tech - hawg
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
  Blend your smoothies and make calls with the same device!

Yes, that's right, it's the Blender Phone!
 
  USB cup cooler and heater

And no it doesn't cool and heat your drink at the same time unfortunately. Ah well, this nifty little USB (no doubt USB 2.0) powered drink cooler/heater that's good for all seasons. It doesn't look like it'll hold bigger cups or drinks so some bigger beer bottles are probably out of luck.
 
  The Nokia N73
Here are some pics of the apparently upcoming Nokia N73. The screen looks nice and long and bright. Cool.

 
  Turn your cell phone into a scanner of sorts

Your cell phone just got even more useful, thanks to ScanR. ScanR effectively turns your mobile camera-phone/PDA into a scanner, fax, copy machine. To use the service, you basically take a picture of your target document, shoot it over to one of their e-mail addresses, they do the hard work and sent you an e-mail with a link to your finished document when they're done. Short, sweet and easy. Oliver over at MobileCrunch had to take a few minutes to figure out how to best light his documents for the best results. But it seems like once he did, the service ended up being pretty useful.

 
Friday, April 14, 2006
  iPod vending machine

From an airport in Atlanta comes word of this iPod vending machine. What I want to see next is an Xbox 360 vending machine.
 
  Screen displays images even when turned off

This would be great for offices or even picture frames I would assume. This liquid crystal flat screen has some sort of memory keeping liquid crystals that can display an image for a while after the screen itself has been turned off. You would think this could save you some $$$ on your electric bill. You would think so and you would be right.
 
  Egg saped MP3 player

Not only will the MobiNote Hipper 100 play music from your digital music player or PC via USB, it even reflects the mood of the music you're listening too. With it's 10 different colors, the Hipper 100 will change colors in tune to the mood of the music you're listening cool. Not all that practical and it would be better if this was more of an mp3 jukebox or something but hey...it's looks like an egg!
 
  Zillow gets all 3d on us
In additon to the a bit grainy and a touch blurry satellite views rela-estate site Zillow was using comes new, 3d-ish birds-eye views of the houses and neighborhoods you're looking up. The new 3d content comes Zillow's way via Micorosoft's Virtual Earth project and gives prospective home buyers and home browsers better views of the houses they're investigating. I'd say it's a pretty good addition.


 
Thursday, April 13, 2006
  Helio joins forces with Yahoo

Spakin new MVNO upstart Helio is going to be teaming up with Yahoo to basically make Yahoo's services the dominat services on their mobile phones, set to come out sometime this spring. Helio will also be the home of MySpace mobile so this upstart may be packing some good bang for your buck. I guess we'll see soon.
 
  Pentecost on the come up

Looks like Pantech is going to be launching a big offensive move into the mobile scene in France, hoping to become a bigger "name" than it is now. Pantech will be releasing their clamshell PG-3500 in France accompanied by a huge marketing push and some flashy billboards. The phone's features itself aren't too revolutionary but it does cover the whole photo/video/music spectrum:

PG-3500 features include:
Size & weight: 92.7 x 45 x 16.8 mm, 75g
Display: Main: 1.9” 260K TFT (size: 176 x 220 pixels)
Sub: 1.2” 65K TFT (size: 96x128 pixels)
Color: Black and silver
Camera:1.3 Mega pixel with a digital 4x zoom and a built-in flash
Memory: 512/128Mb (Micro SD card slot provided)
Video recording function
Music Player, 64 Polyphonic/MP3 ringtones
Bluetooth technology
SMS/MMS/E-mail
 
  The Guge
Folding to the iron horse will that is China, Google will from now on be known as Guge in the ever growing country of China.
 
  Toshiba Portege M400 Tablet PC gets reviewed

This is the first tablet pc I've heard about that has the dual-core processors in it and apparently, it's pretty zippy. What I like are all the ports it comes with which include USB and IEEE 1394. Nice. Having a max screen resolution of 1024x768 is ok but I wish it was one (or two) steps higher but even if it was, I doubt it would look all that great on a 12.1 inch screen. It wouldn't for me anyway. As far as performance goes, have two cores over one would improve just about any machine and the Toshiba Portege M400 Tablet PC is no exception. They photoshop tests the reviewer rpretty much showcased the power of the "Core duo". Overall, a good first entry in the "tablet pcs with dual cores" market.
 
  Portland gets free, city-wide Wi-Fi
I'm not sure what this article is all about becuase when I looked at it, all I saw was "Colorado Springs not getting free city-wide WiFi anytime soon...".
 
  Wordpress took funding?
Not sure how everyone else feels about this but it seemed a little shady to me. Here we have an openly open source company who have seemed to come off as proud of being all about open source and all about bootstrapping who all of a sudden basically says, "yeah we took some funding...". That's not really a big deal in itself but it seems that this statement came about becuase someone else found out about it first. Would they have told anyone if no one found out? Would it have mattered? It doesn't tick me off or anything, just leaves a weird taste in my mouth.
 
  Google's slick new Calendar
Google's has finally released their version of an online calendar. It's pretty fluid in that it you can move from section to section with relative ease. It feels very similar to using Gmail, and that's a good thing. Despite all of your basic calendar functions, you also have the ability to share your calendar with the whole world, or a select number of people or nobody at all. Overall, it's slick and all ajaxed up. Being more of the casual online calendar user, this may be perfect for me. I can get in, add something or change something real quick and get out. Nice. Here's some screenshot loving for you visual learners...






 
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
  the Sidekick III gets reviewed...

This guy was able to review the Sidekick III but he couldn't get a picture of it? I'm not too sure how credit-worthy this is but appently this guy was able to get his hands on the as yet unreleased and unofficially annouced Sidekick III. Sporting a similar form factor to the previous Sidekick iterations, it looks like the Sidekick III will also include an mp3 player and 1.3 megapixel camera amongst other features...

1.) It has a high quality 1.3 megapixel camera and a nice built-in flash.
2.) It has Bluetooth, which works very well.
3.) It has an SD card slot that sits on the top of the unit.
4.) It has a built-in MP3 player.
5.) Integrated AIM, Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger



[link]
 
  Sony's first official Blu-ray enabled pc

Looks like Sony's first Blu-ray capable pc will be the Sony Vaio RC300 that will allow you to burn both dvd and Blu-ray discs. It's not mentioned whether that happens with one drive or not but either way, it sounds like this pc will be pretty hefty...

The VAIO® RC desktop PC is Sony’s first Blu-Ray™ enabled desktop.
This multimedia powerhouse is capable of playing back Blu-Ray™ movies in stunning clarity. Blu-Ray™ technology gives you the power to play and burn both DVDs and Blu-ray Discs™, as well as store a massive amount of data on a single disc (25GB to 50GB). Also capable of burning HD Camcorder content in its original 1080 high-definition resolution, the VAIO® RC300 series opens new doors in the ever-growing world of high definition.

The power you need for the most demanding A/V applications. Bringing you screaming-fast performance in a whisper-quiet environment. The Intel® Pentium® D dual-core processor delivers robust performance for running multiple, demanding applications simultaneously. RAID 0 Serial ATA hard drives deliver incredible hard-drive speeds, enabling multiple configurations for performance or mirroring. Advanced DDR2 memory provides ultra high-speed computing. PCI Express x16 video graphics capabilities enable cinematic-quality effects and color. Plus, the VAIO® RC Desktop is designed for expansion, with the capacity for up to an incredible 2TB of storage in multiple hard disk drives to help accommodate a large collection of high-quality media files.



Whoah.


[engadget]
 
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
  Thinkpads coming to a Best Buy near you
I never thought I'd see the day when Best Buy would be shilling ThinkPads. Lenovo purchased IBM's pc branch in December 2004 and Lenovo has wanted to reach a wider audience ever since. Now they'll be reaching one of the biggest. Personally, I think they're a wee bit overpriced but maybe the yellow ribbioners can fix that.
 
  Connect multiple monitors via USB
Hmmm. At first glance this usb hub of sorts for connecting multiple monitors sounds pretty cool. Then I read...

"It's not something I'd use as a primary gaming screen," Ledzion said, regarding the NIVO technology. "However, it'd be perfect for a secondary screen, one holding maps and stuff."


So no hardcore all night fragging on one screen while you do some raiding some new War of Warcraft server on the other. But hey, this would be great for displaying maps...and stuff. Static stuff.
 
  Toshiba's Gigabeats

Available in Japan later this month will be Toshiba's Gigabeat mp3 players. Sporting either a 30GB or 60 HDD and some hot colors (looks like three). The 2.4" QVGA screen ain't looking too bad either. Will it topple the iPod? No but hey, the publicity (from the two people who read this blog (hi mom!)) can't hurt.
 
  Old Apple wrench

This dinosaur apparently cam with serial interface card for the oh so hip Apple ][.
 
  Blu Ray and HD DVD laptops are coming

And pretty soon at that apparently. Fujitsu plans on bringing their FMV-Biblo series notebooks out in Japan as early as June. Coming in Blu Ray and HD DVD flavors, they will of course be sporting the dual-core processors since, well, everyone is now and days.
 
  First impression of web2.wsj2.com
My first impression of Dion Hinchcliffe's web 2.0 blog...too...many...words...
 
  Don't need no stinkin staples for our stapler

Now this is what I'm talking about. Innovation to the extreme. A stapler that doesn't use staples? That like chewing gum without the gum. Hardcore. Apparently instead of staples, these handy devices folder the paper or something to bind them.

...this ingenious little device joins your papers by punching a small, neat hole in your documents and folding the remaining flaps together for a secure binding.
 
  The real Star Wars story...
And by real I mean pretty funny but fake. Here's a short about how George Lucas create Star Wars. Pretty funny, I dig the "Asthmatic dark neighbor" hee hee.

[via iahi]
 
  ABC to make shows (like Lost! yay!) available online for free

ABC is getting pregressive by letting the interested view their most popular tv shows (like my fav Lost) the day after they air for free. You'll have to sit through ads since they'll be unskippable but online, with good quality and the ability to watch whenever you want (no I don't have a Tivo...yet)? I'm game. But still, I think ABC, and other media conglomerates, could take it a step further. Is there anyway they could make their shows available without forcing viewers to sit through ads? How could that be built into a sustainable model? Hmmmmm....
 
  The DRYPOD

Stylish water-proof iPod cases, for the discering and fashionably hip water sporter in your life. Sweet.
 
  new LCD screens from LG

These new LG LCD screeners have pretty cool bases but I wonder if they swivle and pivot. Those bases don't look too agile if you ask me. Then again, you probably didn't ask so...shut up and listen!
 
  New Sony DVRs set to come out

Hitting the Japanese market in May (the 19th) will be Sony's latest digital recorders, the Sony RDZ-D97A, RDZ-D87 and RDZ-D77A. Aren't those names just so personable and unique? The D97A and D87 will a 400GB hard drive while all three models come with a Hi-Vision tuner for recording your Desperate Housewife episode in the highest definition.
 
  Vista installed on a Mac
Thanks to Apple's recently released public beta product BootCamp, you can now run Windows Vista on your Mac! Not that you ever would but just in case you needed to, you can.

 
Monday, April 10, 2006
  Twirling spaghetti fork

I know this isn't really tech news but do you think I can find something like this for adults? That'd be great.
 
  First impressions of Krugle

Just got my access code to access the krugle beta. I had a few minutes to tinker around with it and first impressions are:

1. The "system" itself is pretty impressive, your search results load into the page (via an iframe maybe?) and it's very easy to quick add a tag or refine your search. Matter of fact, it's pretty easy to do anything you see a link for since the links rarely take you to another page. Why render a whole seperate page when all you need is a textbox or two (to email them a suggestion for a code repository to include for example)?

2. A lot of languages are covered but I didn't find much code specific to my fav web framework, Ruby on Rails. There was some Ruby content but not much in the way of Rails content, most likey due to the fact that RoR is a framework and not a "language" itself...per se.

Overall, it looks and works pretty sharp.
 
Friday, April 07, 2006
  People really do listen to podcasts...really!
The people over at PodTech disagree with the recently released Forrester Research study that stated less than 1% of people download and listen to podcasts regularly. PodTech's stance is basically, "one percent? poppycock". Being a company called "PodCast" sort of implies that they may be a little bit biased. Just a little. I know I don't really listen to all that many podcasts. There's only one a try to listen to sort of regularly and even then I'm never too concerned about making sure I listen to it as soon as a new one is available. Podcasting just doesn't seem to be that big of a deal yet. Will it ever be?
 
  An mp3 player for less than $10.00

For all you (japanese) consumers out there who were waiting for a sub-$10.00 mp3 player, wait no longer. Japanese compnay Evergreen are keen on releasing an SD memory card based mp3 player that would be able to store up to 1gig of data, allowing for around 5 hours of mp3 heaven. Just don't count on being able to see what your playing or anything since it doesn't really come with a screen but at $8.50, I don't think you would care.
 
  Makers of wristwatch pda discontinues line

The OnHandPC Wrist PDA makers have decided to discontinue their wristwatch PDA since presumably, no one bought it. I remember when the whole "have your whole pc on your wrist" was a big deal and the big tech companies thought pretty much everyone would want to access all kinds of content from your watch. I guess not so much anymore.
 
Thursday, April 06, 2006
  Cingular <3's MySpace
Cingular is going to be using unsigned artists from MySpace to generate tons of hoping-to-be-a-hit ringtones for thier wireless cutomers. This is a good idea. The kids love being the first to discover kickass new talent and if some popular influencer deems an unsigned artist worthy, they'll be sure to get some good MYSpace market buzz.
 
  Why Hotmail Live is good, but no Gmail
One reason basically,




1. That huge friggin banner at the top of the screen. It's huge! I don't really need a picture of someone extremely happy to feel happy using the product. With gmail, the emails come first (mostly). A nitpick? Sure, this new Hotmail Live thing is pretty nice and stylish but it didn't help when I was asked multiple times throught the course of the past few months if I wanted to join (I answered yes each time). But hey, at least Hotmail let me in their new service than yahoo has (they still haven't).
 
  ohh schnap!
i'm back
 
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