iPhone 3GS, Project Natal, Palm Pre, ZuneHD, Windows 7 ZOOOOM!!!
ZOOOOOM!!! Technology is great! It’s like a having a one-night stand every week though it never tends to be as good as your first. Take Apple for instance with their iPhone 3GS announcement. Bigger, faster, cheaper is their game. Any real buzz they had with the product was given up early a few months ago with the iPhone OS 3.0 announcement. Overall, pretty disappointing keynote even though the products are still some of the best on the market. I wanted to wait for Apple’s WWDC before contemplating on getting a Palm Pre. And as disappointing as the keynote was in terms of sheer excitement, it validated my view that iPhone is one of the best devices in computing history…period.
As for Palm and their new device AND new CEO, the world is looking bright even if their stock price isn’t. This would definitely be my second choice because, like the iPhone, it fits my lifestyle offering the right balance between work and play; there just seems to be less “play” at the moment.
The biggest thing that bothers me is the same thing that bothered me with iPhone OS 1.0, no native hardware support. A developer’s chances of running an intense 3D app on the Pre is close to zero due to the lack of SDK allowing this functionality. I have no doubt that the finest minds at Palm are sorting this out though. It will be interesting to see the competition next year between iPhone OS 4.0, WebOS 2.0, and Windows Mobile 7. I’m not expecting many big things from RIM.
To switch gears a bit, Microsoft stole the show at E3 this year! There were a lot of cool game announcements as well as a host of new services for Xbox 360 users. Social networking has finally come to Xbox in a big way with the integration of Facebook, Twitter, and Last.FM!
When it couldn’t get any better, Microsoft decided to throw down the gauntlet on Nintendo once and for all. They introduced “Project Natal".
photos courtesy of Engadget.com
Imagine playing video games without the need for a controller. Imagine an environment that not only reacts to your movements but can also recognize your face and respond to your voice. Motion+Facial+Vocal capture and recognition—this is Project Natal.
Finally, no Microsoft keynote would be complete without some sort of product rebranding. Xbox Live Marketplace is now the Zune Marketplace which validates Microsoft’s commitment to the Zune platform. “The Social” is here to stay and it’s coming to Europe! Which leads me to an announcement that Ballmer made at All Things Digital in California weeks prior.
Zune HD is here (honestly, you can even ‘Bing’ it) and its going global! The press are calling it an iPod Touch “killer” due to its sweet looks, buttery smooth touch screen, responsive UI. There’s no App Store announced yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it the firmware was updated closer to Windows Mobile 7 and Sky Market release. There are so many details to list here but Engadget have a great write up!
To wrap of this post, I would be negligent if I didn’t inform you that Windows 7 has officially been slated to release on October 22nd. This means on that day you will be able to buy a machine with Windows 7 loaded on it! The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, right before the holiday season. Of course, Microsoft understands that there has been a lot of negative attention around Vista, so Windows 7 RC has been offered to the general public for evaluation use until June 2010. That is one whole year for FREE!
