All photos by Kevin In the Central Hall of CES they’ve set up an eReader Zone, and many eReaders and old and new are represented. One of the ones that I’ve been eager to spend some hands-on time with is the Plastic Logic QUE, and for about 30 minutes, that’s exactly what I did. Carly posted some of the quick iPhone snaps that I took along with the latest press release; here are some better pictures along with a bit of video from Plastic Logic …
Spring Design’s Alex Dual screen eReader is finally coming closer to a release. This is probably the first eReader with a fully functional web browser with the exception of Flash since Android doesn’t have it yet. Alex™ features a 6″ E-Ink EPD display and 3.5″ color LCD display, earphones and speakers. A removable SD card will free up library space on the device while letting users archive content for future reference. The enhanced Android OS is optimized to support integration between the color and monochrome displays while preserving battery life. Users can capture and cache web content from their online…
Just published is Windows 7 Your Way: Speed Up and Customize Windows by Michael Miller from Que Publishing. This book promises to help you make your Windows 7 experience “faster, smarter, easier, better.” They talk about removing bloatware, surfing the web safely, getting better performance and battery life out of your notebook, fixing some of the Windows 7 annoyances, and even finding alternatives to some of the built-in MS software. Better still, they promise to help you with all of these things in a way that is easy to understand – no advanced degree required! Not long ago I reviewed Microsoft…
I’ve got no word yet on how they sound, or whether it’s even practical, but Klipsch has come out with a way to wirelessly stream music to a dimmable LED bulb which also functions as a speaker. Their aptly named LightSpeaker screws into an existing light fixture, and when you attach a digital music player to the included transmitter, sound ensues. You can “connect two different music sources to the setup and separate the different music to play in two different zones. For example, if you’re throwing a party, you can play certain playlist on your iPod in the kitchen…
Do you have more money than sense? If you do, then the new mPower Emergency Illuminator will likely be your flashlight of choice. What does $289 get you — other than an LED flashlight that vaguely resembles the SS Enterprise? The mPower Emergency Illuminator™ is a personal illumination tool that offers Power On Command™. In addition to primary standard lithium batteries, the illuminator also features a groundbreaking reserve lithium battery with a shelf life of at least 20 years. Upon activation, via the simple twist of a knob, the reserve battery will provide power to light a high intensity LED…
Go ahead … give the Fuse’s rubbery-looking case a squeeze as you prepare to experience its multiple interface technologies, namely “multi-touch capacitive sensing, haptic feedback, 3-D graphics, and force, grip, and proximity sensing.” I think that it’s amazing how you can tilt the Fuse to scroll, squeeze it to stop, and do other touch-based actions to make it respond. Bear in mind that this isn’t a retail item yet, but it shows the technology that is coming to retail devices … maybe sooner than you think! The best way to get a sense of it is to watch the video,…
I’m on my way to another Microsoft-sponsored Mobius Session this morning, this time in Seattle Washington. There won’t be much for me to post about today, but on Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll share info from sessions attended as I am able. As usual, I’ll be updating on Twitter regularly, so if you haven’t already, then you might want to follow me. 🙂
On November 20, 2007, Wayne Schulz wrote his very first Gear Diary review on the Bose In-Ear Headphones. This post gave absolutely no hint that the same man who could write such a mainstream piece would also be the guy who would hit his stride posting about Crayon Sports Drinks, $110,000 New York toilets, how to research urban legends, how to get yourself fired, and so many other offbeat things. In fact, we had to create an Offbeat tag simply because there was no other way to define so many of Wayne’s postings. But more than just the offbeat, Wayne…
Last weekend I had the opportunity to be part of a small group of tech bloggers invited to attend several Windows 7 launch events in New York and Washington DC. I wasn’t totally clear on exactly what we would be doing on this trip before going, but I figured no matter what, it would be fun, and the food would be good. I was right… Thursday Tripit is my Friend Travel is almost always an adventure when flying out of San Angelo Regional Airport, and this time was no exception. My 9:05 a.m. flight was delayed, but at least I…
Where were you when you first heard about the now-infamous “Balloon Boy” incident? On Thursday, October 15th, at a little past 2 p.m. Central Time, Dan and I were IM’ing when he abruptly told me to turn on CNN. Once I did, the screen was filled with the image of a large silver balloon speeding and spinning, thousands of feet above the Colorado countryside. The balloon supposedly carried a six-year-old boy, appropriately named Falcon. For the next hour, Dan and I chatted back and forth – with interjections from the Gear Diary Team as we all emailed about the situation….
Below You’ll find an account of Travis’ experience this morning but here you’ll find the first iPhone 3G S-shot Gear Diary Video. (We will assume someone else was driving… right?)
On February 18th and 19th, I was part of a group of mostly female bloggers who were brought to New York to meet Vivienne Tam and learn more about the HP / Vivienne Tam Mini Note collaboration. Our first day consisted of a whirlwind New York City tour… That night we were invited to the Vivienne Tam fashion show and cocktail party, where her Fall 2009 collection was revealed. Since I am new to the behind-the-scenes world of high fashion, I was a little bit surprised that what we were being shown was for Fall 2009 instead of Spring. I…
Last week I had the opportunity to not only take the all new 2009 F-150 for several grueling test drives, I also got to see its creation from the frame up. Grinding Gears editor David Goodspeed and I met with other journalists at the Ford Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Our day started at the Henry Ford Rouge Factory Tour…
This week I had the opportunity to spend a day at the Texas Motor Speedway test driving 2009 GM Collection. There were so many gorgeous and impressive vehicles present, I would be hard pressed to say which was my favorite; but of course I had one…
When I arrived at the conference area to grab breakfast before entering, Tim McAfee was there to greet us, handing out my Flickr t-shirts. I was hoping for a medium, but some of the other guys had already beat me to them; he made it up to me by giving me two larges. Ha! After getting set up and then eating my food, I settled in with the others to listen to the first presentation on the Microsoft Zune. Creative Strategies Presentation Ben from Creative Strategies started a two hour discussion with the question “How is technology going to better…
Tuesday I was in Dearborn, Michigan, with about 200 other journalists attending an event held in and marking the reopening of the renovated historic Ford Dearborn Glass Plant. Before I get into the particulars of our day, I want to mention that the Dearborn Glass Plant was designed by Albert Kahn and built in 1922. It has a “front wall and ceiling made of glass” which allowed the plant to “let air and light in and excess heat out, providing a more comfortable work environment for employees.” This building was closed in 1998, and after its recent extensive renovations, it…
Over a month ago G-A told me he was going to post about the new SPH-P9000 UMPC with a built in keyboard, and I couldn’t wait to see it in person. Today, I finally did. The Samsung SPH-P9000 has a 5″ screen, runs XP (I bet it will also run Vista when released here), has a full keyboard, and it folds up and out, like what one might expect of a device from the line that once used the code name “Origami”. I don’t have a lot of information yet, mainly that it will be available in Korea at the…