Tag Archives: RossRubin

Switched On: Taming Evernote’s paper tiger

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

In April, Evernote CEO Phil Libin announced his company was getting into the hardware business -- gradually, at first, by partnering with others. Carrying through on that intention at the company's third developer's conference in September, Evernote rolled out its first electronic product as part of Evernote Market. Amidst a number of bags and personal accessories (including what must be the most famous technology-related socks since the ones Apple offered as iPod cases), it introduced the ScanSnap Evernote Edition scanner. The sheet-fed paper ingester boasts a sleeker, more modern design than the Fujitsu original. However, it is already a bit behind the times when compared with, say, the latest cloud-centric WiFi models, such as the Brother ADS-1500W, Doxie Go and the new, high-end NeatConnect.

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Switched On: A wristed development

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

It is difficult enough to turn around one niche product category and make it successful, as Apple did with the iPad. But combining two marketplace failures is almost certainly a recipe for disaster. FiLIP, the new kid-tracker, is part connected watch, part smartphone. Prior attempts to optimize these devices for children -- or at least for the parents who want their kids to wear them -- haven't been well received. On the wristwear side, there was the Wherify Wireless watch, a monstrous wrist-locked GPS device. It was so optimized for the kidnapper-concerned that it sent an alarm message over the cellular network if it was removed without authorization.

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Switched On: Microsoft’s mobile monster

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

DNP Switched On Microsofts mobile monster

On September 2, Microsoft announced that it would pay $7.2 billion for Nokia's handset business, including its smartphones and Asha phones aimed at consumers in developing economies. Key personnel from that business, including Nokia's former CEO Stephen Elop, would be joining Microsoft, and Nokia would now be a company that focused on location technologies (via its Here services) and wireless infrastructure (via NSN, for which it had purchased Siemens' share).

The move marked the exit of one of the most storied and, for many years, most successful mobile phone companies in history. It also marked Microsoft's entry into the handset market proper, taking an approach more aligned with Apple's than Google's. It's not only that it's the first time Microsoft has acquired a licensee, but it's also that it acquired one that had a dominant share of its licensing business in a device category.

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Switched On: For Samsung, more is more

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

DNP Switched On For Samsung, more is more

Motorola's return to the smartphone market after a year ensconced in Googliness raised many questions about how the handset pioneer would introduce a competitive smartphone without appearing to have most-favored manufacturer status from Google. The company responded in two ways. First, instead of trying to smother the look and feel of Android, it embraced it nearly to the extent of a Nexus phone. Second, it added a few thoughtful differentiators. These include a pulsing time display that adds notifications even when the screen is off and camera activation via a twist of the wrist. More notably, it enhanced access to Google Now by enabling hands-free activation with the prefix, "OK, Google Now..."

LG, another Android handset company that had fallen from feature phone grace, came next with its G2. Like the Moto X, the G2 implements some clever sensor-driven and gestural features, including a "knock" (double-tap) to activate the screen and an automatic call-answering feature activated by putting the phone up to your face. But unlike Motorola, LG muscled up its device with a nearly bezel-free 5-inch display, a battery that more efficiently fills the case, a 13-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization and the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, which sees its US debut in the G2. (LG also highlighted much of its rear-mounted power and volume control placement, which is different, but not necessarily better (at least for the right-handed).

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Switched On: The camera phone

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

DNP Switched On The camera phone

In that human-behavior lab known as the New York City subway, a vacationing family recently sought to get in a group self-portrait on their last day in the Big Apple. But the rocking train kept thwarting the capture of their jostled bodies. To frame the picture, they tried trading the quality of their smartphone's rear camera for the one above the phone's display so they could better preview the picture, but still had trouble composing the shot. Finally, a local passenger riding with them stepped in and offered to take their photo, which he did to their expressions of gratitude.

The incident served as an illustration of the often precarious situations in which we use our smartphone cameras. Had their phone been Nokia's Lumia 1020 and the stranger not intervened, the 41 megapixels of light-capturing prowess might have gone for naught as the family would've had to rely on the phone's middling front-facing camera.

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Switched On: Dead! Dead! Dead! (in 2D)

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

DNP Switched On Dead! Dead! Dead! in 2D

Connor "Con" Sumer looked up at the beast that stalked him ever since flat-panel TV sales began to flatten out. "Stereoscopy," he thought, "the word even sounded like an uncomfortable medical procedure." This was far from the first time 3D tried to take over the world. Fueled by a steady diet of hype, the fight continued for years this time, but now, at last, it was coming to an end.

Con looked down at his tattered clothes. They weren't torn in the battle. Rather, he just wasn't able to afford new ones after all the money he spent on a 3D television. He was viewed as a hero, but the beast itself did so much to self-destruct -- high prices, glasses incompatibility, forcing choices between resolution and convenience and limited content.

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Switched On: Nook tablet, an epilogue

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

DNP Switched On Nook tablet, an epilogue

The recent announcement by Barnes & Noble that it would discontinue its Nook tablets marked the exit of what once promised to be a strong rival to Amazon, at least among bibliophiles. Barnes & Noble's entry into the tablet market took place amidst an annual game of leapfrog with its internet-based rival. Surviving for three iterations, the color Nook devices were products that had a particular focus on media consumption -- especially reading -- and eschewed open access to apps.

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Switched On: Form in the USA

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

DNP Switched On Form in the USA

The Mac Pro might have been worthy of the "One More Thing" kinds of reveals that Steve Jobs used to do at Apple events. Despite being foreshadowed by Tim Cook as a product the company was going to make in the US, it was virtually carted in from left field at an event that focused broadly on new operating systems before a crowd of developers that could appreciate its power. That said, it will likely require OS X Mavericks, a thematically fitting release for a product that represents a new wave in Apple's design.

Some have said that iOS 7 may be the company's New Coke. The Mac Pro, though, is the new can. Its cylindrical form represents a new design for Apple, albeit one that jibes with the company's affinity for simple, rounded, iconic shapes. Like the new AirPort Extreme, it has a significant vertical profile, but is a fraction of the size of its predecessor designed to accommodate multiple optical drives and hard drives.

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Switched On: Three days without Google Glass

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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.

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Switched On: Extreme takeover, Home edition

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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.

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