Lowell Conn
Province
In a bold move, the popular turnby-turn guide has embraced a partnership with Apple. HANDOUT PHOTO
1. Competitors to curse TomTom: In 1981 when IBM introduced the PC, a minor decision to let little-known Microsoft retain operating system rights resulted in a technological shift that led the latter to dominance and the former to struggle to maintain relevance.
Lesson learned: Software trumps hardware. Clearly, TomTom understands this as it departs from its traditional role in manufacturing GPS hardware with the release of TomTom for iPhone.
For a fraction of the cost of traditional navigation, consumers purchase the software directly from iTunes and get North American map data, turn-by-turn directions, points of interest and a screen that swivels vertically or horizontally.
The features are similar to traditional GPS products, but what early adopters get is a taste of convergence, saving money and dashboard space to the collective benefit of TomTom and Apple (the one company that has managed to maintain both hardware and software control). But, as ubiquitous as the iPhone is, only when TomTom crosses all hardware platforms with this software will it be game over for the traditional GPS sector.
Price $99; visit tomtom.com.
2. Is Blu five times better? Unlike the switch from videotape to DVD, the adoption of Blu-ray has one fundamental problem — it’s still a disc. Thus, consumers intuit that the new technology is not a whole lot different from the old one.
As a result, we’ve seen a relatively slow rollout of non-traditional Blu-ray players. So, while Japanese buyers have in-car Blu-ray at their purchasing disposal, North American audiences are only now being introduced to portable devices.
Panasonic’s DMP-B15 is not a car-dedicated unit, but it is portable, and it will likely be a staple on long car rides for children and techno-geeks everywhere. Mounted in the vehicle, children will enjoy the same Dora the Explorer, but as the Blu-ray Disc has greater capacity, Swiper the Fox will stop swiping with more clarity than ever before.
The Dark Knight will look awesome on this device, but is it enough to make the DMP-B15 a legitimate market penetrator, considering the main difference mandating a price five times its DVD cousins is a not-always-tangibly-better-looking picture? The market will rule.
Price $1,000; visit panasonic.ca.
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