Archive for the 'Gadgets' Category

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iPhone Impressions: Neat!

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So I drove on over to the Apple Store today (it was on the way back from some other place I was driving to) and I tried out the iPhone. It’s neat! I tried out all the applications and they work fairly well. The typing is alright, but when you type words that are uncommon in the dictionary, for instance, “truong,” the keyboard kinda compensates in the wrong direction.

Besides that, the applications are pretty fun to use, but they seem a bit more jerky than the commercials would have you believe. For instance, I was using the google maps app and it took forever to download the map tiles! The zooming in and out using the multi touch was way cool, but it also seemed to lag behind a bit as well. I know it’ll take lag to move stuff around, but it was… how should I put it? Slower than I expected.

The iPhone certainly is a cool gadget. I just don’t know why it needs to be a phone. Apple’s created a pretty sweet PDA that includes a phone, which requires a subscription fee. If they had just called it the iPDA, maybe I’d be more willing to get one. That, and if they lowered the price, made it snappier, made the battery life longer, etc. I actually had one die while I was using it in the store. The battery ran out and I had to switch to another one.

Oh well, maybe in the next generation/iteration I’ll be able to afford one. And convince myself that I should pay the price for it.

4 Reasons Why The Apple iPhone Will Fail

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The focus of today’s Macworld 2007 was definitely the iPhone. While general consensus is that the iPhone is the next killer app, I still have my doubts. Here are 4 reasons why the Apple iPhone will fail:

1. Public Acceptance:
The average person doesn’t even use the WAP browser on their phone, let alone any full blown OSX apps! What people want in a mobile phone is a phone; they don’t need all of these extras. Extra software just makes it more difficult to perform the main function of the phone: to make phone calls.

2. Price:
The price of the iPhone was announced at $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB with a 2 year contract. Right now, you can get a T-Mobile MDA smartphone for $0 after rebate. The mass market is not willing to pay this much for a phone.

3. Copyright and Regulations:
There already is an iPhone out. It’s the Linksys Wireless-G Skype iPhone. I hope Apple has a lot of money or lawyers to acquire the rights to the name.

Pair this with the fact that the iPhone doesn’t have FCC approval and we might never see the iPhone get to market. How did Steve make all of those phone calls anyway?

4. Battery Life:
The iPhone runs OSX! This is great for a laptop or a desktop computer, but does a phone really need OSX? The battery life was announced as 5 hours of talk time, browsing, or video. Basically, 5 hours of active use. What happens after that? Your phone is dead and no one can call you.

People are not going to use the iPhone’s features for fear of losing their connectivity when the battery runs out.

Wirefly Mobile Store Review

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First off, I should note that this is a payed review via reviewme.com.

Wirefly is an online store that sells cell phones and service. I think they sell service for just about every carrier, including T-Mobile, Sprint, and Alltel. Taking a quick look at Amazon.com’s mobile phone store, it looks like Alltel is not included. So I guess in that respect, Wirefly wins.

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I’m actually thinking about getting a new phone, so I just “pretended” to buy a new phone at both stores. The Motorola Razr V3t immediately comes to mind as something I’d like to buy. At Wirefly, the phone is $49.99 with a $50 rebate. At Amazon.com, the phone is $24.99 with a $50 rebate and a $25 rebate. The prices after rebate are $.01 and -$50.01 for Wirefly and Amazon.com, respectively. These are both the price paid when bought with a plan.

I think Amazon.com is pretty much the standard when it comes to buying phone service online. They have a pretty good reputation and very good prices. I can’t say anything about Wirefly’s service, but it seems okay from the website. I guess the only thing I could say is that if you’re looking for Alltel service, you won’t find it at Amazon.com. Wirefly looks like a decent retailer; it just isn’t as good as Amazon.

I’d still go with Amazon in the end due to the prices and trust I have in that online retailer.

New Camera: Casio Exilim EX-Z70

I got a new camera: the Casio Exilim EX-Z70. It was only $150 at Best Buy, which was a pretty good bargain. Since I was over at UNM yesterday, I decided to take a few test shots. They’re mostly okay, but somewhat grainy when seen at full resolution. This should probably be a 6 megapixel camera, not a 7.2…

Anyway, the video quality is fairly good. Better than my old Canon S50, at least.

Youtube video quality kinda sucks, so here it is in lower compression:


Humping Dog USB!

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When I first saw pictures of the Humping Dog USB thing, I thought it was an ill-designed USB flash drive. Obviously people were laughing at it because it was dog shaped, and if you put it onto a laptop, it looked like the dog was humping it. I was wrong.

The device is specifically designed to look like a dog humping a laptop. Moreover, it is mechanical. Yes, the dog physically humps the laptop when you “plug it in.” The website (in Japanese) states, “Once you insert it, it doesn’t stop!”

I’m not even sure that the USB device has any memory, as the website says nothing about capacity. I think it’s just more of a desk toy than anything. It costs 998 yen, which is less than $10.

I don’t know if the best part of the video is the mosaic censoring of the dog, or “Believe” by Cher playing in the background…

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