With the Showtime EBIF app already raking in dough on TV sets across the country, the cable network has decided to go mobile. Showtime launched its own iPhone app this week complete with teaser episodes, video extras, and broadcast schedules. Given that the EBIF version may not be available in your area, the iPhone application is a nice alternative for testing the Showtime waters. Personally, I’ve never been willing to pay the extra fees for premium cable channels, but maybe if I knew more about what I was missing, I’d dole out the cash. I’m not likely to buy a whole season on DVD, or even waste time on episodes in my Netflix queue, but if you put an episode right in front of me, I’ve got nothing to lose. And that’s what Showtime is counting on.

The iPhone app is, naturally, free. But if you’re still hesitant, check out the pics below. The application is powered by mobile ad specialist Transpera.

Although the Star Trek holodeck always held great appeal (when it wasn’t malfunctioning and killing off lesser characters), many people reserve a bit more skepticism on the need for 3DTV. This has a lot to do with left-over images from the 1950s, but it also stems from the fact that 3D viewing still requires special glasses, which can be a minor annoyance or a major headache depending on your particular visual cortex.

Possible consumer hesitancy aside, the CE and TV industries are now moving aggressively forward to bring 3DTV to a household near you. The latest evidence? According to a GigaOM Pro report, up to 46 million 3D-capable TVs will ship by 2013. There’s a lot of wiggle room in the words “up to”, but several elements determining this prediction are undeniable, including 3D box office success and the money being spent on 3D technologies by CE manufacturers like Sony and Panasonic. The ecosystem extends far beyond consumer television sets too. Motorola (my own employer) has been making noise lately about encoding advances designed to support 3DTV.

Unfortunately, the GigaOM Pro report doesn’t have any good news with regard to 3DTV viewing without 3D glasses. Autostereoscopic displays still use far too much processing power to make them practical outside the digital signage arena. In other words, the future is here, but it still requires glasses. Maybe this year I’ll stock up at Super Bowl time.

I’m a long-time fan of the Squeezebox and have been continually impressed by feature additions over the last three years. Today an email popped up in my inbox announcing another firmware update and some major feature upgrades. Most importantly, Logitech is introducing an App Gallery that will organize all of the Squeezebox service options in the now-familiar “App Store” format. It also appears that Logitech may have finally corrected the way it allows Squeezebox users to access their own music collection versus streaming services. Those two functions have had separate top-level menus until now, but it appears that is changing.

As I have an older Squeezebox version, I’m curious to see how some of the features are implemented. For example, on the website describing the new App Gallery, there are apps listed for Flickr and Facebook. My screen real estate would not seem to support those features. Also, while details of the new firmware mention that Squeezebox Duet owners don’t have to switch between SqueezeNetwork and SqueezeCenter menus anymore (streaming versus personal music collection), there is no mention of earlier Squeezebox hardware. I’m looking forward to checking these upgrades out at home tonight.

Meanwhile, Logitech has other Squeezebox news out today too. People who buy one of the new Squeezebox Radios (yes, they are now available), will get “early access to the new Queen Absolute Greatest Hits album before it hits stores.” So for any Bohemian Rhapsody fans, go pick up your new Squeezebox Radio now. Or, you could always hold out for the December launch of the new Squeezebox Touch.

I made it up to NYC last week for the Mobi Awards hosted by publishing company DM2 at the W Hotel. Although lovely from the perspective of the location and open bar, the event itself was an odd conjunction of powerhouse contestants (Disney, MasterCard, etc.) and bare-bones ceremony. Apparently, the mobile awards circuit is still in the formative stages, or at least that’s what this event suggested.

In any case, Fanta was the big brand winner at the show, taking the award for best mobile creative and best in show. Oddly, it appeared that Fanta also won in the first category for best mobile branding, at least if you looked at the name projected on the big display screen. But no, the announcers assured us that Zippo had won that award, and there were answering virtual Zippo lighter flickers from the audience.

Speaking of iPhone apps, two caught my attention in the category of best retail app. One was MasterCard’s ATM finder, which looks eminently useful for those times when you’re cash-strapped in an unfamiliar locale. The second was Benjamin Moore’s Color Capture app. First announced back in May, the application lets you take a picture of any color and match it to the closest paint hue out of 3,300+ color options. A shake of the iPhone and you get a range of coordinating colors for your painting project. It’s no Hava client, but if you’ve got a paint job to do, Color Capture should come in handy.

The landscape of television online is changing so rapidly, it’s hard to keep up. Since the announcement of TV Everywhere trials by Comcast and Time Warner Cable, Verizon has jumped into the mix, and AT&T has started testing its own TV portal site. Comcast’s Stephen Burke has also announced that the initial Comcast trial will go national in the next 30 to 60 days – a far more optimistic timeline than those presented at the TV Everywhere breakfast in New York last month.

That’s all on the good side. On the bad side, there’s word over at Multichannel News that Hulu is considering a new subscription model. It’s not surprising, but we may soon be paying to watch free broadcast TV channels online. Given that ads still don’t bring in TV-level cash on the Net, a subscription model makes sense. Don’t be mad. As Mark Cuban (rightly) rants, subsidized TV is not a constitutional right. Better to focus on getting the pay-TV providers to roll out their TV Everywhere services faster, faster, faster. At least we’ve already written the check for that content.

Having trouble keeping up? Don’t worry. It’s only going to get more chaotic and confusing for a while. But if I can ultimately watch my shows anywhere I go, I can live with that.

In my continuing quest to find meaningful evolution in the digital photo frame space, I stumbled upon the Sungale desk lamp with photo and video display. Not long ago I reviewed a Sungale touch-screen frame, and came away hoping for more. But the desk lamp is a different story. The photos are sharp on the 3.5″ screen, video is surprisingly crisp and easy to upload, and the device even plays any MP3 files you’ve got. My one hesitation here is that the lamp retails for $100 ($90 at Amazon). It’s probably not an unreasonable price, but I still find it hard to justify in my own budget as someone who would normally spend about $15 for a desk light. If your price range is higher, however, you should definitely give the Sungale lamp a whirl. It’s a lot of fun and would be a good gadget gift for the office worker.

First off, this desk lamp doesn’t disappoint in its primary function. The light is bright, soft, and easily flexes in any direction. It’s also energy efficient, consuming only 5W of power.

Getting beyond the lighting function, the lamp has a little pop-up LCD screen that resides in the base. As a photo frame, it’s a bit small, but remarkably clear. The screen gets 320×240 resolution, and the lamp has 512 MB of built-in memory. You can also plug in your camera’s memory card (SD, MMC, MS), or connect to a computer via USB. Transporting photos was easy. My PC opened up a dialog box asking if I wanted to connect using the “program provided on the device.” The software isn’t flashy, but it’s perfectly serviceable, and settings on the lamp allowed me to control the slide-show display.

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Dave and I saw several demos back at CES showing off wireless power solutions for cord-free gadget charging. However, here I am nine months later still lugging a zillion power cables in my computer bag. (Though Dave does have a solar-powered Bluetooth headset.) Unfortunately, universal wireless power doesn’t seem any closer to reality today than it did back in January. But, as if to argue the point, a press release landed in my inbox announcing a new commercial deal between two “wire-free power” companies, WildCharge and WiProwess. WiProwess now has a licensing agreement allowing it to help companies integrate WildCharge technology into their products.

The interesting part of the news is not so much the licensing agreement as the potential applications of it. I asked the WiProwess folks to send along further details on product implementations, and got a range of applications for car, hotel, and office environments. Much like luxury cars today get embedded GPS apps, iPod docks, and even Wi-Fi, I can easily see an automotive brand partnering up with a company like WiProwess to bring wire-free charging pads to front-seat consoles. Similarly, a high-end hospitality or office furniture partner might use wire-free charging to boost its brand image. The critical thing here is getting distribution partners so that wire-free power as a technology doesn’t have to sell itself one consumer at a time.

Of course, the whole wire-free proposition will be a lot easier to market once it doesn’t include proprietary technology and a lot of adapter tips. But if you’re an early adopter with some extra cash, check out the products available now from the WildCharge website. (David Pogue liked the hardware he tested late last year.) A WildCharge Charge Pad now goes for $50 alone, or for $70 or $80 when bundled with a gadget skin or adapter.