Sept. 30, 2008
Remember several years ago when Internet cafes were all the rage? Over in Europe, some of these cafes were huge and occupied multi-floor buildings.
The last time Clark was in London, however, he saw one formerly popular cafe that was reduced from 500 terminals to about 75. What happened? The marketplace changed. Free wifi became wide-spread and suddenly everyone could access the Internet from their cell phones.
Likewise, the Internet will increasingly be anywhere you go. Delta Airlines will have high-speed connections on all its flights by 2009. The price for access will be around $10 for a few hours or around $13 or $14 on longer flights. Delta's system will not be compatible with Skype.
Meanwhile, what you surf on is undergoing a transformation. A new class of ultra-lightweight mini-laptops -- called "netbooks" -- is all the rage. Many of them are Windows based.
Clark recently over paid for one Hewlett Packard model at $599. Lenovo's S10 ThinkPad is going for $399, which is not much for a fully functional mini-computer. Expect a big marketing push for netbooks this holiday season. People will be snatching them up for themselves and their favorite road warriors.
Speaking of traveling, there are new TSA-approved computer bags available where you don't have to unpack your laptop at security checkpoints. The TSA can actually check your laptop while it remains in the bag.
Sept. 24, 2008
Back in the 1990s, Clark told you about a company called Replay TV that changed TV as we know it. The service allowed you to use a computer hard-drive to record TV and watch it as you wished. Replay TV was soon eclipsed by TiVo. Now TiVo faces its own threat from a new technology that could be a boon to cable providers.
Cablevision is the first provider eyeing the launch of network DVR capability in early 2009.
You'll be able to watch something and just decide to record it -- without TiVo or an actual DVR. Cablevision will allow customers to store content on their servers -- no hardware to buy, nothing to break, you just pay them a monthly fee. It's cheaper to store what you want on a mainframe than for everyone to have their own individual machine.
Meanwhile, Clark also wants to let you know about the poor man's DVR -- which is any inexpensive computer that has a built-in DVR. When you want to watch what you've recorded, just hook your computer up to a TV or watch it on the computer itself. No monthly fees!
Sept. 22, 2008
There's a new site in beta called Zigabid.com, where you can buy or sell sports and concert tickets at auction. Clark himself has season tickets for several Atlanta sports teams, so he'd like to see if he can unload some of his ducats.
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Sept. 19, 2008
Five years ago, the hottest rip-offs were phishing scams, where you received a bogus e-mail that looked legit and claimed to be from your bank or a busines. The hope was that you'd click on a link in the e-mail to access your account online and reveal sensitive financial info.
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Sept. 18, 2008
Clark has yet another way for you to get all the music you want for free -- legally. The music business has been through a radical transformation thanks to technology. So many people think it's OK to steal music online because the major labels were arrogant Luddites who didn't initially embrace the MP3 movement. For the longest time, they preferred that you buy an overpriced CD.
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