Saturday, March 31, 2007

No PS3s in UK Jails

I’ve been sticking mainly to just analyzing tech hear (the purpose of the blog), but after seeing this article at Engadget, I decided that I absolutely have to throw a bit of my moral judgment into the ring. It seems as if the Home Secretary, John Reid, has declared that PS3’s will not be allowed into jails in the UK because of their possibility as communication devices. This is a very good reason, but I can’t help but think that there’s a better one.

To me, the best reason to keep PS3 out of jails is that it provides a luxury that many law-abiding people do not have, to convicted criminals. Honestly, if you’re in prison, you shouldn’t be allowed very many amenities at all. Call me cruel, but while you’re in jail I say that you should be allowed only a very few things, maybe books, news papers, and some sporting and fitness equipment, as well as food and that sort of necessary type of thing. I just don’t see how prisons and their administrators can possibly think it is a practical use of tax dollars to buy prisoners things that many citizens do not have. The point of prison is to punish criminals.

Honestly, if my life takes a turn for the worse and I’m left without a home, or family, or money, and jails continue to give prisoners things like cable television and high tech goodies such as gaming consoles, I might just commit a crime. When you’re living on the streets, it’d be hard to beat a free room, free food, and lots of time to bulk up and brush up on video game skills.

DVD Ripping Company Escapes Legal Battle

Engadget recently reported that a company called Kaleidescape has escaped from a lengthy court case, unharmed. Kaleidescape offers a jukebox program for home users that allows the consumer to stream digitized versions of their DVDs throughout a home. In addition to the software to do this, the company offers DVD digitization service; this is most likely where the legal troubles arose.

The DVD Copy Control Association brought the suit and it lasted over three years. Although I don’t know the specifics I can conclude that the problem they had is the copying of ‘locked’ copyrighted material, as it is a violation of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). While it is explicitly illegal, this is certainly not a case of piracy. It is actually much the opposite. The people who would use this service, would most likely be those who are not technically savvy enough to digitize their media on their own, or those who want to make use of its convenience.

It is very encouraging to hear that a company who is allowing the average consumer to make use of media (that they purchased) in a fair way. There isn’t much I like less than the idea of charging people each time they want to use content in a different way. The MPAA’s favorite scenario for distributing their content, is to make you pay to see it in the theatre, pay for it on DVD, pay for it so you can watch it on your computer, and pay to bring it with you on a device like an iPod. It is companies like Kaleidescape, which make it possible for consumers to make fair use of content, and that, is something that I think is worth defending.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Iomegea: King of Overpriced Storage

If you’re not familiar with the company, Iomega makes storage devices and for as long as I can remember, they seem to always be at the bleeding edge of capacity. Today, Engadget reported that Iomega has just announced the Power Pro Desktop Hard Drive. It offers up a whopping 2 Terabytes of storage. It’s essentially 4 500 GB drives shoved into one box. Interestingly, it offers optional RAID setup so you can mirror 1TB of data for extra security.


Over the years Iomega has had their fair share of proprietary formats that never really made it anywhere. For example: The Bernoulli, the Ditto, Zip, Jaz, Pocket Zip, ZipCD, REV, and the Peerless. While just about all of these had loads of storage for their time period (as does the Power Pro today) they never made it very far for a few reasons. The first, is that they are all proprietary formats. In order to make use of these you have to by an Iomega cradle or connector or drive depending on how the device worked and also you had to by the media from them, which eliminates competitive pricing.

Pricing is the single biggest barrier to entry for these products that I can think of. The REV drive, which offers a range of 35 to 70 GB of storage, goes for about $50 per cartridge. In addition to that you have to by the drive, which retails for $399 and comes with just one 35GB cart. Just like it’s companions and predecessors the Power Pro is also remarkably expensive, demanding a (nearly insane) $1,700. Wow, just wow is all I can say to that. Internal 500 GB drives run for well under $200 which prices one Terabyte something around $700, a full $1000 less, all you would need is a computer with space for the drives, or some external enclosures.

I’m not who decides Iomega’s pricing and product strategies, but I feel like they need to be fired. What is most remarkable is that they’ve been making overprices janky stuff for over 25 years now, and they’re still around.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Silverbrook has Revolutionary Printer on the Horizon

I’m not quite sure about the details, but there’s been some buzz that an Australian company, Silverbrook, has been working on an inkjet printer that can spit out about 2 pages per second. This printer dubbed the ‘Memjet’ is the culmination of years of study and research. From what I gather, their hopes are to contract out the technology (they have over 1,400 patents) to the major printer companies and watch the money roll in. Check out this short demo video, which I hope isn’t just an elaborate staging.


Check out the press link here.

Helio’s New Phone, the Ocean

So Helio, has got a new phone coming out early this summer, well I guess according to them, it’s not a phone, and they’re not a phone company, whatever. The phone is actually pretty cool looking. Engadget reports, the Ocean, as it’s called, is a slider that slides two ways. If you slide it up like you would most slider phones, it reveals the usual number keypad. If you turn it sideways and slide it again, you’ll find a full QWERTY keyboard; pretty nifty I’d say.


The main problem I see here, isn’t the phone (I mean non-phone), it’s the phone company (I mean non-phone company). Honestly, how good can the coverage be? I checked quickly on their website for New Jersey and the tri-state area, they claim there’s at least voice coverage everywhere, but the full service (data transfer and all the cool stuff they try to sell you on) is really spotty. Plus, just how accurate are those maps anyways? I’d assume almost everyone has taken a look at one sometime, and I’m also sure everyone has gone without service at one time or another. I’m sure it’s the same for the other trendy fad phone companies as well, i.e. Boost and Amp’d that’s what they’re called right?

Honestly, who cares? I’ve had Verizon for a while and they’ve treated me pretty well. The service is pretty thorough, I almost always have enough to send a text message or talk on the phone. And from what I hear Cingular and Sprint are pretty reliable too. Plus, they’ve got their fair share of hip phones too. I just don’t see these pop-up over night fad companies sticking around. How many people do you know who’ve ditched their (probably) reliable phone company to look cool? I don’t know of anyone. Also, from what I hear, they (at least Helio) aren’t making any money; in fact I’ve heard they’re losing wheelbarrows full of it. I just can’t recommend ditching your current service for one of these trendy companies.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Upgraded Xbox 360 in Black, Headed Down the Pipeline

So I’ve been slacking again, but finally here comes another entry. The news is a little bit late, but who knows if you’ve heard it or not. A few days ago Engadget reported that the new upgraded Xbox 360 is indeed reality. It took a day or so and they came up with a whole list of specs, but one of the most important bits of info about the new box, is it’s price. The new Xbox dubbed ‘Elite’ will be selling along side the current two models for an additional $80 over the Premium system at a hefty $479.


The rumor has it that this price is just temporary, along with the sleek black shell, and that after they’ve sold out, the system will switch back to white and the price will also drop. It just doesn’t seem like the right move to me. The slew of new features is smart; it ups the ante and takes a bit away from the PS3, especially considering the mounds of HD content available for download on the platform. But, upping the price is just the opposite of what Microsoft should be doing right now. The number one complaint about the PS3 seems to be that it’s too much money. Then, as a competitor, why would you ever consider closing the price gap by charging more for your console?

Instead, this new iteration, the ‘Elite’ should take the place of the Premium console in price. Meanwhile, the Premium should take a $100 price cut and the Core system should be phased out, this way, customers would be getting more for their buck and therefore there’s more of an excuse to chose Microsoft. They should have kept the new machine under wraps for a little while longer and stopped production of the Core unit and quietly let it sell out. It would have been hard to deny the rumors, but I think it would have been the right move.

The last kicker about the updated 360 is that it still doesn’t offer HD DVD playback out of the box, while the PS3 offers Blu-ray from the get go. However, I don’t blame them for not including this. Cramming in a $200 add-on along with all the updated features would immediately alienate all the customers who just shelled out 200 beans for the HD DVD player. But now, if someone pays almost $500 (the price of a low-end PS3) for the ‘Elite’ and wants HD DVD playback, they have to shell out another $200 bringing the grand total to almost $700, which is more than the top of the line PS3. All of the sudden, the PS3 is looking like the better deal at this junction. Only time will tell if this stunt by Microsoft pays off, it’s certain that some people will be so giddy about the idea of a black 360 that they’ll gladly pay a jacked up premium price for it.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Expensive Cables for your Apple TV

The delayed Apple TV is finally shipping, but unfortunately, it doesn’t ship with all the cables that you might want to hook it up to your lovely HDTV. Well, TAUW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) reported today that Monster has got you covered. The new range of products is designed specifically for the Apple TV, what’s this mean? Absolutely nothing!


The biggest distinction to be made between these cables and others made by Monster, or just about any other cables, is that they’re white. Oh, and they’re branded for the Apple TV, just so you think you’ve absolutely got to have them! These white cables don’t come cheap though. Component video cables will run you $39.95, while HDMI comes in at a whopping $59.95. The optical audio cable goes for $29.95 and the analog (yes analog, plain old red and white cables) will cost you $24.95. One reason for the high prices of these cables, I would suspect, is that they have gold plated connectors, which promotes conductivity.

While I might not rush out to buy these cables, I do give Monster credit for their work. I’ve owned a fair share of Monster audio and video cables in the past, and they are well constructed and well insulated. They’ve got a lot going for them, but if you don’t want to spend the money, there are plenty of cheap alternatives to be had.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

The Format War Continues

Yesterday, Engadget reported that Toshiba was finally becoming vocal about the format war. For a while now there’s been news that the Blu-ray Disc Association (members include Sony, Samsung, Apple, as well as a bunch of others) has been claiming victory in the war. It has seemed, however, that their claims weren’t exactly definite. And finally Toshiba Deputy General manager of HD DVD, Olivier Van Wynendaele, has come out saying that the Blu-ray claims are “propaganda.” He also disputed the figures that the Blu-ray camp tout, that Blu-ray discs are out selling HD DVD 3:1.


I for one am pretty happy that someone is finally taking a stand against these fairly outrageous claims. As the news of these figures has been coming out, it has been a question all along, if the numbers are valid. Lots of speculation says that the count of Blu-ray players is being augmented by the sales of Sony’s PS3. This is understandable, as the PS3 is indeed a Blu-ray player, however, it has also been speculated that the Blu-ray Disc Association is counting PS3 BRD pack-in Taladega Nights, as part of the disc sales. In addition to this, it even sounds like they’re counting BRD vouchers that are also included in PS3 sales. These vouchers don’t even guarantee that the consumer is going to go out and get a movie, although it seems pretty likely. But, the question here is: without these vouchers would most PS3 owners be clamoring to get movies on Blu-ray just yet?

Wynendaele also brings up some rather damning figures about standalone player sales. He points out that Toshiba has sold 200,000 HD DVD players in the US, while there have only been 30,000 standalone Blu-ray players sold. It’s pretty hard to deny that in this case, HD DVD is absolutely stomping the competition.

Even further, Wynendaele asserts, that in order to thwart the competition, Toshiba is planning to undercut Blu-ray player prices. Last month I posted that Sony had just announced a low-end Blu-ray player, which would go for only $600, in comparison to the original $999. Well, just today, Toshiba announced price cuts for their HD DVD players (as reported by Engadget). The least expensive player will now carry an MSRP of only $399, a $100 price cut. Also, the higher end models the A20 and XA2, will be going for $499 and $799 respectively. This price cut seems to fall right into place with what the Toshiba representative had to say.

It’s hard for me to say just which format I prefer. I seem to be learning towards HD DVD, but my computer manufacturer of choice, Apple, is behind the competition. I just find it hard to get behind the format, especially when it seems that the backing companies are constantly making press releases claiming victory, when the war is far from over.

Monday, March 19, 2007

New! Watch Low Quality Video on Your HDTV!

Today Engadget reported on a WiFi media player, the DVX-700, from TransTechnology, which supports playback of Google Video. Overall the box has a lot going for it. It has high definition outputs and can stream media in a variety of formats, it also has a hard drive built in, so you can store media, not to mention it’s also got a DVD player as part of the package. Coming in at $237 for the wired version and $264 for the wireless, it’s really a pretty good deal, that is, if you’re in Japan.


My only gripe with the machine isn’t even with the machine itself, really. One of it’s more unique features is that it allows you to browse Google Video, and stream it right to your set. The problem I have is with Google Video (and YouTube). The video quality is terrible. I understand that for them to have all of their videos streaming to millions and millions of viewers at high resolution would cost a lot. But, just watching a video in your browser at something like 300 x 200, looks terrible. Could you possibly imagine what it’s going to look like when it gets stretched to fit onto your HDTV with resolution up to 1920 x 1080?

I guess I just don’t see YouTube the way many millions of people do. There’s tons of people out there content to watch clips of television shows (and sometimes full episodes) at low resolutions filled with jagged lines and video artifacts. I just can’t deal with forcing myself to watch something like that, unless it’s under a few minutes, and entails amateurs doing something stupid, particularly something that gets them hurt. I guess it’s kind of like how I hate listening to MP3 music that’s encoded at low bit rates and sounds tinny.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Vonia BCT Sports Headband

Last month I blogged about the bone-conducting Vonia headphones from Thanko. My conclusion was that the idea was interesting but the 80’s look wasn’t exactly doing the intriguing technology justice. Well, yesterday Engadget reported on a new headband that makes use of the bone-phones.


The surprisingly stylish headband holds a newly designed pair of Vonia headphones. They have a short set of wires that then plug into an iPod Shuffle. You could technically plug them into any MP3 player, but the headband only really has space to fit the diminutive new Shuffle. The Vonia BCT Sports Headband is actually quite a good idea for people who like to run, and listen to their tunes at the same time, especially in the colder months.

From the sounds of the Thanko page, they’re also marketing this headband to swimmers. It is, however, hard to tell exactly what they’re saying with bad Google translation.

Because “VONIA Sports HeadBand” being waterproofed and being designed, it is possible to remove the “bone conduction speaker”, to utilize at underwater.

If you prepare the MP3 prayer being waterproofed and being processed and install the bone conduction speaker inside the rubber screen, it can enjoy music at underwater!

At the gym and the like, swimming silently, rather than forging, while inquiring favorite about music, if you swim, it is efficient rise!!


I just don’t see how putting an iPod in a rubberized headband is going to protect it from water. However, I’m glad to see that they’ve done something that’s actually practical with their bone-conducting headphones.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Nintendo’s Online Solution to Suck?

Nintendo Wii Fanboy just reported that it sounds that the upcoming online service for Nintendo’s new console, is going to have game specific friend lists. Their information comes from an interview from Go Nintendo.


According to Go Nintendo, the interviewer, Falafelkid, is trustworthy.

Falafelkid: Just one last question to make absolutely sure I have got this right, please. If I have a friend roster in one game, that roster will not be available to me in any other game. I have to build up an entirely new list for each title, right?

GameSpy: The answer to your question is yes, for the Wii friend lists are game-specific.

Why? Why!? I just can’t fathom why they would decide to do something like this. I’m no coder, but it can’t be that hard to have a unified friend list, as opposed to individual ones for each game. In fact, having all of that information stored in a single place, seems like it would just be easier.

The only good thing about this interview is that it isn’t exactly to be taken as fact. Go Nintendo is reputable, but the word of Falafelkid is not exactly the same as it coming from the likes of Reggie. We can only hope that Nintendo is smart enough to know that individual friend lists is only going to be a hassle. I will say though, if this is true, I am completely under whelmed by Nintendo’s online strategy. The whole friend code thing is a debacle in itself. Why would you ever make everyone try to memorize a (12 digit? 15 digit?) number, when it would be much smarter to allow everyone to create a screen name, just like every other service out there?

I just hope it all gets sorted out and Nintendo makes some good decisions.

The Legendary Optimus Keyboard, Still Not Ready

Today Engadget reported that the infamous Optimus Keyboard, will not be making its debut at the upcoming CeBIT show. For those of you who may not be familiar with the legendary keyboard, it’s been making news for quite a while. The concept is a keyboard with small displays built into every key. They keys were to be customizable, to the point where you could put the logos of different programs onto each key, and pressing one would launch the specified program. Another example of how they would work: each letter key would appear in lowercase. However, holding down the shift key, would turn them all to uppercase.


The very concept of this keyboard, designed by Art Lebedev Studios, has had tech junkies, like myself, yearning for its release for years. And finally over the past few months it’s been making news, that it is no longer a concept, but that it was going into production soon and that it would be shown in person. However, with this news came some details about the keyboard that dissuaded many people, also including myself.

One of these revelations was that the keys would not be colored. What good is having a pretty iTunes or Internet Explorer logo on your keyboard if it’s going to be grayscale? Then that was taken back, and they decided that the keys would use OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology. This was taken back at one point, but is again the plan for the keyboard. However, this means that the LEDs in the keyboard will have a lifespan. Yes, you can expect to have your keys die eventually. With the latest update, they revealed that the lifespan is expected to be five years.


A five-year life expectancy is only slightly ludicrous, that is, until you hear the price. These days, a high-end keyboard might cost somewhere around $80, with a few exceptions over $200. So if the highest of high-end keyboards cost $200 you might expect the Optimus to cost somewhere around that, maybe even $300. I could even settle with the idea of it costing twice as much, $400 or even $500. However, at that point, I’d have to understand that I would never own one. Well, the price first came out, somewhere around $1,200. At $1,200, as we’ve established in previous posts, you can also get an all-in-one LG Blu-Ray burner, or most of a video conferencing robot. Well, with Engadget’s latest post, they’ve established that the Optimus, now named Optimus Maximus, will cost you $1,490. Honestly, Art, are you kidding? I suppose at $1,490 a pop, selling just five or six, will do a long way in recouping some of the R&D costs.

I just can’t see this keyboard as a justifiable purchase for anyone, except maybe Bill Gates. I understand that a lot of work has gone into making it, but $1,490 is just too much for a keyboard that is going to slowly die over a rather short period of time. You can, however, by replacement keys, for a mere $10. Still, it’s unfortunate to see such a promising project turn out this way. In my eyes, over the years the project has lost it’s shine. Now don’t see an amazing keyboard, one that you would only expect to see in Sci-Fi, now all I see are a few developers who came up with a good idea, and had a few computer generated renders of it made up. And once it became popular they realized that they were going to have to deliver, and in the process they’ve not been able to keep all the promises that they’ve made, and with the price tag, they’ve made it unattainable for almost all average consumers.

LG’s Do-(Just About)-Everything Drive

As Engadget reported, yesterday, LG has finally released a photo of their upcoming GGW-H10N drive, given the slightly friendlier name, “Super Multi Blue.” The drive is set to write to single-layer Blu-Ray discs, which sets the size cap at a mere 25GB. The drive is also slated to read and record a whole slew of other optical media, including HD DVD, DVD±R, and the garden variety of CDs.


One thing is for sure; this disc drive wins the title for the absolute most media logos plastered on its expensive little face. Speaking of expensive, the drive comes in at a demanding $1,200. Heck, that’s most of the way to getting you a way-cool video conferencing robot.

I’d assume that this is just one of the first do-everything drives to come along. I expect that before long these sorts of drives will be touting dual-layer burning for both of the new high-capacity standards, as well as the entire back catalog of DVD and CD burning. Another thing that I can say for sure, is that the price will certainly fall eventually. Back in the birth of the DVD, burners ran somewhere between a commanding $500 and $1,000. Today, you can find one on the Internet for under $30. Still, the question remains, which of these formats will come out on top?

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

All New, Last-Gen Feature Coming to PS3

Today, Engadget reported on some shaky confirmation, which says that rumble, or force feedback, would be coming to the PS3. They explain that in an interview with 1UP, Cory Barlog, who is the director of God of War, said that the upcoming (and still far off) God of War 3, for PS3 would have rumble. All I have to say is that it’s about time!

I still remember back to the days when Sony first made the announcement of the SIXAXIS controller. First off it seemed like a gimmick, considering that Nintendo had recently let loose the Wiimote design and purpose. But what came as a major shock was that Sony would not be including force feedback in their new controller. The funniest part, was that they claimed that it would interfere with the SIXAXIS technology, even though Nintendo fared fine with their motion sensing controls.


Further, Sony down played the idea of having rumble as a last-gen feature. I would have to say that it was more of a last-gen innovation but a feature that almost every gamer expects to have. Finally, word got out that the lack of rumble was most likely due to legal complications between Sony and Immersion. At this point it was clear to me that Sony was just making excuses in effort to skip paying a hefty sum of money to Immersion to license the technology. Recently, however, Sony and Immersion struck a deal. So, now, Sony is going to have to eat their words, and they will no doubt integrate this last-gen feature into their console.

What bothers me most, is that now, all PS3 owners who want to have this basic feature will have to go out and buy a new controller. What’s more is these controllers run $60 and don’t include a charging cable, last time I saw one purchased. And I would suspect that controllers that are packing rumble technology will use a little bit more power, so controllers will need to be charged more often. What a mess, Sony.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

USPS R2D2 Mailboxes

Engadget reported, Friday, that for the upcoming 30th anniversary of Star Wars, the US Postal Service will be outfitting post office across the nation with Star Wars themed mailboxes. These new mailboxes are cleverly made to look like everyone’s favorite droid, R2-D2. Personally, I’ve got to say, I think it’s pretty cool.


What I wonder, however, is who exactly is footing this bill, and in which direction is money being given? In one case, Lucas and company could be paying the USPS money to have these little marketers installed across the country. On the other hand, the USPS could be paying George Lucas tuck loads of money to license the likeness of the droid. In this case, I’m no so sure if the tax dollars spent on this are worth the “oh cool” factor. It just gets me thinking, if it is indeed the postal service paying for all of these shiny new drop boxes, is that really the best use of money? Did they really need to go crazy replacing standard blue mailboxes with the, no doubt, more expensive, R2-D2 ones?

Video Conferencing Robot

A few days ago (I’ve been slacking) Engadget reported on a video conferencing robot, called Giraffe. It has a screen at the top where the video conference-ee’s face would appear. At the robot’s base is a set of wheels that allow it to shuffle about an office.


The idea here is that you can sit at home (or on a trip) and operate this robot and create a physical presence in the workspace. The operator can tilt the LCD up and down to look around and the built in microphone also sends sound back to the user. Then, of course, the built-in screen and speakers allow everyone at the office to see and hear the person running the machine. However, I just can’t see it being widely adopted, or even at all. It’s just plain odd. The price isn't set in stone, but the word is that it'll retail for somewhere between a whopping $3,000 and a paltry $1,800. But, Hurry! Pre-orders yield deep deep discounts! OMG!

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

The Vulcan Flipstart

Today Engadget posted a hands-on piece about the Vulcan Flipstart “handheld PC.” They didn’t offer a price, but for the dearth of features that it offers, I’d hope to see it somewhere under $500. I really can’t find much good in it. It’s bulky, it’s slow, the screen doesn’t look bright, and its screen resolution looks to be about 800x600, which isn’t really practical these days.


The story goes, that this piece of tech-junk was announced in 2003, and they just never delivered, until now. Well, this makes me think that the features and the components and design were set in stone back then, but now in 2007 they’re all just about obsolete. Hell, the thing even offers an RJ-11 jack for modem connection. All this thing needs is a hand crank and it’d go perfect with the line of OLPCs designed for remote areas in third-world countries.

The kicker, is on the same day as this review, came some news about a new Samsung handheld PC. In comparison to the Vulcan’s 512MB of RAM, 30GB hard drive, and 800x600 washed out screen, the Samsung Q2 offers up 1GB of RAM, a 100GB hard drive, and a brilliant 1024x600 wide-touch-screen. The Samsung also gets my vote on design.

I guess the lesson to be learned here, is that a concept that includes top of the line hardware, just doesn’t hold up after 4 years.

(Pictures via Engadget)

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Valet Free Robotic Parking Garage

It’s Two For Tuesday! What’s that mean? Well I mean you get to hear my opinion twice today! Oh how lucky you must be feeling! Please notice: this is not necessarily going to be a ritual for Tuesdays. It just happened that I had some more time than usual today, so I updated here, as well as reviewing the latest from The Higher, called “On Fire,” you can check that out over at Audiosyncratic.

Earlier today Engadget reported on the NYC Parkhaus from the people at Automotion Parking Systems. It’s a parking structure that stores your car away on a shelf while your gone. The idea really is a good one in my opinion. Since there doesn’t have to be as much space to allow people to drive in and out and because they shelves can be closer to each other, there’s the possibility for storing more cars in less space, than a traditional parking garage.

The other benefit that I see is that there won’t be as much worrying about someone jacking your car while you’re away, because it’s kept within the robotic structure’s bay. This way, there won’t be the freedom for people to come in and out as the please. From the sounds of it, the service is also priced fairly competitively in comparison to other parking structures.

I guess you just have to hope that there isn’t a power outage when you want your car. I’m also a bit weary about how long it would take to get cars in and out, as this could cause long lines, especially during rush hours when commuters are trying to drop off their cars for the day.

Check out this way cool video, thanks to Popular Mechanics.

Omelet Mouse Cover, Who Even Needs a Mouse Cover?

There’s something to be said for quirky accessories, both tech related and even other sorts. I would generally put this mouse cover in that category, except that it costs almost $70. So for $70 and some potentially pricey shipping from Japan, you can cover your Mouse with an omelet, a plastic one of course. But this begs, the question, why would you even want to? It doesn’t appear as if you’d even be able to use it with the cover on it. And I highly doubt that an incredibly fake looking rice omelet is going to keep any nefarious users from using your PC. “Haha I’m going to steal all of Brian’s files! Oh no! Where’s his mouse? Is that an omelet? Wow I’ve been foiled.” No…


So if you’re really into Japanese rice omelets and you can bear to part with $70, this might be the product for you!
Check out some reporting on delectable dish from Engadget and Akihabara.

Monday, March 5, 2007

512MB Memory Unit for 360, Hard Drive Still a Better Deal

Today Engadget is reporting on a newly announced 512MB Memory Unit for the 360, which will push down the price of the current 64MB edition. Although I don’t own an Xbox 360, I understand why this is a well-needed addition. The 64MB card could only hold a few of your game saves and at most one Live Arcade game. Well, the cap on these games was recently raised from 50MB to 150MB, so everyone without a hard drive in their 360 was left in the dust.


This new 512MB Memory Unit will reportedly be introduced at a price point of $49, and will include, at least initially a copy of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. It’s not exactly a bad deal, but the hard drive, which can be purchased after market, is certainly a much better one. I would, however, suggest holding off on buying one just yet. All of the speculation floating around seems to suggest that there will be both or either an updated 360 or an increased capacity hard drive. So, if you’re looking to crawl out of the gaming depths, known as the Core system, the hard drive is your best bet out.

So, I just can’t exactly recommend the purchase of a 512MB Memory Unit for $50, when a 20GB hard drive, for your 360, can be procured via eBay for somewhere in the same price range. Plus, if you can bear to stick it out somewhere between a month and a year, a new hard drive might become available to satisfy your Live Arcade gaming needs.

Thursday, March 1, 2007

I don’t like your iTude, Mister

I swear I’ve seen these floating around before, but now that I have an outlet to complain about them, and they were recently featured on The Unofficial Apple Weblog, I’ll complain about them. They are neon headphones, called iTude, for use with your iPod.
The cables are connected to a battery pack (2 AAA) and they glow to the beat of your music. The idea is pretty cool, but it’s the execution that bogs them down in my mind.



From the photo, comparing the size of the headphones which appear to be normal Apple ear buds, with iTude graffiti’d on them, to the battery pack, it seems that it is far from small. In fact it appears as though it would rival the size of an iPod Nano. It’s just one more thing to stuff in your pocket while you’re on the go. Plus, because the cable that connects it to the iPod is short, you would have to take it out of your pocket every time you wanted to change a song.

Finally one last nitpick, the ear buds used in the iTude are of the last-gen style. These days the ear buds are sexy and curved. Plus according to just about everyone a whole heck of a lot more comfortable. So, with no price available and the fact that they can be found only on a Japanese website, I won’t be expecting to see these glowing babies around any time soon. That, and I’m not much for the rave scene.