Finally, some nice looking Windows hardware. Here is Vizio’s new PCs and monitors:

and here is the new Nokia Windows Phone device (Lumia 900):

It’s nice that someone finally got the message: consumer devices need to look good.

I actually had the chance to play around a little bit with a Lumia phone before it was announced back in September. I was very impressed with it overall. The speed was excellent — nothing herky and jerky at all — and the device felt great in the hand. Finally, I thought, a device I’d carry if I wasn’t carrying an iPhone. It will be interesting to see how the market for smartphones change over the next year.

And for all of you who think this war has been won, according to Tomi Ahonen (through Asymco.com), smartphone penetration of the worldwide cell phone market has reached 10%. When the PC market was 10%, Amiga, Apple II, Atari and Commodore 64 all still had significant market share. Still a long way to go in this battle.

2012 Predictions: Macworld’s annual forecast of the year ahead

I don’t much go in for predictions but John Moltz, editor in chief of Apple Crazy Rumors had a crazy prediction for Apple’s 2012:

Having given iOS a major upgrade to its notification system in 2011, Apple will implement an even more startling upgrade in 2012: pre-notifications. Using patented time-displacement technology, Apple will deliver pre-notifications for events that will be happening to you shortly, such as “Your brother will call you in 15 minutes”, “The milk in your refrigerator will go bad at 3:15 PM” and “Hear that clock tower chiming midnight? You’ll be dead by the time the bells stop. Make peace with whatever god(s) you worship”. Google will attempt to copy the feature by using the open-source “Magic 8-Ball” system.

I love it! (Or don’t if I get the clock tower one.)

I just don’t get the entertainment industry. First they back SOPA, a law that could basically shut down Google, Yahoo, Facebook YouTube and another billion sites on the web whenever the entertainment industry lawyers don’t like what they are doing. (Apparently those companies and more are preparing to shut down their servers and direct people to call their local politicians if it moves forward. Oh, I’d hate to be a Senator that day.)

Then HBO gets pissy at Netflix and will no longer sell them discs for a discount. And now Warner Brothers announces that the window before movies are available to rent after release will no longer be 28 days; instead, it will be 56. (To which someone on Twitter commented that the BitTorrent window is 28 minutes.)

Why don’t they get it? Why don’t they understand that folks like me, who spent thousands of dollars per year on music, movies, TV shows, and cable, has almost completely gone cold turkey. I buy a song here or there on iTunes. I subscribe to Netflix. I get just the local channels on cable. And I’m done. Even if there was content I wanted to buy I surely would not pay them for it now. I’m fed up with the way Hollywood treats me as a consumer.

I bought new business checks yesterday and the salesman on the phone was telling me about all the ways people figured out how to rip off checks, many of which used Scotch Tape. He was espousing the amazingness of their new checks, which supposedly resist such fraud. All I could of is that if the bank industry was the entertainment industry, they would have sued 3M for supplying the tape years ago.

If I could have invented any business over the past 15 years, I think it would have been Kickstarter.

We are a nation that was built on the promise that a single person could make a huge difference, that you have control of your destiny. But too often businesses are built to prey on our weaknesses, court us with tabloid-like sensationalism, or scare us with FUD [1].

Kickstarter embodies everything that is good about the American spirit. It is an enabler of ideas, making it possible for individuals or small companies to bring those ideas to market through revenues (not debts or capital). And this — helping ideas become products — is a noble endeavor.

There are other ideas out there that are wonderful and uplifting, too, but it is Kickstarter that captures my imagination.

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[1] FUD: Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt

Roku Streaming Stick adds streaming software to TVs, no box required 

If you are not familiar, Roku streams web-based content to your television. I used one for a very long time, especially to get Netflix and MLB.com on my TV instead of a computer in a room somewhere. Everything works with a remote control. This new device, just a stick that plugs into the back of certain television sets is even cooler. I love the idea that there are not even wires required, nothing sitting on a shelf, just a television set.

Over the past few years I ripped my entire collection of music, movies and TV shows to a hard drive and use iTunes, Apple’s sharing system and an Apple TV to stream that to my television set. This was an amazing breakthrough for me as I hated the massive number of shelves lined with cases. Now they are all on a 2 terabyte hard drive, all tucked away in the office out of site.

Seems to me the Roku stick is another step in the right direction, though. When we can get rid of the receivers and DVD players and Apple TV boxes and ridiculous number of cables and wires leading everywhere and collecting dust, I will be a very happy man.