The TouchPad has decent hardware – 9.7″ 1024×768 display, dual-core 1.2GHz CPU, front-facing 1.3MP camera for video calls, 16/32GB of storage, 802.11a/b/g/n dual-band WiFi, and more. The downside is that it is running webOS, which is a dead platform.
Yes, I know, HP is open-sourcing webOS and renaming it Open webOS in the hopes that developers will continue to work on it and that other hardware vendors might pick it up. I’ll believe both of those when I see them. I’m sure some developers will work on it, but I don’t expect a critical mass to really keep it moving forward. And I don’t expect any new hardware vendors except maybe some real niche players. Android and iOS simply dominate, and webOS offers little to attract a vendor instead of Android.
But the good news is you can turn the TouchPad into an Android tablet with only minor effort. So you can have an Android tablet with fairly solid specs for a lot less than the actual Android tablets go for, if you’re willing to do a little work to install it.
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is currently king of the Android hill and the flagship phone for Verizon Wireless. It has a 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED 720p display, a dual-core 1.2GHz CPU, 32GB of storage, a 5MP camera that shoots 1080p video, 4G LTE speed, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, and plenty more. And all of that running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the most advanced Android version. It is a sweet, sweet gizmo – I have one. But one thing it normally isn’t is inexpensive.
The normal rate through Verizon is $299.99 with a two-year commitment. But Amazon Wireless is now offering this top-end phone at a low-end price, just $99.99 for new subscribers with a two-year commitment. If you want to add a line to an existing family account it is just $179.99. And even those renewing can save with a $259.99 price. If you’ve been thinking about switching to Android and/or Verizon, this is a fantastic deal. Big savings on a killer phone. I’m extremely happy with mine.
In other Android news, my Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime arrived Tuesday. I haven’t had a lot of time to play with it, but so far I love it. I’m planning to take it on my extended trip starting next week, for my wedding and honeymoon, instead of my laptop.
Lockheed Martin posted a few videos of their flagship military aircraft – the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II. The first is basically an ad for the F-22, which is curious since production just ended. The second recaps the accomplishments of the F-35 test program in 2011. And the last video highlights a recent milestone in said program, the first night flight.
Larry, let’s see the film on blinding techniques, then we’ll have some lunch, all right?
Boeing posted a video look at their new plant in South Carolina which houses the secondary B787 final assembly line. It’s a greenfield development and they found a few interesting things while building it – like 200,000 year old shark’s teeth.
Last September at the IBC show in Amsterdam, Netherlands TiVo’s Director of Product Marketing, Jason Wong, sat down for an interview, the video of which has just been posted. He had a few interesting things to say which hint at possible future directions for TiVo. At the 1m50s mark he mentions TiVo building a portfolio of products. He repeatedly mentions a ‘zapper box’, which from context is the non-DVR TiVo Preview or a similar product. At the 3m15s mark he talks about the whole-home DVR and second screen.
He mentions“a couple of thin-client zapper boxes, with or without a tuner”, which is interesting, since the existing TiVo Preview does have a tuner and CableCARD slot. Perhaps TiVo is working on a more Roku-like streaming-only device? He does mention it again later, referring to it as a ‘thin-client’. I’d like to see that, since I really don’t use Live TV at all and removing the tuner would reduce the cost and complexity of the box, and allow it to be smaller.
Even more interesting, immediately following this he says“that same DVR, with some transcoding capability, can power an iPad or a smartphone within the home”. That’s the second screen, and this is especially interesting considering he said this in September and last week TiVo was showing off a technology demo of a transcoding box at CES. More interesting, he effectively goes on to explain why TiVo is looking at a standalone transcoding box today, and is not yet bundling this into the DVR. It comes down to cost – bundling transcoding into every DVR is too costly today, but he implies that as costs come down it will migrate into the DVR.
But what was music to my ears was his statement at the 5m25s mark, when referring to the types of technology they’ll be using for streaming.“Yes, using DLNA and DLNA approved DRM like DTCP, but yes.” I’ve been saying for years that TiVo should stop using proprietary systems and embrace the growing number of standards, and specifically DLNA and DTCP-IP, to interoperate with other systems.
He then goes on to talk about TiVo’s emerging app strategy, using the SDK which was recently teased. It sounds like they will be opening development up to third parties much more broadly than they have in the past with the likes of HME.
And, finally, he explains TiVo’s software development strategy. As I suspected, and I’ve posted before, they’ve pulled everything into one common ‘trunk’ which they then branch as needed for each partner. If they create something unique for one partner in a branch, they’ll then merge that back into the common trunk so that development for one partner strengthens the trunk and benefits all in future releases. That’s not surprising, it is a standard software development practice.
I hope Jason will be attending The Cable Show in May, he seems like a good fellow to talk to. The full video is worth watching:
