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Philips To Launch M100 Internet Security Camera

For someone who doesn’t have a college aged mistress or nanny to monitor, I seem to have an unnatural preoccupation with Internet-connected security cameras. Which may be why I zeroed in on the upcoming Philips M100 when trawling the FCC database today. The M100 looks more Vue or DropCam than Logitech Alert or Archerfish in … Read more

TWC Expands Live Online Streaming Options

As TiVo owners, we’re not Time Warner Cable’s biggest fans. However, regular reader Josh R. asked that we set aside any animosity to ensure TWC is acknowledged for pushing the boundaries of online streaming. They were the first major cable provider to provide live television via their iPad app and have recently made a similar experience available … Read more

Roku Virtual Remote Headed To Android Market

After trailing third party developers, Roku’s finally responded with a Android virtual remote of their own. Now available in the Market, the Roku app is both visually and functionally similar to its iPhone predecessor. Turn your Android device into a control center for your Roku streaming player. Launch your Roku channels, navigate your Roku player, … Read more

Samsung Galaxy Beam, A Phone Without A Market

The Samsung Galaxy Beam is one of the more interesting looking smartphones announced at Mobile World Congress this week. As opposed to being just another Android handset, this Galaxy variant features a pico projector. And, as demonstrated above by PocketLint, the Beam… beams presumably anything displayed on the phone onto a wall, table, ceiling, or … Read more

Nokia Lumia 900 Launch Timing & Pricing

While running errands at the mall, I swung by the relatively new Microsoft Store. And, as you can see from the pic above, they’ve done a nice job duplicating Apple’s iconic store design… with the addition dark woodgrain surfaces (bad) and rich projection displays (good). Not to mention red store employee t-shirts replace Apple’s blue. … Read more

Waze for Android Goes 3.0 – New UI & Social Features

Navigation app Waze announced a new software release for Android today with updates to the overall UI, and new social network integrations. If you’re a Waze follower, you know the platform is based largely on user-generated data, and that the result is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of both features and performance. However, Waze has a lot going for it, and the company is clearly showing a commitment to Android now in addition to iOS.

First the good stuff in the 3.0 release. Waze has added a new menu icon for easy access to navigation functions, user reports, settings and more. The UI is clean and mostly user-friendly, letting you wander maps by touch and scan traffic conditions with the help of little symbols indicating driver speeds, hazards, police patrols and more. In its previous iteration, Waze apparently included a number of pop-ups and unnecessary clutter. That’s not the case now. Waze has also integrated with Foursquare in the latest update, so if you’re the check-in type, you can link directly to your Foursquare account in addition to Facebook and Twitter. The company says it’s integrated with Yelp as well, but for the life of me I couldn’t find Yelp options listed under any menu or sub-menu. Perhaps Yelp data will start showing up as users submit relevant links?

On the not so good front, the routing on Waze makes me distinctly nervous.

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Prediction: More Love & Money for Wired Web

It’s all about wireless. We’ve got 4G nearly everywhere, mobile broadband in cars, and Wi-Fi hotspots out the wazoo. The cable companies are in bed with Verizon to get their wireless share, and Verizon is sucking up spectrum like a giant Bissell vacuum cleaner. Who needs that wired stuff after all?

It’s a wireless fun fest today, but I predict within 18 months (that’s a totally arbitrary guess- could be a year, could be two years) that the love affair with wireless will have entered a new and cynical phase. Not only that, but we’ll see renewed interest in wired broadband investments. Here’s why.

1. Data caps on mobile broadband are only going to get worse. Today I keep wi-fi off on my 4G phone because mobile broadband almost always performs better than whatever public wi-fi hotspot I find myself in. However, I’m grandfathered in on an unlimited data plan. When that unlimited deal goes away, my 4G access is going to be a lot less useful.

2. Wi-Fi hotspots kinda stink. By and large this is true, and as we expect to be able to do more online, the quality of public wi-fi is going to become more and more of an issue. At the same time, there’s going to be a bigger strain on these hotspots as more people try to offload from their mobile broadband connections.

3. More cool broadband stuff is coming. Between more video coming online and experiments with 1Gbps connections, we’re going to continue to have more incentive to use more data. For a quality experience, we’ll resort to the tried-and-true broadband connections we can get at home and work. Which means, those home and work connections are once again going to grow in importance.

There’s a lot of investment going on in consumer wireless broadband today, but the pendulum should swing back the other way once some of the inevitable wireless disillusionment takes hold.

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Inrix Travels from Smartphone to In-Car GPS

Ford got a lot of buzz at CES last week with new updates to its SYNC platform, but the most interesting announcement to me was word of an update to the SYNC Destinations app. Users can now enter a destination on the iPhone (or Android or Blackberry device later this quarter) and push it directly … Read more