Tag Archive for: sony

The ’90s Tech Industry is Back

The Verge has an interesting article, Facebook is the new AOL, that discusses how the tech industry of the 1990s is back.

The 90s were a decade of excess and mistakes and excessive mistakes. The rollicking good times of the 90s ended with the dot-com collapse of the early 2000s, the memories of which continue to shape the industry today.

So it’s worth noting that the broad outlines of tech in 2015 look surprisingly like the late 90s. The major players are set up the same, the fights are the same, and the mistakes will almost certainly be the same…

2015 will be defined by the Revenge of 90s Internet: media and tech giants flirting with each other, dominant players throwing their weight around, and portals, portals everywhere.

The article does a good job of comparing the major tech giants today with the ones of yesteryear. Facebook as AOL. Apple as Sony, Qualcomm as Intel and Google as Microsoft. The two that really hit the nail on the head for me are Apple as Sony and Google as Microsoft. That being said, some of these comparisons may just be skin deep. I think companies like Apple and Facebook are in much better positions than there predecessors. Perhaps that’s the point of the article. The companies of the ’90s could do no wrong and no one saw the downfall that would be not far off.

Sony ICF-C1iP Dock with Clock for iPod or iPhone

A few weeks ago I bought the Sony ICF-C1iP Dock with Clock for iPod or iPhone. I was at Target and started listening to all their iPod/iPhone docks. The Sony was one of the systems with the best sound (besides the extremely expensive Bose system). I usually don’t buy an electronic like this without reading reviews but I was able to play with it and listen to the sound quality, so I had a new alarm clock/iPhone dock/mini-stereo. This was a big disappointment.

The first couple weeks of having the system I only found one problem: the brightness of the clock. The clock had three brightness settings and on its lowest it was way too bright. It would literally wake me up in the middle of the night, that’s how bright it was. No big deal though, after a while I could get used to that. And for the most part, I did. Then last night something happened.

I was just about to fall asleep and I hear this incredibly loud buzzing. It was distortion/feedback fromsony the speakers. The iPhone was causing interference with the speakers. I read a couple other people having this problem but the product was clearly marked as working with the iPhone, so what gives? Well, even though it clearly states it works with the iPhone, unless you want to turn your iPhone to just a normal iPod while it’s docked, you’re going to experience problems. Apparently the only way to not have any interference is for it to go into Airplane mode, in which it turns off the phone (nowhere in the instructions does it even say to do this, by the way It tells you it will ask, but doesn’t tell you which option to choose). Since I sleep with it on the dock I would miss calls if I do this. This is unacceptable, especially for a product marketed towards iPhone users. So, I took the system back, very disappointed, and very disappointed in Sony for trying to cash in on the iPhone when it was clearly made for the iPod and works somewhat with the iPhone.