Every day I’m seeing more and more “… [IN HD] — Where Available … ” on the bottom of programs that I’m watching, but yet every day I’m not seeing more and more HD channels show up on my BrightHouse Cable…

According to Engadget HD (The 1080i Step Child of Engadget) there is a rumor that Time Warner and BrightHouse will start expanding it’s HD cable line up on October 15th, 2007.

Oct. 1:
TBS HD

Oct. 15:
A&E HD, MTV HD, History Channel HD, CNN HD, Lifetime Movies HD, Food Network HD, Golf Channel/Versus HD, and Universal HD.

This means Modern Marvels and Good Eats in HD! W00t!

Update 10/02/07:
Brighthouse Cable in Orlando fired up TBS HD, Food Network HD, History Channel HD, and HGTV HD last night. Unfortunately, they managed to knockout both my cable cards in the process forcing me to reboot my Tivo. So far they look pretty good, Still waiting for the Tivo to update it’s channel listing so I can see if they are broadcasting in 720p or 1080i.

I promised myself I’d wait two days before I wrote anything about my new cell phone… i wanted to use it and make sure that it was the ‘Real Deal’ before I went out and wrote my OMGHI2U! fanboy post — but now that time has come and all I can say is… OMGHI2U!

So, whats the big deal about it? Well, RIM is making smart moves. In the crazy market of Smart Phones you tend to find one of two extremes, Phones that are `too smart` or phones that are more `Gimmic and Glam`. It’s hard to find the perfect balance of business and pleasure features to sooth the sweet tooth of cell phone zealots. The iPhone I think might of been the first to almost get this mixture right — but still lacks a little in the business side of the market — however, that might change over time — I just don’t foresee Fortune 500 businesses issuing iPhones to it’s executives.

So, that being said, why am I screaming OMGHI2U? Well simply because after 5 years, I can finally make cell phone calls from my house. I have managed to live in cell tower hell for the last 5 years, and simply squeaking 1 bar of signal to send a txt message is damn near impossible. The Blackberry Curve offers T-Mobiles HotSpot @ Home service which is the fancy name for UMA support. This means, the phone Switches over to WiFi instead of the cell tower when in the presence of a wifi network, or any TMobile Hotspot (ie. Every Starbucks / Airport / etc ) — And still retains full SMS/MMS/Talk capabilities. And after about 30mins of UMA calls this weekend, I can say the differences in call quality is Minimal. Calls sound “Cellular” with only a slight ‘twang’ that comes with non loss less audio compression. In other words, 99.999% will never be able to tell.

So, why do I call the Curve the “Mullet” of cell phones? Simply put — It’s the perfect 50/50 mixture of Business and Party. Everything from awesome media capabilities and a camera, to the full array of the Blackberry business class applications at your disposal. With the addition of UMA any office monkey without a window view can now use their cell phone in the deepest bowels of cubicle hell — and a Seasoned CEO on the 99th floor no longer needs to wait on an in building cellular network. Not to mention lil’ ol me out in the cellular boonies finally has a single point of contact and will no longer piss off my friends and colleagues by forcing them to play phone bingo to find me.

Well played T-Mobile and RIM. I have a feeling you have set the bar pretty high for the other carriers.

Jaime and I don’t take as many vacations as we should. This past weekend marks only our third vacation we have taken in the 7.5 years we have been together. In fact, this bring our official total vacation days taken (combined) to 8 in almost 8 years. Or, half a day per person, per year. *yikes* no wonder we’re almost insane…

So, exactly 1 year to the day of our last vacation I surprised Jaime with a long weekend away in New York City. She had never been, and, in my opinion, now is really one of the nicest times of year to go to the city. Of, course I had a little hidden agenda — I really wanted to see a Phillies Game — and they just so happened to be sweeping playing the Mets at Shea this past weekend… So, simply, everyone wins..

I’ll try to get some pictures up later — In the meantime — here’s a quick overview:

1. Manhattan is unofficially sponsored by Nine West, Starbucks, Banana Republic, H&M and Bank of America.
2. In NYC the small talk of “How about this weather” — Has been officially replaced with — “Guess how much I pay for rent…”
3. 5 ft Tall canisters of Liquid Nitrogen on almost every street corner scares the Bejesus out of me. When asked — New Yorkers say “Never noticed that before… Huh… yea. That is sorta Odd. We’ll Google it Later…”
4. Jaime found out that if the primary color of your outfit is Black, people assume you’re a New Yorker, and start asking you for Directions. [This was the Highlight of the trip for her…]
5. Easiest way to empty Shea Stadium — Have Greg Dobbs hit a grand slam in the 6th inning..
6. Buddakan is one of the raddest restaurants I have been to in a long time. If you go, get like seven orders of the ‘Char Sui Pork Buns’ — You won’t be sorry.
7. Bloomingdale’s + Women’s Designer Denim Sale = Total chaos
8. NYC + Flip Flops = Worst Idea Ever…
9. Finally, New Yorkers are some of the nicest people on the face of the earth…. Until they get on the subway… There they are total savages…. I think it has something to do with not having cell signal… :shrug:

So, Thank you NYC. We had a great time.. And hopefully we’ll be back soon….

Football.