automobile technology

So What?

• Microsoft Windows 7 and Zune HD
• Intel Appup
• CE companies have suddenly turned green
• PCs and TVs will seamlessly inter-connect and that is useful

Big Disappointments:

• No Apple, Google, Dell, HP, etc.
  
• Lack of tablet PCs
• eReaders
• Lack of Mobile Software Companies at CES
• Power outage before the first keynote

Cool Geek Toys

• Parrot AR.Drone controlled by an iPhone
• Cool Robots from Japan (mainly toys)

I also tweeted from the conference.

Deposit check using an iPhone by sending in a picture
Article on Gizmodo. V Cool! Like the author, I would use this as soon as my bank has this option.

@TiECON: Hans Morris, Visa Inc
Hans talked about few interesting products and services Visa is working on:

• Near Field Communications (NFC) - payments on cell phones
  Visa is working with Nokia to leverage this technology for payments using mobile phones
  

• Account alerts, offers, etc for various events - charges, etc. The main goal being to reduce fraud and to enhance the relationship with the customer.
  

• Card to card money transfer, Prepaids
  These features are gaining significant interest, especially in the emerging markets. There is only 3% card penetration in countries like India. Visa expects most of the growth over the next several years to come from these markets.
  

• Visa business network on facebook
  Trying to build a community of small business customers to learn from each other on Facebook.
  

Smart Phone Hell for Developers
If you are a small company planning to develop applications for smart phones, you are trying to decide which platforms to support and in what order:

• iPhone: Cool but the AppStore is crowded and you better have a way to get your application on to the first page of your category.
• Windows Mobile: They claim to have the largest installed-base for smart phones. However, delivering apps on the platform is not easy. I do not know any Windows Mobile phone user who has downloaded more than a couple of apps.
• Google Android: It has a lot of buzz in the marketplace. Many of the mobile phone manufacturers (except Apple and Nokia) seem to be planning to launch devices with this OS. Should you bet your company on the success of this platform? Google has not demonstrated a lot of success beyond search.
  
• Blackberry: They continue to thrive and control the thumbs of a the large enterprise customers with deepest pockets. The new devices are really cool!
• Symbian (owned by Nokia): Outside of the US, Nokia has the largest market share of mobile devices and if you have any hope of gaining a global customer base, you just cannot afford to ignore Symbian.

I recently spoke with the founders of a small mobile-app company and they are having a hard time deciding where to put their $$$. Any suggestions? As usual, when the OS platforms fragment, someone comes up with an idea of a portable development environment using Java - read this article on MobileMentalism: Erricson to the rescue!

On top of all that - customers are gravitating towards "free" apps and there is no mobile Google AdWords in sight. Also, customers hate Mobile ads and ad revenues for any mobile site are expected to be extremely low for a very long time.

Google SearchWiki
Finally, folks at Google have decided to directly involve users to improve search results. I have long maintained that direct user input is essential for better search results. Page-rank provides an indirect user input for search and, as proven by Google, is very effective in ranking search results. However, I am not very happy with the approach they have taken of identifying the users who have changed the search results. They do warn that others will be able to see that I made the change. Here is a link to a computerworld article about the negative press this feature has attracted. Obviously, privacy is a huge concern.

I am usually logged-into Google and was quickly able to change the order of search results. However, when I was not logged-in, the order was what Google had originally presented. I wonder if the input I provided will later propagate to the full system.

I am convinced that Google will find that the user input provides very valuable enhancement to the search experience. They do have to make sure that privacy is not compromised.

What a cool Idea: PlantSense
Just saw an article about this product that can be used to determine if a plant will survive in a location or not. Read more about it on their website!

The product is a small, oblong object that a gardener plunges about halfway into the soil. While the lower half gauges the quality of the soil, the upper portion gathers information on light, heat, weather patterns and other factors that spell life or death to a plant.

Samsung F480 Tocco - another iPhone challenger?
I think that, if the mobile device makers have their way, we will all soon be carrying touch devices a la iPhone. I am not sure if I am ready to give up the real keyboard on my blackberry for e-mail. I am convinced that I will again be moving to a 2-device scenario - which is where I was before I moved to the phone / e-mail blackberry 3 years ago!

Here is a review of the Samsung G480 Tocco! It does look great but can it compare with the ease of use of the iPhone?

iPhone 3G competitors
For all the buzz iPhone has generated, it does have some very slick competitors in: Nokia N96, Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, HTC Touch Diamond and Samsung Omnia i900. Three of them run Windows Mobile while the Nokia runs Symbian. Here is an Infoworld Article that lists the key tech specs. I am planning to try the Sony and the Nokia.

QR Codes in the US
I had first become familiar with these codes in Oct 2006 (link to my posts: what can we do with them?, About QR Codes).

I finally see some movement in the deployment of this technology here in the US. I just read this article explaining why this technology can be very important for the newspaper industry. A few interesting links

• Link to a pic of a QR code in san jose mercury news
• Google AdWords Print Ads
• 
  

There is a lot of learning to be done:

• NY Times article on an unsuccessful test

I am still bullish about this!

23andme - Personal Genome Service!
For $999, 23andMe, a web-based service helps you read and understand your DNA. After providing a saliva sample using an at-home kit, you can use our interactive tools to shed new light on your distant ancestors, your close family and most of all, yourself.

The Meaning Behind the Name
The name 23andMe refers to the 23 pairs of chromosomes that make up each
individual’s genome. 23andMe connects individuals to their unique, paired set of
23 chromosomes.

Takers?

Use doubleTwist to free your media
Came across an article describing doubleTwist. It is a Windows desktop that allows you to move your media between devices and share it with friends. I will surely be trying this!

The most interesting part is that this is developed by a Norwegian programmer Jon Lech Johansen (DVD Jon), who at the age of 15 in 1999, helped crack the encryption codes that prevent the viewing of DVDs on computers. He was charged but eventually acquitted.

C-Net article

Craigslist has competition: Kijiji
Saw this article on techcrunch. I had not heard of this eBay site before. Clearly eBay is serious about this space (they also own 25% of craigslist).

Innovation @ Nokia
I am amazed at how Nokia continues to be the largest and wildly profitable handset maker in the world, while Motorola, their main competitor, stumbled terribly. Here is a great example of why:

Nokia has announced a couple of new low end phones (1209 and 2600) for emerging (high growth) markets deliver what the customer wants: phone sharing (address book for 5 users with cost tracking), because users share phones; low cost: $50 and $90; FM radio, VGA cam. More details on MobileMentalism.

It is impressive that a company with 130,000 employees continues to launch innovative handsets that very effectively address the needs of each of their customers.

Folding Phone
A phone from Polymer Vision, a Philips spin off, with a five inch foldable screen will be out in mid-2008. Cool! Go to their website to take a look in 3D! Story on Reuters.

OpenID - I just got one and most probably, you did too!
Today, Yahoo announced that they will support OpenID and that users will be able to use their Yahoo IDs to access other Open ID enabled sites. Here is the InfoWorld article with details on the topic.

I believe that OpenID has a real opportunity to reduce the number of ID / password each of have created on the web. However, it is a very tough problem to solve - remember Microsoft Passport?

Sony Transfer Jet
This new wireless data transfer technology was at CES but I never got a chance to see it. With transfer rates of 375 Mbps, it is faster than a USB. It works over a few centimeter range that is touted to eliminate the need for encryption and security. Potential applications include transferring large number of pictures by just touching the camera to a PC. Cool!

A few articles with more details: Infoworld and Suite101.com.