December 13th, 2005
By GadgetManiac
Creative has recently launched a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, and also has recently launched the Creative Zen Vision: M. We can’t comment on the lawsuit, but a glance at a photo of the Apple 5G iPod vs the Vision:M seems to show that the Vision has a better screen:
The Vision:M is shown at the right. The screen on the Vision:M certainly looks to have better brightness and color saturation than the iPod .. assuming whoever took the photo was being equitable.
CREATIVE ZEN VISION : M – CDPKorea, 2005-12-14
Posted in Music Players ~ No Comments
December 13th, 2005
By GadgetManiac
In the current issue of Newsweek, author Robert Reich, Clinton’s Secretary of Labor, posits the emergence of 3 global social classes: Global Symbolic Analyst, National Symbolic Analyst and the rest of us. I.e., the super-rich, the merely-rich and the poor.
Reich documents the demise of the U.S. middle class, and its concomitant bifurcation into the lower tier (mostly) and the upper tier (partly). That squeeze is thanks to the efficiencies of higher productivity, as well as the demands from the fast-growing scale and complexity of global commerce.
Reich defines a Symbolic Analyst as one who manipulates information in order to solve problems … examples are research scientists, design engineers, software engineers, civil engineers, biotechnology engineers, PR executives, investment bankers, lawyers, and real estate developers.
If your job description appears above, and you’re able to ramp your skills up to a global level, think outside the box and see opportunities where none exist, then you too can be a Global Symbolic Analyst, and will likely have a bright future … at least according to Reich.
The New Rich-Rich Gap – Newsweek, Issues 2006
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December 12th, 2005
By GadgetManiac
MBeat has a new compact MP3 player, the KW600. No word on exact size, but judging from the photo it looks quite small.
Mbeat Jewelry KW600 – Press Release, 2005-12-09
Posted in Music Players ~ No Comments
December 11th, 2005
By GadgetManiac
Want people to trust you? Then get some oxytocin and spray it in their noses.
Apparently a single dose of oxytocin, will have the effect of roughly doubling the level of trust that people display. This result was originally reported by the magazine Nature in an article entitled “Oxytocin increases trust in humans“, published 2 June 2005. It’s re-reported in the New York Times today, along with the humorous graphic shown above which shows a car salesman employing this new sales technique.
Sales augmentation aside, the process holds hope for treatment of social phobias and the like.
Trust Spray – NYT, December 11, 2005
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December 8th, 2005
By GadgetManiac
Creative ran the 5G iPod through their replicator and came up with the Zen Vision:M.
The M comes with 30GB, and size-wise is similar to the 30GB Apple iPod (aka Video iPod) but is about one third thicker.
Feature-wise — compared to the iPod — Creative has added support for some additional video formats, such as WMV9 and DivX, but has not included Apple’s AAC or the AIFF audio formats. They did however throw in an FM tuner & a voice recorder.
A good feature-by-feature comparison of the Vision:M vs.the 30GB and the 60GB iPods can be found at this link.
Creative “Zen Vision:M 30GB” – Creative Press Release, 2005-12-7
Posted in Music Players ~ No Comments
December 7th, 2005
By GadgetManiac
Today’s New York Times has a 2-page review of the relatively-new Sony DSC-R1 10.3 megapixel fixed-lens digital camera with a 5x optical zoom.
Basically, they like it a lot, saying that the photos are spectacular. That spectacular-ness is largely due to the camera’s 12 element Carl Zeiss T* lens, and its very-large 21.5 x 14.4 mm CMOS sensor. $1K.
A Camera That Has It All? Well, Almost – NYT, December 8, 2005
Posted in Cameras ~ No Comments
December 5th, 2005
By GadgetManiac
Strategy Analytics has decided that the Treo 650 is the best converged phone on the market. The 650 narrowly beat out the Samsung SCH-i730. The i730 was actually better in terms of user interface and display and aesthetics, but was deemed to be too bulky & heavy to win. Blackberrys were considered too difficult to learn to use.
Blackberry Learning Curve too Steep for Consumers as PalmOne Treo Sets New Usability Standard - Strategy Analytics, 15 Nov 2005
Posted in Phones ~ 2 Comments
December 5th, 2005
By GadgetManiac
The Mark II Flashcam combines a flashlight with a camcorder. The 1GB Flash card records 1.3 hrs of audio-video. Also has IR night vision. $2495.
MII-Flashcam - website
Posted in Cameras ~ 1 Comment
December 4th, 2005
By GadgetManiac
An interesting article in Geophysical Research Letters suggests that Taipei 101, the world’s tallest building, may be responsible for an increase in seismic activity in the area.
The author, Cheng-Horng Lin, states that seismicity had historically been very low in northern Taiwan, but has increased during construction, and more dramatically after completion, of Taipei 101.
Seismicity increase after the construction of the world’s tallest building: An active blind fault beneath the Taipei 101 - Geophysical Research Letters, Vol 32 – 30 November 2005
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December 3rd, 2005
By GadgetManiac
Vertu released their new Ascent Motorsport phone a few months ago. The Motorsport is just like the other Ascent phone models in terms of price (high) and functionality (not-leading-edge), but this new model is a limited edition version.
Despite it’s middling phone features, a big plus for the Vertu line is that they’re built from LiquidMetal which is a very durable amorphous alloy made of zirconium, titanium, copper/nickel & beryllium.
The NYT finally put those durability claims to a test by running a Porsche Boxster (an inexpensive car just would not seem appropriate) over the Motorsport a few times (as shown above). The phone emerged unscathed and continued to work.
A Cellphone Just Made to Be Run Over - New York Times, December 3, 2005
Posted in Phones ~ 1 Comment
