Banshee Racing – nice new feature of the Banshee SportPlex =|>

Try $229.

See, some time ago, there was a meeting of the Jedi Council about the future of multimedia entertainment. The discussion went like this:

• Make a box with broadband.

• Make it work across a lot of screens: lappies, PDAs, TVs, PiMPs.

• Download media directly from the content owner.

• Make it dirt simple to use.

• Make it affordable.

That was 1999, and then again, in 2004. No company hit all the right spots back then. Now you have one company that (finally) covers all of these areas. The only company in the industry, by most accounts (you best check yourself before you trot out tired-ass M$ and the X-Tremely Nubtarded Xbox 360.)  AppleTV in it’s current form makes this happen for $229.

If you only watch some basic shows, the ATV+iTunes offering might be more affordable for some people, at $2 per show, $3 movie rental. Or it might scratch the itch of someone with a large multimedia library. When you add portability to this offering, the value is even better. And since no competitor makes it this simple or affordable, they can make a little money on this, I bet. And if the hackers have their way, you’ll be able to do a lot more with the box than meets the eye.

The down side of course is that it doesn’t appeal to power users. And that’s fine. Some people have larger collections of media, and need to do a lot more with it. They get computers

Instead, talk to a kid who is knee-deep(totally) into iTunes, and then run the clock forward a few years. Think they might not bother with getting a traditional TV subscription? What about when their favorite shows are ad-supported and free, available on all the screens they own? Now how much would you pay?

While people are focusing on the rentals, and the total cost of ownership, they really need to be looking at this little announcement from the BBC. This is just the first major (read: non-UGC) content owner to plumb programs directly to the AppleTV over broadband.

When the big 5 networks do this, and make it free, how long will it take before the larger masses start moving away from appointment viewing that has been with us since Punch and Judy tickled our funny bones? If the trends continue, 5-10 years might not be too outrageous to envision. Then what happens to the traditional providers?

Hmmm…that’s a good question.

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Um…ok. So it wasn’t the Tech of the Week. Try Tech of the Month? Ok? Thanks for understanding. The holidays were a lot of fun, with a LOT of new toyz, soooo…The ‘Boi had to play. But you’ll be happy. I have played with a LOT more toyz to write about now, including the most excellent NXT Personal Robotics System one of the kids nabbed. The future is really here. You dig it the most! =|:-)>

So, back to the TotW(m)…wireless broadband. Lot of things have happened in a month in this area, but let’s first fold space and travel back to the time of the bag phone. Cellular networks grew out of two basic technologies: plain old two-way radio and switched signaling. When you can get a device to make two or more connections to a network at the same time, then you can hand off calls from one tower to the next as people get their move on, ya dig?

Ok, run forward to late in the era leisure suit, when switching and signaling technology went digital. That meant you could move voice over digital networks. Several methods were created for carrying digital calls, all competing for the hearts and minds of consumers and handset makers. And if it is digital, it can carry anything…sooooo….

Slide over to a time when Big Hair ruled the earth, and you’d be right at the start of the Internet Age, when data started to really mean something to the masses. When modems ruled the day for computers, rockin’ speeds around 2400 baud, wireless data was just starting to take shape in the labs.

Getting to the 21st Century, 3G data services reached speeds of up to 700Kbps, comparable to wireline DSL. Of course, you’ll pay for it dearly, but if you got a spare Grant per month, you can enjoy near-broadband speeds in the middle of nowhere.

While the dust isn’t really settled yet, there are two current winners in the mobile data standards game: CDMA, backed by the mega-corp Qualcomm, and GSM, backed by a consortium of companies. Just like the metric system, us Yanks seem to be missing something when it comes to picking a winner in the standards race. Stateside, the majority of mobile subscribers are on CMDA networks (Verizon, Sprint, Alltel), while the rest of the world has standardized on GSM technologies. Only one major US provider uses GSM: ATT. So, let’s do the math. ATT has the most subscribers of any carrier in North America, and they are on the major global standard (CDMA 421 million, GSM 2.6 million).

Now, think about it, and stay tuned to our next episode: Money likes to Make More Money.

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