Filed under: Feature | Tags: Agriculture, GPS, Home, iPhone, New York, New York City, Soybean, Walt Whitman
COMBINE DRIVING: TECHNOLOGY GETS COUNTRY
Looks like something you would see out of a book on Walt Whitman no? I took this picture over the weekend while visiting my grandfather in the country wilds of Cadiz, KY. Apart from playing central operations for the Trigg County Ham Festival earlier in October, Cadiz is also home to a pretty substantial farming community. My family owns corn, soybean, and dark tobacco fields. As a girl who sometimes likes to get her hands dirty, I thought I would take a trip out to the soy bean farm. Above is the shot taken from my 2 mega pixel iPhone.
I decided to get a bit more hands on and take a couple trips around the field on this piece of equipment above called a combine, a harvester used to pick the soy beans. The machine separates the bean from the pod filling the tank. Not only did I feel like a bit of a bad ass, I found the way this thing worked to be pretty damn remarkable.
Above is a shot from inside the cab of the combine looking down on the header picking soy beans as we put-putted along. The header is loaded with a reciprocating knife which moves back and forth to de-pod the soybeans in creepy precision. The machine senses the distance from the ground and consistently moves the header up and down to account for any changes in the field. Some of these combines are loaded with GPS, key to making any piece of technology that much better. Apparently, my cousin Bob first outlines the field with the GPS-loaded combine. The machine then literally turns itself as it moves about the field. And here I thought the driverless SUV from CES was pretty kick-ass.
Now, I know farming may not be so excitement central for us urban types. But my trip to farm country reminded me that technology isn’t segregated for usage by city-dwellers. It finds itself in the most remote places. In fact, the town of Cadiz also has free wireless. Cadiz 1. NYC 0. To be fair, at least New York isn’t located in a ‘dry county.’ Life doesn’t really seem worth living without a Grey Goose martini served up with a double tooth pick of olives. Sigh. . .
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Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Gary Cole, Hollywood Reporter, Home Box Office, Jeremy Piven, NBC Universal, Starz Media, Television, Turner Broadcasting System
HBO’s sixth season of Entourage will add Gary Cole as a regular cast member, per THR. Cole will portray a Hollywood agent named Andrew Klein who is an old friend of Ari’s played by Jeremy Piven. Fans of the comedy will meet Cole’s character this season in three episodes airing next month. Entourage is currently at the mid-point of its fifth season and will begin production for the new season early in 2009. (Cynopsis 10/27)
Game 3 of Fox’s World Series took a dip in the ratings, most likely as a result of the lengthy rain delay which pushed the full out start of the game to after 10p, and ending close to 2am. 9.8 million tuned in to watch the game, according to preliminary numbers – down from the average of 13+ million viewers for games #1 and #2. (Cynopsis 10/27)
NBC Universal has begun touting the power of its two female-focused cable networks, Bravo and Oxygen. Ratings among 18- to 49-year-old women have increased for both nets since NBCU acquired Oxygen about a year ago, and recent data from Nielsen N Power show that the networks’core audience is more likely than not to have earned a college degree and have a household income of $100,000 or more. Mediaweek (10/27)
Starz has approved 13 one-hour episodes of “Spartacus,” an original take on the well-known story of the slave-turned-gladiator-turned-revolt leader. The series, expected to debut next summer, will be Starz’s second original series, following “Crash,” and the production debut for Starz Media, the network’s in-house development team. The Hollywood Reporter (10/27)
This week is tipoff time for a new NBA season and, with it, the start of a new business relationship for the league with Turner Broadcasting. Under a partnership agreement inked earlier this year, Turner will oversee the day-to-day programming and marketing activities of the league-owned network. Variety (10/24) , TVWeek.com (10/26)
Multitasking women who must hold down jobs and take care of their families increasingly are turning to video on demand as a way to fit entertainment into their busy lives, according to Lori Conkling, executive vice president of distribution for Lifetime. “[Our research shows that] the top reason why women say they watch VOD is because they need to watch TV when it is convenient and fits into their schedule.” Multichannel News (10/25)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Canada, HearWhere, Mac, Macintosh, Microsoft, Microsoft Silverlight, Netflix, Pete Field
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Netflix is putting Microsoft’s Silverlight video playback system to good use by offering “Watch Instantly” functionality under OS X “by the end of the year.” In other words, if you have a Mac, you will finally have the ability to watch movies instantly on Netflix, functionality currently only available to PC-owners. (http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/10/26/macs-getting-netflix-watch-instantly-with-silverlight 10/26)
SlingMedia’s
class=”snap_preview_icon”> ambitious new video portal, Sling.com class=”snap_preview_icon”>, is set to launch on November 10. Sling.com enables users to both watch online video served up in channels but also watch video from a Sling box as well. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/26/slingcom-to-launch-on-november-10 10/26)
Today Amazon has launched a new storefront called WindowShop, which presents some of the store’s newest and most popular movies, books, and video games in a way that makes browsing the online megastore actually fun. Each product is displayed as a tile on a large grid, which users can pan across until they find something they’re interested in. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/27/amazons-windowshop-offers-a-sleek-interface-for-the-online-megastore 10/27)
Use cursor keys to navigate? Blasphemy!! Well, actually no. Wait, I love this. I wish it was a bit faster but overall this sort of navigation wins when I’m window shopping rather than searching for a specific title.
Bootstrapped by Pete Field and based out of Whistler, B.C., Canada, HearWhere is a search engine for live music which was launched in May 2008 but has managed to stay largely under the radar. The live-performance search engine claims to list over one million music shows. The service tells you who is playing nearby, but also plays the associated music, and subsequently links to the artist’s MySpace page. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/27/hearwhere-lets-you-discover-live-music-in-your-neighborhood 10/27)
I dig. I dig primarily because the site knew I was in Nashville, TN and loaded results in this area straight away without me typing a single thing. I have a dream. . .that all web sites will one day do all of my thinking for me. And yes, I just channeled Martin Luther King Jr. for that sentiment.
NBC was #1 for the second straight week among Hitwise‘s ad supported broadcast network website rankings. NBC’s Heroes was the top-ranked TV show website while The Office jumped to the #2 spot from #6. Comedy Central’s South Park was the #1 ranked cable TV show website for the second straight week. The election also continues to play a huge role among adult-oriented cable TV sites. The network’s The Daily Show site jumped to the #2 ranking from #4. Meanwhile three Fox News sites made the top 10: Hannity & Homes, Hannity’s America and O’Reilly Factor. (Cynopsis 10/27)
Top Visited US Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Sites (Week ending Oct. 18 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 NBC www.nbc.com 29.64%
2 ABC www.abc.com 26.16%
3 CBS www.cbs.com 20.98%
4 FOX* www.fox.com 14.25%
5 The CW www.cwtv.com 7.86%
6 MNTV www.mynetworktv.com 1.10%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise, *includes traffic aggregated from stand alone websites americanidol.com, amw.com, familyguy.com, thelot.com and thesimpsons.com.
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Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: Android, Apple, Cox Communications, Google, Google Earth, GPS, iPhone, Sprint Nextel
Google has released a custom Google Earth application for the iPhone, and it’s stunning. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/27/google-earth-comes-to-the-iphone-and-its-awesome 10/27)
What makes a great Android app? One that melds the virtual world with the real world in a fun or informative way. One app that does that in an impressive fashion is called JOYity and it comes from Zelfi, a German mobile gaming startup. JOYity uses the GPS in the Android phone to let you play games and go on adventures based on your location in the real world. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/27/the-joy-of-joyity-bringing-massive-multiplayer-trans-reality-games-to-android-phones 10/27)
Qik, a startup that allows you to stream live video to the web directly from your phone, has launched support for RIM’s incredibly popular Blackberry platform. The software is currently available in an alpha state (so don’t be surprised if you encounter bugs), and includes support for the Blackberry Bold and Pearl (other phones, like the Flip and Curve, will be available in a later release that the company expects soon). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/26/qik-finally-brings-its-live-video-streaming-to-blackberry 10/26)
Cox Communications today is expected to detail its strategy for building a wireless-phone network that will cover residents in its cable TV footprint, according to this article. The network, expected to be operational sometime next year, would rely on Sprint Nextel for roaming coverage beyond those areas. Los Angeles Times/The Associated Press (10/27)
An increasing number of mobile workers are finding they don’t need to cart around heavy laptop computers all of the time because smartphones are taking on many of the applications they need, such as spreadsheets, word processing and making presentations. While no one is predicting that mobile phones will replace laptops, industry observers point to the emergence of high-speed wireless Internet connections, larger screens with touch interfaces and better keyboards — as well as more robust software — as factors in lightening workers’loads. The Wall Street Journal (10/27)
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Filed under: GAMING | Tags: Microsoft, Nintendo, Reggie Fils-Aime, Sony, Video game, Wall Street Journal, Wii, Wii Fit
Nintendo will increase shipments of its Wii Fit game because only three in 10 stores can keep the popular game in stock, according to Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo of America. In an interview, Fils-Aime noted that the Wii Fit had brought in working women, a new market for video games, and said September figures showed the economic crisis had had no effect on sales for either the Wii or DS consoles. Los Angeles Times 10/27
Online gaming communities are providing the framework for the development of community-networking features for the television set, according to this article. Microsoft‘s Xbox Live already lets gamers talk to one another, and Sony is prepping its virtual-networking service for PlayStation. The Wall Street Journal (10/27)
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Amazon, AmazonKindle, Blu-ray Disc, Digital Theater System, Dolby TrueHD, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Windows
TECHNOLOGY
Amazon Kindle is either Oprah’s favorite gadget or Amazon sent over the largest fruit basket looking for the ultimate endorsement. Either way, by using OPRAHWINFREY as a coupon code, her glorious name nets you $50 off the e-books standard $359 price. (http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/10/24/crunchdeals-oprah-loves-the-kindle-so-heres-50-bucks-off 10/24)
ZeeVee, which recently launched the ZvBox to grab high- and standard-definition video off the Internet so it can be played back on TV screens, is developing a graphical user interface system that is more intuitive for users. Additionally, the company is working on a rack-mountable version of the ZvBox that features better connectivity and cooling. CEPro.com (10/24)
Computer makers will begin marketing a line of quick-booting machines in the next few months, aimed at easing consumer frustration of waiting several minutes for PCs to start. Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Lenovo will ship computers that will provide access to e-mail and the Internet within 30 seconds, and Microsoft has pledged to reduce boot time drastically in its next version of Windows. The New York Times (10/25)
Actually, this technology already exists. It’s called a Mac. I’m a daily PC-user and Mac-user and I approve of this message.
Flat-panel TV manufacturers are “cautiously optimistic” that strong sales in the first half of the year will continue through the holiday season. Two reasons for hope, despite the dire economic news, are that manufacturers have been rolling out more discounted models lately and the country’s transition next February to all-digital TV signals. “In general LCD sales have been very good through the year. Although there have been negative macro-economic forces since Q1, the flat-panel sector has withstood the pressure very well,” said Jonas Tanenbaum, Samsung visual display products group LCD products marketing vice president. TWICE (10/27)
Denon has introduced a new Blu-ray disc player that the company says is state-of-the-art for the eyes and the ears. According to this report, the DVD-3800BD is the first product to use the 10-bit Silicon Optix Realta chipset with an HDMI connection, and the device features Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoders for optimum sound. Pocket-lint.co.uk (10/24)
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