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iReport turns cell phone user into field reporters

September 1st 2008 00:34

Did you see the FAA computer crash story on CNN? Did you go to CNN.com? If you did you saw an interesting link at the bottom that said "Are you stuck at the airport?" I couldn't help but check it out and it takes you to a service called iReport, this allows you to upload photos and video to the iReport site and add your comments to the piece. CNN then picks the best pieces while the story is hot and some of them do make it to air. So there were a lot of folks with there travel woes on the site of course.

iReport allows you to create your own stories on any topic. This is just another example of video journalism in our always connected world. Im not sure if I like everyone with a cell phone being the "man on the street" but it is still good for CNN to show that they are listening to the regular folks and using some cool technology as well.

Peace.

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Posted By: Daryl Goard - Category: Web

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Does Verizon get it?

August 17th 2008 17:37

I have been a Verizon customer for a couple years now. I will say the network coverage absolutely rocks. I think Verizon knows this because they do everything in their power to aggravate their customers and force them to switch. There are a couple of reasons that keep rearing their ugly heads for us gadget freaks.

1.Devices
Verizon passed on the opportunity to be the exclusive vendor of the iPhone a couple years ago. Apples demands to make the deal were a bit crazy but still it makes Verizon look bad since the iPhone has been such a buzz since its release. Not to limit this type of stuff to the iPhone, Verizon will also not carry the Blackberry Bold when it is released in a couple weeks. See the pattern? Verizon loves throwing the fact that they have the best network in your face and not carry the best devices that it can. They are always the last to get a phone or they wont get it at all.

2. Charging for services others give away.
Got a GPS in your phone? Sorry, you have to pay Verizon 10 bucks a month to use their proprietary application and you cant use anything else. If the same device is on another network you could fire up Google maps and bam, free GPS. They intentionally cripple the devices they do sell to squeeze more money out of the customer where AT&T leaves the devices open so you can use the features with no extra charge. The next wave of this is called social GPS, this is a service that allows, for instance, your friends on facebook to see where you are based on your phones GPS. There are several FREE services that do this, like Loopt for instance, but NONE of them will work on Verizon for free. Loopt is a pay service on Verizon (4 bucks a month) even though it is free everywhere else.

I wouldn't have such a big problem with this if I had the option to use other programs to access features inherent on the device. The issue for me is I cant use the feature at all unless I pay and then I'm forced to use whatever software Verizon deems is best for me. I know I will get comments from people like "If the calls don't drop then why do you need all this other stuff?"

Because as the cellphone evolves into so much more than a device to talk on I need the providers that control the data running in and out of the device to embrace the technology and nurture it to its potential. I know that sounds sappy but if they don't do that, what we will end up with is half-baked apps and devices that could do much more than the providers are allowing it to.

Can you hear me now Verizon?

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Posted By: Daryl Goard - Category: Gadgets

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My Google Office

August 3rd 2008 21:08

I confess- I have used Microsoft products almost exclusively for the majority of my career in Tech. The past couple of years I have played with open source alternatives to Windows (Linux) with moderate success, but instead of replacing the whole OS I have looked lately at the applications I used most often. The office suite. I have moved my domain over to
Google Apps for domains so my domain name now has the following services tied to it, all for free:

1. GMail- The bestest email system ever!
2. Google Docs- Spreadsheets, Documents, Presentations
3. Google Sites- Sites for collaboration similar to MS Sharepoint
4.Calendar
5. Google Talk

There are some other small things that go with Google Apps like Google gears, which allow sync with all your docs so you can use them online or offline.

Things I like about this environment:

1. It's free
2. You can share docs with others and collaborate on them in real time
3. Everything is online so you can work where ever you are.
4. Alerting features for Calendar, and document updates
5. Exporting of documents to different formats (Doc to PDF Etc.)
6. You can work offline with Google Gears

So for an office of 5-10 people the Google office suite could save you several hundred dollars or more on software. It's not as pretty an interface as Microsoft Office but it is functional.

With the Google Sites portion you can drag and drop your way to building your company intranet.

The other thing to wrap your head around is that I havent had to install anything on my local machine (unless I want the offline sync cabability) this is the definition of cloud computing in case you were wondering.

There are other internet based operating systems and office suites out there but since this has the Google brand attached to it, it will have the most eyeballs on it. I think that this concept will be the norm as we move forward towards our always connected world, as well as the work anywhere and anytime world.

I will keep you posted as I dig into this suite further.

Peace.

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Posted By: Daryl Goard - Category: Web

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Are XM and Sirius Still Relevant?

July 28th 2008 01:19

When I first got my Sirius radio I thought is was the greatest thing ever. It is definitely better than terrestrial radio for music since they are no commercials, for talk you get less commercials as well but they are still there. Well I have been hearing about the XM/Sirius merger for what seems like forever and had high hopes for it. I had heard Mel Carmison speak to congress about the benefits of the merger and had confidence in his ability to run the show.

I am SO disappointed in the FCC and their inability to come to a quicker decision on this. "It's a monopoly" they keep saying. Do they not realize this is a pay service and that ever other audio medium is a competitor. Things like iTunes, internet radio, regular radio are all competitors of satellite radio. How hard is that to see? Do you listen to it in your car, check. Do you listen to it on the go, check. You see my point

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Posted By: Daryl Goard - Category: Web, Gadgets

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BrightKite, Twitter and Ping, Oh My!

July 25th 2008 02:07

The other day I listened to the Windows Weekly podcast (geeky, I know) but the host was saying how when people email him direct with questions it is kind of a waste because no one else benefits from the answer like they do if the person uses Twitter to post the question and he can share the answer with everyone. That is one of the beauties of social networking for me. The sharing of information among people you may not usually share with.

Today I had something cool happen with several social net tools today, here's the story

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105

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Posted By: Daryl Goard - Category: Web

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81% Spam

July 22nd 2008 01:34

ArsTechnica says that 81% of all email sent in June were spam. That number comes from messagelabs who scans 3 billion emails per day.

"Different socioeconomic factors and levels of security awareness" are the reason for varying spam levels from state to state." Says a spokesperson from Messagelabs

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Posted By: Daryl Goard - Category: Web

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A great web service, YouMail

July 15th 2008 20:13

I've been using YouMail for several months now. It is a free voicemail service that has a ton of features and is a lot of fun. You sign up by registering your cell phone and entering the authorization code you receive. Once that is done you can setup your greetings.

This service has a feature called smart greeting that will enable the greeting to actually speak the name of the person calling in. For example, "Hello Mr. Jones, Daryl cannot come to the phone right now. Please leave a message." The service has a ton of greetings in several categories so if some of your contacts are personal and some business then you can setup the greetings accordingly. Another great feature is voicemail to email

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Posted By: Daryl Goard - Category: Web

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merican Begins Inflight Broadband Access Installation

July 3rd 2008 00:55

Wednesday July the 25th on an American Airlines flight from New York to LA, AA did it's dress rehearsal for in flight Wi-Fi . The full pilot program will be running over the next 3-6 months on about 15 planes. Users will get free access tomorrow but after that you will pay 12.95 for flights over 3 hours and 9.95 for shorter flights. The service is provided by a company called GoGo via a series of cell towers that hand the signal off as the plane travels across the country.

So the question is of course, would you pay 10 bucks to surf on the plane

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Posted By: Daryl Goard - Category: Web

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American Begins Inflight Broadband Access Installation

July 3rd 2008 00:55

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The new Classics?

June 25th 2008 13:09

This is totally off my "usual " topic but its good for conversation.

Entertainment Weekly published their list of New Classics, the best movies of 1993 to 2008.
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Posted By: Daryl Goard - Category: Web

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