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This is it. Say goodbye to 2008…and to all those bad habits. Wipe the slate clean. Knock out those resolutions! What? You never follow through with your New Years’ resolutions? Get some help! stickK is a website that promotes healthier and happier living by enabling its users to form Commitment Contracts. That’s right…a financial obligation to succeed. stickK was co-founded by Dean Karlan, an Economics Professor at Yale. The idea is based on two simple principles of behaviorial economics: [1] people don’t always do what they claim they want to do, and [2] incentives get people to do things. Check out the stickK FAQs for more info on how this site works.
Apparently at about 2:00am this morning, every owner of a 30GB Microsoft Zune
Congrats to the Rice Owls for stomping the Western Michigan Broncos last night in the Texas Bowl, 38-14. The game was highlighted by two former San Antonio standouts, Chase Clement (Alamo Heights) and Jarett Dillard (Sam Houston). And, of course, the head coach is none other than David Bailiff of my Alma Mater [Southwest] Texas State University. Not only does Dillard hold the NCAA record for career touchdown receptions (60), but he and Clement hold the Division I-A record for career TDs between a QB/WR duo (51).
How about a Derrich.com Best Gadgets of 2008 list? Everyone else is doing it, so why not. Here are my Top 5:
[1] Kodak Zi6 HD Video Camera. About $50 cheaper than its counterpart, the Kodak Zi6 is a quality camera that shoots videos in 720p HD. HD! And also unlike its counterpart, it features an expandable memory slot for up to 32GB of vids. And, of course, it comes in pink
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[2] Roku Netflix Player. For $99 (and a Netflix membership), you can get movies on demand anytime. The Netflix Player allows you to sift through a selection of over 12,000 movies and TV shows — some in HD — for instant viewing on your televish.
[3] BlackBerry Bold 9000. Yeah, I’m biased. But it’s a great phone! As I previously pointed out in my Bold vs E71 comparison, the BlackBerry Bold 9000
boasts impressive battery life, a great browser, WiFi, and an ever-growing supply of useful apps.
[4] Wii Fit. This selection might be questionable; but with the introduction of a new year come those New Years’ resolutions. And if you’ve never played a Wii before, try out the boxing game for a few minutes. You’ll be winded. I guarantee it. The Wii Fit
Ultimate Fitness Bundle is the perfect alternative to a gym membership. This year over 2 million Wii-related items were sold on eBay. So, I know someone out there will agree with me on this one.
[5] Toshiba REGZA 42″ LCD HDTV. Not exactly a gadget, but another impressive piece of hardware from Toshiba. For under $900, the Toshiba REGZA 42RV535U
42″ LCD HDTV can be hanging on your wall. I thought Toshiba had outdone itself with last year’s 37 inch 720p LCD, which I purchased for a skosh over $850. For a little more, you get 1080p in a 42 inch screen. The picture is amazing. While there are probably better TVs out there, you can’t argue against the ‘value’ value of this HDTV.
Well, it’s certainly been an interesting year for me…and for the rest of us as well. I’m happy to be blogging again…I’m about to be a baby daddy a second time…but there were definitely many speed bumps for me along the way. Good riddance to 2008! Bring on 2009! I hope all of you have a safe and Happy New Year!
Popularity: 17% [?]
The Heisman ballots are due Wednesday. Despite my usual attention to the underdog, my unsexy Heisman picks are far from consideration. The Heisman race for 2008 appears to be undecided. The Heisman Pundit, Chris Huston, certainly believes so. He hasn’t revealed his prediction yet, but he makes great points for each of the top three candidates in what has turned out to be one of the tightest races in quite sometime.
So where does the dog come in? Well in case you missed it, a traffic camera in Santiago, Chile captured some amazing footage of a dog that dodged traffic to pull the body of another dog to the shoulder. The other dog had been hit by a car earlier — apparently his buddy didn’t want his corpse to be hit again. See the video of this dog rescue in Chile.
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Speaking of videos, The Dark Knight was released today. No doubt it’ll be a top seller…and a perfect stocking stuffer. Buy it on Blu-Ray
Can you remember the last time Antonio Bryant was good? That’s right. At Pitt. So far this season, he’s pulled in 66 receptions (for nearly 1,000 yards…currently 10th among WRs), but none as pretty as one-handed catch.
My wife was making her nightly rounds on BabyCenter.com last night trying to find out how large our daughter should be (we’re on Week 31, I believe), and she stumbled upon an interesting service. The BabyCenter’s Booty Caller sends ovulation alerts to your phone to let you know when you’re most likely to be fertile. Wow. I guess you can never be too safe.
Popularity: 12% [?]
This list was last updated July 3, 2009. If you want to suggest an app for this list, please leave a comment.
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Let’s face it. The one advantage to having an iPhone are the plethora of apps available. With the ‘newness’ of the BlackBerry Bold
viigo. This aggregator features a wide variety of content from a collection of news sources (national, local, entertainment, sports), stock tracking and finance news, as well as an RSS reader to keep track of your favorite blogs through over 5,000 channels. Viigo also allows you to customize your feeds including the capability to listen or watch podcasts. You can even track packages from four of the major parcel services. Social networking is limited to Facebook, Twitter & Plaxo. Most recently, Viigo has added emergency services to its lineup including breaking news, earthquake and storm watch monitoring, and FEMA and homeland security bulletins.
As I originally thought, this app grew on me. It’s ‘all-in-one’ personality was just too awesome!
From a business model perspective (I apologize…a little off topic), Viigo has smartly and tastefully included ads in its delivery of content (each contant provider has the opportunity to opt in or out of showing ads in their feed). The ads are not overpowering nor are they intrusive, which is hard to do considering the amount of screen real estate on a mobile device. Obviously used to help subsidize the ‘free’ness of the service. Kudos, Viigo!
To download this app, visit http://www.viigo.com/download via your BlackBerry or from your PC.
UberTwitter. If you’re a raging Twitterholic like I am, you need to download UberTwitter now. With this app you can view others’ timelines, single out @ replies, reply and reply all to friends, and view and send direct messages. There is a handy ReTweet function and hashtags are clickable within UberTwitter. It also allows you to search Twitter as well as view a ‘trending topics’ list.
You can also take a picture in Uberwitter and add it to your tweet. Regardless, I still chose to use TwitPic. Add to that some geolocation capabilities and you’ve got a pretty complete Twitter app.
TellMe. TellMe is a voice recognition app that provides GPS directions, traffic information (where available), maps, businesses, movie times courtesy of Fandango, as well as weather information. By using keywords such as “coffee” or “movies” or “sports”, TellMe gets you the information you’re looking for. TellMe is a Microsoft subsidiary and therefore uses LiveSearch for a majority of its results. This app is available for the BlackBerry Bold. You can download this app by going to m.tellme.com on your BlackBerry.
Facebook. Facebook is not only the world’s largest social network, but it continues to grow. I’ve reconnected with many of my old friends and keep up with business contacts at the same time. There are other apps out there that allow you to access your Facebook account, but I prefer to stick with the actual service. Each update of this app has featured something more useful and a more user-friendly interface…moreso than Facebook.com itself.
If you have Facebook, download this app through Facebook or visit the Facebook For BlackBerry website.
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E*TRADE Mobile Pro. You’ve seen the talking baby commercials. This kid knows what he’s talking about. For you stock market buffs, this is ‘the one’. The layout is clean, and from a functionality standpoint, it is capable. And best of all, you can use it without opening an E*TRADE account. However, you won’t be able to realize all of its benefits, such as saving your favorite tickers, without doing so. You might be able to gain full functionality by opening a Complete Savings account, which currently has a minimum requirement of $1. You probably want to contact E*TRADE to be sure. For now, I just use it for quotes and market updates…and because it’s pretty.
To download it, go to etrade.com/mobile from your BlackBerry.
APP-SOLUTELY! Like most app providers will include in a disclaimer, these apps are ‘free’ to the point of downloading them at no charge for a service that does not have a service cost (monthly or otherwise). It is important to be sure that you’re plan includes unlimited data. If you do not have an unlimited data plan, your wireless service provider may charge data usage fees for downloading and using the application. If you do not know if you have a data plan, or are uncertain what your data rates are, please contact your wireless provider.
The following apps were once at the top of the list, but have been muscled off the updated list by the new hotness. Regardless, they’re still worth a mention:
ASSOCIATED PRESS. Through an extensive network of content contributors, the Mobile News Network application offers access to local and national news “supplemented by AP’s text, photos and video”. With ‘The Network‘ you can search, share, rate content, and receive text alerts set to your preferences. To download this app, visit bb.apnews.com from your BlackBerry.
VLINGO. Voice control capability for your mobile device is huge. If you’re like me, you want to practice true hands-free driving. Eyes on the road! Vlingo is arguably the best tool for this job. Vlingo’s voice recognition abilities reach beyond dictation of texts and emails. It also allows virtual hands-free web searches, updating Facebook & Twitter status, and it allows you to access your calendar among other apps. To download it, visit Vlingo.com.
Popularity: 52% [?]
In case you missed Sunday night’s NFL matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots, you missed one sloppy game. We found out what happens when Matt Cassel encounters the best defense in The League…so did Wes Welker. Lil Weezy had 4 catches for 30 yards, and took 1 hit for the ages..courtesy of Ryan Clark. See the video.
It was announced that Rickey Henderson would be included on the 2009 Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. His records include 2,295 runs and 1,406 steals. What might be more amazing than his accomplishments are his personality…and the collection of hilarious stories that represent it. Check out the 25 Best Stories of ‘Rickey Being Rickey’..
Black Friday spending was up 1% over 2007. Cyber Monday featured a ton of deals, but more importantly has gained acclaim as one the lead indicators of the upcoming holiday shopping season. So while retailers count their money and analysts sit by and wait for the numbers, I present to you Mobile Tuesday. Seriously? Enough already!
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Speaking of mobile, Nokia World kicked off in Barcelona today where the company unveiled it’s latest creation: the Nokia N97. It looks like an iPhone, probably smells like an iPhone…but it’s no iPhone. Nokia’s ultimate goal with this device is to give users the ultimate real-time social networking capability with its concept of ‘social location’. With integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the Nokia N97 makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving approved friends the ability to update their ‘status’ and share their ‘social location’ as well as related pictures or videos. Aesthetically, it differs from the iPhone by combining a large 3.5” touch display with a full QWERTY keyboard. “The world’s most advanced mobile computer” will run you about US$700 when it’s released in the first half of 2009. I’ll stick to my BlackBerry Bold, although if Nokia wants to hook me up…
If you can’t afford the GPS-enabled Nokia N97, today’s Amazon Deal of the Day is the TomTom ONE XL 4.3-Inch GPS Navigator
Popularity: 6% [?]
Last week, I did my best to suggest that an all Big 12 BCS title game was on the horizon. But because I refuse to give the SEC any credit this season, I had to consult the BCS guru, Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times, for some unbiased guidance. Now that the weekend is done, Chris shows us the light with his explanation of why an all Big 12 BCS title game is now even more likely to occur…with a little help from the stars, of course.
Mike Leach didn’t predict the storm brought on by OU. Even if you thought Oklahoma would win, there’s no way you saw the 44-lb hammer come down.
The pride and prestige of winning the National Championship is represented by the beautiful Waterford Crystal football awarded to the winner. That’s all well and good, but some teams find it more rewarding to fight for other trophies — oars, oaken buckets, skillets. Check out SI’s photo slideshow of college football’s unusual trophies.
Did anyone else notice that Div 1-AA (I refuse to call it F-whatever it is) >James Madison snuck it’s way into the BCS poll? I think it’s great (coming from a Div 1-AA football school), but it definitely shows the obscure nature of the BCS ranking system.
Rob Carr | AP
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I feel this photo best describes the ongoing frustration felt by Philly fans everywhere. This one accomplishes the same for Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb. I feel sorry for McNabb. I feel like offering the guy some tissue paper. Not to wipe his tears, but so he can blow his nose. Is it me, or does he sound a little nasally?
Who needs Tom Brady? Matt Cassel is one more 400-yard game (and victory) away from scoring Gisele. It’s highly likely free agency will be kind to Cassel, but what about making Tom Brady the next Drew Bledsoe? History always seems to repeat itself, especially in the NFL (i.e. Favre, Montana). Waiting your turn as an NFL quarterback pays off.
Maybe it’s just me (it usually is)…but everytime I see these pre-game analysts use Madden or some other simulation software to predict a game, I roll my eyes. Now come to find out there are football programs out there using interactive software to plan games and bridge the generation gap between players and coaches. If you think the Patriots video taping sessions are bad, imagine the quarterback waiting for the play call from upstairs while the Offensive Coordinator plays the upcoming scenario on a frikken video game. “What Would Madden Do?”
Speaking of Madden, if I have to hear that “$5 Footlong” jingle one more time…
Popularity: 8% [?]
A little over a month ago, I decided to sell my beloved Nissan Maxima and explore my inner hippie. I loved that Maxima. Attractive, reliable…though not so easy on the pocketbook. It requires premium gasoline and the gas tank has about a 21-gallon capacity. And I drive a ton, so I was fueling up often. So, I bought a Toyota Camry Hybrid. Makes sense…well, a little despite the increased car payment. Just doing my part to be a good stewart. Anyway, before I move further away from the point of the story and offer a full-blown review of my new car…it seems there are more benefits to owning a hybrid than just MPGs.
It appears that some stores across the U.S. are rewarding hybrid drivers with choice parking spaces. According to this article in the Houston Chronicle…better known as “the Chron”…stores such as Ikea, Office Depot, and Home Depot are offering the beloved spaces for their enviro-friendly patrons.
Courtesy of Curbed Los Angeles
Keep your space. Better yet, how about converting it to a “pregnant parking” or “elderly without a HC tag parking”? The idea is noble. Thanks, but no thanks. Besides…I need the exercise.
Popularity: 23% [?]
Could it be a sign of what’s to come? Some may think that it’s no coincidence that Alexa Rodriguez, a 13-year-old girl, was attacked by a red-tailed hawk at Fenway Park yesterday. Many fans are releaved that it wasn’t a girl named Dereka Jeter or Alberta Pooholes.
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So your tax refund was a little lower than expected? Can’t wait for that stimulus check? Try MissingMoney.com. The website developed by the ACS Unclaimed Property Clearinghouse will search its database for unclaimed property including bank accounts and safe deposit box contents, stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and dividends, uncashed checks and wages, insurance policies, CD’s, trust funds, utility deposits, and escrow accounts. Before you hire Russell & Tate to git yo’ money, try this site.
Regardless of how you look at it — 4 years too early or 6 years too late — the New Kids On The Block are back. They appeared on the Today Show this morning reunited for the first time in 14 years. The band will return to TODAY on May 16 to perform their first live concert since 1994 as part of TODAY’s summer concert series on the Plaza. I can see it now…new video introduced by Kennedy and Bill Bellamy.
The Final Four descends upon San Antonio once again. Festivities begin today, games begin tomorrow. With four #1 teams, this city is gonna be a madhouse. I can’t wait! Aside from visiting my bar, RETOX, and the Alamo, I created a things to do in San Antonio list for you tourists. My only amendment to the list for downtown sports bar is The Ticket. Go there. And when it gets packed, come to RETOX. See a schedule of events for the NCAA® Final Four® in San Antonio.
Popularity: 42% [?]
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