It’s always fun to catch a “BSOD moment” (although its not as great as some of these, and not technically a blue screen), even if you are really trying to figure out whether or not you should chance the slightly later, but possibly not delayed, flight.
I caught this one today in Chicago O’Hare.
(the flight was on time)
It might be time to stop trying.
I will quote, if I may, from a press release I was sent today.
PR: Are you ready for the coolest iPod experience yet?
JT: Heck, ya!
PR: Then crank up some tunes, plug in and watch the amazing iCar do its thing
JT: Ok, sounds interesting I guess… but tell me, does it rock?
PR: It rocks right to left, front to back, and up and down
JT: Get out! But wait, are those functioning doors???
PR: You can even manually open the doors and hood to create a whole new look
JT: This is far too awesome. Tell me though, I see rims. Do my keen eyes detect… spinners?
PR: real working spinner wheels, wild graphics, chrome accessories, big tires and stereo system
JT: Craziness! So what you’re saying is, it’s like a little toy car, only better, because it rocks, spins, and has working doors. Got any lights on that bad boy?
PR: Colored lights illuminate the wheel wells, rims, undercarriage, engine and trunk areas
JT: This is sounding too good to be true. Wait a sec, this is an iPod accessory, so how’s the sound? And tell me the tech specs so I know how to compare it to other, similarly rocking iPod-cars.
PR: the high-quality speaker pumps out the sound
JT: Hold on, that doesn’t give me much to go on. Anything else you can tell me on the sound quality, before I invest $34.99 in a Matchbox that I use to listen to mp3s in mono-sound, I want to be sure it sounds good!
PR: sound and vision unlike anything that’s come before
JT: Sign me up!
First the earth cooled. And, then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died, and they turned into oil. And, then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And they bought cell phones, which were about the size of my head.
Then, cell phones got a little smaller, a little more portable, and didn’t require their own power generators that you had to store in the trunk of your car.
And then something wonderful happened, and it was called…
StarTac.
And we liked StarTac, and the world was good for a time.
But then StarTac became TimePort, and quickly got pulled from the market because everyone wanted to buy really narrow non-flip phones from a country that few Americans can tell apart from its neighbors (one of whom makes really good cheap furniture but only sells it in humongous stores that are guaranteed to have excessively long lines on the weekend, but I digress).
And then for a long time, things were bad. One might call it the dark ages of cell phones.
Until those people who made StarTac got their collectives heads out of their collective rears, and all of a sudden had the coolest looking phone on Earth again. Hello Moto!
But at 3GSM, here’s some phones I saw:
I don’t know the actual name for this phone other than the “VK” label on it and it sells in Europe and Asia and we will never, ever, ever see it here in the US. But it’s VERY small and very cool. The picture is almost misleading since I don’t show anything with context, but suffice it to say it’s about the height of the Razr, yet thinner and clearly narrower. Didn’t get to see it working, so I have no idea what operating system it runs or frankly if it even works, but it was sure “nano-like”.
Here you can see 3 phones from Newgen, a company I’ll cover a little more in a day or two. These phones are all about the size of a lady’s compact, and were very interesting to look at. This company is trying to come to the US with these units, so there is a glimmer of hope out there!
Another phone from Newgen, this time I think it’s pretty obvious how small it can be! The phone on the far left is next to a Sliver and a Razor (which looks ridiculously huge in comparison). It’s smaller and thinner than both. It has no name, and the unit I was shown was a pure prototype, so it may never even exist. But then again, it might have a million users in China by next week, and we’d never know the difference…
Another very interesting phone, this comes from NeoMagic. I’ll write in a lot of detail about this one, as they have a GUI concept that I thought was fairly compelling. The entire UI uses a touch screen with a built-in vibrating ‘alert’ as a physical feedback mechanism. Very interesting, definitely worthy of more discussion.
Personally, I think we’re reaching the limit of what can be built and still be usable. I, for one, cannot use a Razr. The keys are too small and my grubby fingers are too big, not to mention the incredibly poor GUI Motorola insists on using. I also won’t be happy with something super-tiny if I can’t feel it vibrate in my pocket (and not just for fun, that is).
I’ll take a Razr-sized phone with a revamped keypad (I need distinct buttons) and some better GUI features (I dare say WM5.0 would be my choice right now). Either that or just go ahead and build it into my shoe.
Spent a few days out in Barcelona catching up on the latest in mobile technologies, r
anging from watching live TV to interactive pornchat on your cell phone (just what we’ve all been waiting for). I took a look at some of the latest and greatest phones, most of which seem to be fairly Moto-inspired, and rest assured, there are a decent amount of cool new cell phones that will never, ever see the light of day in the US!
The show was held at the Fira de Barcelona, a much better-looking place than the Vegas 
Convention Center, and divided into several different halls. Hall 1 had Microsoft, Intel, Docomo, as well as your typical host of smaller companies. In Hall 2 I found some providers, such as Telefonica Spain (branded Movistar), and a lot of content and services companies. Hall 3 did not exist, and Halls 4 and 5 were for corporate/internal use. Couldn’t find Halls 6 or 7 anywhere, but Hall 8 had Moto, Nortel, and all the other manufacturers. Despite missing three halls, the show was large enough to occupy several days worth of wandering.
This was my first time attending the show, which used to be held in Cannes, France, but 
Barcelona “won” it starting this year. Moving a tradeshow is a fairly big deal, apparently big enough to warrant a welcome by the King and Queen of Spain (I couldn’t help walking around humming “I’ve stood here before inside the pouring rain, with the world turning circles running ’round my brain…”
3GSM also featured your typical share of booth babes, but the ones that drew the most
attention were at a company called Cboss. Every 60 minutes a quick explanation of the company was given (no idea what they do still) then these 6 hypo-anorexic girls did a little dance.
All-in-all, it was an interesting show, although I have to say I was a little disappointed at the lack of significantly interesting new phones. I’ll post some seperate entries with specific devices or services I saw in the next couple of days.
Our old friend Jonas did something I am always nervous about doing – he installed a beta Web browser on his PC. Quite adventurous in my opinion! Anyhow, he took a look (or should I say listen) to Songbird, which is basically a rich media Web browser that incorporates audio files with Web sites.
I know there is a lot of push toward convergence, and podcasting has certainly gained a ton of interest from people, but in my opinion this is the kind of idea that never really needed to come. If I want to listen to something while surfing, why wouldn’t I just leave Windows Media Player (or something else) running? Why can’t I just do this exact thing with a simple plug-in, or even frames on my Web site?
I don’t get it. And from the sounds of things, neither did Jonas – although he’s a bit nicer about it than I am!
Hi,
If you’ve noticed the familiar look & feel of the site is gone, well, you are just as surprised as I was! I did the upgrade to the newest version of WordPress, and, well, lost some of my template.
The good news is i have backups.
The bad news is it’ll take a few days to fix.
The best news is we’ll have a new look and feel when done, leveraging the styling of the old with a new layout and organization.
I sure hope you like it. I sure hope I like it!
Hi. It is with a bit of sadness that I am saying goodbye to Jonas and Ameer, who have been the main contributors to LD for the past few months. They’ll both be moving on to a new home at www.technudgelive.com, and I wish them nothing but the best. Please take the time to check in on them at their new home, as they are both great writers and great people, and I’m sure their opinions and observations on living digitally will be valued regardless of URL!
Wow… I don’t know if this is any good or not, but it’s amazing to see how far the prices for flat-screens really have dropped. I’ve been doing a lot of comparison research at the ~$2200 and ~$1600 price points, but this is amazing. Anyone have any experience with the Syntax Olevia products?
Also, anyone who missed this year’s Black Friday, make sure you bookmark bfads.net for next year!
When I received an email titled “Solitude noise-canceling headset: better than Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones” I must admit, I was quite skeptical. I’ve loyally carried the distinctive Bose set with me on flights across the country and world for the past year now, and I was quite intrigued at the challenge. Especially from a company I’d never heard of before, and at a price point a full $100 cheaper than Bose.
The Solitude unit arrived, and as I opened the packaging and carrying case I knew the team at ProTravelGear.com had the right idea in mind. The headphones are designed to “collapse” and take up about a third of their own size when properly folded away. This is a bit of a double-edged sword for me, as they are much smaller than the Bose unit from a width and height perspective, but they are almost twice the, well, girth. When I use my messenger-style laptop bag, the Solitudes don’t really fit too well, but when I have my backpack or overnight bag, the shape is ideal. Continue reading
Previously, we reviewed the Solitude noise-canceling headset, and were quiet impressed. Here is a detailed, side-by-side comparison with the Bose QuietComfort2 headset.
Photo Gallery:
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Saw this on the SlingCommunity site:
[…] we officially launched the PAL beta application process this morning. The link to apply is online here. We will only take applications for the next 2 weeks, so please sign up soon!
Also, just so you know, we take our beta programs very seriously, and they aren’t for the faint of heart. We have a very limited supply of PAL units, so we’re looking for the best testers out there! You don’t need to be the most technically savvy person, you just need to commit to giving us great feedback! […]
I know we’ve had a lot of Slingbox owners and fans come through this site – I highly recommend giving it a try if you are in a country with PAL TV services…
Dearest Vanessa,
I am not in the market for office software, not even at “bottom prices”. I do believe you when you say your software is 2-10 times cheaper than your competitors, but I have all the software I need right now. I also agree that $89.95 is a great deal for Windows XP Professional + Office XP Professional, thanks. I am not sure if I’ll make it to your Web site anytime soon, although your Web address is quite memorable, “http://oeuujgrftcavou98mx.digreceam.info” just flows right off the tongue.
Seriously though, I’ve done the math, I get it, I know spam works. But can’t you let me opt out of the stuff which simply does not apply? I am not in need of a mortgage, a university diploma, larger breasts, viaggra (or viaagra, or even vi-AGRA), and I really don’t have the time to become a secret shopper.
I’ve read a few reports recently which talk about spam emails finally showing signs of decline. I guess it’s possible. All I can tell is two things:
1) I get tons of spam, to just about every email address I have.
2) I no longer have any confidence that when I send an email to someone they actually get it, because their spam filter may have decided I am risky, simply because I attached a picture to the email!
I heard about the Russian spammer who was killed for spamming. This is not a good thing. But maybe it will make Vanessa J Smith and her Windows software, Lonnie Nieves and his replica Rolex watches, and Laurelle Spangler’s pharmacy think twice before adding another million names to their lists.
