Sony BRAVIA October 28, 2005
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If you are going to San Francisco
Yes, it's San Fransciso and no it's not the 1960s. Why do I believe them? Because I believe that anyone that has the cohones to drop 250,000 balls into the streets of San Franscisco and get away with it, has to be telling the truth? They could have done it with CGI... but they didn't. They went old school so hats off to the advertising team for that one. If you want to know more or see how they did it go here Although, in the interests of full diclosure, this is a sponsored post, I saw one at the airport the other day and the quality was very cool. *****Advertorial****
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Yup, it’s official. A new study has found that Americans now spend more time using media than actually sleeping each day. A team of researchers from Ball State University in Indiana have released a report that says that we spend nine hours a day watching TV, using the web or talking on a cellphone. And even better, three of those hours are used doing at least two things at once. TV still comes in first in our media saturated day, but a close second was anything we do on our computers or laptops. Taken from a different angle, however, it looks like the phone was the media that actually reached the most people, at 94.6% daily. Hey, at least that means we’re actually talking to someone. I think that’s a plus. Oh, and here’s the good word for us in the Internet business—spending on internet advertising is projected to increase in 2006 by anywhere from 12 to 27%, according to US media analysts. You hear that Gawker? Good Times.
Rainy Day Magazine decided to roll over an iPod nano encased in an A-1 Quality Product aircraft aluminum case AKA the iKeychain… with an SUV. The result? iPod 1 SUV 0. They even filmed the festivities, leading us to think that they have too much time on their hands.
I mean more power to the Swiss for this thing, but what’s the point? It’s a Swiss 1GB flash player that slides like a phone. Why does it slide, you ask? To protect the USB plug? To prevent a sense of ennui? Nope. It just slides to protect the thumb pad, something that can be done with a simple lock switch. Stuff like this makes us glad the Flash drive wars are essentially over.
A new Nokia just peeped up over the hedge. The 6282 is a UMTS slider runs Symbian Series 40 and has a 2.2” 262k colour display, 2-megapixel camera, and a second camera for video conferencing. Can rock on both GSM and WCDMA, which is good for us Americans and they’re supposing this is coming out to support Cingular’s roll out of 1900 Mhz UMTS.
So the other weekend I was hiking up this huge mountain in my backyard when I saw a bear. I got totally scared and turned to run but tripped over a log and started tumbling down. After falling about 400 feet, I landed on a patch of thorns next to the edge of a cliff. I was in pretty bad shape so I snorted some coke to keep me awake. While I was awake for the next 3 days, I realized I had my McMurdo Fastfind Plus with me! I quickly started hitting all the buttons which alerted International Aircraft Emergency Frequency of 121.5 MHz providing a homing signal for the Search And Rescue (SAR) services. It does it all via GPS and Satellite and should only be used in real emergencys, like mine, or else you get your ass fined $250,000. It pinpointed my exact location, the rescue crew found me, and my $550 had not gone to waste after all. I reminded myself what a great tool it must be for hikers, scuba divers, mountain climbers, and extremely wealthy outdoorsmen.
This handheld runs on Linux, and we all know that means it can do everything but clean the crumbs from under your keyboard. The GP2X player has a dual core ARM processor, 64mb NAND Flash RAM, SD memory card slot, a 3.5” TFT screen. It plays photos, movies, music and games, you could even read an eBook because you are probably smart like that if you own this gadgy. Utilities and emulators? Don’t bore me with your silly questions. Think Quake, Doom, SNES, Megadrive, MAME, and media players galore. You can even connect the GP2X to a TV. For a more than reasonable $190, you’ll get the player, USB Cable, manual and 1-year warranty. Oh, also, it runs on two AA batteries. What does PSP stand for now, huh? Pretty Sucky Peripheral? Poor Sony Poo-poo?
Scratched your video iPod? Return it. Cat puked on your 5G iPod? Return it. Don’t like last week’s episode of Lost on your iPod? Go stuff yourself. Apple is allowing the returns of fifth-generation iPods that show any sign of hardware failure (including general abuse) with no questions asked. A nice gesture, right? Kinda makes you reconsider signing up for the class action lawsuits—NOT! Because guess what? This new policy is only for Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. No love for us here in the good old US of A. I guess Jobs figures we’ve got enough crap and enough cash that if something goes wrong with a 5G iPod, we’ll just buy something newer. The official message to Apple’s channel partners reads: “For a short period of time, Apple will be evaluating all forms of hardware failure on the recently announced fifth-generation iPod.” Nothing specific mind you, but I guess this was just preemptive at this point. So, hey, if you’re traveling out of the country and feel like trading in your nasty old 5G iPod, let us know how it goes.
After getting tired of being pigeonholed as the disk storage kings, LaCie’s newest venture into post-peripheral land is the 100 Series LCD flat panel display. Sporting two models in 19-and 20-inch girth with Premium Multi-domain Vertical Alignment (MVA) technology, your porn is guaranteed to look crystal clear even in broad daylight. With viewing angles of 170 degrees, everyone at the office will be able to peripherally see how much you are slacking off with those marathon World of Warcraft sessions. Aimed at digital professionals in advertising agencies or publishing houses, the screen itself will surely be more impressive than the content it displays. Wait a second, I’m using one right now! Darn.
Tired of just slipping the old 
Ah, Spam. You give us so much yet ask for so little. Just got a wonderful spam/tip/I don’t know what and I thought I’d share with you all this fine Friday afternoon. While we usually don’t cotton unsolicited morons filling our inboxes with crap (Thanks, Burt!), this one deserved a second look, if only for the inherint freakishness of hand blown Pyrex dildos.
So these two Australians visit New Zealand, and rent a car from Avis with a free GPS device inside. Throw away those maps, Jane, me Tarzan will rely on satellites to guide us. The couple had used GPS in cars back home, and though it would be the “safest way to travel.” The device led them across streams, along narrow cliffs, and through wilderness preserves to the 869-metre-high Jacks Pass—it then followed the Wairau River into the Rainbow Valley. Some 10 hours later they arrived in pitch black to the end of a “shingle goat track” on New Zealand’s highest public mountain pass.
Well, if you can’t get a Frank Lloyd Wright, Gaudi or Ieoh Ming Pei, you may as well get that local Aussi architect to build you a highrise that looks like a telephone. And plunk it in the middle of Melbourne too. Why not? Obviously, Milliionaire “Crazy” John Ilhan, an Australian communications magnate has no problem with this plan and has unveiled a design for a $40 million tower in, yes, the shape of a cellphone. Comparing his building to the Sydney Opera House, Ilhan says, “I just want Melbourne to stand out — that’s the idea behind it.” Yup, we got it Mr. Crazy. As of now, there is permission granted to build a standard-shaped tower on City Road, Southbank, but no word on whether the city will allow a 120m phone to hulk over the city. Finalised plans for the tower will be submitted for approval late next year. Can’t wait to see how that goes.
The insanely expensive Vertu phone is coming out in an even more insanely expensive Limited Edition Ascent White model in time for, yes, that’s right, the holidays. For just $5200, you too can have this fabulously luxurious cellphone that not only looks good, but comes with a 24/7 concierge service that will get you just about anything you request at any time. The hardware itself is special because it’s made of custom-developed Liquidmetal alloy that claims to be stronger than titanium. Add that to it’s jeweled ruby bearings supporting every key, sapphire crystal screen and completely stain-resistant holster and you should be impressed. Inside, it’s got Bluetooth, PC sync, modem support, email and MMS and is a tri-band GSM phone. Unfortunately, this ain’t no lightweight model. At 173 grams it may just weigh down your pocket a little too much for every day use. Also, there’s no camera, which may or may not be a good thing according to your job (attorneys and government workers can rejoice).
Sonnet is all about making your Apple-based product better. Whether it’s swapping out the CPU for a new one or adding Firewire support, they’ve got something. So Sonnet has just released high-capacity batteries for your old iPod. From the first to the fourth generation and the mini, you all can now enjoy longer battery life and improved performance. How much longer you ask? Try 78% longer with over 20 hours of playback on a single charge. Dude, you’re totally set. They won’t even break the bank. First and second gen iPod batteries cost $40, but all the others are only $30 and come with installation instructions so you can do it yourself. Available in November, this would make a great stocking stuffer for someone who has a crappy iPod.
Looks like Motorola’s got some ‘splaining to do. The VK 2000 came out of nowhere, has no specs, and looks as sexy as a PEBL on Viagra. Moto better hurry up or China’s going to eat its lunch.
Beethoven just wishes he could have lived to see this. A new device has been created by a product design student in London to allow deaf poeple to “feel” music using vibrations through an audio speaker. The “Vibrato” by Shane Kerwin actually connects to a speaker and relays the sounds of different instruments through unique vibrations for each individual one. And apart from feeling music, the deaf and hard-of-hearing can also create their own tunes by connecting the speaker to a computer.
Oh yes, they’re back. If the first set of Mimobot USB drives didn’t hold you over, you’re going to love the 2GB versions. Isodore and Fairybit are joined by some plainer-looking protobots in black and white, and they’ll only run you $189 at 
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
