2006 January

The Video Review…

I first ran across GotVoice when Download Squad linked to it back in December. I signed up that day and continue to sing the praises of the most useful free add-on to hit the phone market in ages. I hate cell phone voicemail. If I see I missed a call from someone, I return the call, because the hassle of listening to messages takes more time than getting up to speed by simply making a callback. GotVoice intervenes in the process, checks your voicemail and forwards an MP3 to your inbox, keeping your voice mailbox clean and making message playback convenient. In this interview, Chris talks with Curt Blake and Martin Dunsmuir, the President and CEO of GotVoice, about their service, how it works, why it’s free and how it saved his voicemail life too.

Read more on Why Everyone Should be Asking GotVoice?…

Okay, so Jake Ludington is giving away an Xbox 360 this month. I don't wanna link directly to his site right now, though – because I don't wanna be considered a part of his competition. That said, one of Lockergnome's contributing writers is really close to getting Jake's free Xbox (which kinda sounds dirty). Jake's been around for five years and he's celebrating:
“I'm giving away an Xbox 360 Core System bundled with an 12-month Xbox Live Gold Subscription to one lucky individual. I already have the Xbox 360 in my possession, so there's no camping out in line waiting for it to become available. I'm even paying shipping to get the game console from my doorstep to yours. So how can you get the Xbox 360? Simple. Tell your audience about me. Blog about me. Blog about a problem I helped you solve. Call me names in your public forum, if it helps your ego.”
Okay, Jake – you're insane. The standings as of this morning are promising for our Lockergnome faithful (thanks to Glen's contributions on the Xbox, I'd assume):

Read more on Win an Xbox 360…

Tonight on The Chris Pirillo Show we’ll be talking to Jeff Sandquist about evangelizing Windows Vista, trying to pry some MSN Search secrets from Brady Forrest, and getting more insight on Windows community programs from Jed Rose, assuming we can pry any of them away from the Xbox 360 long enough to chat. Buzz Bruggeman, ActiveWords evangelist will be talking about how to take back control of your computer by automating repetitive tasks and we’ll try to convince him to give away a few copies of ActiveWords to people who tune in.

Read more on Windows Evangelism and Automation on 19 January 2006…

We all know how much Chris loves the default Luna theme from Windows XP, so when he found out he was talking to one of the former members of that design team he started sharpening the verbal barbs in anticipation. Chuck Cummins proved to be up for the task and a great dialog developed about philosophies behind a number of design decisions made both historically and as part of the upcoming Windows Vista release. From the Gadgets desktop widget collection to interface appearance decisions, Chris and Chuck maintain an engaging dialog about the surface level stuff we’ll all be staring at for several years following the release of Windows Vista.

Read more on Chuck Cummins on Windows Vista Interface Design…

“Maxthon is the one browser that keeps me from using Firefox.” – Chris Pirillo, 5 January 2006.

That’s not really the first time Chris made that proclaimation, he’s been raving about Maxthon since as far back as 2002, when it was still known as MyIE2. At CES 2006, Chris got a chance to meet the both Jeff, the original developer and founder of Maxthon, and Netanel Jacobsson, Senior VP for Maxthon. As part of this conversation about Maxthon, Chris talks about many of his favorite features, why Maxthon does browsing better than either Firefox or IE and why Maxthon is already a better IE7 than IE7. You’ll hear about a few new Maxthon features from Net and hear a prediction from Chris about the future of browsing on Windows.

Read more on Netanel Jacobsson on Maxthon…

I have the minimum amount of Google software on my system. I can easily live without Google toolbars, Google desktop, Google Earth, Google Screensaver (and, naturally, the Google Pack). Why? Every one of them sports a horrible, horrible UI. Simplicity in Web design does not translate well when it comes to desktop applications. I'm thrilled that Google is empowering internal developers to surface their own ideas and projects. So, here's a suggestion for Google: before any app ever sees the light of day, let the Picasa team do the user interface. Seriously, I consider most Google software a complete joke because of the way it looks (and believe the Google pack is relatively useless). I run Google Talk on my system because I don't like Skype (never have, and likely never will). I run Picasa on my system because it's always been an amazing piece of software – one of Google's smartest acquisitions. Now, if only they'd listen to my advice and unify their user experience – letting the true UI experts (from Picasa) turn Google software from a “don't need it” to a “must have it.”

Read more on Google, Seriously – Clean up your Apps!…

No, seriously. I went upstairs a few minutes ago to change into my pajamas, and noticed that my fly was completely down. This, after having made a trip to the store for food earlier this evening. People were staring at me and pointing, which I've been used to experiencing (with or without the red hair). The kicker is, I tried to help someone else at the store when I first walked in. There was a maroon El Dorado in the parking lot with its lights still on. When I told one of the cashiers about it, she looked at me as though I was nuts (although, now I wonder if she could see my nu… anyway). Isn't that just common courtesy? If someone has done something that should be corrected, shouldn't you do what you can to help ensure it gets corrected? If my fly was down at the store tonight, I would have been embarassed – but not half as much as I am upset if someone saw me and didn't say anything about it.

Read more on XYZ PDQ…

I have a PVR and all the premium movie channel subscriptions for digital cable. What I don't have is a service that IMs me and says what movies are playing on TV at that moment. This way, I could either decide to record the movie (if it notified me early enough) or watch it live. Or, better yet, a Media Center program that told me what movies were playing that month on my movie channels – and I could set it up to record them whenever conflicts weren't happening. Charlie, can ya help me with that one? Shouldn't be too hard to do – since it's done “on demand” by default (which isn't the best way to record upcoming stuff).

Read more on What I Need for my Media Center…

Methinks Nick Bradbury has redefined what RSS stands for – with his release of the first FeedDemon 2.0 beta. I, for one, would request that Nick not leave the house until he's finished coding that thing. I've already sent him a lengthy list of bugs and suggestions, and he's always listened to my feed(demon)back in the past. I've been a NewsGator user from the beginning, but I can forsee myself finally leaping from the Outlook client to a standalone reader – FeedDemon 2.0. Let me see how Nick responds to my list of “must haves” and feature suggestions – and then I'll make up my mind. Wow. Someone'll buy NewsGator based on this program alone. Ten to one says Google bites first (because Microsoft still doesn't understand how much promise this company holds).

Read more on RSS: Really Stupendous Software…

Please, Showtime or ABC – pick up Arrested Development and market the show better than Fox did? There's an audience out there – and we've all been to Sacremende. We all want Oscar to do a podcast, too. This is some of the best writing on television today; few other shows have me laughing out loud with every episode, and I don't think I've ever seen David Cross (or Jason Bateman, for that matter) in a better role. It's a great story line, you have fantastic characters, wonderful actors, and an audience who loves the Bluth family. Fox obviously doesn't understand how good the show is – but the fans do. We'll follow this family wherever they go; I already have a Showtime subscription, but I'd pay double just to see more episodes of Arrested Development.

Read more on Arrested Development…

When there’s a public event involving Xbox 360, you can bet Major Nelson will be on hand. The Major helped man the Xbox portion of the Microsoft booth, offering expertise on Xbox Live in addition to demoing some of the cool gaming offerings. We didn’t get a chance to pit the Major against Chris in an Ali vs. Frasier bout, but he did offer a few tidbits on the state of the state for Xbox 360, expanding on the details about a new manufacturing partner in the console space (announced during the Bill Gates keynote) and some of the details involved in making a game demo live in the Xbox Live marketplace during the keynote event. In my estimation, the big news from CES 2006 is an external HD-DVD player for Xbox 360 announced during the keynote, which means the Xbox team keeps up with the Joneses over at Sony in providing an HD playback experience while also hedging bets that Blu-Ray could still claim the HD shiny disk market.

Read more on Major Nelson at CES 2006…