Coffee Talk #393: Are Phones Getting Too Big?

At IFA 2011, several mobile phone manufacturers showed off super-sized models. I’m talking about electronics that some feel are too big to be considered a phone, but are too small to be considered a tablet. Two examples are…

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, Klatch’s Panama Kotowa Duncan, the soul-crushing struggle of job hunting, or AJ Burnett raising his game to mediocre levels, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

At IFA 2011, several mobile phone manufacturers showed off super-sized models. I’m talking about electronics that some feel are too big to be considered a phone, are but too small to be considered a tablet. Two examples are the Samsung Galaxy Note (5.3-inch screen at 1280 x 800) and the HTC Titan (4.7-inch screen at 800 x 480). Considering that some people feel that phones like the HTC Thunderbolt (4.3-inch screen) are too big, I’m curious to see how consumers will react to these larger phones.

As for me, I’m all for phones like the Galaxy Note. I love that it packs a large screen and a high resolution. Right now I’m alternating between the Thunderbolt and the T-Mobile G2x by LG. While the four-inch screen on the G2x is certainly large, lately I’ve found that I prefer the larger screen on the Thunderbolt. More than anything else, I use my phone for reading. Whether it’s web sites or emails, a larger screen and a higher resolution would make things easier and more enjoyable for me.

How about you? What do you think of phones featuring screens that are larger than 4.7 inches? Are they too big? Or could you see yourself rocking one?

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

I’m going to be visiting my old stomping grounds of San Francisco this weekend, but only virtually. You see, I’m playing Driver: San Francisco and it will be getting the bulk of my attention over the next few days. My addiction to Quarrel Deluxe is still going strong, so that will be my “break” game. The gameplay is so clever!

How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

Beavis & Butthead in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

I’ve already watched this Star Wars: Return of the Jedi clip featuring the voices of Beavis and Butthead 12 times. I’m probably going to watch it 12 more times in the next two hours. While it doesn’t quite make up for the changes George Lucas had made in the Star Wars Blu-ray compilation, it makes me feel a little bit better about the situation. Everything is funnier with a little Beavis and Butthead. Ha!

Totally Addicted to Quarrel Deluxe for iOS

I’ve playing the hell out of Quarrel Deluxe on my iPad 2. It’s a cute and clever game that blends elements of Scrabble and Risk. Like other word games, you have to string together letters to form words. The goal is to make the best word you can as quickly as possible. What makes this game unique is the it incorporates strategic gameplay that uses a different part of your brain.

Quarrel is played on boards of different sizes. Controlling the board is every bit as important as busting out words. You battle opponents to control different areas of the board. As you advance, your characters move forward and leave a sole troop behind. You can move your other characters to cover up any weak spots. While it’s fun to just beat up on opponents with your impressive vocabulary, that’s not always the best way to win. If you’re too aggressive then you’ll open yourself up to easy defeats.

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I absolutely loved the gameplay in Quarrel. It’s supremely clever and totally addictive. The stat system is cool (I’m a baseball nerd) and I love how it tracks progress. I was also impressed and amused by the game’s dictionary. I used the word “wank” in a battle and it was properly identified as slang for masturbating. Ha! Quarrel has cut into my daily Civilization: Revolution game time, which is the highest praise I can give to any iPad game.

Unfortunately, there’s no multiplayer in Quarrel Deluxe. That’s a criminal omission. The cute sounds can also be grating. During long games, I found myself muting the sound in order to concentrate on the excellent gameplay.

I foresee myself playing a ton of Quarrel Deluxe in the future. It’s smart, fun, and addictive. It has joined Civ: Rev as one of the few games I play every day and I don’t see it leaving that spot any time soon. If you get a chance to play it, please let me know you think!

Pachter: Xbox 360 Price Cut Needed to Beat PS3

I love Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. In addition to videogames, we can talk about WWE and gaming United Airlines’ frequent flyer program. That’s pretty much all I know. I also love that he’s so quotable. He recently told Industry Gamers that Microsoft needs to slash the price of the Xbox 360 in order to beat Sony’s PlayStation 3 this holiday season. Here’s the deal:

If Microsoft does nothing, I think PS3 will outsell Xbox 360. However, my friends at Microsoft are extremely proud, and they absolutely refuse to tolerate the possibility that the PS3 will outsell the Xbox 360. I think they have the ads printed for the Xbox 360 price cut, and will drop them on us the instant they see PS3 sales greater than 360 sales.

I know that the lot of you are split on Pachter. Some of you are fans of his brazen predictions. Some of you would love for him to pipe down a bit. What do you think of his latest claim? Is Sony’s momentum with the PlayStation 3 something for Microsoft to be concerned about? Is an Xbox 360 price cut necessary in 2011?

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The Justice Department vs. AT&T Means…

I spent a large part of yesterday talking to friends and colleagues in the mobile tech industry. As you’ve probably guessed, the hot topic was the Justice Department’s lawsuit to block AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile. Everyone I spoke to agreed that most people were taking the news of the lawsuit the wrong way; just because the Justice Department is suing, doesn’t mean that the deal is dead. However, opinions were split on how this is all going to pan out. Let’s look at a few of the possibilities.

The most popular scenario is that the acquisition goes through, but with AT&T having to make more concessions than originally planned. People that expressed this opinion believe that the lawsuit is just a tactic to weaken AT&T’s stance. Some believe that AT&T’s lobbyists (and the money behind them) are too powerful for the deal to completely die.

Number two on the list is that T-Mobile ends up with another company. While several people mentioned this possibility, the proposed partners were all over the place. Dream suitors mentioned include Sprint, Google, Cox Cable, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cablevision. The one issue with this scenario is that nobody thinks that T-Mobile can get anything close to the $39-billion offered by AT&T. Will Deutsche Telekom be willing to take a deal for significantly less money?

Oddly enough, the least popular possibility was T-Mobile giving it another go on its own. Some of you will remember that if the AT&T acquisition falls through then T-Mo receives a cool $6-billion — $3-billion in cash plus $3-billion in spectrum and roaming rights. While that’s a significant amount of money and assets, my pundit pals believe that it’s not enough to keep T-Mobile going. The company has been losing customers and is already less valuable than it was when the acquisition was announced. At best, my friends believe the children are our future that T-Mobile’s consolation prizes will be used to increase the price to its potential buyers.

As for me, I’m going with the first possibility. I think that the acquisition still goes through. The honest reason is that I don’t expect the government to do what’s right for American consumers. I’ve been conditioned to believe that money and special interests will trump doing the right thing. Am I being cynical? Certainly. Am I being irrational? I don’t think so.

What do you think of all this? How do you think the The Justice Department vs. AT&T will shake down?

Superman Costume Revealed on Facebook

The Facebook page for Superman: Man of Steel has been updated with several pictures of Henry Cavill wearing the updated Superman costume. It’s definitely a departure from the traditional costume. However, I’m going to withhold judgement for now because of Thor; the costumes from that movie looked stupid in still shots, but totally worked in the movie.

Having said that, I’m not going to stop you from judging! What do you think of the new Superman costume?

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Two Changes in the Star Wars Trilogy Blu-ray Compilation

Here are a pair of YouTube clips that show changes found in the upcoming Star Wars Blu-ray compilation. They’re varying degrees of painful. The clip above shows the climactic scene of Luke Skywalker’s showdown with Emperor Palpatine. As Luke’s father (Darth Vader) looks on, he’s torn on whether to support his emperor or save his son. In the original scene, he’s completely silent, but you can feel his conflict. In the new scene, he picks up Palpatine and shouts, “Nooooooo!!!” It’s frickin’ terrible.

The second scene features Obi-Wan Kenobi scaring off some Tusken Raiders (Sand People) messing with Luke’s land speeder. Kenobi mimics a krayt dragon…but in the revamped version he sounds more like Ric Flair screaming as he blades in a steel cage match. It’s not as offensive a change as the first scene, but it’s still not good.

Although Badass News has confirmed the scenes as real, I really hope they’re not. I’m super looking forward to Star Wars on Blu-ray, but now I’m very much scared of seeing stupid changes that are completely unnecessary.

How about you? Are you scared of what George Lucas has in store for the Star Wars Blu-ray compilation?

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Samsung Galaxy S II Announced for AT&T, Sprint, & T-Mobile

After months and months of waiting, Samsung has finally announced that its Galaxy S II Android phone will be coming to North America. AT&T and Sprint will be getting the phone in September, while T-Mobile’s version will be arriving at a later date. All three versions of the phone will be running Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread) with Samsung TouchWiz, have 16GB of internal memory, have an eight-megapixel rear-camera, and sport a two-megapixel front-facing camera. There are some distinct differences between the three models. Cue the Degeneration X music as I break it down!

AT&T: This model is closest to the international version. It sports a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen and a 1.2GHz dual-core Exynos processor, which is currently the most powerful mobile phone processor on the market. It’s using the Samsung Galaxy S II name and will be available in September.

Sprint: Dubbed the Samsung Epic Touch 4G, Sprint’s version of the Galaxy S II features a larger 4.52-inch screen, a larger batter, and a WiMax radio. It will be the first Galaxy S II out of the gate, hitting on September 16, 2011.

T-Mobile: Few details were revealed about the Samsung Galaxy S II for T-Mobile. Most experts believe that it will be hitting later than its counterparts and previous rumors pointed to an October release. There’s also a chance that it will not feature an Exynos processor. The word on the street is that this version will go with a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core chip in order to be compatible with a modem that works with T-Mo’s HSPA+ 42 network. If that’s true then it will be interesting to see if consumers will be willing to sacrifice processing power for faster connectivity.

There’s no doubt that all three American Galaxy S II models will be excellent phones that sell well, but are they arriving too late? When the global version of the Galaxy S II went on sale in May 2011, it was unmatched and remained that way for the entire summer. September and October releases have a lot more competition, including the iPhone 5 and the (rumored) Nexus Prime. Hell, as I’m typing this there are a bunch of great phones being unveiled at the IFA 2011 trade show, some of which will be available before the end of the year and outperform the Galaxy S II.

My friend Shacknews Garnett and I were debating about this topic. We both believe that the phone would have killed in America if it were released in the summer. He blamed Samsung for bungling the launch. I believe that the stupid way the U.S. market works is to blame. The carriers want their own special flavor of the Galaxy S II and need time to ensure that their bloatware works on their custom model. Samsung is all about getting its flagship phone on as many carriers as possible, so it had no choice but to wait until the American carriers got their crap together.

Please let me know what you think about the American Galaxy S II line. Any guesses on the T-Mobile holdup? Do you think the phone is arriving in the U.S. too late? Is it Samsung’s fault or is it just playing the game it has to play in order to sell in America?

Coffee Talk #392: Bigger Disruptor — iTunes vs. Napster

Two of my friends were arguing over which service disrupted the music industry in the bigger way, Napster or iTunes. The Napster backer believes that creating absolute anarchy and making music available to more…

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, whoopie pies sweeping the nation, Oscar De La Hoya’s admission of cocaine use + adultery, or Michael Vick’s sweet contract, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Two of my friends were arguing over which service disrupted the music industry in the bigger way, Napster or iTunes. The Napster backer believes that creating absolute anarchy and making music available to more people than ever is an unmatched accomplishment. He argued that Napster paved the road for iTunes’ success and put an emphasis on being the first change agent. The Apple supporter acknowledged that Napster was the first major agitator, but argued that iTunes had a more meaningful impact on the music industry. He believes that getting the music business to change its pricing model is more significant than the free-for-all environment that Napster created. He also thinks the combination of iTunes and the iPod, later joined by the iPhone and iPad, changed the way millions of people buy music.

The arguments were interesting and I’m still processing both sides. I don’t have my own opinion on the matter yet, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on this debate. Please vote in today’s poll and expand on your answer in the comments section!

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