When we at Gallop started trying to define the set of services that constituted personal technology, we struggled with video games because the industry is so focused on products: you have to buy specific hardware in order to play your games. But it looks like this is about to change.

For the last seven years, startup OnLive has been quietly developing a cloud gaming service that removes hardware from the equation. The idea is that OnLive’s remote servers do all of the heavy lifting. You send them the input from your keyboard, mouse and various controllers, and they send you back the display. It’s a very similar concept to using other cloud services such as GMail or Remember the Milk: you simply interface with the remote system, which does all of the work. Engadget covered the live demo of the service and found it quite promising.

OnLive is planning to have a Beta program later this year (many speculate that it will be this summer), and since we’ve signed up for it, with any luck we’ll be able to give you a closer look.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

You might have heard the Apple announcement of the iPhone’s 3.0 Operating System on Tuesday. The slew of new features is lengthy, but the question is: will any of it help you save money? The answer seems to be: yes, potentially.

First, the Tethering capability of the 3.0 OS is huge. What this means is that you’ll be able to use your iPhone as a modem. A couple of uses there:

1. If you already had an internet dial-up connection “just in case”, you may be able to ditch it provided that you get good cell reception at home.
2. If you want to be connected everywhere you go with your laptop, you’d have to get a USB wireless modem card, and they go for about $200. So by using your iPhone instead, you’re saving quite a bit of money up front.

One thing to consider about tethering though is that you will likely need to pay a bit more for on AT&T plan to have this capability. Some sources estimate that extra charge to be around $30.

Second, the push notificaton mechanism finally being complete will make VOIP a more viable option, provided you’re connected to a wi-fi network. Push notifications basically allow third party apps to notify your phone when certain events happen. For example: you’re receiving a VOIP phone call. Since 3rd party apps are not allowed to run in the background, this will solve the existing simple problem of: when do I know someone’s calling me.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

We all know about and likely have suffered from the long term contracts we sign with our cell providers.  When we walk into cell phone stores, we may come out with a working cell phone and a contract committing us to a relationship with the carrier for often two years or more.  One of the main reasons for these long term contracts is that the providers of services such as Verizon (Etilities Forum), AT&T (Etilities Forum), T-Mobile (Etilities Forum), and others subsidize cell phones from manufacturers like BlackBerry, Apple, or even Google.  As such, carriers need the security of having long term contracts to ensure they recover their subsidy of the cell phones themselves.  Within the technology world, this model has primarily applied only to cell phones, but that appears to be about to change.

Laptop costs have been diminishing drastically, some to as low as a few hundred dollars.  In order to adapt, Verizon is rumored to be partnering with HP to build a similar subsidy model for laptops.  In this model, Verizon would offer its Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) – commonly known as cellular broadband – to transfer data and provide access to the internet.  In doing so, Verizon would subsidize the cost of the laptop to a yet undetermined but attractive price.  This model is likely to fundamentally change the way we look at computers: as the industry increasingly turns to Software-as-a-Service models, this will tend to completely eliminate the product being the middle man in between the consumer and the service.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

A year and a half after acquiring voice service Grand Central, Google is now officially re-launching it as Google Voice.  The premise of the service is the ability to centrally manage all of your voice communications. It lets you ring multiple phones with a single number, transcribes voicemails into text, makes all text messages searchable, and even lets you make free calls to anywhere in the US.

The last time Google went after a communication medium, it was Gmail, and given how wildly successful and innovative that service has been, we can only expect great things from Google Voice.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

As we were researching Comcast (Etilities Forum) and its DOCSIS 3.0 service, or for those of you who had to look it up, their “Fastest Fast” service, we ran across something fairly unusual.  In searching for the availability of Comcast at our location, the company returned the following message:   “Comcast is not a provider in your area, [...] Maybe you should move to a place where you can get Comcast.”  There are many reasons to move: new jobs, significant others, family, cost of living, adventures…but Comcast?  We do have to appreciate their sense of humor!  

After all, if you are a speed junky and are looking for one of their plans including the “Ultra” 22Mbps plan running for $63 or the “Extreme” 50Mbps for $140 we’ll be the last ones to say anything.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Roku, the $99 device that allows users to stream Netflix (Etilities Forum) movie content directly from the internet to your TV just announced its support for Amazon Video-On-Demand. The support will offer access to Amazon’s library of 40,000 movies and TV shows surpassing Netflix’ online arsenal. This growing competition for online content between Amazon, iTunes (Etilities Forum) and Netflix can only benefit customers like you by improving the selection and availability of content and driving costs down.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Blockbuster (Etilities Forum) today lost 77% of its stock value when reports came out that it hired the law firm Kirkland & Ellis to help the company prepare for bankruptcy.  The reports were strongly denied by a Blockbuster spokesperson.  While acknowledging the hiring of the firm as consultant for its financing strategy, the company stated that bankruptcy was not an option it was pursuing.  We’ve documented for some time some of the growth of its competitor Netflix (Etilities Forum) and the innovation around streaming that it has implemented and future plans along streaming media.  While we are in no place to comment on the strategies of Blockbuster, we do support the company’s efforts to evaluate its options for it seems that in this changing economy, the status-quo would not be an option.  True or not, this rumor has damaged the stock and possibly tarnished Blockbuster.  As an already tarnished company, can it survive this even if the reports turn out to be false?

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.