Practical Technology

If you ever watched the later seasons of 24, you’ll recall that Jack and his buddies at the Counter Terrorist Unit were always using Cisco Telepresence for video-conferencing. That was no surprise. John Chambers, Cisco’s CEO, has long thought that Cisco should be thought of as not just the big dog of networking, but of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and video-conferencing as well. Alas, while some enterprises bought into this, most people still preferred cheaper, easier solutions like Skype.

Indeed, if you were ask people about VoIP, I have no doubt that, Skype, and not Cisco, would be the first brand to spring to mind. After all, Skype has become almost omnipresent in PC-based VoIP and video-conferencing despite the best efforts of rivals ranging from Cisco to the business video-conferencing vendors such as Polycom and Tandberg to would-be contenders for small-office/home (SOHO) video-conferencing like ooVoo.

Making matters worse, Juniper and Polycom have been invading Cisco’s networking hardware/VoIP/teleconferencing turf. And, on top of that, now Google wants in the VoIP business as well with its new Gmail/Google Voice integration package. What’s a CEO to do?

More >

I’m underwhelmed by the new Apple TV, and I’m not the only one who finds the new Apple TV less than inspiring, but when you look into TV’s future, it looks like it’s going to be all Internet all the time from here on out.

Seriously, the new Apple TV is kind of cute, but that’s about all I can say for it. At the same time though almost any new device you get for your media-room, entertainment center, or what-have-you comes with at least Netflix streaming built in.

It used to be that you needed to be an audio/visual geek with snappy computer skills to get a connection up between the Internet and your TV. Now, on many new HDTVs and high-end DVD players, you just plug it in, set it up to use your 802.11n Wi-Fi, point at your Netflix account, and you’re ready to go. No fuss, no muss.

You don’t need an Apple TV to do this. I use a Sony BDP-S570 Blu-ray Disc Player, which includes Internet streaming support for Amazon Video on Demand, Netflix, and a host of more obscure Internet video services. It makes watching movies off the Internet easier than setting up then my Charter Communications provided DVR.

More >

I like owning videos. I like knowing I can watch and compare the classic Maltese Falcon and first version from 1931 whenever I want. Or, on the lighter side, that I can watch Dr. Who episodes from anywhere in time and space at my convenience. That’s why I’m totally unimpressed by the new Apple TV.

I’ve been a fan of the old Apple TV since day one. Unlike a lot of people I never had much trouble with it. The only problem I think it ever had was that Job damned it by calling it a hobby. Without putting Apple’s marketing muscle behind it, the device did indeed stay a hobby and that’s a shame.

I use it to this day to bring movies from my NAS (Network Attached Storage) drives, via iTunes, to my TV over my 802.11n network. Thanks to the Apple TV I have access to my own personal collection of over a terabyte of movies and TV episodes. I’ve been buying some movies from Apple and converting my DVD collection to MP4s with Handbrake for ages now. It’s proven to be a great way to keep a video collection that I could stream anywhere I had an Apple TV without taking up yards of shelf space.

You can still do that with the new Apple TV, but it appears you’ll no longer be able to buy videos directly from Apple. This midget device is all about rentals. Oh, you can also use it to view streaming Netflix movies, but let’s get real. What’s new in the way of TV gear that doesn’t support Netflix these days? Xbox 360, Wii, PS3, Roku, HDTVs, and, in my own case, a Sony networked BDP-N460 Blu-Ray DVD player.

More >

A friend recently asked me if I really wanted VMware, a company with a former Microsoft guy in charge, VMware, to buy Novell? His unspoken message was “Wouldn’t that be horrible for Novell’s Linux?”

Bless his heart, clearly he hasn’t been paying attention to the relationship between VMware and Microsoft. VMware, a semi-independent fiefdom of EMC, has no love for Windows at all.

Two years ago, a VMware executive said that in ten more years, Windows would be history. Okay, you say, that was some guy in charge of Australia and New Zealand. It’s not like he’s even in VMware’s top ten executive list.

True, but according to my friend Paula Rooney, today at VMworld, Paul Maritz, VMware’s CEO, virtually proclaimed the death of Windows in his keynote speech. Now, Maritz — he speaks for the company.

More >

And, it’s only going to get worse. Deal with it.

My friends at VMworld, VMware’s annual trade show, tell me that the Wi-Fi sucks dead ducks through rusty tailpipes. I’m not surprised. If Steve Jobs’ Wi-Fi can fail while unveiling the Apple iPhone 4 to over a thousand Apple fans and journalists at the Moscone West conference hall in San Francisco, it can fail for anyone.

Guess what? It’s only going to get worse. Time was that people used Wi-Fi only for e-mail and basic Web surfing. Now, as I sit in a coffee shop in my hometown of Asheville, NC, I see one person with an iPhone 4 looking at YouTube videos and another, with their brand new iPad watching The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on Netflix. That’s a whole lot of bandwidth being used up.

More >