I haven’t upgraded to a Blu-Ray player yet. I have a bunch of DVDs and I honestly can’t tell the difference between HD quality video on DVDs and HD quality video on Blu-Ray players. They look the same to me. Every time I walk into Best Buy, this video screeches and urges me to upgrade.
The problem with this video is that it’s FAR too similar to this one:
Only a few years ago, the movie industry screeched that DVD was the future of entertainment. Now that the future is here, it looks like they’ve changed their minds.
I’m NOT going to upgrade. I want to go on record saying that Blu-Ray is NOT the future of entertainment. The future of entertainment is going to look a lot more like NetFlix’s Instant Play feature on my Xbox than the Blu-Ray player on the shelf at the electronics store.
This video from KhenaKara on YouTube caused a bit of a sensation. He appears to be taking a video with his iPhone 3GS when he accidentally drops it into a swimming pool.
His comments were:
Was trying video on my new iPhone 3G S at the pool and dropped it in the pool. Don’t know if it’s waterproof, but it still works fine. I had a few people comment on seeing a strap in the video. I have a rubber cover and had put a strap through the earpiece hole to avoid just this type of thing. I didn’t have it on my wrist at the time, but believe me, I will from now on!!!! Maybe the rubber cover helped with it not getting damaged.
You can see the wrist strap he was talking about at the 43 second mark. Here is a screen shot of it:
The problems with this video is that it wasn’t uploaded directly from the iPhone, so it was played with in iMovie a bit. I import ALL the video I take into iMovie so I can add headlines and other information, so this is very common. Additionally, the strap is something that is rarely included on an iPhone case. Here is KhenaKara’s video showing the case and strap he was using:
It looks like a typical rubber case with a camera strap added to it. I have a Sanyo Xacti E1 that can easily be dropped in the water and survive because it’s made to do that. It’s impossible to tell if he took this video with a waterproof camera and said it was his iPhone, or if he actually dropped his phone in the pool and lived to tell the tale.
Sims always seemed like a strange game to me and I never really liked playing it. Reading this blog, however, makes me interested in the new version of the game, Sims 3.
This is an experiment in playing a homeless family in The Sims 3. I created two Sims, moved them in to a place made to look like an abandoned park, removed all of their remaining money, and then attempted to help them survive without taking any job promotions or easy cash routes. It’s based on the old ‘poverty challenge’ idea from The Sims 2, but it turned out to be a lot more interesting with The Sims 3’s living neighborhood features.
I have attempted to tell my experiences with the minimum of embellishment. Everything I describe in here is something that happened in the game. What’s more, a surprising amount of the interesting things in this story were generated by just letting go and watching the Sims’ free will and personality traits take over.
Just wandering around the neighborhood and talking to the various animal characters was my favorite part of playing Animal Crossing. I wonder if Sims 3 is finally a game I could enjoy.
If you are unfamiliar with the toy, here is a commercial describing it:
With summer finally here, I’m wishing for a Fun Fountain, or something else to cool off my days.
In that entry, I had mentioned that we used the clown hat for every kind of dress up play. After months of searching, I finally found a picture of Stacey, my sister, with the Fun Fountain clown hat on. It was held on her head by some yarn passed through the holes on the sides of the hat where the water splashed out. We had a parade on our street that day, so I dressed up Stacey like a clown. She looks adorable, doesn’t she? (Click on the photo to see it full size)
It’s funny how versatile toys can be. I don’t think the Wham-O people ever thought that we would be using their toy all year round for sprinkler fun AND dress up play. The same toy can function in many different aspects of our play life, none of which were conceived of by the manufacturer.
We make our gadgets our own by the way that we use them, with or without the permission of the manufacturer.
Cause temporary blind spots (dazzling) from the reflection. Do not point it at reflective surfaces. The FDA certifies that it is not powerful enough to cause permanent eye damage.
See the beam. Yes, you can see the beam indoors and outdoors at night, not just the spot.
Point to items outdoors in broad daylight that are kilometers away.
See the spot on low clouds.
Point the beam to stars and other astronomy.
Damage itself if used for more than 100 seconds per burst.
Scare away that damned crow from the power pole outside my bedroom.
The big question a reviewer has to ask, especially when they like a gadget, is why someone would buy it. Now, there’s a significant portion of gadget’s page readers who don’t need a reason to buy a high-powered laser, they only to know where to get a matching shark. But for you practical folk, here are the legal uses I’ve come up with:
Outdoor guides, scoutmasters, and birders who want to point out plants or wildlife in broad daylight.
Astronomy buffs who want to dazzle other astronomy buffs with their ability to point out specific stars.
Safely scaring away birds and wild or feral animals away from a distance.
I came up with a much longer list of illegal uses, but I won’t repeat those here.
To be frank, high-powered lasers are marketed to people who need a reason not to buy them, and if you’re in that group, this is definitely the laser for you.
The laser also has a low power mode for boring things like PowerPoint presentations. $299 from Skylasers.com.
Laura Moncur’s Review:
When Mike and I tested the SKYLaser high-powered green laser, we could only think of testing it with our cat. He he enjoyed it greatly, but we were scared of blinding him, so we only let him play a little bit.
This is a VERY bright laser. Not only can you see the laser point, you can see the beam.
Warning: This laser is freakishly bright and can put a burn mark on your eyes if you look at it too much. I’m not talking turning the laser on your eyes. If you look at the laser point on the wall, you will have an afterimage on your eyes for a LONG time (several hours). It also can burn your skin if it is held in one place too long. It’s intense enough to pop balloons.
It’s intense enough to melt a credit card.
Additionally, it is a Federal offense in the U.S. to shine a laser pointer like this at an aircraft and illegal to shine at drivers of cars in some states.
While studying abroad in Russia, Mutated Jellyfish had a difficult time finding wi-fi, so he made himself a wi-fi antenna using an Ikea strainer and his USB Wi-Fi adapter.
I brought with me a USB wifi adapter, which is just like the wifi card in your computer, but it plugs in to a USB port and can be extended with a usb cable. This card gets the same range on it as my laptop’s internet wifi card, so it can’t see a bloody thing either.
Parabolic kitchenware is well known to some as not only kitchenware, but also do-it-yourself directional dish antennae with which you can augment weak signals with the use of a receiver of some sort. Equipped with my new Swedish strainer, I used some scotch tape and one of my Prismacolor markers that I don’t like to mount my USB wifi receiver as close to the apex of the parabola of the metallic mesh as I could possibly eye-ball. I then plugged it in, held it up to the window, and started refreshing my wifi networks while I pointed it in different directions until I found an acceptable orientation.
Instead of no wi-fi connections available, his increased signal strength gave him four different connections.
Connect the USB wi-fi adapter to the USB extension cable.
Tape the wi-fi adapter to the end of the popsicle stick.
Mount the popsicle stick onto the strainer with the USB wi-fi adapter as close to the center of the strainer as possible. Tape it in place wrapping the electrical tape around the stick, the handle of the strainer and the USB extension cord.
Plug in the USB extension cord into your laptop and turn the wi-fi antenna until you are able to get the best wi-fi signal.
As if talking teddy bears weren’t creepy enough, My Home 2.0 DIY has made a Teddy Ruxpin be able to speak the tweets of your friends. Here is a video showing how they did it:
This appears to be a viral marketing video for Verizon, but it doesn’t make it any less cool.
My favorite Palm I ever owned was the Tapwave Zodiac.
A full two years before the release of the Sony PSP, the Zodiac looked like it could be the perfect gaming platform. If only the game manufacturers wrote games for the Palm, the Zodiac would have had a HUGE jumpstart on both the PSP and the Nintendo DS. The only games I saw available for the Zodiac was Duke Nukem and Atari’s Adventure, but apparently there were a bunch of others: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4; Mototrax; Spyhunter; Madden NFL 2005; DOOM II; and Warfare Incorporated.
Not only was it a good gaming machine, it had EXCELLENT video conversion to play videos. Before the iPhone was even a glimmer in Steve Job’s eye, I was watching bit torrented episodes of television on my Zodiac during my lunch break every day at work. I could also listen to MP3s using their media player. When my Zodiac finally had to be sold, I truly missed the media capabilities it had and was frustrated to no end that I couldn’t recreate that experience with my Palm Treo.
Of course, the Zodiac had all the normal Palm capabilities that any other Palm device had at the time, so there was a calendar, contact manager, notes and to-do list. I loved that I could do everything that my old Palm used to do AND watch videos on it. It wasn’t until I bought my iPhone four years later that I FINALLY was able to have the same capabilities as I had with the Zodiac.
Sadly, Tapwave had serious problems. Not only did they discontinue the Zodiac in 2005, but they also stopped supporting their warranties on their older models. I had severe problems with the directional pad on my first Zodiac. I sent it in to be repaired. It took several months to come back to me. We feared that we might never get it back because the company seemed to be going out of business. When it finally returned, we sold the returned model.
It came with all this stuff:
I loved my Zodiac and I wish Tapwave could have survived long enough to become a dominating company in the gaming market instead of a fond memory and a footnote.
My brother, Dan, got a iPhone 3GS the day they came out. We were so excited to see it and compare it to our 3G phones. Both he and Mike started loading their favorite game, Peggle, at the same time. We were SHOCKED at how quickly Dan’s phone loaded the game. We were going to film it, but it looks like lots of people out there have already done that, so here’s the best video I found:
Stacey, my sister, bought herself a Palm Pre. I’m sure she’ll be happy to notice the results of this speed test by CNET:
In two out of three of the tests, the Palm Pre kicked butt. When tested against the original iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS, the Pre was a lot faster for web browsing and sending photos via email. On the power up test, however, the Palm Pre REALLY chugged, taking well over twice the time of the iPhone 3G and almost five times as long as the iPhone 3GS. The lesson of that test is: don’t turn off your Palm Pre unless you absolutely HAVE to because it will take almost two minutes to turn it back on.
For Mike and Dan, the increased processing speed for games like Peggle makes the iPhone 3GS the best choice, but for Stacey, she was excited about how quickly she can browse the web and send email. What scares ME is this report of a dog whistle noise coming from the iPhone 3GS.
Boy Genius Report estimates the sound to be in the 15 kHz range (here’s a clip of a similar sound for reference), well within the iPhone’s listed range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Your personal experience with the sound may vary, as higher pitched sounds become harder to hear as you age.
A call to Apple’s tech support revealed they had no previous knowledge of this issue. They directed me to do a hard reset (holding down the Home button the Sleep button for ten seconds) but the sound remained. The representative speculated it was a hardware issue, and recommended I take the phone to my nearest Apple Store to get a replacement.
Years ago, I owned a Palm E2. It had an annoying whistle every time I turned on the screen. The store let me exchange it for another one, but the second one developed the SAME whistle within a month (but after the two week exchange period at the electronics store). Palm wouldn’t take it back or exchange it for another one and NEVER admitted that there might be a problem, despite the multiple complaints from MANY E2 owners. It was so bad that some people went to drastic measures to get the high pitched squeal to go away.
While studying abroad in Russia, Mutated Jellyfish had a difficult time finding wi-fi, so he made himself a wi-fi antenna using an Ikea strainer and his USB Wi-Fi adapter.
