Apple iTunes : One Million Podcasts

Apple has announced that iTunes Podcast Subscriptions has reached one million. How long did it take? Just two days. Months ago Adam Curry was talking about the "100 million podcast listeners march". This is really a watershed event that brings podcasts to the masses. Six months down the road, when Apple delivers the 100 millionth podcast, we will wonder what the fuss was all about. I have been playing with iTunes 4.9 a lot over the past few days, and it has replaced iPodder as my podcatching client of choice. While the service has been erratic (probably due to those million subscriptions), it's a smooth process and you can even view native Quicktime content (i.e. Rocketboom) right in iTunes itself. Tags: Apple iTunes Podcasting Podcatching

Transitions

Today is my last day with my current company. In the past ten years, I've only had three jobs (including this one, not including the next) and it's always a sad/happy moment when it comes to leaving. You leave behind friends and colleagues, and look forward for new relationships and new challenges. On Monday I start over, with a new telco, and doing different things. In some ways, I will be back at my roots - working on the next big thing for the Internet content and application space. It's going to be very exciting. Wish me luck.

10 years of Java - and a Sun Notebook!

Sun Microsystems is celebrating 10 years of Java at the JavaOne Conference. In just a decade, Java can claim to have : * 2.5 Billion devices * 1B Java Cards! * 708M Java Powered phones * 700M PCs with Java * 140+ carriers A surprise announcement is the first-ever Sun notebook computer - the Sun Ultra 3 Mobile Workstation. It will be equipped with Sun's Ultrasparc processor, the Solaris 10 operating system, 512 megabytes of memory, a 40 gigabyte hard drive and WiFi. The "Mobile Workstation" will also be preloaded with Java Studio Enterprise 7 and Sun Java Studio Creator. The price : a whopping USD$3,400. In contrast, a top-of-the-line Apple Powerbook will cost USD$2,700. Tags: Java Sun Notebook

Technorati: Live 8 on the Treo

PalmOne is sponsoring Technorati's mobile version of the Live 8 blog. Live 8 - "The long walk to Justice" is a day of action that calls on the leaders of the world's richest countries to put an end to poverty and debt when they meet on July 6. The Live 8 event will be held on July 2nd, with concerts in several cities, featuring 100 artists, a million spectators, two billion viewers. You can follow the Mobile Live 8 version here. If you join up with a blog post on Live 8, you could be one of the lucky bloggers to win a backstage pass to one of the concerts held in Philadelphia, Paris, Rome, and Tokyo. Tags: Live8 Treo Palm Smartphone

Bloglines : 112 feeds and counting

Microsoft's Robert Scoble says that he monitors 1300+ blogs and websites on a weekly basis. My blogroll on Bloglines is currently only 112 feeds - that's a lot to catch up! Tags: Blogs Bloglines Blogroll

Handango Champion Awards - Winners

Mobile download provider Handango recently announced the winners of the Handango Champion Awards. A panel of industry experts and media selected the best software for all Handango-supported platforms including BlackBerry, Palm OS, UIQ/Series 60 and Windows Mobile Pocket PC/Smartphone OS. Winners for Palm OS: * Best Application for Work - SnapperMail Premier Bundle by Snapperfish * Best Application for Play - Pocket Tunes Deluxe by NormSoft * Best Application for Life - VeriChat by PDAapps * Best New Application - SplashBlog by SplashData * Best Industry Application - Davis's Drug Guide by Unbound Medicine All of the above winners are actually solid applications and I personally use Pocket Tunes and SplashBlog daily. More information about the awards and winners can be found in the Handango Press Release Tags: Treo PDA Smartphone

Trackbacks added

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

My gadgets : My media server is full!

Just a little over two months ago, I bought an external 160GB hard drive to act as my media repository. It's now full to the brim with my document backups, music, and movies. So now the dilemma is - buy another external hard drive or DVD burner? A 160GB drive costs about the same as an internal DVD burner plus the DVDR media equivalent to 160GB (roughly 40 pieces). Tags: DVD Hard Disk Removable Media

Apple : new iPods!

While iTunes 4.9 was released as previously expected, Apple also surprisingly announced new iPods today. The two new models are 20GB (US$299, 5000 songs) and 60GB (US$399, 15000 songs) full-size iPods with colour screens. The move simplifies Apple's iPod product line, eliminating the iPod photo. All full-size iPods (including the iPod U2) now feature colour screens. Apple also promotes the iPods as "Podcast Ready". Looks like the only thing left to announce is the long-awaited iTunes Phone from Motorola. Tags: Apple iPod Music Podcasting

Google Video Viewer

Google just released their new Google Video Viewer, as part of their Google Video service. The Google Video Viewer is small (1MB download), will play any video available on Google Video and it won't interfere with other video players on your system. Currently available only for Windows 2000/XP, it works with both Firefox and IE. I heard earlier that the Google Video Viewer is based on VLC, a cross-platform open-source media player. Google Video allows you to search for content within videos, as well as upload (and potentially sell) your own videos. Tags : Google Video

Apple iTunes 4.9 coming today?

Word on the grapevine is that iTunes 4.9 will be released today, according to The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW). Actually, Dave Winer is the one who says that today (tomorrow for USA folks) could be the big day for iTunes 4.9, which has built-in support for podcasting. If this is true, then the big media event Apple has staged for July 7th must be bigger than just new iPods. Let the speculation begin... Tags : Apple iTunes Podcasting [via TUAW]

iPodder 2.1 Now Available

iPodder 2.1, the latest version of the popular Python-based podcatching application, is now available for Mac OS X and Windows 2000/XP. New features include : - One-click subscription support - Synch subscriptions to remote OPML file - Auto cleanup - and much more I have been using iPodder for a few months now, and while it does have its quirks, it's been stable so far. Tags : Podcasting Podcatching iPodder

The world's knowledge in the palm of your hands

How would you like to hold the world's knowledge in the Palm of your hand? It's now possible to do just that. The dream of a real "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (the device, not the movie) is becoming closer and closer. You need : 1. A PDA (Palm, Pocket PC, or Symbian) 2. A 1GB SD card (or just sufficient free space on your PDA, if you have a PalmOne LifeDrive) 3. A copy of TomeRaider 3 4. The latest downloadable copy of WikiPedia, the online colloborative encyclopedia, in Tomeraider format. Right now the downloadable version (with pictures) stands at 933MB. So the next time someone asks you, "Who is Skipp Sudduth?", all you need to do is whip out your Treo and look it up. [via PalmAddicts] Tags : WikiPedia Palm Treo TomeRaider

Camino 0.9a1 is out

Camino - the Mac-optimised, superfast web browser built on the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine has just been released. Available for Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later, it's only a slim 7.9MB download. Features include tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, built-in Google Search, Find-As-You-Type, and more. 0.9a1 is a preview release - so if you're not that adventurous, go ahead and download the latest stable version (0.8.4). Tags: Computers and Internet Web Browser Apple Camino

The Poor Man's Raid Array

So where do you store all those legally-suspect MP3 and movie files? InventGeek shows how to make your own half-terabyte (500GB) RAID 5 array from off-the-shelf components for USD$250. The Poor Man's Raid Array takes about 3 hours to do, and the step-by step instructions are meant for novices. [via Make]

Bigger, faster, more

It won't be long before we have PDAs/smartphones with flash drives of 100GB capacity, and download speeds of 1GBps. A couple of interesting news items: Larger storage in smaller form factors Samsung announces 16GB flash drives, expanding to 100GB in a couple of years, while keeping a 2.5in form factor. This would be an ideal drop-in replacement for most notebook hard drives. Flash is nonvolatile, and has no moving parts. This means that portable devices such as PDAs and notebooks can have longer battery life and be made more rugged. Faster wireless NTT DoCoMo successfully tested 1Gbps in outdoor environment, in 4G trials. The 4G service is not expected to be deployed until 2010, but an interim "Super 3G" service will have 100Mbps downlink/50Mbps uplink within 3 years. If you compare that to today, most 3G systems don't even reach 384kbps, and coverage is spotty at best. [via Infoworld]

Homemade Baby Wipes

Parents (especially those with newborns and really young children) know how essential baby wipes are. You keep baby wipes in your car, in most of your rooms, and they will definitely be used multiple times each day. And they cost a lot : the cheapest I've found locally would run RM5 (USD$1.25) per 100 sheets. Computer Science PhD candidate (!) Bryan Horling has the recipe for homemade baby wipes. This would make an excellent weekend project, and I can't wait to try it out. [via LifeHacker]

More video content for your Treo - DinkyMovies

Coming soon to your PDA : DinkyMovies. DinkyMovies are short 2-3 minute animated movies, created by industry veterans. They will: - work on a variety of PalmOS devices - run on Kinoma Media Player - be delivered by Handango - be out once a week (every 7-10 days) - cost USD$1.99 per episode The concept is great, but maybe a little outdated. Compare this with Rocketboom, which is : - live news, comedy and clips - delivered via RSS/podcast infrastructure - available in a number of different formats - out every weekday - is free. Tags: Treo Movies

Return of The Tungsten X/XX?

Way back when (OK, only a few months ago), there were rumours that the palmOne Lifedrive was supposed to be called the Tungsten X. Engadget has details and photos of a supposed "Tungsten XX". The Tungsten XX looks like a clone of the Tungsten T5, in a darker casing. The specs are: - 312MHz processor - Hi-Res+ display (320x480) - Bluetooth 1.2 - WiFi 802.11b - SDIO - Palm OS 5.4.9 It's hard to see where this device fits in the current palmOne product line. It would have to be the top of the range Tungsten (unless they don't include a 160MB Flash drive like a T5, and palmOne forces us to choose between largish storage and WiFi). If it sits on top of the Tungsten T5 (USD$399) on the product range, then the price differential with the LifeDrive(USD$499) would be too small to choose the XX. Any way you look at it, "XX" is a horrible name for any product. Tags: Tungsten Palm PDA [via Engadget]

The Signal - Serenity Podcast

It's still a few months away from the release of Serenity - the movie based on the Firefly SF TV series. The Signal is a 52-minute podcast done by fans to promote the movie. For a first podcast, The Signal has high production values. There are lots of clips from the series, trailers and cast interviews. The podcast starts with a solid 15 minutes explaining the background of the TV series and the Firefly/Serenity universe. Tags: Serenity Firefly Podcast

Web Tools : Backpack Mobile

Remember Backpack, the online organizer/wiki? You can access your Backpack account while on the move. The developers, 37signals have added a stripped-down version for access using mobile web browsers on your Treo, mobile phone or PDA. It's quite simple, too - all you need to do is add /mob to your backpack URL, e.g. "http://morituri.backpackit.com/mob/". With Backpack Mobile, you can : * View any page * Add list items and notes to pages * Make a new page * View and add reminders

The Star Online 10th Anniversary

How time flies. The Star Online is now 10 years old. The first web portal from a South East Asian newspaper has grown by leaps and bounds over the years, and now enjoys 45 million page views per month. Hats off to Davin Arul and his team. I remember Davin Arul from his days helming Worlds of Wonder, the weekly column in Star Two focusing on comics.

DeeSee's PalmOne LifeDrive review

David Chew aka DeeSee of KVPUG is writing a review of the PalmOne LifeDrive. The review is not completed yet, but it's probably the most thought-out review I have seen so far. It's also very well-designed, with lots of photos and screenshots. Tags: LifeDrive Palm PDA

More Google goodness : Satellite Images on Google Maps

Third Google-related post in a row! Google Maps is a great online service from Google. Aside from searching for local places of interest and driving/walking directions for most North American cities, you can also now view actual satellite images. For non-US locations, the detail is not that deep, but the images are quite impressive. Search for "kuala lumpur, malaysia" or "kuching, malaysia" for some local colour.

Google Mobile Web Search

Google has just launched their beta Mobile Web search. What's different from the normal search? The results are compiled from mobile-friendly sites (e.g. WAP sites) and are better formatted for the small screen. To give it a try, point your mobile device's browser here.

Access your GMail account on a WAP phone or mobile device

Here's a neat way to connect to your Gmail account on your phone - if you don't have a POP client. Gmailwireless offers both a WAP service and a Pocket PC service. You need to register on the site before using the service. Please be aware that Gmailwireless is neither affiliated nor endorsed by Google.

Download for free - Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town

SF writer (and Boing-Boinger) Cory Doctorow just released his long awaited third novel, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town under the Creative Commons licence. You can download the book in several different formats, including PDF, ASCII and HTML. You can grab a copy and convert it yourself to your favourite PDA format, or just wait a week or so and those versions are bound to appear. Of course, it's available from Amazon as well. If you like your science fiction with a twist, then this might be your cup of tea. Check out the stunning book cover by Dave Mckean, who is most widely known for his work on Neil Gaiman's The Sandman.

Download for free - Accelerando! by Charles Stross

Accelerando! is the latest book by British pharmacist-turned SF writer Charles Stross. If it's half as good as his Hugo-nominated novella, Lobsters, then we're in for a treat. Accelerando is due in August 2005, and you can pre-order at Amazon. If you can't wait, then the good news is that the book is available for download now as an ebook in several different formats, including HTML, plain text, and Palm DOC format. It's licenced under Creative Commons.

palmOne Treo 650 Updater 1.13 (Unlocked GSM version)

Well, after months and months of waiting, palmOne finally released their firmware update for the Treo 650 (Unlocked GSM version). There's no SD card update, just an update that you run from your PC or Mac. I've just performed the update on my Treo. It went flawlessly, but obviously it's too soon to tell whether it's any more stable than the previous "unofficial" updates. After the update, the firmware version is 01.28 and the software version is 1.13-ROW. Tags: Treo Palm Smartphone

The Engadget Father’s Day Gift Guide

For most people around the world, Father's Day is this weekend. For last-minute gift ideas, check out The Engadget Father’s Day Gift Guide. There are ten affordable and not-so-affordable recommendations for the geeky father. Incidently, this is also the 5000th blog post by Peter Rojas, so it's quite a milestone.

Current Playlist : Parliament

I'm currently listening to Parliament's Greatest Hits on my palmOne Treo 650 smartphone. It's a great introduction to p-funk, and a refreshing change to the generic Top 40 hits of today. I was turned on to Parliament by, of all people, Dawn and Drew.

Native Powerpoint viewing on your Treo

I have been using Dataviz's Documents To Go for a few years now. Each successive version has brought more features, bringing closer and closer the goal of total reading and writing Microsoft Office documents on the handheld PDA and smartphones. I just discovered that the latest version, 7.006 has the ability to view Microsoft Powerpoint files in native format. I downloaded a bunch of Powerpoint files from Oreilly's conference website and copied them to my SD card. Most of the graphics and text are rendered accurately. Simple and brilliant. So if you have a Treo650, make sure you register your copy of DTG with Dataviz in order to download the latest version. Tags: Treo Palm Smartphone

Optware Holographic 30GB Card

Storage media gets smaller and smaller and smaller... The Optware Holographic Versatile Card is credit-card sized and will hold 30GB of data. The cards will be cheap (US$1 each) but the drive/card reader will be expensive (US$1800-2000 each). The cards have a resemblance to the glass "video cartridges" used in the movie Minority Report. This would probably make a great backup media for surveillance systems. [via Gizmodo]

Systm Episode 2 - build your own MythTV box

The second episode of IPTV show Systm is out. In this episode, former TechTV host Kevin Rose and gang talk about building a Tivo-type box using Linux and MythTV. Grab your choice of Xvid, Windows Media, Theora or Quicktime (H.264) versions. Tags: IPTV Systm MythTV

Hell hath frozen over...

Last Friday, CNET reported that Apple was going to ditch IBM and switch to Intel processors. Over the weekend, the Internet was abuzz with rumours and speculations. Along came Monday and a lot of people woke up very early to find out that it's all true. You can learn many things from Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. His presentation skills are excellent, his ability to generate RDF (reality distortion field) among faithfuls is amazing, and most importantly - never say never. The world of technology is all about change, and to succeed you must manage change. The naysayers are already saying that nobody would want to buy a Mac until June 2006, when the first Mac on Intel will be released. Leo Laporte said that Apple could be going the way of Osborne, which died a slow death when it preannounced its next product. There's an "Ask Engadget" topic asking, "Should I wait to buy a Mac?" What's different, of course, is timing. Apple will definitely see a slowdown in new computer sales for the next 12 months. But with a good chunk of cash on the bank, and with Microsoft-like market shares in MP3 players and downloadable online music, Apple can afford to do this now. Why wait 12 months, though? While there is a need to get third-party software developers to port over their software to the new platform, apparently all Apple software is ready for Intel. Apple should capitalise on the momentum and create powerful, 3GHz+ machines that can do HD video really well (with Final Cut Pro, Motion, Shake, etc). I bet this could come up just in time for movie producers to work on for the next summer blockbuster.

Rocketboom - Video News for your mobile device

Got a brand new smartphone running 3G or EDGE, and no fresh content? Rocketboom offers daily 3-minute news in video. Every day there's a grab-bag of content including interviews, event coverage, weird animation and parodies. There are various formats on offer - phone (3gp) Quicktime, Windows Media, and PSP. There's an RSS feed so you can set it to download automatically on your iPodder or favourite podcatching application. Phillip Torrone at Make Magazine has an interview with the man behind the scenes, Andrew Baron. Tags: Smartphone Video Podcatching

Current playlist : Thievery Corporation

Hot on my Treo 650 playlist right now is Thievery Corporation. It's a little bit jazzy, a little bit poppy, a little bit world music and smooth all the way.

Internet Access Problems

I've had Internet access problems at the office for the past three weeks. My trusty palmOne Treo650 smartphone has done a wonderful job, keeping my email alive and giving me direct web access when I need it. I use Bloglines Mobile to keep me up to date with dozens of RSS feeds. The best thing about it is, when I get back on the Internet using my iBook or regular PC, Bloglines keeps track of what I've read, so I can just keep going. I still haven't managed to get dial-up networking through my Treo650, from iBook via Bluetooth to work yet. I wish someone could come up with a way to make the Treo650 a USB modem, that would make things much simpler. I am posting this up using Blogger's email function. Unfortunately the email-to-post method doesn't accept HTML, so I'll have to edit later to put in the links.

SplashBlog - photo sharing and mobile blogging

You can do just about anything from your Treo today, including blogging. Both Blogger and Flickr have the ability to update your blog via email. SplashBlog is a new-ish product from SplashData. Its sole purpose it to produce and manage photo weblogs from camera-enabled Palm OS PDA or smartphone, like the Zire72 or Treo 650. I tried it out today, and it works just as advertised. It's very simple and straightforward to use. Starting Splashblog for the first time will prompt you to create a new account on the Splashblog site. Your blog URL will be something like http://www.splashblog.com/morituri . Unfortunately right now, you can't post to existing photo blogs like Flickr. They do plan to support this in the future. SplashBlog makes good use of my Treo's integrated camera. For photos, aside from the normal 3 resolutions that the camera can handle (160x120, 320x240, 640x480), there are also five quality levels to choose from. There's a 30 day trial. The regular price is $29.95, but there's a limited promo price of $19.95. What most people don't know is, you can get SplashBlog for an even lower price - $1! Handango has a new service called Inhand which designed to enable easy browsing and shopping of Palm software packages on Treo smartphones. As a promotion, InHand is offering several applications for just $1, and one of them is SplashBlog. Incidently, you need to redownload the latest version of SplashBlog (1.5) directly from the SplashData website AFTER purchasing it via InHand, because the version that gets downloaded direct to your phone has issue. I heard about this from The Tablet PC Show podcast over The Podcast Network, so I have to give them thanks for saving me $28.