Saturday, July 26, 2008

ZAGG invisibleSHIELD

So, there's this company called ZAGG. They make the "Invisible Shield", which is an outstanding new product.

As usual, it all starts with the US Military. Story goes they had developed an indestructible plastic cling wrap (the kind you and I would use for sandwiches) to apply to their helicopter blades...not sure what grade meat they make their sandwiches with, but rest assured, the bread will be protected!

My buddy recently ordered and applied Invisible Shields to his camera, Blackberry and iPod Touch. For the cost of a few albums on iTunes, all his devices are now protected from the worst the elements have to serve up (pocket lint, dust, loose change, gravel, sidewalk, etc). Should have taken some pictures of the application process, but alas, I have none.

The Invisible Shields don't hurt your gadgets in the least, and can be removed at any time. With a lifetime warranty, how can you go wrong? These shields let you protect your swag in style...yeah, I used to work in radio, why do you ask?

Anyway, check em out. If I get a new device, I'll definitely want to protect it's multitouch screen...looking at you, Apple. Check out their website for more details and helpful videos, or read a much more detailed review here. They have versions for all your gear, PSPs, iPods, laptops, phones, even the PS3!

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Silverlight vs Mac, Round 2, FIGHT!

Ok, well, I'm calmed down since that last post. And can even offer a little speculative clarity, now that I've done hours of research (Google is my friend).

In the interest of being right all the time, first I have to admit I was wrong. Silverlight does in fact work on the Mac. Long story short, based on what I know now, it looks as though TSN/CTV doesn't have an up to date SDK which contains a better "Silverlight.js" file they need in order for Mac users to not get the beloved "please install Silverlight" screen of death every time. For more on this, check out Tim Heuer's blog on why this file makes peace instead of war. Far be it from me to tell Big Media how to run a web site LOL...but up to date software sounds like good sense, especially in these days where video on the web is as common as spam. And since Silverlight is beta to begin with, those updates are very very important.

Now, whether or not TSN will someday update their Silverlight, who knows. Hopefully for Canadian Mac users/TSN fans, they will soon. Maybe they'll even read this post, and hire me on as Director of Not-making Ourselves Look Ridiculous Online, if such a department exists.

But, I've tested some of the sample sites Microsoft provides links to on the Silverlight page, and they indeed work, in Firefox 3, and Safari, on the Mac. Glory Be.

Nevertheless, at this point I can't say Silverlight is any better than Flash, not sure what the hype is about (I'm not a developer, just a simple content consumer). Microsoft always seems to come in to markets that are already dominated and make outlandish claims about 'innovation' and promising the moon (and delivering a stalled rocket), but because of their massive install base (mostly pirated copies), gain just enough traction to cause these kinds of headaches. We, the end-user, then have to put our lives on hold while web sites around the world try and play nice with MS' new file formats, plugins, 'standards', etc.

My guess is that Silverlight provides the ability to do live event streaming, so TSN would be interested in that, what with their shiny new NHL streaming rights. Well, they better get on the ball, cause right now, their implementation doesn't work. I'd sure hate October to roll around and sure enough, "please install Silverlight"...I need a t-shirt with that on it, after all this.