brainmower

Boxee vs Hulu – The viewers lose

In a recent blog post Hulu stated their content providers requested they "turn off access to our content via the Boxee product, and we are respecting their wishes". Hulu is pulling their support for Boxee effective 02-20-2009. Removing Hulu integration with Boxee is a lose/lose idea for Hulu, Boxee, Content Providers and Users.  Let's break it down. Content Providers: The content providers want eyeballs because eyeballs mean revenue. To gain those eyeballs content providers want NEED to e...

Dell Mini9 and the Cloud

My Dell mini9 arrived.  The mini9 is Dell's entry into the netbook market. I have been quite skeptical of the cloud and the value of a netbook, but I'm at the airport on free WIFI and I've been accessing everything I need from my web browser. Webmail, my companies CRM, Facebook, Twitter...all from a 2lb, $400 laptop. I feel the mini9, except for a few keyboard oddities and a slightly dim screen, was a great purchase. If I'm not on the Internet, computers have little value to me. Everythin...

Gmail, or how the cloud stopped my email

Gmail was down today for about an hour. While this may not seem like a big deal for some, according to this link on CNET the outage also affected business customers who use Gmail. Other web based services have gone up and down (ahem, Twitter), but the fallout from Gmail being offline, especially since it affected business clients, will be interesting. Cloud Computing just took it's first black eye. Welcome to the fight.

The Cherrypal

I read an interesting article about the Cherrypal, a 2 watt green "Cloud Computer". I wrote about my opinion of Cloud Computing in a previous post. Personally, I think the Cherrypal is overpriced. The limitations of this device don't justify $250. Once these devices are under $100 and the applications available in the cloud mature I think the Cherrypal will have a market. Until then, I'm intrigued but not impressed.

I got a Chumby

What's a Chumby?  A Chumby looks like an alarm clock, but it's really a small internet connected computer with content you select and customize online. It can stream music, provide stock quotes and even check your Inbox. Here's my virtual Chumby with the channels I use....most of the channels refresh every 30 seconds. Edit: I just realized the virtual chumby is also interactive. You can click on the videos and they will play. Very cool.

Remembering Productopia

There used to be a website called Productopia.com  Productopia would review products, like coffee makers for example, and rate their top three picks (according to budget). I loved the site and the convenience.  It was easy to navigate and user friendly. If I was in the market for a coffee maker (or whatever) I could go to this site and have three solid choices. A few years ago Productopia was bought by MySimon.  Presently www.productopia.com is a redirect to the hideous Consumer Search. I ...