Digital Droppings

Social Media Revolution

Kevin Olivieri — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 02:32:30 +0000

Did I just go to the dark side?

Kevin Olivieri — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:07:19 +0000

I did it. I have been a loyal user of Blackberry for almost two years. I was a big fan. I loved it. It was rock solid in terms of email, calendar and contacts. It also had many other great features (like Blackberry Messenger) as well. So why did I jump to the iPhone 3Gs?

Why?

I am not sure exactly why. It was time for a change. I was already with at&t. My contract had expired. And although my Blackberry Curve was in great working condition, it was a little beat up.

But maybe one of the biggest reasons was web browsing.
It doesn’t matter what network speed you have on a Blackberry, web browsing is painful. It is not fun at all.

More later.

Europe sets microUSB as phone charger format

Kevin Olivieri — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:02:04 +0000

Motorola, LG, RIM, TI, Samsung, Qualcomm, Nokia and Sony Ericsson have agreed to accept microUSB as the phone charger format beginning in 2010. Apple has even joined the party.

This move should trickle to the United States within a year or two.

http://www.9to5mac.com/apple-micro-usb

Nevermind, I’ll walk

Kevin Olivieri — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:56:26 +0000

Check out this ad for a fitness organization that appeared at a bus stop in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. It uses a scale in the seat to display your weight on the bus stop wall.

It may cross the lines of personal privacy, but an interesting idea nonetheless.

TiVo as a hotel ammenity?

Kevin Olivieri — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:09:40 +0000

Beginning Dec 1, the Mondrian boutique hotel in Miami Beach will begin offering TiVo service to guests. Although I love TiVo, I am not sure if this is a great benefit for hotel guests? With daily rates ranging from $500 – $1,000 per night, I am not sure if setting the TiVo to record a program would be high on a guest’s priority list.

Not only that, but guests have to remember to program the TiVo (not difficult just need to remember to do it) and then they have to have the time to actually watch the program. And considering that on average, most hotel stays are two days, I am not sure if the timing will work.

Emerging Technology Lab

Kevin Olivieri — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:24:48 +0000

Today a&g officially opens the doors on our Emerging Technology Lab.

What is an Emerging Technology Lab (ETL)?
The ETL is a place where we think, exchange ideas, discuss new technology or better yet, determine how we can use technology in a new and different way. The ETL is a place were we learn about the latest trends and movements. And we are moving on to the next one.

It is not a place where, as our Chief Creative Officer has described, “a room with stuff in it. And we can only get as close as the red velvet rope.” It is not a game room.

Rather, the ETL is an environment where employees, clients and partners can:

Learn about What’s Next!
Experiment with emerging technologies
Foster the exchange of new ideas, new applications, new tools and solutions
Build a forum where high tech companies and startups provide demo environments
Collaborate with local, leading universities on the exchange of ideas and the establishment of a beta testing center

The initial phase is complete. The ETL is set up with a 52″ HD TV. We also have an Xbox 360, Wii, PS3, TiVo and an Apple TV. In addition, we are experimenting with the Amazon Kindle and a phone product called magicJack. Each technology has something interesting to offer:

Gaming

TiVo
Has TiVo finally figured it out? As the pioneer in the DVR space, they have partnered with YouTube and Amazon for content and ecommerce.

Wii
The first gaming system where you can’t sit on the couch to play. The game play is revolutionary and can be quite a workout. Ask our CEO, who experienced a Wii injury after playing Wii Tennis. Has Wii changed video games going forward?

Apple TV
Apple TV is digital box that connects to a TV. It is design to play content from a Windows or Mac OS computer running iTunes. It can stream music, videos and podcasts from your iTunes to your TV. It can also access YouTube content. The product is easy to use but in typical Apple fashion, it limits what it can do by being completed tied to iTunes. The upside is tremendous, but right now Apple TV has some severe limitations.

Xbox 360
The Xbox is a top notch online gaming system. Microsoft has done a great job at building an online community with its gaming system. In addition, there are several games on the market that have in-game advertising (billboards, etc.).

PS3
The Sony Playstation3 offers a great selection of games, but the online gaming features are sub-par. The PS3 doubles as a Blu-ray DVD player.

Communications

magicJack
magicJack is a product that provides phone service over your broadband network. Although there are similar products on the market (Skype, Vonage, etc.), installation is less than 3 minutes and you pay $20/year for everything – free calls within the US, call waiting, voicemail, etc.). And it connects to the phones in your home.

Amazon Kindle
Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader. It uses electronic paper display and has a Wi-Fi connection (over the Sprint network) to download content. The Kindle is a little pricey (even with it’s most recent price reduction) and the cost for content seems to high. The upside is that it does a great job simulating a printed page and it has a vast library of e-books, newspapers, magazines and blogs.

In closing, please make the ETL part of your day. We want you to embrace it and make it your own. And if you have ideas or suggestions, please let me know.

Over the next several weeks, we will be moving forward with Phase II. Thanks for reading.

Long Live TiVo

Kevin Olivieri — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:11:55 +0000

I have had my TiVo for 5 or 6 years and I love it. It is one of the original models and I refuse to part with it, mainly because I have lifetime service attached to it.

I have provided it a lot of TLC and as a result, it has treated me well. I even got greedy and cracked open the case, added a larger drive and enjoyed twice as much video capacity.

Then it happened. My TiVo started experiencing a slow death. It would stutter through recorded programming and sometimes even freeze in its tracks. I tried rebooting. I tried deleting programs (on the rare occasion it would respond to my remote commands.

So it was a sad day when I told my kids that the TiVo was no longer working. They didn’t really know how to handle it. They have grown up with the mindset that they could watch what they wanted, when they wanted. Now, I told them, you have to plan when you want to watch one of your favorite shows. The look on their faces was of confusion.

It was an adjustment to say the least. So the TiVo sat unplugged on a shelf under my Samsung DLP for weeks. Should I buy a new HD TiVo and pay the monthly service fee? Should I order Comcast DVR? Or should I get the TiVo service offered from Comcast.

Ugh!

I knew I had to do something. There are so many reasons why I should just suck it up and buy a new TiVo, but I decided to try to revive my TiVo one last time. I searched on weaknees,com and found a replacement drive for my first generation TiVo. It was $80-$90 but if it could bring back my TiVo, it was totally worth it. Weaknees is an awesome website. Among other products, they ship you ready out of the box TiVo hard drives – completely formatted and software ready.

The package arrived in about a week. It quickly jumped to the top of my To Do List. I removed the TiVo cover and disconnected the two drives. The installation instructions from weaknees.com were simple and easy to understand. It could not have been easier. I simply mounted the drive in the unit, connected a few wires and put the cover back on.

I wired the TiVo back into my Samsung DLP HDTV and crossed my fingers. After less than a minute, my TiVo guy was dancing all over the screen. Time to set up Season Passes and sit back and let TiVo do it’s thing.

Life was good.