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Samstag, 27. November 2004 |
Travel Upstarts Take on Top Sites.
A new breed of specialty search engines promise to deliver the best
bargains to travelers using the web to find the best airfares and
accommodations. They're challenging established sites like Travelocity,
Expedia and Orbitz. [Wired News]
3:33:28 PM 
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The Video Eyewear 3D wearable display. 
Every few months somebody unveils a new wearable display that hardly anyone ever seems to actually buy or be all
that interested in actually using(see Mitsubishi[base ']s Scopo,
the Second Sight, and the
Eyetop Centra), and we were all set to dismiss
VisualWear[base ']s new Video Eyewear wearable display until we learned that this one adds support for 3D video to the mix.
Coming out in Japan first, but the Video Eyewear was actually created by an American company called Icuiti and so there
are plans to eventually introduce it here, too.
[Engadget]
3:31:38 PM
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Two Audiovox PPC-6601 reviews. 
A couple of reviews have trickled out of the Audiovox
PPC-6601, Sprint[base ']s new Pocket PC Phone which is more or less a CDMA version of the
XDA III/MDA III. It[base ']s got the same slide-out
QWERTY keyboard, 128MB of memory, a 400MHz processor, Bluetooth, and an SDIO expansion card slot, with the main
difference being that the PPC-6601 doesn[base ']t have the built-in 802.11b WiFi that you[base ']ll find on the XDA III (which also
seems to be the primary complain in the reviews). Neither review mentions that whoever actually built the PPC-6601 (it
sure wasn[base ']t Audiovox!), could have taken advantage of Windows Mobile[base ']s new support for switching between portrait and
landscape screen orientations and had the keyboard slide down horizontally (sort of like the OQO), which would have
made it possible to make the keyboard a lot larger. Someone[base ']ll figure this one out sooner or later (we hope).
Read- infoSync
Read - Bargain PDA [Engadget]
3:31:12 PM
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The Knock-In-Lock. 
You better hope you don[base ']t have to pound so hard that you end up setting off your car alarm, but if you[base ']re prone to
losing your keys or accidentally locking yourself out of your car you may want to invest in the Knock-In-Key, a box
which lets you unlock your car just by tapping on the window. But not just any old knocking, you have to set a five to
twelve digit audible knock code so you car won[base ']t automatically unlock itself when carjackers or squeegee men
start banging on your window.
[Via TRFJ]
[Engadget]
3:30:24 PM
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Minimalist CD clock radio from Plusminuszero.
For some reason it[base ']s annoyingly difficult to find a non-fugly clock radio (just spend 5 seconds in the clock radio
section at Circuit City and you[base ']ll know what we[base ']re talking about), so we might just have to scoop Naoto Fukazawa[base ']s
ultra-minimalist, brushed aluminum model, which has a slot-loading CD player and LED screen that disappears when you[base ']re
not using it (though since it[base ']s a clock, wouldn[base ']t you technically be using it all of the time?).
[Engadget]
3:25:56 PM
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Infinium Labs says it needs $11.5 million to launch the Phantom. 
Infinium Labs, which has yet to conclusively prove that they[base ']re ever going to really ship their
PC-based Phantom video game console that they[base ']ve been
working on for a few years now (they already missed their
November 18th launch date), has admitted in a Securities
and Exchange Commission filing that the source of the problem is that they need to find another $11.5 million in
funding to get things rolling. Right now they[base ']re hoping to launch the Phantom Game Service and Phantom Game Receiver in
Q2 of next year, but without a cash infusion this might prove especially troublesome, since at the time of the filing
they only had $20,991 in the bank. And no, we didn[base ']t leave some zeroes off the end there.
[Engadget]
3:25:14 PM
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Verizon testing $15 a month flat-rate EV-DO data service. 
Even though their coverage is better, you have to admit that Verizon Wireless doesn[base ']t exactly have the most
consumer-friendly data plans (they have a bunch of plans, none of which are exactly what you[base ']d describe as affordable),
but that could be changing. They[base ']re currently test-marketing a new wireless data plan called Mobile Media that costs
fifteen bucks a month (the same as Sprint PCS Vision) and gives you unlimited data usage and access to their new
streaming video service (incidentally, they[base ']re phone they[base ']re testing the service with is
LG[base ']s EV-DO-compatible VX8000, which is pictured at
right). Assuming everything goes as planned, they[base ']ll be introducing the new service in January (we[base ']re guessing at the
big Consumer Electronics Show).
[Engadget]
3:24:22 PM
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The official dirt on the Qoolqee. 
Nah, it didn[base ']t turn out to be much more than an MP3 player, but the poorly-guarded website for the
Qoolqee did finally go live yesterday. Here[base ']s the official
dirt on the Qoolqee K7: it[base ']s a flash-based player that looks a lot like a clamshell cellphone that doesn[base ']t flip open,
comes in 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB versions, supports playback of MP3, WMA, and Ogg Vorbis audio files, and has a
65,000 color LCD screen.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
[Engadget]
3:23:36 PM
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Buy Nothing Day 2004. 
For 24 hours, millions of people around the world do not participate --
in the doomsday economy, the marketing mind-games, and the frantic
consumer-binge that's become our culture. We pause. We make a small
choice not to shop. We shrink our footprint and gain some calm.
Together we say to Exxon, Nike, Coke and the rest: enough is enough.
And we help build this movement to rethink our unsustainable course.
In its 13 years, BND has become a flashpoint, a day when people of all
stripes come together in symbolic protest. Visit the new BND Action
Pyramid for a sample of great ways to celebrate. Victoria s
Dirty Secret - In New York activists will be dressed up as Angels with
Chain Saws to protest the deforestation of the Boreal Forest for the
production of glossy catalogues. It's a spoof of Victoria's Secret's
recent ad campaign: Angels Across America . Jammer Radios -
Imagine rush hour commuters bombarded with BND anti-ads. In L.A.
Culture Jammers are reclaiming radio with low-power FM transmitters.
BND Japan - Become a Zenta: put on a Santa costume and meditate in
front of HANKYU department store, Kyoto, 2pm - 6pm. Trade coffee
fairly: one cup costs 100g of rice, 5 sheets of seaweed or 200g of
flour.Enjoy a free meal and some conversation at one of Japan's
"biggest and most colorful homeless communities" in Kamagasaki.
BND UK - Throw a temper tantrum in a shopping mall. Visit a fast food
chain in a chicken or cow costume with a banner proclaiming things like
"You're not having my chicken wings." Stage a classic conga to finish
off the festivities. (ADBUSTERS)
[Eyebeam reBlog]
3:22:49 PM
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WasteMatch.
5{ WasteMatch offers a free Materials Exchange that matches generators
of valuable commercial waste and surplus goods with organizations that
can reuse them. Waste producers sell what they once paid to throw away;
reusers obtain materials for f [Eyebeam reBlog]
3:20:16 PM
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Talking name tags launched. 
The silent name tag is imposing enough, sticking boldly to the suit
jacket and announcing: "Hi! My name is ..." A person who doesn't want
to say "Hi!" might sometimes be tempted to smear the ink on the name to
retain a bit of privacy in a hotel ballroom with 500 people. But the
name tag has learned to talk, and that could make a lot of people
nervous. The interactive tags developed by Rick Borovoy,
co-founder of nTAG in Boston, store pertinent data - supplied by all
attendees at an event - and then use radio signals to match interests
and business needs. Worn on a lanyard around the neck, the tag holds a
small screen that flashes messages when a person is near someone he or
she should meet. One message might say: "Hi Joe. We have three
things in common: We both like baseball, live in the Chicago area, and
I need a Web designer." Joe's screen would likewise greet his fellow
conventioneer, with the last item reading: "And I'm a Web designer." "The tags don't have the conversation for you," said Borovoy, "but they help people start one." (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE)
[Eyebeam reBlog]
3:19:48 PM
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The TV-B-Gone blocker. 
The TV-B-Gone has met its match. Or found its
antidote. Or whatever metaphor you want. But anyway, this has surely been around a lot longer than our new fave tool
for mischieviousness, but someone is selling a [base "]TV BE GONE INTERCEPTOR[per thou] on eBay that they claim can stop the TV-B-Gone
(which is what we assume they mean there) or any other infrared remote control from working (punk the prankster!).
We[base ']re gonna buy one of these and then quietly mess with Phillip when he tries to show off his TV-B-Gone for us when
we[base ']re in Seattle next week.
[Thanks, Dominic]
[Engadget]
1:04:56 AM
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Kyocera's cellphone for the elderly. 
There have been plenty of other attempts at cellphones for
the elderly before, but Japanese wireless carrier TU-KA is carrying a new barebones phone from Kyocera that gets
rid of pretty much everything superfluous and just has a keypad with big, easy to read numbers on it. There[base ']s no LCD
screen with potentially confusing menus (to dial, just press the green button and then enter the number), and you can[base ']t
do email, send text messages, take a picture, listen to MP3s, watch TV, or do any of the other stuff that is becoming
more or less standard in cellphones in Japan (and elsewhere). The stand-by battery life is a staggering 840 hours, so
you won[base ']t have to recharge it very often. [Engadget]
1:04:01 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Joerg Rheinboldt.
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