The Gadgets Page

I was doing a few YouTube searches and video upon video kept coming up about Phillips Headphones. Here is an example of one:

They aren’t very informative videos. Even the ones in another language, appear to be just one guy sitting in front of his computer, saying the name of the product.

Did Phillips pay a bunch of people to do little YouTube videos about Phillips headphones? If they did, they didn’t get their money’s worth. I actually prefer REAL commercials like this one:

More videos after the break: (Continue Reading…)

I have enjoyed Twitter for the last few months. I have a group of friends that write regularly and it makes me feel less lonely.

When I use Twitter on my cell phone, some of the messages come out of order and late. When I use Twitterific, some of the messages come out of order or they come in a huge barrage of messages after too long of a delay. When I use Adium, the messages come out of order. When I use Twitter’s website, I have to use the refresh button to see if anything new has come.

There are really no ideal options for Twitter, but out of all the options on the computer, I prefer Adium. The cute little birdie flaps his wings when my friends have said anything, it works with my GMail and Yahoo IM accounts, and it shows the Twitter names instead of people’s real names (like Twitterific does). My only problem with it is it doesn’t tell me how many characters my message is, so I can’t tell if I’m typing too much. After searching Adium Help, online and asking around, I don’t think there is any feature to enable that will give me a character count. So, here is my workaround.

I have sized my Adium window so it is 30 characters wide and then I sized the response box so it’s five lines tall. That gives me exactly 150 characters in the box. If I write more than can fit in that box, I’m over the Twitter limit. In order to do this, I typed the numbers 0-9 over and over again until I had 150 characters and then sized the box accordingly (see picture to the right).

It’s just a small thing, but it has made using Adium with Twitter so much easier for me that I just thought I’d share.

It’s nice to see that someone else enjoys their Lumix camera as much as I do. I actually preferred the focusing of my older camera, but the DMC-TZ3 has been an excellent video camera and I have used it to film my Starling Fitness DVDs.

• Popgadget Personal Technology for Women: Love your Lumix digital camera

It is a fairly popular camera and you can see the kinds of photos people take with it here on Flickr:

• Flickr: Camera Finder: Panasonic: DMC-TZ3

The DMC-TZ3 has some limitations. If you are filming in wind, you WILL get wind popping noises on the audio, even if it’s just a slight breeze. I didn’t have this much trouble with the older Panasonics and since it’s a digital camera first and video camera second, I don’t have much room to complain.

I have also had trouble focusing in low light situations. I think it’s because the camera has such an amazing zoom. I’ll gladly trade the focusing for zoom, because it allows me to get video of things like this:

• Starling Travel » Video: Bear in Yellowstone

I always have my Lumix with me, so I am able to snap pictures and take video wherever I go. It’s small enough that I don’t begrudge it in my purse. It’s even small enough to tuck into my pocket if I’m taking pictures all day (like I did in Disneyland).

Despite its minor drawbacks, I love my Panasonic Lumix.

You can make your iPhone whatever color you want if you are willing to send it to Colorware for weeks on end and shell out $150 to $200 extra. You could also buy your iPhone from Colorware and they will send it to you fully customized.

• Customized ColorWare iPhone

Everyone is commenting on this. You can see some examples of what people have imagined for their own phones here:

• Shiny Shiny: ColorWare will paint your iPhone pink. Or green, or yellow, or … you get the idea.

• Colorware Now Offering iPhone Paint Jobs | Gear Live

• iPhone gets 29 new shades from Colorware – Engadget

My problem with this is the dock. You can pay extra to have your dock colored as well, but that just reminded me of the iPhones I’ve been oggling at the Apple Store. The display iPhones have been constantly manhandled and squished back into their docks for three weeks now and quite a few of them are scratched along the bottom because of it. With an extra layer of paint from Colorware, will the iPhone even FIT into that snug dock anymore?

One other caveat: Doing this to your iPhone may void your warranty with Apple. According to Colorware’s website:

ColorWare Inc. is not an authorized reseller of Apple Inc. products. ColorWare Inc. replaces all existing Apple Inc. warranty policies and procedures with a ColorWare Inc. warranty, the documentation for which is included with all products purchased from ColorWare Inc.

That’s for the products that are sold through Colorware, but if you send in your iPhone, you may just kiss those Apple Genius’ goodbye.

I really like the look of that red iPhone, but I think I’ll pass. The image of scratched red paint is not appealing at all.

If you find that you are getting a little sick of the songs on Guitar Hero II, you’re probably eagerly awaiting Guitar Hero III or Guitar Hero 80’s that are coming soon. In the distance, however, Rock Band is there, enticing you.

They have released a photo for the Rock Band drum kit, so now you can know which sofa needs to go to the Salvation Army so you can fit it in the living room.

Via: » Pic: The “Rock Band” Drum Kit » Blog Archive Alice Hill’s Real Tech News – Independent Tech

The most important rule of parody is to keep it SHORT. Fortunately, the folks at Geek Entertainment TV understand this and made this absolutely perfect parody of Doncha for the iPhone.

Doncha wish your cellphone was raw like me?
Doncha wish you spent more than half a G?
Doncha?

I haven’t gotten myself an iPhone yet, but there is one in the house now. Mike purchased one and he is happily surfing and playing with it as I type this. I thought maybe I would skip the first gen iPhone, but the more I play with his, the closer I come to getting one of my own.

After spending almost half a G on my Treo 650, the step up to the iPhone is going to be an easy one.

I have tried EVERY software available for the PC to try to get DVDs onto my Treo. I have had absolutely no success. I wish I had more to show for my work other than a list of programs that DON’T work.

On the Mac, however, there is FINALLY a way to get your DVDs to play on your Treo (or any other Palm device). You need three programs:

• Handbrake: To convert your DVD into an iPod playable file. (Open Source – Free)

• Quicktime 7 Pro: To convert your iPod MP4 into an MP4 that your Treo can recognize. ($29.99)

• Kinoma Player 4: To play the video on your Treo. ($24.99)

My biggest problem was the free program, Handbrake, works perfectly converting my DVDs to an MP4 that I can play on Mike’s iPod, but I don’t carry his iPod around with me. I carry around my Treo. When I tried to play the MP4 files from Handbrake or the movie trailers that I downloaded from iTunes, they wouldn’t work on the Kinoma Player.

I don’t know where the blame is, but the fix came when Apple upgraded their Quicktime Pro. You now can take an iPod playable file and export it to MP4, which plays beautifully on the Treo using Kinoma.

The cool thing about Kinoma Player 4 is that it can play videos from YouTube. ALL the videos from YouTube, not just the ones that Apple has deemed worthy. It’s another small way that the Treo is technically better than the iPhone. The tiny 320 X 320 screen on the Treo, however, is not.

I really wanted to be able to give a tutorial for both the PC and the Mac, but I was unable to get the PC version of Handbrake to work. This video is a detailed tutorial of the conversion process on the Mac.

Download this video for your iPod

This commercial is such a great example of what could be possible.

You have to watch it twice to fully enjoy it!

Via: adfreak: Useless, annoying dude finds his true calling

For a while, you were able to get a converted Smart Car in the states from Zap Cars, but they cost between $21,000 to $30,000 once they got to the dealers. Smart Cars will finally be officially in the USA in 2008 with prices ranging from $12,000 to $17,000 for a fully decked out convertible.

They are even taking reservations so you can be the first in your area to get a Smart Car:

• smart USA – open your mind to the car that challenges the status quo

I’m going to be honest here. I don’t recommend buying the Smart Car the first year it comes out. It always seems like the first generation has troubles, whether it’s cars, computers or iPhones. I’ll wait until they work out all the bugs in the second or third year, plus, I won’t NEED a car until then. My favorite so far is this red convertible for $17K:

If you’ve never seen a Smart Car in person, they are touring the states. See if your city is on the list here:

• smart USA on tour

I can’t remember when I first heard about the Smart Car and how they were everywhere in Europe, but I certainly remember with jealousy when both Canada and Mexico got Smart Cars before us. It looks like they are finally bringing the Smart Car ForTwo to the states!

Ever since I traded in the Beetle, I’ve missed having a small car just for me. It looks like the Smart Car will finally be here, just in time for me! Yippee!!

Via: Popgadget Personal Technology for Women: Smartfortwo car: a smart reservation for $99

If you are looking for a new blender, look no further than BlendTec. Their blenders have blended everything from unopened cans of Spam to marbles, so the ice for your smoothie won’t be a problem. Every geek on the Internet screamed in agony when they tested their blenders this time. I can assure you, the BlendTec blender has no problem blending the iPhone.

Ironically, you can buy this blended iPhone, a brand new BlendTec blender, a DVD of the first 50 episodes of Will It Blend? and a t-shirt on eBay:

• eBay: Apple iPhone and Blendtec Total Blender (Bidding Ends Jul-20-07 16:06:59 PDT)

Last time I checked, the bidding was up to $570.

The BlendTec Total Blender is a pricey kitchen appliance at $400, competing with the finest that MixMaster has to offer. Of course, when was the last time you saw a MixMaster blend golf balls into pulverized dust? I’ve found that my cheap blender has no trouble blending up smoothies and when it comes to fancy electronics, eBay disposes of them nicely for me.

The absolute best Will It Blend? was the 12 Glow Sticks they did a while back. Here it is for your enjoyment:

Via: Will it Blend: the iPhone smoothie – Engadget