Gadget of the Week
General Motors' Chevrolet Volt has scored a 93 miles per gallon (MPG) rating by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) while running purely on batteries. Once your 25-50 miles of driving on a full charge runs up - you'll experience an average of 37MPG using traditional fuel alone.
While not as high as the Nissan Leaf's 99MPG, or anywhere near the original promise of 230MPG, GM is optimistic the rating will help secure the Volt's position as leader of the electric car pack. Perhaps with good reason, in comparison to the Leaf and other competitors - the Volt seems like an actual sedan rather than a subcompact.
Perhaps the best news of all is that with the sticker finalized, after a series of delays, we may actually see these babies in showrooms.
Right now I feel like Kyle in that South Park episode where he's always one trend behind when it comes to buying the "it" toy. Last I remember, 3D was a silly 70s/80s throwback that everyone could safely enjoy making fun of at dinner parties without looking like a time-hopping caveman. Now all of a sudden it's the hot new thing and everyone from Pixar to Apple to James Cameron is trying to get me on the bandwagon.
I think that's a hot steaming load, frankly.
But for all the cool kids in their cigarette pants and 3D glasses, I guess this will be groovy: 3D glasses maker Vuzix has announced that its latest product, the $199 Vuzix iWear AV230XL, is compatible with the iPhone, and Vuzix is also selling a $39.95 cable to make its other models iPhone compatible.
I'm not quite sure what benefit one can reap from $200 Geordi LaForge glasses that can make your handset appear to have a three-dimensional screen, but I can just picture a Vuzix iPhone customer walking happily down the street only to scream, jump, and drop their phone when their visual voicemail jumps out to attack.
Why?
Vuzix glasses see iPhone in 3D [Crave]
With tomorrow's big iPhone event in Cupertino, we expect to see the newest version of the iPhone OS. What will the next big upgrade bring? We wouldn't be surprised to see an iPhone extension of the VoiceOver feature and/or an elaboration on the new Shuffle's voice interface. I'm still holding out for some universal cut'n'paste goodness, although Flash is still unlikely.
15-year-old David Nelson here has created a free music service out of nothing YouTube, taking online classes instead of attending school to devote time to Muziic, a site and smooth piece of software that skins an iTunes-ish interface on top of YouTube, making available any song that's been uploaded to YouTube as a video.
Meanwhile, UMG and the other big recording companies all have similar ideas in the works, but since none of them are a 15-year-old boy they're nowhere near done yet. Mr. Nelson, on the other hand, has managed to do it all without YouTube noticing.
But now that the cat is out of the bag, YouTube/Google is not likely to let sleeping geniuses lie, according to their first statement on the matter:
"This is the first we've become aware of the site," a YouTube spokesman told CNET on Saturday night. "We're looking into it now. On a preliminary review, however, it appears that the site violates our API terms of use."
While the Nelson family maintains that they reached out to YouTube but never heard back, they have taken steps not to violate the API - such as adding a tiny video player to the UI to satisfy the requirement that videos play in any application - while keeping Musiic true to its mission.
Whether Muziic will go the way of MySpace Music or the way of Napster is uncertain, but for one week at least, David's our hero.
EDIT: The link and name have been corrected. Thanks to all our readers who pointed out the error!
Despite all evidence to the contrary, a data-collecting artifact created by the paths of data-collecting ships caused the internet to explode with rumors that Google Earth had found the lost city of Atlantis.
The artifact looks a lot like the grid of a modern city's streets, except it covers an area the size of Wales, which meant either that it wasn't the real deal or that the Atlanteans were of Brobdingnagian proportions.
Personally, I was disappointed. Atlantis sounds neat! Too bad it's not really feasible, according to Walter Smith of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and David Sandwell of UC San Diego, who say "man-made structures simply aren't big enough to be measured that way."
Boo. Giant Googlantis is still my pick o' the week!
Den Den Boy announced the early sale of the Amazon Kindle 2 yesterday, and Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos took to the Daily Show to tout the new $360 beastie.
Jon Stewart made the most, in terms of comedy, out of the e-book reader that costs more than most game consoles, lampooning the gadget with what looked like genuine surprise that anyone would shell out such big bucks for what a few dollars can buy you at any airport bookstore. Bezos bragged about the $9.99 pricing of e-books for the Kindle 2; I guess if you have a serious hardback book addiction, that's a deal, but on air it made the Kindle 2 look like a terrific way to waste money.
The reality is of course a lot cooler than that, or at least it is for those to whom the Kindle 2 appeals (ie, business travelers who can afford it), but it was interesting to watch what was clearly imagined as a sales pitch turn into a dismissal of product. Especially when Bezos said that the price wouldn't be coming down...
That said, if you're thinking of getting a Kindle 2, buy me one too!
I know, I know: they pushed back the DTV switchover to June 12. Sort of. While June 12 is the new deadline for television stations around the USA to stop broadcasting analog signals, February 17 (today) is still the kick-off date for the transition: stations can apply to the FCC to enact the switchover sooner, and as many as one third of the country's analog TV stations are expected to flicker out today.
And while I don't expect that many Homotron readers are the sort to still use bunny ears to catch their TV signal, or to apply for a coupon for a TV converter box, there are still over 6 million televisions out there that will, as of today, debut the last over-the-air broadcast they'll ever see (without a converter, cable or satellite): the snow channel. Forever.
While it doesn't quite seem to merit all the hype, Amazon did indeed unveil the Kindle 2 today at New York's Morgan Library & Museum. What's new? 25% better battery life, almost twice as thin (0.36 inches compared to 0.7), an eightfold increase in storage space from 256MB to 2GB, and an improvement from 4-color grayscale to 16-color grayscale.
Despite the shrinking width, Kindle 2 is only a tenth of an ounce lighter than its predecessor.
Some buttons have been shuffled about, and there's a new text-to-speech reader, but the biggest feature of the Kindle, its pricetag, remains unchanged at $359.
With no real newness to push demand beyond the mobile professional set and a pricetag higher than most game consoles, Kindle 2 is still way too expensive when you consider the relative cheapness of books, which may be bulkier but won't fill your heart with buyer's remorse.
And Stephen King, who was brought onstage at one point to pitch his new Kindle-exclusive story Ur, which is about a magical pink Kindle, should be ashamed of himself.
This week's Gadget of the Week is once again Windows 7 Beta. Why? Because thanks to the delusion that Vista is a functional OS, my main PC has killed itself again. Three strikes for Vista - but now that I've been given the opportunity to install Win 7 on an old Frankenstein machine I threw together, I'm ready to stop shunning Microsoft.
Here, at last, in this freaking beta is the Windows Vista we were promised. It's far faster and more stable running on an old Pentium 4 with an almost ancient Radeon AGP card and 400Mhz DDR RAM than Vista ever ran on my now-defunct quad Core 2 system.
Yes, Microsoft's design-by-committee philosophy is still present and annoying, with some features shuffled, renamed and of course - hidden. Hiding otherwise useful features is one of Microsoft's favorite pastimes, but somebody over there must have grown a pair and began exerting creative control, because while Windows 7 very closely resembles Vista, it is not a bloated broken mess.
I'm talking native driver support and UAC that doesn't make you want to kill the entire design team. I'm talking a taskbar that is now potentially better than Apple's dock. Yes, better. Potentially.
So please, if you've got parts to spare, burn an install disc of this beta while you've got the chance.
By all accounts, the Windows 7 Beta has been charming the digital pants off of beta testers. If I had a spare computer I'd be knee-deep in Windows 7 goodness myself, but it's still exciting watching from the sidelines.
For those of you interested in doing more than just sidelining, Microsoft has extended the free Beta download's availability until February 10. From the Windows 7 Team Blog:
"We are at a point where we have more than enough beta testers and feedback coming in to meet our engineering needs, so we are beginning to plan the end of general availability for Windows 7 Beta."
"Because enthusiasm continues to be so high for the Windows 7 Beta and we don't want anyone to miss out, we will keep the Beta downloads open through February 10th."
So there you have it - now go get it and tell us if the UAC, driver installation, and stability improvements are all they've been made out to be!
While we've seen Lego-themed iPod docks and other assorted gadgetry, Lego's new deal with Digital Blue to produce Lego-branded electronics is the first official, multi-product effort and will hawk Lego digital cameras, MP3 players, video cameras, and walkie-talkies to children, me, and Lego enthusiasts. Pricing will be humble, with devices ranging from $20-$60.
If successful, Lego boom boxes and clock radios could follow. Look for this Bionicle Lego digital camera at a Toys R Us in fall of 2009.
With so much technology coming out of CES and Macworld, picking a Gadget of the Week at this time of year is more or less like shooting fish in the proverbial barrel. But the HT-BD7200 Blu-ray home theater with 2.1 speakers from Samsung is a clear winner in terms of style, and we like to see anything that can help bring Blu-ray into the public consciousness.
Samsung's "Touch of Color" red accents are coming back for more in 2009, but in other respects the HT-BD7200 is a new creature: this wall-mountable disc player packs in BD-Live support as well as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio for lossless audio goodness. It's also working Netflix online video and the Pandora music dealie, and can be networked with ethernet or a separate USB draft-N dongle.
You'll also find an iPod dock and A2DP streaming from compatible Bluetooth audio devices.
And the subwoofer is "kelp-based." I did not (nay, could not) make that up.
In other words, Samsung's newest Blu-ray player offers just about everything but the kitchen sink, which helps us hope that the Blu-ray players of 2009 aren't as featureless and lackluster as those of 2008.
Also, for my fellow audiophiles, Samsung offers both 5.1 and speakerbar-with-wireless-subwoofer alternatives.
And girls who like girls who like fembots!
Gadget of the Week
3D iPhone glasses. Why?
Links
The Homotron Store
- Help support Homotron by purchasing your items through our store!
All rights reserved © 2007-2010 FAD Media, Inc.
General Motors' Chevrolet Volt has scored a 93 miles per gallon (MPG) rating by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) while running purely on batteries. Once your 25-50 miles of driving on a full charge runs up - you'll experience an average of 37MPG using traditional fuel alone.
