Ken McGuire

Author: Ken McGuire

  • Video Preview Of Windows Mobile 6

    Via… This video will take you through some of the menus and sounds, runs to almost 4 minutes.

    To be honest, looks an awful lot like Windows Mobile 5 and not overly removed from its previous iteration either.

  • Web 2.0 Companies Starting To Fall

    VentureBeat this morning takes a look at some of the names around the ‘web 2.0’ industry that are now starting to crumble and fall including FilmLoop.com who raised $7m last year in funding only to lay off the majority of its work force recently. Jobster.com cut its entire sales staff and support staff. OnStartups.com has a nice piece too on the Lessons From The Death Of A Web 2.0 Startup.

    After the massive rise in the use of the term last year and the explosion in new lines of web services, is the bubble already starting to burst? Or were these people simply too late to the game with nothing additional and innovative to add?

  • Bloody Typical

    You go off and buy an Xbox and all of a sudden they’re ringing the changes…

    On the cards…

    • New 65nm Processor
    • HDMI Port (full 1080p resolution)
    • New 120GB hard drive 🙂

    We’ll just have to accessorise all the way so!

  • Choose The Right Mobile Tariff

    According to Fool.co.uk, figures released from the Carphone Warehouse show that mobile users waste UK£30bn every single year, simply because people are on the wrong price-plans.

    It is only within the last three months that I’ve changed over to a post-pay setup and that is was after seven years as a pre-pay customer. Now, its not to say that you’re ‘wasting’ money of your own free will, but just that you could possibly be saving yourself a few quid a month by really looking at your price plan and your monthly – which of course, is always good.

    The article ts slightly geared more towards the UK market given the sterling prices, if you’re looking for a currency converter you can’t go wrong with XE.com. Sounds like a cheesy ad, I know. But if you’re curious about your price plan and want to look at things on a nice, basic, understandable level then give this a read.

  • What WON’T Linux Run On?

    Is there anything that Linux won’t run on with a little elbow grease? Looks like the Zune is the next candiate…

  • 50K Mobile Bill For Movie Downloads

    It seems like a 30 year old male resident of Bergamo, Italy, also a subscriber to Vodafone’s ‘Connect 600’ plan on the Italian market has been hit with a mobile bill for just over 50,000 Euro for data downloads. While he assumed that his high priced plan allowed him unlimited data downloads in the month, he would leave his computer on for the night and download the odd movie, likely at around the 700mb mark (as movies go).

    What he should have done was read the small print – the 600 in ‘Connect 600’ standing for 600mb, every TWO months. Extra bandwidth is charged per kilobyte after that.

    Not the kind of phone bill you want after the Christmas period now, is it?

  • How About A Bar Camp Linkup?

    Does anyone going to the Bar Camp meet in Waterford on the 20th know any Italian? With the AV setup available in the RAIC Centre, what are the odds of being able to create a link at somestage during the day between Waterford and Bar Camp Rome, which kicks off around the same time as the Waterford session?

    From their wiki they’ve got 71 people in attendance, 8 people blogging the event (which is something I hadn’t considered – will there be wireless access in Waterford?) Talks include one on Net TV, OpenID, Web 2.0 Business Models, Digital Business Ecosystems and more.

    Bar Camp Stockholm is supposed to be happening but alas the wiki is fairly empty…

  • Relaunching The Business Blog

    2007 brings new changes and new developments and we’ve got plenty of those planned for the business, one of those includes the relaunching of the blog, now called ‘The eventIreland Blog‘ (you’ll find the feed link in the Grazr window on this blog’s sidebar) which will cover business offers from ourselves along with domain and internet news, marketing tips and helpful information from Aidan coupled with some extra design and other posts – related to the business – from myself and John.

    We’ve removed our main site for a few days, that itself launching with a complete redesign based on our horizonCMS solution. Those of you with a keen eye might notice that we’ve also made a very subtle change to our logo. While all these are quite small changes and additions to us, they’re the first a long line for 2007 as we pass 18 months in business.

  • Vodafone Hit For 42m Calls And Texts In Two Days

    vodafone.jpgChristmas Day and New Year’s Eve marked a bumper pay for Vodafone this Christmas season as they registered a nice 42 million voice calls and text messages for just those two days alone in the festive season. Softpedia also reports that ‘Fairytale Of New York’, which has to be the country’s favourite Christmas tune, was the most downloaded song for the Christmas period as well.

    Interesting to see what the stats from O2 and Meteor are going to show.

  • Happy New Year From Mobileblogr

    A Happy New Year to all who read mobileblogr. I’m back after an unhealthy Christmas break (great Christmas but a nice sickness thrown in there as well) and will be getting Mobileblogr back in action for the New Year later this evening.

  • Pissup In Dublin On March 3rd

    Of course I meant to headline that the Irish Blog Awards are likely to be held in Dublin on Saturday, March 3rd this year. Sponsorship slots are nicely filling up, there’s a new Best Irish Bebo Profile (see mine – just as a link mind you) award and 21 lip-smackingly good categories which you’ll be able to enter and vote upon.

    Anyway, the other categories in can be found right here…

    Meanwhile… any word on any entertainment Damien?

  • New Year – New Theme For Your Blog?

    If one of the things you’ve decided for the New Year is to change the appearance of your blog or to develop your own theme, Rachel at Cre8D Design has put together a list of useful resources to help to create a WordPress theme.

    Personally, I’d suggest having a look around the WordPress Themes site and maybe stick your head in at WP-Plugins, between the two of them you’re likely to be able to create something!

  • Hi Ho, Hi Ho…

    …and it`s back to work I go. Guess that means that the holiday season is pretty much over! Christmas tree coming down at the weekend, leave the few decorations around the place up a bit longer (Sligo got significantly more “Christmasified” than Kilkenny this year) and time to start tucking into the year. Hope everyone had a good holiday season….

  • Know When Your Mobile Will Lose Service – New York

    Innovative idea in New York – taxi cab drivers are going to help map out all the dark spots in New York where your mobile may go out of coverage. Ericsson are organising everything and once mapped out, they’ll look to fix the problems. Its not so much that you go out of coverage or range of a relay tower, but that because of the soaring height of the buildings you may not be able to get a mobile signal. What I would like to see is an online production of this ‘map’ once it is finished, updated accordingly as Ericsson fix the transmission issues.

    Nice to be able to check before you leave the house whether you’re going to be able to make a phone call when you need to.

  • Step Into 2007 (Happy New Year)

    As we step into 2007 having safely made it through last night I would like to wish everyone a very happy and prosperous 2007 in whatever field you’re in. 2006 has been a blogging pleasure and hopefully it will continue that way for the New Year.

    I think a drive to Waterford is in order… rumour has it that Gino’s might be open and dear God do they have good pizza 🙂

  • An Xbox 360 Pour Moi

    Decided to treat myself today with the last big expense of the year and the last big expense in quite a while, picking up an Xbox 360 complete with wireless controller, hard drive, headset and a copy of Pro Evo 6. Gamestop had a handy offer on, if you traded in an original xbox and a few old games you would get the pro bundle for 299 – mine finished out at 280 for the lot and its now humming away in the corner of the room. Really like the way you can turn the console on straight from the joypad – no more getting up out of the bed to switch it off after watching a DVD!

    Xbox 360What I can’t get over is the price of things. Xtravision, bless their hearts, had games going from 50 – 75 Euro while Gamestop were roughly the same. My quest for the day was to pick up a copy of Dead Rising (video link) alas nowhere in Kilkenny or Carlow, video shop or game shop, has the thing in stock. Nevertheless, I’m a patient man, so why pay 75 quid for it in town when you can order it off Play.com for 37 Euro?

    I sure as hell know where I’ll be shopping for games anyway…

  • 10 Things: 10 Things I Would Like In 2007

    Not getting greedy or anything but here’s a few things that I would like in 2007…

    1. To get back to Toronto
    2. Buy that Telecaster that I keep looking at on Thomann
    3. Buy an XBOX 360
    4. Organise some serious funding for KilkennyMusic.com and watch that little baby grow 🙂 – either through sponsorship or by actually putting my head down and developing a strong business plan and revenue stream for it.
    5. Celebrate 2 years in business with style and watch THAT little baby grow even more.
    6. Go skiing again (seen as my trip in February is off)
    7. Develop some kind of timetable for blogging outside of kenmc.com – Liverpool Access, Mobileblogr and The Football Times take a little hit every now and again.
    8. Finish recording the Happy Medium EP which was started before the summer this year.
    9. Get through Cannibal! The Musical with The Devious Theatre Company and start touring Heart Shaped Vinyl.
    10. Get to spend a little more time up in Sligo. Have van, will travel and all that. Christmas was a good start.

  • Home Again, Home Again

    Great week away up in Sligo (Lough Talt area if anyone is interested, its closer to Ballina, Mayo, than it is Sligo but we just sneak inside the border). Too much food, not enough getting out-and-about, plenty of beer, wine, music, song, the whole lot. You think people would just NOT email you over the Christmas, a week producing 182 non-spam emails.

    Off to get some blog reading done as there seems to have been a nice bit of activity in the week 🙂

  • 10 Things: 10 Songs That Should Be On Your iPod

    Here’s ten songs that should definitely be on your iPod. If you picked one up for Christmas or decided to treat yourself then throw these ten songs on it. Track purchase links point to GoMusic.ru (cheaper alternative to iTunes), just for those of you who like to download. Full album links point to Play.com, cheaper alternative to shopping in your local high street store, for those of you who like to shop for the real thing.

    1. The Guggenheim Grotto – A Lifetime In Heat (Free Download)
      This version taken from the ‘A Lifetime In Heat’ EP.
    2. Cary Brothers – Blue Eyes (Purchase)
      Taken from the ‘All The Rage EP’, also available on the Garden State soundtrack.
    3. A Perfect Circle – Fiddle And The Drum (Purchase)
      Fantastic vocal duet taken from the Emotive album, released 2004.
    4. New York Fashion Week – Dear Spartacus (MySpace)
      I got to know Dylan, Rob and Neil through work with KilkennyMusic.com and have to mark them as one to watch in 2007. We featured them on the Sound System Podcast and on KCLR, their track “Dear Spartacus’ is still available to download on MySpace, give it a listen and a download.
    5. Alanis Morissette – No Pressure Over Cappuccino (purchase)
      Taken from the ‘MTV Unplugged‘ album, which should be part of anyone’s collection.
    6. Death Cab For Cutie – The New Year (purchase)
      Introduced to them about a year ago, spent a bottle of wine or two listening to them in Toronto, taken from the album Transatlanticism which is well worth having.
    7. Deftones – Passenger (purchase)
      Taken from the ‘White Pony‘ album, its fantastic track with an appearance by Maynard James Keenan (Tool) on vocals alongside Chino Moreno
    8. Matisyahu – Youth (purchase)
      I was introduced to this deadly blend of Jewish reggae (can you class it like that?). This is the title track from the album of the same name, ‘Youth‘.
    9. Silverchair – Emotion Sickness (purchase)
      Taken from the Neon Ballroom album, this is the first track and one of the real standout tracks from the album. Ah those glorius summers…. and old one but a good one!
    10. Weezer – Buddy Holly (purchase)
      Buddy Holly was used as the track played during the curtain call for ‘Heart Shaped Vinyl’ that I was involved in over the summer. Given the nature of the play, I don’t think we could have asked for a better track to be used. Taken from the Weezer Blue album.

    *Songs are ordered for appearance (10 things) and not by order of preference

  • 10 Things: 10 Great Moments (For Me) From 2006

    Here’s another one, this time it is 10 great moments for me in 2006… Again, lists are ordered for appearance as opposed to preference.

    1. Celebrating one full year in business with Event Ireland
    2. A few months later, celebrating one full year on the go with KilkennyMusic.com.
    3. Launching the One Take Sessions in November, seen as I had been planning them since January of this year. Nothing like 11 months of planning to pull off a series of gigs!
    4. Getting to see Tool in The Point – that kind of show doesn’t come along every day of the week!
    5. Hearing Fairground Attraction getting played on the radio for the first time. Nothing like having your own music on the radio – and it wasn’t the last time either.
    6. Steel Pulse in Belfast – 15 of us on a minibus that we hired to take us from Kilkenny to Belfast and back again in the one night – roadtrip of a lifetime.
    7. The day I opened the Kilkenny People and saw that KilkennyMusic.com had been awarded the largest grant in Kilkenny through the Arts Office, something I’m ever thankful for, knowing that the funding received has enabled us to make it a full year and beyond.
    8. Christmas with the family – always something I look forward to
    9. Completing the trifecta of Mark Knopfler (2005), Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen (both 2006) live. Growing up listening to some of your musical idols, its great to be able to see them live before they give up on the touring side of life.
    10. Getting to Toronto, definitely the highlight of the year, no doubt about it.