Are you old enough to remember when video phones were the “wave of the future”. For decades video phones popped up everywhere from Sci-Fi movies to cartoons. Some of you may remember George Jetson talking to Jane via his ultra futuristic video phone. Remarkably, the first video phone was actually invented in 1955 and was known as the “Photo Phone” however it was extremely slow as you can imagine and very expensive thus was never rolled out. And even before the “Photo Phone” AT&T back in 1927 demonstrated a one way picture phone.
In 1970 AT&T rolled out the “Picture Phone” which was the first video phone offered to consumers however it was again very expensive and with very few customers it fizzled out around 1974. They took another stab in the early 90’s but as was the case with their previous two attempts the cost kept consumers away.
A myriad of other companies including Panasonic have made attempts at tackling the consumer video phone market to no avail.
Commercially, Intel was the industry leader with their Intel ProShare Conferencing Video System 500 launched in 1995. Two years later they only had 50,000 users and today theyno longer support the product.
That’s right, iPod and Google seem to be getting a bit friendly these days. I think Google knows how to pick a winner and this is proof of that.
According to Google’s VP of European Operations, Nikesh Arora, iPods increasing storage size will give the little device no limits when it comes to ramping up space capacity.
From the original source: “Arora said, by 2012, iPods could launch at similar prices to those on
sale now and yet be capable of holding a whole year’s worth of video
releases. Around 10 years down the line that could be expanded,
creating iPods that can hold all the music ever sold commercially.”
This week has been a little odd for me with my web finds. I just can’t seem to shake these weird finds that keep coming up. First, there was the Girl Poop Pants story, and now bananas have their own suit cases.
I think a picture could probably sum up the new and improved Banana Guard.
My question is… does anyone else think this whole banana case thing looks a little…ummm…kinky?
Microsoft seems to have simply gotten in too much of a hurry to jump on the media player bandwagon with its new “iPod Killer”, the Zune. It’s almost as if they needed to release a Beta version to a few of us junkies so we could have at least tried to help them through this painful episode with a little less tears. That obviously didn’t happen.
Here we are a day or two after Zune went on the shelves and the AppleInsider is confirming that Zune isn’t even compatible with Windows Vista. That’s right, the big bad Zune won’t even work with Microsoft’s new OS that should start hitting machines shortly.
Talk about rushing out the door with shirt on backwards! I almost feel kind of sorry for the Zune folks. I mean… who would have thought it would be THIS bad? iPod, it’s your turn. Let’s see what you got!
That’s what you’ll be hearing from any store owner or bank manager in Japan should you decide to grab something that isn’t yours and make a run for it.
I think most of us watching the whole iPod killer wannabe come out of the gate knew all too well what the DRM feature Zune shoves in our face was about. The DRM program in the Zune media player kills any file after its third play if it wasn’t purchased, regardless of where the file came from. What this means is that any indy band or individual looking to market their own music (in my case it is trance that I create and offer for free) will be dead in the water with this new “iPod Killer”. Personally, I knew what was behind the surface… money.
I kind of giggle every time I read something like this. There was a day when I was actually curious to see how well Zune would perform in its infancy, but that day has long passed. When the Software giant Microsoft can’t even find a base that doesn’t pack an iPod they just might want to re-think the whole “we killed your cool toy” marketing ploy.
It’s Saturday so I figured we could use something different. Today’s first post came to me as a surprise and I still have a hard time believing it happened.
According to this blogger, when a 40GB iPod was ordered it was shipped with two bars of soap and a package of cheap batteries instead of an actual iPod.
OK, of all the ways I’ve seen parents try to get their kids to brush their teeth properly, this has got to take the cake.
When pressed to the teeth, the toothbrush renders a recorded riff from a pop star that lasts two minutes — precisely the amount of time dentists say children should spend brushing their teeth.
Personally I think it’s a brilliant idea. From the sounds of things the tracklist is not quite ready, but hopefully the toothbrush will come with some good beats.
Coolest Gadgets got it right with their assesment on this nifty gadget. The stealthswitch is a USB device that can sit on the floor beneath your desk for stealthy use. When someone approaches your computer and you wish for them not to see what you’re looking at you simply tp the switch and the window will instantly drop. There are several settings for the switch that allow you to choose what is hidden and what will remain viewable.
If you’re one of those peeps who like to play games when the boss isn’t looking this might be your desktop radar detector.
While I disagree with Techie Diva’s claim that gas prices are rising (they’re dropping where I live), as always the gadget blogger makes a great find with the new Electroscoot.
I have no idea what the MPH translation is, but I’m guessing the scooter will do about 35 MPH. Not bad for those of us who dwell in the big cities. At .50 cents for that 35 miles you really can’t at all complain about the cost of running this micro ride.
It comes in at about $2,000.00 USD give or take a few either way. Not too bad all things considered.
Today the contents of a discussion forum private message enlightened me to some technology that is quietly sneaking up the ranks of coolness. I know we’ve all heard of Ambilight Full Surround , but it looks like Philips is working hard to take it to the next level.
From the site:
You’re going to see television in a completely different way with Ambilight technology from Philips. Ambilight is a unique theatre lighting system that actively adjusts both brightness and colour based on picture content. It lets your eye see more detail, contrast and colours. And even eliminates on-screen reflection.
GPS devices? Who needs them? I just downloaded Google maps on my Treo and it’s a tasty little tool to have at my fingertips. Free Google maps on your cell phone… it doesn’t get much better than this.
Since we first launched Google Maps for mobile devices, we’ve adapted it to more phones and languages and added features like traffic info. And as of today, the new Palm Treo version answers our top request from users. It’s been months in the making, but I think you’ll find it worth the wait. We think this is the fastest, slickest version yet, with draggable maps and translucent pop-up balloons that don’t hide the map.
I do a lot of cycling so this is a huge help. Very cool tool!
I had the pleasure of seeing some of these at a friend of mine’s place not too long back. I was hooked from first site and I still drool over these to this very day.
The Stardom ST3620 is a removable drive solution that allows you to pull your drives out for easy transport or to give yourself infinite storage space.
The Stardom ST3620-B2 (B2 is the USB2.0 version) is a fantastic product for the professional power user who needs masses of storage. With capacities of 1 TeraBytes (TB) or 1.5TB’s (this is a 1.5TB Model), the stylish ST3620 range is suitable for just about any data storage requirement; data backup, video storage, audio production and editing, music, file or photo storage etc.
Don’t want to use up the space on your desktop for feeds? No problem, just plug in a Mister Tipster and let it do all the work externally. The device receives the feeds of your choosing and displays them on the reader via USB port. RSS feeds couldn’t be simpler!
