Monthly Archive for January, 2005

TinyPodcast 2005-01-11

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on January 11, 2005
in Blog
. 1 Comment

Here’s this week’s podcast - about 40 minutes, 17MB. Click here to download the MP3.

We had a lot of stuff we wanted to talk about this week, but it all got eclipsed by the announcements at MacWorld this morning. So we talk about the newly announced Mac mini, iPod Shuffle, and other tidbits from Steve Jobs and company in Cupertino.

I’ll post up some more detailed show notes once I give it a listen through, but Here are the show notes - you can find most of the stuff we talk about at Apple’s website.

Enjoy, and let’s have some feedback! Email us (jabancroft AT gmail DOT com or bljarv AT gmail DOT com), or leave a voice message at 206-222-2479.


X-Gadget’s Take on BillG’s CES Keynote

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Josh Bancroft
on January 7, 2005
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CES pre-show keynote speech with Bill Gates

Lynnsie Nguyen over at X-Gadget has posted her take on Bill Gates’ pre-CES keynote address, including some amusing bits about waiting in the wrong line.

I got in line at 2:30pm and thought that I was doing great since I was just before the first bend in the line. I was talking with all the people around me and having a great time, when we started comparing our badges. One guy was a buyer for a police department in California. Another one was an engineer. When it got to my turn, I told them I was here with the press to cover the event. They gave me a strange look and told me that I was standing in the wrong line. All of a sudden, I was kicked out of the good old boys club.

The folks over at X-Gadget are good friends of TinyScreenfuls.com, so go check out their take. Vincent Nguyen has promised lots more CES coverage - he’s got gigs of photos and video to post, once he gets it all sorted out.

Oh, and Lynnsie, you never really mentioned what the first line you waited in was - don’t keep us in suspense!


TinyPodcast 2005-01-06

Published
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Josh Bancroft
on January 6, 2005
in Blog
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TinyPodCast: TinyPodcast 2005-01-06 - MP3 Download

Here’s this week’s TinyPodcast! We missed last week because of the holidays, but Brian and I are back, in full swing.

This week, we talk about CES, Apple suing rumor sites, the new Microsoft AntiSpyware beta, and other general geeky stuff. We promised some links in the show notes (this post), but I lost the notes I was typing as we recorded, so I’ll have to re-listen to the podcast, and type them up again. Look for them soon. Here are this week’s show notes!

Show Notes (by no means comprehensive - these are just the highlights):

As always, we love to hear feedback. Email us your comments (in text or audio attachments) or call our feedback line at 206-222-2479!


Want CES Coverage?

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on January 5, 2005
in Blog
. 0 Comments

CES is Gadget Heaven, and while I haven’t yet attended myself, here are a couple of recommendations to keep up on all of the shiny new toys being announced:

Engadget - The king of gadget sites. They’ve got guys on the ground, and are planning very thorough coverage (50+ posts per day). Plus, they just rock. :-)

X-Gadget - My friends over at R3 Media, lead by the inimitable Vincent Nguyen, have a crack team of gadget lovers on the floor, too, looking for the best of what’s new.

I’ll be commenting here occasionally on things I find particularly noteworthy, and we’ll have some discussion in the next TinyPodcast (which should be out tomorrow, BTW).

What a great time to be a gadget geek!


Interview with the Portland Tribune

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on January 4, 2005
in Blog
. 1 Comment

PortlandTribune.com | Portland Tribune

I just got off the phone with Anna from the Portland Tribune, a popular local newspaper. She’s doing a story on Northwest podcasts, and wanted to talk to me! Imagine that…

The interview went well - Anna was great, and asked lots of good questions. I don’t know when exactly the article is going to run, but when I find out, I’ll definitely post here.

Thanks Anna!


Windows Mobile 2005 to be Revealed at CES This Week?

Published
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Josh Bancroft
on January 4, 2005
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Nyheder fra Pocketfreak.dk

Update: I received a “Demand for Immediate Take-Down: Notice of Infringing Activity” email and phone call this morning from Microsoft, regarding the WM2005 screenshots I published here. In order to comply, I have removed the screenshots.

I have more thoughts on this matter, that I’ll post soon, and link to here later. I’m not upset - but there are lots of interesting things surrounding this topic that I want to talk about.

Neowin is reporting that Microsoft will reveal parts of the next version of Windows Mobile for Pocket PCs and Smartphones, codenamed “Magneto”, at CES this week:

(removed)

There are supposed to be some pretty major improvements, including a major UI revamp (can you spot the differences in the screenshot above?), as well as updates for Pocket Excel and Pocket Word. Check out the Neowin story for more details.

Of course, with CES this week, I’m sure we’ll be awash in all kinds of gadgety geeky goodness before long. I’ll try my best to keep up with what I think is the best and brightest - there’s no way I’ll be able to cover everything. But that’s what the other gadget sites are for. :-)

EDIT: Apparently, Microsoft has asked Neowin to take the article and screenshot down. You can still find them in various places. I don’t have any official relationship with Microsoft (i.e. governed by NDA), but if they contact me and ask me to remove these screenshots, I will.

Speaking of screenshots, here’s one of the Smartphone version of Windows Mobile 2005:

(removed)

More MPX220 Woes - Dead Mic

Published
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Josh Bancroft
on January 4, 2005
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Smartphone Thoughts - MPx220: It Never Ends

Just when you thought Motorola had addressed all of the issues on its poor MPX220 Smartphone, another one crops up. They’ve recalled the phones and pulled unsold stock from shelves to apply a ROM update to fix the call volume issue, but now it appears that there’s another ROM issue where the mic goes dead:

Here are the two situations, both of which I have experienced with my 1.3 ROM MPx220. A call comes in, you answer it, hear the caller perfectly and the caller can’t hear you at all. The other, you place a call, the person answers, you hear them perfectly and they don’t hear you at all. In both cases once this has happened no matter what you do, unmute button etc. the mic is dead until you restart the phone.

Wow. I’d hate to be the QA Manager at Motorola that has to explain/defend all of the issues on what should have been a knockout handset. We were all so excited for the MPX220, and it has had so many disappointing and aggravating issues!


BlackBerry 7100g “Charm” Coming to Cingular

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on January 3, 2005
in Blog
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MobileTracker - Cingular set to launch BlackBerry 7100g

The BlackBerry 7100t, with its slim form factor, large beautiful screen, and SureType hybrid keyboard has been a hit on T-Mobile, the only U.S. carrier to offer it (it’s available in Europe on Vodafone as the 7100v, and in Canada via Rogers as the 7100r).

Now, Cingular is preparing to release its own version of the “Charm” handset, to be called the 7100g.


I’m in love with my 7100t. It’s a great phone, fantastic for email and web browsing, and generally a well designed and well made device. If I could just resolve the T-Mobile issue that’s preventing all 7100t users from accessing some internet services, I wouldn’t be considering switching to Cingular. As it is, a switch to Cingular might be a viable option for BlackBerry customers that T-Mobile is driving away.