Life & Technology

Ran into Ronan Keating at the studio this morning and it turns out he likes his gadgets too. He never leaves home without his portable iMac netbook so he can Skype his kids back home in Dublin.

I took a Sony Ericsson Aino mobile handset into the show today. We all know that mobile phones are becoming more and more functional with a huge array of different applications. But Sony Ericsson has sync’ed with Sony CE so that the unit has a Remote Play feature, which allows you to connect to your PS3 via your handset. This means you can access content on the hard drive of your PC remotely.

Spoke with Brendan, who was wondering about the iMac and how good it was. I’ve used one in the past, and do like the unit. One of the only criticisms I have is that there is no blu ray player component to it.

Deborah called and was having problems with her Linksys wireless modem not working to her sat. You really have to check the settings and check the instructions. It could also be a faulty product, in which case I’d check out the warranty and make sure you have kept the receipt!

When telling everyone I know in the world about how I picked ‘shocking’ for a win on the Melbourne Cup yesterday I was immediately asked “How did you do it?” Was there a website, a formula, an App, a freeware picker? How did I do it?

Sure, I looked at downloading the Melbourne Cup App from the App Store for iPhone. However after reading the reviews I decided that unless I was going to be at the track then the App would have no value at all. So it wasn’t an App.

The web? Well, apart from showing the latest odds on TAB and a rough form guide on the various news websites I didn’t get the winners name from there.

Infact there was no technology that aided my decision. It was the old rule of superstition. The Jockey who rode Shocking was named Corey Brown. C. Brown, the same name as me, and when I am deciding where to direct $1 on an each way bet, that is good enough for me!

Til next year and another Melbourne Cup.

The ‘Flip’ is an all new personal video recorder, designed to make it easy to video, edit and post your video’s online. The hype on this product over the last few months has been deafening, but me, Um I don’t see what all the fuss is all about.

I love technology, and it usually excites me. However, from the very moment Cisco bought the company that made the Flip, right up to it’s local press event last night. I don’t get it.

It’s a video camera, and it’s not the first of its kind to do what it does. Creative released one years ago called the Vado, so it’s nothing new. It costs around $300, which means you can get a Samsung HD Omnia on a $50 plan and get a much better device.

Cisco, the global networking company bought the company that made the Flip for US$590 million earlier this year. I guess they are planning to sell a bunch of these things, but I think I’d stick to HD Omnia or something similar.