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Monday, October 11, 2004 |
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Google With Your Phone. I picked this up on Leo Laporte's Podcast this morning. Google has launched a text message-based service that enables you to search from your cellphone. According to phonescoop "The service includes business and residential phone and address listings, product pricing, and word definitions. Other features include limited Google web search results, a natural-language calculator and unit converter tool, and zip- and area-code lookups". Just send your query to 46645 (GOOGL). More information is available directly from Google. Better yet, send the word 'help' to 46645 on your SMS-enabled cellphone. 5:38:24 PM 
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Podcasting. Now this is interesting - using RSS to subscribe to MP3-based radio shows that show up on my iPod automatically. It's like being able to tune into a favorite radio program when I want to, as opposed to when it is broadcast. I'm already subscribing to, and enjoying, a number of Podcasts. Adam Curry, who came up with the idea and created the first iPodder subscription software, is maintaining a directory of known Podcasts.
I wish there was a way to add some kind of content rating to these podcasts. I haven't run into anything downright rank, but some podcasters routinely descend into the use of gratuitous obscenities.
I wish iPodder utilities would automatically download Adam's directory. This should be easy since the directory is an OPML file. 5:30:09 PM
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iPod FM Trasmitters (or, Back to Tape). Shortly after the May arrival of my iPod Mini I ran out to BestBuy to pick up an FM transmitter. My first choice was Monster's iCarPlay Wireless FM Transmitter. The iCarPlay comes with just eight pre-programmed frequencies. None of these presets were ideal in the Chicago area. I just couldn't find many bands that were clear of traffic. In making the 15 mile commute to work I had to switch frequencies at least once to avoid a rush of static. My next choice was Griffin's iTrip mini. This device allowed me to specify any frequency for broadcasting, but, given the crowded Chicago market, this didn't help much. I was still getting a lot of static over my music, podcasts, etc. At the moment I'm back to using a cassette adapter for playing my iPod in the car. It seems kind of old and clunky. There is something almost obscene about a wire snaking out of the tape deck and connecting to my iPod. On the other hand, it does provide reasonably decent sound. 5:06:19 PM
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Blogs in Business. I just received an invitation to "Join KMPro Chicago in a panel discussion of "Blogs in Business" on Tuesday, October 12th , 5:00 PM at Allstate Insurance Company's South Plaza, G Auditorium". This is cool. Robert Scoble, Jim McGee, Ian Kennedy, and Jon Powell will be on the Allstate campus to talk about the value of weblogs in business. These events are generally open to the public, if anyone is interested in coming. I'll check on that and post an update later. The event is open. See the KMPro blog for more info. The announcement states that there will be two locations for the panel discussion. It's not clear whether the speakers will be at one site or the other, or perhaps doing a video broadcast to both. The G auditorium can probably seat 50-75 people. |
