"It's yet another in a long series of diversions in an attempt to avoid responsibility." - Chris Knight
Archive for December, 2007
$19,000 Speakers Are Taller Than You
December 18th, 2007 by iDunzo
The Nucleus Reference 5LS speakers from Anthony Gallo Acoustics will cost you around $122 USD per inch. The catch?
The speakers are six and a half feet tall.
The pair weighs in at $19,000 USD, and each cabinet has 12 subwoofers at the back and a combination of eight mid range and seven tweeters at the front.
I almost fell asleep reading the specifications.
Like all high end audio gadgets, there is plenty of nonsense to get any audiophile excited: “spherical enclosure technology”,”carbon fiber” and my personal favorite: “rear-firing 4 inch drivers”.
I almost want to try these out, if only for the perverse pleasure of hooking such monsters up to a tiny Apple iPod Shuffle.
Posted in Apple + Music + Technology + Toys & Gadgets | 
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Eight top-of-mind innovators to watch in 2008
December 17th, 2007 by iDunzo
They’re all passionate about an idea, an approach, or a technology, and they’re focused on driving it to the next level.
Watch for each of them to be a force for change in their own corner of the tech world.
Meet 8 people who will help shape the business technology world in the coming year:
Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt
With very different approaches, this duo’s dragging the stagnant phone business into the Internet age. Jobs’ Apple iPhone embraces a closed network, and Schmidt’s Google Android platform envisions a wide-open one. Both are forcing change for the better.
Mark Zuckerberg
It’s not Facebook that matters, it’s Facebook thinking. IT will feel growing pressure to provide social networking functions–to customers, along the supply chain, and inside their workplaces.
Mark Hurd
He’s got Hewlett-Packard back atop the PC market. How big a splash can he make in business software? The year ahead will tell.
Ray Ozzie
For a Microsoft exec, Ozzie sure is quiet. That’s fine, but it’s time for his vision of software-plus-services to make some noise. That means delivering some surprising products businesses can put to use.
Sam Palmisano
IBM can’t afford to stand pat in software. After making the company’s biggest acquisition ever this year, count on IBM’s CEO to keep dealing in 2008.
Diane Greene
Microsoft storms the virtualization market next year, along with a growing horde of Xen-based rivals like Sun and Oracle. The VMware CEO is a leader, and this is her toughest test yet.
Charles Phillips
2008 needs to be about new products, as Oracle promises to deliver the first of its Fusion applications, which draw together software from past acquisitions. But don’t expect Oracle’s president, a former Wall Street analyst, to lay off the deal-making.
Posted in Technology + Toys & Gadgets + Web + Wireless | Comments Off on Eight top-of-mind innovators to watch in 2008
Disappearing Car Door
December 14th, 2007 by iDunzo
I’m still trying to figure out if this is real or a fake but either way it’s a really cool concept.
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Disappearing Car Door:
Taken from the official Disappearing Car Door website:
The original inventors and designers of the exciting Disappearing Car Door technology are now in a position to equip your favorite automobile with our cool, sexy, safe and convenient automatic door or design an original vehicle body incorporating this unique technology.
Our vehicle architecture offers an attractive rethink for car design and adds greatly to overall vehicle safety including our structural integration of the door with the unibody and our cruciform door frame technology.
What do you think? Is this car door technology real or fake?
After looking over the video and checking out the website, I’m still on the fence. If it’s not real, someone really needs to create it as I believe it would be well received.
Posted in Geekery + Technology + Toys & Gadgets + Videos | 3 Comments »
1 In 7 Have Been Dumped By A Text Message Or E-Mail
December 14th, 2007 by iDunzo
“I Dont Wanna Go Out W/U N E Mor.” If you haven’t seen a text message like this yet, you may soon.
According to a new survey, roughly one in seven say they’ve been dumped by a boyfriend or girlfriend via text message or e-mail. I guess Kevin Federline isn’t alone.
Here is a look at the survey:
“Most of us send emails and texts everyday, so it comes as no surprise they are now being used to ditch someone — however distasteful this is,” said Rob Barnes from moneysupermarket.com, which carried out the survey.
“The results show one per cent of the population would use a social networking site to dump a partner. It would be interesting to see how this changes as sites such as Facebook and MySpace become more apparent in our everyday lives.”
The survey included 2,194 people in the United Kingdom between the ages of 18-24.
A more surprising finding, though, was that almost 25% of those surveyed have used the traditional pen and paper “Dear John” or “Dear Jane” letter to call it quits.
This is just another sign of how pervasive text messaging is in the lives of younger people.
What do you think? Have you used a text message or e-mail to break up with someone? Or, worse, have you been dumped this way?
Posted in Instant Messaging + Technology + Wireless | 1 Comment »
Google Takes Mobile Fight To Microsoft’s Doorstep
December 13th, 2007 by iDunzo
Google’s latest mobile software offering takes aim at the heart of Microsoft Exchange.
Google has made it possible to sync your Gmail, applications, your own domains, and now your Google calendar with your BlackBerry’s on-board calendar application. No pricey Exchange servers and licenses required.
Recently I’ve started using Google’s calendar application to schedule meetings.
Even though Google made the calendar available to smartphones via mobile browsers, it was a little awkward to use and you couldn’t sync it with your mobile device.
Well, now you can. Google has added calender syncing to its list of mobile capabilities.
You can now sync appointments, meetings, and events from your Google calendar to the calendar application on your BlackBerry smartphone.
Excuse me for a second while I say, “Woo-hoo!”
All interested users need do is install a calendar update patch from BlackBerry and go to Google’s mobile services page.
Google will walk you through the steps and before long, Bingo! You’re all set to sync your calendar wirelessly to your BlackBerry.
Does Microsoft already offer this functionality to BlackBerrys? Yes, it sure does but at a price.
Not only do you have to buy the servers (which start at $700 and jump to $4,000 very quickly), but you have to license the software to each user, starting at $67 a pop.
Google offers all this for free, gratis, nada, zip, zilch, nothing.
Google has really stepped up the pace of innovations of late. Microsoft, are you paying attention?
Posted in Google + Software + Technology + Wireless | Comments Off on Google Takes Mobile Fight To Microsoft’s Doorstep
Wireless USB Displays to Debut in 2008
December 12th, 2007 by iDunzo
DisplayLink and Alereon have announced a wireless USB display adapter.
The dongle will packetize the video signal and transmit it through the ether, whereupon it will be reassembled into a picture which “looks to a user exactly like a wired display”.
The adapter supports 32-bit color and “real-time video playback” at resolutions up to 1680 x1050.
At first, the inevitable skepticism set in. Why bother with a cable free display when you have to plug it into a power source anyway? The press release shut me up.
Planned applications include “USB-connected monitors, video-capable USB laptop docking stations, Skype video phones, picture frames”.
The adapter will be on show at next year’s CES, and should be available soon, at $150-$250 for the transmitter/receiver set.
Posted in Technology + Toys & Gadgets + Wireless | Comments Off on Wireless USB Displays to Debut in 2008
