Who’s on Crack in Tech 2.26.10

Welcome back to this week’s Who’s on Crack, the Interwebs only column brave enough to suggest illegal narcotics fuel many of the moves in the tech world. It’s either that or Gadgetell is nuts for giving me a platform to spout off about stuff that bugs me or is just outright dumb. How dumb? Well take a week at this weeks nominees:

• Comcast = Dunder Mifflin
• E-readers killing the college bookstore?
• Walmart snatches up Vudu
• Nelson considers a Palm buy

Comcast taking cues from Dunder Mifflin

Weeks ago, Comcast decided they needed to shake things up and get some of that new-fangled branding everyone’s been talking about. The solution? They’ve introduced a new brand for their high-tech offering: Xfinity. Flippin’ genius!

Hot right? To me, someone in Comcastland has been watching way too much of The Office TV show as they’ve subconsciously swiped the name of Dunder Mifflin’s website initiative called Infinity. I say subconsciously because it would take a tweaked stoner to think that was a good idea. On the show, the website led to the site being overrun by perverts in the forums and eventually to the incarceration of the employee responsible for it. I can’t be the only one watching way too much of The Office right?

It’s too close not to be a coincidence, right? Will Comcast find jailtime too? $5 it won’t be on fraud, it will be charges the DEA will be interested in. I mean, if you are going to copy something, make sure you’ve got perverts and jail time as your milestones so you know when you find success.

E-readers better than used textbooks?

On the surface, the idea is fantastic: forget dropping thousands of dollars on books only to get $.25 on the dollar for them when June rolls around. Instead, buy a $10 (or $15) ebook for an e-reader like the Kindle and carry all your books in your purse, or murse as the case may be.

The response from two trial horses Princeton and University of Washington who tried out the Kindle DX isn’t as you’d expect or hope. In fact, students said, “yo, the Kindle is whack,” or something like that. As reported by our Sue Walsh, “students reported that it didn’t quite make the cut due to complaints about it’s navigation, folder, and note taking systems.”

Walmart gets into video in a big way

This week Walmart, famous for low prices, bought video on-demand service provider Vudu. On-demand movies are big business and it looks as though Walmart will be going after Netflix and Blockbuster. What the heck is Walmart smoking? Walmart gets two strikes for this one

Strike one:
Walmart has “low prices” plastered all over their images. I didn’t buy a Vudu box because it was too expensive. The Roku box was much cheaper and then plays Netflix on-demand movies for free. Contrast that with Vudu is after you swallow the $149 to buy the box, then you pay to watch each movie. No freebies. So big expense upfront and then pay again when you watch something. Um, buying Redbox might have been smarter if you plan on sticking to that whole low price thingy.

Strike two:
Where you find drugs, often you find sex. The two seem to go together like PB&J. Our Sue Walsh (she picked some good topics this past week) tells us, “In what really isn’t a surprising move given their much publicized store policies, just days after buying streaming video provider Vudu, Walmart has announced it is shutting down it’s After Dark service, which discreetly provided hundreds of adult films to its subscribers. The service was the only major service with such a large and up to date library.”

So Walmart buys an expensive service that has a following thanks to the loads of porn available and then kills the porn. In other news, Walmart has bid on faltering auto brand Hummer while working a deal to include censored Playboy magazines to buyers. Cavity search, aisle 5.

Our Editor, Robert Nelson considers the Palm Pre

Admitted recovering iPhone addict and recent Android purchaser Robert spent some time with the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus for the past few weeks and wrote up a piece “2000 apps are enough” or something like that. I didn’t take the time to read it.

OK, I did read it, mostly because I disagree. When Apple says, “we’ve got 150,000 awesome-tastic apps” and when the funny little Android does a robot dance and chimes, “I am rocking 20,000 apps” and Palm’s creepy girl says, “I’ve only got 2,000″ I feel bad for her (and creeped out, but mostly bad). As consumers we compare: we don’t stop to check quality vs quantity. But it isn’t just big numbers.

Apps of the moment come in iPhone flavors and maybe Android if there is time. Case in point: I am a big America’s Cup fan and downloaded the Alinghi app to keep tabs on the defender; no Android app. Or I have Comcast phone and TV service and love their iPhone app; but again no Android app. These are two apps I adore with no options on other mobile OS.

Dealbreaker? Maybe not but it’s something to consider. These devices are largely entertaining and a lot of that entertainment value (of the iPhone anyway) is sitting there and sifting through apps to find some gems. The best app ever is just “20 more” away. Now that Verizon has both webOS devices, hopefully that will drive webOS into firming ground but until then, size matters.

Unfortunately, Robert didn’t make enough of a declarative statement about the lack of apps being OK for me to quote it and ridicule him for it here. I will say, Robert owns a Zune; and leave it at that.