Let's Talk Tech
As a lifelong Star Trek fan, I have to wonder: Is this really all the fanfare we’re going to get for the 50th anniversary of one of the most ground breaking television shows ever made?
Frustrations arise as I ramble my way through my fandom for Trek while talking about cosmetics and beer sampling. Enjoy!
Reddit drama is a popular topic on this blog. With so much content being produced every day, sites like Reddit and Digg helped filter and verify relevant stories. Dubbed “the front page of the internet”, scanning the top stories of Reddit gave readers a glimpse of what was really popular around the web.
So it was something of a surprise when waking up this morning, and hearing of the terrible attack in Orlando, that there was little mention of the event on Reddit’s top news section. In fact the moderators of r/news seemed to be deleting posts and comments at an alarming rate. Other sub-reddits on the site picked up the slack, and discussions surrounding this tragedy were had on less than appropriate political and reaction forums.
Officially, this censorship was enacted to help focus discussion on the one major post used to consolidate discussion. This might have been understandable, as when news breaks like this, one would imagine a popular sub-reddit would be inundated with submissions. On a top post, the moderators of r/news claimed they were being brigaded by other communities seeking to spread an agenda of conflict with hate speech comments and posts.
/r/news was brigaded by multiple subreddits shortly after the news broke. This resulted in threads being filled with hate speech, vitriol, and vote manipulation.
We did a poor job reacting to the brigades and ultimately chose to lock several threads and then consolidate other big threads into a megathread.
Brigades are still underway and there is still a lot of hate speech prevalent in the threads.
While there were absolutely some less than civil comments being submitted, it’s somewhat disturbing to see a “kill it with fire” approach to post moderation. Eliminating all mentions of the shooters affiliation with terrorist organizations, and even disrupting discussions where folks were sharing information on emergency responses and pleas for blood donations.
Yet again we see the problems inherent to a business model which depends heavily on volunteer labor. Moderators of a news forum totaling almost 9 million subscribers are not paid. Building a small fiefdom, we see that either those individuals in charge are easily co-opted by outside interests, or are in a position of power where they can easily run an agenda. Adding gas to this fire, when questioned about these policies, one moderator for r/news not-so-helpfully suggested that a person seeking an explanation to this censorship should “kill yourself”.
It would seem that posting about blood donations or questioning the mods is hate speech, but this moderator’s response to the situation has garnered no public disciplinary reaction.
These situations have become a bit more frequent of late for Reddit. We saw similar policing of content following the New Years Eve sexual assaults in Germany. The official response claiming protections against hate speech, yet using tools to recover banned and deleted comments finding little evidence for such draconian moderation.
In the wake of this story, a number of smaller “news” sub-reddits have been created to spread information, and in response to the initial backlash, r/news has reversed some of its policy on banning stories. Still, its not surprising to see the subscriber base for r/news slowly eroding. Over the time its taken to write this editorial, we’ve seen roughly 2500 people remove r/news from their feeds. That still puts r/news at around 8.9 million followers, but this debacle has certainly delivered all of Reddit a black eye.
If you can’t find relevant news on “the front page of the internet”, what is Reddit good for?
Why Sony? Why do this?
Our on-going saga of scattered support and terrible relationships between Sony, USA carriers, and customers continues. Their new line of Z5 smartphones was announced back in September of 2015. We’re only a couple weeks away from Mobile World Congress, where it’s likely we’ll start hearing about new Samsungs and LGs, but we’re only just now getting word from Sony about them selling their phones unlocked here in the United States.
The Z5 and the Z5 Compact will be shipping unlocked to retailers like Amazon and B&H starting February 7th. The flagship Z5 will sell for $599 and the smaller Z5 Compact will sell for $499. There’s no word about selling the Z5 Premium, which is the first phone to feature a 4K display.
The phones are sleek devices, and feature very good cameras. Lifestyle features like waterproofing are certainly appreciated, but they’re saddled with 2015 tech like Qualcomm’s 810 processor, which has a nasty reputation for running hot and draining battery life. We’re only weeks away from phone announcements featuring a new 820 processor which is performing well enough to get Samsung back on board Qualcomm’s CPU for their next batch of phones. Samsung opted to use their own Exynos processors last year due to performance concerns.
To add insult to injury, we now have confirmation from Sony that because of a “business decision”, USA bound Z5s will not have fingerprint scanners built into the power button like international versions of the phone currently include. This is a terrible feature to remove, as more consumers are starting to embrace biometric security solutions not only for locking their phones, but also for utilizing banking and payment services.
This really isn’t a great strategy for building a fan base here in the USA. Months late to market, denying us the high end 4K version, and withholding features that consumers are starting to embrace. But if you do still decide a Sony is the right fit for you, at least Sony has the decency to charge you full “new phone” price for the privilege.
Companies like Google and Microsoft consider themselves “services” companies, even though they sell hardware like the Nexus and the Surface. Those brands exist to make sure that other hardware partners have the proper “incentive” to continue producing high quality devices to utilize the software that Microsoft and Google produce.
While it’s important that consumers have access to high quality gadgets to run these services, it’s equally important that consumers have access to affordable data networks to utilize services which are becoming increasingly data intensive.
We’re seeing progress in some areas, carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile embracing practices like rollover data, but we’re also backsliding in other areas with Comcast expanding the number of areas where they will be capping data for home broadband even though it won’t have any significant impact on bandwidth or service stability.
For Google and Microsoft, it’s becoming increasingly important to support initiatives which improve coverage, data speeds, and reduce prices for their customers. Where those initiatives don’t exist, it’s up to those two tech giants to create them.
Continue reading “Microsoft Working on Project Fi Competitor?”
Back in October of 2015, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey responded to rumors that Rift would cost $350. To help mitigate any potential pricing backlash, Luckey told reporters that their VR headset would cost more than $350, but would be roughly in that ballpark.
Now that Rift is available for pre-order we know what that ballpark is. It’s $599 before taxes, shipping, and it includes and XBOX controller, but not the Touch tracking controller. We can be fairly certain that most people weren’t expecting this price point when we were told that $350 was too low but in the ballpark, and the Reddit Oculus and VR subreddits are awash with angry members decrying the headset as too expensive.
Sticker Shock
I’ve never much been a fan of how gadgets are valued online. I find the discussion pretty toxic when geeks try and grade something as being “worth it”. The second that phrase pops up, you can almost always find a radical justification for why someone isn’t going to buy a product.
I would buy this bleeding edge piece of technology if it instantly came with one hundred games, did my dishes, had month long battery life, and only cost $17 and a half a ham sandwich. Then it would be worth it for the monies.
While the above is an exaggeration, the tone of this kind of commentary often lands just shy of “a company failed me by making a product too expensive for me, so I will punish them by not buying said product”. I think it’s a defense mechanism. It’s not that the individual is cheap, or they can’t afford it, they would totally buy the thing IF it were worth it. Totally…
Continue reading “What a $600 Oculus Rift Means for the Future of Virtual Reality”
Was a high price tag the critical component missing from Google’s Android Wear sales strategy? If recent reports from Tag Heuer are any indication, apparently consumers were concerned that these new wearable tech pieces weren’t expensive enough.
Bloomberg is reporting that the Louis Vuitton owned brand completely underestimated the demand for their new Tag Heuer Connected smartwatch, which is clad in Titanium and Sapphire and powered by Google’s OS. It’s a sexy watch body and a rubber strap with a price tag starting at $1500. It’s aiming above the mid-range pricing for Apple’s steel and sapphire smartwatch.
We’ve seen a number of tech companies trying to solve the fashion problem of strapping tech to your wrist. Offerings from LG, Huawei, and Motorola have failed to find significant traction beyond the tech fans already buying into the Android ecosystem however.
The thing we geeks never seem to understand though, is the idea of style which a consumer might be willing to pay more for. Apple is one of the few tech companies managing this transition from “Geek” to “Chic” as they morph into a lifestyle brand. The Apple Watch was years late to the smartwatch game, but easily overtook the market in its first year of existence.
We geeks might rant about the technology in competing watches being overly similar when comparing processors and screen resolution. If two gadgets have the same guts, shouldn’t they have the same price? I’ve gotten into visceral arguments with people using that argument, dogmatically ignoring things like build quality. Sure, two tablets might have the same processor, RAM, and storage. Though when one tablet is made out of plastic, and another is made out of injection molded magnesium, we should expect a price difference.
Again, we see this toxic “worth it” discussion coming from the techies. “It doesn’t do enough for the price.” “It’s not worth it for the monies.” “I would buy it if it magically read my mind, did my dishes, walked my dog, and only cost a half a ham sandwich.”
Watches though aren’t really technology products anymore. They used to serve a very practical purpose, at a glance delivery of the time, but now are fashion statements. No amount of functionality will convince someone to strap one on if it clashes with their sense of style. In this day and age, the label on the product often helps define what that style is.
Tag Heuer expected production of 1200 watches a week would be sufficient to meet demand. They’re so far behind that even after ramping up production to 2000 units a week, they don’t expect that they’ll be able to re-open online sales until May or June of 2016. It’s overly cynical to suggest that people just waited until they had a higher price tag to throw money at a product. When showing off an expensive fashion product, the Tag Heuer name carries a lot more recognition from peers than the Huawei name. That kind of “exclusivity” isn’t particularly valued by people looking to make a statement.
Fitness trackers are flourishing, people understand their function, it’s hip to be improving your health, and people can overlook the gym style as there’s no expectation that you’ll wear a Fitbit with a pair of slacks or a suit.
Did Android Wear just need the name? Does the Louis Vuitton company have the reputation to start carving out a more legitimate niche for wearables?
Sad day Gadget Groupies. My Galaxy Note 5 is dead. Here’s how I broke one of the prettiest (and most expensive) phones of the year…
Continue reading “How I Destroyed the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 – It Wasn’t Very Difficult…”
Yesterday Google unveiled their new Nexus line up, new Chromecasts, and showed off a slew of services. One curious tease towards the end of their keynote revealed their strategy for offering up a new tier of productivity device.
The Pixel C.
Previous “Pixel” products utilized Google’s Chrome OS, but this next entry to the line will run stock Android, the operating system reserved for phones and tablets. Clearly Google is looking to compete with the recently announced iPad Pro, and the focus on productivity is clear. The Pixel’s signature accessory is a magnetic keyboard cover which includes and adjustable hinge.
There’s been a bit of a scramble lately in the tablet market. Sales are generally down. After being the hot item, destined to replace those boring old laptops, even Apple is struggling to grow sales year over year.
Continue reading “Are Tablets Ready for Productivity? The Promise of What’s to Come…”
