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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech stuff from how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, and welcome to
Speaker 1: tex Stuff. My name is Chris Polette and I'm an
Speaker 1: editor at how stuff works dot com. Sitting crush me
Speaker 1: as usual mostly because I I prefer to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on and is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, So, yeah,
Speaker 1: this week as of the week we're recording this. Uh,
Speaker 1: there was a highly hyped event that UM was sort
Speaker 1: of met with UM shrug, a big shrug by the
Speaker 1: the community of people who pay attention to these things.
Speaker 1: That was all in caps attention to these things. UM.
Speaker 1: And that would be the the release of Apple's iPhone five. Um.
Speaker 1: And of course Apple has done Regardless of whether you
Speaker 1: like the company and what it does or not, I
Speaker 1: think it's safe to admit that Apple has done a
Speaker 1: a good job of marketing it's stuff to the point
Speaker 1: where I know, but there are going to be people who,
Speaker 1: you know, Apple is terrible and Steve Jobs was awful,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. Now I'm when I'm trying to get
Speaker 1: at is They've been a good a good enough job
Speaker 1: at marketing new products to the point where people tune
Speaker 1: in in large numbers, including the tech media, to press
Speaker 1: releases for brand new products. Yeah, the tech world stops
Speaker 1: when Apple makes an announcement, and it's it's every every
Speaker 1: tech uh news site that I follow. Everyone had either
Speaker 1: a live blog or some sort of live commentary about
Speaker 1: what was going on over at Apple, including our buddies
Speaker 1: over at Revision three. You know they did it. They
Speaker 1: were covering it up all that as well and giving
Speaker 1: reaction and giving analysis to the point where you're really
Speaker 1: you know, these are events, these press events, are are
Speaker 1: events with a capital E, because I mean, there are
Speaker 1: some people who kind of where does a badge of
Speaker 1: honor that they are invited to go to these Apple events.
Speaker 1: Some people have law lost that privilege. Uh, and it
Speaker 1: almost feels like it's a kind of punishment in a way,
Speaker 1: like you've been banished from the land of tech, turn away,
Speaker 1: never to return. Um. It's it's a big deal. But
Speaker 1: the reason why we're even talking about now is because
Speaker 1: a lot of the reaction, not all of it, but
Speaker 1: a lot of the reaction, particularly from the media to
Speaker 1: the iPhone announcement was sort of this, well, okay, you know,
Speaker 1: not that not that the iPhone five is a bad
Speaker 1: product or is in any way deficient, but just that
Speaker 1: it did not blow everyone's socks off, Which is kind
Speaker 1: of an interesting thing to talk about, because before the
Speaker 1: Apple announcement, there were other press events from other companies
Speaker 1: about upcoming phones, like Nakia having some Windows eight phones
Speaker 1: coming out, and again, the reaction from a lot of
Speaker 1: the tech media was sort of like, all right, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: You know, no one was falling over themselves, and and
Speaker 1: that would not be a big deal at all, except
Speaker 1: for the fact that Apple when it first launched the iPhone,
Speaker 1: really brought the house down. Same thing with the iPad,
Speaker 1: that that when when these new products came out, they
Speaker 1: dramatically energized the tech industry, both from the journalist point
Speaker 1: of view and from the consumer point of view. Because
Speaker 1: like it or not, even if you hate Apple products,
Speaker 1: you cannot deny that Apple is the company that created
Speaker 1: the markets for consumer smartphones and for tablets. Because before
Speaker 1: the iPhone came out, smartphones were pretty much just in
Speaker 1: the world of enterprise. You had uh professionals mostly executives,
Speaker 1: carrying around smartphones, and you had a few uh cutting edge,
Speaker 1: like bleeding edge early adopters who loved them, but everyone
Speaker 1: else just carried around, you know, feature phones what we
Speaker 1: call feature phones now or just dumb phones if you want.
Speaker 1: But then the iPhone call I often would call mine
Speaker 1: a dumb phone. But then Apple comes out with the iPhone,
Speaker 1: shows off this amazing design, beautiful touch screen interface. They
Speaker 1: just they nailed everything they needed to to hit in
Speaker 1: order to appeal to consumers, and that's what started this
Speaker 1: tide of change where suddenly average people were going out
Speaker 1: and buying smartphones, not just executives or super geeky tech lovers.
Speaker 1: The same thing with the iPad. Before the iPad came out,
Speaker 1: nobody bought a tablet unless they were in a very
Speaker 1: specific field or again they were an early adopter, you know,
Speaker 1: just tablets. Just that was one of those form factors
Speaker 1: that no one had gotten right and and a lot
Speaker 1: of people, including myself famously at least in the history
Speaker 1: of tech stuff, wrote off to Apple. It's Apple comes
Speaker 1: in again. Shows a very consumer friendly way of creating
Speaker 1: a tablet with a beautiful design and a great interface.
Speaker 1: So bringing the house down. You know, they had set
Speaker 1: that that standard. The iPod Touch was also a big hit.
Speaker 1: I mean, they had done so many things that were
Speaker 1: really attractive that we kind of got used to Apple
Speaker 1: bringing down the house with their announcements, and it's become
Speaker 1: sort something of an expectation, and it's getting increasingly difficult
Speaker 1: for Apple to live up to that expectation by adding
Speaker 1: improvements to a previous generation of technology. Yeah, well, it's
Speaker 1: funny because, um, those were the comments that greeted the
Speaker 1: the iPhone three G three gs uh, the iPhone four
Speaker 1: s UM, and the iPhone four was enough of a
Speaker 1: dramatic change that I think kind of kind of excited people.
Speaker 1: But the forest I remember distinctly when the forest came out,
Speaker 1: and people were very dismissive of it. Yeah, they were
Speaker 1: expecting the iPhone five, and it was more about the
Speaker 1: changes were more about the insides of the phone than
Speaker 1: the outside, which you know, are important but are not
Speaker 1: as sexy as a new form factor that really captures
Speaker 1: the the eye and imagination of the public. Well. And
Speaker 1: I think I think it's it's pretty clear to me
Speaker 1: that the people who argue that UM design is just
Speaker 1: superficial UM, I think they're that that doesn't necessarily prove
Speaker 1: them wrong, but it it it proves them mostly wrong
Speaker 1: that you know, design does matter to people UM and UH.
Speaker 1: But I don't think they're completely wrong either, because I
Speaker 1: think if you had a very beautiful phone that didn't
Speaker 1: do as much, it's not going to sell as well either.
Speaker 1: So it was, you know, the iPhone, the original iPhone
Speaker 1: was that combination of hey, this looks nice and uh,
Speaker 1: it does you know, smartphone stuff UM for the public.
Speaker 1: So Jonathan and I were talking about beforehand, and UH said,
Speaker 1: you know, when when we were picking topics this week.
Speaker 1: We didn't want to do an iPhone five recap, but
Speaker 1: so many other people have have done this, including our
Speaker 1: colleagues over at Revision three. UM. They did such a
Speaker 1: great job of covering the release and that the features
Speaker 1: and all the the the good stuff about the phone,
Speaker 1: that we didn't really want to do an episode specifically
Speaker 1: devoted to the iPhone five. UM, but we you know this,
Speaker 1: this was sort of what what triggered it. And actually
Speaker 1: what I noticed beforehand, before it was even launched, was
Speaker 1: Stephen Chanklin's piece over at c net where he said,
Speaker 1: you know, look, this is this is the time and
Speaker 1: smartphones when you're kind of gonna expect that there there's
Speaker 1: not gonna be a lot of groundbreaking new stuff, even
Speaker 1: from Apple, And he was right, Shaklin. Shanklin's article is
Speaker 1: titled the whole hum era of smartphones has begun and yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think by and large he's he's got a
Speaker 1: point that that we're sort of in the evolutionary era
Speaker 1: rather than the revolutionary era, because the iPhone five is
Speaker 1: is thinner. Um, it looks a lot like the iPhone
Speaker 1: for its taller. It's taller. It does give you more
Speaker 1: screen space, and that's one of those things that people
Speaker 1: seem to like about I would say semi revolutionary phones
Speaker 1: like the Samsung uh Galaxy Um, well, the Galaxy Note,
Speaker 1: which is a huge one fabulet yeah, one of those yeah,
Speaker 1: and the the three, the Galaxy three, which is one
Speaker 1: of those two a pretty darn large size screen. The
Speaker 1: iPhone five has a smaller screen than it does um
Speaker 1: more pixels, nine aspect ratio, yeah, and so great for
Speaker 1: watching movies, but not necessarily for surfing the web. So
Speaker 1: the stuff that you're seeing is you know, larger or
Speaker 1: smaller screen size, as you're seeing more pixels in that screen,
Speaker 1: more screen elements, if you will, um, more network capability,
Speaker 1: because now the iPhone five has LTE, but then, as
Speaker 1: many people have pointed out, other phones have had an
Speaker 1: LTE for a while. Apple has famously been slow to
Speaker 1: adopt new wireless technologies, uh in order to make sure
Speaker 1: they don't sacrifice the customer experience. That's the story. That's
Speaker 1: their story, and I pretty much buy it. Pretty much
Speaker 1: buy that the idea that, well, we could, but if
Speaker 1: we incorporate that without first making sure we have the
Speaker 1: best battery available, then your experience is going to be.
Speaker 1: This phone was really fast for about an hour and
Speaker 1: then I had to plug it in. Well. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: battery life is another thing that they that that provides
Speaker 1: an incremental change, but it you know, it could look
Speaker 1: exactly like last year's phone and have two more hours
Speaker 1: of battery life. And that's the big news for this year,
Speaker 1: really battery And again, this is something that applies to
Speaker 1: all smartphones. We're using the iPhone five as the example
Speaker 1: because this was it was the hot news the week
Speaker 1: when we're recording this. Of course, by the time you
Speaker 1: guys listen to this, you'll probably sick of iPhone five
Speaker 1: news anyway. But the idea being that that all phones
Speaker 1: are having this problem where the the incremental improvements aren't
Speaker 1: quite enough to capture the imagination the way the introduction
Speaker 1: of the iPhone or the introduction of the first Android
Speaker 1: phone uh could, or or even the introduction of the
Speaker 1: first Windows eight phone. Um, these were our events that
Speaker 1: sort of, uh make a big splash, and then afterward,
Speaker 1: you know, you can't you can't just keep on radically
Speaker 1: redesigning your products and expect to build a level of
Speaker 1: brand recognition and brand loyalty. I mean, every time you
Speaker 1: redesign something radically, you're losing people. Now you might be
Speaker 1: able to gain more people than you lose with that redesign,
Speaker 1: but it's a it's a risk. Um, it's an interesting problem.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you think about it, I respect Shanklin's point,
Speaker 1: and and he's not the only one who wrote about.
Speaker 1: Roger Ching also have seen it. Wrote an article called
Speaker 1: ho hum, the iPhone five isn't going to wow anyone,
Speaker 1: so it became who hum week over at seen that. Uh,
Speaker 1: I love you guys over there and seen it anyway,
Speaker 1: the very nice people who work there and very smart
Speaker 1: as well. Anyway, he was writing about the general reaction
Speaker 1: to the iPhone five. But I would caution people against
Speaker 1: writing off the smartphone form factor and and feature set
Speaker 1: as being pretty much all we're going to get from
Speaker 1: here on out right, Like I mean, with incremental improvements
Speaker 1: at end stuff that you know, screen resolution, processor speed,
Speaker 1: battery life, networking capability, that kind of stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe NFC capability. Apple's Apple has not jumped on that train,
Speaker 1: and and it may very well be the NFC doesn't
Speaker 1: go anywhere. Near field communication or NFC is uh basically
Speaker 1: like it has a little uh communication device inside the
Speaker 1: phone or or tablet. Actually the next to seven s
Speaker 1: NFC and um, yeah, and it can be used for
Speaker 1: most famously, it's used for financial transactions. So if you're
Speaker 1: close enough to a reader at the cash register, you
Speaker 1: pay with your phone by your your credit card. Information
Speaker 1: is in your phone or I guess it could be
Speaker 1: a bank. Information is in the phone. You wiggle it
Speaker 1: within ten inches of a reader and even closer. I
Speaker 1: think it's a couple of centimeters. But yes, but I'm
Speaker 1: I'm yeah, I was sorry, You're right, it is. It
Speaker 1: is shorter than that, so it's really near field communication.
Speaker 1: But that that's people were speculating before the iPhone five
Speaker 1: launched will be to speak the time that Apple does this,
Speaker 1: and actually they did on on iOS six. They have
Speaker 1: a a manager for things like tickets and other information
Speaker 1: for events, you know, plane tickets or or event tickets
Speaker 1: and things like that. And it's and it doesn't loyalty
Speaker 1: cards for certain things. But yeah, it does not have
Speaker 1: NFC build into it. And and NFC can also be
Speaker 1: used to send communication between devices for things like you're
Speaker 1: running an app, your friends running the same app. You
Speaker 1: want to share some experience across that, whether it's a
Speaker 1: game or music app or whatever. Tapping the two diss
Speaker 1: business card information a great example. Um. But yeah, the
Speaker 1: iPhone five does not include that, but other phones do
Speaker 1: include it. And again these are things that partially I
Speaker 1: would say the NFC is not as big a deal
Speaker 1: because you don't see widespread adoption in retail establishments yet,
Speaker 1: so and we may never see it. But in other words,
Speaker 1: the utility of NFC is limited because it does not
Speaker 1: have wide adoption. Yeah, and I think the biggest thing
Speaker 1: I've seen as far as news this week, and again
Speaker 1: this is less than a week after the announcement, is uh,
Speaker 1: the brewjaha over Apple's new connector because they abandoned the
Speaker 1: thirty pin connector. But the connector they have now, you
Speaker 1: know one thing that is nice about it. You can
Speaker 1: plug it in any way you want. Yeah, Like, there's
Speaker 1: not a there's not a right way and a wrong
Speaker 1: way to plug it in other than you know, make
Speaker 1: sure the plug goes into the board. Yeah. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: can be plugged in either right side up or upside down,
Speaker 1: because there is no right side up or upside down.
Speaker 1: But the thing is, um, people are saying that it's
Speaker 1: not a it's a proprietary connector. It's not um, you know,
Speaker 1: a form of USB and it's not like many or
Speaker 1: micro USB. Right, So people are saying that Apple is
Speaker 1: arrogant because they're using their own proprietary connector. Of course
Speaker 1: micro and many USB has to be plugged in a
Speaker 1: certain way. And also Apple is nowhere near alone in that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well the thing is um this argument and the recent
Speaker 1: patent arguments, the Samsung Apple stuff where they were talking
Speaker 1: about whether or not a Samsung device was easily confused
Speaker 1: with an Apple device because it did or did not
Speaker 1: have rounded corners or sharp corners or you know, these
Speaker 1: are that I think these are the kinds of emblematic
Speaker 1: things that really have to do with this. They're really
Speaker 1: the kinds of things that we're talking about. We're talking
Speaker 1: about whether or not there's innovation going on in the smartphones,
Speaker 1: because in a way, Apple's new connector is innovative because
Speaker 1: it can be plugged in UM. You know, you don't
Speaker 1: have to look at it. You basically look at it
Speaker 1: and see if it goes in the slaught or not. UM,
Speaker 1: it's kind of innovative. It also makes a lot of
Speaker 1: older peripherals obsolete, although there's an adapter for that, but
Speaker 1: it still doesn't help with like docs. Yeah, like if
Speaker 1: you have a an alarm clock dock that's designed for
Speaker 1: the uh, you can't use the new iPhone with it,
Speaker 1: right because because by the time you plug the adapter in,
Speaker 1: it won't fit in the dock anymore. So so this
Speaker 1: and I'm saying I have one of those or that
Speaker 1: I h that's the reason why I was late today. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, you know you just had to get here
Speaker 1: on time. It's on that um. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: you're talking about rounded corner versus square corner, or is
Speaker 1: does it have a bigger or smaller screen size? Or
Speaker 1: you know what, what kinds of things would it take
Speaker 1: at this point to make a smartphone really revolutionary? And
Speaker 1: go wow, that is unlike anything else. And I don't
Speaker 1: care what carrier it is or who makes it or
Speaker 1: what operating system is, I've got to have this. See
Speaker 1: that that's and that was Shanklin's point was that we
Speaker 1: have reached this era where there isn't anything like that now.
Speaker 1: I would caution people to that line of thinking because
Speaker 1: every time we think that we've got to handle on
Speaker 1: how stuff is going to be from here on out,
Speaker 1: Someone some brilliant, brilliant personnel there comes up with a
Speaker 1: new way of doing something, and next thing we know,
Speaker 1: we're all like, wow, I never would have imagined it,
Speaker 1: and now I can't imagine myself without that, you know.
Speaker 1: So there there's still the chance that someone is going
Speaker 1: to innovate in the smartphone space in such a way
Speaker 1: that it really is truly innovative. It's not just an
Speaker 1: iterative iterative approach to improvement. UM. It just I don't
Speaker 1: know what that is. I'm not I'm not in that
Speaker 1: that mind space, right, I can't really think like that. So,
Speaker 1: but I'm not willing to completely write it off. However,
Speaker 1: I do agree that those opportunities are gonna come fewer
Speaker 1: and far far further between, um than the iterative approach.
Speaker 1: And and it makes sense. I mean. Another point that
Speaker 1: Shanklin made was like, look at the computer industry and
Speaker 1: how once the computer form factor was settled. I would
Speaker 1: argue that was settled in when we got to the
Speaker 1: point of the graphics user interface in the mouse. That
Speaker 1: was essentially where we agreed on the basic form factor
Speaker 1: of the computer. Um, there wasn't a lot of change
Speaker 1: until you got to like an all in one device
Speaker 1: where you had the computer and the monitor was all
Speaker 1: one piece. That's kind of similar to some of the
Speaker 1: old old old computers too, but in a much in
Speaker 1: a much nicer form factor, like the iMac version of
Speaker 1: of that, where it's beautiful and sleek and everything apart
Speaker 1: from aesthetics, the basic design hasn't changed that much until
Speaker 1: you get to things like the new focus on touchscreen interfaces,
Speaker 1: and that remains to be seen whether or not that
Speaker 1: actually makes any impact in the computer industry apart from
Speaker 1: the mobile I mean, and mobile of course it's it's
Speaker 1: all the difference, but in desktop computing it remains to
Speaker 1: be seen if that actually becomes uh an effective feature. Um.
Speaker 1: But that's that's part of the issue, I think with
Speaker 1: any kind of technology once you have kind of settled
Speaker 1: on the form factor once, once the early battles have
Speaker 1: have died down, and people are like, Okay, when you
Speaker 1: say the words smartphone, this is the picture I think of,
Speaker 1: because this is how we've all agreed to define what
Speaker 1: a smartphone is. I think by definition, most of your
Speaker 1: improvements from that point forward are just refining that design
Speaker 1: as opposed to really really creating something spectacularly different. I
Speaker 1: mean not that that can't happen, it's just really rare.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why the patent battles have been
Speaker 1: such a big deal anyway, is because people are saying, hey,
Speaker 1: this is uh, you know, this particular feature is something
Speaker 1: that we did in the smartphone market, and people like
Speaker 1: our phones because of it, and we are going to
Speaker 1: fight to protect it because that's that's what we have.
Speaker 1: That this thing is our thing that sets us apart
Speaker 1: from everyone else, and we're gonna defend it until we
Speaker 1: can defended any longer. And you know it's um yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean there are there are a lot of things
Speaker 1: like that in tech. You have a desktop computer, it changes,
Speaker 1: you know, it used to be beige, well now it's black.
Speaker 1: It used to be uh, you know, ten inches wide,
Speaker 1: now it's six inches wide, or you know so and
Speaker 1: so tall, and then you start getting into weighs ten pounds. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I picked up my Amiga three thousand one day a
Speaker 1: long time ago, and the case on that thing, I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure is well, put it this way. It's metal anyway,
Speaker 1: and I think it's steel, and it's much much heavier
Speaker 1: than a lot of other desktops. Um, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean that that was a computer that was the fiscal
Speaker 1: case on. It was beige. The monitor that we bought
Speaker 1: to use with it was beige. Black is a more
Speaker 1: popular color now, but you know, basically it's a yeah
Speaker 1: or or yeah um aluminium brushed aluminum and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I I have a desktop can Peter now that is
Speaker 1: my primary computer. I bought it because I wanted a
Speaker 1: larger screen. There are days when I think, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'd rather have a laptop just because I could carry
Speaker 1: it around with me. And then I go use a
Speaker 1: laptop like, for example, the one the ones we use
Speaker 1: here for work at how Stuff Works dot Com, and
Speaker 1: I go, you know what, I hate this tiny screen.
Speaker 1: I want a bigger screen, and I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be You know, there are there are things like the
Speaker 1: chips too. You get into the U the Intel chips
Speaker 1: and you know the Core I seven and like I
Speaker 1: want that the faster processor. Well, you know, maybe I'm
Speaker 1: playing games and then I get to a point where
Speaker 1: I'm doing other stuff and I just don't have time
Speaker 1: for games anymore. And you know, I don't really need
Speaker 1: to upgrade my computer, And I think that that really
Speaker 1: is It gets down to whether the computer or or
Speaker 1: or electronics manufacturers can get us to buy their new
Speaker 1: thing because it's got that feature, that innovative new feature
Speaker 1: that no one else has. Um you know, there there
Speaker 1: there was that time when people really wanted to upgrade
Speaker 1: to the Xbox three, Stick to You or the PlayStation
Speaker 1: three because hey, it's supported high deaf screens and oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, you know, it's got a faster processor, more power.
Speaker 1: I can. I can look at the games they're putting
Speaker 1: out for this thing, and they really haven't refreshed those
Speaker 1: in quite some time, because well, there's not a new TV.
Speaker 1: Um you know that that it has to support. There's
Speaker 1: not a new they're just not that many new improvements
Speaker 1: to the chips and to the things. And you go,
Speaker 1: you know, and I don't need to spend six dollars
Speaker 1: on a new console, or I don't need to spend
Speaker 1: on a new um Dusktop machine because the one I'm
Speaker 1: using now, you know, I've taken care of it. I've
Speaker 1: backed up the hard drive, I've upgraded their memory, I've
Speaker 1: upgraded the the graphics card or the sound card. You know,
Speaker 1: I just don't need to have that next big thing.
Speaker 1: If this one works, fine, That's that's kind of the argument.
Speaker 1: I think that supports the reasoning behind companies like Sony
Speaker 1: and Microsoft when they say, you know, there's no need
Speaker 1: for us necessarily to come out with a new console,
Speaker 1: you know, earlier than ten years down the line from
Speaker 1: introducing the last one, because, uh, the space for innovation
Speaker 1: is somewhat limited. I mean, there's there's you can create
Speaker 1: better graphics, you can have a faster process, or you
Speaker 1: can have more memory, you know, all the all the
Speaker 1: physical specs. You could definitely up those from the previous generation.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, beyond that, like, what what's the
Speaker 1: wow factor? Because we've all become so used to uh
Speaker 1: that just being a natural thing, right, just the oh well,
Speaker 1: yeah it's got better specs, But what else does it have?
Speaker 1: I need something else beyond it being faster and having
Speaker 1: more memory. Um. You know, that's the same problem that
Speaker 1: that that Apple and all the other smartphone manufacturers are
Speaker 1: running up against, is that we've made improvements. This is
Speaker 1: demonstrably better than the earlier models, at least from a
Speaker 1: specification point of view, and yet people aren't getting excited
Speaker 1: about it um mostly for for consoles. I would argue
Speaker 1: the thing that gets people excited aren't isn't necessarily the hardware,
Speaker 1: but the games. So if the games can be more compelling,
Speaker 1: if people can actually take advantage of whatever that hardware
Speaker 1: is and create content for it, then people get excited
Speaker 1: about the consoles. Uh So, in a way, you could
Speaker 1: argue that perhaps the next generation of smartphones will be
Speaker 1: able to handle apps in a way that's different from
Speaker 1: what they do now, and maybe that becomes the big driver.
Speaker 1: It's not necessarily the hardware, but the fact that the
Speaker 1: software design for that hardware can do stuff that the
Speaker 1: previous generations couldn't, Which brings me to the next piece
Speaker 1: of hardware. That one of the things that that people
Speaker 1: have been mentioning is that, well maybe maybe the smartphone
Speaker 1: like getting excited about smartphones, maybe that era really is over.
Speaker 1: Maybe now we're like, oh, well that's interesting. Maybe now
Speaker 1: Apple events won't stop the entire tech world. I don't
Speaker 1: think that's gonna happen, but at least not I think
Speaker 1: it will at least be one more year before that
Speaker 1: does happen. But I think really it turns it turns
Speaker 1: into well, what technology will be the next thing that
Speaker 1: gets us all to stop and say wow. And right
Speaker 1: now the I hesitate to use the word consensus, but
Speaker 1: the tone that I'm hearing out in the world right
Speaker 1: now is that Project Glass is like the next the
Speaker 1: next thing people know about that could be a big splash,
Speaker 1: which is of course Google's project to have the glasses
Speaker 1: with the augmented reality functionality built in. Yeah. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, Um, you know, I was gonna say that.
Speaker 1: It sort of goes along with with the tech um
Speaker 1: analyst Gartner. Um, you know, they have this this uh
Speaker 1: forgotten what they call it, but it's basically a table
Speaker 1: where it shows you know what, what it takes before,
Speaker 1: you know, when it's still very cutting edge, when people
Speaker 1: are starting to really get into it. It's sort of
Speaker 1: a hype index. I think that's actually what they call it.
Speaker 1: But and then it gets into this period where people go, yeah, whatever,
Speaker 1: but I'm not ready to go out and buy one yet.
Speaker 1: And then it gets to the point where it's a
Speaker 1: mature product and people buy it as a matter of course. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, And it takes some time, and every tech
Speaker 1: thing is on its own, um, its own path to
Speaker 1: that and some some never actually get to the point
Speaker 1: of maturity. I would say that the smartphones are are
Speaker 1: really kind of the point where they're, you know, a
Speaker 1: mature product, and there's you know, tablets are are sort
Speaker 1: of behind that, somewhat in the point where not everyone
Speaker 1: has one yet. There's so there's still some excitement because
Speaker 1: they're saying, Okay, well, who's gonna win the ten inch
Speaker 1: The people with the ten inch screens like the iPads
Speaker 1: to this point, you know, people expect that there will
Speaker 1: be a smaller iPad, which which will find out next
Speaker 1: spring up. I guess it didn't happen at the September event,
Speaker 1: which surprised a few people. Didn't surprise me, especially once
Speaker 1: I saw the pricing for the iPod Touch and the
Speaker 1: you know, you figure out the pricing for the iPod
Speaker 1: Touch versus the pricing for the iPad, and you wonder,
Speaker 1: where would they price a seven inch version of the
Speaker 1: iPad Because the iPod Touch is that has three models, right,
Speaker 1: it's got the the was it sixteen gigabyte, thirty two gigabyte,
Speaker 1: and sixty four gigabyte, and those are the base model
Speaker 1: the iPad is for. So you've got the entire price
Speaker 1: range from one to four nine nine covered from iPod
Speaker 1: Touch to iPad. If you were to introduce a seven
Speaker 1: inch iPad, presumably it would be less expensive than the
Speaker 1: ten inch version, But would it be more or less
Speaker 1: expensive than an iPod Touch. And if it were less
Speaker 1: expensive than an iPod Touch, let's say it's at the
Speaker 1: two ninety nine range, which would put it a hundred
Speaker 1: dollars more than Amazon and Google's tablets, then, uh, would
Speaker 1: that cannibalize sales of that level of iPod Touch with
Speaker 1: people going for Well, it could get an iPod Touch
Speaker 1: sixty four gigabyte for three nine, or I can get
Speaker 1: this new seven inch iPad for to So it just
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense from a market perspective to me. From
Speaker 1: a pricing perspective, like, I don't That doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: they won't do it. I just find it very confusing. Well,
Speaker 1: I think there's still there's still that sort of excitement
Speaker 1: around tablets too. I mean with Google's next to seven um,
Speaker 1: with the new series of Amazon tablets that were just released,
Speaker 1: the Reader tablet, to the Kindle Fire whatever it is,
Speaker 1: which it is that's the right, the the devices that
Speaker 1: are the Kindle Fire and uh, and Barnes and Nobles
Speaker 1: tablet which became which started out as a reader, and
Speaker 1: then there was a Nook tablet and interesting, um and
Speaker 1: those are you know, in that seven inch range and
Speaker 1: there's innovation there and that size range, and then you
Speaker 1: know there's still some well what, what's what's going to happen?
Speaker 1: Are they gonna have a um, a port so that
Speaker 1: you can plug in a USB stick and all those things.
Speaker 1: That's sort of in the middle of that. And then
Speaker 1: I would take Project Glass back to that point where, um,
Speaker 1: where the iPad was at its release, because at that
Speaker 1: point netbooks were still very popular and people are saying, well,
Speaker 1: can it really stop netbooks in their tracks? Well, people
Speaker 1: stop buying netbooks or notebook computers in favor of a tablet.
Speaker 1: You know, Microsoft has done tablets, so you know, maybe not.
Speaker 1: I think Project Glass was that same kind of thing
Speaker 1: for Google. Um, well, I'm not sure people are gonna
Speaker 1: buy a pair of technology enabled glasses to really look
Speaker 1: at stuff and get ideas of maps and uh, find
Speaker 1: out where a coffee shop is. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: Now other people are starting to consider it. They say,
Speaker 1: my wife is so thankful I didn't go to the
Speaker 1: Io event because it meant that I was not eligible
Speaker 1: ball to put in a pre order for a fIF
Speaker 1: pair of Developers glasses. Yeah, that price is a bit
Speaker 1: steep for me, but in in five years it will
Speaker 1: probably assuming that people buy them, that the price will
Speaker 1: drop and it will book home more common. Yeah. When
Speaker 1: you said that, you know, think about smartphones being a
Speaker 1: mature technology technically, I mean if we think of it
Speaker 1: from the iPhone era, so the consumer smartphone, not smartphones
Speaker 1: and general those have been around for a while, but
Speaker 1: you're talking about five years. It's been five years since
Speaker 1: since the iPhone one came out, which is amazing to
Speaker 1: think about. Yeah, so it's not mature, it's geriatric. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because we're in the world tech after two and a
Speaker 1: half years, you're like, come on, you're starting to show
Speaker 1: your age, buddy. You think Hollywood is harsh, Silicon Valley, buddy,
Speaker 1: that's where the harsh comes in. But yeah, so, I
Speaker 1: I think I think generally I agree with Shanklin. I
Speaker 1: generally believe that that the smartphone era is now at
Speaker 1: a point where I think I think one of the
Speaker 1: big disappointments people have with Apple right now is that
Speaker 1: in the early days when the iPhone came out, in
Speaker 1: the iPhone two and in the iPhone three, uh, it
Speaker 1: was exciting enough for people to upgrade immediately, and for
Speaker 1: some people that meant paying big bucks to get the
Speaker 1: new version of the phone, because they would have entered
Speaker 1: into a two year contract and Apple wasn't introducing a
Speaker 1: new model every year, So people would go from their
Speaker 1: iPhone to an iPhone too and pay either to get
Speaker 1: out of a contract, or they'd pay the full retail
Speaker 1: value of the phone, or or at least more than
Speaker 1: what it would be if they were signing a new
Speaker 1: contract just to get the new device. And I think
Speaker 1: now people are feeling like there's less there's not enough
Speaker 1: new stuff in the phone to justify that behavior anymore,
Speaker 1: which to me just says that the rampant out of
Speaker 1: control consumerism is no younger being uh pushed and supported
Speaker 1: from a corporate level, and maybe that's not something we
Speaker 1: should be mad about. Yeah, yeah, I kind of I
Speaker 1: kind of agree with you, I have to say, UM,
Speaker 1: but that's that's my point of view, and I know
Speaker 1: I'm sure that all of our listeners UM will not
Speaker 1: necessarily agree with us. But the thing is, though, I
Speaker 1: mean Um, it's not necessarily a bad thing to to
Speaker 1: be at this point. Um, you know, because they can concentrate.
Speaker 1: Now I'm personally I've had an Android phone now for
Speaker 1: about a year and a half, um, and it's been upgraded.
Speaker 1: The operating system has been upgraded once. I've actually appreciated
Speaker 1: some of those things, and I think, uh, the improvements,
Speaker 1: and I think that seeing the new technologies they add,
Speaker 1: even when they're incremental technologies, I I think I can
Speaker 1: get excited about those little things and you know, not
Speaker 1: get so overwhelmed by the whole Wow, look at this
Speaker 1: thing that they added, you know, looking at both Google
Speaker 1: and Apple have been upgrading their maps apps. Okay they're
Speaker 1: not new, but they're better than they were. Apples got
Speaker 1: turned by turn Now. Yeah, I mean these these little
Speaker 1: things though, I mean they're not uh there there are
Speaker 1: things that improve their devices overall. And there may not
Speaker 1: be something to h to jump up and down about necessarily,
Speaker 1: but if they improve our our everyday lives, and when
Speaker 1: you look forward to the next operating system release, because
Speaker 1: it brings a bunch of these changes at one time,
Speaker 1: I don't think that's that bad to be excited about.
Speaker 1: Even if it's less excitement than the overall u UM
Speaker 1: jumping up and down of the original device. And there
Speaker 1: are very few devices, even when they first come out,
Speaker 1: that I have to wait in line for because I'm
Speaker 1: just not that kind of guy. Well, I like I
Speaker 1: like the fact that I can buy a phone and
Speaker 1: not feel in a year that I need to get
Speaker 1: rid of the one I have while I still have
Speaker 1: another year on my contract. Yes, And of course, for
Speaker 1: for everyone who's out side of the United States who
Speaker 1: doesn't have this whole contract supported phone model, this is
Speaker 1: a discussion that doesn't really apply to you, because you know,
Speaker 1: you you might be used to buying a phone at
Speaker 1: full price and then just using it with whatever service
Speaker 1: happens to support it. For those of us in the
Speaker 1: United States, were more, we're more UM used to either
Speaker 1: going no contract pre paid. More and more people are
Speaker 1: doing that or doing a two year contract and as
Speaker 1: subsidized phone. Yeah. And I don't think anybody who waits
Speaker 1: in line for, you know, an an overnight release of
Speaker 1: a brand new product, or somebody who buys something new
Speaker 1: in a year because they want to. I don't think
Speaker 1: that's silly necessarily, but different things UM appeal to different people,
Speaker 1: and that different strokes for different folks. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: certainly not making fun of anyone in in that case.
Speaker 1: It's just a situation. Though. I think we're going to
Speaker 1: see it less in the smartphone world now because they've
Speaker 1: reached a point where there's a certain expectation of size,
Speaker 1: there's a certain expectation of function, and you know, there
Speaker 1: are their improvements in in communications technologies and the software
Speaker 1: that powers them. But I think, yeah, you might see
Speaker 1: trends developed. You know, well every year we've decided that
Speaker 1: well this year glass is the thing, and well this
Speaker 1: year brushed aluminum is the thing. Kind of reminds me
Speaker 1: of when we went to c e S that say,
Speaker 1: the year that both of us went at the same time,
Speaker 1: and um, color was one of the big things in
Speaker 1: UH and television that year, HDT vs no more black
Speaker 1: and white. No, like the colors of the sets and
Speaker 1: the thicknesses of the devices, and I was thinking, well,
Speaker 1: as the resolution any different, Like no, no, it's ten
Speaker 1: a DP. Yeah, yeah, but you know, how how is
Speaker 1: the as functionality went that year, it was also about
Speaker 1: power conservation, you know, or the big the big thing
Speaker 1: was plasma versus A is L C D, and it
Speaker 1: was you know, it's okay, all right, but it's not.
Speaker 1: Neither of those was the big There was no big
Speaker 1: breakthrough in technology. It was it was a fashion thing.
Speaker 1: And I think I think smartphones are really at that point.
Speaker 1: So if I can sum up what Chris just said,
Speaker 1: I think, um, the world don't move to the beat
Speaker 1: of just one drum. What might be right for you
Speaker 1: may not be right for some. And so, guys, that
Speaker 1: wraps up this discussion about the the general on we
Speaker 1: that has seeped into the tech world as as it
Speaker 1: goes to a smartphones, we'll I'll just have a dramatic
Speaker 1: sigh and sip our expensive fancy fruit foud coffee drinks
Speaker 1: and and and make make comments about the industry in general.
Speaker 1: If you guys have any suggestions for topics we should
Speaker 1: tackle in future episodes of tech Stuff, let us know
Speaker 1: by sending us an email our address as tech stuff
Speaker 1: at Discovery dot com, or drop us a line on
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter or handle at both of those is
Speaker 1: X stuff, hs W and christ I'll taught to you
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