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ExtremeTech had a look at the quality of the images and video available on 5 different portable media players and decided that the Archos 604 was best. They compared the screen on the Archos to that of the Apple iPod, Creative Zen Vision:M, Epson P-4000 and the Cowon A2. They checked things like brightness, contrast, viewing angles, saturation and gamut using specialized equipment, added up the scores and found that the 604 was their top choice, whereas the Apple iPod 5G was near the bottom.

MP3 and Portable Video Player Picture Quality Shoot-Out – ExtremeTech, September 26, 2006

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String Theory, that Theory of Everything that purports to explain all of physics as arising from evanescent strings vibrating in 10, 11 or possibly 26 dimensions, seems to be in a spot of trouble. An article in the New Yorker describes some of the travails of the theory and it’s theorists.

It seems that certain malcontents are deriding String Theory as a Theory of Nothing, saying that it has not produced any testable results, is just a collection of guesses and may well be an unintended hoax.

The author tosses the theory a mock reverse compliment, calling it “mathematically beautiful” and then paradoxically proceeds to savage it’s lack of simplicity.

Unstrung – New Yorker, 2006-09-25

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Remember that Sony Libre eBook reader that you didn’t buy back in ‘04? …Well here’s another opportunity not to buy one. This time it’s the Sony next-gen eBook reader, called appropriately enough, the Sony Reader, aka the model PRS-500.

The Reader still uses that very nice electronic ink that’s easy on the eyes, and has been improved in a number of areas eg better battery life, more memory and support for music. Books can be downloaded from Sony’s Connect eBooks service, but they’re in a proprietary format.

$349.99

Not bad, but we’re waiting for the direct-to-optic-nerve model.

Sony Reader Out in Time For Holidays – Sony News Release, Sept 26, 2006

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Just when some thought that the mouse was at an evolutionary dead-end, Logitech comes along and announces a new cordless laser mouse model, and proclaims it to be “world´s most advanced mouse”. The advanced-ness of the 800-dpi MX Revolution seems to be due to the new flywheel-like scroll wheel that supports really-fast scrolling…as well as other improvements.

AnandTech felt challenged by the product claims and put the MX through their mouse-a-lympics and deemed it to be a very good mouse, even a great one, but, alas, almost, but not quite, the “world’s best mouse”.

Logitech MX Revolution: New Technology means a Smarter Mouse – AnandTech, September 28th, 2006

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Well it’s official – at a price of $249.99, the Zune digital music player via Microsoft will be at exactly 99 cents more than the (same capacity) 30GB iPod from Apple.

Sure, some may complain about the Zune’s higher price point, but others say that it’s well worth the added cost. The extra buck buys you 2 radios (FM and Wi-Fi), a larger screen (3-inch versus 2.5), two dozen items of pre-loaded content, the option of brown, and simply put, more product (158 grams versus 136 grams for the iPod).

Microsoft to Put Zune Experience in Consumers’ Hands on Nov. 14 – Microsoft Press Release, Sept. 28, 2006

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Nokia announced their N95 converged phone yesterday. The phone, er, multimedia computer (as N is wont to call it) is a nice example of a converged device, combining telephony with a 5 megapixel camera, GPS functionality, a music player, 2.6in QVGA screen, photo and video (30 fps) capability, 160 MB of storage plus a microSD slot and the usual smartphone PDA apps.

Connectivity-wise, the N95 has support for HSDPA, WLAN, EDGE & WCDMA, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Also comes with a web browser, stereo speakers, 3.5mm jack and a miniUSB connector. Wot!?…No QWERTY keyboard?

Compact & lightweight at 100×53x20 mm and 120 grams, but expensive at $700. The Nokia N95 Data Sheet is available here.

Apple’s forthcoming iPhone can’t hope to out-feature the N95, so it had better out-svelte it…deets at “Apple iPhone to be Cingular-exclusive at launch“…a countervailing opin can be found at “iPhone Rumors“, wherein the author maintains that the iPhone will never be.

It’s what computers have become – the new Nokia N95 - Nokia Press Release, September26,2006

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Are you looking to bypass a security system that is based on a fingerprint sensor? Want to avoid the fuss and bother of loping off someone’s finger?…(a gang of car thieves in Malaysia used just that technique back in 2005).

Well then, the Mythbusters have a work-around solution for you. The popular-science duo has apparently fooled an apparently foolproof biometric-based sec device by the simple expedient of using a photocopy of someone’s fingerprint. YouTube has the video.

Mythbusters-Beat Finger Print Security System – YouTube, September 17, 2006

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It’ll cost you $799.99 to buy it and $13 a month to use it, but the new TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder might well be worth…at least according to a new article in the New York Times. The Series3 is the first digital video recorder from TiVo to support recording of high definition TV broadcasts.

The Series3 comes with 2 tuners and a 250GB hard disk drive, which while not as generous as the Sony VGX-XV80S, is quite a bit cheaper.

What sets the Series3 apart from the competition, however, is it’s feature set, at least according to the NYTimes. Chief among these attractive features, are on-line programming, wish lists and programmed ad skipping. A good collection of some 18 reviews/thoughts/comments about the S3 can be found at “TiVo’s New Series 3 – The Experts Weigh In” – these reviews are mostly quite positive, except when it comes to the price.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Series3’s aforementioned ad skipping coexists with TiVo’s own plans to sell ads through it’s DVRs.

Costly, Sure, but It’s Nirvana for TiVo Fans – NY Times, September 21, 2006

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The ancient board game of Go is yielding to automation – this time in the form of the use of Monte Carlo methods. Rémi Coulom has used the technique to develop a Go-playing computer program called Crazy Stone.

Wired Magazine reports that CS is so good it recently won a gold medal at the 11th Computer Olympiad in Turin. The article describes Coulom’s approach at a high level.

More detail is available in a paper entitled “Efficient Selectivity and Backup Operators in Monte-Carlo Tree Search” by the author … 61 page PDF alert. Crazy Stone plays at 9×9 (instead of the traditional 19×19) and can be downloaded here.

AI Invades Go Territory – Wired, Sep, 19, 2006

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Apple introduced their revised versions of the iPod, nano and shuffle last week. The good news is that capacities are up, prices are down and the shuffle is now deemed to be the “world’s smallest digital music player “. While most reviewers liked the idea of getting a better product for less money, they regard the changes as an evolutionary yawner rather than revolutionary. Indeed, The Times takes Steve Jobs to task not only for these modest product changes but also for a lackluster personal performance, dissing the entire keynote as a damp squib.

The good news for Apple is that these new iPods will likely increase their profit margins as well as Apple’s 75% share of the MP3 player market, at least in the short term.

The bad news is that when music phones and converged devices such as the Samsung SGH-i310 are taken into account, Apple’s total music player market share is only about 14% and declining, as outlined in the provocatively titled “Demise of a Darling: iPod market share crashes to 14%“. The long-anticipated Apple iPhone, expected to be available in 4-6 months, should win back some of that share – in I came, iPod, iPhone, The Economist opines on why the iPhone has been delayed, and echoes the suggestion of others that Apple become a mobile virtual network operator.

A damp squib from Apple’s Mr Incredible – The Sunday Times, September 17, 2006

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