Engadget is reporting that Acer is moving up as the world’s number 2 producer of personal computers. Not too surprising as I write this entry on my Aspire One netbook from Acer. Many are shocked by this and I have to wonder why? Acer reflects what mainstream consumers have long desired, just good enough quality to get the job done. The belief that the consumer only desire the best of breed is a fallacy. If that was true then MP3 audio would have been a failure, we all be driving luxury cars and shop only at boutique stores. No, mainstream consumers shop at the Targets and Walmarts of the world, listening to 128kbps sampled music and stream movies from the Internet. The reality is that if the quality is not noticeably bad, then it is good enough to be accepted as the norm. The masses do not necessarily choose the best outcome, even I balked at the idea of streaming video, yet here I am on the couch watching The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian streaming from my Roku box. The point is this, the world we live in is on-demand and people are more than willing to accept immediacy rather than quality, sounds familiar. Tools built around immediacy do not slow us down and can be afforded by the masses. That is why netbooks are perfect example of this reality. They are cheap, easy to carry and are good enough to satisfy a mobile user. The tech community may balk at the idea that Acer is number 2 but the reality is, the company produces cheap products that are just good enough for the masses and me.
Techcrunch has been following a server-side streaming company OTOY for the last week. What makes this exciting is the potential console-like gaming experience that can be had on hardware that is far from capable. It seems all you will need is a phone with a webkit browser and a strong 3G connection. This tech will make my dream come true! I will Quake on my phone! Pricing has not been released but based on the video, it does not seem OTOY is that far off. The future is mobile and this is tech will make the transition palatable.
Layar is a new cool mobile browser that adds an augmented reality layer. By using your mobile camera, information is displayed on your screen about your surroundings. Treating the image as one layer, it is possible to ’stack’ many layers of information using the API. This would be a goldmine for tourists. Signing up companies to provide information or advertise is the next logical step. Sadly the browser is only available on the Android platform. Damn, I knew I should had never given up my G1.
Layar has some cool features which include:
Switching easily between layers
Radar widget to give you an overview
Logobar to indicate which layer is active
Link through to mobile websites
Integrated map view
Custom filters for each layers (like distance, category, search box)
Palm posted on their developer’s blog that their SDK will not be available for general public until the end of summer.
With the launch of iPhone 3.0 SDK and Android moving full steam with the cupcake, Palm is not helping the momentum by holding back tinkers like me and more serious developers by limiting access. What is crazy the community is flipping out for access now that the webOS has been cracked. Palm has crazy support by doing nothing. They should have all this ready at launch, boy did they screw up:
We’ve been working very hard on the SDK and are eager to open access on a wider scale, but the software and the developer services to support it just aren’t ready yet.
Wow, last night there was a flurry of activity with the Pre as the WebOS ROM image is now available for download. The crazy cool thing is how you get to the system reset/developer mode using what Engadget/Giz affectionately calls the Konami code crack. By performing this classic Contra hack, you gain access to the developer mode and well you start to see why the homebrew community is basically orgasmic right now. In fact the first homebrew app is already online on the forums at precentral.net. I expect Palm to supply an official reaction to this leak. For me, it sure would be nice for Palm to pull the application process at their developer site and allow casual enthusiasts like me a shot at the Mojo SDK. This will help alleviate the need to drive toward the homebrew market. I’m just saying…
Family movie night - Chunjyang on Netflix with my mom and family. Fun to watch my son so engaged with the Korean play. Our heritage lives on 15 hrs ago
Watching US vs. Grenada soccer. Go Team USA! 20 hrs ago
In my zeal to find an Objective-C IDE for my netbook, I found a cool replacement for notepad: http://bit.ly/kaSu. Darn thing can do it all. 2 days ago
Engadget is reporting that Acer is moving up as the world’s number 2 producer of personal computers. Not too surprising as I write this entry on my Aspire One netbook from Acer. Many are shocked by this and I have to wonder why? Acer reflects what mainstream consumers have long desired, just good enough quality to get the job done. The belief that the consumer only desire the best of breed is a fallacy. If that was true then MP3 audio would have been a failure, we all be driving luxury cars and shop only at boutique stores. No, mainstream consumers shop at the Targets and Walmarts of the world, listening to 128kbps sampled music and stream movies from the Internet. The reality is that if the quality is not noticeably bad, then it is good enough to be accepted as the norm. The masses do not necessarily choose the best outcome, even I balked at the idea of streaming video, yet here I am on the couch watching The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian streaming from my Roku box. The point is this, the world we live in is on-demand and people are more than willing to accept immediacy rather than quality, sounds familiar. Tools built around immediacy do not slow us down and can be afforded by the masses. That is why netbooks are perfect example of this reality. They are cheap, easy to carry and are good enough to satisfy a mobile user. The tech community may balk at the idea that Acer is number 2 but the reality is, the company produces cheap products that are just good enough for the masses and me.
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