Streaming Mobile Radio is Wunderful

I crossed upon a great app for the iPhone and Windows Mobile, soon BlackBerry and Andriod - it's called WunderRadio.

It's certainly not a new concept. Essentially it's radio stations streamed to your cellphone, but what I have found unique about this sweet app is it lets you use your GPS to find local stations wherever you are, instantly. I studied abroad in Scotland for 6 months back in college, so I have a warm fuzzy place for everything UK, so I quickly looked up some Scottish stations and was shocked to see over 100 different ones!

The site says over 36,000 stations and let me tell you, it's very true! Best of all, many of the stations are very high quality at 128+ bit rate for each (some I've seen as high as 320).

If you are like me and hate the 2-3 local stations on your car stereo, try plugging in your phone to your AUX jack and expand your horizons. There is a whole world of radio out there - literally.

Check it out here: http://www.wunderradio.com/

The WM version lets you try it for 15 days and then you can buy it for $15, not sure if it's the same for the iPhone.

Happy listening!

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Power IT Down Day

In today's energy hungry world, we need to do everything we can to conserve energy. Within the world of the corporate enterprise, small changes can add up to make a big difference. That is why I fully support HP's Power IT Down Day. Here is how HP describes it:

"On August 27, power down your computer, monitor, and printer at the end of the day. We’ll calculate the number of people who Power IT Down, and post the results."

It would be really nice if the plan was to power everything down for the entire day. Imagine the potential for impact! Check back on this site for updates on the energy saved.

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Google Kisses 'Beta' Goodbye

After five years of being in 'beta' status, Google has decided Gmail (and all of it's Google Apps - Docs, Talk, etc.) are not longer in beta! Hurray! And for some very pointless reason, if you really loved seeing "BETA" Google put in a setting that lets you toggle it back on... Wow. Thank goodness we can do that!

Check out the full scoop here.

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iPhone 3gs - A Week Later

I've had the new iPhone 3gs for about a week now. Overall I am very pleased with the upgrade. The most notable difference is the speed at which the device functions. The best word to describe this is 'snappy'. The iPhone 3gs performs a lot 'snappier' then it's predecessors. In turn this has a dramatic impact on the user experience. With the increase in snappiness there is a decrease in bugginess, also benefiting the user experience. The video recording capability is excellent. Like all things Apple it is intuitive and easy to use. Check out a sample recording below. The integration of the compass with maps is also a big plus. This enables a basic equivalent of turn by turn directions found in dedicated GPS devices. My favorite feature, which is enabled on all iPhones running the 3.0 OS is the ability to turn of multiple text alerts. That drove me crazy! This article describes what you can expect in the upcoming iPhone 3.1 OS.

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Post Palm Pre Launch Update

It's been a little over a month since the Palm Pre launched on Sprint's Now Network, but how has it been doing? Well, considering that in June alone it sold over 300,000 units and 70,000 units in the last week or so of May, things are looking pretty good for both Palm and Sprint.

Now if we toss out this little tidbit, it gets kind of exciting - the last Palm phone sold only 350,00o-ish phones in its first fiscal quarter. So actually, the Palm Pre is really kicking butt! Nicely done Palm, nicely done. It may not be much compared to the zillion or so iPhones sold, but I do think Apple is a little uneasy about the success of the Pre launch. In the end it's great for all of us, the consumers.

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Spam Trends

As an IT professional, email security, especially spam protection, is one of my biggest bugaboos. As a matter of fact, it is nothing short of a major pain in the ass for administrators and end users alike. Spam protection is very much a cat and mouse game. You optimize you mail server, it reduces spam levels, and a few months later you are getting more spam then before the optimization. In this recent report from Google mail and threat filtering service Postini, my assessment is confirmed. Read more.

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Firefox 3.5 Released!

The next big update from FireFox is officially out. They claim it's significantly faster than previous Firefox versions. There are a few other new features, check them out here.

You can download Firefox 3.5 here.

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