If I were to hypothesize, it’s probably the cost factor. Cell phones are subsidized by the telecom operators, expecting to recoup their expenses through the exorbitant voice and data plans monthly fees. I just wish we could see some home phones with color screens, Bluetooth (so I could use a headset), VOIP, and maybe an ability to import or sync an addressbook. Wouldn’t that be something?

Enough ranting and daydreaming. We were down to 1.5 working home phones, so while at BJ’s Wholesale Club, we purchased the 2010 Panasonic KX-TG6545. What exciting details can I tell you about it? There are a number of features that are supposed to be exciting like this “Eco” power-saving mode, but I think the best part is that there is a common phonebook that is shared among the handsets. If you add/modify/delete an entry on one handset, it’s reflected on all. Other than that, not the most exciting. If that’s the most noticeable “Pro”, I’ve already noted one “Con.” While there are many options, you have to dig deep through the menu options to perform those activities. For example, if you wish to quickly intercom someone in another room, or dial someone in the phonebook, you have to dig down at least four (4) menu options to do that. That’s annoying. The package comes with five handsets and a base, but we only needed four handsets. I’m keeping the extra handset in storage, in case another child decides to toss a phone into a filled bathtub.

Panasonic KX-TG6545

See you all in two years when I replace this phone with a ferret/pigeon-based phone system with answering machine. The pigeon would be used for calls outside the house, and I would use a trained ferret for intercom calls within the house.

In the past 30 days of HD recording and viewing, we’ve hit 100% capacity nearly every day. In a house with a family of four sharing one DVR and HDTV, 20 hours isn’t enough. Sure, Lily doesn’t watch her own shows per se, but after recording a few shows for the adults, some Sesame Street, some Sid the Science Kid, and your DVR is filled to capacity.

Motorola QIP7232

BlackBerry Torch 9800

Here’s the thing. I’m a tech head, and I loves me a good phone. No, not a good phone. An awesome phone. I moved to AT&T for the RIM BlackBerry Curve so I could get a smarter phone that would allow me to synch my contacts and calendar data to my MS Outlook on the home PC. I’d tried Motorola’s Phone Tools application years ago to synch their Motorola flip phones (the v710 and E815), but Motorola’s app left much to be desired. Using RIM’s Desktop Manager software, synching is a breeze. The two BlackBerrys that I’ve owned so far — the Curve and the Bold, are great phones. They’re really good. So why am I underwhelmed?

Three words: iPhone and Android. The iPhone 4 came out a few months ago, and despite Antenna-gate, it’s a beautiful phone. I still have my Apple iPod Touch from a few years ago, and the I still think the form-factor is fantastic. I like the few apps installed so far, but it’d be so much better to have access to those apps outside of my Wi-Fi home network.

More importantly, Google’s Android. After much prompting for me, my wife recently moved to her first smartphone, the HTC Droid Incredible. I checked out her phone during our recent road trip, and it’s an amazing phone. Absolutely amazing. It’s beautiful, it’s useful, it’s smooth, it’s polished. It’s so well done, it’s awe-inspiring. It’s truly lust-worthy. While there is technically nothing wrong with the current slate of BlackBerries on the market, they don’t quite compare to the Android models on the scene and the new iPhone 4.

My next opportunity to upgrade is November 2010, but I’m considering either upgrading to the iPhone 4 in November, or waiting until March 2011 to move back to Verizon.

For example, I would never purchase or rent a movie or tv show from Apple’s iTunes. Why? I can only watch it on my iPod or on my home PC. If I wanted to watch it on my HDTV, I’d have to first purchase an Apple TV device, which you can only watch content purchased from iTunes. DVDs and Blu-rays are great, but I can’t watch it on my iPod when I’m sitting on the train? It’s abysmal.

For a limited time only until August 9th 2010, iSkysoft is offering a free DVD-to-iPhone converter. I’m going to try it this weekend. I hope this is good.

PC World compiled their list of nine stupid movie tech moments. Robocop was running MS-DOS? Wow.

1987's Robocop ran MS-DOS?

• Although we subscribe to the FiOS Extreme HD package (no movie channels though), I’ve noted there are no where near as many HD channels as their are SD channels. Standard def channels are 2-499, and then HD is just 500-599. I’ve also looked for HD versions of Cartoon Network, Nat Geo Wild, the Military Channel, but either they don’t broadcast in HD or Verizon doesn’t offer them. Rats.
• Even though the Verizon FiOS DVR contains an internal 160 Gb hard drive, this will only provide you 16-18 hours of HD recording time. You throw in a few 1 hour shows, a sporting event, kids shows, and whap! you are done. In just two weeks, we’ve been at the 90% mark where previously recorded shows were deleted, and today hit 100% capacity. There’s really not much on there that’s different — we didn’t go and record Bass Masters on the fishing channel in HD. It’s our usual coterie of shows. Interestingly enough, the Motorola DVR that Verizon uses has an eSATA port (that we could use to expand our capacity with an external drive), but Verizon has disabled it. Grrrr.
• HD shows look great vs standard def, so I’d rather live my life never watching standard def again. Sports in HD look cinematic. The scenes from the Tour de France hovering over the French countryside and the Alps are breathtaking. I probably could watch Bass Masters in HD.
• Netflix streams their video in 720p, which looks pretty good. However, Netflix only offers stereo sound for their streaming service. Maybe later this year, if the reports are correct. No 1080p anytime soon though, but I think it’s okay. Surround sound would be nice though.
• Speaking of sound, 5.1 Dolby surround sound for television shows is a nice plus. While I like surround sound, we have one too many remote controls. One for the AV receiver (sound), one for the tv (to change inputs and formats), and one for the FiOS DVR (changing channels and watching recorded shows.) I’ve got my wife seriously contemplating agreeing to move to the Logitech Harmony One universal remote. At least she’s beginning to understand my thought process. I have reasons for why I do the things I do, folks.
• I know Blu-ray is supposedly great and all, but from what I’ve seen, the PS3 is doing a great job upscaling my old DVDs. Nothing has looked choppy or soft yet.

I never did jump on the HDTV bandwagon for various reasons. For one, the cost. Although the historical costs of HDTVs have decreased, we’d still have to outlay the necessary money for upgrading to a new AV receiver, a new stand, and Blu-ray player. That’s a lot. We never had the extra cash sitting around to finance such a large purchase, especially with the high costs of daycare every month for the kids.

As for the second reason, I haven’t been able to commit to one particular technology. Consumer television technology has evolved over the past five years, and while I’ve always been particular to plasma technology, I’ve flirted with DLP, LCD, and LED LCD. Although I’ve finally decided to stick with plasma technology, manufacturers like Pioneer have exited the industry, and other industry-leading manufacturers like Panasonic have experienced problems with their 2009 models in terms of fading black levels.

What’s a technology enthusiast to do?

Sometimes, you just go to war with the army you got. Here’s the good news. The stars have aligned, the decisions have been made, and the national economy improved slightly. Here’s what we bought:

• Panasonic TC-54G25 – the 54″ model of the 2010 G25 series. I’ve decided against the Sony and Samsung LCD televisions, due to the rumored game lag, but also because the costs are higher. I’m a little worried about the 2010 Panasonics experiencing fading black levels like the 2009 models, but sometimes you need to take a leap of faith. We went for the larger 54″ (not 50″) because we’re planning to rearrange the living room layout, and I loves me a wall of high definition television.
• Pioneer vsx-1020-k — Pionoeer’s mid-to-higher end audio/video receiver. My current AV receiver is actually working fine. Purchased in December 2003, it doesn’t support HDMI. I thought we could space out the purchase to later in the year, but without HDMI, I won’t be able to play cable HD channels that have HDCP enabled. Ah well, now we’re future-proofed for 3D television viewing.
• Techcraft Veneto Series SWP60 TV Stand — This isn’t that fascinating, but we bought a new stand to match our future coffee tables and stuff. We need a new stand anyway, and now I can dump the current AV rack that takes up too much floor space.

Panasonic-TC-P54G25

Pioneer-VSX-1020-K

TV Stand

As you’ll notice, I didn’t buy a Blu-ray player, speakers, or a universal remote. My PS3 will play Blu-ray discs and it can upscale, so I’m set for now. My current Onkyo speakers should work fine with the new AV receiver. I’d love a new Logitech Harmony One universal remote, but it’s too much money to purchase right now. I’ll get that for Christmas or something.

Everything is arriving sometime next week, but I’m most worried about the TV stand. It’s the first item I want set up, but it is only estimated to arrive between 6/23 and 6/28. That’s a big window, and the television is scheduled to be delivered smack dab in the middle of the window. Fingers are crossed. I’m somewhat excited to finally have an HDTV, but I think it hasn’t hit me yet. I’d say that I don’t know what I’ll watch first, but that’s a lie. I want to watch every action movie in my DVD collection, starting with every Star Wars movie and the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Personally, I like TiVo. I’ve seen and used the Comcast Scientific Atlanta (purchased by of Cisco?) and the Verion FiOS DVR cable boxes, and the OS and UI both leave much to be desired. Both are slow, erratic, and not user-friendly. Unfortunately for TiVo, the consumer market made the same choice we did. Consumers like TiVo, but they liked having a single unified set-top and DVR box more.

The new TiVo Premiere interface

In addition, customers don’t want to pay a monthly subscription fee for the right to have separate boxes. Problems with the cable company UI? Of course, but you learn to live with it. If and when TiVo can convince potential customers that the new TiVo units work just as good or better, and they can have a single box with no loss of features, TiVo might just have a chance to come back.

1st Generation Apple iPad

It’s been long overdue, but I’m going on the record here and now to say how I think about the matter. I think the Apple iPad is a great idea. Do I own one of the first 300,000 iPads? No, I do not. Do I plan to get one? Probably not. So why do I say that a product I do not own, nor do I plan to purchase, is a great idea?

Two words: Star Trek.

One of the reasons I love sci-fi is that the genre (be it the written word or in film/tv) is an opportunity for the thinker to wonder, “What if?” with a technological angle. What would life be like if….. and you finish the thought. You throw in technology there, and it’s a chance to dream about what the future could be.

Remember the 2002 film MinorityReport? Everyone loves that holographic touch interface that Tom Cruise used. Pretty neat, eh? Well, scientists and engineers at Oblong have been working on a gesture-based interface right now. Check out the sample videos in the previous link and you’ll see Oblong’s interface in action. And don’t get me started on the personalized advertising, the changeable newspapers, and other technology in that film, because companies have been yammering about that for a while.

Remember cars in the pretty-forgettable 1993 movie Demolition Man? Sandra Bullock was riding that electric car that actually drove itself? With the built-in radar and self-parking features in cars today, the electric car industry in nascent stages, and heck, I read people are testing cars that have computers that will drive them all safely in close proximity, isn’t that eerily similar? Is it decades from now? Probably? But you can imagine that we might be heading towards that path.

The Star Trek PADD

There are countless others to mention in the annals of sci-fi literature and film, but you get the idea. Now, the iPad. Uh, yeah, call this a dumb reference, but Star Trek afficionados have seen a computing tablet (original Star Trek series) or PADD (TNG, DS9, VOY) in various Star Trek movie or series. It’s a great concept, and you could easily see yourself using something just like it in real life.

So back to the Apple iPad and the year 2010. Granted, it’s basically a table PC, but sleeker and easier to use, which makes it leaps and bounds better than the Windows Tablet PCs that have not been popular with consumers. Is the iPad perfect? No. I think it should have multitasking, but lo and behold, Apple announced today that multitasking (via a software update) will be available later this year.) It would be nice to have a webcam, but that might be featured in Generation 2. The price is high, but those may come down in successive generations, much like the iPhone did.

So why didn’t I get one so far? It’s too expensive, and I can live without it. However, that doesn’t mean I would never get it. I love the surfing-from-the-couch ability. The idea that I could read my favorite magazines on the train or bus or airport all in one slim tablet. That I could watch movies and shows easily and in a larger screen. It’s all about the versatility and how this device and form-factor can fit into your life and improve it.

From what I’ve read and seen videos of, it’s not geeks or adults who are enjoying the iPad the most. It’s people’s kids who are using it, and are fascinated with some piano app and the vibrant colors of the drawing apps. When you as an adult see some kid enjoying it, you start to be awed, and begin thinking about getting one for your kids too. The entire viral marketing campaign and word-of-mouth interest has been less geek-driven, and more family-oriented. That makes me think, “Wow, cool.” Not only have I read about it, I have a perfect example. My old coworker and friend Jenny Cu got one for her young son, and the kid loves it.

Finally, below is a CNET video of Dan Ackerman showing off the new Netflix app for the iPad. I think it’s pretty fantastic, and after seeing this yourself, you tell me how you wouldn’t enjoy Netflix in your lap in your free time.