If you’re in the market for a new TV – Perhaps check out this story from A Current Affair last night

http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/video/#439bd02c-5da4-460d-8c8d-f8e4385156a5

Let me know what you think in the comments below…

What a week.  On Sunday, just before lunch time, my wife gave birth to our second child.  Victoria Lillian Long – She’s beautiful, and just the most wonderful thing for us all.

But, she came a day or so early, in fact, as far as we were concerned, she came about four days early – so, we weren’t quite ready.  The house was a bit of a mess, and generally we could have done with an extra day or so!

In the 3 full days since, I’ve learned fast that a good neighbour beats any technology – any day… Read on for why…

We left home at around 8pm Saturday Night – our Son safe and sleeping at his grandparents place, off to the hospital we trotted.  With time still to wait, I came home, grabbed a few hours sleep, then returned on the call at 2.30am that ‘things had started’.

Victoria was born at 11.55am, I can’t even remember what time I got home that afternoon/evening.  What I do remember is a washing basket at the front door.  Full of our washing.

You see earlier on Saturday we’d washed a lot of clothes, and being a nice sunny day, put them outside – they needed more time, so we’d likely bring them in on Sunday afternoon – or at least that was the question.

On Saturday night at 10pm, I put a load of very important washing on for my Wife, and in the morning at 3am before returning to the hospital put it out on the line.

So, to return home Sunday to a basket full of folded, dry washing, with those items I washed only the night before still out hanging wet in the backyard was amazing.

Our lovely Neighbour Judy had simply noticed that we had not been home for a full day, and knowing full well how pregnant my wife was, assumed things had happened, so took the liberty of taking in the washing.  How amazing is that.  Really – How Amazing.

Well, I can beat that.

This morning, Tuesday – I took Jackson to visit his mum, we played, had fun, then I took him to his grandparents so I could return home and get a quick run at some cleaning – lots to do before mum and bub get home on Thursday you see!

I drove over the hill approaching our home, and in the distance, past our home I could see other homes with their opened garbage bins on the street, some fallen over, some just opened – but – all out on the street – for collection – 4 hours earlier!

I swore, many times, at myself – how foolish, how simple, how could I forget.

I drove into the driveway, and noticed the bin at the top of the driveway.

As I hopped out of the car, walked to the bin, opened it – it was Empty.  We haven’t gone a day without filling the bin, let alone a whole week – She’d struck again – Judy had taken our bin out, and not only that, once collected by the council, Judy had brought it back up to the house.  Once again, Amazing.

No amount of thanks can repay her, hopefully a box of chocolates will help.

But it got me thinking – with all the twittering, facebooking, foursquareing we do these days – isn’t it amazing how important a good neighbour is?

Even an alert on my smartphone might have reminded me about the bin, but would I have been too far away to do anything? Would the phone have known to bring my washing in? No.

Although i’m sure “there’s an app for that”.

Since leaving home, I would guess I’ve had 10-15 different residences, units mainly, and now a townhouse we call our own.  At only one of them have I taken the time to know my neighbour – and boy oh boy has it paid off.

Technology is amazing – we’ve downloaded apps to keep our Son entertained while we look after the new baby, we’ve downloaded apps of sounds and noise for the baby to sleep to, but none of them would have helped me clear out the bin if Judy hadn’t been so wonderful.

Good old fashioned neighbours – we need more of em…

FOXTEL have a fantastic iPhone application which allows you to search the program guide, browse channels, set reminders and – if you are  a foxtel user – even set programs to record remotely even when you are no-where near your Foxtel box!

It’s such a handy thing if you have Foxtel IQ and suddenly remember that show you wanted to watch but forgot to record! With the iPhone app you can ‘hit record’ no matter where you are.

At the same time, Foxtel have a fantastic website version of their Guide, which also – if logged in – allowed you to record programs from any internet connected PC.

Today, FOXTEL announced an extension of that app/site… read on for more information

Using Microsoft IE 8 and the silverlight platform (like Flash, but not), Foxtel have made available a ‘desktop gadget’ – Gadgets never really took off on Windows machines – there was a big push for them many years back, but it just didn’t happen.

This ‘Gadget’ is almost a twin sibling to the iPhone app, just on your PC.

FOXTEL Gadget - Browsing EPG

You go to http://foxtel.com.au/gadget – Install the ‘gadget’ and then the gadget can launch whenever you start windows.  It shows on your task bar as a separate application, so you can switch too it easily, and once logged in, recording programs is easy.

FOXTEL Gadget - Setting to Record

FOXTEL Gadget - Choose the IQ Box to record to

I at first wondered why? Why bother? The website is great!  But then I realised, the Website is great for ‘any PC you are on’.  The Gadget though will be great when installed on your regular PC.  At work or at home, quick, easy access to the guide and your IQ record function, without going to the website, logging in, browsing etc.

FOXTEL Gadget - Set to Record!

It’s a winner in my book, if you’ve got Foxtel IQ – make sure you get the Foxtel Gadget on your desktop!

FOXTEL Gadget - Search page

Pop Up REMINDER - FOXTEL GADGET

Only one problem – The App – Sorry, Gadget – Needs a ‘minimise to system tray’ option – because I want the reminders, but I don’t want it open in my task bar ALL the time!

What do you think?

Apple today opened its latest Retail store – this time in the North West of Sydney at Castle Hill’s popular Castle Towers shopping centre.

I headed along to the launch, and have posted some some thoughts a video and photos below – click Continue Reading for more..

The store is located on the top level of Castle Towers, right alongside David Jones, and straight away you’ll notice the sheer size of the store - compared it seems to Bondi Junction and Chatswood it certainly feels much bigger.  However that may be due to the large frontage, with the store running around a corner and taking up the space of what was probably two previous retail stores.

The large front of store, an inset V shape is the standard Apple glass front, with the light up Apple logo top front and centre.

Inside, the Mac’s are at the left of store, iPods in the centre, and iPhones/iPads to the right.

It’s really well laid out, with the Genius bar at the back in the middle of the store.

As always, fresh lines, light wood desks and free and open access to the internet and all the computers in store makes it a great destination even if you’re not looking to buy.

Young Daniel from nearby Dural lined up from 11am – waiting 6 hours for the official opening.

I felt bad walking past him for an in-store preview, but it was great to get a look inside without the crowds.

After the normal hype from the young and keen staff, the doors opened and the clapping and cheering continued for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes some queues had formed for orderly purchasing of iPhones and other items.

It was another typically slick store opening from Apple.

the Kids had a ball jumping straight to the iPads for a play

This is the shirt the first 1000 people into store received.

With Daniel - First in line - just to say he was!

Inside the store before the official opening - a large store, great floor space

View from the floor above

1st and 2nd in line - Take a seat on arrival

Kids Corner - I love it! Great work, lower table, small seats and smallest iMac's

The Seven Network today announced they will launch a ‘third’ channel on Digital TV in late September – Named ’7mate’

According to the press release, republished at Mumbrella, the channel will commence with a broadcast of the AFL Grand Final in HD.

There’s a stack of content on offer – like “New episodes of FAMILY GUY, AMERICAN DAD, PARKS AND RECREATION and LAST COMIC STANDING will lead the primetime comedy schedule. 3O ROCK, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, THAT 70’S SHOW, SCRUBS and CRANK YANKERS round out the laughs.” – however, what I find interesting is the decision once again to remove HD from the ‘main’ channel – just like the ABC has done

More programming details are below.It is not explicit in the press release, however my reading of it indicates that 7HD will be replaced by 7mate.  ABC HD was replaced by ABC News 24 earlier this month.  Ten replaced their HD channel with ONEHD.

The reason for this is not to offer more reason to choose the new channel – in fact, its to ensure they don’t lose audience.

Lets look at a breakdown of the Digital Spectrum for a Commercial TV Broadcaster. They have room for:

• 1 x HD
• 2 x SD

Currently, Seven offers:

• HD: 7HD
• SD: 7
• SD: 7two

If they stacked their spectrum this way:

• HD: 7HD
• SD: 7mate
• SD: 7two

They’d have one big problem – people who DON’T have a HD Set Top box or TV would NOT be able to watch 7′s normal lineup.  Only 7mate and 7two.

Same applies for ABC and Ten – although Ten of all the networks has the best reason to offer it’s multi-channel as HD – given it’s sporting focus.

It is disappointing that the main programming content from our Commercial and ABC networks are not in HD – but it’s the way of life.

Until the government decides what to do with the Digital Spectrum, at which time there will likely be a ‘restacking’ and therefore a need to re-tune.

The OTHER issue bubbling away is that this is the limit of the channels that can be squeezed into the spectrum.  As such, Broadcasters are desperate to move to MPEG-4 compression which would allow MORE HD to fit into the same space.  Why not do that now?  Hundreds of thousands of people don’t have MPEG-4 compatible set-top boxes – do you?  Check!

If your box is ‘Freeview’ compatible, you’re safe into the future – keep that in mind!

The full 7mate offering according to the press release will be:

New episodes of FAMILY GUY, AMERICAN DAD, PARKS AND RECREATION and LAST COMIC STANDING will lead the primetime comedy schedule. 3O ROCK, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, THAT 70’S SHOW, SCRUBS and CRANK YANKERS round out the laughs. New drama will include the sci-fi series CAPRICA and the adventure series WAREHOUSE 13 and STARGATE ATLANTIS. The reality slate will feature US ratings hits JERSEY SHORE and PAWN STARS, along with popular MTV series PUNK’D and GENE SIMMONS FAMILY JEWELS, featuring the controversial KISS guitarist and his LA-based family, and MONSTER GARAGE with Jesse G. James. Factual on 7mate will see series such as FIFTH GEAR, THE UNIVERSE, LIFE AFTER PEOPLE, THE BONEYARD, AX MEN, JACKED: AUTO THEFT TASKFORCE, MEGA MOVERS, MEGA STRUCTURES, AIR CRASH INVESTIGATIONS and SHOCKWAVE in primetime. 7mate will also be the home for first-run big movies for the blokes, including THE RINGER, STRANGERS and PRIMEVAL.

Leaving aside the standard technology which we often take for granted (TV Cameras, Broadcast Satellite, Radio ISDN technology), this could be a great year for watching the Election – as boring as it might be given the nothingness of the campaign, we are in for a real treat when it comes to the coverage.

At the recent General Elections in the UK, the BBC among others went absolutely tech mad – it was fantastic.  I can recall the use of Holograms by CNN or the BBC (I can’t remember) during the US Elections, but for the BBC in the UK election the key tech was the touch screen interface to a big screen TV, and also a ‘white room’ which was totally interactive.

In this ‘white room’ the reporter could walk around, over a map of the UK, point into the air and on screen be pointing and guiding graphs and charts across the screen.

I’m not overly excited about this election, however the coverage looks like it will have something to offer.

Not only do we have SKY vs ABC News 24, we also have Seven vs Nine in what appeared like being a comical coverage, given the way it’s been promoted.  However, Nine has released a ‘behind the scenes’ video of the technology they plan to use on the night.

The video below shows Nine’s Michael Usher in a green studio which allows Nine to interactively place Michael anywhere – this is very like the BBC idea, but perhaps without the interaction from Michael with what he’s standing in – it does look impressive.

Expect Nine to have their Mega touch screen down in Canberra for the coverage in the Tally Room, but the big question is, what do Seven, SKY and ABC have to offer?

Looking forward to it – question is – how does the type of coverage, or the technology used affect what you choose to watch?