Author: RPadTV

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Coffee Talk #322: Android Hardware in Amazon’s Future?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Amazon phones and tablets featuring Google Android by the end of the year. The digital services are there, ready to be leveraged…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Sandrock323’s birthday, the chances of Verizon acquiring Sprint, or the countdown to MLB opening day, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Amazon phones and tablets featuring Google Android by the end of the year. The company has done well selling digital music, movies, TV shows, and books. Its new Android Appstore is poised to do well. The Kindle e-reader is the company’s best-selling product of all time. It would make a lot of sense for Amazon to start selling hardware featuring seamless integration with its digital offerings. The pieces are there. Do you think Amazon is interested in expanding its hardware business to exploit its numerous digital products?

The mobile phone industry uses the razor-and-blade model. Carriers sell you the phone (the razor) for a relatively cheap price and keep you on the hook with monthly service (the blades). An Amazon Android phone or tablet would work similarly. Amazon or its carrier partners would sell you the hardware for a relatively low price. Amazon would stand to make more money selling you digital goods. In other words, it would use the Kindle model, but on a larger scale.

What do you think the chances are of Amazon branded Android hardware happening? Do you think it will be WiFi-only products, partnerships with mobile carriers, or both? Would you be interested in an Android phone with tight Amazon integration? I’d love to hear what you think!

Happy Birthday Twitter!

Twitter turned five-years old yesterday. It’s crazy how fast the service has grown and how influential it has become. People use it to follow their favorite celebrities, athletes, and verbal entertainers. People use it to track their favorite news sources in real time. People use it to stay informed about global disasters (Haiti, Japan) and make sure their loved ones are safe. People use it to spread news on the latest political revolutions (Egypt, Libya) as they happen. In retrospect, it’s hilarious that pundits initially dismissed Twitter as a web site about nothing.

As for me, I use Twitter to follow news, keep in touch with friends, see what some of my favorite writers are up to, promote RPad.tv content, communicate with readers, and more. It’s my favorite social media tool, by far. I love its quickness, brevity, and ease of use.

What do you think of Twitter’s growth over the last five years? Are you impressed by what it has become? Do you enjoy using Twitter? For those of you that are down on it, what don’t you like about Twitter?

Mozilla Releases Firefox 4

Hot on the trails of Google Chrome 10 and Internet Explorer 9, Mozilla has released Firefox 4. The browser offers a number of interesting features and a huge speed improvement. I’ve been playing with the browser for about an hour and I’m very impressed with it. In terms of speed, it seems quite competitive with the latest Chrome and IE products. That said, I don’t see it displacing Chrome as my primary browser.

Have any of you downloaded FF4 yet? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts on Mozilla’s latest and greatest.

RPad.tv Video Available on Roku Boxes

If you have a Roku streaming video player then you can watch RPad.tv videos on your television! My videos can be found on the Blip.tv channel. Just search for RPad.tv in that channel and you’re good to go. You’ll be able to enjoy the most electrifying man in videogame verbal entertainment on your TV!

[Thanks to my excellent friend Steve for testing this out!]

Amazon Launches Android App Store, Free Angry Birds Rio

Android users will want to check out the Amazon Android Appstore. Amazon’s version of the Android Market offers great prices, easy browsing, and daily freebies, like Angry Birds Rio. The good news is that Amazon offers a more enjoyable shopping experience and, in some cases, cheaper prices than the official store. The bad news is that the app has to be side loaded, since it’s not an official Android Market app. The process is easy enough, but side loading means that AT&T customers running official software won’t be able to use it.

What do you think of the Amazon Android Appstore? Will you use it over Android Market?

It’s a Great Time to Buy a T-Mobile Phone

Last night I was having a Twitter conversation with my friend Garnett from GameFly. He’s a sharp guy, a T-Mobile customer, and curious to see how AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile pans out. He believes the children are our future that the acquisition has killed T-Mobile’s phone sales and that the company is essentially dead now. I completely disagree with the former. I think it’s a fantastic time to buy a new T-Mobile phone and sign a new two-year contract. Here’s why:

– Service will not change for years. AT&T has confirmed that it will use T-Mobile’s AWS spectrum for LTE. Some people think this means that when the acquisition gets approved next year, their T-Mobile phones will no longer have a 3G signal. That’s completely moronic. Do people really think that there’s a magical button that will allow AT&T to suddenly turn off AWS transmission? Do people really think that the FCC would allow this? Again, it will be years before T-Mobile’s service changes in a significant way.

– AWS disappearing quickly would actually be a great reason to buy a new T-Mobile phone at a subsidized price. AT&T has phone replacement costs built into the LTE roll out. This means that people will get a free phone or a large subsidy on a new phone whenever AWS is used for LTE. Let’s pretend that the acquisition gets approved in a year and, by some miracle involving Zeus, AT&T is ready to use all of T-Mobile’s AWS in an LTE network two months after the deal is closed. This would mean that T-Mobile customers that purchased a subsidized phone in 2011 would be able to take advantage of another subsidize price in 2012. That’s a great deal! Customers usually have to wait two years before they can buy another phone at a subsidized price.

– A lot of T-Mobile customers love the company’s low rates and fair terms. Wouldn’t it be smart to lock in those rates for another two years? The two outcome possibilities are 1) enjoying low rates for the duration of the contract or 2) AT&T changing the terms and giving customers an instant out. In Charlie Sheen terms, this is bi-winning! The customer either gets what they already like or gets a free pass to switch to another carrier.

As for me, my contract is up in August and I absolutely plan on signing an extension for the reasons listed above. I’d love two more years of low rates coupled with a phone like the HTC Pyramid (probably) or the T-Mobile G2X (probably not). People that are reluctant to buy a new T-Mobile phone or sign another contract are being shortsighted and reactionary. Think it through people! This is a wonderful time to buy a T-Mobile phone.

Coffee Talk #321: Is Nintendo Being a Development Snob?

It was disappointing to see Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aims speak out against so-called “garage developers”. Some of the most innovative products have come from…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, hot phone announcements from CTIA 2011, the Lizard being in the next Spider-Man movie, or Carmelo Anthony poisoning the Knicks, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Some of the best software in the world was created by a bunch of kids in a dorm room or a handful of friends in a garage. Sometimes small, independent groups lead to world-changing innovations. Just look at companies like Apple, Facebook, etc. With that spirit in mind, it was disappointing to see Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime speak out against so-called “garage developers”. In a recent interview with Gamasutra he said:

I would separate out the true independent developer vs. the hobbyist. We are absolutely reaching out to the independent developer. Where we’ve drawn the line is we are not looking to do business today with the garage developer. In our view, that’s not a business we want to pursue.

On one hand, managing and reaching out to “garage developers” would cost a lot of money and consume a lot of time. There’s no guarantee of finding a pearl in a sea of indie developers. From a business perspective, I totally understand where Fils-Aime is coming from.

That said, I believe that he chose his words poorly (which is surprising for such a smooth talker). He made Nintendo appear snobbish, as if the company looks down on small developers. His comments fed into the belief that Nintendo is anti-innovation when it comes to third parties. For a company that has a poor track record with third-party developers, why alienate puppies that could grow up to be pit bulls that will bite you in the ass? I also bet there are some people in dorm rooms and garages that no longer dream of making Nintendo games because of what Fils-Aime said.

What do you think of Reggie’s comments? Is he just talking about smart business? Or is he sending a negative message to aspiring developers?

All Retail NGP Games Will Be Available Digitally: Do You Care?

In a recent interview with MCV, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president Andrew House said, “All [NGP] games that appear physically will be made available digitally.” While I absolutely love the immediacy and convenience of digital media, I know that some of you love physical media. Do you care that all NGP retail games will have digital equivalents? Will the NGP change the way you buy games? Can you see yourself buying the majority of games for your NGP digitally? Or are you still tied to the box and manual?

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