Admittedly, I am late to the Wii party. For my fourth wedding anniversary this month, I bought my wife and I a Wii. In addition to Wii Sports, which comes with the console, I picked up Mario Kart.

Now, I've played with Play Stations and XBoxes before, and they are amazing machines. My younger brothers have a Play Station 3, which I can't help but spend hours playing whenever I visit them -- to my wife's chagrin.

But I noticed that she was never interested in picking up the controllers to play with the PlayStation.

Many months ago, however, I remember my wife saying she'd be interested in a Wii. I stowed that tidbit away in my tiny Neandearthal-ish brain -- until a recent trip to a Best Buy, where I was drawn to the Wii display.

Within minutes, another small fold in my Neanderthal brain was triggering the impulse to buy, buy, buy. I picked up a box of Wii. Soon after, I was approached by a man who said he worked for Sony, who happened to be in the store. He said, for a $100 more, I could own a PlayStation 3, with built-in Blu-Ray player and Netflix streaming, and tried to get to check it out.

Fair enough, but I told him I didn't really care for Blu Ray and I already had Netflix streaming through my Roku player.

Plus, I said, my wife would really only play video games with a Wii. For some reason, I instinctively thought I could get away with buying a Wii as an anniversary gift, but a Play Station 3 could land me sleeping on the couch alone for a couple nights.

Sure enough, later that night, I watched my wife play Wii bowl, Wii tennis, Wii golf, and Wii boxing. It was delightful.

This was surely a first. Aside from enjoying great literature and warm, heartfelt talks, my wife and I now had another cool thing in common: we game together.

So how about that, ladies? Do you prefer the Wii to other gaming systems, and if so, why?

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Events (DC/No. Va. area), Gadgets, Gamers
        

I think this is a new, never-before-seen product that Apple seems to be working on: In a patent filing made public today, Apple calls it a wireless headset with integrated media player. What it looks like is a Bluetooth-enabled iPod that can connect to your iPhone, but also has integrated memory for playing back MP3s, and a microphone for allowing you to talk and make audio notes to yourself that you can then save to the device.

In one permutation of the device, it could be operated using voice commands, and with one or two earpieces. Some descriptive language from the filing:

"The media player may be an audio player, capable, e.g., of playing audio files such as MPEG-3 ("MP3") files. Optionally, the media player may include a recording function as well, so that a user can record voice notes. In addition, if the headset is being used with a telephone (mobile or landline), the availability of a recording function could make it possible for the user to record all or part of a conversation. Similarly, voicemail messages received on the user's telephone could be uploaded into the headset for later off-line playback."

Alternatively, given the presence of a microphone in the headset (primarily for use with a telephone), the media player could be configured to respond to voice commands, which could allow more complex commands, including commands to play particular content. In addition, the microphone could be used to detect the ambient noise level, and to adjust playback volume accordingly.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Gadgets
        

With your help, I'd like this blog post and subsequent comments to be about electronic gadgets that are useful and save you money.

Here's what you can do: State the gadget and present your case for why you think it saves you money. Give realistic costs in your argument.

This post was inspired by OneFineJay's suggestion via Twitter a few days ago. I hope he shares with us what his most money-saving gadget is. Here's mine:

Last week was my birthday, and my wife shocked me with a gadget gift, of all things. I was expecting an electric razor ('cuz I'd asked for one) but the box instead held a Roku digital media player. (Thanks, dear. You know I'm always grateful for any gift that comes with yellow, white and red cables for plugging into other electronics equipment!)

The Roku is a small black box you hook up to your TV, and here's what it allows you to do: You can sync it with your Netflix account and use it to watch the "instant" movies from the rental service, straight to your TV. (Here's a good, recent USAToday story on the company.)

You can also sync it with your Amazon Video on Demand account to watch movies and tv shows from that service. Or, if you're a baseball net, you can get access (for a fee) to MLB.TV premium.

So, here's how the cost breaks down:

*Roku player: $99
*Netflix subscription: $9/month
*My monthly DSL bill: $23/month

So, for $32 a month, I can watch a lot of movies and TV shows, on demand, commercial free. Sure, it's not premium stuff, like HBO, but it's not bad either. I feel like I'm saving money vs a regular cable plan and that it is providing value to me.

For someone who eschews cable, I'm leaning toward thinking the selection, quality and the price point feels about right. Thus far, I've had Roku plugged in for less than a week and I've watched Wall-E, a Thomas Jefferson documentary, and Say Anything (my wife's favorite John Cusack film, I learned). I've got another 10 or so movies in my "watch instantly" queue.

Pluses: affordable startup and recurring costs, extremely easy to set up, good quality video. Minuses: Netflix needs to make more "watch instantly" movies available, Roku should partner up with more content services, like Youtube or iTunes, if it can, or allow you to tap into your own stored content on your home computer.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Gadgets
        

I never understood why the Wall Street Journal, which charges for its online edition, launched an iPhone app (two, if you count All Things D) that gave away its content for free.

Now we know that free doesn't mean free forever.

The Journal's owner, Rupert Murdoch, said the news publisher plans to charge non-subscribers $2 a week for the mobile version (on BlackBerries and iPhones), and $1 per week for online-only subscribers.

Subscribers to both the print and online editions would get it for free, according to this <ahem> free report from Reuters.

I used to have a WSJ online-only subscription, until they more-than-doubled my rate over the course of two years.

I was stupefied they gave away their content on the iPhone for free. But now that experiment in free appears to be over.

And I, of course, wonder how many people who are not already subscribers will be willing to pay to read it on their smartphones.

The truth is, though it was free, I didn't really use the WSJ iPhone app that much. The content that was funneled through it was good, but not overwhelmingly special.

All Things D satisfied my tech itch, and I hope that stays a free app. But even if not, there are still numerous sources on the Web and on my iPhone that will fill the gap.

What do you think? Would you pay for the WSJ app now that you've had a chance to experience it for free for so many months?

(photo credit: Image of WSJ via CNET)

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Apps, Gadgets, Media, Smartphones, Web Dev & Apps
        

You've heard of "reverse 911" communications systems, right?

That's where a police department can mass-dial thousands of homes an hour to make a pre-recorded announcement about a safety hazard. Perfect for when a child has gone missing, for example, and they need a neighborhood's help.

Well, Sony is trying to take that approach one step further: to your television set.

The technology giant last year filed a patent application for "reverse 911 using a TV." The filing states that emergency communications are transmitted by television "broadcasters, cable television systems, wireless cable systems, satellite and radio service providers."

Sony believes it can do the same thing using the Internet and a networked television.

The company believes networked televisions, which will have their own IP address, will become more common. How will such an emergency broadcast system work?

The reverse 911 message will come over the Internet and across your TV display. If your TV is off, the message will have the capacity to turn the TV set on (yes), so you could be alerted even when you're not paying attention.

How about that? Do you feel comfortable with Sony potentially building TV sets that can automatically turn on  in your home thanks to a signal from the government?

Mind you, it's just a patent filing and such a system may never get built. But it is now possible to do.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: For The Home, Gadgets
        

A recent patent filing by defense contractor Lockheed Martin gives us a peek into a portable virtual reality simulator the company is cooking up.

The patent application is titled: "Portable immersive environment using motion capture and head mounted display." Basically, it includes head gear and handheld controllers and a powerful computer system that integrates motion capture, virtual reality, kinematics and computer-aided design.

A motion-capture camera system captures the users' motions and a virtual reality simulator then generates "scaled avatars within a three-dimensional virtual reality simulation." So not only are you viewing virtual reality, your motions can move your avatar through the virtual space.

Cue the virtual reality movie references..........now. The Matrix, anyone? 

One nifty trick the patent app cites: the simulator is able to scale a person's avatar in real time. For instance, a 5-foot 4-inch user of the device can be scaled in real-time to be a 6-foot 2-inch avatar, and the images that the person sees through their headset will be from the perspective of the taller avatar. Get it?

What's different about their system, the Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin notes, is that it integrates motion capture and virtual reality. People who use it can interact with both real and artificial virtual reality environments, according to the patent application.

And it's not just for one user -- you can get immersed in a virtual reality with a group of people, include a trainer in whatever training exercise you can dream up. Below are detailed diagrams of the headset and the portable computer system. 

Such a system has all sorts of implications and applications, from military training scenarios to virtual gaming. Wonder if Lockheed Martin has ever considered putting out a kicking high-end video game system for consumers?

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Gadgets, Government Tech
        

Skype, the Voice-over-Internet telephony provider that allows you to make cheap calls and free video chats, appears to be working on a companion communication device for its popular software application that would work with a computer, gaming system or television.

A patent filing made public last month shows that Skype, which is owned by eBay, is working on a device (or devices), with a speaker and microphone in some permutations. Among the possibilities are devices that could connect to a computer, video game system or television.

The filing by Skype comes with diagrams, including Fig. 3 below, which shows a rectangular box with a screen and an attached headset. Another version of the device, in Fig. 5 would be a smaller Skype box (those little round knobs, 505 and 506, are a built-in speaker and a microphone) that would connect to a television (501) and would work with a remote control. 

(Aside: Wouldn't it be funny if that same remote just happened to be IBM's patent-pending auto-blogging remote, which would be able to auto-Twitter?) 

The point of the device seems to be to give Skype users a more dedicated way of receiving phone, video, SMS and instant messages. But it doesn't appear to have a video camera embedded in the device, so you'll still need a separate Web cam to do your Skype video chats.

The patent makes a few references to enabling users to field phone calls on gaming systems that don't interrupt their programs for Skype calls, so perhaps this is a new gadget geared toward gamer geeks.

The inventors listed on the filing are Duncan Lamb, Marek Laasik, Manrique Brenes, and Gareth O'Loughlin.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Big Ideas, Gadgets, Gamers
        

There are a few more goodies in the news I reported yesterday of Discovery Communication's patent filing for an e-book reader.

The Discovery e-reader is a portable viewing device with a high-resolution LCD display, and would be a direct competitor to the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader. (Discovery has thus far declined to comment on the patent filing.) But according to the schematics, the Discovery e-reader will have line in and line out jacks, and coaxial in and coaxial out jacks -- which suggests multimedia capabilities, too. Discovery appears to be setting up its own virtual e-book store, and has some previous patents on electronic book formats.

But there's another wrinkle to what Discovery wants to do: in the patent filing, there are diagrams of an e-book system that could be used by book stores and libraries. I wonder if they're devising a system where you can go to a library and, instead of taking out a paper book, you can borrow an e-book reader with multiple books stored on it. See below -- what does the diagram suggest to you?

So how will consumers get the e-books on the device? From the patent filing: "The distribution network may be an electronic book store, an Internet web site, a wired or wireless telecommunications network, an intranet, a radio program delivery system, a television program delivery system, including cable television, satellite television broadcast, and over-the-air broadcast, for example. The electronic book distribution network could include direct delivery through a mail delivery system of electronic books on a fixed media, such as a CD-ROM, for example."

Wow. That's a lot of different options for it. Make sense for a big broadcaster like Discovery to leverage all its assets in delivering the electronic content in a variety of ways.

It's unclear if Discovery has set-up any partnerships yet with their reader, but in another diagram depicting a virtual menu on the gadget, it shows options for accepting a fax or other message type, and reading the Cox news service, U.S. News and World Report, and Fodor's Travel Service. See below:

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Big Ideas, Gadgets
        

Discovery Communications, which produces such cable channels as Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, may be working on its own e-book reader, according to a U.S. patent application made public today.

The diagrams included with Discovery's patent application, which was filed in February and made public today, depict a rectangular device with physical controls for user navigation. The device would be for reading e-books and "providing for e-commerce," and would be a direct competitor to the Amazon Kindle electronic book reader and the Sony Reader digital book reader.

Below is a sample diagram from the patent filing:

A phone call was placed this afternoon to Discovery's corporate communications office seeking comment. I'm waiting on a return call.

The Silver Spring-based company holds a patent on some security and copy protection features, and earlier this year sued Amazon for their alleged infringement of them with their Kindle and Kindle 2, according to this CNET article.

But it appears the disclosures in the patent filing today are the first signs that Discovery is seriously considering entering the e-book fray.

Hit the jump to learn more about the Discovery patent filing.

Continue reading "Discovery Communications working on a Kindle competitor?" »

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Big Ideas, Gadgets, Media
        

What do you buy your blogger friend who's also a couch potato? Why, IBM's proposed new auto-blogging remote control, of course.

Engineers at IBM have been developing a TV remote control that can be programmed to auto-blog while you watch whatever it is you want to watch, according to the patent filing.

How does it work? Let's take a look at a snippet from the patent filing, which was submitted last year but didn't show up online until April.

A viewer selects a media program to view by use of a remote controller with networking capability. Upon the viewer wishing to send a blog posting to a blog, the viewer determines whether a tag to be included in the blog posting is to be a pre-existing tag or a custom tag, wherein the blog posting comprises program information about the media program useful to identify the media program. If the tag is to be a pre-existing tag, the viewer selects the pre-existing tag from a plurality of pre-existing tags using the remote controller and if the tag is to be a custom tag, the viewer generates the custom tag using the remote controller. If a protocol provided by the remote controller to send the blog posting to the blog allows a snapshot of the media program to be included in the blog posting, the remote controller takes the snapshot of the media program and includes it in the blog posting.

So, basically, IBM has built a pretty potent little remote control that can be networked. You can set it to automatically post what you're viewing to your blog. (The patent talks about posting automatically to a microblogging service -- probably Twitter.)

The patent also references Joost, the social network for video watchers. One might surmise that IBM is looking for a way to do what Joost does for online viewers, but for your television set. One of my favorite parts of the patent offers this rationale for the remote:

"...more than ever, people wish to be able to share their comments with others in real-time as they experience life. In the case of television, for example, one of the joys of watching television is discussing with one's friends the juicy bits of a favorite show or the latest television program."

I contacted an IBM spokesman who couldn't help me ferret out more details in time for this posting. He could only confirm that the patent filing -- for "automatic blogging during media viewing" -- was indeed theirs.

Want to read the full filing? Go here.

But come back and let me know what you think? Do you watch so much TV and share your viewing habits so often with others that you'd need such a remote control?

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 9:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Big Ideas, For The Home, Gadgets, Social Media
        

Two local businesses shared their stories with me on how they're making a pretty decent living servicing Apple products to different kinds of customers in the Baltimore area.

One is MacMedics, which has been around for 20 years and is based in Millersville. The other is Chesapeake Systems Inc., which is based in Hampden.

Here's the top of my story, which ran in yesterday's print edition, and is online here:

Dana Stibolt was in his early 20s when he started seriously tinkering with Apple computers at his parents' computer shop in Severna Park. It was the late 1980s and the computer that he taught himself to fix was called the Macintosh Plus.

What's interesting to note is that both of these businesses have done well because they've specialized in some areas of Mac product expertise. MacMedics offers consulting on networking, including integrating Macs and PCs; while Chesapeake has expertise in Apple's video hardware and software offerings, i.e. Final Cut Studio, and building out enterprise systems for companies that do a lot of video work.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Entrepreneurs & Risk Takers, Gadgets
        

Some fellas have gotten together to form Baltimore Node, a self-described hackerspace where computer/techy-minded people can get together to work on interesting little projects.

(A hacker, by the way, is not necessarily a bad, evil person. Hackers can be good, as I'm sure the folks involved with Baltimore Node are.)

Hackerspaces have been popping up all over the world. Members use the Web to connect with each other and other spaces -- just check out the Hackerspaces.org site for the big picture.

Baltimore Node's first group project will take place tonight, from 7-10 p.m. (Event details.)

They'll be building lamps whose color can be changed by simply Tweeting a hexadecimal color value to it.

Now, hackers, why would you want to do that? Short answer (I think): Because you can.

But, more importantly, it's an excuse to dip your toes into Arduino, a nifty open-source hardware/software programming platform that enables people to create interactive gadgets.

Learn more about Arduino here. Anybody going to build an Arduino lamp tonight? If so, take a few pics or video of your creation and share with us.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Gadgets, Geeks
        

I know next to nothing about electric guitars. Several years ago, I was lucky enough to get a tour of Paul Reed Smith's fascinating guitar factory in Stevensville, for a story I wrote about his business. Some big rockers use PRS guitars, including Carlos Santana and Creed.

So, knowing what I know about PRS's local growth into a big-name guitar company, I was interested to read about the work of Bruce Jacob, a University of Maryland electrical and computer engineering professor, in the field of electrical guitar-making. (What a cool field to be working in, huh?)

It seems Jacob -- with the help of students and partners -- created some new electronic gadgetry that allows you to squeeze many more different sounds out of the same guitar. They formed a company, Coil LLC, that, in addition to guitar-building, is also sponsoring audio electronics development at the university with the help of a $135,000 state grant. It's located in the new TERP Startup lab, a tech-incubation program for university faculty, students and entrepreneurs.

Coil LLC, started selling guitars this week via their Website.

To get a full rundown on what Jacob and Coil are doing, check out this news release out of College Park (which, incidentally, mentions PRS guitars.) And to watch young dudes jamming on Coil guitars, check these videos out. Gnarly! Rock on!

Oh, and if you're daydreaming of quitting your day-job and learning how to build guitars, Jacob even offers a course: ENEE 159b: Start-Up 101 - Electric Guitar Design.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Gadgets, Startups, University Tech
        

For those of us who remember owning a bona fide Sony Walkman back in the '80s, this cheeky little review by a 13-year-old will bring back some memories.

The review is titled "Giving up my iPod for a Walkman," and it's been making the Internet rounds lately. 

This part made me chuckle, hard, and helped me realize I am indeed of the older generation. Not the iPod generation, but the Walkman generation.

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.

Kids these days. They might have their Touches and iPhones and iPods and Zunes now, but never forget, Generation X (I think that's us, right?), we were there first to have portable music in our hands, in our ears and on our hips, with the proliferation of the Sony Walkman (which, incidentally, recently celebrated its 30th birthday.)

Love the photos in the article, too. I, too, was once a young teen strapping his Walkman to his belt, jamming to whatever it was I listened to back then, and wearing jams. (Photos of yours truly during this period are mysteriously missing from the historical record.)

If you still have your Walkman, share a pic of it with us over on the Flickr group. Vintage photos of you with a Walkman, back in the day, however, would be much preferred. ;-)

(Photo credit: AP Japan, the original Walkman)

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Gadgets
        

MacMedics, a Mac consulting and repair firm with offices in the Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia area, tipped me off to the latest curiosity to hit their shop: A fake iPhone 3G that almost looks convincing, but not quite.

A customer bought it on eBay, thinking it was the real deal -- and quickly discovered it wasn't when he started handling it. Dana Stibolt, founder of MacMedics, took a video of the fake and explained in a blog post that the customer needs an authorized Apple service provider to inspect and document its fakeness, in order for the guy to try to get his money back from PayPal.

There's a good chance the fake came from somewhere in Asia -- just watch the vid below:

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Update: Dana tells me he'd never seen a fake iPhone before.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Gadgets, Smartphones
        

Every once in a while, I get to see -- and sometimes write about -- a fascinating new product before the consumer masses get to it. It's one of the cool perks of being a journalist, really.

That happened to me recently, when Bill Anderson (left) of Oculis Labs Inc., in Owings Mills, gave me and some colleagues here at The Baltimore Sun a demo of his new software: "Chameleon" and "PrivateEye." (Here's my full story on how he launched his company and came up with the idea.) 

Here's what Chameleon does: it uses sophisticated gaze-tracking technology to dynamically render the words and images on a computer monitor so that only the authorized user can read them. It's accurate down to about one single character. If someone is peeking over your shoulder (aka "shoulder surfing"), all they will see is dummy text that is constantly changing. You, the user, will be able to read the text you choose to read wherever your eyes wander on the screen.

I tried reading the documents -- a Word and an Excel document -- over Anderson's shoulder, and I could not. I had no idea where his eyes were and the text was constantly changing on me.  

For now, big government agencies involved in military/intelligence operations are the most likely ideal customers because it requires some special hardware (the gaze-tracking equipment), and the price tag ain't cheap. Anderson bills Chameleon as a way for people to protect their monitors, which can be critical in battlefield and intelligence operations, where super-spies with powerful telephoto lenses can peer over your shoulder from a very long ways away.

For consumers, there's a lighter-weight version, PrivateEye. Here's what that does: It taps into your computer's Web cam (that's the only hardware you need) and uses face-detection technology so that your computer knows when you turn away from the screen. As soon as you turn away, the screen softly blurs. Ideal for office situations where privacy of information is paramount, such as medical settings, financial institutions, law firms, etc.

Anderson gave us a tour of the software and we shot some video. Check it out below!

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Gadgets, Government Tech, Startups, Venture Cap
        

While covering Constellation Energy's press conference on how they think the PSC screwed up last week, I got a tap on the shoulder from this guy on the left.

He's Tyler Waldman, a student at Towson University and an intern at WBAL Radio. Notice I said radio.

Yet Tyler (who keeps the Tyler Tech blog) is carrying a little Flip Mino video camera, which of course is branded with the W-B-A-L. logo. 

Tyler was kind enough to introduce himself to me at the presser. Previously, we were only virtual acquaintances, on Twitter (he's @aresef).

I was heartened to see that as an intern at a radio station, he's also learning to shoot video, even if it's with a teeny-tiny camera (which, apparently, shoots some pretty darn good high-def video, I hear.)

The Web has torn down the walls among different kinds of media (print, TV, radio) and given us all the same level playing field. 

It's so important for the next crop of journalists, like Tyler, to get early experience in doing journalism with whatever tools can help him tell the best story, and one that can be consumed by the most amount of people.

Kudos to Tyler. Keep at it. Just remember to keep lots of spare batteries on hand for the gadgets you'll have to carry!

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Gadgets, Media
        

News is starting to trickle out of Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference in San Francisco. I'll post highlights here.

In case you're wondering, I'm following updates at http://www.macrumorslive.com/ and listening to audio at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wwdc-live. (And Gizmodo is live-blogging with photos)

Live video from an attendee:

1st update: a new 15-inch MacBook pro. Apple says customers are really digging the new unibody design that they recently debuted. And it's got some impressive specifications, including a powerful battery. Shipping today. Updates also with 13inch to 17inch MacBook Pros. starting price: $1199.

2nd update: The MacBook Air (that super-thin computer) getting a boost in processing speed. Apple sez it's got the "greenest" (environ-friendly) laptops in the world.

Update 3: Starting to hear about Apple's new Snow Leopard operating system, which is an upgrade from last year's Leopard release (drat! I just bought Leopard 2 months ago.) Apparently, Snow Leopard will save you 6GB of disk space after upgrading from Leopard (thanks Apple for not being such a disk space hog!)

Update 4: Upgrades to Safari (Safari 4 available today) and Quicktime.

Update 5: Apple's now supporting in full, Microsoft Exchange. You are now free to move your contacts between your work and personal computers.

Update 6: Dude, this roaring crowd needs to chill. I can't hear jack on the audio!!

Update 7: "Let's talk about the iPhone"!! Something's is coming?!

Update 8:: Sold more than 1 billion apps through the App Store (Aside: yeah, but how many of those apps were deleted by people who were bored by the stupid free stuff in the App Store??) I delete at least a third of the free apps I download cuz they're stinky and one-dimensional.

Update 9: Showing a snoozer video about the importance of technology and what developers can do if they develop on the iPhone platform. Snoooooore. This feels very Microsofty. (hehe ... that's a joke)

Update 10: Talking about the iPhone OS 3.0.... first new feature: cut/copy/paste, which should've been added, like, 18 iPhones ago. Duh.

Update 11: Able to rent and purchase movies right from your phone" (Thanks for helping me spend more money, kind sirs. Plus audiobooks. And supporting iTunesU, too.) Oh, and let's not forget important editions to parental controls.

Update 12: Tethering! Be still my heart. Sharing your iPhone's Internet connection with your laptop. Works for both Macs and PCs. Wired and wirelessly over Bluetooth (magic!) Requires carrier support. Laughter among the crowd. Guess we'll be paying even more for that flexibility.

Update 13: Crazy multilanguage support for the iPhone.

Update 14: Some pretty cool new security features for the iPhone. FindmyiPhone service debuts, for MobileMe customers. Can send lost/stolen phone remote web command, to protect your private content. If you find it again, you plug it back into iTunes and everything is restored. (Aside: Maybe MobileMe will finally be worth the price now?)

Update 15: Coming to a new iPhone operating system near you: in-app purchase. (Aside: So my apps now will try to upsell me? Will they become extremely annoying?) Plus: support for peer-to-peer connectivity. Great for gamers. Your iPhone will "find" other iPhones in your immediate area and you can play games with others.

Continue reading "News from Apple today: New MacBooks, Snow Leopard and NEW IPHONE 3GS" »

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Gadgets
        

I met an interesting chap last week: Donavon West. He's an independent software developer who works out of his home in North Baltimore. He's also a tinkerer, with a fascination for both new and old tech -- and how to combine the two, at least aesthetically.

I wrote about one of his creations, which he's calling the Home Servidor. Take a look at the video below (BaltTech blog's first video!) for a little tour of it. (Note: no cigar was harmed in the making of this video and I don't condone smoking them. <cough-cough>)

To celebrate the spirit of hackery, anybody else out there doing interesting mashups of new and old tech? Drop a note in the comments. Maybe I'll show up at your front door with a video camera. ;-)

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Entrepreneurs & Risk Takers, For The Home, Gadgets