Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Lexis Nexis Available on Blackberry!
blackberry
"With the help of our comprehensive offering of LexisNexis legal, news and business information via BlackBerry, law firms and attorneys can stay one step ahead of the opposing counsel, no matter where they are." Blackberry(actually RIM) and Lexis Nexis have teamed to provide the vast information that Lexis has to the mobile world. I love Lexis and a Blackberry is on my wish list the only problem is that my wallet currently does not allow me to subscribe to Lexis.
I can see law enforcement agencies utilizing this as well it is a great investigative tool, that my company has idiotically cut. The buzz on this is huge in the fields that use Lexis, which is obviously big since attorneys are everywhere.
Press Release - from Lexis Nexis
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Taking Tivo to the Next Level
ucentric
Finally a company thinking about how families actually use the TV. Ucentric has created software that allows the stored television shows on a DVR to be shared on multiple TVs. Not only is television content shared but MP3's are also shared.
I have not read up on all the logistics and technicalities but the software fills an obvious whole in the DVR bucket. Most homes that have a DVR have multiple televisions meaning multiple viewers. As a TV watcher I know that not everyone in the house wants to watch what I want to (most of you probably run into this problem as well, duh) , so a DVR has a built in flaw that if two people want to watch two different saved shows one person is screwed.
Again I will refer to the integration of the TV and computer post. This software is needed but I am not sure if the demand is high enough currently. Future buzz big and early adopters will want.
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Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Additions to Earlier Post
Cell Phone Used for Car Alarm
This product goes along with the post from last week about other uses for cell phones besides phone calls. The article is about Britco & Bridco, a company that has created and instant messaging/car alarm service by using your cell phone. Not only are the obvious options built in turn alarm on, turn off ignition, honk horn but you can also send a command from your phone to the car to record what the robbers are saying. You could even speak to them. The cell phone is becoming Batmans Utility belt.
Media Content Delivery
Car Phone Warehouse (in England) has struck a deal with EMI and Robbie Williams to release his next album on an MMC card, which are used in phones and PDAs. There will be music and video content. See my other post on the future of media content delivery. I see flash drives as the future cd/dvd's. The conversion may be slower due to the one fact that you will need a flash card reader for your TV, but all other products have them PDAs, cell phones, computers, cameras etc... I think a DVR company should put a usb drive or MMC card reader on there box top. Some may say I am looking to far in the future, but change in todays world occurs faster than ever before. And this is the begining of delivering media content on smaller more versatile memory storage devices.
Ideas to Ponder About the Future of TV
Mark Cuban has posted some of his thoughts on what he sees as the future of TV. One idea is that when someone fast forwards through the commercials when they use a Tivo like device an ad pops up for those 5 seconds it takes you to get back to your show. I think it defeats the purpose of fast forwarding but people need to or are examing how are advertisers going to make $ off of DVRs.
Another idea he post I actually had heard from someone else, Tom Mulhern who post on Corante . The idea is essentially that you can create your own TV channel. So when you are at work you jump on the internet and set up your programing for the evening. You come home click on the "Bob" channel and watch away. This idea is coming because TV shows will probably be more like a video on demandesque setup. Where you can get old shows on demand.
People want the option to watch what they want, when they want. Which provides more freedom. You are not locked into being in front of the TV every thursday night to watch The Apprentice. You can Tivo it and watch it on sunday or create your own channel and watch with your other programing. I would thing Tivo could setup a program to allow people to create there own channels. The buzz on this is big.
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This product goes along with the post from last week about other uses for cell phones besides phone calls. The article is about Britco & Bridco, a company that has created and instant messaging/car alarm service by using your cell phone. Not only are the obvious options built in turn alarm on, turn off ignition, honk horn but you can also send a command from your phone to the car to record what the robbers are saying. You could even speak to them. The cell phone is becoming Batmans Utility belt.
Media Content Delivery
Car Phone Warehouse (in England) has struck a deal with EMI and Robbie Williams to release his next album on an MMC card, which are used in phones and PDAs. There will be music and video content. See my other post on the future of media content delivery. I see flash drives as the future cd/dvd's. The conversion may be slower due to the one fact that you will need a flash card reader for your TV, but all other products have them PDAs, cell phones, computers, cameras etc... I think a DVR company should put a usb drive or MMC card reader on there box top. Some may say I am looking to far in the future, but change in todays world occurs faster than ever before. And this is the begining of delivering media content on smaller more versatile memory storage devices.
Ideas to Ponder About the Future of TV
Mark Cuban has posted some of his thoughts on what he sees as the future of TV. One idea is that when someone fast forwards through the commercials when they use a Tivo like device an ad pops up for those 5 seconds it takes you to get back to your show. I think it defeats the purpose of fast forwarding but people need to or are examing how are advertisers going to make $ off of DVRs.
Another idea he post I actually had heard from someone else, Tom Mulhern who post on Corante . The idea is essentially that you can create your own TV channel. So when you are at work you jump on the internet and set up your programing for the evening. You come home click on the "Bob" channel and watch away. This idea is coming because TV shows will probably be more like a video on demandesque setup. Where you can get old shows on demand.
People want the option to watch what they want, when they want. Which provides more freedom. You are not locked into being in front of the TV every thursday night to watch The Apprentice. You can Tivo it and watch it on sunday or create your own channel and watch with your other programing. I would thing Tivo could setup a program to allow people to create there own channels. The buzz on this is big.
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Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Links of Buzz
I am headed to Walt Disney World this week so I have not had time to do a proper post but here are 2 links about using cell phones for more than phone calls.
Google SMS service - send google a text message for definitions, conversions, people finder etc
I have used this and it is very fast. The general search you can do is not great because the results are all over the place but the define and froogle searches work well.
Camera phone to compare pricing! - Have not read alot about this but in general you download a program to your phone. Then you can take pictures of a products bar code then send the pic via text messaging and results from pricegrabber or amazon are sent back. Can't see it catching on but I like the idea. I don't know how many times I have been in Best Buy wondering if I could the gadget I am looking at cheaper on the internet.
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Google SMS service - send google a text message for definitions, conversions, people finder etc
I have used this and it is very fast. The general search you can do is not great because the results are all over the place but the define and froogle searches work well.
Camera phone to compare pricing! - Have not read alot about this but in general you download a program to your phone. Then you can take pictures of a products bar code then send the pic via text messaging and results from pricegrabber or amazon are sent back. Can't see it catching on but I like the idea. I don't know how many times I have been in Best Buy wondering if I could the gadget I am looking at cheaper on the internet.
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Thursday, October 07, 2004
Technology in the Background
Ambient Beacon
These devices, by Ambient Devices, have been out for a little while but the concept is something to look at. The idea is that you can take the weather beacon (in picture) set it up in your house. You wake up in the morning get dressed glance over at the beacon and realize it is cool out so you throw on a sweater. Now this is a basic example but the idea can applied to the stock market (green when up 5, red when down), a particular stock, a sports score, traffic and the list goes on. They also have a dashboard (which reminds of the old weather station with info on the pressure, temp and humidity) which is setup to follow numerous types of info on one small "dashboard". The other cool thing about Ambient is that the basic service is free. (Not sure what basic is but free is always good)
I don't know if these devices will take off but the idea of uninstrusive technology is great. Instead of waking up and having to click on the TV or click on a website you can glance at the orb to know the temperature or who won the game. It is the integration of technology into our lives where the information is available for us with less obtrusiveness and more time for other things. The TiVo creates more freedom and checkout Personica, they have a radio that will read you the news and scores that you want in the morning.
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