A short video produced to introduce Anchorage citizens to the concept of working to bring Google Fiber to our city. Visit www.googifiak.com for more about the Anchorage Google Fiber bid. Hurry, we need you to nominate Anchorage before March 26th!

It’s T-minus 20 days to the application deadline and Anchorage needs to get fired up (or maybe lit up) about the Google Fiber Initiative! If you’re not familiar with this “contest”, let me explain. Google is planning to build out some of the fastest Internet connections in the U.S.A. – and all we have to do is let them know WE WANT FASTER SPEEDS in Anchorage.

Do this first.

Go now to Google’s page and fill out this form to nominate Anchorage!

What would you do with 1 Gigabit Internet?

Let’s put it this way, 1 Gigabit is more than 100x faster than just about anything you can buy today in Anchorage. That kind of performance can open up a whole new world of opportunities, business, creativity and entertainment options we only dream about today here in Anchorage.

Some examples:

• Download full length HD movies in less than 10 minutes.
• Participate in real-time 3D training college courses from home.
• Stay in touch with loved ones around the world in high quality video chats.
• Launch a new online business right here (no need to move Outside).
• Watch the Iditarod Insider online (okay, this one is link bait I admit it).
• No more lag – rejoice gamers!

You have support.

The City of Anchorage, the Mayor and loads of other community members are working to launch a site, campaign and let everyone know about the Google Fiber Initiative. Right now, the website www.googifiak.com is up in rough form and has the basic information about the initiative. The important thing to note is that the Municipality is working hard to present a formal bid (RFI) for Anchorage. With some luck, good planning, word of mouth and YOUR support (you did Nominate Anchorage already, right?) – we will Googifi Anchorage!

More choice, faster speeds and price competition.

Not to be forgotten.. there’s more to this than just bringing a big fat Google fiber connection to Anchorage. There’s a skunkworks team of local nerds, geeks and engineers that are proposing to build out an open access wireless or WiFi option for Anchorage residents (hence the “ifi” in Googifi Anchorage). The bottom line goal for this combination of public, private and individual project will be to:

• Performance: 100x or more than the speeds we have today
• Competition: A new option for Internet in Anchorage
• Price: Get more for less
• Options: How about a city wide roaming WiFi with gigabit speed?

Get involved.

• First, tell everyone!
• Blog about it.
• Make a YouTube video about what you would do with 1 gigabit internet!
• Join the Facebook group.
• Call your Mom, she would love to hear from you anyway.

Hurry the Deadline is March 26th!

Miracles never cease! After nearly two years of whining, stamping my feet and having near conniptions – MTA has introduced new internet plans that have dropped my ISP costs by $40 per month. Finally!

MTA’s Big Gig internet plans are marketed as the answer to the “power users” that need more data usage in addition to having fast speeds. While I agree there are probably quite a few folks who do nothing but email and browse the web – the idea that “power users” are somehow a special class of internet citizen is really becoming an outdated notion. Facts are, nearly everyone today is uploading images to Flickr, posting videos on YouTube, watching shows on Hulu, renting Netflix or playing online games with their XBOX 360. All of us are now “power users”, so it’s probably a wise move for MTA to respond to this demand now – before everyone becomes a whining noise maker like me.

While this is generally great news, my exuberance for this new plan is limited to the fact that I am saving forty dollars a month. It’s still a sad state of affairs being on the edge of the broadband world. I’m sure there are many who have it worse, but I can’t believe that today, in 2010, that we are still paying more than $100 for 768K DSL service. I won’t go on about the state of affairs regarding Alaska internet options – you can check out my previous posts.

So, the short story.
Thank you MTA for taking steps in the right direction…

Just a quick look at one of the products available for pre-order at Quirky. Originally pitched as a “keyboard garage” with a few USB ports, the final design is almost exactly that – plus it has 6 USB ports on the front!  I can’t wait to get mine and replace the hideous USB hub cluttering up my desktop.

Granted, you can pickup a USB hub for less than $20 in some cases, but I haven’t seen anything as cleanly designed, doubles as a nice place to park your keyboard and potentially a nice monitor stand. For example, check out these innovative (albeit) fugly models by Belkin. Functional, yes. Pretty, no. The Quirky spacebar is obviously targeted at the Apple keyboard and Mac fanboys, but that’s okay with me. Haha!

At the time of this writing, the spacebar is nearing the end of it’s Pre-sale (“Commitment”) phase with a price of $42.

Go place your commitment by joining Quirky (use my referral URL) http://www.quirky.com/?r=318c27fe3acbde5a0e4af0b4ae291a68 and pick up the spacebar or maybe the newly released PenZen desktop “organizer”. I can’t wait to see the spacebar in the wild (and on my desk).

Once I get it, I’ll be sure to post a full review!

-Kevin

I recently came across Quirky.com in my search for ways to take something from idea to reality. Having recently moved on from my old company, I had some time on my hands – plus my partner had recently come up with a really cool software idea that had grown into something bigger, better and infinitely more complicated to create (i.e. hardware).

We began our search like many probably do, by reaching out to friends, local contacts and scouring the web for advisors on LinkedIn, etc. What you quickly discover is that turning an idea into a real, tangible and physical product is going to take quite a bit of two precious commodities: Time and Money. So, unless you’re already independently wealthy or have family ready to bankroll a year long development and speculative business – you’re going to get frustrated looking for alternative ways of getting it done.

Enter: The Social Product Development business, aka “Quirky”.

The quick intro.

-

How does it work?

The basics.

• Sign up and start engaging the community with ratings, comments and voting on products you think have a chance to succeed.
• Submit your idea (the more you can diagram or describe via a YouTube video, the better) – this will cost you $99.
• Your idea is judged, graded and voted on by a jury of peers, lurkers and professionals
• The process of vetting the idea takes about a week
• If your idea is chosen, it goes through a series of design, marketing and development steps that finalize more about the product name, design, tagline, etc.
• Off it goes to production. Stand by for 8 weeks, give or take.

Making money.

• Based on the idea, the amount of “influence” that each individual has in the process – the revenue per sold item varies.
• Generally, the person with the idea is going to earn about 12 cents on every 1 dollar for items sold via Quirky’s store.
• For products that go “big time” and sell wholesale, the rule is about about 4 cents on the dollar. Not bad at all, considering the investment to submit the idea was only $99.

Protecting the idea.

• At the point of submission and review process, the idea is yours and only yours.
• Obviously, there’s some public exposure here – but that can work in your favor too.
• If your product makes the cut, you DO transfer the rights of that idea to Quirky. After all, they do have to front the costs to prototype, manufacture and build the sales channels.

To get the whole scoop, visit the quirky.com site and read the FAQs under the Learn section.

-

My idea.

TBD Product 0032

My concept will be in the Idea Evaluation stage until around Valentine’s Day. I’d love to give away the idea here, but the goal is to get you to visit Quirky and check out my entry under Product 0032. I’ll give you a hint, it’s under my name and the title of the idea is: Dynamo Phone Case.

As this develops and I have more experience with Quirky, I will definitely follow-up with a story or two. Thanks for checking out my idea and I hope I get your vote too!!

-Kevin

I’ve been navigating to each site and editing with the browser for years and to have a single tool with access to all my blogs is a dream. Loving it. This is my first attempt using MarsEdit and so far I’m loving the simplicity! As a matter of fact, I think I’ll just stop right here and save my draft without having to be connected or logged in. (Clicks Save as Draft)

Really, not much else to add here except that I am impressed overall with the tool. Uploading the image was dead simple, adding links and entering text is incredibly straight forward. One note of caution to the novice blogger and those with zero knowledge of

HTML formatting

, the management of

text size

, formatting and so on could be a little confusing. It’s definitely not a WYSIWYG editor from what I’ve seen so far. In fact, I had to CREATE the macros to make the list markup for Pros and Cons below.

My super quick review in summary:

Pros:

• Simple
• Manage several blogs in one place
• Clean UI
• It works!

Cons:

• Does require some HTML skill
• Needs a simple WYSIWYG toolbar

I’ll go look at Ecto and see what I think…

First off, the best news about the KTUU iPhone app is – it’s FREE. Giving something away is always a good way to attract tirekickers and followers. So the question is, is it worth it – even for free?

Searching for “KTUU” in iTunes app store was easy and obviously only gave 1 result, the KTUU app. Not putting the app under Alaska news might not have been the smartest decision, but if you already know KTUU – this is not a big deal. Okay, so the free install went as expected, nothing new here.

To some the terms and conditions may not be that big a concern, but this was one of the first apps I’ve installed that came with such a long legal agreement to accept. A minor negative for some and likely a non-issue for most…but what’s in that agreement anyway? So, now that I’ve accepted the terms that will never be read – they want to know where you are. Okay, I gave you my first born and gave you permission to track me…moving on, what do I get out of this deal?

My initial reaction to the interface was, “wow, nice”. Overall I think this off the shelf app from doapps (http://www.doapps.com/) is pretty slick. The menus are well sorted and smooth looking with a nice set of icons to represent the news, weather, sports, etc.

The news content is what you might expect from KTUU. It’s good, it’s local and it’s now inside an iPhone app. I did experience some problems with the app initially, categories not loading and some minor formatting issues that could be easily resolved (story images are too wide for the app).

Pros:

• Nice UI
• Relatively bug free
• It’s local Alaska news under a single button

Cons:

• Free = data mining and banner ads

All said, I would say kudos to KTUU for jumping in and putting it out there. Will I keep or use this app? Maybe, but likely not, only because I can get the same content more timely in most cases from other sources during my regular use of a desktop browser. I still applaud KTUU for doing it.

Get the KTUU app
Download the KTUU app from the iTunes app store.

Looking for a great Alaska iPhone app for travel?
Check out the Alaska HDTV travel app on the iTunes store.

Okay, say you’re creating a new iPhone app or you just want to DEMO an app in a screencast or maybe even in a presentation. Simple right? Try again, it has to be the most cluster ****ed process I’ve ever run into.

Unless you are the developer and have the simulator you are pretty much out of luck if you want to create a nice clean screencast without having to shoot the screen with a video camera. Having considered everything from animating still screencaptures to doing it all in Motion, I was near my wits end when I decided to go outside the protective realm of the Apple-only approach. Enter, the God forbidden realm of the “jailbreak”.

Before you do anything!
Back up your iPhone – iPod Touch data to your Mac.

Let’s get to it. First off you are going to need the following to make this tutorial work:

1. Blackra1n software for PC or Mac
2. iPhone or iPod Touch
3. Synch cable
4. Your Mac OS computer

Step 1: Prepare the computer

1. First things first, make sure the PC has the latest copy of iTunes installed (then reboot).
2. Attach iPhone – iPod Touch to PC via synch cable
3. If iTunes launches, close the app and do nothing to update or synch with the iPhone – iPod
4. Go to http://blackra1n.com – Dowload the file, make a donation to GeoHot!
5. Launch the application and follow the incredibly simple instructions
6. Make sure you choose Cydia after the reboot!

For more detailed how to on the Blackra1n install: Jailbreak Your iPhone With BlackRa1n Tutorial

Step 2: Install Apps

1. Install ScreenSplitr on your iPhone or Ipod Touch using Cydia
2. Go download DemoGod for your Mac and install
3. Start ScreenSplitr (the icon will indicate that it is “On”)
   
4. Launch DemoGod
   
5. Select the iPhone or iPod Touch in DemoGod
6. Confirm the connection to your iPhone
   
7. Voila! You can now see on screen everything you’re doing on the iPhone!

Step 3: Screencapture

There are loads of ways to get this done. I’m not going to attempt to answer this one yet. I am testing different apps right now. So far I am more impressed with Screenium, but you can use the latest QuickTime (assuming you are using Snow Leopard). Example video at the top of the post was created using ScreenSplitr, DemoGod and Screenium.

Update: 26 May 2009
Reports are beginning to come in that 3G is now active in the Anchorage and Wasilla areas. Karen Whitworth mentioned via Twitter that she is now getting 3G in Wasilla.

The debate (and wild guesstimates for the launch date) rage on about whether 3G will ever arrive in Alaska. We’re approaching the 3rd generation of the iPhone and yet we in Alaska haven’t even experienced the first generation of 3G. Check out the original post and comments here.

I spent nearly the entire day at the Wild Berry Theater in Anchorage today geeking out over amazing high end video cameras. It was also a great time to visit with some great people from around the state and those who are now making Alaska their new filmmaking home. Below are a few snapshots from the Alaska Filmmakers Clinic that included a great presentation by Ted Schilowitz of RED camera and other great presentations by Apple (ProRes), Sony cameras and Fujinon lenses.

The attendance was very strong and I believe this event ignited the “real” filmmaking industry in Alaska. Time will be the judge, but it really felt like Alaska may be breaking into the what-was-once-only-Hollywood kind of productions.

After the Clinic, hands-on with the cameras (including the amazingly Transformer-looking 3D rig) and presentations, many more people crowded into the theater to catch the “premiere” of Evergreen Film’s release of ICY KILLERS. This great movie about Alaska’s salmon sharks can be seen on National Geographic channel, check it out.

There’s lots more to say, but I wanted to share the photos right away while the rest of the experience sinks in. I’m personally grateful for the Alaska Film Office, Alaska Film Group, RED, Sony, Fujinon, Evergreen Films, AlaskaUSA (my credit union, yay!) and all the rest who made the event possible. Truly inspiring, thank you!

(Plug: We use Apple and Final Cut Studio for all our editing and are extremely grateful for the support that MacHaus has shown us over the last year. Seriously, if you are in Alaska and want help with your Apple and Mac products, you really need to visit MacHaus. They’re in Anchorage, Wasilla and Fairbanks. Thanks, Ben!)