Excellent Idea: Priceline iPhone App
Here I am set on getting an Android phone and I see this. Very, very cool.
For YEARS I’ve been looking for the solution to being on the roadtrip and getting stuck with ridiculously high prices on Interstate motels.
Back in college I worked in motels in a time when the sophisticated traveler knew that you could haggle on a room price if it was late at night or if you were in a resort area in the off season — it seems like fewer and fewer of the hourly drones behind the counters at chain motels get that freedom.
So, picture this — you’re zipping up on Knoxville, Tennessee, ready to turn in for the night and you hit up your iPhone get a Priceline deal on a 2.5 star motel.
Holy half price, Captain Kirk.
After just last weekend legging it out to make it to hotel rooms that I bought on Priceline before the trip ($45 to stay in Chattanooga, but by the time we got there it was 2 a.m.) I’ve gotta say the Priceline app would be priceless.
Now, here’s hoping an Android app is coming. (Am I getting myself in that situation again? Waiting on the Mac app…waiting on the Android app…)
WIRED Reports on iTV Features I Don’t Care About
So, according to WIRED Blogs: Gadget Lab, maybe it’ll be possible to add some sort of DVR capability to the Apple TV device so that the shows that you want to record using Apple TV as a DVR could be synced with your Mac for storage, since the Apple TV has such a small hard disk. I think I’m getting that right.
Who cares? 
Google Creep
Yes, yes, yes…of course it concerns me that Google is trying to take over the world. But I can’t seem to help it — I keep using Google products. Me, the guy, for political reasons, who has stepped foot only twice in a Wal-Mart over the past eight years — once to return items bought by a project manager I was working with, and another time to buy a microwave pizza for my hotel room in Natchez, MS. That’s it. I understand they have great prices on tires, but I just got a pretty decent price from the guys at the locally-owned Texaco station down the street. (I suppose they have to get their gas from somewhere.)
And, yet, here I am posting documents and spreadsheets to Google Docs. Why? Because of the collaborative features; one of them is an outline for the book I’m working on that the editors back in the home office can check in on so that they can see the lack of progress I’m making toward my deadlines. (I’ve had two good days this weekend, however.) Another is a cash budget spreadsheet we’re using to follow the cash flow of our local film festival, so that the Festival Director, Coordinator, and board members can see what we plan to spend, what we’re spending and what we need to raise. That budget started as an Excel sheet that was mailed to me; in my Gmail account, there’s this handy little link that says “View in Google Spreadsheets.”
I’m weak. I clicked it.
So, yeah, taking over the world, etc. If they just put a dent in Microsoft, though, that would be a start. And I gotta say, the whole “free office applications” thing is mighty tempting to a small business owner…
Product Placement 101 and the Sidekick III
We watched “The Devil Wears Prada” a few nights ago (another Hollywood video pickup at the behest of Ms. D. because I’d failed to get it into my NetFlix queue in time for the weekend) and I couldn’t help but notice that our heroine, throughout the story, is carrying what looks to be a Sidekick III. I, of course, immediately upon seeing the film decided that it’d been too long since I’d obsessed over the possiblity of trading in my Blackberry and proceeded to spend ACTUAL TIME this weekend looking again the T-Mobile pricing plans for the Sidekick III, including the rather appealing prepaid plan (appealing if only because that seems like the easiest way to get rid of it after a few months).
I KNOW that the Sidekick III is too heavy. I feel fairly strongly that it isn’t really Mac-friendly enough, although I haven’t played with the online tools scheduling tools much. I know it’s a toy.
I got a chance to evaluate a Sidekick II a year or so ago when I was working on a book (I think it was the Leo Laporte Mac Gadget Guide) and enjoyed playing with it. I used to tell people that the coolest thing about it’s always-on access for AIM messaging was the fact that I could literally tell if co-workers at the JFP were at their desks by glancing at my Sidekick to see if their messaging was up and running. It also let me “peek in” over their shoulders and drop a quick message from home or lunch or the post office if I had something to mention to them.
Of course, a Treo or Blackberry or pretty much anything could probably do that. The camera is nice but not completely necessary and seeing as how my PRIMARY requirement of any smartphone is that it fits comfortable in the front pocket of my chinos — not weighing the pocket down unnecessary and not fitting into a Bat-holster, since I refuse to wear a utlity belt so as not to reveal my secret identity — then it’s utterly fatuous that I’m looking at the Sidekick III at all.
So what’ the verdict? Prepaid Sim cards are running about $40 on eBay with the phones themselves hovering around $250. The service is $1 a day flat for all online services and $0.15 per call prepaid. There’s something I love about the straightforward pricing. Or, maybe a Sidekick II…cheaper at around $100 on eBay…
Order My Book
Technorati
