Style over Substance...

Remember when I said I had had enough of USB thumb drives? Well someone just came up with one that is as much an artistic statement as a usable drive. It's still pretty crappy, but it's VERY pretty. Check out the Beetle Drive.

Things I Don't need to see any More of...

With the recent CES show in Las Vegas, and last months gadgets reviews, there are some things in the tech arena that I think we have quite enough of, thanks. USB Storage Devices: Yup, when the Rubber Duck USB Drive came out, I thought it was a herald that things had gone too far, but nooo.... it was followed by the Sushi Drive, the Real Thumb drive, etc, etc. The recent combination USB and SD card drive was kind of unique, but I think this has been done to death. MP3 and other Portable Media Players: iPod was kind of neat. The slew of ipod-killers was good to bring the price down, but come on. I do NOT need a self-powered laptop hard drive to play videos on a 3-inch screen, thanks. I complain enough about postage stamp "Large" videos of movie trailers enough. Don't bore me with yet another reason to squint. Or even worse, I can't get into the hype of yet another MP3 player at all. Look, I spent $50 at Walmart for mine, and it's 12-hour battery life on a single AAA and 512MB SD card are plent to fill my needs. There is absolutely NOTHING special about yet another knockoff of these. Shuttle PC's: They've been around for years now. Nothing new nor exciting here. Move on. Game Consoles: Playstation, XBox, whatever. You're limited to the resolution of your TV, which, IMO sucks. No wonder the XBox's 4-year-old Celery PC inside looks so good. It's running in less than VGA resolution! Each and every one of these has identical controllers, and assinine games with no plot, crappy acting, and often, really bad graphics. Time for something new. Cellphones that do everything else: Oh, yay, another cell phone that plays MP3's or takes pictures, or can be used to read email or browse the web. Listen, I'd rather see a good wearable computer with serious HMD that can also be used as a cell phone. I've been waiting for one of these since about 1995. I don't think I have ever had a want for a cell phone that is also a camera. What am I going to take a picture of, the guy next to me? Keyboard-Video-Mouse user interfaces: Again, how about something new? Voice activation has gone nowhere in ohh... 4 years. Monitors still either weigh 50 pounds or are LCD's that are massively overpriced for the space they save. Where did haptiv interfaces go? How about eye trackers or location based computing? There is so much potential for exciting new gadgets out there that hasn't been tapped in several years. Since the economy tanked, no one is going out on a limb to produce anything REALLY new any more. It's not like it can't be done either. The technologies that have improved since then made it so these things can not only be done but can be done cheaper and better than in the '90s. How about some REAL new tech? Someone? Anyone? Beuller? Beuller?

Special Offer

Special Offer: I'm now offering Managed IT Services for small business office parks and apartment complexes in the greater Nashua, NH area. This is the future of IT and could be a major selling point to draw the best tenants. But act now, because this offer will go away if I get a sizable contract!

The perfect Linux PDA

LinuxDevices has an article on the things that should go into the perfect Linux based PDA. I think this is an excellent list. In fact, I think this should be a check list for any mobile computer. Recently, I began compiling a wishlist for a wearable computer that closely mirrirs what the author of this article suggests. I'm not sure if anyone reads this blog, but if anyone out there has the clout to make it work, I have some pretty detailed ideas on how to make a perfect wearable computer for the masses. I'm not talking about something that only the military and a few high tech companies will be interested in. I'm talking about something that will fit between a PDA and a laptop and appeal to the average electronics consumer. And be easily used by them. In fact, I'll be more than willing to not only share my ideas, but beta test the product for bugs and usability. All ask for in return is one of the products that uses my design. The final consumer wearable, in my design would retail for under $1200. And if a good price can be gained by buying the parts in bulk, probably even less.