If you have an iPhone, RUN, don’t walk, and check out this page. What a great resource!

iPhone Application List

BTW, it looks like Apple may be launching a Web applications directory soon. Yup, still lovin’ my iPhone.

I’ve had Verizon FiOS “Triple Play” (phone-data-tv) for a few months now and love it. At The Gym every morning I love watching MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. As I was programming my channel presets for my SlingBox client, I couldn’t find the channel number for MSNBC. I thought I was going crazy, but nope, it turns out that VERIZON FIOS TV DOES NOT OFFER MSNBC IN NORTHERN NJ. WTF?! Here’s the explanation from Wikipedia:

As a result of a carriage agreement, MSNBC is currently not available to Verizon Fios TV subscribers in Verizon’s Northern New Jersey grouping as well as areas in New York City. The reason for the lack of availability is an exclusive carriage agreement that MSNBC entered into with Cablevision, which services the areas in question. [8] The terms of the agreement (i.e. when the exclusive agreement expires) are unknown. The result of the agreement is that a competing content provider will be unable to offer MSNBC from where the broadcast originates. Also, as Verizon’s subscriptions rise, MSNBC will be increasingly unavailable in one of the largest markets in the United States unless viewers subscribe to a second provider (either Cablevision or one of the satellite TV providers).

Wow, what a disappointment.

Apple’s iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store is pretty cool. Immediately after updating my iPhone to firmware v1.1.1 I “clicked” on that little purple iTunes icon and presto, I was browsing an iPhone formatted version of the iTunes store. I gave it a try and purchased Matchbox 20’s “How Far We’ve Come” (which in hindsight was so fitting). It couldn’t have been easier… in seconds the song was on my iPhone and crankin’ away (great song BTW).

Yesterday I stopped in to the Hoboken Starbucks on Washington Street (yes, the one I affectionately refer to as the “AMD Hoboken Office”) and checked to see if the Starbucks iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store was live. The Starbucks feature wasn’t there yet, but I was still able to access the T-Mobile HotSpot for free and browse the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store on my iPhone. I went ahead and purchased an album (Pearl Jam Live at Lollapalooza 2007, for those keeping track). In less than 10 minutes 20 songs were on my iPhone and crankin’ away again. Wicked cool!

It’ll be neat when the Starbucks iTunes functionality gets enabled in NJ (I’ll check it out in NYC this week anyways). I always seem to like one of the songs playing in Starbucks and not know what/who it is. Pretty soon I won’t need to ask someone and will be able to purchase it on the spot. Some smart people at Apple and Starbucks… maybe I should finally jump in on those stocks.

Interesting idea. I’d like to have something like this…

OLPC’s XO laptop comes with anti-theft kill-switch in select countries

Actually, more like 157 channels and nothing on. I have DISH TV and can’t believe how many channels I DON’T watch in my package. Either they’re pay-per-view or just stations/programming that are not very interesting to me. I probably watch less than 5 channels regularly. Sad (especially when you consider how much they charge).

All that being said, I got a Slingbox Pro for Christmas. It wasn’t so much that I can’t be away from television for too long (I definitely can), but I was more interested in the technology. If you’re not familiar with a Slingbox, it allows you to watch and control your personal television from anywhere in the world via the Internet. I can watch my DISH TV via PC, Mac, desktop, laptop, or even Pocket PC handheld. Works over LAN, WiFi, EVDO, and even 2.5G networks. So far so good. Can’t believe how well it works (even with DSL). I know, I’m getting FIOS soon.
So even though I’ve complained about bad programming on DISH, I recently came across a channel that I really like — NYC TV. Lots of interesting programming about New York City… things to see, places to eat, history, etc. One of my favorite programs is “New York Noise”, where they showcase some pretty good NYC indie and underground music/videos. I definitely plan to watch a lot of NYC TV on my Slingbox. Check it out!

During my high school and college years I smoked cigarettes. Eventually I quit using “the patch” (thanks Chet!) and experienced a welcomed improvement to my health. However, all those years of smoking definitely impacted my lung capacity, which was very noticeable when exercising…

I recently started using POWERbreathe to help improve my breathing. After only two weeks I’ve noticed an improvement. My VO2 (as measured by my Suunto t6) has increased from ~35 ml/kg/min to ~47 ml/kg/min — over a 30% improvement! I’m a believer.

I love quality products and services. Even more so, I love great customer service. Smart companies realize the importance of this and strive to develop strong relationships with customers… so they become repeat customers.

Let’s face it, no matter how well a product is made sometimes things go wrong. Most consumers can accept this, as long as things are handled quickly and fairly by the company. As Donald Porter, VP British Airways, once said, “Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.”

I rarely have problems with Bose products (I own at least 6 of them). Yes, they charge a premium, but their products are well designed and work well. Unfortunately, I’ve encountered problems with their QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones a couple times already. I blogged about this last year and I was very satisfied when Bose quickly replaced my defective headset with a brand new unit (for free and no questions asked). As luck would have it, the replacement unit they gave me was an identical design and eventually I encountered the same problem.

This second time around Bose gave me a new headset for free, but it was an updated version. Apparently I wasn’t the only one encountering this problem and Bose felt compelled to fix the issue. In a nutshell, they’re now using a more flexible material in the headband area that kept breaking. Based on what I can see, it looks like they may have addressed the issue. Time will tell.

Kudos to Bose for recognizing their flaws and fixing them! Not only did they correct their product, but they’ve kept their customers happy. I wish more companies would act more like Bose. I will continue to be a loyal customer for a long time to come.

I finally went to the movies and saw Ice Age 2: The Meltdown with my wife and son. Fun movie and very well done — we all enjoyed it. Ray Romano, John Lequizamo, and Denis Leary continued their antics from the first movie. Also some new characters and voices in this one, e.g. Queen Latifah. Worth a peek if you liked the first one.

BTW, I haven’t been to a movie theater in years and could not believe how much they’re charging for everything. Between admission and concessions it was almost $50 for two adults and one child. Doh!

UPDATE: I neglected to mention that Ice Age 2: The Meltdown was created with the help of AMD Opteron!

I just finished reading Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons. Once again, I couldn’t put the “book” down. Great read!

Dan Brown has quickly become one of my favorite authors (move over Clancy). I’ve read his novels in chronological order — Digital Fortress, Deception Point, and Angels & Demons. I just started reading The Da Vinci Code and plan to finish it before the movie comes out in a couple of months. I’m trying to avoid viewing the movie trailers, so I don’t influence my imagery as I read the book.

I emphasized “book” when referring to Angels & Demons because I didn’t read a traditional paperback or hardcover. Angels & Demons was the first novel I read as an eBook. Yup, no paper. I read the entire novel on my Cingular 8125 Pocket PC phone! Surprisingly, it worked out very well. The text was easy to read and it was convenient to always have access to the book.

Electronic books have been around for awhile, but mainstream adoption has been slow. With the advent of E Ink, there are some new devices making their way to market which may change the course of eBooks. Keep an eye out for Sony’s Reader and iRex’s iLiad coming this Spring. I think eBooks may have a better chance for success with these products (especially if they lower their proposed price points!).

If you’re interested in eBooks, check out eReader.com for a great selection of books and software. I’m using their eReader Pro for Pocket PC, but they also have readers for Windows XP, Mac OS, Palm, and Symbian. If you want to experiment, there are lots of FREE books to download on Memoware.com. Also checkout Zinio for magazines in electronic format.

Electronics books and magazines may not be for everyone, but it’s just a matter of time before we’re all carrying entire libraries in our pockets. Just look what the iPod has done for music. I never thought I’d be carrying >5,000 songs (and movies) in my pocket!

Are cell phones and electronic gear dangerous on flights? This has been a longtime debate, but a recent study thinks so. I’ll be the first to give them the benefit of any doubt. If you’ve ever heard that “geiger counter” interference emitted from your GSM phone, you know what I mean.

“The data support[s] a conclusion that continued use of portable RF-emitting [radio frequency emitting] devices such as cell phones will, in all likelihood, someday cause an accident by interfering with critical cockpit instruments such as GPS receivers,” the article said.

I like the idea of hardening avionics equipment on airplanes. Sounds like that’s a bit overdue (not too many cell phones around when some of these planes were built).

[via ABC News]

People always ask me how many gadgets I have. The quick answer is “a lot”. Unfortunately, I never kept good track of all my “toys”. I still have a bunch, but have either given away, sold, or simply lost a few of them. As many as I’ve owned, I could probably still tell you the story behind each and the pros and cons I observed.

To add to my collection, I recently picked up a Cingular 8125 Pocket PC phone (made by HTC). I was going to take a couple of pics and write a review, but instead I got side-tracked and decided to take some pics of the gadgets I still have laying around (click on the thumbnail for full size):

Missing from the pic are ~10 radios (ham/scanner/shortwave), ~8 cameras, a couple video recorders, a few PDA’s (including a Rex, Sharp Zaurus, HP 200LX) and a lot of other cell phones, misc electronics, and watches. Oldest to newest in the pic:

- Minox Subminiature Spy Camera (film)
- Olympus Pearlcorder L200 microcassette recorder
- US Robotics Pilot 5000 (pre-Palm) — one of the first off the production line!
- Motorola TalkAbout Flex pager
- Nokia 5180 cell phone (AT&T Wireless)
- Motorola i1000 cell phone (Nextel)
- Motorola i2000 cell phone (Nextel)
- Motorola P280 cell phone (Voicestream)
- Motorola T193 cell phone (T-Mobile)
- Compaq iPAQ 3630 Pocket PC PDA
- Compaq iPAQ 3860 Pocket PC PDA (cracked screen)
- Magellan Meridian Color GPS
- HP iPAQ 6315 Pocket PC PDA phone (T-Mobile)
- Apple 15GB 3G iPod
- TomTom Go GPS
- Blackberry 7100 PDA phone (AT&T Wireless/Cingular)
- Apple 1GB iPod Shuffe
- Nikon S1 Digicam (5.1 megapixel)
- Motorola V3 RAZR cell phone (Cingular)
- Apple 60GB 5G Video iPod
- Uniden ELX500 5.8 GHz cordless phone
- Cingular 8125 Pocket PC phone

I guess it’s time for eBay? FYI, some of these are for sale, so let me know if you’re interested.

As for the Cingular 8125, there are already some good reviews out there so I won’t reiterate what others are documenting very well. My initial impressions of the 8125 are very positive — probably the best Pocket PC phone I’ve used to date. Definitely a change in form factor from my RAZR, but I’ve sorely missed the Pocket PC functionality I had with my HP iPAQ 6315. Here are some links to a few good 8125 reviews:

MobileTech
Mobility Site
Howard Forums

Recently I’ve been touting the great experience I’ve had with Skype. A free 1 hour video conference with my relatives in Florida was a recent example of the usefulness of this app. Certainly a well-rounded app for VoIP, IM, and video.

However, the recently announced partnership between Intel and Skype has left me with mixed feelings. In a nutshell, Skype is intentionally crippling its software by only allowing certain functionality when using Intel processors… If the software detects an Intel CPU, you can conference call with up to 10 people. If you’re using non-Intel, e.g. AMD, it only allows up to 5 people!

Not that I plan to conference call with that many people, but this seems a bit ridiculous. Is this the best they could do with a partnership? Is this the only way Intel (and Skype) can compete? Why no AMD support (Athlon 64 X2 chips are more than capable for this functionality)? Could you imagine if other ISV’s started implementing this type of strategy with their applications and partners? Sounds like this is something that should be added to AMD’s lawsuit against Intel.

I guess if crippling software was part of the competition in the Dual-Core Duel, Intel could have won a round. What a way to “Leap Ahead”.

Either way, I’m re-evaluating my support of Skype. It may be back to Yahoo Messenger, or even the Gizmo Project… it’s an even playing field over there.

Please see Sharikou’s “Journal of Pervasive 64bit Computing” for some interesting insight on this and other IT issues.

Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Steve Fossett at an event at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC. Mr. Fossett is the first person to circumnavigate the globe solo and is now embarking on another record breaking adventure. Good luck Steve!

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett took off in an experimental plane on Wednesday on an 80-hour flight that he hopes will set a nonstop distance record.

[via Reuters]

Los Angeles police will propel a GPS device onto a fleeing car. The device will stick to the car and track its location. That’ll hopefully reduce dangerous high-speed chases.

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