Technology Archives (29 posts)

HD DVD has lost

HD DVD has lost the format war. There have been reports all over the web that Toshiba is pulling the plug on HD DVD. It will no longer manufacture HD DVD players.

The format war is over according to Ain’t It Cool News, now go buy a Blu-ray DVD player. Thanks to Ryan for the link.

The final nail in the coffin came on Friday when Wal-Mart Stores Inc announced they were dropping support for HD DVD.

Update: Reuters published a confirming that Toshiba will halt production of future HD DVD players. They’re expected to lose hundreds of millions of dollars from their HD DVD efforts.

Sony lost the Betamax/VHS format war in the 80s so winning the Blu-ray/HD DVD format war is a really big deal (not to mention that high-definition DVD will be billion dollar industry). Wired magazine thinks that downloads will kill Blu-ray but that’s just nonsense. Bandwidth isn’t exactly increasing exponentially or getting a lot cheaper. Until that happens, then Blu-ray has nothing to worry about.

Posted in Technology at 2:15 PM | Comments (0)

The Batphone

The Batman Phone inspired by the television series is so, so tempting. It’s a no-dial red desk phone with flashing light.

At $112 USD it seems a little extravagant but think of how cool that would be to have on your desk.

Posted in Technology at 2:42 PM | Comments (0)

5 reasons why I love my Timex Ironman watch

When I was 18 I bought a Timex Ironman watch that worked for over 6 years. Since then I’ve had a number of wristwatches that never seemed to last for more than 2 years — Alfred Sung, Seiko, Fossil, Swatch and others. All of these watches were in the $100 - $200.

Last month, my Rolex (a fake from China) stopped working. It lasted for just over a year. All I wanted for Christmas was a watch that actually works and doesn’t cost $100/year. In my books, a Timex Ironman watch is one of the best watches you can buy.

It may not be the most glamorous watch in the world but I love my Ironman for 5 reasons:

1. it’s proven to actually work for more that 2 years
2. water resistant to 100 metres
3. Indiglo
4. costs less than $100
5. includes a stopwatch, alarm, timer and has dual timezones

I found a review that has a good tip for the dual time zone feature. Keep the time the same for the second time zone but switch to a 24-hour clock view. When you press the START button to view the second time zone you’ll get the 24-hour clock.

If you’re tired of designer wrist watches that only seem to last for two years then I suggest you try an Ironman for a change.

Posted in Observations and Technology at 6:29 PM | Comments (0)

Firewire speed to quadruple

Yesterday the 1394 Trade Association announced that the speed of Firewire will quadruple to 3.2 gigabits per second or (400 MB/second). I like the fact that you won’t need new connectors or cables to take advantage of the faster Firewire drives.

Firewire 800 drives currently transfer data at speeds of 800 megabits (100 MB/second). According to a 1394 Trade Association press release, the new format will also be “fast enough to move even uncompressed HD signals over long distances at much lower cost than solutions such as HDMI.”

Posted in Technology at 1:56 PM | Comments (0)

Is phantom load really a wall wart?

How much electricity is your fridge consuming each month? How much phantom load (idle current, vampire power, wall wart) does your cell phone charger suck out of your wallet each year?

If you leave a cell phone or iPod charger plugged in all the time, it can draw a minute amount of power known as phantom load. Over the course of a year, this wasted power can amount to a lot of wasted money. Or can it? Are sites like TreeHugger wasting our time with these alarmist claims or is there some truth to them?

Here are some facts:

• Home Power magazine found the average American household supports 1.45 kilowatt hours of phantom loads per day
• The US department of Energy states that “75% of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. This can be avoided by unplugging the appliance or using a power strip.”
• The National Energy Board of Canada notes that there is an “increasing phantom load or standby losses per household. This is the energy used by appliances and electronics when they are turned ‘off’. This demand is usually unknown or not thought of by homeowners, hence ‘phantom’.”

Okay, so our microwaves and DVD players use power when they aren’t actually turned on but how much does this really add up to over the course of a year? Is it really worth getting down on your hands and knees and turning a power bar on and off each time you want to watch Heroes?

According to Ideal Bite, in the average home, “40% of all electricity is used to power home appliances while they’re turned off.” Now, if that is true then the notion of phantom load has my full attention.

Another website, says that, “phantom loads make up approx. 2%-8% of your electric costs.” So who should I believe? I think that there has to be some savings to reducing the amount of phantom power in your home.

I think the only way to really find out how much vampire power exists in your home is to measure it yourself. ThinkGeek sells a device called Kill-A-Watt that can tell you how much power a device is consuming in your home.

For $29.95 USD you can find out how much that 50-inch LCD HDTV costs by the hour, day, week, month, or an entire year. Then you can figure out how long it will take to save $29.95 in electricity to pay for this device. I’m considering getting one to see how much hydro I can save in my home.

As a bonus, all of you home theatre enthusiasts with ‘clean’ Monster Power can find out how clean your power really is. The Kill-A-Watt can monitor the quality of your electric power by displaying voltage, line frequency, and power factor.

Posted in Technology at 7:21 PM | Comments (2)

A Wii shortage of game consoles this Christmas

Nintendo announced that there will be a world-wide shortage of their popular Wii game console this Christmas. Nintendo simply can’t keep up with the demand for its popular console. I feel really lucky to have purchased mine when I did last week.

Posted in Technology at 10:21 PM | Comments (1)

Wii, this is fun

I went to Future Shop to purchase a copy of Ratatouille (2007) on DVD — Pixar’s latest 3D film which is absolutely brilliant. I asked one of the sales people if they had any Nintendo Wii game consoles in stock. I wasn’t looking to purchase a Wii or even expecting the store to have any copies. The Wii is sold out everywhere. They had two systems in stock.

I started to get excited. I looked at my wife like an 8-year-old, half-expecting her head to turn disapprovingly from side to side. She didn’t say anything. Then I told her how difficult it is to get a Wii in North America. It’s outselling the Playstation 3 by a rate of 2-to-1.

The two Wii consoles this store had weren’t even on the shelf yet. They were hidden away in a brown cardboard box, hot off the truck. Another customer heard me inquiring about the Wii and wanted one immediately.

I turned around and quickly grabbed a Wii console out of the cardboard box. I’ve heard stories where people purchase multiple consoles and flip them for a profit. I didn’t want to take a chance. With the Wii console safely in my hands, my 8-year-old son was starting to freak out and so was I.

Before I knew it I was standing at the counter with my little Wii box and a couple of extra game controllers. My son kept making weird noises trying to contain himself but it was hopeless. My wife reminded him that this was an early Christmas present (like he’ll ever remember that on the morning of December 25th).

Once we had the Wii console set up and running I was having a blast. I used to spend days on my Apple II playing Lode Runner, days mapping out games on my brother’s TurboGrafx-16. I worried that I’m going to want to spend days playing on the Wii. I forgot that video games could be this much fun and I was only playing Tennis!

The Wii rocks! The graphics aren’t incredible and it doesn’t have a Blu-Ray disc but the game play is amazing. If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on one then you’ll see what I mean.

I’m afraid my productivity will be taking a dip in the next few weeks.

Posted in Movies and Technology at 10:39 PM | Comments (2)

iPhone available in Canada

Did you know that you can get an iPhone in Canada? For just $129 CDN you can get an iPhone from comwave.

Some of the fantastic features on this iPhone are:

• Phonebook
• Call Logs
• Ring tones
• Vibe
• Calculator
• Alarm
• Calendar

I think the name comwave iPhone is pure genius. I’d love to meet the person that came up with the clever name. I also have a funny feeling that Steve Jobs would love to meet the insanely great marketing department at comwave.

Posted in Technology at 12:03 AM | Comments (2)

Power Strip Management

If you’re office workstation is anything like mine you have a large power strip (power bar) under your desk. From time to time you might find yourself on all fours unplugging a printer so that you can plug in a scanner or an external Firewire drive or a MiniDV camera and so on.

How many times have you looked at the mess of cables below your desk and wondered where each of them go? You probably need ID Pilot Wire Identification Labels to organize the clutter. They’re only available at The Spoon Sisters. I think they’re a great idea.

Posted in Technology at 9:54 AM | Comments (0)

Zune not so Zimple

Everything that I’ve read about Microsoft’s new Zune MP3 player has been less than stellar. The Washing Post has a story complaining that Microsoft’s Zune Only Looks Simple.

Aside from the brown Zune, the player looks nice enough but apparently it isn’t very easy to purchase music for the player. Music subscriptions, Microsoft Points, incompatibilities with other Windows XP music services (Rhapsody, Napster or MSN Music songs) spell trouble for Zune.

Simple sells.

Why create Microsoft Points when we have real dollars and cents? Microsoft is just too big a beast to ‘get it’. Give them some time and I’m sure they’ll figure out ways to take market share from Apple but for the time being, Apple has nothing to worry about.

Posted in Technology at 12:18 AM | Comments (4)

Why you don’t need an extended warranty

Consumer Reports published a story on why you don’t need an extended warranty which is worth looking at. I don’t know how many times I’ve been to Future Shop or Best Buy and the clueless salesperson tried to sell me an extended warranty. If they were allowed, they would try to sell an extended warranty on blank DVDs.

The Consumer Reports story suggests that you consider an extended warranty if you’re purchasing an Apple computer (because they only have a 90 day warranty). Fair enough.

I’ve purchased 9 Apple computers over the years and have had to repair only one — a laptop.

Recently, the hard disk failed in an 3-year-old iBook that my father owns. It seems to be a hard disk failure and shouldn’t be too expensive to repair. Should he have purchased an extended warranty? No. I don’t think it would have been worth it.

Make sure that every electronics purchase you make is put on a credit card that has an extended warranty plan! A friend of mine told me to do this years ago and it paid off.

I purchased a Sony DVD player that stopped working right after the 1 year warranty was up. Because I purchased the DVD player with a VISA card (that doubled the warranty) I was able to make a claim. VISA paid to have my DVD player fixed.

Check to see if your VISA or MasterCard has an extended warranty program. If it doesn’t then get a card that does.

Posted in News and Technology at 11:30 PM | Comments (1)

10 Reasons Why High Definition DVD Formats Have Already Failed

Clint DeBoer at Audioholics.com has a good article outlining 10 Reasons Why High Definition DVD Formats Have Already Failed.

At $30 plus, the new HD DVD titles are way too expensive. The video quality is great but that alone isn’t worth the huge investment in a new hardware that might be obsolete in a few years.

Posted in Technology at 12:30 PM | Comments (1)

iCarta

What is iCarta? Atech Flash Technology describes it as a stereo dock for iPod with bath tissue holder. Basically, it’s a toilet paper holder with a built-in iPod dock and 4 speakers.

If you like to spend a lot of time on the potty (I don’t) then this might make a great gift or a gag for a friend. Then again, maybe you like to take long baths and listen to Kenny G or Michael Bolton. Whatever works for you.

Posted in Technology at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)

Specktone Retro

If you’re looking for a great Father’s Day gift then the Specktone Retro might make someone happy. I love the retro styling.

For the guys out there that think I’m losing my edge, head over to Uncrate—the buyer’s guide for men.

Posted in Technology at 2:33 PM | Comments (0)

More monitor, more productivity

I just came across a NYT article that discusses The Virtues of a Second Screen. My 23“ widescreen display is almost the same as having two monitors but takes up less space. The Times article indicates that the extra screen space will increase your productivity by 20 to 30 percent.

I find that I spend less time moving windows and palettes around in various applications. My display is 1,200 pixels high which means I spend less time scrolling through large documents or the layers palette in Photoshop.

If you’re a graphic designer/webdeveloper/photographer/video editor then do yourself a favour and ‘go wide’ with a widescreen display.

Posted in Technology at 9:41 PM | Comments (1)

1,750 inch HD display

Dolphin Stadium has the world’s largest HD display — 137 feet wide, 50 feet high, 1,750 inches diagonal viewing, 720 lines progressive scanning. Now that is going to look cool. Too bad half the fans will be too drunk to notice (at least that has been my experience in Miami).

I just picked up a 23-inch Apple Cinema HD Display and gorgeous doesn’t begin to describe how it looks. 1920 x 1200 pixels of viewing area.

I don’t know how I did any work in Photoshop before with a 17“ Studio Display. Being able to see your documents at 100% saves a lot of time — no more shuffling windows and palettes around. No more resizing documents. Improved workflow.

Posted in Apple and Technology at 10:21 AM | Comments (2)

50 million lines of code

Today The New York Times asked the question, Windows Is So Slow, but Why? My copy of Windows XP is appallingly slow on my Dell. I’m using a clean install of Windows XP but it still takes forever to launch Internet Explorer or do anything on the system. Yes, I keep it up to date with all of the latest security patches and upgrades. No, i don’t have viruses, adware and spyware bogging things down.

Considering that Vista has “50 million lines of code” and is “more than 40 percent larger than Windows XP”, I’ll have to purchase another Dell just to run it. Whenever it gets released.

It’s been 5 years since Microsoft upgraded its operating system and the next version, Vista keeps getting delayed. How is this possible with all of the brilliant engineers that Microsoft has at their disposal? The Times article says,

In those five years, Apple Computer has turned out four new versions of its Macintosh operating system, beating Microsoft to market with features that will be in Vista, like desktop search, advanced 3-D graphics and “widgets,” an array of small, single-purpose programs like news tickers, traffic reports and weather maps.

It turns out that Windows is just too big. Mac OS X, Linux and Google really do pose a threat to Microsoft, the longer it takes them to release Vista. As Microsoft continues to patch its code and add on to the beast called Windows, Apple is on their third Macintosh operating system (all of them backward compatible). Each new version continues to innovate (and inspire future versions of Windows).

Remember Longhorn? It was a previous version of Windows that Microsoft scrapped in favour of Vista. They should scrap Vista and start from scratch. Why? 50 million lines of code would be my first reason. That must be a nightmare for bug fixes and security vulnerabilities. Stay tuned.

Posted in Technology at 9:18 PM | Comments (2)

32GB Flash drives coming soon

Good bye hard-disk drives. Samsung launched a 32GB Flash-based drive.

This is big deal because Flash drives consume a fraction of the power of regular hard-disks. They’re also a lot faster than regular hard-disks. Because they don’t have any moving parts you can bang them around with worry — great for portable devices.

I can remember paying $1,000 for a 1 GB external hard disk 10 years ago. Amazing.

Posted in Technology at 3:53 PM | Comments (0)

Video review of iPod Hi-Fi Speaker

PC Magazine has a nice video review of the new iPod Hi-Fi Speaker. Using Flash, the video streams quite nicely and played back flawlessly on my clunky old Macintosh G4 at home.

At 480x360 pixels you get a fairly detailed view of how the various iPods plug into the speaker. Nicely done Jim Louderback. I’m looking forward to more video reviews like this.

Posted in Technology at 8:34 PM | Comments (0)

HD DVD Rentals?

NetFlix is now letting members change their account preferences to accept HD DVD rentals for when Blu-ray discs become available, later this year. As far as I know, Zip.ca doesn’t let you do this. yet.

Any early adopters out there that are planning to invest in a Blu-ray DVD player (besides my father) when they come out? I think it will be several years before I bother with a new format (or when the price drops to $200 per player).

Posted in Technology at 10:05 PM | Comments (0)

TuneCenter

Just when you thought you had everything that you could possibly need for you iPod, along comes TuneCenter from Griffin Technology. This “home media center for iPod” comes with a 14 button remote.

TuneCenter looks like an iPod version of Apple’s Front Row software for it’s Macintosh computers. The living room is becoming the next battleground for Apple, Microsoft and Sony.

Posted in Apple and Technology at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

Pop Wuping

Pop Wuping is a blog about “modern stuff for a mobile lifestyle”.

You’ll absolutely love this site and drool if

• you are a creative professional
• collect really cool gadgets
• own a laptop or an iPod

Posted in Technology and Web at 9:34 PM | Comments (0)

iBelieve

Hmm. If you have an iPod Shuffle around your neck but would prefer a crucifix, then help is on the way. For $12.98 you can convert your Shuffle into a white plastic crucifix. Visit iBelieve for more info.

Posted in Technology at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

Kill Zone 2 on PS3

Take a look at this trailer for Kill Zone 2 on PS3 and your jaw will drop. This is a camcorder copy of the trailer and it looks unbeliavable.

I might have to find the time to get back into playing video game. It looks like the new PS3 and the XBox 2 are going to make today’s crop of video games look like 1979 all over again. Can’t wait!

Posted in Technology at 2:23 PM | Comments (95)

A Quick Peek at Longhorn

PCMAG.com has some screenshots of Microsoft’s new operating system (due out sometime in the distant future). Is it just me or is Longhorn looking more Mac OS X-like?

Take a look at Internet Explorer screenshot and tell me that it doesn’t look a lot like Safari. The interface is gray, has rounded edges (no drop shadow yet) and notice the search area in the top right.

From a graphic design perspective, the “new look” is pretty unimpressive. I guess Redmond has been spending more time on developing better security at th OS level? What is going to compel existing XP users to shell out for Longhorn anyway?

Posted in Technology at 12:12 AM | Comments (2)

Epson Perfection 1260

The Epson Perfection 1260 scanner is anything but perfection. It is the biggest friggin’ piece of crap that I’ve purchased in a long time.

I picked this scanner up a few months ago to replace an old Umax model. I paid a little extra for the 35 mm slide adapter. The feeder was designed by somebody on crack and produces the worst scans I’ve ever seen. Yes. I’ve ready the bloody manual a dozen times.

The drivers for OS X are the flakiest I’ve ever used. After Previewing a photo I click on Scan and hold my breath. Half the time it scans the image (which takes forever) and the rest of the time it flashes a couple of screens and returns to PhotoShop.

I found that unplugging the power and USB cables sometimes work. I’m just about ready to throw this junk in front of a streetcar on Kingston Road.

Waiting to see those Paris pictures? You may never see them at this rate. This weekend, JAK MEDIA is so buying me a Canon Rebel XT.

Posted in Technology at 4:04 PM | Comments (3)

Rogers Cable to limit bandwidth

Rogers Cable in Toronto is imposing a “combined upload and download bandwidth limit of 60 GB per month.” This goes into effect on March 17, 2005.

One person that I spoke to was told by Rogers that 60 GB of bandwidth is what the average person might use in a year. Another person I spoke to had his service cut off for a day last fall. He was told that he was in the 1% of users that was abusing the service by downloading excessively.

So what does this mean if you’re a bandwidth hog? It means that you’ll only be able to steal download about 60 Hollywood films each month or 15,000 songs.

Can you really watch 60 films or listen to 15,000 songs in a month? I think Rogers and the other ISPs are probably doing some people a favour by limiting their downloading addiction.

Downloading that much data becomes a full-time job of burning CDs, DVDs, printing cover art, archiving files and making room on your crippled hard drive for the next 60 GB of files. Where do people find the time to actually watch all of those movies and listen to all of that music? What kind of life can you possibly have if you spend all of your spare time in front of the computer or the television?

Posted in Technology at 10:47 AM | Comments (32)

DVDs are outselling videocasettes for the first time

A story from The Hollywood Reporter in Yahoo News says that DVDs have outsold videocassettes for the first time. A lot of these sales came from studio library titles and not from new sales—good news for anyone looking for their favourite movies to be released on DVD one day.

Sales of DVDs helped push overall revenue for the home video industry up from $13.9 billion in 2000 to $16.8 billion in 2001, topping last year’s theatrical receipts of about $8.1 billion, according to the group.

I had no idea that video sales were such a cash cow for the studios. No wonder we have 3 different DVDs for American Pie and 4 separate versions for Army Of Darkness!

Posted in Technology at 8:51 PM | Comments (0)

CRT vs. LCD displays

I had a friend tell me that flat-screen computer monitors (CRT) were better and had a sharper display than the new crop of LCD displays. I disagreed with him. After reading an article at Wired News, I’d have to say that I still disagree with him.

Perhaps what’s most surprising about the trend is that it’s taken so long to arrive. CRT monitors are bulky, heavy and rely on vacuum tube technology invented in the 19th century. In contrast, LCD’s are light, sleek, energy-efficient and have a sharp picture.

With Apple bundling a 15-inch LCD display in their low-end machines (iMac), I think you’ll see the Dell, HP and others following suit in the next year.

Posted in Technology at 8:48 PM | Comments (0)