Cool Tech Reviews

Oliver Ryan at Fortune magazine’s The Browser lets us in on “the next big thing”:

The Browser landed yesterday in artificial Palm Desert, CA for DEMO 2007, one of the few must-visit annual tech conferences. Over the next two days, 68 companies will each be given six minutes to unleash their revolutionary new technology upon the world - or at least upon industry heavies like the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg. The parade began early this morning Pacific time, and thusfar we have two words for you: video email.

That’s right, of the first 15 companies, Eyejot, a company which hopes to merge “the best of email with video chat” was the most sexy. Briefly, Eyejot is a web-based video email system. If you have a webcam, you an send a video email to anyone. True, you might be able to do this now by embedding video files in, say, your Outlook email, but it would require some serious cutting and pasting. On first glance, the free Eyejot web-driven app makes the whole process as simple as creating a text email.
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Bottom line: When you see it, you can easily imagine the entire world of email moving from text to video.

Luckily, Eyejot’s system isn’t integrated with any existing email tools so you aren’t likely to have your mailbox filled any time soon with large chunks of video, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. Then comes video spam. I suppose I am standing in the way of progress, but I can’t imagine why I would want to either send or receive video email. Unfortunately, I can think of reasons why other people would like to send it.

Today and tomorrow are filled with Microsoft events hyping tomorrow’s launch of the consumer versions of Microsoft’s new PC operating system, Windows Vista. Below is a roundup of reviews, but while the words are different, the tune is the same: You won’t mind Vista when you get it on the next new PC you buy, but there’s no reason to consider installing it as an upgrade on a machine currently running Windows XP.

Robert Vamosi at CNET:

Windows Vista is essentially warmed-over Windows XP. If you’re currently happy with Windows XP SP2, we see no compelling reason to upgrade. On the other hand, if you need a new computer right now, Windows Vista is stable enough for everyday use.

Rob Pegoraro at the Washington Post:

For most people buying a new PC after Monday, getting a Windows PC will mean getting a Vista PC; there’s no choice to be made. And there need be nothing wrong in that case — on a computer with enough memory and processing power, Vista clearly exceeds XP.

But for most people with older machines, Vista demands too much to justify its benefits. If you fall into that category, you’re better off upgrading XP by adding third-party programs — for instance, Google Desktop, the Firefox Web browser, Thunderbird mail program and the Picasa photo album — to paper over XP’s deficiencies. Wait for Microsoft to fix the inevitable bugs in Vista and for Windows developers to rewrite their software to work better in Vista.

Then, if you’re both patient and lucky, by the time you’re ready for a new computer, Vista will be ready for you.

Larry Magid at CBS News:

Vista is good, but I still question whether it’s worth nearly $160 plus the cost of any hardware upgrades for anyone but those early adapters who love to live on the bleeding edge of technology. For most people, the best way to get Vista is to get it the next time they buy a PC.

Walter Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal:

It has taken the giant software maker more than five years to replace Windows XP with this new version, called Windows Vista — an eternity by computer-industry reckoning. Many of the boldest plans for Vista were discarded in that lengthy process, and what’s left is a worthy, but largely unexciting, product.

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Gradually, all Windows computers will be Vista computers, and that’s a good thing, if only for security reasons. But you may want to keep your older Windows XP box around awhile longer, until you can afford new hardware that can handle Vista.

David Pogue at the New York Times:

According to a SoftChoice survey, in fact, only 6 percent of existing corporate PCs have enough muscle to run all of Vista’s goodies. No wonder Microsoft expects that only about 5 percent of PC users will upgrade their existing computers to Vista.

Online, there’s much talk of Vista’s place in the universe. Is it too little, too late? Does the Mac’s uptick in market share threaten the dominance of Windows? Does Web-based software make operating systems obsolete?

None of the above. Windows isn’t going anywhere, the landscape won’t be changing anytime soon, and the corporate world will still buy it 500 copies at a time.

In other words, it doesn’t matter what you (or tech reviewers) think of Windows Vista; sooner or later, it’s what most people will have on their PCs. In that light, it’s fortunate that Vista is better looking, better designed and better insulated against the annoyances of the Internet. At the very least, it’s well equipped to pull the world’s PCs along for the next five years — or whenever the next version of Windows drops down the chimney.

I’ve mentioned some high definition DVD players here (e.g. [1],[2]), but whatever the virtues, the biggest impediment remains the format battle between the Blu-ray and HD DVD camps. Earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show, some vendors tried to bridge the gap: Warner Brothers with a new format disk that had both Blu-ray and HD DVD versions of a movie on it and LG Electronics with a dual format “Super Multi Blue” Player that can handle both Blu-ray and HD DVD disks.

There’s nothing technically wrong with the Warner Brothers solution, but it requires the studios to agree to publishing the special disks which seems unlikely except for Warner Brothers themselves. More promising is is LG’s dual format player solution:

Following the commercial launch of the universal player that can tap both Blu-ray and HD DVD markets there are many more similar devices incoming according to technology research firm ABI research, which believes that such hybrid players will essentially end the war of formats. However, due to high pricing of blue-laser players their mass adoption is still far ahead.

ABI Research believes that by creating a player that accommodates both Blu-ray and  HD-DVD discs, the Korean manufacturer LG Electronics may have created a precedent that the rest of the industry will have to follow.

“We believe that universal players will come to dominate the high-definition DVD player market,” said Steve Wilson, the firm’s principal analyst of consumer electronics.

The research firm also speculates that Samsung is expected to release its own universal player “soon”, and others, including large consumer electronics vendors, may follow suit “before long”. ABI Research forecasts sales of 2.4 million players in 2007, rising to 55 million in 2011.

Many observers expect that the demands of supporting both formats would significantly increase the price of universal players. While there is some additional cost in the optical pickup and the LG player’s initial price is quite steep at $1200, Mr. Wilson expects these prices to drop dramatically as new manufacturers come to market with universal players.

“That $1200 price would seem to be more about matching Blu-ray player prices than about reflecting the cost of producing a universal player. There’s no reason universal players should cost significantly more than HD or Blu-ray players,” the analyst explained.

The LG players are available now in the USA:

The major consumer electronics maker LG Electronics has reportedly started to sell its “Super Multi Blue” BH100 player that is capable of Blu-ray disc and HD DVD playback ahead of the officially proclaimed commercial launch date in the U.S.

Apparently, BestBuy.com online store is currently taking orders on LG BH100 universal disc player, whereas at least some Circuit City stores have them on shelves. Officially, the LG “Super Multi Blue” player, the world’s first and yet the only device that can playback both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats, should be on sale starting the 1^st of February, 2007.

Here’s the press release for the BH100, but Gizmodo’s review points out some problems:

We got the LG BH100 in the mail yesterday. It does what claims to do — be the very first high definition disc player that is compatible with both Blu-ray and HD-DVD. But don’t waive the white flag in the format war quite yet. Our first grope reveals a few flaws that keep me from recommending this player as the ultimate peace keeper in the HD format war.

Right off the bat, I’ll tell you that the rumors that the HD-DVD compatibility is half-assed are absolutely true. One of HD-DVD’s strongest points is its interactive menus and video features, like the ones we wrote about in our Fast and the Furious HD-DVD review. This player didn’t support the menus on this movie, and some of the special features, like being able to repaint a race car in the movie, were only found when I manually skipped to the chapter. Even then, the only thing you can depend on is that the movie will play. Which may be enough for many, but not enough for those who want the most from both formats.

Secondly, I could not get the player to engage its 1080p mode via HDMI with the Sony XBR3 I’m testing. 1080i was all she would do.

But beyond that, she did play both discs. And the boot times were in the 30-40 second range for both HD formats. That’s a step in the right direction compared to many of the 1st gen disc players that took about a minute.

The HD DVD glitches are why the BH100 does not have the official HD DVD logo.

Bottom Line: The LG player just doesn’t seem ready for prime time yet, but once they work the bugs out the dual format player looks like it will take over the high definition DVD player market. Yeah, it’s more expensive than Toshiba’s moderately priced HD DVD-only players, but it plays everything.

Things are moving fast in the high definition DVD world although it’s still not clear whether Blu-ray or HD DVD or both will eventually get the nod from consumers. Anyhow, in the HD DVD camp after a very short run for the first generation players, Toshiba announced their second generation players (HD-A2 and HD-XA2) last September and while the HD-XA2 is just beginning to appear in stores, the HD-A2 has been available for a while and is getting uniformly great reviews.

David Katzmaier at CNET (from 2006):

The new player also has an improved remote control with keys arranged in a much more logical fashion than those of the HD-A1’s bulky clicker. Otherwise, the two players are identical: The HD-A2 has 1080i output, not 1080p; the HDMI jack still uses the 1.2 spec; and image quality should be exactly the same.

1080p and HDMI 1.3 are reserved for the new step-up model, the HD-XA2 (December, $999). The benefits of 1080p are hard to pin down–in fact, given a display that de-interlaces 1080i correctly, and most do, we expect the picture quality improvement from 1080i to 1080p output to be minor, if not nonexistent. HDMI 1.3’s chief video-quality benefit, according to its backers, is better color depth that’s less subject to false contouring, among other problems. It’s worth mentioning that you only get the benefit of HDMI 1.3 if you mate your HDMI 1.3 source to a display with HDMI 1.3, and as far as we know, no HDMI 1.3 displays will be available this year…

At first glance, the HD-A2 looks like a better player than the HD-A1, and hopefully the company has indeed addressed some of the first-generation player’s usability quirks. For HDTV owners with $500 to spend on a disc player that delivers phenomenal video quality, it looks like a solid value. The same can’t be said for the twice-as-expensive HD-XA2, which is obviously aimed at buyers who don’t mind paying a lot for cutting-edge features.

Also worth noting is that all 14 of the user reviews are “Perfect” or “Spectacular” except for two users who were expecting to use HDTV’s with only DVI input where there are currently limitations.

B. Greenway at the Home Theater Blog:

The Toshiba HD-A2 outputs 480p, 720p, and 1080i over HDMI and component and it up-scales standard definition DVD’s over the players HDMI 1.2a output. Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD (core only), Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital and standard DTS processing are supported. The player also sports a rear-panel Ethernet connection, slim-line design and greatly improved load times over its predecessors. The players build quality is still impressive even if it’s not the tank the HD-A1 was. The case is still made of metal and the brushed/stainless flip-down front tray adds to the players overall curb appeal.
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Standard Definition DVD Viewing:

The Toshiba HD-A1 and HD-XA2 were widely lauded for their standard definition up-scaling capabilities, so of course I was quite interested to see how well the HD-A2 performed the same task. The first disc up was my well worn and just as enjoyed Superbit edition of ‘The Fifth Element’. I wanted something familiar for this test and I can’t think of a disc I’ve viewed more throughout the years. The colors were vibrant and well saturated and the overall image was on-par with the up-conversion from my XA1.

I skipped forward to chapter eight where Leeloo is crawling through the air-ducts; the shadow detail, sharpness and overall detail were all spot-on. The motion was fluid and lifelike and the flesh tones were very believable. Overall I was quite satisfied with the A2’s standard definition DVD playback and I never had the feeling that I was missing something or felt the desire to pop the disc back over into the XA1.
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If you happen to go the HD DVD route, I can easily recommend either the HD-A2 or HD-A20 (I’m under the assumption it’s basically a HD-A2 with 1080p output) without reservation.

There’s much more by following the link, but the Toshiba HD-A20 mentioned is yet another second generation player announced earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show that adds 1080p output at a MSRP of $599.

To net it all out, the Toshiba HD-A2 seems to be a great reasonably priced HD DVD player for consumers who don’t need cutting edge features as long as you observe the usual caveats:

• Make sure your HDTV supports what the HD-A2 delivers. (I know it sounds obvious, but as seen above it’s a perennial problem.)
• Realize that that there is a format war going on and this is early days for a new technology so the HD DVD movie selection is limited.
• The technology is changing rapidly and while the second generation players seem solid, you can always expect better and/or cheaper a year from now.

Eric A. Taub reports that Samsung is going for thin on a new line of rear projection TVs:

Samsung, the world’s largest seller of televisions, will introduce at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show a new line of rear-projection D.L.P. televisions that will not be much thicker than flat-panel TVs but will cost about 30 percent less.

The new sets, aimed at those who want a bigger set but cannot afford a plasma TV, will come in 50- to 60-inch sizes. At 10 inches deep, they can be hung on a wall.

10 inches is not exactly thin, but I’ll be interested to see the full specs.

The Wall Street Journal’s highly regarded technology reviewer, Walter Mossberg, weighs in on Microsoft’s Office 2007 which will be launched on January 29 (available January 30). Not unexpectedly he observes what many prior reviewers have, which is that the good news is that Microsoft did something really different to the user interface in this latest version of the perennial favorite office productivity suite. Unfortunately, that’s also the bad news.

The entire user interface, the way you do things in these familiar old programs, has been thrown out and replaced with something new. In Word, Excel and PowerPoint, all of the menus are gone — every one. None of the familiar toolbars have survived, either. In their place is a wide, tabbed band of icons at the top of the screen called the Ribbon. And there is no option to go back to the classic interface.

In Outlook, the Ribbon hasn’t kicked out the menus and toolbars in the program’s main screens, but if you compose an email, or set up a new contact or appointment, you’ll see it.
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These changes in Office, while much less publicized, are far bolder and more important than the mostly cosmetic user interface changes in the highly hyped new version of Windows, called Vista, which comes out on the same day.

After months of working with the Ribbon and other new features of Office, I believe they are an improvement. They replace years of confusing accretions with a logical layout of commands and functions. They add easy and elegant new options for making documents look good. And they make it much simpler to find many of the 1,500 commands that Office offers, but had buried in the past.
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But there is a big downside to this gutsy redesign: It requires a steep learning curve that many people might rather avoid. In my own tests, I was cursing the program for weeks because I couldn’t find familiar functions and commands, even though Microsoft provides lots of help and guidance.

There’s more in the article including suggestions on which users are going to like the new changes (power users and complete novices) and which aren’t (everyone else), but even that is tempered by problems for power users who have heavily customized their Office 2003 menus and toolbars extensively and can’t do the same in Office 2007. However, there’s another point worth considering and that’s why bother? There’s really no compelling reason to rush out and upgrade an existing version of Office just to get this new user interface and the other rather specialized enhancements.

There’s also another problem for home users which Mossberg mentions and Microsoft Watch’s Joe Wilcox describes at more length. In a nutshell, 80% of the Microsoft Office 2003 retail store sales are for the Student and Teacher Edition which allows installation on 3 computers of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook for the relative bargain price of $150. It is supposed to be for households which include either a student or a teacher, but no one ever enforced that restriction. For Office 2007 the Student and Teacher Edition has morphed into the Home and Student Edition, but along the way the Outlook email client got dropped and and OneNote (a note taking application) got added, so if you want Outlook 2007, you’ll have to shell out more. You can either bite that bullet or try a free alternative to Outlook like Thunderbird, but for that matter there are free alternatives to Office as well (e.g. OpenOffice) which is a subject for a whole other post.

To net it out: While Microsoft has invested a lot of effort in the user interface changes in Office 2007 and the result is not bad, it’s hard to find any reason to upgrade immediately. Most new office productivity suites get purchased when PCs are replaced and Office 2007 won’t change that at all.

Update Jan. 5: A similar reaction to the ribbon from Jonathan Blum at Fortune.