My TouchPad Today: Bezos & Hastings - The Dirty Duo of Internet Business

Yes, my friends, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Reed Hastings of Netflix/Quickster/Whatever are the Dirty Duo of Internet business.

Hastings has been on my "bad" list for a long time. His recent pricing and company split shenanigans were only real-life confirmation of what my built-in BS detector told me when I first saw him on Charlie Rose's program several years ago. (I suspect that in real life he sets off BS detectors at a distance of five miles!)

On the other hand, I've been a Bezos admirer until recently... namely yesterday when Bezos/Amazon announced their new Kindles, and finally decided to make good on the HP firesale pricing of the TouchPad for all purchasers. Ya coulda knocked me over with a feather!

Its painfully obvious what both of these business gurus did will, in the long run, be beneficial to their customers, employees and shareholders, but its equally clear that its a lousy way to treat your customers and employees in the here and now.

Hastings and Netflix did the right thing by spinning off the DVD-by-mail business, but failed miserably at managing their customers through the changes... hence the uproar at Greed Hastings's arrogance. And I'm sure that its been much more painful for Netflix's employees than if a proper change management plan -- or any plan -- had been used with their customers.

Bezos/Amazon's TP price rebate decision was a great move business-wise because it put cash into tablet customer's hands on the same day that it announced the modestly priced Kindle Fire and the other new Kindle models. Brilliant... but by holding out for a month, your customer-facing employees took an undeserved beating on your behalf. Your customers and their money were held hostage for pure, naked greed on your part.

Somehow, Jeff, your proclamation yesterday about the type of company you and Amazon have chosen to be set off BS detectors around the world.

Mr. Bezos, have you met your new roomie Mr. Hastings?

Which of you is taking the top bunk?




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My TouchPad Today: Splashtop Remote HD - The Tortoise or The Hare?

During my past couple of days of tinkering with (actually trudging along with) Spalshtop Remote HD for the TouchPad, I can truthfully report that Mr. Hare never made an appearance.

This puppy -- er, tortoise -- will never be confused with anything related to speed.

It lives in the same neighborhood as families named Sluggish and Finicky.


All of that being said, the slowness probably isn't actually Splashtop's fault. This is, after all, a remote desktop app, subject to the whims of the Internet connection gods.

And is the finickiness related to the same gods? I'm thinkin' "yes".

So what's the problem here?

Me thinks that it goes directly to the concept of remotely controlling a mouse-based device with a multi-touch device... You can do it, but how much can you actually do, and how much can you actually do well... and what's the cost in terms of time and effort expended?

Sure, you can stream video or audio. Sure you can read/surf with it, but the experience starts to break down and become an exercise in frustration when you need to scroll vertically in a window. Too much effort for too little in return.

A deeper breakdown of the experience reveals itself when you attempt to create some content in an application like PowerPoint. Yes, it can be done, but, once again, at what cost?


So, getting back to the fabled Tortoise and the Hare...

Splashtop Remote or any other similar app is almost guaranteed to be the Tortoise.

The real questions are how much do you really need remote access via your TouchPad and what type of work do you need to accomplish?

Assuming that your need is more in the direction of accessing content, rather than creating content, Splashtop Remote HD is a good purchase for your TouchPad. Otherwise, consider yourself warned!



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My TouchPad Today: The Tablet Won't Kill the PC - The PC Lives On and On and...

Tablets like the TouchPad are obviously here to stay, but will they kill the PC and make it disappear from our lives?

Nope! Its probably gonna be with us for longer than any of the so-called visionaries can imagine. (Though tablets will get much better in the long run at creating content... one of the PC's fortes.)

Sure, IBM saw some kind of handwriting on the wall several years ago and dumped their PC business on Lenovo. Sure, HP, in its current stupor, is mulling dumping their PC group. But this kind of thought and vision is taking place kinda way up in the business stratosphere.

So what's happening in the dens, basements and garages of the world? People are clinging to the PC in its many iterations of the past 20+ years. The PC lives on and on and on...

How do I know?

First off, I'm generally "progressive" with technology, but I do find myself nursing along a 2003 vintage mini-tower PC -- holding my data going back to 1993 -- that has been upgraded from XP to Vista to Win 7. Its final retirement has been deferred countless times. Plus, along with my HP TP, Win7 laptop, and Pre2 smartphone, I'm holding on to a fleet of PDA's, laptops, and netbooks (and related software) in various stages of semi-retirement, ready to jump back into the game at a moment's notice.

Secondly, and more importantly, last week I had an experience that brought me back to earth vis a vis the actual penetration of newer technology into those dens, basements, and garages I mentioned earlier. A friend told me that her husband had a computer that refused to boot. I naturally offered to assist in reviving the beast. What I found was a bit of a shocker...

The fella uses three PC's in his business and they range from one that is vintage 2000+ to two that are 1995-ish. The older ones actually date back to when he started to computerize his work in the mid-90's... which was the last time I chatted with him!

Why hasn't he done more updating along the way? There are probably a bunch of reasons, but the main one is that the older PC's support older equipment he still uses in his business today and has no need to update at this point in his life.

Now, just imagine how many times this type of scenario is repeated across the country and around the world!

The PC lives on and on and on...



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My TouchPad Today: The HP CEO Shuffle - Good News/Bad News

Alas, the ouster of Leo Apotheker as HP CEO is one of those classic good news/bad news scenarios...


The Good News -- Meg Whitman is the new HP CEO, meaning that Leo Apothecary is out.

The Bad News -- Meg Whitman is the new HP CEO. Feels like an "any port in a storm" move on the part of the HP board.



Some other thoughts on the matter...

• The Good News -- (Insert any name here) is the new HP CEO, meaning that Leo Apotheker is out.

• If Pee Wee Herman, like Meg Whitman, were sitting on the HP board since January, could he have been the new CEO today?

I'm not seeing Whitman as the fix to what ails HP.

Anyone have Pee Wee Herman's phone number handy?




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My TouchPad Today: A Slow Day While Waiting on Leo's Fate

It was another slow day for me in the world of TouchPad.

Other than waiting on HP's board to decide the fate of beleaguered CEO Leo Apotheker, I twiddled a bit with a couple of apps...

• Tea Reader -- Had to delete and reinstall the app this morning after it couldn't load my Google Reader feeds. Spent a goodly amount of time futzing around with getting it to re-access the correct one -- the one with news feeds -- of my two Google accounts.  Some user error, some app stubbornness.

• Spaz HD Beta Preview 2 -- Downloaded this app last night and took it out for its first real spin today. I like the fact that it displays a full list of the tweets that I follow, unlike the truncated list provided in the app I've been using.  Beyond that... Meh.

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My TouchPad Today: Mornings with the TouchPad and the Pre2

Nothing spectacularly new happening in my TouchPad world over the past few days, so I'll go here with something about my morning routine with my TouchPad and Pre2.


Everyday my electronic duo of the TouchPad and Pre2 get a bit of a morning workout. Here's the agenda...

• PreCentral.net
• The Charlotte Observer
• Boston.com / The Boston Globe
• Twitter
• The New York Times
• Tea Reader (for my Google Reader feeds)
• Blogger.com (to check on my blogs... My TouchPad Today and The Friday Special)

How do you start the day with your TouchPad or other electronic tools?



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My TouchPad Today: CE Compass Leather Case - The Same, but Different?

Back in July I bought a CE Compass case for my TouchPad from Amazon and posted a couple of items about it...

• My TouchPad Today: OTA Update and Other Thoughts
• My TouchPad Today: Drift in CE Compass HP TouchPad Case (Video Mini-Review)

This past week I bought the same case for my wife's TP and had a bit of a surprise -- albeit pleasant -- when it arrived yesterday... It's the same, but different!

Some of the differences apparent at first glance...

• Better quality of materials
• Better cut and fit of case to the device
• Velcro strips added to secure flap that holds the device in the case (Reduces "drift" of device in the case, which was an issue with the prior version of the case.)
• Concealed magnetic closures for case cover restyled and moved away from the edges of the case
• Camera lens cutout (originally a circle) is now the same "swooping" open-sided type as used for the Home button

Overall, the darned thing just looks better now. The original version looked and felt as if it was a generic case that just happened to fit the TP. This new version actually looks like it was designed to fit the TouchPad.

Note: July version had hole punched near bottom right corner

after purchase to allow more light to reach ambient sensor.

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My TouchPad Today: Tea Reader - An All-Star Player!

Continuing the baseball-related theme from yesterday's post about Video Flood HD being a utility infielder...

Tea Reader is a definite All-Star on my team of TouchPad tablet apps!

With the Enyo-style three sliding panes of info, it has reinvigorated my interest -- and ability -- to follow my Google Reader news feeds.

Over time, it had become a real chore to scroll and slog through my subscription feeds in the Google Reader interface (Desktop = poor / Mobile = brutally bad ).

Tea Reader removes the scroll and slog with the ability to rapidly flick and view through the (sometimes lengthy) list of stories in each of my feeds. This comes in very, very handy when your feeds contain a number of overlapping and duplicate posts.

(For my money, Tea Reader is an even better Enyo fit and user experience than the HP's own built-in email app.)

Would it surprise you that Tea Reader is batting "clean-up" in my TouchPad lineup?



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My TouchPad Today: Video Flood HD - A Utility Infielder?

Video Flood HD kinda reminds me of the utility infielder a baseball team will carry on its roster... Able to play multiple positions and fill a hole in a pinch, but not an everyday player. A utility player needed in the daily lineup for more than the short term, usually has his weaknesses and limitations exposed quickly.

Nevertheless, I love utility players. They're a valuable and important part of the game.

After several days of use, yes, I see Video Flood as a classic utility player. It certainly fills a hole in my roster of TouchPad tablet apps, but isn't strong enough to play every day, meaning it won't replace or unseat my other sources for the same types of video content.

It can play video clips from categories like News, Entertainment and Technology... But it largely replicates what I can access on my Roku HD box or Windows 7 Media Center on my laptop.

When it comes to TV shows and movies, its the same story. There isn't enough "there" to make it an every day player.

Obviously, its biggest virtue is that it is a tablet app... That's what gets it on my roster and will keep it on my roster until that better player come along.

(Note: I have not yet tried the podcast and YouTube features of Video Flood.)

Batter up?



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My TouchPad Today: Quickoffice HD - PreCentral Gets One Right

The boys over at PreCentral got one right in their "mixed" review of Quickoffice HD.

Check it out here.



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My TouchPad Today: Exploring Some Apps

Over the last few days I've been busy with some things -- gasp -- not related to the HP TouchPad! Nevertheless I have snuck in a little app exploration...

My TouchPad

• WiFi Media Synch - Now, a select set of files on my laptop are wirelessly synched to both my Pre2 and TP.
• Video Flood - A lot of the content duplicates what is already available to me via my Windows 7 laptop and my Roku HD box... wirelessly! Video quality I've seen thus far is excellent.
• PDFMyWebPro - Not a perfect app, but will be handy for me... when it works. (I've been using the full version of Adobe Acrobat on desktops and laptops for 10+ years.) This app fills an important gap in the tablet computing experience for me.
• Gemini File Manager "Remote"- Don't know how much use this will get in my every day computing. I'm more likely to use box.net, et al, to access copies of files on my TP.

My Wife's TouchPad

I've now added a few more files to my wife's TP, in anticipation of the day when she actually starts to use it...

• HP Play (downloaded to laptop and then used it to synch her music to her TP)
• Video Flood 
• Audiophile HD

Now, off to more exploration and -- gasp -- things not related to the TouchPad!



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My TouchPad Today: TouchPad Battery on Standby - Update

In a post last week I mentioned that the battery in my wife's little-used firewall TP was draining about 20 - 25% per day when turned off and not plugged into a Touchstone or conventional USB charger.

Well, this week the battery is showing almost no loss when kept at idle and off a charger... A pleasant development.

(I wonder if the battery has stabilized itself after experiencing more charging cycles?)



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My TouchPad Today: Audiophile HD Pro - Make Me Pay More!

A couple of days ago I downloaded Audiophile HD Pro ($2.99) from the HP app catalog, using some of the credit remaining from the $50 promo code HP gave to the earliest TouchPad adopters.

First impression

There's a lot to like here...

• 6-band equalizer
• Crossfade
• Adjustable bass and treble controls
  

The trouble I have here (and this is not a knock on the developer) is that I want more...

• More control over the equalizer
• More control over the base and treble ranges
  

And, oh, by the way... I'll pay, really pay, for an app that will give me something closer to what I can get with a PC-based audio program.


A confession... I've never fully "got" the concept of phone and tablet apps being priced at figures like $.99, $1.99, $2.99, etc.

Sure, I get the part about phones and tablets not being as robust as their PC brethren devices, therefore apps are "lightweight".

Sure, I get the parts about $.99 or so being a bargain for users and a nice little revenue stream for developers if a given app catches fire with the phone and tablet user masses.

But what about bringing to market higher quality, more polished apps that -- within the limits of phone and tablet hardware and OS's -- give the best possible user experience, rather than a lukewarm version of what's available on the big boys. I'll pay for it with my promo code or cold hard cash!


Two parting thoughts...

• Build it, and they will come
• Make me pay more!

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My TouchPad Today: Reading on the TouchPad

A confession... Some of my favorite sites are not an easy read on the TouchPad.

One example would be the mobile version of boston.com (The Boston Globe).

Here are a couple of pictures which show the same page on an Andriod tablet and on the TouchPad...

The pix -- taken with a Pre2 in the wonderful lighting conditions of a local McDonald's restuarant -- perhaps won't convince you, but, ya gotta trust me here, the Android version on the left is much easier on my eyes than the TouchPad sample on the right.

This certainly ain't a scientific experiment, but it is a slice of real life!


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My TouchPad Today: A Bookmark Trap - The Future is Now

A month ago I posted an item A Bookmark Trap?...  noting that the new item "Clear Bookmarks" on the webOS browser preferences list was an accident waiting to happen. This item precedes the familiar items Clear History/Ciookies/Cache that have been in previous versions of webOS.

Well, the future is now and the accident has happened!

A couple of days ago I was having lunch in a restaurant with free WiFi and something was wrong with the connection. After a bit of fruitless troubleshooting, I decided to switch over to the mobile hotspot on my Pre2.

As it turned out, trying to connect to the phone was also fruitless... and the TouchPad was nearly unresponsive.

I managed to open preferences in the browser and intended to clear my history, cookies and cache to see if this basic troubleshooting move might get things back on the right footing.

Alas, it was not to be... My first automatic/reflexive swipe at the preferences list blew away my list of browser bookmarks.

Gee, thanks, HP! I couldn't have done it without ya!


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My TouchPad Today: The Brutality of TouchPad Copy and Paste - LikeThe Stone Age?

The Copy/Paste functionality on the current HP TouchPad can be readily summed up in three words.

• Brutal
• Brutal
• Brutal

This isn't a new discovery, but the release of Quickoffice HD (w/document editing) shines a whole new light on how badly this function was designed.

I think the cavemen could work faster with a chisel and stone!


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My TouchPad Today: TouchPad Battery on Standby

My wife isn't really using her TouchPad yet, so I'm having to keep a bit of an eye on it...

Seems like the TouchPad drains about 20 - 25% of its battery power per day when turned off and not plugged into a Touchstone or conventional USB charger.

(Just a casual observation over several days this week.)


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My TouchPad Today: TouchPad Battery Life

For me, the battery life of my TouchPad continues to be one of the nice little plusses of tablet computing. Gone is the constant battery indicator watching of the laptop world.

Thus far, when working unplugged, I haven't had the need to plug in at any point in a given day to get more juice to keep going.

My guesstimate is that I'm using in the vicinity of 15% of my battery power per hour, unplugged and continuously on wifi.

I can live with that quite nicely!

How about you? Enter a comment below.



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