McNealy's Wayin lets you in on the game
— -- It's been a real privilege getting to review the latest and greatest tech products and trends for USA TODAY these past dozen years. And now I'm excited to build on and complement my weekly Personal Tech column with an occasional follow up to clarify or expand on issues.
It might be another take on a product I reviewed months ago, maybe because of something new I learned after spending more time with the thing, such as a battery that gave way too soon. In other cases I'll provide quick-hit thoughts on stuff that for one reason or another I haven't had a chance to review yet, or that don't necessarily merit full treatment in my regular tech column.
This is also an opportunity to get you the reader involved — to answer your questions and respond to your feedback. I invite you to please share your own thoughts and opinions.
And with that, here's what I'm thinking:
—Weighing in on Wayin. On the very night that Steve Jobs died in October I was in Silicon Valley planning to go to Scott McNealy's house. The Sun Microsystems founder was about to unveil his new venture called Wayin, a "mobile engagement" service built around instant interactive poll-type questions and companion photos posted by consumers who share them with friends and followers. There's a mobile component too, with apps for iOS and Android devices. And a heavy emphasis on marketing opportunities and partnerships.
With Jobs' passing I didn't get to weigh in on Wayin that night. But I have talked to McNealy and played with the service a bit since then — it's kind of fun, though some questions are more lame than others.
Indeed, poll questions are all over the map: Who will have the bigger comeback in 2012? (Tiger Woods or Peyton Manning); Preferred book reading modes? (Paper book, iPad, Kindle/Nook); What do you do when your meal order is incorrect? (Ask (nicely) for new meal, Make a scene with server, Be silent & eat it anyway, Leave a note & lousy tip).
Wayin has partnered with Playboy, and sports organizations such as the NHL's Los Angeles Kings. Fans are encouraged to respond to or post questions while watching a sporting event. Wayin is also available as an app to subscribers of AT&T's U-verse TV service. "A big component of this is interactive TV," McNealy says.
And Wayin incorporates its own game elements, with leader boards showing users who have created the most popular games or have responding with the most correct answers. McNealy says Wayin can "basically be a game of life as opposed to a game such as Farmville or virtual tractors or something."
Politicians are also involved. One partner is the Republican National Committee. And the "Wayin Newt" page on Facebook for GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich demonstrates how Wayin is tying in social networks.
McNealy told me that so far most users are behaving "I thought there might be more outrageous or inappropriate use but I think people are pretty well trained now on the Internet."
—Where the power comes from? In my review last week on the new Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime tablet, I mentioned that I conducted a rather harsh battery test: Wi-Fi on, the brightness setting cranked way up, and a high-definition video playing in a continuous loop.
Under those conditions, I got just over six hours of battery life, about half what Asus claims is possible for the tablet under optimum conditions when not attached to its optional keyboard dock. Reader Darby Edelen correctly points out that there are three different available power settings inside the Asus tablet and wondered which of those I used in my testing: Normal (max performance for heavy duty gamers, CPU-intensive tasks, etc.), Balanced (good for Flash-based Web browsing, multitasking) or Power Saving (casual gaming, HD video playback). The answer is the Normal setting, which would of course sap battery life quicker than the other two options.
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E-mail: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow @edbaig on Twitter.
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