Why a Comcast merger could be good for TWC customers
Speaking at the Deutsche Bank Media, Internet & Telecom Conference in Palm Beach, Fla., earlier this week, Marcus called the deal a "dream combination" that allows the companies to "innovate at a rapid pace."
I know what you're thinking: Of course he likes this deal. His company is getting bought out for $45.2 billion. And Marcus, who is paid in excess of $10 million a year, is the guy who spearheaded this tie-up in the first place. And there's little doubt he will profit handsomely from the acquisition.
But hear me out. He might actually be right.
As a Time Warner Cable customer for more than 15 years, I can attest that the service I've been getting for nearly two decades is nothing to write home about. And the bottom line is that the services that Comcast offers its customers today is simply better than what's available to Time Warner Cable consumers.
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Even though Comcast hasn't made any promises about when or where Time Warner Cable customers will get Comcast's suite of services, it's clear these offerings will eventually make it to Time Warner Cable territory. And that could be a very good thing for Time Warner customers in spite of concerns that the cable giant is getting even larger.
"Some features and services people can expect relatively quickly after the merger," said Marcien Jenckes, executive vice president of consumer services for Comcast. "Today we're the leaders in terms of broadband speeds, TV content catalog and experience, as well as TV Everywhere. And Time Warner Cable customers can expect all of this over time."
It's hard not to be skeptical I realize many consumers are skeptical of big mergers such as this one. And this particular merger is as big as they get. Comcast and Time Warner Cable are the No. 1 and No. 2 cable operators in the country. The combined company would control 33 million broadband connections. Together the companies will be in 19 of the 20 largest metro markets in the country. So it's easy to see why people are concerned and even skeptical of a deal that concentrates so much power in the hands of one company.
Comcast headquarters in Philadephia.
(Credit: Comcast) Add on top of that, the fact that rates on expanded basic cable TV service have increased by more than 20 percent in recent years, it's hard to imagine that a merger of this proportion could be positive for consumers. Don't forget, Philadelphia-based Comcast and New York-based Time Warner Cable consistently rank at the bottom of most customer satisfaction surveys.
What many consumer advocates and lawmakers such as Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) surmise is that this must mean bad news for consumers.
"I think consumers will end up paying more," Franken said Monday on the "CBS This Morning" show, according to Variety. "There will be less competition; there will be less innovation and, worse, even worse service."
These are indeed legitimate fears. It's difficult to imagine that a merger of this size would actually lead to better customer service and satisfaction. I also am not so bold as to predict that prices might actually go down for former Time Warner Cable customers. In fact, Comcast's own David Cohen has admitted he can't make that assurance either: "We're certainly not promising that customer bills are going to go down or even increase less rapidly."
Still, the reality is that when you really look at Comcast's network and services, and even its pricing, compared to Time Warner Cable's services, an argument can be made that Time Warner Cable customers may have a lot to gain from being converted to Comcast customers.
"For all the complaints about how expensive cable TV is, Comcast has traditionally offered its customers the best bang for the buck in the industry," said Craig Moffett, an equities analyst with MoffettNathanson.
More value for your money, especially in video When it comes to video service, there's no question that Comcast has a better offering compared with what Time Warner Cable offers today. From its video-on-demand catalog to its TV Everywhere service to a cloud-based user interface it's been developing the past couple of years, Comcast has invested heavily in revamping its TV service, and it shows.
"Comcast has really focused on investing in its network," IHS analyst Brannon said. "Time Warner Cable has been reacting to changes in the market too, but not with the same speed or veracity that Comcast has. And they've suffered as a consequence."
Specifically, Time Warner Cable has been less interested and less willing to spend money to upgrade its network to digital transmission. The result has been that Time Warner Cable offers fewer high-definition on-demand streams and its TV Everywhere product, which allows people to view TV on mobile devices anywhere, has been limited in terms of available programming.
Meanwhile, Comcast offers more video-on-demand content than any other paid TV provider in the country. This includes a library of movies and TV shows that totals more than 50,000 titles that are free or can be rented for a fee.
Additionally, Comcast is the leader in TV Everywhere. Through its Xfinity TV Go app, viewers can watch 35 live TV channels on their tablets or smartphones. This compares with a mere 12 TV Everywhere channels available from Time Warner. Comcast customers also get access to more than 25,000 on-demand shows and videos through the app.
And Comcast is constantly in search of new content to add to its portfolio. It recently announced it has struck deals with Sony Pictures and Lions Gate to start offering "House of Cards" and "Orange Is the New Black" to its lineup of on-demand content. Up until these deals, these two TV series were exclusive to Netflix subscribers.
But Comcast hasn't stopped there. It also has revamped its user interface and program guide based on a new cloud architecture it calls X1. Not only are the program guide and user interface much more interactive, which allows for more personalization, but the X1 platform allows subscribers to access TV shows and movies in new ways.
Comcast's new TV listing guide is powered by its X1 cloud infrastructure.
(Credit: Comcast) For example, Comcast subscribers can view all live TV and recorded DVR shows on their mobile devices while in the home via the X1 platform. And they can even download recorded content from their DVR on their mobile devices for viewing outside the home. Comcast is testing the service right now in Boston and hopes to have it rolled out to the rest of its territory later this year.
"When we ask people to pay $70 a month, we want to make sure we're delivering a value," Comcast's Jenckes said. "In fact, our job is to deliver the best price value to our subscribers. And we are achieving that in ways that no one else in the industry can match."
Shooting itself in the foot A lack of technology investment isn't the only reason why Time Warner Cable's service trails behind Comcast's. The company also has a history of contentious negotiations with programmers over digital video rights. As a result, the company has not been able to add as many channels to its TV Everywhere service or as many titles to its VOD service as Comcast. But there have been other consequences as well. A dispute this past summer over retransmission fees with broadcaster CBS led to a weeks-long black-out of CBS programming for Time Warner Cable customers. (CBS is the parent company of CNET.) Some 300,000 Time Warner Cable TV subscribers left over the debacle.
"The general feeling in the industry is that Time Warner Cable has been more resistant in terms of fee increases for content," Brannon said. "This reluctance has put them behind others in terms of their TV Everywhere offering."
Brannon added that companies, such as Comcast, which have been more willing to negotiate terms with content owners, have a broader TV Everywhere portfolio.
"TV Everywhere is an essential feature in all video carriage negotiations these days," he said. "There is an inherent trade-off between features versus cost, but all cable video services are under pressure to get these deals done."
Better broadband Video isn't the only area in which Time Warner Cable customers can expect to see improvements. Comcast also has been a leader among cable operators in driving higher broadband speeds. It was one of the first cable operators to deploy Docsis 3.0 technology standards, which offer more capacity on broadband networks.
While Google has made a splash over the past year with its 1Gbps high-speed Internet service in Kansas City and is now expanding to additional markets, Comcast was the first cable operator to demonstrate a 1Gbps speed download over a traditional HFC, or hybrid fiber-coaxial, network. And at last year's National Cable and Telecommunications conference, the company showed off a 3Gbps download.
Today, the fastest broadband service Comcast offers widely is 105Mbps, which is about double the speed that Time Warner is offering in most of its market. That said, Time Warner is offering a 100Mbps service in Kansas City, where not-so-coincidentally Google has deployed its 1Gpbs service. Time Warner Cable also will offer 100Mbps service in Austin, Texas, where AT&T and Google have each pledged to build 1Gbps fiber networks.
Of course, some people have questioned why Comcast, which has shown off technology for achieving gigabit-speed broadband, hasn't offered such speeds itself. It's a valid question that I've asked myself. The company claims there isn't enough consumer demand. And indeed at the high prices Comcast and other cable operators are likely to charge for these super high-speed connections, that is likely the case.
But given the fact that Time Warner Cable has never been considered a leader in terms of broadband speeds, it's hard to argue that through its merger with Comcast, the market would be losing a competitive force that is driving the industry toward higher-speed connections.
Rather, I would argue that the telephone companies -- AT&T and Verizon Communications -- and to a much lesser extent, Google, are providing more incentive to all cable operators to increase their network speeds. Comcast actually faces less competition in its markets from Google and the phone companies than Time Warner Cable, and the increased exposure to this threat could spur faster improvement in the network.
"AT&T and Verizon are exerting tremendous pressure on the cable operators," Brannon said. "In many ways their technology is superior to the cable operators'."
A Comcast truck is seen parked at one of its centers on February 13 in Pompano Beach, Fla.
(Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images) If there is a downside to the deal for consumers, it's that one company would have unprecedented control over which cable channels can and can't be seen by millions of Americans, and even whether some independent programmers would be economically viable, Moffett said. This argument comes down to the fact that since Comcast will be controlling so many of the nation's TV subscribers and because it already controls a lot of the cable content via its acquisition of NBC Universal, the company will have much more negotiating power and in some cases control over programmers.
During his interview at the Deutsche Bank conference, Marcus laughed off the idea that a combined company with greater purchasing power would cause programmers to suffer.
"I just find these types of concerns ironic, especially when programming costs in recent years have risen to a level that is greater than what the consumer market will bear," he said.
There are also fears that the merger would lead to a similar level of control over broadband networks, which Moffett pointed out raises its own set of concerns surrounding Net neutrality. Again, the fear is that Comcast will control so much of the nation's broadband infrastructure that it will force content providers to pay fees or threaten to block or intentionally slow traffic. But Moffett said that even these concerns are likely overblown.
"It is the broadband concerns that will likely attract the more visceral reactions," Moffett said. "But truth be told, the rules governing anticompetitive behavior are probably already relatively well suited to prevent anything egregious, including almost any violations of Net neutrality, with or without Net neutrality-specific rules."
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Facebook makes wrong call on anti-Semitic page
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
(Credit: James Martin/CNET) For the past several years, Facebook and several other prominent social-media companies have been wrestling with how to respond when their popular platforms are being abused by bigots to spread racist speech and hateful propaganda, including Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism.
Much of the debate has centered on a discussion over the difficult concept of what exactly constitutes hate speech.
As defined by Facebook's own community standards, people have a right to post "ignorant and untrue material about people and events" on their personal pages. But any content that directly attacks people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion or a host of other immutable characteristics constitutes a violation of those standards and is impermissible on the Facebook platform.
In applying these standards, Facebook has chosen not to remove Holocaust denial pages that do not also contain direct attacks. We have responded by telling them that as a virulent form of anti-Semitism and an indirect attack on Jews, Holocaust denial pages are unacceptable.
We feel the same way about a page on Facebook called "Jewish Ritual Murder." The page features articles and other material reviving the old libelous charge against Jews that they murder Christian children to use their blood for ritual purposes. To us, the individual who created the "Jewish Ritual Murder" is promoting anti-Semitism. But Facebook has indicated that this page, too, does not violate its community standards.
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This is particularly the case when corporations like Facebook, as moderators of virtual communities where young people frequently "congregate," already have rules in place to guard against bias-motivated attacks and cyberbullying. Regardless of how narrowly they are going to define hate speech, they need to have policies that allow them to exercise discretion in egregious cases such as this.
The "blood libel" refers to a centuries-old false allegation that Jews murder Christians (especially Christian children) to use their blood for religious ritual purposes such as an ingredient in the baking of Passover matzah (unleavened bread). This myth -- also sometimes called the "ritual murder charge" -- dates back to the Middle Ages, It has persisted despite Jewish denials and official repudiations by the Catholic Church and many secular authorities.
The blood libel also has modern-day currency in the Arab world, where some television programs have used it as a plot line and editorial cartoonists have evoked it in their efforts to foment hatred of the Jewish people.
In truth, and it should be obvious, accusing Jews of ritual murder is a far greater attack on Jews than calling them kikes or other names. It has led to mob violence and pogroms, and has on occasion even led to the decimation of entire Jewish communities. And the libel is alive and well in today's world.
We do not believe that Facebook intends to send a message that it is insensitive to the enormous harm the blood libel has caused throughout Jewish history. The easiest way for the company to make that clear would be to exercise the discretion it certainly has to remove the page.
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Large iPad ditched? Not dead yet, says analyst
iPad Air. A larger iPad or hybrid is still possible this year, an analyst tells CNET.
(Credit: Apple) A large Apple tablet isn't out of the question this year, an analyst told CNET, in the wake of a report today saying the device is "shelved."
"The problem so far is that the use-case hasn't been made for a large tablet yet," said Rhoda Alexander, director of tablet and monitor research at IHS Technology.
That sentiment was echoed in a CNET review of the large Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2, which said interface and performance issues hold it back from being a laptop replacement.
A report today from Digitimes claimed that shipments of Samsung's 12.2-inch tablet will be relatively small this year for similar reasons.
The report also claimed that Apple has "shelved" its large tablet.
Not so fast, said Alexander. "It could happen if a [device maker] comes along and makes the use-case along with the size. So, for instance, if you have a company that offers touch-enabled Microsoft Office, where it's useful to have more screen area to see what you're doing," she said.
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And what about the chances of this happening in 2014?
"We haven't built it into our forecasts yet because we want to see something more concrete. But think about what [Apple] did with the new iPad. It was three or four months before they released the product. So, if it's, let's say an October release -- and this is all just speculation -- it's possible they wouldn't ramp up production on the component level until summertime."
Alexander added that the iPad Air has changed the tablet game for Apple. Before, the iPad Mini seemed like the wave of the future but the "iPad Air is significant in that they managed to shift the tablet purchase balance back up to the [bigger] 9.7-inch."
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Crave Ep. 151: Neil Young's Pono dreams soon to come true
Neil Young's Pono dreams soon to come true, Ep. 151
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Neil Young's PonoMusic service blew past its Kickstarter fundraising goal in one day. Are FLAC files the next wave in music? We also hear some jams from a cyborg drummer on Earth, and wake up to the sweet smells and sounds of the Bacon Alarm.
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Smells like terrier spirit: 'First Sniff' spoofs 'First Kiss' video
First there were strangers kissing each other on video, then were there strangers of the canine variety sniffing each other.
And while the former, "First Kiss," quickly went viral before viewers enchanted with its supposed raw emotion discovered it was an ad promoting a new fashion line, the parody "First Sniff" may actually give us all a moment to paws and appreciate something truly charming -- pups that just want to say hello.
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"We tried to get some dogs to kiss for the first time..." Mother London says in its video. And canines of all kinds obliged with delightful reactions that it almost puts the human video to shame.
There's even a sleek and slender dog wearing his cone of shame who still manages to captivate a petite pooch and give a sniff. Greyhounds, cocker spaniels, terriers, and mutts of many breeds sit, lick faces, sniff furry butts, and give more longing looks than a Jane Austen film.
Of course, "First Sniff" is only one of the parodies that sprung up after the Internet got infatuated with the kiss video and then found out it might not have been as innocent of a human experiment as it first seemed. One spoof features interactions between cats, and another between frisky humans. Still another shows Brits "who definitely aren't super confident, hot American models," kissing for the first time.
But we can't help but adore the puppy-love one most. Love at first sight isn't so far-fetched after all.
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US government begins loosening decades-old grip on the Internet
ICANN
CEO Fadi Chehade will get his wish: an opportunity to hand off control
of the core of the Internet from the US government to a variety of
involved stakeholders from across the world.
(Credit: ICANN) After incubating the Internet and overseeing it for decades, the US government announced Friday it's releasing the last elements of control it has.
The Department of Commerce originally handled core parts of the Internet, but gradually backed away from those duties through a contract with a nonprofit organization called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In a statement Friday, the Commerce Department tasked ICANN with convening involved parties to formalize a "multistakeholder" approach to Internet governance.
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It's been a long time coming -- the privatization process began under President Bill Clinton in 1997 -- but now the timing is right for ICANN. In a January interview, ICANN Chief Executive Fadi Chehade told CNET, "US oversight is not sustainable any longer."
ICANN has matured, the Commerce Department had committed to handing off responsibility at some point, and the revelations from Edward Snowden of US government surveillance on the Net increased the need for the hand-off, Chehade said:
There is no question that Edward Snowden's revelations have stimulated the dialog. I attended a couple of sessions at the World Economic Forum about security risks. I saw leader after leader of major companies like GE sincerely worried about the trust factor on the Internet. And we have the Target situation. The trust in the ecosystem has been punctured a little bit.
Working toward the hand-off, ICANN already had set up a meeting on Internet governance in Brazil on April 23-24. The Commerce Department generally is on the same page, using the "multistakeholder" term Chehade also relies on.
Those stakeholders include the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the Internet Society (ISOC), and Regional Internet Registries that oversee the distribution of IP addresses to those registering new domain names.
Those organizations welcomed the Commerce Department's move. They and others said in a statement Friday:
Our organizations are committed to open and transparent multistakeholder processes...The Internet technical community is strong enough to continue its role while assuming the stewardship function as it transitions from the US government.
The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) wants ICANN not just to build its multistakeholder approach, but also to maintain the DNS security and resilience and to make sure the "openness of the Internet" is maintained.
[Via The Washington Post]
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Valve shows off latest Steam Controller ahead of GDC
Valve's
updated Steam Controller design showcasing a home, start, and select
button in place of a centralized touch screen that existed prior.
(Credit: Valve) After showing off a rough design update to its Steam Controller at its annual Steam Dev Days conference back in January, Valve has decided, definitively it would appear, to strip the touch screen from the handheld and replace it with a logo-emblazoned home button alongside start and select buttons. And new to the latest prototype design is a protruding d-pad and X, Y, A, and B button layout similar to that of an Xbox controller.
The company showcased the changes on its blog Friday ahead of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next week, where Valve will be showing off 10 hand-built iterations of the updated prototype for play testing.
Valve will be
prepping 10 hand-built versions of its Steam Controller to bring to the
annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next week.
(Credit: Valve) The original Steam Controller concept contained a square touch screen with buttons surrounding the edges, while the prototype shown off last year relied on a four-pad touch interface in lieu of installing full-blown LCD screens. But Valve apparently took to heart user feedback and made some tough choices in simplifying the device to make it more in line with modern console controller design.
While looking considerably more polished than past prototypes, the Steam Controller is no longer such a far cry from fellow console game pads without its touch screen and with the addition of a d-pad and traditional button scheme. The insistence on a trackpad-like interface instead of thumbsticks, however, would still be the most radical aspect of it, and those don't look like they're going away anytime soon.
That said, Valve does not sound like it's finalized its design, and will be using GDC as an opportunity to continue cooking up some more tweaks.
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10,000 free folding microscopes traded for inspiring ideas
The Foldscope -- a low-cost microscope that can be constructed like origami out of a sheet of paper with components embedded -- has the potential to revolutionize health care in developing countries -- but it has the potential to do something else, too.
Creator Manu Prakash of Stanford University's Prakash Lab wants to inspire a new generation of up-and-coming young scientists. To this end, he has created the Ten Thousand Microscope Project. Prakash will be giving away 10,000 Foldscopes to "people who would like to test the microscopes in a variety of settings and help us generate an open-source biology/microscopy field manual written by people from all walks of life."
(Credit: Prakash Lab/TED)
"Many children around the world have never used a microscope, even in developed countries like the United States," Prakash said. "A universal program providing a microscope for every child could foster deep interest in science at an early age."
The idea is to create a guide that will show examples of how to use the microscope, collated from the field testers, who may have unique perspectives and use the Foldscope in ways that others might not even imagine, thus inspiring other Foldscope users.
To sign up, users have to send an email to the address listed here, detailing the community they belong to and at least one thing they would like to do with the Foldscope. Experiments will need to be documented in a way that makes them replicable by anyone. The Foldscopes will be shipped this year to the applicants judged to have the best ideas.
"My dream is that someday, every kid will have a Foldscope in their back pocket," Prakash said.
(Source: Crave Australia)
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Mozilla scraps Metro version of Firefox, citing low interest
The Bookmarks and Recent History screen in the Firefox Metro Preview, a version of the browser that's now mothballed.
(Credit: Mozilla) After more than two years of work, Mozilla has scrapped its effort to build a Metro-specific version of Firefox for Windows 8, saying that users have shown almost no interest.
Microsoft designed what it previously called the Metro interface for touch-screen devices like tablets and introduced it with Windows 8 along with a version of Internet Explorer designed to run on it. Two years ago, after winning a debate with Microsoft over whether it even could be possible to bring a modern third-party browser to Metro, Mozilla embarked on its Firefox for Metro journey.
But it's over for now, although Firefox will mothball the code in case it needs to change its mind.
"As the team built and tested and refined the product, we've been watching Metro's adoption. From what we can see, it's pretty flat," Johnathan Nightingale, vice president of Firefox, said in a blog post Friday. "On any given day, we have, for instance, millions of people testing prerelease versions of Firefox desktop, but we've never seen more than 1,000 active daily users in the Metro environment."
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"When I talk about the need to pick our battles, this feels like a bad one to pick: significant investment and low impact," Nightingale said.
The move is a vote of no confidence for Microsoft's new interface from a prominent software developer. Microsoft, eager to move to the touch-screen era after being caught flat-footed by Apple's iPhone and iPad, gave Windows dual interfaces -- some would say dueling, since they're so different and customers have found the transition so difficult.
The idea behind Metro was to carry the Windows PC power into the tablet market, a different strategy from Apple and Google, which expanded their small-screen smartphone OSes to tablets. If software developers don't move to Metro, though, sticking only with the older "desktop" interface, it undermines Microsoft's strategy.
Microsoft already has backtracked some with Metro, restoring something like a Start button. And it's going to walk back a little more with another update that makes it easier to find the Off button, too.
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Is this Amazon's game controller for a TV box?
CNET Update goes whale watching:
Is this Amazon's game controller for a TV box?
In this episode of Update:- Check out the latest clue in the Amazon media box mystery: photos of a Bluetooth video game controller, posted by Zatznotfunny.com. All signs point to Amazon releasing a streaming-media box in March or April.
- Catch selfie mania with Apple's new Selfie Section in the iTunes App Store. This must be great news for Manhattan, Miami and Makati City -- the top places for selfies according to Time.
- Go whale watching on Vine, now that #Whaling is trending.
- Expect to see video ads play in your Facebook News Feed.
- Get sucked into the world of Threes! The popular iOS game is now available on Android.
CNET Update delivers the tech news you need in under three minutes. Watch Bridget Carey every afternoon for a breakdown of the big stories, hot devices, new apps, and what's ahead. Subscribe to the podcast via the links below.
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Transcend gives Mac Pro a 128GB memory upgrade option
Is the 64GB maximum in factory-built Mac Pros not enough? Transcend is offering 128GB.
(Credit: Apple) For folks like video editors who really, really need a lot of memory, Transcend announced new memory modules that can bring Apple's new Mac Pro machines up to 128GB.
The option doubles the 64GB of RAM available in Mac Pros from Apple, but there's a catch: the DDR3 memory modules have a slower 1333MHz interface compared to the 1866MHz DDR3 memory Apple ships. It'll still be a whole lot faster than an SSD or, heaven forfend, a hard drive.
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Its upgrade follows about three months after Mac memory specialist Other World Computing began selling 2013 Mac Pro memory upgrades.
Transcend didn't reveal pricing information, but OWC charges $449 for 32GB and $849 for 64GB.
The Mac Pro comes standard with 16GB of memory. Apple charges $400 for an upgrade to 32GB and $1,200 for an upgrade to 64GB.
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'Game of Thrones' math: How many dragons could a dire wolf eat?
Definitely cooler than a condor, Daenerys Targaryen's dragons would nonetheless taste pretty good to a dire wolf.
(Credit: Video screenshot by Michael Franco/CNET) Possible spoilers ahead if you're not through with the third season: With the fourth season of "Game of Thrones" imminent, there are a lot of questions in the air (especially if, like me, you haven't read the books). Will the khaleesi finally make it to Westeros to capture the Iron Throne? Will the Starks in the diaspora ever find each other again? Will winter ever actually come? And will someone finally beat the royal stuffing out of Joffrey?
But I've been giving thought to a particularly pesky question that I'm sure hordes of fans are dying to know. (OK, probably not, but it's certainly a question that's crossed my random-factoid-focused science brain). It began when I started thinking about what would happen if Robb Stark ever met up with Daenerys Targaryen (which of course, can never happen now with Robb being all dead and whatnot). While some might think my ponderings might have turned to the beautiful offspring that surely would have resulted if those two ever got together, I had a much different question in mind: How many Targaryen dragons could a Stark dire wolf eat per year if it got its fangs on them? To find out, I embarked on some very scientific research.
Robb Stark with his dire wolf Grey Wind. Looks hungry, doesn't it?
(Credit: Video screenshot by Michael Franco/CNET ) To begin my investigation, I grabbed the screenshot you see to the right from a YouTube clip featuring Robb Stark. In this particular scene, he's got his dire wolf, Grey Wind, next to him in an effort to scare the piss out of Jaime Lannister. (If you ask me, it worked. But I digress.) Robb Stark is played by actor Richard Madden, who, I found out thanks to a quick Google search, is 5 feet 11 inches tall.
To determine the actor's approximate inseam height, I reached out to Max Berlinger, a men's fashion writer for Esquire magazine. "Honestly, I have no way to gauge this. I wish I could be more helpful, but this is a puzzle," Berlinger said. However, he did say that if he had to make a guess -- and a guess only -- he'd put it at 32 inches, which is pretty standard for a man of Madden's size. Because I am the same height as Madden (and share a certain rugged set of good looks as him, but I again I digress), and have a 32-inch inseam, I went with that. Science at its best.
So if Robb Stark's inseam is 32 inches and the wolf is standing a little more than a foot above that, let's put Grey Wind's height at 46 inches.
Next up was a question for Rolf Peterson, a research professor at Michigan Technological University who has studied wolf-prey relationships at Isle Royale National Park for more than 40 years. He told me that if we're assuming a dire wolf is approximately 150 percent bigger than a regular wolf (which it would be at the height we've estimated), he would approximate its food needs at 25 deer per year. The average weight of a white-tailed deer, according to the Adirondack Ecological Center, is 203 pounds.
OK, now to convert deer to dragons.
To do so, I looked to the bird kingdom. I know I could have used something more reptilian, but considering that dragons have to be able to fly, I thought a bird was a better analogy. Plus, birds are relatives of dinosaurs and all that, so there you go. (See, very scientific). I went with the Andean condor, one of the largest flying birds in the world. I could have chosen the wandering albatross (also a big bird), but the condor just looks a little more badass, it can live up to 100 years, and likes cliffs. All dragon-like qualities if you ask me. Plus, it's a heavy sucker -- the adults weigh up to 33 pounds, according to National Geographic.
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That would mean there are about 6 dragons to one deer. If a dire wolf eats 25 deer per year, that results in an annual adolescent dragon dietary need of 150, or almost three of the flying lizards per week. I'm not sure which variety the wolves would prefer, but I'd go for the red ones as I tend to like spicy food. Of course, there's the question of a dire wolf even catching a dragon (and the fact that the Targaryen dragons are going to get just a little bit bigger), but I'll leave those investigations to a researcher wiser than me.
Now that that's settled, you can pay tribute by leaving your undying thanks for solving such a critical and nagging riddle related to "Game of Thrones" in the comments below. I promise not to get a Joffrey-like swelled head.
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Giant 3D printer starts spitting out a house
A
nighttime view of The KamerMaker, or "room builder," a 20-foot high 3D
printer that's helping its owners construct a completely 3D-printed home
in Amsterdam.
(Credit: Dus Architects) Till now, 3D printing has been used to create relatively small items -- everything from iPhone cases to prosthetic fingers to aircraft parts and alien shoes. But none of those projects are a match for the full-size house Dutch architects have begun building in Amsterdam using a 20-foot-tall 3D printer.
A 3D-printed piece of the canal house on the project's opening weekend. (Click to enlarge.)
(Credit: Dus Architects) The project, known simply as the "3D Print Canal House," uses a super-sized version of the popular in-home 3D printer made by Ultimaker. Dutch architectural firm Dus commissioned the machine when it decided to take the scale-model rooms it was already 3D-printing and turn them into the real thing.
"We bought a container from the Internet and we transformed it into one of the biggest printers on this planet," said Dus co-founder Hans Vermeule in a video (below) about the project.
The printer is called KamerMaker, which means "room builder," and that's exactly what it does -- construct a series of rooms that can be basically snapped together to form an entire house.
Thus far, the printer has produced a corner of the house with a partial staircase attached. The piece weighed about 400 pounds. The building blocks that are currently being produced, and take about a week each to print, have a honeycombed internal structure that will eventually be filled with a foam that reaches a concrete-like hardness, lending support and weight to the finished house, according to an Associated Press report.
The architects see multiple benefits to 3D-printing a house, aside from the possibilities of near-limitless customization. "For the first time in history, over half of the world's population is living in cities," Vermeulen said. "We need a rapid building technique to keep up the pace with the growth of the megacities. And we think 3D printing can be that technique."
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The home-building site is currently open to the public, which can see the printer in action for €2.50 (about $3.50). The entire house will take about three years to finish and will be opened as design museum when it is done. I think they should fill it with nothing but 3D-printed furniture when it's ready!
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The 404 1,445: Where we beat up on Bluetooth (podcast)
The musings of a madman, c/o Steve Sphere Guttenberg
(Credit: Steve Sphere Guttenberg) Leaked from today's 404 episode:
- The PonoPlayer ain't no ordinary MP3 player.
- A cheaper Pono alternative: FiiO's nifty $200 portable high-resolution music player is a knockout.
- Buy FLAC tracks from HDtracks.com.
- Poll: What's the worst audio format?.
- Follow Steve on Twitter.
Ep. 1445: Where we beat up on Bluetooth
Episode 1,445
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WhatsApp calling spotted in the wild?
Screenshots from iPhoneItalia suggest that this is the new iPhone interface for the future version of WhatsApp with voice calls.
(Credit: iPhoneItalia) Answer the phone -- WhatsApp is calling.
Friday, screenshots purportedly depicting the widely popular messaging app's coming-soon voice-calling features made their way to the Web courtesy of the blog iPhoneItalia. The shots, seen above, reportedly depict a beta version of WhatsApp for iPhone with a new interface for making calls.
The images suggest that WhatsApp with VoIP is on its way sooner rather later. Just weeks ago, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum promised to give the messaging app's iPhone and Android users voice communication options. He said voice calling would be added in the second of quarter of this year.
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WhatsApp, which is being acquired by Facebook for $19 billion, currently supports a variety of messaging options and lets people leave recorded voice messages for one another. The application has 465 million active users.
Voice calls will pit WhatsApp more directly against VoIP apps such as Skype and Viber. Though Facebook already offers voice calling via Messenger, WhatsApp is operated independently and used by international audiences who would benefit from the addition of free calls.
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Goodyear unveils next-gen blimp, first in 45 years
Goodyear's new blimp, which is technically a zeppelin. It's the tire company's first new airship design in 45 years.
(Credit: Goodyear) Goodyear on Friday unveiled its first next-generation blimp in 45 years.
Technically a German-designed zeppelin, the new airship was built at Goodyear's Wingfoot Lake facility near Akron, Ohio. Construction took about a year. A zeppelin is a different animal than a blimp -- which has no internal structure nor adjustable rotors. But for marketing purposes, Goodyear has decided to keep calling its airships blimps.
Making Goodyear's next-gen blimp (pictures)
1-2 of 24 Scroll Left Scroll RightDesigned by Germany's ZLT Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik, the new blimp is faster, more efficient, and more maneuverable. It is the same type of aircraft that
The new blimp is 246 feet long, more than 50 feet longer than the company's previous generation airships, known as the GZ-20. Goodyear has emblazoned it with an all-new paint scheme but naturally is retaining its traditional blue-and-yellow branding over a silver envelope. It also has state-of-the-art avionics and flight control systems instead of the manual flight systems. Goodyear blimps have used since 1925. This new one can reach top speeds of 73 miles an hour, a boost over the current max speed of about 50 miles an hour. Goodyear said that will allow it to cover more events than its blimps have in the past.
Goodyear's blimps, a century of gracing the sky (pictures)
1-2 of 27 Scroll Left Scroll RightNow that Goodyear has unveiled the new airship, it needs a name, and the company is asking for help. Anyone in the United States over 18 years of age can make a suggestion. Perhaps the new blimp, as it flies around America, will carry the name you suggest with it.
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Jimmy Kimmel shows SXSW attendees will say anything to sound cool
She loves Tonya and the Hardings.
(Credit: Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube; screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET) I can never decide whether SXSW is a tech conference with a music festival attached, or vice versa. Or whether it's just one mass research experiment sponsored by Tinder.
What is clear is that it's full of casually dressed people, often with excessive amounts of hair and an attitude of slight superiority.
Well, it is held in Texas.
Perhaps, then, it was easy pickings for Jimmy Kimmel to send his team of innocent-faced interviewers to ask attendees about the most progressive new musical acts. The most progressive new musical acts that don't exist, that is.
Kimmel has often proved that it's easy to fool passersby into believing something that isn't. For example, when he fooled people into believing that the iPad Mini was actually the new iPhone.
This time, he asked conference attendees what they thought of bands with absurd names -- which, of course, doesn't specifically preclude them from being real.
There's Contact Dermatitis, for example. They show a lot of skin, and add to that with viral power.
Who wouldn't be impressed by Neil Patrick Harassment, or What The F*** Bruce Jenner?
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Actually, talking of female performers who are a big hit, there was enthusiasm for Tonya and the Hardings.
"I'd really like to see them live," says one aficionada.
Deep tech divers into fantasy will surely be rushing to see Daenerys Targaryen and the Dragon Ponies. Should you have missed this act, Targaryen actually takes baths on stage while she performs.
Some might wonder what proportion of interviewees see through the nonsense and how long it takes to shoot such a telling montage. But unless these people are all actors, the last scene makes for compelling viewing.
Still, such ruses surely underline one of the great principles of both coolness and success: fake it till you make it.
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Samsung Galaxy S5 Zoom details allegedly come to light
Samsung looks to be cooking up camera-heavy version of the Galaxy S5.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET) The camera-focused Samsung Galaxy S5 Zoom, a variation on the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S5, could feature a 20-megapixel rear camera and a hexa-core processor, according to new benchmarks.
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The model called the SM-C115 appears to run Android 4.4.2 KitKat and feature a 4.8-inch 720p display. Larger than the Galaxy S4 Zoom's 4.3-inch screen, this model may feature 2GB RAM and 8GB internal storage. Also of particular note, the benchmarks list the processor as being Samsung's Exynos 5 Hexa, a six-core chipset.
As for the all-important camera aspect, the Galaxy S5 Zoom could bundle a 20-megapixel rear shooter with a 2-megapixel front-facing lens. We might assume this one will pack all of the photo features found in the standard Galaxy S5, with maybe a little extra to boot.
For all we now know about the upcoming device, plenty remains unclear. Will this year's US model be an AT&T exclusive once again or could it get a wider release? What about price? Stick around, we'll likely find out in short order.
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Samsung said to release updated S Band activity tracker
Leaked images on SamMobile hint at a new activity tracker from Samsung.
(Credit: SamMobile) Samsung may have yet another wearable device up its sleeve. The Korean electronics giant plans to release an updated S Band activity tracker as an accessory to its flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone, SamMobile reported on Friday. The blog, which closely follows Samsung, posted photos of the device but said it's unclear when the S Band will launch or what it will cost.
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While SamMobile calls the device an updated S Band, none of the leaked slides it posted actually named the device. If Samsung follows its wearables naming strategy, the device could have "Gear" in there.
Samsung declined to comment.
Samsung unveiled an S Band at last year's launch event for the Galaxy S4, but the device never made it to market. Instead, Samsung introduced its Galaxy Gear smartwatch in September. Then last month, Samsung updated Gear with some hardware design tweaks and its own open source software, Tizen, instead of Android. Along with that product, the Gear 2, Samsung plans to release the Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit fitness band in the coming weeks.
For Samsung, the devices are more than just mere gadgets; they also mark an important shift in the company's position in technology. Long known as a "fast follower" that's able to pick up, emulate, and even improve upon existing industry trends, Samsung is now cutting its own path with its wearables lineup. The release of several different wearables designs is in line with Samsung's longtime strategy of trying as many devices as possible until one takes off.
Samsung Gear Fit, hands-on (pictures)
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Google's Project Tango phone rocks four cameras
Project Tango packs serious lens action.
(Credit: Google) When Google decided to ship most of Motorola over to China and its new home with Lenovo, it held on to Moto's Advanced Technologies and Projects division, which has been working on some of the more crazy, and Google X-like, initiatives -- like a modular smartphone (Project Ara) and a 3D-mapping phone (Project Tango).
It seems as though the only phones Google is truly interested in making in-house are those that push the boundaries of what a smartphone is and is meant to do. Now we have some idea of what the Project Tango phone, which is kind of like taking Google's mapping and Street View initiatives down to an even more detailed level, will shape up to be.
On Friday, Myce.com spotted some of the details of the Project Tango phone in the Chrome issue tracker, where developers are looking to add support for the specialized phone to Google's browser. The post reveals that the Tango phone utilizes a rather basic 4-megapixel rear shooter. But the real sausage gets made with the extra lenses you're not likely to find on any other Android smartphones, namely a 180-degree fisheye camera, a depth-of-field camera, and a front camera with a 120-degree field-of-view. The latter is described as mimicking the field of view of the human eye.
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I'm not sure if the potential for such a project is more exciting or terrifying, given that the NSA has reportedly disguised itself as Google in the past for spying purposes. Yikes!
In case you missed it last month, here's a look at Project Tango.
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William Shatner: Of course there's alien life
You know he's right.
(Credit: Strombo/YouTube; screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET) When scientists speak about space and the world out there, it's always worth a listen.
But they're scientists. They have a vested interest in being right. More interesting, perhaps, are the people who seem to have an unalienable instinct for the truths of existence.
William Shatner is surely one of these people. Not merely for his portrayals of Capt. James T. Kirk and the Priceline Negotiator, but for his extraterrestrial nose for truth when he played Denny Crane in "Boston Legal."
Shatner has now offered his definitive view on alien life.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, he offered this: "I don't think there is any doubt there is life in the universe, yes. I don't think there is any question."
But what can possibly deliver such certainty to the Shatner mind? Math, that's what.
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Yes, it's hard to imagine that of all the newly discovered worlds out there (NASA recently announced 715 new planets -- and each potentially represents hundreds more), at least one wouldn't have small green people or hieroglyphically nasty-looking 10-armed beings with a twisted sense of humor.
But that's the problem with alien life, isn't it? We keep thinking of it as something that is akin to our own. Yet, as Professor Michio Kaku told Big Think earlier this week: "When we look at aliens in the movies, we're basically projecting our own consciousness."
Shatner seems to agree with the professor. Speaking of what form alien life might take, he said: "Just how it happens we don't know yet, though I'm sure we'll know soon."
But he's declared himself and that's enough. There is alien life. It is out there. It may not be as we know it.
Soon, though, we may know something. That will at least make our own mundane existence more interesting.
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What are the biggest issues with Wii U, PS4, Xbox One?
Troubleshooting service Fixya has released a new report on the issues affecting today's latest game consoles, and the results aren't pretty.
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Like the Wii U, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 also suffer from a wide range of troubles. The Xbox One's chief troubleshooting culprit is the Kinect, with 30 percent of users looking for some form of help with the motion-gaming peripheral. The Xbox One turning off was highlighted in 25 percent of posts about the console, but that same problem turned out to be the biggest troubleshooting request from PlayStation 4 owners, coming in at 35 percent of all issues related to Sony's console.
It's worth pointing out that while the issues were in fact tallied on Fixya, the categories are general and do not necessarily indicate a major issue with the consoles. Instead, the data suggests that there are certain tendencies of each console to have trouble in particular areas. That users are questioning certain aspects is also not an indication in every case that they are major issues that could cause any of the consoles to stop working.
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DreamPad pillow plays music only you can hear
The DreamPad wants to be your new bedtime buddy.
(Credit: Integrated Listening) Falling asleep to the sound of music or podcasts can be such an individual thing. Your partner might not want to listen to Yanni or Dan Patrick. Wearing earphones while you sleep can be very uncomfortable, or require you to try to sleep on your back, whether you want to or not. There is a new way to get your music and your zzzs without bugging anyone else. It's the DreamPad, a pillow that whispers sweet music for your ears only.
The DreamPad hooks up to your smartphone or MP3 player via a cable. It uses conductive technology to pass the sound into your head. It's a similar approach to headphones that use bone conduction.
The DreamPad is said to work no matter what position you sleep in, or even if you tuck your hand under your face while you're snoozing. The whole idea is to transfer the sound via vibrations, which lets you cut the headphone cord.
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If for some reason you don't have a music-playing device already, you can also add on a Sony Walkman MP3 player pre-loaded with the chill-out tracks for $70.
The pillow is purposefully thin, so you can lay it on top of your existing pillow or slide it into your pillowcase. Sleep problems are a plague, and anything that works to get you into a solid slumber is bound to find its market niche. The DreamPad isn't cheap as far as pillows go, but it represents a creative solution to a problem a lot of people have.
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Woz: Snowden is a hero and Apple is the purest of all
Speaking from the heart, as always.
(Credit: Bloomberg News/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET) I don't want to go all Apple vs. Microsoft on you, but we have a national security situation.
The eminences grises of these two famous companies have come out on opposing sides of one of today's great political debates.
Earlier this week, Microsoft's Bill Gates told Rolling Stone of Edward Snowden: "I think he broke the law, so I certainly wouldn't characterize him as a hero."
Just in case you didn't quite get what he was saying, he added: "You won't find much admiration from me."
However, on Thursday, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak seemed brimming with admiration.
As the Times Of India reports, he was speaking at the CeBit conference in Germany and offered this perspective: "He is a hero to me, but he may be a traitor to other people and I understand the reasons for them to think that way."
Why, then, should the NSA whistle-blower be seen as today's Robin Hood of information?
Woz continued: "I believe that Snowden believed, like I do, that the US has a right to freedom. He had the guts to and courage to sacrifice his life for a principle."
I had thought that it wasn't just the US that had a right to freedom. The people of, say, Russia might like to enjoy that right too. Moreover, it's unclear yet whether Snowden has truly sacrificed his life.
He might, one day, return to a hero's welcome and a regular late-night talk show: "The Truth Show With Edward Snowden." I fancy CNN might immediately pick that up.
Woz, though, believes that the jury is already in when it comes to Snowden's actions. He's previously voiced his support -- and his own feelings of guilt about the technology of which he was a creator being used for nefarious purposes.
In Germany, however, he said of Snowden: "He has been vindicated and there have been illegal judgments and the NSA, and by the way, we have other three-letter agencies like the CIA and FBI, and they are probably doing similar things. They cover up those loopholes, and they are in violation with our Constitution."
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Woz said he couldn't be sure. But his first instinct is not to believe that Apple would be complicit.
He said: "I believe Apple is the purest of all of the companies, and it will strive to protect its customers' data."
It's hard to be a corporation and to be pure. Just as it's hard to work for the NSA and do things that you don't think everyone else should know.
We all have more than a tinge of hypocrisy at our core. How we're judged often depends on whether we're at least aware of it, or whether we have enough skills to hide it.
When the history is written and we all accept that everyone is spying on everyone -- yes, just like in early 20th century village life -- finding purity may be a thankless task.
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How Moov plans to deliver nearly $1M worth of wearables by July
It took only 90 minutes for Moov, makers of a watch-like fitness wearable, to hit its crowdfunding goal of $40,000. Two weeks have passed since then, and Moov is already to date the most successful crowdfunding fitness campaign -- of which there are many, on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, attempting to serve up a better Jawnone or Fitbit or Nike FuelBand that tells us how to fix ourselves and not just what's wrong.
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Nikola Hu, a former Apple engineer and member of Bungie's Halo team who met his fellow co-founders Meng Li and Tony Yuan at Microsoft Research Beijing more than a decade ago, was buried in his computer when the goal was met and surpassed before lunchtime on launch day.
"I don't check money. I work as hard as I can and two hours later, the money guy told me," Hu said with an endearing matter-of-factness as we sat outside of Red Rock Coffee in Mountain View, Calif., a quick jaunt from the small apartment in the back of Mariposa Avenue the team crams into every day, often staying late into the evening. Hu exhibits a nonchalance characteristic not of a headstrong entrepreneur, but that of a focused engineer, as does Li.
"I was not in the same room. I just got it from a message," Li said, though she admitted to being pretty nervous that morning. Moov consulted with dozens of people before launch -- its primary source of investment still remains undisclosed -- but its co-founders had no idea the product would take off as fast as it has. Though Wareness.io, the marketing team behind the launch of the Tile and the all-in-one credit card Coin, prepped Moov appropriately. The company, like Coin, has a sleek Web page and professional promotional material alongside its reliance on a preorder system through its own site, forgoing Kickstarter or Indieigogo.
However, it became apparent quickly that getting the word out was not going to be necessary. Interest came from all sides. Foreigners clamored for support of more sports popular overseas, while functionality and fitness suggestions, job applications, and investor interest began pouring in. "We thought after the first couple days, people get it. They share our message. It's not just another thing for your wrist," Li said. "Lots of people say they didn't buy any wearables because they wanted something like this."
Moov co-founders Nikola Hu,
left, and Meng Li, center, in the company's headquarters -- a small
apartment on the second floor of a tucked-away complex -- in Mountain
View, Calif., while the team's UX designer works with one of its coaches
on software.
(Credit: Photo by Nick Statt/CNET) At a time when tech frivolity is inducing class-war froth and startup backlash -- and the difference between Silicon Valley's practical old guard and the advertising-and-app obsessed new guard is playing out across the industry -- Moov's approach is refreshing. Granted, its founders are specialists in not just the sensor technology and software that powers Moov, but in all aspects of making your standard wearable Kickstarter look like a brainstorming session; Yuan, the manufacturing expert on the team, managed the production of the Nokia Lumia 720.
Still, the skills, sensibilities, and modesty create an atmosphere clearly dedicated to product passion, with absolutely none of the startup trademarks beyond Moov's Bay Area location. The company is flush with new cash, but wants to hire strategically. When asked about expanding the team beyond its 10 members, Hu looks upwards quizzically, saying that he thinks they'll need one more software engineer, most likely someone to handle customer support as well.
Li laughs at the last notion, having previously noted that she didn't get much sleep last week and has been fielding e-mails nonstop. "You quickly grow up, overnight sort of," she said of handling an overflow of interest and communication.
They share our message. It's not just another thing for your wrist." --Meng Li, Moov co-founder
Naturally, the work is paying off. Moov's early success is due to its product. It's a wearable people actually want to wear, with functionality that sets it apart and a price point that's highly aggressive. But the guarantee of future success also is being locked down by a series of strategic moves: not relying on crowdfunding sites so the funds would be available immediately; prepping manufacturing so that, just 14 days after preorders open, Moov has four members in Beijing working with Shenzhen-based suppliers; and cutting its first batch short only two weeks in so that it knows it can deliver by summer.
Can Moov break the mold? The ultimate question now, though, is not one of how Moov will celebrate, but rather if it can deliver on time.
Crowdfunding campaigns, and wearable ones in particular, have been plagued with a delivery curse since smartwatch-maker Pebble set the standard for smashing the ceiling on Kickstarter and being forced to maneuver the muck of manufacturing against a demand that was never anticipated. Pebble, of course, came out on the other end as a full-fledged company, now a wearable superstar that can finally breathe, iterate on design, and move forward.
But many wearables of the fitness variety, especially those intent on serving up next-gen trackers, have languished in manufacturing limbo or cautiously promised delivery dates far off into the future. Moov, to realize its desired position in the market, can afford neither.
Two
of the six Moov team members working late in the evening in the
company's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. The startup's other four
employees are already in Beijing, working with Shenzhen-based suppliers
on manufacturing the first batch of devices.
(Credit: Photo by Nick Statt/CNET) When asked if Moov will be able to deliver on the large number of devices customers have not only preordered, but also paid for upfront -- a key difference between Moov's preorder system and Kickstarter and Indiegogo's -- Li gives a definitive yes. "We hit it [the preorder goal] in 90 minutes," Li explained. "That gave us the luxury to shift the focus."
"A lot of people don't understand what manufacturing means," Hu added. "We understand you have to sit with the workers in the factory. A lot of people think you just throw the specs, and that's not how it works. It's a lot of iteration. You stay in the factory, and if a problem comes up, you have to solve it instantly."
Another requirement is the ability to take things off the table. Moov is a no-frills tracker, relying on sensors and software. There is no metal in the band that could lead to skin irritation or cause more complicated manufacturing issues. "When we designed this, our designer had lots of ideas at the very beginning. A lot of them have been scratched out," Hu said. "Pretty sci-fi requirements -- probably not for now, but we'll think about it."
"We will work really hard to simplify the whole device. Get rid of the stuff we don't read. Sharp focus is the most important thing," Li added.
As for what's ahead, Moov has a lot of options. It can get to work on adding more sport functionality to its iOS app, accelerate the timeline of Android compatibility, or Hu could further build out the band's SDK to get it into developers' hands sooner. All of that is on the horizon, but right now, the product experience for the first Moov users appears paramount. "What we're doing right now," Li said, "is preparing for the moment they open the box."
Update at 9:48 a.m. PT: Clarified that final retail pricing for Moov will be $120.
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