Another product annouced today from Apple is the new Mac mini with Intel Core, offering up to 2GB of memory. This white PC is so quiet, Apple says that there's no reason to hide it under your desk. The new 2.9-lb Mini packs a lot of fun too: Watch movies via Front Row, create a mix CD, sure the Web with built-in AirPort wireless, and even connect your iPod, digital camera, printer or DV camcorder via FireWire or USB ports. And with the built-in wireless, your room will be free of cable clutter, which clean freaks everywhere will appreciate.

There's no need to go out and buy another keyboard for your Mac Mini either. You can use any keyboard, display, and mouse around your house.

What you'll get:

• Mac mini
• Apple Remote
• Power cord
• Install/restore DVDs

The 1.5GHz Intel Core Solo Mac Mini is $599 (with 60GB hard drive). The 1.66Ghz Intel Core Duo version is $799 (with 80GB hard drive).

For more info, read PCMag Audio Analyst Mike Kobrin's report on the Mac Mini.

Finally we know what Apple has up its sleeves. Today, Apple announced the iPod Hi-Fi: a home stereo system with an iPod dock (for every iPod) on the top. It comes with a Universal Dock connector and integrated handles for easy portability at a weight of 14.5 pounds. The dock connector also acts a way to charge your iPod. It features three speaker cones custom designed to provide balanced sound with a 130 mm woofer. All I know is, it's about time!!

 

The Tone Control option is a nice feature. It lets you choose settings like “Normal,” “Treble Boost,” or “Bass Boost” to produce the kinds of tones you want to hear.

 

With it, you'll get:    

-iPod Hi-Fi and removable grille
-Apple Remote
-10 iPod Universal Dock Adapters
-AC power cord
-Product documentation and user guide

 

Buy the iPod Hi-Fi now for $349 at the Apple Store.

 

For more info, read PCMag Audio Analyst Mike Kobrin's report on the iPod Hi-Fi.

The Geneva Auto Show is taking place March 2 to 12, and the news is starting to roll in.

You thought your Prius or Civic was efficient: Check out the Loremo (stands for "low resistance mobile") concept car, to be announced at the show this week. It won't be available till 2009, according to the Loremo Web site. The Loremo LS will be powered by a two-cylinder Turbo Diesel engine, with 20 hp, weigh only around 992 pounds, and reportedly, will get 157 miles per gallon. A more powerful version, the Loremo GT, will weigh in at 1,036 lbs and get 87 miles per gallon.

Bill Howard opines: "157Mpg may be pushing the laws of thermal efficiency. Only so many BTUs in a gallon of gasoline. The 200mpg carburetor simply wasn't possible on a 4,000 pound car at 100-percent efficiency for burning gasoline."

(Thanks to Daily Tech for the scoop on this.)

Is the software giant really going to try to break Apple's lock on the handheld-media-player market? Google "Origami" and "Microsoft" if you want to get a sense of the rumors floating around the Web. I'll toss out another question: Is there any market Microsoft doesn't try to dominate? Sometimes it works (Xbox) and sometimes, it just doesn't (PC gaming peripherals).

Mary Jo Foley of Microsoft Watch points to a site with a teaser video; you don't get a lot of information on Origami, but it's somehow intriguing. Which is the plan, naturally. More info is promised on March 2. Mary Jo is skeptical about MS's ability to take on Apple in the design arena; I'd echo that concern, looking at these pictures I scooped off the Web. I can't verify that these are actually the device; if so, there's aesthetic work to be done.

Still, the thought that Origami might be more than a media player, but a powerful new convergence gadget, is alluring. Mary Jo goes so far as to speculate that "Microsoft will convince its chums in the market-research business to create a whole new category of all-in-one mobile communicators (better than Sidekicks; more comprehensive than Treos; able to leap even BlackBerries in a single bound!) which Microsoft's units will dominate from the outset." If so, I'm going to be forced to start saving my pennies.

The 82nd PMA (Photo Marketing Association) International Trade Show is underway, in Orlando, FL. This show is huge for the photography community, and lots of big announcements generally happen there.

PC Magazine sent Cameras Lead Analyst Terry Sullivan. Check out his slideshow for pictures of the delectable-looking, tentatively named Pentax 645 medium-format digital SLR camera (pictured at left), shown here for the first time in the U.S.; Sony's underwater cameras and accessories, soaking in aquariums; Olympus booth reps throwing cameras on the floor; and other interesting displays. He'll be adding more captioned photos every day, so check back.

There are lots of very good, inexpensive photo editing packages out there, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements 4, Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006, and Ulead PhotoImpact 11. But possibly more than any of these, Corel's Paint Shop Pro, which the company acquired from Jasc, has tried to give advanced amateurs and professionalsa real alternative to the full-blown, $649 Photoshop CS2 . We gave the latest version, Paint Shop Pro X, 4.5 stars when we reviewed it at PC Magazine recently. Paint Shop Pro lists for $129, though you can often find it for around $99. But Best Buy has it today for $29.99 after a $30 rebate. According to the site, their online store is backordered, but most stores have it in stock, so you can order on the Internet and stop by to pick it up.

Is TiVo giving away set-top boxes? Well, according to Chief Executive Tom Rogers, the company may try out a couple of pricing options, including a plan that lets you get a free TiVo box. However, the free box may be in exchange for higher priced and longer term plans, so that means bye-bye $13 per month service, which won't make many people happy.   

TiVo currently holds about 4 million subscribers, and new pricing plans may help them face fiercer competition from cable and satellite TV providers, as well as electronics makers. But, doesn't Time Warner offer their own version of a DVR for just $5 a month?

I missed the free TiVos that were given out at last year's DigitalLife Show, but if the company does decide to go along with this plan, I might just get myself one and subscribe (so I can TiVo Lost because sometimes I really get lost watching that show!).

[More details in this Reuters story.]

TRENDnet is kicking its traditional-looking HotSpot Detector to the curb in lieu of celebrating the upcoming FIFA World Cup. The company redesigned its TEW-429UB ($67.99) as a 2006 limited edition soccer-inspired HotSpot Detector. 

Perfect for any soccer fan/computer geek, the TEW-429UB Limited Edition comes with an LCD screen that details a connection's signal strength, battery life, and more. It supports 64/128-bit WEP & WPA / WPA2 Encryption on the Windows platform. It comes with a rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery and an 802.11g USB 2.0 Adapter to connect to available WiFi 802.11b/g signals.

The included neck strap is great if you tend to lose small objects and the retail packaging includes the flags of all of the final 32 countries competing in the event. Pretty cool, I might say. Maybe they should come out with the official 2006 Winter Olympics HotSpot Detector as well?

Available for a limited time beginning in April 2006 for $59.99.

On a Tuesday, I had a dissatisfying experience with my car dealer. The following Thursday, I had lunch with J.D. Power's VP in charge of satisfaction. And Thursday night, the dealer's survey company called (coincidentally, and not knowing about my lunch with the Power exec) to ask about my service satisfaction. Even more kismet: Now I get to write this column. Life is good--for me.

On behalf of everyone who's annoyed by all the glitches affecting the cars we love and the dealers we deal with, this column's for you. Here's what I hate about cars this month. This will not be the last column on the topic. And on the off chance you've had similar experiences, please share them on this thread or e-mail technoride@ziffdavis.com (no e-mail, please, from impoverished offspring of Nigerian trade ministers who need a Good Samaritan to free their bank accounts).

Owner sites suck. Go to a car manufacturer's site, and the configure-your-next-car section works wonderfully, because they still want your money. But buy the car and log on to the owner section, and you've fallen into the dark ages of Web craftsmanship. Mostly owner sections are about selling you parts and logo-wear, along with credit card offers and financing deals, or the company's rock concert/charity walk/Olympic branding campaign. Maybe you can download the owner manual as a PDF, but you can't get the nav-system manual, warranty manual, or tire-warranty manual (what for? I don't think tires ever get replaced free).

You many see a space for service records, but that means you enter the info yourself, by hand. Perish the thought that the dealer network could transfer its records for you. Try to look up the recommended maintenance schedule: Even if you've previously entered your car's model, year, and VIN number, many sites will greet you with drop-down boxes asking for your car's year and model. You'll also find handy tech tips such as, "Be sure to check your tire pressure frequently."

Maybe-on, maybe-not icons. If you have an LCD panel for nav/audio/HVAC and try to set an option, the option in question turns from yellow to blue, or "Driver" displays blue on white while "Passenger" turns to white on blue. Does that mean driver-side functions are enabled or disabled? How about a highlight that makes sense, such as a hollow box with a check mark when it's enabled? (Same thing with portable cell-phone battery indicators: Does one bar light, three bars dark mean you have more or less than half charge remaining?)

Records access charge. When my car goes in for service ($90 an hour for shop time), the dealership tacks on a 50-cent records maintenance fee to look things up in the computer.

Not-in-inventory penalty. Many cars have high-failure parts. In ours, it's a sliding-door electrical module. (On the previous car, it was everything underneath the oil filler cap.) Our dealer doesn't stock the part, though it should. It's not going to gather much warehouse dust before someone needs it.

When our service rep called to declare that fixing the sticking door wasn't an adjustment this time, but that we needed to replace the whole part, our choices were: a) make a second appointment when the part arrives by truck in, oh, a week; b) pay $25 to have a small $100 module overnighted; or c) Un-garage the spare Bentley, even though it's still rainy season. Some automakers have enough regional warehouses so that any part can be trucked overnight, gratis. Not this maker. My expectation from ordering tech stuff and books online is that providing next-day parts should be a cost of doing business for the automaker/dealer, or at most a $5 charge for me. It's definitely the cost of my satisfaction. Continued...

CSI payola. That's customer satisfaction index, although what some dealers do is a crime. When we got the "how was your service?" phone call from the survey company, we were midway through the repair mentioned above, in which parts would arrive in a week, and we laid out what made us unhappy with the service process.

My expectations had been adjusted upward, because I'd had that lunch with Power & Associates' Chris Denove the day before. He had talked about how one automaker--my brand, come to think of it--found the quartile of dealerships with highest profits was the quartile with the highest long-term satisfaction. (Note that Power makes good money proving the obvious through surveys.)

We told the CSI pollster we weren't satisfied. The pollster notified the dealer (standard procedure, not special for us). The service rep called us and said, "The labor charge ($135) will be free--but not the part, since you had to pay for that in advance--if you give us a perfect rating when you get the long-form satisfaction e-mail survey." We allowed as how we'd already filled out the form online. The free-repair offer was rescinded. Later it was reinstated, but last I heard, the dealership wanted to dock the service rep for the make-good costs. As if he set the dealership rules.

Laff-a-minute parts charges. We misplaced our owner's manual. It's not a PDF at happy-owners-online.com, but you can order it. The manufacturer wanted $29, delivery time whenever. Amazon can custom-print most low-volume books and deliver in 2 to 3 days, for half that price.

The English-speaking penalty. The same owner's manual in Spanish was $27.

Oversize center brake lights. The hump on the back shelf reduces rear vision. Make it a tiny horizontal strip of LEDs in the shelf or the trunk lip instead.

Incandescent instrument bulbs. Every light in the instrument panel should be an LED. It costs a couple dollars more to build the car, but it saves buyers far more: The bulb in our car's clock cluster has failed four times now, and it's cost us about $60 a pop each time to repair it. At least that part's in stock.

Customer-paid maintenance. The majority of high-end cars are leased. Most people treat owned cars poorly and leased cars worse. If a car costs more than $35,000, free maintenance should be provided for the length of the warranty: oil changes, brake pads, wiper blades, air filters, everything but collision damage and tires. The car lasts longer, pollution is minimized, and the dealer gets back a higher-quality lease car to sell.

Abbreviated free maintenance. Our other car came with a full-maintenance plan. The car uses synthetic engine oil (a great technology that boosts mileage a bit; yours should use it, too). Around the time the free maintenance plan kicked in, the manufacturer discovered synthetic oil worked so well, it could go roughly twice as long between changes as it could the previous year, when owners paid dealers for oil changes.

Tiny, feel-alike steering-wheel buttons. Some buttons on steering wheels are helpful: Volume Up and Down, Music Next/Previous Program, Answer Phone, and Start Voice Input. But when wheel buttons number a dozen, and they're all small, that's a step backward. Buttons don't have to be buttons: Audi's steering-wheel volume control is a roller wheel. Smart idea.

Too-dim steering-wheel buttons. All those buttons need to be lighted at night, but on the majority of cars I've driven, they're markedly darker than the instrument cluster.

Overly bright nav display. Conversely, the nav panel often is too bright at night (except for night mode, which is too dim). There may need to be a three-way adjuster for instrument-cluster, steering-wheel, and nav-panel brightness, and it can't be buried three layers deep in the iDrive/COMAND/MMI menu structure.

Share your complaints. Unless, of course, you have a perfect car, a perfect dealer, and perfect reliability. Send e-mail to technoride@ziffdavis.com or comment below.

Hoping to make a mark in the Apple iPod-dominated MP3 player market, Samsung will be releasing the YP-Z5 2GB and 4GB flash players, thanks to the leadership of Paul Mercer, a veteran Apple Macintosh software designer. Mercer says, "My whole vision has been to take Macintosh-class technology and to move it into new places."

The YP-Z5 supports "PlayForSure" WMA subscription music services, such as Napster and Rhapsody, and its 4GB version is the first player to support these subscription services.

The YP-Z5 features:

• 1.8" Color TFT-LCD display
• 35-hour playback time
• 25,000-picture storage
• Comes with earphones, USB cable, and install CD
• Touchpad navigation
• Photo Viewer
• Customizable player background with JPEG images
• Choice of black or silver

Expect the YP-Z5 on store shelves March 5th, priced at $199 to $249, which will surely compete with the iPod Nano ($232 to $270).

[Found via NYTimes]

Some of you probably heard of the cool new Optimus OLED keyboard from the famous Russian designer. But if expensive keyboards aren't your cup of tea, try the sleek looking Mus2 mouse from Art Lebedev's studio.

 

It's a two button mouse, with left and right-click buttons in a vertical alignment. It's shaped like a mouse pointer, and it even looks ergonomic to me. It comes with a USB receiver, making it a wireless mouse. And for Mac users, the Mighty Mouse is not your only option for a two-button mouse. The Mus2 works with both Mac and Windows platforms.

 

As with the Optimus keyboard, there is no word on pricing and no word on ship dates for the Mus2. This Lebedev guy has some really cool products, but I haven't seen anything in the U.S. — yet.

Okay, it has very little to do with technology except that I came across it on TechBargains, and geeks love sugar. Apparently next Tuesday, 2/28, from 7AM - 2PM, IHOP is giving away a free short-stack to each customer. Mark your calendar.

Imagine if your car could provide hands-free calling, offer navigation services, and connect and play music from any device—yes, even iPods—all for the price you pay now for an in-car Bluetooth phone adapter. That's the promise of Blue&Me, a joint development by Microsoft Corp. and the Fiat Auto Group being unveiled at the March 2006 Geneva Auto Show.

SLIDESHOW (5)

Slideshow | All Shots

There's good and bad news, at least for American technology fans. The good news is that Blue&Me will be available almost immediately. The bad news: For the next year (through March, 2007), you'll find it only in Fiats and Fiat Group cars such as the Alfa-Romeo and Lancia, brands that aren't available in the United States.

But Microsoft says that at least one other major automaker may be ready to adopt Microsoft Mobile for Automotive, a deeper and richer offshoot of Windows Mobile, which has been adopted already by 60-plus car models. This is the commercialization of a product Microsoft privately called T-Box (the T stands for telematics).

Here's what buyers will get, starting in March, 2007, in the Fiat Grande Punto, Alfa-Romeo Brera, and Alfa-Romeo 159, using the Blue&Me system:

— A steering wheel button labeled with a Windows icon that calls up a voice input system, letting the user choose phone, audio, and navigation services.

— Bluetooth connectivity with cell phones for hands-free calling.

— A USB jack in the dash or glove box to connect virtually any music player or USB key holding MP3 or WMA music. This includes iPods, but excludes, for now, protected-content iTunes (AAC) downloads.

— A radio faceplate that displays track and tune information from the music player—a big step up from line-in jacks, which are just now starting to become popular on cars.

— A small instrument-cluster display that would provide navigation services using the car's built-in GPS and a Bluetooth phone to get (via a phone call) trip information downloaded to non-volatile memory in the car.

The price of basic Blue&Me functionality will be 220 to 240 euros on the Grande Punto, or $261 to $285, roughly what automakers now charge for a Bluetooth connection alone. Initially, the technology covers phones and music. Cars would be capable of navigation services, but that wouldn't likely start until later in 2006 and would be surcharged, possibly for a dollar a trip, $3 a day, or $10 a month, if European automakers' revenue models parallel what's charged by cellular carriers for cellphone-handset navigation tools

Higher-end cars might have an arrows-and-icons display or even a full LCD panel for mapped directions, but prices are expected to be well under $1,000. The cheapest integrated car-navigation systems now are about $1,500.

In a 2005 demo of Microsoft's precursor to Blue&Me, the system worked well at getting navigation instructions. The only stumbling block then was the need to repeat some phrases until the voice-recognition system caught on, but that's not uncommon with car voice-input systems. Once downloaded, the spoken directions were clearly understandable and could be easily repeated, and the turn-indicator icons were more than adequate, if not as useful as a full-blown navigation map.

Why Fiat?

While the Fiat Auto Group seems an unlikely partner for Microsoft from an American perspective, Fiat has come a long way since the sorry, unreliable days of Fix-It-Again-Tony that drove the company out of the U.S. market in the 1980s. The Fiat Grande Punto is the best-selling car in Europe, and the new model was developed in just two years.

"This is no longer a weak company," says Thilo Koslowski, vice-president of automotive for Gartner. "Blue&Me is a proactive, not reactive, product. If you add up the costs of iPod integration and a Bluetooth module, this is less than half the cost of [other] embedded solutions …and with a greater level of functionality."

Phil Magney, a principal of the consultancy Telematics Research Group, said, "Windows Mobile for Automotive covers all the bases for device integration, and these are the most sought-after features of car buyers now: Bluetooth, MP3/WMA, voice recognition, USB, etc., and eventually iPod." Magney said he expects Microsoft and Apple will reach an understanding allowing playback of AAC files, including iTunes downloads. If that's the case, Blue&Me would take the place of ad hoc solutions costing $200 plus installation for the Harman/Kardon Drive+Play; and Monster Cable iCruze;, as well as car-specific modules costing $300 to $500, installed.

Jürgen Za, marketing manager for Microsoft's European Automotive Business Unit, says Microsoft has a second, unnamed automaker lined up, although the Fiat brands have a one-year exclusive on the technology. Za also said Microsoft and Apple are talking.

Who Might Follow Fiat's Lead?

Likely automakers would include:
— Audi (and parent company Volkswagen), whose motto is "progress through technology," and who was one of the first car companies to embrace cockpit controllers.

— Acura (and its parent, Honda), which is already heavily involved in using Microsoft's Windows Automotive in its vehicles.

— BMW, along with its trendy Mini Cooper sibling, another technology-directed company that was first with cockpit controllers (the iDrive). BMW was also one of the first to offer an aftermarket iPod adapter that was both costly and had limited functionality. The second time could be a charm.

— Ford is the American automaker most in need of tech-savvy entertainment/communications alliances. GM has OnStar and XM Satellite Radio; and starting in 2007, GM vehicles will offer OnStar Turn by Turn Navigation, which works roughly like Blue&Me navigation: The caller gives an operator the address, the route is downloaded to the car, and then it's played back as the car reaches turns. Chrysler has parent DaimlerChrysler—and DC, burned by technology the past decade, said two years ago that it would not add technology to its cars unless it worked flawlessly and benefited customers. (Gartner's Koslowski said Windows Mobile and WMFA are far more robust than earlier iterations.)

— Toyota represents what soon may be the world's largest automaker, and its Denso navigation systems, highly rated five years ago, have fallen a bit compared with those in Acura/Honda and Nissan/Infiniti vehicles.

No, not Gamera; these cute little amphibians won't be battling Godzilla anytime soon.  But they could be crawling around your desk at work, or frightening your high-strung pets at home, thanks to Dynamism.com, the excellent site that brings so many cool gadgets from Japan to the tech-starved who live elsewhere.

Called Walkiebits, the turtles do more than crawl: They can chirp back any pattern you tap on their backs, up to 15 taps. And... their tails wag. They come in Dot Blue, Heart Pink, Star Yellow, Melon, Mint, Orange, Peach, Pine, Soda, Snow, Blue, and Green, and cost $29 per. Dynamism says the Walkiebits are very popular in Japan, so better make like a hare and move quickly to get one.

PC Magazine posted a guide on their Web site today showing you how to build your own PC, right down to the hard drive, memory, graphics, and CPU.

You'll also find info on choosing the right parts for any type of DIY PC project.

So go ahead...build your dream machine. I dare ya.