Another season

With the official start of the holiday gift-giving season just a few days ahead (the big day after Thanksgiving kick-off), I pause, ever so briefly, and find myself all too ready to submit to go with it yet again this year.

Looking at my Amazon.com wish list for the first time in a while, recently, I see that it is neglected and stale, with stuff put there almost a year ago that, yeah, it might be nice to have, but what was I thinking?

In the past I'd often use my Amazon.com wish list just to track, say, books that I might like to read sometime but not necessarily own.  It seems a more responsible way than actually buying the book as a commitment to read it sometime in the future (as I used to do in college).

Anywho (whenever I use that word, it never seems the same as Tea Leoni in The Family Man), the wishlist also tracks some big-ticket items that are truly more wished-for items than something I'd actually expect to get or purchase near-term.  Say, oh, something like a big screen TV, (or this one, if you're feeling lavishly charitable; don't care which, surprise me!) or a ('nother) really nice lens for my camera (or a new camera, yeah...).

But this year a new item is going on the list (follow-me down the consumerist rabbit hole, kay?): an in-car satellite television receiver & antenna.  It lets backseat passengers watch live TV as you're moving down the road.  Similar to what RV's have had available, but instead of a large R2D2 antenna on top, in-car uses phased-array technology to scale down the antenna to the size of a large, flat, pizza-box, mounted on your van or SUV roof rack.

These things are just now getting some main-stream media attention.  You may have seen them in the Chrysler/Jeep ads (the Sirius Backseat TV).  DirectTV also has their KVH models, and a Google search (Love that Google!) reveals that our residential satellite provider, DishNetwork, supposedly showed their MobileDish product at the January '07 Consumer Electronics Show, and supposedly officially announced it in a May Echostar (Dish parent) press release.

Funny, the press release says to call DishNetwork's toll-free number for more information, so I did.  Maybe it was because it was the weekend, or maybe because the product isn't ready yet (no mention at all on dishnetwork.com), the call center person knew nothing about it.

(Not only that, but I was told I had to go through a local installer.  Ok, give me a phone number of one near me.  Alas, nothing nearby.  Try another city?  Ok, how about Chicago?  Sorry, no installers near-by that city either.  C'mon, you cannot be serious (Sirius?)).

Finally I was told try Radio Shack.  So I checked their web storefront, no mention of MobileDish there either, but just to be sure I also called their toll-free sales line, but struck out again.

It was at this point my SO suggested that I was more consumed by the fact that it was something that was officially launched in May and, one would expect, should be available by now.  It's precisely because it isn't available that adds to the attraction, or pursuit of it, for me.

Maybe so.  But it'd still be cool to have for that up-coming road trip.  And supposedly you get your local channels, too.  Maybe I should cool my jets and just wait.  If it isn't ready there must be a reason.

And, as with the iPhone, perhaps the 2nd generation will have desirable features, like DVR capabilities.  And with volume shipments (expected to sell 386,000 units by 2011, said one of the manufacturer reps in an on-line video interview & demonstration), the price should come down.

I should add that we are otherwise EXTREMELY happy DishNetwork customers.  Not just because they've carried TheTennisChannel, but for the reliability of the home DVR's, the price (at least compared to cable).  We tend to stick with what's worked for us (coming up on eight years for Dish, been with Sprint cellular since '94, American Express since '86...).

The other stocking stuffer idea I had was an iPod adapter for our minivan.  Of course ours doesn't have the auxiliary audio-in for MP3 players, like so many new vehicles seem to have now.  But an add-on kits are available, and much cheaper than the mobile-sats.

For now, though, I'm going to keep the list to a minimum and focus on the holiday before us, and reflect on how especially thankful I am to be healthy and able to resume my tennis regimen after my hiatus from a back injury earlier this year.  And thankful that I found a  local coffee shop offering 100% Kona coffee brew (and that they opened a new shop near my office).  And so much more.