Archive for February 24th, 2009

You don’t wanna wear out your eyes reading superlong Kindle 2 reviews before you get one, right? Well here’s our review matrix for quick, easy-on-the-eyes digestion of reviews from tech’s biggest names.

We’ve got reviews here from the NYT’s David Pogue (no musical, sadly), Wired’s Steven Levy and USA Today’s Ed Baig. Mr. Mossberg is MIA, probably waiting until the regular run of his column tomorrow. Update: Fixed a quote accidentally swapped between Pogue and Levy.

There’s Jon Stewart’s take on it, as an alternative. [Wired, NYT, USA Today]
galleryPost(‘kindle2handson’, 25, ‘Kindle 2 Hands On’);

If you have been kicking the tires on Safari 4, you might be interested in Random Genius’ list of basic preference tweaks for people looking to disable some of the new features. [Random Genius]

newVideoPlayer(“/writeintheair_giz.flv”, 506, 404,”"); Microsoft showed off a “Write in the Air” system developed in China. You can write with a gyro controller or in thin air, using a camera. Is it next for the Xbox?

You can’t help but notice the giant Xbox logo there on the screen, and the researcher I talked to said that it would be a great system for the Xbox or for Microsoft interactive TV. Still, when I pressed him, he said he didn’t know of any immediate plans. Whatever, it makes sense, except maybe the part where he grabs an orange and uses it as a stylus.

Microsoft’s TechFest is an annual jamboree of innovation and gadgetry from Microsoft Research, which means that while none of it is coming out as is in products in the near future, it’s essentially what product development people use to add cool stuff to their actual releases. I’m here all day.

Ars rounds up iPhone apps released by a bunch of crappy bands so I don’t have to—they’re tacky trail mixes of promo clips with links to buy stuff, but point to a scary trend.

The apps released by five Universal artists—All-American Rejects, SouljaBoyTellem, Pussycat Dolls, Lady Gaga and Keri Hilson—are all of this shallow breed of app. They’ve got some promo video clips with interviews and stuff, a weird chat application to talk to other superfans, and then a section that’s really glorified links to the iTunes store to buy music.

In other words, they’re not totally awesome like Presidents of the United States of America’s, which actually gives you their entire catalog in a single app for like 3 bucks. But it points to a trend we’re not too keen on, the proliferation of dedicated content apps: One app for every band I like? Or even record label? It’s a recipe for ridiculousness, and it’s a trend that looks like it’s gonna keep growing as labels and studios look for new ways to extract every precious penny from our pockets. Luckily, for now, most of the apps suck so you don’t actually have to worry about downloading them. [Ars Technica]

If I had a pool table in my apartment (which I definitely don’t), I wouldn’t want pool cues, balls and all that other stuff constantly in plain sight. Enter the leather cue bench.

This $3400 piece of furniture keeps all your pool accessories tucked away, so that when your not hustling friends and family for money, your newly acquired Jacksons are the only thing you have to look at. And when you are hustling friends and family, there’s even a spot for them to sit while they watch you run the table. It’s a win-win situation! [Leather Cue Bench via BallerHouse via Born Rich via Dvice]

What have we here? A 32″ Sharp Aquos for $600 shipped, a Shure I2C-M headset for $36 and IHOP Pankcakes for nothing? Oh my!

Audio
• Shure I2C-M Stereo Mobile Headset for $36.01 (normally $119.00).

Cameras
• Canon Powershot SD790 10MP Digital Camera for $149.99 plus free shipping (normally $199).

Computing
• Lenovo 15.4″ Y530-3231U IdeaPad Notebook for $549 plus free shipping. Use promo code EMCLNNR53 today only (normally $649).
• Toshiba 15.4″ Satellite A305D-S6914 Notebook for $699 plus free shipping (normally $849).
• AMD Phenom II x4 920 2.8GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Quad-Core Processor for $189 plus free shipping (normally $224).
• Acer H233Hbmid Black 23″ 1080p Widescreen LCD Monitor for $219 plus free shipping (normally $249).
• AOC Toriba 831S+ 18.5″ Widescreen LCD Monitor for $99 plus free shipping (normally $135).

Home Entertainment
• Sharp Aquos LC32D64U 32″ 1080p LCD HDTV for $599 plus free shipping (normally $949).

Gaming
• Saint’s Row 2 Collector’s Edition for PS3 for $34.98 plus free shipping (normally $59.99.)

Movies
• Iron Man Ultimate Two-Disc Edition [Blu-Ray] for $18.99 plus free shipping (normally $39.99).
• Transformers 2-Disc Special Edition [Blu-Ray] for $18.99 plus free shipping (normally $39.99).
• Tropic Thunder (Unrated Director’s Cut) [Blu-Ray] for $18.99 plus free shipping (normally $39.99).

Phones
• Palm Treo 750 3G Unlocked for $194.99 plus free shipping (normally $249.99. Valid today only. Use coupon code EMCLNNR44).

Hobomodo
• National Wildlife Federation Travel Pillow for $0.
• Jonas Brothers song, video and downloadable poster for $0.
• 2 Teasta Tea Sample Bags for $0.
• Arby’s Roast Burger for $0 (With any drink purchase).
• IHOP Pancake Short Stack for $0 (Valid today only. Consider making a donation to support local children’s hospitals, please).

HELLO, LADIES. [Urban Trend via Fashionably Geek]

The Ballmeister told analysts that Office 14 won’t ship in 2k9, leaving spreadsheet enthusiasts going back to Office 2007 for their chart generating shenanigans. [ZDNet]

If you’re looking for a Dell laptop, they’re having a 4-hour laptop sale online right now. No idea what they’ll have, but it’s a sale, and we love those. Updated.

It looks like Dell is offering three computers here: The 14-inch Inspiron 1420 for $500, the 13.3-inch XPS M1330 for $800 and the 15-inch Inspiron 1525 for $550.

For those who can’t count four hours ahead, that’s 3-7pm EST, 2-6pm CST and 12-4pm PST (Mountain Timers, you’re on your own). [Dell via CrunchGear]

An omnidirectional projector with a camera inside watches your hand movements and reacts fast, like a planetarium-wide Surface table. Does it give you a Zaphod-sized ego? Hell yes it does. Check out this vid:

As you can, see from the photo above, the computer is tracking hand gestures using a basic gesture language: pinching to grab, pulling hands apart to zoom, moving hands together to pan and rotate. In this demo, the content spewed from the omnidirectional projector is the WorldWide Telescope (the thing that made Scoble or somebody cry). It’s pretty cool, especially when you see him pan all the way back to reveal the Big Bang, and then zoom in again to see that glowing dot that turns out to be the flippin’ Milky Way.

And yes, it does remind me of the Total Perspective Vortex from Hitchhiker’s Guide, even if it’s not powered by a single piece of cake. (Trust me, I looked.)

newVideoPlayer(“/omnidirectionalprojector_giz.flv”, 506, 423,”");

Microsoft’s TechFest is an annual jamboree of innovation and gadgetry from Microsoft Research, which means that while none of it is coming out as is in products in the near future, it’s essentially what product development people use to add cool stuff to their actual releases. I’m here all day.