Gadgets

Apple / Gadgets — No Comments
16
May 13

Google I/O My Take on the Big Picture

I didn’t plan on watching Google I/O yesterday, but I’d hit a lull in my code when it was about to start and I’m really glad I did.

I think the best way to look at Google I/O is to contrast it with an Apple Keynote, Google announced or built upon a lot of services that Apple provide to iOS users:

  • Chat Platform
  • Music Platform
  • Games Platform
  • App Services

Among others, but the crucial thing is that at no point did Google say that any of their new services were exclusive to Android or Chrome.

Google and Apple are both service and hardware vendors, they both sell you an ecosystem, an experience. But the difference is where Apple’s ecosystem is focused on providing services that lock you into their hardware, Google by contrast sells hardware that allows you to take advantage of their ecosystem.

Google don’t care if you use GMail or Google Maps from an Android phone or an iPhone, so long as you use GMail or Google Maps.

By contrast Apple need you to buy an iPhone, they don’t care if you use Apple Maps, Google Maps, Bing Maps, Nokia Maps, or even the Open Street Map Project. They want you to use those services on their shiny shiny devices, because they get a cut of any revenue made from apps on those devices.

One thing that I think gives Google the upper hand is that the cost of entry into their ecosystem is much much lower, and it doesn’t tie you to a particular device manufacturer. I can try GMail out on my iPhone and use it as my primary email, move to the web, or get an Android phone, it doesn’t matter and it’s free for me to do so.

If, however I want to try out Apple’s ecosystem, I HAVE to get and iPhone, iPod Touch, or an iPad all of which are expensive purchases. Apple only makes money if I fork out money for the device, given that once a user does get an iDevice they get locked into the ecosystem and most will find it very hard to migrate to another device, but that initial barrier to entry is fairly high.

I’m not sure whether the services to sell hardware or the hardware to sell services will prevail. It’s entirely possible that they will co-exist for a very long time, but the hardware to sell services does feel a little outdated to me.

Personally I think that it’s more likely that Google’s model will prevail in the end. The thing is that’s not going to stop me from say buying an iPhone, because even if I did I know I can take my Google services with me.

I know that this totally ignores Windows 8 and BlackBerry but there is a whole other blog post in that.

What do you think? I am completely wrong?

Activism / Clothing/Jewelry / Gadgets — 1 Comment
18
Dec 12

Lockpick Cufflinks

Perfect for the activist who wants to look sharp in a suit but also be able to get out of a pair of cuffs when needed. These cuff links by Sparros incorporate a pair of lock picks so you can use them to uncuff yourself if captured by “The Man”

Cooking / Gadgets / Lenses / Photography — No Comments
04
Sep 12

The f/60 Lens Kitchen Timer

Do you like both photography an cooking? Do you like to have items lying about your house that looks like photography kit but isn’t really then maybe you should buy the The f/60 Lens Kitchen Timer at the Photojojo Store! It’s pretty much what it says on the tin, a kitchen timer that presumably goes up to sixty minutes that looks like an SLR lens.

Unlike the SLR Lens Mugs you can get this one doesn’t seem to be shaped like any particular manufacturer’s lens it just looks like a lens. Still quite cool, I’d consider it if  it went to f/120 I think f/60 is a little limiting.

via PhotoJoJo

Animated Gif of it and some cookies after the break… Continue reading →

Art / Clothing/Jewelry / Gadgets — No Comments
25
Jul 12

Sound Illuminating Dress

This dress created by YouTube user safirecat may not have been that difficult to create but the idea is still quite cool. It’s just EL Wire hooked up to a sound driver that changes the brightness of the EL wire on and off depending on the ambient sound levels. You can get the components from Cool Neon Lighting:

The Sound Driver is $12 and the EL Wire is about $1.60 a foot or with a discount for a whole spool.

They even sell kits like a learn to solder kit for $35 or their “Cool Neon Artist’s Kit” for $175

On a related note mentioned in the comments of the YouTube Video is this cool little project by Sensebridge called the Sound Spark its a pendant/necklace that reacts to ambient sound with flashing LED lights.

The Sound Spark is only $29 and comes with in 3 different coloured LEDs and two different necklace styles.

To go on another tangent, Sensebridge also sell the “Heart Spark” which does the same as the Sound Spark but instead gets it’s signals from a wireless heart-rate monitor (Sold Separately), I’m in no way affiliated with these people but I think what they sell is quite cool, they apparently are working on a product called the Mood Spark which is like a mood ring but it actually lights up in different colours. That’s pretty nifty, you’ll have to hunt it out on their website because I can’t be bothered linking to it (it’s not hard to find) apparently they have working prototypes…

Gadgets / Kindle — No Comments
28
Jun 12

Nexus 7 Not an iPad Killer But It’s not Meant to Be

Right now people are probably composing millions of blog posts singing the praises of or deriding the Google Nexus 7 that was announced yesterday. Here is a summary of what you are likely to read:

Blah blah blah blah iPad, Blah Blah Blah Nexus 7 Blah Blah Blah Blah competition heating up Blah Blah Blah,  Blah Blah Blah Google Blah Blah Apple Blah Blah Mountain View, Blah Blah Cupertino Blah Blah Blah 7 Inches, Blah Blah Blah Steve Jobs said it’s too small. Blah Blah Blah Could this be an iPad Killer? Blah Blah Blah I’m a pundit I know what I’m talking about, Blah Blah Blah probably not an iPad Killer.

The thing is if you looks at the specs for the Nexus 7 there is no way it’s aimed at the iPad, sure it might eat into it’s market a little, but compare there is no way that a $199 device is going to compete with a $399 device, for one thing the iPad 3 is resolutionary, whatever that means (I really wish Apple would hire someone who spoke English).

People are making the wrong comparison though, the Nexus 7 is priced exactly like the Kindle Fire, it even comes with a gift certificate for Google Play store that is pretty much exactly what Amazon introduced to raise flagging Kindle Fire Sales  earlier this month. Just look:

It’s practically an upgrade to the Kindle Fire at the same price point! I’m not saying that it’s not going to eat into iPad sales, but that’s not what the intention is, Google want a device that people will use to consume it’s content, they sell books, movies, games and other crap, the Nexus 7 allows you to give Google money to view the content they sell, plus if you have big pockets it might just fit in there which the iPad doesn’t.

Anime / Gadgets — No Comments
21
May 12

Evangelion Headphones!

Asuka Interface Earphone Evangelion Earphone ONLY JAPAN

These Evangelion themed headphones are available from Flutterscape in Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley styles (I can’t find a Shinji one). The same place also sells an Evangelion Pocket watch

[ Evangelion ] Watch Vol.2 for the Evangelion New Theatre ?NERV/???ver?

Asuka Interface Earphone Evangelion Earphone ONLY JAPAN

Asuka Interface Earphone Evangelion Earphone ONLY JAPAN

[ Evangelion ] Pilot interface type earphone Ayanami Rei Version ONLY JAPAN[ Evangelion ] Pilot interface type earphone Ayanami Rei Version ONLY JAPAN

[ Evangelion ] Pilot interface type earphone Asuka Version ONLY JAPAN[ Evangelion ] Pilot interface type earphone Asuka Version ONLY JAPAN

Gadgets / Games — 2 Comments
11
May 12

Are Microsoft Doing The Home Media Center Thing Right?

I just saw an article on Edge saying the Microsoft are testing a build of IE9 for the Xbox 360. This lead me to think, maybe Microsoft’s home media hub strategy is working quite well. The infiltrated our homes as a pure gaming device, not having spent much on making the console a media centre apart from video playback from (DVD and DivX) and music playback.

Keeping things simple at the start meant that the X-Box 360 was (and still is) substantially cheaper than it’s Rival the PS3, which meant it got higher market saturation. Now that they have built up a large install base they have started adding features like Streaming Video and now a browser.

Compare and contrast this with Sony’s strategy of releasing a super expensive console  with everything built into it, by gradually adding features Microsoft have sneakily put a media hub into the homes of gamers, and can now negotiate better deals with content providers as they have a large install base.

I own both a 360 and a PS3 and I’ll admit that the only thing I use the PS3 for it media playback (And playing Final Fantasy XIII, but that’s a different story, I initially bought the console because FF13 wasn’t going to coming out on the 360).

Now the X-Box Costs so little and Microsoft are even talking about releasing it as a subscription service ($99 for the console with a 24 month contract), it will probably live on past the release of the next version of the X-Box and continue making them money as a media hub for people who use it to consume media rather than just play games. Then when people upgrade they can take whatever media features they want with them, I doubt MS will reduce the feature set with the Next-Box 360 they’ve already got the licensing agreements, and a revenue stream.

I think it’s possible that Microsoft and Sony had a Tortoise/Hare race going with this generation of the console war, and it’s looking like Microsoft’s Tortoise strategy has has beaten Sony’s Hare brained plans…

Android / Gadgets / Games — No Comments
27
Apr 12

Why Don’t More Phone Manufacturers Make KeyBoards/GamePads?

Sony patent suggests an Xperia Play with dual keyboards, it's slidingly slidable

I saw this post on Engadget about a Sony Patent for a phone that had both a QWERTY Keyboard and a Gamepad, I’d love that. I blog from my phone, and I’ve also tried writing on my phone (I think this was during last years NaNoWriMo) so I’d love to have a QWERTY Keyboard that allowed me to see more text and type faster. I also play a lot of casual games on my phone and I’m not 100% sold on touch as a means of control for some of them. Particularly platformers, you just need a D-Pad and Jump buttons and shoe horning them onto a touchscreen is irritating, this is why I’ve not really played FF III on my iPad, it just hurts the pads of my fingers to play it for any amount of time.

If you aren’t going to include on on the device at least sell an addon that allows you use one externally. If I had an iPhone I’d probably have one of these things:

Although the orientation of the buttons would annoy me a little, keyboards are not meant to be a grid…

I guess now Android has support for USB controllers, but as far as I can tell no one is making them… I was to emulate classic games on my phone that is more powerful than the computer I had 10 years ago god-dammit!

There is this Gametel Portable Games Controller for Android but it’s ugly as sin:

Gadgets / Games / Nintendo — No Comments
13
Apr 12

SNES Toaster

SNES Toaster

Sadly this SNES Toaster from Spinning Hat is an April Fools joke, but it would be quite cool so have a toaster that looked like a SNES and toasted pixel art onto your bread.

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