Logitech ClearChat comfort USB headset is a nice piece.  I really believe in usb headphones and headsets.  They sound amazing, free of hard drive noise, and other audio imperfections you get from the standard headphone jacks on a PC.  Using the USB socket ensures a purely digital stream that is crystal clear and enables cool things like playback controls and volume control from the headset itself via the USB-HID mechanism.  HID stands for human interface device and is a way to add control to the mix.  Keyboards and things like that use HID.  But audio devices that make use of HID opens up many new application possibilities.

I can think of ways to make this experience much better.  How about you?

I bet the World of Warcraft and Skype faithful know exactly what I am talking about.  How can we make the PC audio experience better?

Good coverage on RIM today. In the wake of the iPhone launch hype, it is good to see folks showing some love to BlackBerry. While iPhone has buzzed the consumer consciousness regarding smartphones, BlackBerry for the better part of the last 5 years has been the only company genuinely delivering on the promise of smartphones. It’s breakthrough integration with corporate email servers, and the multiple generations of tweaking their user interface has made the BlackBerry one of the most successful portable devices, ever.

IPhone mania is great and all, and I admit it’s pretty awe inspiring. The fact that Apple pulled off such a hype campaign is a testament to their past successes in delivering great end-user experiences. But, their track record of making great connections with consumers’ emotions also sets a very high bar for themselves. Which is to say that the iPhone, however pretty, better darn well deliver a killer user experience, or it will be nothing short of a letdown.  People seem to ignore the fact that Apple is not alone in this space. It’s also not yet obvious how the iPhone’s innovations will create any sustainable advantage in the smartphone market.  What are the apps that people truly believe Apple has revolutionized?  Here are my early judgements on the iPhone’s wannabe killer apps.

Web Browsing? Still too small of a screen, and not much better than on other smartphones. EDGE isn’t gonna knock anyone’s socks off. No Flash. Verdict: While it looks prettier than other phone browsers, is web-lite ever a killer experience?

Email? Lack of corporate email integration is an issue. Soft keyboard is an annoyance. I suspect future iPhone models will have hard qwerty keys in the future — their corporate HCI guys won’t put up with software gee-whiz for long. Verdict: Not even close to killer. Lose the touchscreen keyboard, support exchange server, then we’ll talk.

Maps? Hardly a killer app that justifies a smartphone. BlackBerry, LG, and Samsung are already ahead in terms of GPS integration, and so far, no location-based services have been implemented or deemed vital… And again, what can Apple deliver uniquely that Google/BlackBerry/MS can’t? Verdict: Not killer… not yet at least.  Let’s see more here.

Integrated iPod? I just don’t buy it. My iPod is still a better device, right? I find it hard to believe that Apple thinks they can leverage their iPod platform to make a smartphone indespensible. These functions have not shown to benefit from any coupling in the past, and it isn’t apparent why they should be combined going forward. Verdict: Not killer.

My opinions… time will tell.  But I don’t think a bunch of “pretty neato” features cobbled together make a homerun device.  There has to be something that the iPhone does better than any other device.  Early reports do not signal this has happened.

Apple has educated a whole new swath of the market in a big way. So the iPhone is goodness for the whole smartphone market, enlarging the pie, not just taking a bigger a slice.

I had the feeling this was so, and recent articles confirm that RIM-themselves are thankful. Competition breeds innovation, and RIM, let’s face it, is plenty poised to give Apple a run. They have a robust pipeline, reasonable costs, a loyal user-base (Stats say that less than 6% of iPhone buyers were previously BlackBerry users), and a focus on the enterprise user, which is where multi-purpose devices today deliver immense value.

RIM is moving forward from a position of strength, an affordable, capable platform with a bona fide killer app, and a relatively loyal captive market. Apple moves forward on reputation and software usability street-cred, which loyalists will love.  But can it alone revolutionize the segment and lead to market domination?

Whispers of RIMM shares headed to $300 don’t seem that far fetched.

Why wait for Dvorak to say something?

Engadget: “Will the iPhone be undone by its keyboard?”

Alive Matters: “Didn’t I already suggest as much?”

Before I get too cocky… of course we’ll have to wait and see… I doubt early fan-boys are going to say one negative thing about their long awaited devices… but give it 6 months or so.  It’ll happen.

Check out Photosynth. The MSR team just blew my mind in this video I saw.

One day, nowhere in the world will be un-explorable. The convergence of digital photography, global cartography, social networking, and webservices is previewed here.

Totally agree with Mats. Economics of mobiles is nothing to oversimplify. Apple has made a serious bet on this market, taken many technical risks, and will need every ounce of its mystique and reputation to make the iPhone a success.

Here are my predictions:

1. The iPhone will invite critics for its touch screen. While I suspect the gesture interface will be a revelation, I think it is wrought with two huge problems. Fingerprints and people-grease will make it look stank, and unsanitary. Secondly, the lack of tactile feedback for control inputs will impact usability negatively. Particularly when typing emails.
2. Battery life will suck for anyone who actually uses more than one of its core features. Can Apple tell us how much talk time we get if we listen to the iPod mode for an hour? Or if we watch one episode of Lost? Or if we just fiddle with the cool GUI and never give the backlight a rest? Prediction… users will not last a day if they use it as a primary device for any two of its applications.
3. People will pay. The price won’t matter to the users who must have this device. AT&T (Cingular) customer service will be real problem though. The three years I used Cingular were the worst consumer experience years of my life. T-Mobile missed the boat… their service rocks, and they could have used the iPhone to generate new momentum for their market penetration in North America. I’m suprised Apple couldn’t negotiate a better subsidy from them. Tisk, tisk.
4. My BlackBerry Pearl is too awesome. Why switch? Apple never told me this.

Do you recognize the modern day personal audio system? At their most familiar, it looks an awful lot like a 2.1 PC speaker system and a funny looking docking port. Or some brick with a funny looking docking port on top. What’s the story?

For table-top or bookshelf audio, and boomboxing, the landscape has clearly changed in the last few years. If you have any doubt, go stroll through the most crowded isles at Best Buy, Costco, Target, Wal-Mart, and even some of the more visible display cases at home A/V dealers in your area like Myer Emco (DC-Metro), Tweeter (Northeast), Magnolia (West Coast), Hawthorne(Seattle). You’ll see a few of the likely suspects from Bose, iHome, Altec Lansing, and Apple which have done the lions share in reshaping how we’re to think about rendering our audio at home.

The speaker-dock market, as I’ll refer to it, is exploding. Naturally, we have Apple’s iPod to thank for this. I dunno how many people realise it, but portable audio players, themselves, have become the de facto portable audio storage medium. I dunno if people associate their iPod with the Sony Walkman or with the cassette tape? With the Discman or the CD?

Media formats have determined the shape of personal audio systems for years — vinyl record turn-tables, cassette decks and Walkmans, laserdisc players, CD players & discman, MD players, … and so now naturally, with music being stored on harddrives and flashdrives, right before our eyes, we are witnessing “device-evolution.” It’s pretty cool if you think about it. Device form factors are adapting to a disruption in media formats. Home audio rendering devices have to pull source material from a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and interfaces as portable audio player makers build on-the-go devices that are so smart and handy, they beg to be used at home as well.

The success of these device markets rely on network affects. In the past, standards (like CD, VHS, 8-track) helped de-risk the proposition for makers of rendering devices. Of course, the market-share leader, Apple, has benefitted from the a positive network effect. Mostly to date, speaker manufacturers have only dared to enter the market with speaker-docks aimed at the iPod. Apple promotes a decent interface spec, and leaves the rest of the enticement being their enormous installed base of iPods they’ve been busy creating year after year.

But now, this will change. Consumers who aren’t shackled to the iPod ecosystem as of yet, can increasingly see speaker-dock options available for their “esoteric” players.

Creative’s take on $300-500 speaker dock was announced recently. See the Engadget article that gives a brief intro to the X-Fi Z600 and a couple lower-end counterparts, one, the TravelSound Zen V that is specifically for the Zen V player.

Altec just launched the first speaker dock for the Zune (pictured above). VAF also chipped in to the game with the Octavio 1, a system I am personally dying to hear.

Some of these speaker-docks do a decent job punching out audio to fill one or two rooms. If you’re willing to spend a couple hundred bucks, minimum.

My bone picking…

I am still troubled by one key issue with all these products. How can I efficiently navigate my music, add to playlists, control playback, and view the displays on these players while they are sitting up on their speakers half way across the room??? This is a huge user interface lapse in my opinion. There are remotes out there for some of these systems, but they have limited playlist selection capabilities. They merely allow you to control audio playback that is already occuring. Already, I have grown accustomed to the GUI of my iPod, why can’t I use it at home just like I do when I am on-the-go?

The current solution just doesn’t quite do it for me. I think there should be a better way, which is why I’ve held off an any personal commitments to current speaker-dock offerings. Aesthetics be damned, my Yamaha 600W Receiver, and 50 ft miniplug-to-RCA extension cord will work just fine for now.