gdgtgrl

Control Your Hotel TV With Your Phone

kenya — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:30:06 +0000

I was in my hotel room with the TV on for background noise. I think it was still on that annoying station that TVs in hotels always come on with. Then I heard something about an app. You know I had to check it out.

If you find yourself staying in hotel rooms a lot, this app from LodgeNet may be of interest to you. You pair the app with the LodgeNet powered TV with a code (similar to pairing Bluetooth devices) and then you are able to control the TV with the app. In addition, you’re able to order movies and access information about your hotel as well as local services. I found it useful.

Here’s what pairing looks like:

And this is what the TV control looks like. It would be awesome if it showed the programs that are on as well as the channel.

At the end of your hotel stay, the connection is automatically closed.

I’m all for controlling things with my phone. The remote might be on the other side of the room but my phone likely won’t be. And depending on the hotel, I might not want to touch the remote so much either. If I traveled as much as I used to I would definitely use this app all the time.

The app is available for iPhone, iPad and Android.

#CES Photos: Automotive

kenya — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:00:21 +0000

#CES Photos: TVs

kenya — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:00:05 +0000

#CES Photos: Home & Health

kenya — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:00:34 +0000

#CES Photos: Tablets

kenya — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:00:55 +0000

Ultrabooks at #CES

kenya — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:00:34 +0000

At CES Intel touted a new platform that they call Ultrabook. I asked what was made them ultra since we already have notebooks and netbooks. I was told that Ultrabooks have the following features:

Extremely thin – 21 mm or less
Instant on capability.
Increased battery life due to solid state drives.

The Ultrabook display was huge. I was a little disappointed that they had such a small area to talk about security. I did learn there though that several features built into the Ultrabook are theft protection (remote tracking and deletion) as well as token based identity protection.

Super slim laptops with excellent battery life are certainly welcome. They look a lot like MacBooks to me though. What do you think?

(Note: I included the photo of the Samsung Series 9 even though it was not included in the Ultrabook display.)

Intel’s Wireless Display (WiDi) Technology at #CES

kenya — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:00:06 +0000

Intel wants to be known for more than processors. In this video they show off their laptop to TV wireless display (WiDi) technology. In addition to being able to connect through set top boxes, the TV featured here has the technology built in. Samsung, LG and Toshiba will release WiDi enabled TVs later this year.

Audi 2012 Heads Up Display at #CES

kenya — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:31:17 +0000

Flying Cameras at #CES

kenya — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:47:55 +0000

Imagine the possibilities, good and bad.

Fresh Robot at Alibaba Booth at #CES

kenya — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:28:31 +0000

This robot was all kinds of fresh.

One Does Not Simply Drive a Lexus to Mordor

kenya — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:01:41 +0000

First I saw this:

And then later that day I saw this:

So logically it would follow that one does not simply drive a Lexus to Mordor, right?

A Magical Taxi Ride?

kenya — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:45:07 +0000

Yesterday I called Red Top Arlington to take me back to my car at the Vienna Metro Station after a long day at work and received a confirmation text on my phone. The confirmation also included a link to this Taxi Magic app. I downloaded it and used it to get a cab tonight. It tells me where it is right now.

The app is free for users but seems to be partially ad supported. Instead of ads in the app they are shown in the taxi during your ride on the screen of the terminal used to swipe credit cards. The app is linked to these terminals and actually notifies you when the meter is turned on (in case someone else has stolen your cab). At the end of the ride you can rate your driver. You can also set up payment for fares through the app in order to get electronic receipts.

From DC there are about 5 choices in taxi companies you can book. (In Oakton, I only get one choice.) I like this app so far and plan to continue using it when I need a taxi.

The app is available on iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

How About This Weather?

kenya — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:00:12 +0000

Talking about the weather is normally just something one does to make small talk but with all the events that have happened in the DC area within the last month or so, it’s become more than that. We had an earthquake (though that’s not weather) with aftershocks, Hurricane Irene and then this crazy rain due to a tropical storm. (I think we’ve had enough nature.) I’ve talked to so many total strangers about these natural events in the last few weeks.

Incidentally, Klout sent me an email to see if I had received The Weather Channel Social umbrella they sent me. I received it just before this last set of rain storms and I’ve certainly put it to good use. The umbrella is part of their campaign to announce their new “social” feature which aggregates tweets about weather by area. I think this is perfect since I confirmed the earthquake (and the aftershock). While I and other office building tenants stood outside after the earthquake I told some of them how far away the earthquake was felt just because of what I read in my Twitter feed. I also tracked what was going on during Hurricane Irene in different areas via Twitter. Through Twitter I also kept abreast of different road closings due to flooding associated with this last storm.

If you don’t already use a tool that aggregates Tweets, this social feature could be a good resource for you for tracking weather. It is especially handy to know what’s going on in other parts of the country when you don’t have contact with your loved ones those areas due to weather.

Note: Though I did receive this umbrella I was under no obligation to post about The Weather Channel.

Adios Augen Tablet

kenya — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 13:59:52 +0000

My Augen GenTouch78 Android tablet took a fall and is now broken for good. I spent a lot of time tinkering with this thing to get it to be remotely usable and now due to a freak accident, it is no more. Technically it’s not dead yet because I can still turn it on. However, the area where you charge the device is screwed up so once the battery dies, it’s done.

I have a friend that has funerals for her things she can no longer use. I’ll spare you that and instead focus on lessons learned (and things I knew but ignored).

Lessons Learned:

You’re not going to get a quality tablet for $99. You just won’t. Not only was this device poorly constructed from very cheap plastic but the software was missing some important components, namely the Google Experience which is really what most Android users brag about. So even if you want a cheap tablet it may be cheaper than you want.
Don’t buy devices from companies of which you’ve never heard. You have no track record to rely on and you don’t know if the company will be around to support the device. Shortly after releasing the GenTouch78, Augen went out of business. And the augen.com domain is now on sale. As a result, there is likely no way to get this device fixed.
Fragmentation of the Android OS is very real. Even if a new update of the Android OS is released, users have to wait until their device manufacturer or the carrier issues their own version. Even if you manufacturer doesn’t go out of business you may never get an update.
Google doesn’t care about tablets especially the cheap ones. When Google announced Honeycomb earlier this year, they made a big deal about how previous operating systems were meant for phones and shouldn’t be run on larger devices. That is fine, but it doesn’t appear that Honeycomb has taken off at all since then. I do hope that with Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola Mobility that some quality devices will be produced.

Things I Ignored:

It’s not a good idea to buy any device that is the first model even if the company producing it has a good track record. As an early adopter, I have a lot of devices that were discontinued after release.
It’s a good idea to read reviews from all over the web. I read a few on Amazon.com but there were many forum posts that I could have read before buying this device but didn’t. I would have saved myself a lot of trouble if I had. With that you can never trust reviews from people who have just received a device. The reviews that matter come after a user has had a device for a while.

These are just a few lessons learned but I will definitely take heed when buying anything else. I almost tried to buy a reduced price HP Touchpad just this past week. While they were going for $99, they were meant to be $500 devices so the hardware is of quality. The thing, however, is that HP will no longer support WebOS so one could end up completely on their own in terms of getting new apps to work or even basic technical support. I will take my own advice this time.

Ubuntu Recognized on Turntable.fm

kenya — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:10:50 +0000

Turntable.fm is a new site that allows people to play music together. Users meet up in rooms to listen to music together. In a room, there can be up to five DJs each taking turns playing songs as well as others in the room. The site has a wide variety of songs from which to choose including a lot of independent artists.

Visually, I find the avatars extremely cute. One feature I also thought was neat was that each DJ laptop reflects the operating system in use by the user. That the site displayed an Ubuntu logo for me makes me like it even more. (That’s me with the green hair.)

In the meantime, I’m going to use this site in moderation because I could really stay on it all day.

gdgtgrl

Control Your Hotel TV With Your Phone

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