NBC’s still got Steve and iTunes blacklisted (for now), though that hasn’t stopped them from making content available to Apple devices. Turns out NBC.com is providing iPhone owners video clips and full episodes (30 Rock, The Office) free, without commercial interuption. Video is selected via Safari and launched within the QuickTime player. Resolution isn’t high, but it streams well over WiFi and the price is right. Over EDGE, I had to wait (too long) for a suitable buffer to build - and I wouldn’t recommend it. But, no worries… the 3G iPhone is coming next month.

In other NBC video download news, content is now purchasable by Zune owners. Those very same Zune owners may also see their devices loaded with “copyright cop” software. OR maybe not.

(via Gartenberg tweet)

I’ve been living with the Slacker Portable device for about six weeks now and have accumulated a slew of thoughts/insights/revelations on what I like and don’t like about the music player. In case you’re really ADD or just don’t have the time to read the details, here’s the bottom line: the functionality of the Slacker Portable is phenomenal, and far outweighs the hardware and software quirks that come along with it.

First, if you’ve never used the Slacker service online, go check it out. It’s like other customizable Internet radio applications (Last.fm, Pandora), but the personalization tools are particularly flexible and produce great results. So far, having a Slacker Portable is just like carrying the online application around in my pocket, and I don’t need a constant broadband connection.

Like Slacker’s online service, you can use the Slacker Portable to create custom Internet radio stations, or select from DJ-derived stations based on genre. It comes with built-in Wi-Fi, which you can use to transfer station content to the device any time you’re in range of an open wireless network. (No feature yet to enable connections to password-protected networks) In a brilliant move, the Slacker folks let you pre-load your device with stations from your online account when you order it. This is nice because otherwise the first-time download of music via Wi-Fi takes hours. Content refreshes are much faster.

(more…)

The FedEx man dropped off a new goodie early this AM. What makes the Dash Express auto GPS ($400, plus service) unique is the integrated Internet connectivity (WiFi and GPRS cellular), expanding point of interest (POI) search possibilities and enhancing real-time traffic data by feeding customer driving experiences back into the cloud. I haven’t done much testing yet, though appreciated sending the loaner GPS my home address via the web and successful routing the 2/10ths of a mile to my office (Starbucks).

After the explosive hype around Amazon’s launch of the Kindle, things have gone kinda quiet on the new e-book reader, with the exception of reports on shipping delays last month. So are people buying the Kindle? Are they using it? Are they liking it?

I can’t answer any of those questions, but I can relate one Kindle user’s experience. A certain unnamed relative of mine received a Kindle last Christmas. She’s not a techie. She’s not using the Kindle to keep up with RSS feeds or for most other Web uses related to the Whispernet connection. She’s using it to read books. Lots and lots and lots of them. And she loves it.

Said relative is the kind of customer Amazon must covet for the Kindle. Recently we talked about buying a pair of books and then exchanging them next time we saw each other. I went out and bought my book in short order, but she decided she couldn’t wait and ordered the book for her Kindle that day. Turns out she already had a hard copy too! It’s a good thing Amazon warns users when they’re about to re-purchase an e-volume.

I could regain half the real-estate in my house if we ditched real books for their electronic versions. It’s not likely to happen any time soon, but clearly the Kindle is a good substitute for some book junkies. And if anyone reads books in the next generation - the truly digital, but also ADD generation - the Kindle is proof against Sony that e-reading has a promising future… delivering instant gratification.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I was stationed next to the Fring gang at CTIA. And I found the iPhone hidden in the BizDev guy’s pocket a little suspicious given they didn’t support the platform. Well, as of today they do! Fring is a mobile multi-IM client, and one of the few multi-IM clients to include Skype voice chat. So, the first thing I did after installing this on my jailbroken iPhone was give Kevin Tofel a call via SkypeOut (using WiFi). Kevin reports he heard me OK with a little echo of his own voice and, for the first half of the call, I heard him OK as well. For the second half of the call, his voice was garbled unfortunately. But hey, this is a beta client and it looks very promising. We also tried AIM<->.Mac text IM, which worked fine. The new message audio alert is a little too high pitched and glaring though.

(Thanks, Todd!)

In my old age, I’ve become much more selective in the conference schwag I choose to fly home with…

At the Sprint press event featuring Samsung, I performed a Rock Band guitar duet with NPD analyst Ross Rubin and all attendees left with a stereo Bluetooth headset (MSRP $80). I’m not sure how MagicJack makes money selling their VoIP device at only $40 a pop with unlimited US calling, but I was willing to take a review unit as I’m still searching for the right voice solution. Once I’m done checking these out, we’ll give them away here on the site.

On the software side, a Yahoo booth minion updated my Nokia N95 to Yahoo! Go 3. And the Fring folks convinced me I need their multi-IM client for mobiles, which includes voice chat. (Both are free.)

Lastly, while I can’t say the in-booth oxygen or alcohol bars do much for me, I appreciated Real’s blue M&Ms around lunch time. Cisco was also there in my time of need when I grabbed a Linksys pen in passing.

The Spring edition of CTIA’s biannual wireless convention has just wrapped in Vegas. There were a variety of interesting announcements and new (or upcoming) products, but no larger revolutionary trends. Most  chatter seemed to revolve around the health of the US economy (and what it means to the industry) and the lack of concrete WiMax service details (timing or pricing). Sadly, the phones I most wanted to fondle (Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1, Nokia N96, Garmin Nuvifone) were all behind glass. In fact, several exhibitors seemed extremely concerned with industrial espionage and controlling messaging… For example, both Motorola and Samsung chose to prohibit photography in their booths. I did manage to periodically sneak away from our Sling kiosk in the Symbian booth and shoot some videos which are posted to Qik and Flixwagon (with possibly more to come).

As the regulars probably recall, I’m pretty lazy when it comes to audio. I love all sorts of music, but I’d rather let someone else acquire and assemble the playlists. Sure, I’ve ripped hundreds of CDs (not to mention those DRM-encumbered purchases), but there’s artists I may not yet know of or haven’t remembered to add to the collection - and I just don’t want to continually chase down random tracks. Which is why I enjoy services like satellite radio and Pandora-esque online streaming.

After writing up Airfoil for Apple TV, Earl mentioned he uses Rogue Amoeba’s Audio Hijack Pro - a nice OS X recording application. I picked up a copy ($32) to use in conjunction with the XM Dashboard widget (which utilizes mplayer, selected in the pic above). The widget’s not elegant, but it does keep the audio streaming beyond the 2 hour timeout…

So, I’ve married these two products and possibly violated the XM EULA to create a 10 hour low fidelity (64Kbps?) recording of Lucy which was automatically inserted into iTunes and synced over to my iPhone. It makes for perfect background music while blogging, reading, or dozing on the plane. In fact, this post is being composed while wearing my Shures on the flight into Vegas.

I intend to make a few more recordings of my preferred stations. And being a good digital citizen (on my terms), I’ll delete the files if I unsubscribe to XM at some point.