“Where does he get those wonderful toys?”
Permalink | Tweet This! | | May 23, 2007 by John in Gadgets
I’m beginning to think I need a utility belt. Batman was always one of my favorite characters.
Okay, like most people I’ve had a cell phone for several years. No biggie. Last christmas I got an iPod to replace my old Rio Chiba, which initially I only used on long motorcycle trips. Now the iPod is my constant companion. Last weekend I bought my first digital camera, a little bitty Canon SD750 (7.1 megapixel). Today I ordered up a new phone, an LG VX8600.
Now all these little bits are about the size of a pack of cigarettes. I feel like I need something to carry them all. Not a “murse” or a fanny pack. I’m thinking, “Bandolier.” Or maybe a ScotteVest. I guess it will be easier once I start riding again. My textile riding jackets have plenty of pockets.
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Google Never Ceases to Amaze
Permalink | Tweet This! | | April 1, 2007 by John in Gadgets, Humor
Introducing Google TiSP BETA, our new FREE in-home wireless broadband service. Sign up today and well send you your TiSP self-installation kit, which includes setup guide, fiber-optic cable, spindle, wireless router and installation CD.
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Home CNC Mill for Wood
Permalink | Tweet This! | | March 23, 2007 by John in Consumer, Gadgets, Household
This Sears Compucarve (Flash movie) is just killer. I can’t wait for the equivalent setup for carving billet aluminum.
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Puts a smile on my face
Permalink | Tweet This! | | March 8, 2007 by John in Gadgets, Humor, Music
So I’m pulling into the parking lot at work after seeing my grandmother at lunch. It’s a beautiful, sunny, 50-degree Spring day and I’ve got Metallica’s “Blitzkrieg” cranked on my iPod, playng through the car stereo. A woman from an office upstairs comes walking by with a scowl on her face that seems to say, “Damned kids!” She makes eye contact and instantly the look on her face turns to confusion as to why a fat middle-aged guy would be blasting heavy metal in his car. I cackled for a solid 5-10 minutes on that one.
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Peenote
Permalink | Tweet This! | | January 10, 2007 by John in Computer-Internet, Gadgets
I’ve been looking for a different angle or issue or anecdote to post about the announcements during the MacWorld keynote address yesterday, without jumping on the ‘OMFG-the-iPhone-is-so-kewl’ bandwagon. Yes, the iPhone is totally bitchin’, I just have to go a different way. Here it is:
- Peenote
- “A Steve Jobs keynote that is so highly anticipated that people will pee their pants when the announcements are made.”
Heck, the only apple product I have is my new iPod and I pee’d a little reading a live blog of the address. Unfortunately, or fortunately because of the price, I can’t get one because we don’t have Cingular in Montana. However, it appears to be a very impressive piece of technology, one I’d likely purchase were I to move to a town with Cingular, despite the well-documented customer-service nightmare that is Cingular.
Update: Upon further consideration, the best thing about the iPhone is how it will hopefully force the other cellphone makers to up their game. One commentator mentioned how great the iPhone is for design in general. I can only hope he’s right and we see the same trickle-down design that we did with the iMac and iPod.
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Sucks to be a Late Adopter Sometimes
Permalink | Tweet This! | | December 25, 2006 by John in Gadgets
I’ve always wanted an iPod. The early models seemed to have problems and they were pretty expensive. A few years ago I bought a Rio Chiba 256 and added a 256MB media card giving the player a half-gig total capacity. It’s a nice MP3 player, fits well in the pocket of my leather jacket, and is relatively easy to control in my pocket while riding with its joystick. I also like that it runs for 17 hours on a single AAA battery (considerably less on the rechargeables I purchased later). The software is decent and the Chiba only cost $138, significantly less than an iPod, though this was before the Nano and Shuffle came out. On longer road trips I chaffed a bit at its limited capacity and purchased a second memory card, this time a half-gig card, giving me a total capacity of 1GB with a memory card swap.
But there’s a reason Apple dominates the portable MP3 player market. The iPod simply rocks. It is unbelievably cool and functional. Sure there’s the revolutionary (?) scrolly-clicky-disc thingey, but it is replete with other thoughtful features, for example, playback is paused if the headphones are inadvertently disconnected. My only concern is the lifespan of the battery and its lack of ease of replacement. Hopefully it will last for at least a few years. That said I’m glad to not have to be constantly fiddling with changing batteries as I do with heavy use on my Rio.
So, note to self: be an early adopter on Apple products (but continue being a late adopter on Microsoft products).
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Merry Xmas to Me
Permalink | Tweet This! | | December 24, 2006 by John in Gadgets
So I collected all the checks I received from my family for xmas and it totalled $250. I was trying to choose between a Nintendo Wii, a black 30GB Video iPod and a Canon Powershot camera. Guess which one won?
Picked it up today at Costco at the same price as Amazon.com. Also picked up a car kit for it. My initial MP3 music loadout, everything currently on my hard drive, is 3074 songs, not including podcasts.
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25 Gadgets That Actually Save Money
Permalink | Tweet This! | | December 19, 2006 by John in Consumer, Gadgets, Household, Money
At The Simple Dollar: “Here’s a list of twenty five neat items I’ve found that can save a lot of money, along with their cost and the amount of time that it will take before their extra cost is paid for by their utility.”
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Ingenious Design
Permalink | Tweet This! | | December 8, 2006 by John in Gadgets
TWIST & SPOUT - great gift idea…
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Cool Aquarium
Permalink | Tweet This! | | November 3, 2006 by John in Gadgets, Household, Pets
I’m not much of a fish person, at least not since I inadvertently killed the goldfish I won at a carnival as a child. But this aquarium could change my mind. But I think it would look cooler with round tubes not rectangular.
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