Paul's Blog

Apple gave us a little bit of a surprise earlier this month. They showed off a little prototype of a device they're calling the "iTV." Now, this isn't a new device idea. There have been many successful renditions of this very technology by companies like DLink, Buffalo, LinkSys, and even Microsoft. The up-side is what you can do with it that you can't do with the others: view your content from your iTunes library.

I keep an extensive collection of photos, music, and movies on my PC and network. I do this because I want it to be convenient, and I want it available in different rooms of my house, as well as on devices like my iPod. It's simple to download videos to an iPod, and I can use my Roku soundbridge to listen to my iTunes library (well, not any more... since Version 7 of iTunes, and you can't listen to your DRM'd material ... grr!), or watch stuff through my DLink DSM-320. So, why not be able to stream "high quality" (read: TV resolution) images to your 60" Plasma TV from your iTunes Library?

I think Apple made a great move here, slow as it was, so that people would actually WANT to own one of these devices and it would give people more reasons to purchase TV and Movies from iTunes. I mean, honestly, you're able to look at the materials on a device like a TV, in another room, you don't even need an iPod (just your iTV). So now there's a whole new group of people that can get in on Apple's game.

I love my iPod, I love streaming material to other rooms and through my whole-house audio system, but I'm also a fan of "Freedom" when it comes to my entertainment. Though I have purchased a number of tracks from iTunes, I have yet to do this with video materials such as TV or Movies. Granted, this is convenient. But, once it's DRM'd, I can't do anything with it, anywhere, but in iTunes. Of course, now Apple has "solved" this problem, too, haven't they?

The one issue I see is the thing that turns me off with many devices like this: you have to have your TV on to listen to music. I mean, sure, those visualizations are nice, and sure the song and artist titles are cool to see, but... sometimes, I'm out in my yard just listening and why should my TV have to be on for me to listen to music? Well, OK, so the way *I* have things, it works without the TV screen actually being on, but that may not be an option for everyone else.

It's time to sit back and wait for the early part of 2007 and see what (and how well) the iTV brings to the table.

Now we have some choices on either side of the fence. The two giants have "released" their latest products for the coming holiday season. It looks like Microsoft is really climbing the ranks of actually usable and supportable technology. You look at Microsoft's vision of it's operating system, office suite, and it's amazing gaming industry leader, the Xbox 360. Now there's the Zune. The Zune comes it 3 colors, white, black and brown. Sharing music wirelessly seems like a great option, but it's not without a price. You only get three listens to any song that you receive, for up to three days. After that you have the option to buy the song, unless you are on Microsoft's unlimited plan for it's media store.

Apple, on the other hand, has released a few new goodies in the iPod space. Some of the most notable differences in their latest incarnation of the full-sized iPod. The latest and greatest shows off some better screen resolution by doubling what was there before - something I've been waiting for this past year. It also boosts the brightness of the device, in addition to delivering an 80GB version. The beauty is that they've decided to lower the overall pricing by $50; which is a bonus. Let alone the upgrades to iTunes via version 7, as well as about the smallest MP3 player (the new iPod shuffle), and some funky colors and sizes for the iPod Nano/Mini.

So, what do you pick when you buy one of these things? Me, I'm partial to the iPod only because I really like the look, the technology architecture behind it, and also the fact that I have invested dollars and a zillion hours importing my library into iTunes. Now, if there wasn't anything called DRM, it would be an easy switch to something like the Zune. But, unless I want to do something illegal or just give up on the quality of the playback of some of my tracks, I can't easily give up my iTunes library for the Windows Media library. Here's where I get annoyed...

I have devices in my home that support streaming of content. Some work with iTunes, some don't. Actually, NONE of them work with iTunes 7, right now... which is annoying. Windows Media works out well if I set up a Windows Media Center Edition PC. But, I'd need hardware, time, and an OEM copy of the software. That kind of stuff takes no less than $600-$800 to do right; even with reuse of some of my hardware. So, why can't I make all of this stuff work with my NSLU2 NAS running TwonkyVision's Media Server, and make use of storage on my Red Hat box?

As you can understand, this goes in circles when you're trying to integrate your whole house into a singular interface. In the meantime, I'm going to wait and see what the Zune looks like up close, and also wait to see what the new iTV brings to the table for streaming of content to my Entertainment Center.

Over the years, there have been a number of amazing improvements to the gaming genre of commercial game play. I am constantly astounded by the quality of graphics, sound, and manuverability of the characters and their functions. Sometimes, however, the gameplay itself isn't all that interesting, but the rest of the package makes the game amusing.

Most recently, I've become interested in games that were out of the genre that I had orginally enjoyed so many years ago. Prior to the past six to eight months, I often preferred first-person-shooters, flying, or driving games. This would range anywhere from playing GT3/4 on the PS/2 to playing Doom or CounterStrike (both of which I stunk at) on my PC. In the days of yore, I would play Galaxian, Galaga, and Missle Command.... or even F3 (an early Microsoft action flying/shoot-em-up game for Windows).

My more recent attentions have been turned towards Role Playing games. I was never a fan of these Fantasy play games before this year, really. I didn't mind "adventure" games (can you say "Zork?"), but MMORPG games didn't really get my attention until recently. I am now, sadly, hooked. I had gotten a demo of "Guild Wars" a while back and started playing it and thought it was great fun. Then, the Factions add-on, now... I'm fooling with the latest Nightfall "preview" this weekend. Other than that I made the horrible mistake of trying out Warcraft, and have decided that it should - indeed - be called "WarCrack." I'm hooked on this game, even though I've only played a few actual hours and am only a level 9 undead Warrior (I know, all the kids are laughing at me).

Truth be told, these games are fantastic transportations of imagination and finely crafted worlds with economy, community, and friendships. I'm totally amazed at how vast these worlds are and how much there is to do and learn. The beauty of the graphics and the soundtracks are definitely something which immerse you and make the game expand around you. If you're lucky enough to have a Surround Sound System set up with your game PC, you'll likely feel like you're in the middle of the action, for sure.

I guess what I'm saying is, take if from someone who never got into these types of games, you'll love them and you should check them out. They're something that can make you feel like doing something with your brain and not just staring at your TV or wasting time surfing blogs on the web. ;)

Here's the scenario: You're out at a book store, you look at the book price and it's the list price on the book. You think "Gee, I wonder if Amazon has that cheaper?" Enter Amabuddy.com. Now, I'm sure you're thinking, what good is a website while I'm at a store? Or, I hate using the web browser on my phone, it's too small! Here's the good news:

You call a phone number. 1866-835-5637 (+1 617 712 3574 from outside the US), to be exact. You can also access Ringfo via their Skype number (Ringfo via a skype number -- +99038358000 , or click here to launch skype and dial automatically). You type in your ISBN number when it tells you to (or your UPC from CDs and other stuff), and it will tell you Amazons price and the lowest price available through Amazon (like the used section)! Tell me that's not cool? Oh, and so you don't exactly forget what you looked up, it saves the information based on your cell number. If you're hinky about that kind of thing, maybe you don't want to try this, but I'm not hinky. I'm not, I swear!

But anyway, you type in your phone number on the Ringfo/Amabuddy web site home page, when you get home, and it brings up a list of all of the stuff you looked up - with the pictures and Amazon prices. But wait, there's more! It even creates it as an RSS feed, so you can add the feed to your favorite reader and be able to quicky run through your list! HOW COOL IS THAT?!

So, check out "Ringfo" at AmaBuddy.com. This is a neat little tool for doing useful stuff with your cellphone! Now you don't just have to take pictures to remember the stuff you wanted! Of course, if you've got OneNote Mobile (OneNote 12), you'll be able to take a picture of the ISBN and UPC and then search on it later! Whoa! Cool! Or you can do what I think is a good idea: take the kids to Blockbuster to rent games, then snap shots of movies that interest me, then go home and add them to my Netflix queue.

[Via round about searching through comments on 43folders.com]