What Makes a Great Cloud Experience?

A few applications define by example what a great cloud app or service can provide.  These are Evernote, Amazon Kindle, and Netflix.  What makes these great examples of consumer cloud offer?   While very different in terms of usage, they share similar variables that in aggregate make them awesome:

• Cross Platform: Windows, OSX, iOS, Android and the web.  Kindle and Netlix are even available on special-purpose devices like the Kindle and Roku.  Consumers can buy into the service and not worry about the platform going away.
• Continuous Computing: Continuous computing means a few different things. On content consumption, the next device picks up exactly where the last device left off. On Netflix, if I am halfway through a movie on my iPad I can pickup at the same spot on my Roku. When I pick up another Kindle device, it asks me whether I want to go to the latest bookmark.
• Sync: While a step back from continuous computing, it does assure that the same files are on the same system. On Evernote, every change I make is in synch when I open up the next device.
• Continuous Improvement: Monthly and even weekly updates to add features and functionality.
• Compatible and Data Integrity: Even with all these updates, the data keeps its integrity.  If the service has a question about which version is the master, it asks me.  Evernote will tell me that I have a duplicate entry and lets me pick the version or content I want.

iCloud: Cross Platform

As we all know, Apple by design works in its own walled garden but that doesn’t mean its completely closed off.  You cannot get iCloud enabled apps like Pages, Numbers, Keynote or iBooks for Windows or Android.   Even worse, you cannot get to your photos and PhotoStream on any mobile device other than iOS.  To be fair, users can get access to Photo Stream on a Windows PC via iTunes, but users should at least be allowed access to their own photos over the web if they want. Users can access iWork compatible documents on all “modern” browsers by going to iCloud.com and downloading files.  Windows users then need to drag and drop the updated file inside the web-based iCloud.com. - Grade D

iCloud: Sync

iCloud will automatically  ”sync” photos (Photo Stream), purchased music and TV shows (iTunes), apps, letters (Pages), spreadsheets (Numbers), and presentations (Keynote), reminders, calendar, email, notes, and contacts.

There are some major exceptions.  iWork documents will not auto sync with the Windows “Documents” folder, as I think users would expect.  Sugarsync, am iCloud and Drobbox will automatically sync documents with Windows.  Also, personal videos and commercial movies do not sync on any platform which I don’t fully understand.  Maybe its a concern with storage on iOS devices or storage and throughput  in the iCloud. - Grade B

iCloud: Continuous Computing

Within iOS phones and tablets, users can start right where they left off for TV shows, games (Games Center) and book bookmarks (iBooks).

iCloud will not save the “state” for playing music (Music), playing movies (Videos), or web pages (Safari).  Add the PC and Mac into the continuous computing arena and iCloud experience starts to degrade for most all use cases for a variety of reasons.  iOS games don’t run or sync on a Mac or PC and on Windows  platforms iWork isn’t available.  Consumers over time will expect continuous computing on every usage model on every platform, the way Evernote does it today. - Grade C

iCloud: Continuous Improvement

I cannot definitively answer this question as it will emerge over time, but I must extrapolate from what I have seen from previous drops of Apple software. Apple software drops, iOS in particular, have been consistent, often, and very solid code. – Grade A

iCloud: Compatible and Data Integrity

So far so good, even on difficult to manage applications like word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.  I make a one line change to a document without going back to “Documents” inside Pages, the one line changed on every other system. – Grade A

What, not Straight A’s?

Apple has never needed to achieve a 4.0 in everything to be successful.  Getting all A’s in the core segment of users and building useful solutions that just work has been the hallmark.  The first iPhone proved this and the iPhone 4s will prove this again as everyone else offers 4G but Apple doesn’t have to. A good fallback to Continuous Computing in good Sync, and I believe that as long as Apple still allows other services with better capabilities into their walled garden, it won’t be an issue now. Over time, I believe Apple will fill in the gaps in iCloud and that have fully thought through where they could add the most value and that’s what they hit first.  Your move, Google, Amazon and Microsoft.

Finalist Kim Echon responded (with 25.53% of the vote): “I use cloud computing for school, work, and connecting with people. If anyone wants to find me, I’m on cloud nine.”

Sound familiar? Think of all the ways you use the cloud in your own life – email, social networking, online storage, sharing photos with friends, and of course, online chat. Fortunately for our busy lives, Microsoft recently delivered a new way to manage all of that cloud clutter with its Windows Live Essentials 2011 suite.  Among other enhancements, the latest incarnation of Windows Live Essentials features a new and improved Windows Live Messenger, now a one-stop destination for your online life.  Windows Live Messenger provides you with a means to stay in touch from any number of access points: your PC, across the web, and your mobile phone. Cloud computing in action!

As Microsoft clearly demonstrated with its recent IE9 launch, the best user experiences are both functional and beautiful. That’s the other reason why we’re particularly excited about Messenger. I believe that the future of computing will be marked by immersive computing experiences, and Microsoft is taking steps to make this a reality with Messenger – the Windows Live Messenger High-Definition (HD) Video Chat employs GPU acceleration to help enable an enhanced visual experience.

For me, grainy picture and latency are two of the biggest frustrations when it comes to video.  I’m not alone – even Google AdWords instructs advertisers that “a low-quality opening image won’t entice users to view the video, and a low-quality video will not effectively spread your message.”

The message is clear: low quality, poorly rendered video, even when chatting with friends, can dampen what would otherwise be an enjoyable experience. Windows Live Messenger video chat, however, can offer crisp and fast communication – more like real life – by taking advantage of the power of the GPU. To note, graphics hardware acceleration with Messenger video chat works on any graphics card that supports DirectX 9 or later; several generations of AMD discrete graphics technology can support this, including: ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 series, ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 series and the most recent ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 series graphics cards.

This certainly isn’t the first time that we’ve worked with Microsoft to harness GPU computing to deliver superior visual experiences, for both cloud and proprietary services. GPU acceleration has the ability to deliver a more vivid digital future and better performance across the board, whether you are looking for a more immersive Internet browsing experience or improved daily computing with Office 2010.  With the release of Windows Live Essentials 2011, it’s time to add HD video chat to the list.

Margaret Lewis (@margaretjlewis) is a Product Marketing Director at AMD. Her postings are her own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

I want to say first that this isn’t a comprehensive review of the EVO 4G. There are some very good ones available from PCMag, jkOnTheRun, AllThingsDigital and Laptopmag. What I want to share are the new and differentiating features and their implications for the future.

WiFi Hotspot
The HTC EVO 4G can act just like a standard WiFi wireless router in your work and home. It allows up to eight devices to connect to it and share its 3G or 4G internet connection. This service is an extra charge.

This hotspot feature is beneficial in a lot of different scenarios. If you are away from home or work you can have 3G/4G internet from your WiFi enabled notebook, netbook, tablet or personal media player like an iPod or Zune. Additionally, this can even help you save money, time and hassle because you are only paying for one wireless account.

The alternative is to have a wireless account for each device or buy a 3G/4G USB dongle plus service for the notebook and netbook. Also, a few phones allow tethering over Bluetooth and USB. Bluetooth can be difficult to setup, is unreliable, and has limited range. USB tethering is clunky as it requires a cord which limits distance and is sometimes difficult to setup. WiFi is fast enough, offers good distance from the “router”, and most everyone knows how to connect WiFi.

One very impressive feature is that while others are connected to the phone, you can still use the phone! When I tested it, I was driving 70mph down the highway while one of my kids was connected to it and I was streaming Pandora and had a driving navigation program running; all without stuttering. One note on the WiFi Hotspot feature is that it will drain your battery very quickly while using it. I recommend plugging in the phone when using the feature.

4G Wireless
The HTC EVO is the first phone in the US that supports 4G wireless technology. It is based upon WiMax technology, not LTE.

In theory, 4G based on WiMax provides a maximum download speed of 75 mbps. Faster internet speed of course means less waiting for the current content or richer content, like video, in the same time.

Sprint advertises its 4G WiMax speeds at “Peak download speeds of more than 10 Mbps” and “average download speeds of 3-6 Mbps”. In Austin during my week-long and very unscientific tests using the OOKLA Speedtest.net Android app, the best download speed I ever got was 3.335 mbps. On average I got around 1.5 Mbps down. This was in the northeast, central, and southwest parts of Austin. Yes, my average 1.5 Mbps is much different from the 3-6 Mbps average speeds above and well off the 75 Mbps theoretical maximum.

This is not some speed conspiracy; it’s just the sad reality of wireless claims that have been used for years. First, theoretical Wimax speed is only between a single client and towers, not with multiple users going through the backhaul or to the internetwork or the server you are pulling content from. Secondly, upgrading a wireless network is a massive, expensive and long term undertaking. Carriers need to upgrade physical towers, build new ones in some cases, upgrade or replace new backhaul capabilities, and in most cases install all new software. Whew! Yes, upgrading a network is a very difficult thing to do. As with red wine, most networks get better with time and I expect that the network will get better with age. This happened with 1G, 2G, 3G, and I expect it will happen with 4G.

720P HD Video Camera
Up until the last few months, most smartphones could take videos up to 480P resolution at between 24 and 30 fps at up to 2 mbps. This is ok if you are just viewing on a small smartphone screen but not very good if you want to view on a PC or TV. The HTC EVO 4G can take HD 720P videos at 24 fps at 6 mbps. In comparison, a Kodak Zi6 palmcorder takes HD 720P videos at up to 60/30 fps at 11/9 mbps. After looking at the videos I took, I am not going to get rid of my HD palmcorder anytime soon. My eyes do notice a 6 fps difference and the capture quality just isn’t there. The video is particularly grainy in lower light and when zooming in and watching it on an HDTV. For casual use with videos you don’t want to keep for 20 years it may be fine, but for anything else I recommend a real camcorder or palmcorder. The quality level may be a function of the software not the hardware as early reports of the iPhone 4′s HD video prowess are surfacing. I am hoping the EVO’s HD video quality will improve over time with software updates.

HDMI Connectivity
The HTC EVO 4G provides HDMI connectivity which allows users to directly connect the phone to an HDMI-enabled TV or monitor at 720P resolution. I projected videos and pictures on my 52″ Samsung HDTV. Pictures looked great but the videos looked a bit grainy, even high quality ones. The ability to even do this right off of a phone is incredible in itself so I really can’t complain about some graininess. The EVO connects through a mini-HDMI port in the bottom of the phone and an optional, non-proprietary HDMI to mini HDMI cable.

Videophone
Unlike the iPhone 4, users need to “piece-part” the videophone solution together. Fun for geeks like me, a nightmare for the average user. Users can download “Fring” or “Qik for HTC EVO 4G”. Video is captured with the screen-facing camera so that users can see the other caller.

I tried a few test calls but didn’t use this feature completely as I don’t have friends with a capable phone or on Fring or Qik. Outside of buying another phone for my friends and family, I decided to pass after a few attempts.

What This Means For The Future
The HTC EVO 4G brings some amazing features to users today. While I am excited about today, I am more interested about what it signals for tomorrow:

* Real-time video communications will finally go mainstream. I know, we have heard this since 1970 and there have been a thousand failures since then. Heck I used to work for AT&T who invented the modern videophone. It’s different now. The quality is better, it’s close to “free”, tech giants are behind it, and there will be billions of capable end points. Getting Apple behind it is huge with iPhone 4. They got it as “right” as you can get it from a consumer’s point of view. All we need now is inter-compatibility between disparate systems.

I think when users get comfortable with video communications over the phone, they will become more comfortable and desire even richer experiences on their PCs and in the living room.

* Data density grows exponentially continuing the need for more processing power, storage, and bandwidth. In the next five years I believe it will be hard to buy a smartphone without a decent quality 1080P video camera. As with camera phones today, smartphone buyers will be popping off high quality videos and either loading snippets to the cloud or transferring the full video to their home PC. As for those longer videos on the PC, users will want to cut, snip, improve and ultimately be able to play on any device via transcoding. Yes, the PC will still matter in the future.

* Integration not dis-aggregation. Technology either aggregates or disaggregates like a living organism. The PC disaggregated from mainframes/mini’s while AM/FM radios were integrated into everything The EVO shows today that after future improvements the smartphone could also be a very good still camera, palmcorder, low speed WiFi hotspot, bed-side clock radio, and of course, the home phone.

* Bandwidth to the cloud will continue to be rationed and expensive which ultimately leads to continued importance of client-side computing performance. While major phone, PC, and server technologies get major overhauls every five years, wireless overhauls take around ten years. I don’t expect 4G to be much different. In the US, 3G networks are busting at the seams and carriers are beginning to eliminate unlimited rate plans and charge a ton for tethering. Are you happy with the speed today of YOUR 3G data service during peak times when you need it? I didn’t think so. Imagine what happens to network performance when even more people get on the network and want to do even more that takes even more bandwidth….

Expensive and slow bandwidth with high user demand will drive the need for better CODECs (COmpression-DECompression) to pump higher density content through a small pipe then be displayed on the other end of the pipe. CPUs and GPUs do this well and combined APUs will do it do it even better.

Conclusion
The new HTC EVO 4G smartphone introduces some very revolutionary features that signal a few key insights into our tech future. The EVO introduces 4G wireless, 720P HD video capture, videophone, WiFi hotspot and external HDMI display capabilities. Interestingly enough, changes in smartphone capabilities signal impacts to PC capabilities. Expanding video communications to smartphones, increasing smartphone video capture capabilities, and rationed bandwidth all mean good things for the PC. Let me know what you think below.

Pat Moorhead is Corporate Vice President and Corporate Marketing Fellow and a Member of the Office of Strategy at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

Consumers are generating a tremendous amount of content today with their digital cameras, camcorders and personal HD palmcorders. They shoot the photo and video and when they get home, load them onto their home personal computer. Loading and playing them back on a Windows 7 PC is very simple and straightforward, regardless of the camera used, quality (bit rate) and format (CODEC and container).

The iPad Personal Video Challenge

Loading, storing and playing back that same personal video on an iPad is an entirely different story, and in my experience, a painful one.

The iPad Personal Video Loading Challenge

First, getting video onto the iPad requires special hardware or special PC software. The special hardware is the iPad Camera Connector Kit which currently costs $29. It will allow SD cards and “select” USB devices to input video directly into the iPad. Users can also use iTunes to load video onto the iPad, but only those that are in the limited iPad supported video formats.

iPad Video Storage Challenge

The iPad is limited to 16 to 64 GB of memory and that space is not just for video, it’s also for pictures, music, movies, documents, books and iPad applications. For the sake of argument, let’s say that half, or 8 GB to 32 GB can be dedicated to personal video. One hour of 720p video from the Kodak Zi6 occupies about 3.75gb. So in total, you could store approximately 2.2-8.5 hours of video before you run out of iPad storage. That’s not a lot of birthday parties, little league baseball games, or horse shows.

The iPad Personal Video Format Challenge

The final iPad personal video challenge is supported formats. For any device to playback video, it must support the video’s wrapper (i.e. .mov), the video’s codec (i.e. h.264), audio format (i.e. AAC at 160 kHz) and video bit rate (i.e. 8 Mbps). If not, the video won’t play or will likely play erratically. A Windows PC is very flexible in that it will play almost every video’s wrapper, codec and bit rate. In those off cases that it doesn’t run it natively, users can download free software to play it.

The iPad has a very narrow support list according to its website: it will play “H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format” That means it won’t play the MPEG-2 video that comes off most personal video recorders. It won’t play the HD video off my Kodak Zi6 pocket HD camera or HD off of Flip cameras. It won’t play the Microsoft standard, WMV. It won’t play the 3GP video which is used by many smartphones, like my BlackBerry Bold.

One Solution- Batch Convert with CyberLink MediaShow Espresso

One solution is to convert the video using a program like CyberLink Espresso. I can attest that this package is fast and yields good quality. It is fast in part due to its support for GPU based compute offload for AMD’s recent GPUs thanks to ATI Stream technology. This solves the video format issue, but not the loading and storage challenge.

Another Solution- Convert & Stream with AirVideo

Another solution is to use AirVideo, which automatically converts video located on your PC and streams to the iPad. It can stream this video over your home WiFi network when you are inside the house. You can stream video from the home PC to the iPad outside the house too. This comes handy when you are away from home. Of course, your home PC must be on and connected to the internet.

Setting up AirVideo

Setting up AirVideo is easy. Download the PC software, install it, and tell it where you keep your videos. If you don’t know where your videos are, check your PC’s My Videos folder. Setup took me about five minutes. Then go to the App Store on your iPad and buy AirVideo for $2.99.

Using AirVideo

Using AirVideo is straightforward. Open the app on your iPad and select the video you want to play. Then watch it. The quality has been great and there have only been a few videos that I couldn’t watch. The cool part about the interface is that it will show video icons of the files, which helps when you have strange file names that aren’t descriptive.

How it Works

Geeks like me appreciate the benefit of a technology but also appreciate how it works. Basically, AirVideo is converting the video into a format the iPad prefers then streams it out of the PC. It does this “on the fly” which means in near real-time. This is versus “batch mode” with CyberLink Espresso where the user wants to watch later, not immediately. The iPad caches a little bit of the video to ensure smooth playback. I tried this on a PC based on the AMD Phenom™ II X4 Processor, it took as much as 85% of all four cores to convert many videos “on the fly”.

The Future

I expect the iPad to get more storage in the future, but the videos and the size of those videos will also get larger. Videos won’t all go into the cloud and be streamed either partially due to this data increase. One analyst cites that consumers have an average of 250 GB of storage today and this is expected to grow to grow to 3 TB by 2014. A recent analyst report I read says that data will grow in size 44x from 2009 and that 70% of it is user generated. User generated video in particular is very dense today and will become even more dense as smartphones move to 1080p and as inexpensive personal HD camcorders move to higher HD bit rates for higher quality.

Conclusion

The iPad signaled the beginning of the acceptance of a fourth mainstream device, adding to the PC, smartphone, and TV. This doesn’t mean it’s perfect for all use cases, and as I have illustrated, there are issues with personal video. Personal video loading, storage and playback are a challenge on the iPad. There are solutions though and they require a modern day PC. CyberLink Espresso and Air Video convert the video to the iPad’s supported formats and Air Video will do it on the fly and stream it to your iPad inside and outside the home. As video density and footprint will only rise in the future, I believe it could help make the “personal cloud” in the home as important as the “big cloud”. The technology is actually there today but the industry needs to simplify it for the consumer to make it a mainstream usage model. This could be a good business opportunity for the PC and STB (set top box) ecosystem. Oh and if you think people aren’t interested in this sort of thing, to date Air Video is one of the best selling and highest grossing iPad utility apps.

Comments? As always, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts and opinions below.

Pat Moorhead is Corporate Vice President and Corporate Marketing Fellow and a Member of the Office of Strategy at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

Courtesy D Sharon Pruitt

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Archos 5 Internet Tablet (IT) with the Google Android operating system.  As a refresher, the Archos 5 IT is a 5″ personal media player for videos, music and pictures but can also surf the internet, do email, and run a subset of Android applications.  ”Donut”, or the Android OS version 1.6, came out Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 for the Archos 5 IT and I wanted to share with you my user experiences and my impressions and opinions.

Installation

My Archos 5 IT didn’t automatically detect an OS upgrade OTA (over the air), so I went to the Archos download website, downloaded Donut (1.6), copied it to the root directory, unplugged the USB cable, and it installed.  It  deleted my installed apps (with warning), but kept my music, video, and photo content.  It also, kept, thankfully, all my registered and expensive plug-ins.  The full installation took about 20 minutes, which I thought was fast.  I would recommend OTA for less experienced users as soon as it’s available.  Just go to Settings—> About device—>Firmware update, it goes to the web and checks for you.  I am guessing that Archos wants Donut in the hands of the geeks for a while before unleashing it on everyone.

The Good

Speed: Everything feels faster.  Opening applications, window transitions, auto-orientation, web browsing, home button, email….everything just felt faster.

More Android Applications: When I did my earlier review, a whopping 10 applications existed.  As of today, my Archos 5 was showing 478 applications.  This was a real improvement.  Programs that I use on my Android phone like Global Time, Newspapers, OI File Manager, Twitli, TV.com, AK Notepad and WiFi tools were there.  But it’s not all roses as I outline below.

Widgets: Widgets are like Windows PC gadgets or Google PC gadgets but for a phone.  This saves time to get to relevant information like weather, stock prices, even Twitter updates. So instead of requiring you to enter the application, it just shows up on one of the main phone screens.  This saves a lot of time.  The best one is the addition of the “Power Control” widget to easily toggle WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, synch, and screen brightness on and off.

Multi-page: Instead of folders, Donut uses multiple screens, or pages, that you scroll through with your finger, either left or right.  This allows for widgets and for more shortcuts for applications.  I like a main page, a news and weather page, a social media page, and an entertainment page.

Updated ThinkFree Mobile: ThinkFree allows users to view Office and PDF documents. The updated 1.2 version seemed faster, looked better on the screen, and was more accurate.  Its linkage to Google Docs is a nice adder.

Consistent settings: Settings between my T-Mobile G1 and Archos 5 are virtually identical so I don’t need to learn a whole new nomenclature, a real time saver.

Better stability: I experienced more stability, less lockups and flaky behavior with Donut on the Archos 5 when compared to my earlier experiences. Nice job Archos!

Pattern password: I love what Google has done with passwords.  Instead of alpha or numeric characters, you draw a pattern on the screen.  I have found it faster and easier to enable my passwords and Donut enables this on the Archos 5.

I Would Like To See

More Relevant Android Applications: Many of the 478 applications were completely irrelevant to me or were just URL links to the web site, like the “Amazon Shopping” application.  I would like to see apps I have on my G1 like I Tweet, The Weather Channel, Shazam, Accuweather, Amazon MP3, Bank of America, Google Maps, Google Navigation, Facebook, PAC-MAN, Pandora,  USA Today, wpToGo, Where, LinkedIn, Fandango, Slacker, and Pro Football Live. While we are here, I would like to see my favorite Ipod Touch apps like Tweetdeck as well, that simply don’t exist for any Android platform.

Voice command: The T-Mobile G1 with Donut has voice command and control but the Archos 5 with Donut does not have this capability.

Flash 10: As I covered in my initial Archos 5 blog and I will ask again, a full web experience is impossible without Flash 10.

What I haven’t Figured Out Yet

Gallery and Music Apps: Google Gallery and Music applications don’t connect to the photo or music directory like on the T-Mobile G1 and the Google Nexus One.  It lists “No media found” on Gallery and is just blank on music.  I have thousands of pictures and songs.  My guess is that the application is competing with the Archos 5′s built-in photo viewer and music player.  Not a huge issue, but still a bit annoying.

Conclusion

I still stand by my earlier assessment that, “If you are looking for a non-game entertainment MID, the Archos 5 Internet Tablet is a better device than the other MIDs I looked at.  Its ability to play HD 720P video, optionally connect via HDMI to your HDTV, built-in radio, and 500GB storage gives it a leg up.” Adding Donut, or Android OS version 1.6 capabilities makes the Archos 5 IT it even better by adding features enabling an improved “compute” device experience than with the previous Android load.  It doesn’t come close to the PC compute experience, but as a personal media player, I don’t expect it to either.  The consistency with my Android phone is an extra-added plus as well.  So if you own an Archos 5 Internet Tablet, eat that Donut and let me know what you think.

Pat Moorhead is Vice President and Senior Marketing Fellow and a Member of the Office of Strategy at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

I believe that this argument comes down to a few points:

MIDs will improve upon their current design challenges.

I believe that some of the design challenges can and will be improved:

• Touch-screen will get more usable
• More small “display friendly” operating systems or overlays will emerge
• All will have WWAN options
• 720P video will be enabled
• Accelerated Flash graphics will be enabled
• Docking to monitors and other devices will be better enabled
• MIDs will become thinner and lighter

But, will it be enough to keep pace with the innovation curve of new applications that will emerge to solve end user pain points that can only be effectively run on a notebook? Or on a smartphone? Probably not.

Many competitors to MIDs for disposable income and design resources.

When MIDs and UMPCs first came onto the scene, there wasn’t this dizzying array of “capable smartphones”, netbooks, affordable ultrathin notebooks, and now smartbooks.  All of these devices now fight for the dollars that product planners once only saw as a space for MIDs and UMPCs. Now, if a consumer has around $499 to spend, what will they spend it on?  Internal research suggests today they will want a smartphone or a notebook. OEMs and ODMs need to make tough choices on where their design and marketing resources will go.  Reality is that they cannot invest in everything and make choices typically based on short-term and sometimes longer-term ROI. Articles are popping up suggesting manufacturer interest in designing MIDs is lowering due to lousy sales and competition for design resources for these other devices. The past is not always the best indication of the future, but is certainly an important data point.

Future MID vs. future smartphone vs. future notebook

Smartphones, notebooks, and MIDs will certainly continue to increase their capabilities to address end user pain points.  Question needs to be asked if there is enough utility difference between a future smartphone, a future MID, and a future notebook.  They all need their space to survive unless you believe that consumers will buy at least two or all three device types. In many cases, they will. I assume that MIDs will be one step ahead of smartphones with software processing capability and features and two to three steps behind a future notebook. To me, that sets up the real battle, which is smartphone vs MID, not MID vs notebook.  Where would you place your bet: future Apple iPhone or a future MID?  

MID Prices

MIDs today are a luxury item as a secondary device.  The least expensive one at dynamism.com is $449, the UMID M1. The $449 model you get a 4.8″ display, 1.2Ghz single core CPU, 512MB RAM, and 8GB storage… this is NOT your primary PC device.   Pricing is a function of utility, cost, and profit target. For cost to decline, the volumes need to increase to take advantage of economies of scale.  Back in June, Slashgear speculated that MID sales were 15% of what was expected.  As of June, we read that 30,000 MIDs had been sold. That doesn’t mean that that will always be the case, but without volume it is hard to drive costs down through economies of scale. Netbooks are an interesting example in price/cost dynamics. The industry “talk” is that netbooks started out as an experiment.  A processor manufacturer had some low end CPUs they couldn’t sell, so they had a choice to grind them or sell them. They sold around 5 million of them for a real good price. The original 7″ 800×480 displays on the first netbooks were supposedly leveraged from the portable DVD player market, making them inexpensive. Volumes quickly ramped and costs came down. That volume ramp and leverage isn’t happening yet on MIDs. Finally, when it comes to docking to compensate for the MID UI and display size, this gets expensive quickly. Assuming future MIDs become easier to dock via less expensive docks and HDMI or Displayport connectivity, the user is still faced with around $200 or more for the dock (at current price levels), a larger display, a decent keyboard and mouse.

Conclusion

If you thought I was going to wimp out on making a prediction, you are wrong.  I believe that the MID will ultimately transform itself into a smartphone. The smartphone just has too much momentum to stop its encroachment on the MID space.  In my opinion, the only exceptions will be vertical applications like medical, industrial, and military, where the mobility, extra processing power, PC connectivity, and a larger screen are required to accomplish a specific task.  As for the impact to notebooks, until inexpensive fold up or rollable displays and gesture input allows a user to turn their 4.8″ to 7″ MID into an easily-controllable, 12-13″ display experience, I suspect there is little risk to notebooks in the longer term future. Finally, I believe future MIDs won’t have the horsepower or features required to tackle the future applications and future usage models only run on future notebooks and even if the cloud can provide the horsepower needed, pervasive, mobile, and fast access to the cloud is years away as LTE doesn’t start its ramp until 2014.

Have a comment or question?  Let me know below.

Pat Moorhead is Vice President and Member of the Office of Strategy at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is imp

Here in part 3, I take the extreme view of why I believe that, in fact, PCs have no reason to worry about MIDs — certainly not even in the near- or even mid-term future.  As with part 2, I am obviously taking an extremist’s view hoping that by turning up the contrast ratio, you will get a better flavor for the debate.

Getting into extremist character again…

My logic is simple yet sound and many points support this view:

PC applications have never remained static and always change and grow to solve emerging end user pain points, or evolve to create new pleasure points. For example, digital photography spawned PC photo viewers which spawned photo editing which spawned photo management applications that can now recognize and match faces. There are powerful leaps of innovation still ahead for the PC platform in how it provides a lot more visual, serial and parallel processing power and capability than a MID offers. Imagine what the future holds.

All that data like video and pictures being created locally forces a local computing model, where the compute engine must be close to the data. This certainly contradicts the “mobile cloud” theory discussed in part 2. Mobile access to the cloud would also require a lot more speed, less latency, and more reliability before we “cut the cord” to the cloud. The wireless industry isn’t even close. I still can’t even drive into work without the risk of losing my call. A more straight-forward argument for notebooks relates to the docking capability and cost. Compared to a 17” notebook, to dock the Viliv EX X70, it would cost me an extra $469 or 64% more – see below where I go through the details. Finally, if a user is looking for a mobile device to do some light computing, isn’t a smartphone a better choice than a MID?  The top applications for smartphones are already available and lots of choices exist.

Here is the data to back up these points:

Future of Applications

Compared to a modern notebook, today’s MIDs have a comparatively difficult time:

• playing the popular HD web video found on sites like Hulu and YouTube,
• converting video to be played on devices like an iPhone,
• playing popular web games Wizard 101 and Disney’s Toontown,
• matching your family’s faces on Picasa 3.6,
• basic multitasking

And applications won’t stop where they are today, given the end user pain points and desired pleasure points yet to be delivered.  I believe that PC application innovation will die down ONLY when:

• Render and recode buttons disappear from video and photo apps
• Computers can be controlled in Minority Report fashion
• Skype video is full-size, “eyeball resolution” and holographic.  The Holodeck.
• I can get access to ALL my content from ANY device (including set-top box and game console) wherever I am,  without a single hiccup
• Users can’t distinguish between games and real life
• Video and photo resolution and data complexity STOP growing.  Everything stops at 3D 1080P.

Seeing the industry is a long way off from delivering these in the next year’s PC, I think the PC has strong legs under it still. J

Data Location Drives the Compute Model

The location of the data dictates where the computing is done and there is a simple explanation why.  If the data is far from the computing, everything slows down because your compute engine is sitting around waiting for the data.  Your “bridge” or “bus” between the data and compute engine must be fast enough to transfer all that data back and forth. That’s where the theory of mobile access to the cloud starts to break down. If the mobile cloud is doing all the computing, then the bridge between it and where the data is being generated must be real fast. How fast is your 3G these days? Are you sending lots of hours of 1080P video into the cloud at blazing speeds?  Of course not.  I just hope that I can get a quick response from a web page on my Blackberry.  So what is the future of WWAN?

WWAN Transitions Take Around Seven Years

According to internal AMD WWAN research, it typically takes approximately 5-7 years for a full WWAN infrastructure transition.  That makes sense when you think about how long it took/taking CDMA, EDGE, HSPA, WiMax, and LTE to get broadly deployed.  And of course you need infrastructure to drive adoption, right? If you are thinking that heavy data sets like 1080P video will be quickly and reliably transferred to the cloud wirelessly with limited latency anytime soon at “blazing speeds”, think again.  Research suggests that even LTE doesn’t start really its hockey-stick growth until 2014.

How Reliable is the Mobile Cloud?

The final thought on WWAN is reliability.  I think the U.S. Verizon commercial “Can You Hear Me Know” sums it all up.  Those commercial started in 2002!  Here we are in late 2009 with dropped 3G calls in “supported” areas.  Remember how freaked out everyone became when just Gmail went down for 2 hours?  How can we possibly solely rely on the cloud for our precious photos, videos, and music without local backup?  My MIDs came with a whopping 32GB of storage.  That equates to about one, two hour HD video or 8 DVD movies.   The HP notebook described below came with 500GB.

Docking Capability with MID at $469/64% More Cost

If a user wanted to have a more comfortable “sit-down” experience in a fixed place, let’s say at a desk, it is an expensive proposition with a MID versus a notebook.   I chose the HP dv7 notebook with a 17.3” display, 4GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, Blu-ray drive, Windows 7, dual core AMD processor at 2.4 GHz, and ATI Mobility Radeon™ 4200 graphics at $729.  Compare that to the $879 for the Viliv X70 EX/3G (I paid) and the VGA and “TV” cables were an additional $20 each.  Add a Belkin 7 port USB-2 hub for $35, an external Sony USB-2 DVD drive for $65, wireless Microsoft keyboard and mouse for $70, Viewsonic 17” monitor for $129, and your “docked” total becomes $1,198.

In the particular example, the user pays $469 or 64% MORE for the docked MID versus a notebook. Don’t forget that the notebook has a “PC-grade” dual core CPU, incredibly more powerful graphics, Blu-ray versus DVD, 468GB more storage, and 3GB more RAM, and Windows 7 versus Windows XP.

Smartphones a Better Mobile Choice than MIDs

If a user is looking for mobility with some limited compute capability, I believe smartphones are the better choice versus a MID.  Smartphones can actually fit into your pocket, you can use them with one hand, not two, and they allow you to carry only one device, not two (a MID and phone).  On my Blackberry Bold, I can get my email, calendar items, and notes off the Exchange server in near real-time.  I can view and edit Microsoft attachments with “Word To Go”, “Sheet to Go”, and “Slideshow to Go”.  I can read PDF files, too.   I have Google Maps with GPS, FaceBook and Twitter via SocialScope, streaming music via Slacker, and chat with Google Talk.  Since my Apple iTouch was stolen, I have been using the Bold for my primary mobile music device and been quite happy.  In fact, to my ear the music fidelity is better than any of the MIDs I used.  Finally, if you MUST have Microsoft software capability, you can always choose a smartphone with Windows Mobile 6.5.  And of course, there are some cool features on the Android phones and the iPhone.

Net-net, I predict the notebook PC doesn’t have to worry about the MID for a long, long time.  Applications exist today that a MID cannot run well, so just imagine how poorly future applications will run.  Those future applications will take a lot of processing power and if you are banking on mobile access to the cloud, I propose you think again.  I doubt the mobile cloud will have enough speed, low enough latency or the reliability required for the next generation of apps and their ever-expanding data sets.  Also, MIDs may be able to provide a docking experience today but it’s extremely expensive and clunky with a lot of cables when compared to a notebook.  Finally, if you want a convenient mobile experience and do a little computing, get a smartphone, I maintain it’s a better choice than a MID.

Of course this is the extremist’s view, but like part 2, hopefully you get a flavor of the debate points and have an opinion now on MIDs and notebooks.

Up next, I look at the UMID M1, a small MID with a full QWERTY keyboard, 4.8” screen, and weighs .69 lbs, which Dynamism boasts as “the world’s smallest PC”. Have comments or questions, let me know.

Pat Moorhead is Vice President and Member of the Office of Strategy at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

Viliv S5 connected to a USB hub connecting a wireless keyboard, wireless mouse and DVD writer. Also connected to Benq display at 1,920x1200 via VGA adapter

This is Part 2 in an eight part series where I look at emerging technology and predict whether or not MIDs will displace netbooks and notebooks in the future.  Check out the introduction here.

Here in part 2, I take the extreme view of why I believe that, in fact, MIDs will displace and marginalize portable PCs.  I am obviously taking an extremist’s view hoping that by turning up the contrast ratio, you will get a better flavor for the debate.

OK, let me get into extremist character…

My logic is simple. The overwhelming majority of all applications that users care about can effectively be processed on today’s generation of MID hardware.  The few apps that can’t be processed on today’s MIDs, like packaged games, image recognition, and video recoding, could be processed in the cloud.  Alternatively, niche PCs could still exist to do this heavy duty processing, if not in the cloud.  Limits of display size, input, and storage are easily overcome through a simple docking station connected to a standard keyboard, mouse, monitor, optical drive, or external storage.   Bottom line: the convenience of portability combined with the robustness of the PC pints to the MID as a killer to today’s notebook and certainly netbook PC.

Here’s the data to back up this point of view:

Top 10 Applications Today (Forrester Technographics ¹): Word processing, viewing photos, scanning for viruses, playing free computer games, doing home finances, editing personal photos, using spreadsheets, burning CDs, printing photos, listening to music.  You can do most of these today on a MID (connected to peripheral hardware) and probably all of these in the next generation of MIDs.

Top 10 On-line Activities Today (Forrester Technographics ¹): Emailing, using a search engine, researching products, emailing photos, buying products, IM, watching videos, playing on-line games, tracking package orders, listening to music.  You can do most of these today on a MID and probably all of these on the next generation of MIDs.

Cloud Apps: Google docs already provide cloud word processing, presentations, and spreadsheets. Adobe’s Photoshop already exists in the cloud.  Face.com provides facial recognition and pattern matching on Facebook.  Google’s YouTube already performs HD video re-coding in the cloud. AMD’s own investment in its Fusion Render Cloud demonstrated the latest first person shooter games and Blu-ray movies being rendered in the cloud and displayed on hardware with lower specs than even  today’s MID.  If not in the cloud, then certainly a small niche of high performance computers could still exist to perform those tasks.

The optional Archos 5 IT DVR station rear view connected to HDMI cable

2 X USB ports

Docking: Today’s Viliv S5 and X70 have 2 USB ports and ports for optional video cable out.  The Archos 5 IT provides an optional docking station with 2 USB ports, HDMI, component video, composite video, S-video, and composite video.  I successfully plugged in keyboard, mice, external hard drives, external DVD drives and multiple HD monitors at 1080 (Viliv) and 720 (Archos) resolutions.  These exist TODAY, so imagine what is in store in the future.

The optional Viliv video out cables

From top to bottom, VGA display cable, USB cable, and power cable

From left to right, mini USB, USB port, and SD card port

So net-net, today’s MIDs can handle user’s most important applications, tomorrow’s MIDs will almost certainly be able to handle those fringe cases and the highest end applications have already been ported or are being ported to the cloud.  If you need more display, storage, optical, keyboard and mouse input, just plug it in when you need it.

Of course, this is the extremist’s view, but hopefully you get a flavor of the debate points and are starting to develop an opinion, one way or another.   Up next is the counter view. Have comments or questions, let me know below.

NOTES:  1) Forrester Consumer Technographics, 2009 Benchmark Survey for U.S., Forrester Research, Inc., 2009.

Pat Moorhead is Vice President and Member of the Office of Strategy at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

I plan to do an eight-part series looking specifically at these devices from a consumer and worker standpoint, pointing out my opinion of the plusses, minuses, and even showing things I believe the industry may not want to be pointed out. My primary analysis will be the state of the devices TODAY with some editorial on what they could be TOMORROW.  And of course, weigh in on whether MIDs will inherit the earth.   I will take some extreme views, character acting if you will, for readers to fully appreciate the contrasting debate.

Part 2: “Why MIDs will inherit the earth”, an extreme view

Part 3: “Why PCs shouldn’t worry about MIDs”, an extreme view

Part 4: “Hands on with the UMID M1”

Part 5: “Hands on with the Viliv S5”

Part 6: “Hands on with the Viliv X70 EX”

Part 7: “Hands on with the Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android”

Part 8: “Final thoughts on MIDs and PCs”

I couldn’t talk about MIDs or UMPCs without giving a tip of the hat to two of the great guys I have had the pleasure to meet over the past 18 months who cover MIDs and UMPCs for a living:

• Steve “Chippy” Paine- runs site called MID Moves and UMPC Portal, knows his stuff and is an all around great guy.
• Sascha Pallenberg- runs site called Netbooknews, which of course covers netbooks but MIDs too.  Very passionate about his craft and a lot of fun.

So stay tuned for Part 2, “Why MIDs will inherit the earth”, an extreme view on how MIDs will squash PCs. J  Let me know any other things you would like to hear in this debate.

NOTES:

1) Using “MID” as a general term to describe a handheld computing device that has a 7” screen and below, typically doesn’t have a physical keyboard, typically doesn’t have spinning media, more portable than a notebook or netbook.  There are always exceptions to the rule, as is life.

Pat Moorhead is Vice President and Member of the Office of Strategy at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

There are two things to know about me. First, I have a muse, who I call Inez. Second, Inez has seen the future.

I understand the utility of ubiquitous data access, a user-friendly, fully synchronized online and offline existence. It may be too much to ask.

Some of today’s most popular applications, including enterprise email applications and web browsers, threaten to condemn users to “virtual Purgatory.” These applications attempt to synchronize increasingly large amounts of media rich data. The result is complex synchronization that is slowing clients to a crawl. Complex archive solutions are constantly struggling to encrypt, compress, archive, synchronize and recall data. The ensuing data smashup robs client PCs of free cycles, rendering them momentarily unresponsive, leaving me and thousands like me with millions of useless, small, utterly idle moments. With the rush toward multi-client data ubiquity, it looks like we are being condemned to Purgatory.

An entire generation of applications that attempt to host content simultaneously online/offline is coming. Software Titans are deploying browsers and client-compiled applications that speed the deployment of online/offline applications. Software architectures designed to provide data and application integrity while having to live in many places at once may drive our clients into virtual self destruction.

A leap to a complete and fully integrated Cloud may avoid virtual Purgatory.

The Cloud can more easily extend functionality to a very broad set of clients. Today’s clients are heterogeneous development environments with an abundance of client-specific code and widely varied capabilities. Try to find a phone that that can play a flash video? Or a television that can surf the web? Or a game that can be played on any client? Or a stereo that can play FLAC? Now imagine a singular client that can enable all of these usages on all of these platforms! That is the potential of the Cloud – application portability yielding rich application experiences on almost any form factor.

A Render Cloud is a layer of capability which helps complete the vision.  Render Clouds employ server technologies to render complex scenes in direct response to user input allowing the entirety of the application to reside in the Cloud. By rendering a scene remotely, the client is simplified, needing only to “play” the rendered scene, analogous to playing back video. Smaller, lower bandwidth clients receive scenes rendered at their resolution, while better connected  clients on faster connections with large screens receive high resolution experiences.

Rendering in the Cloud can solve the bandwidth problem by capping the bandwidth problem. All I need to do is refresh a screen with data at a particular resolution appropriate to the client’s screen and available bandwidth. No additional bandwidth needed between the client and the server, ever -  only three variables, screen size, interface visual integrity, and upstream user input. Peak bandwidth requirements become fixed and predictable.

The vision of rendering in the Cloud brings new meaning to What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG). If I just typed the letter Q, and I see the letter Q, then the letter Q is in my document somewhere far away on a well managed server in the Cloud. We can finally edit critical documents like spreadsheets online because we have visual confirmation that our critical keystrokes were received, not just sent.

The fully integrated Cloud can solve the multi-client problem. If the client can assemble the pixels and provide input, it can be as powerful as the most powerful super-computer. And once again, no complex client side applications and synchronization, with the added benefit of a cap on the bandwidth problem. Cell phones become supercomputers, capable of running the same applications I can run on any client, regulated by ergonomics and screen size.

The online Titans will work to deploy from the web down to the client, as the client software Titans move in the opposite direction. By deploying in the Cloud, both can avoid the painful intermediate step of trying to deploy complex online/offline applications. Both can avoid punishing users.

Inez suggests a more radical vision; partitioning the Cloud and the Client, suggesting that our data portability and privacy problem is an artifact that will soon disappear as we come to possess a powerful and omni-present client. Our Client will have strict rules for exchanging data with the Cloud, maintaining data integrity for both the Cloud and the Client. A topic for another day.

Learn more about Cloud Computing from AMD on our Virtualization blog.

Simon Solotko is a futurist and strategist who has lived in service of the extreme user community for his six year tenure at Advanced Micro Devices. Simon has been a creative force behind AMD64 technology and commercial, value, and extreme desktop processors and platforms. Simon previously spent 5 years in Strategic Planing for Raytheon’s Intelligence Information Systems Division focused on High Performance Computing systems integration. Simon’s interests include The Future and The Distant Past. Simon has attended Kent State University, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and The University of Texas studying Computer Science, Finance, Mathematics, Social Science, and Marketing.

Simon Solotko is a Senior Brand Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

At CES 2009, AMD demonstrated playing through a smartphone web browser, EA’s latest Mercenaries 2: World in FlamesTM. We also demonstrated watching through a smartphone browser a Hancock Blu-ray movie with the full menuing system. Both of these were streamed by the AMD Fusion Render Cloud reference design. So the browser matters.

This makes me naturally quick to try the latest browser or major revision of one. I spent 24 hours with the Apple Safari 4 Beta and wanted to share my experiences. 24 hours on beta software isn’t the complete picture but I can get maybe 85% of my perspective in that time frame.

I want to do some level setting up front- this is a beta and therefore should have bugs, that’s natural and I thank Apple for doing a public beta. Secondly, browser choices are driven by personal needs and preferences like simplicity, speed, familiarity, add-on features, and even enterprise-mandated browser standards for full compatibility. But many people are oblivious and simply use the browser that was installed on their PC bought from a local retailer.

So these are MY views based on my history and usage patterns. I am primarily a PC user but also have two Macs. I primarily use Firefox but use Internet Explorer as the corporate front-end to SAP applications. I use Chrome also. I obviously use Safari on my iPod Touch (no choice) and prefer the integrated browser on my Bold, Storm, and G1 Android versus mobile Opera.

I did my 24 hours of testing on three systems:

• Hand-built desktop with Windows Vista Business Edition 32-bit, AMD Phenom TM 9850 processor, ATI Radeon TM HD 4870 graphics
• HP Pavilion dv5 with Windows Vista Premium 64-bit, AMD Turion TM ZM-80 processor, ATI Radeon TM HD 3200 graphics
• Fujitsu Lifebook 2110 with Windows XP Pro 32-bit, AMD Turion TM 64 X2 TL-58 processor, ATI Radeon TM Xpress 1150 graphics

Plusses

• Easy to install, no error messages. Apple must supercharge this download through a big-time caching service because it was FAST.
• Imported my Internet Explorer and Firefox bookmarks without issues into legible folders.
• Not a single lock up on 100’s of pages from many different sites.
• Full functionality on the many sites I visited with the exception of the two important sites listed below.

Too Early To Tell

• Meaningful speed. Reportedly faster than Chrome and that means real fast. I cannot tell the difference between the speed of Chrome and Safari 4, but folks I follow are citing tests that show it is. CNet UK says it is faster than Chrome while PC Magazine says that it still trailed Chrome on some key tests. But they both say it’s faster than Firefox but yet I cannot tell ANY real experiential difference.
• iTunes-like scroll bar (picture below). This is under Bookmarks. I may end up loving this but right now I just don’t know.

Improvements I Would Like To See

• Add-ons. This is just more of an issue with Safari in general, not Safari 4. Safari has add-ons too, but in my opinion, don’t have the depth or breadth I want. Every cool tool I run across, it seems like Firefox has an add-on immediately.
• Multi-tab Startup. I want to pre-load 10 tabs whenever I open the browser. I use my browser for real work and pong from tab to tab like a day-trader, but I am trading information. I cannot figure out how to do that yet with Safari 4, maybe I cannot.

• Forced application close: On Windows 64 install, shut down Tweetdeck and other browsers without prompting.
• A few bugs: Hey it’s called beta for a reason, to ring out some of the last issues.  Blogger: comment validation error with perpetual “loading” message. WordPress: Perpetual loading of a few assets. Its a beta, live with it!

• Forward/Next page drop downs. This is truly personal and out of habit, but I want drop downs, not holding down the mouse button. See the difference below. I miss that.

Firefox

Internet Explorer

Safari

Conclusion

Safari 4 is an elegant and speedy browser and I am certain that Mac lovers will use it in droves — and maybe even a few iPhone/PC users if they see sufficient value in integration. I may fall in love with some of the more visual features at some point, but for right now, Firefox is fast enough for me, is easier for me to open my multiple tabbed workspace, and finally, for the kind of work I do, you can’t beat the Firefox add-ons.  What are your thoughts on Safari 4 Beta?

Pat Moorhead is Vice President of Advanced Marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

(As seen at Notebooks.com and Dell’s Digital Nomads)

Cloud computing is rising in interest even during these uncertain world economic times and AMD is taking an important leadership role in the creation of the cloud. And in opinion, smartphones are increasingly becoming one of the most important cloud clients. What makes smartphones cloud-unique is their portability and versatility. One minute a phone, the next a web browser, the next a video broadcast client. After blogging on the Android G1 and the BlackBerry Storm, and as co-owner of an iPhone (wife’s), people asked me why I didn’t blog on my personal workhorse, the BlackBerry Bold. Well, I aim to please and here it is.

(L to R: iPod touch, BlackBerry Storm, BlackBerry Bold, Android G1)

Net-net, the Blackberry Bold is my preferred device for work and also serves many good consumer functions as well. At work, I live off of email messaging, then the web, then phone functionality, and the Bold hits high marks on all fronts.

What I Like

• Email Messaging: If you have Blackberry Enterprise Server, the Bold becomes the Godzilla of messaging. Many times I will get email on my Blackberry before it even hits my desktop. Spooky. You can also easily configure accounts from Yahoo Mail, GMail and Outlook. Fast and reliable, for work.

• Upgradeable storage and replaceable battery: Android G1, Storm, and Bold all have upgradable memory and replaceable battery. It’s kind of a pet peeve I have with the iPhone. Call me conservative, but I don’t like the thought of being on a long business trip and not have a spare battery. I carry a 16GB microSD in an externally accessible memory slot. No need to remove batteries, just a side door. It fits my documents, videos, and music quite well and theoretically limitless with every added card.

MicroSD door closed

MicroSD door open

• MS Office File Support: Built-in and free, you can download, save, view, and even edit the latest PowerPoint, Word, and Excel files. Excel wasn’t that useful given column width issues, but Word and especially PowerPoint was impressive. For an added fee, you can even create these documents.

• Rock solid: The Storm was solid physically, but the Bold is rock-solid. I have dropped it on every axis, 25x with no issues. Whenever I dropped my Pearl, I would get a SIM card error or the battery would pop out. Drop the Bold… pick it up where you left off. I suspect my Bold could easily survive a 5′ drop onto its screen. Would you say that for your iPhone?

From an application stability standpoint, I only get lockups or issues on some of the more sophisticated video streaming apps like Qik, but for the other 99.9% of the time, rock solid.

• Multitasking & Copy Paste: Unlike some phones, the Bold can multitask. If you are anything like me, you are bouncing between the phone, Google maps, the browser, email, address book, and want to go back at the stage where you left off, not start the app over again.

I can copy and paste literally between EVERY application on the Bold and its add-on apps. Very impressive and a huge time-saver.

• Screen: This display is 480×320 pixels and strikingly crisp. It’s only about half the size of an iPhone, but then again it’s 100% screen, and doesn’t share it with a keyboard. The only situation I want more screen is for videos, some web sites, and maybe some PowerPoint.

On web surfing, Bold makes up for the screen size with a very ingenious toggle. If you are on a web page that is wider than the page or the text too small, just press the “z” key and the browser reorients into column mode and you can see the web site much, much better. Press “z” again and it pops into page view mode. The trackball also lets you navigate web pages in 360 degree movement and magnify the area by clicking on it.

• Standard mini-USB port: Bold uses a standard mini-USB port and cable to charge and transfer data. I have a lot of gadgets and don’t have time for proprietary USB implementations. I can handle USB, mini-USB, and micro-USB, but have no time for Palm Centro’s or iPhone proprietary connectors.

• Digital camera: The Bold takes decent pictures at 2MP with 1600×1200 max resolution. The built-in flash is very bright, and I always get comments from envious iPhone owners wishing they had a flash. The Bold supports geo-tagging which uses the GPS capability to log the long/lat data to use with supported photo packages.

• Music player: Same as the Storm. I easily synched my iTunes playlists and all my non-DRM’d songs played. The album art also transferred which was a nice “extra” I didn’t expect. The speaker volume was unexpectedly loud, but not louder than the Storm.

• Video player and recorder: I am very impressed with the breadth of video formats supported; unlike other popular phones…. uh iPhone. The Bold supports DivX 4, DivX 5/6 is partially supported, XviD is partially supported, H.263, H.264, and WMV3 are supported. For me, it did play non-DRM’d video from my iPod and Nano with no alterations, very convenient. You can reconvert loads of video which can take advantage of four processor cores. I used an AMD Phenom TM X4 9950 quad core processor overclocked to 3.2Ghz (using AMD Fusion for Gaming utility) and was appreciating all four of those wonderful cores.¹

The video recorder function is awesome, but only in medium or high lighting. It records in .3gp format in low density quality, fine for streaming real-time to the internet or even emailing. I use Qik to real-time stream video to the internet.

Improvements I would like to See

• Faster web Java-script: Like the Storm, web surfing was fast on most sites until I hit java-script-laden sites, then the browser appeared to slow down. The default browser setting is “off” and if a site really needs Java-script to accomplish a major task, it asks you. My point of reference here is the iPhone and the Touch which has fast browsing with or without Java-script turned on.

• Improved popular applications: I can live without iPhone “Fart” or G1′s “Level” app, but not without a better functioning FaceBook and Twitter application. What a faux pas when compared to the iPhone. It has been months and would expect more from RIM. If iPhone ever got a physical keyboard and multitasking, I could be swayed. With that said, BlackBerry has some very good and differentiated applications like Qik for real-time video streaming, Flickr for photo uploads, SlingPlayer TV, YouVersion Bible and E*Trade Mobile Pro.

Summary

Today I prefer the Bold as my cloud workhorse to the alternatives (iPhone, Storm, Android G1) and has enough good consumer features to keep me happy and interested for the time being. RIM will need to improve web Java-script execution time and up the ante on the popular applications if they want folks to continue to cheer them on. With talk of iPhone’s improved multitasking, copy-paste, and video recorder functionality, I hope this will provide impetus for some improvements. If not, maybe the Palm Pre’.

I would love to hear from your experiences with the BlackBerry Bold.

¹ AMD’s PRODUCT WARRANTY DOES NOT COVER DAMAGES CAUSED BY OVERCLOCKING, EVEN WHEN OVERCLOCKING IS ENABLED VUA AMD SOFTWARE. THE AMD FUSION FOR GAMING UTILITY MAY DISABLE SECURITY / ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE, OR ADVERSELY AFFECT YOUR SYSTEM. REVIEW ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING.

Pat Moorhead is Vice President of Advanced Marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

]]> http://blogs.amd.com/home/2009/02/17/blackberry-bold-my-mobile-cloud-workhorse/feed/ 9 http://blogs.amd.com/home/2008/12/01/one-week-with-the-new-blackberry-storm/ http://blogs.amd.com/home/2008/12/01/one-week-with-the-new-blackberry-storm/#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:03:00 +0000 Pat Moorhead /patmoorhead/archive/2008/12/01/blackberry-storm-smartphone-verizon-review-cloud.aspx Continue reading]]>

It was Day 1 yesterday for the T-Mobile G1 Android phone and I wanted to share my early impressions of the device. 24 hours is NOT enough time to complete a full evaluation, as mobile devices like this are very personal and take months to fully explore and judge. But I think within 24 hours it is safe to say that you can do about 75% of an evaluation on its capabilities on that single day. My basis for comparison is the two phones I have used the most: the iPhone and the BlackBerry Pearl. While these phones aren’t exactly positioned the same, it is what I have used and you may have also.

G1 Android Plusses

• Size: I carry a BlackBerry Pearl for business and while the Android G1 larger; it is still in that size range to be carried comfortably in a pocket or even a front shirt pocket. (From R to L, BlackBerry Pearl, Android G1, iPod touch)

• Trackball: This rocks…completely. With one thumb, I could basically control every application. Using the trackball with Google StreetView was absolutely amazing.

• Back button: To the right of the trackball, it enhances one thumb control. Other popular phones require two hands to do most anything.
• QWERTY keyboard: Just slide the display out and you get a complete QWERTY keyboard, just like your computer except you use your two thumbs to type. I have above-average sized fingers and it worked well. I would have preferred higher-rise keys, but they work OK.

• High-quality, touch-screen: If this is what you get into, you have it. It lacks auto-orientation like the iPhone/Touch, but pull out the keyboard and the orientation chances.

• Vision of an open software ecosystem: While not very many apps existed on Day 1 in the Android Market, I think there will be based on the Android Open Source Project , and they will be very cool and useful. I was very impressed that I could directly download and install an application (Twitroid, Twitter for Android), something I cannot do on my iPhone/Touch.
• 3MP camera: The photos I took looked good and comparable to many digital cameras I have owned in the past. More mega-pixels, better headroom if you need to crop, cut or blow up.
• GPS with Street View and Compass View: Unbelievable. Physically walk around and the G1 will show you what you will be seeing, in panoramic view. You turn around and its view turns around.
• Replaceable battery: I get a little grumpy stuck at the Moscow airport at 2AM with no juice. ‘Nuff said.

G1 Android Minuses

• No video player: Many $49 phones (with plan like my daughter’s) offer MP4 or AVI video. I don’t get it with a device priced from $179-$399. The manual talks about storing “video clips” on the microSD memory card, so I am expecting this in the future.
• T-Mobile Austin 3G network: Seemed spotty, even near downtown. Could barely get EDGE in my house located in a highly populated neighborhood.
• Wi-Fi range and speed: Compared to the iPhone/Touch, it seemed much, much slower and with lower range, but I didn’t do any scientific tests.
• 8GB memory limitation: Will be hard to keep multitudes of applications, pictures, music, and (hopefully) video on 8GB. Subsets of subsets of your media collection are a bummer.
• 14-day evaluation period: iPhone offers 30 days through AT&T. A new phone, particularly a new concept phone, should have at least as many days as the de-facto “cool” phone.

Too Early to Determine

• Battery life: Much shorter than my BlackBerry Pearl, but then again it does a lot more.
• Open software implications: A few of the applications I downloaded gave me some errors, but I expected it because I experienced the same with the first iPhone and also because the platform is more “open” than the alternatives.
• Exchange Support: iPhone didn’t have it at launch and neither does Android G1. Can’t imagine that staying the same if Android G1 wants to ever get into medium and large businesses.

I like the Android G1 after 24 hours but as I said, the true test comes after weeks of real use. The exciting part is that I think like a fine wine, it will get better with time as the reported hoard of open source software shows up and the basics like Wi-Fi are improved, just as they were with the iPhone. Then I could love it. If you have tried out one of the Android G1s, I would love to hear from you and your experiences.

Pat Moorhead is Vice President of Advanced Marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.