Hero Inc.

where heroes are an everyday occurrence

Nov-13-2010

Recount of GDGT

Last night I was fortunate to finally attend one of San Francisco’s tech events. This one happened to be a GDGT show which is just another way for saying let’s show off some really cool gadgets to a bunch of nerds. Ooo! Ooo! Pick me!

Therefore, I met up with two friends and all of our significant others (they were super excited too…) and headed to the free show. I’ll get to the SWAG in a bit, but first what we all came to see: TOYS.

Phones
GDGT was no different than the rest of the electronics world as phones seemed to be king. We began with a viewing of the history of phones and AT&T, which of course included such hits as the Palm Treo, Blackjack, a briefcase phone and THE ZACK MORRIS phone (yeah that’s what it was called). The person managing the booth even offered Zack’s phone to us to call Slater or Screech if needed. We passed.

From the phones of the past, we cast our eyes on the phones of the here, now, and future. T-Mobile’s booth was showing off the latest in Android, Windows Phone 7, and the 4G network. Let’s start with the last one first. When I thought 4G previously, I thought of it more as just another marketing campaign. Well, with a room full of cell phone users, this phone was still able to pull in a 3MB speed test. We were informed it even did at least 7MB before the room really started filling in. That’s freakin’ fast for a phone in my eyes.

I really enjoyed the look and feel of the G2 as well as its more vanilla flavor of Android. Its processor and running Froyo really helped with the speed and reaction time of the OS. This is now on my possible list for new work phones even with its big drawback of weight. After seeing Android’s offerings, we moved on to the Windows Phone 7 phones which seemed to be very popular at the event as there was also a separate booth for just these phones. I have to say that if Microsoft had arrived at the Phone party (iPhone vs. Android) it could have made it a legitimate 3 way fight. However, they just might be too late to make it count. That really is a shame though as I really liked what I saw in terms of the interface and usability. Windows Phone 7 will be my second option in the future but it will probably take a lot to get me to move away from it.

Enough with that Windows Phone 7 (too long to type) stuff. Let’s get back to Android. I saw several phones from HTC and Samsung, but Samsung really won me over thanks to their AMOLED screens. These things were beautiful and probably the closest you might find to the iPhone’s screens. It was also great that they were able to have such a gorgeous screen but keep the weight and width of the phone to be so small.

Entertainment Boxes
Next on the horizon is the battle for the living room. From TiVo, Revue by Logitech, Sony Google TV, Roku, Slingbox, and Boxee. Thoughts? Well…

Box Review
TiVO The new HD interface looks really good and very well done. The TiVO team seems to be trying really hard, but with most cable providers providing boxes that perform similar activities, I’m not sure there’s as powerful of a future here. The plus is that it will aggregate media from your network and provide it during search on the box.
Revue How can I give a review when all they would really show here is Twitter? I can tweet from my TV? That’s great. Not a game changer. What? I can also use for video chat? Still not a game changer. When I watch TV, I want to watch TV.
Sony Google TV Due to some jerk not really allowing others to talk to the rep, I’d say I’m still not impressed by this one. I was happy to see that the remote was not as bad in person as I thought it would be. It would of course still scare most users away.
Roku Out of all boxes, this is probably my winner in terms of price and features. It doesn’t have the big name of a Google or Apple which could hinder it in terms of deals with studios and companies for delivery on the box. Of course, they already have MLB, NHL, and Hulu Plus lined up so there is a future here. Interface could still use some modifications and a rep that wasn’t a little too intoxicated would have been another plus.
Boxee A box designed to look sleek and awkward enough to not really fit well with your other living room entertainment boxes. However, Boxee ranks high along with Roku for what I was able to see. The part that really grabbed my attention was its remote because it seemed that their team was able to conquer the complexity of an internet TV device by merging the remote with a keyboard. Well played Boxee. You’ve created a remote/keyboard that will not bring the general mass TV audience to running due to its complexities. I salute you.
Slingbox Now slingbox may not belong in the same way that the other devices here do, but I really wanted to point out this device for its streaming capabilities to iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone 7. Its this last one that I really want to point out because of the clarity that it provided in terms of over the air streaming. Both the iPhone and Android were streaming to a decent resolution but it was the WP7 that really knocked your socks off as it displayed a live basketball game with no buffering and HD resolution. I was really impressed with this one.

Laptops and Keyboards
Why does 3D seem to be the next big thing? I really don’t think it adds much if anything to the medium it is presenting. I think possibly that sports could change my mind here, but I’m going to remain skeptical. I saw several 3D laptops and they all left me going “well that’s nice but what else do you have?”

Logitech did have a keyboard that was solar powered that raised an eyebrow or two. It could be charged with solar or internal lighting and could last several months without needing a new charge (so we were told). It was also sleek and thin. Total cost around $90 seemed reasonable to those who might be interested.

Celebrities
So celebrity might be a relative term as it is highly dependent on who you ask. For me, it came in the form of Ron Richards, who is a podcaster for iFanboy and revision3’s AppJudgement (remember this post?). No, I didn’t go talk to him because I didn’t want to be one of those people but I was tipped off it really was him when I walked by and he was wearing a Green Lantern pin.

One of my other buddies met his celebrity in the form of Bre Pettis. I had never heard of him but Brett was super excited and had to get several pictures. I was too busy learning about the machine standing behind him from his company, Makerbot. Wouldn’t you be interested to if you saw this machine trying to make a Green Lantern ring? Nicely done.

Overall, a great show and I’m really glad I was able to make it out. I leave you with this picture taken from my Android phone (HTC Droid Eris, don’t buy as it is discontinued now). Now this is how one should be playing online video games.

Kid with 3 Monitors for online gaming
Now that’s how you should play an online game.

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