Technology – Page 6 – Mile High Soapbox

December 28, 2007

Apple to unveil rentals from even more studios at Macworld?

Apple to unveil rentals from even more studios at Macworld? – Engadget
The Apple rumors are starting to fly as MacWorld gets closer and the New York Times is getting involved also.

Everyone had been hearing that Apple was going to announce a movie rental business with Fox, but the New York Times is reporting that they will have movie deals with other studios.

I have an Apple TV and love it. If they add movie rentals to it, then it will only enhance what I have. I may have to consider canceling my Netflix description. Who knows.

It will be interesting to see what happens at MacWorld.

December 27, 2007

Evernote Portable is Giveaway of the Day

Evernote Portable is the Giveaway of the Day.
This is an excellent opportunity to get a good note-taking program. The nice thing is that it runs on your usb thumb drive. You can run it on any computer and not leave a trace.

Try it. It won’t cost you anything. But you have to download it and activate it by tomorrow midnight (12/28/2007 @ 11:59 PM).

December 24, 2007

Nintendo Wii becoming fun & addictive

I have never played the Nintendo Wii before and in watching all the hype and discussions, I didn’t think that I would like it.
But after playing on my sister’s Wii this holiday, I am becoming a believer and see why it has become so popular.

I have played Wii Sports, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, and Big Brain Academy and I am enjoying it. I am slowly getting Wii Sports, the Olympics. They are fun and challenging, and the Big Brain Academy was just plain hard.

My wife has been playing with me and it is something that we are considering buying, just by this short exposure to it. I think that this is something that our whole family can play together. My four-year old daughter was even having fun playing Wii Golf with me.

I would like to know what you think, but I think that Nintendo has a winner here. I just wish they would make more of them so I could get one tomorrow.

December 12, 2007

Commodore 64 versus Apple IIe

On the CNET Daily News Podcast, they went old school today discussing the Commodore 64 and the Apple IIe.
This podcast brought back a lot of memories for me because we had an Apple IIe in our house and it was fun to play with a variety of programs that Apple had out at the time. Appleworks were key, but it was fun to play our with basic and get the computer to do fun things.

But what was the best was going to some of my friends houses and the time and playing games on the Commodore 64. We would load up the cassette tape and wait 15 to 30 minutes for a game to load and then we would go at it for hours.

Recently, the Commodore 64 celebrated its 25th Anniversary. It is hard to believe that the Commodore came out that long ago. But it would have been the right time for me to be 13 years old. I remember how dedicated we were to get programs.

We would get magazines and the code for the programs would be in there. Several pages long. You would code a line and get a confirmation code. If the code matched the code on the screen, then you coded the screen correctly. I can’t even remember the magazine names now.

It is a lot different today than it was back then. I mean, the Commodore 64 had a screen resolution 360 x 268 and 64 KB of RAM.

Animation of C64 Startup

The programs around today wouldn’t even be able to run on this system. But it did the job and launched the career or many programmers and computer geeks. It helped start the revolution amongst a wider audience than previous computers did. It was just affordable.

December 7, 2007

CompUSA Closing

According to a story on CNET, CompUSA is closing.
The were sold to a private equity firm and they will initiate closing all 103 stores. The stores will remain open through the holiday season, probably with everything must go.

It is amazing to me that they are closing. I think they tried to be everything in the electronics game and got hit hard by the competition from Circuit City and Best Buy. They should have stuck with the computer end of it and they might have done better.

Frys Electronics has always done well in California. It will be sad to see CompUSA go, but I am sure there will be some good prices and opportunities on the Internet.

I wonder who is next? Circuit City has been having some problems, maybe they are next.

Read more: CompUSA Closing Up Shop (PC World)

December 3, 2007

Windows Tip: Improve Windows Fonts with ClearType

Windows Tip: Improve Windows Fonts with ClearType
This is a must do tweek to Windows, especially if you have a LCD monitor. The text is so much clearer and easier on the eyes.

If you haven’t done it, try it, and you will like it.

November 30, 2007

Comcast CEO Sees 160 Mbps in 2008

Engadget has a story today about comments made by the CEO of Comcast that has him predicting that Comcast will have 160 Mbps internet in 2008.
The service will be 160 Mbps down / 120 Mbps up. The problem with this is that they never achieve what they promise. It is always a lot lower than this. What am I paying for?

Comcast is never held to the fact that they can’t deliver what they are promise. If they could deliver what they promise, this would be news and it would be nice to see the higher speeds.

It would be nice to have FIOS and I would consider alternatives to Comcast, but there are no better alternatives for me, especially with Qwest as our phone provider. Why can’t a high-tech society like the United States do better at providing high-speed Internet access?

November 27, 2007

Verizon to unlock network

I don’t know if this will be worthwhile or not, but Verizon has announced that it is unlocking its network. The technical specifications should be published early next year.
In the annoucement, Verizon said that “The company will activate on the network any devices that meet the ‘minimum technical standard.’ The company has also asserted that, ‘any application the customer chooses will be allowed on these devices.'”

This does not mean much. Verizon operates on CDMS and most of the world operates on a GSM. It might allow for third-party applications to work on the Verizon network, but that is about it.

As Sascha Segan says, “You will not be able to use your iPhone on Verizon.”