Gadgetopia

Blue Jeans Cable Strikes Back - Response to Monster Cable : If you’re fan of intellectual property bullies getting their comupence, then this letter is for you.

Monster Cable — perhaps the king of useless products — sent a cease-and-desist letter to a tiny audio cable manufacturer with grandiose and vague claims of the patents he was supposedly infringing. Sadly for Monster, the owner of the company was a former litigator.

He proceeds to completely eviscerate Monster’s claims in his letter and promises them that he will fight the claim to its nasty, bitter end.

My sense, in looking at these five patents, is that either you are attempting to present some argument that I simply do not understand or you are arguing for untenably broad coverage of these patents which would sweep every functional aspect of the typical solder-assembly RCA connector within the scope of a handful of mere design patents.

You need to clarify this, and frankly, I think you need to indicate to me which, if any, of these patents you actually contend are relevant to the present discussion. It cannot possibly be that you believe that more than one of these patents is pertinent, and if you insist that they are, we cannot have an intelligent dialogue on this subject.

The entire letter is an absolute joy to read. I loved every minute of it.

We use Quickbooks Online for Blend’s accounting. We’re relatively happy with it, but when I logged in today, I saw the above image, which is pretty cool:

As a QuickBooks Online subscriber, you can now view key company data anywhere you can use your iPhone.

Check your: Accounts receivable and payable …Vendor, customer, and employee lists…Bank account and credit card balances…Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss reports

I know app on your phone are nothing new, but the iPhone’s screen size and built-in usability has enabled a lot better apps. Look at the image above — I’m not going to get that kind of usability with my Sanyo Katana, as much as I love it.

Video: New Android UI Shows iPhone-like Animations: These shots of the Google Android interface from Gizmodo make me feel less bad that I can’t get an iPhone in Sioux Falls.

[…], today’s release of the refreshed Android SDK shows a UI that has more than a bit of polish. We took screens, but you should also check out the details, like this video showing smooth, animated transitions. Good on them: Some have speculated that’s where most of the iPhone’s charm comes from.

NERF N-STRIKE LONGSHOT CS-6: This Nerf gun is a little creepy. Though they’re careful to never mention the phrase “sniper rifle,” that’s essentially what this is.

This blaster is more than three feet long and can launch foam arrows up to 35 feet away! Aim with accuracy and precision using the targeting scope. Two quick-reload clips hold a total of 12 STREAMLINE DARTS. There’s even a fold-down bi-pod to help you steady your aim for important shots.

You had to see the kid in the ad — he was like a friggin’ Navy SEAL with this thing. All that was missing was a headshot on his buddy, two rooms away.

Google introduces software for mobile phones: Well, there’s going to be no hardware device called the “GPhone.” Instead, Google is building an OS which people at the demo said was very iPhone-like, then giving it away.

[…] there will be no branded Google Phone. The software running on the phones will not even display the Google logo. Instead, Google is giving the software away to others who will build the phones. The company invested heavily in the project to ensure that all of its services were available on mobile phones. Its ultimate goal is to cash in on the effort by selling advertisements that appear before mobile phone users, just as it does on the Internet.

It’s going to be an interesting clash of cultures. The iPhone was designed as very closed, and Android will be extremely open. It will be fascinating which one wins out.

Google enlists help for Google Phone: Will this be the first official announcement of the GPhone — an item that everyone is talking about as if Google has official acknowledged it?

Google today plans to announce the formation of an “open phone” coalition, with the goal of developing an operating system for the so-called Google Phone.

The new operating system, geared specifically for cellphones, will be used to showcase and promote Google’s ever-growing panoply of services, much like Microsoft has done for decades with its Windows operating system.

[…] The new G-system will be based on Linux, a 15-year-old computer operating system that is available free over the Internet. Google’s version will be overlaid with Java, a popular computer language.

First-Gen Zune Getting All The New Features: This is How You Treat Your Customers: Wow, Microsoft is getting some good press over this. And Apple — for perhaps the first time in history — looks really bad by comparison.

The first generation 30GB Zune—which 1.2 million of you already purchased—is getting all the new Zune’s features. All. Sure, the new Zune is more of a half step forward than a completely new design. But Microsoft’s done something fantastic here by rewarding first gen buyers with cool new stuff that also happens to be free by software upgrade. And talk about spin— Microsoft just took a middling jump in hardware and turned it into a genuinely good move for loyalists (as well as a PR miracle). Are you paying attention Apple?

But let’s not pat Microsoft on the back too much. They’re the kings of artificially crippling software to differentiate them and maximize profits. Access and Works will only get so good, folks, because there are more profitable products lurking above them.

Teen unlocks iPhone from AT&T: Apple is scrambling its lawyers as we speak, I’m sure. Call this, “How to Get Sued 101.”

A teenager in New Jersey has broken the lock that ties Apple’s iPhone to AT&T’s wireless network, freeing the most hyped cellphone ever for use on the networks of other carriers, including overseas ones.

George Hotz, 17, confirmed Friday that he had unlocked an iPhone and was using it on T-Mobile’s network, the only major U.S. carrier apart from AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone’s cellular technology.

Don’t get ahead of yourself, though — it ain’t easy.

The hack, which Hotz posted Thursday to his blog, is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software. It takes about two hours to perform. Since the details are public, it seems likely that a small industry may spring up to buy U.S. iPhones, unlock them and send them overseas.

Will It Blend?: Yes, it will blend.

Everybody knows that the iPhone can make phone calls, play movies & music, surf the web, and a lot more. But, Will It Blend?

What I find amazing is how long the screen stays lit. Via Joseph Scott.

New rules could rock wireless world: I could obviously not work for any wireless company since this just makes sense to me on its face.

Coming soon could be a wireless broadband world in which consumers get to pick any smartphone or other device and load any software on it — not have to take what the wireless carrier wants to sell.

That’s the goal of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, who will propose sweeping new rules for wireless airwaves the government is auctioning early next year.

Too bad our planet isn’t disposable: Some good points from No Impact Man on the recent iPhone craze, and gadget porn in general.

[…] the cell phone now has the shortest life cycle of any electronic device.

The question is: how can the environment sustain a society where even a $500 gadget has become a disposable object?

He’s right. Cell phones are so ephemeral — I’ve had my new one for less than a year and I already want another one, with a bigger screen. And this one was $220.

Europe opens the door to in-flight phoning: Good to see some progress here. Mythbusters did a segment on this last year where they couldn’t, under any circumstances, affect any of a plethora of aircraft instrumentation with a cell phone. They tried everything.

European regulators have cleared use of mobile phones and BlackBerry devices for passengers while flying, Airbus announced Tuesday.

Approval by the European Aviation Safety Agency means that, from September, passengers aboard Airbus aircraft outfitted with the OnAir system will be able to send and receive phone calls, SMS messages and e-mail messages while flying at altitudes above 3,000 meters, or 9,840 feet.

Cabin staff members will be able to turn off the system or restrict usage to text services like SMS, as they see fit.

And it’s totally free, right? Yeah.

The cost of a call, however, might make for short conversations.

While OnAir does not set the fees, Lake said the expected cost would be around $2.50 per minute for calls and 50 cents per SMS message.

Vacuum leader Dyson sets sights on hand dryer market: I have a Dyson vacuum, and it’s been one of the most amazing gadgets I own. The first time someone sees one of these hand dryers in the States, comment here. I will drive a fair distance to use it once.

The device, which kicks on when folks place their hands in it, dries hands in about six seconds. It pushes unheated air at great force — roughly 400 mph — through a gap the width of an eyelash that runs the length of the dryer. A special filter sanitizes the air.

The device works much like the compressed-air dryer at a carwash. The water isn’t evaporated by hot air, but rather is pushed away by compressed air moving at great speed. As a result, the Airblade uses roughly one-fourth the energy of conventional hand dryers.

Study: iPods can make pacemakers malfunction: We need to ban iPods. These things are pure evil.

iPods can cause cardiac implantable pacemakers to malfunction by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart, according to a study presented by a 17-year-old high school student to a meeting of heart specialists on Thursday.

[…] In some cases, the iPods caused interference when held 18 inches from the chest. Interfering with the telemetry equipment caused the device to misread the heart’s pacing and in one case caused the pacemaker to stop functioning altogether.

Schools say iPods becoming tool for cheaters: iPods are flat evil, there’s no doubt. If you use one, you are a terrorist.

[…] schools across the country are targeting digital media players as a potential cheating device. Devices including iPods and Zunes can be hidden under clothing, with just an earbud and a wire snaking behind an ear and into a shirt collar to give them away, school officials say.

I saw Casino Royale for the third or fourth time tonight. What a great, great film. I’m an old school Bond fan, and I’ll state without qualification that if I had to pick one Bond film to take to a desert island with me, it’d be Casino Royale.

But it’s also an interesting study on technology, not because of what it includes, but because of what it doesn’t.

The film is almost devoid of gadgets. Or is it? There’s a big emphasis on mobile technology — mobile phones and text messaging play big parts in the plot. Are these gadgets? Well, not really. I just bought a new Sanyo Katana the other day, and it’ll do the same thing that Bond’s phone did.

Besides a little radio gadget injected into Bond’s arm, Casino Royale has no gee-whiz gadget the likes of which Bond has relied on for decades. There’s not even a gadget-master — John Cleese is nowhere to be found.

And here’s why, I think: we have gadgets all around us. It’s getting harder and harder to impress people with gadgets because we live with them everyday.

Historically, “gadget” in the James Bond sense means “small.” Something cool, in a little package — littler than we expect. But if you look at the last five or six years, this is what electronics companies have been doing anyway — shrinking stuff. Our mobile electronics are so small at this point that they’d likely just get harder to use if they went any further.

When I worked on Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang back when The World is Not Enough came out, we talked Hewlett-Packard into giving us a Jornada like the one in the film to give away in a contest. It was an amazing little thing — a computer you could put in the palm of your hand. Of course, eight years later, this is downright boring.

There’s no escaping that our sense of wonder about gadgets has been permanently dulled. We’ve become so used to things getting smaller, faster, and sexier, that Bond just isn’t going to impress us anymore.

(And it’s probably for the best — the gadgets in the Bond films were getting out of hand. In his last film, he drove an invisible car for cripes sake. An invisible car. Please.)

Think about it: what is the next frontier for James Bond and his gadgets? What would impress us? What haven’t we seen? Phones are probably about the smallest they’re going to get, and would a smaller one impress you? Your phone also has more processing power than you likely ever use — you’d feel like James Bond yourself if you just learned how to use every feature your phone had.

Face it: the allure of Bond gadgets is gone. We killed it. We slew it on the altar of Gizmodo. He’s just going to have to get by on his looks and the occasional witty line.

YouTube - Mindstorms Autofabrik: This is so cool, I might die. It’s a video of a factory made out of Lego Mindstorms that makes cars…from Legos.

Yep, they’re self-aware now, folks. And they reproduce. Will you be ready when the Legos come for you?

Just when everybody was so excited about the so-called iPod killer, Zune, Apple comes out with something new that blows it out of the water. CEO Steve Jobs earlier this morning showed off the new Apple iPhone, and from the looks of it, there will be little reason left to have much for a computer on your desk at home; the iPhone does it all. Use it to check your e-mail, browse the web, watch movies, listen to music, podcasts & audio books, check the time, take pictures & organize them, and so much more. Oh, and you can make & receive phone calls on it too.

The thing will use either wi-fi or cellular signals (Cingular), and will hunt down open wi-fi networks & pick them when it can. When you’re browsing the web it even knows which way is up, and will reorient its display when you turn it sideways or upside down.

Dang. It does all that, and I just got a Motorola Razr.

Well, I did it. Almost a year after first learning about the LightKeeper Pro and posting about it, I took the plunge and bought one. With my own money, I might add; no marketing campaign freebies here, no siree.

I’m not big on decorating for the holidays — not like my neighbor down the block with the lighted windmill, lighted life-size Santa, sleigh & reindeer, and phony luminaries made from 40 watt lightbulbs and milk jugs, etc… (it’s really horrid!) — but my wife likes the icicle lights hanging from the eaves on our house, so I go that far.

A few weeks back I dug out the lights we’d used outside for the last two years, and found that of the five strings we had, only one section still worked! I know there were more lights on than that when we last used them! But, being the cheapskate that I am, I balked at going out & spending a bunch of money on five new sets, especially when they cost 6 bucks apiece!

My first thought was the LightKeeper Pro, but I didn’t act on it right away. The next day I happened to be driving by Ace Hardware, and the marquee advertised the LKP at $15. That settled it. I bought one. And it is absolutely everything they say it is.

The thing is as simple as can be; you unplug a light bulb in a non-working segment, plug that socket into the LKP, click the trigger a few times (up to 20 times according to the instructions) and in most cases the string will light up. As one of our super sharp commenters pointed out, it works by forcing the shunts in non-working bulbs to make contact, thus allowing the rest of the string or segment to work. You then replace the unlit bulbs with good ones, and you’re back in action. Beware though; the icicle lights I was fixing had 300 bulbs in each, and in one string I found over half of them were bad.

The LKP also has a handy-dandy built-in bulb tester to check the bulbs you put in to make sure they work. There’s a continuity detector that helps determine the location of a problem spot in a string of lights. Press a button on the LKP and wave it over the wire; if there is current flowing through the wire, the LKP will beep. When the beeping stops, you’ve likely narrowed down the problem to within a two or three bulb area.

While the LKP isn’t perfect, and there are some things I’d definitely change — the built-in pry bar for getting stubborn bulbs loose just plain sucks, and the position of the bulb tester doesn’t lend itself to using the tool with your hands full of a string of lights — using it is far better than throwing out a set of lights that don’t want to work. And if you’ve got a pre-lit tree or lights already strung on a tree, it’s definitely better to fix what’s there than to replace it.

Zune vs. iPod: the battle begins: Fortune reviews the Zune against the iPod and the winner is…the iPod. But it’s not as much of a runaway victory as you’d expect.

The Zune did quite well in a couple areas, and, as Fortune notes, it’s the first model out the door. It’s only going to get better. Competition is good — my hope is that this will drive the iPod forward as well. Two behemoths fighting for market share will benefit everyone.

If I didn’t already have an iPod — and had not already invested lots of money in songs and videos downloaded from the iTunes media store — the Zune might be tempting. It’s an impressive digital audio player, and the bigger screen is alluring.

But like so many Microsoft products, version 1.0 is not as polished as it should be.

The Zune really got burned by their goofy DRM issues. The Zune store is as cool as iTunes either.

But, if you feel like criticizing the Zune, there’s ample fodder at the Wikipedia page:

Though the Zune is a Microsoft product, it is not capable of playing music encrypted in Microsoft’s own PlaysForSure Format.

While the Zune has built-in Wi-Fi capabilities, it can connect only to another Zune. It can’t sync to a personal computer, and it can’t wirelessly download new music from a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Songs wirelessly transferred from one Zune to another can only be played three times. After three days, the song expires — regardless of whether or not it has been played. Just playing half the song (or one minute, whichever comes first) counts as one “play.” You can never resend a song to the same friend, nor can a song received from someone else be passed on to a third person. These limitations apply to all files, including copyright-free self-recorded songs and similar.

The software that supports the Zune seems to be very unstable on some Microsoft Windows configurations

Unlike many similar players, the Zune cannot be used as an external hard drive.