tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-267056042009-07-19T12:07:44.956-04:00Some rants, some tech, some random thoughts...Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-61933201807260435712009-07-19T11:46:00.006-04:002009-07-19T12:07:39.711-04:00

As a long-time customer of eMusic, I feel like eMusic has sold its soul to the devil by changing its subscription model in exchange for the Sony Music catalog. Seeing higher prices per song is disappointing, but not surprising. eMusic's amazing pricing plans were inevitably going to change to attract bigger labels, and I think eMusic customers could have lived with that. Even limiting the number

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-80305291531466681062009-01-14T13:57:00.007-05:002009-01-14T14:22:38.129-05:00

CES this year was exhausting, loud, and slightly less crowded, but nonetheless interesting. I used Twitter to quickly post information about my experience.WhatImpressesMeGreat seat near front center section at Balmer keynote. #ces09WhatAnnoysMeI'd be a lot happier now if I had taken time to eat before the keynote. #ces09WhatAnnoysMeFirst night of the show, and I already forgot to have some cards

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-54715676959358175532009-01-05T22:00:00.014-05:002009-01-14T15:48:51.913-05:00

RICHARD GUNTHERIn 2007, Digeo announced plans to launch a consumer DVR, which I reviewed for CNET at CES. Then just one year later, with no product to market, Digeo significantly reorganized, refocused, and suspended their plans for a consumer DVR. Or did they? A/V geeks like me have been watching the progress of the Moxi digital video recorder for years now. Digeo, the company behind Moxi for

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-44789305695916363422008-12-12T00:53:00.018-05:002009-01-01T01:40:03.105-05:00

RICHARD GUNTHERNearly three years ago at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, Bill Gates unveiled a deal with DirecTV that would open Windows Media Center to a whole new market—satellite customers. Two agonizing years later at CES 2008, DirecTV quietly released news about their two-tuner interface for Media Center. But just days ago, DirecTV announced it is suspending further development of this

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-40523648753680736002008-12-10T08:34:00.012-05:002008-12-12T09:05:09.880-05:00

Nearly every other software application I've used that's built by Kodak misses the mark, so why am I surprised and disappointed that this is no exception? With so many good examples out there, it's hard to understand how anyone—let alone a billion-dollar company—could mess up an iPhone picture viewer. There are kids out there writing web-based iPhone photo apps that run on private servers yet

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-53439598451998515882008-11-28T15:26:00.004-05:002008-11-28T15:31:13.528-05:00

I love that D.C. sends alerts to my phone and e-mail account. I just wish they didn't seem like they were written by someone without any education. From today:DDOT reports at 295 Southbound  there’s a two vehicle accident with injuries all lanes are block at this time and all on coming traffic is Being rerouted on to East Capitol St.If I were grading this in English class, I'd mark seven problems

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-80236576809171064372008-07-15T01:10:00.002-04:002008-07-15T01:14:15.076-04:00

I just received your "open letter" about oil prices. I'll tell you what: when you start providing accountable customer service again, stop gouging for basic flight benefits like baggage and snacks, and start demonstrating in even the slightest way that you care about your customers' comfort and satisfaction...then and only then will I give a crap about how this short-term turn in fuel prices has

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-54205047192186685632008-04-05T18:15:00.008-04:002008-04-05T18:51:45.737-04:00

Parking is at a premium in D.C.'s busy Georgetown shopping district, so the local Chevy Chase Bank posts clear and reasonable restrictions on the parking available for its customers. Oh...the car parked behind the sign? That's an official vehicle from the Parking Enforcement division of the District of Columbia's Department of Public Works. It's parked there. And the bank was closed at the time

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-58191183496673781962008-03-23T21:45:00.003-04:002008-03-23T21:48:54.929-04:00

I thought I should share with you why I just canceled my classmates.com membership. I've been using classmates.com since 2002--long before social networking, as it were, really took off. Between now and then, many other online services have launched that offer similar or better services. Most of these, like Plaxo and LinkedIn, facilitate networking without requiring paid membership to access key

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-23826468672475813942008-03-08T13:56:00.010-05:002009-01-01T09:36:16.730-05:00

After finally giving up on the Sheraton Stamford, I strayed from my Starwood roots to stay at Marriott's Courtyard Stamford Downtown earlier this week. I was surprised and delighted to find the room appointed with many perks, including an LG high definition LCD TV, and a desktop interface with power, communication, and media connections galore!Check out the options here:4 outlets, specifically

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-17900739991720294572008-03-06T01:37:00.007-05:002008-03-06T23:05:07.226-05:00

Overall, what did you like best about your stay with us?There is coffee in the room and the tub is clean (which was not true last time) How could we improve your overall stay?I'm a Gold member of [the Starwood Preferred Guest program]. Treat me like one. Let me know what benefits I'm getting. Apologize if (like tonight) you can't put me in a preferred room. Did our employees take care of you in a

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-65698883176722703212008-02-11T23:51:00.000-05:002008-02-12T01:01:19.049-05:00

I am enormously disappointed to see Netflix abandon its HD DVD customers in favor of supporting just the Blu-ray format. Clearly Blu-ray looks like the inevitable winner in the wake of confusion left by this unfortunate format war. However, many consumers invested in HD DVD hardware over the past year or so [I’m included in that lot]. This decision by Netflix to stop stocking discs in the HD DVD

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-15231596869935741442008-02-07T00:06:00.000-05:002008-02-07T08:39:23.669-05:00

After months of liquidation, CompUSA's operations will cease this Friday. Analysts are debating the cause of the company's demise, but there’s really no mystery here. CompUSA failed for two main reasons:(1) Their customer service sucked. I can’t tell you how many times I wrote to or spoke with CompUSA’s unapologetic management about the poor customer service in their stores. Staff were often

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-56445909582987885352008-01-15T22:48:00.000-05:002008-01-19T00:32:26.924-05:00

OK, so let's quickly review my Macworld predictions and see how I did....Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac releases - check; it wasn't a surprise to anyone, but it happened today nonetheless. Of course, this was a no-brainer.New features for existing iPhones and discussion about the iPhone SDK - check; Apple pushed another iPhone (and iPod Touch) update today that adds great new features to the

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-24059450412468906222008-01-14T07:10:00.000-05:002008-01-15T22:48:20.570-05:00

PowerCast demonstrated wireless power at this year's CES, showing how up to a watt of energy can be "broadcast" and received by various devices. While this isn't an entirely new concept, this company seems to be best positioned to do something useful with it. This is nothing like the induction charging you may have seen on razors and toothbrushes. PowerCast's technology harnesses energy from an

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-90756918611419689182008-01-10T23:12:00.000-05:002008-01-11T00:40:42.004-05:00

Yesterday DirecTV started officially talking about its upcoming new PC tuner. At CES, product sheets outlined the features of a stand-alone, USB-connected, two-tuner device called the HDPC-20 (think external CableCard tuner). Specifically, this product provides significant new options for Media Center and DirecTV customers alike. It delivers DirecTV HD content to Windows Vista Media Center,

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-26660356905692104742008-01-09T13:27:00.000-05:002008-01-15T00:24:23.927-05:00

SmartLabs, the company behind the INSTEON home automation technology, is noteably absent at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. In the space listed as their booth--the largest in the Home Automation section--stands...nothing. Vast emptiness. Hopefully it's not indicative of anything going on at the company.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-30180729903917729912008-01-08T11:22:00.000-05:002008-01-15T00:26:15.708-05:00

From the floor of CES this year, the single most interesting item to me so far is Logitech's new Harmony One remote. After years of industrial design mis-steps, it appears that the Harmony line is back on track with this great new device. It looks great, it feels great, and, from my initial hands-on experience, it seems to remedy every annoying quirk I've disliked in recent models. Expect it in

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-57192593140169583002008-01-06T01:25:00.000-05:002008-01-06T01:26:40.371-05:00

As I'm packing to leave for CES, I thought I'd jump ahead a little and throw my chips on the table with my own predictions for Macworld announcements. Yes, you read it right--not CES...Macworld. Here's what I think we'll see this year at Macworld:Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac releasesNew features for existing iPhones and discussion about the iPhone SDKNo announcements of new iPhones, except

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-66264403963586298522007-12-06T07:36:00.000-05:002007-12-09T11:26:02.996-05:00

Many of my friends who know I purchased an iPhone when it was first available have again been asking me how I like it, now that I've had it for a while. The short answer to that question is, "I love it." Sure, it has its shortcomings, but it's hands-down the best phone I've ever owned, it's the best iPod I've ever owned, and it's not a bad PDA. I love that I can carry just one device now. I don't

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-28031677893452121822007-12-05T21:43:00.000-05:002007-12-05T23:10:38.027-05:00

I'm frustrated and disappointed that NBC has decided to walk away from iTunes--the leading online store for purchasing TV episodes to watch on a mobile device. While I'm sure the executives have everyone convinced that this was the right move, I believe that it was short-sighted. Like many, many other consumers, I have no interest in purchasing television content that I cannot take with me on my

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-69194502682603708322007-11-13T08:11:00.000-05:002007-11-13T08:26:52.382-05:00

[I] love the implementation of Amazon.com for the iPhone. LOVE it! It's  clean and concise--reminds me a little of iTunes on the iPhone. I hope to see add-to-wishlist functionality soon, as I'm more likely to add something to my wishlist while on-the-go than to actually buy it.- RichardFrequent Amazon customer and Amazon Prime memberSent from my iPhone

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-74123799550801634202007-09-15T10:37:00.000-04:002007-09-15T10:50:46.890-04:00

I recently stayed at a Westin Hotel and encountered numerous problems in my room. After reporting the issues to the front desk, I was comped with a generous number of Starwood points, and received a personal e-mail message from the hotel's front office manager. This was my reply.Thank you. I truly appreciate you doing right by your customers, and I will accept your offer to try [your] Westin

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-21355368682981367642007-09-03T18:49:00.000-04:002007-09-03T18:59:54.608-04:00

Apparently, NBC Universal thinks that consumers should pay more than the going rate of $1.99 per episode to download single episodes of television shows...as much as $4.99!Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. HA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!Wow...they just really don't get it, do they?

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26705604.post-87010901818059712922007-08-26T11:41:00.000-04:002007-08-26T12:05:56.724-04:00

I love Amazon Unbox video downloads for TiVo. When Amazon first unveiled Unbox, I was leery of its proprietary desktop playback solution. I don’t want to watch a movie at my computer. I want to sit back and use my remote—I don’t want to have to fumble clumsily with my mouse for some soft pause button hidden who-knows-where on the screen.Unbox on TiVo solves this problem. I can go online anywhere

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16645574186227294881noreply@blogger.com0