Right On Technology

Whoopee! Today is the day that my Windows 7 Party Pack arrived! So many goodies that I don’t know where to start. I’ll list some of the goodies and show you some pictures:

-Poster with the Windows 7 Design
- Deck of playing cards with the Windows 7 design
- One Windows 7 puzzle
- Bag of streamers
- Bag of balloons
- Table top centerpiece
- Pack of Windows 7 napkins
- 10 tote bags to give to guests (woot, love tote bags!)

It’s Christmas in October baby. Click below for the pictures.
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Rumors have abounded for weeks or months now with blurry pictures of supposed Android phones coming to Verizon. This has set the rumor mill in full motion dreaming up scenarios whereby Verizon might finally get off their duffs and decide to get in the smart phone game. It appears that this might finally come to pass as Google and Verizon are set to announce a strategic partnership today.

I’ve been a Verizon customer for about 5 years mostly due to the fact that they have/had the best network in America, especially when roaming and stuff used to really matter to me. However, their phones stink. When given the chance to have the iPhone on their network they told Apple to take off. Worst. Mistake. Ever. In fact, just last week I finally left Verizon and switched to AT&T so that I could get my wife an iPhone. We tried to hold out for a Gphone/Android based phone to show up Verizon, but we just couldn’t take it any longer.

So, it appears that Verizon will be offering the Android phone very soon. What remains to be determined is whether or not they are going to gimp the features that make the Android phones really cool. Verizon has a history of gimping phones on their network so you can’t take full advantage of them (like the GPS ability in the Blackberry I had from Verizon). With Verizon nothing is beyond imagination, if they gimp them though, really there is no point to get an Android phone. The whole point of Android is openness and accessibility. Here is one of the phones rumored to be offered by Motorola, looks promising.

Lifecasting! A strange word to some of us, but many folks think it’s the next big thing since the Truman Show. What is lifecasting you ask? Essentially it is 24/7 recordings of what you are doing and where you are. Sounds kind of creepy to some folks, but it is an intriguing idea to others, especially those who want to chronicle their lives or have very large egos.

There are many different products coming that fullfill some aspect of this lifecasting future, but one that is ready now, and at least does some of this is the new Fitbit, and high-tech pedometer that does more then just count your steps. This $99 device is about as small as a credit card and you can clip it to your pocket or your wallet and it tracks your daily . . . and nightly activities, then sends all that information to the cloud wirelessly.

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Growing up in a fairly high-tech household I have many memories of different innovations and changes in technology, from the first personal home computer to the first VCR to the first CD player, these events all stand out in my mind, if somewhat vaguely. One of the early memories that I have of the whole tech revolution happened as I watched the Superbowl in 1984. During that game, Apple Computers aired one of the most famous and effective commercials of all time. This commercial depicted a future similar to that portrayed in George Orwell’s book 1984. Hordes of drones being brainwashed by some dictator on a big screen. However, soon a beautiful woman rushes in and hurls a large hammer at the screen and introduces the Macintosh revolution.

Of course, the whole idea was that the tiny company Apple would revolutionize personal computing and the ever-present Big Brother of IBM would meet it’s match. A very effective and awe inspiring commercial, even if it didn’t ever actually come true quite like Apple thought it might.

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First the Segway (remember when that was going to revolutionize personal travel and mobility) and now we have the next step in pointless tech gadgets, the Honda U3-X (catchy name).

Looking like a stylized, ultra-modern unicycle, the U3-X zips it’s occupant around simply by balancing forward, sideways or backwards. It can keep a constant speed of around 3.7 MPH. Amazingly the device only weighs about 22 pounds and has a lithium battery that can last around an hour or so.

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Yay good news, today I was chosen to host a Windows 7 Launch Party! What exactly does that mean? You can learn more about the program here. Basically this is Microsoft’s new marketing technique, get thousands of people to have “install” or “unboxing” parties around the country and at the same time promote the new features of Windows. In exchange, the hosts get several pretty cool benefits, including a Signature copy of windows.

Once you go through the application process, and if you are chosen as a host for a party then you have to set up your own web page. I used facebook connect to put in all my info in, and I think this might help folks who are interested in getting chosen.

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Twitter just finished it a round of private venture capital raising and the new valuation for the start-up is around $1 Billion. Techcrunch reports that Twitter CEO Even Williams recently told employees that recently raised around $50 million dollars. This follows earlier rounds of capital fundraising that was valued at around $250 million, led by Benchmark Capital.

While it is clear that Twitter can raise money like no other start-up I can remember, what is not so clear is how exactly they are going to motenize their venture into something that actually makes money. Twitter has done a better job in turning something with no value into something with great potential then any company I’ve seen, but the end game is still unclear to me.

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A marriage made in heaven. Intuit, the makers of Quickbooks and TurboTax have purchase the very popular financial site Mint.com today for $170 million dollars! Not too shabby for a small start-up that is less then 2 years old. Silicon Alley Insider first reported the rumor and it has now been confirmed by CEO Aaron Patzer.

If you have not used Mint.com before, it’s actually a very slick site. Think of it as Quicken for the average dummy (like me). You can enter all your financial data (bank accounts, credit cards, mortgage, etc) and your sources of income and the site tracks everything for you. It downloads your statements, income and daily purchases directly from your bank and gives you a lot of data about your personal finances. You can then use that data to plan your household budget and make other important financial decisions. The best part about Mint is that it is free! There is other software you can buy that does essentially the same thing (Quickbooks/Quicken for one) but the value the consumer gets from Mint is really incredible.

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Uh oh, here comes the judge. It looks like the US Department of Justice has decided to take a look at the Microsoft/Yahoo deal, requesting that both companies give more information about their partnership. The worry seems to be that there might be some kind of anti-trust problems, or at least some perceived problems.

The main concern revolves around how their new partnership might impact ad pricing online. This is something of a silly question considering that Google owns about 70% of that entire market, and that combined Yahoo and Microsoft maybe owns about 20% of the market. It is somewhat bewildering to me that the Justice Department would question this deal and worry about anti-competitive pricing when essentially the entire industry of search engine driven ads is entirely uncompetitive.

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While yesterday’s Apple press event held a few surprises, the biggest consensus is that it was pretty much a flop. The biggest disappointment (outside of no Beatles!!!) was the lack of a camera for the flagship iPod device, the iPod Touch. Speculation ran wild yesterday as the tech world collectively asked, why give the Nano a camera and not give the Touch a camera?

Well, it turns out that the camera may still be on the way, but there were some quality issues that prevented Apple from unveiling the long awaited Touch camera yesterday. Apple Insider reports that Apple originally planned on releasing the Touch with a camera yesterday, but made a last minute decision to delay the release of the camera touch. Reportedly the camera did not live up to Apple’s quality assurance expectations. Other sources stated that this decision was actually made about a month ago while they continued to work on the device.

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