Cool toys and Gadgets

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack, Features

This is where we call out the tech moves that seem odd, out of touch or just plain straight up smokin’ crack.  This week sees posturing, positioning and flat out insanity. 

Here’s what I am calling out this week as whack:

• AT&T wants Symbian on every phone?
• Sprint points out Instincts weaknesses for us
• Verizon gets all paranoid about Omnia’s pricing
• Nokia’s nutty new entry

AT&T’s one OS world

Sure, supporting all these OSes isn’t easy.  Your tech’s knowledge has to be limited by all the myriad of OSes they’re supposed to know. News came today that you blue-sky-guy says Symbian would be good choice for a company-wide one OS to offer and support.  But consolidating down to one OS?  And you think Symbian is that OS?  Really?

Whispering sweet nothings into Symbian’s ear isn’t going to get you anywhere.  Stop worrying about a Nokia take over of the US market, that train isn’t leaving the station.  A much better idea, at least in my mind, is to convince Apple to license its software onto other devices.  Hitch your train to that engine, crackheads. 

Sprint says, “Hey, did you know the instinct couldn’t support your work calendar?“

Sometimes, all that is needed is an email to customers.  Something quiet in the night that says, “hey boys, go here and download this and you get Outlook Calendar support, sweet huh?“.  But no, you had to go and issue a press release telling everyone our out-of-the-box expectation of calendar syncing was off.  Thanks for pointing this out, as I’ve not made fun of the Instinct in a while.  I feel better now.  iPhone killer? LOL.

Get the Verizon Omnia price ticker gadget on your desktop?

I watch the stock market.  I watch the price of light sweet crude.  And now, I am watching the daily price of Verizon’s Samsung Omnia.  This thing is more volatile than a barrel full of gasoline next to a Sony laptop.

Jump beside me in the way back machine, we travel back to 2008, a cloudy November day, the 25th if you are taking notes.  The shiny Omnia is introduced at $249.99 after a lame $70 mail in rebate.  Now, as we are chased by the bizarre inhabitants of November 25,  we land on Dec 2nd of the same year.  Here we find the same Omnia, now priced at $199 after the same lame mail in rebate.  Nervous much?

Did you wake up, presumably strung out, in December and say to yourself, “Holy cow!  Have you heard about this economy stuff?  And this Apple phone, who knew about that?  Quick, slash the price before these phones end up at Odd Lot!“  Lay off the dope.

Nokia disappointments with the N97

I believe we all keep expecting someone else to “get it” with phone software and it clouds are judgment and/or enjoyment of an otherwise snazzy phone.  The new Nokia entry is beautiful, well-built with lovely screen resolution.  But.  And then things start flowing.  The biggest “but” is Nokia refuses to update its OS for the touchscreen times. 

HTC gets it.  Their Windows Mobile skins walk the line of needed Active Sync support mated with something actually functional and close to fun to use.  But not Nokia.  And the N97 is a bit brickish.  Keep at though, your getting warmer.  Appletell’s Josh Holat, while espousing his love for Apple’s device sums up his look at the N97 with:

“Although companies like RIM and Nokia can try to beat out Apple, I don’t see it happening anytime soon, that’s for sure.“

That’s my list for this week.  Let me know in the comments what crazy things I missed and stay off the crack kids.

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

Man, would I have loved to be in the crowd at the Symbian Partner Conference when AT&T’s Director of Next Generation Services, Roger Smith, stated the telecom’s lofty goal of having the company’s smartphone offerings on the same operating system.  You know what is coming: he said Symbian is “a very credible and likely candidate” to become that one operating system.

Symbian who?

Symbian, which garners 45% or so of the worldwide smartphone OS market, owes much of its success to Nokia.  The platform is stable, works well, and is loved in Europe.  As of late, Symbian was purchased by Nokia and is committed to going open source. 

iPhone effect

Other news this morning from Bloomberg states Apple’s iPhone is recession-proofing AT&T thanks the steady line of new customers for the device.  The company is expected to be the only carrier to post accelerating growth this quarter as companies hunker down for the economic storm.  While AT&T has announced layoffs, subscribers are not detered from obtaining these luxury phones.

“People still want those iconic devices and are willing to pay up for them,” said Will Power, analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co..  “Look at wireless and consumer behavior generally, this also applies to the lower- income demographics.”

Additionally, iPhone buyers are among the industry’s most wanted customers, those that pay 1.6 times what the average customer pays for phone and data services.  In a time where carriers are running out of new customers, they are looking to steal or hold onto these higher-paying customers.

Sucking up?

Perhaps Mr. Smith was sucking up the Symbian crowd?  Certainly a unified OS would make AT&T’s life easier.  One OS to support would be a welcome task to AT&T’s customer support team who currently deal with Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Apple, and then the home brew jobs from Pantech, Samsung and lots more.  Is it possible AT&T could narrow that list down to just one?

Perhaps, but at what cost?  When you remove consumer choice, demand will typically lessen.  Unless other carriers adopt similar rules (and who wants to be the first?), AT&T’s dream of one OS is just pie in the sky thinking.

Source: [Bloomberg]

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Photograph by Kim Dow

Scott Wade of San Marcos, Texas, thought he could do better than write "Wash Me" on the backside of a dusty car. He started drawing caricatures. His father was a cartoonist of sorts and had taught him to draw funny faces. It was Wade's idea to make a dirty car window his canvas.

"For the last 20 years living on a dirt road," he says, "there's always dirt on my car."

With the sun baking it, the dirt takes about two weeks to form a stable work surface. Wade began, like anyone else, by using his finger, and then tried popsicle sticks. To introduce shading, he decided to use brushes. Over time he developed a range of techniques, which included using plants and rubber paint-shaper tools.

Wade particularly likes the dirt of central Texas, where crushed limestone mixed with clay serves as a road base.

"It makes the perfect dirt," he says. "It's very light-colored and the contrast is great against the dark shadow inside the car."

As he got more requests to create his Dirty Car he realized that he had to figure out how to dust up a car himself. Now, he can prepare a car in minutes using a light coating of oil and pyro-lite, a less toxic alternative to fuller's earth.

At the Austin Maker Faire in 2007 (& 2008), Wade dusted up his Toyota and created Monsters from the Movies, featuring the Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman. The next day he painted a tribute to Willie Nelson that included Waylon Jennings. "After a good rain," he says, "it appears to wash off, but in a couple days it comes back in a ghostly form."

Recently, he was asked to draw Biff Henderson for the David Letterman show. In addition to portraits, he enjoys dusting up the old masters. "I have this grandiose idea of parking cars all the way up the ramp of the Guggenheim Museum and painting in dirt reproductions of the pieces that are on the wall next to it."

>> Dirty Car Art: dirtycarart.com

From the column Made on Earth - MAKE 14, page 23 - Dale Dougherty.

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Following up on the previous post covering Make: Tokyo Meeting 02, here are more photos and info from this event. This time there were over 60 presenters and over 1,200 people in attendance (twice as many makers and guests as the first Make: Tokyo Meeting). This time the meeting featured makers from Tokyo and beyond, showing a growth in the event as well as the DIY community that Make: Japan seeks to bring together.

The Make: Tokyo meetings, although in their early stages, are quickly becoming one of the premiere arenas for makers in Japan to display their creations. Because there are relatively few other arenas for makers to display their work in a large, interactive setting, it will no doubt continue to be an attraction for creative people in Japan and beyond.

The event was kicked off with an opening speech by sci-fi novelist H. Nojiri on the future of DIY. Throughout the day there were a total of 18 presentations at ~20 minutes each, as well as full-on workshops on Arduino, electronics for crafters (using Craft's Fashioning Technology book), and LED Throwies, as well as many other mini-workshops conducted at the maker booths. MTM 02 also featured a Making Things Talk publication panel discussion by Shigeru Kobayashi, A. Kubota, and Takumi Funada. This panel coincided with the very recent publication of the Japanese translation of Making Things Talk. Appropriately, the event showcased a lot of work by students from site hosts Tama Art University, IAMAS, etc. who utilized physical computing technology such as Arduino and Gainer in their projects.

This Make Meeting also saw the presence of more craft-related makers.

"Don't sit on me!"

The Teslasizer (Tesla Coil + Synthesizer), made by high school student Hidehito Kikuchi.

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Rachel Hobson @ CRAFT writes:

Jeffery Ruddell over at CraftStylish has done it again! All of his paper projects leave me swooning, but - honestly - often leave me feeling a little intimidated. His latest project, though, is right at my speed and would actually be fun to tackle with my kids. He's made a gorgeous snowstorm garland that uses two very simple supplies: dental floss and white circle stickers from the office supply store. This makes me want to try the same idea with colored circles to string around my tree...

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The Huawei U121 is a brand new entry-level handset from Huawei Technologies. It features some high-quality materials like stainless steel casing. Despite being entry level, the phone comes with a 1.3MP camera that supports video calls, an integrated FM radio, microSD memory card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, Audio and video playback, miniUSB port and 3G connectivity. The Huawei U121 is currently only available only in Russia.

[justamp]

We’re live in Milan today, covering Sony’s latest announcement. In fact, Sony showed off a brand new marketing campaign today that’s intended to demonstrate their latest technology behind their BRAVIA televisions. The tech is called Motionflow 240Hz and in order to show off what the latest in motion picture technology is capable of, Sony resorted to the oldest method of creating motion pictures: the zoetrope.

A zoetrope is a device that uses static images but when spun at high speeds, create the illusion of movement. The Sony BRAVIA-drome feeds off of this 19th century technology to make for a device that is 10 meters across and spins at over 40 kph.

The subject of BRAVIA-drome is soccer, and this acts as the perfect way to show off how Motionflow works. In actually gets rid of jerkiness and shows the ball traveling in the air smoothly. This reproduces the feeling of being there live at the game. The new ‘drome is the subject of a commercial that will be used worldwide. Filmed in Venaria, which is near Turin, Italy, it shows a soccer star within the images in the BRAVIA-drome.

The commercial itself shows the faces of those in the audience standing in awe of this massive device. And it’s no wonder people were impressed. The BRAVIA-drome is capable of reaching speeds of over 50kph, requires two 40-foot trucks to transport it and weighs in at ten tons. It’s believed to be the largest zoetrope ever built!

The Motionflow 240Hz technology helps smooth out the jumpiness experienced on a normal television set. This works by significantly boosting the number of images, thus the frame rate. A “transitional picture” is placed between images in fast-moving parts of video, providing for smooth picture that is more pleasing to the eye.

This transitional picture is actually created by this Motionflow tech. It works by examining the images that precede and follow a particular image–especially during fast moving parts of a sports event or during an action sequence in a movie. All of the quick cuts and fast movements can cause a problem with how the sequence is subsequently viewed. By examining the prior and following image, Motionflow then adds an image in between that can make that car chase–or the movement of a soccer ball, in the case of the new ad campaign–look natural without any noticeable gaps in movement.

It’s really rather impressive and the whole BRAVIA-drome effort shows Sony is serious about promoting their newest technology. Check out our video from the press event below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Check out this silicon iPhone case for the sight-impaired, via Core77:

Portugal-based designer Bruno Fosi has developed a prototype iPhone case that would enable the sight-impaired to use the device. The silicon case has debossed, tactile logos, icons and characters, yet is still thin enough for the screen to register touches. Used in conjunction with text-to-speech features, it opens up a world of possibilities for those without sight. Not to mention the blind could eke out some extra battery life by turning down the backlight.

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It seems you will soon be able to enjoy vastly improved Bluetooth speeds by the middle of next year. According the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, the 10x and 100x Bluetooth standards will be released by mid-2009.

The 10x standard is intended for WLAN. This will allow for much improved transfer rates for data up to 30Mbps. On the other hand, 100x, will boost Bluetooth to USB level speeds, which clock in at around 300Mbps.

Bluetooth 2.0 right now is only capable of 3Mbps. So, these new standards would be a vast improvement. What do they mean, exactly? Well, Bluetooth speeds such as these should make video streaming wirelessly and printing from mobile devices a breeze. It is believed that the 10x standard will appear first in handsets that currently have Wi-Fi modules. However, the 100x standard will not be able to be used until more handsets feature UWB radios.

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Mad clockmaker Roger Wood sent me this lovely, annotated photograph of his Chronulator-based clock that I wrote about here. He said response has been great and he plans to make a few more in the new year.

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