The Gadgets Page

This advertisement for the Squibb Angle toothbrush pre-dates the Reach toothbrush by forty years.

It reads:

“I can actually get at my back teeth now” is the surprised comment of many users. “I would never go back to my old-style brush.” A practicing dentist designed this brush with its patented “mouth-mirror” angle and the small head to reach “forgotten” places. The angle helps you clean every surface, every crevice. By the way, children can use this brush with ease, and do a good job too. Six colors. Your choice of hard or medium bristles.

Squibb A name you can trust

This angled toothbrush looked just like the Reach toothbrush that Johnson & Johnson promoted in the early 1980’s. Here’s a commercial for it:

I wonder what happened between 1946 and 1986. When the Reach toothbrush came out, we all thought that it was an innovation. I remember being so impressed by the “new” shape for a toothbrush and wanted one immediately. Why didn’t the Squibb brush catch on and stick around?

Squibb is still a huge biopharmaceutical company, so it’s not like they don’t own the patents anymore. Considering the patent-troll-crazed society that we live in today, it’s shocking to me that Squibb didn’t sue Johnson & Johnson into oblivion back in 1986.

Ad via: Found in Mom’s Basement: 1946 ad for angled toothbrush from Squibb

I’ve talked about Pandora in the past:

• Gadgets Page » For Those of You Missing Radio, Here’s Pandora

It’s an Internet radio that you choose the style of music. For example, if you have a favorite song, you can build a radio station based on that song. Pandora will miraculously play tracks that are very similar to your favorite music. I am continually surprised at how good it is at finding music that I want to listen to.

The ever-popular, Roland K. Smith had some wonderful things to say about Pandora here:

• Roland K. Smith’s Weblog » Triple-T For April 14th

One of my currently favorite programs is Pandora Internet Radio. It’s playing right now on my laptop and it’s my most used application on my iPhone. This morning while taking a stroll on the treadmill listening to Pandora I thought about my first transistor radio back in 1957.

Transistor radios were only a year or two old when I got one for a birthday present. The wonder of these radios were that they operated on batteries and could be taken anywhere. I spent many hours riding on a tractor in the fields that summer listening to music on that AM radio. Forty years has seen an enormous change in our ability to consume music.

Pandora has brought back the beautiful serendipity of finding a song that you love. I have bought more music on iTunes because of Pandora than because of any other recommendations. Sure, Amazon and iTunes can recommend music to me, but that is based strictly on sales instead of music similarity. Plus, with Pandora, I get to listen to the whole song before I decide whether I want to buy it.

With Pandora on my iPhone [iTunes Link], I can listen to music while I’m driving, just like I used to with the radio. In fact, on a road trip from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas, we listened to Pandora the whole way. The only time it dropped out was when we didn’t have cell coverage on that twenty mile strip of Arizona. It works wonderfully on 3G and EDGE.

If you have been missing the beauty of radio in days gone by, then give Pandora a chance.

I saw this commercial flash by on my Tivo the other day and stopped to watch it. It’s an advertisement for Microsoft that follows a girl named Lauren who is looking for a laptop for $1000.

The most noticeable thing she said during the ad for me was,

I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person.

I was pretty angry when she said that. I would FAR rather sacrifice on screen size and go with the 13″ screen in order to have the easy to use operating system and applications that come with my Mac.

I was about to write a scathing review when I realized that Michael Gartenberg had written it for me.

• Lauren vs. Oscar Wilde while shopping for a laptop « GartenBlog

In tough economic times it’s not just about price but value. Where do I, the consumer, get the most value for each dollar I spend. Or as Oscar Wilde said, “The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

Apple’s ads have never been about being the cheapest, they are about the value that comes with owning a Macintosh. The differentiation of the PC/Mac experience through hardware and software design that’s what’s been attracting consumers. Apple’s continued to do well even in these times precisely because consumers are extra careful about where they spend their money. They can’t afford buyer’s remorse.

Microsoft can’t just make this about cost, it has to show value. It has to show a PC experience that can be equal or superior to a Macintosh experience. Only then does price matter in the long run.

Michael quoted Oscar Wilde, but there is another quote that rings true here:

Buy expensive and cry once. Buy cheap and cry a million times.

I fought and FOUGHT with my PC to make it do what my Mac does easily. Macs aren’t perfect. Mine crashes and I get the spinning beach ball of doom every once and a while, but the act of using my computer is so much easier now.

Sure, a Windows machine might be okay for a netbook, but if you need to do anything substantial with your machine (like video editing or photo editing), then you will get FAR more value from a $1000 Mac with a 13″ screen than that 17″ Hewlett Packard that Lauren got. I hope she doesn’t have to cry a million times.

Remember all the fuss about this patent filed by Apple?

• United States Patent Application: 0080204426

People saw this patent and immediately assumed that Apple was ready to release an iTablet computer. It didn’t help that these drawings from the patent LOOKED like a tablet PC.

There were rumors that they were making a big iPod Touch. Some people called it the iBook. Others called it an iTablet. I don’t care what they call it. I’m ready for it now.

When I saw all of the posts about this patent from Apple, I shrugged my shoulders and thought, “Huh? Who’d want a huge iPod Touch?!”

Umm… That would be ME.

Now that I am doing ALL of my reading on my iPhone, the idea of having a huge iPod Touch is quite appealing now. It’s part of the reason I’m attracted to the Amazon Kindle. Except if Apple made a reader, it would be awesome!

Hey, Barnes & Noble? Remember when I said that you couldn’t tempt me to buy an eBook reader from you? Yeah, I was wrong. If your unnamed device manufacturer is Apple, I’m SO there!

More patent information: Apple iTablet Confirmed Expected In Early 2009 – Smarthouse

This week, I focused on the new fitness gadgets that were showcased at the IHRSA (International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association) 2009 Conference in San Francisco. I covered them on Starling Fitness, so you can hop over there to see what we found.

• Starling Fitness » SpeedFit Speedboard Treadmill

• Starling Fitness » TreadWall

• Starling Fitness » Alter G-Trainer Anti-Gravity Treadmill

• Starling Fitness » Jacobs Ladder

• Starling Fitness » Xrkade

• Starling Fitness » TRX Suspension Trainer

Of them all, I found the Treadwall to be the most interesting. Most of these gadgets are marketed to commercial gyms, so the only way we’ll ever see them is if our local gym shells out the money for them. It sure is fun to see what the fitness world is doing, though.

The Amazon Kindle iPhone Reader is great for the latest books on the market, but what about all those awesome public domain books? Project Gutenberg has thousands of ebooks available for FREE. Is there a way for me to read them on my iPhone as well? Yes there is, thanks to Stanza:

• Stanza: a Revolution in Reading | Lexcycle

I downloaded Stanza’s free iPhone application [iTunes Link] and within minutes, I had Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens on my iPhone and ready to read. I have been watching the Masterpiece Theater version of Little Dorrit and I realized that I wanted to read the original work when I was done. If I had paid for it on the Amazon Kindle app, it would have only cost me eighty cents, so it doesn’t save me much money. For those who want to read the classics, however, Stanza is available for free.

The user interface is a little different than the Amazon Kindle app. Instead of swiping a page to change it, you tap on the right side to go to the next page or tap on the left to go back. If you tap in the middle, you get the settings.

One thing I loved about the settings is that in addition to being able to change the size of the font, I was able to choose from a wide variety of custom themes. The one I chose was “Ancient,” which makes the pages look old. I thought that was perfect for a classic like Little Dorrit. There is also a night mode, where you can read white letters on a black screen.

With free books available from over fifteen different sites, there is plenty to read out there that isn’t just the classics, including technical books from O’Reilly, romances from Harlequin and a world of self-published eBooks.

After spending a year’s worth of book allowance in one month at Amazon, it’s nice to know that there is plenty more for me to read, even when I run out of money.

An unnamed “wireless industry insider” and an unnamed device maker make for a pretty flimsy rumor, but my recent love of reading books on my iPhone had me perk up my ears:

• Tech Rumor of the Day: Barnes & Noble | Telecom | Financial Articles & Investing News | TheStreet.com

Barnes & Noble, the nation’s No. 1 bookstore chain, is working with a device maker and Sprint on a Kindle-like device, according to one wireless industry insider.

Ever since I downloaded the Amazon Kindle App for the iPhone [iTunes Link], I have been reading like crazy again. I have even been tempted to buy a Kindle just to get a bigger screen size, but the fact that my books are in my purse with me all the time makes the Kindle a lot less appealing.

The same is true for anything Barnes & Noble creates. I don’t want another gadget in my arsenal of toys that just reads books. Sorry, B&N, there is only ONE way you could attract me: make it work on my iPhone. Amazon was smart enough to do that and I’ve spent more money on books in the last month than I did all last year.

I wish Barnes & Noble luck, but riding on Amazon’s coattails isn’t really the best way to be an industry leader.

Photo via: XO 2.0 Laptop Concept, e-book mode | Xconomy

Check out this awesome demonstration of an old Mikiphone Pocket Phonograph:

There is a detailed photograph of the Mikiphone here:

• “Pocket” Gramophones from the ’20s :: Street Tech :: hardware beyond the hype

You can find photos from a bunch of grammophones (including a photo of a Mikiphone) here:

• Herzlich Willkommen in Andre’s Phonographen-Kabinett

I remember playing records on my Bee-Gee’s record player when I was a kid and I still see vinyl at some of the stores, but digital has been so much better for me. After losing precious records to the heat of the summer sun, I am so grateful for the almighty iPod.

Via: Brass Goggles » Blog Archive » The Mikiphone: Precursor to the i-pod?

Have I ever told you how much I love Jane from What About Mom? I read her blog every day and she mostly talks about her life, which has very little to do with gadgets, so I guess I’ve never told you how enjoyable her writing is. Case in point is this entry a few weeks ago:

• Everything Zen | What About Mom

Earlier this week I thought I broke my computer, and instead of freaking out, I calmly filmed it so I could show Dick just how placid I can be.

I have NEVER seen a PC do this! I would have been freakin’ out and Jane is just calmly filming so she can show her husband what the computer did. I have never once in my life shown this sort of zen in the face of computer madness. The next time my Mac does something like this to me (Don’t fool yourself, fanboys, Macs DO have crazy problems!), I’m going to remember Jane and how calmly she filmed the problem.

Any ideas on what could have caused this problem?

If reading 140 characters is just too much for you, Flutter might be perfect for you. I love this funny video about the fictional new nano-blogging service, Flutter.

The problem with this video is that it’s just too damn close to reality. Remember the funny video that came out for the fictional iPod Flea?

• Pick Me! » The iPod Flea

Now that Apple has released the newest iPod Shuffle, this video doesn’t seem so funny anymore. It won’t take any time for them to get down to the iPod Flea size.

Of course, by the time Flutter comes into existence, they really WILL be able to release glasses that will scroll “flaps” in front of my eyes. I can’t wait for those!

Via: Flutter Is a New Nano Blogging Service | video, twitter, funny | geeksugar – Technology & Gadgets