Gadgetory

hey what is going on everybody welcome to good to go is thursday march 10th as we're filming this from oakland california i'm noah Kravitz editor-at-large for TechnoBuffalo calm I'm James Kendrick for ZDNet mobile news James what's going on today how are you oh good it's been a busy week I've been interviewing or reviewing stuff like right not an interview a reviewing product like crazy I'm like my brain is fried well plug it man any any good reviews coming up on your blog well I actually just today I finally got around to publishing my motorola xoom review which yeah maybe wasn't as a fortuitous as some android fans would have liked that there's your there's the one line one line teaser so if you want to find out just how James ripped it apart you can head over to the blog and no I I am I think I know what you're talking about i think i experienced some similar things John did the review for us but definitely some stuff I like about it some stuff maybe not quite ready for prime time you know put it that way yeah why I guess by my basic take of it was I see a ton of potential in the zoom and honeycomb with Android but it's not there yet you know it's just going to take some time and you know the big question is how much time does any any of these guys have in this game yeah yeah there's a there's a product going on sale tomorrow friday at 5pm that I I forget the name of it we don't need to talk about it magical i hear ya that's cool exactly exactly also a quick note to everybody who's watching first of all thank you for watching the show last week the feedback we got was awesome and you know just like to be doing it all of the comments about the audio especially on my end or not especially with the audio on my end duly noted I've got a mic that we're using this week that is not you know straight it's probably not going to yield a hundred percent results we want so for next week I will be fully prepared I i made i may go you know we should get some headset sponsors i think and a lot what a lot of people i've been doing these kind of things for a lot of years and it's pretty funny audio is the hardest part of video stuff to get straight I mean it still blows me away why doubt it and I'm used to doing you know the stuff whether reviews are at it shows or whatever with a camcorder setup so doing this off of the computer you know I'm sort of scrambling around I've got a I've got a USB interface I've got a I've got a lavalier mic somewhere I don't know so you know this one should be better but but for next time I got to raise my game I know it so anyway enough of that you know speaking about that that magical thing coming out tomorrow that uh that we're not going to talk about what should we talk about you have any ideas well I've been given a lot of thought to the competition you know why with there's no shortage of tablets hidden hitting the market or about at the market and I've been doing a lot of thought well which of these if any even have a shot you know it scratching into the deep trench that Apple has dug with that other product right now and it's it's tough I mean I was I was really looking for more from the zoom just the first half honeycomb tablet that we see it's not there I mean the zoom is the one that I was hoping was going to be the most potential good competitor because of honeycomb and it's not there I mean quite frankly it's going to take some time and it's not there I thinking back on all of the various tablets and and things that I've seen directly I mean right in front of my own face and I i really think that webos with an HP TouchPad has the most potential because everything that I saw I mean I watched that thing for well over an hour I mean it would let us touch it which was you know but I was I was right there was right in front of me and and they were pretty open i mean the the representative who was running things did everything I asked just right I mean it was it was like I was touching except without feedback right and I came away from that convinced I'm still convinced today well so let's dive into that a little bit then what do I what do they need to do really you know obviously they've got what was that release it release it exactly you know well that's a mean I you know it's impossible not to look back to you know the first pre and you know like you alluded to there's a long gap between the CES press conference and knocked everybody socks off and when they finally shipped it I would you know also throw in there I carrier choice distribution channels and developer support you know this time around especially with developer support I keep talking to people who say it's going to be a big big hurdle for them to to get over and and as much as I like to scoff at the importance of apps you know the numbers don't lie the number of apps out there the itunes store now you know the growing android market i mean even going back to the zune for a second for me that's one of the things that you know there are some bugs there were some issues with the display quality there are some money on whatever but there aren't that many apps that are 30 optimize that are dual core optimize that really show what this thing can do and set it apart and you know at that event we were both at four for HP with webos afterwards i ran into somebody very high up in a well-known technology magazine and we'll leave it at that and i asked this person you know what they thought and they said you know we got to the the products are cool the pre three you know looks like a nice a nice evolutionary upgrade the tablet you know looks really great but man we got to the developer part of the thing and they bring up you know the the time thing showing some magazines and then a fourteen-year-old kid nobody's ever heard of and ya know that where the where the big gaming partners where the where the developers and how are they gonna get well i agree apps are really important but I I have to step back from that a little bit because quite frankly apples lead with the the ipad is so large no one is ever going to catch them right right so if that's going to be our big criteria then let's just games over let's just all go buy iPads we don't have to catch them but but but but we're apps are really important and this is what got me thinking a lot about the touchpad or to fill the needs and the gaps that the out of box experience with the tablet gives you agree and I think that's why the user experience I've had with the zoom has been so frustrating because they're all tie gaps and no apps right but everything that I have seen the ops not gaps that should be are you ganna gaps not apps or something like that but what I saw from the touchpad with webos okay this does the real core functionality you know the email and the web and the the social networking and all the stuff that we do all the talk was rock solid right kami out of the box and I'm thinking about the you know my family members not the geeks that that have to have a product that works that could just open up take that out of the box and just do stop right that's the appeal of the ipad quite yeah yeah that's what they do well and I really think that webos has already got a leg up on Android and from my actual what I've seen and experienced right Oh doubt about that you know there's been the term post-pc has been flying around you know over the past week there are a couple yeah Vittorio's and you know yeah and but i but i think the sentiment is true and i think the way you just put it you know is something that I I sort of struggled to talk about in a way you know that makes sense to our core audience which is more of you know at least the commenters on the block tech blogs the tech videos eyelid stuff you know sometimes sometimes I refer to them as the vocal minority but you know these are kind of more of the geeks more the enthusiasts and you know and those are the people who I learn a lot from through the comments even if we disagree try to find a way that you know talk to them about that notion that in the bigger scheme of things when you're talking about shipping millions of products you know yeah you want to create buzz you want to have good specs you want to you know appeal to those people and to the people like you and me who you know right and talk to these people but you gotta have it work right out of the box you got to have it be you know simple and solid at those day to day tasks with you were just saying and you know the family analogy you know can I can I can mom open it up and get it working is going to do anything for you know is is huge I also you know I i also wonder about how HP is going to make a difference in terms of i mean you alluded to it they have to release these things and you know lots of comments about you know we're cutting way down on the other time from launch to ship and leading up to the event i even you know part of me was thinking man maybe they're going to go on sale today you know they're going to announce that there until today and no summer and it looked ready quite frankly I didn't see any deficiencies right so how much of it you know how much of a difference is HP going to make and you know they obviously have deep distribution channels they have deals with you know the big box retailers the online retailers the whole thing you know how important you think that that's going to be relative to again in my eyes nothing against sprint but being locked into sprint with the pre for that first year was you know one nail on the coffin the you know they had some build quality issue stuff like that with the original pre the marketing campaign was another nail in the coffin to me those those ads the creepy girl ever lads were just you know it's terrible and so yeah you know how much of a difference can HP make relative to that stuff and how big of a difference you think you know that needs to be well I think they can make a big difference and and I think they will as they I think right now they're focused the people i've talked to at HP they're focused on getting getting it released properly the big difference i think that will that HP is going to bring is the instant back support I mean it's going to be great quite frankly they're good at that and so they just need to get it released and get everything in place and they're still going to have the same situation with the apps the developers but what I a lot of people don't realize is after HP first pot bought palm you know and brought brought them into the organization then we're still doing the pre to and the other phones they had and they were upgrading webos for the smart phones and stuff flip and I knew they needed more apps so they actually made an internal competition that a lot of people didn't hear about okay where they said okay all you smart HP employees we have here right apps and we're going to give prizes for the best apps they wrote almost 5000 half Wow in less than a month Wow okay they didn't make a big deal about it because that's the whole point no point was just get good solid apps into the marketplace right there there right and so I think they have a shot at getting their long-term I'm like that like I said before no one's going to catch Apple anyway there's no better their head starts to far so I think that the key here is focus on the core functionality which looks really really it really does i really came away with the impression that i could pick one of those up today and just start doing what i do well and that's that's a big deal they met out of box experiences really vital and it's what apple so good at and what google and honeycomb and now motorola with the zoom is so bad at because quite frankly honeycomb was rushed to market it's not ready it should it shouldn't be here it's it's incredibly frustrating to people who know how it could be and should be why guts yeah as opposed to what it is and yeah and and I've gone you know to be fair people people watching this you who followed by coverage you may be thinking like wait no what's up man your flip-flopping on this like I thought you didn't like efficient for sponsored your logo here you know I kind of went back and forth when I first saw a honeycomb in a similar what you're saying a hands-off demo at the launch at CES I was really starstruck by it's like wow this looks different than Android this might be kind of cool and then when I saw you know kind of more up close I was like no it's just Android but with a different you know have a truong skin on it and then I got the zoom and I started using it and I actually liked it more than i thought i would but i actually still like it right today through but the more i used it the more those things came out like you were saying like it's just not quite ready it's another kind of typical Google you know beta product I don't say Google because not just Google no no no that's true it and yeah one thing that I've done with honeycomb because it does look so much better and different than the old Android that's why we like it because we've been playing with a circle oh I've handed the zoom to a bunch of different people who are not techie yeah like I always do just hear what do you think it is and the main reason is so i can observe their reaction and how intuitive they find it absolutely Jack and they just do it honeycomb in it it's too much of a desktop metaphor it's got controls all around the place and all four corners of the screen they're not consistent with in from one app to the next and I as I've been observing that while I've been reviewing evaluating this thing it that's when I the the impressions of webos and the touchpad have really started eating on me because I guarantee you I could just came to hand that to anyone of the same people and they'd say oh well I love the email oh well I love Facebook you know I love doing this you know that's out of box experience came over at that poor yeah there's an interesting article i read that i think was linked off of off of Gruber's blog but it was about notifications daring horrible yes off Darren fire I'm sorry boy yeah get to plug in right oh yeah absolutely am I you know you know what Gruber's bloggers and say yes internet fireball which I read regularly so there's plug dad yes and and I and I forget I'm remiss here because I forget who authored the article but it was about the problem of notifications and you know how do you deal with with notifications here and the article and that's still terrible on the iPad and IRS well and that's the article was written from that perspective what's happel going to do they gotta do something but but it was talking about something that I hadn't thought about which was you know the art the author of the article was was praising webos for its handling I fully agree and it's even better on the touchpad I saw oh wow you could triage your email without even opening the email app that's freaking cool and so one of the things that they were talking about was how Google puts you know in Android and it's different on honeycomb but in in 1 dot x + 2 X they put all the notifications on top and they've got that that you know status bar and you can pull the window down and how in Apple's human interface design guidelines whatever they call for OS X develop or at iOS developers they talk about how the most often used controls on a mobile device should be at the bottom so that you can get to them with your thumbs without having to you know and it's something I hadn't thought about before but you know it's interesting because and so that's how palm does at the palm has their HP nub when Wes has that nice way of stacking them up and there's more information you can slide them out the whole thing honeycomb has them on the bottom as well but I've been noticing on the zoom that I will get you know if I can I use the device put it away come back to it you know a couple hours later I'll have multiple notifications from the same apps down there I've got yeah it's it's it's not well done yeah yeah that's that kind of stuff and and that's that's exactly right and when I was using my original pre and I had one of the original pries from day one the the webos notification system has been outstanding from day one they they got it right young Tom did they nailed it it has been at yeah obviously involved because what was on the touchpad that we saw last month was even better I mean it just looks like it's well done so I just personally can't wait to see that thing get released because I think from a sheer a usability standpoint it is the most competitive alternative I've seen to the ipad today I mean no question in my mind and so let's get it out there and let people start playing with it get-get marketing going and let's because we need competition competition is good i mean i love the ipad and I'm not saying it's not good enough for everybody because it you know maybe it is maybe it's not but competition is good and I I'm really anxious to see that getup I'm kind of excited still for the flyer or two which rumors kicking around flyer looks good but you know that's very telling that HTC went with Gingerbread and not honey yep cuz they know honeycomb is not ready yeah and there are going to release a device with a row with it and so that's that's telling to i'm looking forward to that I'll tell you what I'd love to see is the the rumor later this year 7-inch webos town yeah forget personally I'm a 7-inch tablet god I like that form factor to the I love her I've got a new color I was going to say before you know and then I checked myself because that's getting a little carried away when you were saying that touchpad looks like you know perhaps the best competitor for ipad right now nookcolor to say that would be hyperbole but i do think you know there's something that maybe it just comes back to simplicity but for people who the form factor the 7-inch is great the price 250 bucks 200 lately on sale terrific the the ereader functionality you know it's a customized version of Android of 2x and so the barnes and noble layer on it connecting to their services books and magazines and stuff really easy-to-use really attractive and then it's got a web browser and you know if they through email in there which you know again there's an there's or not again but I say again let's think about the email con versation I'm having with their PR person there's a what there's an app store coming not sure when just yet you throw email on there it's got an audio player built in how much more does you know to go back to the mom analogy how much more does that person need and maybe that's a little bit of a 180 when I was talking about apps before but it is sort of this dichotomy that on the one hand apps are hot release buying apps apps for making money apps can do so much stuff on the other hand you know what you're talking about with out of there you go right with a way to tap its further viewers who were wondering that's my favorite mobile device right now also a 7-inch its 7-inch and it's running froyo which is good enough quite frankly but it's not as polished as what I saw the touchpad weba with no so nice to get it out there yeah a tree well ortley or at least send one over here exactly exactly well speaking to get it out there I'm looking at the clock and we got we got some feedback that the the length of the first show people seem to like it so so let's put a cap on it for now and we'll we'll come back as always be back and gives us more to talk about next time exactly exactly the well I can't say it on air some somebody somebody likened Steve Jobs marketing strategy to that of a oh how shall we say adult performer who's always teasing you that there's something more but you know knows that if they reveal it all you know that's it you're done you're going to leave so well that's true but to his credit then they deliver and that's that's what the competition has got to learn how to do quite frankly all right HP you've heard it you know what's got one last thing before we go actually there's an HP event coming up soon that the CEO is yeah I don't know what that's about the now I don't I mean HP's business is so broad it kudos I mean they're one of the biggest PC makers in the world sleep but dropping a little bit this this tablet stuff is just fun and games off to the side there it is although you know its but it's moving that way I mean that's a whole nother show because and they day they know that that's why they're that's why they bought palm they paid over a 1.2 billion dollars for palm they're serious they know that yeah and they're puts a webos on all the pcs in some form and I think that's brilliant yeah all right but for another show for another shot yeah you said a billion dollars i immediately thought about Microsoft and Nokia of it another show another show yeah yeah all right so in the meantime people who want I want more from you sir where can they go on ZDNet I'm at GT dead calm / blog / mobile dash news terrific or just look for mobile news on ZDNet i'm there alright so next time I'm know next time front our dinner out here in a foggy foggy Oakland California just look out the window it's looking like a scene from one of the twilight movies out there kind of crazy 60 degrees sunny here in Houston there you go James always a pleasure will do to Noah alright see ya you