Hulu To Remain Free

Looks like News Corp came to it's collective senses and has announced that their Hulu steaming media site will remain a free, ad-supported destination on the Internet.

SlashFilm reports:

"a high ranking News Corp. executive expressed skepticism over their current strategy of making content available for free with ads. He went on to say that Hulu will probably start charging for content in 2010. Many in the tech blogosphere have already dismissed the exec’s rantings, and now EW has the official word (via a Hulu insider) that the exec had no idea what he was talking about. Their source stressed that hulu is “steadfastly commited to free content”, and that premium offerings down the line will build upon what the site already offers."

[Via SlashFilm...]

"Low" Ratings?! Huh?

I don't claim to be a media expert when it comes to watching television and the ratings scale used to determine a show's success or not, but I'm not sure I'd call 2.6 million viewers "abysmal." The folks at The Live Feed seem to think so.

When you look at how fractured a typical person's attention is, it is a miracle that people manage to get anything done (like blogging about a TV show with "abysmal" ratings - you have to be able to laugh at yourself).

I hope that FOX isn't ready to give up on Dollhouse just yet. There is plenty of eye candy in the show, and Summer Glau (Firefly, Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles) is suppose to play a character starting this season. Who would want to miss that?

GO Contact Sync

For the life of me, I can't figure out why Google doesn't sync contacts with Microsoft Outlook. Google offers Google Calendar Sync for Outlook users, so why not offer a tool for sync'ing contact?

Enter WebGear with their free open source utility, GO Contact Sync. Go Contact Sync allows you to sync the contacts in your Google Gmail account with Microsoft Outlook. Sounds pretty cool. I'm downloading the tool now so I can try it out. I'm really not looking at having to mess around with a .csv file export and import again.

You can learn more about GO Contact Sync on the WebGear website.

Update: SPF360 Podcast

A few weeks ago I put the question out there as to whether or not there was interest in a podcast for my blog, SmartphoneFanatics.com. I have been listening to and considering your comments and I am preparing to move forward with a new technology podcast called "SPF360".

Until I'm ready to go, let me whet your appetite for the show with the new logo that I've cooked up.

SPF360 is a two part name: "SPF" as in Smartphone Fanatics and "360" as in a 360-degree look at what is going on in mobile technology. This show will allow me to cover not only products and services from Palm, but also include things like Windows Mobile phones from HTC, Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, and any tablets or netbooks that may be in the works.

Videos Can Watch Themselves!

As it turns, out, episodes of Stargate SG-1 can watch themselves! Ok, they can watch themselves if they have a little help from you.

I had a rough night trying to sleep last night and so I turned to Hulu for a little sci-fi action to help pass the time. Turns out that I fell asleep before the end of the episode I started watching was over. So, in a way, yes, Josh, you are sort of right, SG-1 episodes can watch themselves.

Ha! I'm Still Computing!

Three hours after my oral surgery and I'm back online! Six seasons of Stargate SG-1 on Hulu.com aren't going to watch themselves you know!

First Impressions for Apple's Fall '09 iPod Event

I watched Apple's iPod event last night. It was great to see Steve Jobs take the stage to deliver this year's presentation.

I've posted my first impressions of iTunes 9.0 and it's integration with the iPod touch over on SmartphoneFanatics.com.

The bottom line is that I gulped down the new Apple Cool-Aid(TM) and upgraded to iTunes 9.0 and iPhone OS 3.1 for iPod touch after watching the presentation. I'm disappointed that the new iPod touch doesn't have a camera (like the new iPod nano has) and that Apple chose to once again lock out Palm's Pre from being able to sync with iTunes (hey, Palm programmed the Pre to announce itself as an iPod after all!).

At the end of the day, I'm still very much a fan of both Apple and Palm, however, this time, I simply though that Apple's new software features where more worthwhile that losing the ability to sync my Pre to iTunes was worth it.

I'm On Twitter

OK, before everyone gets all on my case about being a part of the death of in-person communication, I want to state right now that I'm not "microblogging" about shopping for tomatoes or chronicling my adventures in eating meals.

The only reason why I opened a Twitter account is to drive blog posts from SmartphoneFanatics.com to the site in an effort to drive more traffic to my mobility blog.

Interested parties can get their mobile tweeting on at:

http://www.twitter.com/spf360

Pirates: New Massive Ships Added

I like to collect all sorts of cool stuff (read: crap). So it is no surprise that I've run up quite a tab in my pursuit of collectible trading card games (read: cardboard heroine or plastic heroine depending on the game and card media). The most recent game that I am collecting cards for is Pirates of the Spanish Main, which later became known as Pirates of the Cursed Seas later on in it's run. Currently, the game, and it's publisher, WizKids Games, are out of commission. (The WizKids Games imprint is owned by Topps, Inc.)

On a recent trip to a local Target, I picked up a few Pirates of the Cursed Seas: Savage Shores box sets knowing at the time that I wouldn't get another chance to buy them. The cool thing about those Savage Shores "Scavenger Pack" sets (ironically named, don't you think?) I picked up included plates for building two new massive 10-mast ships: the Celtic Fury and the Shui Xian.

After pulling out my shoe box with my Pirates cards in it, I gleefully put together my two new massive ships!

Meghan, of course, wanted to play so we did. I gave her a total of 40 build points to my 30. At the end of the day, the Shui Xian proved too powerful and rules the Savage Shores; for now.

If you need a checklist for Savage Shores, you can check out the one that MiniatureTrading.com has posted on their website.

Snow Leopard On Week Later

Last weekend I picked up copies of Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 and Snow Leopard Server 10.6. I installed Snow Leopard on my 13-inch white MacBook and Snow Leopard on my Mac Pro.

Both upgrades completed without any issues and as far as I can tell, I have not discovered any software incompatibilities that has prevented me from being able to to use either computer. I did skip installing QuickTime 7 on my MacBook which prevents Flip4MacWMV from working properly. I'm going to wait until a QuickTime X version of the plug-in is available. I also didn't install Rosetta on my MacBook since I wanted to only use Intel compatible applications.

For the MacBook, my every day computer, I purchased the Mac Box Set. The box set includes not only the latest copy of Mac OS X but also includes the latest versions of the iLife and iWork productivity suites. I'm really enjoying all the cool new features of iPhoto '09. Since I just returned from a family vacation to Lake George, I've been playing with the geotagging and Google Maps integration. It is really awesome to click a button on a photo and have a push pin dropped on a map showing you where the photo was taken.

Snow Leopard on the MacBook is working well. My Mac is booted up and ready for action in about 20 seconds flat. Applications do seem to be loading faster than they did with Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) or Tiger (10.4). There is a noticeable speed difference running Snow Leopard Server on the Mac Pro. Everything is super zippy. I'm guessing that the huge speed difference is because of the amount of memory in both systems. The white MacBook tops out at 2GB of RAM which is how much I have in the notebook. The new 13-inch MacBook Pro notebooks top out at 8GB of RAM and there is talk of a new 13-inch MacBook on the way. The Mac Pro has 6GB of RAM.

At this point I haven't run into any trouble. If you are one of the people who have to have the latest software as soon as it comes out, you will be happy to know that installing Snow Leopard should be a painless upgrade. The same thing is true for Snow Leopard Server. That said, if your more of the test the water before you jump in the pool type, you should know that Apple is already working on a Mac OS X Leopard 10.6.1 update which should become available in a few weeks.

More details visit the Apple website.

Are You Ready For 'SPF360"?

It has been a long time since I recorded and published a mobile tech podcast. There area a number of contributing factors as to why that is , however there is no need to address them here.

Who needs a small, independent mobile tech podcast when you have the massively popular podcasts from GDGT, Treo/PreCentral, and WMExperts? Turns out that there really is room for an independent podcast hosted by a self-proclaimed mobility addict.

Over the last week or so, I have been playing around with the idea of what a new podcast might look like. GrassNet's Tech Talk originally focused on computer technology, and after a retooling, focused on Palm OS devices. It was a quick and easy transition to take over the 1SRC Palm-Powered podcast some years ago since the focus was almost identical to Tech Talk.

After sitting on the side lines for most of the summer, I'm seriously considering starting the SPF360 podcast over on SmartphoneFanatics.com (SPF being the abbreviation for SmartPhoneFanatics and 360 as in "taking a 360 degree look at mobile computing). I like the idea of SPF360 since it allows me to talk about not only Palm's smartphones, but HTC's amazing looking phones, RIM's BlackBerry, Apple's iPhone, and all the reset. And because I would also be taking that 360-degree view of mobile technology, it still leaves the door open to talk about the iPod touch, Microsoft's Zune HD (for, you know, like the 12 or so people who are going to buy one), netbooks (can anyone say Palm webOS powered Foleo II?), and the list can go on and on.

At this point, I'm not sure if this is going to be a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly show. One reason why I've been taking most of the summer off from podcasting has to do with my work schedule and the amount of overtime I'm logging to meet project deadlines on time. I think that the days of 45-60 minute shows are over for now; but a 15-30 minute show could be pulled off with enough Diet Coke. =)

So what do you think, kids? Does this "sound" like a worth while project? I'm interested in hearing your feedback on what content should be included in a new podcast venture and how to market it so that it goes some visibility, and more importantly, show subscribers!