Steve Jobs chickened out??

The reviews of the iPhone from the hand picked reporters is out a couple of days ago and the verdict is Unanimous.
Apple iPhone is a ground breaking product and is fun to use. But ATT sucks.

I can't help but wonder how similar all these reviews sounded, right from the keyboard and the testing for scratches. As if they got step by step instructions on how to test this product. In particular each of these guys said the same thing about the keyboard, that u'd get used to key less keyboard. hmmm, can't imagine if any of these reviewers would patiently test a product for 5 days to get used to in order to give a positive feedback on the keyboard. May be a call from Jobs himself helps. yes he did spoke personally to each of the reviewers. That shows the marketing genius of Steve Jobs.

But even after all these every one is disappointed with ATT service. We are told that Jobs even considered taking the MVNO route like Helio. But he seems to have chickened out.

If he wanted to give out the best ever product to the customer, he could have opted for 3G and go for an MVNO and could have controlled the entire eco system, just like he does with itunes - ipod, mac os x - ilife - .mac. As far as availability of edge in more places than the current 3G service like HSPDA/ EVDO, they are covered in the places that matter, that is most the cities across the US where the bulk of the iPod market and also the smartphone market is. And having 3G doesn't mean that the phone do not work in the non coverage area. He seems to have gone for the ATT option and EDGE for two reasons, not daring to go all alone for the afraid of losing? And for better battery life and the device size?? (Then why do you put up charts comparing the talk time and size of an EDGE phone with 3G counterparts). Also, he must be getting a lot of subsidies from ATT to control the price to $599.

I think he could have gone all alone and could have succeeded to the same extent. Who is buying iPhone for features anyways? He should probably comeup with a UMPC on the same platform with GPS and other extra features like GPS sans phone.

Apple and MS

Hmmmm.... i like apple products... but am not a great fan. I particularly don't like the smugness of the apple fanboys. I do have a Powerbook which I like very much. I have ipod shuffle which I repent buying. I don't think Mac OS X is a better OS than Windows XP or Windows Vista. Infact I like the bright colors and the ease of use of Windows and all the software that is available on windows. The only thing I miss in windows is the 'expose' which can be set up using 3rd party softwares. But there are a whole lot of features I miss when I am using a Mac. I think what makes Mac OS X seem better is the combination of Mac OS X and well designed hardware. In built webcam, well thought out placement of keys on the key board, back lighting of the keyboard, two finger scrolling on the mouse pad, the sleek power cord and the built in mike and speakers and such. Security is a non issue for me, because I know what I am doing.

I think Microsoft should work more closely with their hardware partners to bring out the best of the Windows OS. There are Sony Vaios and Lenovo thinkpads, but I don't think they are doing a good job in Marketing their products as well as Apple does.
I know how it works when you have a partner channel selling your product. Its not very easy. The image in the public is that Macs are cool, easy and fun to use and that Windows is boring. Which is completely ridiculous and false. Mac is not much just as an OS, but with the Apple hardware it has one of the best computer line up out there. And they only have one line up to market and can pump millions into that small line up for marketing.

Microsoft should partner with a partner to pitch some windows pc (say vaio) directly against the Macs and market aggressively. they cannot pretend that they are not affected by the Apple phenomenon thats happening. It may be too late if they wait longer.

Other Web Badges/ Widgets

I was trying to aggreagate all the badges from Yahoo! at one place and found other websites that let you create badges and host on your blog. A couple of them here -

A tool that can convert your blog in to a badge that can be hosted on your other sites or on your friends sites
http://docs.widgetbox.com/developers/blidget/

NBA player widgets
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/kobe_bryant/index.html#widget

Digg
http://digg.com/add-digg

Yahoo badges/ web widgets

I love Yahoo!
I have come across what they call 'badge' for some of their services. You can add them to your blog to publish what you've been upto on their services. This didn't catch up with the masses much, but I think they are pretty sleek and Yahoo should have a location where you can find all Yahoo badges.

I am posting few of them here, may be others can help me find if they are other badges.

Yahoo Finance Badges
http://finance.yahoo.com/badges

Yahoo Site Explorer (not too fancy)
https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/badge

Yahoo My Web, for saved pages badge or tag cloud badge.
http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/myresults/badge

Flickr Badge
http://www.flickr.com/badge.gne

Yahoo Answers badges
http://answers.yahoo.com/my/badge_selector

Yahoo Travel, Trip Planner badge
http://travel.yahoo.com/trip?action=badge

Yahoo News Photos badge
http://news.yahoo.com/badge/wizard/photo

Yahoo Babelfish to translate the webpage in to chosen language
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/free_trans_service

Yahoo Upcoming.org badge
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/badge/

It has to happen someday

A joost set top box, sitting in your living room next to your TV removing the hassle of connecting via a PC and a TV tuner. I guess there would be multiple manufacturers jumping on to the wagon, just like Skype phones. But I would love something from the Joost guys them selves with ultra sleek design and a fun controller.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/18/joost-evaluating-its-hardware-options/

Sure, there would be more devices with other online options other than Joost that would be popping up and I see a new market for set top boxes along side the xbox 360, wii, TiVo by next Christmas. And I hope one of them will hit the Bulls Eye, like Wii did, to make it to every living room and it would be from a player, who control the software and hardware. (Apple TV 2??)

Damn, they beat me to it!

Or sort of....
I've been writing about the broadband connected set top boxes taking over the living room.
There is a huge non gaming market that doesn't need all the power of PS3 or Xbox360, but need a solution to get content to the TV directly from the Internet without having to connect to another PC (like Apple TV/ Windows Media Center).

This Archos TV plus does exactly the same, a set top box connected to the TV that can download content directly and even browse the web and has a QWERTY remote controller.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/15/archos-tv-plus-details-hands-on/
Exactly what I prescribed. But the difference is where they can get the content from, just the Archos store, which would not help them gain any market.

I think, there is a Huge (with a capital H) market if they could tie up with Joost/ Opera and a couple of other big players to get more traction in the market.

Come on VJ, get the iceCUBE out of the door.