Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Friday, March 19th, 2010
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In Greek tragedy, the flaw of hubris was the decisive plot point that brought down many great men. Palm , then, is the Oedipus of a modern tragedy, their efforts to rebuild hampered by a failure to see past their own greatness and a refusal to enter the market on the market’s terms. To be honest, I was a Palm fan, then I wasn’t a Palm fan, and now am part of the chorus of voices bemoaning the lowly state to which the company has been thrust. Palm recently reported $349 million in revenue with a third quarter loss of $102.8 million. Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said : “If we could have launched at Verizon prior to the Droid, I think we would have gotten the attention the Droid got. And since I believe we have a better product, I think we could have even done better.”
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
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Most people in the world hear Hewlett-Packard and think “printers.” And who can blame them? Since the relatively recent emphasis on the “HP” instead of “Hewlett-Packard,” and the general consumer move away from printers, HP hasn’t really done anything noteworthy — well, other than thrive despite the decline of the business in which they made their fortune. It’s like the old joke about the bricklayer and the sheep — but instead of drowning their sorrows in gin, HP is drowning them in money in an effort to rebrand the company. To that end, they’ve created a series of ads with the questionable tagline “Let’s Do Amazing.” It’s not much of a time investment: a few 30-second spots with Flight of the Conchords ‘ Rhys Darby bumbling around some professionals who appreciate what HP does. Won’t you join me for a look? It reminds one not of the consumer-oriented (and also HP-centric) Laptop Hunters ads from Microsoft, but of more generalized stuff like ads from GE and HTC. Healthymagination , another linguistically questionable series, strives to show how GE is everywhere, working with everyone. HTC modestly states they are “Quietly brilliant,” which suggests that you just don’t know how awesome HTC is because they haven’t told you. “Let’s Do Amazing” suggests that marketing couldn’t think of anything specific that only HP does. The tagline thing is, I think, a misguided trend, since the taglines never last more than a single ad campaign and the most important part, the product and the company that makes it, are often deliberately sidelined so the “concept” can show through. Remember the Seinfeld/Gates ads? All anyone remembers is Gates wiggling his bum. Apple’s Mac/PC ads, while conceptual, at least focus on features, however misrepresented. The take-away is easy. What is the take-away from these HP ads? “All these people use HP for stuff I never see or use.” Does HP want to place themselves in the meta-technology sector, like IBM? Then why advertise with a popular actor and people like Dr. Dre? HP used to make crappy PCs and tons of printers. Now they make decent PCs, tablets and touchscreens, and are doing seriously good things with AMD in the mid-range/ultraportable sector — but we don’t really see that, or anything really, in these ads. They grab your attention but fail to advance their case in any way with the viewer. Still, it’s nice to see HP pushing back; we can probably expect a few more like these, and maybe even catch a glimpse of something somebody might be able to buy . Update: Eh, maybe I’m crazy about the name. I thought everyone called them “Hewlett-Packard” until like 2000. Maybe not.
Posted by 010081
Tech
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
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Let me catch you up. We received a tip back on Monday indicating that the Adamo XPS had disappeared from Dell.com. This of course caught our attention as the super-thin Dell was just announced back in late October and only available for purchase since December. We of course checked it out and found that the XPS model wasn’t found on the Adamo microsite (www.AdamoByDell.Com), which just so happens to be the first site listed on Google for that model. The Adamo XPS also wasn’t listed alongside the other Adamo models or on Dell.com’s master notebook list that also includes Alienware models. The only way you can find it on Dell.com is if you use the search tool and even then the purchase link on the product page is dead . We then reached out to our Dell contacts, but they didn’t respond in a timely manner. I then asked two separate Dell chat agents who both clearly stated that the Adamo XPS was discontinued. Satisfied with the conclusion that the XPS was in fact gone, I ran the post not thinking anything of it. It was just another news story to me. But not to dell apparently. Several other sites ran similar stories on Monday except they simply asked the question whether or not the Adamo XPS was discontinued rather than stating my conclusion that it was dead. Throughout the day, these stories were updated, quoting an official dell spokesmen that stated that the model was in fact still around and not discontinued. Dell finally emailed us and commented on our story nearly six hours later. The comment : Hi Mark. I saw your article and thought I’d drop a quick comment to clarify the issue. The first point I’d like to make is that the Adamo XPS is still available in the U.S. at select Best Buy Stores and on bestbuy.com, still starting at $1,999.00. It has not been “discontinued” as such, but was meant to be a proof point to Dell’s design and engineer capabilities. Because of this, it was similar to a “limited edition”, and most of the original supply has since been accounted for. Those who want one can still get it from the aforementioned sources. Also of note: the original Adamo is still available on adamobydell.com with a starting price point of $999. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions 
JohnBatDell First, my name is Matt, not Mark. But that comment just confirmed my post. It states that most of the Adamo XPS’s limited supply have nearly been exhausted and the model is currently only available from Best Buy. Right? That’s what it says. Ok, so maybe calling the Adamo XPS discontinued is a wrong choice of words, because apparently it was only intended to be a limited edition model anyway. But it’s a fact that the model has reached the end of its life and therefore deserves the R.I.P sentiment I gave it in the post’s picture. This brings us to today as Gizmodo finally ran its Adamo XPS R.I.P. post . (they later pulled it from the front page) Dell quickly sent us an email asking when were we going to update our post because apparently we got it all wrong and Gizmodo ousted us as their source — even though they didn’t in the post, but I still love Rosa. Dell’s request didn’t sit very well with me so I pulled out my Sherlock Holmes pipe and went to work reconfirming my original post. Once again I confirmed that the Adamo XPS is no longer on Dell.com. It’s still not listed as a current model or available to purchase. The only way you can pull up the model is still by searching for it. AdamoByDell.com , Adamo models , master list . Then John Biggs and I both contacted Dell Chat Support and were told that the model was “discontinued” and “reached its end of life.” Check the gallery below for transcripts. Fair enough, Dell told us that Best Buy still had it online and in stores so I checked that out, too. The only thing is we can’t find it in any store besides one in New Jersey. It’s not at any location in Detroit, Flint, San Francisco, SoCal, Denver, Phoenix, Philidelphia, Boston, Minneapolis, upstate New York, or New York City proving that it’s in very limited supply. Once again, check the pics below. I then called my local Best Buy location where I was told that yes, I could still order it, but I better hurry because it was discontinued. What it seems we have here is a company trying to save face. You see, the Adamo XPS only hit retail shelves back in December and people just started to get their hands on the product. Laptop Magazine posted their review of it the same day I wrote its obituary. It could be true that the Adamo XPS was just a limited-time product, but it was never marketed as such. Even if it was a Halo project of sorts, why remove nearly every instance from Dell.com and the Adamo microsite? It’s an amazing piece of modern technology that Dell should display for the whole world to see — even if it’s at the end of its intended life. It’s true that you can still buy the Adamo XPS brand new in the box from a few retailers. It’s just like how you can still buy 2009 model year cars even though they are really discontinued. Except you don’t get a discount on the Adamo XPS.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
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Well, it was fun for a whole lot of people while it latest, but the “ Here’s what I wanna show Jay Leno ” thread is gone forever . NBC no doubt pulled it after the pro-Conan shenanigans got out of hand and attracted the attention of Internet media. You’re just no fun at all, NBC.