Technology meets people.

March 2009 Blog Posts (18)

Skype 1.0 for iPhone - ready for prime time?

I eagerly downloaded the new skype application for the iPhone and tried to send my first messages. C r a s h, down went the application. So, I restarted it and got nearly 1/2 way through sending a message and c r a s h again. The third time must have been the charm. This time the iPhone seized up completely and had to be rebooted.

I'll see if I can figure out what's happening. Are you experiencing the same thing?

Added by Dan Kusnetzky on March 31, 2009 at 9:38am — No Comments

Skype application for iPhone should hit iTunes Tuesday

Skype demonstrated a native iPhone application at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The application is to be released in Apple's iTunes store on Tuesday (tomorrow). Although it doesn't appear to be a complete implementation, Skpe users will welcome a native application. To date, others have offers ways for iPhone users to connect to Skype to send instant messages through a small piece of client software that accessed the developers' websites which then, in turn, accessed Skype's services.… Continue

Added by Dan Kusnetzky on March 30, 2009 at 1:09pm — No Comments

SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry Now Generally Available

Sling Media recently let us know that its SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry has officially exited public beta and is now available as an over the air download from mobile.slingmedia.com using a BlackBerry Smartphone’s web browser. It is available for a one-time charge of $29.99 and you can try it out for free for 30 days to see if you like it. As we discussed before, SlingPlayer Mobile lets you… Continue

Added by Brian Mahony on March 30, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

Searching for a simple mobile phone

Recently my wife's old Nokia 6103b phone died an ignominious death. It had been dropped many times and now had trouble making calls or receiving calls. T-Mobile was more than happy to replace the phone if she was willing to tack on another two year subscription. She wasn't at all interested in leaving her month-to-month arrangement with T-mobile. So, the search for a simple mobile phone began.

It seems that most of the handset suppliers have forgotten that there are those who want to… Continue

Added by Dan Kusnetzky on March 27, 2009 at 7:20am — No Comments

Netflix Gets Social

Netlfix announced this week that it is linking up with Facebook to allow users to tag and rate its content and share it with friends. This allows Facebook users to share their own catalog of favorite movies like they do with just about everything else on the social network, from photos to the plethora of annoying “25 Things About Me” quizzes. This is big news for Netflix, since it increases its online “street cred” and provides a viral advertising… Continue

Added by Brian Mahony on March 27, 2009 at 12:37am — No Comments

ZeeVee’s Zinc 3.0 Gets Rave Reviews

ZeeVee launched the next version of its free Internet TV browser this week. Zinc 3.0, formerly known as Zviewer, is already getting rave reviews as a robust alternative to Boxee. Like Boxee, Zinc is designed to provide a “big screen interface” for navigating Internet video content on your HDTVs. It works great for use on a PC, and looks even better on an HDTV connected to your PC directly or through their ZvBox or another PC-to-TV device. Zinc works… Continue

Added by Brian Mahony on March 26, 2009 at 8:00am — No Comments

New Logitech Products Help Us Laptop Loungers

I admit it. There are times I like to recline while I type on the laptop. I spend A LOT of time using the computer and managing my virtual life online, and while most of the time that means sitting at a desk, there are other times I am sitting in the family room or even lying on the couch, usually with a throw pillow being used as a platform. Variety is the spice of life I guess.

There are two problems with this. First, I find it hard to… Continue

Added by Brian Mahony on March 25, 2009 at 1:00am — No Comments

Following the TV Revenue Stream: A Peaceful Canoe Trip or Attack of the Piranhas?

If you want to predict which Internet TV products and services will take off, you need to follow the revenue stream. Not that money alone makes a great product that consumers will like, but it certainly takes money to fund the efforts of tech companies to try to build the right products. The big question at the TV of Tomorrow show was: where will that money come from?

The problem is that most of the money right now comes from cable TV based business models. You pay a… Continue

Added by Brian Mahony on March 23, 2009 at 11:00am — No Comments

Video Demo: enableTV Productizes OCAP Toolkit into Interactive TV Platform

One of the take-aways from last week’s TV of Tomorrow show is that we are entering a winner-takes-all battle over Internet-connected, interactive TV. In one of the final panel discussions of the event twelve of the leaders in what is called “over the top” Internet TV technologies were on stage. Conspicuously lacking were representatives from the cable industry, but they were in the audience (more on that later).

While Cable TV has been… Continue

Added by Brian Mahony on March 19, 2009 at 12:00am — No Comments

Podcast #2: Active Video Networks Talks Internet TV Strategy

Last week I had a chance to catch up again with Active Video Networks. As you might recall, Active Video Networks is a provider of a lightweight platform for interactive TV and all the cool applications that go with it. I spoke with Ed Forman, EVP, Strategy and Corporate Development and Chief Strategy Officer and Edgar Villalpando, SVP Marketing. Active Video… Continue

Added by Brian Mahony on March 18, 2009 at 1:00am — No Comments

BlackBerry Storm Detailed Review: Awesome and Awful

Updated on March 17, 2009 (I guess I feel lucky). Below is my updated BlackBerry Storm review. Most of my review has become more positive, but a few areas are still weak or worse. My new title should be "More Awesome Than Awful".

As I promised, I have now had a chance to set up and use my new BlackBerry Storm for a couple of weeks. Since one of my pet peeves is reviews that don’t go beyond the challenges of the initial box-opening… Continue

Added by Brian Mahony on March 17, 2009 at 8:00am — No Comments

Overlay.TV and Klickable Make Video, Well, Clickable

I spent last week at the “TV of Tomorrow” (TVOT) show in San Francisco. All the major players were there from the online and interactive TV worlds. Suffice to say, like every major technology trend, there was a jumbled mix of very cool and relevant innovation along with a chaotic blend of competing strategies and pipedreams for deploying interactive and Internet-connected television into our homes. I will… Continue

Added by Brian Mahony on March 16, 2009 at 1:00am — No Comments

Confused by Twitter? Don't Be!

I recently wrote about LinkedIn and why you absolutely have to be on it if you are a professional. Although I am passionate about LinkedIn to the point where I am updating my blog (http://linkedinquestions.wordpress.com) daily and in the process of writing a book on the subject, I have found a new friend recently in Twitter.

"Twitter?" you ask, "I don't get it." Yes, I didn't get it either. And I don't pretend to fully get it now. But, to put it simply, if LinkedIn is about finding… Continue

Added by Neal Schaffer on March 12, 2009 at 5:45pm — No Comments

Gaga Over Google

A dear friend of mine has often been quoted to say "If only Google could run this country, we'd be golden". And who could argue with that? The plethora of free products and simplified technologies that Google offers has rocked my mama-world in more ways than one.

First of all, Google Reader (along with iGoogle) changed my life. I went from clicking on dozens of blogs each day to having them display easily and accessibly in a tiny little box on my iGoogle home page. This alone saved… Continue

Added by Leigh Steele on March 10, 2009 at 7:30am — No Comments

Samsung LED HDTVs Merge Power and Supreme Beauty (and you thought your wallet was safe)

Samsung LED HDTV 8000 Series

As I sat in Samsung’s press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A senior executive was speaking on a stage over 100 feet away from me. The room was packed with hundreds of people. Like lemmings, all we press and analyst types had stood in line for 45 minutes for this honor. It felt a little like a James Bond film. You know the one. It is the usual… Continue

Added by Brian Mahony on March 9, 2009 at 12:12am — No Comments

Vizio Continues to Exceed Expectations with Unlikely Success Story

It’s a familiar story. American companies outsourcing to companies in Asia that can produce quality products at lower cost. And not just outsourcing manufacturing and the jobs that go with it, but outsourcing innovation and entire product categories to foreign vendors.

So the Vizio story is quite amazing. The young Irvine, CA company, which only began ramping its operations five years ago, took over… Continue

Added by Brian Mahony on March 5, 2009 at 2:00am — No Comments

A New Framework for Getting It Right with Tech Products

As I continue my never-ending research for our new upcoming report on Internet-connected audio-video technologies and devices, I keep thinking one thing— I’m not that smart.

Not that I am dumb. No, not that. It’s just that there is so much technical mumbo-jumbo to process. Everyone has an argument why their technology or product is better than the next guy’s. And many times, it has to do with some special sauce they have that no one else has. But I am encouraged by an equally strong… Continue

Added by Brian Mahony on March 3, 2009 at 1:00am — No Comments

Pandora Wish List

My name is MaryPat and I am a Pandora adict! There! I said it! If Pandora gave me a dollar for evey person I've directed to try Pandora, my four kids would have a pretty hefty start toward their college funds. My best introduction was to my college senior sister - who I believed knew all things web-related. Now she too is hooked - perhaps it's in the genes.

That being said, the limitation is that Pandora is not as readily accessible as I would like (to my knowledge). If I am in front… Continue

Added by Mary Pat on March 2, 2009 at 8:57pm — 3 Comments