Amazon Grabs Audible

Amazon announced today that it is acquiring Audible.com, the best known digital audiobook company around. The resources of Amazon behind Audible? That’s great news for consumers. And for Amazon itself, what a way to build up digital content. As Brad Linder over on Download Squad points out, we’re seeing an Apple vs. Amazon arms race. … Read more

What’s the Deal with WiMAX?

If you haven’t been paying attention to the WiMAX ruckus of late, it’s worth taking a moment to get up to date on a few of the highlights. In a nutshell, WiMAX is a wireless technology designed to provide faster broadband speeds for mobile devices of all kinds. Lots of folks are referring to it … Read more

A Post-CES Jawbone Trade

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As I mentioned recently, the Jawbone folks ran a smart marketing campaign at CES: Trade in any Bluetooth headset for a Jawbone. Only problem was, I left my new Blueant Z9 (above left) at home because I haven’t been happy with it.

Fortunately, I worked out a post-show trade and I’ve been using the Jawbone for a few days (with my iPhone and MacBook Pro). I’m very pleased with the incoming and outgoing audio quality (and volume) and, despite the bulk, it’s comfortable. The Z9 handles multiple paired devices better, but clear conversation is more important to me – I’ve finally found a worthy successor to the rock solid Plantronics Voyager 510 (above right).

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Dr. DivX Saves The Day

Those who’ve been reading ZNF since my early TiVoToGo tutorial days should remember my fondness for the Dr. DivX video conversion utility. I’m not sure what led the DivX folks to kill the original app, but every now and then I find a use for the re-released open source version. At work, we’re hooking up … Read more

BitTorrent Gets More Industry Support… In Norway

Eirik Solheim alerted me that Norwegian Broadcasting is embracing BitTorrent: As one of many ways to reach people with our content we have decided to do an experiment and make one of our most popular television series available through BitTorrent. The files are MPEG4 H.264, 1024×576 25fps, 3 Mbit/s. No DRM. Spreading brand awareness online … Read more

Dave Dumps HD DVD

Yep, I’m putting my money where my mouth is – my HD DVD player is listed on ebay and my Netflix account has been updated (above). Toshiba may have purchased a $2.7 million Super Bowl ad spot, but that’s the last gasp of a dead format. In this next-gen optical disc battle, HD DVD “bought” … Read more

More Bad News For Moxi?

Word on the street: Digeo’s suffering ain’t over yet: Although I can’t get anything official from Charter, it’s well known that they are now pushing a Motorola DVR instead of the Moxi and that they (most likely) won’t be buying any more Moxis. While Charter isn’t the only MSO deploying Moxi, I do believe they’re … Read more

The Eye-Fi Has Arrived

The FedEx man just surprised me with my next review item… I’ve been pretty fired up about the Eye-Fi ($99) for awhile, so I’m looking forward to checking it out. As opposed to owning one of the very few camera models with built-in WiFi, this little guy is hardware-agnostic and should work with any camera … Read more