Author: Tim Probst

I read on Mac Rumors yesterday that Apple and Volkswagen may be getting together to work on integrating Apple products more tightly into VW cars. If this is true, I think it’s a great move by both companies. They both target the same demographic of customers, and they both have the “cool” factor.

Let’s think about what Apple products would work in an iCar. There will definitely be iPod and iPhone integration. The VW will come with a radio head unit that is completely integrated with the iPod and iPhone. Perhaps the controls will be displayed on a large screen in the center of the dashboard powered by Mac OS X. From that display, the driver can control the phone, music, video, and Internet assuming an iPhone was connected to the car. An iPod would provide music and video. Besides the large dashboard display, each headrest will have its own display, and the displays will be capable of playing different media at the same time. The passengers in the back seat will be able to plug in their headphones and enjoy their very own entertainment.

Now, just imagine if you and three of your friends jumped into your iCar, and all four of you have your own iPhone. Near each seat is an iPod/iPhone connector so each of you can plug in your iPhone. Not only will the connector charge your iPhone, the driver and front seat passenger will be able to control the media on all of the devices from the dashboard display. How cool would that be?

Besides iPod/iPhone integration, the iCar will have HD Radio and Satellite Radio built in as well as a GPS system completely integrated with Google Maps. Of course, the interface will have Apple’s normal touch of style so all of the features are easily accessible while driving.

Integrating Apple’s media products with a Volkswagen has a lot of potential. What do you think the iCar will be able to do?

I saw this super cool Lego set on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) earlier today. I mean, really, how sweet would it be to have a Lego set designed in your honor?

The company behind this brilliant piece of art is called PodBrix, and this is not their first Lego set featuring Woz and Jobs. Previous sets include a Jobs keynote address, a Woz minifig, and a recreation of the 1984 Apple Super Bowl ad.

I think this is my new goal in life. I need to do something cool enough that someone decides to make a Lego set in my honor. Now that is a real sign of success. 🙂

Mark Cuban, known to most as the wacky owner of the Dallas Mavericks, wrote a post on his blog, Blog Maverick, on Friday that’s getting a lot of attention. In the post, he talks about how he thinks the Internet is dead and boring. This is the comment that’s getting everyone excited. If you read further into the post, what Cuban is saying is that he thinks the Internet has matured into a stable platform and has become a utility. It has stopped evolving. When he says Internet, he is referring to the network, not necessarily the content that runs on the network. I’d have to say that I agree with him on this point. The Internet is finally stable enough that developers and designers have been able to create some incredibly useful and entertaining products. If Internet browser makers and web developers didn’t have well defined standards to follow to build their applications, we would not have the rich experience on the ‘net that we have today. Does anyone remember when Yahoo! was just a text page? That site would look awfully dull and boring today.

Now, just because the network is boring, it doesn’t mean that the content and the technologies that run on the network have stopped evolving. The opposite is actually the case. New and exciting sites and applications are released every day, and the content on the Internet is richer than ever. I think we have a long way to go to tap the potential of the current Internet, and hopefully, I’ll be able to contribute in some meaningful way.

With all that said, I am looking forward to see how the next generation of the Internet changes the way we live. Just imagine the kind of content we’ll see when every house has a 100 Mbps connection to the Internet. How about 1,000 Mbps? Should be pretty sweet!

Via (TechCrunch)

Have you tried Google Reader yet? If not, you’re really missing out on a great tool to keep track of all of the news and information that’s important to you.

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, Google Reader is an RSS reader. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. Basically, an RSS feed allows content providers to syndicate their content through a standard file format that can be read by any program that has been designed to read that format. Many programs and web sites support RSS. Some that you may have heard of are My Yahoo!, iGoogle, Newsgator, and of course, Google Reader.

I have used most of the major RSS feed readers out there, but I’ve never found one that met all of my expectations. I used Newsgator for a while, and I liked it, but it never really made its way into my every day routine. Recently, I gave Google Reader a try, and I’ve been using it ever since. It provides a simple 2-click process to add new RSS feeds, and it displays information in two different views: an expanded view and a list view. When reading a post, you can add a star (just like Gmail), share the post through your Shared Items page, email the post with direct access to your Gmail address book, and add a tag to the post. All of this functionality is built into a very clean and simple interface.

If you’re looking for a tool to keep track of all of your favorite news sites and blogs, I highly recommend Google Reader. You’ll find yourself getting through your news and views faster than ever before.

Meebo is one of those web apps that kind of sneaks up on you. I tried it a while back, and I thought it was a pretty cool idea. Then I tried it again and again, and now it’s something I use every day.

For those of you who are not familiar with Meebo, it is a very easy to use web application that allows you to connect to all of your instant messaging services on one web page. Meebo supports MSN, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo!, Google Talk, and Jabber. You can sign up for a Meebo account and save your settings for all of your IM accounts and use one sign on for all of them. When you have an account with all of the major IM services, using one account to sign on to all of them is pretty useful.

I use Meebo most often when I’m out of town for work. I don’t want to install a ton of IM software on my work computer so Meebo really provides a great service so I can communicate with my family when I’m away from home. I’m actually finding myself using it on computers where I have the IM clients installed. It’s really that good. The site is even designed to work perfectly on an iPhone if you’re lucky enough to have one.

Try it when you have a chance. You won’t regret it.

The guys over at TUAW hipped me on to a new tool for Mac OS X and the Internet that makes it possible to automatically create Dashboard widgets for Mac OS X. InnermindMedia’s WidgetWizard can take any RSS feed from the Internet and make a great looking Dashboard widget.

The tool for Mac OS X comes in the form of a Dashboard widget. So, yes, a widget is used to automatically create another widget using the data from an RSS feed. The Internet version has the same functionality, but the Dashboard version seems to be more polished.

I really like this tool because it makes it very easy to create widgets for the RSS feeds you like to read the most. As a blogger, I’ll be able to provide a great looking Dashboard widget for my readers.

Thanks InnermindMedia for creating such a useful application!