Boeing 787 Dreamliner Taxiing Videos

There’s several Youtube videos showing the Boeing 787 taxiing last week under a gray Seattle sky. It’s not flying yet, but at least it’s finally moving. I chose the amatuer video below because it has audio and others don’t There’s some wind noise,  but at about 3:10, the 787 almost looks and sounds like it’ll take off. Wouldn’t that be sneaky!?

Universal Charger Solution: How it Works and What it Will Do

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The Universal Charging Solution (UCS) that will allow all mobile phones to be charged with the same charging unit also promises to standardize the data connection between such things as headsets and connection in cars. The plan is to implement such devices on a wide scale by Jan. 1, 2012. Seventeen 17 major makers of mobile phones are backing and  it appears some will beat that deadline (much of the same functionality and connectors can be found in a Blackberry today).

The standard charger will untether users from proprietary chargers for each model of phone. If you went on a business trip and forgot your charger, you could use anyone else’s under UCS.

I wondered why it will take so long and got the following response from the CTIA- The Wireless Association which on April 1 agreed to back the UCS. Here’s the explanation sent to me by a CTIA spokeswoman:

The 2012 date reflects the time it takes to design a wireless device, source new battery packs, obtain regulatory approval from the FCC, manufacture and ship new phones. Between now and them, consumers will see more and more devices with USB chargers (like the Blackberry). The chargers will be manufactured by the same companies which make them today and whether or not chargers will be included in the box with the phone will depend on consumer preferences.”

The work is being overseen by the five-year-old Open Mobile Terminal Platform consortium comprised of eight mobile phone makers. Below are all the conveniences and functionality that will be afforded to mobile phone users under UCS, according to an OMTP white paper.

Charging

-Phone can charge on any UCS charger

- User can keep old charger when buying a new phone

-User can charge phone through laptop or any device with USB Standard A port

-Chargers are brand independent. For instance, a Nokia phone could use a Motorola charger

- Connector can be used for data while phone is charging

Data

-User can connect to any PC or entertainment system supporting USB

- Use port with a headset

- Phone charges while data cable is in use

- Allows phone to be used as a data modem

- Can stream Standard Definition video, High Definition video, digital audio and digital still pictures

- Phone can connect to a car-kit

One Charger for all Phones – in three years

A common type of Micro USB connector (right). On left is earbud connector(audio out).

Why did a universal charger for all cell phones take so long? And why won’t it happen until Jan. 1, 2012? Happy Earth Day, by the way.

I have posed those question to the CTIA – The Wireless Association and await the answers. I have no fewer than 15 surplus cell phone chargers awaiting disposal. And I have maybe half that many for notebook computers.

So the good news is that the CTIA on April 1 (no joke) at its annual convention in Las Vegas agreed on a common charger standard called, appropriately enough, the “Universal Charging Solution.” The CITA said in a press release that UCS will meet EnergyStar requirements and “will provide an estimated 50% reduction in standby energy consumption.” I’m not quite sure what that last statement lifted from the press release means. Micro USB will be the connector format (see pic).

In February, the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Phones Association) said 17 mobile phone makers came together on the standard and labeled the 2012 target date for implementation “ambitious.” I guess chargers are more complex than they look, but the idea is to reduce their insidious ubiquity by 50%, according to the GSMA.

In the same press release, the CTIA addressed cell phone recycling and reminded anyone doing so to erase their data use the free data eraser.

Apple Netbook Rumors Swirl, Key Issue is Price

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The average  selling price of notebooks thanks to netbooks have been dropping like a stone and that poses a problem for Apple so accustomed for charging a premium for its easy on-the-eyes but brutal on-the-wallet technology.

Rumors about an Apple netbook continue to swirl. The latest is that Foxconn, the giant  Chinese designer and manufacturer of computer and electronics is making an Apple netbook for release in mid-2009. Unfortunately, the unique “Official Responses to Market Rumors” part of Foxconn’s web site does not address the Apple netbook rumor.

Let’s look at the decline in average notebook selling price during the first quarter and how that could impact an Apple netbook.

“Mini notebooks (aka netbooks) did well in the challenging economic environment where consumers’ number one priority was to save money. Mini notebooks continued to put pressure on low priced mobile PCs. This pressure was mainly felt in the consumer market, but it expanded into select professional markets as well, including the education segment. U.S. mobile PC ASP (average selling price)  likely will decline as much as 20 percent year-over-year in first quarter 2009,” Gartner principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in a mid-April announcement.

That translates to an ASP that declined from about $690 per notebook in August to around $560 by the end of February, according to Gartner data cited on eWeek Microsoft Watch. That post carried the headline “Netbooks are a Menace.” To whom? PC vendors who probably wish they never happened.  On the other hand, netbooks are terrific for cash-strapped consumers.

Netbook sales while brisk are savaging the profits of notebook makers (netbooks dominate the Amazon bestseller list under Computers & PC Hardware.) Relying on unnamed sources, Digi Times just reported Acer and Asus netbooks missed their Q1 projections, by the way.

IDC, the other big research house tracking PC shipments, had much the same thing to say about Q1 with HP, largely netbook-less Toshiba and Acer thanks to netbooks making gains mostly at Dell’s expense.

What does this mean for Apple and a potential MacNetbook? Can Apple whose PC market share slipped a mere 1.2 per cent in the first quarter from a year ago charge a premium for its netbook and avoid jumping into the $100 to $400 dogfight? If it’s cheapest MacBook lists for $1,299, that leaves plenty of room underneath for a $600-$900 MacNetbook. That’s even with the cheapest MacBook going for just under $1,000 on Amazon.

One story says Apple has always said it’s not interested in serving up a low-cost notebook, but how can it ignore the only bright spot in an otherwise sluggish PC market? It can’t really, but searching “low cost notebooks” on the Apple site yields irrelevant scraps.

Will customers bite for an $800 MacNetbook? Indeed, Apple has extremely loyal followers, but when you get into the netherworld of lowest-cost netbooks, market dynamics change. A netbook for $200 or a quarter the possible price of the Apple MacNetbook is mighty attractive in these financially troubled times.

Apple rarely comes out with a flop so my guess is the machine will be head and shoulders better than all the cookie cutter PC netbooks. It has better be if Apple expects to charge a 2-4x premium.

Bloggers Square off on Windows 7 Starter for Netbooks

PCmag.com editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff takes issue with a post by Computerworld blogger Seth Weintraub and anyone else who are arguing Window 7 Starter could be a netbook non-starter for Microsoft. A Wall Street Journal story last night about Windows 7  Starter prompted several posts concluding Microsoft may have opened the door to a  Linux client on netbooks. Starter promises to be a smaller and more limited version of full Windows 7.

He  scores some good points about Linux’ complexity being aimed at the wrong end of the market — low end netbooks which are typically purchased by the least technical users. At he claims netbook makers begged Microsoft to come in and rescue the market with XP because Linux was so inept. That may be true but sounds like something like something  Microsoft whispered into the ears of journalists.

If a Linux client couldn’t gain traction through three years of Windows Vista, how could do better against against a stronger rival in Windows 7, he argues. Finally, Windows 7 will not establish Linux as a client. Linux will have to do that itself. Good points all.

But he overlooks a few things and, frankly, it’s easy to to predict same old, same old. Nothing is forever. Here are my points:

1) Windows is a monopoly which means an inefficient market in terms of cost. Something like Android were it robust (granted, a big if) could succeed in the highly cost sensitive netbook market. As netbooks become giveaways subsidized by customer committing to two years of wireless broadband, hardware and software costs will be measured in tenths of the cent as they are today with cell phones. That’s the market Android and ARM are after.

So let’s not count Android out until it fails. What’s underlies Ulanoff’s position is the premise that nothing can ever supplant Microsoft Windows. He should be advocating market choice, not continuance of a market-stymieing monopoly.

Apps moving onto the into cloud also downplays the OS and local apps, creating more favorable conditions for a challenger. So why not a new OS whose primary function is a browser? By the way, Windows XP on low-end netbook  is no picnic either. It takes up almost three quarters of the space of the precious 4GB of storage I have on a Lenovo S10 IdeaPad netbook.

2) Google which has $10 billion in liquidity is behind Android. The company has a track record and staying power. Microsoft has several times that amount of cash and lost of smart people too, but the Google bench is much deeper than Netscape’s when a dozen years ago, it tried to challenge Microsoft at the OS level and failed.

3) I’m not quite sure why Ulanoff pointedly takes such issue with Weintraub whose blog I’ve come to like. Weintraub intelligently qualifies his argument. Android, Weintraub writes, must prove itself and will not just step in and take the lion’s share of the netbook OS market.

Granted a challenger always faces an uphill battle, but it’s far too early to crown Windows  7 Starter (or Linux) the winner on netbooks.

Toshiba gets Serious about Netbooks

Toshiba’s near absence here from netbook market will end this Friday with the introduction of new models in the UX line, according to an IDG news service story.

The  new models will be introduced in Japan Friday and will sport a 10.1 inch display, Intel’s new N280 processor, a 160GB hard drive and a four hour battery. Toshiba’s existing NB100 netbook had an 8.9 inch display and far less powerful innards. PCmag.com dissed the unit in its November review bearing the headline “Say no to this netbook.“

Pricing for the new unit in Japan is $600-$700 which well exceeds what consumers are paying for low-end notebooks here. Indeed, Toshiba itself sells five Satellite notebook models for under $600.

Plans for the new netbooks in the U.S. are not clear. Toshiba, which dominated the notebook computer market a decade ago, pays precious little attention to netbooks on the laptop section of its U.S. web site. That new line will likely change assuming the pricing is competitive.

Windows 7 Starter Open Doors for Others OSes

The door just opened a bit for Android.

Now we know why Windows XP owns a reported 97% of the netbook market. Microsoft was virtually giving it away for $15 a unit and now it’s answer will be is a limited version of Windows 7 known as Starter. The story broke last night in the Wall Street Journal and the general consensus is that it will open the door for Linux and two handset OSes eying the netbook market.

Starter apparently will only run three applications simultaneously which on the surface seems like an anti-consumer measure by Microsoft to preserve sales of full Windows 7. But we’ll have to wait and see when Starter and Windows 7 which is getting good reviews comes out this Fall.

As for other OSes, bring them on and may the best OS win….and have to keep winning. The PC and by extension netbooks have not seen competition since the DOS days and even them it was weak and short-lived. I truly hope netbooks with Symbian, Android and Linux come out in droves although I would never count out Microsoft.

The WSJ story drove some subsequent coverage overnight:

ZDNet – the history of Windows dominance with adeclaration we are entering the “post-Windows era.”

Computerworld - the door just opened wider for Android and ARM-based netbooks.

AP – unrelated to the WSJ but an interesting (and favorable) take on how Microsoft analyzed millions of peices of data to decide what to put into Windows 7.

Verizon Wireless Broadband Discounts Extend to Notebooks

While the media is paying close attention to netbooks discounted when customers sign up for two years of wireless broadband services, there are near equivalent deals with purchasing notebooks.   What’s more, the broadband discounts apply to a wider variety of computer brands.

At Verizon, discounts depending on brand range from $100 to $200 if you buy a notebook with built 3G broadband wireless. The brands range are Dell, Sony, HP, Lenovo, OQO and Panasonic Toughbook. The deals are good through June 30.

Verizon Mobile Broadband is $39.99 a month for under 50 MB (hard to imagine this is very practical) and $59.99 a month for 5 gigabytes. Verizon charges 25 cents for every MB above the allowance. Verizon reportedly will unveil its netbook discount plans shortly.

Like Verizon, AT&T has cross-promotions for notebooks with built-in wireless broadband, but the discounts are less prominently displayed on its web site and don’t seem to apply to every notebook brand. For instance, I found a $120 discount for buying a Dell notebook with broadband, but none for HP. AT&T wireless broadband cross-promotes notebooks from Dell, HP, Lenovo, Panasonic Toughbook and Fujitsu. Knowing how closely they match up with each other on monthly charges, it’s hard to imagine AT&T won’t shortly be offering discounts that are identical to or which leapfrog Verizon’s.

AT&T’s biggest discount is $350 off a $479 Dell Mini 9 with built-in wireless broadband for a two year service commitment at $60 a month. Exactly what the Sprint Mobil Broadband Network’s plans are for notebooks and netbooks aren’t clear yet, but you can be sure they have them.

3G and Why We all Need it

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Here’s an anecdote why 3G data networks (in the U.S., EVDO or GSM radio driven broadband) should be THE wireless way to get on the Internet.

Earlier this week with netbook in hand, I was sitting at an IBM press event on Global Services and naturally my mind wandered as the pitch-meisters droned on. Tweetdeck brightly shone on screens in front of me as other reporters and analysts happily tweeted away.

But I couldn’t. Why? Because I didn’t have my own pervasive wireless Internet access like the active twits did. They had mobile broadband from  Sprint, Verizon or AT&T while I was relying on IBM’s visitor WIFI. As it turned out, I needed a password and login to IBM’s “unsecured” visitor wifi so I had to an hour wait until the next break to ask for the info. When I got it, IBM’s WIFI still did not work on my netbook. The delay defeated the immediacy of my motivation to twitter as I enviously watched my connected colleagues.

For me the newsman, it felt like death. I did not tweet again until I returned to the home office in the tethered world.

There’s a couple of points here. First, we need to take charge of my own Internet access. 3G while expensive at $60 a month and sometimes slow allows me to do that. It works everywhere and unchains me from being within a couple of hundred feet of  a WIFI access point. In other words, the ideal connection is one you own and which promises to work everywhere. One world, one connection.

Just like saloon keepers in the Wild West made cowboys leave their guns at the door, I supposed IBM could have prohibited notebooks or netbooks at the event so we gave them our full attention for the press event. Nahh. No one does that anymore and I needed my hourly Twitter fix.

Dell, HP, Lenovo Team up with China Mobile

Dell, Lenovo and HP, which all trail Asus and Acer in the booming netbook market, have committed to building in 3G capability to their respective netbooks for the Chinese market with the hope China Mobile can jumpstart the netbook market there.   China Mobile with a reported 640 million subscribers – that’s right 640 million – will subsidize the sale of these netbooks with a certain amount of free Internet service, according to an IDG News service story.

Netbooks subsidized like mobile phones is certain to boost sales. After all, state-owned China Mobile is world’s largest mobile carrier followed by number two Vodafone.

In the U.S., AT&T has teamed with Acer, Dell and Lenovo to offer netbooks for as little as $50 in Philadelphia and Atlanta if customers commit to a broadband contract. Verizon has confirmed it will come with a similar offering in June, very possibly using HP netbooks.