atmaspheric | endeavors

It’s been a while since I traveled and being back on the road I can see that things are exactly where I left them … pay for everything you do and if possible make the consumer pay again.

I’m carrying my laptop, iPhone, Blackberry and iPad.  All of these devices have wifi and I’m used to using them together throughout my days and evenings.  On the plane down I was able to connect via GoGoInflight which was great as I stayed current on a few work-streams.  The problem was I wanted to use both my iPhone and iPad and GoGo forces the connection through a captcha which when submitted disconnects the other device.  I was on a short 2hour flight yet GoGo still charged their normal rate …

At my hotel, the Hilton charges for wifi as well (so lame for hotels to do this btw) and again I can only connect a single device.  I’m not confident that switching my connection between devices won’t result in a second charge so I’m not even taking the chance.  Instead I’m relying on the 3G services as needed …

I used to travel with a travel router to hack around this BS.  I honestly forget that piece of gear this round.  At a business hotel during the week, why not just assume we all need to be online and build it into the price of the room and offer it up as a free service?  Perception changes a lot here.  I tweeted over to GoGo regarding the second device function and am anxiously awaiting some form of a response.

If this was a personal trip btw there’d be even more reason for multiple devices as bringing my family along would only increase the number of needed connections.

The WSJ has a report today about the challenge in selling GoogleTV to traditional players in the TV business. This should not come as a surprise to anyone given the long history of resistance to change from media companies in general.

In recent weeks, Google has met with officials of TV networks including ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC to encourage them to work with the service, according to people familiar with the matter. Content owners, though, are skeptical that Google can provide a business model that would compensate for potentially cannibalizing TV owners existing broadcast businesses.

via WSJ.com.

I still don’t see the problem this is solving even as a technology early adopter. I don’t find myself wishing I could more actively search on TV. I take a quick spin and either find something of moderate interest or just tune out.

With this morning’s ride, I cleared 4,000 miles which I find very cool. I bought my bike last July and have ridden regularly for most of the year. There was some lag time over the winter due to weather, but I’ve been generally consistent.

My morning loops started around 20 and tend to be closer to 25 miles which is about the maximum I can do and still make my train to work. Weekends I try to go longer with 45 miles on average though if I can get the time I like to go much longer.

CYGLO is set to release some tires this fall that will make your bike highly visible, Tron-style. I might have to check these out given the amount of riding I do in darkness as the fall and winter rolls around … You know, for safety purposes.

It’s been a month. It happens. Soon …

sign your iPhone is toast, originally uploaded by atmasphere.

My iPhone has been “updating” overnight and sadly this is as far as the progress bar has moved … I’m thinking it might be dead.

I get it. I’ve been living the converged life for years. GoogleTV looks like a simpler version of boxee and seems to have a less than considered UI compared to AppleTV. It has search of course, but how are you typing that in? What about web addresses? Hunt and peck typing is a giant pain from 10 feet away.

Our house is completely wired. We have a media server for video – accessible from any screen. We have multiple HD DVR boxes which are centrally located and can be selected from any of our universal remotes. An AppleTV is also centrally located and is used for streaming music and the occasional movie rental. On rare occasions I flip over to boxee to steam a TED video but that’s rare.

My wife and kids use the media server and the DVR. If we rent a movie I usually take care of it and there has been limited if any interest in online content. There’s no perspective that anything is missing and no real interest in finding more. We are satisfied. I doubt we are the only household like this …

For supplementary online content the primary option is the iPad. It’s always around and available. GoogleTV like quite a few other solutions is solving a problem people don’t have. I’m sure we will all benefit from more targeted TV ads if that sales process works and is cost effective, but the reach is going to be quite limited for a while … Probably a long while too. Apps and widgets for TV are all still trying to be sold… people are not buying new TVs, adding set top boxes or lining up to get them.

Am I missing some secret sauce here?

Starting my day the right way, originally uploaded by atmasphere.

Always good to be on the road

I guess I’ve missed this previously, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that tweets posted with locations are fully shared to Buzz.  This is how things should absolutely work, but often times (like with foursquare) you have to click through to see the place rather than simply marking the post.

This tweet was posted via Tweetie 2 with location sharing on … in case you were wondering.