OtterBox Commuter and Commuter TL comparison

A few weeks ago, we reviewed the OtterBox Commuter TL for iPhone (3G or 3GS), comparing it favorably to the OtterBox Defender, which we also reviewed, back in mid 2009.

OtterBox has since come out with a set of colored shells for its original Commuter series, and a few people have asked about the difference in the Commuter TL vs original Commuter cases.

Here's a brief run-down of the differences:

Protection (outer case). The Commuter TL has an outer shell that spans the whole back of the iPhone, from top to bottom, but does not protect the sides with any rigid material, relying instead on the rubberized casing.  The original Commuter has more of a slip-case design, protecting the back and the lower 2/3 of the iPhone's sides.

In addition, the Commuter TL uses a clear plastic outer shell, which protects the Apple logo on the back, while still allowing it to be viewed if one is looking straight on at the back of the iPhone. By contrast, the Commuter has an opening slightly larger than the apple, meaning the logo area is not protected.

Colors. The Commuter TL has a single-color neoprene soft shell, and the clear rigid shell on the back. The Commuter offers a two-tone option, as seen in the picture above. The base neoprene shell is black, while the rigid protective shell is colored.


Commuter colors are sold in "kits" that contain a standard black rigid shell, plus two interchangeable color options. Kits include the following options: Blue/Yellow, White/Green, Red/Grey.

We tested the Blue/Yellow color kit, with the blue options for both the Commuter and the Commuter TL shown in the picture above. We also tested the yellow, which stood out well in most situations, including being easily identifiable when dropped in a snow drift from the freak snowstorm that came through last week.

All in all, I think the color kit combinations are a great option for those who want to change up the color or style on any given day. I personally prefer the Commuter TL better, given the single-color / clear combination, as well as the fact that the rubberized sides have a better grip in my iPhone car dock.

The great news is that OtterBox offers choices in the Commuter line, regardless of your needs and color fashion sense. More information is available on both options at www.otterbox.com

Vevo launch countdown, another major label added to the mix

In an article I wrote this morning for streamingmedia.com, I mentioned uncertainty as to whether Vevo (under its Universal Music Group / Vivendi ownership) will get to its goal of having all four major labels on board by the time it launches tomorrow, December 8, 2009.

Apparently, in an early morning tweet, Universal announced that EMI is now on board.

Also, Peter Kafka, of MediaMemo, stated that Lala.com went for about $80 million, rather than the $35 million he'd initially projected. He says appears Warner didn't get back any of the write-down that it had done a few months ago (writing down approximately $11 million of its initial $20 million investment).

Review: IntelliScanner Mini

So, based on the potential and limitations of the SOHO small office scanner from IntelliScanner, we asked to review the Intelliscanner mini.

The mini can hold up to 150 scans before needing to be connected to a Macintosh computer (OS X 10.4, 10.5, 10.6) to have its scans downloaded.

"The mini includes media software for organizing books, CDs, DVDs and video games, wine software for organizing your wine bottles, comic software for comic books, kitchen software for organizing groceries and our home assets software for organizing or inventorying items in your home for insurance purposes like furniture and electronics," a company representative stated when asked about the features of the mini.

"The mini's software, noted above, includes the web app for sharing collections online or viewing them on an iPhone as part of the publish feature. Except for the kitchen software.

The lack of an iPhone publishing feature for the kitchen software is odd, as that particular software is able to make up grocery lists, one of the prima facie reasons for owning a PDA or pocket computer.

EPiX's Rensing: Bandwidth Not A Concern

Emil Rensing, Chief Digital Officer of EPiX, keynoted at this week's Streaming Media West 2009 event.

While the full coverage of his keynote can be found here, one question asked in the Q&A session stood out:

"How is the bandwidth problem going to be solved," an audience member asked, "since there are threats of throttles and caps by the cable and telecom ISPs?"

"This inflection point we're in means alot of experimentation and change," said Rensing, who dubs EPiX as TV Everywhere, available today. "My baseline belief is that it's a short-term problem, because within the next decade we'll see all content available at all fidelities on all devices."

While this projection has been made by numerous players in the space, it's worth noting due to EPiX lineage (Paramount, Lionsgate, and MGM are joint owners of the company) and the fact that it serves Verizon's FiOS and may be doing the same with AT&T's U-Verse in the near term.

Hacking the Xbox

When Mark Whitten, General Manager of Microsoft's Xbox LIVE, spoke at today's Streaming Media West 2009, he was asked about the ability to Xbox community to legally hack an Xbox.

"I am going to agree with you but in a slightly different way," Whitten said to the questioner who identified himself as a Linux user that wanted to get 'under the hood' and change things. "The community should be able to change the experience, but it may not be people writing lines of source code. The ability to share experiences and change things such as vehicles or levels is already in place on various gaming platforms."

"I believe that consistency and simplicity are very important," Whitten continued, "which doesn't mean heavy-handed dev control, but does mean we need to start with the 'mom' button instead of the 'hacker' button."

Perspective: Blame it on video

"Internet traffic is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 46 percent. Video is the driver. Make no question about that."

Robert Pepper, Cisco
Internet Governance Forum conference

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.11b0df967c4c85298aa30205bd42846a.01&show_article=1



iPhoned

Adobe announces Flash Player 10.1, AIR 2.0 beta

At Adobe MAX 2009, held in Los Angeles back in October, Adobe's CTO announced the features for an upcoming point upgrade to Flash Player 10.

"We've begun working with 19 of the 20 top handset manufacturers, "said Kevin Lynch, Adobe's CTO, "to bring Flash Player 10.1 support to these mobile platforms."

Lynch meant that all the top handset manufacturers (except Apple, of course, with its non-Flash iPhone) will be able to run full Flash content on their smartphones.

"This provides a consistent runtime across desktops and mobile devices," said Lynch, "and is supported by close to 50 participants in the Open Screen Project, including support Google Android, Blackberry, Symbian, Palm webOS and Windows Mobile."

Within the Open Screen Media Framework (OSMF), Flash Player 10.1 is the first fully-compliant player, and is available as of today as a beta on Adobe Labs.

Adobe is looking to introduce HTTP streaming, coupled with content protection from its forthcoming Flash Access 2.0.


Jen Taylor, who spoke to Bit O' Tech just prior to the IBC show in September, also spoke at MAX about the impending solution.

"To date, you can choose RTMP streaming or progressive download," said Taylor, Adobe's Director of Flash Content Creation and Distribution. "We're also rolling out HTTP streaming, starting in 2010, due to feedback from customers who wanted to leverage their existing HTTP infrastructure."

Taylor said it made sense for customers to consider the Open Screen implementations.

"It's more complicated than it looks to overlay text, images or even Flash (SWF) files over Flash video," said Taylor. "In the end, everyone was re-inventing the wheel, and we saw this as an opportunity to solve an issue for everyone."

The framework allows for parallel playback of content (two videos side by side), text overlays, image overlays and other options.

"We found that many also were spending too much time on analytics," said Taylor, shortly after Adobe's acquisition of Omniture was announced. "What they really wanted to do, instead, was to spend the time focusing on customer experience."

"We worked with the community to identify partners to integrate in to the OSMF," said Taylor. "One of those was Omniture, but there are 40 others we are working to integrate."

Adobe also announced the release of Adobe AIR 2.0 beta, which uses the Flash Player engine to drive video content for offline or desktop delivery.