Jason Unger

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I've been wanting to post about this for awhile, but now I actually can: Debbie got an iPhone for her birthday on Tuesday.

Last week when I was in Boston, AT&T starting selling refurb 8GB iPhones online … for $249.

Her cellphone contract with Sprint is up, but we had pretty much decided to wait until the 3G version came out (in June, so says Kevin Rose). But at $350 less than when it first came out … it was a no-brainer.

So now, she has an iPhone. It's sweet, obviously.

As she was playing around with it, she commented on how the novelty of it won't wear off. She's absolutely right, but it's not the novelty … it's the practicality. We always find ourselves wanting to find directions or stores or a piece of info when we're on the road; now, we can.

The Wii is a novel gadget — fun to play, but gets old after awhile. Using the iPhone won't. (Plus, she can check facebook from anywhere.)

We're heading out to California for a week-long vacation in May, and having fingertip access to the Internet while on the road is going to be huge. That alone is worth the investment.

Since it looks like AT&T is no longer selling the units online, I'd say it was a pretty sweet deal. If we decide to upgrade her to 3G in the future, we'll figure it out then … but I'm just trying to find a way to get out of my Sprint contract (one year left … anyone?) without paying up the wazoo.

PS - with the new SDK, it would be HUGE to have a Vonage app for the iPhone. That way we could make calls using our home number on the iPhone — it wouldn't waste minutes and be a great option if AT&T service is as bad as Sprint's in our place (we don't get any Sprint reception). VoIP is coming — Vonage, please get in on it.

Image via The Funny Bone

David Richards, the mass plagiarist with the worst excuse ever, has posted an update to his "security" problem with utter bullshit.

SmartHouse is set to call in a Sydney based security Company who specialise in detecting the IP address of hackers. The move follows the detection of changes to code and the accessing of a proprietary 4Square Media content engine by unknown individuals. We have also identified one of the journalists who gave information to Media Watch in an effort to discredit SmartHouse.

Honestly, everything he says in this piece is complete nonsense.

To be accused of plagiarising stories in the way that Media Watch outlined is akin to robbing a store, and then with a huge name plaque standing outside that store for the police to arrive.

What a joke. As I've been covering this story, I've received a number of emails and comments from people who worked for Richards, all of which say he's a scumbag. (No surprise, there.)

One email gives a specific example to a rumor I'd heard about — that Richards basically extorted Hitachi, making them advertise with his company or face bad press.

It's really pathetic.

On the Media Watch message boards, once poster brings up a glaring hole in Richards' story:

Those items were also put in the Smarthouse daily newsletters, which I imagine are compiled and edited each issue. For two years no-one noticed that stories were being spliced into the content engine, or had bylines changed?

As I've pointed out, I have correspondence from Richards that proves he knew about the plagiarized stories before the February date he says he found out. Big fat lie right there.

Man, do I love stupid headlines.

Toshiba losing money in HD DVD business - Associated Press

I can remember when I was up late enough to actually watch Jay Leno … "Headlines" was my favorite segment.

Look for more stupid tech headlines soon.

It's a sad day for true HDTV fans.

Pioneer to stop making plasma panels

Pioneer Corp. will stop making plasma display panels in an effort to turn around its money-losing business, the Japanese electronics maker said Friday.

Pioneer plans to procure the panels, used in flat-panel TVs, from another company. It said it was in talks with Japanese rival Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic products, to purchase plasma display panels.

Pioneer used to be one of the leading developers of the technology but has fallen behind bigger companies like Matsushita and South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc.

"We have judged that maintaining the cost competitiveness of plasma display panels, or PDPs, at projected sales volumes will be difficult going forward," Pioneer said in a statement.

Pioneer's KURO plasmas are the best TVs on the market. Hands down. There really is no competition.

But they do (did) have a problem — cheaper sets are outpricing them, and they can't keep up. At CES, they told me that they were going to try and establish themselves as a higher-end product (similar to the custom-friendly manufacturers), but that obviously didn't help the bottom line.

I've got a Pioneer at home, and I've never regretted the decision to buy it. If the KUROs drop in price as they try to empty out stock, I will definitely be considering one (once I convince Debbie we need another plasma).

Well, so long. It's a sad day, but who knows what the future might bring.

Let's just hope their extreme concept product is part of it.

Image by John Brillon

Freakonomics, one of my favorite blogs (and a great book, too), has gathered up a group of "smart people" — as they say — to discuss what the technology industry and consumers can learn from the Blu-ray/HD DVD format war.

What Are the Lessons of the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Battle? A Freakonomics Quorum

So what are we to make of this format skirmish? We gathered up a group of smart people who think about such things — Shane Greenstein, Andrei Hagiu, Michael Santo, and Pai-Ling Yin — and asked them the following:

Is the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-ray really over? What can we learn from it?

Honestly, there's nothing really ground-breaking in this analysis. Warner's decision was the tipping point, Toshiba and Sony should have come to an agreement back in 2005, and digital downloads are still on the horizon.

Greenstein is the only one who really takes the Freakonomics view of the format war.

Indeed, it looks as if patient buyers benefited from waiting out this format war, and will soon experience lower prices, larger libraries, more convenience, and reduced uncertainty. Yet, as in prior wars, waiting has its risk. Patient buyers ceded control over the format choice to impatient buyers and sellers. Did earlier market participants make a choice that serves the interests of later market participants? It is difficult to say at this point.

I waited. It may have cost me some tech-cred (I'm looking at you, Ben), but in the end, I'm not stuck with an HD DVD player that I'd only use to play DVDs on.

Blu-ray vs. Digital Downloads

So much has been made about the future of high-definition media. Will Blu-ray even get a chance to become the standard? Or will digital downloads prevail?

The answer is not as black and white as it seems. Both standards will prosper, and here's why:

1. The pipes aren't ready yet. Until everyone has FiOS or beyond, downloading high-def movies is still a pain. (Even though cable is already in our homes, but that's another story.)

2. The space isn't there. The 50GB you can fit onto a Blu-ray disc will take up a chunk of space on your hard drive, even if you have a TB of storage.

3. Quality doesn't always matter. We've learned that from the digital music revolution — quality doesn't matter for a large segment of the population. A 720p download from the Xbox Live Marketplace does make some people happy, even if a true HD fan wouldn't do it.

4. Convenience is important. Again, learned from digital music — if it's easier to start watching something on VUDU then it is to drive to Best Buy and pick up a Blu-ray disc, people will do it.

The trendy argument is to match Blu-ray discs vs. digital downloads like Blu-ray vs. HD DVD. But it's apples and oranges.

You can get the same content either way — you're not locked in to one studio's movies. (Assume for the moment that, at some point, all studios will be publishing their content digitally. Which will happen.)

The format war is over. There's not another one coming.