The Gadgets Page

When you live on airplanes, you need to power up your computer somehow. Unfortunately, the Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter isn’t a good option for people with Apple computers:

• apophenia: dysfunctional product design: Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter

After spending $60 on the adapter, it was obvious that the design had a major flaw:

I bought a new Macbook and ordered the Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter with it since none of my other airline plugs would work. When i opened it, i was horrified to see that it was a two-part thing: the cord and the cigarette plug part. I knew this was going to be a disaster. Sure enough, FIRST flight, the damn cigarette part gets stuck in the power plug on the plane and i have to leave it behind. I grumble the whole way off the plane about dysfunctional design. Who thinks it wise to make such a thing two-part when the entire structure of a cigarette lighter is to get stuck?

Sadly, there was no help at Apple for the issue…

He tells me he can’t do anything for me but he will tell his manager about the blogs. I ask him if i can just order just the head of the damn thing and finally, he tells me that’s possible but not through the site and i’m like i don’t care, just send it.

It doesn’t look like there are that many options for when you need to charge your computer on an airplane. The only other one I could find was the APC 150Watt DC to AC Inverter with Airline Adapter. Considering how poorly designed the Apple product is, this might have been a better option. APC is a company that specializes in power and battery backup systems and it looks like this adapter won’t get stuck in the airplane.

Kitykity got a Blackberry Pearl for an early Mother’s Day present and she has been using it to blog:

As an early mother’s day present, Scott got me this new blackberry pearl I’m typing on. It’s white, and I love it. Since I have this great gadget that takes pictures, I thought it would be a great way to force myself to start updating my Blog again.

I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with the photos that she has been able to get out of that phone. Here is a simple example. This photo of the Sonic Drive-In sign is so clear that you could order a meal from it. Click on the photo for full size:

The detail that came through on this photo is amazing. She’s not using her best photographic techniques on these pictures. She’s just clicking photos, yet the Blackberry Pearl is able to get detail and clarity.

I’ve seen the lens on a Blackberry Pearl. The thing is no larger than a dime. Some of the talent goes to kitykity, of course, for rock solid stability and good photographic technique, but even the best photographer couldn’t get pictures this good out of my Treo 650.

Cameraphones just crossed over from toys to tools. Did you notice?

Back in January when I attended CES, I was able to get the people marketing the Slim G4 PCMCIA mouse to sell me one. I thought it would be perfect because I could just store it in my laptop’s PCMCIA slot. It wasn’t. I put in away in a drawer and forgot about it until I saw this entry from Engadget.

• Uber-slim G4 Mouse slides away in your PCMCIA slot – Engadget

Does it work?

Yes, it works like a good optical mouse should. The scroll-touch pad scrolls without any special drivers and the tracking is very similar to a high-end mouse.

I didn’t review the G4 because it wasn’t available in the United States and it still isn’t. The Slim G4 mouse is a really good idea, but there are a couple of problems with its design. In the end, it really doesn’t compete with my inexpensive Targus travel mouse, despite the size. Before you send your hard-earned money overseas to buy the Slim G4, watch this video:

The Slim G4 seems to have a lot of advantages over the Targus travel mouse:

• It fits in the PCMCIA slot: Yeah, that’s true. It does. The first time I put it in the slot and popped it back out, a little foot at the bottom of the mouse stayed in the computer. I was lucky enough to get it out of my card slot with a pair of tweezers. I would just take off all of the feet, but without them, the mouse doesn’t move on the table very well. You get that teeth-gritting feel of metal on wood, so you need the feet, but there was always the threat that they would end up stuck in my computer, so I never stored the Slim G4 in the PCMCIA slot.

• It’s smaller: Yep, it’s mighty thin and kinda pretty, too. Thing is, if I have to carry it around in my laptop bag anyway, the difference in size with the Targus isn’t that noticeable.

The disadvantages far outweigh the advantages:

• The USB plug is small and delicate: As you can see in the video, the USB plug is really thin, small and delicate. I was constantly worried that I was going to break it. The exposed circuitry was my biggest concern.

• The scroll-touch in the middle doesn’t give as much feedback as the scroll wheel on the Targus: The clicky scroll wheel on the Targus feels better than the scroll-touch on the Slim G4.

• It’s a pain to get out: As you can see in the video, the Slim G4 is a bloody pain to open up. It’s even worse to get the thing back together. I was able to zip and unzip the cord of the Targus a couple of times in just seconds.

What is the Slim G4 good for?

If you want to impress people, there is nothing better than popping an origami mouse out of your PCMCIA slot. It’s a gadget-lover’s conquest to have something that few other people have, but in the end, the practicality of the Targus travel mouse will catch up with you and you’ll leave the Slim G4 in the PCMCIA slot untouched.

Steve Ballmer might think that the iPhone isn’t going to affect the cell phone market. That’s because he had the inside knowledge of the new innovation coming out of Microsoft soon: the Microsoft oPhone!

Why settle for a multi-touch screen when you can have three keyboards and a circular screen instead! This Microsoft-created phone spoof is actually really funny. I love it when Mel Sampat explains how easy it is to write software for the oPhone:

Coding for the oPhone is so easy, a five-year-old can do it. In fact, even a four-year-old can do it. All you need to do is use the right GDI APIs. Just GetClientCircle instead of GetClientRect. DrawCircle instead DrawLine.

At least the guys at Microsoft have a good sense of humor.

Via: Betsy Aoki’s WebLog : The Ofone made my day!

I noticed this extra feature on Flickr the other day and I was completely surprised and delighted!

Flickr displays the what kind of camera photos are taken with. This picture had been taken with my old camera, but I uploaded it to Flickr with my Treo. It is really cool from a historical standpoint. Wouldn’t it have been nice to be able to track every photo Ansel Adams took to each camera he owned. He kept such good notes that it’s almost possible, but not all of us are that meticulous.

When you click on more properties, you get all the photo information that your camera stored such as exposure, aperture, focal length, ISO speed and more. Things that Ansel Adams meticulously wrote down and kept track of are now automatically stored for you in the photo data by your camera. Flickr lets you easily access that information for whatever photos you upload to them.

How do they do that:

Almost all new digital cameras save JPEG (jpg) files with EXIF (Exchangeable Image File) data. Camera settings and scene information are recorded by the camera into the image file. Examples of stored information are shutter speed, date and time, focal length, exposure compensation, metering pattern and if a flash was used.

Source: Digicamhelp.

This is an awesome feature that I knew NOTHING about until now. I would have never found it out if I hadn’t noticed that little note to the side of my photos on Flickr.

After I read a book of Ansel Adams’ notes he wrote for EACH and EVERY photograph he took, I felt a little guilty for snapping thousands of photographs without so much of a thought of taking notes. Now, I don’t need to feel guilty. My camera takes meticulous notes for me.

It is called the Playstation 3 Eye. It is no longer called EyeToy. “I am not a toy!” it screams. Actually, it still looks a little bit like a toy. Like a hacked webcam with a speaker. Personally, I don’t care how it looks as long as it WORKS. The EyeToy did NOT work. You can see a full review here:

• Gadgets Page » Sony Eye Toy Vs. Nintendo Wii

The PS3 Eye, however, is supposed to work better in low light situations. That’s good to hear, but the proof is in the pudding. I’m not going to be the first to spend money on it. Sony has burned me before, so I don’t really trust them.

Here is the official press release from Sony:

• PlayStation.com – News – Press Releases – PLAYSTATION®Eye Brings Next-Generation Communication to PLAYSTATION®3

Here are a couple of reviews from people who aren’t quite as bitter as I am:

• Gadgets: PlayStation 3 Eyetoy No Longer Toy – Gizmodo

• Forevergeek – Sony reveals the Playstation 3 Eye

Just a moment of reverent quiet for Steve Jobs…

Seriously, be quiet and pretend to pray or somethin’ for a minute, ’cause this is important, foo’…

Years ago, Steve Jobs was a hard bargainer with the record companies. He insisted on 99 cents a song. He’d go no higher. I thought he was pretty smart back then keeping it less than a buck. I wasn’t willing to buy the songs on iTunes (with a few iTunes-exclusive exceptions) because of the DRM. It didn’t let me play the songs on my Treo, so I wasn’t going to shell out the money, however inconsequential, for music that wouldn’t work on my phone.

Fast forward to 2007, iTunes is dominating the industry. Steve is finally willing to let the record companies charge you a little more for each song. What do you get in return? NO DRM. You can play your song on your iPod, your Treo, your Zune, your Zen or any other player you have out there. Now that 99 cent stubbornness seems like perfect and unrelenting genius to me.

You can find out more here:

• Apple, Labels Focus on Copy Protection – washingtonpost.com

You can already buy non-DRM tunes from EMI for thirty cents more than DRM-crippled tunes. I have a stockpile of iTunes cards saved up for when the Beatles finally acquiesce and join the EMI family on iTunes. I’m hoping I don’t have to wait too long.

I’ve come to realize that all computers have benefits and all computers have flaws. No matter which operating system you choose, you have advantages and disadvantages. Choose Windows for gaming. Choose OS X for video-blogging. Choose Linux for a server.

Okay, okay…

Choose Nintendo DS for gaming…

Via: random($foo)

Dave at The Other Drummer is disgusted that Motorola is still riding the coattails of the RAZR. He notes that the RAZR is a four-year-old design whose time has come.

• The Other Drummer: Die RAZR die

I don’t think the RAZR is dead yet, but he’s right about technology years:

Changing the color of your product for four years does not constitute a “design refresh”. Releasing a purple “version” for Mother’s Day? “Tattooed” editions? Please. Technology years pass faster than dog years. That means your design for the RAZR is at least 21 years old. 21 years ago it was 1986.

Strangely, the RAZR is really just a Motorola StarTac that has gone through the pasta roller. Back in 1996, Motorola released the StarTac and I was happily surprised at how small and portable my phone became. The StarTac was the first phone that passed the “Should I Take It” threshold. I never again needed to decide whether I should bring my phone with me or not. It was small enough to take with me all the time.

Then again, the StarTac was a smaller version of the MicroTac by Motorola. The MicroTac came out in 1989. Despite its size compared to the StarTac and the RAZR, it was actually a micro-cell phone compared to the bricks of its day. This was my first cell phone and I was so proud of my cool phone back then.

Does that RAZR design still look dated when compared to its predecessors? That clamshell design has been the cornerstone of Motorola for years, but what’s the difference between a cornerstone and a stale design? In the end, the “flip-phone” style is VERY efficient, but the RAZR is about as small as it can go and still be usable.

I believe the next step for Motorola should be the flip-phone PDA. Motorola is on track with the Motorola Q Phone and the next step is a phone as small as the RAZR with the full capabilities of a PDA like the Q. They have to solve the data input problem and the Blackberry keyboard, QWERTY keyboard and touch screen keyboard are all inadequate right now. Once Motorola solves that problem, they’ll once again have a killer phone that everyone will want. It will finally be the phone to tear me away from the Treo. I can’t wait!

After a winter of freezing while working in the garage, Daniel Strohl was struck with the idea of creating his own solar panel garage heater. Fifty cans of Sprite later, he concocted a heater that was easily able to add 15 degrees of heat to the air. Too bad it’s summer now and he won’t need a heater for another six months.

• Hemmings Auto Blogs » Blog Archive » almost free garage heat – just drink a lot of soda

He had a lot of ideas on how he could have done better next time around:

Were I to do this again, I’d first make the furnace larger. As I recall, Dad’s measured something like four feet on each side. Obviously, the more surface area, the more heat you’ll pick up. Second, as mentioned above, I’d relocate the inlet to the back of the box to direct all the air through the cans. Or at least I’d cut a piece of aluminum to act as a baffle and prevent the air from rising straight up. Third, I might use those small soda cans I’ve seen in the grocery stores lately, just to get more surface area.

Sounds like a great idea for a project to work on this summer so that you can add a little free heat to your home or garage next year. Get drinking that Red Bull because those cans are probably the best.

Via: Cynical-C Blog – » Soda Can Solar Panel