A mad Dash

Just a few days after the announcement of Chumby comes another small device, this one focused on driving. Dash’s Web site humbly notes that its product will do for driving what TV did for entertainment and cell phones did for communication. Not only did these seminal devices result in different kinds of changes, but the CrunchGear report would indicate that at least one of Dash’s main features is real-time traffic using a mesh network that goes beyond what TomTom has done with its Friend Finder feature.

Accurate traffic reporting can turn portable navigation devices from products used only opportunistically to ones used almost every day, but I still wouldn’t put it on the magnitude scale of the cell phone or certainly the television. If it can get the viral network effect rolling (and it will be hard to lowball what sounds like a feature-rich device), Dash’s approach should have advantages over several approaches used to deliver traffic today. However, I’m still waiting to see far more natural ways of giving directions based on contextual cues, directions the way a human would give them. — “Turn left at the Mobil station on the right three blocks away.”

When is a platform not a platform?

The Wireless Report asks whether advanced music phones will ever be able to compete with the iPod and comes up skeptical owing to the product’s extensive ecosystem. I’m more bullish on such products. Yes, we’re in the early days but we’ve already seen great strides forward and even Apple concedes that music phones are bound to improve, hence the empty admission that they’re “not doing nothing” in the space.

Something I haven’t seen much coverage about regarding the iPod is that, despite its increasing functionality, media support and vast range of accessories that have developed over the years, Apple has not opened it up to developers the way Palm did with the original Pilot. Want to develop a new game for the iPod? You can’t. One could argue that a platform or API didn’t really save the PDA in the end, but it continues to be important in the realm of smartphones, which could be the iPod’s future and is certainly one direction for portable digital music in general.

My-lo point is no Bluetooth

Sony recently introduced Mylo (My Life Online), a device with a resurrected name that resembles its PSP (but is actually much smaller) and boasts an integrated slide-up keyboard. Early coverage labelled it an instant messaging appliance, perhaps a higher-end version of the Wi-Fi-enabled K-Byte Zip-It, but it really is more of a mobile Internet appliance akin to the larger but comparably priced Nokia 770, which Nokia unfortunately sometimes treats like an open-source science project.

Two main differences are that the 770 has a high-resolution screen better suited to Web browsing and Bluetooth. The absence of Bluetooth in Mylo is a quandary; I’d prioritize it more highly than Wi-Fi. If Sony is concerned about the difficulty of pairing or the availability of DUN-capable phones among young hipsters, it should recognize that they can already get a capable Bluetooth-enabled handset (and headset) for less than the Mylo.

In any case, like the 770, the Mylo has the de rigeur music and photo capabilities as well as an integrated Web browser. Mylo reportedly uses Trolltech’s QTopia operating environment; let’s hope its browser is better than the PSPs and that its keyboard is better than the Vaio UX’s. Unlike the 770, it includes a Skype client and hotspot directory, the latter of which it wouldn’t need (as much) if it had Bluetooth.

(Dis)Connexion

I thought we had gotten past the point where all Wi-Fi business models seemed doomed, but I find it odd that Boeing did not have more success with Connexion, its technology for delivering Wi-Fi in-flight. In particular, no US airline signed up for the service, which has reportedly lost a billion dollars in its six years of operation, and so may be grounded. I thought I had long ago won an argument with a former colleague about the availability of Internet access in planes, but perhaps he will have the last laugh.

One would think that a more creative approach to the service could have used it as a business class perk or frequent-flyer reward, allowing the proletariat in coach to purchase it a la carte. Well, at least being on a plane provides a closeup view of a cloud’s silver lining, and expected relaxation of clell phone usage on planes could open up the market for at least selective high-speed data. Hmmm, 3G clobbering Wi-Fi; maybe things aren’t so different at 30,000 feet.

eBook subsidization has limited potential

I'm quoted today in an MSNBC story regarding electronic books. I recently blogged that the iRex approach of targeting B2B applications was a better market introduction strategy than offering products such as the Sony Reader at retail, but this article raises the possibility of subsidizing the device's through the established subscription model for newspapers and magazines. That has more potential than, say, subsidizing MP3 players through subscription services such as Napster or Audible.

Still, while the electronic ink in this generation may offer a leap forward, it's a poor fit for colorful magazines or even newspapers, the static editions of which compare poorly in timeliness to the constantly updated Web. We'll need more mainstream wireless data usage before we see the dynamically changing stories in electronic newspapers such as those in the movie Minority Report.

Chaperone foils stupid kidnappers

It looks like Verizon Wireless will take the high road and not market Chaperone to paranoid parents as protection for children and instead focus more on monitoring and communication. Indeed, much of the child-location service focuses on even more high-minded purposes, such as increasing a comfort level so that kids get more exercise. However, while services like Chaperone have the edge over pioneers such as Whereify in reaching the mass market and the phone is clearly a device that is starting to become more popular among the "tween" set, Whereify service offers more protection, such as automatically sounding an alarm when its watch-like device's band is broken.

Ideally, it would be great to see something as small as the shoe receiver used in the Nike+iPod system be tied to a locator, but then again the last thing we want to encourage in those who prey upon kids is strip searches.

Hope for Helio

No two MVNOs seem to be going more directly head-to-head than Helio – the JV between EarthLink and Korea's SK Telecom — and Amp'd Mobile, Verizon Wlreless's hipper half. I suppose CDMA is the official network infrastructure of youth. Whereas Amp'd seems to be focused more on entertainment, though (albeit "cooler" entertainment), Helio CEO (and EarthLink co-founder) Sky Dayton offers a cool head when it comes to cramming convergence down acolytes' handsets in another great Engadget interview. On digital photography:

We’re not going to integrate technology just for the sake of technology, like putting a ten megapixel camera on a phone. We could do that — we know where to get ‘em, you know — but it’s a little bit of a freak show as a handset, right? I mean it’s not a very good phone, it’s huge and it’s not really a very good camera. If you want ten megapixels, go get a D50, you know; that’s a great camera.

Game over for Gizmondo?

With all the intrigue surrounding its former executives and their cars, I’ve been surprised to see no coverage regarding Gizmondo’s Web site being down for weeks. I fear this may be the end for what one of the few reviews I read described as the taco-shaped portable console. While the little handheld that couldn’t followed in the footsteps of Tapwave, another handheld gaming failure based on a PDA operating system, I’m sure it will only be a matter of time before some of Gizmondo’s unique features such as WAN and GPS data support appear in products from more established companies.

Sony Ericsson’s surge

Sony Ericsson continues to turn itself around. That's great news for the entire North American handset market as it shows that consumers are willing to embrace more media-rich (and I don't mean in just the carrier-fed J2ME/Brew way), functional handsets that have been increasingly well-designed. And take note, Nokia, they're doing it without having to create a complex retail infrastructure. Despite criticism that the Walkman brand has lost its luster, those branded music phones have been selling well. Perhaps the wireless world will boost the brand instead of leveraging it.

At CTIA, I was impressed by the M600 — a keypad-based handset that combines two keys on each button, similar in appearance to handsets such as RIM's Blackberry 7100 series. However, unlike a similar offering from Samsung, it actually enables you to specify which key is pressed rather than licensing RIM's SureType predictive text system. While many users say SureType works well, I would still have a hard time placing my trust in it. The M600 keyboard seems to be an improvement over the flimsy flip of the P910.

Text input is starting to get better. In addition to these SureType-based systems, offerings from LG and others will finally use Digit Wireless's Fastap. I was briefed by Digit Wireless many years ago and always thought it was a very clever system, although perhaps not suitable for extended text input.The M600 may be the sleekest full-featured QWERTY smartphone in the market when it hits the States.

Between this and Sony's Bravia success, Sony looks like it's starting to address some of its many challenges. Of course, much hinges on the PlayStation 3's reception.

Averatec’s UMPC: Getting warmer

Reg Hardware breaks news of a T-Mobile Sidekick-inspired high-resolution, low-cost, fully loaded UMPC that Averatec plas to offer in the fall. Well, it won't be all those things at the same time, but that's ok. A $600 price point would go a long way toward helping consumers overlook the lack of a killer application for this platform.

The concept drawings Averatec's offering has a dedicated keyboard, which is generally good. However, I don't think the typing while standing usage scenario will prove very popular. Flat surfaces are plentiful, and having to type more than a sentence of two on a device as heavy as the UMPC s just palnful. I learned that a while back.

In other news, the Samsung Q1 bundle that will go for about $1,400 in Korea — with its wrap case that includes a detached keyboard — brings back memories of a Newton 2000/2100 package that appeared near the end of the line for Apple's uber-PDA.