Joe Stewart's blog

BaseCamp is Garmin's new software for planning and later displaying outdoor activities. It will be great for hikers and geocachers.

The topo maps render in 3D in addition to the normal 2D view. Track Draw builds a track to simulate the route. This conveniently can project a view to show the elevation change of the planned route.

There is photo support but not much detail yet how geotagged photos are viewed and managed. For a nice integration feature, tracks can be viewed in Google Earth. Users of geocaching.com can bring data from there into BaseCamp too.

It will be released for PC and Mac at the end of the first quarter 2009. It will be part of the Garmin TOPO U.S. DVD's and as a free download for existing users of TOPO U.S. 2008. For more information, go to www.garmin.com.

New from Flycast at CES 2009 is a desktop player widget for Windows and Mac. There is no download for Linux though. The Adobe AIR application exactly mirrors the mobile player.

The desktop widget provides 1000 stations plus 300 personalized stations with unlimited skipping unlike other similar services. A few other favorite providers in this realm are Last.fm and Pandora as well as Rhapsody.

The Google Android phone (T-Mobile G1) is added to the list of mobile devices supported, joining the iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry Storm, Bold, and Curve.

Flycast StreamShift allows users to "rewind" back to the beginning if they join a show after it begins. StreamSlip allows continued listening during periods with no connection.

Flycast is really helping make use of mobile technology to provide personalized entertaiment. Check out some of the stations in the lineup. Read more

Yahoo! is teaming up with Samsung to bring on demand content directly to the television from the internet. The TV adapted version of the Yahoo! Widget Engine is dubbed Internet@TV - Content Service.

TV Widgets will include Yahoo! content (Flickr, News, Weather and Finance), USA Today, YouTube, and eBay. Many other widgets are planned and announced too. Like on many other devices and platforms, a service from Netflix will be available. No word on that widget's features though. Many widgets will fit nicely in supplying information on demand. However, I wonder about those that really require more interaction like Twitter, eBay and MySpace.

Some more information at Yahoo's site - http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/

The GDium Liberty 1000 uses the unique G-Key. It is a bootable USB key that contains all the software as there is no hard drive inside the netbook. Families or businesses can have a G-Key for each person. Your changes to personalize the computer are stored on the G-Key. It looks to be attached to the computer in an odd place (under the keyboard near the front edge) but might not be a problem.

The user experience is delivered entirely using open-source software. It is a complete installation of Mandriva Linux with Mozilla Firefox and OpenOffice.org along with programs for most any required task. I personally like Debian based distributions like Ubuntu but Mandriva is worthy and an understandable choice for a French company. The Mandriva OS is said to be a 64-bit optimized version. The particular 64-bit processor used is from ST Microelectronics. The unit sports a 1024x600 pixel 10-inch screen and "full" keyboard. With no hard drive they are able to rate the computer with a 4-hour battery runtime.

The announced price is $400.

Learn more at Gdium.com.

As consumers demand more mobile products, including those that provide video, Vuzix is engineering solutions that stretch our imagination. Their new wearable displays are completely functional sunglasses that just happen to also show video like a big screen. The display is effectively the same as 60-inch screen at 9 feet.

The Wrap 920AV package has built-in noise-isolating earphones and weighs less than 3 ounces. The battery runtime is specified as 6 hours on two AA batteries. They will be offered with optional prescription lenses, and can be used with eyeglasses too. There are lots of gee-whiz 3D features for virtual reality and gaming too.

Vuzix will be showing the new Wrap 920AV sunglasses at CES 2009. They will be available Spring 2009. Pricing has not been announced yet.

Kodak is extending their line of pocket video cameras with the Zx1 weather-resistant camera. It shoots 720p HD video at 30 or 60fps and stores the video on standard SD/SDHC cards. There is built-in software to ease editing and uploading to YouTube. I look forward to seeing how the claims of good quality with low-light turn out.

The new Zx1 is smaller and cheaper than their own Zi6. Another pocket video camera is the Flip lineup.

With a price of $149.95, the Kodak Zx1 will be available Spring 2009 in five different colors.

This new LCD display does double-duty as a TV and when on standby it functions as a 47-inch digital picture frame. Seems to me a very natural use and I think likely to be found in more TV's too.

It will also capture a screenshot of a TV program to display as well. I'm not sure how much this would be used, but it might be possible to grab an image from your home movies. Image quality might be an issue here and with older digital photos that may not display well at 47-inches.

The power used in the digital photo mode is only 10-15% of what is required when watching television.

LG Display will be showing this television and more at CES 2009. No availability or price information at this time.

Known for creating the first wireless memory card for digital cameras, this iPhone application is a natural extension for Eye-Fi.

iPhone users can send photos to their computer or upload to one of 25 online photo sharing or social networking sites. Photos can also be automatically tagged with location information (geotag).

The application will be shown at Macworld, January 6-9, 2009. To learn more about this application or receive an email when it is available, go to www.eye.fi/macworld.

Phenom Communications brings us this "do everything" gadget. The Phenom Watch Phone is an unlocked GSM cell phone in a wrist watch package.

But they don't just have a basic version. There is a model for everybody, even a double-naught spy. From pink to black, kids to adult there are many to choose from. All versions have 2 hr talk time/120 hr standby and MP3 player using a micro-SD card. Some have a camera as well.

Control is by touchscreen with external buttons too. The SpecialOPS version has a keypad on the watch band. The fashionable Stylista also has external number keys. There is Bluetooth for use with a headset. It does have a built in microphone and speaker for that Dick Tracy style though. You can also transfer files via USB, which is convenient instead of requiring a separate card reader.

Pricing starts at $195. Check them all out at www.phenomwatchphone.com.

The main strength of the HP MediaSmart Server is central storage and media streaming for music and photos over your home network. Special iTunes support allows iTunes playback on connected computers that use iTunes.

You can serve photos directly from the MediaSmart server or upload photos to Facebook, Picasa or Snapfish. I do not see Flickr support in the announcement though.

In addition to media center type serving of music, videos, and photos the server also performs a network backup for Windows and Mac computers on a home network. To add additional redundancy you can add Amazon S3 for offsite storage. The HP Media Collector can schedule centralizing files from the other computers on the home network.

The HP MediaSmart Server ex485 will have 750 GB of hard drive space at $599 and the ex487 will double the hard drive storage to 1.5 TB and a price of $749. Storage can be expanded to 9 TB later. They both contain a 64-bit 2.0 GHz Intel Celeron processor and 2 GB of RAM. Read more