Apple Tablet Rumors

If you're interested in some of the rumors surrounding the upcoming Table from Apple, head on over to cdevroe.com for a good list of rumor sites and updates.

I on the other hand am more interested to hear any announcements concerning the iPhone 4.0 OS and possible 4G releases of the iPhone.

SixthSense Technology Opens up New Possibilities between Digital & Real Worlds

If you're stoked on "Surface," get ready to be blown away. Watch the video and leave comments.

Boiling a Google? How 'bout Just One Webbed Toe

Scott Lemon (aka "humancell" on Twitter) posted an interesting view on how Google is missing the boat with Twitter and failing to understand the threat Twitter poses. While I agree with the basic premise of Google being a frog in the boiling water surrounding real-time search, I would caution the reader to consider the bigger picture.

Search is just one component of what makes Google, well, Google. While real-time search is certainly not in their back pocket, for the moment, stating that the whole google frog is silently swimming in a boiling death pool is a bit much. Were Twitter to take aim at email, live documents, video, ads and a host of other initiatives Google excels at, then I'd say the analogy would be accurate.

At this point, I think we can call it what it really is. One webbed toe in the simmering pot. Let's not get to anxious to kill the whole Google frog before it's time.

Projector Mobile Phone?

Oh yeah, this one's cool. Checkout the projector phone. Thanks J for posting.

Exponential Living: So What Does it All Mean?

Too Much Time On Your Hands?

How 'bout creating a water show?

iPhone as Modem for a Laptop? Sign Me Up

Supposedly, AT&T is going to be sanctioning the iPhone as a modem for the laptop, "soon," according to an interview by Michael Arrington of AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega. Of course, if AT&T has their fingers in the pie on this they'll monetize on it. The pricing information was undisclosed so it should be interesting to see what the plans offer. Wouldn't it just be peachy to tether the phone for free? Ya right!

CNN's 'Hologram' Rebuttal by CNET Makes Sense

OK, I may have categorized myself as idiotic and premature in sounding off about the hologram CNN showcased during election night. According to CNET's blogger, I must be "drinking Wolf Blitzer's Kool-Aid" if I believe that the technology took news reporting to a new height.

The blogger made some good points though:

• We receive value in seeing the environment of a reporter
• Elimination of the environment may make the setting more intimate but it obscures the true report
• The hologram was a bit poor as the rendering was somewhat jagged

All that said, it was cool for a major network to try out the technology. Maybe this will spark additional technologies and give us more empowerment in the future.

Star Wars Style Hologram on CNN's Election Lineup

For those of you that missed it (myself included), CNN developed and ran a hologram rendering, real-time, of a correspondent in a remote location and merged it with a newsroom rendering during the election night broadcast.

What's cool about this is we've been watching this technology in the movies since, oh, 1977 with EP IV, A New Hope. But to actually implement it and during the election night broadcast of all times to unveil it is pretty cool. Next thing you know Apple will develop the iChat into iHolo and we'll have mobile holograms. Hmm, iHolo. Maybe I should register that trademark and domain ;)

I'm a PC Ads Getting All Up in Apple's Bizness

Is anyone else out there turned off by Microsoft's lame "I'm a PC" ad campaign? Not only are the video clips less than funny, they're grainy and certainly not of the same quality as the iChat video.

Now get this. According to cnet, Microsoft has set up a kiosk out side of a Birmingham, England Apple store where PC pundits can video their lame ads in an attempt at landing a TV spot. Right outside the store? Can anyone say tacky!

Now, I'm not a Mac fanboy and admittedly only have a few gadgets and freely admit using a PC for the majority of my work and home computing, but I think this attempt and winning back lost customers is a sink hole. Not only does it confirm MS's lack of creativity, but it displays their lack of innovation and "play catch up" attitude that has prevailed in their history.

Thoughts?

Google Gets Cheeky For Halloween: Wards Off Zombies in Geek Speak

If you understand the following, you'll know it comes from the robots.txt file and Google has entered the cheeky world of Halloween tech fun. Enjoy!

User-agent: zombies<br />Disallow: /brains<br /><br />User-agent: *<br />Allow: /searchhistory/<br />Disallow: /news?output=xhtml&<br />Allow: /news?output=xhtml<br />Disallow: /search<br />

Virtual Crime Punishable in Real World?

With many people in the gaming world engaging in virtual relationships, it comes as no surprise that crimes do exist in the virtual world. Many platforms also enforce certain levels of decorum from their gamers. But can a crime in the virtual world be punishable in the real world?

In Japan, a woman recently found herself in jail from "virtually killing off" her husband's online character. When she found her character divorced, she used her husband's ID/password to log into the game and she whacked off the character. Somehow police in the real world got wind of this and hauled her off to jail, 620 miles from her home. If convicted, she could face up to 5 years in prison and a fine of up to $5K.

Moral of the story, mind your P's and Q's, even in the virtual world.

Impulse Over Restraint Warrants Restrictive Mobile Access While Driving?

Do you find yourself in the category of impulsively, almost involuntarily, picking up your mobile when an incoming call shocks you out of your existing focus? Even when you're driving? If you're that obsessive, here's the application for you; but it's gonna cost ya. According to TechDirt, the application senses you're driving, through movement, and routes the call directly to voicemail.

What TechDirt also picks apart is the fact that the app could be flawed in that in the same proverbial moving car you could merely be a passenger, or you could be on a bus. More importantly, why not just "not pick up the phone?" Obviously they've never experience compulsive behaviors ;) But honestly, if you're that obsessive, would you be willing to pay for the solution? Why not just turn your phone off?

Worth it? Chime in.

Tech Mimics Art: Isn't that How it Goes?

YouTube has implemented a feature that seemingly was first published by XKCD where comments on YouTube may be audibly repeated back to the end user prior to submitting to check for the idiocy of the content. Good feature but the ones that probably need it the most are too blind too see the button.

Google Shares Drop $200 (But not Reall)

Youch, can you imagine your stock sinking $200 in the last few minutes of trading? Can you imaging losing $62 billion in market cap? Well, based on the beta version of some software, it was reported that Google did just that. But to everyone's relief, it's still trading at $404 and seems to be doing just fine. Click here to read more.

Is Free Really Free?

I just love free. Who doesn't? I mean, if a friend walks up to you and offers to shovel your walks during a freak snow storm, would you really turn down the offer?

That being said, is free always free or are there obligations associated with the "freeness?" In the above example, would the friend require anything for his service (i.e. hot chocolate, or return of the favor some day) or is it just that, service?

In the business world, free is a term that is used liberally to mean upfront no catches but we'll get you eventually. Do you remember the days of NetZero and free dial-up? One could argue that the service was free, with the annoying ad banners. But in the long haul, especially when we got a taste for speedier services, we longed for bigger pipes and were willing to pay just a little more. So free amounted to long term connection addiction and eventually an adulterous affair (or at a minimum cohabitation) with the Internet.

Today's example of something that is marketed as free but really isn't was a deal I scored that originated on slickdeals.net (yes, R, you can sigh now). The offer was from GoDaddy.com and IndyCar. If you subscribe to the newsletter (not sure what all that entails just yet) you are awarded with a free domain purchase. Free!!!

The catch? Spam from IndyCar newsletter. And possibly they sell off your e-mail and your spam filter goes into overdrive.

But come on, a free domain? That's how I scored my first domain, grecca.com (which is currently offline and has been for 1.5 yrs do to a domain transfer to godaddy.com). I like free and if it means having to put gmail to work to filter out the newsletter and any other sluff that may creep into my precious 7 GB email account then so be it.

Remote for iPhone

Wow, I just got a cool little free app working on my iPhone. This is the best thing I've seen since upgrading to iPhone 2.0. The premise is that any iTunes that is on the same LAN as the iPhone can be remotely controlled through the iPhone. And sure enough, the little bugger works like a charm.
The interface is decent for the iPhone and the response is immediate. The only caveat is for device that are on the LAN but connected to a VPN. Those devices are offlimits. Should be fun later to remotely start a song while my kids are upstairs, then ask them why they're playing iTunes and get that "Who me?" look from them :)

iPhone Back, Mostly

So just after I posted my ugly review of the iBrick, the iPhone decided it was time to get out the queue and actually finish the restoration. Mostly.

The phone became active again but all of my bookmarks, wall papers, music, video, pictures, txt histories, contacts, everything was still missing. Trying now to restore those as well. Hopefully not all is lost.

iPhone 2.0 Firmware Update Bricked Me

Uggggh! While I've sung the praises of the device that beats all other smart phones for firmware upgrades at no cost, I have to publicly admit I'm highly disappointed with Apple's preparedness today and my now useless iBrick. Yep, upon upgrading my iPhone 1st Gen to 2.0 status, the complete process failed and my iPhone is currently useless.

But to my relief, I'm not alone. Others have flooded the Internet, especially Twitter, with posts of their grief and dismay. All seem to have the same issue: all seems to go well (backup, upgrade, restore) then when accessing the iTunes Store for activation and the last step in the restoration process you get an error and a device that only allows for "emergency calls" with no signal to actually make the call.

Some have stated that the devices are in queue. I highly doubt this as the events to activate are user driven, not asynchronous queued events. The reality is 1st gen owners are competing with bandwidth and server issues with 2nd gen owners and Apple just simplied messed up. Will they be forgiven. Off course, as long as there are Apple Fanboys out there. Will the blogosphere forget this punishing day? Hopefully not.

As for me, I will not forget this day and will likely be a bit more hestitant to upgrade my firmware without waiting a few weeks. After hearing positive reviews from yesterday's successes, I thought, "sure, I'll chance it." Never again. Thanks Apple for a very stressful day. May it end well for both of us.

Like Tech Freebie Online Software?

If you're like me, you like a good deal, especially when it's free. There are several sources available online that offer just that, monetizing on ads or upselling users for more premium services.

Click this link to explore a few common services available. Also, don't forget FotoFlexer in the list of cool apps for photo editing. The image below was modified using FotoFlexer. You can also Crank it by clicking on the icon on the image and add your own text or image on top. Give it a try and have fun!