Will mobile carriers block place-shifting?

Place shifting is the process of using technology such as the Slingbox from Sling Media to push the TV shows from your home to mobile devices anywhere in the world. The only requirement needed to place shift your video content is some video gear like the Slingbox, a high-speed connection to the internet, and a mobile client capable of receiving and playing the video. Dave Ciccone, Kevin Tofel, and I (MobileTechRoundup) have discussed the upcoming Windows Mobile client from Sling Media that provides the ability to receive and view videos sent from a Slingbox to any device running the Sling client. Imagine being able to watch the TV in your family room back home on your Pocket PC device in your hotel room around the world. It is easy to see why place shifting is getting a lot of attention.

An article on Forbes looks at the middle requirement I mentioned above for place shifting and details the problems that Sling Media is having partnering with mobile carriers. It seems the big carriers, Verizon, Vodafone, and Cingular/ Sprint, have yet to agree to allow Sling's content to be carried over their networks. All of the major carriers are offering (or soon to offer) their own premium video casting services and they see the Slingbox as a direct competitor to those offerings. It will be interesting to see if there is fallout from their existing customers if they actively start blocking their customer's Slingbox content on their networks. This could get very nasty if all involved are not careful.

Vista speech recognition video

CJHenley has posted a very nice video screencast of the speech recognition capabilities integrated into Microsoft Vista. Microsoft has finally put speech where it belongs, right into the core of the operating system and this 14 minute video shows how easy it is to set up and use the speech functions. Tablet PC users who are familiar with the speech recognition capabilities included in the Tablet Edition of XP will recognize most of the capabilities demonstrated under Vista, as they are similar to the existing speech features. I have been a long-time supporter of using speech recognition on a Tablet PC and I am working on a screencast that demonstrates the speech functions on a Tablet PC running XP that should be posted in the next couple of days. Speech is already here and looking even better with Vista.

MobileTechRoundup Podcast #29

CLICK HERE to go to the MoTR site and listen directly.
MoTR 29 is 37:18 minutes long and is a 25.6 MB file in MP3 format. to go to the MoTR site

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

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

TOPICS:
Roundtable on Microsoft’s Origami Project beginning to unfold as a concept with a video. We provide our thoughts on the concept and the future.
Update on Kevin’s phone: the XV6700 is ahead of the Palm Treo 700w by four to one! There’s still a short time to vote and pick his next phone!
Listener e-mail from Brian Dow. He’s looking for some advice on a WM 5.0 phone as a college student, so of course we provide more advice than he bargained for. Oh…and Brian Dow Rules!!!!!
Dave has his Slingbox, we all use Orb and now SageTV adds a placeshifting beta client.
Freeware of the day is actually an awesome Firefox extension called: SessionSaver. This extension will reopen all of your tabs if Firefox closes or you lose power. Thanks to Perry for the tip!

If you’ve got an audio comment for the show, shoot an MP3 or WMA file to our e-mail account.

We’re actively seeking additional sponsors, so if you’re a mobile hardware, software or services company, give us a shout!
Dave is giving away an HP IPAQ rx3700 and it’s so simple to enter. Get all of the details and get your entry in soon!

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!

Philips Iliad ebook reader in retail outlets in April

The interesting ebook reader Iliad from Philips I mentioned a while back should hit retail stores in April. The Iliad has an XGA screen (1024x768) and utilizes a stylus for writing notes on the screen. The device can handle CF and SD cards and can read material in PDF XHTML, TXT, and MP3 formats.

(via ubergizmo)

Help me pimp my ITtoolbox blog- OnTheRun

A few days ago I mentioned a contest that ITtoolbox is running to recognize their top blogs in several categories. The nomination period is closed and I am honored to report that my OnTheRun blog at ITtoolbox has been nominated for three potential awards: Best Blog, Best New Blog, and Best Blog Entry. The blog entry nominated is an article that describes how to copy the music library on an iPod onto a new computer. I would appreciate votes from anyone who visits Ittoolbox and likes my blog. You can only vote once and they have a really simple point and click voting page set up. Full information can be found here. Thanks to everyone who nominated OnTheRun and to those who spread the word about the contest.

jkOnTheRun Audio Edition #12- InkGestures PenCast

 

Watch jkOnTheRun Audio Edition #12 here (WMV format, 1024x768, 19.5 MB, 14 minutes)

Join me for a day in the life of a copy editor as he edits a document using the newly released InkGestures program from Jumping Minds. The video was recorded totally onscreen using Camtasia Studio and I hope you enjoy it.

Subscribe to jkOnTheRun Audio Edition here (RSS)

Review of the Justice Visions Portable Scanner

Barry Brahier of hughsung.com has published a review of an innovative scanning solution that uses a camera to capture the images. The Justice Visions Portable Scanner is a camera mounted on a foldable arm that fits in a small bag for transport. The documents (or books) to be scanned are placed on any flat surface to which the scanner is attached and the scanner, which is essentially a copy stand, takes high resolution images. To get all the lowdown on this scanner check out the review.

OnTheRun with Tablet PCs #14- we're back!

Head over to the podcast web site to listen directly (12.9 MB, 37 minutes) or

Subscribe to the show with this link  (RSS)

Marc Orchant and James Kendrick are back with a look at the past couple of week's big news in the Tabletscape.  This show we welcome GottaBeMobile to the Inkosphere and talk about some cool Tablet apps- TEO 3 (see screens below) and InkGestures.  The Toshiba M400 is calling James and MicroCenter now has the Lenovo ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC in their flyers.

Other links from the show:

• GottaBeMobile
• MicroCenter
• Tablet Enhancements for Outlook
• InkGestures
• Toshiba M400
• Lenovo ThinkPad X41

   

Enjoy the show and let us know what you think.

Special thanks to Tiedye Keith for the great song "Vulnerable" with vocals by Tony Lindsay of Santana.

This week on jkOnTheRun

Top Stories:

• GottaBeMobile launches!
• Origami video?
• InkGestures 1.1 released
• Intel planning ultra-mobile PCs
• Tablet video wins award
• ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC now at MicroCenter
• iPod ready stories for kids
• Freeware of the Moment- the PocketMod
• Toshiba M400 Tablet PC reviewed in the wild
• Mobility Today gets a MacBook Pro
• BusinessWeek says digital books about to take off
• Win a MacBook Pro or iPod- from Microsoft
• Company selling Mac Tablets on eBay
• Mozilla releases new version of Minimo
• YapperMouse- the mouse that talks
• Mobile security will be a hot topic this year
• What makes the Tablet PC special?
• Living with push email on Windows Mobile

Podcasts:

• MobileTechRoundup Podcast #28- don't miss this one!
• MobileTechRoundup Podcast #27 is ready for you

GottaBeMobile launches!

Tablet PC MVPs Rob Bushway and Dennis Rice have launched a great new web site- GottaBeMobile. They already have a lot of good information on the site including some nice video reviews so add them to your feed reader before you forget!