Your Tech Weblog

Interesting phone call from Apple PR just now: An iPod Touch preloaded with 85 Warner Bros. movies reportedly hits my desk tomorrow morning.

The iPod also will have photos related to those movies, which will be available on the iTunes Store.

It's all meant to commemorate WB's 85th anniversary. Have you heard about this?

Those who use older TVs to pull in analog over-the-air signals will need digital converters by early next year, when the non-digital transmissions are due to end and non-digital TVs are rendered inoperable.

The federal government is letting eligible households order a pair of free coupons, each worth $40 and good towards the purchase of a converter. The catch: The coupons must be used within 90 days upon receipt, or they'll expire.

Facing the imminent expiration of my two coupons (they actually look like credit cards), I recently checked out my options at four stores along Robert Street near downtown St. Paul.

Two of them, a Radio Shack and a Wal-Mart, were out of converters. A Target and a Best Buy had one model each in stock.

The Radio Shack did give me the option of ordering a converter and having it shipped to my residence, so I purchased this model. At Target, I bought one of these (also available at Radio Shack, among other models).

Best Buy had a new converter, from Apex, in stock. It still carries an older Insignia model but says it will be replacing it with a newer Insignia soon. Here are Wal-Mart options.

My shopping excursion mostly put to rest one rumor crossing my desk, that the converters are impossible to come by. Apparently, you can find them in stock if you look hard enough. Or just order one at Radio Shack, if in-store stock is depleted. Simple.

Update: Returning to the aforementioned Best Buy in Inver Grove Heights on Thursday, July 3, I found the Apex box all sold out. The store only had one of the older Insignias in stock.

Sometime soon, when you receive an Excel-spreadsheet file as mail attachment on your iPhone, you'll be able to read the file and even make changes to it.

This capability, long available on other kinds of smartphones, will arrive on Apple handsets courtesy of Minneapolis-based Mariner Software. The venerable Mac-software maker, which sells the Calc spreadsheet, is making a version of that app for the iPhone.

Mariner is among a bevy of software developers (including Twin Cities-based CodeMorphic) working on iPhone apps, which are due to be made available through Apple's new online App Store later this month. The new Calc for iPhone will sell for $15 to $25 on that store, said Mariner President Michael Wray.

But while the app is nearing completion, there are a number of other details yet to be ironed out, Wray said. He's still unclear exactly how the App Store will work, and whether subsequent updates to Calc for iPhone would be distributed via that storefront.

He also needs Calc for iPhone to sync with Calc for the Mac, and is talking with Apple on how that might happen, but he has no idea when this critical hurdle will be overcome. He prefers an Apple-sanctioned approach and not a "hack."

He also knows he has competition: Apple has hinted at iPhone-related capabilities for its spreadsheet, called Numbers.

Mariner's iPhone plans don't end with Calc. Wray anticipates iPhone versions of MacJournal, StoryMill and MacGourmet.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is far from a tech-unfriendly place, in my experience.

It has such perks as vending mechines that dispense iPods and other gadget-y goodies, not to mention iPod-charging stations and the like.

Now the airport is a bit more of a tech haven with nearly two dozen new gadget-charging stations littered around the Humphrey and Lindbergh terminals for those who want to jack into power outlets for some juice.

One of the Samsung Mobile Charging Stations is shown above at gate C7 in the Lindbergh Terminal's C Concourse.

The stations have four power outlets each, along with shelves to hold phones and other devices during charging.

You'll find these stations at other airports around the country, too. Here's more info.