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November 2008
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BlackBerry Storm selling out at many Verizon stores First Impressions: WowWee Rovio robot Time Warner Cable adds 11 HD channels in 15 N. Texas towns The Tech Team holiday gift guide Verizon Wireless employees snooped on Obama's cell phone records Samsung to slash prices on DLP HDTVs Microsoft improves Zune subscription offering, giving users 10 songs to keep each month Categories
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November 21, 2008
If you were thinking about picking one up on your way home from work this afternoon, you might want to call the store before you make the drive. I'm getting a review unit this afternoon, so I'll probably have some first impressions to write up Monday. Early reviews from other sources say it's good but not the revolutionary device that some expected. Here's Mossberg's Storm review from The Journal.  Comments (8) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "BlackBerry Storm selling out at many Verizon stores" is tagged: blackberry , Storm , Verizon
I'm testing WowWee's new Rovio robot, and I'm impressed. The neat thing about this bot is that it can connect to a Wi-Fi network so that you can drive it from any computer or smart phone with a Web browser. A built in Web camera and microphone lets you see and hear the road from Rovio's point of view, so you can literally remote control this droid from anywhere in the world. Want to patrol your house with Rovio while you're at work (or on a business trip on the other side of the world)? You can! And since the Rovio even has a speaker, you can talk into a microphone connected to your computer and have your voice pop out of the robot. Quite nifty. If the computer you'll use to drive Rovio is on the same network as the robot itself, it's easy to set up. But controlling Rovio on a separate network (i.e. Rovio on one wireless network, and you on another network) is a bit complicated, and requires delving into the settings on your wireless router. So I'll be digging into that functionality over the weekend, and report back next Friday. But if you have any questions or comments from your own experience with a Rovio, let me know. UPDATE: Robert Oschler sends a link to his site where he documents how to control a Rovio with a Nintendo Wii controller. Fancy! Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "First Impressions: WowWee Rovio robot" is tagged: robot , Rovio , WowWee
Dallas, Plano, Richardson and Mesquite got them in March. Irving, Grapevine, Coppell and Lewisville got the same boost in July. Now the wave of HD programming is coming these lucky towns:
The extra 11 stations are now available in all but three towns -- Cedar Hill, DeSoto and Lancaster -- which will get them in December, when Time Warner will bring all of its N. Texas systems up to 50 HD channels. Why push updates in dribs and drabs? Because Time Warner inherited a very antiquated network here in North Texas and it has been working for well over a year to make needed upgrades. Rather than forcing everyone to wait for that upgrade to be completed, the company pushed service improvements as it finished work in individual towns. Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Time Warner Cable adds 11 HD channels in 15 N. Texas towns" is tagged: hd channels , time warner cable , upgrade
In the spirit of these frugal times, we offer three geek gift suggestions under $100, three under $50, and three under $25. But that doesn't mean we've skimped on cool! You'll find night vision goggles, a Bluetooth headset, an iPhone battery extender and other fun, useful items on our list. Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "The Tech Team holiday gift guide" is tagged: 2008 , budget , holiday gift guide
Look, this is why no president should ever use e-mail or a BlackBerry or any other kind of consumer-level electronic communication: Records from a cell phone used by President-elect Obama were improperly breached, apparently by employees of the cell phone company, Verizon Wireless said Thursday. An Obama spokesman said the transition team was told Verizon Wireless workers looked through billing records. It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that this breach, as well as the hack on Sarah Palin's e-mail, should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But if the President-elect insists on keeping his personal e-mail and phone when he takes office, expect more of these types of stories. Comments (1) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Verizon Wireless employees snooped on Obama's cell phone records" is tagged: Barack Obama , breach , cell phone , employee , records , Verizon Wireless
(No, such features are useless here in Dallas because few people take public transportation and no one walks any distance more than 50 yards, except when jogging or taking their dogs out, but you don't need directions for that.) But there is some other cool stuff:
And yes, the update does come with the ability to download free podcasts from iTunes via Wi-Fi or the cellular network. Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Apple releases iPhone OS 2.2" is tagged: 2.2 , apple , AT&T , iphone , update November 20, 2008
Yes, they're about three times as thick as plasma and LCD sets, but DLP televisions offer big, beautiful pictures at very attractive prices. And those prices may soon get much more attractive. HD Guru says that Samsung is about to cut the price on several DLP HDTVs by anything from $200 to $600. The MSRP of this monster set at the top of this post -- a 67-inch model that will dominate your living room -- will fall from $2,300 to $1,800. Given that it currently sells about $500 under MSRP on Amazon, the actual price may end up around $1,300. That's right: $1,300 for a HUGE set that fares well on every review I've seen. Check out HD Guru for word on other bargains. Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Samsung to slash prices on DLP HDTVs" is tagged: discounts , dlp , hdtv , samsung
For their $14.95 monthly fee, Zune Pass subscribers will now also get 10 songs every month that they can permanently download and keep, even if they cancel their subscriptions. Previously, you could only listen to your songs as long as you kept paying your subscription. Microsoft didn't have much luck signing up subscribers with that model, though, and is offering the 10-song deal as a sweetener. Assuming you could buy each of those 10 song for 99 cents each, this basically drops the cost of the all-you-can-eat subscription to five bucks a month. That seems like an incredibly good deal (if you normally purchase and download more than five songs per month, you'll be coming out ahead with the subscription), but I think the current economy has people so spooked that no one wants to be locked into a monthly expense that they can't easily dial back. In other words, if I'm an a la carte music buyer and I decide I don't want to spend anything on music downloads this month, I stop buying new songs and just listen to all the tunes I've previously downloaded over the years. But if I'm on a subscription plan and want to eliminate my music budget for a month or two, I'd have to cancel my subscription, and during that time, I'd lose access to all the music I'd previously downloaded. So I'd bet that Microsoft will continue to see little demand for their subscription offering. But in a year (or two, if the economy really stinks), I'd guess subscriptions are a lot more popular. Comments (2) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Microsoft improves Zune subscription offering, giving users 10 songs to keep each month" is tagged: download , Microsoft , music , subscription , Zune Pass November 19, 2008
Electric car maker Tesla Motors is requesting a $400 million federal loan as part of the multi-billion-dollar bailout package that lawmakers are currently considering for GM, Ford and Chrysler. So, let's get this straight, Tesla: you're a startup company making super-expensive sports cars that only a tiny handful of people can afford, and you want cash-strapped taxpayers to pony up almost half a billion dollars in low-interest loans? There may even be a case to be made that this investment could have a long-term payoff for the economy in a way that propping up the dinosaurs of Detroit never will, but the way that Tesla is trying to drift into this money in the wake of the mammoth sums being discussed for the Big 3 seems likely to make a lot of people upset. But maybe I'm wrong. Would you guys be willing to loan Tesla $400 million in taxpayer money? And remember, this is a startup company that could easily go under and never repay a dime. Comments (20) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Electric car maker Tesla Motors wants a $400 million federal loan as part of the auto industry bailout" is tagged: $400 million , bailout , electric car , loan , Tesla Motors
It apparently weighs 4.5 pounds, which is heavy for a computer with a 12-inch screen. Another concern, the product page doesn't say a word about battery life, which is odd given that this has an LED screen and an Energy Star certificate. Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "HP unveils multi-touch tablet notebook" is tagged: apple , hewlett-packard , hp , laptop , notebook , tablet
Sprint has been spending a lot of money to advertise NFL Mobile Live, a program that packs all sorts of NFL content -- including the ability to see a handful of NFL games live. Fans who don't have Sprint -- but do have a Symbian or Windows Mobile smart phone -- can turn to Skyfire instead. Skyfire is a Web browser for smart phones that lets you see pretty much anything on your phone that you could see from your computer at home. Skyfire users can thus see all 12 of the remaining NFL games that will be shown online at NFL.com and sundaynightisfootballnight.com. Granted, a tiny screen is a terrible place to watch an NFL football game, but if you're on the road and you team is playing, it will seem like a godsend. Comments (1) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Skyfire lets you watch 12 NFL games on your smart phone" is tagged: nfl football , skyfire , sprint
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I bought the BB Storm at noon today and
I bought the BB Storm at noon today and
One of the many things I like about sto
One of the many things I like about sto
One of the many things I like about sto
You will definitely love the Storm once
There is a bit of a learning curve, but
I very disappointed with the new Storm.
and lets not forget the snooping conduc
*sigh* Makes you wonder why they don't