MS Exchange and the Google Phone Together at Last...Sorta

One of the biggest gripes about the T-Mobile G-1 Google Phone is the lack of business class email support outside of GMail. The Android Powered Phone now offers some support for Microsoft Exchange through a free program that will sync your contacts.

Quite frankly, business class email support was the only thing stopping me. The built in IMAP features of the phone would allow syncing of email but how well it looks and feels is still up for review. Also what about my appointments, tasks, and calendar?

Give the article a read and check out the application here.

P.S. Sorry about the lack of post. There are a lot of exciting things going on that will be announced soon. Here's a clue.

Board Games Go Hardcore at Openlygeek.com

The Board Game selection at Openlygeek.com has changed drastically with the inclusion of Award Winning European Board Games such as The Settlers of Catan, and other hardcore gaming favorites such as Ticket to Ride. There is now truly something for everybody including the hardcore video gamer who needs a break from the screen radiation with games like World of Warcraft: The Board Game and Starcraft: The Board Game.

This category will continue to grow Openlygeek.com as several hard to find board games are on pre-order with several manufacturers. If you're a hardcore board gaming geek, like many of us here in the office you will want to stay tuned to this section.

Of course we will keep you up to date on any board game news as well.

Click to Buy on YouTube

Yes the day has finally come where Google has monetized YouTube videos themselves. Google officially announced today that it will be rolling out a campaign which will add a click-to-buy button to music videos and videos demonstrations of video games.

The strangest part of the announcement seemed buried in this one little sentence.

"And those partners who use our content identification and management system can also enable these links on user-generated content, by using Content ID to claim videos and choose to leave them up on the site."

YouTube's Content Identification Management System allows owners of content to claim their right to it. The rights owner can choose to block it. However, they can now choose to monetize the video with these new links. Though you would have to have written a video game or a song on an album that Amazon is selling. Otherwise, you are out of luck.

On the other side, if the record companies claim the rights on YouTube to all of their music videos, when a user posts a video containing that content the record company can choose to add a link to sell the album. Pretty brilliant. However, Google really needs to tread lightly here since the more money changes hands, the more people want a piece of the action. For instance, they would have a big problem on their hands if a company selling whoopee cushions had a link on a Howard Stern video clip simply by tricking their Content ID System. Also, does the director of the music video get a cut? What about the blogger who post the video on his or her site? Hmmm....Stay tuned.

Loud TV Commercials: Should They be Illegal?

There's nothing worse than having a sweet Home Theater Setup, complete with finely tuned 7.1 digital audio, wrecked by some obnoxious television commercial. The increased audio level pierces the ears of you, your family and your guests. It is the equivalent of a solicitor barging, un-invited into your home with a mega-phone pointed right at your head. "Buy our Soap!!"

While this issue has been put before Congress by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) under the name of the CALM Act (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation), it seems the bill has fallen through the cracks. While it does seem that Congress has enough things to worry about. This does seem like something that should be relatively easy to fix.

Advertising companies and the Television Broadcast Companies they support have effectively hidden behind the explanation that the volume is not technically any louder than the Television Programs themselves. The argument is that the TV Shows mix their audio for dramatic effect and do not always use the peak levels allowed by the broadcast companies. However, Television Commercials mostly mix the audio toward the peak levels since most of the time there is no need for dramatic effect.

I further suspect that there is more going on than that. While watching South Park, I always have to raise the volume on the TV. It seems that the audio is purposely low. This would indeed be more intriguing to me as an advertiser since my commercial will be a good 20 - 30% louder than the show I'm sponsoring. Furthermore the explanation to the FCC would continue to be true and everyone would be happy. Well, almost everybody. Of course, Comedy Central is not the only Station that has shows which are mixed incredibly low.

Technology exists that limits the peaks in audio but there are 2 problems with this.

1. People should not have to buy extra equipment to keep the audio from their Home Theater at comfortable levels.
2. By limiting peaks in audio there is always the possibility that the audio of the Television Shows we watch can be adversely effected by technology.

Hopefully this bill doesn't slip away. I, for one am tired of having unwanted noise in my home. I feel a letter to my Congressman coming on.