A full outline of what I’ll be talking about is on the conference web site.

I know silence has reigned over iConsole for the better part of a year, and for that I apologize. If I could have talked about it before now, believe me, I would have. I’ll be speaking on Monday about what happened there, and follow with slides and discussion next week.

It’s free and open to the public. I know it’s short notice, but click over to the MechaWorks blog post to see the details.

I’ll be sure to post notated slides afterwords at least, and possibly video if we can pull that off too.

We’ve met with countless developers, engineers, and company partners (both announced and waiting-in-the-wings). It’s been an amazing nine months, juggling everything from corporate filings, to actually writing the code to piece iConsole together. Today is a great day, because it’s the first time we’re able to turn to actual users, and ask for their feedback.

And, that’s all the time I’m going to take up with this post. Go, download it! Let me know what you think!

iConsole

Worst of all, I can’t gripe or point blame at the reason for the delay… two things I’m commonly known for being very good at. So, I’ll blame the lawyers for not letting me say why. As soon as I can though, I’ll give you all the details that I can on what went down.

The good news is that iConsole Alpha 1 is in the can so to speak. I can now get back to my usual awkward 24/7 schedule. No more of that 36/7 schedule… that hurt.

I will be generally unavailable as I spend every waking moment preparing to ship iConsole Alpha 1.

What I’ll be doing is adding the final bits of code to the release, beginning the testing, and making final server arrangements with the web team to ensure everything goes smoothly when we throw all the switches. It’s the longest project I’ve ever worked on, and I know testers are ready, and waiting for the first Home Theater OS.

Hopefully I’ll be back within a week… you’ll be able to tell how far we are behind (or ahead) by that benchmark.

The real question that came to my mind wasn’t “will iConsole support VPN?” Instead, I read that question as “how should we implement VPN to make sure it isn’t three cryptic letters, that the ordinary consumer doesn’t understand?”

VPN is a great example of a technology that shouldn’t be limited to the tech savvy. It can do a lot of amazing stuff that the Web 2.0 groupies simply can’t handle. But even explaining the notion of a VPN tunnel, spanning across the information superhighway, is something that the ordinary end-user simply doesn’t grasp. That’s okay, they shouldn’t have to.

So yes, iConsole will handle VPN. But, the tough question is how to deliver VPN in a way that wows the tech-savvy, and gives the ordinary consumer a tool that they can add to their life that improves their tech world. That’s what we’ll be working on after we ship iConsole for HTPC Alpha 1.

Until then, I’d love to hear what you like about VPN, and what exciting things you’d like to see iConsole do with it.

Since then, a lot has happened, but today marks the first day that you can sign up to tap into all that R&D that we’ve been brewing up over the past couple of years.

So, without further ado, head on over to iConsole.vg and sign up for the iConsole for HTPC alpha release. First come, first served when we start seeding it next month to users.

And, as usual, I love to hear what you think about every step of the way. Post back what you think about iConsole.vg and the signup process!

And, with that, we’ve started looking at other options. One of those, is Las Vegas.

Don’t get me wrong, all the buzz about there being “lots of synergy” and “great tech culture” that’s all true about Silicon Valley. But, Silicon Valley has lost what it was all about I’m afraid. I’m a decade late, and a few hundred thousand dollars of seed money short.

What Silicon Valley was about, was cheap, available area to develop in a bay of brainiacs. Since the dot-com bubble, Silicon Valley has become a bloated, land-locked area. Even Google has to lease land from NASA. NASA! Nobody has room to expand, and rent for a startup is sky-high. This isn’t how it was, and it isn’t how it was supposed to be. Companies were supposed to be able to slowly grow out of their homes, to small offices, to venture-backing, to launch. And, that’s just something you can’t do in a bad economy staring down rising rents. Yes, rising even in this economy.

Las Vegas is one of two areas that I believe will become the Silicon Valley 2.0. The other is Detroit, but I have doubts about Detroit’s long-term viability. Both have clear things that put them in the running: A poor economy has ruined their land values, along with having the infastructure that is a virtual perfect incubator for Silicon Valley.

Here’s what I see happening, long-term at least. Las Vegas will become the city where tech companies go to incubate. When they grow, they will either attach to Vegas, or re-locate as strong companies to Silicon Valley 1.0. Think of it as a graduation ceremony for companies that “make it.”

Clearly though, MechaWorks has some room to grow before it “makes it”. Newsroom Network is not yet off the ground, and Full Circle (gosh I want to say the final name that we’ve trademarked) has not yet been announced to consumers.

So, we’re going to survey the Vegas area closely. No, we won’t make the CES cutoff if we move there, so don’t ask if we’ll have a booth. Sorry, we’re not going to waste money on it this year. But, I will let you know what we decide, as we’ll probably make the decision by around when CES arrives.

But, to avoid any more slipping up, I’ve added a Twitter widget to the right side of the site, right below the link to my contact form.

And, with that, I’d like to continue the discussion on Twitter. Do you want to see more twitter integration across MechaWorks sites, or less? We’re pretty disconnected from Twitter as it is, we are considering a slow expansion of that integration…

CheapenGadget.com will be the first site to get rebranded, with an all-new name as well. What’s the new name? Well, you’ll have to wait until later this week to find out.

Since it’s all still part of MechaWorks, the corporate site for Newsroom Network will come near the end of the transition. Some of you have asked what this will mean for the flagship PhoneNews.com, and I can answer that briefly; very little. Aside from taking into account the new links, and integration from future changes… there’s nothing to the end of the year that we’re going to dramatically change on the site.

For PhoneNews.com, we’re more focused on expanding the cashback system (the #freepre was just a taste of things to come). And, of course, we’re working hard to launch our (first) new secondary editions of PhoneNews.com, PhoneNews.com Nerds & PhoneNews.com Wired.