Ryan Greene: Toys

I must buy one

Sat, 23 Nov 2002 16:56:13 GMT

Breathing Fire(wire). The coolest 4-port Firewire Hub on the planet! Firewire Dino is stomping through town and he means business. With piercing red eyes and an open mouth that lights up when plugged in to the Firewire bus, Firewire Dino is as... [Jeremy Zawodny's blog]

It's late, I'm tired, here's a quickie

Thu, 14 Nov 2002 03:14:50 GMT

Smart Objects. You knew something like this was coming sooner or later. At Comdex next week Microsoft is planning to unveil Smart Objects, a whole line of household items like alarm clocks, kitchen appliances, and stereo equipment that can connect to the Internet. In theory this means alarm clocks that can wake you up earlier if there's particulary bad traffic that morning. Read... [Gizmodo]

Also, this article at Gizmodo talks about what Sony is up to. man, do I ever want to work for them, if only to have first access to the altest and greatest toys and gadgets.

Mon, 11 Nov 2002 12:01:19 GMT

I think I've found what everyone was looking for in an MP3 player. 20 gigs, built in FM tuner to send to your stereo, heck, all the details are here. Thanks Slashdot!

Too Cool.

Tue, 29 Oct 2002 22:10:22 GMT

I know that I'll be getting some of this when I finally buy a house.

Magnetic paint.

Yes! I've bought a house just in time for Magnetic Paint, "an Acrylic latex water-Based primer that Turns any wall into a Magnetic receptive Surface"!!! [wotever]
[Gimboland]

Wild!

Thu, 17 Oct 2002 10:59:23 GMT

Aibo skateboards. Sony will ship a $249 Aibo skateboard for their robot dogs in November.

The AIBO Speed Board allows AIBO to entertain you with dances and routines on its very own scooter. You can navigate AIBO's skating with voice commands such as 'turn left' and 'super slalom'. Create your own skate routines by moving AIBO to record the motions that can then be replayed later on.

Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]

I Want It I Want It I Want It

Wed, 02 Oct 2002 15:18:54 GMT

So lovely. . . aaand the camera (NX70V only) now does video (up to 60 minutes at 640x480) and up to 535 minutes of audio. Since the files are already low bandwidth, combind this with the new Radeon 9700 All in Wonder card, which lets you clean up video via their VideoSoap program, and you have a killer vidoeblogging tool. Did I mention that this thing does wireless with a card as well? Sweet.

Sony Announces NX70V and NX60 [PDABuzz.com]

I Tried Three Radio Shacks, No Luck

Mon, 30 Sep 2002 13:37:10 GMT

I Guess these will be out soon, I can't wait!

ZipZap Me, Baby!.

Pocket-Sized RC Cars Hit U.S. Soil

"The latest Asian craze, modifiable radio-controlled cars that fit in the palm of your hand, has finally hit the U.S.

In a press conference Wednesday, Radio Shack introduced the ZipZap line of miniature RC cars. Each is based upon real-life roadster, and can be tricked out with body kits and other accessories. Customers also have the option of upgrading and tweaking the gear ratios to give their car an extra boost.

The ZipZaps will go on sale later this month.

The ZipZaps Starter Kit comes with the Ford SVT Mustang Cobra, Porsche 911 Turbo, Honda Civic or Chrysler PT Cruiser body top and all the parts needed to zip the car together, the company said. The battery charges in less than a minute, and lasts between eight to twenty minutes, a company spokeswoman said....

Prices for the cars start at $19.99, and accessories and upgrades are priced from $1.99 to $12.99. A track kit will also be sold, Radio Shack said." [ExtremeTech, via Slashdot]

I think we have a new Friday sport at work!

[The Shifted Librarian]

Fun With Toys

Wed, 25 Sep 2002 03:13:26 GMT

Silly Putty Physics Experiment. Ever drop a massive ball of silly putty from a six story parking garage? Well someone has, and they want to share their experience with you in both photograph and hilarious video form right here. Want to do your own experiment with a massive wad of silly putty? This guy has some suggestions on how to order it. [kuro5hin.org]

Site is currently swamped, but I can't wait to see how this turned out in real-time.

Mon, 22 Jul 2002 12:42:04 GMT

Shape Memory Alloy May Be Ready for Market. Nanomuscle, a private company 45 miles northeast of San Francisco, uses shape-memory for a number of high-tech applications. Investors and analysts are eagerly watching. By Barnaby J. Feder. [New York Times: Technology]

Nitinol is an alloy that has been around since the early 60's. What makes this alloy unique is it's ability to change shape based on the temperature that it is exposed to. So, you heat the metal and form it into one shape, and then cool it and form it into a second. From then on, all you need to do is re-heat the metal to get it to "pop" into it's original heated state. Nitinol can also be made to change shape by applying an electrical charge to heat the metal. The metal can only contract about 4-5% of it's length, so this somewhat limits it's applications.

Toy makers have already comitted to developing toys for the 2003 christmas season that will have this technology in it. The medical device market has been using this product since the 1990's, and it has also has been used for remote telecom switches as well as in shower heads to prevent scalding.

Possible Uses: To unfurl an umbrella in the heat of the day, the expand a radiatior when it gets hot/constrict the vanes when it is cold, to power the legs on a mechanical insect.

Thu, 27 Jun 2002 13:17:24 GMT

"Handheld Games For Grownups".

The Wireless Arcade

"They don't have fancy 3-D graphics, but video games for handheld devices stand poised to capture a huge U.S. market. Why? Because we all have to wait.

It’s game time....

Inside the conference room, a standing-room-only crowd has assembled for the “Wireless Game Summit,” a marathon exploration of the first new gaming platform in three decades....

Wireless games are played on Internet-enabled portable devices such as personal digital assistants and, particularly, cell phones. Though most of us are now familiar with the idea of getting driving directions or surfing the Web on a cell phone, the real killer app of wireless devices is games. Primitive-looking wireless games have already gained enormous popularity overseas. And bolstered by new software tools that allow game creators to deliver robust, colorful images, and by the emergence of third-generation, or 3G, cellular networks, wireless games may be on the verge of commercial success. The New York-based market research firm Datamonitor projects that by 2005, 80 percent of all wireless users in the United States and Western Europe—200 million people—will at least occasionally play games on their handhelds. In that period, the wireless-games market will zoom from less than $1 million per year to $6 billion, if the rosier estimates are to be believed.

Everybody waits: for school to let out, for planes to arrive, for dentists to see us. To the wireless-gaming industry, these unoccupied interludes in an average day are opportunities—minutes waiting to be killed with their creations. 'There are plenty of time-saving applications,' says Paul Goode, entertainment platforms group manager for Motorola. 'We’re working on the time-wasting ones.' " [Technology Review]

Remember - no one thought solitaire would be one of the most popular apps on a PC. Wireless gaming will be huge - mark my words.

[The Shifted Librarian]

There is nothing quite so satisfying as killing time playing a game on my PDA or Cell Phone while waiting in line, or on a bus, or a plane. Being able to compete while in any of the above would be even better.

PEGA-MSB1

Wed, 19 Jun 2002 02:56:56 GMT

Give Me Wireless Or... Well, Give Me Wireless!.

End of the Road for the Unconnected Handheld?

"Recently we had a chance to try a slightly different approach to wireless Internet access and e-mail using a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone, the Sony Ericsson T68, and a Compaq iPaq H3835 with a Socket Bluetooth CF card. Once we set up a dial-up networking account for our existing EarthLink account using Socket's excellent Connection Manager software, we were able to browse the Web and check e-mail wireless from anywhere--we didn't even need to take the 2.9-ounce phone out of our shirt pockets to connect (or disconnect).

Before long, expect to see nearly all handhelds ship with some form of wireless access. And in the short term, if you can pick up a wireless-enabled handheld for between $50 and $100 more than a standard PDA, you should give it some serious thought." [ZDNet]

While I like the unique features of the Sony Clie NR-70V, I'm not as jazzed about it as I would be if it had wireless connections. New reality: I won't be buying a new PDA that doesn't have wireless capabilities. Even if the network support isn't quite there yet, it will be. Soon.

[The Shifted Librarian]

OK, here is the info I promised: The stick can currently be ordered for $210.25 from here. News release here [Palminfocenter], and here [Sony Japan]. Apparently, it is supposed to have a price of around $155.00, so the price above may reflect some of what I call the early adopter tax. More info here.

I'd pay $75.00 for the card, and so far no one has one for sale on Ebay, so I guess I'll have to wait. It's just as well, I have no other Bluetooth devices as of yet, and my cell carrier has no Bluetooth phones (yet), so I can be patient, for now.

Tue, 18 Jun 2002 22:15:07 GMT

Toshiba's iPod Competitor [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]

Interesting, it has a removable 5 GB drive. Assuming that it's in a format that allows you to put in a larger sized drive, and the 5 GB is more a matter of price to market consideration, you'll be able to fit all your data on a small removable disk, and since the disks are the same size/format as PC cards, I imagine you could easily swap them out as needed. Given that Kensington's version of these disks can handle up to 200G of operating shock, I think there is little to worry about in terms of dropping/data loss.

Boredom, neccesity, and some left over swag. The Mother of invention

Thu, 06 Jun 2002 23:18:44 GMT

I was only carrying one memory stick with me, until I built a DIY memory stick case.

DUDE!

Tue, 04 Jun 2002 14:52:28 GMT

SWEET! I just found out that I can have the MP3 player on my Clie run in the background while I run other apps... Very nice. So now I don't have to quit out of that app if I wnat to check an address etc. And the supplied remote still works to control volume, track #, pause etc.

An aside - I see that RBT also has UMAX on his "never buy" list, because of their driver policy.

Fri, 31 May 2002 12:58:39 GMT

Carmack on Doom 3 Video Cards [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]

Completely unrelated to teh topic: John Carmack is one of those seriously scary-smart individuals. His hobby is building rockets, because

"The appalling inefficiency in the aerospace industry is also a bit of a driving factor. Due to an accident of history tying them to ICBMs, the evolution of space vehicles has wound up tending towards a local optimum that is in a completely different area than better global solutions, and it doesn't seem likely to break out of the current context. The aerospace industry needs a fresh reboot. There is an order of magnitude improvement available in low hanging fruit.

I have a reasonable time table going for all of our development work, and things are proceeding satisfactorily."

Red Herring article

Thu, 30 May 2002 19:28:21 GMT

I've decided don't want a Pocket PC. I don't want an iPod either. I want an all-digital Walkman that connects easily to my LAN, using 802.11b. $500. Anyone want to make one for me? I didn't think so. [Scripting News]

Dave, we need wireless LAN cards to drop to about a $10.00 price point before we'll see that happening. The closest think you'll find to do this right now is Terrapin Mine, but that doesn't have the wireless that you looking for. Shit, wait, it does. But you have to supply the PC card.

UPDATE: No FM reciever built in, but there are a variety of teeny tiny FM radios out there. Besides, I already have the utility belt going, between the cell phone, Leatherman Wave (With flashlight), PDA, and carabiner of keys (which also has a small pen knife/flashlight combo, and an LED flash on the car keys as well). All I need to add is radio, a CD/cassette player, a digital camera, and a bluetooth PAN, and I'm a fully blown Gargoyle.

That Camera (I'm digressing, I know) Is sweet. Blutetooth it into your network connection, and you can upload files directly to your server. Run this in the field with an OQO and you've got your portable editing studio, and broadcasting system all in one. Tie the final/edited files into a p2p system and you've got your own broadcast network, all via the web. Or go gonzo and just have everything running as a video blog, without editorial supervision.

Step out a bit further and start publishing to servers in different countries, along the lines of what Jon Robb is doing with his Italian Blog, and you've got worldwide distribution of your "show" with all of your "affiliates" getting the latest "episodes" (enough with the "quotes", you get it) as soon as they are available. Since you've tied it into your blog, which has an RSS feed, people are automatically told where they can get the latest episodes as a part of their feeds.

Thu, 30 May 2002 14:32:48 GMT

Shuttle SS40G Mini-PC [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]

A tiny, darned near silent computer. Review here (currently Slashdoted). I could have a couple of these running as a render farm, or as a server farm in the house and I don't think my wife would mind since they are small, near silent, and not hulking huge grey boxes. Given the free PCI slot, you could KVM these into a small cluster for funky computing stuff as well. Throw in gigbit eithernet cards and you have some cheap/fast servers up and running for gaming. Sweet.

Thu, 23 May 2002 22:16:33 GMT

Bringing rapid-fire photos to digicams. While most digital cameras' processors leave you waiting between shots, start-up NuCore's chips let you fire off five frames a second. Pixel freaks, take notice. [CNET News.com]

Well, I think I'll wait for this and Foveon tech to come out in cameras before I buy one.

Sat, 11 May 2002 22:49:11 GMT

Sources: Xbox price cut this month - CNET 05-10-2002.

	Microsoft said to cut price of Xbox - MSNBC Microsoft to cut price of Xbox this month - sources - Forbes [Google Technology News]

(I hate the way Google news formats in a table)
Currently they are at a $299.99 price point with the X Box, but they don't have the market penetration to make the system profitable at that cost, as they plan on making the loss on the systems with their software sales. The PS2 is ebating them 10-1 in terms of market adoption, so things are looking pretty grim for the X-Box. Time will tell.

Fri, 22 Mar 2002 15:03:11 GMT

Is iPod angling to be device du jour?. Apple Computer's digital music player could begin to mature into a handheld and maybe more, say analysts and Mac enthusiasts. But Apple itself is saying don't get carried away. [CNET News.com: Personal Technology]

Given that Jobs has come out in the past and publicly blasted people for using Palm devices, I highly doubt that we'll be seeing iPods as fully blown PDAs any time soon. However I do see a time in the near future, when color high res LCD or OLED price points get low enough, that we will see an iPod that has a color screen and the ability to playback video that is either stored on the device or streamed from a bluetooth connection. Ideally I'd like to see an iPod as a mini video editor/photo viewer, with an optional keyboard connection or Newton-like handwriting interface that allows you to mark up/tag your data in the field, speeding editing once you get back to your desktop/laptop.