Tick… Tick… Tick… For Us All

Hear, Hear
Americans should not fear talking–and listening–to those whose views we loathe.

[T]his has been our history: to let all speak and to fear no one. That’s a good history to continue.

This is brilliant.

Whoa! Apple, I Didn’t Mean Death Star As in Suicidal!

Apple iPhone warning proves true

Some owners are reporting on technology blogs and Apple’s own forums that the update is deleting contacts information, as well as photos and music, on iPhones that have not been modified in any way.

When I coined the term “Death Star Upgrade,” I envisioned the iPhone becoming this huge, formidable vessel in the cellphone universe, toppling all opposition. In a good way (who wants those other crappy cellphones around anyway? Buh-bye Palm and Nokia and Samsung!).

Things seem to have gone awry.

Apple better start channeling The Force.

Photo Album: DigitalLife Expo 2007

Of last year’s small attendees, only Supacam and GelaSkins came back. No Pepper. And, shockingly, no Sony! I wanted to fondle the new Sony Reader, dammit.

Even though Palm had four Meeting Rooms, no Foleo. Palm was all Centro.

No Asus Eee in sight or even hinted at. Damn!

The show was shockingly small. My quick overview was done in just an hour!

On with the show…

Gateway was showing off a new machine that ripped off the Mac design was all-in-one…

…in fact, it’s called One

Gateway also showed off this humongous monitor; that’s three websites and an XboX picture-in-picture running

The cheap-ass Palm display; you had to pay for drinks!

Sorry-assed freebies (also a pen and jellybeans; not shown)

Crowded, huh?

No Treos. No PDAs. No Foleo. Just Centro.

Centro being demonstrated. Palm had the blonde I ordered, but no Foleo!

The crowding will kill you…

PC Magazine made it worthwhile again with a batch of wee devices

The big deal HTC Advantage running WinMob 6. Their HotSpot wasn’t working so I couldn’t try Opera browsing. But still, now having given this thing a feel (that’s far less than a fondle), I was very unimpressed. About a grand for that? No!

Size next to Centro actual-size brochure

Next to the ShitDrive my LifeDrive (left edges aligned)

With iPhone (left edges aligned)

My flash kills the HTC screen while the iPhone smiles

Better picture where I off-centered the flash… iPhone screen is still better

HTC vs OQO (left edges aligned)

Dell brings color to notebooks. Big whoop.

Erector is pimping a WiFi spy robot now…

… I didn’t get details. Go Google.

Aie! My mortal enemies!

Yeah, she looks like a satisfied customer. Must have used the 770!

Just as my brain began to melt out of my ears, I hear over the rush of earwax, “Mike! Mike! Mike! Mike!” I think, “Me? It’s a trap!” “Mike! Mike!” I turn around and my god —

— it’s Liz Kelly and Hannah Fairlight of Girls Don’t Cry at the Save Net Radio booth! Real human beings at the trade show! How did they get in?

Then it was back to the torment for me…

Why? Why? Why?

See above caption

A Pac-Man hat!

What the world was waiting for: Snoopy on cellphones! Kill me now.

I don’t know what it is …

… but I want it. NOW!!

Did anyone buy these?

Spider-Mutt. And Linux should sue for abuse of the penguin.

Look at them, ready to pounce and kill me!

Some parrot robot that does things

No Philip K. Dick electric sheep in sight. Thank God!

Cute enough to make you want to kill yourself. Not cute enough for Japan.

The new slavery: People as videogame consoles

All right! Something freaky!!

An electronic camera that magnifies up to 200x. What’s this guy have?

As I thought: FLEAS!

Non-parasite-infested samples to magnify

OK. This is just wrong.

Toshiba’s new Gigabeat player. More fodder thrown underneath the iPod juggernaut.

This is a very interesting notebook. Very lightweight with a CD/DVD drive!

The specs. Turns out that sub-2-pound one uses Flash, not a hard drive. Always a catch!

Only I would turn a notebook over like a turtle to show you its bottom isn’t flat!

Closed view. Wee LEDs on the edge you can see when closed.

Scale next to LifeDrive

Next to dollar bill (suggested by Toshiba rep!)

Screen in outdoor transflective mode. No, it’s not turned off —

— close up. I was told it’s very bright in direct sunlight. Hmmmm. I was also told you can get this with XP installed instead of Vista. The Toshiba rep wanted that made very, very clear. Wow, Vista must be the biggest disaster in Microsoft history!

Eight flatscreens showing eight players killing each other in Gears of War

This was fun. Toshiba did a Deal Or No Deal game

They picked a number by random draw corresponding to a seat. This woman was the first to play…

She picked a case. The two models were very lovely and lively. Drool. Real women!

The banker tries to get her to swap the case for a backpack!

“Open the case…”

Oh. My. God!

Close-up

She won top prize: A free Toshiba laptop computer!!!

One of those ceiling-projected interactive displays seen on mall floors

At hp’s booth, I come across their Tablet PC …

— and leave my mark!

The new hp PDA next to the LifeDrive; hp stylus shorter & thinner than LifeDrive’s. Yes, my LifeDrive screen is also showing year view on full brightness! Those of you thinking of swapping a RAM-based Palm PDA for this, forget it. It took five seconds to open a Mobile Word document. I can get that shitty non-performance with my LifeDrive!

I go back to the Palm exhibit…

LifeDrive next to Centro

Real-life size comparison: my shit-ass Thiefone Tracfone next to the Centro

I need a break from this unrelenting technology. I go see Hannah and Liz and find to my horror…

Hannah has become professorial, tutoring people on Saving Net Radio. Poor Liz is getting high from sniffing soy chips again. She has such a tough addiction!

I see the pair of assassins Palm and Nokia have co-funded to kill my ass. I flee.

But there’s no escape. In the hallway leaving, I see …

American technology vandalized by Finns …

… inside it has an Anti-Internet Tablet installed …

Thoughtfix probably drooled. (I see the lad is lapping up the Kool-Aid these days… sad.)

The show ran til 7PM. I fled a little after 5PM (sorry, Hannah and Liz!). It was very disappointing. I didn’t return today due to lack of sleep. If I’m bored tomorrow, I might return to see what’s going on. But I doubt anything will be…

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Iran, Yesterday

Now you can say I’ve Seen Everything…

Google Is The Last Place I Would Look For Movies

Legal Watchdog Group Uncovers 300 Apparently Pirated Films Viewed More than 22 Million Times on Google Video

I looked at some of the screensnaps they took (assholes put them in a PDF!). Right off the bat they lie: they have Airwolf listed! Airwolf was a TV series! (And a lousy one at that. Those cultists will kill me now…) There are some other TV series too; mainly Japanese anime episodes.

I see the legendary 7337 aXXo is represented. You’ll never catch him/her/them. And even if you did, I think someone would set up a PayPal account for bail — and it’d be raised.

(Unlike you cheap bastards here who are holding onto your lousy five bucks — skip that artery-clogging Happy Meal or brain-cell-killing Latte!)

And they found 300? That’s probably a fraction. I’d go look for myself but guess what, Hollywood? You haven’t put out shit I’ve been dying to see for years and years!

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Previously in this blog:
Free Movie: Zeitgeist
Reference: Google Video On iPhone
Google Video: Free Documentaries
Google Video: Two Gerry Anderson
Thunderbirds: Origins On Google Video
Gerry Anderson: Origins On Google Video
“Oh My God, There’s No More World Trade Center.”
Reference: Finding Local Movies With Google

YouTube: One Lucky (Or Rich!) Fan

Supermarionation Stuff and Buzz, My Dalek

Who else would find this for you?

Eh? Eh?

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Apple To Rewrite Computing Again

Up next for Apple: the return of the Newton

Externally, the mutil-touch PDA has been described by sources as an ultra-thin “slate” akin to the iPhone, about 1.5 times the size and sporting an approximate 720×480 high-resolution display that comprises almost the entire surface of the unit. The device is further believed to leverage multi-touch concepts which have yet to gain widespread adoption in Apple’s existing multi-touch products — the iPhone and iPod touch — like drag-and-drop and copy-and-paste.

More broadly characterized as Apple’s answer to the ultra-mobile PC, the next-gen device is believed to be tracking for a release sometime in the first half of 2008. Assuming the project remains clear of roadblocks, sources believe it could make an inaugural appearance during Jobs’ Macworld keynote in January alongside some new Mac offerings. Still, manufacturing ramp and availability would seem unlikely until closer to mid-year, those same sources say.

Now everything is beginning to make sense to me.

1) Why Apple does not want people to hack the iPod Touch for third-party software — it would undercut sales of this future device with one that does not offer the same profit margin*

2) Why Apple doesn’t care if the iPhone has third-party software on it — there is sufficient profit in the monster volume sales of this device to let it slide (for now)

3) Why Palm believed the Foleo had to be introduced now — it was its only chance to gain a foothold in a market Apple will soon dominate

4) Why Asus chose as its low-ball computing introduction a subnotebook-size device (which has higher manufacturing costs) — they believed Apple was going to do that

5) Why there has not been a scramble to add ebooks to The iTunes Store — this device will offer a true “paperback-quality” reading experience

6) Why a portable Bluetooth keyboard has not been offered by Apple for the iPhone — it will be offered for this machine

7) Why Nokia persists in its efforts with its Anti-Internet Tablets — they fear Apple is going to grab the market (and the entire world!) from them

8) The rumor of internal H.264 decoder chips in future Macs — will this device have that, to further position the Apple brand as one for consumer electronics?

What I think still has to fall into place:

1) Apple announcing joint ventures with social sites such as MySpace (Murdoch just recognized the importance of The iTunes Stores for TV, is this a hint of secret talks?)

2) Hackers revealing secret features in the upcoming Leopard OS release that aren’t yet being used

3) The discontinuation of the Mac mini (could this new device be called the mini II or the Mac nano?)

4) Leaks of Apple making deals with print publishers (not limited to just books)

5) iSync being enhanced

6) This device being announced at MacWorld Expo in January along with the revelation of a customized version of the iWork suite for it

Apple’s Thermonuclear Bomb Of Mobile Applications

One company I wouldn’t want to be is Palm. And one business I wouldn’t want to be in is offering non-phone devices running Windows Mobile.

(*Personally, I think this is a mistake. It would help to create the market for this larger device. It would whet people’s appetite. It would also create an ecology of developers ready to port everything over to the new device.)

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Previously in this blog:
Can Apple Create A Real Handheld Market?
eBooks On iPhone: Reading Software
New MacBooks = Optical Drive Bye-Bye
The Asus Eee Effect?
Wow. I’m Really Out Of The iPhone Loop!
Is The Foleo Completely Dead Now?
Foleo: Dude, I’m Not Getting A Fat-Ass Dell!
The iPod Touch: Don’t Touch It?
Size-Off: Foleo Versus Powerbooks
Asus Eee: OS X?!
Will Palm Die Or Show Others How To Be Reborn?
Hey, SanDisk! Buy The Foleo IP From Palm!
Ed Colligan’s Worst Nightmare
New Disease: Post-Foleo Nightmare Syndrome
The Foleo Dispossessed
Quote Of The Day: Popular Mechanics
The Palm Foleo Disaster: Part Two
Quote Of The Day: Michael Mace
Quote Of The Day: Flashback To iPod Introduction
You Still Make Me Want To Bleed To Death
Foleo: The Beat Goes On…
The Palm Foleo Disaster: Part One
Dumbass Of The Year: Ed Colligan
The DUH! File: BoingBoing Catches Up
S.O.S. Steve Jobs! eBooks Will Save You!
If We Can’t Have Momentum On This, Can I At Least Get An Amen, Brother?
Newsflash! Pictures Of Corpses Left In Wake Of iPhone Price Cut!
Today’s Episode Of The Steve Jobs Show, Plus More
Tomorrow’s iPod: The Beginning Of Bliss?
Palm Kills Foleo
OK, Now The Foleo Scares Me
A Post-iTunes Fable For NBC
Nokia’s Upcoming Fake iPhone
Should Apple Turn iTunes Into A Platform?
iPod Price History: Will Apple Fight Or Lose?
Quote Of The Day: Nokia’s Innate Ineptness
iPod Touch Coming Next Week?
Poor Ed Colligan. Ascared Of Me.
Apple Wins The Internet Video Wars
Oh Look! I Get To Bash Palm And Nokia At The Same Time! It’s Two Two Two Hits In One!
Do New Apple Keyboards Hint At An iPhone Keyboard?
iPhone Death Star Upgrade Coming
Splaying The Code Guts Of The iPhone: TV-Out & Filesystem
Microsoft, Palm, And Nokia: You Better Be Freaking Out!!
I Don’t Think You Understand Just How Incredible The iPhone Really Is!
Some People Catch On Later Than… Everyone Else.
iQuote Of The Post-iDay
I’ve Fondled The iPhone!!
Record Blog Traffic: Apple iPhone Vs. Palm Foleo
Jobs Gets YouTube On iPhone — But Without Flash!
Oh My God! What Did We Buy?!!?
Oh Look At This! My Apple-YouTube Prediction Will Come True!
A Picture Of Two Tech Devices That Should Have Never Been Released
My Reaction To Palm’s New Foleo Device
On A Day When Palm Gets Everything Wrong, Apple Gets It Right
Does Apple Hold The Key To Breaking Open Computing Everywhere?
Prediction: YouTube/Google Drop Flash Video
The iPhone Is A First-Generation Pocket Mac
A Pocket Keyboard Fit For The iPhone?
OS X Widgetry And iPhone Possibilities
Applenomics, Or Why Steve Jobs Will Now Hate Me For Ever And Ever
Bravo Nicholas Carr!

FLASH: George Bush Attempts School Shooting

St. John’s University student found with rifle

(Jamaica – WABC, September 26, 2007) – A student was arrested with a rifle on the campus of St. John’s University in the Jamaica section of Queens Wednesday, according to police.

Authorities say the man, in his early 20s, was caught on campus at around 2:30 p.m.

Police say the man had a rifle in a bag in Marillac Hall, a four-story building with classrooms and a basement cafeteria. He was reportedly apprehended by public safety officers, who quickly disarmed the suspect and have turned him over to the NYPD. Officials say the man was also in possession of a mask, possibly a President Bush mask.

Police say they are searching for a second person, who may be armed. A building-by-building search is underway.

Emphasis added by me.

This is ongoing breaking news in NYC right now.

When I saw the first news bulletin, I immediately wondered if Kenneth Che-Tew Eng was on the loose again.

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Jaysus

3 Charged in PC Magazine Editor’s Death

PITTSBURG, Calif. (AP) – Three men have been charged with murdering a senior editor for PC World magazine in what police said was an attempt to steal marijuana that the victim’s son grew in their home for medical use.

Rex Farrance, 59, the San Francisco-based magazine’s senior technical editor, was shot in the chest on Jan. 9 after masked men broke into his suburban home.

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Real Life Quote Of The Day: Me & That Other Me

S.A. Couple Branded As Bad Tenants Because Of Tattoos

Prospective tenants of an apartment complex are denied rentals because of their body art. A poster writes:

[R]emember, everyone has two personalities, themselves, and job interview.

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