Oct 31

It takes a lot to get me talking about a dumb-phone (a non-smart-phone phone), but Motorola’s newly announced AURA twisted my arm just enough to get me to post.

Quick introduction: the AURA (I’m not sure why it’s capitalized, maybe it’s an acronym for “Amazingly Unaffordable Ringing Atrocity?) is Moto’s follow up to the wildly unsuccessful V70, a 2002 device that was really awesome looking, but very bad at functioning. So the AURA takes the V70’s swivel-sliding form factor and spruces it up a bit. Take a look at the AURA’s crazy flash site to learn more.

So why am I talking about the AURA? I mean, there’s no touch screen, it runs a fairly basic OS, there’s no QWERTY pad, and it’s outrageously expensive… actually- those are all the reasons I’m talking about it. The AURA is the exact opposite of everything that is successful in the market right now.

Let’s start with the form factor. I’ll concede this point: the phone looks awesome. BUT- as I’ve recently written - everyone is making touch devices. Big, beautiful, touchable screens are popping up everywhere, and the AURA comes in with a tiny, non-touchable, round screen. Yes, it does have a bazillion colors, but when the screen is that small, does it really matter? And a 2mp camera? Again, the market is moving in an entirely different direction. Secondly, its imput method: I mean, T9… really? Thirdly, it boasts that it’s composed of over 700 different components. Is this a good thing? It just sounds like it would be very easy to break and even more expensive to fix.

Speaking of expensive… the AURA will cost $2,000. Ten 3G iPhones. Or hell, one MacBook Air. NO phone should cost $2k, that’s just absurd. I recently heard some mumblings about our economy not being too awesome… I’m not sure if this is true or not… but really, a $2,000 phone? In a time where Apple can drop the price of the market’s most innovative device to $200 (or potentially $99?!) competitors should drop prices, not raise them.

Ok, fine. I get it. There are a number of companies that make insanely “higher end” phones (Vertu, being the most ridiculous) because some people like to spend money, just so people know that they have spent money. I guess all I’m saying is that I think a phone’s features and functions should increase proportionally to its pricetag and the AURA has the same features of a RAZR at almost 40x the price.

But hey, the AURA is definitely not targeted at a consumer like me, so it doesn’t matter if I don’t like it. And jeez, The Boy Genius likes it, so it can’t be all bad. I just think that in these times of “dude, where’s my economy”, Motorola could save money by making cheaper phones… not the alternative.

Posted in Gadgets | No Comments »
Oct 17

Yesterday I read BGR’s impressively in depth review of the upcoming TMobile G1 (aka the GooglePhone (aka the HTC Dream)), which noted a few surprising hardware flaws. I mean, I always thought HTC was infallible, but apparently the device feels and acts like a prototype.

The two biggest surprises to me were a) the weakly implemented row of buttons on the front of the device, that are apparently so flush to the body that they are almost impossible to push. And conversely b) there is NO onscreen keyboard, requiring the user to pull out the QWERTY pad for even the slightest amount of input.

Here’s why these things seem strange to me: everyone is dropping buttons right now in favor of touchscreen-focused devices. Sure, Apple may have started the trend, but it’s not just the iPhone I’m talking about- recently Samsung launched its relatively buttonless Omnia, HTC’s Touch HD is almost entirely buttonless, Blackberry is heavily promoting its all-touchscreen Storm, and even Nokia’s new XpressMusic opts for touchscreen focused use (not sure how well that’s going to work with Symbian though…). HTC opted for buttons on the G1, but failed in making them truly useful. It forces the use of buttons sometimes, but then offers buttons that aren’t easy to use…

flush buttons... bad

But on to the bigger point: why are we getting rid of buttons? Because the iPhone did it? If the iPhone jumped off a bridge, would you do it too? Ok, yeah, probably… but still- this is no reason to scrap the concept of buttons on phones.

As completely awesome as touch-focused user interfaces have become, buttons are still a simpler, quicker, and a more accurate navigation tool, and it’s frustrating to see that go away. Swiping your finger around to navigate is fun and easy, but it’s just not that practical. Blackberry hit the jackpot when it introduced the click-wheel (then again with its rollerball thingy) because it made navigating easier. Moving away from buttons makes it all seem only more difficult.

Flick through emails with your thumb?! Cool! Oh, whoops, I just flicked too slowly and now opened the wrong message… oops and now I flicked too far and have to go back… and now I just launched a that application that makes your phone look like it’s filled with beer… crap.

And look: I don’t care how fast you’ve gotten at typing on your keyboardless device, it’s not as fast or remotely as accurate as an actual keyboard. I’m sure that anyone can get pretty good at typing with onscreen keyboards - but I have NEVER seen anyone touchtype without a physical button underneath. You’re still required to look at every virtual key before sliding your finger to it. This might be fine for short text messages, but I cannot imagine a business device that will be used primarily for email have someone hunting and pecking for every letter (yes, I’m looking at you, Blackberry Storm).

Think about your TV remote. When you grab it to change the channel, do you need to look at where the “Guide” button is? Or to turn the volume down, do you first look and stare at it for a second (if “yes”, are you under 73 years old?). No. You can feel with your fingers where buttons are and you have tactile memory of button placement. This simply does not exist without phyiscal buttons. It’s incredibly difficult (impossible?) to slide your finger to the exact spot on a phone without looking, making it necessary to constantly stare at your device.

Alright, Yes. This is a heavily biased personal opinion: I prefer buttons. I want MORE buttons. My current device has a QWERTY pad, a click wheel, two multifunction buttons, a 4-way d-pad, 11 other hardware buttons… and a touchscreen. I use them all (plus, one opens a shortcut menu containing 12 onscreen quick launch apps). I also change songs while the phone is in my pocket, turn the volume down on loud calls without looking, type without staring at my fingers, and play games with buttons that don’t take up screen space.

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that buttons - for lack of a better word - are good. Buttons are right. Buttons work. And buttons - you mark my words - will not only save mobile devices, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.

Posted in Gadgets | 8 Comments »
Oct 2

Over the last decade, we have given a lot to Google. Our personal information for targeted advertising, billions of search terms for data-mining, billions of ad revenue, and our overall privacy. S0, to celebrate its 10th birthday, big Google decided to return the favor and offer us with a gift: the chance to travel back to search the web from 2001 (which is good, because what the hell do you get the company that has everything?).

Enter Google Search 2001, which allows you to go through indexed results from yesteryear. Plus, if you click on the cached link, you can often see what pages were like way-back-when.

Here are a few of my favorite searches so far (and note, some of the results are hilarious to see who ranked well for what back then):

Obviously, some things that are hugely important now didn’t exist back then, but it’s funny to see zero results for them. Plus, it’s amazing to see what has evolved, what hasn’t, and also, how unlucky some companies must have been (like “MySpace Data Storage”… you don’t hear much from them anymore).

Also, for a little fun: a small collection of “That’s that the web looked like!?”

What did you use the web for in 2001? And what other hilarities have you found?

Happy birthday Google. You’ve grown up so fast!

Posted in Web 2.0 | No Comments »