Hitech News

Flash drives aren't known for their capacity, and this new flash drive won't be known for its inexpensive price, but Buffalo has a new 8GB drive.
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If you recently acquired a MacBook Pro, you may have some devices that still work only with PCMCIA and not the new ExpressCard slot. The workaround is a external PCMCIA card reader that connects to your computer via USB.
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From the good people at Yahoo! research, Taglines is a flash based Flickr visualization tool. It showcases the 8 most popular tags of a particular day, and shows them in two way (seeing it is better than reading my description).
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The designer is such a fan of iPods that he even podcast his fashion show this past February. But what in the world does he do with 60 ipods??
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Engadget has a round up of the reviews of the new digital audio player (which also plays video and records decent audio). The Clix is the next generation U10. It looks nice, but I don't think I'm in the market for a device with only 2 Gigs of storage.
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Targus has just announced a new accessory for the iPod: a lock that clips via the dock connector. The lock features a three digit combination and can be chained to a table leg (or to your arm if that's your style).
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That's when they get here that is. All of the inventions in this list are energy based (new forms, the consumption and storage), so it's no wonder why these made the list now. My list would be jetpacks, holographs and artificial intelligence that won't go crazy and try and take over the world.
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Reuters is reporting that soldiers are bonding with military robots built by iRobot (the company behind the Roomba). The soldiers even go so far as naming the robots they use in combat and mourning their destruction. I design wearable electronics, but I still find it disturbing that soldiers are making friends with bomb droping robots.
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Did you just buy a fancy new MacBook or MacBook Pro laptop? If so, you are probably going to want to take advantage of the internal sudden motion sensor with the MacSaber application. When you swing your Mac laptop at your adversary, the application makes lightsaber zapping and swooshing sounds. Geektastic.
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It seems that the rumor about the Darwin kernel becoming closed source for x86 is just that: speculation. Apple product manager Ernest Prabhakar notes on a tech mailing list that no official statement has been issued about the kernel no longer being released as open source. [via TUAW]
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Milan, Italy-based company Mac@Work is selling diamond-encrusted, white gold iPod headphones. The diamonds come in the shape of a heart, lightning, moon or star. Prices start at about $700 and up for the headphones.
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Why would you buy sexy underthings for your MP3 player? Because you're an idiot!
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You can already buy DVDs, CDs and regular old candy and soda from vending machines, now add an iPod as the next item at a vending machine near you.
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Set to coincide with the opening of the Fifth Avenue New York City Apple Store, InCase has created a line of leather iPod cases embossed with NYC iconography. The commemorative cases are exclusive to the new store. Sizes are available for the iPod nano and the 5th Generation iPod in both black and white.
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iLounge publishes a free annual guide to iPods. The 2005/2006 Holiday Guide doesn't disappoint and includes leading accessories for iPods, iPod tips, as well as comparisons of various members of the iPod family.
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With the video that's been making the rounds the past couple of days that shows Steve Jobs introducing the very first iPod, it's amazing to think about just how much things have changed for Apple in a mere 4 1/2 years. This article, which I found at www.tuaw.com, shows Steve Jobs announcing Apple's plans to build a new 50 acre campus next to their current headquarters in Cupertino, California.
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This how-to walks you through downloading videos from YouTube so that you can watch them on your video-capable iPod.
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In my previous life as an IT support technician, I have more horror stories about hard drives failing than I'd care to share. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, hard drives seem to fail at the worst possible moment. Don't get caught in that situation, avoid it all together by following this walk through made simple courtesy of Lifehacker.com.
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Google has launched a new service called Notebook which allows you to take clippings from webpages and collect them all on one single page. The service looks simple to use and looks to be built on Ajax (but I'm not sure).
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Don't want to shell out $250 for the iPod Hi-Fi? If you've got an old boombox lying around, you can essentially make your own for less than $50.
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Or it will be shortly. Analysts left and right are predicting that the 2GB and 4GB diminutive jukeboxes will be replaced by 4GB and 8GB video capable versions this summer. Makes sense to me, the Nano's screen is already capable of producing great images. I'm not saying watching videos on it will be any great joy, but it does make sense.
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New York City is moving full speed ahead on a plan to provide free wireless internet in the city's biggest parks. Central Park, it was declared this week, will be wifi enabled by July; Prospect Park in Brooklyn is next.
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Flickr, the coolest digital photo organizer ever, made some very cool updates to their system last night. I already know that the new Organizr is going to occupy me for hours. What?!? You don't have a Flickr account? Go get one, right now.
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Just when you thought calling couldn't get any cheaper than your unlimited calls with your VoIP provider, Skype has decided to make all PC to US/Canada landline calls free. When will this little offer be up? At the end of 2006. If you haven't tried Skype, chances are now you will.
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A German podcast sums up the trust we put in Google as mere fanaticism. Do we trust Google too much? We use their email, their search engine, their jabber clients, and now their calendars. Where do we draw the line?
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A new subscription based service was finally launched today co-championed by Microsoft and MTV. The prices start at 9.99 for a computer only version, and 14.99 for transfer to "Plays For Sure" players. Personally I'm not such a fan of subscription models or Microsoft DRM.
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When the BBC asked Guy Kewney of newswireless.net, to appear on the BBC, a slight mix-up occurred. Instead of Guy Kewney, they got his taxi cab driver on the air, live, answering questions about the Apple vs. Apple case. I love live TV.
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When you need video, you need embedded video. Bloglines has now allowed for YouTube's flash based videos to appear in your Bloglines rss reader. Next I'll have rss feeds for my clean clothes.
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Republican Congressman Michael G. Fitzpatrick introduced a bill yesterday that would block anyone under 18 from accessing social networking sites like MySpace from public computers. The Deleting Online Predators Act (or, DOPA, without a hint of irony) is, he says, "essentially a bill to protect children from the Internet."
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In a quick and dirty interview, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley of YouTube note that if they wanted to, their currently non-revenue building site could pull in $10 million a MONTH. However, they note that they don't want to lose traffic and have been holding off even hiring a single salesperson.
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The portal giant is teaming up with the biggest name in Spanish-language TV to go after Hispanics online. Not in, like, a witchhunt sort of way -- just in terms of marketing.
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If your job requires you to do a lot of computer work outside you are going to want one of these Comp Shades. It attaches to the back of your laptop screen and provides a 9 inch deep tunnel around the screen. It folds flat against the back of the lid for storage. You're still on your own when it comes time to attach the thing to your face.
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Well kids, it looks like there's going to be a brand new kind of crack hitting the streets. Even though carriers haven't announced it yet, the BlackBerry 7130 has gained FCC approval. So look for Cingular and T-Mobile to pick this phone up soon. Unlike previous BlackBerries, this one does not have a full Qwerty keyboard. It uses their SureType keyboard which gives it shape similar to most candy bar phones.
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Shosei OISHI's iScratch lets you scratch music on the iPod like it was on a physical turntable. Using the scroll wheel you can scratch and reverse any song file ... as long as it's a WAV file. Installing Linux is also required. The developer warns that iScratch is beta software. So if you have problems, just reboot. Finally, a more PC like experience for iPod owners.
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Time Warner's Dick Parsons confirmed today that he's cut a deal with BitTorrent, to distibute WB films and TV shows to users for a fee. No word yet on movie prices, but TV episodes are expected to go for about a buck each -- a pretty severe cut on what they go for on iTunes. It's big news -- especially since many of us assumed that Disney, now led by wack-job futurist Bob Iger, would be the first studio to launch their own pay-for-play download store.
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CompWave has developed a unique mount for the Mac mini. The MiniHitch attaches to the back of your monitor using a VESA bolt pattern. VESA mounts are standard on most monitors and are generally used to mount flat panels on monitor arms. Unfortunately on some monitors, like Dell flat panels, these holes are blocked by desktop stand. CompWave also has a VESA iSight bracket.
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With the release of microOLAP Technologie's WinPCap to PSSDK migration module it became possible to build packet sniffing tools that didn't require you to install the WinPCap library. PacketStuff decided to port a bunch of Unix tools to Windows using this technology. Now you can throw all of these programs on a USB thumbdrive and run them on any computer you want without having to install anything.
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Quicksilver for OSX maintains an almost cult like following of power users. For non users the application seems to defy description since it does everything. At its core it is an application launcher, but it really shines when doing repetitive tasks. The Apple Blog is gearing up to do a series of Quicksilver screencasts to help out new users. In this first one they show how to install Quicksilver and configure several plugins so that users will be on the same page for future screencasts. In a separate screencast they show Quicksilver's power by taking a screenshot, resizing it, uploading it to Flickr, and emailing it to themselves all in the space of 40 seconds.
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The PERM project is designed to help people in residential areas share bandwidth securely with their neighbors over WiFi. The software actively monitors network usage and distributes traffic across the different wired connections. It gives priority to the owner of the wired connection. It seems like a good idea, but I wonder how effective it will be. Cable users are already on a shared line so it seems this would be a net loss and I doubt DSL users will be happy when a neighbor slams them into their monthly traffic limit.
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Can't afford a copy of Photoshop? Check out Paint.net. It's free!
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Well call me an early adopter, but I bought a configurable PC from Wal-Mart online over four years ago. Apparently the mega-store with questionable employee policies will now offer configurable PCs in their retail stores.
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Buffalo has recently unveiled a new line of Serial ATA USB 2 drives that have huge amounts of storage, but are fanless so you won't need to worry about keeping them on your desktop. Last week Buffalo unveiled a wireless networked hard drive that I believed topped out around a terrabyte. While these are cool, I'm much more interested in those.
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this is cool
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The director of the BBC issued a call to arms to "old media" at the We Media conference today: “The media which used to be conveniently shaped by us into not quite one-size-fits-all in different chunks for lage groups is going to change. It’s going to be shaped in communities by them." We're them!
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A group of scientists recently agreed at a National Institute of Standards and Technology workshop to share their ideas with the eventual goal of creating better designed computer systems. As technology continues to accelerate at an astounding rate, it only makes sense to see what the other guy already has done. Why not compete for the good of mankind, and not your pocketbook.
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Helio is a new phone company that probably has the greatest hook for their target demographic-- MySpace integration. Their two phones at launch will allow users with a MySpace account to take pictures and upload them directly to their page. Writing and commenting will also be integrated and I'm sure more features will be added shortly.
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There's a new blog search engine on the web, Sphere, as in blogosphere, and I thought it would be interesting to see what different blogs are saying about it, so I ran this search...
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Versiontracker now has a page dedicated to people running Windows on their Macs via Boot Camp. Check it out.
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Cool list of tips to help you make the most out of Google Calendar.
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"You kids today with your farkspaces, slashboings, drudge-filters & diggwoots."
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