A colleague e-mailed me Saturday to tell me there was an NPR special on the radio talking about television. If it had been a radio special about TV and the loss of audience to the Internet, it would have been the trifecta.
Throw in the fact that the e-mail was received on my blackberry cell phone, and the media convergence irony is complete.
Have you ever wondered how fast your Internet connection actually is? Is that DSL line really living up to the speed you think you’re paying for? There are a bunch of sites available to check it out, but this speed test is particularly cool.
Apple today rolled out their new AppleTV appliance. It’s essentially the Microsoft Media Center PC without the PC – allowing you to beam all of your saved media from your PC to your TV. So that’s good, right?
I’m not so sure. It looks like Apple, in an effort to keep Jobs’ promise of sub-$300, has placed only a 40GB hard drive in the device. They say that will hold up to 50 hours of TV. I’m not so sure. Even the latest iteration of the video iPod comes with an 80GB hard drive.
I can’t imagine needing to carry twice as much content in my pocket as I have for my home entertainment. It seems a little underpowered for a home media device. You can argue that I connect to a PC to get more storage (I assume it will allow that), but that just puts me back in the Media Center mode. If I wanted to network my TV and my PC, I can do that. I’d rather not. I’d rather have space enough on my Apple TV.
The other concern I have is their storage assumptions. If you’re maintaining 50 hours on 40 GB, you are almost certainly not talking HD. HD takes up a lot of space compared to the Apple standard resolution of 320 x 240. I have converted a lot of my movies to mp4 at that resolution and I’m pushing anywhere between 600MB and a Gigabyte for a two hour movie. Storing at HD resolution, that 40 GB will likely yield about 25 hours.
It’s a neat idea, but I’ll wait until generation 2.0 or 3.0 when the hard drive space keeps up with media improvements.
Following the elections, I really tuned out of politics for a couple of months. I’ve been gearing up for 2008, but tried to actively avoid a lot of political coverage for a while. If I hadn’t, I would have gone nuts by 2008.
In the time I have been away from politics, I have stumbled upon some very, very cool tech stuff, and thought I’d share some of the coolest finds.
First, there is this set of wireless speakers for your home theater. They eliminate the lengths of speaker wire that had to either trail around the house or be installed in walls. These little beauties clean up the tangle of wires and cords and deliver music through the ether. Tres cool.
Another little add-on for the home theater that tripped my cool meter was the Linksys Wireless Music Bridge. This little gadget hook up to your home computer and allow you to beam your MP3s from PC to the home theater so you can play all your digital music with better sound than your little PC speakers can generate.
Finally, the pitched battle between cell and home phones is coming to an end. I like the convenience of having a phone in every room when I am home, so I really like a land line. However, most people call my cell, so I either end up running around the house looking for my cell at night or have to keep it near me at all times. Not anymore.
Motorola has a cool little Bluetooth gadget for their SD7500 phones that bridges my cell into the home network. Set your cell next to the Bluetooth Cell Dock when you get home, and any incoming calls will automatically ring through to your home phone system. Answer your call like you would any other incoming call. When you head out in the morning, simply pick up the phone and walk out.
I’m pretty stoked about these finds. Unlike politics, technology only occasionally lets me down. My resolution for the new year? Less politics, more technology. It should make me happier.
I always said it would be a cold day in hell when I agreed with Kos on anything. Well, I guess it must be a cold day in Hades, because he’s right on the money with something. Fortunately for me, it has nothing to do with politics.
A few years ago, I bought a Palm Pilot from Best Buy, and bought the 3 year warranty to go with it. They tell you that the warranty is no questions asked. At about the 2 year mark, the Palm Pilot completely stopped responding. It wouldn’t turn on, recharge or anything else.
I took it to my local Best Buy, which due to a move across the country was not the store from which I had bought it.
First I was told I had to have all the original receipts, so I went home, got them and brought them back.
Then I was told I had to have all the original packaging. I went home and got most of it. I was surprised at how much I could actually find. The few pieces I didn’t have were the installation instructions and the original software CD. When I got back to Best Buy, they told me the missing pieces would result in a restocking fee of about $75.
At this point, I was a little pissed, and left the store. A couple of months later, I was traveling back to New Mexico (where I bought the Palm Pilot) and decided to return to the store where it was purchased. That store gave me the runaround, but they eventually made the exchange. They actually had the balls to try and sell me the extended warranty on that one. I told them to blow it out their ass.
