Google adds video uploads

Google’s constant barrage of new services continues. Now it’s home videos. Google is on one serious innovation roll. Google To Host Home-Video Uploads.

Gates stakes reputation on Tablet PC

My column on my interview with Bill Gates is in the Freep today. I was part of a group of five reporters who met him after he appeared at the University of Michigan. As Gates walked into the room he quickly spotted me and the Tablet PC I was using. The last time we met, back in the spring during a previous visit, he was so taken by my use of the Tablet that he mentioned it and me by name during a speech in Seattle to the effect that I “got it” when it came to tech.
“You’re my favorite reporter,” he said with a smile yesterday, nodding towards the new Motion LS800 Tablet PC I had in front of me. He was referring to my strong enthusiasm for the Tablet platform and, in particular, an absolutely amazing piece of Microsoft software called OneNote.
OneNote lets you take handwritten notes on a Tablet PC and simultanelously record an interview or event. Afterwards, when you want to hear what was said, tap the screen next to the totation or mark you made in your note taking and it plays back what was being recorded at that precise time.
Anyway, way down in my column is this quote from the interview:

Specifically, he touted the slow-selling Microsoft Tablet PC, which lets users take notes and enter data by writing on the screen much as they would with a paper pad. “Most people still don’t think the tablet will pay off, but I’m staking my reputation on it in a very big way.”

The quote is dead-on accurate, recorded by OneNote, after all. That’s about the strongest endorsement I’ve yet seen from Gates for the platform. So you’d think that with all those MBAs at Microsoft, that someone would have figured out by now how to market these amazing Tablet PCs and the awesome OneNote program. Every time people see me using it they are amazed. Microsoft needs to show how this combo can transform information processing by businesspeople, doctors, attorneys, students, journalists and anyone who regularly takes notes and needs to process, store and retreive information in an organized, easy-to-access way.
The new LS800 Motion Computing Tablet PC I was using is about the size of a paperback book. It runs a complete Windows XP operating system, has wi-fi and Bluetooth and can take an external keyboard. I’ll have a review on it in a few days.

Apple’s three new things

I confess, I’ve been preoccupied today from tuning in to the big Apple press conference. I was interviewing Bill Gates today in Ann Arbor and just finished filing that story - which runs in tomorrow’s Free Press.

But it turns out Steve Jobs’ “One More Thing” press event was actually three: the much anticipated video iPod, an updated iTunes with video downloads and a new iMac.
If you want to see to see all this stuff yourself, Apple has posted a QuickTime video of the entre 1:21 event.
There is some criticism from industry observers that the new iMac only has a video out function and can’t, unlike Media Center PCs, record video through a “video in” jack directly from a TV or cable box.
On the other hand, Apple’s new “Front Row” remote-control software is “Media Center PC done right,” according to other analysts.
As to the video iPod, with more than 2,000 music videos and TV shows that can be downloaded for $1.99 each, the raves are pouring in.
The best overall piece I’ve read today is this one from the Financial Times.

Wireless Net to envelop Michigan

Wireless Internet is a bomming cause these days. MIKE WENDLAND: Free wireless for everyone gets broad support in band of leaders.

My ID theft woes continue

I’ve written previously about how my mail was stolen by identity thieves who cashed those unsolicited convenience checks sent out by Chase.
My account was ripped off for some $10,000 in all.
I promised to let you know what happened as I try to sort it all out.
The September Chase statement came today for one of two credit card accounts that were vicitmized. Despite assurances from Chase when I reported the theft last month that the fraudulent charges would be removed…. you guessed it: They weren’t.
They even had the gall to bill me for late fees on the fraud.
I just finished calling Chase again and - after repeating the details three times and being passed back and forth between customer service agents for 19 minutes - was once again promised the bogus charges and the late charges would be taken off my bill.
Forgive me if I’m not very confident anymore that they will do what they say.
Maybe it’s because I instructed Chase last month not to send me any more of those blank checks. They promised I would’t.
But I did. Last week.
So not only is no one in law enforcment investigating this theft - I’ve reported it to local police, the Post Office and the Federal Trade Commission - no one at Chase seems very concerned, either.
No wonder identity theft is the nation’s fastest growing crime.

High hopes for Xbox

Looks like this machine is getting some serious buzz ahead of its November debut. Link: HIGH HOPES FOR XBOX: Gamers say they can hardly wait for the 360..

Don’t fall for phony Katrina pics

Have you seen the dramatic photos that purportedly show Hurricane Katrina coming in? They’re being mass e-mailed these days but when I looked at them, they seemed to be familiar. As the excellent urban legends site Snopes points out, these pictures have variously been described as Australian tornadoes and storms in Canada earlier this year. They actually are weather phenomenea from Kansas and Nebraska taken by famed strorm chaser Mike Hollingshead that date back to 2002. They have nothing to do with Katrina… or Rita… or the next hurricane. Just thought you should know. Urban Legends Reference Pages: Photo Gallery (Storm Clouds)

CB Radio is still out there

It’s deja vu out on the highway where CB Radio still rules the road. Only one thing has changed with this old technology that preceeded the cellphone and Internet boom: Don’t call anyone a “Good Buddy” anymore. The term now means that you’re a homosexual. CB never was politically correct. Here’s my Freep column today that reaquaints us with the still booming CB Radio subculture. MIKE WENDLAND: Tune in to CB Radio and you’ll find that it still rules on the road

Apple’s “One More Thing” newser

“One More Thing” is the famous saying of Apple CEO Steve Jobs at his news conferences when he saves the best for last. When he introduced the iPod nano and the ROKR iTunes Motorola phone last month, everybody was waiting for “One More Thing.”
That comes next Wednesday. Apple has invited a few of us tech reporters to California for the unveiling of what is pretty much universally expected to be a video iPod. The invitation is cryptic, saying only: “One More Thing.”
But is the video iPod really that thing?
The best analysis I’ve read of all this Jobsonian hype comes from Dave Gilliam and Michael Greeson, who work for an outfit called the Diffusion Group. Read it here.

Tech times are changing fast

Google partners with Sun to go head to head against Microsoft as it plans to wi-fi San Fran and maybe the world… eBay buys Skype as VoIP gains serious traction. These are dizzying days as technology speeds forward. What does it all mean? I muse in today’s Freep column. MIKE WENDLAND: Wireless Net, telephone service fuel tech battle

Philly to be citywide wi-fi hot spot

First it was all of Oakland County (900 square miles in suburban Detroit), then Washtrenaw County, MI (Ann Arbor) to the west. Then San Francisco. Now Philly commits to a wi-fi citywide plan. This trend has legs. Philadelphia to become City of Brotherly Wi-Fi

News media is now news facilitator

So says a top BBC official, noting “We don’t own the news any more. This is a fundamental realignment of the relationship between large media companies and the public.” He’s talking about blogs, cell phone video and photos and e-mailed reports from citizens. Execs ponder role of user-generated news.

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