LIVEdigitally

I love TiVo, and depend on it like most depend on running water, electricity, and high speed internet. I come home from a long day of work, and watch my favorite programs with the trigger finger on fast forward. With all the shows that I record, managing my time in order to watch everything that I’ve recorded is a task in itself.. I’ve almost made a new martial art out of fast forwarding and playing shows in order to view the most vital of content.

Today is a different day. Times change and so does technology. People may or may not change, if I knew about those issues I’d be writing a column entitled “Dear ____”. This here is the tech world baby, and we break for nobody.

Today I picked up the much anticipated Slingbox, from Sling Media.

Thanks to a missed Giants game back in 2002, a man by the name of Krikorian decided to write video streaming code that would allow him to watch his TV wherever he was at. His famous quote goes something like: “I’m already paying for my cable at home, why can’t I watch it somewhere else?” This is where the term “place shifting” was born. VCR’s allowed for “time shifting” –record now, watch later. Sling Media invented “place shifting”.

Before we go any further, let me answer the $64 Million dollar question: What is the Slingbox? Sling Media has created a device that sends a stream from your house to your computer over the internet. This isn’t your normal stream. Most streams are a one way open loop system that dumps content to you with very minimal control as a user. The Slingbox is a controlled stream. You have the ability to change your television channel or program your DVR remotely. Sling Media’s new toy is just getting started so buckle up and enjoy the ride. (more…)

John Battell says it best: Search is no longer a stand-alone application, a useful but impersonal tool for finding something on a new medium called the world wide web. Increasingly, search is our mechanism for how we understand ourselves, our world, and our place within it. It’s how we navigate the one infinite resource that drives human culture: knowledge.

And he should be able to say it pretty good by now, cause he has been working on his book about the search industry for years now. Seriously John, I need this book!

Today I think Yahoo has taken us a step closer to realizing what John was talking about above.

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Everyone knows Billy Shakespeare. He’s the man, the myth, the legend, and now the wireless tour attraction. For 8 pounds you can rent a PDA for a day, and tour of Stratford at your own pace. The town has also popped up some WiFi hotspots for visitors to check their mail or catch the last episode of ‘The Real World’ via their Slingbox (can you tell I’m excited to get one of these).

“Now all the world’s a wi-fi stage as far as this town is concerned. We are sure that the many tourists who like to visit Stratford from across the globe will appreciate how much easier it will be to hit the literary hotspots using the latest technology as your guide,” said Chris Clark, chief executive of BT Wireless Broadband.

AMD has always been biting at the heels of Intel. Today is no different. “Intel today responded angrily to AMD allegations that it has systematically abused its dominant position in the global processor business to drive up prices and stifle competition”, reports vnunet.com AMD has always taken a back seat to Chip leader Intel. It’s a known fact that once you’re the king of the hill, everyone tries to push you off. You’ll stay on top if you push back harder, and intel seems to be pretty good at pushing.

I wonder if AMD is jealous over the Intel/Apple venture?

“Time shifting” has been around since the VCR, which is simply watching a program other than at the time it’s broadcasted (taping it for later). Well if you’re only 20-something years old, then the VCR and time shifting have been around just as long as you have. “Place shifting” is the new catch phrase buzzword. So what the heck am I getting at here?

CompUSA has the Slingbox Personal Broadcaster by Sling Media for presale on it’s website. Place shifting with the Slingbox means watching where you want as well as when you want, “time and place shifting”. With a Slingbox, I can watch my home TV (I have Direct TV), or my TiVo’d shows (I also have TiVo) on my computer, anywhere in the world that has a decent internet connection. This greatly anticipated set top box already has a spot in my entertainment cabinet, it’s just a matter of time now. I would pre-order this beauty, but going down to CompUSA and picking one up would put me in a sling much faster. Keep a sharp eye out for this one.

The iPod is just bigger than big. Grandmothers and toddlers have been seen walking, talking, and gawking about iPods. Well here’s something to yap about: iPods are now 20GB and 60GB selling for $299 and $399 respectively. Oh, and every full size iPod has those intoxicating color screens that we like so much. Goodbye iPod photo (cause every iPod is now a ‘photo’ version) and farewell monochrome iPod.

If that’s not enough for you, iTunes 4.9 has just sprung up. This was a greatly anticipated version of iTunes because it now comes podcast ready. I know what I’m doing later on this evening, let’s see just how ready podcasting is for the world, or the other way around.

English was never any fun for me. I didn’t mind the writing, but I despised the reading. Reading was my kryptonite, Delilah, and the thorn in my paw. How did I ever survive you ask? I skipped pages. When reading “East of Eden” or “The Lord of the Flies” I would read one full page, then skip one full page. I ended up reading ½ as much, but I don’t think I really missed ½ of the book. I never got A’s in English class either.

Motorola has one-upped my cut-the-bs reading technique with their ‘emails abridged’ idea. This technology cuts out small sentences and frivolous phrases thus giving you only the most vital of information while reading emails on your handset. It can be programmed to keep or delete certain preference list words and phrases as well. I’m sure there’s some holes you may see in this feature, but then again, I did pass English class.

Phones cost money. A ‘good’ phone isn’t cheap. But are we using all that we pay for? Executive Vice President of T-Mobile, David Hytha was interviewed by EE Times, and he says “We are choking on technology”.

Right away I think about my current phone, the T-Mobile Sidekick II, and wish that it had more features. I want Bluetooth, an SD expansion slot, more downloadable ringtones, changeable wall paper, more 3rd party applications, a video player, better camera, WiFi, and my list just keeps on going. So What the heck is Hytha talking about when he says choking on technology? I’m in a desert and technology is my rationed water supply.

Then I give it a second thought, and recall a conversation I had one week ago with my father. He is upgrading his Sprint phone (which is about as old as me), and asks me which models to look at. “I just want a phone that can hold a charge, has big buttons, a screen that I can read, and speaker phone”, he says. I think to myself, if my father were locked somewhere and had my phone, he’d die of starvation before figuring out how to dial 911. Maybe David Hytha is right? Too much technology for the normal human being may be similar to too much clothes shopping for the tech geek.

I never liked history classes. Learning about dead guys who talked funny and looked even funnier was just not up my alley. As time moves forward, history is written. In what feels like the blink of an eye I’ve gone from emailing friends with dialup modems, to attaching pictures to an email with my phone –while holding 3 separate instant message chats. The last ten years there has been quite a bit of writing (still sticking with my history metaphor) for the internet. CNN looks at the last ten years, and gives us a pretty cool lesson in history. And I thought that history would always bore me.

Google has released a free version of Google Earth. If you have a broadband connection and a new enough Windows box running 2000 or XP (they warn off desktops older than four years and laptops older than two), it is worth checking out.

It kind of reminds me of space-age, Hollywood depictions of screen views that heretofore have looked nothing like a real ‘puter. Look, Ma, I’m flying.

Great way to while away some time I shouldn’t be in the office.

A UK study shows that acne helps your heart
, and kids with acne are less likey to die from coronary heart disease later on in life. I’m going to do some of that ‘reading in-between the lines’ that my high school English teacher always yapped about. Us pimple-faced geeks overclocked our CPUs, and talked about the newest video games in our spare time. While the popular kids spent their weekends drinking, smoking, and having sex with girls that wouldn’t even talk to us lowlife late bloomers. Having acne was a default prerequisite for being a geek, taped glasses and a goofy laugh were secondary. My hypothesis is simple: everyone loves the sweet taste of revenge. I’m starting an investigative study to prove that zit-faced geeks somehow contracted coronary heart disease to those who had it made in high school. Heck, if someone in the UK funded the “Acne Helps Prevent Heart Disease” research, then I’m a shoe in with “Geeks Planted Heart Disease in Popular High School Kids”.

This week’s contest post is here! Leave a comment at the end of this post for a chance to win one of the new Slappa Shockshell iPod Mini cases! Tell us what you think of the review or how you’d use the SanDisk Sansa MP3 player.

Introduction
Today, we’ll be looking at the latest entry from SanDisk, a leading memory card manufacturer. SanDisk’s last MP3 player was at one point the #1 selling non-Apple player, yet had only a single digit percentage of the market share. The new Sansa is currently available in both a 512 MB version as the e130, and a 1 GB version, sold as the e140. SanDisk’s Sansa is a far better than Apple’s iPod Shuffle, as a flash mp3 player. We’ll discover what distinguishes this player from its competitors, and why it should be on your shopping list. This is not the first player we’re reviewing here at Live Digitally. You can read here about our standard methods of testing used for music players. Sandisk’s player was tested with firmware 1.0.000 as it was recently introduced only last month. Testing was undertaken with both Duracell disposable alkaline batteries and Energizer NIMH rechargeable cells.

What’s In The Box

• SanDisk Sansa unit, 512 MB
• ear bud headphones with small, medium, and large earbuds
• clear plastic carrying case
• arm band
• USB adapter
• software on mini CD
• quick start guide
• AAA battery, alkaline

Features & Performance (more…)