Amazon Tablet Rumors: What if they're true?

{EAV_BLOG_VER:12a8ae1d61ba62ef}Image via CrunchBaseAmazon is a very forward thinking company. My personal experience working for them at a customer support call center gave me a chance to see how they work to make their company better every single day. Not only was the organization extraordinarily fast paced it was also very customer centric bending over backwards at times to make a customer happy. Why would I preface this post in such a way? Well Amazon is a household name for a reason and with their first foray into consumer electronics they were successful in large part because they have had such laser-like focus on the consumer experience. This will be the key to their rumored second consumer device reportedly coming in fall this year.
The tech part of this is important. Amazon has one of the best libraries of Video's on Demand of any company. While Netflix is unarguably the monster in this category, Amazon has a very respectable catalog that warrants attention. Netflix, and Hulu Plus are services that have made the transition to tablets and this transition is important to their future success as these devices become our primary connection to the world and entertainment. Amazon's creation of a tablet follows on surprise moves like the Amazon App store that sells Android Apps. This new store allows them to leverage their huge retail presence and the digital accounts associated with it to rival the Android Market by Google. But this store is more of an opportunity to support their new Android powered tablet and that tablet, like the Kindle before it, could be a huge deal. If Amazon puts all of their current apps on this new tablet and announces a new app with the tablet they could enter the tablet wars as a legitimate force. So what app do they need to introduce still? AmazonVOD (Video on Demand) for Android would allow them to enter the tablet market more prepared to do battle than almost any other Android tablet released or rumored to be released. While working there over a year ago I mentioned that they needed to make such an appliance...low and behold here it comes. No doubt it's been in the works longer than that but it's like they were reading my mind. With this product they would be positioned so well to compete with Apple that Motorola, Samsung, Dell, and other Android tablet manufactures would seem like second class citizens in the market. I make this assertion on the fact that none of those organizations is paired with a content source that comes anywhere near rivaling Apple or Amazon. Apple has iTunes and thousands of movie titles that are available for rent/purchase with ease. If Amazon plays their cards right (and they almost always do) they will be THE Apple iPad competitor. Between their cloud MP3 service and cloud drive offering they'll be able to point to cross platform functionality from almost any consumer entertainment or computing device. Apple has this only in so much as you have lots of Apple products. If Amazon is able to add uploading and streaming of movies like they do music they will have one up on Apple and will be able to draw the iPad2 and it's lesser competitors back to the drawing board.
Of course all of this is speculation at least until this holiday season when all our entertainment dreams come true thanks to Amazon.

3 Things to fix Chrome OS and my CR48

Image via WikipediaI just read a similar blog post that detailed the items that Chrome OS doesn't have that it needs. I found myself disagreeing with the blogger on almost all accounts. I shared my opinion with my suggestions as to the REAL features that are missing in the CR48. I felt so strongly about it that I decided that I'd bore my faithful readers with my review after having the CR48 since before Christmas.
First and foremost the CR48 is nowhere near ready for broad public purchase. The machinery is awesome if a little conservative in processing power...but it is just for use on the internet and doesn't need to run Photoshop CS5 or anything like that. That being said...if you've been using Chrome browser you're ready to buy one of the newly announced Chromebooks coming to a big-box store near you in June. I can say that because I suspect that the CR48 line has provided the data needed to make the upcoming Chromebooks not only stable but more advanced on the software end than the current dev or beta releases on CR48 and that updates and improvements to the CR48 will slow and have fewer serious tweaks in coming months.
Now, again, based on the assumption that most of the problems that exist on the CR48 TODAY are going to exist in the Chromebooks next month, here is the list of things that need to be corrected.

1. Media player! Holy cow this one is big. In large part a computer is only useful in as much as it is able to play/run various files from a variety of media. If I have a SD card with the first 5 episodes of Big Bang Theory that I want to watch on my laptop I better be able to get my fix of Sheldon, Penny and Leonard without having to jump through hoops. My experience with the Media player is that it'll play MP3's like a champ. Easy peasy. But Mp4, Mpg, Avi, just about every video format that I've had time to try doesn't play on the media player. I've tried the dev channel, the beta channel, and followed forum instructions and have yet to have a downloaded file work in the media player. When this is fixed I'll be an even HUGER advocate for this OS.
2. Centralized or simplified storage solutions. Right now I can save my pics on Picassa, Box.net, Flickr, GDocs, and a variety of other resources. Each of those offer varying capacity to me for saving those important files. If I want to save my music I presume I'll be able to save them on either AmazonMP3's system, or GMusic and have access to them in a playable format with ease. The problem is that in many cases I have to have a user id and password for each of those and remember which service I saved the file with. If I save my homework in Box.net and I keep looking in GDocs to find it I'll be at it all night. I need to be able to have a central cloud "C" drive that I can quickly count on for finding ALL of my files regardless of the service I need to use them. If this is some URL storage service that creates searchable & tag-able bookmarks to my files then that's what that means. If it means Google ponies up more than they already do for their individual services so I can save my videos (specifically those I'd play on that media player) then that's what needs to happen. YouTube will not play my purchased media but the media player better and that means I need a place I can store and search for that media. 
3. Offline use of extensions would also be nice. There are some extensions that I use that aren't always just useful on the internet. Occasionally those extensions are useful for other things. 

That's it. The list is short and likely already corrected just not on my CR48. The hardware issues with the trackpad and the slower rendering of Flash are things I can get over for the price I paid for this beta tester. Had I paid $300-400 for this thing I'd be disappointed...but we've been assured these won't be issues with the new Chromebooks. Chrome OS is an important addition to the marketplace because it will bring millions to the "Cloud" and it will give a simplified "average user" experience that will appeal to people who have no use or experience with things like design software or other processor/graphics hungry programs. Chrome OS is for consumers that still want functionality with basic features that most people buy a computer for in the first place. Chrome OS is not for people who require the raw power of a computer to create products or consume bleeding edge games. Chrome OS is for people who want to write a paper for college and then watch some YouTube or upload their most recent vacation pics. It's functional, useful, familiar, and does what most people ask their computer to do and then more. For all of the benefits of Chrome OS click here. Then tell me what you think.

The Grass is always greener on the other side..

So the last week has been prepping our backyard for this last weekends "big push". When we moved into this house it was October 30th and winter was just around the corner. The tack weed was just changing color and getting hard enough to stick into oak. The one positive thing was that the weeds were turning brown and going "dormant" until spring. All winter long we made plans to get the yard ready and make the back yard a place we could enjoy. Well that work started with the underground trampoline as documented here. Then the weather became unseasonably cool and the weekends never cooperated for us to do any work of significance. Finally Spring arrived and the excuses started sounding lame so we got to work. We started by getting the weeds plucked. Tons of help from Karen's family made it a one day project. Then we got the sprinklers in...also documented. The final project was several weeknights long and perhaps one of the most draining weekends in recent memory (at least until the next draining weekend). We spent almost two weeks raking the yard to remove rocks. We dumped somewhere in the realm of 4 tons of rocks and leveled the bumps from the boulders that were removed. Then we had this weekend spent cutting sod from the in-laws, rolling it, transporting to our house, and then laying it on Saturday. The results are early but phenomenal. There are no kudos or number of +1's that would be sufficient to express my gratitude for the help and hard work of my in-laws.

All in the name of a well manicured lawn.

Yesterday started early and ended late. I woke up about 7:00 a.m. (I know that's not that early...but wait for the rest of it) and got ready to go pick up the trencher that would dig out the lines for our sprinkler system in the back yard. When I got there I saw all the other poor suckers that were renting various big equipment for spring cleaning/home improvement. I went to the desk to get the unit that we had reserved. When they showed me what we had reserved I was a little dumbstruck. This thing was tiny. It couldn't have weighed much more than me and it was supposed to chew through the bedrock that is our backyard. I was very concerned. When I had paid and was waiting to be loaded the guy who runs the show at Sun Rental came and asked me which one I was getting. I told him and he started to get a wild eyed concern on his face. Needless to say he upgraded me to the 800lbs behemoth that would eventually beat the stuffing out of me. I got it home and lined up with the area that was supposed to be the first run of our sprinkler lines. I wasn't into the project 10 minutes and I knew my day was shot. Every 10 inches of trench required me digging out huge rocks that the trencher couldn't dig out. By the time I had reached the end of the first quarter of the first of three lines I had been digging for almost 45 min. The machine had already beat me black and blue (not literally but it sure felt like it) and I still had most of the trenching left. I managed to get the next half of the first line done in slightly less time. I got down along the back fence of our yard and this is

when I started to feel the sting of defeat, tack weed, blisters, and sore muscles. The first 15 ft along the fence was very smooth and relatively quick. Then I noticed that I was slowly moving closer to the fence and that I needed a course correction. The 800lbs machine didn't like being man-handled and it fought me for every inch of movement. It was then that I started hitting boulders the size of my head...yes really that big. The machine bucked, and rocked, and generally punished me for the next 20 ft. of trench. Then my wife returned from her errands. I was pouring sweat, chewing on dust and grit, and looking at a blister that seemed to reach the muscles of my palm and it didn't get any easier. I spent a total of 5 hours feeling like someone was beating me with a baseball bat...and then the real work started. So far we have laid 1 full circuit and started the lines for the last two. There are parts of the trench for those last two lines that are going to require a lot of shovel work...so the pain isn't over yet. More to follow.