Why I bought an Xbox.

Screw you Water Temple.

I've only ever owned two console game systems in my entire life. My parents got my brother, sister, and I a Nintendo 64 right after Zelda: Ocarina of Time (the best game ever made) came out, in 1999 if my memory serves me right. I remember watching my older brother and his best friend Mark play that game for hours. The wolves at the entrance to the Forest Temple still frighten me to this today.

When I got a little older, around Jr. High age, I remember my class held a garage sale. As I was helping put out the boxes of assorted clothes and other paraphernalia that you find at such sales, I spotted an atypical gem in the mess: a Playstation. Now mind you, this was when the Playstation 2 was in its hayday (there's a DVD player built in?!) Still, the mere thought of owning a system that played its games from CDs as opposed to cartridges made me splurge the 20 or so dollars that it cost.

Today I bought my third game system that I've ever owned: an Xbox 360.


If you know me, you know I'm kind of a gadget geek. Ever since I figured out how to check my email using my dad's sprint flip phone on a road trip to California I've enjoyed figuring out how to allow gadgets to make my life easier.

That being said, I've been called an Apple fanboy by more than one innocent bystander. Allow me to lay those accusations at rest: I don't buy Apple products because they are made by Apple. I buy Apple products because they are the best gadgets on the market.

So why would I spend $300 on the 4GB Xbox 360 Kinect package? Aren't Apple and Microsoft sworn enemies? Maybe once, not so long ago. But today?

Take a look at where Microsoft has come from. The Windows that we knew and loved last decade is evolving into something no one anticipated. And, with Microsoft unveiling Windows 8 recently, it's become clear that they are headed into the next era with all haste.

Exhibit 3: an ecosystem.

My love for any given piece of technology goes only as far as the ecosystem that the given technology communicates with. With Apple I can seamlessly sync things between my iPad, laptop, and iPhone using one or more apps. With Amazon I can buy a book on my Kindle and have the ability to read it on any of my devices. With Dropbox I can share my documents with others and access them from anywhere. A gadget or service is only as good as what it's connected with.

Windows Phone 7 took the tech industry by storm. I remember listening to the Engadget podcast when the change in the Windows mobile platform was announced. Nobody believed that "Old Faithful" was capable of altering its DNA and evolving. What would the new UI look like? What did this mean for Windows? As the first phone models were released many of these questions were answered, while some only festered and produced more questions. The unveiling of Windows 8 brought many answers: Microsoft is in it for the long haul.

And through all of this, the Xbox stood as (arguably) king of the gaming industry. Kinect only added to that perception with its seamless integration and fun-factor. Now, with all of these announcements that Microsoft is making regarding their next version of Windows, it is clear to me that they are tying everything together. They are making an ecosystem that is worth being a part of. They are making an ecosystem that I want to be a part of.

Go big or go home, that's what I always say. I had no intention of returning to my place of residence today, so I walked out of the West Point bookstore carrying a tried-and-true gaming system.

As I stood looking at the box that held my new Xbox 360 today, I couldn't help but wonder if this was the first step in my becoming a Windows fanboy. I'll have to make a note of that on my iPad.

Colin

Do you have a gaming system that you prefer? What ecosystems are you invested in?

Android fragmentation and why it matters

If you follow Engadget at all, you know that their journalists are pretty unbiased. If there's anything they collectively hate, however, it's Android fragmentation.

I'll break it down a bit:
The Android OS is on many different devices (Google phones, Motorola's Droid line, HTC phones, and Samsung phones, as in their Galaxy S line). Each of these hardware manufacturers are able to put their own "skin" (or UI) over the stock Android software. They do this to differentiate their phones from the competitor's and to make any "improvements" that they see fit. The skins have various names: MotoBlur (Motorola),  Sense UI (HTC), TouchWiz (Samsung). These are the most popular, and are put on top of the stock Android software that you find on the Nexus 1 and Nexus S (Samsung's only Galaxy S phone without TouchWiz).

What the consumer gets then, is a wide variety of devices all running the same software (Android) but with very different user interfaces. In other words, a Motorola user could be very confused when they pick up a Samsung device. Confusion, however, is the least of the consumer's problem.

When a new version of Android is released it takes time for the hardware manufacture to put their trademark skin over that software. Their devices, in turn, are unable to be updated to the latest version of the Android OS until the manufacture puts out their updated version. This might not be so bad, except lately some manufactures have decided to not even put out the newest version of the skinned Android OS to their older phones. Users with phones that are a year old are left in the dust, while only brand new users get the latest software coupled with the latest hardware.

A great example of this is when the latest version of the mobile Android OS was released, Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The flagship Android 2.3 phone was the Nexus S, which (surprisingly) ran stock Gingerbread with no TouchWiz UI. This was a great update to Android and was praised as such. However, many phones could not be updated. Some phones, such as in Samsung's Galaxy S line, had yet to be updated to 2.2 Froyo, let alone 2.3!

How does this affect the consumer in the long term? What we end up getting is a host of Android devices all running different versions of the software under skins that arguably subtract from the best Android experience possible. If you buy a phone now, there's no guarantee that you will receive the next Android update when it comes out, months after it comes out, or ever. Some users may be ok with this, as they might not update their phone even if the update was available. This mentality seems to work fine at first, but what about when a security issue is brought up about the current version of Android? I for one want the most updated software possible, to minimize issues like this.

Android fragmentation is very real and has the possibility to have a very negative effect on users, especially now, in the year of the tablets.

Have you experienced Android fragmentation? What are your thoughts on it?
Interested in what Google has to say? "Fragmentation...is a red herring"

Colin

My take on tech

I've always loved technology. I remember when my big sister set up my first email account for me, and I remember showing it off to all my friends off of our dial up network and thinking I was so cool. I remember the first time I changed the background on a windows computer, and added that annoying mouse trail that all elementary school kids seem to love.

More recently I've grown to love social networking. Starting with facebook, this love quickly branched out to twitter, tumblr, and various other sites fitting the description.

I say all that, not to reminisce, but rather to illustrate that I'm by no means some sort of 'expert.' What I am, if anything, is a consumer that does his research. I enjoy paying attention to tech blogs, like Engadget and Gizmodo. I frequently listen to Engadget's podcast (iTunes link), and have attended one of their shows in New York City.

I've considered writing a tech blog for the last few months and have decided not to. Mostly because I don't have the time, but also because I fell like I'm nowhere near learned enough on the subject. That said, I have some opinions that I want to express, so I will occasionally do posts about tech labeled under the tag "technology" (which I have provided a link for in the sidebar). My hope in this is stimulate intelligent conversation about the topic. I would ask for commenters to stay away from the "Android is way better" type comments. I want to hear your opinion, but please back it up with why. This benefits everyone.

My first post is on Android fragmentation.

Colin