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Check out the "I'm on a Mac" video parody at http://digg.com/d31E1bf



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R.I.P. HD DVD Mar. 2006-Feb. 2008

Read Brian Westbrook's remarks on the death of HD DVD
http://tech.brianwestbrook.com

Brian Westbrook Today on Komo 4 at 3pm

My friend and Tech Expert Brian Westbrook will be on Komo 4 today at 3pm with Gadget Gift Ideas for Valentines Day. Tune in at 3pm

Brian Westbrook - Hands on with the new Macbook Air

My friend and local Tech Expert blogged live today from Macworld 2008. Check out some of his coverage and pictures on his blog http://tech.brianwestbrook.com

Brian can be heard Fridays at 6:40am and 8:40am as part of Portland's Morning News on Newsradio 750 KXL or online from anywhere at KXL.com!

Seattle Free Wi-Fi Hotspots

Did you know the City of Seattle had some free Wi-Fi Hotspots? I just learned about it myself this weekend via Yelp. You can find the City Wi-Fi spots at four Seattle downtown parks(Occidental, Freeway, Westlake and Victor Steinbrueck) and the business districts of University District and Columbia City.

More information available at the Seattle.Gov

In other news Wi-Fi rental cars coming to Seattle (Read More)

Clearwire Laser Light Show Tonight at Space Needle

Clearwire is hosting a laser light show from the top of the Needle around 7:15 p.m. today. This is part of Clearwire's Seattlewide Wi Fi(WiMax) Service which launches today

Review of my new Sansa e260

I love my new mp3 player. It's a sansa e260.
About the same size as an ipod mini
4 Gigs
Plays Video
Mp3s
FM Tuner
Voice Recorder
Replaceable and rechargeable battery
Expansion slot for additional memory
I bought it for $139
Works with napster, rhapsody, yahoo music and most mp3 subscription services

It's my first attempt at moving away from the ipod. It doesn't play mp3s from the itunes store but it works with my rhapsody subscription. It's an interesting system. With my rhapsody subscription I dont actually buy the mp3s I just pay a monthly fee and it allows me to listen to pretty much anything even new releases. It also lets me put these mp3s on my sansa e260 as long as im a subscriber to rhapsody.

I definetly have issues with DRM, I personally feel mp3s should be pure mp3s and playable on any mp3 player regardless of where you buy them. But at the same time I kind of like my subscription service because I get to check out every album the day it comes out and in a way it saves me so much money that I would have normally spent on an album with one good song. I guess its like Netflix. You dont own it but you can watch or listen to it when ever you want.

Short video of the Sansa e260 in my hand and playing a Final Fantasy Trailer


Anyone else have a good experience with a non iPod mp3 player?

Dodgeball Anyone?

Not sure if anyone has heard of this new service by Google called dodgeball.
The Seattle PI did a great article on the text messaging social networking service that featured my friend Brian Westbrook
You can read the article here

Here are some quotes from the article about the service
"Dodgeball, one of the early pioneers of the service, merges text messaging, mobile phones and social networking à la Friendster and MySpace into one, allowing the extroverted and tech-addicted to hook up in real time and track one another's social hopping throughout any given day or night.

When you're out, you send a text message to Dodgeball (or 36343), telling it where you are. Dodgeball then broadcasts your location, including the address, in a text message to everyone in your network, allowing your friends to find you. It also alerts you when other Dodgeball users -- friends of your friends -- are within 10 blocks of you, giving you the chance to introduce yourself."

AT&T owns your private information

AT&T has changed its privacy policy

It now owns your private information retro active from when you first started an account with AT&T

""While your account information may be personal to you, these records constitute business records that are owned by AT&T"

AT&T will also now collect information on what your view on the internet.
You can read the updated privacy policy HERE

AT&T is also currently being sued for handing over millions of customer calling records to the Government.

Personally I think people should ban AT&T for not protecting its customer information. I don't think a Telcom like AT&T should claim owner ship of your private information.

The Next Ten U.S. Cities To Become Tech Hubs

Article in eWEEK

eWEEK editorial scoured dozens of news stories, job reports and technology forecasts, crunched them all together with a dash of insight, and came up with the following 10 cities and their surrounding areas.

1. Seattle • City population: 570,430 • Companies that call it home: Amazon, RealNetworks, AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile • The details: The June 2006 Dice Report ranks Seattle No. 10 in available jobs, with 1,901 listed, up over 300 from one year ago. Indeed.com ranks Seattle No. 4 in number of tech jobs per capita, with 13 jobs per 1000 people. And a WashTech/CWA report issued this week calls Seattle a "bright spot" of technology growth in a recovering market.

2. Atlanta • City population: 419,122 • Companies that call it home: Cingular, EarthLink, Internet Security Systems • The details: The June 2006 Dice Report ranks Atlanta No. 9 in available jobs, with 2,366 listed. Indeed.com ranks Atlanta No. 1 in tech number of jobs per capita, with 17 per 1000 people.

3. Boston • City population: 569,165 • Companies that call it home: Akamai Technologies, EMC Corp., CMGI venture capital • The details: The June 2006 Dice Report ranks Boston No. 7 in available jobs, with 2,699 listed, up over 400 from one year ago. Indeed.com ranks Boston No. 5 in the number of tech jobs per capita, with 11 per 1000 people. WashTech/CWA, in a report issued this week, gives Boston props for holding its own in IT job creation after the recession.

4. Washington, D.C. • City population: 553,523 • Companies that call it home: Sprint Nextel, America Online (nearby), Computer Sciences Corporation • The details: The June 2006 Dice Report ranks Washington No. 2 in available jobs, with 2,548 listed. Indeed.com ranks Washington No. 3 in the number of tech jobs per capita, with 14 jobs per 1000 people. WashTech/CWA, in a report issued this week, gives Washington props for holding its own in IT job creation after the recession.

5. Dallas• City population: 1,210,393 • Companies that call it home: Aspen Communications, CompUSA, Electronic Data Systems, Kinkos • The details: WashTech/CWA, in a report issued this week, gives Dallas props for hold its own in IT job creation after the recession. Dallas is home to the "technology corridor," the source of nearly 100,000 jobs before the recession.

6. Philadelphia • City population: 1,470,151 • Companies that call it home: Unisys, SAP America, Verizon • The details: The June 2006 Dice Report ranks Philadelphia No. 6 in available jobs, with 3,345 listed, up approximately 500 from one year ago. Indeed.com ranks Philadelphia No. 13 in the number of tech jobs per capita, with eight jobs per 1000 people.

7. Chicago • City population: 2,862,244 • Companies that call it home: Accenture, US Robotics, Telephone and Data Systems, Click Commerce, Motorola (nearby) • The details: The June 2006 Dice Report ranks Chicago No. 5 in available jobs, with 3,648 listed, up almost 700 from one year ago.

8. Orlando • City population: 205,648 • Companies that call it home: Lockheed Martin, Symantec, Electronic Arts (nearby) • The details: Indeed.com ranks Orlando No. 9 in the number of jobs per capita, with 10 technology jobs per 1000 people. Joel Kotkin, a writer on economic and political trends, lists Orlando among areas ripe to become the next Silicon Valley, noting its quick economic and population growth, and according to Inc. Magazine, among the reasons is that Florida has a job growth of 9.6 percent between 2001-2005, the third highest in the country.

9. Los Angeles• City population: 3,845,541 • Companies that call it home: DirecTV, Belkin, Univision, Memorex • The details: The June 2006 Dice Report ranks Lose Angeles No. 4 in available jobs, with 5,218 listed, up over 700 from one year ago. NimbleCat.com, a tech job-tracking service, finds that Los Angeles comes in first place in tech job creation.

10. Charlotte • City population: 651,359 • Companies that call it home: SPX Corporation, Time Warner Cable, Bank of America • The details: Indeed.com ranks Charlotte No. 7 in the number of tech jobs per capita, with 10 technology jobs per 1000 people. Inc. Magazine in its Boomtowns '06 report calls Charlotte the 11th best place in the United States to do business. The cost of living in Charlotte is 30 percent lower than in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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