Cloud Engines updates Pogoplug media sharing device

On Friday, Cloud Engines introduced the second generation of its Pogoplug multimedia sharing device. The new version adds several new features. The Pogoplug is designed to plug into your home or small office network and let you access and share content of USB hard drives over the Internet using a standard Web browser.

First off, it now has four USB 2.0 ports instead of one so you can connect multiple USB hard drives or flash drives without the need for a USB hub. It works with H.264 video, as well as common photo types, but doesn't support DRM media. Along with that, there's now support for global search across multiple drives. (It still connects to your router using gigabit Ethernet.) Also new are improved transcoding and wider support for streaming movies on the Web or to an iPhone app; the ability to automatically sync photos, music, videos, and other content from apps such as iTunes and iPhoto; tighter integration with Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace; automatic organization of your music, photos, and videos; and an address book that remembers the e-mail addresses with which you've shared content for future sharing. (Many of the enhancements will be available to current Pogoplug owners as well.) Pogoplug supports OS X 10.4 and higher as well as Windows XP and Vista, and Linux; Safari, Firefox 3, IE 7, IE 8, and Chrome Web browsers; and hard drives formatted as NTFS, FAT32, Max OS Extended Journaled and non-Journaled (HFS+), and EXT-2/EXT-3. Although there are no specific bandwidth requirements listed, the company says that a typical DSL connection (with 512 Kbps upload speed) works fine. Cloud Engines expects to ship the new Pogoplug before the end of the year for $129, and is currently taking pre-orders.

The Smithsonian's quest for IT's Ruby Slippers

Among the artifacts in the National Museum of American History's vast collection is an egg that served as a prop in the 1979 movie, Alien . What makes the egg more important than the iPhone, which has yet to be selected by the caretakers of the national museum? Kidwell and Foti try to stay outside of technology's relentless marketing bubble in their work to determine what is really important in the flow of history. The responsibility for answering such questions lies with Peggy Kidwell, the museum's curator of mathematics, and Petrina Foti, the manager of its computer collection.

For example, the curators have to be convinced that a technology like the iPhone has enough cultural significance to have landmark status. "We like to have a little perspective," said Kidwell. Kidwell said the selection process keys on the story behind an object. On the other hand, the Radio Shack TRS-80 , also known as the "Trash-80," which was unveiled in 1977, sits in the collection, as does an Apple 1 from 1976, a telegraph from 1844, a 30-ton, World War II era Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) computer, and a mouse or two. It's why Evel Knievel's 1977 Harley-Davidson XR-750 is in the collection rather than another Harley. Today, nearly all of the American History Museum's prized technology collection remains in storage, where it was placed when the facility was closed in 2006 for a massive renovation. The item has to have near universal cultural significance, like the href="http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2008/11/theres-no-place-like-home-the-ruby-slippers-return-to-the-museum-of-american-history/">Ruby Slippers from the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, she added.

Before the renovation, the 900 artifacts in the IT collection were displayed in its own 14,000 square-foot space. The next IT display will be part of an exhibit that aims to show how technology has fit into American commercial development. The museum reopened a year ago without a standalone IT collection. The museum is trying to raise $1 million to help fund the exhibit, and hopes that work on the program is completed in time for the museum's 50th anniversary in 2014. Since the renovation, only a few glass displays showing technology have been set up, including one showing the mobilization of math and science that came after the the former Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957. The display includes a Digi-Comp toy computer from 1965, the year the Smithsonian completed its first computer display. The museum next summer may launch a new exhibit that focuses on COBOL and includes a binder with typed and handwritten notes from a meeting held in November 1959 to work on a new programming language.

The Digi-Comp "was about as close as many Americans ever got to a computer in 1965," said Kidwell. The new language turned out to be COBOL , created because the Pentagon, in particular, wanted something that could run on any system. Today, Kidwell is on the hunt for new COBOL artifacts, especially a branded coffee cup from the 1960s. The Smithsonian's collection includes coffee cups, buttons and other items that carry sayings, logos and quips about specific technologies. COBOL was released in 1960, so the exhibit would mark the language's 50th anniversary. Such artifacts create a human connection with technology, she noted.

Carter was the first former president to use a PC for this purpose. Kidwell said she's also interested in displaying the PC used by former President Jimmy Carter to write his memoirs. It's the human connection that gives technology significance to the museum's curators. The donor was interviewed to find out how the iPod was used so that someone, decades from now, will understand why it mattered. The Smithsonian, for instance, recently added an iPod to its collection after it was donated by an ordinary user. Such historical background is a "baseline requirement" for anything entering the collection, said Foti. "Anything that I've collected, I've made sure there is a history attached to it." Apple Inc.'s iPod entered the collection faster than most devices, but not until it was clear "it was influencing a large number of people," Foti said.

One exception could be the 40th anniversary in 2012 of video games Pong and Magnovox Odyssey, which could lend itself to interactive displays. Without a recorded history, an iPod is just a plastic box, especially in a museum that generally doesn't turn on devices because of risk posed by old power supplies and wiring. The Smithsonian focuses on material culture, which means software and platforms that exist in the cloud pose a special challenge to Kidwell and Foti. Smithsonian overseers talk to officials at other IT history collections, such as the Computer History Museum in San Francisco and IBM's internal collection, to determine how they preserve older technologies. The problem with preserving software is its dependency on current technology. "A CD last for 20 years and we go for 100 minimum," said Kidwell. Kidwell also noted that that the museum's goal is the preservation of IT technologies, whether in its facilities or not. "We don't try to collect everything," she said.

A high ceilinged storage room filled with cabinets and an array of small objects, devices and documents is a treasure trove of IT history. But the Smithsonian does have a lot. And virtually everything is turned off. There are no red lights or beeps, just the complete silence of a history that Smithsonian hopes to keep preserved for centuries.

Verizon turns up the hype for Friday Droid launch

Verizon Wireless will open many of its 2,000 retail stores early on Friday for first day sales of the Droid smartphone, adding to the marketing hype already begun for the Android 2.0 device from Motorola Inc. The QWERTY keyboard slider device sells for $200 after a rebate and a new two-year contract. Some stores will open at 7 a.m. and others at 8 a.m. A list of stores is available on Verizon's Web site although the site doesn't say which will open earlier and advises calling the store in advance to be sure. Also, with Droid sales, Verizon is coordinating an unusual Times Square event in New York City this month to allow nearby voice callers to control two large digital billboards there, with some of their voice search results for nearby restaurants and attractions displayed on Google Maps on those billboards.

It's fair, then, to wonder whether first-day-of-sale hoopla and other creative (and expensive) advertising are becoming what's required to do well in the competitive smartphone world. Google Inc., Motorola and the Verizon, the nation's largest wireless carrier, started the Droid campaign with an unusual TV ad that belittled missing features, such as a physical keyboard and multitasking, in its chief rival, the iPhone. Or maybe this kind of campaign is what's required by carriers and manufacturers who dare to attempt to catch up with the iconic Apple iPhone, which has been on the market for more than two years and is in its third version. "No, you don't have to conduct this kind of Droid campaign to sell a new smartphone," said Ramon Llamas, an analyst at market research firm IDC today. "Look at BlackBerry, which has had some success for its devices without all the hype. It's uncertain whether the early TV ads and other hype will generate interest and crowds on Friday, or whether the Android operating system, with its open source allure might have drawn some crowds anyway. But I'd say if you want to plant a stake in the ground, you do this kind of [Droid] campaign." In a sense, Motorola has the most at stake with the Droid launch, since it has pinned so much of its smartphone future on the Android platform and a variety of new devices in coming months. "For Motorola, this is one of the ways they get back in the game," Llamas said. Llamas said he expects some crowds for sales of the Droid on Friday. "The reaction has been very positive already," he said. "It's interesting to see how much hype they are generating.

It might help that Apple has fewer stores than Verizon, but the iPhone is also on sale at AT&T stores, which are also plentiful. When they open the doors, I would bet you'll see lines from buyers and also people who are curious and close to the end of a contract and want a demonstration." While early hours and other gimmicks might steal a little from the slick methods of Apple Inc.'s marketers, Llamas said there's nothing wrong with "taking a page out of the playbook of somebody who's been successful." Apple has attracted hundreds, and even thousands of customers to its stores for launches of its three iPhones, although successive versions have resulted in fewer numbers. Still, even AT&T hasn't attracted the first-day crowds of Apple stores, where customers have said they feel they get more personal attention. One man stood overnight at the Toledo, Ohio, store to get the original Storm, with its touchscreen display. "We're prepared for crowds for Droid," Pica said in a telephone interview. "The buzz with Droid has been bigger than the first Storm." Pica said the "Droid Does Times Square" digital billboard event in Times Square will allow a passerby to call from any phone to a toll-free number, asking through voice commands for a nearby location, such as the nearest pizza shops. Verizon spokeman Tom Pica said he couldn't predict how big Verizon's crowds will be on Friday, but noted that when the BlackBerry Storm went on sale Nov. 21, 2008, there were lines in advance of the opening.

The results of that search will be displayed on Google Maps on the large Nasdaq and Reuters signs in Times Square several times a day for most of November with advertising for the Droid included. It's kind of fun in a recession to have that kind of hype. Llamas said the marketing for smartphones, including Droid, might almost seem "strange" but could be just the kind of fun that consumers respond to in a recessionary time. "Smartphone releases aren't just releases anymore," Llamas said. "They have become full-fledged events and I'd say a pretty good thing to have. It's like getting ready for a new Star Wars movie."

Cisco unveils new generation of branch routers

Cisco this week unveiled a new generation of its Integrated Services Router, a branch office platform optimized for video and virtualized services. The ISR G2 is designed to address increasingly distributed and collaborative workforces, and is the cornerstone of a new Cisco architecture called Borderless Network. The routers had been expected. Borderless Network is a five-phase plan to deliver services and applications to anyone anywhere, regardless of device or network technology.

Some analysts say it is more than another Cisco "marketecture," though. "Application and device borders are eroding," says Rob Whiteley of Forrester Research. "This is not like SONA (Cisco's Services Oriented Network Architecture) where it was very hard to point to things to implement. Borderless Network is intended to support applications, processing cycles and services that are increasingly distributed and virtualized, such as those in cloud computing and software-as-a-service environments. SONA was more of a marketecture, more of a religion that you adopted. Some analysts say its popularity is unmatched. "The ISR line is perhaps the best-selling network product line of all time," says Zeus Kerrvala of The Yankee Group. "They've done a great job of keeping the ISR features set way ahead of any competitor, which is the reason they have north of 90% share. It was trying to convince you of value, whereas (Borderless Networks) has value." Cisco introduced the first-generation ISR in 2004 and has sold more than 7 million units since then, an installed base of $10 billion, company officials say.

There's no product set that Cisco has put more focus on and it remains the cornerstone of their enterprise penetration strategy." According to Dell'Oro Group, Cisco owned an 84% revenue share of the $709 million access router market in the second quarter of 2009. With the economy turning around and video expected to boom as a percentage of network traffic, that share may increase. Other medinet-enabled enhancements of ISR G2 include a video-ready media engine, scalable audio-conferencing, up to 1Terabyte of video storage per module, a multigigabit switching fabric for high performance, and WAN optimization and application acceleration. ISR G2 routers - the 1900, 2900 and 3900 series - include new video digital signal processors key to delivering what Cisco calls "medianet" capabilities for TelePresence, surveillance, collaboration and digital signage. But the ISR really owes its success to service enablement - Cisco says there are hundreds of services available for the first generation. The ISR G2's service-ready engine lets users dynamically deploy remote, virtualized services in branches without on-site support or network downtime. On that front, Cisco introduced a number of enhancements including a software license to turn up new services on the router rather than going through a hardware upgrade.

The ISR G2 services module includes up to 1 Terabyte of on-board storage for these virtualized services. The Cisco customer is anxious to try out the video and service activation enhancements of the new line. "The video integration…is a really big need throughout our business, especially the ability to optimize it and make it available for low bandwidth sites," says Sean Burke, vice president of network operations at the company. InVentiv Health, a provider of commercialization services to pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, has 50 of the first generation ISRs installed at 30 sites. The license key service activiation feature will allow inVentiv to buy a service software license and turn it up during routine maintenance cycles, instead of taking a router out of commission to add new hardware, Burke says. EnergyWise debuted early this year for Cisco's Catalyst LAN switches to allow users to be able to control Power over Ethernet-connected devices and track energy consumption. The routers also enable organizations to better manage their power consumption and costs through switch modules that include the company's EnergyWise software for power efficiency.

The routers support Cisco IOS Release 15, the most recent version of the company's routing software, which features enhanced security, voice support and manageability, and license-based activation for faster deployment of services. The ASR 1002-F is designed for small-scale WAN aggregation, private WAN and Internet edge applications. Cisco is also introducing a fixed-configuration version of its ASR 1000 edge router. It features four integral Gigabit Ethernet ports and 4 Gigabytes of memory. Ninety percent of the interface modules can be carried forward to the new routers, and Cisco believes the transition period to the ISR G2 line will take two years or more. The ISR G2 1900 starts at $1,595; the 2900 at $1,995; and the 3900 at $9,500. Services ready engine modules start at $1,000, and the video DSP modules start at $800. EnergyWise switching modules start at $1,295. The 3900, 2900 and 1900 will eventually succeed the first generation ISR 3800, 2800 and 1800 platforms.

The base price for the ASR1002-F is $20,000. All products are expected to be available in November.

Report: Apple pitching TV subscription service to networks

It would seem Hulu's not the only company re-evaluating its strategies for making money on television content in the digital age. That's the pitch Apple has been making to TV networks in recent weeks. According to a report at All Things Digital, Apple has been floating a $30 per month television subscription service to content owners.

The company is trying to round up support for a monthly subscription service that would deliver TV programs via its multimedia software, multiple sources tell me. The entrenched business model has networks making lucrative deals with service providers like Comcast, Time-Warner, and AT&T-deals they don't necessarily want to put in danger by making their content more widely available. Of course, content providers are notoriously resistant to change-doing a three-point turn on an African elephant is probably faster. Not to mention that the fees paid by advertisers, still a big chunk of network income, are based on viewership ratings, which could take a hit if more viewers were to move to an ad-free model. Buying television shows on an à la carte basis can be pretty expensive, depending on your consumption habits, and more to the point, purchase is not the default model for most television viewers-most people don't buy DVD box sets of every show they watch. Television show episodes have been on sale in the iTunes Store since fall 2005, when a handful of ABC-owned shows debuted, but something tells me that sales have never been as strong as Apple would have liked; Apple doesn't regularly break out iTunes Store sales by content type, but TV shows almost certainly pale next to music sales-when was the last time you heard the company brag about how many TV episodes have been downloaded?

Hence, the success of sites like Hulu and Netflix, which offer streaming on ad-based or subscription models. When Apple launched music download sales, music piracy was rampant. A deal with Apple does make some sense for the content vendors. Steve Jobs argued that iTunes was a way to compete with piracy, not try to stamp it out. Television piracy may not be as common as music piracy was, but it does exist and it's an extremely well-oiled and, more important, quiet machine.

Instead, Apple would provide a superior product that people would be willing to pay money for-and it panned out, with Apple selling more than five billion songs. Distributing television episodes doesn't seem to incur nearly as much legal attention as music or feature film piracy. Despite gains made by sites like Netflix and Hulu, there is room in this market for Apple, as I've been arguing for more than three years. Still, there are places where it's vulnerable to a superior-and legitimate-product, and that's a niche Apple can exploit. For one thing, it's got a huge base of existing customers-more than 65 million credit card-linked accounts, as All Things Digital points out. Thirdly, subscription television could be the killer app for the Apple TV, allowing some users to actually ditch their cable subscriptions and finally transforming Apple's hobby into a worthwhile commercial offering.

For another, its got a foothold in the mobile space with the iPhone and iPod touch, a realm in which neither Netflix or Hulu competes at present. Netflix has moved towards bringing its service to the living room by offering streaming via Roku's set-top boxes, some Blu-ray consoles, and game consoles like Microsoft's Xbox 360, but Hulu has taken pains to try and keep its content locked firmly to the Web. Live events such as sports and news don't really work in the current iTunes model, which would likely prevent lots of people from switching wholesale to an online distribution system. There are still hurdles, both for the business and technological angles. And then there's the question of how the model would work: would it be an all-you-can-eat service, or would the television companies insist upon metering of some kind?

If you wanted to purchase shows after watching them, what kind of prices would we be talking? What about content from premium channels like HBO and Showtime? All Things Digital says that none of the content providers is currently onboard with the subscription plan, which Apple would reportedly like to launch next year, but also speculates that Disney, with its close ties to Jobs, could be the first to sign on. But it's going to depend on the content that's available, the quality, and what advantages Apple offers over services like Netflix and Hulu. As someone who actively follows a lot of television shows-we're talking well over a dozen-a $30 flat fee would be an extremely attractive value proposition.

So I put it to you, readers: would you pay $30 a month for television? Why or why not?