No matter where you live, it never seems like the latest and greatest technology actually ever hits your neck of the woods before the rest of the modern world has had a chance to get sick of it. Well chalk one up for this technology junkie because Portland, Oregon officially has WiMAX!

For those of you who aren’t familiar, WiMAX is in very simple terms an extremely fast Internet connection alternative to other wire-based services such as Cable, DSL and Verizon FioS Service and wireless services provided at hotspots like what Starbucks offers through AT&T. You can expect speeds of up 6 mbps at home and 4 mbps on mobile accounts. Home plans start at $20 a month with mobile plans starting at $30 a month. Very competitive in price and stated speed to other offerings.

WiMAX achieves these stellar speeds by connecting subscribers over a WiMAX modem. For those who think less is more, most mobile users for instance, WiMAX chips are already starting to show up in new laptops such as the Asus Eee PC. I would suspect that many manufacturers will be watching closely how widely accepted WiMAX is in the Portland area to gauge whether or not the new chips are worth considering for new hardware.

One very positive note is the WiMAX technology is much more robust than Wi-Fi and provides wireless signals that stretch for miles rather than the typical few dozen feet. This is accomplished through the use of federally licensed radio spectrum. This ups the ante on technological advances and quality of service, but it also ups the ante financially for Clearwire, the company behind WiMAX.

Not only is the federally licensed radio spectrum expensive, Clearwire must come into the Portland area and make a big splash rather quickly. It has to gain a significant subscriber base to bring in much needed capital to offset rollout costs. Accomplishing this in the midst of an economic downtime, not to mention stiff competition from other already entrenched providers could prove to be a daunting task.

The day Clearwire officially launched WiMAX in Portland, I was ready to sign up. One problem: Macs aren’t supported. Sweet mother! I decided to go to Plan B.

I’d already been considering a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet to play with. I figured I’d just buy the WiMAX enabled version. New problem: Everyone was out of them. However I found someone wanting to sell one on Craigslist. I’m Golden! New problem came up: Clearwire was saying it wasn’t compatible with Portland’s WiMAX service.

I started searching around and found that Nokia, that same day, had pulled the Nokia N810 WiMAX version from production. Not only that, they were asking retailers to return unsold units (I don’t think anyone had any to return) to Nokia. An interesting development.

After all that, I think I’m just going to sit on the sidelines of this latest and greatest event and see how things go. If some compelling device comes down the pipe or Clearwire decides to support Mac users before it goes belly up, maybe I’ll pony up and try the mobile service.

All in all, my big chance to actually be in on one of the latest, greatest and coolest things has met a very disappointing end……for now.

Just started using my Apple TV again after months of it sitting in a drawer. I read over at Appletvhacks.net on how to get color display from composite video out on a non-HD display, but stumbled on a slightly different solution while doing this. From the Appletvhacks.net site, their solution says:

Here’s what he did:

• Plug your composite-yellow in the green “slot” (this will give you an image, but BW)
• head over to resolution and set it to 480i (not sure if this step is needed tho)
• now STAND on 480p and unplug the composite-yellow, plug an HDMI-DVI adapter
• press “ok” on the remote and count to 5
• unplug the HDMI-DVI adapter and replug the composite-yellow, when the image comes back, it comes back full color!

What I did cuts out the 5 second remote trick and requires one other device many people probably already have in their bag – the Apple DVI-video out cable. I hooked mine up to the HDMI-DVI adapter as show here:

Then I did the following:

• Plug your composite-yellow in the green “slot” (this will give you an image, but BW)
• head over to resolution and set it to 480i
• plugged in the HDMI-DVI-Apple VIdeo Out cable
• unplug the composite-yellow plug and plug it into the Apple Video composite port, wait about 5 seconds
• unplug the composite-yellow plug from the Apple Video composite port and replug the composite-yellow, when the image comes back, it comes back full color!

Don’t know why this works this way, but it has worked great for me! As noted on the Appletvhacks.net site, you can also use the software solution found here.

You may be surprised to see another post about a new iPod after my recent post on the iPod Classic 160GB I picked up a few weeks ago. Even though my teenage daughter told me not to get one (strange as it may sound), I picked up an iPod touch. I must say, I’m in love anew with Apple’s latest iPod.

From the thin, sleek iPhone-like profile to the gorgeous, scratch resistant 3.5″ screen (check out the link below) to the ultra cool multi-touch interface, there’s a lot of touch to love. More on iPod Touch = iPod LOVE

Why I feel like I need another device to surf the Internet, I have no idea. I spend all day sitting in front of a computer on the Internet, yet I am constantly looking for devices that really do nothing more than provide Internet access in another form factor. I DID find one particular place this device comes in handy for reading blogs and catching up on news articles More on Nokia N800 Internet Tablet – A “niche” device

Back in the 17th century, golfers used to smack wooden balls around rough golf courses, walking every step of the way, lugging their crude bamboo clubs from hole to hole in full Sunday dress, and took your best guess as to how far you needed to hit the darn thing. We’ve come a long way baby.

Today not only do we have high-tech clubs and balls, power walk carts and heated drive carts, but if you really want to geek out on the golf course, you can dial up the nearest satelite and get your accurate distance information sent right to you. The SkyCaddie SG4 makes it all possible.

If you are a geek, and you like to golf, you owe it to youself to check this out. More on SkyCaddie SG4 – Ultimate Golf Geekery

Using your iPod as a portable hard drive is a great way to carry around your important files and documents without carrying (and having to keep track of) another device.

Here’s the simple steps to make it happen More on How To Use Your iPod As a Hard Drive

I’ll skip all of the usual stuff about how great the iPod is, how well it does music, etc. Here’s why I bought the new iPod Classic 160GB: consolidation.

I loved the idea of Palm’s LifeDrive. Carry all your important electronic “stuff” with you at all times. The biggest problem was the storage limit. The iPod Classic 160GB breaks that barrier, giving you plenty of storage capacity in the form of a device you’re probably already carrying. More on iPod Classic 160GB – My Life Drive

Regardless of what your hobby is, chances are there is some sort of geeky gadget that is made just for you. The Garmin Edge 305 proves that to be true for all the bike lovers out there. The 305 proves to be one of the most complete tools for the geek cyclist on the market today. In addition to being a full blown bike computer, the 305 is also a portable GPS device, and has optional Heart Monitor and Cadence attachments to completely deck out your bike tech arsenal. More on Garmin Edge 305 – Total Bike Geekery

Update: Read updated progress reports here.
On Friday, February 2 I read an article linked from Lifehacker about how Kyle Pott had lost 50 pounds in 3 months using some unconventional weight loss methods.

I started the next day, and using some of the same methods, and combining in a few suggestions from some of the commentors to his post, I’ve lost 10 lbs in 10 days, without starving myself, changing everything my family eats, or going crazy trying to figure things out.

Here are the things I’ve done to make this happen, in no particular order that you can do too. More on 10 Pounds in 10 Days Thanks to LifeHacker, Hacker’s Diet, and DailyPlate

Apple thrilled many a fan waiting with baited breath when they released the iPhone Tuesday at Macworld, and indeed, we’ll be in line to snag a couple ourselves when they come out in Jun. However, one major component was missing from this new device — iChat. Steve proclaimed the iPhone is 3 devices in one: widescreen ipod, mobile phone, and internet communicator, and although the new device has EDGE and WiFi connectivity, and includes email, web and sms…one key app they left out is the obvious iChat from Apples own internet suite.

For a second there it looked like iChat was included, as you can see in the picture above, but what you see is just sms text messaging that is formatted to look like iChat. Although it sounds like the iPhone will not support installing of additional applications, I’m hoping there’s an iChat update in the future, maybe even before the phone releases…either that, or a widget that can be installed that will support it.

In addition to the lack of iChat, my other big complaint is the decision to use Cingular — I would have preferred Verizon. Also new rumors that the iPhone without a contract will send the price through the roof make the Cingular choice even less desirable.