Misleading Tech Advertising

Picture it... 

You've unearthed the best new tech in the world...but no one knows about it. So naturally you turn to creative advertising to promote your product. Once promoted, you think, "Wow that's my product!?" Of course it is, but smart advertising has disguised it. A big pet peeve of mine is inflation of the truth in tech advertising. It's also genius! To stretch the truth of the product's specifications/capabilities is masquerading, but it's not necessarily lying. Let me shed some light on 2 of the biggest advertising facades.

Hard Disk Drive/Solid State Drive/Flash Memory

Why when you look at the 100GB drive under "My Computer -> {drive} -> Properties" it shows as only 93.13GB? Where did my 6.87GB go!!!??? It is a 100*10^9 byte drive, but the secret is that storage is advertised in decimal format (base 10), while the computer displays it in binary (base 2). A little math to explain:

• Decimal (Base 10): 10^3 = kilo, 10^6 = mega, 10^9 = giga
• Binary (Base 2):     2^10 = kilo, 2^20 = mega, 2^30 = giga
• Math gives us: 100*(10^9)/(2^30) = 93.13 GB (base 2)

Naturally, marketers wish to promote the larger number.
Just know this: Marketers speak in decimal, Computers speak in binary.

600Hz Plasma vs 120Hz LCD

Flat screen TV ads are the worst. Plasma and LCD are way different techs. The advertising of Hz in TVs is due to how humans perceive motion on screen. LCDs have an inherent blur effect with motion (e.g., camera pans, fast motion scenes). The higher frame refresh rate (Hz) aims to switch fast enough to eliminate motion blur. (I may post a separate article on LCD 120Hz explained.)

Plasma
On a 1080p TV, think of plasma pixels as 6 million tiny light bulbs, 1 for each sub pixel (red, green, blue). These bulbs constantly flash to display their photons. For a 600Hz sub-field drive, each bulb flashes 10 times per frame. Since the screen refreshes at 60Hz (frames per second), each bulb flashes for 60 * 10 = 600Hz (flashes per second). Old plasma bulbs flashed only 8 times per frame, with a 480Hz sub-field drive.

LCD
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) panels have a back light that is constantly on. Basically, the Liquid Crystals allow light to pass (more white) or block it (more black). Just know that 120Hz really is the screen refreshing at 120 frames per second. Old LCDs refresh at only 60Hz. See this awesome video for a better explanation of how LCD works.

The Skinny

• Plasmas' Hz rating - how many times per second plasma bulbs flash. 
• LCD's Hz rating - how many times per second the frame refreshes. 

So, which is better? Both are better than their older versions, but it's like comparing a Volkswagen's miles per gallon to a Ferrari's turn radius. It just doesn't make sense. Plasmas are inherently better at handling motion, but don't use the 600Hz > 120Hz comparison to determine that. Some prefer LCD's version of motion handling. Let's face it, either tech is a good choice, as long as the TV is huge. Go to Best Buy and determine it for yourself.

What are some misleading advertisements you have come across?

Future Proofing: Technology's Everest

Look into my incandescent crystal ball...

How do you future proof something? How do you define future proof? 

Usually a gadget offers something new to the public. New is defined loosely, as well. 

"New" basically takes on a mix of these three: better, faster, cheaper. This may take on any of these definitions:

• A service the competition does not offer.
• A feature that provides new functionality.
• A feature that improves performance.
• Same features and quality as competitors, but significantly cheaper.

In any case, companies need to release products by bringing something new to the table. Nothing new = no sales.

The Myth

Really, the term "future proof" is a myth. Any time the latest, greatest gadget comes out, people say "It can never get better than this!" But then something more awesome rears its head and steals the show, and everyone is shocked! No WAY! How did they do that! It will never get better than that!!

To future proof a gadget, companies need to make something new. It has to remain "new" for a few months and at least keep up with other gadgets released in those coming months. As a consumer in the market for said gadget, it may be worth it to spend a few more bucks on the upgrade to ensure you won't have consumer envy in the near future.

Consumer Survival

How does the consumer live in this constant game of catch up? Simple...complacency. Whether you're rocking Blu-ray with a 3D flatscreen or still watching VHS tapes on your black and white, there is a place in this world for you. The world is divided into 2 sets of people: early adopters and the rest. My advice? Let the early adopters find out what works and what doesn't, then make your choice. As the economy will tell us, your money is one gadget that is not future proof.

Buttons - Tactile vs Capacitive

Standard physical tactile buttons on smart phones are the lock and volume buttons. That's pretty much it. Manufacturers have differing views on what other physical buttons are included. Let's look at some of these:

Home, Menu, Back, and Search

The latest android smart phones have the infamous 4 capacitive buttons at the bottom of their display: Home, Menu, Back, and Search. Some phones (e.g., Motorola Droid X2) have opted for tactile, physical buttons for these useful functions. My question: What is desired? Do you like the capacitive (touch only) buttons, or do you have an inner desire to press down a physical button? Do you have accidental presses of said buttons?

Keyboard

This also begs the debate between a capacitive, on-screen keyboard (iPhone) vs a physical keyboard (Samsung Epic 4G). Could you live without your physical button QWERTY? Is the physical keyboard worth the extra girth in your pocket?

Game Controls

In my opinion, fighting games like Street Fighter are horrendous on a touchscreen. Accidental presses are inevitable, and intentional presses are misinterpreted. The player has to constantly look to see what they are pressing, like a 4 year old learning to play with a Nintendo controller for the first time. Turn-based, tap, and slow-paced games are great for touch-screen since the player doesn't need to constantly check where their fingers are.

What applications on a phone do you think physical buttons are a must have?

Flame Wars: Apple Lovers vs. Fan-Droids

I love reading tech news. All these lovely tech morsels have a comment feature at the end of the post where idiots of the world unite to provide the least insightful comments this side of the Milky Way. Every blue moon, there is a gem...a beautiful comment that must be framed and hung in the "Comment Hall of Fame." But this post is not about the good ones. It's about a war...a war between the top two smart phone Operating Systems.

My favorite comment reel is on PhoneArena.com, where Android phone fans (Fan-Droids) and iPhone fans (Apple Lovers) square off in a battle royale of comment warfare. Terrible grammar and spelling mistakes abound, these two heated enemies launch grenades of "Yo momma can't run Gingerbread" and fire mortars of "My dog could figure out iOS." 

My favorites of the flame wars are the following: 

• "Go check your FACTS!" when they themselves have no clue what a fact really is.
• "LMAO! Did you really say that the iPhone is better because it's prettier?"
• Subjective comments that someone else actually would prefer (e.g., battery life, User Interface, Call clarity)

Believe it or not...
...this begs an intelligent discussion. These hopeless fans are demonstrating one of the economy's greatest assets: competition. What if Apple was alone? What if the iPhone was the only smart phone ever to grace this Earth? We would have endless cycles of iPhone 3G to 3GS upgrades. With Android's strong presence and Microsoft lingering in the smart phone arena, Apple needs to rethink their release strategy (I'm looking at you white iPhone). Competition is what feeds our advances in technology and spurs innovation...the need to stay ahead. As long as competitors compete in competition, there will be competing competitors competing to compete.

Smart Phone Eruption

(Revamp of my first ever blog post.)

What is a PC for? Desktops are dying, laptops are standard, and smart phones are taking over.

15 years ago desktop PCs were standard. 10 years ago laptops emerged and have now become a staple in a majority of Families’ homes. 

Today, smart phones and tablets are slowly killing the need for a laptop. I just checked my bank balance, paid a bill, sent an email, received a picture of my buddy in a tutu via MMS, and managed my Fantasy Football team all in a matter of minutes on my phone. 

Now these are perfect mobile tasks, but what about tasks requiring true horsepower? Motorola’s Atrix is attempting to blur laptops and phones together to create a lap-phone…or phone-top. You get the idea. It has a special dock to get a good size 11.6″ screen and full QWERTY keyboard. Granted it costs a few hundred bucks for the dock, but the fact that you can dock it is intriguing. This seems great for writing Word docs, constructing complex emails, and other MS Office-type tasks. I know what you’re thinking…”Can it do Crysis?” You and I know the answer is a resounding…”No,” but this idea sounds very promising for mobile gamers. Also, as phones get more powerful, laptops are likely to improve their performance and price points. Much like the advancement of the laptop has only helped the desktop PC become a very affordable home-computing option.

With the advent of dual-core processor phones, I'm excited for smart phones to start doing my taxes and household chores for me. The mobile future is bright, put on your technology sunglasses and enjoy the sunrise.

Top 10 Websites

Let's face it, the web is full of junk. Every once in awhile we need a filter, someone to guide us to the best of the web. It's time for the world to know about these excellent websites.

Gizmodo.com - Best Gadget news, reviews, and commentary.

LifeHacker.com - Don't let the term "hacker" fool you. A "hacker" does not refer to some geeky guy breaking into CIA's mainframe to steal their latest spy contact list. A "hack" refers to an upgrade or customization. This site gives great productivity tips, how to use the latest new PC/mobile apps, and cool new hobbies to explore.

PhoneArena.com - Best mobile phone and tablet news. Great reviews, hands-on videos, and comparison articles/videos.

Facebook.com  - No favorites list would be complete without Facebook. You can easily find "Pages" of the above sites and get updates to all of them right on your homepage, and of course get the latest updates from your buds.

Newegg.com - Best site for electronics components purchasing. They have an extensive library of PC parts, home theater equipment, and now they have branched into video games and kitchen appliances. They have a great user interface, good review system, great prices, and excellent customer service.

MonoPrice.com - Hands down the best place to buy bottom-priced and high-quality cables (e.g., speaker, HDMI), home entertainment accessories, and iPod accessories. I love this site.

Mint.com - Best site to track spending and finances by aggregating bank/savings accounts. Are you spending more this month than last month? You can also set budgets and financial goals each month.







Ninite.com - All those best and popular free PC apps? Check the boxes, download the installer to install all of them with defaults with 1 click. Did I mention no bloatware will be installed? Great site. New apps get listed all the time.

Metacritic.com - Ratings for Movies, TV, Music, Video games. Aggregates ratings from multiple sources to present a XX/100 rating.


 TalkingTechy.Blogspot.com - Best Blog site.  :-)



Sound off in the comments if you agree with the above, or if you found even better alternatives. I'm always interested in finding something better than the best!