hey!

Something weird going on with blogger today.

PS3 for a good cause

If you need a good excuse to shell out $600 for a new Sony PS3 when the next batch comes available, here’s one: Sony’s reviving the peer-to-peer computing craze (remember SETI @ Home?) through Cure @ PLAYSTATION 3, a program through Stanford University to support medical research on Alzheimer's, cancer cures and other compute-intensive activities.

Lest you worry that your PS3 is getting cool while you get a couple of hours of sleep between games, this will put your mind at ease and maybe do some good for society, too.

Via AP

Peace Through Technology

Long time rivals AMD, Apple and Intel working together to build you the best laptop money can buy? That’s the rumor that is floating around by way of tech review site Engadget. If you’d asked me about this possibility three years ago, I’d have told you to lay off reading The Inquirer for awhile, but today the idea is not so far-fetched.

It started with the Apple-Intel alliance, where Apple became so fed up with heat and production issues of the latest IBM-based PowerPC processor that it finally followed the prophecy of former Apple CEO John “...turning down x86 was one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made…” Scully and joined forces with Intel.

Next came the acquisition of ATI by AMD, filling the chipset gap in AMD’s product line and driving Intel CPU-based notebook makers into a quandary. Not to mention the decision point that Apple is now at: Continue to sell ATI, now AMD graphics paired with Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs (presuming they will get along) or switch to Nvidia graphics. Uh, in case you’re thinking the Intel graphics will work here, forget it. Intel makes integrated graphics solutions, not dedicated graphics processors, and lest you forget, Apple fans are all about great graphics processing. And switching from Intel CPUs to AMD-based designs as some suggest will happen is likely to be a challenge for Apple, requiring a new board design to support the hypertransport bus. But imagine it, if you will: The fastest Intel processors paired with the best graphics from AMD wrapped up in the Apple coolest designs! Sounds so good it almost makes me weep!

Via Engadget

Windows on your Toaster?

Sorry, not yet. That promise of the future uttered by the pre-dot-com optimistic geeks of years past has still not come to fruition, much like jet packs and flying cars. But take heart, there is some progress in the area of technicizing your breakfast. Melitta is now offering an MSN-based coffeemaker. The Melitta Smart Mill and Brew Programmable Coffee Maker is out now, just in time for your holiday shopping. It includes an FM radio that receives MSN data related to your coffee-brewing morn: the weather and sunrise and sunset times, and …well, that’s it. Oh, it makes coffee, too.

Some may remember (but many have forgotten) the MSN Fossil watch of a few years back that was supposed to receive equally valuable data and display it in a monochromatic LCD display on your wrist. Apparently you can still buy one of these, but I’ve never seen anyone, geek or not, wearing one. It seems that Treos and Blackberries are worth the inconvenience of not being strapped to your wrist in exchange for a color display and worthwhile content.

If you absolutely have to have one of these coffeemakers now and don’t need steamed milk or the traffic report, then by all means go out and get this. Amazon.com has it now for a mere $200 and free shipping! The rest of us will wait for our Windows toaster and listen to the forecast on our AM radios in our cars while we wait in traffic and dream of jet packs.





Via CNET

The Sony Faithful

As the countdown to launch continues, lines are forming outside of stores such as Best Buy. Despite delays and compatibility issues, there is still strong demand for Sony's PS3 game console due to launch in the U.S. tomorrow. It's a good thing, too, for Sony, since it has so much invested in this, from the new Cell fab venture with Toshiba and IBM, to its proprietary Blue Ray DVD format. PS3's limited supply won't help either. It means that Sony will miss a lot of holiday sales that could be picked up instead by the Nintendo Wii, which is coming up fast from behind and is due to launch on Sunday. Will Sony's faithful who can't get a PS3 of their own convert? We'll find out very soon.


More blogs about best buy ps3.

Is Zune Out of Tune?

Anyone who dares to compare a Microsoft product to an Apple product risks entering into a religious war about good vs. bad companies, big vs. little guys, quality vs. mass appeal. The details of the products under consideration quickly get lost in the process. Don’t expect things to be any different this time as Microsoft takes on Ipod head-on with the introduction of the Microsoft Zune. Just a quick scan of readers’ comments on the Cnet Zune review page shows the emotion is already high, even though most have not even tried the Zune.

Microsoft’s success on this product will not be based on how cool the player looks or what hardware features it does or doesn’t have. There have been MP3 players available long before IPod and they have come and gone. Some had cooler features well before Apple debuted IPod, but none lasted long. What launched IPod into the high-volume, mass-appeal category was not the product itself, but the content and services that Apple cleverly packaged with IPod, in the form of ITunes. Were it not for ITunes and the legitimized downloadable music business that Apple enabled, IPod would just be a curiosity, heavier, more fragile, more expensive and less versatile than some of the products that came before it. Fortunately, Apple was smart enough to recognize that a portable music device needed music and lots of it. And while other companies struggled with proprietary formats and DRM issues, trying to get movie content out for their portable media players (PMPs), Apple went to the television networks and simply expanded its successful music service to TV shows, driving sales of its video Ipod.

If Microsoft is paying attention, it will start playing catch up on content real fast and not worry so much about the software side of things for Zune. Otherwise, the shiny new music player from Microsoft will end up on the pile of unsuccessful PMPs of the past.

Death of a PIC

AMD has officially buried the PIC, also known as the Personal Internet Communicator, the device that was going to lead 50% of the world to the Internet by the year 2015. Many of us could see it was doomed from the start. The ugly, heavy looking shoebox had a too-slow Geode GX processor at 533MHz, only 128MB RAM, and no user upgradeable features. Running Windows CE, the thing was pretty slow and what’s worse, it couldn’t support many apps required by websites, let alone handle high quality multimedia. Targeted to be manufactured in and sold to poorer countries, the unit was priced at $185 without monitor and $235 with one, and the price was to be partially subsidized through an ISP contract.

AMD positioned the PIC not as a profit machine but more as a philanthropic vehicle that would help the world while also helping AMD gain market share against Intel. Some say that around AMD the internal meaning of the 50x15 initiative of which PIC was born was really the goal of achieving 50% of the CPU business by 2015.

But it became apparent not too long after the PIC was out that there was trouble. First, AMD moved the PIC out of its Personal Connectivity Solutions Group and into the “other” category in the first half of 2005, a clear sign that the product was losing money. Then a few months later AMD tried selling the unit through U.S. Radio Shack stores. The problem was, in the U.S. there was no ISP subsidy, so the unit at over $200 was sorely lacking when compared with one of Dell’s entry-level boxes.

Some feel that another Geode-based platform, the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child Device), formerly the $100 laptop designed by MIT Media Labs is going to negate the need for the PIC, but judging by the delays and criticism of this device, I’m not too convinced that it will be a success, either. Getting access to the internet is getting cheaper and cheaper these days, thanks to the rapid evolution of smart phones and the availability of low-cost full-function laptop PCs, and it’s likely that by the time OLCP makes it out the door some schools and governments will adopt instead a laptop or phone that has already been tested and proven.

So goodbye PIC and your relatives, we hardly knew ye but we surely won’t miss ya!

Via Ars Technica

Blog Believers

According to ipsos MORI, which, according to ipsos MORI is the second largest research firm in the U.K., blogging is now the second most trusted source for product information among those surveyed. People apparently have more faith in the opinions of strangers than those of seasoned reviewers or the companies selling the products.

While I think it’s amazing and wonderful that blogs are now used more than TV ads in product-buying decisions, I’m really not surprised. If you’ve ever worked in marketing, you’ll understand why. Companies will NEVER tell you about the shortcomings of their products, they will only emphasize and overemphasize the good things. To do otherwise would simply violate the principles of marketing. So why people don’t trust TV ads from big companies as much as average Joes reviewing the products should be a no-brainer.

On the other hand, there are numerous companies out there who make their revenue reviewing products, companies like Consumer Reports, Car and Driver, CNET, Tom’s Hardware, and PC Magazine, to name just a few. These companies are highly experienced in reviewing products and have built up great reputations as trusted sources over the years. So why are more people turning to blogs before they make their final purchase decisions? In truth, many of these review sites are paid by the companies, which make the products they review. I’m no saying they’re necessarily on the company payroll, but they get other benefits. The main benefit is ad income. Just take a look at these sites and you’ll see ads for the products they represent. This puts them in a conundrum: say what you really feel about a product and risk losing the ad revenue. Another perk is free product. The review sites are usually shipped new products to review. They don’t have to go stand in long lines and plunk down money at the store to get the latest hot gadget—no, companies ship them stuff for free, often weeks before a product release. And they do this not to get an honest opinion of their product, they do this for cheap advertising and for good sound bites which they can use as “unbiased” opinions on their products which they can, in turn, use for additional marketing oomph.

So all hail the product blog from the average Joe or Jane. We may not be the most polished reviewers on the block, but taken as a collective we have more unbiased opinions and experiences than the largest reviewers could ever possibly payroll, and we’ll really tell you what we think.

Survey via Yahoo via Reuters

PS3: Rarer than Diamonds

PS3 is out, but you’re not getting one.

People stood in line before 7AM at a store in Japan for a chance to buy the Sony PS3 space heater (good grief, they’d have to be giving away $1000 bills to get me to do this). Sony could only build 100,000 of these for the Japan launch, so stores had a very limited supply. The riot squad was standing by with megaphones, just in case things got ugly.

The launch in the U.S. is likely to inspire violence, too, with only 400,000 of these things to go around for the whole country (compare that to the Nintendo Wii supply, which we're told is 4 million units available worldwide, starting November 19). Think back to the Tickle-Me-Elmo riots of recent years or the Cabbage Patch Doll Wars of the past. And sorry, Europe, like the Holiday Barbie of a decade ago, your PS3 will be replaced by an IOU letter from Santa this year.

Let’s hope for Sony’s sake that the limited supply inspires people to pay the high price tag for this much ballyhooed, much delayed, newfangled console with its futuristic Cell processor. Sony needs some cash now, or you won’t be seeing many more of these things next year.

Via AP and AP again.

iPod Undressed

You’ve maybe seen the iPod clothing, the little outfits you can dress up your iPod with so it can feel secure and warm and maybe act out some fantasy it has of being something more than just an MP3 player. No? Well where have you been? You’d better catch up here: http://www.iattire.net/

Well, believe it or not, there are some deviant iPods out there that were born with apparently exhibitionist tendencies. Luckily, there is now hope for them. IVUE offers an iPod mod to strip off that cover of your iPod and expose its components for all to see. The kit comes with a clear plastic case for your nano, video or gen4 iPod, a pair of screwdrivers and some plastic scratch polish, lest you get a little too excited as you strip down your gadget. Woo Hoo!

Via Shiny Shiny

Arima UM650UV1: Crummy Name, Much Better Design

What a relief it is to see this newcomer in the ultra mobile world, with its stylish rounded design and integrated sliding keyboard, after living with the nightmarish images still burning in my memory of that Samsung P9000(h)! The UM650UV1 's name may not roll off the tongue, but the styling and features are smooth as butta:

• 1GHz VIA C7-M CPU + VX700 chipset
  
• 512MB of speedy DDR2-533
  
• 802.11b/g WLAN
  
• BlueTooth 2.0
  
• LED backlit 6.5" LCD
  
• 40GB HDD
  
• 4-5 hrs battery life

...all wrapped up in a 1.5 pound package. The keyboard looks like it's designed for thumb typing, which is helpful, and the LED backlight will help save some battery life and deliver some extra brightness, which may help these things actually be usable outside a darkened room! Imagine that—actual ultra mobility in an ultra mobile device. We can only hope. But for now we’ll have to wait, since no details on price or availability are out yet.

Via CarryPad.

Oops, she did it

In a twisted case of reality mimics art mimics reality, our favorite silly, overplayed, over-discussed music couple is now splitsville, thanks to the wonders of technology.

Yes, K-Fed was dumped via text message. Ouch! I think Britney got the idea by watching Text Message Breakup (caution: some smarmy language here) on YouTube.

We can thank YouTube again for archiving the historic event. Here’s Kevin’s worst moment (well, the latest one, anyway). Oooh, this is painful!

Vista Appears on the Horizon

Now that Microsoft has announced the release date for the consumer version of Vista as January 30, 2007, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Yes, Virginia, the OS does exist, you're just not going to get it for Christmas. Of course this means that there won't be a huge push for PC purchases this holiday season, at least not bigger than a typical year, but leave it to the games consoles to pick up the slack in your credit card charges with anticipated sales of the Nintendo Wii, which some reviewers are calling a kids gaming platform, and the Sony PS3, which I'm told is very hot--literally due to the new IBM Cell CPU. Should be nice to warm your toes with on those cold winter evenings. Ho ho ho!

YouTube, ITube, WeAllTube

Daily Tech is reporting that YouTube--everyone's favorite video blogging site that has brought us such wonders as the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment and its numerous derivatives, the Steve Colbert Green Screen Contest entries and CatHead Theater--is one of Time magazine's inventions of the year. They credit the success of the site, which has grown to host 100 million videos, to the intersection of 3 phenomena: 1) the enablement of fast, cheap video development, 2) the emergence of social networking, ala Web 2.0, and 3) the consumer's impatience with mainstream news. I'd add to that list a fourth: the tremendous dearth of good TV entertainment.
Via Time Magazine.

Tech-nocracy In-Action

It’s not clear to me how in today’s technologically advanced world, that computerized voting presents us with such a challenge. Rather then streamlining the voting process, all kinds of problems arose in various polling places yesterday, including power outages, card mixups, suspected tampering and system performance problems, leading to long delays in voting. I anticipated some troubles and signed up for permanent absentee status long ago, which means I get to fill in my vote with ink on paper, something similar to the old scantron sheets they used to pass out in school on test day. No smart cards, no hanging chads. Ah, the good old days.

P9000? Pooh!

Breakthroughs in portable computing are coming, but I'm just not sure that this is one that will really take off. The latest entry in the mobile computing talent show is the Samsung SPH-P9000, an origami-style folded PC with some pretty good features, including a 1GHz processor and WiMax wireless broadband capability, but an awkward and quirky appearance. Weighing in at one pound, the P9000 wouldn’t add to much to the heft of my purse, but Razr and iPod and their derivatives don’t have to worry about losing any design of the year awards to this technological freak of nature.
Read more: NewLaunches.com