This is very cool stuff from the Mouse.
Ross Mayfield explains how Disney is using RSS enclosures. [Scripting News]
That Idea’s All Wet!
I was literally thinking about this today in the shower… so weird to be on the same page!
Is the shower or bathroom one of your most productive places in terms of idea generation? Never sure how to best capture new concepts? Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools recommends using a dive slate… [Fast Company Now]
Comcast bids to merge with Disney!
Whoa Whoa Whoa!
Comcast has made a bid to merge with Walt Disney in a stock swap that the world’s largest cable operator said values Disney at $54.1 billion. The merger is hinged on broadband synergies, according to the statement released by Comcast. Comcast said the combination would create the world’s No. 1 entertainment and communications company with a presence in all top 25 markets in the U.S., and would “propel broadband forward.” The combined company would have an “unparalleled distribution platform and an extraordinary portfolio of content assets.”
In an open letter to Michael Eisner of Disney, here’s what Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast wrote: “In addition to serving over 21 million cable subscribers, Comcast is also the country’s largest high speed internet service provider with over 5 million subscribers. As you have expressed on several occasions, one of Disney’s top priorities involves the aggressive pursuit of technological innovation that enhances how Disney’s content is created and delivered. We believe this combination helps accelerate the realization of that goal-whether through existing distribution channels and technologies such as video-on-demand and broadband video streaming or through emerging technologies still in development-to the benefit of all our shareholders, customers and employees.” [PaidContent.org]
Playstation games on Pocket PCs over Wi-Fi
Via [infoSync]
This is out of control…
Some kid figured out a way to back up a PS game as a pure ISO file and serve it over wifi to a PocketPC … there he plays the game with a PS emulator. pretty sick. I can’t imagine that the battery on a PPC lasts very long but still very cool to see what is possible. The video is an AVI file so you’ll need VLC or MPlayer to view on Mac.
What Isn’t in Palm OS Cobalt… Yet
There are some fairly significant new features in the next version of the Palm OS. But there are some equally significant things that haven’t been changed. And there’s one change that Mac OS X users aren’t going to like. [Brighthand]
Palm devices now Mac compatible with Audible
Audible has released new AudibleReady devices that allow Mac OS X users running iTunes 4 to download and listen to audiobooks, audio editions of newspapers, magazines and more onto audio-enabled handhelds from palmOne and Sony running Palm OS 5… [MacMinute]
NVIDIA Enhances Graphics for Next Generation Palm OS
OS 6 devices are going to be packing a nice punch! This enhanced graphics chip along with teh BeOS multimedia capabilities should make for a very capable handheld.
PalmSource and NVIDIA today announced plans to enhance the graphics
acceleration in Palm Powered smart mobile devices running Palm OS Cobalt
and Palm OS Garnet. NVIDIA will bring their GoForce family of media processors to bring advanced multimedia support to the OS. [PalmInfocenter]
palmOne Brings the Treo 600 to T-Mobile
It’s finally available….
palmOne today announced that the award-winning Treo 600 smartphone is now available to T-Mobile USA customers. The phone can now be ordered online and at retail, with a limited time upgrade discount available to previous Treo owners. [PalmInfocenter]
Preview of Palm OS Cobalt
The big news for this year’s PalmSource Developer’s Conference, which starts today, is expected to be the release of all the details of the next version of the Palm OS. [Brighthand]
All good things lie ahead… include threading for mulit-tasking (get your email in the background…), protected memory (so it won’t crash while doing this), roaming across networks and network types (wifi to GPRS) and finally the graphics and multimedia capabilities from Be which were acquired a while back.
Brighthand Reviews the Sony Clie TH55
The Clie TH55 is Sony’s first model that offers a HVGA screen in a handheld with the traditional tablet design. It also includes a camera and Wi-Fi, though not Bluetooth. Brighthand’s Ed Hardy brings us this review. [Brighthand]
Looks good… Larger than the T3, but apparently with better batter life. No bluetooth, just wifi for the US model, though the European model will have bluetooth. If you want it that way, you’ll have to find a good importer, or a friend overseas.
Sony OLED Displays Coming Soon
Timing sounds right for a Palm OS 6 release…
A new article has been published which confirms and earlier PalmInfocenter story about Sony planning to use Organic LED display technology in a future handheld. The report claims Sony has developed a new OLED display to be used in a yet unnamed PDA line sometime in the Spring. [PalmInfocenter]
Bluesnarfing: Latest Bluetooth Vulnerability
Seems Nokia phones are more likely to be susectible, but there are plenty of Sony Ericsson phones in the list as well.
While the hype over “bluejacking” via Bluetooth connections was quite overblown compared to what could be done with it, now security folks are warning about “bluesnarfing”. Apparently, there’s a security flaw that would let someone connect to your Bluetooth enabled device, download all your contact info and leave no trace. This attack apparently will even work on a number of devices when they’re in invisible mode – at which point they shouldn’t be reachable at all. Consider it digital pick-pocketing, where the victim will have no idea they’ve been taken. The guy who discovered this flaw says that the handset makers have been telling him it isn’t possible, so it should be interesting to see how they respond now that he’s gone public with the info. [Techdirt Corporate Intelligence: Techdirt Wireless]
Musical Recommendation for those with Kids…
Hannah is still young enough that we’ve been lucky to avoid things like Barney and Rafi… so not too worry dear reader this is not for either of them.
In fact kids of all ages (yes you!) will probably enjoy Dan Zanes & Friends. We picked up our first album yesterday which is Rocket Ship Beach… I would recommend this album highly. It’s fun and the music has high repeat as well as singable qualities to it. We’ve listened to it a few times already and think it’s very cool. There are tracks with Sheryl Crow and Suzanne Vega as well as a great kids chorus.
There are six albums out so far, we’ll be sure to be checking the rest out soon!
Do You Fly American?
On Friday, an American Airlines pilot on a flight between LAX & JFK asked all the Christians on the plane to raise their hands, then asked the non-Christians to speak to the others about religion. As that probably wasn’t offensive enough, he then called the non-Christians “crazy.” This may just be an interesting way to get people NOT to take advantage of the fly two, get one free promotion. Speaking of which, the NY Times reports that150,000 people have signed up for American Airlines’ free ticket promotion. Good luck finding free seats available.
And finally, a second American moron was jailed for making an obscene gesture at Brazilian customs officials while being photographed entering the country.
Firefox 0.8
Firebird is now Firefox… [Mozilla Dot Org]
Good luck getting a copy. The FTP server is totally overloaded. I think Speed Download redials… so hopefully at some point today I should be able to try it.
As Newcomers Swarm, Sony Girds for a Fight
For a company that has long flexed its muscles and built a reputation on being first, Sony is now in the awkward position of having to play catch-up. [New York Times: Technology]
The Virus Underground
Interesting piece from the NYT Magazine…
Young people around the world spend their Saturday nights writing fiendishly contagious computer viruses and worms. Are they artists, pranksters or techno-saboteurs? [New York Times: Technology]
David’s PVR wishlist
David Galbraith has a bunch of great ideas for how a TiVo or other PVR box should work that turns all the existing business models on their heads. I especially like the attempt to create very personal one-on-one advertising that actually benefits people. Although I’m generally an opt-out kind of person, I welcome beneficial advertising and do request catalogs from time to time. Modern day PVRs do have the ability to market products to you, yet no one so far has taken personalization to that level yet.
[PVRblog]
Interesting stuff… One thing I’ve been thinking of lately is a change to the list of recorded programs. I’d like to see a multi-level list so that instead of seeing more than one listing for the same show you would instead could activate the program to see what episodes were recorded and saved at the moment. If you record a number of daily or even weekly shows the list screen can get a bit longer than you might want to deal with. By consolidating the episodes of each show under a single item, you could more easily browse and select what to watch.
Sony Ericsson T650 Sneak Peek
This looks like a winner… a 1+ MegaPixel camera and an expansion slot – at least rumored… I wonder when it will happen. The T630 is not even really here yet and this is a nice step beyond.
We’ve finally caught our first glimpse of what appears to be the rumored Sony Ericsson T650. We’ve captured a few frames from a video advertisement for Sony Ericsson that shows the T650 for a couple of seconds. You can watch the video yourself. [Mobile Burn]
PalmSource and the smart phone wars continued…
Nice commentary from Russ on Palm’s pending moves in the Smartphone space… [Russell Beattie Notebook]