atmaspheric | endeavors

a multi-tasked stream of consciousness or perhaps just emails to myself

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Entries from November 2003

Slate: Will the Broadcast Flag Break Your TiVo?

November 30th, 2003 · No Comments · gadgets and technology

Slate: Will the Broadcast Flag Break Your TiVo? Paul Boutin. But never mind the industry gossip. How will the broadcast flag affect your viewing? It’ll be an annoyance for some, but it’s not the end of the world some tech reporters predicted. Instead, it’s more like the Big Four networks’ last stand against their [...]

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What is Google worth?

November 29th, 2003 · 1 Comment · marketing

Experts at Wharton weigh in on whether the search engine champ’s strengths–its technology and brand–can offset economic and financial risks. [CNET News.com]

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Manhattan’s Dead Cell Zones

November 29th, 2003 · No Comments · gadgets and technology

Last month, a hotline recorded calls from New York cell phone users to log places they can’t get a clear signal. Nearly 5,000 calls showed the busy city center may be one of the worst places to place a mobile phone call. [Wired News]

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Device Options…

November 28th, 2003 · No Comments · gadgets and technology

I keep rethinking my Treo thoughts…
Bluetooth is far too compelling to pass on and I could easily manage with either the Tungsten 3 or the Sony UX-50. I’ve checked out the Sony, but prefer the way the Tungsten works more, even without Wifi and the keyboard. In messing with my Dad’s Tungsten T [...]

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Only 80,000 Switched Telephone Numbers

November 28th, 2003 · No Comments · gadgets and technology, marketing

Only 80,000 people applied to switch their telephone numbers to new carriers on the first day… [textually.org]

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iPod Jack

November 27th, 2003 · No Comments · gadgets and technology, music

Person wearing iPod spies passerby wearing iPod. Walks up to stranger, unplugs own headphone jack, motions for stranger to do same. Both plug into each other’s iPod’s and dig 30 seconds of what a total stranger is listening to. Smile, unplug, continue on with their respective days. Apparently iPod jacking is a rising meme on [...]

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AT&T announces it’s EDGE

November 27th, 2003 · No Comments · gadgets and technology, marketing

The carrier said the network would provide customers with average data speeds of between 100 and 130 kilobits per second.
The carrier noted the network technology is now available in areas served by its existing GSM/GPRS network, which AT&T Wireless said covers approximately 215 million potential customers across the United States, as well as in [...]

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Verizon cuts back on WiFi

November 26th, 2003 · No Comments · gadgets and technology, marketing

Verizon is scaling back their plans to convert a thousand New York City pay phones into WiFi hotspots by the end of the year, cutting their target back to just 500. The reason, they say, is that coverage will be good enough with only 500 hotspots, something which is hard to believe. They’ve probably found [...]

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Hannah Elizabeth

November 25th, 2003 · 2 Comments · Personal

Just one week ago today we welcomed Hannah Elizabeth into our world. She weighed in at 9 pounds, 6 ounces and measured 21 inches long.
Life has not and will not be the same. Ashley and I are beside ourselves with joy and excitement and yes a tad sleep deprived.

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Squeezebox

November 18th, 2003 · No Comments · gadgets and technology

The team at Slimdevices does it again…
The new Squeezebox sports a complete hardware redesign, built-in wireless networking capabilities and your choice of digital outputs. It’s available now for $299.

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Imitation as Flattery…

November 17th, 2003 · No Comments · marketing, software

The interface is amazingly similar…

Who needs editors?: Microsoft responds to Google News with Newsbot. I’ll have to live with it for a few days to judge its news judgment. [via JD]
[BuzzMachine]

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Knowing you’ve made the right carrier choice…

November 17th, 2003 · No Comments · gadgets and technology, software

As I’ve now mentioned many times I am switching to T-Mobile and actually have a phone and data plan active with my previous number forwarding from Nextel until 11/24. They seems to be the most sophisticated in understanding a few things…

Users want to be in control of a rich feature set and wide choice [...]

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How to connect your Palm to Phone for a GPRS data connection

November 17th, 2003 · 1 Comment · gadgets and technology

I’ve spent some time searching and fussing with my phone over the weekend and thought I would share in detail how to can connect my Palm to my phone in order to take advantage of the GPRS data services.
Equipment:
Palm Tungsten C
Sony Ericsson T-610
T-Mobile Unlimited Data Plan ($20/mo)

The details…It’s simple to do, just follow along.
There are [...]

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I’ve see the Blue light…

November 16th, 2003 · No Comments · gadgets and technology

and no not the Kmart blue light special.
Bluetooth. I am not sure what the issues with the adoption are, whether it’s marketing or what, but now that I’ve taken a taste from the wireless well there is no going back. I’ve been messing with my phone - sending files, contacts and even calendar [...]

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It’s official: G5 supercomputer ranked 3rd fastest

November 16th, 2003 · 1 Comment · apple

As expected, Virginia Tech’s “Big Mac” supercomputer cluster, built with 1,100 Power Mac G5s, officially ranks third among the world’s 500 most powerful supercomputers… [MacMinute]

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Testing the Smartphone’s Smarts

November 16th, 2003 · No Comments · gadgets and technology

Some user notes from a new user coming from the Sony Ericsson T-616 (the north american version on the T-610)… Should be interesting to follow along in the coming weeks and see if the phone lasts given the 30 day return policy the author notes.
Some early observations: The MPx200 isn’t for everyone. The software [...]

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One or Two pieces…

November 15th, 2003 · No Comments · gadgets and technology

Are you a one or two piece person??
Do you want it all (phone, PDA) in one or would you prefer the potential flexibility of two devices?
As I have been writing, I really dig my T-610 phone… It’s very powerful and can serve as a modem with the right data plan for my laptop as [...]

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Feature Discovery…

November 15th, 2003 · No Comments · gadgets and technology, software

The more I’ve messed with the T-610, the more I really like it.
I tried my Bluetooth Headset this morning after a full charge (needed 8 hours!). It was very easy to pair and seems to be a good addition, though I am wondering if instead of the Plantronics, I should have just [...]

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Unlocked Smartphone unsafe

November 15th, 2003 · No Comments · gadgets and technology, software

Keeping things nice and consistent, the MS Smartphone is also capable of secretly sending out to everyone in your contact list… Thanks to some magic from AT&T Wireless, it appears that this is quite possible on the recently released device, the Motorola MPx200.

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iPod Rocks…

November 14th, 2003 · No Comments · apple, gadgets and technology, marketing

Great idea for a great product…

iPodrocks.com is Apple’s latest effort to win the hearts and minds of teen consumers interested in its iPod digital music player. It’s a new Web site and a fierce bit of guerilla marketing that combines high-impact graphics and animation along with several popular music tracks, and is chock full of [...]

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