Cariann Higginbotham: Technology Evangelist Podcast, Episode – 0008, for January 21^st, 2007. Palm Treo vs the Apple iPhone.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Welcome to podcast, episode – 8, Yes, I said podcast I meant to say podcast. At the bloghaus at CES of last year, I fully realized that I cannot call in a netcast, the term Podcast has won and that no matter how hard I try, there is just no reversing it, because the industry itself is just gonna call it a Podcast.

Cariann Higginbotham: Pretty much.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Most of them scoffed at the name Netcast and there is the guys who are like, we could call it an Audcast or Audiocast and Vidcast or Videocast.

Cariann Higginbotham: No.

Benjamin Higginbotham: No, see they kind of miss the point, which is Netcast is self explanatory, it’s a great brand, its good marketing. Whereas Audcast and Vidcast, you can’t just look at that word. You can’t be a general consumer, look at that word and understand what it is. Where as Netcast is little more self explanatory, the problem is that Netcast is a bigger umbrella, you can put audio into it, you could put video into it, you could put just about anything you wanted into it, as long as it’s on the internet.

Cariann Higginbotham: Right.

Benjamin Higginbotham: And so it’s too broad, its too open. Being that Podcast, was I think one of the terms of the year,  yesterday, last year.

Cariann Higginbotham: Or yesterday.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Yeah yesterday. I think it was the term of the day, yesterday...That's just gonna be the way it is, so we ... I still don't have a term for video on the internet and Vidcast or Videocast, that’s not it. So, before you right in and say, it should be Vidcast/Videocast…

Cariann Higginbotham: Why not?

Benjamin Higginbotham: Horrible brand of marketing, I discovered that.

Cariann Higginbotham: Alright.

Benjamin Higginbotham: It doesn’t explain what it does and that’s part of  the reason I don’t like Podcast, either. It doesn’t explain what it is and you listen to the term and you hear Pod, most people associate that immediate with an iPod, which they then associate with Apple, rightfully so.

Cariann Higginbotham: Right.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Then we get stuck in rut and that’s why I don’t like the term. You hear Vidcast or Videocast and we work in the market, in the  industry, so we know what it is. We could figure that out, but there is no way my mom would be able to figure that or my grandmother, they will “what the heck is that?”. I mean they understand Video, so they knew something to do with video, but then they wouldn’t get it. The beautiful thing  behind Netcast is, you can kind of piece it together, even if you never heard the term before, that’s why I liked it.

Cariann Higginbotham: Okay.

Benjamin Higginbotham: So, doesn’t matter, we are moving on, we are gonna call it a Podcast, we will stick with Podcast.

Cariann Higginbotham: Do I still get my money.

Benjamin Higginbotham: I don’t know.

Cariann Higginbotham: What you mean, you don’t know?

Benjamin Higginbotham: Maybe…

Cariann Higginbotham: What is maybe?

Benjamin Higginbotham: Well, you know. I don't know, I  haven’t decided what I am gonna do about that.

Cariann Higginbotham: Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Well its not enough, to actually be a, you know we should probably donate it somewhere, but its not enough to be actually anything big or, cool or life changing.

Cariann Higginbotham: You could donate it to my birthday fund.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Oh yeah, it was your birthday?

Cariann Higginbotham: Yeah.

Benjamin Higginbotham: January 19^th?

Cariann Higginbotham: Yup.

Benjamin Higginbotham: You turned 30?

Cariann Higginbotham: I did.

Benjamin Higginbotham: What you get for your birthday?

Cariann Higginbotham: Lets see, somebody gave me "The Devil Wears Prada" and I got a gift certificate to Target and I got some dinners out of the deal…

Benjamin Higginbotham: And what'd you get that was relevant to this Podcast?

Cariann Higginbotham: Oh, yeah you gave me a computer.

Benjamin Higginbotham: You say so nonchalantly! Yup I got you a Mac book, been about a year since you’ve actually had your own computer.

Cariann Higginbotham: And my other one kind of just sort of gave-up and died one day.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Yeah, we got you one of the first ice iBooks, the ones that were in white instead of ones that look like toilet seat and…

Cariann Higginbotham: Its one way of putting it, I s'pose.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Ah, well you know.. and it was the G3 …

Cariann Higginbotham: I know.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Four processor ago, 5 processors ago .

Cariann Higginbotham: I loved my computer though , I loved it.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Yeah, it was a nice system and it worked for many-many years until it finally just, the motherboard bit the dust and I couldn’t justify spending the amount of money to fix a motherboard was basically the amount of money was to repair the computer, so I just started loaning you my computer. So now, you've got your own computer, you've got your own Technology Evangelist email address and…

Cariann Higginbotham: I am pretty much set now, yeah?

Benjamin Higginbotham: Yeah, you can do these shows on your own. You don’t even need me anymore. why am I here?

Cariann Higginbotham: Because, you live with me.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Oh yeah, that’s right.

Cariann Higginbotham: Oh yeah, okay .

Benjamin Higginbotham: So, cool, happy birthday.

Cariann Higginbotham: Thank you.

Benjamin Higginbotham: And for anyone who wants to send her a belated birthday present and or greetings…

Cariann Higginbotham: Belated present?

Benjamin Higginbotham: Yeah.

Cariann Higginbotham: In case I have those fans out there, they just decided to get me something.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Yeah, whatever, its cariannhigginbotham@technologyevangelist.com.

Cariann Higginbotham: Because that wasn’t long enough.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Nope, you know I have benjaminhigginbotham@technologyevangelist.com, so now you will get to feel my pain.

Cariann Higginbotham: Whatever, you like to be called Benjamin. You could have shortened that to Ben. .

Benjamin Higginbotham: Okay, benhigginbotham@technologyevangelist.com, that’s a whole lot better what is like 4/5 characters shorter, whaoop-de-doo?

Cariann Higginbotham: Anyway.

Benjamin Higginbotham: What I need is ben@ben.com.

Cariann Higginbotham: I bet you can.

Benjamin Higginbotham: I bet I can't.

Cariann Higginbotham: Alright.

Benjamin Higginbotham: I bet ben.com is gone since all three character, TLD's are gone.

Cariann Higginbotham: Yeah. Well and cariann.com is gone and, anyway, not the point.

Benjamin Higginbotham: So, we feel... You know we were at the Consumer Electronic Show 2007 and it felt kind of like it was after Apple did their announcement kind of felt like it was the wrong party to be at.

Cariann Higginbotham: For sure, I could imagine.

Benjamin Higginbotham: The Mac world, the floor was a buzz with the iPhone, that’s what everyone was talking about iPhone this, iPhone that and that was little bit weird. I'm not sure with the make of the iPhone yet. I have had my Treo for quite a while and forever, since 300 and it’s got full QWERTY keyboard that you can feel, it got a tactile feel to the keyboard and that’s my concern with the iPhone. The other advantage of the Treo be at the Palm or Windows mobile series is that, someone else can write applications for it, you can’t do that for the iPhone.

Cariann Higginbotham: Oh, yeah, didn’t even think about that, yeah that could be really annoying, real quick.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Yeah, so you can do what Apple says, you can do no more-no less, that’s it.

Cariann Higginbotham: Well Apple is all knowing.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Well Apple would like you to think that Apple’s all knowing.

Cariann Higginbotham: I mean they have that big brother commercial right, I mean what?…

Benjamin Higginbotham: That’s right. So, I am not sure what the make of that. I guess I am not their target market. I think you are their target market.

Cariann Higginbotham: Me?

Benjamin Higginbotham: Yeah.

Cariann Higginbotham: Then they should make it in pretty colors!

Benjamin Higginbotham: They don’t make it in pretty colors.

Cariann Higginbotham: I know.

Benjamin Higginbotham: But that you can put your own pretty backgrounds on it.

Cariann Higginbotham: Okay.

Benjamin Higginbotham: I don’t know you have got a Treo 650 right now, which I kind of forced upon you.

Cariann Higginbotham: A little, that’s okay.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Yeah, you like it.

Cariann Higginbotham: I do, the big thing for me odly enough was that, I think like any sort of late adapter to certain extent. Anyone who is kind of afraid of change in general, I love technology, don’t get me wrong, but for some reason I just like to hold on to the stuff that I already have, as in my old laptop for instance. But, because it’s still works, what’s wrong with that? But, Ben opened my eyes to the world of, I don’t know SMSing, text messaging and just was practically impossible to do on my old Candy Bar, Nokia. I don’t even know what it was anymore. So God forbid, I wanted to talk to, my husband or any of my friends who have Treo’s or anything along those lines trail Treo/treeo?

Benjamin Higginbotham: I think its Treo, isn’t it?

Cariann Higginbotham: Hmm…

Benjamin Higginbotham: It’s got the line over the E which makes it a long E, right?

Cariann Higginbotham: Sure, Treo. Well I’ll go with that. It was just crazy, I could may be have one or two word/comments back to them, when they were having entire 160 character conversations with me and it just kind of got , ridiculous. So, now I love it, I would do just about anything to have something as good, if not better. I could never go back to a Candy Bar ever again.

Benjamin Higginbotham: You realized that the Treo is a Candy Bar?

Cariann Higginbotham: Oh, no, but it mean a traditional with out the QWERTY. I looked at, my brother has a Blackberry actually and they have got, what is that called with the two letters on the one key?

Benjamin Higginbotham: Well, I don’t know what they call that keyboard, but its QWERTY design, but its still 12 key, I think its larger than, it's like a 24 key…

Cariann Higginbotham: Yes, something like that with the two letters on that and you would know, so you wanna spell anything, you have to hit half of those buttons twice to get the right letter that you want and I don’t know, I find that little bit frustrating. Especially coming from full on QWERTY that I have to that, so I know I love it, I absolutely love it and I am glad you pushed me in that direction, thank you.

Benjamin Higginbotham: So, let me ask you this. I mean having just done all that on the Treo, would you want an iPhone?

Cariann Higginbotham: I don’t know, I think I would have to hold it, play with it and what not. Apple tells me its good, so it must be good, but that’s the one thing, I totally agree with you on that, is that the keyboard thing could possibly be the worst thing that they have come up with.

Benjamin Higginbotham: But their keyboard is better than a standard 10 key/12 key on a regular phone.

Cariann Higginbotham: Well yeah.

Benjamin Higginbotham: On regular smaller Nokia, but for the power user again I am not sure that’s their market though, it's definitely not , I don’t know – I haven’t used it, but I am watching the key note when Steve Jobs is typing that stuff out, its way slower, way-way-way slower, then I'm able to type…

Cariann Higginbotham: No and you know what, Steve is a pecker, what is that call?

Benjamin Higginbotham: A Hunt and Peck?

Cariann Higginbotham: Yeah, them.

Benjamin Higginbotham: I don’t know, if he is, because you watch him in his demos with the computers and he doesn’t seem hunt and peck with that.

Cariann Higginbotham: Oh well, he was in the iPhone.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Well that’s my point. That’s exactly my point is, I am not sure how well that keyboard interface is gonna work, if you can’t feel the key, there something to being able to actually feel what you are about to press.

Cariann Higginbotham: Yup, absolutely.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Its gonna be, who knows what I am actually gonna think when I touch the device. Its gonna be so sexy, it’s gonna be swallowed by Apple’s reality, distortion field that I am gonna want one immediately.

Cariann Higginbotham: I told you.

Benjamin Higginbotham: I am a technoholic, so I am gonna want one whether its cool or...

Cariann Higginbotham: Irregardless.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Yeah, I am just want one, because that’s how I am. But, I go back to, I don’t know, if I could do serious email on that. I don’t know that I could do serious SMS on it.

Cariann Higginbotham: Right.

Benjamin Higginbotham: I have got on my Palm series Treo’s I’ve got ChatterEmail, which does push email through I-Map idle commands, I can’t do that on an iPhone, I can do the Yahoo push email, but I have to use Yahoo at that point.

Cariann Higginbotham: Oh right.

Benjamin Higginbotham: I can’t install my own applications, so I can’t do any cool tricks and hacks that I have got on my current Treo or anything. Even if I realize it, probably be a different, it’s a different operating system, so your developers have to write everything, but there you don’t even have that option. It’s not even open to developers.

Cariann Higginbotham: Right.

Benjamin Higginbotham: I partly, the strength and downfall of a Smart Phone today is its third party development. The Killer apt for the 700p is ChatterEmail, but the same time you can get a program that totally destroys your phone and makes it incredibly unstable. So, I see where Apple doesn’t, Apple wants to able to control that. So, what about someone like your mom, would your mom want an iPhone?

Cariann Higginbotham: Oh my god, no.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Why not? Okay, so if your mom doesn’t want an iPhone and the hardcore tech community doesn’t want iPhone. Who is the iPhone for?

Cariann Higginbotham: I guess it is sort of that middle ground, it’s not the rich-rich of the Americans and it’s not the poor-poor of the Americans, it’s that higher-middle class. Somebody who wants something cool and it certainly has bragging points along with that. Keeping up with Jones' or what have you in, that’s a cool thing to have. Irregardless of how cool that it actually is to have. You know what I am saying?

Benjamin Higginbotham: It’s like the RAZR, the Motorola RAZR.

Cariann Higginbotham: Yeah, exactly. Can’t stand that phone, every time I pick it up, I think I am gonna break it, I don’t why? I feel like its very uncomfortable, but it is slick looking thing. It’s really sexy and I absolutely, why not have one of those, but that kind of what, you know,  I think that’s where it is. I think not to sound racist , but I think like over in Japan where phones are through the roof and all those kinds of things like that, I think all the status anyone who is looking for a status sort of thing. Who has to have the Louis Vuitton bag instead of heat in their house, I think that’s where that’s going. I think they are kind of playing into the status, really.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Well that’s always been there, I don’t know why there would racist , but that’s always been Apple’s strength is that they are the Cadillac of the computer industry. They are the, I guess that’s kind of turning towards Lexus just now, but they all about style, industrial design and…

Cariann Higginbotham: But also useful.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Well is it useful, though?

Cariann Higginbotham: That’s what I am sayng, exactly.

Benjamin Higginbotham: I don’t think, see the I run all Apple Macintosh computers in my home and try to do as much it work, because they are more useful than a PC. I can get a lot more work done on a Macintosh, much faster and much more accurately than I can on a windows computer and I know, its not that I don’t know windows, I have to support windows in an AD environment, so I do, but…

Cariann Higginbotham: Yeah, I know you do. As my father calls you all the time with issues .

Benjamin Higginbotham: Yes, so but I question that the iPhone is gonna be like that. I don’t see it’s gonna be as useful as a Treo.

Cariann Higginbotham: Do you think this is kind of miss step on Apple’s part or do you think that they are just simply going into a different direction, do you see what I mean?

Benjamin Higginbotham: That’s what I am asking, I don’t know. I don’t know what’s gonna happen with this device? I don’t see it going to the low-low end user who just wants the free phone, its priced higher than with the two year contract, mind you, its priced higher than a Treo, but it comes with the lot of memory which is always been my gripe with the Treo, 120 mg/Hz RAM is absolutely a stupid, well it is. You look all around you starting to see all these devices come out with 8 gigs of RAM, Palm is gonna have to do something about that, but Palm, I don’t know what they are gonna do.

Cariann Higginbotham: Alright.

Benjamin Higginbotham: They seem to listen, they seem to get it, but then at the same time, I don’t have threaded SMS on my  (700)wx …

Cariann Higginbotham: But they have really cool colors with the 680.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Really, is that a selling point , would you want, because I personally don’t care. Is that honestly something what?

Cariann Higginbotham: You know, I am always a sucker. I am not totally a girly girl or but I am not totally a tom boy, I am somewhere in the middle there and yeah, I think colors are cool. Is that bad?

Benjamin Higginbotham: No, not at all. I don’t get it.

Cariann Higginbotham: I am not about to put little crystals on my Treo’s to make it cooler or prettier or what have you?

Benjamin Higginbotham: Why not?

Cariann Higginbotham: But, I can get a Treo with color on it, yeah I think no antenna.

Benjamin Higginbotham: That’s really nice. I've griped about that for a long time. I don’t understand why we can have a RAZR with no antenna and then you got those huge brick like devices Treo, it does a lot more, but you have to have that stupid external antenna and spec wise, now they don’t and they proved it. The 750 and 680 do not have an antenna just took them 5 years longer than everyone else.

Cariann Higginbotham: Its so you know it's in your pocket.

Benjamin Higginbotham: I guess so.

Cariann Higginbotham: You can identify when you go in your pocket, all those other brick like things you have in there. You know that one in the Treo.

Benjamin Higginbotham: In case there one in also phone, you can tell because you got that antenna on it.

Cariann Higginbotham: Right, exactly.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Alright, well I am curious is to what are the Technology Evangelist community has to say. Now, I’d like to see them to sort of join the conversation, see what they think of the iPhone, is that something that they would wanna buy, I mean seriously, do you want an iPhone? Do you think its cool and is this the market for you or its just gonna be one of those things like the Apple G4 cube, where everyone goes “wholly cow that’s cool” and then no one buys it.

Cariann Higginbotham: Yeah.

Benjamin Higginbotham: So, I am curious.

Cariann Higginbotham: Good analogy.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Thank you. I worked on that for all, but like 60 seconds. Shoot us a skype voice mail, let us know what you think? My user name is BenjaminHigginbotham. Cariann’s is…

Cariann Higginbotham: CariannHigginbotham, I followed suit.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Yeah, so you can also that’s too hard to spell, so technologyevangelist.com/ben.html and you can get all of my contact information there, if you like to shoot us a video mail, SightSpeed contact information is on there as well, otherwise that is also videomail@technologyevangelist.com, made that one easy.

Cariann Higginbotham: Wow, yeah easy.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Lets know what you think and we will talk tomorrow.