Gadgets

Analyzing CES 2012

Bill Evjen — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:50:41 GMT

I just got back from the Consumer Electronics Show 2012 (CES) which was held in Las Vegas. This is a good show for me and the company that I work for as it shows us some of the possible future trends of digital media consumption. Things presented at CES may just come and go and be quickly forgotten, but at the same time, there are definite themes on the conference that companies need to pay attention to.

3D is so yesterday!

This was actually the second CES that I have been to and both were focused on different themes as it seemed to me. Last year’s CES was really all about 3D TVs and even some companies trying to show up the others with glassless 3D TVs. It was amazing to me how much hype there was around 3D televisions at the 2011 CES. The press was really all over this.

For me, I never really enjoyed the presentations on 3D TVs. I wear glasses and everything is tough for me to view on these TVs. My eyes strained constantly and watered when I watched. It was always an uncomfortable experience for me to view these types of TVs. There were many instances in watching 3D that you had to be perfectly positioned for the best picture. This approach obviously won’t work that well in the home. The glassless 3D televisions were the absolute worst when it came to positioning yourself in front of the TV. Being off a bit for a glassless television meant that you could almost be certain of a migraine.

As far as 2012, there really wasn’t that much in the way of 3D. Don’t get me wrong, it was there, but all the hype was gone. The reason is that it hasn’t really taken off in the public market. More people are gravitating to HD, LED, and Smart TVs while not getting to excited about 3D. The new 3D TVs would be fine if you are a massive movie buff and want to watch your 3D movies a lot, but in my opinion, they don’t fit in that well with the average home TV usage. Most people watch TV in a social setting, with others, their eyes moving from the people they are talking to and back to the television in constant glances. People are walking in and out of the room to stir the macaroni on the stovetop or something similar. This doesn’t make for a great 3D television experience. I think people like 3D – but they would rather have this experience in the theater rather than in the home.

So what is new in 3D? Well for one, there was some hype on better looking 3D glasses.

These glasses were being showcased in the LG booth. There were also quite a wide variety of other styles from some designer brands (e.g. Oakley, Alain Mikli, etc).

OLED TVs! I want one now!

Well, the thing that got me the most excited on the TV front was the new OLED TVs. These TVs are so thin (we were seeing them at 4mm thick!). They are also incredible bright and clear. Do you remember that experience when you saw HD for the first time and wondered how that was even possible? Well, looking at OLED was almost as good as that experience. It is considerably better than the HD TVs of today. The picture quality was amazing and the photos/videos here wouldn’t do it any justice.

This video doesn’t do the quality justice. It was way way better than this.

Even though, this is a video I took of the LG OLED TV. Here is a shot of the thinness of the TV (at 4mm thick) at the Samsung booth:

Smart TV Fight!

The entire smart TV arena is really starting to come to a battle on direction. First you have the television companies themselves working to bring apps and the entire application model to the television set. The TV companies are creating their own app world. You have Sony, LG, Philips, Samsung, and others working to create an application model that is good for them and their users. Originally there were TV companies that really had a walled-garden approach to their app world. Some of the companies would only allow their own company to supply the apps that were on the TV. But now, there was a lot of movement at CES to include SDKs so that application developers can build apps specifically for their TVs (some working in private clouds only).

By far the leader in this market is Samsung. They have been letting developers specifically develop for their TVs for some time now (really more than anyone else). They also have an SDK that is easy to use and get up to speed with. Samsung has a tremendous amount of support as well for the developers from their website. But with this new found love for the application developer from the TV companies, it is still very difficult for the app dev. It isn’t as if you are going to build a single instance of your application and then have the ability to get this application to work across all the TVs. In fact, you are going to be doing some serious work to build TV-specific applications where some of the TVs might have the APIs that you are looking for to complete your application while others fall considerably short. What is a TV application developer to do? Well – Google TV might be the answer.

Google TV was released in 2010 and basically the street thought that it failed right away. The UI was considered not that well designed and it was tough for the end user to figure out how to navigate through the application. Google then went back to the drawing board and came out in CES with their new Google TV.

I was really impressed with what they have designed. With Google TV, you will have access to the Android Market for applications that can be placed on your television. At this moment there are only about 150 applications that have been specifically designed for the TV, but they are their way.

The absolute best thing for TV application developers is that they can now build a single application for the TV and be agnostic to the underlying TV. This is really what the industry needs at the end of the day for maximum innovation and growth. I would think that the best approach for the television companies is to create an experience on top of Google TV so that it isn’t a vanilla branded version of Google TV. With this, they can do more that works specifically with their hardware while at the same time allowing end users to reach out to the application market. At CES, there were TV companies that were hedging their bets and showcasing both their own Smart TVs with their own environment, while also showcasing Google TV versions of their TVs.

The ability to work with TVs in an agnostic fashion as a TVappDev is also possible with some of these smart TV overriders such as Roku and Boxee. All in all, the Smart TV world is taking off and by 2015 most TVs sold will be smart TVs. It is pretty exciting and this will dramatically change the ways in which we are entertained. I look forward to these coming changes.

Concept Cars

Ok – I don’t work with cars as part of my job, but who doesn’t like to look at concept cars? CES had some neat ones:

Summary

I did enjoy myself at CES this year. There was some cool things and strange things as well. Some of those things included:

An alien from the upcoming Men In Black 3 walking the floor
Every booth selling something that was tied to an iPad in some fashion (iPads were EVERYWHERE!)
The new Galaxy Note (nice)
A section of a booth showing the new Walkman (huh?)
The new Sony and Nokia phones (Sony was using Android and Nokia was using Windows 7)
The Tesla car … (my photos were no good)

See you there next year!

REVIEW: Zune 2.0 - the best player on the market!

Bill Evjen — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:50:30 GMT

I got one of the first Zune players when it came out. There were things that I liked/disliked about it. The worse thing about it was the software that it came with. It was clunky and not to practical so I really didn't end up using it that often. Though, with that said, Microsoft recently released the new 2.0 version of the Zune software which was basically a complete new software package. With the new software and the changes to the firmware that was made to the Zune player along with the client software upgrade - the Zune player is the best player on the market! It is better than IPOD and any of the other players out there. Here are some of the cool Zune features:

BIG Screen! Look at the size of this screen. You might be looking at this and think that the screen size is oddly shaped to watch a movie or something, but the video that is played in this plays sideways so that you turn the Zune player to the side and it is like a widescreen view of what you are looking at. You will find that this is one of the biggest screens for a media device on the market. Especially compare the size of this video screen to what you see for the IPOD and there is no comparison!

One thing that I didn't like about the IPOD was that you are working with non-MP3 files - you couldn't just take your .mp3 files that you already have all over your system and just move those files to you player. The Zune player does make use of the .mp3 file extension - so moving over your already pre-existing files is a quick and easy thing to do.

So, what kind of media can go on your Zune? - MP3s, movies (.mp4), podcasts, pictures, and there is even a radio. I have become completely addicted to the podcasts:

There is a directory of video and audio podcasts for you to subscribe to. You can also find your own podcasts and add them to your subscriptions. The Zune software will keep the latest number of versions available for you synced up to your player. So, for me, I have the latest three episodes of all my podcasts synced up to the player and can watch them on my computer (with the client software) or on my Zune player. It has become a kind of Tivo for me as I watch the NBC Nightly News and other news programs (the complete video program) on my computer in the morning with the software. I have never been so caught up with the news (from around the world as I love the BBC newscasts as well).

Another nice thing about the Zune player is that with version 2.0 - it now has an exposed MAC address which is nice as the Zune player has wireless. This means that you can sync your Zune over your wireless network and also share items with other Zune players nearby.

ReSharper on Visual Studio 2008

Bill Evjen — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:40:03 GMT

If I were to pick one tool to add to Visual Studio for my day-to-day coding, it would be ReSharper by JetBrains. I have been using the tool since version 2.0 and it is currently in version 3.0. It provides a ton of tips/corrections/advice as you type code. It provides better tooltips, better Intellisense, and extremely better refactoring than what you get out of the box with the default Visual Studio.

For those of us out there that grab hold of the latest betas as soon as possible, you might be wondering about how to install ReSharper onto Visual Studio 2008. I, myself, am running Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 on the same box (with no issues I might add). Installing ReSharper 3.0 on the box will default to install it to work with Visual Studio 2005. Though, if you are also going to want to install it on Visual Studio 2008, then you are going to have to take some extra steps.

The first step is to go to your command prompt and use the following command:

msiexec /i ReSharperSetup.3.0.1.msi VSVERSION=9.0

From there, it is a little confusing, but you will be asked to Remove/Reinstall/Change the current install. This is due to the fact that I already have ReSharper installed on the VS2005 version of the IDE. You can easily get around this by selecting Reinstall and it will then install the tool for VS2008 as is specified by the parameter in the command line VSVERSION=9.0 …. which is 2008.

So far, no problems.

UPDATE:

JetBrains just released the latest version of ReSharper 3.0.2 Build 517 and they now include a specific install for VS 2008.

So, if you are running both VS2005 and VS2008 on your box - you would need to download both versions of ReSharper and you will be good to go.

Microsoft Surface and the Future of Home Computing?

Bill Evjen — Wed, 30 May 2007 19:41:17 GMT

The big news of the day is that Microsoft's Steve Ballmer introduced Microsoft Surface.

A table computer that allows the end user to interact with the computer through their fingertips! No keyboard - no mouse. First thing you should do is take a look at the movies Microsoft made about this:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

The ability to drag and drop items around with your fingers. The ability to place a digital camera on the table surface and automatically pull the images / send them / edit them / etc. A bit off in the future but a wonderful look at where technology might be taking us. Is this a glimpse of the future of home computing? I think so. Will it be a table? - maybe not - or will it be a stand up screen like in the movie Minority Report? Its funny, but the table reminds me of my first days of seeing a "computer gaming machine" which was a pong game at my local Pizza Hut when I was a kid. We would lean on the tabletop computer game and play a ton of those pong/asteroids games. Though - that table got really greasy after awhile.

It is interesting to see where Microsoft is spending their dollars for the future of home computing. There will be a emergence of technologies in the future for the home - but when will that come is anyone's guess. Though, right now, Microsoft is making investments in gaming consoles (and doing a good job at it I might add), Tivo-like machines such as Media Center, this Microsoft Surface and more.

Whatever it will be - there will be a heavy emphasis on networking with devices, dummy terminals in the house, communicating with house members at their jobs, as they travel and more. There will be a heavy emphasis on a massive data store in the home for the huge amount of video, pictures, history that a family will want to digitally collect. I, today, could use a 5TB data store for everything I want to store - but alas - not yet.

Too bad we die and don't live on and on as I love seeing technology evolve and the experience just gets better over time. My kids are the lucky ones that will get to play with all those cool gadgets. Enjoy the moment, eh?

Office 2007 to the Rescue!

Bill Evjen — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 16:12:00 GMT

I installed Office 2007 on my laptop. This was for me an upgrade from Office 2003 and the upgrade went beautifully. It launches by asking you for the Office key right at the beginning and you can copy and paste the entire key in at once as it is a single textbox (which is a nice feature). You can also provide the key later and just install Office directly without this key. From there, you are provided two buttons - Upgrade and Custom. For kicks, I pressed the Custom tab to see what it was installing and you could also see how the install was going to occur. It was interesting to note that it seems it is not doing an actual upgrade of Office 2003 - but instead, does an uninstall of Office 2003 (saving your files and settings of course in the process) and then doing a new install of Office 2007.

The results? Outstanding and completely worth the upgrade! I love the Ribbon approach and I am of the opinion that all application styles will change over the next few years to incorporate this feature to be the norm. The reason I think this is that end users using Office will learn to use the Ribbon feature and will then come to expect this functionality in the other products that they use each and every day. In fact, Infragistics realizes this as well and is already providing a Ribbon control for your Windows Forms applications and the other control vendors are also jumping on the bandwagon. Really, wait till the product managers, end users, and others start using this and when those guys start designing applications and feeding requirements into development, they will be asking for a Ribbon control functionality.

The other and by far the best product of the Office 2007 suite is Outlook 2007. Really, that is the application that most people spend their entire day in and by far the first feature I have gravitated to is the To-Do Bar:

This bar, on the right, shows the calendar, your next three appointments and all the emails that you have marked for Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Next Week, and more. You can also type tasks in as you get them and have them appear in the Today section. Talk about keeping me organized! I love it. I didn't use the past Task section of Office 2003 because it wasn't in my face as the To-Do Bar is. I now can't live without it.

Bravo Microsoft for putting out a great release!

Want to go to outer-space for free?

Bill Evjen — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 14:41:00 GMT

Well, not exactly you, but NASA is allowing for us common folk to send our name into outer space aboard the spacecraft Dawn which is heading to the asteroid belt. Your name will be placed on a microchip and sent on the spacecraft! I'm signed up ... are you?

The link:
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/DawnCommunity/
Sendname2asteroid/index_asteroid_blt.aspx

HEY .. BTW ... the site is built on ASP.NET!

Google Goes Analytics

Bill Evjen — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 13:27:00 GMT

Google has recently purchased Urchin Web Analytics and now is offering free web analytics for your website. Visit http://www.google.com/analytics/ for more information. Seems quite powerful for non-enterprise cases.

"Would you like to play a game?"

Bill Evjen — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 16:44:00 GMT

Though I have no need for any telephony capabilities, I liked listening to all the computer created voices on this site as it reminded me of one of my favorite movies from the 80's!

http://www.tmaa.com/tts/comparison_USEng_telephony.htm

When are they going to remake this great movie?!?!?

Random Notes 19Jan05

Bill Evjen — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 16:00:00 GMT

Mr. Kent Sharkey informs everyone who may be interested in working with the latest ASP.NET 2.0 bits that the November 2004 CTP is better than the December 2004 CTP package. Where do you get these Community Technology Previews btw? From logging onto your MSDN subscription, that's how!
Bill Gates is trying to arrange a meeting with the President of Brazil in order to convince him about the evils of open source and why they should stick it out with Microsoft. Interesting read here on this topic. I would *love* to be a fly-on-the-wall for that meeting (if it takes place).

The Airbus A380 was released yesterday to much fanfare by the various EU nations that run (and shadily funded ... at least some say) this organization. In a specific configuration, this plane can hold more than 800 people! Incredible, but is it needed is my first question. How can anyone ensure the safety of all those people getting on a single aircraft - it only takes one messed up person to cause havoc. I have spent many years working in the Russian aviation industry doing ***** and ******, so it is interesting to see how big technology is taking these planes. The Russians have used the biggest cargo plane, the AN-225, for awhile now. Man, do I have some interesting stories about this aircraft! But, back to the A380 ... it's like a flying city! Can you imagine 850 people descending on customs or baggage claim all at the same time!?!

The Girl Scouts of America started their annual cookie drive last Saturday. My daughter is on the hunt for buyers! ;) Watch out! They use this money to go do things like day-camps and the likes. The interesting stats on the cookies was that 45% of the cookie box goes to the parent organization while only 15% goes to the local group. The rest covers cost. Oh well.

Still the greatest gadget story EVER, the mars mission is still on and sending back some spectacular data and imagery. It's too bad that the Mars Rover Missions are being ignored by the press these days. Also interesting is the European Space Agency's landing on the moon Titon - a moon with an actual atmosphere! Here is the first color photo from Titon. They think they have found large balls of ice on the planet as well as places water had to be flowing. Pretty incredible stuff.

BETA: Microsoft's Anti-Spyware Software Released as Beta 1

Bill Evjen — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 16:11:00 GMT

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=321cd7a2-6a57-4c57-a8bd-dbf62eda9671&DisplayLang=en

Here it is! And I have to say that it is running very well on my WinXP machine here. Interesting though, when you go to download the .exe, it will only allow for you to download it if you allow Microsoft to 'validate' if your OS is genuine or not. Also interesting that the updater .exe for the program is still called GIANTAntiSpywareUpdater.exe. I guess since it is a beta product, that they haven't got around to changing the names yet.