Now Google is drawing a line in the sand!

Apple was the first on the video playback fight by denying video playback of flash based graphics. Now our friends at Google Have decided to pull support of H.264 encoded videos from their Chrome browser.

H.264 is used on Blue-ray discs and in many consumer based video products but has some issues that must be considered. Many Web standards advocates oppose using it because it is based on a patented video compression format that licenser's have to pay a royalty fee in able to use it. This closes the open format discussion that Apple is using as one of its arguments against Adobe Flash content.

Google is trying to push its own WebM Format to replace H.264. The technology behind the WebM project originated with On2 a company that Google purchased in August 2009. The VP8 codec doesn't have the patent and royalty issues and still provides comparable video quality in respect with H.264.

As this battle continues to heat up to be the winner of the codec war, the loser in reality is us!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

CES 2011

Last year Jude and I had launched our video studio right about this time and had produced some videos about products that we thought were neat and that we wanted to have. Many of these products never came into production as is the nature of the beast, but it is still interesting that the same basic theme this year seems to be the same as last year.

Hands down I think that one of the most exciting products of last year was the iPad and I am so glad that I found a way to justify my purchase because once I did get it into my hands, I found many more uses for it then I originally imagined. One of the things that I do daily is look for either new applications or peripherals to add to my collection of supporting items for my iPad. My two newest purchases being speaker docks that charge my iPad and iPhone while playing content. Productivity enhancements and ease of sharing data between systems is still my biggest concern when choosing a new application.

So, enough of my Bully Pulpit! The main focus of new and improved upcoming products include iPad type devices either using Android and Microsoft's Windows for operating systems. Throw in products from HP and RIM and we have a large number of choices in many varying sizes. For many of these we will still have to wait and see if they will actually reach production.

Another carryover from last year is the eBook reader. My feeling is that Amazon and Barnes and Noble are our two leaders with Sony in as a distant third. I am not sure that there is any more room for anything else out there but when people see a successful product they will try to ride the coattails of those products with what they feel is a better mousetrap.

3D TV was introduced last year but this year we see it being put into almost everything with a screen. I am not sold on this yet as anything more than a gimmick, but there is a lot of money being poured into it.

Believe it or not there are some interesting things happening with desktop and notebook computers with the new integrated video residing right in the same silicon with the CPU. there are many benefits to be found doing this that I will discuss in some follow-up articles. But we are seeing a small resurgence in Tablet Notebooks (convertibles), and more units in smaller more powerful form factors.

I haven't seen any new product groups yet but we are still pretty early in the show for me to determine that, more on this later. Anyway, over the next few days we will be perusing CES from afar and as we come up with products that we fill compelling, we will be sure to bring them to your attention.
So for now I'll go back to work and see what I can find!

We have had several interesting discussions at the store lately about eBook Readers

I was browsing through some of the Technology RSS feeds that I subscribe to, (I know that's kind of geeky, but that is what I do in lieu of thumbing through a Christmas catalog or magazine like my lovely wife), and I came across the headline of how Barnes & Noble is now producing 1,800 color Nooks per day. That equates to over 7 million shipping per year, not too bad. Add to that the number of Kindles that are shipping and the number of iPads still flowing into the hands of smiling owners.

Google E-Bookstore has gone live bringing over 3 million titles to any web-browsing capable device with a large selection of free titles. Apps for Android, iPhone, and iPad to read Google e-books are available as well and content will sync across any device you own as the other apps do from Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

So, back to the discussion we were having this morning about all of the different products that are now available to read an eBook on. Whether you own a device like the Kindle, Sony or the first version of the Nook (dedicated reading devices), a computer using one of the reading apps produced by these companies, browsing using the new amazon kindle browser site, or a special app on your smart phone or Pad device. There are so many ways to consume the books you buy that it becomes apparent to me that when you are really into a book you can always have it with you until you are done with it.

Personally I like going with the Amazon products mainly because of the types of devices that I own and the ways that I can access what I but and because I am an avid Audible patron dating all the way back to 1989 I have so many ways to consume my reading material.

So what is the point that I am trying to make. I think that the opportunities in this world for enjoying your reading have opened considerably. The devices you invest in will determine the path that you will be able take to access the literature formats that are exploding on the market. Whether you want to feel the paper or work with electronics you have so many options available to you. Whether you want to listen or read or do both you can do that as well.  The world is your oyster, enjoy!

Google Docs editing finally comes to iPhone, iPad and Android mobile devices via Google Mobile

If you haven’t downloaded or updated your Google App you may want to do so now if you are a Google Docs user. While I am not, this appears to be a pretty handy addition to your office toolbox of applications that you can use to access documents created and/or stored on your Google Docs site.You can now make changes to your Google Docs from any IOS 3.x or later device as well as from Android devices running Froyo (2.2).

Seems to work well except I had a problem with using the desktop version for Google Docs on an iPad. It errors out. This may be due to the fact that the website is trying to download to a local add in of the Google Docs application. Since this doesn’t exist on Safari on the iPad it can’t do it. I also tried this using the Atomic Browser on the iPad without any success. However, it does work on my iPhone. Maybe the new update of upcoming IOS 4.2 for the iPad will fix this problem. Without the desktop function I don’t really see much use for this application on the iPad and using it on the small screen of my iPhone is not good either but will work in a pinch if I need it to.

For now I will continue to us DocsToGo for my formatted text and for the quick and dirty, I will use Evernote and FastEver XL to work with text on my iPad.

15 Minutes of Fame

Well, one of the big items floating though the blogosphere today was an posting in YouTube’s daily blog stating that you will now be able to produce up to 15 minute video that you will be able to post to YouTube. So for you guys that bumping up against the limit here is you go. Enjoy!

Click to read more ...

The Complete Guide to Google Wave: How to Use Google Wave

I am jealously awaiting my invitation to Google Wave, but the reality of it all is that I will probably wait until I have the time to fully focus on it more than I could possibly do now. Gina Trapani with Adam Pash are collaborating on an online guide to Google Wave. It will be interesting to see as time goes by whether they will begin to use Google Wave to communicate together as it becomes more stable. Because Google Wave is evolving every day, the book will be a work in progress that will be continually updated as these changes settle in. They have a series of planned PDF publishing dates over the next year.

Take a quick look to see what Google Wave is about or if you are currently working with this product and want to contribute to the creation of this work, take a look. So pick up on their invitation “to help revise and expand this guide as Wave evolves.”

The Complete Guide to Google Wave: How to Use Google Wave

Syncing Contacts from Outlook to Gmail

Question for ya. I’d like to import all of my outlook contacts to my Gmail but I can’t seem to find the CSV or vCard files on my C drive. Any hints on where to look???

Answer: The process is pretty simple if you have ever played with the import/export feature of Outlook. Google requires a CSV or vCard file to upload a contact or contact list into Gmail from your Outlook database. Here’s a quick overview of the process. You are limited to one contact at a time.

Creating a CSV file of your contacts will cause you to create a file of all the contacts that in the folder that you are exporting. If you want to limit the contacts that you are planning to import into Gmail then you will want to place a copy of the contacts you want to export into a temporary contact folder before running the export function. Then you will need to import that CSV file back into Gmail. Here is another quick video showing this process.

Your Kindle can't do this, local library ebooks now available on the Sony Reader | The Mobile Gadgeteer | ZDNet.com

I love reading but I do so either with an electronic book or I listen to them from my downloads from Audible. Here is a listing of libraries that have registered themselves with Sony Library Finder that carry both audio and electronic books.

I wonder if we are truly headed towards the ability to get all our literature from our local libraries or is this just a part of my very long wish list. The big news this week was Google’s announcement of their making available over 1 million books in the ePub format. EPUB is an open-source format that is readable on a slew of devices, including Sony and Plastic Logic readers, the iPhone, and Google Android. Prior to this news release they were only available in PDF format. Take a look at Google books.

Many people still like the touch and feel of a real book and that is their favorite method of reading a book. But there is something to being able to pick up you SmartPhone, or Ebook Reader and begin reading a book where you left off. This is definitely something to think about. I have been playing with Stanza on my iPhone and the interface is very nice and with the flick of finger I am turning pages with a graphic response that is enjoyable to watch.

So my question that I pose is whether this a way for our local Libraries to maintain patronage, along with their brick and mortar and books in paper formats or is this something that is going to go to centralized storage repositories that can maintain the traffic for downloading requests that might someday be required?

I do love my local libraries, the helpfulness of the library personnel, and the beauty of the physical books on the shelves. I would hate to see this disappear into the ether(net) totally.

Your Kindle can't do this, local library ebooks now available on the Sony Reader | The Mobile Gadgeteer | ZDNet.com