rob’s blog

This music video comes from Pete Miser, founding member of the Five Fingers of Funk. Pete hails from Portland, Oregon and his band had a following in the PDX area back when I was in high school.

Apparently, Pete was actually asked to fly to LA for an iPhone commercial and was inspired to create his own. He wrote and recorded the song and then got some help from Merritt Duff and Arrow Kruse putting it together.

With the video remixing you might think it is another parody, but if you listen to his words you’ll come away seeing unique satire. Either way, I’m now officially sold on the iPhone and now intend to liquidate my Blackberry Curve. Continue Reading »

Counting page views as a measurement tool for traffic ranking of websites is out. Average visit length is in. Want a metric? According to Google Analytics, my Dave Matthews Band fan site, Weekly Davespeak had 8,806 visits between July 1st and July 8th. Each visitor averaged six minutes and 27 seconds drifting from one page to the next. Running off that average, the human race spent thirty-nine and a half days reading about Dave Matthews Band on my site this week. I wish I had a site about recycling that was that popular. (via Micropersuasion)

Cloverfield AKA The Parasite AKA 1-18-08 had its teaser trailer break on the web today. You need to check this out, it looks awesome. The movie comes from Paramount pictures and Lost director JJ Abrams “shrouded in secrecy” hoping for free hype no-doubt. It is a disaster film of some kind supposedly shot through home video cameras. (via Quicktime)

Research In Motion’s co-CEO Jim Balsillie has been clowning on AT&T for giving away the farm with the iPhone. He says that AT&T is helping turn carriers into a commodity rather than a brand. Right now carriers create exclusive deals with phone companies to pull customers for the most popular types. There is some irony in Balsillie’s comments coming now–RIM just released its newest greatest phone, the Blackberry Curve 8300 under an exclusive contract with AT&T. (via BlackBerry Cool)

So I’m back from a great trip to Vegas. I had a great time and met some awesome people. That’s for a different post though. I want to debrief on the Sony Mylo. The verdict is that I am going to return it. Here’s why:

Minor annoyances:

1. The screen is too small to browse the web easily. Even if you use the single column or zoomed out display it is annoying. The device lets you scroll around a web page by hitting the Function key twice (locking it) then using the arrow keys. Alternatively, you can just use the arrow keys which jumps your cursor and the view focus from one link to the next available link in that direction. I found that since links aren’t always in a direct line, I needed to constantly cycle between the function’d movement and non-functioned so I could view the page and then select link I wanted.
2. Every time I try to connect a wi-fi network it asks if I want to register it. Registering essentially puts a given wireless zone in your “favorites.” The thing is that wi-fi clouds are very transient, the device should have an option to save a particular wi-fi network but not offer every single time. I don’t need to be asked if I want to save every network I come across, the answer is almost always no.

Continue Reading »

I’m taking the Sony Mylo for a test spin this weekend in Las Vegas, NV for reporting on the two Dave Matthews Band shows going on out there. Last year I reported from Bonnaroo using the T-Mobile MDA, but ultimately returned it due to the costly service contract for data over the cellular network.

I picked the Mylo up from Fry’s Electronics, if I keep it the cost will be ~$282 after the rebate. After playing around with it, I’d say it is worth probably actually worth around $150 to me.

The Mylo does not have access to universal connectivity over a 2.5g or 3g network like so many wireless PDA’s, but it does connect to wi-fi. Continue Reading »