Pre-April Fools Day Swag

ThinkGeek has some funny April Fools’ Day’s gadgets posted at their site. The best one being "The Screened Sphorb," the picture of which never loads. A sampling of the product description reads: "The Screened Sphorb, now using resolution transistors to create an array of functional sub-screens, features embedded motion scripting and is easier to use than the typical shift serve found in any local computer mart. With the Screened Sphorb, you can mod elementals AND screen drive in twice the time using only half of the optional memory pods, while the other half waits to achieve a normalized state." 

I realized that probably is like what normal people hear when geeks talk about computer stuff to them!

Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed

Windows Live Mail Desktop is a free Windows program, currently in a very limited beta of only 100 users, that will let you manage multiple e-mail accounts. It works with Windows Live Mail, the successor to Hotmail, as well as Hotmail itself. However, the software will also be able to manage POP3 or IMAP accounts, which means that it has the potential to manage Google’s Gmail. I expect that Google will soon be release a desktop software that can do the same, don’t you?

As you may know, I am quite the addict to ABC’s "Lost". Last night’s episode showed a map on the back of the blast doors; I was very pleased to have found this picutre online. But what does it all mean? Your guess is as good as mine, but I do love this show!

Goowy is getting even better! Using Flash technology, Goowy offers a virtual desktop complete with email, contacts, calendar, games, and, just announced to be in alpha testing: instant messenging and 1 GB of storage, via a box.net account. (For more info on Goowy, see my previous post; for more info on box.net, see this post). On the Goowy blog, posted on 3-28-06, they write:

Last night we launched a limited Alpha release of Goowy IM and File Storage.   We are rolling it out to everyone in phases.  If you want to be part of the early Alpha, please send us an email to comments@goowy.com requesting activation.  This functionality is only available to people with Flash 8.

This is great! I look forward to using the new features and having a desktop that can travel with me. If anyone is in the alpha test, leave some feedback here!

I just love Typepad. Check out this new feature: widgets for your blog! These widgets enable Typepad users an easier way to add side features (feedburner, technorati, search boxes, commerce, photos, etc) to your blog. So far, Typepad has partnered with more than 30 companies and I’m sure there will be more to come soon. Before widgets, you would have to go to that site and copy and paste the code they provided; now all you have to do is click a widget and it will post to your blog. Go Typepad!

An article posted at PC Magazine’s website this month offers a review of the unbelievable $159 GQ ("Great Quality") 3131 PC. I was skeptical that you could purchase a computer worth owning for $159, but I was surprised by the relatively decent system (for the price) that GQ is offering. The system comes with a AMD Sempron 2400+ chip, which runs at 1.67 GHz, a 40 GB hard drive, a 52x CD-ROM drive (right - no burner), and a ECS 741GX-M socket 462 motherboard,  which has 4 USB 2.0 ports, built-in 6-channel audio, a 10/100 ethernet NIC and built-in modem (because if you need a $159 PC, there’s a good chance you’re still on dial-up.) There is an empty AGP slot in case you want to throw in a graphics card later, though playing games on this PC would be a joke; still, at least it’s there if you want to upgrade. There is only 128 MB of memory in one of the two DIMM slots, but hey…it’s a $159 PC! Besides, RAM is an easy, cheap upgrade these days, and in this case, almost a required one. Still, when you tack on the extra $40 to bring the RAM up to 512 MB, you’re still looking at a $199 PC, and that’s not too shabby.

What the 3131 doesn’t come with is (besides a monitor) is any Microsoft software - the PC runs Linspire (formerly Lindows) and has the Microsoft-compatible OpenOffice suite pre-installed; but so what? There isn’t much more that you can do with this PC besides creating documents and surfing the ‘net, anyway, and frankly, there’s not much more the average user wants to do either. (Well, that and  using email of course, which I’m sure could be handled just fine by a freebie app like Thunderbird).

So, techies like me (and probably anyone who reads blogs like this) won’t be drooling over this one, but it’s good to see something affordable enough for the financially challenged, fixed-income, or just your run-of-the-mill penny-pincher consumers. Believe it or not, there are still people out there who don’t own or use computers, so bargain technology like this can be just the price point they needed to get wired. The only problem I have with all the hype is that this GQ PC appears to be an in-store special at Fry’s, as their website doesn’t list the deal. You can see if there is a Fry’s near you here.

It wasn’t too long ago that I upgraded my old cell phone to the sleek, phone-du-jour, the Razr (in hot pink); but I’m already itching to upgrade it again for the T-Mobile MDA handheld. Although it’s argued that it’s not the not the best handheld on the market (for lackluster phone performance), I’ll bet it’s decent enough, and since I’m with T-Mobile, it’s *the one* to get. The MDA runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and has email and web via wi-fi or EDGE networks. Dedicated keys take you to IE, email, your contacts, the camera, and the networking manager. There are times when I want a fancy handheld like this, and there are other times I just want a slim, lightweight phone. I just can’t decide, so maybe I need to have both and just move my SIM card back and forth!

However, if I actually had saved up the $399.99 for this smartphone, I’d probably go buy a video iPod instead.

A video at ZDNet features David Berlind, an Executive Editor taking a stand on DRM. He renames DRM by the more appropriate name "C.R.A.P." (for Content, Restriction, Annulment and Protection). He rants about how Microsoft, Apple, and Sony DRM devices and content don’t "play nice" with each other. He says: "I’m not going to buy any of this CRAP. Stop buying this CRAP. Don’t buy any technology that has CRAP in it, because all it’s going to do is make it impossible for you to take the content that you’re paying good money for and play it anywhere you want."  Humorous video!

Comments and Trackbacks are now being held for approval, thanks to an overload of trackback spam, something that REALLY MAKES ME MAD. With Typepad, you have to turn on comments & trackback approval or turn it off, but you can’t just turn it on for trackbacks only (however, I did suggest this to them). You can allow/disallow trackbacks on new posts fairly easily, but the spammers tend to go after old, popular posts, so it doesn’t help.  Please feel free to comment or send trackbacks, but don’t expect to see them immediately for now. I hope the trackback spammers give up on harassing me soon.

We all know that streaming large files can be a pain sometimes, even with our high speed connections. However, lately there has been a lot of progress in this area. There is a new website called Best Front Seat, that is using a new compression technology that enables high-quality video material to be streamed across the internet using 1Mb broadband connection. BestFrontSeat is using the technology to deliver video on demand (films, TV programs, promotional videos etc.) and broadcast live events such as concerts, company announcements and sports events.

Another new company, ITiva, is soon to be offering streaming, high-def content via a new technology called Quantum Streaming. Unlike the peer-to-peer model, which breaks up a file into little pieces in order to transmit it, Quantum Streaming breaks up HD video into http-based web pages (called quanta), and those pages can be cached by ISPs just like any other web page. One major Hollywood studio has already signed up to distribute content with them and there surely will be more to come.

And if all this sounds like magic, well, that’s how you know that these are amazing leaps in technology that are going to revolutionize the net!