Technology

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you already know that I’m crazy about my Sonos system. Time has only increased my love of the product, which is on in our house pretty much non-stop when someone is home. Today I was pointed to a TeardownTV video of Sonos.  It’s definitely geeky, but if you’re into taking a look at what’s under the hood of electronics devices (but like me wouldn’t even consider taking your very own Sonos apart for fear of never getting it back together again) you’ll love it.   For me the video underscores just how well thought out the Sonos system is – there’s an unbelievable amount going on inside the sleek Sonos boxes but it’s…

This is a shameless request for help from anyone out there who has a good Apple connection.  I’m trying to make the switch over to the iPhone.  So far I love it – the interface is great (intuitive in a way that only Apple seems to be able to perfect) and the touch screen typing isn’t nearly the challenge that friends suggested it would be.  There are a few things that I’d love to see improved (dial by name, full inbox delete, longer battery life . . . etc.) but they are minor compared to my major problem – lack of exchange sync. Fortunately this problem is scheduled to be fixed in a release due out this summer.  There’s a…

Yahoo launched a private version of what they are calling FireEagle – a service that allows you to track your location to be shared with applications that build to the FireEagle API – its basically a location “broker” (for self reported location).  I’m a big fan of location based services (we’re investors of IP geo-information company Quova and geo-spatial platform company deCarta), so the idea of a common platform upon which to build location aware applications.  Through Quova, we’re small investors in Navizon who has a similar dev platform to FireEagle. So you can imagine my disappointment when I clicked over to the “application gallery” tab only to find nothing there.  Nothing.  Not a single “this is cool stuff, we’ve…

You know your software has problems when you have to offer a tool like the Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit. The WSPBTK, like its name suggests, stops Windows Update from automatically installing new service packs (and presumably entering into the endless Vista shut-down cycle in the process). Brilliant!   Hat tip to Ross for the pointer.

The thing about being the current platform of record is that all eyes are on you. So when you do something stupid, like co-opting information from around the web into everyone’s Facebook feed without a user’s explicit permission, you get called on the mat for it. Mark Zuckerberg had it right today in his apology for the Beacon debacle when he said: Facebook has succeeded so far in part because it gives people control over what and how they share information. This is what makes Facebook a good utility, and in order to be a good feature, Beacon also needs to do the same. People need to be able to explicitly choose what they share, and they need to be…

Perhaps it’s too cliché to rag on Microsoft Vista, but indulge me for just a minute. Vista – you suck! You reboot my computer constantly and at seemingly any time of day, you don’t work with any of my existing peripherals, you amuse yourself with your endless “i’m thinking now, please go away” circles and seem to revel in turning my inbox opaque and hanging up for minutes on end – especially when I’m in the middle of something important. Today I bought my first Mac in 17 years (my last Mac was the Classic my parents bought for me when I left for college). It’s too early to tell you exactly how much I like it, but so far…

My friend John Kembal recently started a company – HiveLive – that facilitates communication between groups (friends, co-works, clubs, associations, etc.). The system looks like a social networking site, but allows you to upload more relevant information to your “Hive” and control better how you share it (i.e., its both a personal organization tool as well as a tool for communicating and sharing ideas across a group of people – kind of a cross between a blog, social network and wiki). They are in beta, but John has set up a site for VC Adventure readers to sign up – http://hivelive.com/join/vcadventure (click on the link and you’ll be taken to the sign-up page). You can e-mail me or John with…