SplaTT's Blog

Action Cam

Bought a new toy on Friday night...the Oregon Scientific Action Cam...for around $160 Australian dollars :)

• Full-function, hands-free, digital recording
• Waterproof up to 3 meters and shock-resistant for extreme conditions
• Mounts easily on helmets, handlebars, and other sports equipment
• 640 x 480 VGA resolution at 30 frames per second
• USB and RCA cables included for easy playback on PC or TV (NTSC)
• SD card expansion up to 2GB – onboard memory is 32MB
• Operates with 2 AA batteries, not included
• Dimensions: 4.25L x 1.75D x 2.25H (in.)

We might even see the re-birth of CarCam and the birth of BikeCam...video's coming soon ;)

Canon EOS 400D...my new camera

New toy time...after battling with the gadget monster all day I just went and bought a Canon EOS 400D Digital SLR camera :)

My old camera, an Olympus C-5050 Zoom, has been a great camera for me over the past three or so years, but for some reason (and as you can probably tell by the number of my photo related blog posts over the past few months and my ramp up in Flickr activity) i have really gotten the photography bug this year and i figured it was time to upgrade from a lowly 5 MegaPixel single lens halfway decent semi-SLR camera to a kick-ass 10 MegaPixel interchangable lens camera that not only looks like a real camera but has all the features and acts like a true SLR.

My old Olympus C-5050 Zoom camera

My new Canon EOS 400D camera with 17-85mm lens :)

The battery is charging at the moment and i can't wait to take this thing out and give it a go :)

Oh yeah...thanks to my mate Garth Kidd (see Garth's Flickr site) for his advice as I was faltering...I owe you a beer or a coffee next time we catch up Garth :)

(added on 24 Nov - Bugger...deleted all the comments on this post by accident...grrrr)

ABC opens up EPG

Three cheers for the ABC as they open up "slowly" start to open up their EPG before any of the other free-to-air TV stations in Australia. While its great that they are taking this step, it still sounds like they are doing it very slowly.

<RANT>Hey...ABC, SBS, 7, 9 and 10...GET OVER IT...just open the EPG up and help change your own perception amongst DVR and media center users (of all varieties). The demographics of the people who now have devices that can utilise an EPG is becoming more widespread and is not just a market full of geeks and early adopters (like me) anymore.</RANT>

A tiny PC...and i do mean tiny...

The Space Cube is tiny....2 x 2 x 2.2 inches.

It has a 300 MHz CPU with 64 MB of SDRAM and has USB, Ethernet, flash memory, monitor port, Space wire, serial connection, and microphone ports / connections. It runs Linux...but who cares...this thing is huge...i mean small....

Info in English can be found here and here (good photos of it out of its case).

A lego brick that holds 500GB

These new "brick" desktop harddrives from Lacie would go so well with my desk...well...they would if i owned this desk

:)

lasers...from inside a pod

I remember seeing the Laserpod about a year ago but i never got around to ordering one...i think its about time...

This would go so well in my new house in Melbourne...when i get around to finding one that is...

Working EPG for Windows Media Center in Australia

Yeehaa....a huge thank you to Mark Baartse for pointing me in the direction of this forum posting and the associated site. When i combined the info on those pages with some of the fine points from this forum thread which focussed on the Sydney setings...i now have a fully working EPG on my Windows Media Center Edition PC.

The EPG functionality rocks...this is the "killer" component that the Media Center is lacking in Australia, and with the help of the above mentioned threads from the Australian XP Media Center Community website, its now a reality in my lounge room.

A huge thanks to Mark for pointing it out, to Ben Pettit for putting together the "oh so simple instructions", to specks90 (who ever you are) for providing the changes required for the Sydney setup and the people over at The Green Button and the Australian XP Media Center Community for finding ways around the bizarre reasoning that stopped the EPG being available in the first place.

I have said it before...and i will say it again...the Windows XP Media Center is an amazing tool that has changed how i live in my loungeroom, and whoever is stopping the "real/official" EPG from being released by Microsoft needs to be dragged aside and {insert favoured form of punishment here}.

Segway in Sydney

It looks like Segway opened up shop (well...not literally) in Sydney recently...i'll need to check with Segway Sydney and see if the have any info on the future availability of the Segway XT in Australia.

:)

Note: If you haven't actually seen a real Segway and you are in Sydney, go down to the QANTAS domestic terminal in Sydney and they have them in the gadget store in the actual lounge area once you have gone through security.

Welcome to the Matrix...online...

Warner Bros and SEGA recently launched the latest game that will no doubt sweep the MMORPG world..."The Matrix Online".

The story line (directed by the Wachowski brothers) appears to take off from where the last Matrix movie finished...and it looks pretty cool. It has guest appearances by all of your favourite matrix characters (except Neo) and has a few interesting things up its sleave..like the fallowing description taken from the press release...

"In an unprecedented move, a specialized role-playing live events team at Monolith will assume the roles of the actual Matrix characters and support the continuation of the game’s storyline through choreographed interaction. Players will meet, battle and eventually team up with the familiar characters on high-profile missions or at player-organized events."

Check out the trailers for a preview into what the "Matrix Online world" looks like.

The game will retail for around US$50 with a monthly subscription fee of US$14.99 and has already been launched in the US with Europe following on the 8th of April..no word for Australia yet though... :(

The Segway Cross-Terrain Transporter....i must have one :)

I knew i hadn't bought a Segway for some reason....the gods (in their wisdom) have been keepng me from getting one until the Cross-Terrain model, the Segway XT, was released...this thing is so cool....

They have also released new range of "colours" with the Segway i180 models (in red, yellow and blue) as well a model for you golfers, the Segway GT.

Expedition Oz...or geeks in the great outdoors

With all i have going on you think i would learn..but not me... :)

I've just launched another site called Expedition Oz (complete with blog and gallery) which will focus on my (part time) love of the great outdoors.

The one thing i do to get away from the office, is to get in my Landrover and drive out to the middle of nowhere. Sometimes i even dump the car, and go out for a mountain bike, a hike, a bit of kayak, a little bit of bouldering, a trail run, some geo-caching or whatever takes my fancy. I once spent four weeks travelling around the Australian outback...just me and my trusty Landrover Discovery. And yes...you do start talking to yourself after not having seen another human for 5 days..hang on...i do that anyway ;)

But the different thing between me and the bulk of the other people who like to spend their spare time in the "the big room", is that i tend to carry a heap of technology with me...GPS, digital camera, iPod (for podcasting on the move), PDA (secondary GPS), scanner, UHF radio, portable weather station, USB camera a(ttached to laptop), etc. Now i dont always carry this stuff "on me...but its usaully in the car or not that far away.

Like in my work life...so it is in my private life. I like to use the technology to better enjoy and to enhance the experience, and the Expedition Oz sites (and no...i'm not sure how often they will be updated) will be my way of sharing that experience...enjoy :)

Nerdy and geeky things for your wrist...

Checkout the watches at this site...very cool...especially the Amiga..ooops...i mean Commodore LCD watch.. ;)

SPOT Watch going to Europe...

Courtesy of Bink.nu

Check out this article at PPCW.net which mentions that the SPOT watch is finally destined to leave Northern America's shores for the first time...hey....what about Australia??? :(

Segway in Australia...damn..:)

When did this all happen??? When did they decide to let the Segway into Australia??? When did they appoint a local distributor??? And why didn't i hear anything about it???

Segway Southern Cross has been appointed as the exclusive distributor in Australia and NZ and are offering both the i-series and the p-series for sale on their site.

I think it was a p-series that i took for a ride when i was in Seattle earlier this year (photo's here) and i feel in love with it on the spot...damn...guess i will be making a phone call tomorrow morning to Segway Southern Cross to see what the deal is...and the availability... :)

The Junxion Box..."WiFi - anytime - anywhere"....well, as long as you are in mobile range....

This has got to be one of the most innovative products i have seen in a long time.

The Junxion Box is a linux powered, semi-portable WiFi access point that works by allowing you to plug into it one of a number of PCMCIA PC card modems that you can use with most wireless carriers (i wonder if it will work with the high speed "3 NetConnect Card" that Cameron Reilly keeps raving about??).

The result?? Well...once the PC card modem is plugged into it and working, you can attach to the Junxion Box's WiFi signal with your laptop or WiFi enabled device and surf the web. How cool is that??? I could access podcasts anywhere...and a podcast is exactly where i found out about this thing...thanx to Phillip Torrone and Len Pryor over at the Engadget Podcast (RSS) for pointing the Junxion Box out.

This is just what i need for my car...a four wheel WiFi access point...and you can't tell me that there have to be a number of possible business plans that you could base of this thing...i'm thinking of quite a few while i am typing this entry in... ;)

Must have device....the Room Defender...

This is just so cool...The Room Defender is a motion sensor driven device mounted on a tripod base that fires foam disks at people who enter its domain..but only after giving a verbal warning...hehehehe... :)

Link courtesy of Gizmodo

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 rocks.....part 1

One word..."unbelievable"...

Yep...i did it...i went out and bought myself a HP m1199a (link to m1188a) Windows Media Center Edition 2005 PC...and it was is no doubt one of the most life changing devices i will probably have in my lounge room for a long time to come.

Lets start of with the simple fact of having a PC (and a high powered one at that) plugged into your TV opens up so many possibilities for changing the way you interact with things. I'll admit, i'm one of those geeks that when i get home from work (or geekdinnering, or playing xbox with friends and sitting around waiting for Halo 2 to launch) and sit in my lounge room, i fire up my TabletPC, which automatically connects to my WiFi set up, and it just sits next to me on the couch. Every now and then i pick it up, read some blogs in my aggregator (NewGator), listen to some podcasts / audioblogs, watch some video, spend some time on IRC in the #joiito IRC room and i even use it to check something that i might have just seen on the TV and i'll admit, that even with a Media Center PC hooked upto my TV, i will no doubt still fire up the TabletPC. The Media Center is good, but you just can't spend time on IRC trying to type on and read from your TV screen...well...when i get a plasma or LCD TV with a better screen resolution that might change ;)

While i love my TabletPC, the Media Center is just so much more well suited to doing all of the stuff i just mentioned. Lets me go into some detail on some of the sections of the Media Center...

"Play DVD"
Just like any other DVD player...except...its a computer plugged into my TV with all of the benfits of that...but they really should add a "My DVD Collection" section. Some thing like this add-on i found would be perfect.

"Online Spotlight"
Allright...this is like having access to a number of channels normally viewed from a PC on your desktop...MovieLink, Napster, MSN Music, msntv, NPR, AOL music, ESPN, Reuters, Kodak, etc...

"My Videos"
Being a tech loving geek in my personal life and at work, i spend a lot of time watching product launches, videos of conference sessions and similar things to keep up to date on what is going on out in the big wide world. Watching a one hour product launch or conference video on my TabletPC screen (and i admit that my Toshiba M200 has a great screen) is just a right royal pain. While the form factor is fantastic, you end up realising that is fine for watching short videos but anything longer than 10 minutes and its just becomes a little to much. Now take that some video and playing it though your TV and you audio through a kick-ass sound system is a much better way to watch and listen to this stuff. Its just so much closer to the "TV" experience that we are used to.

"My Pictures"
The world of digital camera's has meant that my hardrive is full of images that i often don't look at more than once. Now take those images, and have them cycle through in a slideshow mode while you are listening to your favourite music...much better. The HP m1199a, like most of the 2005 Media Center's, has a bunch of memory card slots on the front panel. Get it. I take the memory card out of my camera...walk over to the Media Center PC...put the card in the corrosponding slot...and it allows me to easliy copy my images from the card to my harddrive...easy as pie...

"My TV"
What more can i say..."pausing live free-to-air television"...wow. You have to remember that the concept of PVR's is still new in Australia...we never got the Tivo here. 30 minutes worth of time shifting at the press of button. While i am talking about the My TV setup...the only real downside of the Media Center in Australia..and this is a biggy...is that we do not have an agreed system (by the broadcasters) for creating an EPG (Electronic Program Guide). can i make it clearer other than saying..."not having a program guide SUCKS". You loose all the cool TV based functionality other than timeshifting and recording to your hardrive. Just remember that when you want to record something at the moment that is hapening in the future, you need to set your recording session up like a VCR. Its all manual...grrrr...

"My Music"
All my music media is now in one place...my audio CD's are now going into the cupboard. Take note...all of my audio is synced between my Media Center, my TabletPC, my iPod, my PocketPC...everything...one place to manage all of it...how cool is that??? More on audio later...but here is a teaser ...the My Music section of my Media Center, when combined with Doppler is a huge addition to how i listen to "podcasts"...

"Radio"
I have yet to really play with this as i need to go and tune all the FM stations in that i want...hmm...time consuming...

"Extras"
Being a HP, the Media Center has a couple of HP specific apps put into it like; HP Image Zone, HP Tunes (HP version of itunes), create CD/DVD (nice) and maybe some more things i haven't seen yet.

"Messenger" integration
So there i am watching a TV show, when all of a sudden an IM from one of my friends pops up on top of the show i am watching....how cool is that???

This thing is just so cool...i'm glad that the "gadget monster" won this battle :)

ADDITION: Hey guys and gals...if you post a comment looking for a free / cracked key to Media Center I won't publish it anymore. For all the benefits the Windows XP Media Center Edition gives you, its really not that expensive. Sorry.

Windows Media Center 2005..should i or shouldn't I???

I know to a lot of people it looks like a buy a lot of my gadgets on impulse, but that is not really the case. I have been waiting a long time for the launch in Australia of the Microsoft Windows Media Center 2005 Edition PC's.

As i said, i don't actually buy on impulse, i have this internal struggle that often goes on for days on whether or not a really need a particual gadget, and when the Media Center i am looking at is going to cost me between $2,500 and $3,000 AUS...believe me...it's a struggle.

But in the end i often give in to the one i call the "gadget monster". You should have seen the battle between myself and the "gadget monster" that went on for four days to decide if i should have bought the Sony Aibo i bought on my last trip to San Fransisco. "The Battle of the Aibo" would be worthy of having songs being written about it by bards with lutes. It would both enthrall and terrify all who listened to the tale of woe.

Well..."The Battle of the Media Center" has been raging for three long days and nights, and i am finally admitting defeat. So I will shortly leave the stronghold that is my office, go out into the dangerous wilderness that is the electronics superstore in my local shopping mall and return with a HP m1199a Windows Media Center PC.

Ohh the shame of defeat....but damn...will i have a blast playing with my new toy :) Expect a lot of posts on it in the next couple of days. Here is a link to the HP m1188a, which is the model below the one i am getting. Essentially the same, but the m1199a has 1Gig of RAM and a better video card....damn that "gadget monster"...will he never be defeated???

GeekMan...you have to love this...

So i went out and bought a heap of stuff from Think Geek...which i recommend you all do at one point or another...their product range is fantastic.

Now, while everything i got would be considered cool (to fellow geeks), Geek Man is by far, one of the funniest things i have seen in a long time.

Purchases included the following:
Geek Man
Space Invaders wall stickers
A SoundBug
"Geek" bumper sticker
"There's no place like 127.0.0.1" bumper sticker
"WWW" sticker
XML compliant "<Geek>" tshirt
"I'm blogging this" tshirt

Yep...I'm a geek... :)

Digital Retro...aahhh....the memories....

What a great idea for a book...Digital Retro: The Evolution and Design of the Personal Computer...gotta get me one of these for the geek bookshelf at home.

I't don't what is more frightening...the fact that between a few of my friends and myself, we have owned nearly every one of the computers in this book at one time or another, or that a good number of the people i know have not heard of more than half of the machines that the book looks at....i just wish i still had all of them...now that would be one hell of a collection to have :)

I think i hear the vintage computer section of eBay calling...

Swatch enter the MSN Direct (SPOT) watch market

Swatch, a major player in the consumer watch market has decided to release the Paparazzi, which is an MSN Direct (SPOT - Smart Personal Object Technology) watch.

I bought an Abacus Round version when i was in the US in February of this year, and feel in love with the whole MSN Direct and SPOT technology concept straight away. I was even lucky enough to have Robert Scoble organise a meeting with some of the SPOT team for me when i was at the Microsoft Redmond campus in late February. The discussion was under NDA..and it was pretty cool to see where they are taking this longterm...hopefully ;)

The only thing that annoys the hell out of me is that i pretty well wear the watch every day, and i am constantly telling people about what it can do and they get all excited...but then they ask me to show them how it works and of course the MSN Direct part of the watch doesn't work in Australia...i would even be happy if i could get it to go into some sort of demo mode....anybody know how to get it to do that by chance??? Or maybe we could just get the service switched on for me to demo to people....hmm...didn't think so...damn...

PS. a good site for MSN Direct / SPOT watch info is SpotStop.com...SPOTDev looks pretty cool as well.

In-car PC...yes thanks...

If your a geek and you own a car, you gotta check out this Channel 9 post on J. P. Stewart's CarPC...

I've been thinking about this for a while, as I run my PocketPC in the car playing audio and watching the odd webcast of a conference i can't attend (when the car is stationary of course) and I have a bluetooth GPS unit set up with various mapping software for location finding, but i have held of on doing a full blown CarPC setup as i don't see the point unless i have a high bandwidth connection...good quality streaming audio in...carcam streaming out....

I have been looking at how to get a flat satellite dish on the roof (not as easy as it sounds) of my Land Rover Discovery, but i may have to opt for a 3G card or an unwired setup. Only problem is that net access will be limited to the areas that have mobile reception and the cost will be ridiculous...

hmmmm....i suppose i can always start building the other gear first...time to find a low power / small footprint ITX motherboard and start working on it...

WiFi on the go...

Apple have announced the AirPort Express which is a really cool "little" WiFi device that allows you to create a WiFi network on the fly...

It allows you to share your music from your iTunes aplication to any music playing device (ie. home stereo)with a spare input any where in the house, but the best bit is that you can carry it with you while you are travelling and plug any wired (ethernet) network into it and....badabing....you have an instant wireless network

Heres a snippet from the Apple site... "With AirPort Express, your wireless life stays wireless even when you’re on the road. Many hotels may have wireless service available in some designated parts of their buildings but not in their guest rooms. With AirPort Express, it won’t matter — as long as your hotel room is wired for broadband, you can create your own wireless network with AirPort Express. Just connect the AirPort Express Base Station to the room’s Ethernet network jack, plug it into an electrical outlet and you’re online wirelessly."

Nice little piece of technology.....

new toys.....part 1: i-mate Pocket PC Phone Edition

Its been a busy couple of weeks.....and all the more so because i have bought some new toys to play with....

Toy 1 : The i-mate Pocket PC Phone Edition PDA which is running Microsoft's Pocket PC Phone Edition 2003. Now this is one pretty cool device...i haven't owned a PDA / Pocket PC since mid 2000 when i bought a HP Jordana and the MS guys have taken the OS ahead in leaps and bounds.

First up, the i-mate handles video like a dream...I loaded a 45MB WMV file onto it and the Pocket PC version of Windows Media Player managed to play it without skipping a beat...no lag...no syncing issues...nothing....

Using it to play audio files and music has got to be one of the most used applications on it...I went out and got a 512MB SD storage card so i could load up extra files, so now i can listen to WebTalkGuys mp3 files whenever i feel like it....I've loaded up some mp3 and wma music files as well and it sounds pretty good through a good set of headphones....but unless i can get a 10-20 GIG SD storage card for it (i wish..) i guess i'll be using my iPod until i decide to move onto a Windows powered device....

It has a nice and simple cut down version of Outlook on it....which i am still trying to hook up to our Exchange Server at work (the object here is to get rid of the blackberry)...but it is pretty simple to get it set up and working with POP3 email addresses....the contact book also works pretty well and it deals with with all the fields that i can throw at it from Outlook on my TabletPC which is what it is syncing with...

It has basic versions of Word and Excel on it....no PowerPoint viewer but you can always hope...this is something i thought was really missing in the OS that was on my Jordana and I really thought they would have added it in by now...guess i will just have to buy a copy of CNetX's Pocket SlideShow which is a pretty cool little powerpoint viewer...now if i go and buy a the i-mate backpack for it, which has a type II Compact Flash card slot, a VGA out connector as well as an extra battery, i will be able to run client presentations from it on video projectors...thats cool... :)

Microsoft Pocket Reader is pretty good if you have any books in that particular format...but you can also load up acrobat as well...

The phone part of the i-mate integrates nicely with the other applications....dial directly from you contacts list....recieve and compose SMS and MMS messages....fire up the GPRS connection and surf the web with Pocket IE....or even load up MSN Messenger...I love it when i am IM'ing people and you then tell them you aren't in your office or near you computer and you are using Messenger on a portable device...

I have also loaded up a few other Microsoft and third party apps onto the i-mate as well...i mentioned earlier that i was running Pocket SlieShow to view PowerPoint files in, but i have also loaded up a few more "fun"...err..."business critical" applications as well....PocketChat (IRC client)....Pocket Adobe Acrobat....Pocket PC Expense (hint: check out the other PocketPC Power Toys like remote display)....If Pocket Streets was available in Australia i would have that on the i-mate as well...

I have also included some media grabbers on it for a bit of fun and time killing....m-Vision and Microsoft Plus! Sync and Go for Pocket PC. To round it off, three important pieces of software....Symantec Anti-Virus for Handhelds, and Spb Pocket Plus which is a great tool and one of the things you must buy if you have a PocketPC...the last software package....an RSS reader of course...FurryGoats's (love the name) PocketFeed.

I have also bought some "hardware" add-ons as well...as i mentioned ealrier, i picked up a ScanDisk 512MB SD storage card and i also got a ScanDisk 802.11b SD WiFi card for thiose moments when i can access the net without those crazy GPRS data charges....

The best little bit of hardware and software i bought i will cover in detail in one of my next posts...CoPilot Live PocketPC 4 which comes complete with a great little gadget...the Entac BTGPS (BlueTooth GPS) unit....more on this later...

To wrap it up, I would have to say that the i-mate is a great addition to my gadget bag and the MS guys have built a great little platform for the PDA with Pocket PC 2003...I hope the devices just keep rolling into market...i can't wait until they release PocketPC 2003 Second Edition or until i can lay my hands on either a Motorola MPx220 SmartPhone or the "oh so to die for" MPx....

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