At last year’s CES, iDevices showed off the iGrill, a Bluetooth-enabled cooking thermometer. This year, they’re back with iShower, a waterproof speaker. Andy and Don tune in with Jonathan Conelias from iDevices.

As with the iGrill, the iShower is Bluetooth-enabled, playing audio from iOS, Android and Blackberry phones. In fact, any device that can stream music via Bluetooth will work with the iShower and up to five devices can be paired. Naturally the iShower is waterproof, making it suitable for the shower, swimming pool and beach. Buttons on the iShower can control the music, skipping backwards and forwards through the playlist.

The iShower’s rich sound speaker cuts through the noise of the shower and in good taste, there’s no microphone. If you were thinking of taking a phone call in the shower, think again. A mounting bracket is supplied and complementary accessories such as a mirror make this a complete shower solution.

The iShower will be available from March both online and in good retail stores with an MSRP of $99.99.

Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDR News and RV News Net, and Don Baine, the Gadget Professor.

As on-line marketers transfer their cold-calling attention away from land-lines to cell and mobile phones, their calls are becoming increasingly an annoyance when you are out-and-about. PrivacyStar offers a multilayered solution for Android and Blackberry to cut unwanted calls. Andy finds out more.

PrivacyStar is a smartphone app to block unwanted calls and SMS texts. At its simplest, user-specified phone numbers can be blocked to prevent calls or texts coming through and bothering you. The app also features SmartBlocking which blocks the top 25 numbers blocked by other users in the past week, so if there’s a major calling campaign on, those numbers pretty quickly get blocked.

Other features include CallerID lookup, where if the phone doesn’t know who is calling, the app consults with an on-line directory and displays the caller. For really persistent callers, complaints can be filed directly with the FTC.

The app is currently only available for Android and Blackberry, an iPhone version will be released before the summer. The app is free for a week and then $2.99 per month after that.

Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDR News and RV News Net.

LiftMaster is known for its range of garage door openers and this year, they’re introducing their new MyQ technology that will let home owners monitor and control their garage door from a smartphone or tablet anywhere in the world, including iPhones, iPads, Blackberries and Android devices.

Intended to be professionally installed, the cost is $350-$400 for a new door opener that incorporates MyQ technology and it’s available now.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network.

In order to get round all those pesky app store rules, the musos at Grooveshark have produced a basic little HTML5 player that’s available via Grooveshark’s website. If you’re not familiar with Grooveshark, it’s “the world’s largest on-demand and music discovery service. With over 15 million songs, Grooveshark is an ecosystem that brings together music fans, bands, music labels, and brands.”

A posting on their blog yesterday said:

In an effort to span over this confounded series of tubes and reach as many mobile music listeners as we can, we’ve done the unthinkable.

iOS? We got there.
Android 2.3+?   We got there.
Playbook? We got there.
TouchPad? Yep.  There too.

Should you choose to accept your mission:
http://html5.grooveshark.com/#soopersecretbeta
!!!  For covert opts points, try it on an html5 device not listed above and report your findings to Dr. Lovedoctor at lovedoctor@grooveshark.com for your bonus surprise.

I’ve tried out on an HP TouchPad, a Pre 3 and a Google Nexus S and can confirm that it works most of the time. On occasion, it wouldn’t start playing a track and once that had happened, I had to restart the browser to fix the problem. The app is pretty simple, no fancy cover-flow effects here. This is it on the TouchPad.

Tap on a track and it starts playing. There are also genre “radio” stations for a continuous stream of tracks. Overall, it’s not bad but the tracks failed to start playing too many times for my liking.

Griffin has a great range of accessories for all kinds of smartphones, MP3 players and tablets, so it’s no surprise that they’ve a few additions to their product range here at CES. This year they’re announcing a two in-car mounts, some power solutions and a mount for air travellers.

First up, if you have a car that has an aux port (3.5 mm socket), then the WindowsSeat 3 Handsfree is the windshield or dashboard mount for your vehicle. It comes with combined aux cable and microphone that that can be used to make handsfree phone calls and stream music/navigation commands through the car speakers. WindowSeat’s mounting cradle holds iPods or iPhones in most shell- or skin-type cases, as well as a similar sized MP3 players and smartphones, including popular models from BlackBerry, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung. Price is $39.99 and available now.

If you don’t have  an aux jack, the AirCurve Window Mount is the alternative. This windshield mount is designed as an acoustic amplifier which can raise the volume by as much as 25 dB without any batteries or cables. Designed for the iPhone 4 / 4S, simply put the smartphone in speakerphone mode and chat away. Price is also $39.99 and available now.

Griffin’s PowerBlock range has been updated with new models –  PowerBlock Reserve, $59.99, a wall charger for iPod and iPhone that can be plugged into any AC wall outlet to provide a quick boost of power that also has a built-in rechargeable 2,000 mAh lithium-ion battery pack for charging on the go. The PowerBlock Reserve Universal, $49.99, is the same concept but quickly charges any USB device. Both models charge their own batteries at the same time they’re charging connected devices, which is often not the case with competing models. A row of LEDs serve as a power gauge, indicating how much charge is left.

Finally, Griffin is bringing a new product to the market in Q2 of 2012 with a Tray Table Latch Mount. Specifically for the air and rail traveller, the mount is designed to be compatible with 90% of the world’s airline and commuter rail tray table latches and holds your eReader, tablet or smartphone at eye level for comfortable viewing. Very handy.

Pop round to Griffin in North Hall, Booth 5212 at CES 2012 in Las Vegas to see all their latest goodies or you can checked out the dedicated CES section of their website.

At CES International 2012, PowerSkin has announced new portable power solutions for smartphones and other rechargeable devices. SolarCharge, Key Charge and Gaming Skins are all designed to keep the mobile user going for longer.

The SolarCharge is a universal charger for all types of smartphone including iPhone, Android and Blackberry, and it comprises a 1000 mAh battery paired with a solar panel in a one-piece housing. The SolarCharge recharges smartphones (and other devices) via a supplied micro-USB connector and other connectors are available for non-standard devices. The battery in the SolarCharge itself is recharged via USB from a PC, via a micro-USB mains charger or from the sun through the solar panel, so there are plenty of options for the mobile user. The blue rubberised skin has embedded LEDs to show the battery’s charge level.

The KeyCharge has a smaller capacity at 750 mAh and is intended for a quick boost rather than a full recharge. Small enough to fit on a keychain, the KeyCharge only comes with a micro-USB connector and consequently is not suitable for use with iPhones or iPods. Two variants are available to cater for the different positions of the micro-USB connector on smartphones, i.e. side or bottom. As with the SolarCharge, the KeyCharge is recharged via a micro-USB connector, either from a PC or from a mains adaptor.

Also on display at CES will be PowerSkin’s Gaming Skins for iOS and Nintendo 3DS, which were announced in December 2011, along with an array of battery-boosting smartphone skins for all the popular makes.

PowerSkin’s SolarCharge, $69.99, and KeyCharge, $24.99, will both be available beginning February on www.Power-Skin.com. Visit PowerSkin’s booth at the Hilton Suites, Booth # 28-128.

Every year, we get new hype of electronics that are suppose to rock their niche. This year, we saw tablets galore. At CES 2011, I personally saw around 8 tablets that disappeared quicker than a fake Apple store in China.

But those tablets that stayed to try and take the market had to deal with the 500 lb gorilla in iPad2. Some did ok, while others failed miserably. That is what were going to look at today.

Cisco Cius

Cisco Cius

Knowing that Cisco didn’t want to deal with the consumer market, they decided to go for the business professional. Why not? It worked for Blackberry all these years. Only problem, it still couldn’t cut it.

Cisco Cius is an Android-based tablet that ran 720p, with Wifi, 4G and Bluetooth. It contains Cisco AppHQ, which is Cisco’s business app store. The seven-inch screen had an optional HD media station that could connect USB peripherals, Ethernet access and a handset, turning the Cius into a landline phone.

There is still hope for the Cius, especially in the office that wants to buy $1000 phones. Maybe in 2-3 years, this device will become more utilized.

HP TouchPad

HP TouchPad

There is no way to sugar coat this, so I am going to say it. HP shot themselves in the collective foot. The HP TouchPad started out just fine. Using HP’s acquired Palm software, the WebOS system had a companion phone in the Pre3. The big feature was the ability to transfer items from the Pre3 to the TouchPad by setting the phone on the tablet.

This tablet was prematurely killed when CEO Leo Apotheker stopped production of WebOS devices in October. It also brought us the first viable $99 tablet, as stores were liquidating.

WebOS has been since deemed Open Source. Maybe the TouchPad will make a resurgence as a collectors item. ITM – HP will most likely come out with a Windows 7 tablet in the future.

RIM BlackBerry Playbook

Blackberry Playbook

RIM has been hurting as of late. Once a staple in business, they seemed to lose a lot of momentum to Apple lately. To really get into the tablet market, they decided to put out the PlayBook, which in all reality, was a pretty impressive tablet.

1 GB of RAM, dual-core 1 GHz processor, Dual HD cameras, and it also worked well with a Blackberry smartphone. The tablet does have a lot of strengths, but the market did not bode well. If it can stand the water, the Playbook might emerge in a year and really show

Motorola Xoom

Motorola XOOM

The Xoomtablet was hit hard on specs vs. iPad2. The Xoom’s 10.1 inch display was deemed “Low end”. Resolution is not the only thing about a display. color depth, brightness and contrast are also big factors.

Still, this tablet, which now can be upgraded to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) could make a comeback with Xoom2 and a better display. It also has Bluetooth, micro USB and GPS.

Overall, all four of these tablets are still in production. They have some great features and – if a little work goes into them – they could shake up the tablet market in 2012. HP TouchPad would be the only exception.

With the Kindle Fire and Color Nook out in the tablet market, as well as some low-cost tablets ( like the  $99 MIPS Novo7 tablet that came out), 2012 might have some viable alternatives in the tablet market.

In a change to the mobile phone contract status quo, UK mobile telco O2 has announced a 12 month smartphone leasing service. For £55 per month, you get a 16 GB smartphone, 750 minutes, unlimited text, a paltry 500 MB of data and insurance. Allegedly unique in the UK market, both consumers and business will be able to take advantage of O2 Lease.

If you are wondering what the difference is between a 12 month lease and 12 month contract, it’s simply that the smartphone doesn’t belong to you and must be returned in reasonable condition at the end of the lease. That’s why insurance is included in the cost of the lease so that the smartphone can be replaced in the event of damage or loss.

O2 extols the benefits of a 12 month lease, tying it into the upgrade cycles of the smartphone models and giving you the latest model without a long contract. The choice of smartphone models isn’t mentioned but O2 offers all the premium smartphones – Apple iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nokia Lumia 800 and Blackberry Torch. 32GB models cost an extra £10 per month. Update – O2 Lease is specifically mentioned against the iPhone 4S here.

If you really want the latest phone and you’re a big talker or texter, this scheme might be worth considering but the tiny data allowance really makes it all a bit of a farce. My monthly data usage is between 600-800 MB and I don’t think that I’m a particularly heavy user. Yes, I might download the odd podcast but it’s mostly email, web browsing, Twitter and RSS feeds.

Personally, I tend to buy my smartphones SIM-free as there are far better tariffs out there and you can easily sell the smartphone after 12 months to part-fund your next purchase. Do the maths for yourself and see what works for you.

The full press release is here.

Wireless expert WDS is reporting that high failure rates in Android handsets are costing mobile network operators as much as $2 billion per year in dealing with repairs and returns. Reviewing the four leading mobile operating systems, its study found that Android-based devices seemed more prone to failure as 14% of technical support calls on Android were for hardware, versus 11% for Windows Phone, 7% for iOS and just 6% for BlackBerry OS.

Simplistically, Android handsets were twice as likely to suffer a hardware fault that an Apple or RIM device. The study suggests that cheaper hardware, software customisations and OS updates all contribute to the failure rate and in turn, the increased impact on the network operators to provide technical support and customer service. WDS analysed over 600,000 technical support calls from July 2010 to August 2011.

“One thing we must be absolutely clear on,” says Tim Deluca-Smith, Vice President of Marketing at WDS, “is that our analysis does not find any inherent fault with the Android platform. Its openness has enabled the ecosystem to grow to a phenomenal size, at a phenomenal rate, and it’s this success that is proving challenging.”

He added, “The Android customer experience differs enormously between devices and this means that the way in which Android devices are retailed and supported must consider factors such as the hardware build and quality of components.”

If you are thinking about buying or upgrading your smartphone, you might want to bear this research in mind before you purchase.

The full WDS whitepaper can be downloaded from this page.

In the UK, Android is beginning to dominate the smartphone space, with 50% of handsets sold in the last quarter running Android. RIM (Blackberry) and Apple are almost level pegging on 22% and 18% and with half of UK adults now owning a smartphone, Android has an impressive lead.

Breaking the Android figures down, HTC is the top dog, with nearly 45% of Android handsets sold. Samsung is picking up the pace at 38% but Sony Ericsson is the big loser, falling to 8.5% of the Android market.

Surprisingly, this means that HTC, Samsung, RIM and Apple are each taking about a quarter of the market. Compared with mindshare that Apple generally has and the dominance in the tablet market, it’s clear that the iPhone is under performing.

Personally, I would agree with the figures. Looking round the office, Android phones are definitely in the majority followed by iPhones and Blackberries. I think Blackberries are popular with younger people as both my nephews have that brand of phone. The breakdown of the Android shares also rings true. This time last year, it would have been exclusively HTC smartphones but now there are quite a few people sporting Samsung devices.

The research was carried out by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech over the past 12 weeks. To be fair, this probably means that iPhone sales were down as people waited for new model but there’s no doubt that Android is the no.1 smartphone OS in the UK.

blackberry_logo

In result to last week’s Blackberry outtage, RIM profusely apologized for the issues they came up with. In return, they are offering $100 in free applications to their users. Will that be enough for Blackberry users to continue with the phone?

Last week, Blackberry had a nation-wide email and Internet services outtage that lasted 3 days. A “network failure” was to blame for this outage. ZDNet is reporting that RIM has lost $350 million for that outtage.

Today, RIM put out a press release. CEO Mike Lazaridis made a public apology and then announced they will be giving customers $100 in applications as compensation.

“Our global network supports the communications needs of more than 70 million customers,” said RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. “We truly appreciate and value our relationship with our customers.  We’ve worked hard to earn their trust over the past 12 years, and we’re committed to providing the high standard of reliability they expect, today and in the future.”

The list of applications are:

• SIMS 3 – Electronic Arts
• Bejeweled – Electronic Arts
• N.O.V.A. – Gameloft
• Texas Hold’em Poker 2 – Gameloft
• Bubble Bash 2 – Gameloft
• Photo Editor Ultimate – Ice Cold Apps
• DriveSafe.ly Pro – iSpeech.org
• iSpeech Translator Pro – iSpeech.org
• Drive Safe.ly Enterprise – iSpeech.org
• Nobex Radio™ Premium – Nobex
• Shazam Encore – Shazam
• Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant – Vlingo

These Applications are only $35

In this computer day and age, you want to make sure pictures, documents and more are backed up on a daily basis. Especially with hard drives that fail every day and notebooks that get stolen every day. Even if you get your stolen computer back, the thieves might have done damage like wiping the hard drive or dropping the machine altogether.

I back up my machines to different sources. I have 2 home backups and one cloud backup. The cloud backup can also be a great way to share pictures through an iPhone, Android or iPad application. Nonetheless, if my computer drive dies, if there is fire or water damage, if someone steals my computer, I don’t lose the data.

Advantages to Cloud Based Backup

• Off-site data retention
• access to data from multiple computers or mobile devices
• software that will start backing up files when computer is idle
• High encryption on backup
• Cloud based service runs their own backups – Your data gets backed up by them, too!
• Prices are low – There are some services that are free to a certain level.

MyPCBackup

My PC Backup

MyPCBackup was ranked #1 by Top 10 Online Backups. With unlimited backup, you can make sure all your pictures, documents and more are safe. They have an option to sync multiple computers through a folder on the machine.  They also offer a money back option and full customer support.

Mac users won’t be able to use this program, which is a major downfall to this program. The “1 PC, 1 Mac” per household ratio is growing. There is also no mobile application so you can view your backup files.

Carbonite Online Backup

Carbonite Online Backup

One of the more popular online backup systems is Carbonite, this unlimited backup lets you view your files from any computer, or through an iPhone, Blackberry or Android application.  Carbonite also has accidental deletion option, which means if you delete a file that was backed up, you have 30 days to restore it.

Carbonite also works on PC and Mac systems. Therefore, you could backup all your items from the old computer, switch the program to Mac and download the files. There is full customer support if needed.

Mozy Online Backup

Mozy Online Backup

Mozy online backup is also a PC or Mac backup. You can access your data from an iPhone and Android (no Blackberry) application. They also offer on-site backup, which means you can set up a USB hard drive and Mozy will backup to that as well. Full support and they also offer the ability to restore a file up to 30 days after deleted.

Mozy does not offer unlimited backup, though. $5.99 /month  for 50 GB and $9.99 for 125 GB. For a standard computer, you might not fill that spot – unless you take tons of pictures or create video like myself.

DropBox

Dropbox

You might not think of Dropbox as a online backup. However, with their open API, there are a lot of things that Dropbox can become. You can use it to sync with other computers, so it’s a great collaborative tool.

Keep in mind, it doesn’t tout itself as an online backup. You do get some great options, like short-term backup recovery.

They do have a free service for the first 2 GB, then pricing options after.

iBackup

iBackup

iBackup is a backup for not only PCs and Macs, but also Servers. You can also back up your MySQL, Linux box Exchange, Oracle and iPhone. Therefore, it’s a full corporate backup solution. It gets pricey fast, but if you need 1.5 Terabytes of data that has to be backed up, this is a great solution.

They also have a “30 version” backup – If you change a document 29 times, then realize you need to start from the beginning, you can go into your account and pull up the first version. That can help if someone messes up a document and you don’t realize it right away.

—

There are  other online backup options, too. This includes items like PogoPlug or Drobo, where the files are stored at your home site. Elephantdrive, Livedrive, KeepIT are some other online backup tools.

Since it’s your data, you should research each program and see if it’s right for you. But if you have important data and need to back it up, then these options might help you with that solution.

There are also some great software solutions if you want to backup your computer to another computer. If you are on a Mac, then Time Machine is a feature you can set. Everything from backing up folders to making a full image of your computer to restore at a moments notice.

Most important – Back it up now, because you never know if you’ll get a chance to back it up later.

What could happen did happen. Someone needs to fix Chrome so Flash quits crashing as it caused some excitement for me at the beginning of the show not to mention pushing a higher bandwidth stream seemed to create some issues for viewers on slower connections. Faster is not always better, good lessons learned. Plus a Weird Product recommendation at the end of the show plus a Family Update.

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Credits: Jack Ellis – Executive Producer

Yesterday, Adobe announced the release of Connect Mobile version 1.7.  The Android version is now available, and the Blackberry and iPhone versions are coming soon.

If you aren’t familiar with Connect Mobile, then here is a brief introduction.  Adobe Connect is a web conferencing tool, geared mainly towards business users.  In other words, it’s mostly an enterprise tool.  It allows businesses to hold training classes and meetings online, thereby saving the cost of paying travel expenses for those involved. It’s based on Adobe Flash (like most Adobe products) which allows it to be used for richer content.

For enterprise level deployment they offer several tiers of hosted plans that I won’t bore you with the details of here.  If, however, you are interested in it individually, then you have two options.  The first is a $45 per month subscription, which gets you 9 hosts and allows each host to control webinars with up to 25 in attendees.  The second is a pay-per-use plan, which will cost you $0.32 per user per minute.  You can check enterprise and individual plans here.

You can download version 1.7 for Android from the Android Market.  Keep and eye on the Blackberry App World and iTunes App Store for those versions to show up in the very near future.

Mobile data usage has been rising for quite some time now.  But, with the release of the latest Nielsen report on cell phones, there’s some interesting data.  The fastest rise is Windows Phone 7, which has shot up 89% since it’s launch.  As of the November launch (4th Quarter 2010) data usage was at 149 MB, but now, as of the first quarter 2011 (March 2011), data usage has climbed from to 317 MB.

While it is the fastest riser of this time period, WP7 still lags far behind iPhone and the industry-leading Android.  iPhone has risen steadily to 492 MB, while Android has risen to 582 MB.  By contrast, RIM’s Blackberry OS has flat-lined and Windows Mobile, which is now on life support, has slowly trailed off.  Web OS unfortunately did not garner a mention in the report.

This seems to indicate that the field is narrowing to a 3 platform race between iOS, Android, and WP7.  While Blackberry remains popular with corporate customers they are falling behind overall, despite their recent efforts.

So what are all of you using, and why?  What do you like and dislike about your mobile OS?  Which mobile OS do you think will come out on top in the future?  Give us your thoughts in the comments.

GadgetTrak is a piece of software that you install on your mobile phone or laptop. The software will periodically check in and let you know the physical location of the device. If a camera is present, for example on a laptop, it can even take a photo of the thief and email it back to the owner. The software cannot be disabled by the thief.

For a Mac or Windows laptop, the price is $34.95 per year.

For Android and Blackberry phones, which includes remote data wipe ability, secure encrypted backup and a loud piercing audible alarm even if the device is in silent mode, the price is $19.95 per year.

For iPhone, iPod, and iPad, the GadgetTrak app is .99 cents, The iOS version does not include remote data wipe, but does include remote camera and push notification support to inform the thief of the GadgetTrak software’s presence.

Interview by Jeffrey Powers of Geekazine.

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Courtesy of the BBC, a very British comedic take on the latest technology….

For a couple of months now there has been some buzz surrounding the upcoming Blackberry tablet known as the Playbook.  Is it for real or just a lot of hype over nothing, like some of the recent phones from RIM?  This CES provided a hands-on which finally gave people a chance to find out.

This relatively small 5×7 device has created a rather large hubbub in recent times and since I haven’t had the chance to play with one I decided to see what the lucky few have had the chance had to say about it.

Frankly I have been a bit surprised.  I expected a bit of a downer, given the recent spate of bad luck RIM has had with new products.  But I have seen the gaming, multimedia, and video conferencing capabilities called “sexy”.  It has been deemed a “flash loving” device, which immediately separates it from the Apple iPad.  In short, I have not found any real negatives in any of the major reviews I have read.

Of course, with or without Flash, it still has an uphill battle to compete with the iPad.  We have also seen a proliferation of Android and Windows 7 tablets at CES, which also pose a direct threat to the Playbook.  While Windows 7 has been widely maligned as a tablet OS the ones I have seen in the past few days may change that sentiment.

We don’t have an exact release date for the Playbook yet, but it doesn’t appear to be too far off.  If they can get to market in a timely manner and beat a lot of the other tablets that debuted this past week then they have a shot to at least find a spot in the market, if not take a decent portion of it.

This weekend simply crushed me and it hit me like a ton of bricks during the show tonight. Nevertheless the show has to go on. Details in the show and some cool pictures at the bottom of the show notes. Saw the F22 Raptor perform at an airshow this weekend and what an amazing airplane. Two new contest started on tonights show listen to win.

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A couple of Pictures from the 2010 Kaneohe Bay Hawaii Air Show on Saturday!
F22 Raptor = UNBELIEVABLE!

The Best Flight Demo Team in the World! The Blue Angels!

Big Alien Conspiracy announcement on Monday that truly could shake up the government. Listen for details. The better half, told me to lighten up she said I have become robotic. I truly hope you enjoy the show and thanks for staying subscribed. I give you all a little insider look on today’s show on how I get a bit wrapped around the axel with the day to day grind.

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Editorial Calendar for WordPress.
Mulve Music Downloads made Easy.
Good Websites do not need SEO.
Shuttle Team reflects.
Jim Lovell talks about NASA Future.
Them looking at Us?
Latches Stuck at ISS!
NASA Spending Bill.
NASA Image of Saturn.
New HP Printer Review!
What’s new at Google.
Angel Gate #1 Trust.
Angel Gate #2 Revelations.
TheLikeStream.com
Doc Searls and Advertising Research.
Pod Trial to get Underway.
Facebook Downtime.
Text + Drive = Death by Text!
Live Higher? Live Longer!
Dire Warnings about Cyber Security.
China Blocking Raw Materials from Japan.
Pandora No go in Canada sites Extortion.
Long Term GPS Tracking up to Courts.
Bad Review get the boot!
Windows Phone 7 Versus iPhone.

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Energizer is releasing a new inductive charging system this October at Target stores and on Target.com. It’s officially called “Energizer Inductive Charger”

The new charging pad will charge any QI (Pronounced Chee) enabled device or a device with a QI accessory. Energizer will have the first two of these accessories available at the same time. They are starting with the iPhone 3G and 3GS sleeves and a BlackBerry® Curve™ replacement battery door. They say they will have more accessories available at a later date. Ultimately, doors and sleeves will not be required as manufacturers begin introducing new devices with the Qi standard built in.

Imagine sitting at your desk and just putting your smart phone on a nice looking pad and not having to plug it in to keep it charged. Or at the end of the day, just put your gadgets on the pad at the bedside and they will be all charged up in the morning.

In the past, these inductive chargers all had a different standard and had to speak the correct language to work. QI is an open source standard so any QI device and charger can work together. QI does require metal to metal contact to work.

I’m looking forward to having a charger like this for my smartphone (Droid).

For more information about these new products check out: Energizer Inductive Charger.

To read more about the QI (pronounced Chee) standard, go to The Wireless Power Consortium home page.

Some Feedback from the listener survey if you do not want to listen jump to 16:30. Typical trip in progress I am crazy busy as usual. Nothing spectacular going on. Everyone that submitted links tonight for the show a big Thank You!

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The Geek’s Show Links:
Is Cuban on the Right Track?
Leaks show MLB Earnings.
Will Apple iTV complete the Revolution?
The Moon is Shrinking.
White Knight Two Landing Gear Issue.
Philly Bloggers get your Business License.
Outlaw e-personation.
Intel and Mcaffe.
App Riches
Magazines and iPad will it work.
Verizon finally responds to criticism.
Pick a NASA Soundtrack.
North Korea spins Twitter Propoganda.
iTunes Paypal Charge Scam.
Google Testing Dynamic Search.
Dish Network launching Streaming Service.
Director wants cut of Hulu IPO.
Did Malware Crash Airplane.
Speak out in India get Arrested.
Seagate 3TB HD for $250.00
German Citizens Tracked by RFID.
C&D on Android Upgrade.
Geek Pen.
3 Good Skywatcher Sites.
Lost the Collection.
Travelling with iPad.
Virtual Router Rocks.
Are you ready to cut the Cable TV.
Mark Zuckerberg is above the rules.
Seth Godin draws a line in the sand.
VOIP comes to Blackberry.
The changing face of Social Media.
Apple Phone Scam.
Social Me Me Me.
Gmail and Google Calendar iPhone Push.

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With a reported 150,000 units sold in the first week, and a nearly instant price cut, the Blackberry Torch doesn’t appear to have met RIM’s expectations.  But I’m unsure how it could have been any other way.

To start with, 150,000 units is a good opening figure for any company with the single exception of Apple.  Compare it with the HTC Evo 4G and Palm Pre, both of which sold in broadly similar numbers.  Frankly, this tells me that at any one time, there are only about 150,000 people ready to upgrade.

 Secondly, while I know plenty of people who have work-supplied Blackberries, I know of only one friend who has one as a personal phone.  Thirdly, companies tend to purchase in batches and rarely upgrade to the latest phone just because it’s out.  Consequently, I think 150,000 units for business-orientated (smart)phone are good opening figures.

RIM with the Blackberry brand has something that no other phone really has – its association with business.  If you have a Blackberry, it says you are serious about business.  Obviously, RIM has to defend its territory and often the best form of attack is defence, but it’s too easy to get into Apple-beating mode when faced with the iPhone threat.

There’s no doubt that the battle lines are drawn between Apple, RIM and Android.  All are vying for the top spot but RIM has the corporate foundation to push out from.  With Microsoft down and out at the moment, RIM should be locking down the business market tight.  The Torch is a great phone for that as it’s generally considered to be the best Blackberry ever from the reviews, even if it’s not quite up to Android, iOS and WebOS standard.

RIM needs to forget about the opening numbers game and go for the long-term.

Moving forward, I have decided to add as many as 5 shows to the line up here at Geek News Central, host will have to agree to a two year commitment and have to carry their own weight and bring new fresh content to the site. This show remains same format, new shows to GNC will be unique and live under the GNC banner head. I have a very important survey for you to fill out. Link is directly below this paragraph. I want to find out what it would take to make you be a insider.

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Google TV Hints.
Liquid Pencil Issues.
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Intel Buys McAfee?
PS3 Jailbreak.
Is that a Radio in your Arm?
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Tablets in Schools.
Bad Spelling on Immigration Documents.
Gmail on iPad update.
Is Apple testing iTV?
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Fleet Drivers and Technology.
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EFF on Facebook Places.
Magazine + iPad = 2 for 1
Is the Web really dead?
Class of 2014.
ISP Top User 2.7TB
Gulf Oil Spill Update.
ISP Minimum Speed Disclosure.
Creating a new online Identity.
Wikileaks Legal Challenges.
Stumbleupon this!
Google where are the Google TV Apps?
Adobe Flash and Google TV.
PogoPlug goes Wireless.
Adobe Bug.
Universe will never stop Expanding.
Whats on the Other side?
RFID snooping bunk or real?
40 Windows App Vulnerabilities.
Recording Phone calls OK?
Blackberry + Email + Off work = Overtime?

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Stitcher Logo

I’ve been using Stitcher to listen to most Podcasts. The only frustrating thing was that every time I got a call or had to check on something with the phone, I would have to re-open the program.

Not anymore.

Stitcher’s newest release features the option to run in the background. Therefore, you can read a text message, send an email, read your horoscope, check stocks and more while your favorite podcasts are playing.

Of course, we know that iPhone OS4 was bringing background application options. This was an application that truly needed it.

Stitcher is a way to get all podcasts through your iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Palm Pre. Stitcher is also partnered with Ford to give you podcasts while driving.

I am a Happy Camper…

This had to singularly be one of the worst presentations Steve Jobs has given in a while.

I was watching the video on CNet. The video itself was short and edited to be more to the point. We learned in 2:53 what took Steve Jobs 30 minutes to say. But the first 10 minutes were the most surprising. Let me quote:

Well it turns out, it’s certainly not unique to the iPhone 4. That is one of the first things we learned. You can go on YouTube and see videos of Nokia phones, Motorolla phones and other phones doing the same thing. Nobody ever looked at them much before…

This is true.

I found a video for a Nokia E71 where the bars disappear in their left hand.  HTC EVO tried the Deathgrip video, which showed if you hold it at the top, the signal goes down, so that is untrue. The Blackberry Deathgrip, however, caused antenna signal to go down.

Blame Game

So Steve was stating fact. Some other phones do loose signal if you cover the antenna. Maybe that’s something the FCC should look into, however, the blame game shouldn’t have been brought up as much as it did on Friday. The first 15 minutes was about stating “Other phones do it, too…”

Isn’t Apple Suppose to be Superior?

Everything I see and hear, Apple is suppose to be better than all other devices. Yes, they can make mistakes, however, don’t go saying that’s the standard when you tout that you are above the standard.

Steve said this was a “Very advanced, new antenna system”.

At least one with a very simple flaw.

Don’t Pick on Us, Bullies!

We don’t expect the iPhone to be perfect. We don’t expect any phone to be perfect. However, we expect a phone to work properly. When it doesn’t, we don’t want to hear “Well Johnny’s phone doesn’t work that well, either”.

I didn’t buy Johnny’s phone.

The Other Issues?

While the whole conversation was about “Antennagate”, nothing was mentioned about the yellowing issue. Nothing was mentioned about some owners seeing their screens crack easily. Mass quantities of phones put out through cheap manufacturing. Some issues happened simply because glue did not dry properly.

Of course, if it wasn’t for that cheap manufacturing, then we wouldn’t get our rumor leaks about Apple’s next big thing.

Should Apple have Recalled it?

The rest of the speech was Steve umming through a presentation he did not have that much time to learn. While that is understandable, the whole experience might have been better handled. Some say a $1.5 billion recall, for example, is in order.

While the Bumper is a simple fix (and apparently approved by Consumer Reports as Jobs noted), it has not helped Apple’s market share. In fact, shares have fallen over 10 percent since the iPhone 4 came out. $25 / Share. Now with 909 million shares out, that means Apple lost 22 billion dollars last month - 9 billion since Friday.

Of course, with a big price on a stock, dropping and raising always means major amounts of money are affected. Still, if Jobs would have said “Recall”, would that have appeased the stock holders, or would we have seen the price drop below $200 / share.

Overall

Apple has a product that contains a defect that is fixed by a case. That seems to go against Apple’s strategy for no cases, but O.K. – You can get a bumper for your phone. Maybe some software updates will fix the problem so you can take the bumper off. That remains to be seen.

The blame game might have hurt more than anything. There is an old addage that says if you get defensive to a problem, it may continue to be a problem. Since Apple surpasses the standard, do they have a right to be like any other phone?

Do you like math do you live math, i have a request of the Ohana today to help your geek pick something out. Details in the show. Lots of tech today, rare daytime recording enjoy the podcast and be sure to check out the other shows at PodcastMadness.com

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Show Topic Notes:
TwitCam versus CamTweet
Qwest Upgrades DSL Offering
Eye Telescope amazing medical techology!
TweetMe way Cool!
In flight Wifi Tips
Digg Diggs a Deeper Hole for itself!
Airforce says Ares 1 escape system unsafe!
Apple has lost there minds!
ISS Spacewalk #2
Apple supposed to have Record Quarter!
Microsoft heads off EU Antitrust makes Browser change!
How hacker got access to Twitter via Hotmail
iPhone App approval process in meltdown!
Space Memories past 40 years!
Google Voice to compete with Skype?
Rejected Papers get new voice online!
Japanese Kibo just more gear!
LRO takes picture of Apollo 11 landing site!
Google Moon is live!
Why Japanese Phones are not in the United States!
The ever bigger AT&T iPhone Mess!
Is Internet Business DOA?
Mac Office 2008 SP2
Apple Loves Moms!
RIAA says DRM is Dead!
Online Meeting Schedulers Review.
10 Stats about Twitter.
Real Password Issues.
Data Says were going Mobile!
T-Mobile Going Socials? What For?
The Real cost of the Cloud!
Time Warp and S3 Backups
Kazaa goes Legit
New Apollo 11 Images!
AT&T Loosing Voice mail
Can the Pre Grow Up?
Why you need to Lie to be Secure Online.
256gb USB Drive
Get a cheap notebook!
Toshiba Wifi Picture Frame Integrated with other Services!
Blackberry desktop for Mac soon!
IE8 growth chart

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Space Dimensions
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Show Notes:
Gmail to have IMAP Support
TaskPaper Review
New things in OS-X Leopard
Facebook scored big Money
Some Decent SEO Tips
Long Live PodTech
TiVo Update
StumbleUpon Driving Serious Traffic
Domain Snatching Investigation
10 Google Products you forgot about
Hydrogen Aviation Engine
Senator Slams Comcast
Naked Eye Comet Suddenly Brightens
Whois threatened
SanDisk Sues Everyone
SprintSecure Laptop Secure
Google Pagerank
Facebook on the Cheap?
GTalk and Yahoo Messengers Updates for Blackberry
Shuttle No Damage so Far!
Shutlle Arrives at ISS
Japan has Mobile Issues as Well
India call center worker shortage
UK wants ISP’s to block P2P
Don’t try to censor students

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Soccer Prank that could get you hurt
Stay awake for Eleven
10 Illegal Job Questions

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Show Notes:
Unwanted Experiences
Astronomy Pic of the Day
Skype and Walmart
Austin Scouts
AppleScript Windows Boot
Microsoft declares War
Big Brother can now Listen
Zune Factory
Firefox takes on Flash
Blog Audio
TwitterVision
FlickrVision
Blackberry Helmet
Comcast 0 Day Movies
Paid Download TV is Dead
Progress to ISS