The Gadgets Page

So many of those year-end articles sound really dated when you give them a couple of months to ferment. How did this New York Times article age over the last two months?

• 10 Greatest Gadget Ideas of the Year – New York Times

Here’s what they gave a good rating for 2005:

• The SanDisk Ultra II SD Plus card: It’s an SD card with a USB jack built right in. For those of you with computers without card readers, this is a great choice, but is it worth the extra cost? Since this 512MB card costs as much as a normal 2GB card, I doubt it. Card readers are cheap and easily add into your computer tower or plug into a USB port. This one is a cool idea, but not worth the extra bucks.

• The Palm Treo 700W cellphone: For those of you too absentminded to remember which number deletes the voicemail and which number saves it, Palm created an on-screen voicemail with buttons that are like a VCR. Just a warning, this is a Windows Mobile Palm device, so if you already have a Palm, none of your software will work on this cellphone.

• Hewlett-Packard’s latest microdisplay (rear projection) TV: Instead of attaching all your gadgets to your television at the back, HP has created an illuminated panel at the front. The article is unclear about how the cords are hidden or if they just sit there, out in the open. I like to imagine that in the future, there will be one gadget that records your television shows, plays your DVDs and entertains you with games, so that the connection to the television is one, simple cord. Why they didn’t choose the HP Media PC instead of the HP TV with the “cord monitor” is beyond me.

• Canon Powershot S80 8MP Digital Camera: They made a good choice with this one. They liked this camera because it can shoot video at 1024 x 768 pixels (instead of 640 by 480 pixels, like most cameras that have video built in). This means you can crop a single frame from your video and use it as a really good photo. The only problem with this is that it’s NOT a video camera, so you don’t have the control like you would with real video and your storage media can fill up mighty fast at 1024 x 768 pixels. I would have chosen the anti-shake technology in the Panasonic digital cameras because it opens up photography to a large group of people and occasions (such as trying to take a picture on a vibrating motor boat).

• The Video iPod: To be able to watch your favorite television shows whenever you want and wherever you want is a great freedom. Apple and their video iPod brought that to the world in 2005 and the New York Times was right, it is a great idea. The video iPod would have been useless if Apple hadn’t set up the ability to download television to it, however. Kudos to Apple for waiting to add the video playback ability to their iPods until they were able to support it properly.

• The outer button on flip phones: This one is the most confusing of them all. I had an outer button on my StarTac flip phone from Motorola where I could answer or dismiss a call without opening the flip all the way back in 2000. I didn’t have a cool LCD screen on the front to see who was calling, but this “new” idea of 2005 isn’t even new. Bad call, New York Times…

So, what do you think? Two months after they first posted this list, do these ideas really seem all that great? Some of them are. I would have chosen differently on others. Of course, you can get twenty people together and you would have twenty different lists for the greatest gadget ideas of the year. What would you choose?

The first iPhone commercial showed during the Oscars. It’s a brilliant tribute to both the movies and the telephone. “Hello” was the first thing that the Mac said to the world. Now, we’ll be saying it to the iPhone. Cool…

Parabolic microphones have been the tools of spy novels, private detectives and paranoids, but they have been appropriated by a quieter class of people: birdwatchers:

• 10,000 Birds — Birding, blogging, bombast

“Birdwatchers have long headed into the woods with little more equipment than binoculars and a notebook. But when Laura Erickson sets out on a birding trip, she now brings along two digital cameras, a Palm device with a bird-species database and an iPod loaded with bird songs.”

Instead of that bulky Audobon book in your pocket EVERY bird on the planet can fit in your Treo. Instead of a sketch pad and waterproof ink, a camera can capture the bird far better. Instead of memory and stealth, you can listen to the bird calls from far away.

Sounds like birdwatching has gotten a whole lot more interesting…

I have been saving my money up for an iPhone, but I find this review of the T-Mobile MDA from digitalthom.com very interesting.

• digitalthom.com » T-Mobile MDA so far so good

I like his comments on the “plasticy” keyboard:

“Slide out keyboard. This is a pretty cool feature, however some options aren’t accessible when using the keyboard. I still have to use the stylus to get to some features. But the trade off is having a fuller size keyboard when I am typing email, texting or editing office documents.”

I am excited that the Smartphone industry is really picking up. Personally, I’ve found that the “plasticy” keyboard on my Treo is VERY useable. I’m wondering if Steve Jobs might have made a mistake. How can a virtual keyboard compete with the tactile response of the buttons on a keyboard? I guess we’ll have to see.

Linde Werdelin’s Biformeter watch is EVERYTHING that is wrong with the watch industry right now.

Let’s look at some of their ad-copy:

“The BIFORMETER watch that carries the Instruments is manufactured, assembled and tested in Bienne, Switzerland using the highest quality components… Highly acclaimed – and already launched in a special edition – a very select group of people already own a very special BIFORMETER, each one individually made for its owner.”

It continues like that for NINE paragraphs and doesn’t tell me ANYTHING about the digital portion of the watch.

It’s kind of a novel idea. The digital portion of the watch clips over the analog watch. Most of the time you can have your snooty watch, but when you’re skiing, you can use your digital portion. Of course, I’m only guessing that the digital portion might have anything to do with skiing since they haven’t told me anything about it.

Someday, a watch company is going to stumble onto what I have been saying for years. They are going to design a digital watch that is beautiful and be completely perplexed when they sell it out.

Via: Dream Watches Blog

I have been on the search for the perfect watch for a LONG time now. You can see my frustration here:

• The Gadgets Page » I Hate the Watch Designers of the World

Mike and I were talking about why watches have become completely useless pieces of jewelry instead of beautiful AND helpful timepieces. He nailed it right on the head,

“It’s because cellphones have replaced watches for most people.”

He’s right. I’ve seen the nervous habit of the youth in my area: the constant checking of the cellphone. When he said that, I realized that they are probably checking the time, not for messages. Cellphones are perfect for timekeeping. They tell the time, date, month and day of the week. They also tell you where your friends are and how to find them if you use services like Dodgeball.

The cellphone has sparked the return of the pocket watch.

No wonder I can’t find a good wrist watch to save my life…

You are looking at the Zenith Space Command Remote Control. Even though I am only 37 years old, I actually have fond memories of this remote control. We inherited a TV from my mom’s friend that was a Zenith. We were so happy, but mostly because it was a color TV that turned on in less than forty-five minutes. Our previous TV had a bit of a problem with its tube.

The inventor of this beautiful piece of machinery died last Thursday. He was ninety-three years old.

• Inventor of the TV remote dies – Technology – BostonHerald.com

Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device that made the couch potato possible, died Thursday of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at 93, Zenith Electronics Corp. said Friday.

I remember the loud clicking noise that pushing the buttons on that remote made. To this day, I have no idea how it worked. There were no batteries in that remote control. When we received it, it was already 20 years old, but it still worked like a dream. Eventually, the Channel Up button stopped working, but we just pushed Channel Down through the seven stations that we had (we were too d*mn poor to buy the 8-Track tapes… err… cable). I used to wonder if the loud clicking was some sort of magnet that gave the remote power to change the channel.

Our old Zenith was eventually replaced by a “real” TV when my mom got a better job and we felt like we were rolling in money. It had a “real” remote that took batteries. Robert Alder was an inventor and held over 180 patents. Unlike the old Zenith, he was an irreplaceable member of the human race and he will be missed.

For more information about Robert Alder:

• Inventor of the Week: Archive

Food storage is highly recommended by the LDS church, so it is a common thing in Utah for families to have a two year supply of food in their basements. Being raised Jehovah Witness, I am always worried about the Apocalypse, so the idea of hoarding a two year supply of canned food sounds really good to me as well. I saw an advertisement for this company that specializes in making racks for food storage:

• Shelf Reliance: Food Storage Racks | Food Rotation Systems | 72 Hour Kits

The cool thing about their racks is that they are front loading, which means when you need a can of green beans, you go downstairs and take a can from the shelf. The rest of the cans roll into place when you remove that can of beans. When you buy a new can of green beans, you put it in the front loading slot and it rolls around to the back of the line. That way, your food storage never sits in your basement and rots. It just rotates as you eat food normally.

Now, storing a two year supply of food in the basement can be considered a little weird, but the truth is, I’ve personally known many people who have been saved by their food storage. In one case, a friend had been laid off at his job. He couldn’t find work for almost a year. Food was never an issue for them because they had their food storage. In the other case, a friend’s husband became very sick and ended up losing his job because of it. Once again, they were able to make their house payment because they didn’t have to worry about how they were going to feed their family. Sure, disasters, terrorism and Teamster Unions could bring our country to its knees, but having a backup plan when personal tragedy hits is something that can make or break you.

This looks like an interesting conversation piece to have in your living room. It holds approximately six to seven books (or DVDs, CDs or VHS Tapes) on the wall with no visible means of support.

• magicalSHELF! by Linky & Dinky

There was a lot of speculation about how this was accomplished. Based on the clues on the Linky & Dinky site and the Museum of Hoaxes site, we think we know how they do it. It’s an entertaining experiment in logic and we had a lot of fun trying to figure it out.

Via: Museum of Hoaxes – MagicSHELF

I’m continually surprised and delighted by Nintendo. They already have me. I bought a Wii at the end of January when my sister-in-law called me from a Shopko and said they have two Wiis, did she want me to get her one? We were at her house within an hour with cash in hand for the exchange like a junkie informed of a new shipment.

After less than a month of owning the Wii, what does Nintendo do? They give me MORE free stuff! They just added a channel called Everybody Votes. Here is their description of it:

• Nintendo.com News : Nintendo Launches Everybody Votes Channel for Wii

“This opinion-based channel asks Wii owners who have connected their systems to the Internet to weigh in on a variety of topics, some thoughtful, some amusing, some off-the-wall.”

Do you like cats or dogs? Which is more romantic, chocolates or roses? Sure, they are silly questions, but it’s fun to take your place in the voting. Of course, that’s not the killer app. The best part of Everybody Votes is the Prediction option. You can predict what you think everyone will vote for. Later, when the votes are tallied, you can hang your head in shame or serve up the bragging rights!

What did I have to pay to add the Everybody Votes channel to my Wii? Nothing! Zero! Zip! Okay, that’s a lie. It takes about 100 blocks of memory or so, but I was gladly willing to download it. Since there are so few games available for the Wii right now, Nintendo is very smart to keep adding little free games to their channel lineup. I have something to entertain me while I wait for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 to come out.