Jon Sidener
Love the gadget, hate the gadget maker
Sometimes the big tech companies seem to compete to see who can alienate consumers the most. Google, which everyone used to love, launched its Nexus One phone without bothering to hire any customer service reps. Then the launch of its Buzz social networking add-on to Gmail led to a class action lawsuit and uproar from [...]
iSlate vs. Kindle: Mobile screen smackdown
The Apple enthusiast community — cult is such an ugly word — buzzes louder every day anticipating the unveiling of a shiny new amulet. We won’t know exactly what it is until Steve Jobs finishes his conversation with the burning bush and descends from the mountain. But the soothsayers in the valley below have [...]
Home entertainment computer
I had a compelling, urgent need to watch the 1985 hit movie “Fletch” the other night. (Don’t ask.) No problem, I thought and headed off to fire up Amazon’s video rental service Unbox. I wanted to write about movie downloads, video on demand, now that Nintendo is rumored to be planning to expand its movie download [...]
Glacial technolgy
Sunday night while sitting in a bar watching the Cardinals play the Vikings I pulled out my phone to check the scores in my fantasy football league. Not exactly a bleeding-edge tech moment, but something that had been a long time coming.
Lots of people talk about the blazing speed of technological change, but it can also be slow. [...]