Editorial: Is Chromecast the little dongle that could change things?

DNP Editorial Is Chromecast the little dongle that could change things

It is sold out at Amazon. It is sold out at Best Buy online. It is sold out at the 16 Best Buy stores closest to my home in North Carolina. The nearest Best Buy availability is in Roanoke, Va. (Amazon and Best Buy are the retail outlets sanctioned by Google.) You can buy it directly from Google at the Play Store, but as of this writing, the wait time for shipping has been extended to three to four weeks.

In a world where people line up for hours to buy a $500 tablet, selling out a $35 dongle isn't necessarily a milestone, or an indicator of anything significant. But I'll hammer a prediction stake into the ground: Chromecast will create change in media consumption habits disproportionate to its price. Its power will come partly from its tech-candy pricing, but only partly. This little invention hits a few other sweet spots.

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Editorial: Apple’s Dash for the Dashboard

Editorial Apple's Dash for the Dashboard

Cars are dangerous, all the more when drivers reach for controls positioned at arm's length. Road risk is increased by the fact that many drivers seek distraction or productivity while rolling along. Multitasking while behind the wheel can be more perilous than driving drunk.

The car also represents third-party business opportunities. It is an under-served mobile environment. Many apps that work beautifully at home or in a coffee shop, such as music playback or messaging, are halting or awkward in the rolling living room of a car.

The race is on for control of the car's infotainment systems. Apple's recently granted patent for a touchscreen dash is Cupertino's aim toward owning the dashboard operating system and interface, in ways that hook into the company's device and media businesses. But thorny competition comes not only from other tech companies, but also from the car companies. And whatever victories Apple enjoys in the dashboard could ultimately be neutered by longer-term automotive tech inventions.

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An inside view of the WebTV revolution that didn’t happen

An inside view of the WebTV revolution that didn't happen

You might think it should have happened sooner. This week, Microsoft announced it would decommission its MSN TV (formerly WebTV) service. Even I didn't think it would last this long, and I was WebTV's greatest advocate back in the day. In fact, I was its official evangelist, hired by founder Steve Perlman and his company's PR agency as WebTV's national media spokesperson for a period leading up to and including the product launch.

In 1996, WebTV was tech's hottest startup, considered a blazing harbinger of the future, all for pretty good reasons. WebTV was primarily an internet popularization play during an era of widespread uncertainty about computers in the home and the value of being online. If tablets and smartphones represent a Steve Jobs-ordained post-PC era, WebTV can be seen in retrospect as a pre-PC computing category. In my view, it isn't modern web-connected TVs that finally killed WebTV (MSN TV) -- it's the mobile revolution that did it.

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Editorial: High Fidelity Pure Audio starting a noble but losing battle

Editorial High Fidelity Pure Audio starting a noble but losing battle

The announcement is wrapped in an aura of déjà vu: Universal Music Group is marketing an uncompressed, high-end digital audio format for Blu-ray called High Fidelity Pure Audio (HFPA). Where standard CD audio is 44.1KHz at 16 bits, HFPA's A2D sampling rate clocks in at a sky-high 96KHz at 24 bits.

Analog elitists will maintain that even extremely refined sampling is inherently inferior to capturing unchopped waveforms, and while that argument is fun to test, it is academic in the context of wide consumer adoption. Can a new audiophile format gain traction in a technomusical world governed by convenience and mobility?

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Editorial: As Google Reader dies, reading struggles to be reborn

Editorial As Google Reader dies, reading struggles to be reborn

When Google announced it was pulling Reader's plug (which will happen next week), the outcry was loud and viral. If I may speak for those who were most wounded by the knife in Reader's back, the announcement shock was mixed with betrayal, anger and loss. Those who built RSS reading into their lives generally placed it at the epicenter of their online activity. Anticipating life without Reader was a black-hole view -- the web with a void punched into the center.

As the wailing turned practical, exporting and migrating recommendations proliferated. The commotion died down for a while, and has now resumed for Reader's final week. Major and minor brands are jumping into the feed-reading game, seeking to sway a vocal population looking for new homes. But is a loud community of users also a large community of users? Feed-based web consumption hasn't had this much publicity in years. Does all this product development and media attention signal a rebirth of RSS's geeky convenience? Or are money and effort being thrown at an ephemeral market?

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Editorial: What internet radio needs to disrupt actual radio

Editorial What internet radio needs to disrupt actual radio

"Internet radio" is usually a misnomer, as well as an indicator of its ambition. The term "radio" is misapplied to internet services like AOL Radio, Rhapsody Radio, the upcoming iTunes Radio and their ilk. All these mediums are unrelated to radio technology. But for most people, "radio" simply means something you turn on and listen to. As a marketing term, "radio" seeks to accustom users to new technology by connecting it with familiar technology. Pandora describes itself as "free, personalized radio."

The business intent in all cases is more ambitious -- to wean people from the terrestrial radio habit and migrate them to online services. Will it work?

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Editorial: The subtexts of Apple’s WWDC keynote

Editorial The unwavering subtexts of Apple's WWDC keynote

Monday's much-anticipated WWDC keynote was Apple's most crucial presentation in years. AAPL stock has fallen 37 percent over nine months. Android has grown into a monstrous competing platform, differentiating along the lines of lower cost, variety of devices and appealing operating-system features. In this sharp-elbowed environment, Apple has been widely accused of losing its innovation mojo, and of over-reaching with premium product concepts and prices, in what is increasingly viewed as a commodity tech category.

Facing an audience of developers whose businesses depend on Apple's continued success, especially in the mobile realm, the company's keynote mission was not only to excite buzz around new products, but to establish clarity around the company's mission, values and key competitive advantages. Did it succeed?

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Editorial: Google confuses magic with middling as it steps into music streaming

DNP Editorial Google confuses magic with middling as it steps into music streaming

First of all: that name. Google Play Music All Access. Perhaps Google's presenters realized, as they were driving to the I/O keynote, that they had forgotten to name the new music-streaming service, and came up with that clunker backstage.

Unique? Magical? It's easy to dismiss those claims within minutes of signing up.

Jump to the keynote, where Chris Yerga described All Access as "a uniquely Google approach to a subscription service," and remarked, "Here's where the magic starts." Unique? Magical? It's easy to dismiss those claims within minutes of signing up. Prosaic and useful, yes; unique and magical, no. All Access is nowhere near an innovation. The major ecosystem companies, each of which started with groundbreaking technical development, now seem to fashion their business destinies on buttressing their networks with products innovated elsewhere, plugging holes to sway existing users from drifting out of the system. It's not a new story, but always a sad one.

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Editorial: Let Google be a little evil

Editorial Let Google be a little evil

Google's lawyers visited the Second Circuit Court of Appeals last week for a polite conversation with three judges and attorneys from the Authors Guild. You remember -- the book-scanning thing? Yes, the case is 7 years old and still unresolved. The Circuit Court is just a way station in a longer journey -- at issue is whether the Authors Guild's class action suit should be broken apart, forcing authors and publishers to confront Google individually.

Google is going to win this thing eventually. If that makes Google evil, it is a necessary evil.

The bigger question is about the lawfulness of Google's digital library quest, and the legitimacy of the Guild's copyright charges and request for damages. There are points of similarity to the music industry's litigation saga. And major differences. Google is going to win this thing eventually. If that makes Google evil, it is a necessary evil.

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The iTunes influence, part three: Art in the age of digital disruption

The iTunes influence, part three Art in the age of digital disruption

"What happened is way worse for musicians. It has forced musicians to be marketers."
John McVey, producer, Coupe Studios

"I fear that in general the only musicians able to create a truly independent and successful career are those who had one before the industry changed, who had the fan base in place to enable them to continue independently of the record labels." That's Peter Owen, an independent composer and producer. He is one of many musicians who feel that the internet has made the business of creativity more challenging.

Parts one and two of this series surveyed how iTunes and MP3 catalyzed the digital music movement for labels and consumers. The effect of the internet on musicians is less recognized. In one way, musicians have benefited similarly to consumers. While consumers have gained amazing access to music, musicians have acquired unprecedented access to listeners.

So it's the promised land for musicians, right? Not exactly. For many creators whose careers span the before-and-after of digital music, there is a crushing sense that the grass isn't greener after all.

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