It's tough to get your fingers on a well made ultraportable that's decently priced. That is, until Gateway stepped into the picture. The Gateway E-100M reminds me of the Motorola Razr of notebooks.
This piano black miniature is almost as thin as the Toshiba Portege R200, but doesn't put a world of hurt on my pockets. However, it's not completely perfect given what's under the hood. The components are the latest Intel Yonah processors — that's the good news. But they're the lowest breed, integrating the Ultra Low Voltage U1400 Core Solo(1.2Ghz) processor and only 512MB RAM. Performance is much like the R200 — dreadful. Although if all you're doing is word processing and spreadsheets, the E-100M is an affordable alternative to the R200, and even the Lenovo Thinkpad X60s.
Battery is good with the 3 Cell, and a whole lot better with an extended 9 cell battery($79.99). It doesn't have a built-in optical drive, but an external drive is available($199.99). The price starts at $1,574.
The rumors are flying, thicker than ever: will there be an actual Apple iPhone?
The current round of rumors started with an Australian report citing executives from BenQ and several financial firms as saying that some Taiwanese manufacturers were competing to build the device. That was followed by a virtual scrum of analysts falling all over each other to predict Apple's move: first a VisionGain analyst saying the iPhone would appear on new wireless carrier Helio (via MobileTracker) and then a somewhat confused report on our own PCMag.com from Rethink Research, predicting that Apple will work with Intel, an Asian manufacturer, and existing carriers to build the phone.
I want to see an iPhone as badly as everyone else, and not just because I sit near "MacBook Pro" Cisco Cheng, "Intel Core Duo" Joel Santo Domingo and "iPod Hi-Fi" Mike Kobrin. Phones generally have hideous interfaces for anything beyond basic voice calling, and the market could do with a big dose of that old Apple magic for making things intuitive and easy-to-use. An Appl-ization trend on mobile phone interfaces, if it bleeds over to other manufacturers, could really be a shot in the arm for high-end data services that right now only geeks bother to learn how to use.
It wouldn't take innovative new features for an iPhone to be a hit. It would just take unlocking the features high-end phones now have, through an attractive, easy-to-use interface that always works.
I have no idea whether Apple will actually release a phone -- their smoke is opaque to me -- but I doubt they'll do it at next week's CTIA trade show. I also think they'll have to establish their own virtual carrier, or MVNO, like ESPN Mobile. (For global markets, the phone would probably be GSM, so Cingular and T-Mobile subscribers would be able to use it with their existing SIM cards.) The Motorola ROKR debacle shows that Apple doesn't play well with others: that phone was held up for a year in bickering between Motorola, Apple and Cingular, and ended up looking like the product of too many hideous compromises. Apple's strategy has always been to deliver a complete experience, and I don't see why they'd settle for anything less with the iPhone.
The popular Tamagotchi Virtual Pet continues to attract fans both young and old, ever since it hit toy shelves in 2004. Bandai America recently launched the advanced Tamagotchi Connection Version 3, which allows virtual pet owners to log on to TamaTown.com for more interaction with their pets. Version 3 is doing so well that Bandai America reports its selling twice the amount than of Version 2, and more than 50,000 users are visiting TamaTown.com each day.
Version 3 features three refreshed games, 20 additional characters, and 24 new design styles, including Translucent Black, Translucent Pink, Zebra Stripes, Green Snake, Sky Blue Circles and Pink Ribbon.
This year, Bandai America will launch new Tamagotchi lanyards so that you can wear your virtual pet around your neck.
What could be more upscale than naming your car after America's fastest growing sport, lacrosse? Thus we have the Buick LaCrosse (shown at left), the replacement for the Regal.
One problem north of the border, however: Although lacrosse translates to the stick in French, to some Quebecois, it's also a synonym for masturbation. So Buick worked up a different name for Canada: The Allure.
Some other cars with checkered names:
Mitsubishi Pajero. The LaCrosse problem south of the border: Pajero is also slang for masturbator.
Ford Caliente. Caliente means hot in Spanish. It also means streetwalker. (But then, Ford has also sold the Escort.)
Toyota Fiera. In Puerto Rico, fiera translates loosely to ugly old woman.
Ford Pinto. To Brazilians, pinto is slang for small penis.
Chevrolet Nova. You've probably heard this one already: no va means won't go in Spanish. Although it got laughs ("how could GM be so dumb, again?"), reports of lousy sales in South America are more urban legend than fact, and linguists argue that it's an awkward construct in Spanish (no funciona would be more appropriate).
AMC Matador. What's fine for Mexico doesn't work so well in Puerto Rico, where matador is slang for killer.
GM Hummer. We won't go there.
Sometimes, naming problems pop up after the fact. Renault's 1980-era Fuego (Spanish for fire) had some serious electrical problems. And you just knew the AMC Gremlin was going to have mechanical problems.
Because most of the good names are already registered in a major country, or because of the snicker factor, you're ever more likely to see cars with numbers for names (like the Nissan 350Z, BMW 530i, Mercedes E320, Mazda6, and Saab 9-3) or initials (the Acura RL, TL, TSX, and Pontiac GTO). The Lincoln Zephyr spent only a few months with that storied FoMoCo nameplate before being rebadged as MKZ, which is pronounced Mark Z.
Remember all the advice you got five years ago when you were shopping for home theater equipment? If you're not doing the work yourself, find somebody reputable, and don't be a cheapskate. Same goes when you're looking to install an iPod adapter or any other technology devices permanently in your car. Whether it's a DVD player in back, a new audio system in front, an alarm, a backup camera, or a hidden-wiring radar detector, the price should not be the first thing on your mind.
Over the past few years, I've installed, or had installed, in-car DVD players, satellite radio, an in-dash radio/CD, an iPod adapter, a Bluetooth adapter, extra power to the middle seats of a van, and some hidden wiring, and here's what I've found. None of this should be a revelation.
Installations mean squeaks and rattles. No matter how careful the installer, each panel removed and replaced and each screw undone and redone is unlikely to fit better or squeak less than before. One exception: AV gear installed in Yugos, Fiats, and British cars older than American Idol contestants, because you can only improve the original factory fit and finish. So if you're considering putting a DVD player in back, think about whether you're also going to need an additional power line to run your Xbox 360 (150-plus watts). If so, take care of all three at once (yes, three): 1. the DVD player, 2. extra power, and 3. audio/video inputs through the ceiling and side pillars to the floor, so you don't have cables dangling in the driver's rear view. A good installer would remind you of that. You'd think of it yourself, eventually.
Keep it short or keep it digital. Right now I'm trying to diagnose a horrible hum in my iPod adapter. An analog signal cable runs from the console to the trunk (where the CD changer input is located), and somewhere along the way, it's running parallel to a power line. If you have the choice, short runs are good, and digital signals are better than analog.
Is that how you'll really use it? I spent an hour figuring out the best place for a console-mount display panel. I checked my sightlines as well as my wife's. When the glue was dry on the display mount and I went for a test drive—uh, oh. The sightlines were perfectly established with the transmission in Park, not 3 inches farther back in Drive. Make sure your add-on doesn't get in the way of your swing-outcupholders, where you set the cellphone, where your purse goes, where it doesn't get in the of the handbrake.
Get the best techs possible on your side. "AM/FM/CD: $99, installed!" may be one of life's big dissatisfactions. Not to knock the national chain merchants, but the work they do is inconsistent. When you're buying a brand-name product, get a list of factory-authorized installers, and start there. Better yet, find out if the vendor has Platinum or Select dealers (the term varies) and look them up. Best of all, e-mail or call the electronics company and ask who it would recommend. Another possibility: Your car dealer probably jobs out unusual installations to a regional service center. Find out who it is and see whether it does work for individuals, too.
Hard-wire your satellite console. Once you've played with your new dash-mount satellite receiver for a week and decided life is not worth living without Sirius or XM (take your pick), spend $50 or $75 to have a technician hide all the wires. You can do a good job, but the tech can do a better job.
Check with Crutchfield. Lots of places will help you with a DIY installation. Some are cheaper, but none are more helpful than Crutchfield . For higher-end or more esoteric tech goodies for your car, also check out Auto Toys. No matter where you buy, it's a good reference tool.
Get the best audio-in quality. Try to use these audio connections, listed from best to scratchiest: direct line-in (often through a CD connector adapter), a hard-wired FM antenna modulator, a cassette adapter, a good wireless FM modulator ($25-plus, roughly), or a cheap FM modulator ($10 to $20).
Line-in is good, radio display is better. You can always bring in audio. But with iPods and satellite radio, sometimes you can also get artist and song information to show up on your radio display and control the device from the radio controls. Replacement radios may have iPod jacks and jacks for XM or Sirius (occasionally they have both). If you're working with an existing car radio, check out black boxes from Soundgate, Blitzsafe, Pacific Accessory Corp., and Precision Interface Electronics that adapt existing car radios.
Replace the radio. You're probably not wedded to your car radio. It may be cheaper to buy a new radio/CD player with an iPod connector and a satellite radio connector (or satellite built in) for less than the cost of add-on iPod and satellite adapters. Just be prepared for tinier buttons: The replacement-radio mantra is "big displays, small buttons."
One last word: Before you dive too deeply into AV technology, make sure you're doing it because you love the entertainment it provides. Tech gadgets like these won't do much for your car's resale value.
To be geeky means to surround yourself with so many gadgets and gear that you can't help but be unorganized.
At least there's one product out there that can help us de-clutter our computer desks. Meet myKeyO's Keyboard Organizer. It looks like an ordinary keyboard, but it opens to an internal storage case. There's no need to waste hours on end trying to find a blank CD-R, notepads, stapler, markers, rubberbands, business cards--you name it. You can keep your important knick-knacks hidden inside this convenient case, which the company says is 1/10th inches thicker than a standard keyboard.
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