Archive for the 'Gadgets' Category

The geeks have taken over Hollywood

James Cameron’s Avatar may have changed how films are made with Avatar, but Steve Jobsis changing how business is done in Hollywood.

Microsoft’s new mojo lies with Windows Phone 7

They’re baaaack. Just when you thought the dragon had been mortally wounded and sloughed off to its cave to die, it comes back spitting fire and disturbing the neighbors.
At this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft introduced a new mobile operating system that appears to be nothing like any OS it’s ever invented, borrowed, [...]

iPad, schmypad. I’m just happy it’s over.

The circus is finally over. The carnies are pulling down the tents, the clowns have packed up their seltzer bottles, and we are basking in the soft sweet afterglow of greatness.
So much for Obama’s State of the Union address. Now about that Apple event earlier today. By now you’ve probably seen or read dozens [...]

Apple tablet madness: Will it ever end?

Forget Obamacare or the new Republican senator from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Pay no attention to the New Orleans Saints or the Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien soap opera. You can even safely ignore the Chinese and their cyber-shenanigans. There’s only one thing happening in the world this week, and it’s taking place in about 48 [...]

Is there a sexbot in your future?

I can’t remember who first said it, but it seems truer every day: The future just ain’t what it used to be.
Here we are in 2010, and I’m still waiting for my personal jetpack, let alone a transporter. Flying cars? Fahgeddaboutit. Phasers? Not even close. I want Rosie the Jetson’s robotic maid; instead I [...]

Google’s Nexus: One phone isn’t gonna change anything

So earlier this week Google did indeed unveil the Nexus One “superphone,” and yet life is strangely similar to how it was on Monday.
I did not attend yesterday’s highly anticipated press event, but based on the live blog coverage (as well as the live blog coverage of the live blog coverage) it appears to have [...]

Google takes on Apple for world domination

If anything has become clear over the last six months it’s that people are chomping at the bit for a new kind of device, one that brings the Web to them wherever they are but without the compromises currently required by cell phones (too small), net books (require a table or desk) or Kindle/Nook [...]

Google’s Nexus Phone — better than Viagra?

Google Phone mania has hit the Webberlands. If the rumors are to be believed, Google is on the verge of introducing its own handset called the Nexus One. It will be be built by HTC, use Android 2.x, be available for use with any US-based GSM network (like T-Mobile or AT&T’s), and be sold [...]

Web tablet magic? That JooJoo that you do so well…

Just when you thought the CrunchPad was dead (or that Michael Arrington might actually shut up for five minutes) comes news of its revival, only this time it’s got a new name and a new daddy.
In an effort to “tell their side of the story,” erstwhile CrunchPad manufacturers Fusion Garage held a press event [...]

Is that a Tablet PC, or are you just glad to see me?

You can’t stumble around the Internet these days without bumping into it. News, rumor, speculation, and hot gossip about — no, not David Letterman’s love life (who knew he had one?) or the Jon and Kate Gosselin train wreck — but Tablet PCs.
Yes, over the last year the PC’s buck-toothed, developmentally challenged second [...]

Apple: Poachers will be punished

Did Apple try to strong-arm Palm into a ‘don’t touch ours, we won’t touch yours’ hiring arrangement? If so, it may have run afoul of antitrust laws.

Charged with battery (or, why battery technology blows)

Exagerrated claims for laptop battery life are nothing new. But now they’re hitting the courts thanks to a new class action suit.

How green is your cell phone?

Samsung, LG, Motorola and others have come out with new eco-friendly handsets. But it’s going to take more than a few carbon-stingy phones to make a real difference.

Some of the biggest news coming out of this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is that cell phones are finally going green. Samsung, LG, and Motorola all [...]

Brave New TV

The boob tube is about to get a whole lot smarter

It’s the biggest change to television since Gilligan woke up one morning in 1965 and discovered that all the coconuts were suddenly in color. Later this year U.S. television will leave its analog past behind and enter its all-digital future.
[Note: Just this week, Congress pushed [...]

House Music

The Sonos System will be music to your ears
 
The Sonos Multi-Room Music System lets you enjoy digital music at home wherever you roam. All you need is a high-speed Internet connection, a home network router, and about 15 minutes of your time.
It’s rare to find electronic devices as simple to set up as the Sonos [...]

Greatest gadgets of the last five years (and maybe of all time)

The best gadgets are simple, elegant, and change your life in ways you don’t expect
Five years ago my Gadget Freak column began with a simple mission. To explore brave new technologies, to seek out new gizmos and gear, and to boldly go where no gadget column had gone before.
Now that mission is over. This [...]

Stompin’ at the Servoy

(This post appeared in a slightly different form on Infoworld’s Notes From the Field blog.)
You may have noticed this has been a slow week in blogville. Well now the truth can be told. For the past five days I’ve been held captive in Amsterdam by a small group of mad Dutchmen. They locked me in [...]

Too Cuil (cool) for school?

You know your product is gonna have problems from the get go when you have to constantly explain how its name is pronounced. Cuil (pronounced “cool”) is a new search engine, the brainchild of ex-Googlehead Anna Paterson, her husand Tom Costello, and assorted other people with more gray matter than sense (apparently).
I know, I know: [...]

Clutter Cutters: Six Ways to Get Organized

(A slightly different version of this article originally appeared in the July/August issue of Home magazine.)
Papers, Post it notes, business cards and assorted bric a brac can make your home office a living Museum of Disorganization – and the clutter usually spills over into other rooms of your house. Clean up the mess by [...]

Amazon’s wonderful terrible amazing awful Kindle

I finally got my hands on a Kindle. Here’s what I like about it — and what needs to be fixed.

The Kindle is amazing and awful, grand and terrible. It’s a groundbreaking device that’s in need of an overhaul. I like it and it annoys me all at the same time. Have I made that [...]