a multi-tasked stream of consciousness or perhaps just emails to myself
Without a deal (like a cellular subsidy) on price this is pretty much an impossible sell…
It’s official, the HD TiVOs have finally begun shipping. They’re going to be priced at around a thousand bucks for now, but expect a new customer special in the next few months that should make it cheaper (I’m going to guess $399 or $499 with a year contract). [PVRblog]
This is one cool looking and powerful phone!
Nokia announced their new heavy-hitter 3G handset today in Helsinki. The new Series 60 powered 6630 not only supports WCDMA 3G and GSM/EDGE networks, but it even has a 1.23MP camera. It can record videos of up to 1h in length, and even print photos directly to certain HP and Kodak printers. [Mobile Burn]
This is something I’ve wondered and commented on many times to my wife as we’ve walked around the city…
Can someone explain to me why all the watches in the MSN direct ads are upside-down? [Michael Gartenberg]
It seems some creative director thought they liked the look of the watch in right side up mode, but preferred to place it on the wrong hand… even if it was on the correct hand, this is not a service I have interest in personally, though perhaps the point of the ads was just to draw attention which clearly they’ve achieved. Probably have not sold too many though…
eHomeupgrade has a scoop on a new NAS (Network Attached Storage) device which looks like a great way to enable backups as well as streaming content at home. It’s a definite competitor to the Mirra system, which conveniently was running a banner on the page…
The NetDisk works with networked and non-networked homes (via Ethernet or USB 2.0), the device appears as a local drive on every computer on the network, and requires only the loading of a single CD and plugging in a network or USB cable to setup and run. According to the Ximeta rep the company has upgraded their software to allow the NetDisk simultaneous read/write access of files stored to multiple people around the network. [eHomeUpgrade]
Tom’s Networking has a review of the WL330g from ASUS, which is new 802.11g version of their mini wireless access point (hello, AirPort Express). [Engadget]
This is great news for future of Palm based devices to support multiple communications protocols…
To support the integration of Bluetooth technology into the next generation of wireless devices, PalmSource has licensed Extended Systems’ XTNDAccess Blue SDK version 2.0, which is compliant with the new Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) 1.2 specification, which supports coexistence of Bluetooth communications alongside 802.11. [The Unofficial Bluetooth Weblog]
Engadget has a pic of the new PPC phone from HP and it offers a feature I’ve been looking for on any Palm. It’s a detachable thumb keyboard… No idea what the big deal is in adding this… a bluetooth capable version would be very cool as well, though for now I’d settle for a version that could slide directly onto my T3.
So while I’ve been passively considering replacing my aging Airport Base Station with a Linksys WRT54G but then Apple releases the Airport Express and everything is pulling me back to the Airport Extreme Base Station. Sure it’s considerably more money, but the simplicity and integration with the AE is something I know I’ll want in the future as well. There are reports that the AE will work with other base stations, though it’s doubtful that it will work as easily and simply as Apple can make it with their own…
The New York Times reports on TiVO’s latest endeavor which is to allow it’s boxes to download music and movies directly without a computer. Seems like a good idea to me though who knows if this is even going to work… Akimbo already has a similar service but offers sub-prime content for the privledge of a subscription. Since TiVO has yet to announce a timeline or any content partners or content types (like whose movie and music catalog will be available) we can only assume it will also not be prime stuff.
Unfortunately for TiVO, the cable and sat. guys are already working on other technolgies beyond TiVO. This will have to be a pretty amazing service to convince potential subscribers it’s worth the extra coin
From MacWorld…
I spent a little bit of time with Greg Joswiak, Apple’s Vice President of Hardware Product Marketing, talking about how the new AirPort Express works, especially the new AirTunes audio features. [Macworld]
This is a very cool new home system that lets you connect and control your AV content — either in your zone (local area) or entire home.
Unlike all the current streaming media players, the Sonos doesn%u2019t need a PC in every room, a music server or a wireless network. Just a Sonos ZonePlayer, speakers in the rooms of your choice and a Sonos Controller in hand to access all your digital music. The controller (pictured) is used to find and control the playback of music in the zone your are in, you can also control remote zones. All the hard work is done via the ZonePlayer. It has support for multiple music sources and accesses music stored on any number of PCs, Macs, or NAS boxes on your home network as well as Internet radio and legacy A/V devices, like a CD player. It can playback compressed MP3, WMA, and AAC music files (don%u2019t know about Apple DRM), uncompressed WAV files, and Internet radio that use %u201Cstreaming MP3%u201D format. They also have an analog audio input with digital encoding which connects an audio source (such as a CD player or portable MP3 player) to the audio input of one ZonePlayer. [MAVROMATIC]
I think the idea of the new Apple Airport Express is totally cool! Announced today, the Airport Express lets you extend or add an (802.11G – Airport Extreme) network very easily to any location along with your airport enabled machine. It’s really small, easily fits in your gear bag and seems like a terrific piece of equipment. I really like how the airport software works now and would imagine it’s just as easy to add an AE to an existing network… Apple’s page has examples of how you might use this to connect a stereo, using either an analog or optical (yes!) connection. Bundled AirTunes software lets you connect to your iTunes music library for simple streaming and sharing…You can also use the device as a portable base station – pull it out in a hotel room – or connect a USB device to your network from across the room.
Selling now for $129…
WOW – this seems to be much more functional for my purposes than the bluetooth keyboard from Stowaway, it’s not that slick in appearance, but still very handy.
The PKB-800 uses infrared and is supposed to work with both Palms and Pocket PCs but it%u2019s not quite portable enough that we’d ever consider ditching our Treo for one of these and a regular PDA. [Engadget]
David Pogue review the Voom HD Satellite service and finds it interesting, yet kludgy and an obvious startup…
The listings grid routinely chops off the second line of each show’s description, the box takes several seconds to change channels and the channel grid always appears at channel 100, rather than the channel you’re already watching. And Voom’s customer service department is still, ahem, evolving. (It took eight days to get a reply to an e-mailed question to Voom tech support, which promises a response in 24 hours.) [The New York Times]
As noted in the article, Voom has it’s challenges… aside from the installation of a dish and a few antennas (installation is currently being waved as part of a time limited promotion) the existing installed providers are soon to follow with more HD as well. Time Warner offers much fewer channels here, about 10 or so active ones including ESPN, Discovery, HBO and Showtime as well as the networks and PBS. Voom enhances this list with some additional new, yet less interesting and “B” level content. If you want the gimmick of an all HD service, it might just be for you, though if you are like 20% of the people who sign up, you’ll be canceling after a short trial.
Daily Wireless called my attention to a new group blog from Kevin Werbach, David Isenberg, Andrew Odlyzko, and Clay Shirky. Looks like a good one…
Current wireless regulation actually prevents communication from taking place. Even in prime low-frequency spectrum, vast amounts of capacity lies idle due to old rules and old thinking. With the support of Microsoft, we have come together to advocate freeing up this un-used capacity. Over the next few weeks, this site will serve as a sounding board for ideas and discussion. [Wireless Unleashed]
I checked this out and it looks good though these types of services have yet to prove too successful. Yahoo has had Games on Demand for a while now… Not sure if the twitch gamer really wants this or if services like this cater more to a casual gamer who might prefer a single choice subscription to some card or board game.
Comcast today said it will soon begin offering on-demand game downloads to subscribers of its cable Internet service. For an additional US$14.95 per month, customers will be able to choose from a library of over 60 PC-based games. New releases will be added on an ongoing basis, so the library will continue to grow in size. [Ars Technica]
Still under testing, but Pocket Rendezvous will bring network auto-discovery to PPC which is a very cool idea! If you read through on the Gizmodo page you can learn how to get in on the testing.
Using Pocket Rendezvous, users can set up a personal, auto-discoverable web servers for a variety of purposes, such as matchmaking services (think broadcasted business cards or personal ads), private music streaming (be the mysterious F train DJ!), or anything else a crafty developer can build on top of the Rendezvous setup (iTunes, for instance, uses Rendezvous to do the quick-sharing of music libraries). [Gizmodo]
I’ve got the WRT54G on the brain… seems like a very cool system regardless of this flaw which is sure to be fixed soon.
The Linksys WRT54G wireless router, an 802.11g Access Point and 4-port 10/100 Switch has a security problem, reports WiFiNetNews and WiFi Planet. The Linksys unit could give malicious hackers administrative access, researchers warned on Wednesday. [Daily Wireless]
Sandro just pointed me to the Cordless Collector which is a combination database hardware solution for tracking your books, DVDs, CDs and Games. You can use either the bluetooth! or USB scanner to catalog what you’ve got and let the software take over from there filling in all the key details…It’s $299.
Assuming the the Time Warner stance is conservative which is why we are allegedly not getting this box until the fall in New York.
Rogers Cable, covering Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland, is now offering an HD-PVR to digital subscribers. It is the Scientific Atlanta 8000HD-PVR. The monthly rental is $24.95. [UPREZ]