Garmin Targets the iPhone

Wednesday night surprised the cellphone industry by taking its own leap into smartphones. The Nuvifone aims both to compete with the iPhone as well as to bring Garmin's experience with GPS navigation to the forefront. Check it out here.

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Getting technology from an advanced alien civilization

I've been looking at SRGmail as a viable alternative to our current messaging infrastructure for the past year or so. One of the first stories I read was about Arizona State University adopting it for their 65,000 students and faculty. The Technology Officer at ASU goes on record making and incredibly compelling argument for the adoption of the Google platform.

My favorite quote is "It's no exaggeration to say that switching to the Google Platform has been like getting technology from an advanced alien civilization."

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Google Image Labeler - The Game

Google is now enticing it's users to help develop their image labeling infrastructure and intelligence. You can compete against other random users to race against the clock while you provide labels for images. Not sure what happens if players intentionally give erroneous labels for images. In any case, check it out.

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Mosso - Our Web Hosting Platform

Like Google and 37signals, Mosso keeps upgrading improving their platform. There have been several small upgrades since we started using them. They are now poised to launch an even more scalable platform for large enterprise apps. They will be hosting a webinar to outline new features and allow customers to provide feedback. To add the event to your calendar click this link.

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New Features for Google Enterprise Application Suite

As I've mentioned before, we are taking a long hard look at Google Enterprise Application offering as an alternative to The Micro$oft monopoly. As with everything else Google does, they are constantly updating and upgrading their apps. Here is the latest slew of improvements from Google:

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All About High Definition (and how to get it for free!)

So Santa brought you a shiny new big screen for Christmas, but you're still watching standard definition television? It might be time to take the plunge. By February of next year, the FCC has required that all of the networks will be required to shut off their current analog signals and begin broadcasting digital signals exclusively. 

What does this mean to you? It means 100% free, crystal-clear television. I'll explain:

With analog television (what you get when you hook up the rabbit ears to your old tv) the signal was subject to a lot of noise and signal loss—that's why you would find yourself wrapping aluminum foil around a coat hanger while making your little brother stand on one foot and hold it in the air just to watch The A Team. 

But with digital television, it's different—hook up those same rabbit ears to a new digital TV, and you either get the signal clear as day, or you don't get it at all. There's no snow, no interference, no static. In other words, it's just as good as the signal you get from satellite or cable (actually, it's better, but that's another discussion altogether).

All you need is a television with a "ATSC" tuner (a.k.a. high-def tuner), and a UHF antenna. Where you live will dictate what you can receive for free "over the air." Currently, only FOX-31 and WB-2 are the only networks broadcasting from the towers on Lookout Mountain. Broadcasts from that location will reach as far north as Ft. Collins, and as far south as Colorado Springs. PBS-6 broadcasts from Squaw Mountain near Evergreen. The remaining channels (4, 7, 9 and 20) are broadcasting from downtown Denver, so unless you live IN the city, you're probably out of luck right now. However, this spring they will all be moving to the new super-tower on Lookout Mountain. Then, anyone in the metro area will be able to get free HD programming.

If you're like me, you are cheap, impatient and live in Boulder. I want all of my local channels in HD, don't want to wait until this spring to get them, and can't get a signal from the towers in downtown Denver. Well, I have a solution that covers most of that. If you have a TV with a "QAM" tuner (a slightly fancier version of a high-def tuner) you can get Comcast's most basic cable package for $13 a month, and get all of the local HD channels for free.

Just plug in the cable from the wall (no converter box), turn your TV over to digital mode and scan for the available channels. My set picked up 355 channels, though all but two dozen were not broadcasting anything. BUT, I am getting 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 20 and 31 in high definition. Comcast generally charges $10 a month extra for the HD channels (on top of their $50/month 'digital' cable package (which isn't really digital)). 

Enjoy!

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iTunes Rentals

I rented my first movie via iTunes rentals this weekend. Overall it was a fairly positive experience. I browsed the catalog, picked my movie, clicked the rent button, and with in about 20 minutes I was watching the movie (Superbad - hilarious!). The way it works is you have 30 days to watch the movie once you download it. However, once you click play, you have 24 hours to watch it before it is automatically deleted. I'm not a huge fan of that. If your movie it interrupted, you either have to watch the rest of it as soon as you are done with your interruption, or you have 24 hours (or 22 or 21) to complete it which is not always feasible.

So Apple, if you have your finger on the pulse of the blogosphere, change it to 36 or even 72 hours. That way we have the whole weekend to watch it.

At the end of the day as long as the video it output to a device (like a tv) the content can be captured, which makes the whole DRM/Deletion scheme mute.

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