well, it has happened...the rumors are true.

 
(picture of engadget.com)

seriously, the pictures say a lot from the engadget post.  i am really amazed/impressed.  a few things that are interesting about it is that it doesn't support 3G and the touch screen.  I've had a few full touch-screen devices before and didn't like them.  my greasy face 'yucked' the screen up during calls, etc.

but c'mon...OSX on a device with iPod, with full browser, etc., etc.  this seems to be a well done v1 product.  this is what makes them win in these types of areas.  they took the free research and innovated.  when i say free research, i mean the feedback from all other devices from all the other vendors, etc.  as a contrast to zune for example -- i keep hearing zune is a 'good v1 device' -- what!?  it could've been better -- we had 5 years of free research with ipods and didn't take advantage of that in my opinion.  apple iphone seems to have taken advantage of (sans touch screen).

so, mr. cate did it to me and sent me the chain letter. here you go...

1. I don't like chain letters.  I never continue them :-) yeah yeah bah humbug
2. My "formal" education is in criminal justice...of course if you consider "formal" being that of skipping classes and barely squeeking by because you were having too much fun in college.
3. My USGA index is 8.4
4. My retirement goal is to own this scuba shop in cancun in 5 years (although that 5 years continually is a rolling 5 years).
5. I proved to myself that the internet was powerful when i started a web site to protest issues i was having with a company -- and won after traffic drove it to be #1 on google for their own search terms :-) (and as part of the agreement i had to take the site down)

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ever been searching for the ultimate bluetooth headset so you can look like the other cyborgs walking around with something in their ear?  me too.  i never was happy with any of the headsets i used and mainly needed it for the car, so i settled on a motorola re-chargeable speakerphone for my car.  it works fine, but i still feel like i'm yelling when i talk and i'm sure the ambient noise is being picked up.

my hommie jason led me on to the jawbone which he saw in a cingular store. 

if you take a look at their site, they make some pretty bold claims.  i would suggest first viewing the demo link, then looking at the versus link.  it certainly paints an amazing picture.  the straight dope from jmauer was:

Just yesterday my wife asked me where I was during a call… I had called her while on the road in the car, she couldn’t even tell. It is nothing short of awesome. Unlike other devices that do “noise cancelling” through passive means, the Jawbone applies some active cancellation brainy stuff that really works. I’m actually looking forward to conference calls now, believe it or not.  (quote used without permission)

it's not a cheap unit, but then again the ones people are using aren't cheap either.  this looks like a good alternative.  and by the way people are paying more than suggested retail on ebay for them, it sounds like the claims might be hitting a few nerves with people.  i think i might take a look at one...and no they are not offering me one -- i'm just simply pointing out what looks like a cool device.

i'm sure you've been seeing these television advertisements all over for aol's new video service.  they really have been pushing it a lot.  the ad features ed bundy (c'mon let's be real you don't know his name either) in a public service like announcement...talking about how all this video on the internet goes unwatched each year.  personally i think the approach is a bit tacky (a bit of a mockery for the charity foundations), but maybe that's because i first saw it while watching 'United 93' which was commercial free sponsored by AOL -- i just thought they might have thought of a better topic to display psa-like advertisements than the united movie.

all that aside, i couldn't escape the ads, so today i went for a look.  now i've used google video once, but rarely went back.  since then youtube has been my source for internet video (as i'm sure yours).  soapbox has been winning me over to distribute my own videos, but i think it will take time to get there from a pervasiveness thing.  i do think the quality of videos on soapbox is better (not the quality of the content, but the digital quality).  but all that being said, this was my current paradigm.

so off to video.aol.com i go.  ugh.  horrible.  the ad gave me the impression that it was youtube-ish.  well kinda, but most of it seems to be centered around purchasable content.  and crappy (or to be fair -- not relevant to me) content at that.  here's this one with a title named "hidden camera reveals what buyers think" -- cool i thought i'd see some hidden cameras in some open houses with potential buyers talking crap about the home.  nope, a list of "sell your house" videos.  well the videos very well may have contained that content but at $1.99 per watch i wasn't going to find out.

the layout is horrible for me, and "too much" especially in this era of web <pick-your-version>.0.  it amazes me that aol didn't take all the free research from youtube/google video/soapbox and implement the best product.  (much like i would have hoped microsoft took all the free research about ipod and made a better zune)  right now at best they are an aggregator -- even listing that their videos are coming from other places.  for me, it is unusable.  i'm sticking with youtube.

the only video i found beneficial was this jay leno episode (i would have embedded a player for you but didn't see that option).