Friday, December 17, 2004

My thoughts on the iTunes phone from Apple and Motorola over at Russell Beattie's blog. I couldn't resist because there must be close to a hundred comments and not one mentioned Apple's secret weapon that could be key to their market entry strategy.

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Smartwrap headphone cord control. Brilliant!
Very interesting story about building a business from innovative Mac software company Panic - The True Story of Audion.
Nokia Collector syncs files between Nokia 7280 lipstick phone and a Mac. Sounds like it may also work with other Bluetooth-enabled phones. Not sure this is necessary given that Mac OS X already includes a sync client that works with many Nokia phones. Also weird considering all the hype Nokia is spreading about Lifeblog.
Phil Torrone strikes again... BroadCatching using RSS and BitTorrent to automatically download TV shows. While this is neat, it's too dependent on unreliable moving parts to be useful for me. I like having Tivo do all the heavy lifting.
If only people bought applications for PDAs and smartphones like they buy games for portable gaming consoles... we'd have high-powered PDAs for super cheap.

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

An abbreviated - so as not to give away all the great moments but still get you excited - recap of highlights from Sunday night's Beastie Boys show in Seattle.
Where were you when Barry hit #700? I was at the gym with Stairway to Heaven blasting on the stereo. Unforgettable.

Friday, August 27, 2004

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Why do we have to wait for mobile operators (aka "the man") to roll out cool shit like the Musikube iCapture music identification application!?! I've got a smartphone, I'm a music junkie, and I've got an all-you-can-eat wireless data plan - just let me install it on my own and start pumping bits across your network. Oh, I get it... you want me to pay an additional $2.99/month for that privilege. Ridiculous. Power to the people.

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Which do you think is better? iPod vs. The Cassette

Friday, August 06, 2004

Pokia retro phone... this is dorky but getting lots of popular media coverage. The Pokia is an old-fashioned phone handset that connects to a modern cell phone. Not handsfree, but no Bluetooth required. According to the "inventor" it's a great way to pick up women. I'm sure.

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Voodoo Music Festival in New Orleans... great line-up: Beastie Boys, The Pixies, Green Day, Sonic Youth, Cypress Hill, BRMC, The Killers, and many more.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Apple iTunes for Motorola phones... the limited storage capacity of the current generation of phones really limits them as compelling portable music players imho, but I'd love to see this on the next Windows Mobile-based Motorola phone!
This is by far the geekiest undertaking I've heard about in awhile...iPod as Universal Infrared Remote Control... impressive. PT never ceases to amaze me.

Thursday, July 22, 2004

Props to the power of the Internet and fast, high-quality customer service...

All of a sudden one day last week my Tivo stopped changing channels on my cable box, which was annoying while watching live TV and caused the Tivo to record the wrong programs the rest of the time. I double-checked the Tivo settings just to make sure nothing had changed (it hadn't), then lived with it for a few days because I dreaded having to crawl behind my entertainment center after a long day at work.

Tonight I finally got around to looking up the problem on the Internet, and quickly came across a post on the Tivo forums that described the problem was due to a Comcast update that disabled the serial port on the cable box. I called up Comcast customer service as suggested in the forum, and within two minutes the problem was fixed. I was even able to verify that channel changing worked again while still on the phone with the cust serv rep.

Thanks Tivo users! Thanks Comcast!

Saturday, July 03, 2004

Apple and BMW partner to deliver a better in-car iPod experience. You store your iPod in the glove compartment and control playback using controls on the steering wheel. Seems like kind of a bummer that you have to create special playlists and that song information isn't displayed on the dash - not to mention having to purchase a BMW. Apparently Alpine will soon be releasing a new iPod-compatible receiver that will enable much better integration and should work with most any car make/model. The Alpine receiver displays song information and can be used to control playback, and it sounds like you won't have to create special playlists. Can't wait for the day when there's a standard hardware/software interface that makes it seamless to plug your portable music player of choice (be it a dedicated device like an iPod or a multi-purpose device like a mobile phone, handheld, or something else that hasn't been dreamed up yet) into your car.

Monday, June 14, 2004

Got a Gmail account today... without even asking or begging. I know someone who works with someone at Google. I told the person I know about Gmail a few weeks back, she asked her Google colleague for an account and got one, and today the person I know sent me an invite. Of course, logging in to write this note I see that as a Blogger user I could have requested my own account. Whatever.

Saturday, April 17, 2004

PT is now writing a weekly how-to column for Engadget... and here are the first fruits of his labor... Read RSS feeds on your iPod.
infoSync World : Datacomm Report: Feature phones to dominate
Amazon.com subsidiary A9.com has quietly released a beta of their new A9 search engine powered by Google, which includes Search Inside the Book results and a personal search history that tracks results you've previously viewed and is accessible from any PC. Oh, and of course there's an A9 browser toolbar. Another cool, but not necessarily useful, feature of the A9 search engine is the Site Info feature that enables you to view traffic stats and user reviews for any site that shows up as a search result - this treats the site just like any other product on Amazon.com. This feature appears to be powered by the Alexa traffic analysis service, which is designed to translate Web users' browsing habits into a community resource or some other such nonsense. Alexa is an early dot-com that I thought had long ago gone out of business but is apparently now owned by Amazon.com. Surprise, surprise... Alexa has its own browser toolbar.

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Such a simple idea (and apparently widely used)... Web service for shortening long URLs.
pPod helps Pocket PCs masquerade as iPods. Update: Apple legal department steps in; utility name changed to Pocket Bop (pBop for short). Update: Application no longer available. Boo hiss, Apple!
Onfolio introduces a $30 Internet Explorer plug-in that purportedly makes it easier to collect, organize, and share snippets of information while researching on the Web.

Friday, March 05, 2004

EA and 3DO founder Trip Hawkins back in the game with new company Digital Chocolate developing games for mobile phones.

Thursday, February 26, 2004

Wired article about a UK professor who studies and writes about the social impact of personal stereo devices. Currently interviewing iPod users for an upcoming book.

Friday, February 20, 2004

My favorite DJs of all time: 1) Terminator X, 2) Jam Master Jay, 3) Hurricane. Although I'm not as familiar with their work, Mix Master Mike and DJ Shadow aren't bad either.
I might have paid big bucks to go to music school instead of a plain ol' liberal arts school if they had turntable class back then.
I find this to be incredibly funny... Polaroid warns customers not to 'shake it' - damn OutKast! C'mon folks... just smile at all the free publicity you're getting. Before this song took over the world no one even knew you were still in business.

Saturday, February 07, 2004

Microsoft launching special edition Xbox in Japan, complete with a dakimakura (sleeping pillow). Great quote from Japanese journalist: "I guess they're supposed to be used ... as pillows to hug, of course ... and for other obscene purposes that I would rather not mention."

Thursday, February 05, 2004

Silence available for just $0.99 from the iTunes Music Store!! The tracks mentioned in the CNET article are interesting... but a quick iTunes search actually turns up something much more intriguing. This track from the DDP album La Esquina Del Crem, which although not silence begins with an alarming message indicating that if you continue playing the track on your CD player you may ruin your speakers and your ears. Unfortunately you have to buy the whole album to get this track. "New Sonic Experience" indeed.

Monday, February 02, 2004

Sweet!! Apple is offering an RSS Feed Generator for the iTunes Music Store.
Annoying... I'm excited that a Mac sync solution is finally available for my Windows Mobile Smartphone, but the only trial available doesn't work with my Motorola MPx200. C'mon Information Appliance Associates, please start offering a trial of of the Smartphone version of PocketMac. I'm not buying unless I can try this out first.

Sunday, February 01, 2004

I need to try out a bunch of mobile phones and pdas in my job, so am looking for a car mount solution that will flexibly handle numerous devices of varying dimensions. A co-worker that's knowledgable on such things recommended I look at Gomadic's offerings. After looking over their product catalog I think I'll likely go for the Universal Auto Vent PDA Mount - might not be perfect, but it sounds flexible and only costs $20. Stay tuned, I'll post a brief review once I've had a chance to try this (or another vendor's product) out.
Now that the latest mobile phones are starting to incorporate fairly high quality still and even video cameras, I'm starting to get really interested in mobile imaging. Lots of pre- and post-Christmas shopping left me wishing I had a camera phone, both for comparison shopping and for getting quick spousal input (even when the gifts are for her). More recently I've been thinking it would be handy to snap pics of the open/close signs at restaurants, coffee shops, and stores I frequent (I'm always running up against closing time). Given that, I'd love to hear peoples' recommendations for camera phones and moblogging solutions.
Last one... my favorite classic NES games... Baseball Simulator 1.000, Contra, Double Dragon, Ice Hockey, Super Mario Bros., Tecmo Bowl, and original Zelda. And Final Fantasy, Kung Fu, Mega Man, Top Gun, and even Duck Hunt (remember the light gun!?!) weren't bad. Ah... when games were so simple but could still entertain you for hours and hours. Actually, I find I get far less enjoyment from most games released in the last decade than from any of these classic NES gems.
Same topic... I also found two pretty cool video game music sites... Video Game Music Archive and GameMusic.com.
Inspired by that Wired article, I hopped online and did some further investigation about Minibosses and NESkimos. I was able to locate quite a few song samples from both bands, and even found clips from a Minibosses' TechTV The Screen Savers appearance. I highly recommend you check these out. I found myself getting nostalgic for the classic NES, and discovered I could get my hands on a console and a few of the best games of all time for $20-30 - should I!?!

Saturday, January 31, 2004

Just read this Wired article about the band Minibosses that rocks classic NES game soundtracks. Article also mentions another similar band NESkimos. No lyrics, just straight-ahead guitar rock that isn't half bad. Apparently no Baseball Simulator 1.000 - my all-time favorite game - yet.
A post over at my buddy Kevin Lisota's site just prompted me to evaluate the NewsGator news aggregation software/service. Subscribing to the monthly service seems to offer the two features I most want: a way to read syndicated content from my Windows Mobile Smartphone and the ability to synchronize subscriptions across multiple devices. Seems a little pricey, but I may just have to sign up as I regularly access my favorite sources from three different devices depending on what I'm doing and where I'm at.
Hollywood Records teams up with Xingtone to deliver ring tones direct to consumers, cutting mobile operators out of the equation.

Friday, January 30, 2004

State of the Art: Phones, Too, Get TV Time... courtesy of David Pogue... TV on cell phone? Not ready for prime time. Cell phone video camera? I'm lovin' it™... "I hate it" style... "I hate it" conspiracy stylecreative style... factualstyle. Now the inspiration, in five languages.
I love this guy's sharp tone and no bs writing style. Always good for a laugh.

Monday, January 12, 2004

Great Mac OS X Panther feature Exposé comes to Windows. I'm sure the name will be changing soon. ;)
Don't see this happening in the US any time soon... people seeking treatment for SMS addication
Pretty sweet... Wurlitzer Digital Jukebox
TechTV's Best of CES 2004 Winner: Best of Show - Denon NS-S100 multimedia server
HP's iPod to support WMA? That would rock!

Friday, January 09, 2004

Apple & HP announce iPod deal... Microsoft says stupid things about the deal confusing customers and limiting choice. Nice.

Saturday, January 03, 2004

John C. Dvorak's observation that cell phones are taking over the world seems about a year late, but for what it's worth... Cell Phone Hegemony.
Might be worth exploring... Use Google? Here's how to hack it!
ZDNet's Top Business Products of 2003
Well, it took a little longer than promised, but PocketMac for Smartphone is now available. For just $28.88 you can sync your Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone with iCal, Address Book, iTunes, iPhoto, and Entourage - and it all works through iSync using a USB, Bluetooth, or wired/wireless network connection. PocketMac also enables you to copy files to/from your Smartphone and install applications.