Had a great meal at Emeral’s last night. I had the Lobster Bienville, which is a Two Pound Maine Lobster stuffed with House Cured Bacon, Aromati
c Vegetables and Spinach in a Rich Velouté Sauce.
Emeral’s is located in the MGM Grand which is an incredible place.
Our first night in Vegas was great. Now off to work!
Well I am sitting at Logan airport waiting to board a flight to fabulous Las Vegas. The one aspect of my job that I enjoy is that I get to do a lot of traveling and this is the first of many trips this year. This is going to be a pretty busy year for me. Already scheduled are trips to Miami, Houston, Scottsdale, and 3 or 4 cities in Canada.
I love going to Vegas and hopefully this will be another fun trip…
I was reading a story today regarding the iPhone and how folks should wait until the 2nd generation of the unit is released. While the first generation might not have everthing we want. The fact of the matter is that we really don’t know what the final product will look like.
Like everyone else we are basing our information on the presentation that Steve Jobs gave in January as well as a few first hand accounts of folks that have used the engineering units. Does the device have shortcomings? Well I guess that all depends on what you use it for. I, for one, do not think that this is geared toward the enterprise or corporate customer.
My initial impression is that this is geared more toward the casual user who wants to combine an iPod and cell phone so they don’t have to carry two devices. If you talk to most people today they don’t know the difference between 3G or EDGE. They want a device that they can make calls on. This is the perfect device for that. Think about this, how many people do you know that have devices that have data capabilities and they don’t have a data plan or even know that their devices are capable of these services. I bet that number is high.
As an example, I have two teenagers and they could care less if they can surf the net at breakneck speeds. They want to be able to take pictures, talk on the phone, listen to music, and send text messages. This is what they, as well as their friends,thrive on. BTW they both carry iPods too!
I’ll go one better. The company that I work for has a very large sales force and most of these folks just want a device that they can use to get their mail, schedule, and make calls. They are not concerned with the speed they just want it to work. Of course there are always the power users out there but they are the exception to the rule and they are in the minority. I know that this is hard for some reviewers because they have never worked in a corporate setting but this is the fact of the matter.
As tech writers I believe that we lose site of what the average consumer is looking for. We are used to reviewing and using the latest and greatest technology and forget that most people are not like us. We tend to grade these device more harshly because they don’t have the power or the features that we like or are accustomed to.
The bottom line is we don’t know what the final device will look like from a feature standpoint and we can speculate all we want until the device is released. But in the end it really does not matter what we think about the device. The success or failure of the device will be determined by the number of units sold.
iLounge covers all thing iPod and they have just started their latest contest: Wallpaper Yourself an iPhone, Apple TV, or iPod!
Everyone loves desktop background art (aka wallpaper): after years of 
submissions, we now have over 450 pieces of art in our Desktop/Wallpaper Art Gallery. Now we’re looking to expand it – and cover the latest and greatest iPod models. So we’re announcing our latest art contest: “Wallpaper Yourself an iPhone, Apple TV, or iPods.”
The rules are simple: create a high-resolution (1600 wide x 1200 tall) piece of desktop wallpaper featuring any current iPod model – the second-generation iPod shuffle, the second-generation iPod nano, or the fifth-generation iPod (with video) – plus the iLounge.com name. Other than the iLounge name and the image of the iPod, the work must be entirely your original creation, and created for this contest. Photographs and artwork are both acceptable, however, art is strongly preferred. We’ll pick our three favorite pieces of wallpaper to win one of the following three prizes.
Grand Prize: One Apple iPhone* ($499, 4GB). We’ll help one lucky winner buy Apple’s combination cell phone, widescreen iPod, and Internet device – we’ll supply the funds for the iPhone; the cell phone contract is your responsibility.
Second Prize: One Apple TV ($299, 40GB). Enjoy iTunes-managed audio, video, and photo content on your widescreen TV with the new Apple TV device.
Third Prize: One iPod nano ($199, 4GB) and one iPod shuffle ($79, 1GB) in the winner’s choice of colors.
Once again even sites that dislike and don’t understand Apple products are publicizing this contest!
So head on over to iLounge and get your entry in.
The Mobile Phone fan brings up an intersting point
“Why MVPs with recent contributions older than one year are still holders of MVP in Windows Mobile area?”
Just something to ponder……
Rev-up your notebook with the new VX Revolution. Logitech´s innovative MicroGear Precision Scroll Wheel lets you fly through long documents at hyperspeed, or switch to precise click-to-click scrolling to 
navigate lists, slides, and image collections. Search the Web by highlighting a word or phrase and pressing the Search button. Effortlessly zoom in and out of photos, spreadsheets, and documents with the convenient zoom slider.
Personally I prefer Bluetooth, no dongle to mess with, but if your looking for a cool mouse that, does just about everything, your search is over.
For more info on this mouse check out the Logitech website here
There is a pretty in-depth review of this device that the folks from Hardware Secrets put out. The review is available here
At first glance Canon’s new 7.1 megapixel PowerShot TX1 digital camera looks familiar…pocket-sized, stainless steel case with textured accents and enough cutting-edge photo technology to make one wonder how they got all that functionality into that deck of playing cards-sized package. Indeed, this compact camera fits in just as well at a football game or a family function; in a small evening bag for a night on the town, or the pocket of a dress shirt, and is as much at home on a business trip as it is on a hard-earned weekend getaway. 
At second glance, the mystery of how they got all that functionality into that really small space deepens. Augmented by a simple press of the power button – this digital camera comes alive and the family resemblance to not one, but many of Canon’s crowning camera achievements becomes immediately apparent…a stainless-steel barrier on the camera’s leading-edge slides away to unleash the PowerShot TX1 digital camera’s formidable (and optically image-stabilized) 10x optical zoom lens that glides smoothly from its resting place into the open air. Unfold a simple yet securely hinged housing, and an 115,000-pixel Vari-Angle LCD screen is freed to swivel camcorder-like from the PowerShot TX1 digital camera’s side.
For more information visit Cannon
