Hawt Gadgets

Korea is once again proving that they're ahead of the technological curve in so many ways. This time, it's the Korean Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) that is behind a quiet revolution. They launched the pilot program of the national 'Ubiquitous Robot Companion' effort last week. They are taking a number of bots and placing them into 1000 homes for testing. These bots will perform some basic household functions. In addition, a few bots will be placed in airports and train stations to help tourists with information and directions. The Koreans want to have a robot in every home by 2020. Nice.

Here's the complete blog entry on the topic.

Ever talk yourself into a corner or been bogged down with technical problems during a presentation? Just remember that these problems can happen to anyone… even Steve Jobs.

Here’s a blooper reel of Steve Jobs and his gang over at Apple messing up on their very important Macworld keynotes. My favorite part is when Jobs tosses a camera to someone in the audience after it didn’t work for him on stage. Enjoy.

digg story | methodshop

We got some pictures of the packaging boxes for Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007. High resolution images are available at the Windows Vista Team blog:

Announcing New Packaging for Windows Vista and 2007 Office System [windowsvistablog.com]

Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to connect all your gadgets with all those cables? That’s what about to happen when WirelessHD will be launched on the marked in 2008. WirelessHD Interest Group is a joint venture between LG, Panasonic, NEC, Samsung, SiBEAM, Sony and Toshiba to develop this new standard.

Full press release from WirelessHD:

Leading Companies Converge to Advance A/V Connectivity through New WirelessHD Interest Group

LG Electronics Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic), NEC Corporation, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS, CO., LTD, SiBEAM, Inc., Sony Corporation and Toshiba Corporation today announced that they are working as a special interest group called WirelessHD to develop a specification for a wireless high-definition digital interface (WirelessHDâ„¢ or WiHDâ„¢), that is intended to enable high-definition audio video (A/V) streaming and high-speed content transmission for consumer electronics (CE) devices. In addition to actively promoting the new format throughout the industry, WirelessHD will present the format available for adoption as soon as the specifications are completed in Spring 2007.

The migration to high-definition content along with the proliferation of digital source devices has intensified consumers’ desire to simply and flexibly connect to highest quality, high-definition displays and consumer electronics systems. In-Stat notes that global sales of devices with a high-speed digital A/V interface is expected to grow from 60M units in 2006 to 495M units in 2009.

“Emerging as the first consumer electronics industry initiative for wireless uncompressed digital video transmission, WirelessHD will provide consumers wireless flexibility and ease of use while preserving the benefits traditionally associated with popular wired alternatives for point-to-point display, such as HDMI and DVI,” said Brian O’Rourke, a Senior Analyst with In-Stat/MDR. “The data rates (or bandwidth) that WirelessHD will support are truly impressive.”

WirelessHD, which intends to specify the unlicensed, globally available 60 GHz frequency band, will enable wireless uncompressed high-definition, high-quality video and data transmission and is first targeted to be built into HDTV’s as well as a wide range of audio video (A/V) devices, both fixed location and portable.

“The availability of high-definition wireless connections stands to eliminate the morass of cables, switches and other complexities traditionally needed to support the wide variety of devices consumers have and will continue to buy, such as HDTVs, HD disc players, digital video cameras and game consoles. With high-definition wireless links, media streaming and transmission from any source to any display or recorder is dramatically simplified by removing the need for a hard-wired connection. WirelessHD will provide a high-speed wireless digital interface that will enable customers to simply connect, play, transmit and port their HD content in a secure manner,” stated John Marshall, Chairman of WirelessHD.

The participants’ commencement of WirelessHD relates to acknowledgement that industry support is critical. In addition, commencement of WirelessHD relates to the recent availability of several new technologies that make it possible to achieve the multi-gigabit data rates required for uncompressed video streaming. Such breakthroughs enable low cost, better image quality, and higher performance wireless A/V systems. The key characteristics and focal technologies include:

• High interoperability supported by major CE device manufacturers
• Uncompressed HD video, audio and data transmission, scalable to future high-definition A/V formats
• High-speed wireless, multi-gigabit technology in the unlicensed 60 GHz band
• Smart antenna technology to overcome line-of-sight constraints of 60 GHz
• Secure communications
• Device control for simple operation of consumer electronics products
• Error protection, framing and timing control techniques for a quality consumer experience

“After its launch, WirelessHD has great potential to be adopted rapidly in the consumer electronics segment. WirelessHD should first appear in adapter products, followed by digital televisions and projectors, DVD players, and set-top boxes. Other potential markets include game consoles and portable devices,” said O’Rourke of In-Stat/MDR.

The convergence of these industry leaders with a common application focus, accompanied by the latest advances in wireless technology and available spectrum, represents a unique opportunity for the industry that stands to change the way consumers access and manage high-definition digital content today and tomorrow. In the development of this industry initiative, WirelessHD looks to build momentum at this time by issuing a call for additional interest. Interested companies can visit www.WirelessHD.org or email info@wirelesshd.org.

An old friend of mine has launched a nice design related site called Fascination.se - A healthy injection of inspiration. I just wanted do drop a shameless plug for his site - a great source for inspiration if you’re into graphical design. Check it out.

Fascination.se

SlingCommunity is running a very detailed review of the very latest Sling Player for Mac with a lot of screenshots. From the article: "This first version of SlingPlayer for Mac is a very good first step in Sling Media’s venture into software on a platform other than Windows. Yes it needs a little polish, but for now it should satisfy plenty of pent up demand from the Mac community, as well as open up a whole new market of users (and very loyal ones at that) to Sling Media. Hopefully, everyone will agree it was worth the wait."

Happy Halloween!

Hopefully you have already enjoyed our Halloween gizmos earlier this month, but in honor of Halloween, the Geek's have decided to run the Oral-B Triumph Professional Care 9000/9400 Power Toothbrush as the Gizmo of the Day. After all, why not run a toothbrush on the high holy day of "candy candy candy!"

We chose this Oral-B because it was our editor's choice in a electric toothbrush roundup review we wrote a couple weeks ago.

I was on Jason D. O’Grady’s PowerPage when I saw this article and started cracking up. We’ve all heard of the iPod’s vaunted “clean design,” but this is ridiculous.

Apparently someone named Sean bought what he thought was an iPod from Smalldog.com. However after removing the shrink-wrap and opening the box, he instead found inside two bars of soap and a package of cheap batteries.

As you can imagine, Sean was pretty pissed off. I found a write up of how his conversation with a Smalldog customer service rep went on Consumerist.com.

“I picked up the phone and gave Smalldog a call… I was ready to really tear into someone when a supremely polite and nice customer service rep answered the phone. When I told her about my situation (and not too nicely, I might add), she started laughing. For a second I was shocked! I mean, first you screw up, and then you laugh at me!? But the next thing I knew, I started laughing too. She used just the right amount of humor and seriousness in helping me figure out what had happened… She also wanted to know if I took any pictures, saying that she’d love to have a few to show the other people in the office… It was good to see that someone could have a sense of humor and still be incredibly accommodating at the same time.”

The big mystery to this story is how was the iPod box shrink-wrapped if it had already been opened? There are two theories.

1. Someone in the iPod factory swapped out the iPod with the soap and batteries before the box got shrink-wrapped.
2. Someone at UPS or Smalldog might have done a homemade shrink-wrap job. All you need is a roll of plastic and a heated cutting device.

We will probably know exactly what happened, but this tale does have a happy ending. Sean got a replacement iPod. The moral of the story: just because something is shrink-wrapped, doesn’t mean it’s actually in the box.

digg story | methodshop

Technology rolls on! Slightly less than a year ago, I reviewed the Olympus SP-500UZ, a 6-megapixel camera with a 10x optical zoom that cost $379. Now the SP-510UZ has arrived for $50 less and the resolution is bumped up to 7.1MP. I gave the SP-500UZ a 7.5 rating out of 10 and wasn’t impressed with it, given the competition. Today there are fewer digicams with 10x optical zooms to choose from as most manufacturers have moved to 12x with optical image stabilization rather than electronic IS. Your choices in that mega zoom category include the popular 6MP Canon PowerShot S3 IS ($399), 6MP Sony CyberShot DSC-H2 ($379) and 7.2MP -H5 ($479), the 7.1MP Kodak EasyShare P712 ($449) and 6MP Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 ($349). A more direct competitor for the SP-510UZ is the Kodak EasyShare Z710 that has similar specs but costs $299 list. Take some of these prices with the proverbial grain of salt as camera makers prepare to unload their 2006 models and prepare for 2007. I lean—as does every other reviewer—to optical image stabilization since it does a much better job of preventing blurry photos. Still, the Olympus SP-510UZ could be a sleeper digicam for travelers with its potent zoom, 7.1MP resolution and light weight. Putting four alkalines into the silvery digicam, it was time to see how it performed.

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This week's featured "Geek of the Week" has some serious information security skillz and is looking for some side work doing thorough security audits and information security consulting. Due to his company, we've dubbed him Security Geek.

Read more about the Security Geek on Geek 4 Sale and if interested in becoming the "Geek of the Week", feel free to send your resume and short write-up to hireme at geek 4 sale dot com.