Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Every NES game ever made...ever

This is ridiculous, but it's what the internet is all about. With 3 days left on this auction for 670 original Nintendo Entertainment System games it is currently at $20,800.

NES (or any other antiquated technology) fanatics are funny. Maybe it's just me, but After seeing XBox 360, PS3, or pretty much any game made in the last 5 years, NES games just seems like watching 70's special effects. It was cool at the time, It's not cool anymore. Novelty aside, I just don't understand, especially for how much money this is going to end up fetching.

Having said that, props to sonyabscott who got his hands on all of these (some of which are very hard to find) and of course for his wonderful positive eBay feedback.

He should however have a warning on his auction that those with asthma should not bid. It's going to be hard enough for someone with healthy lungs to muster up enough wind to blow out all of those cartridges.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

n-abler

The 802.11n enabler is ready for download. It's $1.99 due to some legal reason that I don't fully understand. It IS apparant that apple is not doing this for the money. First of all it's $1.99 and second, the site states:
Note: The software license for the 802.11n Enabler software allows you to install and use it on all computers under your ownership or control.
I don't think they could care less about who gets this and how. At any rate, it's worth $2.
The updater will enable the n standard on your Airport card if you have one of the following:
  • MacBook Pro with Core 2 Duo
  • MacBook with Core 2 Duo
  • Mac Pro
  • iMac with Core 2 Duo (not the 17-inch 1.83GHz model though)
Do not pay for this update if you have the n ability already enabled (this would be on very new Mac's, the download page tells you how to check), or if you plan on buying the new Airport Extreme which has the enabler included.

PDF vs. XPS

A day before Vista is released, Adobe announced its intent to submit PDF (Portable Document Format) for publication by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This move would forfeit Adobe's control over the PDF specification.

It seems fairly obvious that Adobe feels threatened by the proliferation of Microsoft Office, the impending domination of Office 2007, and finding itself head to head with XPS, Offices native portable document format (also an open standard). At this point Microsoft is the only company that could breed a competitor to the PDF format and Adobe knows this.

XPS will share many features of PDF format. It can support editable metadata, annotations, digital signatures, hyperlinks, bookmarks, text selection, all the typical features most people will need. Microsoft or its partners will also make available free XPS viewers for Windows (duh), Macintosh, Unix, and Linux to help it get the largest grasp possible.

First, I am glad PDF will finally be an international standard. Hopefully some of the flakiness will get ironed out quicker. However I'm not happy it took them smelling a competitor on their heels to open the standard.

Second, competition is good, but not in this arena. There should be ONE standard, fonts and graphic formats are already enough of a pain. It's possible that these two formats can peacefully coexist without frustrating users, but not likely.

Third, Adobe has become complaisant and therefore the quality of their Acrobat Reader has suffered and the PDF format has not grown as quickly or elegantly as it should. This impending move should change that.

I hope XPS is around long enough to make Adobe (and others) work on making the PDF standard better, and then fall of the face of the earth. Adobe is the company that needs to be providing an open portable document format. They just need to be doing it better.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Google for navigation

Ignorance or convenience? I don't know, but I've seen people do this and it drives me nuts.
FranticIndustries.com talkes about people using Google to get to web sites...not search for them.

One of the top search results in Google (number 6 at the time of this writing), is “Google“. Hundreds of millions of users are trying to get to Google through Google. Does this make any sense? No. But it shows that users don’t think about Google as a specific web page, they think of it as the service, an essential part of the internet experience. They’re using this service to get to the page they want: in this case, Google.
If your using Google to get to your intended domain often, and your intended domain is Google. MAKE IT YOUR HOME PAGE!

This does say something about google as a household name and their traffic.

Monday, January 22, 2007

What on Earth?

Earth Desk just released version 4.0. It's a nice app that displays an active map of the earth on your desktop. But not JUST a map. It has some cool featurs like Real-time clouds (updated at 3-hour intervals) with transparency and moonlight reflection, accurate sun, moon and city lighting and high quality twilight shading to name a few. You can also use it to track hurricanes and typhoons if your into that sort of thing. It's a pretty creative little application, and it's pretty. It's $19.95 (they do have to license the sattelite maps). There is a Windows and Mac Version availible.

I guess I should mention that there are free products that are similar. OSXplanet for Mac users and Desktop Earth if you run Windows. Notice I said free. In this case that means not as good.

Toyota FT-HS

Toyota revealed it's FT-HS Hybrid Concept at the Detroit Auto Show this year. If the real car is actually made and looks anything like this, I'm prepared to take extreme measures to have one. That is if they change the name.


Toyota envisions that punch to be a rear-wheel-drive Hybrid Sports Concept (HSC) that develops 400 horsepower. ..."Eco and emotion in a sports car concept with a performance target of 0-60 mph in about 4 seconds and a price tag in the mid-$30,000 range."
Game over Ford and GM.

On a side note; although I'm slightly irritated by the gratuitous form over function Star Wars interiors on concept vehichles, this steering wheel is the coolest thing I’ve seen since…well the iPhone.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

NES iPod

There is general geekery and then there is this sort of thing.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Wii Controller

An interesting look at how this innovative little gadget actually works, other than Nintendo magic.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Office 2008

Hurry up.
TUAW Office 2008 gallery.

Ultimate iPhone FAQ List

David Pogue has had probably more hands on time with the new iPhone than anyone outside of Apple, and more eartime with Jobs about it than anyone. He has compiled two FAQ lists for all of your iPhone questions.

Ultimate iPhone FAQ List 1
Ultimate iPhone FAQ List 2

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Sling that video



Eclipsed by the announcement of the iPhone, apple also revealed the release version of the Apple TV. Thanks for leaving the i off of this one guys.

The Apple TV is a device that allows you to stream video from your Mac or PC to your television. Brilliant! Many people are content to watch full length video on their computer, I’m not one of them. (Nothing like wrangling up the gang for an episode Lost sharing an office chair and a 19 inch monitor.) This was an obvious next step, it’s just strange that it’s taken this long. Many television and movie companies have finally put their content online, but that’s not ideally where people want to view it.

Of course the Apple TV has great future potential such as video on demand and possible partnerships with Google (YouTube) or Netflix (all speculation of course). Until then however it seems as though it may be a bit limited. Playing only content purchased from iTunes or stored on your hard drive in a specific format. That is why they may have a bit of competition.

Enter SlingCatcher. A couple of years ago Sling Media burst on the scene with their SlingBox, an ugly (their much more attractive now) yet wonderful device that was capable of “slinging” video from ones television to nearly any device with an internet connection. Their new, not yet released device the SlingCatcher, does the opposite. Finally, that wonderful web content brought to the biggest screen in the house comfortably in front of the couch.

The price of the SlingCatcher is more attractive at $200 vs. the Apple TV’s $300. Both will feature HDMI 1.3, and component for video and Ethernet and WiFi options for network connectivity.

The main benefit of the SlingCatcher is that is will probably be media agnostic. You can play multiple video formats on it and they will not need to be purchased “legally” from any content provider, or go though the hassel of converting them to a suitable format. Torrents anyone?

Much of the success of either of these will also depend on the interface, and we all know who has the edge on that.

This could be a HUGE venue in consumer electronics in the coming years. We’ll see how this plays out, but these will not be the only two devices in the game, I expect Linksys, Belkin, Netgear and the likes to jump in at any time. Until then, start looking for a bigger hard drive.

Double Wag

Stephen Colbert gives Apple and the iPhone the Double Wag.
Good stuff.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Apple Design

The iPhone and the new Airport Extreme got me thinking about the depth of Apple's design team. Particularly the new iPhone really is a testimite to the design capabilities of Apple Inc. (not Apple Computers Inc. as of yesterday). I thought I'd take a second to give some recognition to Jonathan Ive. He is one of my design heros and is commony overlooked or unknown behind the shadow of Steve Jobs and Apple itself. He is the Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple and is the design visionary behind All of the iMacs, the iPod, Powerbook, iSub (awesome product), Cinema Displays, Mac Mini, G4 Cube and others. I read this quote from Philippe Spruch founder of LaCie yesterday and I thought of him specifically.


It's not that Apple design is better or worse than the design of the Sony Vaio. But you feel that it's part of the DNA. They are crazy about every detail, and you feel that. Today, many more companies invest in design, but they do it because they are forced to, not because they like it, and I think you can feel that in their products.


That's what many people can't put their finger on that makes Apple so cool.

iPhone

Well what can I say, it’s awesome! Apple announced the iPhone at yesterdays 2007 Macworld Expo keynote that exceeded nearly everyone’s hopes and predictions. Going to Apples website and watching the quicktime clips is enough to send any geek, well okay, anyone under 40 who’s ever used a phone, into wide-eyed tech shock. So a quick premature synopsis:

A few features.

  • 160dpi screen. This is one of the features that truly sets the unit apart visually, and something that will have to be seen in person to truly appreciate.
  • OSX. Finally a phone OS that is functional and thought out. This has been the achilles heel of ALL cell phones. They are not intuitive.
  • Multitouch technology for even more intuitive navigation.
  • Wireless communication (other than cellular network). The iPhone supports both Bluetooth 2.0 and WiFi (802.11 b/g).
  • SMS, Photos, Mail, Maps, Widgets.
  • Oh yeah, it’s also the most advanced Video iPod yet.

The size is amazing as well, its 4.5 x 2.4 inches which is perfect to accommodate the 3.5 inch screen, but the thing is only 11.6mm deep. That’s .01mm slimmer than a Motorola SLVR if your even interested in such a minute difference. The point – it’s very slim body for so much technology.

There are a few things however that I’m not so hyped about. The big one…2 year Cingular contract. I don’t like Cingular and I’m not alone. It makes sense on Apples part to do this. Cingular is the biggest cellular provider in the US and it puts them in a great passion to move into Europe quickly. However for me and anyone else who lives West of Texas, or anyone who has ever received an incorrect bill from them, Cingular, well, isn’t good. This map (which is more flattering than their printed version) shows the situation, and trust me it’s worse than it looks. Can someone tell me why Kansas and Iowa have better coverage than Washington and California. Also Cingular’s data network is significantly slower than the CDMA (Verizon, Sprint) counterparts. Boo.

The other issues are not as big of a deal. 2MP Camera is lackluster, but who cares, it’s a phone. The non removable battery could be terribly inconvenient. Actual life on the battery will obviously only be subject to criticism over time, however I believe it’s inevitable. Stock up on chargers so you can have one everywhere.

On a side point, It’s funny that dates of Macworld haven’t completely overlapped CES for 5 years. The year that it does Apple announces something that will almost surly eclipse anything to come out of CES which is infinitely bigger. Does anyone care how big they can make LCD’s that no one can afford anyway?

This phone is cool enough to make me seriously consider moving to Cingular. It is simply amazing, It also provides a “Mac PDA”, if I may deem it so, that seamlessly syncs and integrates with Macs (this has never been perfect) and I’m sure just as seamlessly with Windows. I also tend to believe that Apple will release a new “Video” iPod before December that will be the iPhone, sans phone. This seems like an inevitable next step, but it won’t happen soon or they would cannibalize iPhone sales. I just can’t see the current iPod (that is a year old) staying around with the only upgrade option being a phone.

Final thoughts: It’s not looking good for the Zune, but then it never was.