Review - Boxee Box

I'll keep this one short and sweet - the reason I purchased a Boxee and Boxee Live TV was to help free us of the shackles of a $150+ Comcast (aholes - will save this for another post) bill. One my ask - Gabe, what in the hell is a Boxee? To which I would reply - an Apple TV that isn't crippled...and for the reading impaired:

While it may not have the 'hockey puck' aesthetic panache of the Apple TV, or the "simple" remote (read for idiots), or walled garden content limitations...the Boxee has it's charms and has won over my cold shriveled heart of cynicism.

One might argue - Gabe, you're just pimping this product because you're out $160 plus the $50 for the Boxee Live TV dongle and you're trying to justify the cost to your pathetically limited number of blog followers (do I have your attention now?)

To which I would reply - That certainly may be the case (I'm looking at you, my lovely wife), but I would then point you, my dear reader to following review (finally, the jerk is done blabbering):

Executive summary (all you supine folks out there can read this and then skip to the summary):  The Boxee Box and Boxee Live TV is a robust, feature complete, easy to use media device that has enough content offerings/access to satisfy all the cord cutters (and potential ones) out there who want to free themselves from the bondage of Cable TV without the walled garden approach taken by Apple. It offers access to a wide variety of pay-for-play as well as subscription based content sources and presents them in a friendly and intuitive user interface that is controlled by an nimble yet simple remote.

The Good:

- The user interface is simple, clean and responsive

- The remote is simple, yet flexible enough for more demanding users. It has one touch navigation on the front and a full(ish) keyboard on the back.
- It has a web browser with flash...'nuff said
- It allows access to local media sources (even items purchased in iTunes - Gasp!)
- It has a wide variety of apps that you can download and install
- If you are technically inclined there are a ton of mods to suit any geek's need
- It has access to basic cable via the Boxee Live TV (this is a game changer) - pair this with a SimpleTV (DVR for the Boxee) and it's even better

The Bad

- The audio (if not connected to an amp/sound system) can be very soft and then obnoxiously loud without warning
- The Boxee can become unresponsive if it's been asleep for too long, or is trying to chug through a very large local media file (read blu-ray rip)
- Software updates - I have owned it for several months and have yet to see a software update...this could cause concern about the future of the device
- Remote can be confusing for some and has a moderate learning curve

Why should I buy a Boxee?

- If you are a casual TV watcher - Ditch the cable tv and get the Boxee + Boxee Live TV  and you'll probably save yourself $20-50 a month (depending on cable package)
- If you have a ton of local content on say a NAS, SAN or home theater PC.
- It offers more content access than an Apple TV, Roku, et al... - this is of course unscientific but I am right
- It has a damn web browser with Flash (the web is going HTML 5 so this is moot in a year...but I digress)
- Because I said so

To wrap up - The Boxee Box and Boxee Live TV combine to make a great media device that is flexible (looking at you Apple), nimble and offers a small fighting chance of making cable tv providers think long and hard about lowering their prices and offering better content  as the threat of cable cutters looms large on the horizon with the emergence of a tech savvy, cost conscious, impatient and increasingly mobile oriented generation.

One last thing - Bleep you Comcast, and that's from the heart.

Burn patent trolls, burn!

Open up any news related site and the odds of reading about another frivolous ass lawsuit are about the same as looking outside and spotting several idiots (especially if you're near a Best Buy). This is a common in regards to insanely stupid civil affairs at is with the technology sector.

Let's be brutally honest though, the only reason why this crap happens is only because the legal infrastructure in this country is hopelessly (and I hope not on purpose) out of touch and out of date. The USPTO is about as sophisticated and up to speed with the pace of technological advancement as the Amish are with the latest developments in transportation. In the end, we only have ourselves to blame here, because the USPTO and the legal infrastructure are a reflection of us. By this I mean the consumers that purchase goods/services, our elected officials that write the legislation, the court system that upholds or strikes down said legislation, the media that informs the citizenry and the corporations that abide by the legislation and media scrutiny.

The problems with the system (if one can call it that) are staggering in scope and complexity, so for the sake of brevity let's focus on a few things:

1) The USPTO Does not have the bandwidth or expertise to evaluate the flood of soft/hardware patent applications.
2) Cost of Patent Trolls on the US Economy - $29 Billion dollars and growing
3) Excessive patent suits stifle innovation - see reason #2

Poor, Poor USPTO

For a little perspective on the sheer number of patent applications that come into the USPTO, the total number of Domestic/Foreign applications for patents has grown from 164,306 in 1991 to 503,582 in 2011 or roughly a tripling of applications in 20 years.

To make matters worse, the rapid pace of technological advancement also dramatically adds to the complex nature of the patents that the poor USPTO employees have to evaluate and approve or deny.

The backlog in the patent approval process typically has a larger impact on smaller firms: if a small start-up can't get a patent to protect their intellectual property in a timely fashion, a larger company came come along and use said IP and make a killing due to the fact that it hasn't had to invest in R&D and can use economies of scale to profit at a greater pace than said start-up. 

To sum up, the USPTO is being outgunned by the volume/complexity of the patent applications that are submitted...if we are going to start anywhere in addressing this problem, we need to give the front line troops in this war some bigger guns and not set them up to get crushed.

Here's what I think the USPTO needs (figuratively):

Die Trolls Die!

Personally I think patent trolls are a leach on society and the owners of said companies should be shunned and exiled to the deserts of Australia. Now that I've regained my composure somewhat, let's talk about patent trolls in a well, more subdued fashion.

In short a patent troll is a company that in it's first definition is a company that aggressively enforces it's patents through the legal system...but has evolved (need proof of evolution? see the behavior of patent trolls) into an entity that stockpiles patents for defensive and offensive purposes. Lately, and more insidiously they have exhibited the following behaviors: suing to ban/halt the sale of a particular product (Apple, you bastards...the Galaxy Tab looks nothing like the iPad), purchasing patents from bankrupt (in the process of becoming bankrupt - looking at you RIM/Kodak) companies to stockpile for defensive and offensive purposes, and this is the real soul crusher - following start-ups, waiting for them to get VC funding and then pursuing legal action...like I said, real AHOLES.

It has been estimated that patent troll companies are causing a $29 Billion dollars in damage to the US economy alone. To put that in perspective: that is more than the total GDP of Jordan/Bahrain, would pay for 193 F-25 Raptor fight jets, or pay for a couples schools...but you get the picture.

Stop twisting the knife!

Aside from the monetary damages that are afflicted on the economy by our broken patent system (if you can call it a system), there are many intangibles: damage done to corporate reputation by banning a product due to lawsuit, the MADesque stockpiling of patents, bankrupting of companies due to exorbitantly large judgments (especially for small/mid-size companies), taxes on existing products due to threat of lawsuit (Microsoft and the Android license extortion), and the list goes on and on ad infinitum.

In the end, all of these things have two end results: 1) The cost of litigation is passed on to the consumer via higher prices for products/services, and innovation is choked. So in a few words: big boys win, small guys get screwed.

So, what can we do to solve the problems with the current patent situation?

1) Nilay Patel (from The Verge)and to some extent Paul Graham (YCombinator) argue that we should allow inventors to charge whatever they want for a limited time, and then set a compulsory rate after a certain period of time.
2) Give the USPTO more resources: a larger and better educated workforce to sift through the dross and approve the legitimate
3) Appoint more tech savvy judges to the bench (see Judge Posner - you're my new hero) to again, sift through the dross and allow the legitimate

Ok, I'm done - peace out.

Credit where credit is due:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/us_stat.htm - Patent Statistics
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2195.html - GDP Statistics
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303292204577514782932390996.html# - Troll Tactics
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120709/BIZ07/307099933/1031/BIZ - USPTO backlog
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/07/02/california-to-get-patent-office-to-help-with-federal-backlog/
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18563_162-6755116.html - USPTO backlog
http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/07/05/judge.tossed.apple.patent.case.against.motorola/ - Jude Posner
http://www.paulgraham.com/softwarepatents.html
http://www.theverge.com/2011/08/11/broken-patent-system/

Think your phone/service is awesome? Nope

If you're feeling good about rocking the new Galaxy S III, iPhone 4s, Blackberry nobody cares or Windows bladdy bladdy blah....you might want to sit down and reach for the nearest box of Kleenex, because I'm about to make your cry a river of sadness because you spent $200 on shit.

I present to you the Softbank 102SH and the Aquos Phone Zeta - Highlights of both include: Dust/water proofing, mobile wallet (pay for anything/anywhere - want to buy a beer from a vending machine with your phone? no problem!), Mobile HDTV, control other gadgets with an IR controller and do global roaming with GSM, CDMA and get speeds up to 75 Mbps down. If that's not enough to send you into a rage spiral, how would you like to get 110 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up? With the Huawei 102HW Ultra WiFi hotspot you can :-)

I bet that if you went to Japan, bragged about your awesome new AT&T wtf ever phone...any typical Japanese would pat you on the head like a retard and say "well isn't that cute"?

So...now that you've read this are you feeling like running down to your local carrier of your choice and go postal on their asses for charging you out the wazoo for a stone age phone/service? Here are your two options:

or my personal preference 

My First Review - Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket

If I was forced to describe the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket in one word, it would be - competent. The design isn't anything to write home about, but it gets the job done and it isn't terribly flashy or pretentious. 

I will be focusing this review on 4 main areas of interest: Look and Feel, Hardware, Software and Why would anyone buy this phone?

Look and Feel 

1) Build Quality - In a word, this phone feels solid. It feels comfortable in my hand (I don't have bear claws, but neither do I have petite hands), and is easily worked with one hand for simple tasks. It feels less fragile than it's older brother, the original Samsung Galaxy S II (I constantly felt like I was going to break that one). 

2) Form Factor - I enjoy that fact that the form factor is larger than an iPhone but smaller than the comically gigantic Samsung Galaxy Note, it strikes a good balance between the two. When I help my wife or mother-in-law with an issue on their iPhones, I feel cramped and hampered by the smaller size. I have tried out a Samsung Galaxy Note in an AT&T store...and let's just say it's plain silly big.

3) Screen - Samsung has done a great job with their Super AMOLED Plus displays, and the Skyrocket is no exception. While it doesn't have the crispness of the iPhone Retina Display, it looks and feels comfortable on the eyes and won't strain the eyes too much during a full day's use.

Hardware

1) Construction - The body is made of plastic, but it doesn't feel like it's put together with legos (unlike the original Motorola Atrix that I had before this). It doesn't hold a candle to the solid/metal construction of the iPhone 4/4s or the unibody build of the new HTC One X, but it's a happy medium between cheap and high end.

2) Camera/Camcorder - It takes decent pictures, but it's slow to take a picture and quite often they turn out blurry. This is one of the weakest points from a hardware perspective, and I have only used the front-facing camera few times for Skype calls...and I didn't hear any complaints from the other end of the line.

3) Horsepower - Under the hood is a Qualcomm APQ8060 S3 processor, which for the most part makes for an enjoyable Android experience with smooth App performance and navigation around Android (much better in Android 4.0.4 than it was when I started out with Android 2.3.6, but that's for later).

4) Network Performance - I'm AT&T, and I originally bought this phone in the anticipation that LTE would be available in the Seattle area...but cut to 6 months later and my dream of 15+ mpbs up and 2-3 mpbs is a dream unfulfilled. Other than having my hopes dashed by a lack of LTE in Seattle, the HSPA+ (I refuse to say 4G) is passable (when I'm not being throttled by AT&T for going over my data limit..even though I'm on an unlimited data plan...I'll save that for another post)...but it can't hold a candle to Verizon LTE.
5) Call Quality - No complaints from myself or people on the other side of the conversation and I don't believe that I've ever had a dropped call that wasn't the fault of a dead zone. 


Software - where things get tricky

1)  Android - Until I downloaded and installed a series of 'leaked' Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich - ICS) ROMs for my phone, well my experience was downright crap. My battery would last maybe 4 hours on a full charge with moderate use, the OS would lock up, apps would crash very often and I wouldn't get email notifications (a slightly important part of my job). AT&T customer support was at best inept and at worse downright hostile to my requests for help (see my post Know your Enemy), so I got fed up and helped myself. It only took a quick Google search to find a couple leaked ICS ROMs and I was off to the races. The first leaked build had a couple bugs (couldn't receive incoming calls), but 2 ROMs later... everything was butter. In a future post, I will discuss Android fragmentation and the abominable things that the US cell phone carriers and manufacturers do harm the overall Android experience.
2) Apps - Applications for Android are a mixed bag, for the most part the selection is pretty decent, but let's face it...iOS rules the roost when it comes to quality/quantity of apps. To make matters worse, a side-by-side comparison of the same app on an Android/iPhone will make it very plain that apps on iOS simple look and perform better. That being said, I am sufficiently happy with the selection/quality of apps, and I typically only use a core set of 10-15 apps to get the job done on a day to day basis.

Why would anyone buy this phone?


When I bought this phone 6 months ago, it was the king of the block - it was one of the first phones to bring LTE to the AT&T party, it has a decently fast dual-core proc, decent amount of RAM, a nice display and was easy on the eyes/hands. It's still a pretty decent phone and if you can find the right custom ROM (cyanogenmod et al), it's makes getting into this phone a lot easier. The going rate for this phone is $99, so if you're looking for a solid, well designed phone for half the price of current iteration Android phones on AT&T then I would be hard pressed to recommend anything else that's on the market. To sum up, I would give this phone a well deserved 'probably buy' recommendation now, but 6 months ago I was saying this:

Know Your Enemy

Cell phone carriers are shit. That's right, I said it and I make no bones about it.

They offer horrible customer service (tons of experience with that), force cell phone manufacturers to build the phones that they want, install bloatware/spyware on the phones they sell, continually raise rates/change data plans to suit their needs and continually fight for no oversight of our precious public spectrum.

1) Horrible customer service - I have AT&T (I know, I know) and I don't know if I can say enough horrible things about the level of customer service that I have received when calling into get an issue resolved. I can point to any number of surveys that, depending on the how the stars align will point to one of the bigServi 4 carriers being the best or worst.

2) Services Rendered/Cost balance tipping towards cost - Carriers are increasingly trying to nickle and dime users (most noticeably smartphone users - has anyone seen a cell phone ad that isn't for a smartphone?) using a variety of mechanisms: charging for texting (the cost per data usage for an MMS is obscene, much like the price of ink toner/liter), taking away unlimited data plans, throttling unlimited data plans, pushing horrible family data plans.

3) Force cell phone manufacturers to build the phones that they want - I get it, you own the network, you get to decide what goes on it. This forces manufacturers to cater to the carrier, which limits design/function/capabilities and in essence let's them pick the winners and losers in the handset arena. All of this stifles innovation and is very anti-free market (which 'Merica is seemingly obsessed with).


4) Installation of bloatware/spyware - Everyone who has owned a smartphone (that isn't an iPhone) will noticed pre-installed apps on their phones that come courtesy of their carrier, usually it pushes a carrier based product/service. They also install software like CarrierIQ (see link below) or something similar. The carriers will claim that said software is installed for "diagnostic" purposes to improve their network and phones...tin foil hat types like myself and others cry SPYWARE (gov't back door). I'm not sure about you, but I don't want any of this crap a phone that I use for business and more importantly personal use. 


5) Continually fight for no oversight in regards to their usage of public spectrum - Pretty much says it all...you have a limited resource and the companies that own (lease from the government) continually fight tooth and nail to make sure that the public has no clue as to how it is being managed. Result: Phones that aren't cross-compatible across carriers and spectrum hoarding which only drives up the costs for the end user.


Ok, so now that I've outlined a few of the things that are wrong with the cellular industry in America, how can I as a conscious consumer help fix things?


1) Don't buy into a contract, go pre-paid or month to month - This will help take away the leverage that carriers have over handset manufacturers and will allow you the consumer to hop from carrier to carrier with ease if you don't like their service


2) Buy an unlocked phone - (Directly from Apple/Samsung/Google/etc) Subsidies (the reason why you only pay $200 or so for a smartphone in exchange for a 2 year contract) stifle innovation in the handset market, so don't buy into it. Sure, you'll pay the full price for a smartphone, but you'll sleep soundly at night knowing that you're supporting the handset maker directly, and helping to fund the R&D that makes for better products. For those security minded folks, you'll also be happy to know that an unlocked phone will not have the carrier bloat/spyware...and in the case of buying directly from Apple/Google you'll know there isn't any handset maker BS software on your phone either


3) Write your elected officials/EFF/ACLU (other like minded organizations) to protest the use of CarrierIQ and other similar spyware applications on smartphones...while you're at it urge them to support transparent and firm oversight of the public spectrum that we all use and cherish.

Phew - Quite the lecture but the reason that prices are so high and service is so shitty in America is that the big 4 carriers have a death grip on the market and the lawmakers that supposedly oversee them. So let's get out there and kick some carrier ass!

Unlocked phones:
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=iPhone%20unlocked&rh=n%3A2335752011%2Ck%3AiPhone%20unlocked&page=1
http://www.google.com/nexus/#/galaxy
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone/iphone4/about_unlocked
Month to month/pre-paid cell phone glans - just google it

Where I get all my crazy ideas from:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/5/3138711/five-years-after-the-iphone-carriers-are-the-biggest-threat-to-innovation-editorial
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/04/atandt-ceo-voices-regret-over-iphone-unlimited-data-model/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/21/professor-singles-out-mobile-carriers-for-stifling-cellphone-inn/
http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2012/05/22/are-carrier-subsidies-hurting-innovation-and-driving-up-mobile-phone-costs/
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/07/08/why-i-wont-sign-another-cell-phone-contract/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2011/11/30/phone-rootkit-carrier-iq-may-have-violated-wiretap-law-in-millions-of-cases/
http://gthing.net/the-true-price-of-sms-messages/

If Dr. Strangelove and Bill Cosby had a love child

I was writing about RIM earlier, but Apple seems to always pop up in my posts...so I was thinking about a quote by Steve Jobs: “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”

Two things strike me as derpy about this statement:

1) It's a stolen product - That's silly, and I'm gonna go biblical on it! Ecclesiastes 1:9: "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." I'm gonna leave this right here: http://www.allremix.ru/ ; Also, Jobs is famous for stating that the GUI for the original Apple was stolen from Xerox (see link below).

2) Going thermonuclear war on this - That's just anger talking...haven't we learned from "War Games" that the only way to win the game is to not play? Or if you're gonna be stupid and do that, at least use a neutron bomb so at least the infrastructure is still around and usable...sheesh! Or maybe a better option would be to go all "There will be blood" on Android's ass and just drink it's milkshake?

Maybe we should all just agree that progress is a logical progress of taking new ideas and incorporating new elements into them...or just simply nani gigantum humeris insidentes.

To sum up in pictures:

 

plus

Equals an angry

and for giggles

http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/20/steve-jobs-im-going-to-destroy-android-because-its-a-stolen-product-im-willing-to-go-thermonuclear-war-on-this/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_graphical_user_interface

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU

When there is blood on the streets

If Baron Rothschild were alive right now, he would be grinning from ear to ear...and the subject of his glee would be RIM.

I would launch into a Microsoft diatribe, but quite frankly I don't have the time or energy right now, so I am going to cherry pick the easiest target of the day. The situation is grim: A peak stock price of $144.56 in 2008 to a miserly $7.69 as of this writing, declining revenues and profits/income, smartphone market share plummeting from 20% in 2009 to a tad bit over 10% as of today, carriers bugging RIM to cut fees for services, and forcing their employees to cut vacations/work 6 day work weeks.

Here is a greatest hits of RIM missteps:

1) Focus on corporate users and ignore the average consumer - sure, corporate purchases is still where the money is at (for the PC market...ahem). In an era of BYOD (bring your own device), the average worker is going to most likely bring in an iPhone...and corporate IT departments are warming to the idea.

2) QWERTY keyboard - I know, I know that I'm gonna get a lot of flack for saying this...but this is for old people who don't want to acknowledge what's going on. I'll take a full touch screen and Swiftkey keyboard any day of the week (I have used a Motorola Q)...I have fat fingered on a QWERTY keyboard just as much as I have with a full touch screen. 

3) Ignoring the iPhone to it's peril - RIM CEO Jim Balsillie: “The iPhone’s impact on our business will be minimal.” I know this is Monday morning football coaching, but this smacks of the arrogance and complacency of RIM's mindset

4) The Blackberry Storm - A half ass attempt to bring a touch screen to market, turned out to be a flop and indicative of how RIM tried and failed to emulate any smartphone with a full touch screen. 

5) Co-CEO leadership - to quote Ron Swanson of Parks and Recreation: "Never half-ass two things. Full ass one thing". 'Nuff said

6) The Blackberry Playbook - See #4 and 5. They released it knowing that many of it's features were broken and half baked, but figured that their user base would accept it while they spit out updates to fix the issues...turns out RIM was wrong with this assumption. 

7) Horrific App store - Apple is the only one who has pulled it off 

8) They aren't a computer company, and smartphones aren't phones, they're computers - A brilliant dissection by daringfireball (see link below).

The new CEO claims that they aren't in a "death spiral", to which I would say fine...you still have a very large install base, decent income for your services, and you still have larger market share than Microsoft and Bada...but and that's a big but... Microsoft and Bada are kind of a joke right now in terms of the mobile space. 

I think the only relevant questions right now are: Who is going to buy RIM, for how much, and when? My guess is that it will be Microsoft, $7 Billion and maybe after 2012 Q4 earnings are released.

I'll finish with a quote by Nietzsche:  "...if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

Links/Credit:

http://daringfireball.net/2012/07/iphone_disruption_five_years_in

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/07/rim-ceo-says-company-isnt-death-spiral/

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/07/rim-cut-carrier-fees/

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Business/orders+Ottawa+staff/6867268/story.html

http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/4ec2c5a6eab8ea105200001b/chart-of-the-day-android-share-of-smartphone-operating-system-market-nov-14-2011.jpg

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=RIMM&annual