The Gillmor Gang debated the virtues and otherwise of the smartphone’s latest pretender to the iPhone crown: Droid. Michael Arrington led the Droid’s faction, with a QVC-like enthusiasm for the power of Any Phone That Runs Google Voice. Of course, he keeps his iPhone and iTouch a handy arm-grab away, but with Droid he may finally have some rationale for excommunicating himself from the Apple bosom.
The New York Times’ Saul Hansell provided context at the telecom level, while ex-monopoly telecom BT’s JP Rangaswami placed his and BT’s bet on the future of open platforms such as Android. JP’s partner in crime at BT and subsidiary Ribbit, Kevin Marks, supported Arrington’s vision of a game-changer in voice, while Robert Scoble was happy to defend the iPhone with faint praise just so he could have something to argue about with Arrington. He also elicits some new CrunchPad details from Mike.
Of course, my perspective is the true correct one, that the iPhone will continue to dominate as Android devices demolish RIM, partner virtually with Windows Mobile over the Silverlight bridge to carve up the volume play, and batter the telecoms into submission so that Apple can ride through the big gaping hole and launch the iBook. A great conversation that will continue.
Whoa, who’s that clean-shaven guy? What did you do with hippie Steve?
Hey Erick,
I’ve got a major issue with Google Voice. Read my comment from the link or check the tip inbox.
http://www.tech...comment-3097629
However you came to the conclusion TC was the support channel for GV is anyone’s guess. I would imagine similar faulty logic has allowed the ability to change one’s settings in GV escape you.
If you were a GV user you’d know that you simply input a code that you’re given by GOOGLE to enable your voice mail on GV. Michael wrote a story on the privacy issues that he faced on GV and that’s why this has been pointed out here.
There’s that faulty logic of people like you that simply come to places like TC to make pointless comments without knowing what’s going on.
Read the below article, catch up on why I noted these things then comment.
http://www.tech...privacy-policy/
Take the hint. If you’re having to continuously link to a comment you made that no one has answered then try somewhere else
Robinson: As a user of Grand Central, and GV when the acquisition was made I can assure you I know what I’m talking about with respect to GV. I’ve added and removed ~8 phone #s from GV, and I’ve had no problems.
P,S, I’ve never seen you comment on TC ever before.
@coldbrew
I call my cell >> it rings >> I ignore the call to send it to vm>> the call continues to ring (on the calling end) and a stranger picks up their phone thinking I’m calling them.
I’m using the GV vm feature for a non-GV #, when you set that up it gives you a number to input in your phone in which Google verifies to be correct before they say that it’s activated on your account.
Nowhere in that process does it leave room for user error when they’re verifying that you’re entering the correct number, also there’s no settings in GV that allow you to forward your VM calls to someone else completely. There are reports that it forwards back to some people’s GV #’s and calls them back a second time but this is on a totally different level.
hippie steve joined the army
Obviously, this will come for Droid is still new. but don’t close your eyes just yet remember GOOGLE is backing em.
According to Cnet it was a little bit slow nonetheless a good start of droid, other “critiques” says otherwise. But I say, “Hell yeah! droid conquered US for a couple of hours last week”.
Collation of info about droid release last week: http://bit.ly/d...uered-USA-today
what the HELL is an itouch?
http://www.goog...lient=firefox-a
it’s not an ipod touch i don’t think. say it how it is
YDI
Steve,
I would love to listen but the only time I am able to do that is on my journey to work. For that I need to subscribe to your podcast feed but unfortunately your podcast feed does not support Zune (and/or vice versa).
I used to be an avid listener in summer 2008 until the show started moving here there and everywhere. I want to listen again but am unable to. Would really appreciate you sorting this out.
thanks
Jamie
what is Zune?
Hmm, I expected more from you than a pithy response like that. Never mind, I shant bother you again.
Interesting that you’ve seemingly forgotten just HOW COOL Steve is!
Steve, are you that out of touch that you think that was a clever comment? Plenty of 13 year iPod fans have been wearing that one out in blog comments for a while now.
I with Jamie. . . . That was bad form.
seriously, what is Zune? Does it not play MP4’s?
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=zune
I believe what Jamie might be trying to say is that there is a problem with the Gillmor Gang podcast listed in the Zune marketplace. There is also a problem when trying to subscribe manually.
The problem begins with the podcast published 09/22/2009.
I don’t know what the issue might be but I would like to be able to watch your podcast on the go. Thanks.
It’s probably not every day that you guys post a 1 hour long video link on the front page. But the next time you decide to do that, you might consider,
A: NOT embedding the actual YouTube video player in the synopsis on the front page. Make people click through to the article if they want to watch the video.
B: Disabling refresh
I was about 15 minutes into the video, which I was enjoying, when your front page decided FOR ME that it should be refreshed. Frankly, I forgot that I had clicked on it where I first saw it (the front page), but I shouldn’t have to recall this info and make a decision. I’ve lost interest now.
Same thing happened to me! The front page has some javascript that refreshes the page every 20 minutes. Not sure who came up with that, but it’s surely not very helpful when watching a 60 minutes long video.
yeah, that was annoying. I was listening to it in the background and TC’s own efforts to get page views illegitimately so I can see more scam ads kept more listening to the whole conversation.
“…QVC-like enthusiasm…” made me smile.
Anyone want to sum up what the crunchpad news was? I’m not watching an hour of this.
Is there porn playing in the background?
I kept expecting Arrington to drop to the floor and roll around with the Droid, making wild passionate love.
sorry to interrupt.
2 things worth noting from the video:
Crunchpad might still come out, and Google teaming up with a South Korean company to get a real Iphone competitor out in the next few months.
the crunchpad news: he says $3-400. price is coming down, not going up (though that seems to me like it’s gone up). more news soon. and that the apple version will be better but more expensive (and he’s urging them not to compete by saying they should go higher-end, which he says he doesn’t think they’ll do).
Good discussion, but you could have addressed some more of the fundamental differences between the two platforms. Such as background tasks, openess of the market (and not limited to a single market) on Android, and the “services” capabilities of Android (one app can provide services to another).
Scoble’s complaint about the quality of Twitter apps on Android is just a “point in time” issue.
think two distinct camps will (or have) developed.
1. People who “just want it to work and be simple” will choose iPhone
2. People who “want it to do more” and “be extensible” will choose Android.
Too bad the carriers (still) have so much to say about handset choice.
Have any of these guys ever had a date?
I have three kids. Enough said.
Pretty sure they’ve have more success with women than the average TC poster.
Scoble is awesome
Scoble, I’ve been very critical of you recently – but you did a nice job on this show. I thought you were much more fair in your criticisms of the Droid on this show than you were in your recent blog post – and with the presence of Saul Hansell as a well-balanced voice of reason, the discussion was very satisfying. I really liked how you asked questions of the entire panel – as if you were hosting the show yourself – which was needed given Gillmor’s lackluster and often condescending demeanor on camera.
Touche! You were great; It’s just the sight of guys with headsets looks a bit like world of warcraft…
Please leave me an email on your station I would like to see what else you have.
Thank You Mr.B
Steve, isn’t it about time you declared something dead?
I might be blind, but I can’t find how to get a podcast feed for this?
Surely it’s not video only, and a embedded streaming Flash video at that?
I listen to podcasts while driving, washing up, walking for exercise, cleaning, etc.
Listening to 4 or 5 dudes in a conversation shouldn’t require watching a video. (Perhaps the hand gestures are crucial for understanding?)
Again, this misperception could be my fault, but the only up to date feed I can find in iTunes for syncing to is: “Bootleg Gillmor Gang” which by its title suggests it is not officially sanctioned.
http://itunes.a...st?id=319222899
There are 3 other Gillmor Gang feeds, which don’t appear to have been updated since March.
Anyway, that’s the one I’m subscribing to now in an attempt to hear this conversation when I begin my podcast listening.
Someone please correct me if I’m way off base here.
Apparently Steve doesn’t care about iPod users either. Personally, I think he’s just lazy. Why have a podcast that people can’t subscribe to?
Until last Friday I carried a WM 6.1 phone. What kept me on WM was that it was a much more open platform than iPhone. Microsoft has had apps forever, they were just called programs. I didn’t move to Android when the G1 came out because the hardware was inferior to what you could get for a high end WM phone. That is no longer true, and I’m a very happy owner of a Droid. Earlier this week, my wife got one too and loves it. Android has matured quickly in two years and the app store is great. Sure it doesn’t have 100,000 apps, but I don’t think that I’m going to run out of great apps to run on the phone and if my wife is any indication the Droid and Android in general is going to do very well not just with the geeks.
I have Google Voice and agree with Mike…the full integration is awesome.
The Qualcomm type reflective technology is MEMS based. In somewhat similar to the type of mirror technology used in some projection LCD displays.
http://telephon...rter-MEMS-0216/
Pretty cools stuff. Probably a better route to reflective color than color e-ink.
Mr Gilmour,
Some minor feedback — you could do a better job of being more concise with your interview questions, framing the discussion and giving it direction.
Will Duke Nukem Forever come preinstalled on the Crunchpad?
i think all these guys have too much overconfidence on their comments, let them fcuk with each other with bullshit comments. they don’t go the street , they just sit in front of pc and in air-conditioned offices. they don’t have dam experience with with common people. one says, firefox is irrelevant, one says nokia is dead, no one mentions Ie, no one mentions saamsug,lg,moto,nokia.
i think for all this guys life begun with google and apple and end with google and apple.
Good to hear the news on the Crunchpad. What an adventure this whole Crunchpad quest must be for Mr. Arrington and co. Starting something like that from scratch is not for the faint hearted.
It is hilarious, if totally understandable, that the “skip the handshake” post elicited more comments then this drivel. (Admittedly I only made it a couple minutes.)
I think it’s very interesting where Google is going. They are attempting to disrupt everybody’s carefully constructed vertical business models and drive all users to their search ad revenue generating arms. As long as Google controls search, they can keep pushing HTML 5, Google Voice, Android, Chrome OS. I disagree with Arrington – they are the new Microsoft. Instead of OS domination, they have search dominance. Microsoft bundled competitor features into the OS, Google bundles features into their free apps. They skirt the monopoly issue since their software is free, but it’s paid for by their monopoly in search. At one point does Google constrain innovation – I think what happens to Ribbit will prove or disprove that point. Ribbit is Google Voice separated from Google’s cloud without subsidy from Google Search…. Netscape Navigator all over again.
Google Voice here, Google Voice there.
I don’t give a thing about GV until Google haven’t managed to make this available OUTSIDE the US. You can’t just make people think they should watch for a phone supporting GV when only ONE country can actually use it. (and no, USA is NOT the whole world)
On the other hand I now know that I’ll get an iPhone 2010. We can see about Android being Number one in 3 years after my contract is over.
Greetings from the neighbor, Canada!
i have a strong feeling that, google and apple will kill lot of families in the near future with there current strategy. They will destroy other companies in the name of open source.
I am 100% sure that behind the scene , google and her fans help apple and vice versa. there should be anti apple and anti google movement. everyone should boycott there products.
I know these are extreme comments, but when your company will shut down and you will loose your job because of apple or google, you will understand.
Scoble,
One thing that I’ve noticed is that you treat the Droid like the problems you’ve found are with the device itself, as if they won’t be fixed within 2 months by software updates. You’re key points for liking the Iphone better both had to do with apps available on the app store. Of course the Facebook/Twitter apps are superior for Iphone. That’s where all the dev resources were funneled into.
Now that will change. MARK MY WORDS: in less than 90 days, the software glitches in Android will be gone. In less than 6 months, there will be brand new, very nice Facebook and Twitter apps for Android 2.0 and higher. Let’s face it: If i was using the 1.0 operating system on my Iphone, I would think the device was garbage compared to 3.0.
As an Iphone owner, this is good, because it will force Apple to make my product better too. Why doesn’t MY phone automatically import facebook info and profiles to sync with my contacts list? I want to be able to actually USE my Google Voice account! C’mon Apple!!
I’m using chrome browser on mac as my primary browser – it’s excellent