Thanks to editor, reviews, Lance Ulanoff for this story!
The second most frightening moment in the movie version of "The Wizard of Oz" (the scariest is the crystal-ball transformation of Aunt Em into the Wicked Witch) is the haunted forest scene, where the trees come to life and try to tear Dorothy limb from limb.
I'm sure that is not what inspired the members of Robotany to build the world's first robot tree, also known as Breeze. This group of Swiss artists attempts to combine nature and robotics, and have succeeded in melding a live Japanese maple tree with actuator wires made of Flexinol (a shape-memory alloy): The trees branches can detect passersby and, according to the Robotanists, "visually sense and react."
Breeze's reactions are the really creepy part. The tree twitches individual branches around the full circumference of its... er... body. Its parents call the movements subtle and artistic, but admit that it's also "surreal."
Have your thumbs gotten lazy over the years? The Maltron Keyboard, available at ThinkGeek, will take care of that! Take a look at the layout; the two inset keypads give those stumpiest of digits a much better workout than they get on a regular keyboard. And the centered number pad makes sure your right hand doesn't get stuck with more to do than your left.
The Maltron also uses Cherry MX key switches: According to ThinkGeek's description, your fingers need to pound the keys only half as hard as they do on keyboards made with cheaper membrane switches. And the concave layout corrects for the varying length of your fingers. It's not wireless, but it connects via USB or PS/2, on PCs or Macs.
I'm generally skeptical about alternative keyboard layouts, but this one looks pretty easy to learn. This baby looks like it would be very comfortable to use, and it's supposed to be long-lasting too. It had better last me till my old age, for $489.99!
[By the way, does Maltron not sound like an evil robot name? I'm just saying.]
I had lunch with a wealthy friend today, and at the end of the meal he pulled out his black American Express card, which is now made of anodized titanium. The Amex Black Card is one of those legends that just had to become true: according to Wikipedia, American Express decided to launch the card only after urban legends of a mysterious, super-powerful credit card had circulated around the country.
Here's the problem, though: a titanium credit card is very impractical. For one thing, it makes your wallet noticeably heavier. The titanium interferes with some swipe machines, so you find yourself having to hand over your Black Card to shopkeepers for them to punch in the numbers by hand. And it sets off airport metal detectors.
That's when I realized: it's enforced conspicuous consumption. This card literally demands to be seen. "Excuse me, Mr. Low-Paid TSA Worker. Will you take my black titanium credit card through the security machine?" or "Excuse me, Ms. Overworked Waitress. Will you pay special attention to my black titanium credit card?"
All this just annoys my friend, who is an inconspicuous consumer and preferred the old plastic version. I guess Amex feels they need to offer something weighty to folks spending $2,500 a year for the privilege of carrying a limited-edition credit card.
Microsoft tried to be coy last month about developing a player to compete with Apple's iPod, but sooner or later, it's pretty predictable that Microsoft isn't going to let Apple win any market.
And thanks to audio analyst Mike Kobrin, he's keeping us up to speed with the latest batch of rumored features of the forthcoming MS portable media player:
A WiFi radio that lets you download songs over the air or from another nearby player via an ad-hoc network
A bigger screen size, possibly 3.5 inches, for watching video
The ability to download protected-WMA versions of songs you've already purchased from the iTunes Music Store—for free
On the other hand, editor of reviews Lance Ulanoff refers to this iPod rival as the "MiPod". He believes that "Microsoft faces wicked competition and a youth market that believes Apple is cool and Microsoft is not. What's more, with Gates leaving and other key execs making quiet exits, there's a sense that the company is going through a fundamental shift. Is it the right time to try and roll out a market-changing product?"
The Seattle Times reports that the project is code named Argo, and that what's really being developed is a line of "Xbox-branded digital-media products, including a device that plays media, a software media player and an online media service."
Whether or not Microsoft should attempt at competing with Apple isn't the question; the real question is, will we have to deal with the "Blue Screen of Death" when we try to use these players? Hopefully not, and any war with the iPod deserves a big bag of popcorn and a front row seat.
When you drive a new car nearly every week, the neighbors can get jealous. But for me, it also means more chances to experience even more dumb and annoying aspects of the automobile experience. Here's another list of things I hate about cars.
1. Space-wasting ashtrays. Ashtrays take up valuable cockpit space when hardly anybody smokes anymore. Don't dump the 12-volt socket inside, just the ashtray. (Take a look at my column, "My Dream Cockpit Controller", for an expansion on this idea.)
2. Mechanical transmissions. Transmissions with mechanical linkages could be replaced by shift-by-wire transmission selectors on the dash, plus paddle shifters behind the steering wheel for those who feel the need to shift for themselves.
3. No digital owners' manuals. I mean the complete set of quick reference guides, warranty books, and navigation system guides, not just the main manual; these should all be available online.
4. Bad PDF manuals. Online owner manuals in PDF format, in which Page 1 isn't the cover page. Otherwise, where when you tell Acrobat to go to page 83, you wind up on the actual page 79 or thereabouts.
5. No PDF hot links. Come to think of it, PDF manuals shouldn't be allowed online until every page reference is a hot link.
6. Dumb button placement. Some hazard-warning and door-lock buttons mounted on the center console will be stepped on and activated by the family dog when you leave the car to pump gas or drop a letter in the mailbox. If you leave your only set of keys in the ignition, odds are that Rusty will quickly step on the lock button as he runs from window to window, but won't in a million dog years set a paw on the button to unlock the doors.
7. Overly reflective wooden consoles. Polished wood consoles reflect not only the cabinetmaker's craft but also reflect the sky, the clouds, and worst of all, the sun. Go back to the soft luster of a lightly oiled wood dash, leather, or a nice plastic injection mold (that doesn't look like plastic). The more coats of urethane there are on top of the wood, the more you can't tell it apart from plastic-coated petro-wood anyway.
8. Nag screens. The ones that won't let you use the LCD until you click to acknowledge your consent, even when the car stalls in traffic and you restart 5 seconds later. I'm waiting to see convincing evidence from insurance companies, automakers, or liability lawyers that nag screens have saved even one life. If something keeps the backup camera or backup sonar display from being seen, that's a drawback for safety.
9. Where's the Map button? Some navigation systems lack a dedicated Map button, for the clueless among us: If they can't make a $1,500 nav system work, they might at least benefit from seeing a map of the surrounding area.
10. No LCD screen controls. We need them in nav systems that lack an intuitive way to adjust volume or brightness. If nothing else, when the nav system voice is speaking, you should be able to adjust it with the radio's volume control. Or does that make too much sense?
11. Unintelligent night settings. Since it's too much trouble to figure out where nav-system settings for day (bright, with a black-on-white background) and night (dimmer, with a green- or-white-on-black background) live in the menu tree, at least make the automatic day and night settings smarter than just shifting to night mode when you turn the headlights on. For instance, the nav system should be able to tell when it's raining heavily but still bright outside. The solution is a brightness sensor, of course; automakers say they're loathe to add to the cost of a car with another $3 sensor, but when you're tagging the customer $1,500-plus for the nav system, that really isn't an issue.
12. Dumb speaker systems. Many Bose upgrade audio systems place a pair of speakers at the tops of the driver's and passenger's seats, flanking the headrest to enrich the sound. The technology exists for each speaker to be controlled separately in a Bose system, but so far no automaker has asked Bose to direct navigation directions and other car announcements to the driver's speakers, or direct cell phone voices to either the driver's or passenger's speakers. Bose says it's the automakers' choice, but maybe Bose should whisper some sense into the automakers' ears. Friends don't let friends design underfunctioning cars.
Don't have VoIP yet, or just plain tired of using those pesky headsets to make Internet calls? Then you may want to opt for D-Link's Wi-Fi Phone. I bet tons of people have been waiting for this!
The DPH-540 (in black) and the DPH-541 (in silver) Wi-Fi Phones ($249.99 list) let you make and receive calls through an 802.11g or 802.11b wireless network with high-speed Internet access. So basically, you can use it at home, hotels, parks, airports, Starbucks or just about anywhere there is a wireless connection. You'll also be able to receive calls for free from regular phones via PsipTN technology (availability by August 2006 via firmware upgrade and 1-Year free subscription is included). Each phone measures 1.9" x 1.0" x 4.5" and weigh 0.5 lbs.
Features. Large, bright color LCD screen; Displays call history, address book entries, and caller ID numbers; Supports redial, mute, hold, and text messaging; 2 Soft Keys & 4 Directional Keys; 16MB Flash & 12MB SRAM of memory.
How It Works. The phone uses Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) which works with an VoIP phone service plan. "For accessing secure wireless networks, the Wi-Fi Phone supports WEP, WPA, and WPA2 encryption. With features like echo cancellation, packet delay compensation, and lost packet recovery, you can expect the voice quality from the Wi-Fi phone to be similar to traditional phones calls."
Package includes: Wi-Fi Phone, Li-Ion rechargeable battery, USB cable, and charger.
Why get VoIP service? Well, it can reduce local and long distance telephone charges. Right now, my mom pays around $80 for her AT&T phone service. She's going to cancel her landline soon because with all of the alternatives out there (i.e. digital phone, VoIP), why spend all that money?
I don't know how many times I've seen parents and grandparents whipping out those long accordian wallet-sized photo albums from their purses and wallets to show off their loved ones. Most of the time, they run out of room, so they've got five photos tucked away in each sleeve, or have to remove some photos to make room for the new ones. If only they had a portable digital photo frame instead.
For someone who scrapbooks as a hobby, photos are important to me, so look for my reviews of these portable digital photo frames all this week, designed by Royal Consumer Information Products, Inc.
Overall: I tested both gifs and jpegs. Despite a few gripes about transferring and deleting photos, the Royal PF140 is great for taking your photos on the go or displaying them on your desk at the office. What's also nice about this device is that you can either use the kickstand to stand it up, or use the clip to attach it to something.
Package includes: USB Cable, AC adapter, battery charger and software
How It Works: Install the PhotoFrame 1.4 software on your PC. To transfer photos onto the device, use the software application. To power the device, hold down both arrow keys. Depress one of the arrow keys for three seconds to activate the slideshow. Royal says you can only store up to 50 photos on the PF140, but I was able to store 53 before the memory became full. It took me about 1 min and 30 seconds to download 50 photos to the device.
Likes: Can optimize images in the software application. In slideshow mode, displays the number of pics. Ability to delete photos in device.
Gripes: Photo quality is okay. PhotoFrame 1.4 software is bothersome: can't select more than one photo at a time to transfer; must restart the application to download new photos; can't view all of the photos that are in the device while using the software, so I couldn't delete them individually; you only have the option to format the device to erase all photos. Screen power isn't constant; only stays on for 1 min 40 secs when not in slideshow mode. Slideshow mode is a bit slow (takes about 12 seconds to move to next photo).
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