MobileTechRoundup Podcast #18

Head over to the MoTR website to listen directly.
MoTR 18 is 35:32 minutes long and is a 24.4 MB file in MP3 format.

INTRO: Based on “Time v2.1″ by Meta Sektion, additional mixing by James Kendrick.

HOSTS: David Ciccone, James Kendrick and Kevin C. Tofel

TOPICS:
Hello! Hello! Hello!
Thank-you Battery Geek, Inc. for sponsoring MoTR!
James shares a super mobile utility called QuickLook; it let’s you see your Outlook contacts on a PC without booting up.
Kevin wants to know what’s up with Verizon Wireless? There are at least three good Windows Mobile or SmartPhones coming out soon! We wonder if people will switch carriers.
Need to convert DVDs to your iPod video? Dave helps you out with PQ-DVD to iPod Converter. There are versions for PSP and PocketPC too.
Trade in your CD’s for a free iPod! Kevin tells you how.
A SmartPhone from Lenovo? James wants to know what they’re going to call it: a ThinkPad SmartPhone?
Kevin’s Freeware of the Day: SuDoku by Chris Baker for your Pocket PC.
Dave barely beat Kevin in Project Gotham Racing 3 earlier in the day on Xbox Live; barely or not, he did win and gives Kevin the deserved ribbing on the show.
MoTR Gamertags: Dave is Mob2Day and Kevin is podcatcher.
Next week, we’re all at the CES show so MoTR could be every day or not at all due to scheduling, but we’ll do our best to get shows done and meet with anyone while we’re there.
We wish you peace, happiness and many mobile devices in 2006!

CONTACT US: E-mail us or leave us a voicemail on our SkypeLine!

SUBSCRIBE: Use this RSS feed with your favorite podcatcher or click this link to add us to iTunes!

CutMeLoose

Rob Bushway's blog is now CutMeLoose- same good Tablet stuff, same good guy Rob. If you see a feed appear for CutMeLoose don't panic- it's Rob.

Check out Kevin 2.0

My buddy Kevin Tofel has updated himself and released version Kevin 2.0. The new version has the same mobile tech news but he's revamped the site and even has a webcam running. He has also published a video review of the Sena leather case for the iPod Nano so check it out.

iTunes loses podcasts?

Todd Cochrane of GeekNewsCentral posted about some comments he received from several podcasters claiming their shows no longer show up in iTunes searches. I can attest to this as neither the OnTheRun with Tablet PCs nor the jkOnTheRun Audio Edition podcasts are showing up in any iTunes searches as of this past week. The shows were turning up properly in searches until last week when they just dropped off the map. The shows are still available in iTunes but only accessible via a direct link from the outside. It seems to me this goes against the claims Apple made when first launching podcast support in iTunes. Now the only shows that regularly show up in searches are either professional podcasts or commercial ventures. Once again the little guy gets knocked out of circulation which is sad, but usually the case. I'd like to here from other podcasters who have any information to add about this.

New Tablet Show woes

Long-time listeners of my podcasts are familiar with the original Tablet PC Show which I did with co-host Marc Orchant for The Podcast Network (TPN) for some months. A couple of months ago Marc and I decided to take the show off TPN and and relaunch it independently which has been very successful. A little over a week ago TPN released The Tablet PC Show with host Perry Reed and since it is still in my podcast feeds I gave it a listen. Perry is a great guy and a long-time mobile device fan on Pocket PC Thoughts and I was happy to see him give it a go with this new show.

Unfortunately, the show was released showing the hosts to be Marc Orchant and I which created confusion among listeners. I heard from several people who were confused as to our participation in the new show and wondering if Marc and I were not doing our OnTheRun with Tablet PCs podcast any longer. I immediately posted a comment to the TPN blog pointing out the host information was not correct and asked them to fix it for the next show. Perry indicated he needed help to fix it but it would happen. I told him it was the RSS enclosure tags that needed to be fixed.

TPN released a second show a couple of days ago and once again the podcast shows Marc and I to be the hosts, extending the confusion with listeners not to mention the fact that iTunes search is screwed up as a result. I posted a comment to this second show asking Perry and TPN to remove both shows until they get the host information corrected and then re-release the two shows. This would benefit both their listeners and ours and make sure that no search engines were returning incorrect information. I promptly received an email from Perry stating they were working on it and hoped to have a fix for it soon.

A check of the TPN site this morning shows that both podcasts are still being distributed with the improper information and my comment to Perry is not showing because they are not releasing it from moderation. This means only they can see my comment and not visitors to their blog. I don't like being a bad guy but this is not cool and it looks like they are trying to keep this information from their listeners. Since my comment is not published as it should have been so at least I can inform their show listeners that Marc and I are not in fact hosting the show I have no recourse but to inform our listeners here on my blog. Once again, I am asking TPN publicly to take both shows down until they fix the information and then re-release them. Continuing to deliberately offer the shows for download shows a disrespect to my original two requests that they take it down and fix it. There is no need for them to continue to offer the shows for download and perpetuate the improper impression the error is giving to listeners.

TPN, please remove both shows until a fix is in place. Thank you.

jkOnTheRun Audio Edition #8- OQO video review

Watch jkOnTheRun Audio Edition #8 on the podcast web site (WMV format, 640x480, 39.5 MB, 9.14 minutes)

No you're not seeing things, well I guess you are at that.  The OQO has captured the envy of geeks everywhere and this show is a video review of the ultra-portable device.  This is a first attempt at a video cast for jkOnTheRun Audio Edition and I give a good look at the OQO covering all the ports and features of the little PC.  Let me know how you like the video review, if enough people think it's worth continuing I will mix video casts with the podcasts in the future.

Special thanks to Dynamism for supplying the evaluation unit used in this review.

CORRECTION:  the OQO has a 30 GB drive and not 20 GB as stated in the review (I was looking at my free space).  :)

NOTE:  WMV files will not pick up in iTunes so you will have to manually download the file and watch it in Windows Media Player.  I am working on an iTunes compatible file.

Subscribe to jkOnTheRun Audio Edition here (RSS)

jkOnTheRun Audio Edition #7

Head over to the podcast web site to listen 5.8 MB, 8:16 minutes) or

Subscribe to jkOnTheRun Audio Edition here (RSS)

I am getting ready for the CES in Las Vegas next week and plan to blog and podcast from the show floor the entire time I am there.  This show takes a peek at the mobile gear I am taking with me to enable me to bring you the latest and greatest gadget news straight from the CES show floor.

Enjoy the show!

Intro music:  Rock City Crimewave by the Black Furies
Outro music:  Joyride by Mr. Nasty

Tablet users- meetup at CES?

Lora Heiny of What Is New is organizing a Tablet PC Gathering at CES so head over to her site and leave a comment if you are interested. Maybe Scoble will be there.

Sony to unveil the iPod of ebook readers at CES

BusinessWeek Online has gotten wind of a new ebook reader that Sony intends to unveil at CES in Las Vegas next week. Sony has indicated the new dedicated ebook reader is intended to do for ebook reading what the iPod has done for portable music playing. There are few details known about the new ebook reader other than the price will be between $300 and $500. Sony has produced the Librie in Japan for some time and while a very nice i-ink ebook reader the high price and horrible DRM has inhibited sales so we'll see if Sony has learned their lesson. They intend to set up an online ebook store which will feature thousands of books from major publishers at launch.

Referencing your PIM data on a HP tc1100 with the power off- QuickLook

Tablet PC owners who come from the world of PDAs often lament the ability to hit a button and reference the PIM data immediately. While Standby and Hibernation speed up the process of firing up the Tablet and getting to Outlook it is still far from immediate. Wouldn't it be great if you could hit a button and see your Outlook data in a second, even if your Tablet is powered off? If you are the owner of the HP tc1100 Tablet PC you can, and it's a totally free solution.

I was traipsing around the HP support site as I do from time to time to make sure my drivers and software are up-to-date and I ran across a program called QuickLook (QL). I read about the program and discovered it is a program that lets you view your PIM data without turning on the tc1100. All you need is the program, a tc1100, and a SD memory card for QuickLook to store its browser and compressed Outlook data. Once I saw this program I knew it would be a big boon to me in my mobile lifestyle and according to the HP web site it is only available via download. I checked all the DVDs that came with my tc1100 and this program is not on there, so you have to know about it and download from the web site. This program was originally bundled on the tc1000 but HP decided to unbundle it for the tc1100.

QuickLook is a small program that is powered by a Phoenix Technologies engine and is activated when the computer is either powered off or in hibernation mode by pressing the QuickLook button. What's the QuickLook button? The sunken button next to the power button that is used to change monitor layouts is also a QuickLook button when the power is off. When you press it the power LED turns red which means you are in QuickLook mode, if the program is installed and a properly initialized SD card is inserted.

QuickLook is installed as a plug-in for Outlook that will pull in Outlook data onto the SD card for use with QL. You can customize exactly what data you want available in QL through the button installed on the Outlook toolbar. QL is set by default to automatically pull Outlook data every time Outlook is started but you can change that to be manual sync only if you prefer. It only takes a few seconds for QL to pull the data and write it to the SD card. Once your data is in then the next time you are on the run and need to look up an address or phone number just hit the QL button and you get a landscape screen like the one below:

QL Today screen

From the Today screen you access the rest of functions like Calendar, Contacts and Tasks. Each blue entry on the screen is a link that will display the individual item in the yellow sidebar to the right. There are on-screen instructions for creating a personalized Today page in simple HTML.

QL Calendar

QL Contacts (intentionally blurry for privacy)

QL Tasks

Power button turns red when QL is running

I am getting a lot of use from QuickLook and really wish HP had bundled it or at least referred to the program with the included documentation. The program is no overhead since everything is on the SD card and is lightning fast and there is just something cool about looking at Outlook data with your computer off.