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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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).

Seesmic has released a WordPress plugin to enable blog video commenting. I’m somewhat lukewarm to the idea of implementing them here on ZNF… One can be efficient scanning text for interesting keywords, while video comments (in their current form) only offer a text title and an automatically selected keyframe thumbnail without a rating system. Meaning you’d have to watch the entire video to determine if there’s anything worthwhile within. And, unlike text, these video comments don’t allow editing - what you film, is what you post. Related, in chatting with a few fellow bloggers, we wonder if moderating video will significantly add to our workload. While I figure Google (YouTube) is here for the long haul, I’m generally reluctant to host content on third party sites.

The entire Crunch Network has pulled the trigger on Seesmic’s video comments (Arrington is an investor), and I left a couple of test replies to CrunchGear editor John Biggs earlier today. John offered a good response (using text) to my first video in suggesting folks utilize this video option to show off their gear. Although, I replied (with video, copied below) that I no longer read text comments and might have missed his archaically-presented insight.

So what’s the consensus here… Is there any interest in implementing this?

I was doing some Usenet Google Groups research and got sidetracked looking up my online contributions over the years. While it’s difficult to uncover all my fingerprints on long-gone, closed systems and/or when using aliases like Quasar and Narcolepsy (it was amusing at the time), I dug up a few nostalgia-inducing posts under my state-sanctioned handle. Thanks for humoring me as I stroll down memory lane.

Here’s me selling my Macintosh LC Performa 575 in 1995. Which was actually my first CD-playing device. Boy, did I use it to play music. And Myst. Though the Performa was my first Mac, it wasn’t my first Apple… I spent decent amount of time over the years getting into trouble with my Apple IIc and 2400 baud modem. The statute of limitations has probably passed, but I’m not tempting fate other than to say VMS buffer overflows into root accounts were trivial over dialup… (But I don’t miss the days of line noise.) Prior to the IIc, I spent quality time at school playing Hard Hat Mack, Load Runner, etc on other Apple II variants. Although my computer gaming really began with Lunar Lander on the Radio Shack TRS-80, which may or may not have coincided with my Atari 2600 ownership.

Here’s me selling my roommate’s Japanese Nintendo 64 import in 1996. I seem to recall we were unloading it because the in-game text was… in Japanese! Which kinda put a damper on understanding the Super Mario 64 storyline. Though I have to say, Matt was a great roommate. He provided a large Mitsubishi tube TV and made sure we had every gaming console - that Nintendo 64 (Japanese, then American), 3DO, Playstation, and Sega Saturn.

Speaking of Sega, here I am trying to get the soft modem working under BSD Linux on the Dreamcast in 2001. Sadly, it was a no-go and I was unwilling to invest in the broadband adapter. This system was definitely ahead of it’s time - Heck, they offered a web browser and collaborative, online play (via that modem or broadband adapter) before anyone understood the significance or fun factor. Not only did I have a Dreamcast at home, our office gameroom (pre-Internet-bubble implosion) housed one. And beanbags, too.

I received an email yesterday wondering what exactly an HTPC is, and why wouldn’t I just hook up an inexpensive computer to my flat panel for music, pics, DVD, and video? As I told George, that’s exactly what I’ve done.

A Home Theater PC (HTPC) is more of a usage concept rather than a specific piece of a hardware. Generally speaking, one would want an HTPC to have at least one tuner (ATSC, NTSC, DVB-*, CableCARD), an appropriate video card for HD playback, and some sort of software package(s) to power it all. In my case, I’ve temporarily repurposed an inexpensive HP desktop (a1600n) which ran ~$650 18 months ago. (Vista was a free upgrade by mail.) Because the unit lives in the open, instead of within an AV closet or another room, I purposely sought out a fanless video card to limit noise. Under XP, Microsoft’s media center + DVR software was initially an upsell (XP MCE) and initially only provided to OEMs. Whereas typical multimedia-centric consumer Vista systems (Premium, Ultimate) now include this functionality. (And Apple offers Front Row.) So it’s pretty easy to get into the game. HTPCs provide a whole lot more power and flexibility than a typical DVR or extender, but they’re not necessarily economical and require a larger investment of time in configuration and maintenance than a dedicated consumer electronics device. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, will you lookee what I discovered down at the Circuit City. Sony’s Internet Video Link ($299)! Turns out the Xross Media Bar-powered, Bravia-specific media extender started shipping a few weeks ago with zero fanfare. According to SonyStyle, initial network content consists of:

select online music videos, movie trailers, user-generated videos, personalized weather, traffic feeds and more with no additional download or access fees. Internet video providers include AOL, Yahoo!, and Grouper (and more as they become available).

As I suggested last year, hiding this behind the set with minimal branding and limiting it to Bravia TV owners may not be the best marketing strategy. However, along with the PS3, the mere existence of the Internet Video Link reinforces that Sony will be joining the digital movie and TV rental/purchase fray at some point.

Over on Geek Tonic, Brent’s taken a stab at guessing the three new Netflix hardware partners: Sony, Microsoft, and TiVo. So, I may as well get my forecast on the record too:

1. Microsoft (Xbox 360, Vista Media Center, HP media extender televisions, etc)
2. Toshiba (Connected DVD player - they need to replace HD DVD with something…)
3. A networking company with media extenders like Netgear or D-Link as the smaller partner

Leave your entries in the comments! Remind me in Q4 and the closest prediction will get something. If we have multiple correct submissions, I’ll randomly choose one for the yet-to-be-determined prize.

Interesting news out of Netflix’s quarterly call:

In January, we told you we were working with LG Electronics for a second half of 2008 product launch. At this point, I can tell you we have LG plus three additional partners actively working on integrating our technology into their products. Three of the four partners are major companies which each sell millions of devices per year and will enable the Netflix functionality in some of those devices likely in Q4 of this year. The fourth partner is a small company with which — which will likely launch sooner than Q4.

So who are these guys? I sure hope Sony (PS3), Microsoft (Xbox 360, VMC), TiVo, and/or Apple (ATV) are among the partners. I obviously want to see Netflix Service on a multipurpose device (other than LG’s connected DVD player). And that “small company” has me most intrigued.

(via Hacking Netflix)