Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Another week, another round up of ideas that could use some time in a facility upstate.  This week, we’ll look at the craziness brought about thanks to: RadioShack, Barnes & Noble, Apple forces Google to go web app, and MS up APPL down.

RadioShack dreams big

RadioShack just announced that T-Mobile will be added to their stable of phone carriers they “handle”.  Our Iyaz wrote:
“Radio Shack has already stocked Alltell, AT&T, Nextel, and Sprint phones.  That only leaves Verizon out as the last major player not to be at Radio Shack.  Both T-Mobile and Radio Shack are promoting this deal saying that they will offer phones like the new myTouch 3G with Google and their ‘hottest exclusive T-Mobile handsets’ so don’t expect old clunkers at Radio Shack.”

Couple this news with the bit that leaked out yesterday from the Tour de France, RadioShack will sponsor Lance Armstrong’s team in 2010 and you get an interesting picture of what RadioShack thinks about themselves.  They are swinging big here and they’ve got over 4,000 stores in the US and PR.  But does their image of themselves match what we see?

From the far-too-loud ding-dong that I trip walking into the store, I feel like I am being assaulted.  Our local Shack is rather narrow, so there is nowhere to hide.  Browsing feels frowned upon, as if you need a reason to come and gaze at some connectors or power adapters.  Instead of a shopping experience, I get to feel how a deer feels in a big, wide open field.  Maybe the Shack, in their quest to become the mini-Best Buy, is going to change some of that, too?

Just how big is the ebook market?

That is the question Barnes and Noble looks to answer with their partnership with Plastic Logic on their new eReader.  With the Kindle fully in their sights, Barnes and Noble (B&N) hopes to leverage their billion or so (it seems) brick and mortar stores into a stab for eReaders.  Expected at a lower price, it could mean trouble for the Kindle.

Could the masses latch onto ebooks in a way the Kindle might have if it were priced $200 less?  Could a $99 price point start something big for ebooks?  Or is this niche only getting smaller thanks to both Amazon and B&N offering their ebooks on an ever-increasing number of mobile devices? 

Apple- “Sit Google.  Shake Google, Play dead Google.”

Like many of you, I’ve been waiting for Google’s Latitude to show up for the iPhone.  Yesterday, Google said “here you go: here is what Apple let us do.”  Say what?  Web app?  Apple’s wildly popular App Store says this is a bad move.  What is up with that?

Is Apple fending off a better and better Google Android by snubbing Google here?  Do we iPhone users have to suffer the slings and arrows of Apple’s sour grapes?  Seriously, without constant or even periodic updating Latitude on the iPhone is as helpful as herpes, or so I’ve heard.  Is Apple going to pitch a similar service for MobileMe or include this later in Google Maps (which Apple made)?

I don’t know but it is lame.  I’d like to slide-tackle someone at Apple over this, and I am a damn fine slide-tackler if I do say so myself.

Microsoft down, Apple up.  Simple: Blame the Mac and PC ads.

Mighty Microsoft dropped $3 billion or so, Apple reported their best non-holiday quarter ever (because deep down inside, you know nothing beats a holiday).  A tale of two economies?  Two diverging strategies? Zune vs. iPod?  Surface vs. um, iPod?  Nope.  Mac vs. PC.

That’s right, behold the power of John Hodgeman to at once mock the stodgy Microsoft but also make Justin Long look almost cool.  PC never says he is outmoded and outdated but the message is heard by all.  Why did this resonate with the companies performance?

Simple: HDTV.  TV is only viewed today in high-def on 42” TVs.  Everyone with less fire-power has given up on electronics and they know it.  So, the only TV viewers are affluent folks who get programmed to buy Macs, because nobody wants to be John Hodgeman.  In fact, according to NPD, $9 out of every $10 spent on computers above $1000 are spent on Macs.  Holy cow!  That is a lot of desire not to be John Hodgeman.  Sorry John.