Think Forward

Home media servers

I just posted an article on my article website www.csinsights.com explanining why I feel network attached storage drives have the potential to be the home media server not PC's or next generation DVD player set top boxes. Here is the link:

http://csinsights.com/index.php?action=pg_article&id=77

TV on cell phones

I have been watching the whole TV on cell phones trend and have been pretty skeptical of the whole thing. I am seeing a lot of news about the space with CTIA wireless around the corner. Just to fill you in there is a worldwide broadcasting standard called DVB-H that delivers broadcast TV to cell phones. Sprint and others are pushing this service and right now you can get 16 channels. While I am still not convinced anyone actually cares to watch TV on thier cell phone, I am thinking about this in the long term. My skepticism on the space has more to do with typical cell phone usage models. People in the US mostly use it for more short burst entertainment content. So I feel video that is compelling on a cell phone is sports updates or highlights, news, movie trailers or exclusive movie content. Nothing more then 5 mintues I think. Mobi TV has the right model right now I think. I'm not convinced people in the US want to sit down and watch a sit-com or feature film on thier cell phone. However there may be one thing that changes this and that is HDTV. Asia can already get HDTV quality video on thier cell phones. HDTV content is so compelling that if we could watch HDTV quality on our cell phones our usage models may just change. Now this is no where near the immediate horizon in the US, however as TV services start to roll out and become more the mainstream on cell phones you have to figure HDTV content is not too far off. For me the quality will matter so HD will be the only thing that cuts it on mobile devices.

Record Labels considering higher prices for digital music

I came across a article on CNET this morning, referenced in the link above, that talks about the record industry wanting higher prices for digital song downloads. I have known this was on their minds for a while now. I agree completely with Steve Jobs in this article that raising prices would be a horrible mistake. I also agree with him that if they do raise prices it will drive people back to piracy. Not only will it drive people back to piracy, it will take the digital content industry two steps back from it's progress. Digital downloads are already such a small market of overall digital music sales. Sony say's digital downloads account for about 20% of thier overall music sales. I say that's 20% they wouldn't have had if digital downloads didn't exist. This is new revenue for them and they should consider it as such. Raising prices is an absolutely horrible idea and I hope it doesn't happen.

Another interesting point is that most of the perception of the record industry, even though it is mostly wrong, is that they are a bunch of rich executives sitting around giving artists the shaft. I guarentee raising prices of digital music will only fuel that perception and since that perception fuels piracy you can predict the result.

Why the Nintendo controller may truely be a revolutionary gaming experience

So in case you haven't seen this it is a picture of the new Nintendo Revolution game console controller. Now if any of you are like me your first impression was "how in the world am I supposed to play a game with this controller." Well here is a scenario a Nintedo executive laid out:

You're playing a first person shooter (perhaps the latest "Metroid" game). The controller would act as a virtual pistol in your hand, letting you point at and shoot objects on screen, using that aforementioned trigger button near your index finger.

Also picture playing Tiger Woods golf and using the remote like a club for swing power and accuracy. Or a baseball game and swinging your hand like you are holding a bat trying to hit the pitch. What is interesting is how the controller works as a more interactive tool for your gaming experience. Developers have always been looking for how to create a more immersive game experience. With Nintendo embedding this type of immersive game experience into the overall console, developers stand to gain a lot and push the envelope creatively. I may just have to have all three consoles now.

My Nano

Apple sent me my new iPod Nano today for review. I have to say having your own is much cooler then playing with someone elses. The thing I can't get over still is the size. After syncing it with my iTunes collection I put it in my shirt pocket and literally forgot it was there. The thing is so small that no matter what pocket you put it in it practically disappears. I also don't use a wallet, I use a money clip and the nano fits right in the money clip along with my drivers license and credit cards perfectly. I will definately be carrying this thing with me pretty much everywhere I go. My only concern is sending it through the wash because I forgot it was in a pocket.

eJamming - cool musical twist

I recently found a pretty cool piece of software for any musicians out there. It's called eJamming and it can be found at eJammin.com. Basically if you can plug your instrument into your computer you and any friends using the eJamming software can jam together in real time. The first version includes real time audio and next versions will have real time video as well. I have tried the software out and find it pretty cool. It is actually in real time and is a great way to play or jam with friends who can't make it over to a live jam session. The only downfall is the business model which is asking a monthly subscription. I am not sure this will model will work because musicians don't have much money and I think a fair yearly flat rate would work much better. Overall though it was pretty cool playing guitar with my friends in other states.

XBOX 360 is going to be sweet

Now people may disagree with me but the XBOX 360 is going to fit beautifully into my digital home. Many of the features beyond gaming appeal to me greatly. Now to keep this in perspective I purposely do things in my home very few consumers actually do. However what I am doing in my home I believe consumers will be doing with great ease in the future. To better explain this let me detail my digital home a little. Make no mistake I am a Mac user and lover, they are my primary machines. I am also an HDTV lover as many other people out there. I am also a DVR lover but not just any DVR lover only a dual tuner HD DVR will do it for me. So I have the dual tuner HD DVR from Comcast and record all my HD shows in the living room. However one peeve I have is that I can not move my recorded DVR shows to my bedroom so my wife and I can watch recorded TV shows in bed. So my solution is an HP Media Center PC with dual tuners tucked away in a closet. This PC has no monitor and is accessed from my G5 using remote desktop. This PC also records many of the shows I record on our living room DVR. The difference is using an HP Media Center Extender I can watch shows recorded on my Media Center in our bedroom. So where will the XBOX 360 come in. Well do date no product including any existing Media Center Extender can play recorded HDTV recorded on the PC. Until the XBOX 360. Now I can record HDTV on my Media Center and watch it on whatever TV my XBOX, or XBOX's in this case, are connected to. This is huge for me because I absolutely hate watching SDTV on an high def set. So to be able to watch HDTV in our bedroom that was recorded on the PC in the closet will be huge. So for me XBOX 360 will be sweet, only thing that could make it sweeter and for me the end all would be a Bi-directional cable card so I can use it as my cable box and DVR. Oh yeah the games will be great as well.

Can Anyone De-throne Apple: I think not

After sitting through Apple's press event this morning and listening to thier statistics show the sheer dominance of iTunes and the iPod I was convinced there is no one out there who can compete with Apple at this level. Then they announced the amazing product in the iPod Nano that will literally shut the door on the compitition. I look at this market extensively and see no MP3 player that even comes close to posing a threat. Nor have I ever used or experienced a music store that comes close to the iTunes experience. Looking out at the foreseable future I see no threat posed to Apple in this area. My question is what are the 26% of MP3 users not using iPods thinking.

Digital Media storage

I just came across an interesting survey that is highligted on CNET this morning. Interestingly it is about how the younger generations the X and Y want more storage on their digital devices. Here are some interesting tidbids from the report:

-The group affectionately known as "Generation Y" has a reported $2,199 worth of entertainment stored on digital devices, according to the Pennsylvania-based analyst group. And they are hungry for more.

-Compare that to the average $1,135 worth of content that KRC found on laptops, MP3 players, DVRs, mobile phones, PDAs, digital cameras and portable movie players in a telephone survey of 1,004 adults aged 18 to 65 years.

- 49 percent have between 1-200 GB worth of storage capacity across all of their electronic devices

-- 34 percent have 21 GB of capacity or more

-- 10 percent have more than 200 GB of storage capacity

The survey also contained an interesting statement that nearly one-third of those polled who said they wish they had "so much storage that it was never an issue."

Apple's announcement next Tuesday

Just so it's clear I am an Apple computer lover. I use them pretty much exclusively and the Windows PC's can do little to pull me away. Apple has an announcement coming out on Tuesday that I hope will be very exciting. Rumors are around the Motorolla iTunes phone, a video iPod and possible updates to the iPod line. Whatever the announcement is i'm sure it will be a significant next step in Apple's direction. For Apple it is critical that they begin to implement the strategies for the success of the company. The problem is the iPod has been a tremendous success for Apple, so what happens when a stand-alone MP3 player is no longer necessary. I truely believe that as cell phones get smarter and more powerful that it is only natural that the cell phone will carry a siginificant amount of your digital music collection. This poses a problem for Apple because they do not make cell phones, nor do I believe they plan to, and the iTunies music store is not a cash cow for them. Apple's belief that great hardware coupled with great software is terrific, but i'm not sure they want their great software to be coupled with someone else's great hardware. So I am excited to see what Apple has in store and how Steve Jobs takes Apple into the digital electronics age.