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.

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.

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!

We’re taking the wraps off of iConsole.vg ahead of the alpha signup wave that will start on January 20th. Check it out, and let me know what you think!

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…

And yeah, we’ll have a guessing contest for what it is. So, you can save the “let me guess, it’s a…” comments (but I’m not going to delete them either).

Because of my proximity to Apple however, I will have no editorial relations with the site. The news will not be driven, or touched by me… beyond any general advice and council (which, I would give to anyone, anyways).

More details on it will be announced soon.

Some have asked me if you should take a test-drive of the Cruise, as a means of getting acquainted with what the Volt will have. It’s a logical question, considering that GM has already announced that the Cruise and Volt are so similar, that the Cruise will likely be the first non-Volt model to inherit Volt’s E-REV (Extended-Range Electric Vehicle) technology. However, I don’t suggest using the Cruise to get acquainted with the Volt… too much. The Volt will only be a four-seater, but will have a lot of the external and internal features. Also, the Cruise will undoubtedly be more powerful, leading some to feel let down when comparing it to the Volt (and no, I don’t know what the difference on handling will be, sorry).

Anyways… I found this funny because MechaWorks just finished its first hardware prototype. Just a few months away from showing it off.

Stay tuned for when we get release dates for that, and other MobileEdition-powered sites. Now that one is done, getting the rest up is the process that we’re starting right now. Well, okay, after we all get some rest (and maybe, just maybe, a rare weekend off).