A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs:

Details on On Demand Online, aka TV Everywhere
Comcast and Time Warner held a joint press conference to announce details around the On Demand Online initiative. Specifically, Comcast will begin a trial next month to test out its authentication system and gather feedback on the new web video service.

How Your Set-Top Gets Updated
If you’ve always wondered how your set-top accesses firmware updates, or if you’re a cable operator looking for a more efficient way to do code downloads, this is the post for you.

MovieWall – A Beautiful Movie Interface for SageTV
Sage MovieWall has been in development for several months and is still in beta, but in my opinion has made some significant strides and looks absolutely fantastic. The result is an beautiful, free add-on User Interface for your movie collection.

How to Get U.S.-only iPhone Apps with Hotspot Shield
With a few easy steps that take only minutes to complete using the HotSpot Shield VPN service, iPhone users the world round can get access to some (but not all) of the iPhone Apps that are only supposedly only available in the U.S.

How Much Did RIM Pay For Dash Navigation?
By buying Dash for $8.3 million, who raised $71 million in three rounds of financings, RIM will get a $26 million haircut on their taxes. While I can understand why Dash and RIM wouldn’t necessarily celebrate this transaction, lets hope that they are being honest with us about implementing Dash’s technology into their products.

Comcast Launches WiMAX Service, Takes Cable Wireless
The long-fabled quad play may have finally arrived and it doesn’t look anything like originally envisioned. Comcast launched wireless broadband service in Portland Oregon combining the Sprint 3G network and the Clearwire 4G network.

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our friends at Last100:

Hulu really hates the TV, PlayStation 3 blocked
Following the Boxee fiasco, the PS3 has become the latest means by which to conveniently watch Hulu content on a television has been blocked. Users who try to visit the site via the PS3’s built-in web browser are being greeted with the message: “Unfortunately, this video is not available on your platform. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

Flash 10 coming to smartphones this October? Apple and RIM still missing in action
It seems that Adobe is well on track to deliver a version of Flash 10 for smartphones. Adobe CEO Shantanu Naraye said as much during the company’s latest earnings call, revealing that “multiple partners have already received early versions of this release…”.

Pirate Bay’s YouTube competitor lives on (The Video Bay)
The project was to build a kind of YouTube-esque video streaming site, but one that operates outside of mainstream copyright law. Now we learn that the project, dubbed “The Video Bay”,  lives on.

Nokia testing “long form” video service
Nokia is particularly interested in “kick-starting” the consumption of long-form content on mobiles by utilizing a podcast style delivery method whereby users subscribe to various video feeds, presumably enabling content to be downloaded to the device “over-the-air” rather than being “side-loaded”.

Just a follow up to my previous post on video on the Android, as has been reported a few places, Qik is now available for the G1. It has a lot of limitations, based on the T-Mobile network and the camera hardware, but it does work, and it opens up some very cool possibilities. The ability to live-stream from such a small device will allow for video coverage of places that previously would have been impractical if not impossible.

I’m really looking forward to doing some field testing with Qik on the G1 at the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con, which should be a lot of fun, at least as long as I can keep a 3G connection, and the battery holds out.

Catch more of Bruce’s digital media musings over at Digitalwerks.

In pre-announcing the iPhone 3.0 OS and providing preview software builds, Apple intended to give developers a leg up in producing/updating apps. Fortunately, it also gave the unsanctioned “iPhone Dev Team” enough time to get some of their jailbreak and unlocking apps ready fairly close to the official launch. And early this past weekend, we saw the release of PwnageTool and redsn0w.

I went with redsn0w Saturday to jailbreak and unlock my first gen iPhone. There were early reports of issues with Cydia, the defacto illicit app “store”, but it may have been due to server load rather than the jailbreak process. I also had a scare that involved losing all cellular connectivity, which was due to bad bootloaders. Rerunning redsn0w with the proper files took care of it.

The process is fairly simple, assuming you’re OK with the the risk of an inoperable phone and voiding your warranty:

• Download and run redsn0w
• Point it to your ipsw
• Download the 3.9 and 4.6 bootloaders, point to them in redsn0w (for unlocking first gen iPhones)
• Reboot iPhone as prompted
• Celebrate freedom from the walled garden

Why jailbreak? If you enjoy tinkering, want to shoot (crappy) video without an iPhone 3G[S], prefer organizing your apps in folders, enjoy streaming a Slingbox over a 3G connection, prefer customizing your phones appearance, etc you’re a perfect candidate. And, of course, you still receive all the features of the polished 3.0 OS update and official App Store. The benefits of unlocking should be obvious – as you can see in the pic above, my iPhone now operates on any GSM network. Which will work out well should I defect from AT&T. But we’ll save my current phone lineup and future handset machinations for another post.

Click to enlarge:

Several months after crushing StarPlyr, XM Sirius has gotten around to launching their own streaming iPhone client. And, as you might expect, premium content such as Howard Stern and the NFL is not available. For long time subscribers, the app is probably a nice (free) bonus. But for newer subscribers, ‘Premium Online’ is bundled with the most pricey satellite packages or available as a $3/mo add-on.

After my rather vocal XM cancellation (which ended up in the NYTimes) last fall, I recently resubscribed to XM after upon finding a half price deal ($77/yr) in the Fatwallet forums, giving up on AT&T’s network (‘less bars is more places’) for continuous music streaming, and XM proving disco isn’t dead. So I’m a new subscriber all over again, but online playback is no longer included as part of my subscription.

For a company with stagnant subscriber growth and imminent rate hikes, giving away online access could help stop the bleeding and attract new customers. Or it may not matter at all… with the very fine Slacker and Pandora products available (for free) in both desktop and mobile clients. If I’m paying an additional few bucks a month for commercial-free music, it’s going to Slacker.

Click to enlarge:

If blog comments are any indication, it seems that most folks take issue with the $50-$60/month fee wireless carriers charge for mobile broadband. However, for me, data freedom is priceless. In addition to my Starbuck’s WiFi and Melissa’s T-Mobile Hotspot access, I’ve been relying a USB Sprint Aircard these last few months for on-the-go computing (as Xohm/Clear still doesn’t provide the coverage or software I’m looking for), often in conjunction with my Cradlepoint CTR500.

As frequent readers know, I tend to avoid clutter and prefer converged devices/tech… when it makes sense. Which is why I’ve been tracking the Novatel MiFi since fondling the little guy at CES back in January. The MiFi 2200 is an ultra-compact piece of tech that functions as both a 3G modem and wireless access point, supporting up to five simultaneous clients.

The first MiFi to hit was on Verizon’s network. And I nearly made the jump, until learning Sprint would also offer the device. So while most folks were Pre-occupied June 6th, I queued up amongst them for the MiFi. I was hopeful of getting a deal, instead of paying the $300 non-upgrade fee. After an employee misunderstanding, a bit of consternation, and some excellent Twitter support, I did indeed end up with the MiFi at the discounted rate of $99 (although I offered to pay $150, forget the rebate).

Unlike its Verizon counterpart, this Sprint edition does not require any sort of software install – everything is done via a web interface. Also, unlike Verizon’s unit, it doesn’t ship with a USB cable. So I haven’t yet verified if it’ll charge via USB while maintaining a 3G connection. (I haven’t tested claims of four hour battery life, but frankly I’d be satisfied with 120 minutes.) The manual seems to indicate the Mifi won’t act as a WiFi access point when tethered via USB, but I’m hoping I can use it like a traditional aircard in that manner.

And that’s really about all I have to say. It’s tiny and works exactly as advertised: I’ve set up a (sort of) hidden WPA2 wireless network, connected multiple devices while mobile. Including usage during a weekend roadtrip to NYC. No complaints. Well if I had to nitpick, those indicator lights are bright and I’d prefer something other than microUSB. Outside of that, I’m quite happy with my purchase and Sprint’s coverage.

Click to enlarge:

After picking up Palm’s new Pre smartphone on launch day roughly a week ago (and spending over six hours to do so), I thought it’d be fun to run through some early thoughts on the device given my long history with Sprint and Palm products. (I worked on Sprint’s PR team for nearly a decade, leaving in 2004.)

I’ll unabashedly admit that I’m a Palm fanboy dating back to the standalone PDA days. Over the past eight or so years I have owned a Palm Pilot, a Handspring Visor, the Treo 600, Treo 650, Treo 700P and ending with the Treo 800w. I still remember how exciting my first Treo was, how cutting edge at the time. Over the years, however, it seemed that Palm simply was going through the motions as it sat back and produced me-too hardware while ceding real innovation to Apple, Google, RIM and others.

The Pre has certainly changed all that, and has brought sexy back to Palm, something they haven’t really had since the 600 or 650. Overall it’s a fantastic device, but there are some kinks that need to be worked out and some nits that I personally have – my hope is that Palm will take its cue from Apple and push out updates and fixes on a very, very regular basis.

(more…)