G1 (the Google Phone)

T-mobile Live Event Transcription - phone has been officially announced and will be ready for sale on 10/22/2008. The phone is dubbed the "G1."

There really isn’t a “Google Phone,” per se, but it sounds better saying Gphone or Google Phone, than Android.

Android is a new operation system (platform) developed by Google that can be adopted by all the cell phone manufacturers. T-mobile is the first. It joins Palm, Windows, iPhone and Symbian operating systems among many others. I hoping Verizon adds it next!

Here's an Gphone demo done by Sergie, a co-founder of Google.

Android features: Touch phone, Move web pages with fingers, Rich browser history (you see thumbnails of past web pages you’ve seen), 3 G speed, Panorama images/satellite on maps, and tons more stuff. I bet there will be everything that's on the current iPhone platform.

Applications – Google awarded $10,000,000 to the developers of the best applications! The best 10 app winners got $275,000 each, the next 10 app winners won $100,000. Some of my favorites:

Wertago
Where can I go tonight? Parties? Clubs?

Diggin (as in Diggin Your Music)
Fully interactive, customizable music player/streaming radio

Phonebook 2.0
Saves phone numbers on a remote server – never to be lost again –
when phone is stolen or dropped in puddle of water.

Cab4Me
(tracks down a local cab)

Piggyback
Carpooling - matches up drivers and riders

PicSay
Add word balloons, titles, and props to the cell phone cameras and upload 'em

Compare Everywhere
Scan a barcode to instantly check if that "sale price" really is a good deal.

Keep up to date on Release date by visiting "ITM Rumors" site often!

Holiday Cards (the one in the boxes that you put stamps on) & Holiday Giving

Believe it or not, it’s that time of the year already!! Rosh Hashanah has just passed and we’re on our way to Yom Kippur. Have you sent your Yom Kippur cards yet?

Yom Kippur

I want to share this super cool way for you to get out your holiday cards (Christmas, Kwanza, Chanukah, Thanksgiving, Halloween) out without the hassle and expense of both traditional and online stores. With over 16,000 cards to choose from PLUS the ability to create your own cards, our selected is incomparable. Additionally, you can continue to use these cards throughout the year for birthdays, thank you notes, and "just thinking of you" cards. Take a look at last year’s special holiday ezine for more details.

These cards area also a great way to keep in touch with clients and prospective clients, in a fun way, without actually “going for the sale.”

Since last year, we’ve added gifts. You can now send Brownies (our most popular gift), Cookies, Caramels, Gift baskets (Golf, Spa, Cooking), Kids toys, Baby toys, Self-Improvement books and even Dog biscuits! I plan to do most of my holiday shopping without leaving my home – how’s that for a low Carbon Footprint? Speaking of that, all of our cards and envelopes are 100% recycled.

Check out www.SendOutCards.com/Clyde or call us at 408.732.8500 and we’ll answer all of your questions.

Watch Netflix movies on your TV

A simple little, $99 box, Netflix player made by Roku, was released for purchase about 4 months ago. I wrote Netflix for a test unit and got one a few days later. Within 2 days, I was up and running watching my "streaming" queue from Netflix on my TV in about 5 minutes. All you do is hook up the box to your receiver/TV, plug it in, and plug in either an ethernet cable or enter wireless settings for your wireless network. You can browse the queue of "Watch Instantly" movies as though you were on your computer. There's a tab in Netlfix, so you can add "Watch Instantly" to your queue on computer, then watch on Netflix box. You only need a basic subscription, $8.95/month, to watch movies instantly either on computer or using this cool Roku Netflix player.

Oh, that's right, isn't there something out there from Apple that let's you do the same thing? Let's see, you can watch 3 movies from Apple for $8.97 (unlimited from Netflix for a month at $8.95), Apple TV cost $229 (Netflix box cost $99), Apple rentals last 24 hours (Netflix rentals don't expire), Apple offers up HD movies (Netflix quality is good, but not HD), and you have to use proprietary software (itunes) to run Apple TV (with Netflix Roku box you just plug it in and it works - geeze isn't that the way Apple used to work?).

Quite the comparison, eh? A more detailed review for the nerds, geeks, and OCD folks out there!

I've had my
GPS for almost 3 years, which is a record for a gadget for me! It's been bumped around, dropped, and generally used heavily. I've had to return it to Garmin, who repaired it no charge, including shipping, 3 times in 3 years - only a 1 year warranty, I believe. They are the best company I've ever dealt with.

I paid $757 for this state-of-the art GPS, the nüvi 350, on 12/3/2005. I was so excited to get it $200 off!

Well, it's now my current unit is just under $200 at Amazon. Yes, $557 off what I paid for it. The upgraded model , the nüvi 360, is just over $200. I'd recommend the upgraded model as it's basically the same unit with Bluetooth speaker phone built-in.

There are fancier ones out there - I'm waiting for the Voice Recognition model to dip below $500 (currently at $1,000) - but if you want to jump in with a top of the line, mini unit, I wholeheartedly recommend either the nüvi 350 or nüvi 360. You won't be disappointed.

This is the best SPAM solution on the market (as of today). When someone who is not in your "spam arrest address book" sends you an email, they get a "word" sent to them they have to type in. Once, they do, they're "approved." There is a 30 day trial version - but to import your address book, you need to pay for the service. It works for all POP3 email accounts. It is especially great for those with iPhones and Blackberries and other mobile devices, since email programs on these devices don’t have spam filters, like Entourage and Outlook do, you get all the spam on these devices. With Spam Arrest, these spam will no longer show. Download a free trial today!

So, I've been testing this super cool program with a weird name WataCrackaz Auto SMS for about a month now and I really like it. It lets you send a text message to any carrier anywhere in the world. There are multiple layers to this awesome service.

The first is that you can go to the website and just send a text message.

The second layer is that you can add all your friends/colleagues and their mobile numbers (you need to know what carrier they're on for this to work). Once you do this, you can pull them up and send text messages.

The third and best layer is that you can install the Watacrackaz toolbar in firefox. So, at any time, you can just whip off a text message from the toolbar.

The only downside to this program is that the messages come from your Watacrackaz account - so you have to either check site for replies or tell people to make sure and reply to text messages with your phone number.

This is soooooo much easier than tapping out text messages on a phone.It's especially great if you want to text people while you're working and they may be out and about on their phones. You just check your "received" messages on the website while at your computer.

I'd highly recommend you use your firstname and lastname as your sign-up name, so people can ID your text messages.