MikeBenton.org

Everyone cheer for Mike! Hip Hip Hooray!

If you are wondering what all the fuss is about, my first review has been posted on PocketNow.com. Writing a full review on a piece of software had a learning curve to it. When I first started the review I took screenshots of every single screen and menu. I also recorded a voice walk through of the software. Mostly to become familiar with the inner workings of it. My first draft was tediously boring compared to the posted one. I put the walk through to the pictures basically. Although there are a few that might find it helpful, the reality is that it would take 30 – 1 hr to read the whole thing if I continued at that pace. Brandon, the Editor-In-Chief, played a great role in mentoring towards a great review. Thanks Brandon. It was a fun process and a great opportunity and I am anxious for the next.

Oh, if you want to read the review, you can find it here at PocketNow.com

Orb 2.0 installs on your home pc and indexes your music, video files, documents and TV tuner card. You can access all your content via a web interface. You can one file or a whole playlist. Search for that document you need and record TV shows. The interface works on any device with a webbrowser and internet connection. Since most of these devices (your phone) can also play music files you can stream the music on your home computer to wherever you are.

 This really beats needing a larger memory card to store more music. This even beats trying to synchronize your MP3 player with your desktop and then worrying about it being lost, broken or even stolen. If you are like me you probably have a couple movies on your computer, these are accessible as well.

 The whole program from install to use is seamless. There is a built in speed test when you access your content away from home. This tells your home pc how much quality the video or audio should be set to. Obviously, the greater network speed means greater quality. If you use Windows Media Player and are an URGE subscriber, any of the downloaded music requiring DRM licensing still work through Orb!

I tested this on my Pocket PC with my GPRS connection and it worked fine, the video size was a bit smaller but the stream worked great. When I connected to a Wifi connection the video was flawless. By the way, it works great on Vista.

In addition to media access the interface is Web 2.0 style. You can add Google Gadgets, RSS feeds and more to personalize your MyCast page on Orb. After using the web interface a few times you might even feel inclined to set it as your homepage. Check it here. It’s Free!!!

Innovation and progress is about to make more leaps and bounds as the new startup iBridge is linking Universities together to collaborate and share their research. I’m sure similar solutions exist but a quick visit to the website will show you how easy to use and important this development is. This article talked about it and this is iBridgenetwork.org

I am actually jealous that Lucretius actually got to manhandle this beauty with no supervision. Named aptly the HTC Athena is about to make some waves by filling in the UMPC niche perfectly. If you are a road warrior you definitely need to check this device out. It is EVERYTHING I want right now in a mobile device. For those of you who actually think far enough ahead about using it as a phone, just use a Bluetooth earpiece and you’ll be fine.

So what is this device exactly? Click the picture for the full review…

(Image taken from site it is linked to, I’m not really sure what to call the site, Lucretius’s Blog on Moblog?)

Slashdot reports that NewScientist teamed up with Audi and is offering one lucky winner a chance to be the 5^th Space tourist. All you have to do is write up to 250 words about what you think is the World’s best patented invention and why. Simple right? Yeah it is that easy. Be prepared though. 250 words is NOT a lot of room for explanations, so be frugal with your words. This post is 111 words.

To help you out I am giving you the think to Google Patent search and the US Patent and Trademark Office so you can begin your research.

Well not as in ‘walking on water’ but it looks like a spider from a distance.

From Gizmag

This is not an ad

From the slashdot article, companies are gradually making a move towards ‘dumb’ terminals also called thin clients. For business whose computers do not need a lot of processing power this is a smart move for many reasons. The original article gives many reasons why a switch may be in your best interests. Some of them being physical security, if the server running all the processes and storing ALL the information is locked away and secure, the desktop terminal can be obliterated without any loss of data. Data security is protected.

I see this trend eventually picking up faster in homes. You media centers and desktops, most home computer users do not require tons of processing power but do enjoy having access to their music, video, pictures, and the internet when and where they want it. Laptops with wireless can be expensive and can suffer physical damage if carried around open too much. If you just downloaded a new movie on your desktop but want to watch it on the home theater system there are solutions. Or let us say you just looked up a recipe upstairs but the kitchen is downstairs, wouldn’t it be handy to have a display down there as well.

I foresee $200 touch screen thin clients (with built in speakers and smart buttons for on screen keyboard, calculator, swivel webcam, microphone, etc) being marketed in the next 5 years to consumers, these would be smart in the sense that they can tie in via wireless or wire home networks to the main computer without additional hardware and ‘maybe’ some software for the host computer. These can be put virtually anywhere; the kitchen, the bathroom (to catch up on news), the garage, and rechargeable mobile tablets for the livingroom and so on.

Imagine, you just paid 2-8 grand for a high performance desktop but you do not want to be limited as to where you can use it. Would you mind spending another $350 for a rechargeable thin client tablet that ties into it? Come on engineers is this REALLY that hard to design? When you get around to designing it, design the charging station to be a 2 in 1 table top/wall mounted solution.