a multi-tasked stream of consciousness or perhaps just emails to myself
Indeed unbelievable…
Unbelievable. After I upgraded our home cable connection a couple months ago, there apparently is still no way to obtain an unmetered broadband pipe. I’ve managed to exceed the 30 gig in 30 days limit my provider continues to impose. [Adam Curry]
I just posted a piece on getting podcasts from iTunes to your Treo (or any Palm actually) at Treonauts! The fun continues…
Sync just works on the Mac which is what makes it so great through iSync… it’s a tad slow at times when you move large databases of info across multiple computers, and portable devices (phone, Palm, iPod etc…). You can do this via cable or over bluetooth. Apple gets it and they’ll be extending the reach of sync across the greater system when Tiger arrives..
I don’t care if you *never* use your mobile for internet data, you still want your address book backed up in case you lose your phone, right? That’s syncing. But then it goes from there to any piece of data you store on your phone. You want to not only back it up, but make sure it’s synced with the rest of your digital world. Calendar and PIM information is what Palm does best. Also apps (again Palm does it perfectly), then music files where the iPod shines. And then it goes on to every file you have on your mobile device. You want to make sure it’s the latest version, that if you change that data it’s reflected anywhere else you use that data and finally, that if in case you lose that data, it’s backed up somewhere you can get at it. It’s simple. I don’t care if this all happens over a USB Cable, A Bluetooth Connection or a Cellular Network. It just needs to happen, and seamlessly. If you have to think about syncing, it’s not syncing. [Russell Beattie Notebook]
This is a great sounding idea, though clearly only for Windows for now and possibly not for blockbuster commercial releases either… starting with IMAX will prove it looks and sounds good, but won’t prove the commercial viability. It’s not too unlike initiating HD broadcast with the great looking PBS content.
I know Apple still has a DRM trick up it’s sleeve and perhaps that will be more attractive to studios… but it’s going to take time and Windows has a time advantage getting to market now. Have their been any additional HD DVD movies utilizing Windows Media Player? I know about the deal with Artisan which brought Terminator 2 out…
Finally, someone is getting the idea… I’m getting sick of companies offering sub-DVD quality movies for download at standard DVD rental rates… what’s the point? At least give me a reason to want to to mess with a computer… and HD content will be that reason. Maybe the announcement from CinemaNow about the premiere of its High-Definition Channel will make other companies see the picture a bit clearer. CinemaNow will make High-Definition Movies available for download in Windows Media High-Definition format for playback on Windows XP-based PCs, including the Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 PC. This announcement marks the first broad adoption of mainstream High-definition movies being been made available on-demand via the Internet. The first titles released on CinemaNow in Windows Media Video HD are MacGillivray Freeman Films’ giant screen IMAX films through a deal with Image Entertainment.
Windows Media Video HD delivers to movie fans a visually stunning high-definition experience, offering video resolution of 720p. All CinemaNow HD movies are encoded at up to 10Mbps and feature high-quality 5.1 surround sound for the ultimate in-home theater viewing experience. [MAVROMATIC]
Latest Podcast is live… Enclosure feed for iPodder is right here.
mNews has been updated to 2.0 and seems to enhance the application with some needed improvements:
I have not tried this version yet and will probably pass as I am quite content with my news to email solution as well as using mobile bloglines.
The company is going to release a new software offering for Wi-Fi phones that makes it easy for users to find signals, authenticate themselves and manage their profiles without a thumb-numbing amount of button pushing. Now something like this could be quite interesting and will offer a lot of utility to the corporate users. [GigaOm]
With all the hoopla about HDTV and the push by carriers to get appropriate tools in consumer hands I expect more from our networks… On Time Warner in NYC, we have a variety of channel options about 10 I think that are within the HD range… yet many do not broadcast 16×9 all the time and in fact seem to favor 4:3 (though cleaner looking 4:3) broadcasts than the regular channels. You have to pick the HD version of the two offered so you do a quick compare…
Bigger, new episodes, like CSI and Raymond get shown in HD and if I had to pick a leader in the main network category it would be CBS. There are still plenty of shows, sports and even the presidential debates that are limited to the standard method. I know you need different equipment to broadcast it and sure there are additional costs, but if you drive us to the water, it better be good to drink!
I’ve had an HDTV for 4 years … long before there was available (cable) programming in my area. I got the first available converter box and saw there were a few channels initially… now though I have the next generation box with included DVR (Scientific Atlanta 8000HD) and see there are more even channels (Discovery and TNT), but not enough regularly scheduled HD programming from the majors. What continues to amaze me is how Discovery and PBS can go all HD all the the time, yet the guys allegedly making all the money and with all the high priced shows don’t go for it.
It was nice to see the Olympics in HD, but the programming on the HD channel was not the same as the featured event in standard. Same with Discovery… they broadcast a separate lineup and use the HD channel as another place in the Discovery network. I’ll have to ask my buddy who works in programming there, what’s up with that… plenty of their regular shows appear in HD, but at different times than the standard broadcast. You can resolve and avoid program time-slots with a DVR and even record both at the the same time if so inclined…
UPDATE — Not an official response from Discovery, but good thoughts on the matter from an insider:
After a bit of debate from me, I caved and we checked out the cat show on Sunday…
While there were many crazy cat ladies…older single women who have chosen cats as their companions in an obsessive way. Decked out in full cat-wear – either leopard silky draped cape-like things or cat sweaters and shirts and showing off their cats or simply gawking at the fluffiness. Don’t get me wrong we have two cats at home and like cats, but this was so over the top…
The highlight of the day was meeting Colin Powell. Not the Secretary of State mind you, but the famous cat, born on 9/11… While Colin Powell has a pretty busy schedule and could not be disturbed to visit the cat show with his name sake he apparently made some time at the office… Colin Powell (the cat) signed the swag for us and during the brief time we spent admiring him, we learned he had beaten out 24,000 other cats to be recognized as The Cat Fanciers’ Association, Inc National Best Cat 2004.
This seems like a big deal in VOIP-land…
The service providers, seven in the United States and three in Europe, are “very close” to using VeriSign’s behemoth signaling network to ensure that subscribers’ calls reach those using traditional home, office or cell phones, VeriSign Vice President Tom Kershaw said Monday.
There are only a handful of network operators, including Level 3 Communications, AT&T and others, with the infrastructure to offer such a service. Seeing an opportunity for its own network, VeriSign began wooing Internet phone operators four months ago.
“Now (Net phone service providers) can use and abuse us,” a VeriSign spokeswoman adds. [News.com]
Latest PodCast is live…
It does not get any more ridiculous than this… AOL has communicator which is made from the Mozilla code but they opt to go with IE which has not been updated in years when they release a stand-alone browser product.
It appears that AOL will be releasing its own branded browser for its subscribers. Surprisingly, “AOL Browser” (its real name) will be based on Internet Explorer instead of the Mozilla derivative Netscape, which AOL owns. [Ars Technica]
on a train listening to Woz at Gnomedex and my iPod just stops. Now all I get is a reset loop followed by a folder witha caution sign in the lower left corner.
Is it dead or just in need of some disc utils?
I just learned that iPodderX support video enclosures as well, and you can play them within it’s media player… or your can do video here…
I whipped up a script this week based on Adam Curry’s iPodder for aggregating videoblogs from RSS 2.0 feeds with enclosure tags. It should download the videos (or any files, really), and organize them into a ViPodder directory on your desktop. It will then import the videos to playlists in Cellulo , much like iPodder does for iTunes. [unmediated]
The Medusa PVR…not exactly what I would be looking to do, but amazing as a proof of concept. Perhaps ideal for someone watching cable, satellite and with entirely too much focus on watching TV. Or just great for the news junkie…
Snapstream also built a six-tuner monster rig as a proof of concept, dubbed Medusa. Using six PCI slots on an expanded motherboard, and just a single 40Gb hard drive, they can watch, stream, and store video from six different channels at once. Pretty impressive, though they do mention the tuner cards can generate some heat while encoding. [PVRblog]
Third podcast has been posted… If you use iPodder (any flavor) or an enclosure capable feed reader, the feed is here.
This is totally cool… makes doing a reverse lookup on your mobile quite possible if you filter unknown numbers, not too mention all sorts of other interesting queries…
Google today announced Google SMS beta, a service that allows mobile phone users to search Google via text messages. Just send your query to 46645 (GOOGL on most phones) and you’ll get back results in another text message. Currently the service is US only.
With the combination of phone look up (or even reverse lookup), local results, Froogle, the built in calculator and more, this is a powerful service. See this page for some search query ideas. [MobileTracker]
It will be interesting to see how this works… You could actually do this now via Slim Devices free server software which already connects directly to your iTunes library or simply a folder of tunes. This service sounds like it will allow for a simpler solution to browse and select tunes. Slim makes it easy to stream but since you need to connect to your library over a data connection it can be a bit slow to do on a GPRS connection while streaming. If you’ve already configured the playlist though, you should be cool.
The Pocket Tunes service for Palm OS will allow users to browse their music collections and playlists stored on any home computer. The selected music can be streamed to any Palm Powered smart mobile devices via WiFi hotspots or mobile data services. Users will have access to their entire music collection wherever they may be, without requiring significant memory on their Palm Powered smartphone or wireless handheld. The service will automatically transcode music files stored on the home computer to an appropriate rate based on the available bandwidth. [PalmInfocenter.com]
Andy at VoIP Watch has a nice overview on what’s coming this year from Skype… CNET also covers the stoy.
With the right headset and features (like incoming and voicemail) Skype becomes a very usable tool rather than just an easy way to talk to people around the globe from your computer.