Tag Archives: ross rubin

Switched On: The why of the ‘i’ buy

Posted on by

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

DNP Switched On The why of the 'i' buy

For the past few years, the media has met iPhone introductions with skepticism that precedes great sales success. This has become such a cliché that the superstitious might worry what would happen should new iPhones be introduced to universal praise. But there was no cause for worry as far as the iPhone 5c and 5s were concerned. In the weekend following their initial availability, Apple reported that it sold 9 million iPhones, which set a new record for the company.

A few of the reasons behind this success likely had less to do with the strength of the product per se. The new iPhones were launched in 11 countries as opposed to nine in the previous launch. The fast-growing market of China was one of those. It was also the first launch to include Japan's NTT DoCoMo. And back in the U.S. this marked the first time that new iPhones had been launched on all four major US carriers -- a significant shift from the product's first years as an AT&T exclusive. In fact, T-Mobile, the newest carrier to participate in an iPhone debut, has been particularly aggressive about promoting its Jump service that encourages upgrades, and its competitors have introduced their own upgrade-facilitation programs that grease the upgrade wheels for Apple and others.

Filed under:

Comments

Switched On: Three days without Google Glass

Posted on by

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

DNP Switched On Three days without Google Glass

The television. The PC. The cellphone. We take the things in these sentence fragments for granted today, but they took many years to enter the mainstream. Could Google Glass herald the next great product that we will one day wonder how we lived without? Based on three days of not using the product, you may want to ask someone else.

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Switched On: Extreme takeover, Home edition

Posted on by

HEach week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

DNP Switched On Extreme takeover, home edition

Facebook's management doesn't see any dichotomy in the phrase, "Go big or go home," at least as far as it might pertain to Facebook Home. After being dogged for years with questions about whether the Land o' Likes would create its own smartphone despite consistent denials, the company explained that its own phone wouldn't give it the reach it would need for its more than 1 billion members. With the exceptions of the iPhone and the Galaxy S series, a successful handset today might sell 20 million units. That's a number that many services would dream of reaching, but it's just one-fiftieth of Facebook's user base.

And yet, Facebook Home will start out factory-installed on only one device: the HTC First, a mid-range Android device available exclusively from AT&T. Home is also available as a download from Google Play for a handful of other popular Android handsets, including the Galaxy S III.

Filed under: , , , , , ,

Comments

Switched On: Chrome on the range

Posted on by

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

DNP Switched On Chrome on the range

If Chrome OS didn't start out with an inferiority complex living in the shadow of the massive adoption of its cousin Android, and with Eric Schmidt dismissing the hardware that would run it as cheap and interchangeable, the hardware companies that were early to adopt it didn't help matters. Chrome OS arrived on devices that weren't priced competitively against then-popular netbooks.

Since then, though, the Chrome hardware story has been on a steady upswing. Thanks to Acer, Chromebooks broke the $200 price point. Thanks to Samsung, they made the leap to the ARM architecture, enabling longer battery life in a thin form factor. And thanks to HP and Lenovo, Chromebooks have joined the portfolios of two of the biggest names in corporate computing. While it may be nowhere near Android's scale in terms of overall devices, Chrome OS is now offered by three of 2012's top Windows PC manufacturers. That is certainly enough to show up on Microsoft's radar. Into this fray comes the Chromebook Pixel and it has clearly learned from other successful ecosystems.

Filed under: , , , ,

Comments

Switched On: A 4K in the road

Posted on by

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

DNP Switched On A 4K in the road

The past decade has now seen at least three industry-wide technologies vie for the future of television -- HD, 3D and now 4K or UHD. The first of these -- HD -- represented a massive change for television that affected nearly every aspect of the TV experience from how it was captured to how it was consumed. A decade later, it is nearly impossible to purchase a TV that does not support high-definition. The second -- 3D -- was a mixed bag. While the technology became commonplace on high-end TVs, it has remained relevant for only a small fraction of programming. The question, then, is which of these paths, if either, 4K will follow.

Filed under:

Comments

Switched On: Moving forward with leaning back

Posted on by

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

DNP Switched On Moving forward with leaning back

Just a few months have passed between the introduction of the Droid DNA and the new HTC One, but it seems that HTC has been turned upside down in that time. While the Droid DNA was introduced in conjunction with Verizon and can't be a wholly representative picture of how HTC might have introduced the device otherwise, it was a spec- and design-driven product -- a 5-inch, 1080p display with a 440-ppi density that appeared to spill over onto sides that included a microperforation.

In contrast, little was said about the HTC One hardware itself until later in the device's introduction, surprising because the HTC One is not only the most attractive handset the company has ever built, but also certainly one of the most attractive on the market. While it is an Android device, the casing builds upon the tapered, Windows Phone-inspired 8X, substituting aluminum for polycarbonate. That said, there is also the spillover glass effect found on the Droid DNA. The HTC One retains the 1080p display found in the Droid DNA. However, since the screen is smaller, the pixel density is even higher (468 ppi) than in that record-breaking device.

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Switched On: An ARM’s race with Intel

Posted on by

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

DNP Switched On An ARM's race with Intel

As one would hope in dealing with two products that share the same name, Microsoft has maintained strong consistency between the Surface with Windows RT and Surface Pro. Allowing for a bit of girth variation, there's a similar industrial design as well as common features that have been nearly universally lauded (the snap-on keyboards) and lambasted (the underwhelming cameras). There's also an identical user interface as far as "modern" Windows apps are concerned.

This has created an interesting lab test to see what customers really want from a Windows tablet in 2013. The early and unsurprising results indicate that it's really backward compatibility -- even at a premium of half the battery life and nearly double the price. Lenovo, which offers its Yoga 11 convertible as a Windows RT tablet, will also bring out the device in a Windows 8 version. Indeed, if one is attracted to some of the advantages that Windows RT offers on its ARM-based variants, such as the Snap and Share features, multiple devices with integrated keyboards, broad driver support and desktop Office compatibility, its toughest competitor is Windows 8.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Switched On: The 2012 Switchies, Part 2

Posted on by

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

DNP Switched On The 2012 Switchies, Part 2

The last Switched On covered some of the major Switchie awards for the year, but there are many other products to recognize:

The "Category's Meow" Award for Best New Category Creation goes to Supermechanical's TWINE, a small blue box that can relay information about its environment via WiFi to a website. Its fellow Kickstarter project Ninja Blocks followed suit with a more proactive two-way link to pick up an Honorable Mention.

The "Mulligans Do" Award for Best Product Revamp goes to the Apple iPod family. After a bit of staidness in the venerable iPod nano, Apple came back with larger screens and slender profiles on both the iPod nano and iPod touch. Honorable mentions go to the Kindle family of e- readers, particularly the Kindle Paperwhite, and the Samsung Galaxy S line of smartphones from Samsung, which took a huge leap forward with the Galaxy S III.

Continue reading Switched On: The 2012 Switchies, Part 2

Filed under:

Comments

Switched On: The 2012 Switchies, Part 1

Posted on by

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

DNP Switched On The 2012 Switchies, Part 1

It's that special time of year between the holiday sales and the pre-CES hype that presents an opportunity to consider some of the most innovative devices of the year. Switched On is proud to present the Saluting Wares Improving Technology's Contribution to Humanity awards, also known as The Switchies. This year marks the seventh annual Switchies, which are decided based on a rigorous examination of the opinion of me, and do not reflect the opinion of Engadget or its editors. For that latter honor, nominees will need to win an Engadget Award.

This week's Switched On will cover many of the major award categories while next week's will cover some of the more obscure ones. Let's roll out the red carpet then.

Continue reading Switched On: The 2012 Switchies, Part 1

Filed under:

Comments

Switched On: Missed app-ortunity

Posted on by

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. This week marks Switched On's eighth anniversary.

DNP Switched On Missed apportunity

It's difficult to remember as jam-packed a week in terms of industry announcements from major OS providers as the recent seven-day stretch that included a bevy of hardware announcements from Apple, a new tablet and OS upgrade from Google, and two major operating system releases as well as an unprecedented hardware release from Microsoft. Of course, as would be expected from these dominant digital ecosystem stewards, all of the new products included elements of hardware, software and services, even if they were sometimes implicit. But each company could have done significantly more to highlight new third-party apps that were really taking advantage of that combination.

Continue reading Switched On: Missed app-ortunity

Filed under: , , , ,

Switched On: Missed app-ortunity originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Nov 2012 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments