November 15th, 2006
By GadgetManiac
In an article in Mac Observer, writer John Martellaro holds forth on the upcoming Zune vs iPod celebrity deathmatch that will be played out in the coming months and years. While many analysts have focused on delivered features as defining the likely success or failure of these products, Martellaro instead tries to surmise some of the more Machiavellian aspects of the coming conflict.
The author glimpses a multi-pronged indirect attack by Microsoft to beat up on the Apple iPod – the main components of the stratagem seem to be the following:
1. Dissemble Apple into a sense of over-confidence.
2. Shrink iPod’s brand value by commoditizing the MP3 player.
3. Circumvent the end user via the Windows business model.
4. Encircle Apple by building alliances.
The tone of the article is more than mildly conspiratorial, presumably reflecting the prevailing world view at AAPL, and so, in keeping in-character & on-plot with the piece, we offer a 5th prong of the MSFT assault…
5. Dispirit the iPod fanbase via threat of legal action.
Most memorable quote: the Zune is a “brute-force, low tech T-72 Russian tank designed to steamroll up the beach and create widespread chaos and destruction in the music player community”.
Hidden Dimensions – How the Zune Will (Try To) Defeat the iPod – The Mac Observer, November 13th, 2006
Posted in Music Players ~ No Comments
November 15th, 2006
By GadgetManiac
If you’ve ever wondered about the effectiveness of side impact airbags in automobiles, you can stop wondering now. According to an article in Consumer Reports which references a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the use of head-and-torso airbags reduces the risk of death by more than one third, and even more for SUV drivers. Torso-only airbags were not nearly as good.
Side air bags prevent deaths – Consumer Reports, October 2006
Posted in Automotive ~ No Comments
November 14th, 2006
By GadgetManiac
Well, it’s Tuesday November 14, 2006 and the new Zune MP3 player from Microsoft was supposed to go on sale today. Let’s just check the newspapers to see if it did. Uh…let’s see…oh yeah…there it is. The Seattle Times has a spread on the official launch event at Westlake Park in Seattle, featuring Bill Gates in a Zune-brown jacket making the announcement and handing out a Zune to an audience member. So it must be true, MS did indeed launch a product on time..!
MS seems to have pulled poor Bill Gates out of semi-retirement to pitch the device. Bill talked up the following 4 selling points during his speech: The Zune has a big screen, has wireless, shares songs and represents the start of what he called “connected entertainment”.
The remainder of the article talks to the david & goliath aspects of the coming contest with the Apple iPod, that it might take the Zune a couple of years to beat out the iPod, and how there are many more Zune devices & accessories on the way.
Zune enters MP3 race with many miles to go – Seattle Times, Nov 14, 2006
Posted in Music Players ~ 1 Comment
November 14th, 2006
By GadgetManiac
Toshiba has a new line of MP3 players seemingly intended to go up against the iPod nano line from Apple, namely the gigabeat P Series. The new series from Toshiba is comprised of 2 models, the P10K and the P20K, which has 2GB of flash memory. Both weigh in at 83×31.9×12.9mm and 50 grams. This makes the P series both bigger and heavier than the iPod nano.
While it has a smallish screen, at 96×96 pixels, the P10K and P20K do offer voice and FM radio recording. The P series will likely do ok in its home market, but perhaps not as well elsewhere.
Toshiba Gigabeat P Series – homepage
Posted in Music Players ~ No Comments
November 13th, 2006
By GadgetManiac
CNN has distilled a number of their articles into a brief guide on making the right financial decisions and called it 25 Rules to Grow Rich By. While most of those rules are investment-related – eg how big of a retirement fund to aim for (see Rule 10) – , there are however, 2 rules that relate to gadgets:
Rule 22 – don’t buy the latest gadget – wait 3 months for the price to drop.
Rule 25 – don’t pay for an extended warranty – except for laptops.
While the article makes for a good read, and it was nice to see CNN support the idea of flying warranty-less, it was mildly disappointing not to see more categorical advice such as buy Brilliance Auto, or, aggressively accumulate copper below $3.0250 per lb.
25 Rules to Grow Rich By – CNN Money
Posted in General ~ No Comments
November 13th, 2006
By GadgetManiac
The Sony PlayStation 3 next-generation game console finally hit the shelves in Japan a few days ago. It’s been a long haul for the PS3 and its Cell processor – we first made note of the thing back in November of 2004. The delay in getting the PS3 to market seems to have been due to a shortage of blue lasers, among other things.
And considering Sonja’s many other recent problems (eg batteries, DRM, SNE), we here at GadgetManiac issue this urgent public appeal — we encourage those readers who have surplus blue lasers (405 nm only, please) laying around the office to send them to Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., care/of president Ken Kutaragi – he’d be down with that. Kutaragi is shown here holding a PS3 carton on the occasion of the official product launch on Nov 11 2006 at the Bic Camera store in Tokyo.
The specifications for the PS3 can be found here…in Japanese, but sort of readable. Info on the awesome Cell Broadband Engine 64-bit 9-processor cpu is here…its in IBMese and also kind of readable.
Posted in General ~ 1 Comment
November 8th, 2006
By John Carthy
Sharepoint: I’m starting to see the point
I saw a blog post the other day in reference to Windows Sharepoint Services. The author complained about the lack of tangible messaging around Microsoft Sharepoint Services. The post, entitled, “What The heck is Sharepoint 2007“, by John Newton, contained the following: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in mail2web.com ~ 5 Comments
November 7th, 2006
By GadgetManiac
Well, CNet finally got around to reviewing the 2nd gen iPod shuffle MP3 player, and the result is not a pretty picture. While the original shuffle got a rating of 6.7 and a rank of ‘good’, the newer smaller shuffle shuffles in with a paltry 6.3.
Seems that while CNet liked the low price and the user interface (dead simple), they didn’t so much care for the size (too small), user interface (no screen for navigation) and the not-so-good sound quality.
In case you’ve just bought one, and are wanting for some post-purchase hand-holding, disregard the above, and please instead consult Paul Thurrott ’s upbeat review of the 2G shuffle, wherein he waxes lyrical on the device’s many virtues such as the “excellent sound” and that its cute, wearable and durable and has a great battery life.
Apple iPod Shuffle (second generation) – CNet, 11/2/06
Posted in Music Players ~ 1 Comment
November 4th, 2006
By GadgetManiac
The received wisdom re global warming as espoused by Al Gore et al may well turn out to be accurate – we’re incompetent to decide. While the preponderance of the evidence does seem to be in their favor, the 4 main reasons holding us back from warmly endorsing the initiative against global warming are:
-The Holocene Climate Optimum , which was a long period of natural global warming about 6K years ago.
- Fear of wrecking the economy needlessly.
- The mediocrity principle , which assumes that there is nothing special about our place (or time).
- The self-correcting effect of rising energy prices. And lurking somewhere in an unarticulated background is a kind of generalized miasma revolving around vague concerns that GW is succumbing to hubris, and dismay about the Kyoto Protocol exemptions as garnered by China & India. And then there’s the matter of Al being a politician, an avocation whose counsel is at times viewed by some as being self-serving.
In any event, and assuming that global warming advocates, or perhaps more accurately global cooling advocates, are right (and they probably are), a new technical solution has been proposed, namely a solar shield to block the sun. While proponents of greenhouse gas emissions reduction and searchers for alternative energy sources may well roll their eyes, the suggestion from prof Roger P. Angel of the University of Arizona seems doable, if expensive.
Angel’s proposal involves sending trillions of small 2 ft diameter transparent disks to the L1 Lagrange point between the earth and sun, where they would float freely, while reducing sunlight by about 2%. He estimates the cost at “a few trillion dollars”. More information is available at this link. The “Solar Shield” seems to have at least some credibility – the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts deems it a Funded Study.
Space Sunshade Might Be Feasible in Global Warming Emergency – UANews, Nov 3 2006
Posted in General ~ No Comments
November 3rd, 2006
By GadgetManiac
Well the gadget big boys finally got their paws, uh hands, on the soon-to-be-available (11.14.06) Microsoft Zune digital music player. Seems that MSFT fedexed all three models over to both Engadget and Gizmodo a couple of days ago, for their review and approval.
In a shocker, both sites liked the Zune, thought highly of its prospects and felt it would do ok against the iPod. A cynic (not us…no way) might conclude that an unbiased review of a freebie might be a rare thing, but both reviewers used restraint in talking up the Zune and showed balance in their reporting. Of the 2 reviews, we lean towards the 1 from Gizmodo – we learned for example of the Zune’s upgradeability, the inbox, and guesting, which involves grabbing songs from someone else’s Zune Marketplace wirelessly.
Our take on the Zune: it’ll do alright, but the design is a bit too industrial to appeal to all. Expect a Zune nano in the new year. Zune specs are here.
Microsoft Zune player and software hands-on gallery – Engadget, Nov 3rd 2006
Zune: First Full Review – Gizmodo, Nov 03 2006
Posted in Music Players ~ No Comments
