SplaTT's Blog

Huge xbox announcements at E3

Microsoft announced some "HUGE" xbox news the other day during the pre-show events at the E3 computer gaming expo in LA. Connected Home Magazine has a good breakdown of the news as well.

First up....EA Sorts and Microsoft have ended whatever was going on that was stopping EA Sports titles being available on XBOX Live.....up unti now, the "network enabled" games had only been available on the Sony PlayStation....

Second...a release date for Halo 2.....November the 9th.....they also realesed a new video showing some amazing game play...

Third....and the biggest news of all.....they announced the coming launch of a "VIDEO CHAT" capability to be released in Japan for trial purposes.....this is huge news....the obvious jump to adding video chat has been a long time coming and will revolutionise the use of the XBOX and change the perception of gaming consoles for ever......at the current price of an XBOX, the costs of an ADSL connectiona and a USB webcam.....i'll be buying one for my mum....

You can keep upto date on new info at the XBOX E3 site...they also have some guys blogging live from the show using Windows based Smartphones.....lots of pictures and videos to keep you enthralled for hours....

Microsoft XP Media Center in Australia...finally

Microsoft has finally announced the official release of the Microsoft XP Media Center Edition 2004 into the Australian market...

By then end of this year you should be able to buy either an Acer, a HP or a Toshiba produced Media Center PC...if they also release the media center extender's into the market, it should provide a huge push in the market for home entertainment systems and home automation products....about time...

c|net has a good article on the recent announcement which i initially found over at Frank Arrigo's site where he mentions that Microsoft will be showing of the media center device at this weekends Sydney Home Show....guess i know what i am doing on the weekend....

Sony PSP....nice

Sony have announced the details on the PSP (Play Station Portable) and even dragged it out for a showing at E3 yesterday....

16:9 screen, stereo speakers, 16.77 million colors, USB 2.0, 802.11b WiFi, MPEG4 audio and video....all built in.....the prototype at E3 also had a USB Camera, a USB GPS and a USB Keyboard.....all it needs is a phone....;)

My moblog gets 100,000 hits

Wow....I've been mobloging for just under 10 months (4 days short) and i just crossed over the 100,000 page hits landmark on my Foneblog site.

I bought my first camera phone, the Sony Ericsson P800, on the 15th June 2003. I used the P800 until the 12th of December 2003 (nearly six months) and in that time took 627 photos. My first post to my moblog was on the 15th June 2003. It was just a shot of the office but it got the ball rolling.

One of the benefits of having Nokia as a client, was that on the 12th of December 2003 my P800 was replaced with a Nokia 6600. Since then (four months), i have taken 718 photos. The photo that finally pushed my moblog to 100,000 hits today (12 April 2003) was actually not one i took myself. It was one i found (and blogged on this site) and was a leaked photo of the N-gage 2.

1345....thats the number of photos i have taken with my two camera phones in 10 months....damn thats a lot photos....out of the 1345 photos i have taken, i have posted 380 of them on my moblog...The camera phone has changed the way i take photos. Yes, i own a 5 MegaPixel camera, and i take a hell of a lot of photos with that as well....but trust me..no where near as many as i have taken with the camera phones...

The biggest impact of the camera phones has been that it has changed the way i walk around in everyday life....every thing i see and experience i now look at as an opportunity to take another photo...i wouldn't mind betting that i have probably taken more photos in the last 10 months than most professional photographers.....

There have been a number of posts in the blogoshpere the last couple of days that have failed to grasp the whole idea and a few that have shown faith. I for one, along with the other 84 million people who bought camera phones in 2003 (vs only 50 million digital cameras sold for the same period), would tend to say the revolution is not only here, but well and truly over....

Oh yeah...Kodak would probably agree..though they may not like it.. ;)

SPOT watch mini site and video....

A new SPOT watch mini-site has been launched by the guys over at Fossil and Microsoft...

It looks like it had some stuff on the site about new channels that they were not supposed to be talking about...oooops....but luckily the team over at SpotStop.com managed to grab some screenshots before the site was changed back to its intended version.

The sports channel we knew about, but some of the other channels have got some of the pundits starting to sit up and take notice...current traffic conditions, a dining guide, a movie finder and daily diversions (horoscopes, lottery results, word and quotes of the day, born on this day and this day in history)....

They also have a copy of "Secret Agent Man"..the Microsoft video promoting MSN Direct featuring Spike Lee.

mmm....segway...

I tried.....i really, really tried.....i really, really, really tried not to go for a ride on a segway....

But I wasn't strong enough...my will power broke down.... :(

I took one for a ride while i was in Seattle at the GlideUSA rental place near Green Lake, and now i just need to have one....

The Segway is one of the coolest things I have ever seen....and to ride one was just amazing....the only problem is that because their motor is rated at over 200 watts, Australian Customs classify it as road vehicle and this stage are not allowing you to import them (info here).....I will find a way.... ;)

Anyway...photos of my Segway ride can be found here.

these things rock....

Finally got one....had to travel 10 miles out of Sand Diego to a CompUSA store to find it....but i got one.....

I am now the proud owner of a Fossil Abacus SPOT watch....

Just finished setting it up, so haven't had to much time to play with it....full report in a couple of days....

I'm in print over at SpotStop......

I've mentioned before how much i like the forums and the site in general over at SpotStop.com, but now i have another reson to link you to them......

Two posts ago, i mentioned that i had found a way around being able to send MSN Messenger messages to a Spot watch in the US from Australia....Brian, the guy that runs SpotStop aske me to write up a little story about what you need to do for the sites news section....

Click here to read it....

How to post an instant message to a Spot watch in the US if you are not based in the US

It only took me a couple of days...but i finally worked it out....

How to send a message to a SPOT watch from a country other than the US...and the answer is...

When you set your region in your profile on the passport site you need to tick the "Share my other registration information" field...if you don't, the region attribute (GeoID) in the core profile table stays set to region 0...this looks like it then sets your region via your regional passport login machine (or something like that) in my case, Australia...from where i can not send a message to SPOT watch....

As soon as you tick that share field.....bada-bing....i can now send a message to an MSN Direct Watch.....hehehehe....life is now good (will be even better when i can use a spot watch in Australia :)

Thumbs up to SpotStop and Microsoft staff...

I've got to hand it to both the team that run SpotStop as well as the guys in the Spot/MSN Direct team at Microsoft.....well done guys....

As you probably read in an earlier post of mine, the idea of the Spot watch really works with me.....and on my trip to the US in February I will definitely be buying one (I am a geek with a gadget fetish after all ;). I can see huge value in a technology like this (DirectBand) in both communicating with people from a business perspective as well as giving them another way to communicate amongst themselves wether it be through a Spot watch, a key ring, a pendant, a fridge magnet (? ;) or any other device that gets the technology embedded in it.

What's been really useful, is having a site like SpotStop and their forums in answering questions and just in providing a very useful read. Brian (the Editor in Chief) and his team have put together a great site.

It all gets even better when you have guys from the Spot team at Microsoft themselves answering a lot of the queries and questions people are posting.....Microsoft staff, like Joel Grossman (the Lead Program Manager for Spot) in particular, are doing a great PR job for Microsoft and Spot/MSN Direct by providing quick and relevant answers to most of the questions posted.

Keep up the great job guys.....

Now all Joel needs to sort out is the fact that I can't send a Messenger IM to a spot watch in the US from Australia.....that and a little thing about getting the service extended to Australia.... ;)

woohooo....digital (interactive) tv

Finally.....after years of just talking about pure digital (interactive) cable, we finally had an announcement today in Australia that Foxtel are going to release the Foxtel Digital cable service...

More than 130 channels (including TechTV), time-shifted channels, CD quality audio music channels, 30 channels providing near-video-on-demand and true interactive channels..more info can be found here

even if its just for techTV...i'm sold....

zap......damn....

Gotta watch the static electricity with the spot watch (when i get it ;).....

the best of CES 2004...

now that CES is over for another year, you can check out the list of most innovative products seen over the four days....

my favourite.....the lightglove of course....

a tale of two time pieces....

so i need a new watch anyway, but i can't decide between which one to get....<whisper> may have to get both</whisper>

spot watch
microsoft finally announced the availability of their spot watches initially announced at comdex in 2002, which utilise the msn direct service at ces the other day

the ability to get news, weather, sports, stocks and travel info (to name a few) along with messages from ms messenger and sync'ing your watch with your outlook calendar is a pretty amazing step forward in portable connected devices...

now i know everything i have just mentioned i can get on my mobile phone, but until my mobile phone is sitting on my wrist and i can access all this information with only one or two button presses and it automatically changes its time based on where i am at that particualr moment (as long as i'm in the US...obviously)....the spot based watch is a jump in the right direction..

the guys over at Mobitopia and a number of other places are giving the spot watches and the msn direct service a bit of a bagging at the moment, but i think given a bit of time, the issues they have with the service not initially being what it was promised to be will be just a case of launch time bugs...saying that it will flop because all the services it has are primarily available via SMS i don't think stands up.

in australia we have had sms up and running for a while longer than the US and though it is hugely popular i don't find that myself or any of my friends (or anyone i know for that matter) use sms to get weather reports or any of the other services that you can, or will be able to get with spot/msn direct. i think the primary reason comes down to the percieved cost of sms, because even though you are paying for the msn direct services, because its a monthly (or yearly) fee and more to the point, because it comes straight to your watch, the perception will be different....but think it also goes beyond perception...

your average person just does not know (or care) how to set their mobile phone to receive additional info...if you can't do it via a wap or gprs connection....go to your service providers web site, find the right page, work out the individual prices, send an sms message to subscribe, wait for an answer, send an sms message to confirm subscription...and if your lucky, the info will come through....travelling to another state??....lets go through the process again...travelling overseas???...does you provider even work properly....all inall, to much of a hassle even for me....

the biggest issue that i agree with everybody on is the time between needing to charge the battery in the watch....then again...i charge my mobile phone, my bluetooth headset, my blackberry, my tabletpc, my ipod, my gps, my digital camera...who says i can't get used to charging my watch...i don't exactly wear it for up to 6-8 hours a day when i'm in bed which is when i charge everything else....

mars standard time
a small master watch maker Garo Anserlian of Executive Jewelers tool an unbelivebale order from NASA JPL staff who are involved on the Mars Rover "Spirit" crew to create a watch which lost 39 minutes a day (the martian day is 24 hours and 39 minutes long) so that they could be synchronised with the rover while it is operational on Mars...

as it turns out, Cory Doctorow (of "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" and "A place so foreign and 8 more" fame) is about to release another book called "Eastern Standard Tribe" about a group of people bound together by a sleep schedule based on the east coast of the US....

either way...gotta get me a watch when i am in the US for etech (or maybe two ;) along with Cory's new book.....

blutooth wireless speaker phone

this is pretty cool...Motorola have announced a bluetooth wireless speaker phone that can connect with upto 8 devices including your mobile, PDA and PC.....loose all the cables on your desk....i really like the idea of using this to replace a computer headset for apps like ms messenger and skype...

mmm.....lego....

lego make the coolest things.....Digital Designer

my mobile music machine...

Allright....i'll admit it.....the iPod rules my mobile music world (well....most of the time)

A few weeks ago i went out and bought a 20GB iPod (my first Apple made device in 21 years since my Apple II) and as far as personal music devices goes..its OK. The main reason i bought it, other than my obsession with anything new and geeky :), was to be able to listen to music when i go and ride my mountain bike (the other expensive part of my lifestyle) and not be limited to only an album or two's worth of songs. And it does a damn fine job of keeping me rolling along when my i'm rolling along...except....its has a few minor problems when i'm not rolling along.

The primay problem is not being able to easily download my music back to a computer from the iPod itself. Things were going  along nicely for a while...it was synced up to iTunes on my IBM T30 laptop, but then i got another new toy...a tablet PC (review coming soon). Soooo...the T30 does a move out of my possesion to our Technical Producer (aka Anonymous Coward) and i delete all my music (7.5GB) without backing it all up, stupidly thinking that i could just copy all the files from the iPod to the tablet when i was ready.

Was i in for a rude shock.....

In all their wisdom Apple have decided to make the transfer/snyc process only work one way...iTunes to iPod and not back again....doh.....so there i was cursing the folk down at one infinte loop..when one of the single button mouse users in the office points me too a tool called EphPod....which appears to have done the trick...all my music is now not only on my iPod but it also back safe and sound on my  laptop...wasn't that hard to setup, but still, you think somebody at apple wold have had the foresight to include the option....then again....i suppose after signing all those deals to get the iTunes music store up and running something had to be put in place on the iPod to keep the music moguls happy and try and stop music sharing....yeah ...right....

But...enough whining.....the first add-on for the iPod was the purchase of an iTrip....now this is a really cool accessory...allows me to tune in my car stereo to a number of different FM stations, which the iTrip then transmits too....instant SplaTT FM radio....hehehehehe

Now keeping in mind that i also carry around a 5megapixel Olympus C5050 camera, the next add-on will be the Belkin media reader which will allow me transfer my images from the CompactFlash card to the iPod....very nice.....

Now i just wonder how long it will be before i get sick of my current 7.5GB music collection and need to start downloading (oopss...i mean purchasing) more music....

All in all, aside from the syncing issue...4/5 stars on the SplaTT gadget-o-meter.....

wooohooo.......new toys......

Three new toys to add to the list......all of them rock bucket loads (well...most of the time they do)....reviews coming soon

one...Nokia 6600 mobile phone (my first ever Nokia phone)

one...Toshiba M200 TabletPC (these things are a really really really cool idea)

one...20GB IPOD (i never new i had so much music that i listen too.....also the first Apple device i have owned in 21 years since my apple II)

you can never have enough gadgets.....

new phone

Can't resist a new toy.......bought a Sony Ericsson P800 on the weekend...very kewl.......

Currently checking my email remotely, taking photos, playing games (MIB II), looking up my calendar, listening to mp3's, watching mpeg4 video clips and best of all.........have got WebMessenger up and running and have logged into ICQ, MSN, Yahoo and AOL Messenger and am Instant Messaging wirelessly.........seriously kewl.....

Quote from SplaTT - "The question is not if you are connected....but if are you connected enough........"

Oh yeah......have a foneblog up and running now.......MMS and camera phones were just made for doing this web app....

work..work...work

Busy busy busy.... seems that we have been inundated with pitch work over the past couple of weeks....

Telstra (CitySearch), Sensis, Milo, and the big Coke preso i am putting together. Love doing them, but it takes a lot out of you. Have lost count of the amount of times i have been at the office till midnight. Fun though :)

But more important things now.....Matrix Reloaded was pretty kewl, but i still think the original was better. The game ROCKS though.......many a late night has happenend due to the XBox and the Matrix game. Glad i bought the XBox, just so i can play the game....very funky...

The other cool thing has been the Blackberry. Having access to always on email is pretty amazing, i would even go so far as saying it has changed the way i use email.

Well...its 1am and i am still at work...better finish up so i can go home..

l8r

xbox

So i bit the bullet and went out and bought one.......i am now the owner of a Microsoft XBOX.....and not a bad little gaming system it is. Good graphics, good sound (especially when hooked up to me Dolby 5.1 system) and the three games i bought aren't to bad. Amped (snow boarding game) and Halo (FPS) came with the XBOX and i bought Shenmue II (RPG)...which ir pretty kewl.....the whole Shenmue thing (which started in the Sega Dreamcast) allows you to interact with nearly everything in the gameplay environment. Tlak to strangers, open doors, play darts, work, eat, buy drinks from vending machines, play arcade games...all sorts of stuff. The biggest problem is going to be at 3 in the morning all week because i have been playing games.......

The next two games on the list are....Splinter Cell (going out to buy it after i finish this blog) whch is being recommended to me by everyone, and then next weeek.....The Matrix game...

Which reminds me....can't wait till Friday next week....we all have tickets to go and see Matrix after work...by the game for the XBOX in Friday, watch the film Friday night...and then play the game all weekend....

Gotta go and buy Splinter Cell now...more later

mmm...dolby...

Dolby 5.1 rocks.......my DVD collection has never sounded better. And i should know...after spending 4 days (almost non-stop) of watching nearly every DVD i own on my latest toy.......a Sony Compact Home Cinema System - HTK25