Archive by Author
T-Mobile wants to replace your landline
Posted by Joe on June 25, 2008 · Comments Off
T-Mobile will begin offering in-home VoIP service to their wireless subscribers on July 2. The service will be just $10 a month and include unlimited local and long-distance calling. Voicemail, call forwarding and call waiting are also included.
For T-Mobile customers who aren’t sure they need a land line, but aren’t quite ready to rely on wireless entirely, this may be an affordable alternative. Unless you’re one of the many consumers who are forced to have a land line along with your DSL service, of course.
Filed in: SL
Surflizard Goes Mobile
Posted by Joe on June 24, 2008 · Comments Off
In addition to the new mobile links site, I’ve also installed and enabled a WordPress plugin called Mobile WordPress which formats the site for mobile devices. The plugin uses the browser’s user agent to choose mobile or normal formatting. Surflizard.com should now be much easier to read on mobile devices.
Screen shot:
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Hardware Hack — MacBook Air SuperDrive
Posted by Joe on June 24, 2008 · Comments Off
Hack the Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive to work with any computer — PC or Mac. All it takes is a bit of solder and a $9 part — and a willingness to void the drive’s warranty.
Filed in: SL
Symbian Goes Open Source
Posted by Joe on June 24, 2008 · Comments Off
Popular mobile phone OS Symbian is going open source:
On Tuesday, companies including Nokia, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, LG Electronics, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, AT&T, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics and Vodafone announced that they will work together to make the Symbian OS open source. They will offer it under a royalty-free license to members of a new nonprofit group called the Symbian Foundation.
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Palm Centro Gets Unlocked – $299
Posted by Joe on June 24, 2008 · Comments Off
Unlocked GSM-flavored Palm Centros are now available directly from Palm for $299. It’s a nice phone, despite Palm’s outdated operating system. Unfortunately, the keyboard is too small for many hands — including mine.
In addition to a tiny (but full QWERTY) keyboard, the Centro features a touchscreen, Bluetooth, a microSD card slot, and a 1.3 MP camera.
Palm also announced that Google Maps and the My Location feature popularized by the iPhone will soon be available for all Centro users.
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Notebook Sales Up 35%, Led By HP
Posted by Joe on June 24, 2008 · Comments Off
Notebook computer sales increased 35% in the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago, according to a report by market research firm DisplaySearch. HP led the way with 20.8% of sales, followed by Dell with 15.1%. Acer, Toshiba and Lenova rounded out the top five, and Apple surged from 8th place last year to 7th place this year. Asus moved to 8th place, no doubt partly because of the EEE’s success.
Interestingly, 15.4″ 1280 × 800 screens accounted for almost 50% of all notebook PCs shipped in the quarter, while 14.1″
1280 × 800 screens took a 22% share. [...]
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One Billion Served
Posted by Joe on June 23, 2008 · Comments Off
From vnunet.com: “There are now more than one billion PCs in use worldwide and this number will double by the year 2014, according to Gartner research.”
We’ve come a long way since the Commodore VIC-20 was the first computer to sell over 1 million units back in 1983.
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Surflizard Mobile Links Directory
Posted by Joe on June 22, 2008 · Comments Off
Introducing Surflizard Mobile Links — a small link directory of sites formatted for smart phones. The site is still under development, but it’s very usable now and should work great with any smart phone browser. The look and feel is somewhat iPhoney, but it also renders nicely in my Treo 650′s uninspiring Blazer browser. Feedback and suggestions are welcome.
Access Surflizard Mobile Links at m.surflizard.com
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The Next Step In PC Evolution
Posted by Joe on June 20, 2008 · Comments Off
It’s no secret that today’s high-end graphics cards are more powerful than desktop PCs of a few years ago. However, things are about to get a lot more interesting:
The PC industry’s two largest graphics companies released new top-of-the-line models this week. The new graphics processors will bring not just better videogame performance, but will also turn ordinary desktop PCs into the equivalent of supercomputers — if programmers can figure out how to take advantage of the chips’ massively parallel architectures.
A little over ten years ago, ASCI Red was the first [...]
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YOU @ YMAIL.COM and ROCKETMAIL.COM
Posted by Joe on June 19, 2008 · Comments Off
If you’ve tried to sign up for a Yahoo! email address in the last few years, finding an available user name was probably a frustrating experience. But now, it sounds like you’re about to get another chance. On Thursday, Yahoo! will begin offering a new email domain, “ymail.com”, to new and existing users. There will likely be a land-rush to get new names, and who can blame anyone for wanting to grab a sexy new address: joecool@ymail.com is certainly preferable to joekooll2789@yahoo.com.
Yahoo! will also begin offering rocketmail.com email addresses. You may remember [...]
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Skype 4.0 Beta Will Improve Video Calling
Posted by Joe on June 17, 2008 · Comments Off
The Skype internet calling service will be getting a major redesign with Skype 4.0, according to The New York Times. The new design will make video calling more intuitive and will improve on usability. The article mentions that an impressive 28 percent of the calls on its service include live video. That’s very Jetsons, but I’d still prefer a flying car and robot maid.
Check for the Skype 4.0 beta here, or grab the current version here.
Filed in: SL
Firefox 3, Firefox 3 Portable Available Now
Posted by Joe on June 17, 2008 · Comments Off
Not only is Firefox 3 now available for download, but Firefox 3 Portable Edition is also available. The portable edition isn’t just for thumb drives — it can also be ran from your hard drive. It’s a great way to try the browser out without installing it.
Lifehacker has posted a helpful guide to the newest Firefox.
Filed in: SL
Treo 650 Lights Out
Posted by Joe on June 15, 2008 · Comments Off
As my fellow Treo 650 owners probably know, there is an LED light just above the screen that blinks constantly when the phone is on — red for no signal and green when a signal is available. Turning off the phone is the only way to get the light to stay off. Or so I thought. Today I discovered a free Palm app called LEDOff that silences the blinking LED light once and for all. The program is over 3 years old, and I can’t believe I never stumbled across it before. For someone like me, who spends hours every day staring at my Treo’s screen (reading books, mostly), this program [...]
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Engineered Micro-Organisms Eat Waste, Excrete Crude Oil
Posted by Joe on June 15, 2008 · Comments Off
Scientists are working on “the genetic alteration of bugs – very, very small ones – so that when they feed on agricultural waste such as woodchips or wheat straw, they do something extraordinary. They excrete crude oil.” Let’s hope it pans out.
Filed in: SL
Opera 9.5 Released — Great Web Browser Gets Better
Posted by Joe on June 13, 2008 · Comments Off
Version 9.5 of the Opera web browser is now available for download. Opera has always been fast, but Opera 9.5 feels a lot faster and more responsive than either Firefox or IE.
The latest version of the browser almost no one uses also features an impressive search feature built into the address bar — just start typing, and the browser looks through the history of not just URLs and page titles, but also page contents. That’s a seriously cool feature that makes finding back recently visited sites much easier.
Opera 9.5 also offers beefed up malware protection, courtesy of Seattle-based [...]
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TidalTV Takes On Local Cable
Posted by Joe on June 11, 2008 · Comments Off
At first glance, TidalTV appears to be just another Hulu competitor. However, this new content streaming site is actually much more than that. In fact, it looks and feels more like your cable tv service than a video streaming web site. In addition to the expected “On Demand” content, there’s also a familiar-looking “Channel Guide” featuring a list of online channels including Food Network, The Weather Channel, HGTV, National Geographic Channel, CBS and others.
These feeds are like traditional TV channels with scheduled programming. The CBS channel, for example, [...]
Filed in: SL
Disney To Begin Streaming Full Length Movies On Web
Posted by Joe on June 10, 2008 · Comments Off
Don’t get too excited, only a few films will be streamed. According to a Disney press release, Disney films that air on ABC as part of the network’s weekly Wonderful World of Disney will be available for free streaming on Disney.com for the week following the network airing (Monday – Friday). Here’s the schedule:
“Finding Nemo†– currently available online through June 13
“Monsters Inc.†– airs on ABC Saturday, June 14 at 8pm; available on Disney.com June 16-20
“Haunted Mansion†– airs on ABC Saturday, June [...]
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New iPhone Faster, Not Cheaper
Posted by Joe on June 9, 2008 · Comments Off
In case you haven’t heard, the new $199 3G iPhone will end up costing more than the old model. That’s because AT&T is charging $10 a month more for data services. The monthly data charge will now be $30. Of course, that’s still pretty cheap for unlimited data on a very fast network. But that brings the total monthly bill, including the cheapest voice plan, to just under $70.
Read: AT&T Press Release
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How to Get and Keep Windows XP After June 30
Posted by Joe on June 9, 2008 · Comments Off
If you’re not ready to say goodbye, PC World has the info.
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TheWB.com Gets The Job Done
Posted by Joe on June 9, 2008 · Comments Off
I’ve spent some time with Warner Bros’ new content site, TheWB.com (currently in private beta). So far, it appears to be a fairly competent cookie-cutter site delivering the network’s programming over the web on demand. That’s not a bad thing, but it does make me wonder why a long private beta is necessary. After all, the technology being used is also being used by just about every other tv network, not to mention countless video sharing sites.
Of course, it’s the content that matters. And the lineup on TheWB is pretty good, with Friends, Gilmore Girls, The OC, [...]
Filed in: SL
Tough Break For Ebay and Sellers
Posted by Joe on June 9, 2008 · Comments Off
The online auctioneer has lost a suit brought by designer handbag designer Hermès in a French court. Via BusinessWeek:
A court in the eastern French city of Troyes on June 4 ruled against eBay in a suit brought by Paris luxury house Hermès over the sale of fake Hermès-branded handbags listed on eBay’s French site. “By selling Hermès bags and branded accessories on the eBay.fr site and by failing to act within their powers to prevent reprehensible use of the site,” both the seller and eBay “committed acts of counterfeiting,” the court said.
eBay and the [...]
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A Musical Grill
Posted by Joe on June 1, 2008 · Comments Off
The George Foreman iPod Grill is an interesting idea. An indoor/outdoor electric grill with an audio jack for an MP3 player. From Amazon: “The unique appliance not only grills, but it can also provide music to help set the mood–whether romantic or fun and festive during a party. For music capabilities, the unit comes equipped with a 10-watt speaker and the ability to be used with an iPod or MP3 player.” Why not?
It’s available from Amazon for $149.99 with free shipping, and not a bad Father’s Day idea.
Filed in: SL
Some Thoughts On Netflix Watch Now, And Re-tasking An Old PC
Posted by Joe on May 28, 2008 · Comments Off
I’ve got an older Windows XP computer hooked up to my home theater. This re-tasked veteran is used mainly to store and play ripped DVDs and other video files. However, I’ve also been playing around with streaming video from the internet to my TV. The results are hit and miss. Hulu, for example, is generally pretty good but sometimes suffers from a very low frame rate that results in jerky playback. It’s still a great place to catch free video content, but it’s not as good as it could be.
Netflix Watch Now, on the other hand, is almost flawless. We watched the full length [...]
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Unimpressive $10 Cell Phone Now Available
Posted by Joe on May 28, 2008 · Comments Off
The awkwardly named Hop-On Hop1800 is now available for $10. The mobile phone has no display and is being touted as the “anti-iPhone” because of it’s simp[licity and lack of features. According to Hop-On, “the pre-paid HOP1800 is ideal as a backup cell phone, when traveling abroad, or for anyone looking for a super affordable cell phone that does one thing extremely well: make phone calls.”
The Hop1800 can be used with over 40 US carriers including AT&T, Cingular and T-Mobile as well as through Hop-On’s own Graffiti Wireless(tm) network.
The media [...]
Filed in: SL
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