Feed for thought!

Not all feeds have to be from a blog or the media!

I have been offline for a few days moving. And yes, I was having withdrawals. But as I was catching up on my Feed reading I realized that a couple of my favorites are not blogs or even media sites.

Having always been interested in history and people, these 2 feeds are a perfect fit for a little daily knowledge. Each one typically has only a couple of short items per day, which makes it easy to keep up.

• This Day in History
• Who2.com - Find Famous People Fast! (I subscribe to their Personality of the Day )

TIP: To make it easier to catch up, I "blended" all my Google Reader feeds by selecting "All Items" and placing them in "sort by oldest" order.

Link Love

Thanks to Blog Bloke for the "link love." We couldn't agree more with your last post about building relationships.

The simplest way to build traffic on your blog is a link to those you read, and of course, that works both ways. It's always exciting to get linked on another blog, so why not share the "link love" and link back to them?

So with that idea in mind, we'd like to point out our BlogRoll, which is a few of our favorite blogs that get a daily reading...like InstaBLOKE, O'Reilly Radar and Scobleizer.

Comments are always welcome too. The key is to stay engaged in the conversation threads and reply to those who take the time to read your blog and write a comment. It's a community thing and we humans like to interact with each other.

Final point. I haven't used FeedBlendr yet, but the concept sounds cool, to create a single "blended" RSS feed from many different feeds. I started out using Bloglines and now use GoogleReader much more. Plus we're using the Shared Items feature in GoogleReader to put a "clip" on our home page. It's a great way to browse, read and share alot of the breaking news stories with our friends and visitors.

DEMO 07 Conference

Headlines that caught our (Cybers) eye...

Wii News Channel Goes Live

Windows Vista Finally Arrives

The 17th annual DEMO 07 conference takes place January 30th through February 1st in Palm Desert, CA. It will showcase 68 consumer-oriented and enterprise computing innovations including video email and messaging, video ringtones, a GPS with wireless control, IM photos directly to the desktop, and software that tracks plagiarized blog content.

Dave Winer

Have you ever read Dave Winer? He's been credited with starting RSS and has one of the longest running blogs on the internet, for about ten years. There's a lot of one liners each day; kind of like a real journal or log.

Online @ www.scripting.com

TechDeals.net

TechDeals.net looks to have some great deals listed...here's just a few examples...

Hanns-G JC-199D 19-inch LCD Monitor for $99.95

Buffalo 250GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive $69.99

Sandisk Sansa E260 4GB MP3 Player $129.99

Kingston ValueRAM 2GB DDR 400 PC3200 $139.99

Apple Macbook Pro 15.4" Core Duo Notebook $1399

Western Digital 250GB IDE Hard Drive $49.98

Online: www.techdeals.net

Google CSE adds statistics

Google has added statistics to the Custom Search Engine (CSE) control panel.

Effective Jan 22, 2007.

"...information such as overall traffic to your search engine and popular queries is now available. And you can view this info by day, week, month..."

Source : Google Custom Search: New statistics page

Gibson Signature Series Les Paul Standard flash drive

Mini flash drives are all the rage today. Prices have dropped and storage capacities have gone up. They're just about the handiest thing you can have as a computer accessory. Some even have style, but Gibson Guitars has topped them all with their latest entry into the consumer electronics market.

The coolest product so far is their Signature Series Les Paul Standard flash drive. It's a miniature replica of Gibson's world famous guitar, but it's really a 1GB USB2.0 flash drive. And it comes with it's own USB extension cable to hook up to your computer, which is a nice touch when a USB port is not within easy reach. Plus the drive has it's own case.

Gibson Audio also offers:
DVD Recorder - DVD+/-R Double Layer, DVD-RAM, Up To 8.3GB per DVD DL Disc
500GB External Hard Drive - USB2.0 - 500GB Maximum Storage - 7,200 RPM - 8MB Cache
GSL-3 Center Channel Speaker
GSL-2 Tower
3150 Joule Surge Protector
3240 Joule Surge Protector
7.1 A V Receiver
Digital Audio Fiber Optic Cable
HDMI Cable
CD-R Media
DVD-R & DL Media

Source: www.gibson.com/Products/Audio
Press Release: Gibson introduces consumer electronics at CES 2007

Beginning a new Wiki wave

Recently Mark Cuban announced the formation of a new Wiki for his beloved Dallas Mavericks.

Is this the start of a new trend with Wiki's?

It just might be.

For a Wiki to work it takes a topic that is changing and evolving along with a base of people who are passionate about the subject matter. And that pretty much describes any professional sports team in the United States.

Only time will tell, but it just may be a wave we start seeing played out across the Internet.

Netflix Streams Movies Online

Netflix, the online movie rental service has announced their newest service. Streaming movies over the internet to your computer. They said the new feature will be available to subscribers over the next six months, with about 1,000 movies and TV shows instantly available, at no additional cost. Of course, Netflix continues to offer DVD's by mail via their regular subscriptions.

No large video file to download, either. Netflix will be using real-time playback technology that will allow video to stream to your computer, so you don't have to wait for a download, or a DVD in the mail. Yes, you'll have to install the usual internet browser applet the first time you use it, but the company says your movie will start playing in as little as 15 seconds after loading.
Note: Their new service only works on Internet Explorer right now.

Now you're going to need some good bandwidth...one megabit per second is required. Three megabit will give you DVD quality. Service is based on your existing subscription. The entry level 5.99 a month plan gives you online movies for six hours a month. The full 17.99 a month plan gives you 18 hours a month online.

It's always important to get the content providers on your side, and most of the major and indie studios are onboard. NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema and indie studio Lionsgate.

They will be competing online for the first time with iTunes, Yahoo, Amazon.com, Google Video, and YouTube.

Sources:
CNN$Money @ money.cnn.com
Robert Scoble's blog @ scobleizer.com

Nokia 6131 NFC phone pays for itself

A new technology known as Near Field Communications or NFC, allows you to make payments and share information. NFC is similar to RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification, but only works at close range.

Nokia has integrated this technology into a new cell model, the 6131 NFC phone, which works like MasterCard's Pay Pass. Proximity Payment.

Because you have to get so close to use them, these NFC readers operate like the smart ID cards we carry to read the scanners at the front door of your business or the gate at your apartment. Even more security can be added, in the form of a simple code that has to be input at the time of the transaction.

Nokia showed this off last week at CES. It sounds like a great idea. The new technology can also be used to read NFC enabled business cards and scan the information to your contacts, or scan in a phone number from an advertisment. The phone maker is testing the new system with both Visa and MasterCard, but don't expect to see this phone in the US for some time.
(read more)

Win A Dell XPS 710 H2C Gaming System

Dell is giving away five of their new gaming systems, along with a widescreen 27 inch monitor. Their new XPS 710 H2C is paired with a 2707WFP widescreen 27 inch monitor that was introduced at CES last week.

Enter to win @ dell.eprize.net/imagination

Also check out the Dell/Futuremark Performance Shootout; they're giving away up to a 30-inch widescreen monitor to the 3 fastest system scores submitted. To enter, download the 3DMark06 benchmark, run it on your system, and submit your scores. Performance scores will be posted at www.dellcommunity/gaming.

1st prize: Dell 3007WFP-HC30 30-inch widescreen flat panel
2nd prize: Dell 2707WFP 27-inch widescreen flat panel
3rd prize: Dell 2407WFP 24-inch widescreen flat panel

Dell also launched their new gaming site last week, that gathers all their game news & reviews together. Check it out at: www.dell.com/gaming

Dell also has their customer feedback site open @ direct2dell.com.

Google Social Reader

Google Reader has become a favorite RSS Reader. Now they could easily become the Social Reader king of the Internet.

Google Reader gives you the ability to Share items that you read with the rest of the world. These Shared items can be viewed at a native page on Google Reader or added to your site with a little javascript. (See our Shared items in the right sidebar.) You can also subscribe to others shared items and see what they are reading. It is very interesting to see what your favorite writers are reading. One of my personal favorites is Robert Scoble.

Now, lets get the next killer social site.

If Google would take these items and create a Social Reader where the collected shared items are listed by most shared and tags we could see what articles are actually the most popular in the blogosphere.

How about it Google?

Wow Factor PCs

Dell's XPS M2010 made a big impression at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. The radical design folds up like a laptop, but uses less desktop space. 20.1-inch widescreen with 802.11a/b/g WiFi. With this kind of system, you just have to include all the extras.

• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.33GHz
• 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 Memory
• 256MB ATI® Mobility RADEONTM X1800 Graphics Card
• 8x DVD/CD Burner (DVD+/-RW)4
• Hard Drive SATA 240GB RAID array across two backup drives
• High Definition Audio (HDA) with 8 speakers & subwoofer
• Integrated 1.3 megapixel web cam and microphone for video instant messaging
• WindowsXP MediaCenterEdition2005

www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx

For the Power User: Dell XPS710 30-inch flat panel with updated Core 2 Extreme QX 6700 quad-core processor. Default video card 1GB 7950 GX2 graphics card upgradable to two NVIDIA cards in SLI mode or two ATI XTX 1900 cards in Crossfire mode. Running WindowsMediaCenterXP. Big power in a big tower.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsdt_410?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

HP TouchSmart PC MediaCenterhttp://blog.pcmag.com/blogs/miller/archive/2007/01/12/1694.aspx

Sources:
www.dell.com
www.hp.com

The Best of CES 2007

cnet.com reviews the Best of this year's CES.

LG debuted the world’s first DVD player that supports both Blu-Ray and HD DVD! LG really does stand for "Life's Good!"Warner Brothers Studios announced it's own hybrid video disk, called Total HD, which will play on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray drives.

Harman Kardon rolls out their mobile media manager Drive + Play 2.

Sony Ericsson W950i Walkman Phone:
3G - advanced digital music player with music management software -
4GB internal memory - built-in FM radio - stereo headset - USB cable
2.6 inch touch screen display - send email with integrated Opera8.0 web browser.
http://www.sony.com/ces/index.php

Wired.com talks about how everything gets connected. It's the year for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Gadgets In Vegas: Hi-Tech Goes Wild @ CES

Cool. Wireless TV.
HP MediaSmart TV has 801.11a/b/g/n WiFi adaptors & Ethernet ports.

Here's a neat idea...HP's new PC design with a wide 19-inch flat screen that tilts up to allow access to the integrated printer in back. But the print out comes out in front. Very smart design, now where's the specs?

Motorola O ROKR Bluetooth enabled headset built-in to a pair of Oakley sunglasses.

Sling Media announces their Clip + Sling which uploads and shares video clips from TV. They've partnered with CBS to develop a video community like YouTube, but with a focus on legal high quality content.

Cisco and Apple argue over the iPhone name. Oh, c'mon, both companies stand to make a fortune over this new phone, if everything works the way it's hyped to do. Sign your agreement and get over it already.

Google Earth4 goes 3D.

Finally, a portable keyboard that goes anywhere! The i.Tech Virtual keyboard. Laser and infared technology combine to project a full size QWERTY keyboard onto any flat surface.

Best of Innovations Honored this year @ CES

Sources:
www.engadget.com
www.gizmodo.com
www.crunchgear.com
www.on10.net
scobleizer.com

Apple iPhone More Than Just iTalk

MacWorld & CES ~ New Technology For A New Year.

The Apple iPhone will finally ship this June and it's a beauty! It's thin, sleek, and simple to use, thanks to it's 3.5 inch screen with multi-touch display. It looks like you can just scroll right through the menus with just a point and tap, and no stylus or button wheel to mess with. Nice navigation. Bloggers are going nuts covering it, so there's plenty of reviews, photos and video.

It can also be called a widescreen iPod, but it does so much more than just play your music. iPhone’s multi-touch display and the OS X Safari web browser may just finally put the wireless web in our hands. It also includes built-in Google and Yahoo! Search so you can instantly search for information, just like on your computer. iPhone also includes Google’s useful and innovative Maps service, so you can view maps, satellite images, traffic information and get directions, all from iPhone’s amazing easy-to-use touch screen interface.

Apple Inc. has totally moved into mobile technology with the iPhone, which follows their market share of iPods and MacBooks. It's kinda pricey to start at $499, but this device may just tip the scales from Blackberry back toward the Apple. 4GB is $499 and the 8GB $599 available in June in the US, and later this year in Europe. Cingular Wireless is the ISP.

Good looking specs too:
3.5 inch screen with 320 x 480 @ 160 ppi resolution
GSM Quad-band Wi-Fi (802.11), Cingular EDGE & Bluetooth2.0
4.8 ounces at 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches
Battery Life up to 5 hours on talk, video, web browsing, and up to 16 hours on audio playback.

It was a busy day...

Microsoft Home on the Vista

Microsoft: A new Vista on every desktop

Sony K750i MP3 Phone

RealNetworks and TiVo combine to share access to the Rhapsody music services

AsusXG Station External PCI-Express Graphics - MacWorld Expo - Nokia MultiMedia Phones

Sources:
www.engadget.com
www.gizmodo.com
www.crunchgear.com
www.on10.net
scobleizer.com

CES 007 What would Bond use?

Browsing CES; Day One:
If James Bond was at CES this year, what would he be doing, and which cool gadgets would he be using? The SpyCam has come a long way, baby.

Apple & Cingular = iPhone.
We've heard about Apple's rumoured iPhone. Now the word is Cingular will be the official provider of Mac's new wireless service, although it may only be GSM. How cool would iChat mobile be?

Nokia N800 Internet Tablet puts the web in your hands with:
- Wifi & BT
- VGA (640×480) webcam
- 4.13 inch screen (same as the 770)
- Stereo Speakers (770 has mono)
- Microphone has moved to the top.
- Audio jack and mini usb port have moved to the right side.
- Requires mobile phone (with BT) for cell connection.
- Integrated Stand, the n800 comes with a sleeve, rather than the sliding shell on the 770. Blog & Flickr pictures!

XBOX360 plugs into IPTV with DVR & VOD - DigitalVideoRecorder & VideoOnDemand.
The "new and improved" XBOX360 sports a 120GB hard drive with available HDMI ports. IPTV services will be multi-channel, multiple picture-in-picture, video on demand, and broadcast television, with DVR functionality. Bond would have the VideoOnDemand on a monthly subscription and a SpyCam in the palm of his hand. This will be the first major hardware update to the XBOX360 in over a year and a half.

Finally, I can setup my home network with full backups, because Windows Home Server will be available this year. Microsoft's mass data storage solution is a software suite that automatically finds and backs up all of the data on all of the Windows PC's on your LAN. It can be used to manage data stored within user accounts, shared folders, and external storage devices.

WindowsHomeServer also has Zune Connectivity and a Web Component that lets you login and access your backup data from any connected computer on the planet. Wow, think of it! Wireless access to your personal online storage (Area51?) from any connected computer on the planet. Redundant Storage capacity is expandable; data is reorganized on the fly as you plug in more hard drives.

I've had my eye on Dell's XPS 410 Desktop PC since last year, but this latest configuration is the final winner, with a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo E6600 Intel processor, nVidia's GeForce 7900GS graphics adapter with 256MB of VideoRAM, a 20-inch widescreen Dell 2007WFP flat-panel monitor, 2GB of DDR2-667 RAM Memory, two 320GB hard drives in a RAID configuration for a total 640GB of storage, 16X multiformat dual-layer DVD burner, and a second 16X DVD-ROM drive. Integrated audio can handle up to a 7.1 channel surround sound speaker system.

The midsize tower has four drive bays, two internal and two externally accessible, plus two PCI Express 1X and three PCI slots open, six USB and two FireWire ports on the rear, and a FireWire and two more USB2.0 ports up front, and retails for just over $2000.

Q would find plenty of gadgets to equip Bond with at CES this year. Even Moneypenny would approve.

Sources:
www.engadget.com
www.gizmodo.com
www.crunchgear.com
www.on10.net
scobleizer.com
blog.wired.com

Ford and Microsoft to Sync up?

I have to admit that my first thought was about the old GM and Microsoft joke when I heard that Ford Motors and Microsoft are going to work together on an in-car wireless phone and data system

There are several versions of this joke, but, some of the highlights are:

• For no reason at all, your car would crash twice a day.
• Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.
• Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left-turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, and you would have to reinstall the engine.
• When your car died on the freeway for no reason, you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
• The airbag would say 'Are you sure?' before going off.
• Occasionally, for no reason, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed the radio antenna.
• Every time they introduced a new model, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
• You would press the 'start' button to shut off the engine.

That Dodge Charger sure is a good looking car!

CES 2007 40th Anniversary

The Consumer Electronics show CES is gearing up again this year. January 8th through the 11th in Las Vegas. So what's on the horizon? What kind of surprises are in store this year?

It seems the focus this year is digital entertainment. Content. What's in or on your digital device. Another focus, at least visible from the cellular carriers like Sprint Nextel and Verizon, is how they will use their wireless networks to deliver video, or connect subscribers to social-networking spaces.

"It's the new CE -- not consumer electronics," said Jan-Luc Blakborn, HP's director of digital entertainment. "We like to think of it as connected entertainment."

The first CES show in 1967 featured 200 television and radio manufacturers. Forty years later, CES is now the world's largest annual consumer technology showcase, with some 2,700 exhibitors sprawled out over 1.7 million square feet of space.

Keynote Speakers this year are CBS President Leslie Moonves, Robert A. Iger of the Walt Disney Company, and Dell Chairman Michael Dell. Bill Gates is back to do the opening address.

A little history put it all in perspective for me...
1967: Solid-State television introduced at the first CES
1970: VCR Videocassette Recorder
1974: Laserdisc player
1981: Compact Disc CD player & camcorder
1990: Digital Audio Technology
1991: Compact Disc - Interactive CDI
1993: Mini Disc
1993: Radio Data System
1994: Digital Satellite System
1996: Digital Versatile Disk DVD
1998: HDTV
1999: PVR Personal Video Recorder
2001: Microsoft Xbox
2001: Plasma TV
2002: Home media server
2003: HD radio
2005: IP TV

2006: Currently, CES features 2700 exhibitors showcasing their latest products and services in audio, digital imaging, gaming, high performance audio & video, home theater, home networking, mobile electronics and wireless.

Interesting to note: as the lines blur between tech gadgets and what they can do for us, the companies behind the technology and content grow closer together. For example, I would never have thought Gibson Guitars would appear at CES, but they are this year, with some interesting promotions and big names too.

Gibson Guitar Happy Hour Featuring: Sweet Juice, Autograph signing by Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Arthur Hanlon, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
4 p.m. Tuesday, January 9
Gibson Guitar, Central Plaza, CP-1

Celebrity Appearances:
Mon. Jan. 8: Kyle Busch, NASCAR Nextel Cup Driver #5

Tue. Jan. 9:
3 Doors Down,
Cirque de Soleil "LOVE",
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter & Joan Jett & the Blackhearts at Gibson Guitar Happy Hour,
George Benson & Al Jarreau in the Venetian Room, the new CES venue for high-performance home theater at the Sands Expo and Convention Center.

Jan. 10: Brian Wilson

Sources:
www.cesweb.org
www.sony.com/ces
www.wired.com/news/technology

Year of the Cell Cam?

What does 2007 hold in store? It could be a big year for personal technology, like cell phones with cameras. That technology might just drive changes that businesses didn't see coming.

Dr. Martin Illsley, director of the European research labs for tech consultancy Accenture, says: "camera phones will allow customers to communicate with businesses via pictures in addition to phone and email. Consumers will be able to complain more easily by snapping the offending incident or object."

Greater documentation of faulty goods or bad service could be a downside for business, but a boon for consumers fed up with the lack of quality merchandise and customer service.

However, the smart companies will find new ways to harvest this new information and put it to good use. Businesses are already looking for ways to tap into net communities and online interest groups, to create recommendations consumers will trust.

Source: BBC News

Subscribe to a story, not just a blog

When there is a particular story that you have an interest in, the best way to stay current is by subscribing to the story and setting up email alerts.

1. Subscribe to a BlogSearch for the topic
2. Setup an email Alert

As an example the story about the Helicopter being used in Jackson, Mississippi has some special interest for me, so I subscribed to "Jackson Mississippi Helicopter" in BlogSearch and then setup an email Alert with the same topic. In this case I set the type to "Comprehensive" and the timing to "As it Happens".

One more option is to use the Google AJAX Search API which you can configure to return results from where you want. With one click you can search for "Jackson Mississippi Helicopter" and see Blog, Web, News and Video results.

Now I can sit back and watch the story come to me.

MacWorld

Rumors of an Apple iPod phone hybrid device continue to build. MacWorld may yet unveil some surprises next week.

Rolling Stone's keyboardist Chuck Leavell will be at Macworld in Chestnut Hill Sound's booth #3101 on Tuesday, January 9. Leavell was a beta tester for the company's new product called GEORGET, a digital audio system for the iPod, during the 2005/2006 Rolling Stone's Bigger Bang Tour.

Online stories:
www.cellular-news.com/story/21180.php
www.applelinks.com/index.php/more/george

MacWorld Online @ www.macworld.com

Retail Research

If you do your research online before going into the stores, you already know more than the average sales person. I've found that to be true at services like Sprint and Cingular, and in general retail stores like WalMart.

Best Buy employees seem to have a little better knowledge of their product, but by and large, retail sales reps are just reading off the label like we do.

Only the Sony

Sony has some really great notebooks and now has a sub-model the size of a PDA.

Sony VAIO UX280P Micro PC VGN-UX280P

Intel Core 1.20GHz processor
Windows XP Professional
533MHz Front Side Bus
Integrated Wireless LAN & WAN with Cingular Wireless
Integrated Bluetooth
LCD 4.5" wide SVGA touch screen
40GB Hard Drive
1GB Memory PC2-3200 DDR2 SDRAM
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator w/128MB memory
USB2.0
Memory Stick Media Slot supports optional memory stick media

In fact, their entire catalog is great.

Source: Sony Style@ www.sonystyle.com