TheBuzz
TheBuzz
It's not exactly the whole world, but "I can now hold an entire radio station in my hand," said Robert Abbett, owner and operator of Internet Radio Hawaii A good grasp of radio
. On Wednesday the listener-supported Internet radio station laid claim to making history again as the first streaming music site in the world to run serious long-form programming from an Apple iPod -- one of two donated by an anonymous and generous listener -- suggested retail is about $400.
The test went well, Abbett said, aside from an admitted operator error that resulted in one song playing repeatedly.
The compact device can hold 1,000 songs, "That's two and a half days of music," said Abbett. He plays somewhere between 400 and 420 songs a day from his library of more than 5,700 songs.
"The iPods will enable me to do behind-the-scenes-work on the main music system without missing a beat, provide a backup during times of trouble, allow me greater flexibility in auditioning new music and some other uses I have not thought of yet."
One use he has thought of, is to run IRH.com from the iPods during a home re-roofing project next year.
"To have CDs running during hammering -- that's not good," Abbett said.
The iPod TV commercial features fine print at the bottom of the screen that reads, "Don't steal music." It's not a concern for Abbett as he pays licensing fees to stream music on the Internet, "but I don't do distribution. Nothing is set up so you can download, it's all part of a continuous stream."
"I'm not doing anything Napster-like," he said.
I-radio to e-cards
With leading Internet greeting card sites BlueMountain. com and American Greetings. com now charging for most, if not all e-cards, associates of TheBuzz have gone begging for new free e-card sites.A cursory search of the Web turned up dozens of possibilities but what didn't pop up instantly were the free "Shaka e-Cards" available at PacificExpressions.com.
It's a unit of Van Nuys California-based Aloha World LLC, headed by Anthony Kwak.
The site has been recently redesigned, he said, to include more card creation and sending options.
The site offers borders, "stamps," headers and background options sure to make even the stoutest ex-pat just a wee-bit wistful.
There are "Shaka eCards" and "Ailana Kii," or island images offering many sentiments including aloha, "Any Kine," birthday, get well, mahalo, missing you, and "Mushy Kine" as well as holiday greetings. Where photos are used, the photographers are credited.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com