Category: Gadgets

I just got back to Seattle after a long weekend in the Boston area. I flew Alaska each way, which was tolerable but not great. (A 100% full 737-800 is a bit marginal for a transcontinental route. The lines for the toilets were ridiculous, not helped by the frequent periods of moderate to severe “chop”.) The flights were also more stressful than usual, because I didn’t have my noise cancelling headphones with me… which brings me to the second topic.
I used my new iPhone as a replacement for my iPod on this trip. In general, it worked really well: the iPhone is a terrific Internet tablet. Unfortunately I was bitten by the two most annoying features of the iPhone: the non-standard headphone jack, and the standard headset supplied by Apple. The recessed socket on the iPhone meant that I could not use my noise-cancelling headphones; I guess I’ll have to buy an adapter or take an X-acto knife to my headphone cable. And the standard headset provided by Apple is simply awful: it slips around in the ear, has tinny high-end notes, and no bass. Ideally the iPhone would work with a Bluetooth solution like the Plantronics Pulsar or the Motorola HT820, but it looks as if this will depend on an upgrade to the iPhone Bluetooth stack. It would also have been nice if Apple had worked with Shure or Sennheiser to come up with a high-end earbud+microphone for the iPhone; so far, the only product on the market is the V-Moda Vibe Duo, and even that is missing important functionality.
UPDATE: After doing some more reading, I think I’m going to have to avoid active noise-cancelling headphones and go with noise-blocking ear buds. The consensus seems to be that the GSM wireless signals from the iPhone will induce noise in most active noise-cancelling headphones. I’ve certainly noticed this before: I’ve been flying on United, listening to channel 9 on my noise-cancelling headphones, and when we land and the people around me turn on their cellphones I can hear staccato bursts of noise from the GSM handsets. Perhaps the Vibe Duo is going to be the best I can do. I’ll wait until they upgrade the microphone to include the “clicker”, though.

I finally got myself an iPhone. It was inevitable. Latest info is that the 3G version is at least 6 months away, and whoever wins the UK rights will be deploying EDGE anyway, so this looks like a safe bet. (However I will be very careful when I travel overseas – see this thread over at Apple…)
(Anyone want to buy a Cingular AT&T 8525? I’ll throw in a 1GB micro-SD card.)

I’m sure that my reaction to yesterday’s Apple announcement was not uncommon: “OK, I was going to wait to get an iPhone, but the new features and pricing are compelling. It’s time to take the plunge.” And then this morning I read Adrian’s detailed analysis, “What happened to the iPhone, and what comes next…”. ((Warning: Turn down volume before clicking through; the page includes some great iJigg music.)) His predictions have been spot on so far, and I think he nails the key points.
As for my impulse to buy now, Adrian makes the case for waiting a few weeks:

Another prediction I made was that a 3G iPhone would follow for the European market. The cut in price of the original iPhone creates an empty price-point at $599, which could be filled by a 3G capable iPhone with 16GB of flash and possibly GPS. Some commentators have suggested that this could be announced at Apple Expo in Paris on Sept 25th, and I think that makes sense.

And that will give me time to investigate interim solutions to the problem of business email access.

The other day, I realized that I was surrounded by “gigs of flash”. Each one of these gadgets contains one gigabyte of Flash RAM:

• Casio Exilim S600 camera
• Kodak P850 camera
• AT&T (HTC) 8525 cell phone
• Sony PSP
• Apple iPod Nano
• Nokia 770 Internet Tablet
• Nintendo Wii

Of course these seven “gigs” are packaged in five different form factors… And why a gig? For a camera or an MP3 player, 1GB means “big enough that the battery will die before you fill it up or listen to it all”. In many cases 1GB represented the “knee of the curve”, the best price-performance at the time.
The interesting question for me is when 120GB of flash is going to become price-competitive with a 120GB hard disk. Today you can get a 5400rpm 120GB disk for $80-100, quantity one. The first generation of plug-compatible flash replacements are still pretty expensive ($350 for 32GB), but the price per megabyte for flash seems to be dropping by around 65% per year, so we won’t have to wait long. In view of the benefits (reduced heat, better battery life, significantly better performance, robustness, etc.) I’d be happy to pay $300 for a 120GB replacement for my present laptop HDD.

The vast majority of my music collection is stored on my PowerBook, ((The CDs are archived back in Massachusetts)) and when I’m in my apartment I listen to it using iTunes. (I either use headphones or stream it via WiFi to my home theatre system.) The whole setup has been very satisfactory, but there was room for improvement. After a tip-off from Gene, I downloaded a plugin for iTunes called iWOW, from SRS Labs. I’d come across this company before; I have a pair of noise-cancelling headphones from Sharper Image which incorporate SRS technology.
I was blown away. The plugin allows you to manipulate the stereo separation, position, and definition in various ways; there are presets for various kinds of music and output devices. Try this: set iWOW up the way you want, then turn it off, start playing a familiar track, and turn iWOW on half way through. The effect is remarkable: a vast improvement over unmodified iTunes. There are also some cute tricks you can play: by turning down the “virtual centre speaker” you can eliminate most of the vocals, creating a kind of karaoke mode!
I used the free trial for a week, then shelled out $19.99 to register it. Well worth the money. Now if only I had an iWOW plugin for my iPod…

My Nintendo Wii arrived today, and I’ve been checking it out. ((And for those who asked me how I got one, I bought it on eBay. When it arrived, the receipt showed that it had been purchased from Amazon.com, confirming my suspicion that a considerable number of those that we are selling are being snapped up by people using “sniping” software.)) I like the overall user experience, though I imagine that the relentlessly cheerful pieces of music that accompany everything could get tedious after a while. The online mode is completely seamless. And as for the games… well, I’ve only played one game of tennis, which I lost. I suspect that this is going to be quite addictive, and not a bad work-out either!

Years ago, Namco released a wonderful sword-fighting game called Soul Calibur. I bought a Sega Dreamcast to play it.
Later, Namco released Soul Calibur II for the Playstation 2. I bought a PS2 to play it.
Next, they released Soul Calibur III, also for the PS2. I bought a copy, played it, and went back to Soul Calibur II. Better gameplay.
Now, Namco Bandai have revealed they’re bringing an incarnation of Soul Calibur to the Wii. It’s going to be called Soul Calibur Legends. No release date yet, but the screenshots look gorgeous. And so today I bought myself a Nintendo Wii, just to be ready.
Update: According to Amazon.com, “This item will be released on November 13, 2007.”

For many years, I was a cheapskate about digital photography. I had a simple scheme: every 2 years, I would buy the best camera that I could get for $300. Typically the cutting-edge models were in the $500-750 range, but that was OK with me. On one occasion my purchase was forced (I left the old one on a plane), but overall the plan worked well.
I didn’t anticipate the new FinePix F50fd from Fuji. This looks stunning:

Combining a 12-MegaPixel, 7th Generation Super CCD with a 3.0x optical zoom and a 2.7″; high-resolution 230,000 pixel wide angle view LCD… With the addition of Dual Image Stabilization, Face Detection 2.0 Technology with Automatic Red Eye Removal function, and ISO settings of up to ISO 6400, the F50fd takes compact digital cameras to the next level…

Damn right it does. And at last Fuji has abandoned its quixotic reliance on the proprietary xD format; the F50fd will accept SD-HC memory. OK, there are some compromises: you’ll only get ISO 6400 at 3MP resolution, and the best you can get at 12MP is ISO 1600. I can live with that. No Bluetooth, unfortunately. (It supports IR, but does anybody really care?) In any case, for $299.95, this looks like a winner. It must be two years since my last upgrade, don’t you think?

Amid the government-sponsored hysteria surrounding air travel (“OMG – he’s going to blow up the plane with a tube of toothpaste and a bottle of baby formula!!!”), Josh reports that Wenger has come up with a Swiss Army Knife that has “a micro screwdriver, scissors, nail file/cleaner, toothpick, and tweezers” – but no blade. Josh is happy, but I found this, well, depressing. File under stuff that ought to be unnecessary….

What’s wrong with this piece in El Reg?

Say hello to Intel’s latest portable PC concept: the “metro notebook”, an ultra-thin, ultra-light laptop for the ladies. Designed to be carried over the shoulder, the sub-0.7in thick, 1kg device sports an always-on secondary display for fast info updates.

But why “for the ladies”? I know plenty of Y-chromosomed geeks (including me) who would [metaphorically] kill for such a device…