D Preview: Apple, Microsoft, and Palm

[AppleInsider]

The Wall Street Journal's increasingly influential technology conference is about to begin, and may bring multiple announcements from industry giants -- though Apple isn't talking.

The annual D: All Things Digital conference has become more and more pivotal for the technology industry since its inaugural event in 2003. Typically centering around a series of interviews by columnists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, the event has typically served as a platform for more outspoken company heads that want to outline their grander visions or reveal previously unknown facets of their company culture.

Perhaps the most important of these to date, however, is set to take place Wednesday night. Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Microsoft chair Bill Gates will both be subjects of a joint interview by the journalists. It will represent the first time the two will take the stage together for an extended period and should free both executives to talk openly about themselves and each other: as in earlier years, the 2007 D conference will avoid scripts and other conversation filters.

Either firm will also have its own time to speak candidly about its own future in separate events. Jobs will appear onstage separately in advance of the interview to discuss Apple's strategies, while Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will take a similar approach for his company.

More immediately relevant to those not present at the sold-out gathering, however, will be a likely flurry of product announcements that have been a staple of more recent conferences.

One of these is now known to be coming from Microsoft itself, courtesy of a company mistake. The Redmond-based firm on Tuesday unwittingly sent news site Gizmodo e-mail confirming that Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division intends to release "something totally new" at the conference. While details are vague at best, the company is said to be sparing little fanfare and is promising nothing less than changing "the way people interact with technology" -- a significant claim by the same Microsoft branch responsible for both the Xbox 360 game system and Zune media player.

If Microsoft has been only reluctantly vocal about its plans, however, Apple has said even less. The Mac maker has said nothing of its plan of attack for the conference and has publicly revealed nothing of what products, if any, will be released to accompany its CEO's stage appearances.

Even so, Jobs has already established a brief but identifiable track record of matching his appearances with announcements. The CEO in 2004 revealed Airport Express, and just a year later showcased podcast support in a look at iTunes 4.9 weeks ahead of its official debut.

Whatever may stem from Apple, the company will invariably become a subject of comparisons thanks to one of the few officially validated announcements. Palm intends to preempt Apple and Microsoft alike by unveiling a "new category of mobile device" through a press conference to be held Wednesday morning. Company founder Jeff Hawkins is heavily favored to launch a handheld so far known only as the "Hawk" -- which has been rumored to be anything from a direct challenger to the iPhone to a cross between ultra-mobile PCs, smartphones, and other communication-savvy gadgets.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[Banalltv]

Can't wait to see what MS have, my money's on the Launch-O.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/59345

[anantksundaram]

Time to hawk that Palm...... (the shares too).

[jbelkin]

This is what they once said about a WATCH ... yes, a watch,

"Smart Watches for MSN Direct are a fun new way to receive the information you care about, delivered conveniently to your wrist," said Bill Mitchell, founder and vice president of the SPOT initiative at Microsoft."



For $10 a month, MS will tell you what the weather is 2" north of your wrist ... I'm sure their TV device will be as "revolutionary."

[nvidia2008]

Not Steve Ballmer !! ... Heh.

[nvidia2008]

Oh, I was also going to say, Palm will probably introduce some "OMFG iPhone KILLER". And Microsoft will do a "super duper Vista running ultra-portable PC/Tablet/Laptop/Some rubbish or other..."...

[melgross]

Well, joking aside, I'm looking forwards to all of this. Whatever comes of all of these announcements, and interviews, it should at least be interesting.

I happen to like Palm, and for their sake, because we do need competition, I hope that whatever they do come out with is good. I do like my Treo 700p.

But, I'm wondering if both Steve and Bill will be on their best behavior, and will avoid saying anything bad about the other's company.

[TBaggins]

Maybe MS is finally going to announce their long-unawaited 'ZunePhone'?

With the catchy motto, "Buy one, or Ballmer will throw a chair at you", natch.

.

[ronn]

Forbes: Surface introduced.

[Hobbes]

Looks quite nifty (especially the object recognition -- very cool), but.... 5-10K per unit?? Wow.

Apple is well, well ahead in producing a bona fide consumer multi-touch product here.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Hobbes

Looks quite nifty (especially the object recognition -- very cool), but.... 5-10K per unit?? Wow.

Apple is well, well ahead in producing a bona fide consumer multi-touch product here.

If's Apple's patent application about putting a camera as part of the screen somehow works out, Apple could do it.

[petermac]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

One of these is now known to be coming from Microsoft itself, courtesy of a company mistake.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

I bet it was

[danielsmi]

Originally Posted by ronn

Forbes: Surface introduced.

Wow that was a ridiculously biased article. but anyways if you want to see surface computing in action check it out here in WMV form.

I think this is cooler than the iPhone especially the video puzzle and with what it can do with the zune or other wifi capable devices. Unlike what the forbes guy said this can have a future in the home as a Windows Media extender / ultra-hip coffee table. No more would you have physical books to browse now you'd have digital books, family videos or pics, a fun painting program or whatever all in a cool UI!!

[vinea]

PlayTable aka Project Milan aka Surface.

Now I just have to buy one... Looks FITRish.

Vinea

[Hobbes]

Originally Posted by danielsmi

I think this is cooler than the iPhone especially the video puzzle and with what it can do with the zune or other wifi capable devices. Unlike what the forbes guy said this can have a future in the home as a Windows Media extender / ultra-hip coffee table. No more would you have physical books to browse now you'd have digital books, family videos or pics, a fun painting program or whatever all in a cool UI!!

It is indeed very cool, but IMO making something very cool in the $500 range is considerably more interesting than making something very cool in the 5-10K range.

MS thinks it'll take 3-5 years for Surface to come down in price before it hits the consumer level. That's quite a while, in the world of technology. I mean, kudos to MS for innovating and making something extremely cool-looking, but I'm not sure it's 100% wise to show your cards when the vast majority of people can't come close to affording your product.

It will be interesting to see in 12 days just how ambitious Leopard is, and what Apple's been cooking up for the past few years. My pet (slightly fanciful) theory is multi-touch gestural commands tracked via a built-in iSight, but we'll see.

[Hobbes]

Originally Posted by melgross

If's Apple's patent application about putting a camera as part of the screen somehow works out, Apple could do it.

That patent just boggles my mind. I still can't believe it can really be done, but I'd *love* to be proven wrong wrong wrong.

Anyway, yeah, if that technology is doable, Apple could offer much of what Surface does at what could only be a far lower price.

[chrleon]

Deleted

[atticusdsf]

if i were steve jobs, i would completely avoid what's likely to be a technological catfight and unveil nothing. sure, ballmer's head would grow three sizes, but so would apple's integrity.

[chrleon]

when is this conference today?

[SpinDrift]

MS make me laugh. Have they no shame at all? Why they try and pass this off as their own I have no idea. Do they really think that 'people' are that blind? Jeff Han must be cringing. Surface even uses 'CoverFlow' as a crucial element of its UI! Smells like the mid 80's all over again!

[Frank777]

God bless Palm. This is no "me too" iPhone competitor.

For those who aren't aware, Hawkins is probably one of the only people who can match Jobs' talent for product usability and design decisions. And Hawkins has been working on this "third business" for Palm for two years.

With Palm unveiling a likely strong product and Microsoft being...well...Microsoft, Jobs will be under pressure to announce something, even if it is only a strong hint of things to come.

Today's gonna be fun!

[Porchland]

iTunes updated late last night and the content still hasn't rolled this morning, which is a full day and a half behind when it usually rolls.

Some non-DRM content seems pretty certain, but I think we'll get some spiffy new content to go along with it. Plus, we're inside 48 hours of "40 years ago today" and Paul McCartney has all but confirmed that the deal to bring the Beatles catalog to iTunes is done.

[mbaynham]

Originally Posted by Frank777

God bless Palm. This is no "me too" iPhone competitor.

For those who aren't aware, Hawkins is probably one of the only people who can match Jobs' talent for product usability and design decisions. And Hawkins has been working on this "third business" for Palm for two years.

With Palm unveiling a likely strong product and Microsoft being...well...Microsoft, Jobs will be under pressure to announce something, even if it is only a strong hint of things to come.

Today's gonna be fun!

yeh, considering '2007 is only the beginning'. or what ever the slogan was... it had better be...

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by Frank777

God bless Palm. This is no "me too" iPhone competitor.

For those who aren't aware, Hawkins is probably one of the only people who can match Jobs' talent for product usability and design decisions. And Hawkins has been working on this "third business" for Palm for two years.

With Palm unveiling a likely strong product and Microsoft being...well...Microsoft, Jobs will be under pressure to announce something, even if it is only a strong hint of things to come.

Today's gonna be fun!

It was Palm's CEO who, in an interview late last November, blew off the iPhone with the somewhat dismissive comment: "We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys [sic] are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in.'"

In the following couple of days, Palm's stock price fell by over 10%!

[vinea]

Originally Posted by SpinDrift

MS make me laugh. Have they no shame at all? Why they try and pass this off as their own I have no idea. Do they really think that 'people' are that blind? Jeff Han must be cringing. Surface even uses 'CoverFlow' as a crucial element of its UI! Smells like the mid 80's all over again!

Jeff Han's work is not completely original...folks have been playing with FITR a while now.

MS's use of fiducials isn't new either but a lot further advanced than I had anticipated for a 1.0 product.

Vinea

[Marsattack]

Well, don't know what to say other than "seen it before". The only differense here is that it is Microsoft software, and it actually looks ok. Not revolutionary or anything.
And for someone saying "This is much cooler than the iPhone" well let me remind you that the iPhone costs one tenth/one twentieth of that products' price, and it's a mobile, not a fixed stationary computer.
Apple could match MS's approach in no time if they where to start programming for it now. But if I know Apple, they have looked and researched in this technology, but jsut keep it secret. Hey folks, you know that! Don't you?!
KR Martin Andreas

[TBaggins]

Well hush my mouth, Surface is actually kinda cool. Probably helps that its a very 'un-Microsoft-like' Microsoft product.

Still, it seems a lot like Apple's MultiTouch in a number of ways. And did not Jobs say that Apple "patented the hell" out of MultiTouch? Surface feels like a preliminary attempt by MS to stake out some touch interface turf while it still can. Does anyone else see an impending legal steel-cage match between Apple and MS on this one?

Sure, Surface is only on 5-10K $ sit-down 'kiosks' (which haven't even been released yet), but certainly MS would want to eventually bring it to PCs and then portable devices (Zunes, ZunePhones) in a few years. A legal collision seems likely, unless I'm missing something?

.

[Frank777]

I take that all back. Hawkins is insane.

Palm just introduced a US$500.00 laptop with a 10" screen that can only check email, surf the web and use MS Office.

Like I said, it's insane. The MacBook is one price cut away from killing this category altogether.

I hope Jobs has better news for us today.

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by Frank777

God bless Palm. This is no "me too" iPhone competitor.

For those who aren't aware, Hawkins is probably one of the only people who can match Jobs' talent for product usability and design decisions. And Hawkins has been working on this "third business" for Palm for two years.

With Palm unveiling a likely strong product and Microsoft being...well...Microsoft, Jobs will be under pressure to announce something, even if it is only a strong hint of things to come.

Today's gonna be fun!

Meh. I just reviewed Palm's Folêo 'computer'... boy, it's pretty weak. It mainly addresses the inherent weakness of their niche, which is, that their normal screens and keyboards are too small to be useful!... something that Apple has addressed in the iPhone!

[Kickaha]

Bingo. The Foléo is a way to add a 10" screen and keyboard to a smart phone. Um... no?

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Frank777

I take that all back. Hawkins is insane.

Palm just introduced a US$500.00 laptop with a 10" screen that can only check email, surf the web and use MS Office.

Like I said, it's insane. The MacBook is one price cut away from killing this category altogether.

I hope Jobs has better news for us today.

The $499 is just the intro price, it might get higher.

It really doesn't seem to do much. Not much info on the site yet.

If that's all it does, I can't see carrying it around with me. I wear my Treo 700p on my belt, inside a leather case. My hands are free when I'm not using it.

That would have to be a mighty big case to hold this!

I'm disappointed. I was hoping for more.

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by melgross

The $499 is just the intro price, it might get higher.

It really doesn't seem to do much. Not much info on the site yet.

If that's all it does, I can't see carrying it around with me. I wear my Treo 700p on my belt, inside a leather case. My hands are free when I'm not using it.

That would have to be a mighty big case to hold this!

I'm disappointed. I was hoping for more.

I'm more surprised Wall Street hasn't slaughtered their stock today... at this moment it's climbed just over 1%... what kind of clowns don't really understand what Hawkins introduced today?

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by SpamSandwich

Wall Street... clowns....

Sorry, what was the question again?

[aegisdesign]

The Foleo is exactly what Psion did seven years ago with their NetBook/Series 7 and almost bankrupted the company, except it's even more limited than the NetBook and it's bigger and heavier!

http://www.psionplace.com/hardware/P...sion-spec.html


They have their place, particularly if you're a jobbing journo who's been through Tandy 100s, Z88s, Series 5/7s in the past but it's hardly the big market Hawkins seems to think it is. It looks a bit limited and a little big to me.

Still, if Apple did one, I'd be all over it.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

The Foleo is exactly what Psion did seven years ago with their NetBook/Series 7 and almost bankrupted the company, except it's even more limited than the NetBook and it's bigger and heavier!

http://www.psionplace.com/hardware/P...sion-spec.html


They have their place, particularly if you're a jobbing journo who's been through Tandy 100s, Z88s, Series 5/7s in the past but it's hardly the big market Hawkins seems to think it is. It looks a bit limited and a little big to me.

Still, if Apple did one, I'd be all over it.

Hopefully, if Apple did it, it would than a repository for easier to read and write e-mails that STILL needs the phone to receive and send, so far as I can tell.

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by melgross

Hopefully, if Apple did it, it would than a repository for easier to read and write e-mails that STILL needs the phone to receive and send, so far as I can tell.

It's got wifi apparently too so why you'd need to sync mail with your phone is a little odd. Perhaps they've just not worked out all the details yet for direct pop/imap access?

Not syncing with Symbian is a killer though - two thirds of the world's smartphones use Symbian and they've not given the Folio a Symbian sync conduit. Suicide.

I think the whole syncing mail with your phone thing is plain stupid though and just shows how out of touch Palm is. Nobody has synced mail since the days of the Palm III.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

It's got wifi apparently too so why you'd need to sync mail with your phone is a little odd. Perhaps they've just not worked out all the details yet for direct pop/imap access?

Not syncing with Symbian is a killer though - two thirds of the world's smartphones use Symbian and they've not given the Folio a Symbian sync conduit. Suicide.

I think the whole syncing mail with your phone thing is plain stupid though and just shows how out of touch Palm is. Nobody has synced mail since the days of the Palm III.

I couldn't find out exactly what it is that they plan for the WiFi .

If they took MS's route, the WiFi won't do much.

I couldn't find out if it had a receiver and software that can actually go to the internet.

You would think that Palm would know enough about this to make it work.

Possibly, like Jobs, with the iPhone, they haven't yet announced all of the features because they aren't all ready?

After all, it will be released in the summer. They have some time yet.

[TenoBell]

I don't really understand the Folio. If I have a laptop I don't need another laptop like device to use my phone. Especially if the phone can sync to my current laptop.

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by TenoBell

I don't really understand the Folio. If I have a laptop I don't need another laptop like device to use my phone. Especially if the phone can sync to my current laptop.

The Folio is for when having a really small laptop is important, especially one with 2 days of battery. For instance, I could make a case for one as a cycling journalist as I need something small and light that doesn't have to be plugged in and is going to stand up to some abuse on a bike tour. I imagine many other field journos could too out in the wilds without a plug socket.

Back in the 90s it would make a whole lot of sense for many more journalists but today when laptops are smaller, cheaper and phones are more powerful and you can add a bluetooth keyboard it makes very little sense. The Psion Series 7 / Netbook I mentioned earlier was much loved by some journalists back in 2000 for it's size and pretty good keyboard but of course everybody else was buying PDAs with touch screen styluses and no keyboards so Psion canned it. It's somewhat ironic that Palm thinks a larger, heavier Netbook clone is going to save it's bacon.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

The Folio is for when having a really small laptop is important, especially one with 2 days of battery. For instance, I could make a case for one as a cycling journalist as I need something small and light that doesn't have to be plugged in and is going to stand up to some abuse on a bike tour. I imagine many other field journos could too out in the wilds without a plug socket.

Back in the 90s it would make a whole lot of sense for many more journalists but today when laptops are smaller, cheaper and phones are more powerful and you can add a bluetooth keyboard it makes very little sense. The Psion Series 7 / Netbook I mentioned earlier was much loved by some journalists back in 2000 for it's size and pretty good keyboard but of course everybody else was buying PDAs with touch screen styluses and no keyboards so Psion canned it. It's somewhat ironic that Palm thinks a larger, heavier Netbook clone is going to save it's bacon.

Except that I think the site said five hours. Now they seem to have updated the site, that info is gone, as far as I can tell.

I've been looking for a tech spec page, but so far, no luck.