The Gadgets Page

Just when I thought I had heard it all, Gordon warns me of a new email exploit that looks like it’s from CNN and pretends to load Flash on your computer. You can see the whole story here:

• getluky.net » Blog Archive » Almost got owned by a fake CNN today. =[

However, for all the cues that were available, the writer of this exploit put in an amount of effort into crafting an authentic-feeling damnit-I-have-to-upgrade-Flash-again experience for an average Internet user that nearly fooled me. If it hadn’t been for my tendency to give up on content rather than install yet another Flash upgrade, I might have been caught hook, line, and sinker.

How many times have you chosen okay on a window without even reading it? I know I have MANY times. I probably would have fallen for this one.

One step you can take to avoid an exploit like this is to go directly to Adobe’s website and install the latest version of Flash right now:

• Adobe Flash Player Download Center

Then when something suggests that you might not have the latest version, you will KNOW that you do.

Michael Moncur has been having trouble with the GPS feature on his brand new 3G iPhone. Compared to his old iPhone, the maps feature isn’t nearly as useful.

• figby.com » My iPhone Thinks I’m in Minnesota

Despite not having a GPS chip, [my old] iPhone would do an admirable job of finding my current location using cellphone towers, WiFi, and some sort of dark magic.

Although this was good, I was really looking forward to using the maps on the new iPhone 3G with true GPS. I brought a new 3G iPhone home last week, gleefully clicked on the Maps and “locate me” buttons, and instantly found myself on a map centered on Wayzata, Minnesota. I’m sure it’s a fine place, but unfortunately, I’m 1300 miles away in Utah.

I have had the exact same problem with my iPhone and I’m surprised that there is nothing in the Apple support pages about it. I guess that’s the price I pay for being an early adopter, but honestly, all those cool iPhone apps that use my location are USELESS when the phone thinks I’m in another state.

Update 09-01-08: After playing with it for two weeks, I’ve decided that Mike was right. It IS the 3G tower interfering with the GPS signal. When I turn 3G off, the iPhone can find EXACTLY where I am within a few seconds. All iPhone apps that use my location (like RunKeeper) use the correct location when I turn off 3G.

Last January at CES, we saw a booth for Mr. Clock Radio. Although entertaining, I never thought he might become available in the U.S., but it looks like you can now buy Mr. Clock Radio on Amazon.com, so I thought I would share what we saw at CES.

He looked like a fun little toy, like something you would give to your father-in-law to make him laugh. I’m glad Mr. Clock Radio finally made it to the states!

The excellent Ed Grabianowski at io9 has the five reasons you don’t have a personal jet pack yet: Mad Engineering: Five Reasons You Don’t Have a Personal Jet Pack Yet

• Humans are not designed to fly

• Thrust burns a lot of fuel

• They are dangerous

• Rockets and jets are really, really loud

For me, the most important one was the last one:

• Inefficiency: There’s really no point in flying one person around. Pretty much any practical use you can come up with for a jet pack can be done with a lower tech, cheaper and more efficient solution. This is the main reason the other problems haven’t been overcome by awesome engineers yet — beyond looking cool and flying around, we don’t really need jet packs.

Here is a video from The History Channel about the Bell Rocket Belt and its place in history:

In the end, I realize that I won’t ever have that flying car I always wanted (and was PROMISED) since childhood. I have the option of taking all my nourishment from a dehydrated food tablet like George Jetson did, but his flying car is still out of my reach.

Back in January at CES, we showed you Ion’s prototype for a professional drum set:

• Gadgets Page » CES 2008: Professional Rock Band Drums

Ion has announced that it is accepting pre-orders for Drum Rocker, which will sell for $300 a set. There are additional cymbals that you can purchase to add to the set, but that’s the price for the base set.

You can see them in action here with Dan Amrich of the Official XBox Magazine, who was nice enough to play the drums while I filmed.

The two biggest questions I have been getting about these drums are WHEN will they be available and will they be able to be used as “real” drums. According to the Drum Rocker FAQ file from Ion, here are the answers:

If I pre-order on this website, when will my Drum Rocker be shipped?

Drum Rocker is expected to ship mid-September.

I want to use Drum Rocker as a real electronic drum set. What will I need to be able to do that?

While there are many “drum brains” that accept the 1/4″ outputs of the Drum Rocker drum pads and cymbals, Ion recommends using the Alesis DM5 drum module with Drum Rocker.

The DM5 is a professional drum module with (12) 1/4″ trigger inputs and more than 500 professional quality sounds. Its trigger inputs are well suited to handle the output levels of the Drum Rocker pads. If you decide to use a DM5 with Drum Rocker, you’ll also likely want to purchase a kick pad and regular kick pedal, which will let you take advantage of the increased control that the DM5 offers. The drum pedal that comes with Drum Rocker can then be used as a hi-hat pedal.

I am so glad that Ion made Drum Rocker compatible with drum machines so they can double as a game controller and real drums. Here’s to learning to play and playing to learn. I think Rock Band is the best catalyst for music education that we’ve had in a long time.

Via: Ion’s $300 “Drum Rocker” premium drum kit for Rock Band unveiled – Engadget

I hate Bluetooth headsets. Being a geek, I liked the idea of them and tried to be an early adopter, but they all sucked. From the static introduced by poor Bluetooth connections to minor incompatibilities between phones and headsets to the problem of keeping them charged and the fact that they either hurt my ear or fell off, I never found one I could use. And that’s after purchasing the best that Logitech, Plantronics, and Motorola had to offer.

I looked at the Apple Bluetooth headset, but the reviews on it all stated that the range and connection quality was poor. I also have rather small ears, so headsets designed to be held in place by the ear canal have never worked for me.

I’ve got friends who use the original Jawbone headset, but it was clearly too large and too heavy to be comfortable, no matter how good the sound quality could be. But when Jawbone released their new and much smaller headset, Jawbone II with NoiseAssassin, I decided to give it a try.

In one word, it’s amazing. It’s the most comfortable headset I’ve ever worn, with multiple ear buds and ear clips to guarantee a good fit. It pairs easily and seems to be 100% compatible with my iPhone. The charger is easy to use and charges from USB, ensuring that a charger is always nearby and that I won’t be screwed for another $40 just to charge it in my car. Nobody I’ve spoken with complains about the noise quality, and I’ve had the kids run through the room screaming without bothering people I’m on the phone with. I can use it in my convertible at freeway speed without bothering people. It seems to be a better microphone than the built-in microphone on the iPhone.

The speaker sound quality is a bit tinny at higher volumes, which I require because I have significant hearing loss in the ear that I use it in) but quite acceptable. My friend with an original Jawbone says that it’s not nearly as good as the original, but the original is considerably larger and heavier. The battery life is exceptional—in excess of five hours in my testing. It’s more than enough time to be considered “all day”—I’ve not had it run out of juice on me during the day yet. Battery life is considerably better than my Plantronics or Motorola headset, both of which would die at about two hours of talk time.

It’s expensive at $140, but that’s actually far less expensive than the sum of all the headsets I’ve bought in the past that are just unusable. I bought mine at Best buy, but it’s available at Amazon.com here:

• Jawbone Bluetooth Headset with NoiseAssassin at Amazon.com

In the end, headsets can be a lifesaver when I’m driving and need to take a call, but they are useless if they don’t work with my phone, the sound is bad, or if the battery is dead. Fortunately, the Jawbone II excels on all of those levels and is a perfect addition to my workday armor.

After much anticipation, Nintendo FINALLY announced Animal Crossing: City Folk, which is the Wii version of Animal Crossing. I am STILL a big fan of Animal Crossing: Wild World, even though I have pretty much done everything that I could do in this game. You can imagine how eager I am to play Animal Crossing: City Folk. For more information about it, here is the Wikipedia entry:

• Animal Crossing: City Folk – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The primary new addition to Animal Crossing: City Folk is a new city area. Accessible to players by bus, the city offers a variety of activities. In the city, players can shop for clothes and accessories at Gracie Grace, a fashion boutique shop, and can redo their hairstyles at Harriet’s hair salon (like in Wild World). Players can even choose to replace their face with that of their Mii’s. Other activities available at the city take advantage of the Wii’s Wi-Fi capabilities, such as an auction house, where players can auction off items to other players via Wi-Fi connection, an office for the Happy Room Academy, where players can see how well other players’ towns are progressing, and a theater to learn emotions. Redd is back, but you still need to know a password like in Wild World.

Here is a video (the demonstrator and interviewer are BORING, but they show you a lot of cool stuff) that shows you a lot of the city:

Here is the Nintendo announcement about the game at E3 this month:

Here is a video of gameplay:

Here is the official Nintendo trailer for the game:

Here are some screenshots:

I’m glad to see so much of what I loved about the game has returned better than ever. I can’t wait until November when it’s available!

My friend, Jesse Stay, has finally given up on Twitter. He states all his reasons why he is leaving and why he thinks you should join him:

• My Hiatus From Twitter – Why You Should Join Me | Stay N’ Alive

I stopped really using Twitter several months ago and I basically agree with Jesse’s reasons for leaving, but I refuse to jump ship for just another social network like FriendFeed, Tumbler or indenti.ca. The reason why Twitter is more appealing than these other options is because I can use my cell phone to do an update. A simple SMS can keep me in touch and I can receive SMS updates of my favorite friends. THAT’S why Twitter is the killer app that people aren’t abandoning.

Honestly, I’ve been disappointed with Twitter. Instead of offering me a pay service that will turn my IM back on (along with other features), they have been putting out fires because of scaling issues. I still read my friend’s tweets to keep up-to-date on their lives, but if I have 140 characters to say, I’ve gone back to using Flickr’s post to blog feature. Then I can include a picture and say as little or as much as I want about my life.

With the advances in mobile options, Twitter’s killer app won’t be as important to me as it has been over the last two years. Until then, I’ll still read my friends’ Twitter feeds to keep up to date. Sadly, I fear that Twitter is just an intermediary technology. As soon as the cell phones increase their capabilities (or when there is an iPhone in every pocket), Twitter will no longer serve any use.

Saturday’s Sheldon comic attacked digital photo frames. You can see it here:

• Sheldonâ„¢ Comic Strip: Daily Webcomic by Dave Kellett

Since Sheldon’s grandpa doesn’t quite understand the concept, I thought I’d shed light on all the reasons why I LOVE my digital photo frame.

1. I don’t have to cover my wall with photos of my family: I love my family and I WANT to cover my walls with pictures of them, but with the digital photo frame, I can have ONE thing that shows me all my loved ones on a rotating schedule.

2. I can be impartial: If you think the kids and grandkids aren’t going around the house counting photos of themselves and comparing these counts to the number of photos of their siblings and cousins, then you’re fooling yourself. With my digital photo frame, I can easily see how many photos there are of each special person in my life.

3. I LOVE to sit and watch it: Sometimes, when I have a quiet moment in the house, I love to just sit at the kitchen table and watch my digital photo frame flip through the pictures of my loved ones. I find it enjoyable and almost meditative.

4. Kids love it: Even children who can barely speak will become vocal around my digital photo frame. The few words children learn at first are “Momma” and “Pappa.” When they see a picture of their parents or siblings they will light right up. Of course, the older children are casually trying to count their ratio of photographs, but they still will watch it for longer than any normal photo frame.

5. It will bring your mom into the digital age: We bought my mom a digital camera many years ago. It sat unused until we got her a digital photo frame. We gave it to her pre-loaded with some family photos, but she very quickly understood that if she took photos with her dusty digital camera that had been hanging around the house, she could add new photos to her snazzy new picture frame. The digital photo frame single-handedly brought my mother into the digital age.

6. It’s not just about photos: As the larger digital photo frames become affordable, I suspect that artists will use them to exhibit their artwork. Imagine being able to showcase EVERY piece of art you have created in one spot on your wall. Even after you have sold your work, you would be able to show it off on your wall at home. Additionally, you can have a photo frame that shows all of the greatest artwork of the centuries in one simple place.

In the end, I’ve found the digital photo frame to be FAR superior to the old school frames. It is one of the few technological devices that happens to be better than the thing it replaced.

Here is a video showcasing the Ford Comuta in 1962. They were hoping to bring it into production by 1977.

It took a little longer than that, but electric and hybrid cars are finally making it into the mainstream and not a moment too soon considering gas prices.

Via: Retro Futurism: Ford Says Electric Cars “Commercially Feasible” By 1977