My Gadget, Game & Gizmo Obsession

Slacker announced months ago, that with an update coming in 2010 there would be new features and stations added to the streaming radio service. One of those, was the unique addition of ABC News audio feeds.

Months have gone by, and all the new mentioned features have come true; like new clients for BlackBerry, iPhone, and Android with wireless syncing. The ABC News feature has gone unanswered…

…until today.

I opened up my favorite streaming music application in Firefox, to see an advertisement on screen for “ABC NEWS ON SLACKER RADIO!” I clicked the link, and am currently listening away to ABC News feeds. This is definitely a nice addition to the 100+ canned music stations, plus the unlimited number of custom stations, like our own custom Rock Band station.

Later on, I will experiment with trying the new station on my BlackBerry Slacker app. Plus, I will try to make a custom station with both music and news feeds.  Should be interesting.

I’ve seen satellite radio articles bashing the new offering by Slacker. Though, I’m going to give this a solid test drive and report back before making any judgment.

You can check out Slacker Radio in your web browser or smartphone by visiting www.slacker.com.

So I need to preface this entire post with the fact that I’m really excited about some of the new features that the new iPhone OS will bring to the iPhone/iPad even though I may not use all of them.  None, I repeat, none of them are earthshattering, but I think they bode well for the directions the iPhone and iPad are going in terms of use.  The iPhone now becomes even more useful/handy.  For someone who owns an iPhone and has loved the experience, this is pretty incredible.  Extra utility out of a device I already love using is a big win.  In terms of the iPad, it’s now elevated from an intriguing little device to a purchase option.  I’d like to get a laptop for general use around the house.  Nothing major, I just want the flexibility I don’t have now with my desktop.  Well that and I need to catch up with my wife who has a laptop.  With the new functionality 4 brings to the iPad, it’s now directly in my line of sight as an option.

My frustrations:

- 4 is not fully compatible with the iPhone 3G.  Are you kidding me?  Phones have had multi-tasking and enterprise support for years now but Apple doesn’t think 2 year old 3G hardware can handle it?  How elegant and ‘best in class’ can your design be if the 3G can’t handle multi-tasking.  This is a pure money grab plain and simple.  Jobs even said as much when he referred to the new features being an incentive to upgrade as “terrific.”  Sorry, but there’s no way I can justify buying a phone simply to get Multi-tasking, advanced mail, enteprise support, iBooks, GameCenter, etc. all in one shot.  I’m sure some of those will port to the 3G but that it all won’t is absoutely crazy.  I’ve lived with my iPhone for 2 years now and loved it, so clearly I don’t ‘need’ any of these features.  I don’t see Apple getting money from me for a new model phone just on principle.  The iPhone 3G is a large portion of Apples install base that’s now been alienated.  Not the best move in my view.

- Enough with the marketing nonsense Apple.  The whole ‘we’re not first with multi-tasking, but we’re the best’ is the same garbage lines all companies use when they’re late to market with something.  Quit trying to make this out to be more than it is.  A lot of these features should have been in from the beginning, so don’t treat us like we’re dumb now w/ clever slides and marketing lingo.  Call it like it is.  These features are great and put you on par in these areas with your competition.  You clearly shine in areas like UI, usability, App Store, etc. and those put you at the top of the hill.  There’s no need to disparage to cover up the fact that you’re late to the game with this.  You have a great phone/device.  In these feature sets, you’ve now caught up and added a little more.  Implemented well, these features put you at the top.  But lets not get crazy and forget that phones have had multitasking, folders, advanced mail, enterprise support, etc. for a long time before todays preview.  You’ve copied/caught up in some areas, and lead and been frontrunners in others.  Call a spade a spade.

Overall, I’m excited about the features that will be coming to the iPhone/iPad.  GameCenter (think Xbox Live on smartphones) appears to be the one ‘new’ thing, but the other features that are now coming to the table look good.  The iPhone just got better, and the iPad just became even more of an option for many users.  I am, however, slightly worried about the direction this is all going.  Apple has always done their ‘walled garden’ thing but it seems to be going even more in that direction if possible.  With iAds, App Store inconsistencies, lack of true file storage access, etc., we’re increasingly only able to do the things Apple wants (or gets a cut from) on our devices.  If this path continues, there’s only so many restrictions I’ll stomach for access to great UI and hardware.  So far, I’m good and intrigued by Apple products, but I worry/wonder what my feelings will be in the future.

Did you know you can stream YouTube, Hulu, and Flash videos on your Xbox 360?  Well you can, with a nifty piece of Windows software called TVersity.  It’s pretty simple too.  You just install the TVersity client on your Windows PC, make sure your Xbox 360 and PC can communicate via Windows Media sharing (or similar), and then you are ready to go.

The TVersity client allows you to configure what you stream from adding YouTube channels, syncing your entire Hulu feed, or specifically adding RSS feeds.  The Flash feature is brand new with a recent update to TVersity, so I have not checked it out yet. TVersity came in very handy on New Years Eve for me, as I wanted to stream some YouTube videos on my TV, but could not figure out how to do it.  After a friend introduced me to TVersity, and we spent about 10 minutes downloading/setting it up, I’m a TVersity fan now.  I suggest paying for the Pro edition which (1) gives you full capabilities, (2) helps fund additional development of this excellent application.

Here are the updates to the recent TVersity release.  If you have any specific questions regarding setup, let me know in comments.

We are pleased to announce the release of TVersity Pro edition 1.8 featuring:

• New implementation of the off-screen web browser based on Google Chromium for increased stability and speed. In fact we think this is approaching rock solid levels and can soon come out of beta (please be sure to let us know what you think).
• We are opening the list of supported premium content sites so that advanced users can add new ones (only web pages with Flash video for now). If you are an advanced user and you are not intimidated by xml files then check osb.xml, it is pretty much self explanatory.
• List of supported websites can now be updated without requiring a new release. From now on, new sites will be added and pushed to all users. (Advanced users should send us their additions since from time to time we overwrite osb.xml).

Last year we made the first release of our Pro edition, with the intention to enable access to premium web content (including movies and full TV episodes). The big promise of this approach was the use of a full blown web browser running on your PC but displaying web content on your TV. Ultimately we want to let you access any website on TV with this technology, today we are taking another step in that direction by letting you access any video site with Flash video (and not just the ones we decided to support).

Full release note are here.

Download latest version here.

Have questions related to adding premium content sites? Need support for the Pro version? Try our new questions and answers tool available at: answers.tversity.com.

NOTE: There are a couple similar products out there, including PlayOn. I haven’t used anything other than TVersity, but you may have varying milage with competitors too.

I’m just learning what Google Buzz is all about today.  I like to keep things short and simple here. Think of Gmail mixed with all the social aspects of Facebook and Twitter.  Photo sharing, status updates, posts/blogging, geolocation, etc.  All this in the simplistic Google interface.

Who doesn’t have a Gmail account? Just about no one.  Who doesn’t use Twitter and/or Facebook?  Just about no one.

Google Buzz is rolling out today to Gmail users.  The coolest part, is it’s not only rolling out for desktop users, but also smartphone users.  At first rollout, a bunch of dekstop (Windows, Mac, etc) users already have the Buzz features enabled, plus iPhone and Android users have access just by navigating to http://buzz.google.com from the browser. No word yet on BlackBerry or WebOS support.

Knowing that Gmail already has a huge install base, would you give Buzz a try? I know I will.

Wow, we are already a week into 2010 and I have yet to post My Top Obsessions of 2009. Shame on me, and sorry for the delay. You may remember what my top 7 obsessions from 2008 were.

As we wind up 2010, let me recap on the obsessions that have kept me coming back to the blog. In looking over the past 12 months, I’ll highlight the top ten obsessions that have swallowed up all my free time this past year. I’ll also take a look at what obsessions might be cropping up for 2010.

Here are the obsessions in order of importance to me.

Picture the ball dropping, and countdown on…
10. Rock Band Network.
You may be wondering, why is this at #10 and not higher on the list.  For me, I looked at RBN as a way to get my old bands music (and possible new bands music) into Rock Band. It’s kind of a dream of mine. Then when I got into the RBN beta, I realized (1) I don’t have the free time to do this, (2) I don’t want to free up time to do this. So, RBN, as exciting as it seems to me…has been a pipe dream to me, and my exploration of the tools has been short lived. In 2010, I do expect to take advantage of the grabbing songs from the RBN store, and possibly getting back in the development ring…but, neither is happening yet.

9. New Site Name.
This isn’t exactly a highlight, but it is something that took up part of early 2009.I moved my web site to a new host, and changed the URL. It once was at http://blog.javadevelop.com, which was just a spinoff blog of another site. As this site was growing in popularity, I decided to rename it to http://www.MyGGGo.com, short for My Gadget, Game & Gizmo Obsession. It looks to have been a poor decision, since the site statistics showed my daily visitors went form about 300 to about 30. Ouch, that hurt!  Well, you live and you learn.  I’ve decided to stick with the new name and rebuild. Some of you have stuck around, and I greatly appreciate it. I hope to get the site (now going on its 4th year) back up in readership and commenters throughout 2010.

8. BlackBerry Bold.
It’s funny to see that last year, the BlackBerry Storm made it to my #3 spot, and truly should continue into 2009. Though, in the wee months of 2009 (Fabruary to be exact) the Storm was replaced by the BlackBerry Bold 9000. It wasn’t replaced because I didn’t like it. It was due to the fact that my company was willing to supply me with a BlackBerry and the Storm wasn’t on the “accepted devices” list. With that, I jumped from the Verizon ship onto AT&T and picked up the Bold. It’s really a great phone, though I wish it had a larger touchscreen. It’s got high-resolution, good call quality, and decent email (funny that BlackBerry does not have the best email client of all). It’s even a good media device, which has allowed me to continue my life of mobile convergence (cell phone, calendar, email, music player, GPS, and web all-in-one). The Bold remains my current device, and I am eyeing an upgrade to the Bold 9700 in the coming months. Although, this blog was founded on gadget obsessions,  formerly known as “My Treo Obsession”, I didn’t spend as much time on BlackBerry posts throughout the year.  An interesting statistic, my readership has suffered for that too.  Looks like I need to get back to my gadget roots here.

7. New Music Games
Why do I keep this so general? Well, there were a few music games I picked up this year, and each had something I loved. First, I have to say, I’m disappointed that no Rock Band 3 came out in 2009, but I’m sure it will be stellar when it does. Guitar Hero 5: This is possibly the best party music game of the year. With drop in/drop out play, it’s great for parties. Also, the ability to have 4 players on any instrument is great. Especially at my house right now, where if one person sings, everyone wants to sing; or if one person plays guitar, everyone wants to play guitar. Though the soundtrack didn’t grab me, and all my DLC is on Rock Band, so the game didn’t get much rotation. The Beatles Rock Band: This showed us what Rock Band 3 might be like, with 3 part harmonies. This game is beautiful, we all know enough about it. Guitar Hero Van Halen: This is my favorite music game to play this year. You say. “WHAT?!?!” I love classic Van Halen. Activision, screwed the pooch in it’s implementation of the story and the band, but the songs and charting are fantastic. What’s missing? The same thing as all GH games, DLC. Finally, Lego Rock Band: It’s so much fun to watch the cut scenes, and play Super Easy mode with the little kids. Plus, the import/export of your existing Rock Band library makes this a fun game.  Though, I would have rather seen Rock Band 3 over all of these, it was a decent year of flooded music games.

6. Slacker Radio.
The streaming music service available via web browser, stand alone desktop client, iPhone, BlackBerry, and some select Sony TV’s, has been a staple of mine since I learned of the service in late 2007. With the Slacker Radio application for BlackBerry release on February 2009, it truly became my de facto music source for the entire year.  I use it via my web browser at work. I use it in the car via my BlackBerry plugged into my stereo AUX jack, I use it at home via Berry or computer, and when I travel. I’ve made several custom stations including a Rock Band station that I update regularly with all the songs available for the game. 2010 definitely looks to be a year where Slacker continues to be part of my daily obsessions.

5. Rock Band DLC.
Rock Band 2 came in at #2 on my 2008 list, and I had anticipated that Rock Band 3 would have come out in 2009.  Well it didn’t but guess what did? Over 370 songs available for download into Rock Band. I didn’t play as much as I would have wanted (due to moving and life), but the abundance of weekly DLC from Harmonix has kept this game (Rock Band 2), although now getting a little long in the tooth, from passing away.

4. Drumming Stuff.
This is a continuation from 2008, where drumming made my top list.  This year I successfully built (though not yet completed) a custom electronic drum kit. It’s custom because, I purchased it piece mail via auctions on eBay. A stand here, a pad there, etc. I’ve also used an old “brain” or module (the Yamaha TMX) to connect the kit via MIDI to the Guitar Hero World Tour drum kit.  Now, all my video game drumming takes place on a professional electronic drum kit, instead of the cheap’ish plastic kits that are available for the game.  Due to moving for much of the year, I haven’t used the kit since May, but am in the processes of setting it back up in the new place.  In 2010, I plan to buy some more components to round out the complete pro kit, and write some posts (with photos) on how to build the DIY pro kit.

3. New Music.
Last year, GNR with the release of Chinese Democracy made my top list.  This year, I could put in a single album in the list, though I will span this to cover the few albums that got me a bit obsessed this year. At the top, is Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown. Sure, it got trashed by the GD purists, but I love it. It’s a great listen, easily digestible, well told story, and similar to their American Idiot album. Next is Dream Theater’s Black Clouds & Silver Linings album. I was hooked pre-release due to my resurgence of interest in the band, thanks to Panic Attack and Constant Motion in Rock Band. The new album is 6 songs, but more than 70 minutes. The songs are extremely long, you do the math.  I mostly appreciate the fact that the album was released with a 3-disc set, containing instrumentals and a bonus disc of covers. We also got 311′s Uplifter this year. It was more of a downer than an uplifting experience, as it was just bland.  But, I did obsess over it, so it makes the list.  Finally, Dave Matthews Band release of The GrooGrux King.  Good old DMB. Nothing exciting, just a good listen. The album came out shortly after the death of saxophonist LeRoi Moore.

2. Prototype.
This game (for PS3 and Xbox 360) got trashed by just about everyone. Worse, it’s near clone, inFamous (for PS3) made it into many pro game journalists top 10 of the year. For me, Prototype was the most played game (excluding rhythm games) for me in 2009. I bought it in July when Amazon had a one-day sale, for $40. It was during a time where I was “without home” and no place to setup my Rock Band lair, so needed something else to pass the gaming time. This game is a sandbox (New York City), much like GTA IV, where you are basically evil and trash anything and everything in your way.  There’s a ridiculous amount of multi button combos, which does take some getting used to. But for me, this 3rd person game has taken more than 40 hours of my year, and I still haven’t finished it or reached 50% of the achievements. It’s not without its issues. (1) There is no Xbox Live component. Which is ok for me, but now that I have played much of the story and some of my friends have picked up the game, we’d really like to play online together. (2) You can’t leave NYC. If you try to cross a bridge or swim away from the island, God sends in an immediate missile strike and you are killed. Towards the end of the game, there is a hint that you get get to a ship, but I haven’t made it yet. (2) There is no DLC. This is a real drag, since the game could really leverage a new downloadable map, possibly some new combos, or something. I would likely pick up DLC if it were ever released. I stand by my words that this is a fun game to play. Find it in the bargain bins and enjoy.

1. You, the readers, and authors.
Thanks for those readers who have stuck around during some transitions of 2009.  Thanks to some of my part-time (and near full-time) authors that write posts.  It’s been another fun year of obsessions, and more to come in 2010. I hope to grow the site in different ways this year. Not yet sure how, since It’s a kinda “fly by the seat of my pants” blog.  I’m happy to see some people taking advantage of the Store offerings we add to various posts (sponsored by Amazon and Google), and just glad to see that people enjoy reading and discussing the same things that I obsess about. Thank you!

With that, we’ve come to the end…

Happy New Year!

Please share your top obsessions in comments below.

The browser based version of Slacker Radio has been updated, with some great features. I haven’t seen the release notes, but have noticed my own list of improvements:

• Improved Searching. More of just a UI update, that breaks out searching into bands and songs.
• Twitter integration. Allowing auto-tweets when you start a station, add a song as a favorite, ban a song, or ban an artist.
  • This is a very cool feature for me, the Twitter and Slacker nerd that I am.
• Sharing feature has updates (including the above mentioned Twitter integration). URL shortener for Tweeting or Facebooking, 2-click emailing stations, and a new Embed feature (see the embedded Rock Band station below).
  • Embed is pretty awesome, as this now allows you to embed a fully functional station within a web page, as I will regularly do now here at www.MyGGGo.com).

Small Embedded Slacker Player – with my custom Rock Band station.

Wicked Big Embedded Slacker Player – with my custom Rock Band station.

You may have noticed a new name floating about. Check out the About page when you get a chance to learn about Simon, our latest victim contributor to the MyGGGo blog. While you are there, you can learn about myself and Pabel, who have been hanging out here for a couple years now. (Pabel, man you are way overdue).

Simon, welcome and looking forward to more content, diversity, and obsessiveness in the world of gaming and gadgetry.

Courtesy of WordPress.org

I’m a BlackBerry junky. I’m a WordPress blog junky. Now, there is a WordPress for BlackBerry app that allows full blogging capabilities on your ‘berry. I’m typing this post on my Bold.

It’s still a beta app, at version 0.9.0.134, but so far, so good. I installed the app no problem. There’s not much to look at on the main screen. You need to hit the BB menu button to see initial login options. After typing in my URL, by the way, that’s here, admin user name and password; blammo, I was presented with the name of my blog. By the way, that’s My Gadget, Game & Gizmo Obsession.

Like the login, there’s not much to look at on screen, until you hit the menu button. The menu gives options to view posts, pages, etc. Also, it gives the option to write a new post, which brings me to right now.

Other than the limitations of typing on a BB keyboard versus a full size desktop keyboard, all looks good.

The things I need to look into next is:
Can you add images, and how easy is it to do so?
Can you add Amazon or Google ads, and how easy is it to do so?

You can pick up the app directly on your ‘berry here. (I believe, it works on all models–Storm excluded)

I’ll be back with an update.

For you hacker types, Information Security types, or just geeky gamer types (I fall into all three categories), check out this repost from http://www.eurekalert.org on forensics work for Xbox. One thing to note, this was originally developed for the origianl Xbox. The thing I don’t have answer too yet, is “Is this updated for the Xbox 360?”

Report from http://www.eurekalert.org:

Toolkit reveals criminal activity on gaming consoles

A forensics toolkit for the Xbox gaming console is described by US researchers in the latest issue of the International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics. The toolkit could allow law enforcement agencies to scour the inbuilt hard disk of such devices and find illicit hidden materials easily.

Computer scientist David Collins has probably spent more time messing around with the Microsoft XBox, other gaming consoles, and PDAs in the name of forensic science than anyone else. He is a digital forensics expert at Sam Houston State University, and is working hard to replicate “mods” – both hardware and software for the Xbox and other devices.

Criminals often hide illicit data on the XBox in the hope that a gaming console will not be seen as a likely evidence target especially when conventional personal computers are present in the same premises, for instance. The toolkit developed by Collins will allow police and other investigators the chance to lay bare the contents of XBox hard disks.

Cell phones, smart phones, PDAs, game consoles and other devices provide a convenient means to store data of all kinds, including images, video, audio and text files. But they also provide a simple way for criminals to possess and hide illegal material too.

Collins’ XFT utility can mount an image of the FATX file system used by the XBox, allowing the user to explore in detail the directory structure. Collins points out that unlike the standard FAT32, NTFS, and similar systems used by the hard disks in personal computers, there is little documentation on the proprietary FATX system. However, it is possible nevertheless to acquire an image of a FATX hard disk and to mount it on another device.

“Once the Xbox file system is mounted, the analyst can use shell commands to browse the directory tree, open files, view files in hex editor mode, list the contents of the current directory in short or long mode and expand the current directory to list all associated subdirectories and files,” explains Collins.

Importantly, from the legal perspective, XFT can also record such investigative sessions for playback in a court of law, which protects the defendant from falsified as well as providing more solid evidence for the prosecution.

Collins explains how future work on XFT will involve making the toolkit into a fully functional forensic operating system (OS). This OS will be packaged as both a bootable operating system from a hard disk and a “live” bootable compact disk. “This implementation will be open source, verbosely commented and designed from the ground up as a forensic OS,” says Collins, “This will remove any and all proprietary operating system dependencies, making the forensic process as transparent as possible.”

Welcome new (and returning) readers to My Gadget, Game & Gizmo Obsession, now permanently located at www.MyGGGo.com. We have been around for well over two years, in a few formats and locations.

We now have our own URL, and will continue to bring content on our obsessions. Please make sure to bookmark the new URL, www.MyGGGo.com and delete any old bookmarks you have.

Also, if you want up-to-the minute announcements of posts, please add our RSS feed to your favorite RSS Reader, like iGoogle or Google Reader.

Also, check out or Forums, still pretty rough and in beta. Please create an account and leave a post or two (to make sure things are working alright).

Finally, this site is something I (and some friends) run in our spare time. We earn a whopping zero U.S. dollars to keep it up. We do this for fun. I spend the cash out of my pocket to keep things running year round, and enjoy it. So, if you see something in our Store that you might want, please buy it from our site. I do everything I can to hand-pick great deals.

That’s about it for now. If you haven’t been here before (or it’s been a while), scroll through the past 2+ years of blog entries. You can learn about me and other bloggers in the About page.  Lot’s of stuff on Rock Band, BlackBerry, Xbox 360, iPhone, Guitar Hero, Treo, music news, and other random obsessions.