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Presenting CES: Consumer Electronics Socialization

I'm just getting started with post-CES recaps, and I've got two that came out today. In Advertising Age, I shared "Five Key Things to Know about CES." It's a guide for marketers that may prove useful when digesting CES 2012 and planning for the 2013 event.

In MediaPost's Social Media Insider, presented below, I take a little bit of a lighter approach that focuses on the gadgets' point of view. There's plenty more to say about such event that attracts 140,000 people, and I welcome your thoughts on it too.

Presenting CES: Consumer Electronics Socialization

Emcee (an actual microphone): I'd like to introduce you to CES, which we all know stands for Consumer Electronics Socialization. We've got a lot of great speakers here -- and Bose SoundDock, you know that doesn't just refer to you!

Bose SoundDock: Boo!

Emcee: Thanks for the annual heckling. This year's CES has been especially meaningful for us. Unlike a show like South by Southwest (SXSW), which is social in the sense of people connecting with each other, CES is all about us. It's designed for us devices to communicate with each other. To start off, I'd like to go around the auditorium here and hear a handful of examples of how you've been socializing at CES 2012. Xbox, why don't we start with you?

Xbox: I have never felt younger. This year, you’ll be able to browse content on your Windows Phone and access it through your Xbox. And just wait until I fully integrate with my new cousin Skype.

Emcee: Skype, why don’t you tell us more about that. Skype, are you there?

Xbox: She was just here a second ago but dropped off. Anyway, I’m also really excited about our improvements in voice controls.

Dragon TV: You know I’m already doing that, right? My parents at Nuance Communications are taking voice recognition technology from the PC to the mobile device to the TV set this year.

Vlingo: You’re not the only ones. We’re taking our Virtual Assistant from the phone to the TV.

Emcee: The TV is such a focus of cross-device communication. Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, LG, put down your remotes. We know that you’re all very excited about this.

Simple.tv: It’s so much bigger than voice control. You can now pre-order my DVR that can record broadcast television shows to watch from your other devices, like laptops and phones.

Emcee: Sign me up. CES is hardly just about us socializing with the TV, though.

Atari Arcade: That’s right, my parents at Discovery Bay Games made me so that I can instantly turn an iPad into a classic retro arcade game console. Socialization is supposed to be fun, isn’t it?

Emcee: Exactly. From gaming, it’s extending into other areas of the home.

Whirlpool: I’ve come out with new washing machines and dryers that allow people to monitor the status of their laundry cycle on their mobile devices.

Nest: Mind if we chime in? We’re new here this year, but we’ve got a new thermostat that adapts to people’s lifestyles and adjusts energy usage to fit with their consumption patterns. You can then access the thermostat via mobile apps. 

Emcee: And it goes even further -- like the garage.

Ford SYNC: Well, I get a little claustrophobic in the garage, but I know what you mean. I’m an actual platform for my cars, so I can become a search engine, an entertainment console, or just about anything else. And then when you pair your phone with me, I make communicating even easier.

Mercedes: I’m also pairing with Facebook, Yelp, and others. Just think of all the ways you can rationalize buying me now. Pay $50,000 for Facebook, and the car is free!

Emcee: Good point. Meanwhile, CES is playing out in all kinds of ways across mobile devices.

Android: From early on, I’ve been designed to sync up with the Chrome browser and other Web-based services.

Kindle: Mind if I chime in?

Emcee: How did you sneak in here?

Kindle: Well, Amazon doesn’t usually let me come to this, but for a lot of consumers I was the first to deliver on the promise of starting content on one device and continuing it on another -- even if you only use the software and don’t buy my hardware.

Netflix: Word. I may compete with Kindle’s people, but I’ve also built the future of my business on universal access to all of my content.

Emcee: It’s true. What you’ve already created is a sign of where everyone else here is going. Years ago, it was hard to have this show, as none of us at CES actually socialized with each other. We’re getting so much better at talking to each other that it’s making people love us so much more.

Android: (zzzzzzz)

Emcee: Oh no, Android ran out of juice already. Let’s power up at the buffet. We still have a lot more to talk about, especially as we plan for CES 2013, when none of us will be able to shut up.

 

The Social Side of CES 2011

There are many ways to describe the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, such as: vast, tiring, over the top, technophilic, illuminating, geeky, and productive. One more to add to the list is "social." Now that this year's gadget fest has wrapped, it's time to follow up on last year's roundup and check out the social side of CES 2011.

Tablets: You can find tablets wherever you look at CES. They line the walls, hors d'oeuvres are served on them, and strippers walk around wearing nothing but touch-screens. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but only a little. There's not much inherently social about tablets in particular, but if you look at the trends for social media usage as a percentage of digital media consumption, then tablet adoption will only accelerate social usage.

TVs: I'm a big believer in the living room's reinvention, or at least reimagination. Yet it's not so much about tweeting and Facebooking and checking in and chatting from your TV set. Video-chat on an HDTV is especially frightening to me. As someone who's had his face projected on to more than one large building, I know that no one -- family and friends included -- needs to see me in 1080p resolution. Instead, you'll find social media interwoven into the experiences, from reviews of Netflix content to multiplayer gaming.

Multimedia Sharing: I technically brought along four cameras to CES: a Canon SX30IS, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20, an iPhone, and a Motorola Droid. With all options on hand to capture the event, it was still nearly impossible to upload photos with the spotty wireless coverage across Las Vegas. It's a sobering omen of what lies ahead when the vast majority of mobile users are sporting smartphones.

Check-ins: I tried a bunch of check-in apps out in Vegas: Facebook, Foursquare, Yelp, Whrrl, SCVNGR, Gowalla, and possibly others. See the note above about the wireless -- it's amazing anyone checked in anywhere. There were a bunch of rewards around if you could get a signal. Hotels like the Wynn offered free drinks to anyone who checked in, while SCVNGR offered some rewards at certain exhibitors' booths. With any of the rewards I found, I happened to stumble on all of them. I never saw any of them promoted by the venues themselves, so there was a missed opportunity.

Portable power: Portable charges for mobile devices facilitated my social media usage out in Vegas. I brought along a Zaggsparq 2.0 charger with 2 USB ports that claims to carry four full iPhone charges, all in a device that fits in a jacket pocket. I then won a poorly designed but compact Case-Mate charger while I was there, and both saved me during nights when I was texting people all night trying to link up with friends. Until battery life dramatically improves, these gadgets could wind up driving quite a bit of mobile usage -- social and otherwise.

Crowdsourcing: Quirky's one of the more fascinating companies I've come across in recent years. It crowdsources product development, and people who influence the product earn a percentage of its sales. I didn't realize they're yet another one of the startups operating in my fair borough, so I'll be keeping even closer tabs on them back home.

Wearable and shareable: When it comes to CES launches of products that people I know will actually buy, the Nike+ SportWatch GPS is way up there. It's not the first GPS watch, but it syncs up seamlessly with the Nike+ online community. Before catching the Nike demo, I didn't realize that if you see someone share on Facebook that they're running, you can cheer them on, and the runner will hear your cheer live.

Washing and tweeting machine: All devices are becoming digital, and more are Internet-enabled, too. I was fascinated by LG's new line of appliances that connect to the internet for a range of purposes, from managing power consumption to updating the best ways to care for your clothes. Still, I'll beg them not to open it up to third-party developers so that Twitter and Farmville come to your fridge, even if a few friends of mine (OK, maybe just my colleague Matt Wurst) would want to be mayor of his own oven.

The future of brands: I didn't get to many panels at CES, but I lined up early for the Entertainment Matters keynote panel featuring The Coca-Cola Company CMO Joe Tripodi, along with leaders from MediaLink, Akamai, IPG, Microsoft, and WPP. The money quote came from Tripodi: "We're more in the space of managing communities than creating ads." He referred to community management several times, while other times decrying push marketing as passé.

Think about that. This CMO of one of the biggest brands and advertisers in the world wanted to talk about anything but advertising. Better than anyone else there, it took Tripodi one sentence to show how fast the world is changing. We'll see how much changes between now and CES 2012 

 

A Quick Tale of Laptop-Free Vacationing in South America

 

A few weeks ago, I wrapped up my trip to South America, a trip that spanned Lima, Quito, the Galapagos Islands, Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu. I won't dwell on the vacation itself; you can see some highlights (and everything else) on Flickr.

I wanted to share a few thoughts on mobile technology though, something a little more fitting for this.

Normally when I go on shorter vacations, I can get offline entirely, but for bigger trips I'll need my laptop to check in. This year though was the first time I could go on a real vacation with the iPad. It didn't occur to me until I was talking to Jeff Sass at TWTRCON that I could really use it as a laptop replacement.

I left my laptop at home. I also left my Droid, which I use as my phone. I did bring my iPhone, which served multiple purposes: game device, backup camera, occasional check-in device when places had wifi. I didn't become mayor of the hotel shown above, but I did take hold of Hotel Quito and then Casa Cartagena in Cusco.

Along with the iPhone, I had two cameras (a Canon SX20IS with an awesome 20x optical zoom, and then the pocket-sized Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20, a new pocket-sized model I picked up thanks in part to a recommendation from Retrevo; the latter served me well when I didn't want to lug around the bulkier Canon).

I also had my Kindle. For reading at length, I still prefer the e-ink to the iPad glare, as much as I like flipping pages on the iPad with the touchscreen. I took all of one physical book (Deep Rivers by Jose Maria Arguedas) that I was midway through.

With no laptop and one book, my load was much lighter than I carried on any comparable trip. The funny thing is it could have been lighter still. I actually didn't need the iPad. Just about any time I wanted to use the internet at hotels, I went online from the iPhone. It was convenient here and there, but when trying to get away, the hybrid device was more of another tether.

It clearly has its place, but there's something especially refreshing about being mobile.

  

The iPad: A Few Weeks Later

 

Now that the iPad's been out for a bit, I thought I'd share a few quick takes on my experience with it now that the novelty is wearing off.

Where it excels

It's amazing for gaming. Any time I show someone Real Racing HD, they look for the nearest Apple store (or search engine). I brought up some of the social gaming uses in an earlier column; Scrabble's brilliant. I'm a sucker for We Rule (username "berkowitz" if you play).

Video's beautiful. If I'm on a plane and want to watch one of my own movies, I'll do so - though I usually read when I'm not working in-flight.

It's not bad for checking email, especially if I don't want to boot up my computer. I'll get some of my news fix on there too - the screen is perfect for news articles.

Where it lags

My least favorite activity on it is reading. The glare is awful, and the backlit screen is nowhere nearly as easy to read as e-ink on the Kindle. I tried to read a full book on the iPad and gave up less than halfway through. Fortunately I bought the book through Amazon and read it on the Kindle iPad app. I switched over to my first generation Kindle, where I'm progressing through it, and enjoying the experience so much more even without the fancy page animations and easier navigation the iPad offers.

I also don't like the magazine apps I've tried on the iPad, such as GQ and Popular Science. They seemed to try too hard to produce an iPad-friendly experience when they likely would be much more readable just offering a digital version of the magazine. Maybe someone else will get the design right in time, though as noted above, I wouldn't want to read something cover to cover on there.

It's also not the best productivity device. I'm sure some tools will get better for blog posts and that sort of thing, but multitasking is so much easier on a PC, and typing's much faster and much more accurate on a PC. You can't touch-type on the iPad.

So where does that leave it?

It's a hybrid device.

If I was a college student, maybe I'd like it more, or as a parent with young children, it might be a great device to share with them.

It's very good at a lot of things, but not as useful as a computer or a mobile device for most others.

A nice to have? Definitely? It's fun, fast, and beautiful.

A need to have? Hardly. It will probably be gathering dust before long.

The Future of Convergence in 2015, via SXSW and now SlideShare

It's funny, I spoke at South by Southwest (SXSW), put up my presentation on SlideShare, and forgot to blog it. So I'll admit, you're not always the first to know just because you read this blog, but I still am immensely appreciative you're here.

I guess one reason I wasn't in a huge rush is that it's a talk that doesn't lend itself well to static content such as a blog post. I was the sixth speaker in a track of some brilliant 15-minute presentations on convergence, courtesy of Dan Shut of Resource Interactive, whose amazing presentation is available here.

My talk was designed to be more thought provoking and somewhat theatrical. I don't know anything about the future, and really, who does? So instead of just making a prediction, I decided to show what three futures look like. Since I wrote out the speech longhand (admittedly while sitting at another event... I'm not naming which one), I have the text and slides handy, and I even made sure to cite the image sources in the appendix.

Posting the notes isn't the same as seeing it live, but perhaps there are some benefits from reading it. If you do get through it, what future resonates most with you?

Note: If you're ever inclined to share the direct link to the speech, I shortened the URL to http://bit.ly/sxsw2015. That links directly to SlideShare, not here.

The Future of Convergence in 2015, presented at SXSW 2010

View more documents from David Berkowitz.

The Social Side of CES

Originally published in MediaPost's Social Media Insider

 

The Social Side of CES

Is the Consumer Electronics Show a social media event? Hardly. Any event that dedicates a few football fields of floor space to iPod accessories isn't entirely about social. But there is a big social side to it that comes up in several ways, if you know where to look.

Gadgets and Technology

The biggest reason everyone comes to CES is to play with toys -- which, increasingly, have social components.

Panasonic, for example, announced a deal with Skype that lets you run video conferencing on its new TVs. If you can't get home h to visit mom, you can at least see her face in high definition. Maybe soon you'll get to see her in 3D. For some reason, I suspect that tagline won't make it into their collateral.

For another approach, consider PlayOn.TV. The company released software that lets you connect your PC to your TV through your gaming console. I tried it out using my Wii at home and it didn't quite work as planned (scroll down here for the full story),  but I could almost watch my YouTube videos that way, and in theory I could have caught Hulu. It's designed more for premium content, but user-generated can work just as well.

Then there's the Pogoplug, which connects to any external hard drive and becomes a media server, so you can share your hard drives' photos and videos online and then publish them to social networks. Expect to see many more technologies emerge to provide persistent, universal access to all your digital content. While that's not inherently social, one of the big motivators for having constant access to content is being able to share it.

What if you could combine gaming, augmented reality, iPhone apps, and social networks... for remote-control helicopters? That's basically what you get with Parrot.com's AR.Drone quadricopter, a remote-control vehicle controlled by an iPhone or iPod. The "toy," if you can call it that, includes mounted cameras that both allow for augmented reality games and also allow vehicles to recognize each other. You can see Robert Scoble filming it in action, and most who caught it live would have bought it on the spot if they could.

Events

One of the biggest reasons I keep going back to CES is to join the social media-centric events, including the nightly Social Media Club bashes and the annual It Won't Stay in Vegas geekfest for bloggers. If you want to meet all the social media icons you know and love -- Chris Heuer, Brian Soils, Chris Brogan, Robert Scoble, Scott Monty, and too many others to name (sorry for icons I'm omitting here) -- there are great opportunities for meeting them here. At these events, you can get a pulse on new technologies too, such as when I ran into Dom Sagolla , who gave me a live demo of the Square payment platform spearheaded by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

The Good Word

There's one last social element: the propensity of gadgets to get people talking. And these aren't just any people  -- these are the wired and wireless, attending because they have some reason for selling, buying, marketing, or ogling cutting-edge electronics (okay, and iPhone cases). Word of mouth also becomes amazingly efficient in a place like this, directing individuals to swarm in the areas that are of the most interest.

 I'm sure I saw far less than 10% of the exhibitors there, but I managed to see most of what I was interested in. Similarly, I talked to less than 1% of the 130,000 attendees but seemed to catch most of the people I knew who were there and met quite a few others who I will stay in touch with. Very little of that was planned, but it's one more reminder that with social media, digital or in person, you have to know what you're looking for, actively listen, be nimble enough to respond -- and you can create a memorable experience.

Showstoppers Technology Roundup from the Consumer Electronics Show

Every year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), there’s an event called Showstoppers where dozens – maybe about a hundred? – technology companies show off their latest wares to the press, and the press drinks so heavily that they wind up giving everything great reviews.

Unfortunately for the companies exhibiting, I was too busy gorging myself on grilled cheese sandwiches made with white chocolate orange bread and brie to remember where I put my Sam Adams. I didn’t get to see every company there because:

1. I didn’t want to.
2. It’s kind of tiresome talking to booth vendors after awhile.
3. I had to pry myself away from the grilled cheese.

But I did get a good taste of things. Below are my gut reactions from the various gadgets and tech toys I tried there. You can find all of their press kits online from Showstoppers, you can view more of my photos from the event on Flickr, and I have a handful of videos on YouTube.

Technology I started using right away: Seesmic for Droid

Seesmic is best known for its desktop Twitter client. I’ve tried it but I always wind up either using Twitter.com or a mobile app. On the Droid, the gold standard has been Twidroid, but I think they just went silver. When I met Seesmic founder Loic LeMeur, he showed me how Seesmic for Droid had integrated Twitter Lists, and any of its features I’ve tried out so far either mirror or surpass anything from Twidroid.

Gadget I don’t understand why anyone would ever buy unless they're a board member’s mother: Plastic Logic’s Que

One of the hot product categories at CES were e-readers… no big surprise there. There was a pretty, glassy, thin one that debuted from Paper Logic called Que, which is designed to format newspapers and magazines in a more natural way while also making it easy to review and even annotate Microsoft Office docs like presentations. I fell over when I heard the price - $649 (4GB wifi) or $799 (8GB wifi and 3G).

So let’s see – you can get a netbook for a few hundred, or a tablet somewhere close to $1000. If tablets go big, they will kill the market for this device because tablets have web browsers, color, and really any features you’d expect from your laptop without the physical keyboard. When I saw another demo of the Que they were very quick to say you shouldn’t spend much time typing – it was only for brief notes. When I appeared skeptical, on more than one occasion, different reps would say, “But it’s for business!” It’s reminiscent of the “You know, for kids!” tagline from Hudsucker Proxy. But at least in Hudsucker Tim Robbins was selling the hula hoop, a gadget that filled a need in the market.

By the way one reader that looks far more compelling is the Skiff, but pricing hasn’t been announced. Here are some views of the Que:

Technology that will make you look like the biggest idiot in front of your co-workers: Zyxio’s Sensawaft

This wasn’t an easy award to give out – so many contenders… but Sensawaft lets you control computing devices just by breathing. The guy below was blowing into a mic and controlling flicking a website up and down. I got to do this too, and it took a little getting used to, but yes, the direction of the air blown can make a difference.

I can see it being used in some kind if My Left Foot scenario – I mean, imagine if the guy played by Daniel Day Lewis had this. Or if he had the Internet. The movie would have probably been a little less depressing.

There are some things I like about it. One big one is that they’re opening up the platform, and they created the Be A Mind Blower competition to get people to submit ideas.

I have seen other applications of breath blowing digital tech. GE’s Plug Into the Smart Grid augmented reality showcase allowed you to blow into the computer mic and turn the wind turbines. I’m sure this Sensawaft stuff is more sophisticated and perhaps more useful, but I think if your cubicle mate hears you blowing into your computer all day, they’re going to report you for running a 900 hotline.

 

Most creative use of an iPhone application: Yurbuds by Yurtopia

Yurbuds hooked me on a great use of both cool and practical, and it offered a fun demo of how digital tools can improve retail for physical goods.

The basic premise: custom-fitting earbuds. They have a much longer explanation for how these earbud covers fit better around your optic nerves and improve the sound and maybe improve your balance (I could use that last feature but I’m making that up). Go to their site for the specs. Ultimately, they’re these rubbery covers that make your earbuds fit better in your ear, even when running, or as I tried, waving your head back and forth like an idiot. They didn’t fall out.

What upped the cool factor tremendously though is that they’re sized with an iPhone app. You hold a quarter up to your earlobe, take a picture, and they use that to determine your ear size. It worked for me. On their site they also do it with a photo submission process. The price is $20 for the covers or $30 for the covers with the earphones, and their earphones look EXACTLY like iPod earphones. Full disclosure: I got a free pair of the earbuds and the earphones, and I used them on the plane ride home. The sound was about as good as you can expect to get from watching a Jets game on a Jetblue flight.

  ‘

Best musical instrument for someone who can’t even figure out Guitar Hero: Beamz

If your kid can’t play any of these real musical instruments or even video games based on them, get them Beamz – a way to make noise just by running your hand across laser beams. They even advertise this on their site, calling it “an approachable instrument that anyone may play.” In other words, if your musical talents include banging a rock on the ground and almost kind of being able to whistle, you’ll love this.

It’s weird. I tried it out and, not being among the most rhythmically gifted, didn’t really let loose there. If you’re of drinking age, I highly recommend doing a few shots before trying this. But please note this blog does not advocate giving liquor to minors – they will enjoy it just fine as they are.

Apparently some real artists use it. I can’t remember who but they sounded famous. And you can program the Beamz to play any kind of instrument. They also have a new game Shadowbeamz. So yes, people who are talented can probably have even more fun with this than people who aren’t. But it is “approachable.” That’s one of those words often used as a backhanded compliment, but for those who like toys that make a lot of noise, I think “approachable” is a huge upside here.

 

Technology with most promise that’s not delivering (for me): PlayOn

I couldn’t love the idea of PlayOn more: you download software (free trial, then $40 flat fee), use your gaming console to connect to the Internet, and watch video from Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, and elsewhere on your TV. I thought this was the most impactful technology at all of Showstoppers.

Then I tried to use it.

It didn’t take too long to set up on my PC and then my Wii. A nice touch is that you can add your accounts for Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube so you can quickly access your content.

I tried going to Hulu first to watch some TV shows, only to get a recurring ‘error loading video’ message. Then I went to YouTube to load one of my own, a brief clip from CES. It took a couple minutes to load, and then it was choppy – and this was just a 20-second clip.

My PC passes all the connection tests in the PlayOn software, but maybe if I had a newer laptop it would run better. I really wish this would work so I could easily watch Hulu on my HD TV without even needing a box. Great idea, and maybe it works better for others. It’s a free trial so I’d still recommend giving it a shot to see if it works for you.

If it does though, I might be coming over to your place to watch it.

Paying $20 for the Privilege of Trying Square, Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey’s New Payment Startup

At the It Won’t Stay in Vegas blogger party at CES, the same place I got to check out the Quadricopter (see a video at that link), I had the pleasure of meeting Dom “@dom” Sagolla, author of the book 140 Characters: A Style Guide for the Short Form. He happens to be friends with one of the Twitter founders Jack Dorsey, and on him he had the Square, the new working prototype of Dorsey’s payment system.

The idea’s that you plug this little box – not more than a square centimeter (it’s TINY) – into your iPhone or other mobile device, and you become a mobile merchant. The Square scans the credit card, then the merchant can take a picture of the purchase, you get your signature, and the merchant can email you your receipt. Just like PayPal made it easy for anyone to be a merchant online, this allows anyone to be a merchant offline. While you could see this working for staff in retail stores, various mobile businesses from contractors to farmers market vendors would probably find this valuable.

Photos and a brief video clip are below, with more photos in my CES set on Flickr. Along with Dom, there’s Sarah "@pop17” Austin who I shared a limo with to the event and who introduced me to Dom. Both of us bought his book through Square, paying a few bucks extra for his autograph – and the privilege of beta testing it. Admittedly not everything worked for me, as the wireless connection flaked under the Consumer Electronics Show network burdens and my signature and email weren’t recorded (that is my attempt at a signature below). I have a knack for breaking technology while breaking it in, so Jack, you owe me a beer next time I’m in the Bay area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: Square,gadgets,ces2010,iwsiv,itwontstayinvegas,dom sagolla,sarah austin,jack dorsey,payments,transactions

Geeking Out with Parrot.com’s Quadricopter and Robert Scoble at CES

A now annual tradition at the Consumer Electronics Show is the It Won’t Stay in Vegas party for bloggers – it’s a total geekfest within a geekfest, and more or less what you’d expect. This year the scene stealer (besides LeVar Burton and Brent Spiner) was the Quadricopter from Parrot.com.

I’ll admit I couldn’t remember the name of this thing when I first tweeted about it and even when I posted the video. It was just kind of there. It’s controlled by an iPhone (an iPod Touch will work too). This model was the AR.Drone, and what wasn’t readily visible was the augmented reality component, which includes “detecting other AR.Drone in flight, and detecting and positioning markers on the ground.”

You don’t need to know all of the technical details, and there are far more than I’ll relay here. On its surface, it’s just a cooler, more stable version of remote control vehicles. I recently played around with some cheap RC helicopter from a toy store and there was really no way to prevent it from crashing; some of the controls didn’t even work. So this already is better – check the video to see how ridiculously stable it is.

When you start digging deeper though, seeing how augmented reality plays a role, and how mobile devices like the iPhone can interact more with physical devices, it becomes much more of a marvel as a sign of where technology, gaming, and mobile media are heading.

 

Technorati Tags: ces2010,ces,consumerelectronicsshow,iwsiv,itwontstayinvegas,consumer electronics,robert scoble,scobleizer

First Thoughts on Motorola's Droid on Verizon

Droids attack! by Stéfan via Flickr

On Friday, I went to get a Droid, the new Motorola phone on Verizon running Google's Android operating system. Here are some initial reactions.

It's my first Android phone. It replaces the Samsung Omnia I had running Windows Mobile, a touchscreen-only phone with too many design flaws to name. I still have my iPhone for work, which I love as an email and gaming device but never used as a phone.

As for the Droid...

Google services: I'm an avid user of many things Google, from Gmail to Picasa to Maps. For me that's a huge plus to access these personal accounts. I easily went to Picasa, picked a recent photo from my trip to Egypt, and made it my phone's background.

Writing email: The option of a keyboard's great, though I found the touch screen easy to use, rivaling the iPhone, and perhaps even easier, though I'm not sure why as the keyboard's no bigger. It was very easy to set up.my work account too.

Interface: I really like the four default buttons of Back, Menu, Home, and Search. I had no clue how often I'd use the back button until I tried it here.

Screen: The size is similar to the iPhone, but the picture's especially beautiful. Transitions and animations add some X factor of elegance to the device.

Battery life: Nothing special here. But it is removable so you can get a spare or replacement if it totally fails you.

Maps: I haven't yet explored all of the features here, but the basic directions - for me, via public transport in NYC - are easy. I know there are major competitive advantages over the iPhone here, but I'll get to those later. 

Sound quality: Maybe there's some halo effect and this is imagined, but I'm convinced the sound is clearer on this device than any other I owned. When I called grandmom (and of course I call grandmom), it sounded like she was right next to me. Just great, I'll get Androidish guilt.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Applications: A lot of my favorites from the iPhone app store seem to be available, and I'm learning (often via Twitter) about comparable ones, like Twidroid for Twitter. The app store's easy to use, but some of the paid apps are in foreign currency like British pounds and I wish it all defaulted to dollars (or your local currency of choice). Many apps, like Twitter and Google Talk, can run in the background without slowing down the phone. Payments are synced to Google Accounts; updating Google Checkout information can be done on the phone but is especially easy from the Web.

Room for Improvement:

• I haven't figured out copy and paste yet. I even watched a video demo (videos are easy to view on the phone), but it seemed to pull up different menus than my phone did.
• Multi-touch is missing. The zooming in is easy though.
• A longer lasting battery would be nice. But wouldn't it always?
• Is there even desktop software to manage my phone? Could come in handy.
• Can I take screenshots on the phone as easily as on the iPhone? That's been very helpful for client presentations for the iPhone. There are lots of things I just don't know if I can do yet.

I welcome hearing about your favorite features and apps as I learn what it can do.