I’ve started reading Getting Things Done and feeling quite good about this approach to organization… I’ve also been playing with a copy of Life Balance on both Mac and Palm and this method seems to be very compelling for a total information view. I’ll have to write a more formal review of my system once I’ve got everything tweaked, but so far I like where it’s going.
VOOM’s Network Enabled HD DVR
PVRBlog points to an amazing VOOM Demo Video for what’s coming in 2005.
Voom has partnered with Ucentric to create a multi-room DVR / Media sharing network. On Voom it works with a main DVR rig, or rigs which network together to share content to other rooms with either TVs or simply stereos since the platform can also share music and pictures in addition to TV content. The other rooms require the use of a thin client box which once activated gets its own stream on the network.
This is a very exciting prospect for the near future and from what I gathered from the video really means this stuff is not only close but actually looks easy to use. Feature highlights include being able to watch the same recorded show in different rooms at different paces and switching rooms to continue watching something.
The target box has a 160GB drive at the moment which they say holds about 30 hours of HD content. That seems pretty good to me… Unfortunately, it’s pretty unlikely that I’ll even have the option to switch to Voom or any satellite provider while living in my apartment. Ucentric lists partners on their site (not Voom for some reason) and include Comcast and Motorola, so perhaps these types of features will find themselves beyond mere test markets on the cable side as well. For now I’m hopeful that the HD DVR from Time Warner will hold me over. According to the Explorer 8000 mailing list it’s now trickling out…
Last row
my middle seat got cleared to an isle on the way out… hopefully the last ros action I’ve got now will move as well. It’s looking pretty full right now though…
iPodderX
I’ve mentioned iPodder previously and things have been getting very active in the development of tools to make life easier for the subscriber. iSpider (though it’s now been renamed back to iPodder) is now the current cross-platform app of choice, but there’s a new kid on the block for Mac OS X users…iPodderX. It has a great User Interface and can make things pretty easy to manage considering the number of moving parts involved with subscribing and downloading enclosures from the web to your system and directly into iTunes.
If you’ve been waiting for an easier way, this is it.
T-Mobile Hot Spot Marketing drops the ball
It really pisses me off to get a communication from a company as a customer when they clearly don’t know that. Here’s an example from an email I received a few minutes ago from T-Mobile:
Upgrade to an Annual or Month-to-Month rate plan and get 30 days of free T-Mobile HotSpot Wi-Fi Internet service.
You’ve experienced the freedom and convenience of T-Mobile HotSpot. You know how wireless broadband service makes it easy to stay connected when you’re on the go. Now you can sign up for a T-Mobile HotSpot subscription plan and get 30 days of Wi-Fi Internet service-absolutely free!
They’ve clearly created a catch-all for anyone who has signed up, rather than focus on some basics here. I AM a monthly subscriber and have been for about 6 months. It’s unlikely that their customer file is that old, though certainly possible.
They might think it’s OK to send this kind of stuff out since they used both annual as well as monthly, but it would have been much more compelling to try and sell me on the benefits of switching to annual (I assume based on price) instead. Instead of responding I’m ranting, so mission failed. I’ve made sure to tell at least 10 of my friends…
SkypeIn to be Skype Plus
The VoIP Weblog has some details from a keynote at the VON Canada which listed Skype Plus as the pending release to include both voicemail and two-way connectivity with POTS.
Bloglines Updates
So nice to see keep as new… I am often cruising through a bunch of stuff and want to recall one for later – this makes it quite easy to do without having to leave a bunch of tabs open in Firefox.
We pushed out a couple of cool new features last night on Bloglines. First is ‘Keep New’, which lets you mark individual blog entries as unread. The second is ‘Related Feeds’, which are a list of feeds that are similar to the feed you’re reading. This compliments the Bloglines Recommendations, which are personalized for each user. [wingedpig.com]
WP 1.3
I’ve been playing with Nightlies from the WordPress dev team for a while and have activated a new one tonight which enabled me to switch to the Kubrick theme which seems to work quite well.
I’ll let it stick for a bit and see how it goes. I’ve got my older template which while it had some quirks (my fault) also had a personal touch as well. Have to mess around and see about tweaking things.
I’m open to suggestions or comments if you’ve got them.
Mossberg digs the G5 iMac
I actually got to see this beauty last night at the Apple Store in San Fran. It’s gorgeous… definitely something we’ll have to upgrade to at home in the near future.
The iMac G5 is another winner from Apple. It’s a computer that’s a real pleasure, not a hassle, to use. [WSJ.com]
NetNewsWire and MarsEdit
NetNewsWire 2.0 as well as the new weblog editor MarsEdit are now finally ready for public review… I’ve been using them both for sometime now as a beta tester and they work great. Highly recommended for all Mac users.
AT&T forms Net phone alliance
AT&T secures it’s place in VOIP… not that I was concerned or anything. This puts them in the driver’s seat for taking things to the next level – mainly enabling mass adoption.
Consumer electronics, chip and software makers will use specifications developed by AT&T to create telephone adapters, Wi-Fi phones, game consoles, set-top boxes and telephone networking equipment, the carrier announced Tuesday. The products developed in the VoIP Innovation and Interoperability Program will work with AT&T’s Internet calling services, the company said. [CNET News.com]
TMO service issues
I’ve learned that TMO is having some service issues due to equipment in the East, they say from the weather… Calls from the east are having trouble making it through to the west where I am currently located. I received 50 extra minutes for my call to customer service… you might want to do the same if you become aware of an issue.
6 Gmail invites to share…
I’ve got 6Gmail invites to share… I’ve been sitting on them just out of laziness. If you want one, lemme know.
Palm OS Cobalt Gets Bluetooth 1.2
Brighthand mentions Palm now has official support for Bluetooth 1.2 which is great news for devices with BOTH Bluetooth and WIFI, though also good for ones with just Bluetooth as well.
In June, PalmSource announced it had licensed from Extended Systems the software necessary to allow future handhelds running the Palm OS to support Bluetooth 1.2. Now, the Bluetooth Qualification Program has given its approval to PalmSource’s Bluetooth Stack for Palm OS Cobalt (6.x), the next version of its operating system.
“By continuing to support the latest industry specifications, our software enables Palm OS licensees to deliver infrared and Bluetooth short-range wireless communications capabilities to the next generation of wireless device users,” said Charles Jepson, president and CEO of Extended Systems.
Bluetooth 1.2 offers better performance than earlier versions do when used at the same time as Wi-Fi. It does this with Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH), which was designed to reduce interference between wireless technologies sharing the 2.4 GHz spectrum. Cordless telephones, microwave ovens, and several versions of Wi-Fi, including IEEE 802.11b and IEEE 802.11g, generally share the same wireless frequencies as Bluetooth. AFH works within the spectrum to take advantage of the available frequencies without limiting the Bluetooth transmission to a set of frequencies occupied by other technologies. [Brighthand]
Cable VoIP
Andy cites a Kinetic Research report on Cable VOIP and notes:
What’s interesting is they also report that the home grown VoIP from Charter and Comcast is over a year away. Seems amongst the giants that only Cablevision saw the future of VoIP and moved quickly to roll out their own service. [VoIP Watch]
Cablevision has actually been running quite a few ads lately in the NY market (though interesting on Time Warner – heh). I’ve noticed they are really pushing the triple-play and have focused on same bill rates for each service – $29.95/mo.
Ford going VOIP
The WSJ has a good piece on how SBC just sold a huge “internet telephony” contract to Ford to go live within the next 3 years. Not sure why they did not reference VOIP at all, but surely seems to be the topic.
SBC Communications Inc. is rolling out Internet phone service to 50,000 Ford Motor Co. employees in 110 locations, marking one of the largest such deployments yet as traditional phone companies enter the Internet-calling fray. [WSJ – link should work for a few days]
One of the clear benefits to large organizations is managing a single network for voice, video and data… sounds good to me. I like it from one place as well and I’m just one guy.
PDABuzz Reviews Palm Browsers
Kermit Woodall at PDABuzz does a very comprehensive review of the available browsers for Palm OS though neglects to review Blazer since he used a Zodiac and Blazer is really only used by the Treo these days.
No Skype for Palm…
Skype has now corrected the earlier reports that a Palm OS version was coming next month… It’s not looking too good for anytime soon either.
Last week, several Skype developers posted comments in their company’s forums saying that the ABC News report was in error.
At this point, Skype Technologies doesn’t seem to be developing a Palm OS version of their application at all. [Brighthand]
Middle seat
Not a good way to start a flight to San Fran…
Just Catching Up
I guess it might seem like I’ve neglected you recently dear reader… I apologize. I’ve been pretty caught up lately and have fallen behind in my reading of things let alone in my time to blog.
Should be back on track with the usual good stuff in the next day or so.