Jeff Hester

Poking around the intersection of KM and Social Media

Archives for January 2007

Free T-Mobile hotspot access for Vista users

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Nick White reports on the Windows Vista Team Blog that T-Mobile will provide free WiFi access at any of their hotspots to anyone running Microsoft’s new Vista operating system. The promotion actually started on Friday, January 26th and runs through April 30.

So if you’re running Vista, now you can surf for free at Starbucks, Fedex/Kinkos or Borders. You can find the details at http://www.skysurprise.com/.

My First iPod

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My First iPodYes, it’s true. This is my first iPod, a 1GB second generation Shuffle my mom gave me for Christmas (thanks Mom!). Oh sure, I’ve been ripping CDs to MP3s since before the first iPod ever rolled off a factory line. I’ve just been listening to them either at my PC or in my car (my GT has a 6-disc MP3 changer), and occasionally on my HP iPAQ hw6515 (more pain than joy).

I’ve gotta say, I love the pure simplicity of it. It’s small enough that I could wear it on my 3-mile run this morning. Other that the blissful sounds in my ears, you’d never know it was there.

I let iTunes load it with random tracks from my library (it’s all my music, so I must like it, eh?). And I was really happy with the results. I’m already wondering why I waited so long. Now I’ve got one more reason to kick the BigBlueBall podcast back into gear!

CES Attendee Tips

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It’s a bit past midnight and I just got back from Vegas. I’m too tired to do a complete brain dump tonight, but I did want to pass on a few tips to anyone attending CES Tuesday-Thursday.

  • Definitely take advantage of the CES Concierge tent. It’s located outside the central hall at the LVCC. In there they have lots of couches, free phone calls (courtesy of Vonage), free massages, free popcorn (courtesy of Movielink), free beer (Becks) and they’ll even shine your shoes for free. Lots of couches, although later in the afternoon they tend to fill up. If you want a massage, get your name on a list and ask how long the wait is.
  • Free Coldstone Ice Cream at Yahoo’s tent. It’s just a couple doors down from the Concierge tent. While you’re there, check out their new Yahoo! Messenger for Vista and the really cool Yahoo! Go software for mobile phones.
  • Free web surfing, in a music lounge at AOL’s tent. AOL is really pimping their Time Warner media connections, but they have the killer lounge setup for you to rest your tired dogs for a few and surf the web. They have three really, really comfortable lounge chairs with nice laptops all setup up, complete with great headphones. Ostensibly, you’re there to check out AOL Radio (which is actually quite good), but there’s nothing to stop you from surfing the web. I checked my email, made a blog post and even uploaded a few photos to Flickr.

One final word of advice — don’t even try to see everything. Your brain can’t fit it all in. Talk to other people and ask them what impressed them the most. If it sounds interesting, follow-up and check it out. But do look outside the stuff you would normally gravitate to, just to broaden your horizons a bit.

CES Update

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The Sands Convention center opened two hours ahead of the main Las Vegas Convention Center, so I started there. I picked up some great info on some very interesting software and hardware products that could make it easier to save phone costs by integrating VoIP, mobile and POTS. Details to follow…

I’m now at the LVCC and looking forward to seeing what’s coming from some of the big boys.

Windows Home Server

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Gates presented Windows Home Server, a high capacity storage server that automatically backs up your PCs mobile devices and even your Xbox. Available the 2nd half of 2007, it also provides remote access, so you can get to your stuff no matter where in the world you are.

I can see the techy-households Adopting something like this, but I sure don’t expect mom to get one (no offense, mom).