The Perfect Holiday Gift

December 15, 2009 by josmwalsh

If you are like 75% of the world, you are currently looking for a holiday gift for that special someone. This posting is all about a great new toy that my wife gave to me for our anniversary. It is the Logitech Squeezebox Boom. This is a replacement for our Bose Wave Radio that we have had in our bedroom for almost 15 years. I loved the sound on the Wave Radio, I find that Bose is behind the times for adding mainstream features. This was true 15 years ago when I could not purchase a Wave Radio with a CD player while several less expensive similar devices had integrated CD players. They were slow to add MP3 support for their CD players and just now have iPod Docks for an additional $50. It is as if Bose thinks that all you need is good speakers and what you will listen to on those devices is an afterthought.

Hence my drive to look for a new radio. You know my love of Slacker and I really wanted one that had streaming music support from the Internet. A quick search on Amazon and BestBuy.com lead me to the Logitech Squeezebox Boom. The basic premise is a clock radio with decent speakers and built-in WiFi support. But that just scratches the surface. Out of the box, it is a little clunky to set up by entering in your WiFi access point and security key. However, at that point, I suggest doing everything from the web at www.mysqueezebox.com. From there you can browse “applications” that you can download to your device and configure just about everything.

My first download was Slacker of course, but if you prefer Pandora you are in luck as it is supported as well. There are lots of applications ranging from Classical.com to Last.fm. If you are a podcast lover, you can download the Media Fly application that allows you to stream podcasts to your radio. I quickly set it up for one of my favorite Podcasts - This Week in Science. You can also download and install the Squeezebox Server to your computer to be able to stream MP3’s from your computer. I believe that this should work across network boundaries, so theoretically you could have the Squeezebox in your office and stream music from your home computer as long as it was also turned on and connected to the Internet. I must admit, I love Slacker so much, I don’t listen to my MP3s much any more so I have yet to fully explore this feature.

It appears that Logitech publishes an application programming interface (API) for developing new applications so hopefully new applications will be added over time. They have an interesting “application” from Queen which is really just an audio commentary off of their new best of CD but an interesting listen. Amazon also has an application that I haven’t tried yet that appears to make it easy for you to purchase CD’s directly from the Squeezebox.

The sound on the device is decent. It does not have the rich bass tones that the Wave Radio has, but it is also about 1/3rd less and has much more functionality. It has a port for an external woofer which I suspect will greatly improve the sound and will likely be on my shopping list in the near future. As far as serving as a clock radio, it allows you to set multiple alarms and schedule the days of the week to be active. You can also select the sound from a library of sounds that come with the device (nature sounds, trains, musical tones, etc.) or any other source such as MP3s, podcasts or Internet radio station. One word of caution, I set it for rain one morning and spent five minutes listening to the downpour outside, cursing the weatherman for predicting a sunny day until I realized it was my alarm… Oh and forget about setting the clock – it gets the time automatically from Internet time servers.

One of the coolest features, however, I didn’t discover until about two weeks after I had been using the device. The Boom does not come with AM or FM radios! However, it receives all of the local radio stations in perfect sound. By searching through the local radio stations you will see a list of all of the streams from local radio stations. I was struggling to listen to the Redskins game on the local ESPN station through the FM radio in my kitchen but received PERFECT sound quality on my Squeezebox through their Internet feed. I also really like to listen to WRBS out of Baltimore (My buddy from junior high Mike Alley is on the morning show). I can barely get it in my car while driving in certain areas but get it perfectly through their stream. I’m assuming that if I were a transplant, I could program in radio stations from other parts of the country if I so desired but haven’t yet tried that.

There are a few down sides to the Squeezebox. First, as a clock radio, it doesn’t display the time when listening to music. It does show you artist/album/track information and have a graphic indicating how much of the song has played. I am still exploring how the volume level is set on the alarms. Because of the number of features that are included there is a significant menu structure that can also be daunting for the technically challenged. It would be nice to have a built-in iPod dock, but can’t say that I really miss it as I spend so much time listening to streaming music instead.

There are three basic versions available from Logitech. I’ve put in links to Amazon, although Best Buy also has great prices if you want to pick it up.

Click on link to see at Amazon.comLogitech Squeezebox Boom All-in-One Wi-Fi Internet Radio This is the version that I purchased. It has stereo speakers and a basic remote. Perfect for a kitchen or as an alarm clock.
Click on link to see at Amazon.comLogitech Squeezebox Duet Wi-Fi Internet Radio This is a great addition to a stereo system. Includes are really cool wireless remote control that also shows album art. Haven’t tried this as I just haven’t had the disposable income for a nice stereo system since kids…
Click on link to see at Amazon.comLogitech Squeezebox Radio (Red) A more basic model also good for the kitchen where counter space is at a premium. Includes album art on the color screen.

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Carriers Need To Steal From Google’s Playbook

November 4, 2009 by josmwalsh

Greetings all. I apologize for the unannounced long absence from the blog. In short, things got busy on the consulting and family fronts and I put the blog on the back burner for a while. Lots has happened in the last few months. One of the biggest news events that I have been waiting for has been Verizon Wireless’ release of the Blackberry Storm 2.

I had been waiting on this for a while as the more I used my Storm, the slower it got. We are almost back to the early Windows days when you had to reboot your servers daily to keep them running smoothly. I can only surmise that the issue has something to do with memory leaks or ill-behaved applications that do not release resources when they can.

Like many of you, I had been watching the blogosphere to see what fellow bloggers were writing about expected releases. The first date that felt real was October 21st. However, as the 21st approached, rumor had it that Verizon Wireless was delaying the release because of an issue they found while testing.  This led to an interesting conversation with a good friend and fellow wireless industry veteran, Mary Foltz. (Mary is one of those rare individuals who has long history with a carrier (Sprint Nextel) and is also a founder of a company (Air Arts).

Beta programs. Yup, that’s right, the carriers should take a page from Google and launch hot new phones quickly under a “beta” program. These phones would be offered on the carrier’s developer web page with the stipulation that the phone is in beta mode, it may never be launched, and results may vary. ANYONE who registers for the developer page should be given access to this program and not just special partners. This allows the carriers to get some great pre-launch publicity, shake the kinks out of a phone before “public launch” and make their developer community feel special. Who knows, maybe they might even have applications developed for the phone on the day of the public launch.

Beta programs are a tried and true method over the last few years to get applications to market while setting customer expectations for something special, but also to expect issues. Having a positive reporting mechanism for issues will only increase the community feeling that they are special and valued and improve the beta experience. Personally, to get my hands on the Storm 2 a month or two earlier, I would have put up with a lot of “issues”. (Yes, I am a phone geek.)

Imagine if Verizon Wireless had used a beta program to launch the original Storm. They would have had a product to market to satisfy the core gadget hounds. Those hounds would have expected some of the early problems that were reported by Storm users. Instead of being negative publicity, it would have been part of the beta program and allowed Verizon additional time to correct these problems. I also guarantee that some of the problems that surfaced after launch were never identified by their testing houses. Two or three months later, after most of the bugs were vetted and worked out, the phone could have been released. By that time, expectations would have been set for any issues that were not corrected during the beta process and again, avoiding negative publicity and customer experiences. The net result – core gadget hounds get their phones early and are happy while the general population gets a much better phone that has been put through the paces.

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As If 4G Was A Choice

July 6, 2009 by josmwalsh

I had a chance to see Mark Holland, Director of Global Standards and Intellectual Property at Clearwire at the Virginia Wireless program last month. It was a great presentation on the potential of WiMax. The promise of wireless broadband speeds in the tens of megabits downstream will certainly propel new applications for mobile devices. Delivery of presentations, mobile desktop sharing (GoToMeeting on your mobile phone) and even mobile video conferencing are some of the business applications that will likely take up the bandwidth on these phones.

On the consumer side, place shifting technologies such as Sling Media, streaming music and mobile video will certainly help take up the excess capacity on the airwaves. Existing applications will also take up additional bandwidth with more advanced turn-by-turn navigation and better web experiences as the mobile browsers catch up to the availability of bandwidth.

The presentation lists the party line that Clearwire has a two year head start over LTE, the next generation high-speed network favored by just about every other US carrier. During Q&A, however, Mr. Holland indicated that internally they feel that number to be more like three years head start. This is not an unrealistic number as AT&T has begun rolling out an upgraded version of their existing 3rd generation high speed network HSDPA which will likely delay the need to deploy LTE. Verizon says they will begin deploying LTE in 2010, but Qualcomm, one of the makers of mobile phones suggested that they will not have LTE chips ready for mobile phones until the 2nd half of 2010, leaving it unclear if any handsets will be available for a 2010 deployment.

Even with a three year head start, Clearwire needs to step up the deployment as any window will be quickly closed by the major carriers who have existing customer relationships. In my view, there are four keys to success for Clearwire:

  1. Devices – Clearwire needs to be pushing (and subsidizing) device manufacturers to get devices to the market. As of yet, they do not have a single voice product. Clearly a trimode phone is necessary that will support voice, 3G and 4G data. (They will need 3G data to have nationwide coverage now.) Even a dual mode (voice and WiMax) would be great to compete with some of the flat rate carriers such as Leap or MetroPCS that offer unlimited no roaming services.
  2. Deployment – Clear is certainly working hard with a number of different contractors to deploy WiMax as fast as they can. With that said, however, they need to step up the deployment as fast as possible. The current strategy seems to be heavily weighted towards fixed consumer wired broadband replacement services. This market is sizable but shrinking as most places with desirable demographics already have wired broadband or are getting it soon.
  3. Applications – Apple has shown the way for rapid adoption and that is through choices of applications available for subscribers. Clearwire needs to pay close attention and work with developers of bandwidth intensive content. The cable companies who are reselling consumer versions of Clearwire should be leading the way with on-demand video.
  4. Pricing – Conventional wisdom might say that Clearwire should charge a premium to capture more revenue from early adopters. I think this may be a mistake. We know from history that the price for wireless service will continue to fall. Clearwire needs to be aggressive with pricing to attract customers to sign up for their service before the major carriers deploy. This will not only encourage VZW and AT&T customers to turn to Clearwire, but will also skew those carrier’s business plans as they look at longer payback periods for their investments.

I’m looking forward to a future of high-speed wireless services and think Clearwire and WiMax will play a major role. If nothing else, it will encourage competition with the major carriers. In future weeks I will be looking at new ideas for what to do with this bandwidth. As always, if you have ideas on what you would do with a lot more bandwidth, drop me a line…

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You Will Get a Charge Out Of This

July 2, 2009 by josmwalsh

What seems like such a logical product feature is finally coming to pass thanks to, gulp, the Europeans… If you have owned more than one mobile phone, chances are you have more than one mobile phone charger. There is even a good chance that those phone chargers are not interchangeable leading to a huge black hole of old cell phone chargers in landfills. One estimate I read was that 1.2 billion cell phones are sold each year, each with its own charger. This seems a bit high, but maybe not that far off the mark.

The major cell phone companies have all voluntarily agreed to standardize on the micro USB port for cell phone charging. This includes the Apple iPhone which might also translate into standardization of the microUSB for iPods in the near future. Forget the cable to synchronize your PDA while on the road, no worries, just ask one of your collegues who has a PDA – even if it is a different brand.

I got fed up with all of the different chargers that I purchased one of those universal power adapters that will power my laptop, iPod and phones by purchasing separate “tips”. This was fantastic when I was routinely carrying four or five different phones for demonstrations. Even phones made by the same manufacturer used different power tips. I have five different power tips for Motorola phones alone! Every time I would upgrade my phone, I would receive a new charger – even on the off chance that the phone I was upgrading used the same charger as one of my old phone.

One estimate is that this agreement could reduce by half the number of chargers produced each year and save nearly 50,000 tons of charger trash from reaching our landfills. (I wonder what the half-life of a phone charger is anyway…) Having one power adapter for multiple devices will not only reduce the waste, but also reduce the clutter in my briefcase or bags when I travel. Not having to spend an additional $25 each time I upgrade my phone for a new car charger is also a bonus. (OK, I never paid that much, but that is what the carriers sell them for in the store.)

Who stands to gain from this switch? In short, just about everyone. Less junk in landfills and no unneeded production costs. Even the folks that make these chargers will likley continue to make them for the cell phone manufacturers. Carriers will likely sell more replacment chargers than they currently do. Since replacement chargers are not subject to subsidies, they actually stand to make MORE money from this switch. I doubt if the handset manufactuers will lower their prices so this will help them as they can charge the same amount without the cost of buying, packaging and shipping the chargers. The biggest winner of all, however, will be Mother Earth who no longer has to ingest old cell phone chargers.

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iPhone or Storm – A Not So Surprising Answer

June 17, 2009 by josmwalsh

A friend of mine wrote to me this week asking my thoughts on the Storm vs. the iPhone. This reminds me of cold calls from business school. No matter what the case, class or situation, the answer was always the same – “it depends.”

If you have been reading this blog, you will know that I have a Storm. But you might also pick up a love for the iPhone. As a true consultant, I made a list of the features of each and made my selection. This method should work for just about any phone so feel free to insert any phone you are considering. Everyone’s feature list will be slightly different, but here are some major categories to consider:

The Network – While all of the phones are cool, at the end of the day the device is a interesting brick without network coverage. All of the major networks (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon) will have decent coverage in some parts of the country. The question is how are they where you live. In the Washington, DC area, and most of the north east United States, VZW will have the best coverage. However, the true test is how is the coverage where you will use it most such as your office, home and commute between the two? If you don’t get great coverage in one of the areas but still want a cool phone, check into Femtocells. (Read my post Femtocells – Your Own Cell Tower) VZW has released theirs and I know that AT&T was working on one.

In addition to coverage, you need to think about what network most of your friends, families and co-workers use? Having the free mobile-to-mobile minutes doubles my minutes of use (MOUs) each month. This is not only important for you, but also for the people calling you.

Features – The next major area to consider are features. Make a list of all things that are really important to you. If synchronizing to your iTunes library is important, that may swing you to a iPhone or Palm Pre. If multitasking is important (being able to switch between editing an email, calendar entry, and that hot new application is important…) then you may want to move towards the Blackberry. If your organization uses the Blackberry Enterprise Server, then your choice is made for you. Are you a Mac user at home or the office – advantage iPhone…

Applications – Are there any applications that are only available on one platform vs. the other? Then your decision may also be made for you if you think that it is an important application.

You will notice that I didn’t list price here. For any smart phone platform, you will be paying a little up front but the kicker is the monthly service contract…

So as you can see, there are many factors that will push you to one side or the other. I strongly advise taking advantage of the carrier’s 30 day trial period before porting your number. This will allow you to try out the features of the platform and the coverage areas. All you will be responsible for will be the usage during the trial period. And also strongly consider getting the insurance. I never purchased the insurance until I found my new PDA (list price without subsidy $600) dropped into the toilet by Not Me and I Didn’t Do It, two frequent visitors to any house with kids…

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The Accessory You Didn’t Know You Needed

June 10, 2009 by josmwalsh

About a month ago I purchased my first bike in about twenty years. (Ok, I had one but never rode it…) I’ve really enjoyed riding my bike along the Potomac to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate, or in the other direction past Memorial Bridge. It is a much more interesting cardio workout than sitting in the YMCA.

While on my rides, I have taken to listening to Slacker on my Storm. Not having any kind of arm band for my Storm, I put it in my pocket and rode off into the sunset hoping that it would not fall out on the way. That is until I Googled Blackberry Storm Bike Mount and found The Mount Guys.

I love the name because it tells you exactly what they are and what they do. They sell mounts for all sorts of equipment such as phones, iPods, satellite radios, etc. for cars, boats, motorcycles and bikes. I ordered two mounts for my Storm, one for my bike and one for the car that fits into the cup holder. I opted not to get the mount that attaches to the vent, although may think about that for my CRV that doesn’t have a dashboard mounted cup holder.

The mounts arrived within a few days and installation was simple. For the bike, the mount fits on the handle bar and the blackberry fits snugly within the mount. I have used it on several trips and find that it is very convenient for skipping songs and I could even answer calls while on the bike. I don’t know if I would actually dial while riding but certainly could initiate voice dialing if necessary.

This is the best accessory that I have purchased yet for a phone. It appears sturdy and has only one flaw that I can find, it only allows you to use your phone in portrait mode, not landscape. My suspicion is that have a standard mount that isn’t adapted to the touch screen and that a rugged version that would allow landscape rotation would add a few dollars to the cost. As it is, the version I purchased was only $17. There was a more expensive version created by RAM that sold for $38 that was marine grade and may work in landscape mode, but I don’t think I need that level for my bicycle. Motorcycle owners may consider the more expensive model.

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Storm Upgrade – Day Two

June 3, 2009 by josmwalsh

I need to make a correction on my post from yesterday. Originally I had said there was no OTA download of the upgrade for the Storm. You can, in fact, download the OS upgrade over the air by selecting Wireless Upgrades from Options > Advanced Options. I would, however, have appreciated a text message that would have guided me through this option. My guess is that VZW will send one out in about a week after most people have already upgraded…

I did this yesterday with my wife’s Storm with good success. There were a few responses early on that you must answer, but once going, the upgrade works fine on its own. It took less than 30 minutes for the entire download, backup, upgrade and then restore of data.

After two days with the upgrade on my own Storm I am very pleased. The OS seems to be much more stable and also speedier. The Internet browsing is also much faster. A few new features I have found so far including a full keyboard option in portrait mode is now available from the menu. 

One of the best new features, however, is the ability to slide the cursor back and forth to select the right insertion point when editing text. A box (that is originally annoying) that looks like a faint transparent button surrounds the cursor. Simply sliding that “button” back and forth moves the location of the cursor.

Has anyone else found any good features they like? Please let me know.

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Confused Consumers at the App Store

June 3, 2009 by josmwalsh

FierceMobile seems to be on a kick these last few days indicating that consumers will be confused by all of the applications available to them. Sue Marek went suggested that carriers set up their application stores and keep their policy of only carrying applications that they have tested and approve of themselves. (Click here to read the story.) 

While there is certainly some rationale behind this thought, with 25,000 applications for the iPhone, who can tell what is good and what is garbage at first blush? However, I am a firm believer that there are very few business models and channels that are truly new – just variations of something we have seen before. This allows for us to learn from history (or other market places) and apply those lessons here. 

First, lets look at the history of mobile applications. Carriers have proven in the past that they do not have the resources or processes to foster a vibrant application ecosystem. Before the iPhone, how many mobile phone subscribers actually downloaded an application to their phone? Why? There were no really good applications to download and the price points were out of alignment to the value provided. Because of restrictive carrier policies, there was no good way to modify application pricing plans without a lot of new contracts and negotiations.

We can also look at other industries to see how they have tackled comparing products on-line before purchase. If we look at shareware, applications written by independent developers. Pricing models are either free, ask for donations to the project, or pay money for an unlock code that will unlock the application after a trial period. Hmmm, sound familiar… There, users provide ratings for applications and users can easily search for applications and sort based on user reviews and number of downloads. Good applications quickly rise to the top. I buy a lot of items from Amazon.com precisely because of the user reviews.

Sue does point out that carriers typically have the more recognized brands in the mobile space. Subscribers necessarily have the relationship with carriers and they can provide clarity for consumers on certain applications. Certainly any application that itself can access your billing or demographic information from the carrier records should be approved by the carrier. I think there is also a place for sponsored applications just as consumer products pay slotting fees in retail stores. However, they should not restrict applications as they do now.

I do agree with Andrew Seybold’s suggestion that application developers provide free trials of their software to consumers. This will help encourage trial, and if they have developed a good application, spur purchase. Applications that allow trial on a PC such as mPowerPlayer are even better and should be common for all mobile application stores.

Over time, application stores that allow for easier searching and user reviews will rise to the top and others will go away. Just like on the Internet, Amazon rules and no one remembers Buy.com…

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A New Mac vs. PC Commercial

June 2, 2009 by josmwalsh

I can see it now, the new Mac vs. PC commercial need a makeover. The new commercials will be the iPhone vs. the Berry. I’m not sure who will replace John Hodgman as the PC, but I think dipping into the Daily Show well again and selecting Aasif Mandvi would be a great choice.

The commercials would be largely scripted the same. The capable, but frumpy Blackberry would talk about the features it wished it had and the iPhone will be surprised that these features are not standard on all phones. Casts of other characters could play popular applications available for the iPhone and not available on the Berry. That could even be the name of the Blackberry character, “Berry.” Of course just like the PC commercials, the Berry would crash periodically and need to be rebooted by yanking the battery. 

These commercials, of course, are largely consumer focused, but isn’t that the point? Apple will get adoption at the grass roots level and then corporations will have to figure out how to support these phones with limited security and application management solutions. But at the end of the day, what CIO is going to tell the CEO that he can’t use the coolest phone on the block? Even the Secret Service had to bow to the wishes of President Obama to allow him to carry a PDA. (Of course, he is using a specially modified Blackberry with enhanced security software installed.)

While Blackberry still rules with about double the market share over the iPhone, their dominance is on shaky ground. A few extra features and and additional carriers and Apple can make a serious run at the dominant slot for corporate communications. Security, centralized management and true multi-tasking are key for corporations to adopt the iPhone. But these are things that can be added within a year. Now that Apple has mind-share, and the consumer market waiting for each iteration, RIM had better watch out.

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New BlackBerry OS – Will it solve the problems?

June 2, 2009 by josmwalsh

I updated my Storm yesterday with the new version of the BlackBerry OS. This takes me from 4.7.0.75 to 4.7.0.148. While I like my Storm, there were definitely a few problems that power users were experiencing. Some of the big concerns were periodically would not ring for inbound calls, would periodically require a reboot to speed things up, and on very rare occasions, the phone would crash.

To be fair, I run a number of different applications on my Storm including Google Sync and Salesforce that always run in the background. In addition to those programs, I’m a frequent user of VZ Navigator and Slacker (both of which also released major upgrades that dramatically improve performance). 

The upgrade process is smooth, although it does require connecting to a PC with BB Desktop Manager running. I believe the iPhone does all OS upgrades over the air (OTA) which is much easier. The upgrade process is relatively smooth. It starts with conducting a full back up of your Blackberry and then the upgrade. This adds time but I suppose is much better than losing all of your data if the phone bricks in the middle… Most of the data came back OK. For some reason, the calendar (that I sync with Google) didn’t get reloaded and it lost all of my user data for programs such as Google and Slacker.

Out of the box, things appear to be running a bit smoother. The new versions of Slacker and VZ Navigator have much better performance, although the latter still has some additional cleanup work to do on its interface. If you have a Storm, please let me know how your upgrade process is going and if you experience any issues.

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