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Cometa Shutting Down

WOW – While I knew that had a few issues thanks to Glenn’s reporting, I did not see this coming…

Cometa Networks has confirmed that they are ceasing operations: Wi-Fi Networking News was able to confirm through multiple independent and reliable sources this morning that Cometa Networks will start the process of running down its hotspot network operations tomorrow. Cometa vice president of marketing Kent Hellebust acknowledged the news in an interview early this afternoon. [Wi-Fi Networking News]

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Best Job Posting Yet

I’ve been crawling through job postings on various sites and found an absolute gem…Rather than post a link to it (I don’t need any more competition!), I’ll just leave this highlight:

In view of the fact that you will effectively be selling your soul, you will be well paid. The only downside of the job is that you will be working for an inconsiderate, insensitive and demanding swine. Still – you can’t have everything.

At least they’re being honest. 😉

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BlackBerry Connect for Palm OS

As cool as this is, I wonder how it will work. Since the Palm mail clients in OS 5 have to connect in order to get mail. vs the mail just arrives solution in RIM hardware. Perhaps a background service is coming in OS 6? If not perhaps this is more than you need (though secure behind the firewall), when you consider what’s coming in SnapperMail 2.0.

PalmSource and Research In Motion (RIM) have completed their distribution agreement to make BlackBerry Connect available to Palm OS licensees. Together, BlackBerry Connect and Palm OS will extend email and corporate data connectivity to Palm Powered smart mobile devices, facilitating workforce productivity while away from the office. [PalmInfocenter.com]

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Carriers sold on shopping by cell phone

This just might get really annoying!

First, if you don’t have Verizon or any of the other carriers who might try this, you are going to see some annoying pop-ups on your TV program when they have no relevance to you since you can’t respond even if you wanted to… Universal Short Codes are the answer here, no carrier specific ones, like how they are used by Cingular on American Idol for voting. Even if this goes through, I’d like to see an option to turn this off – or at least push it to a corner on my screen, though off would be best. I guess the cable providers are going to have to build this onto their platforms as well to even show you the ads… much like the iTV experiments which seeem to continue on a smaller scale.

Verizon Wireless plans to announce on Monday that its subscribers will be able to bill any transaction made using their cell phone’s Net connection directly to their Verizon account instead of a credit card or bank account, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans. The new service uses a version of text messaging that’s beginning to become popular in the United States. [CNET News.com]

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Denon Home Theater

Avi over at Home Theater Watch has an interesting article on Denon…

Some highlights –

They claim a #1 share of receivers greater than $600 and the number one seller, the 3800 AV Receiver, is actually just over $1,000, which Avi considers a sweet spot given that few consumers will spend more and those that do go for separate components in more high end brands — though apparently separates are on the way…

I was glad to see that Denon has decided to support both HDMI and DVI so you don’t have to choose or get locked out of the future if you pick wrong… Components are also going to become IP addressable to allow for software updates.

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Online Grocery Shopping, Take Two

Online grocery shopping is a wonderful thing! We use FreshDirect for our main grocery store and YourGrocer for bulk (primarily baby and drink stuff). The convenience is terrific – you schedule when you want things delivered and the quality of food has been very high as well… much better in fact than many of the very local stores in our neighborhood. There’s no going back…

After the spectacular crashes of big-name Internet grocers in the late 1990s, the dream of a grand new wave of online food stores appeared to fizzle. But with intentionally meager fanfare, grocers have made Internet shopping available to tens of millions of consumers nationwide, and upcoming expansions will expand it to millions more.

Industry watchers say it’s no longer a question of whether Internet grocery can be successful, but rather of how big it will become. [Wired News]

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AT&T to partner with Sprint for cell service

I’m not even sure how this is possible given everything we’ve been told about the network incompatibilities of GSM and CDMA… but who am I to question this?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today [subscription] that AT&T is expected to announce a partnership with Sprint to offer wireless service to AT&T customers. [MobileTracker]

UPDATE — Now I recall… ATT kept the brand even though they sold the customers and newtork to Cingular…so it’s a pure MVNO deal now.

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Broadband Adoption

As of March 2004, most users in the US connect to the Internet using dial-up modems of 56Kbps or less.

  • 44.42% use 56Kbps modems,
  • 6.88% use 28/33.3Kbps, and
  • 2.73% use 14.4Kbps modems.
  • 54.03% of home users in total in the US connect to the Internet at 56Kbps or less

Broadband penetration in US homes increased by 0.82% in March.

  • As of March 2004 broadband penetration was at 45.97%, up from 45.15% in February
  • The average increase in broadband was 0.76% per month from October 1999 to February 2004.
  • Broadband share in the US should exceed 50% by July of 2004.

[Center for Media Research]

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Will Souping Up TiVo Save It?

Business Week has a piece on TiVO and what they’ve got cooking. They are trying to push things forward while also fighting off the Cable and Satellite competitors who are seem to no longer be interested in including their branded DVR software…

TiVO says they’ve got a much to be excited about, moving past just simple DVR functionality and looking to include things like satellite radio, digital photo editing, and the ability to surf the Web from TiVO boxes. Sounds to me like the Moxi box (without web), I’d like to own. Moxi is going in another direction enabling a very rich platform for the MSOs (View a Demo WMV Movie here) while TiVo is looking to enhance consumer electronics devices like DVD players to help get away from their revenue reliance on stand-alone set-tops, which in my opinion is going to be even tougher than competing simply on the DVR box.

We’ll just have to wait and see how TiVO plans to spend their estimated 50 Million in marketing. It’s a great technology, that’s been vastly under-marketed, relying too much on word of mouth and not expanding through educating the next tier of consumers…

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VOIP

I’ve been thinking about switching our home phone number over to one of the VOIP services… We received a Direct Mail piece today from AT&T which is selling a discounted rate of $19.99/mo for 6 months but then switches back to the regular rate of $39.99/mo. Vonage lowered their unlimited package today to $29.99 which is pretty nice including the hardware.

Our current provider is Verizon and their unlimited package is $59.99 for traditional service, though each month after the tariffs and fees is more like $85. Saving money is a good thing, but I am actually more drawn to the tech aspects of the service more than the price. I like the idea of being able to listening to voicemail online, getting them either in my email (ATT) or links to the website (Vonage).

They both seem good as far as features and options with the service, though the possibility of also using a software SIP phone on my laptop is drawing me more to Vonage. ATT does have a cool privacy feature which I can’t find on Vonage, which would let you set your phone to silent, except for urgent or desired calls. This would be great for when Hannah is taking a nap…

I also wonder what we might miss if we switch… when we had ATT before Verizon, their voicemail notification did not work without their caller-ID box which was annoying and was no where as simple as the tone you hear when you pick up the phone with the local guys. Our apartment building uses the phone line for front desk to apartment intercom, so we can be notified of deliveries and visitors — it is unlikely if at possible that VOIP would work with this since it is not on the phone lines.

I’m still torn on which to choose at the moment… have to think more about this before just jumping in.

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Pocket Full of Dough

This is a great read in which the author, James Beard, uses the bribe technique to get through and dine at an impossible list of restaurants in NYC.

A few nights later, the effect of this newfound glow became clear. I walked into Le Cirque 2000, the gilt-edged establishment on the East Side. “Sorry,” I was told. “We don’t have a table tonight.” No problem, I thought. I took a step back and tried to identify the person in power. Seconds later, a gentleman in a tuxedo approached. “We were wondering if you had a table for two?” I said, clutching a bill in my pocket … but not handing it over. He bowed. “Your table is ready,” he said, and led us into the dining room. [EPICURIOUS]

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Multiple Weblogs Support In WordPress

Burningbird has posted a way to enable multiple weblogs in WordPress…. not as clean as you might like just yet, but I have a good feeling that this type of support is coming quickly now that so many people are making the move from MoveableType. For now this seems to work, though I am not quite daring enough to test on my functioning nightly build… have to wait for 1.2 to be released and see what trouble we can get into then… 😉

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A Stunt Double For Your Credit Card

What if there was a way to fool those who would try to fool us, so that purchases could be made online without any danger of card numbers falling into the wrong hands? A few companies are trying such a plan: think of it as the stunt-double approach to online shopping. [The New York Times]