I often find myself in the situation where there are too many simultaneous data transfers going on over my Wi-Fi at home: I’ll be watching a TV show on my Apple TV (which streams from the Drobo, see this post for details), transferring media to the Drobo, doing a large svn or git checkout, all of this while Time Machine is wirelessly backing up the Mac.

At this point I’ll often decide to stop the ongoing backup, knowing it will start again an hour later when there is less going on. So far so good. What’s less good is that when Time Machine is doing a very large backup, say 20 gigs, I know I will need to stop it every hour for a while and I’ll sometimes disable it with the intent of re-enabling it once all of the data transfers are done. Read the rest of this entry »
©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

As we consume utilities, for example water or electricity, we pay for the quantity we consume based on a generally fixed rate per unit. For internet consumption or cable TV however, we still pay by subscription plans. Regardless of how little we use, we pay a minimum service. Most telecommunication companies have been adding insult to injury by applying no discounts for consuming very little but still plenty of stiff charges for overages.

Virgin Mobile is apparently breaking the mold and launching a pay as you go mobile broadband plan.  Though this is still in the early stages, we have to applaud the effort as it seems to be heading in a direction where the consumer’s interests are better met than in the current mobile market.
©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

What were the highlights of this weeks’ news in Etilities? Let’s take a look.

Forget what you thought you knew about the XBox 360

This was E3 week, and from an Etilities standpoint Microsoft seems to be doing the most for me. First, it is planing yet another XBox Live expansion that boasts Netflix browsing, Twitter and Facebook integration, and 1080p streaming. On top of that, you will also be able to download full retail games on demand straight to your XBox. Finally, it announced a new control system called ‘Project Natal‘, which will basically allow you to control your XBox… without a controller. I don’t know about you, but I can think of plenty of applications for this kind of technology.

Hulu may start charging users

There are rumors (well sourced, but still just rumors at this point) that Hulu is looking into new models where customers would be charged for the content that they watch. I for one would be OK with that, but according to numerous polls out there I’m definitely in the minority:

• This Lifehacker Poll shows 70% of the users saying they absolutely would not do it
• This EngadgetHD Poll shows that 76% of the users are also saying absolutely not

Google wants YouTube to look good on your TV

Google has released its new ‘YouTube XL‘, which is basically a cleaner, lighter interface that aims to look good full screen (for example on a TV monitor, hint hint). Hulu released a very similar interface last week with seemingly the same goal called ‘Hulu Desktop‘.

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

Links for Friday, May 29 2009:

• AT&T / Cingular class action gets go ahead from federal court [www.engadget.com]
• Verizon Says It Won’t Give Refunds To Storm Victims Left Without Phone Service [Stingy] [feeds.gawker.com]
• Sprint affirms Palm Pre exclusivity “through 2009″ [www.engadget.com]

These links were generated by the the etilities.com Wire, and they can be filtered based on your personal technology profile. For more information, sign up at http://assistant.etilities.com/signup

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

The Senate is apparently looking into shady practices of companies like Webloyalty or Vertrue. The complaint is that when consumers visit common sites such as Orbitz, Petco, Priceline and others, pop-up links offering “cash-back” often lure them into $9-$12 monthly fees without their explicit knowledge.  The Better Business Bureau has been receiving large amounts of complaints about these companies and their practices. As a response, Congress has increased pressure on the the offenders and demanded that they come explain themselves to Jay Rockefeller’s (D-WV) Senate Commerce Committee.  We applaud Congress’ effort to bring transparency to these practices.
©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Links for Thursday, May 28 2009:

• 100Mbps Comcast Coming Soon? [Rumor] [feeds.gawker.com]
• To Bing or not to Bing? Hands on with Microsoft’s new search [feeds.arstechnica.com]
• Google Wave unveiled, new live chat medium for browsers, iPhone and Android [www.engadget.com]
• Some of Google’s services may ditch their perpetual beta tag [feeds.arstechnica.com]
• Hulu Desktop app puts a remote control friendly face on for Macs & PCs [feedproxy.google.com]

These links were generated by the the etilities.com Wire, and they can be filtered based on your personal technology profile. For more information, sign up at http://assistant.etilities.com/signup

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

Links for Wednesday, May 27 2009:

• Evernote for Mac Gets Quick Look and HTML Export [feedproxy.google.com]
• Verizon Widens Availability of Its Fastest DSL-Enabled High Speed Internet Service [newscenter.verizon.com]
• AT&T to Deliver 3G Mobile Broadband Speed Boost (AT&T) [www.techmeme.com]
• TiVo Posts Loss as Revenue Sags [online.wsj.com]

These links were generated by the the etilities.com Wire, and they can be filtered based on your personal technology profile. For more information, sign up at http://assistant.etilities.com/signup

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