Category Archives: General

I just found out about, downloaded and am writing to you from within Flock, a Firefox-based browser released today as a developer preview (i.e. potentially buggy but functional) version for Windows/Mac/Linux. I’ve only been playing for a few minutes, but thus far I’m impressed, especially with the built-in blogging tools. Flock has a built-in system for browsing through your Flickr account while blogging and something called “The Shelf,” a separate popup window where you can drag and drop images and/or highlighted text for use later in blog posts (a great idea for those of us who keep multiple browser tabs open while surfing and/or blogging). The browser also eschews traditional bookmarks (based locally) in favor of online, shareable bookmarks made possible by del.icio.us.

Flock also has a built-in RSS reader, which at the moment appears to work perfectly well with LIVEdigitally and NYTimes.com but is stumbling a bit with Engadget. Like Firefox, Flock supports extensions like Greasemonkey and AdBlock.

Take a look at this news.com article for more info. Vive le open source movement!

I’m in the process of listening to a live broadcast of the first hour of On Point, an excellent program produced by WBUR, the National Public Radio affiliate here in Boston (runs 10 am – 12 pm M-F). The first hour of today’s show is devoted to a discussion of the modern media revolution, and the role Apple products are playing is said change.

Host Tom Ashbrook is talking with Lander Kahney, Wired staffer and Apple journalist, along with other guests including Lev Grossman from Time Magazine (this week’s issue has Steve Jobs on the cover).

While I don’t intend for this post to piggyback on my earlier one about the same subject, I find it interesting to listen to those with more experience and more complex and insightful commentary on the same subject. While Apple’s at the center of the stage of the discussion, it’s sharing the space with larger, more revolutionary ideas about how we’re changing the ways we consume and create our own media. Some of the more interesting points:

• Madison Avenue (the big media companies) are obviously growing concerned about the potential for serious change in revenue streams (Think $1.99 TV shows without any commercials).
• Our society is tailored to the needs of baby boomers and is now only starting to shift to reflect the desires of younger consumers. Are we moving to a culture of shared music and video (iTunes) despite the fact that people are increasingly empowered to create their own “microcultures” of music? Individual consumption will obviously differ but it may be done via a similar channel.
• Actual content ownership – do ownership preferences differ along generational lines? A caller asked if perhaps younger people have less of a compulsion to want to own their content.
• The power to create media is increasingly migrating to the hands of individuals, should they be interested in creating their own content and making their work available on their own terms.

Before I listen to the entire show and give you the full recap here, go check it out! If you can’t get it on your local station, just listen to the archived show – good stuff.

I don’t know about you, but when someone creates a piece of mobile technology that it describes as functional, provocative and designed for expanding the possible meaning and metaphors about access, proximity, wireless and WiFi, the svelte language is a siren song with its forked tongue in my ear. Where can I get such a product? What is it? What could this possibly mean?

[slaps self, feels ashamed for being seduced by hyperbolic marketing jargon]

In struts a geek wearing the WiFi.Bedouin, an “art-technology product” (read: backpack) that acts as a mobile WiFi node. Combine a PowerBook G4 running some custom software, an 802.11b access point, RF amplifier, power supply and a viewable PDA used to display GPS data and you have true mobile internet, as opposed to simply mobile users (forced to drink Starbucks coffee while they work).

Seriously, though – check out Julian Bleecker’s unique creation, developed during the fall and winter of 2003 at New York’s Eyebeam Atelier.

It’s not just a clever name. Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere is a quick roundup of how the new media force is developing. What’s poignant about this lecture isn’t the analysis but the fact that it has to occur every 6 months; that’s how fast the blogosphere seems to be developing.

In fact there is a new blog created every second. Which means right now there is a brand new blog waiting to be indexed, and now, and now, and now.

But the most interesting part of this State of the Blogosphere is the acknowledgment of Splogs. In the last week many bloggers have been complaining about splogs. As the blogosphere continues to double, it’s difficult to tell how much is real healthy growth and how much are hollow splogs that are keyword stuffing.

I am never amazed at how relentless spammers are. The graph below shows the rate of growth for the blogosphere, but how much is it inflated? More importantly, how will we regulate the blogosphere to make sure content doesn’t get clouded in a haze of splog.

Listening to Engadget podcast number 47.5 (a special edition due to last week’s Apple announcements) this morning, I wanted to throw down a bit of “less news, more commentary” for all y’all. Last week’s Apple event (we found out about the iPod video, the new iMacs, iTunes 6 and Front Row) is significant for much more than the sense of glee created by shiny new hardware and software.

With its ABC/Disney deal allowing iTunes users to download episodes of LOST, Desperate Housewives and others (and other deals apparently in the works), Apple’s increasing presence in the entertainment biz justifiably leads to legitimate discussion about where the company (and the industry in general) is heading. The podcast really got me thinking about how Apple has grown, from playing an integral role in the birth of the PC industry to the design revolution spearheaded by the first iMac. The company is increasingly paving/heading down a road where its machines are integral aspects of our digital lives (this is no big secret), but in striving to be a purveyor of devices that provide us with access to all of the media in our lives, does it logically follow that Apple then becomes more of a media company?

As iTunes and iPods form a greater share of the company’s earnings (last week’s record earnings came from 1.2 million computers and nearly 6.5 million iPods), it will be interesting to see if they shift their focus a bit. The iPod’s place in history is secure, and without the ability to read the mind of Steve Jobs, any statements I make about where Apple’s going would obviously pure specualation, and from a person with only a few years of experience following the industry.

Watching sales of the iPod video and iTunes music videos will truly show us what customers want, and Apple’s decision to back into the portable video player market after establishing a stranglehold on the portable music biz is, in my opinion, the perfect way to see how excited consumers are about the ability to watch video while on the move. Is the screen too small? Does the fact that you need to actually watch it (as opposed to listening to music in your pocket) limit potential growth? Time will tell.

Have a good Monday.

The masculine part of my brain is slapping the cutesy part around in the corner as I’m writing this post. It’s all because of iAttire…they’re selling a line of limited edition Halloween costumes for iPods. Yes. iPods.

My flummoxed brain is unable to pass judgement on these things without fanning the precursory flames of some sort of intra-cranial civil war – traditional masculine, geek, emotive and other sects are duking it out in my gray matter as we speak (not that they are necessarily mutually exclusive). On one hand I have absolutely no plan to shell out $40 for one of these things [Yeah! 40!], but what would my price point be? Would I even be caught dead with one if the price was right? Is this just downright stupid? Too girly? Is that a completely baseless sexist comment? Yeesh. One thing I can appreciate is the sheer ingenuity of the person/people behind these. Make a completely new genre of accessory for the iPod. Watch out, iGuy.

It’s anthropomorphization to the absolute extreme; these are the same people who name their cars and bikes, for crying out loud. Awww, hell…I can’t get over it! Just look at the little vampire shuffle! He’s sooooooo cute!

(Thanks for helping me work through some of my issues, dear readers. It really felt good to get all of this off my chest.)

Thankfully the good old U.S. of A. has yet to impose those nasty 3-hour caps on gameplay, but from the look of this announcement, it wouldn’t really matter anyway, considering the fact that we’re talking about actual EXERCISE here. That’s right, kiddies…er, ladies and gents: everyone’s favorite floor-stomping videogame is coming to a 24-hour Fitness near you! Move aside, consoles, PCs, cell phones and iPods.

Konami, the company behind DDR, will be partnering with the U.S. fitness chain to encourage gamers to exercise. I’m giving this one the thumbs up: you’ll finally be able to get your game on aside grunting muscle heads and cardio freaks. 24-hour Fitness will apparently be adding the units to some of their kids clubs (not sure if this means some sort of lame fenced-in kiddie area or a type of club with facilities for kids – my fingers are crossed for the latter).

In addition to the installation of DDR systems in the clubs, 30-day passes to 24-hour Fitness will be included in packages of DDR Extreme 2 for the PS2 and Xbox.

You know the guy on the bench press ain’t got nuthin on you, so get out there and impress him with your button-stomping skillz, yo!

Saw this on the SlingCommunity site:

[…] we officially launched the PAL beta application process this morning. The link to apply is online here. We will only take applications for the next 2 weeks, so please sign up soon!

Also, just so you know, we take our beta programs very seriously, and they aren’t for the faint of heart. We have a very limited supply of PAL units, so we’re looking for the best testers out there! You don’t need to be the most technically savvy person, you just need to commit to giving us great feedback! […]

I know we’ve had a lot of Slingbox owners and fans come through this site – I highly recommend giving it a try if you are in a country with PAL TV services…

Most of the time natural disasters lie in the back of our minds. But current events have brought them to the forefront. An ongoing theme in the coverage of Katrina and the Pakistani earthquake is the role technology will play in helping cope with disasters like these in the future.

One example is how blogs responded in the aftermath of Katrina (or will respond with future Katrinas), but another theme is with good old fashion gadgets.

A Japanese research firm Oyo has made a gadget that can pinpoint the exact location (and depth) of a person buried alive in a natural disaster.

The gadget works like a radar and bounces off a breathing chest, so even if the person cannot move under rubble, as long as they can breath, this gadget will detect them.

Hopefully we won’t find any use for it soon, but I’m glad to know that energy is being spent in this field.

I am not one for plastic surgery. We are the way we are. Nature, God, fate, whatever you believe in, has us looking just the way we should look.

Windows was not created by God, nature, fate, or anything else of similar caliber. Therefore I deem it a green light to pump up the bust, suck out the fat, and give your old XP installation a facelift.

Powertoys made by Microsoft, for Microsoft is my plastic surgeon of choice. Tools and trinkets like SyncToy, ClearType Tuner, Alt-Tab Replacement, and Image Resizer are among the few interesting Powertoys offered.

Sure the name PowerToys yields an image of enormous jackhammers, 50” rotary saws, and 300bhp chain saws. But these little tweaks are still pretty cool after the letdown of a deceitful name.

In-flight internet has been a reality for a little while (yes, there are perks we still don’t get in the U.S.), but today New Scientist reports on a Boeing flight demonstrating a few other goodies – WiFi plus live television and support for cell phones.

Apparently Boeing leased some bandwidth from satellites with coverage of the northern hemisphere, broadcasting the BBC, CNBC, Euronews and Eurosport News. When it comes to voice service, options include VOIP and low-power onboard base stations that work with standard GSM phones.

Remaining hurdles include clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration in the U.S. and the Civil Aviation Authority in the U.K., largely to demonstrate that the stuff doesn’t interfere with the aircraft’s onboard equipment.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m a kid standing outside of a candy store chock full of sweets that are making my mouth water…and the damn door’s still locked.