So maybe you’re not ready for a web-based operating system but you still like to flit from computer to computer. That’s great for hitting up the web but not always so great for playing media files. Sure, if you’re sticking with Flash-based vids or a common file format, you’re likely in the clear. But you can’t expect every major codec installed on every PC you come across, can you? Lifehacker says that with VLC Media Player Portable, you don’t have to.

The highly flexible media application is part of the Portable Apps suite, which means you can carry VLC on a flash drive in your pocket. The download is 20MB, but will only take up to 37MB on your flash drive. The portable version has may of the same features as the latest desktop version and supports MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg and many other media formats.

I haven’t been able to see the personal benefits of using an air mouse. Those are the wireless mice that move the cursor around the screen when you wave the mouse around in the air. I’m sure there are folks who find the air mouse to be the best thing since mice lost wires, but I’m not one of those. I do have to admit the Loop Pointer looks like a pretty nice implementation of the air mouse, though.

The Loop Pointer is basically a circle with buttons and a scroll wheel on the mouse. This looks like it could be a great mouse solution for Media Centers. It would also be a fantastic presentation pointer, I’ll bet. It’s expensive at $99, but some might find that reasonable.

(via TRFJ)

There aren’t many times where an exciting new web technology comes to handheld devices before it hits the traditional desktops and notebooks, but this is one of those times. Over at NewTeeVee, Liz shows off a video that demonstrates Apple’s HTTP adaptive video streaming. Support for the feature is already in the new iPhone 3.0 software and it offers two key benefits.

For starters, you don’t need to either download or pay for an application to view HTTP video streams, since in theory you can view it in a browser. And since the data is sent over HTTP with other traditional web traffic, you don’t need to punch a firewall hole to consume the content. Using HTTP also allows content to be broken down into viewable chunks so the provider can send the most optimized chunk to viewers at any given time. That’s where the “adaptive” part optimizes video playback based on the speed of your connection. In the video demo, you can see this happen over a 3G connection: the video starts out a little fuzzy, but eventually cleans itself up rather nicely.

iPhone owners can view the same demos at http://iphone.akamai.com to see live streams of NASA TV or FoxBusiness.com Live, plus on-demand segments of Storm Chasers, Deadliest Catch and several other channels. I tested a few videos on my iPhone 3GS and the quality was outstanding. In some ways, it rivals and may even exceed the great experiences I’ve had with SlingPlayer Mobile, which also optimizes the media stream. Here’s a screen-cap from my phone to give you an idea of what I’m seeing once the optimization takes place:

As I alluded to above, this functionality is on mobiles first. Support for HTTP adaptive streaming is due to arrive in Apple’s next operating system update, called Snow Leopard, which ships in September of this year.

Peter Rojas and Ryan Block, both former bigshots at Engadget and friends of ours, piqued a lot of interest when a while back they joined up and promised a new venture for the gadget lover crowd. Gdgt would be unlike any other gadget site, with a focus on sharing gadgets from an end user perspective. They have been working fast and furious on getting gdgt ready to launch and I am excited to tell you that today is the day.

I have been enjoying the beta of gdgt for a bit already, and it is all that Peter and Ryan said it would be. There is already a big database of popular gadgets and information about them all. What makes the information very useful is that gdgt members share their thoughts on these gadgets, giving the whole place a homey feel. It’s live for the masses now, so head on over and check it out. You may like it well enough to stay a while.

DISCLOSURE: GDGT is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.

It’s nearly Tour de France time, and you know what that means: I’ll be working from the couch in front of the television for the next month, starting on July 4. Perhaps the biggest pre-tour news local to me is yesterday’s announcement that HTC is sponsoring Team Columbia through 2011. Yes, it’s the same HTC that makes Windows Mobile and Android devices. James passed me the news last night, but it broke on Twitter before then. Thank you, Levi Leipheimer, whom I’m now affectionately calling “Mr. Spill the Beans, not the Bike.”

Although I was able to live on the web for 60 days, it’s highly unlikely I’ll be able to park myself on the couch for a month straight. Not even our cats can do that, although I personally think they’ve given it a go in the past. So what’s a TdF junkie to do when away from the television? Here are five options:

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I took my Nike+ sensor out for another run this morning and I clearly need to calibrate it. While I’d like to think that I ran 4.04 miles at a 7:20 pace, that sounds a bit fast for an easy run. A quick Google Map of the route tells me that it was more like 3.75 miles. Regardless of that minor technological mishap, which I’ll fix shortly, I did find a method to connect my run with the web. Josh Pugh offers a beta service that tweets your Nike+ data right to Twitter. The service doesn’t require you to enter passwords for your Twitter or Nike+ accounts; you simply have to authorize both services. Josh offers a similar method to post your running data to Facebook as well.

While some would say this information is “noise,” there’s a social aspect to training where this comes in handy. I know that I always ran better when training with a group. My best marathon race time was the direct result of working out with a running club. Unfortunately, my schedule doesn’t mesh with the club’s schedule these days, so I’m on my own. I get motivation from hearing about other people’s workouts and in turn, I’m hoping that my data motivates others.

By the way, I have access to another iPhone app that I’m planning to test for tracking my workouts. Instead of using a $19 Nike+ sensor, it relies solely on the included GPS radio of an iPhone 3G or 3GS. More to follow when I recover from my morning run today.

The OLPC is certainly an innovative computer for kids that is comprised of nice hardware coupled with special software to make it easy for children to operate. No doubt some parents could benefit from the special operating environment of the OLPC without having to buy the hardware. The folks at Sugar Labs, the company behind the software of the OLPC, realize that many feel the same way and now have the software available for download.

Dubbed Sugar on a Stick, the special system is based on Fedora Linux and is designed from the ground up to be intuitive for children to make operation easy. Sugar on a Stick v1 can be downloaded and installed on a USB stick making it possible to be used on any computer (netbooks come to mind) without replacing the existing installation.

(via CNET)

Nuance is now offering TALKS&ZOOMS v4 for Symbian S60 handsets. The software is geared for blind or visually impaired mobile phone owners. Using Nuance’s text-to-speech technology, TALKS&ZOOMS can read aloud contact info, CallerID data, text messages, help files, web pages and other information.

The speech engine also integrates with Wayfinder Access, a navigation application, as well as Quickword, which can read or add edits to email documents and their attachments. The software is available as a limited, free trial, but it appears that purchases go through specialized dealers. Since this is a unique solution, it’s not cheap. The one dealer I looked at sells the software for $295. Then again, it’s probably worth any price for an excellent mobile text-to-speech app on handsets.

HP scientific and financial calculators have been the tools of choice for many in the business world for decades. Many of us have fond memories of the different HP calculators we have used over the years and often lament their passing. HP realizes this and as such as recreated three of these calculators on the iPhone. It would appear that HP found a unique way to sell these calculators all over again.

The three calculators in the iPhone App Store are the HP 12c, HP 12c Platinum and the HP 15c. The calculators have been totally recreated in these emulations, from the graphic display of each calculator to the special functions each performs. The calculators are programmable just like the originals. Like the native iPhone Calculator, the HP calculators are displayed in full in landscape orientation, just like the originals. When rotated to portrait mode, they display in a simplified form, just as Apple’s does.

These emulated calculators are not cheap; they run $15, $20 and $30 for the 12c, 12c Platinum and the 15c, respectively. HP may be onto something.

(via MacWorld)

Good news if you’ve signed up for a Google Voice invite. The company announced today that those invitations are now starting to trickle out to new users. Didn’t sign up for an invite yet? No worries, but you should run, not walk, to the sign-up page to request one.

Now that I have a second mobile line but no landline, I use Google Voice to manage my incoming calls. For folks who have my Google Voice number, I have it set to ring both my iPhone and Pre. In fact, I had my sister call me to test it just yesterday when she stopped by. She dialed and immediately both phones were ringing, which blew her mind.

Google Voice is also capable of handling incoming text messages and voicemails, both of which can be transcribed for you. I hit up my Google Voice account on the web using my iPhone yesterday and was able to read the most recent voicemail messages, which were transcribed with great accuracy. Here’s a screen-cap to the right showing the mobile web interface and a text message conversation I had on two different phones. There’s other flexibility as well: You can define which phones ring depending on who is calling or if it’s late afternoon on a weekend.

All in all, I’m thrilled with the free service. I still can’t wait until I can port my main mobile number to the service, though. I’ve had that number since 2000 and, more importantly, it’s the number that nearly all of my contacts have. Speaking of contacts, Google Voice uses your Gmail contact list for an address book. Glad I moved to that a ways back for my contact needs.