Christopher Meinck

Palm CES Nova Event: Live Blogging Coverage at everythingtreo.com/live

It’s good to see Palm back in the spotlight. Make no mistake about it, they will be center stage when it comes to mobile devices. I don’t expect Apple will announce any major changes to the iPhone, so that leaves the floor for Palm. Now comes word from Crunchgear that the new Palm phone will be “iPhone-like” and that the OS is “amazing”. Sources say it will be a slider, with the keyboard sliding down and will feature a large touch screen.

Palm CES Event

I will be at the event providing live coverage. You can check it out at everythingtreo.com/live. Should be fun. Is Palm ready to make a comeback? We’ll find out soon enough.

Vudu vs Apple TV

For about 6 months, I’ve owned an Apple TV. Not sure how much I really needed an AppleTV, with Netflix and subscribing to both DirecTV and Verizon FIOS. Probably no more than a need to have most every shipping Apple product or at least the main product lines. AppleTV has been useful, but I haven’t used it to watch many movies. Why pay $5 to $6 for a movie, when I can just add it to my Netflix queue. So why did I get a Vudu? For those who don’t know, Vudu offers a similar product to AppleTV. Simply put, it’s a streaming movie rental player. You can also buy movies and store them on your Vudu. It will not stream iTunes, photos from iPhoto or things I’ve found useful on AppleTV. It does offer a new feature called VuduLabs that offers YouTube videos and other Internet content. Not unlike my AppleTV. So why Vudu? I think the Christmas promotion, plus the promise of HDX. HDX is their super-awesome video quality. You pay extra for HDX, but they promise an ultra-sharp picture. The remote, similar to AppleTV, is simple and fun to use.

After a long wait, Fedex delivered my Vudu today. Set-up wasn’t so easy, but you could blame that on my forgetting to plug-in the HDMI cable. I also needed to use my AppleTV’s ethernet cable. I have a switch that goes directly into my router, yet it’s maxed out. It’s amazing how many devices connect to the Internet. AppleTV, Vudu, DirecTV,TiVoHD,PS3 and Xbox 360? I think the Wii even connects, but I’m going to need a bigger switch to accomodate it.

Vudu sets up in 4 easy steps. The third step requires downloading software updates and a soft reboot. Once you’re all activated, you meet the homescreen. Browsing movies is excellent on the Vudu and I owe that to the remote. The scroll wheel is excellent and fast. It blows AppleTV’s remote out of the water. The interface of Vudu is simple, but effective. I do like the easy buttons that appear on each movie’s page within AppleTV. At first I wasn’t sure if Vudu even had trailers. Thankfully, it does. There is one caveat. Since I just signed up, my Vudu is busy downloading content. None of the trailers are working? Not sure if it’s a technical issue related to a new activation or just a problem. This is a streaming Internet player, so it should be able to handle trailers without a problem.

In addition to HDX, Vudu offers up 1080p streaming and full Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. Having a 1080i set, I won’t be able to take advantage of that feature, but the audio is a big plus.

I’m not sure how Vudu will fit into my complicated entertainment life and it’s possible that it won’t. I’ve got $70 in movie credits, so that should be plenty of time to see if it unseats AppleTV. The loser will simply get shuffled to the bedroom. Until all the movie companies start allowing streaming rentals on the day of the DVD release, I won’t be cancelling Netflix. I’m sure it has something to do with sales of DVD’s, but is it necessary for companies to hold off on allowing rentals of movies like Step Brothers for 30 days. Both AppleTV and Vudu will have a hard time gaining any sort of acceptance among the typical consumer if this continues. I’ll check back with my opinions on Vudu after a few weeks of trailing it. More importanly, I’ll be able to offer more info on the WAF (wife acceptance factor).

Zero Point Zero

When attempting to update my WordPress install, I ended up screwing up aonther site of mine. Wasn’t a big deal, as it’s just a matter of fixing the WordPress configuration files. I just noticed that it’s been two years and I’ve managed to keep this blog at a PR0. Not that I care, but that’s quite an accomplishment of fail. Almost 3 years and still a zero-point-zero. It’s only up from here. Time to go check in on some of my neglected websites.

Upgraded WordPress

I think it’s been quite a while since I upgraded WordPress. The new admin section is very cool. I wish my sites were WordPress powered. The updates are easy as pie, tons of great templates and support. Now that I’ve upgraded, I can go back to ignoring my blog. You can follow me on Twitter. I’m too lazy to update my blog, but not twitter. The next thing will be micro-Twitter, for those who don’t have the time to update their tweets.

WordPress Is Great. WordPress Is Horrible.

In some ways, I really do love WordPress and wish that I used it to power my sites. It’s really a word class editor and posting is super easy. That being said, it drives me completely nuts everytime I find myself using it. I certainly do not consider myself a WordPress know-it-all and perhaps that’s my problem. In fact, the only time I really use WordPress is here at my personal blog. Since half of the free world is using WordPress, I’d suspect it’s a “pilot error” on my part. My problem is the amount of spam that occurs within the comments section. I didn’t have Askimet enabled until today when I decided that 14,787 spam comments was just enough, so I finally hunted down my WordPress key so I could enable it. It asked if it could delete spam for all posts 30 days or later. Well, since I haven’t been posting in 30 days, I figured it was a slam dunk. Goodbye 15,000 spam messages or so I thought. It seems Askimet only though 658 were certified spam®. Hence, my beef with WordPress. All I want to do is have a clean slate. Off to Google to find an easy way to delete all this junk. Maybe my mood towards WordPress will change and perhaps just maybe I’ll start updating this blog with regularity. In the meantime, you can follow me on Twitter. I think I might purge my blog and start fresh. New database, new template and regular updates.

Organization the eBay Way

Over the past few weeks, I’ve managed to clean both my attic and my basement. If I had not used something in over a year, then it was either headed to the trash or to eBay. The stack of things headed to eBay was legendary. Being a bit of a pack rat, I have trouble throwing things out. However, with eBay I was able to rid myself of junk and make a few extra bucks. Not all of the stuff was junk. OPPO upconverting DVD player, old DirecTV HD boxes and even my BMW 330i manual went up for sale. The manual fetched $30, not bad for something I have no use for and was headed to the trash. There is certainly more work to do, but eBay has helped me out. No more guilt of throwing away perfectly good electronics and I make a few extra bucks. It certainly feels good to “cut the fat” and “trim the excess”. More importantly, I can walk in my attic.

Front Row versus kitty cat

I’d love to try this at home, but somehow I like my PowerBook screen to be free of scratches.

kitten vs. frontrow from mattcoats on Vimeo.

Microsoft Surface Technology

A few weeks ago at the D5 Conference, Microsoft unveiled “Surface”, a unique mult-touch surface that allows you to interface with a variety of objects. For example, if you put your digital camera on the surface, it will automatically download the images. Using your fingers, you can do neat things like resize the images and move them around the surface. Microsoft anticipates Surface will initially be used in commercial establishments such as hotels and restaurants. The video promotion they released shows Surface as a home technology. Priced at roughly 10k, it’s not likely you’ll find Surface in many homes. This parady video shows the technology of Surface and just how practical it is to have in your home.

Microsoft Surface Technology Parody - Watch more free videos

Judge Judy Rules eBay Scammer

I’ve always enjoyed Judge Judy and this is just a fabulous episode. The defendant, Kelli Fickler, was scamming innocent people on eBay. She apparently had an auction for a cellphone with the smallprint saying it was for a “picture of a cellphone”. I’ve seen these scammers before, but it’s nice to see them in a court room. It’s amazing this woman shows absolutely no remorse. You can probably guess that Judge Judy will rule in favor of the plaintiff, but it’s still good TV.

Remove Inbox Clutter Through The Unsubscribe Link

Managing three websites, I also have the burden of managing mailboxes for three websites. There are roughly five or six mailboxes for each site times three for a total of roughly eighteen. If you think managing spam for one inbox is difficult, I urge you to try eighteen. Not a day goes by that I don’t receive a few hundred spam messages. Apple’s Mail app is pretty good at determining the garbage from the regular mail and it gets highlighted for deletion. It’s still a manual process because I don’t have faith in any spam detection. I still go through the rigorous process for fear of missing that one important email. I’ve found an easy way to remove clutter is to unsubscribe to newsletters that have somehow made their way to my authorized list. Nothing spammy about these newsletters, but I’ve spent the last year deleting WebPro News and the like on what seems like a daily basis. This year, I’ve taken a new stance on monitoring my inbox. I’ve found it much easier to simply unsubscribe. Although many of the newsletters and promotions are legit, many are just filling my inbox. I might have ordered bath soaps for my wife 6 months ago, but that doesn’t mean I need a weekly offer on bath soaps. If I spent my day reading all of the SEO newsletters, there wouldn’t be any day left. Simply put, I didn’t realize how much time I was taking each day to delete email that could simply be removed. At the time of this post, I still have 7889 emails in my various inboxes, but at least I’m making progress.