Here's a nice one for Mac-using amateur musicians: Apogee's ONE is a multifunctional handheld device that features a built-in mic, preamp, and dedicated input/output. It works over USB and is designed for Garage Band, Final Cut and the like.
It's a single input, stereo output device, offering 24-bit audio between 44.1 and 48KHz sample rates in a package around the same size (though thicker) than an iPhone. Apogee's putting emphasis on the built-in mic (they even offer a stand so you can treat the whole thing like a handheld mic), though it's got one input for instruments or your own mic. That input is coupled with a preamp, customizable using the ONE's controls.
The ONE is designed to work with Apple's range of audio software, including iTunes, Garage Band, Logic, and Final Cut, though we don't imagine it would have trouble working with non-Apple software as well. It remains to be seen whether the built-in mic is everything Apogee claims; on such a small device, we're skeptical but remain hopeful. It'll be available sometime in "late July" at a pretty reasonable $250. [Apogee]
The late King of Pop pioneered dance moves that looked mechanical and weren't, like the moonwalk, and at least one that looked mechanical and was: The forward-leaning maneuver from his "Smooth Criminal" video. The secret is all in the shoes.
Trying to lean beyond one's center of gravity normally leads to a giant, awkward step forward to retain balance, so to achieve the 45-degree angle he wanted, Michael and his dancers used special shoes as well as a trick in the stage floor. When the time came for the move, a peg-like aperture would protrude from the dance floor. The heel of the dancers' shoes featured a triangular cut out that could be hitched onto the peg, anchoring the dancers to lean much farther forward, and thus blowing the world's collective mind. [Boing Boing Gadgets]
Yesterday I held the new HTC Hero next to my iPhone. Not only the new Android handset has a surprisingly cool design—straight out of JJ Abrams' Star Trek or Kubrick's 2001—but it kicks the iPhone's material ass. Literally.
Simply put, the Teflon-coated back just feels and looks a lot better than the iPhone's—now crappy looking, I admit—plastic back. The Hero's polytetrafluoroethylene—the technical name for DuPont's Teflon—coating feels perfect in your hand. It doesn't appear to get any skin oil at all. No greasy fingerprints, just a perfect matte finish no matter how much I touched it.
It feels and looks like a white thermal tile out of NASA's shuttle.
The iPhone's plastic finish, on the other side, is a fingerprint magnet that looks as cheap as any Chinese knockoff after holding it for a few seconds. The Hero wins hands down on appearance, even while its front is too complicated for my taste. For a company like Apple—which takes such pride in their design and manufacturing—this is bad. For a consumer like me, this sucks.
"They are getting so boring"
Once upon a time Apple used to be innovators in the use of new materials. Those were the times in which they experimented with the iMacs and PowerMacs, which finished with the arrival of aluminum. Today, apart from the unibody manufacturing—which is just a form of aluminum manufacturing, a material that has been used forever in consumer products—their use of groundbreaking materials has stagnated.
I'm not the only one saying this. About a month ago Matt Buchanan and I asked the top executive of one of the most important industrial design firms in the world about his thoughts on Apple's design. After seing Objectified—and watching a legend like Dieter Rams glorifying Apple as the only consumer electronics company that counts when it comes to industrial design—I was expecting an ode to Jon Ive and his team. Instead, he replied:
They are great, but we [him and his colleagues in the industrial design world] think they are getting so boring. I mean, don't get me wrong, they got the use of aluminum perfected now... but what happened with the excitement that they used to generate with new materials? We all expect a lot more from Apple.
He is right. Their use of plastics in the iMac spread to every single consumer appliance out there, but now aluminum is the new beige.
So yes, Apple should use new materials. Not for the sake of it, of course. They should use whatever materials fit the product technical needs. And for me, one of these needs as a consumer is that the product should look great at all times, and not just look great in the box or behind a store glass.
The need for new materials
The iPhone has this problem. It looks like crap with little use. They have tried to fix part of it with the oleophobic coating on the front glass—something that the HTC Hero also has—but the overall effect keeps being the same: Its back still looks cheap after some time.
For this reason we were all hoping for a matte back in the iPhone 3GS, but apparently Apple decided not to release it for one reason or the other.
I don't know and I don't care. What I do care about is that, after playing with the Hero, my iPhone now feels like cheap crap. And I don't even like Android.
Yesterday I held the new HTC Hero next to my iPhone. Not only the new Android handset has a surprisingly cool design—straight out of JJ Abrams' Star Trek or Kubrick's 2001—but it kicks the iPhone's plastic ass.
Simply put, the Teflon-coated back just feels and looks a lot better than the iPhone's—now crappy looking, I admit—plastic back. The Hero's polytetrafluoroethylene—the technical name for DuPont's Teflon—coating feels perfect in your hand. It doesn't appear to get any skin oil at all. No greasy fingerprints, just a perfect matte finish no matter how much I touched it.
It feels and looks like a white thermal tile out of NASA's shuttle.
The iPhone's plastic finish, on the other side, is a fingerprint magnet that looks as cheap as any Chinese knockoff after holding it for a few seconds. The Hero wins hands down on appearance, even while its front is too complicated for my taste. For a company like Apple—which takes such pride in their design and manufacturing—this is bad. For a consumer like me, this sucks.
"They are getting so boring"
Once upon a time Apple used to be innovators in the use of new materials. Those were the times in which they experimented with the iMacs and PowerMacs, which finished with the arrival of aluminum. Today, apart from the unibody manufacturing—which is just a form of aluminum manufacturing, a material that has been used forever in consumer products—their use of groundbreaking materials has stagnated.
I'm not the only one saying this. About a month ago Matt Buchanan and I asked the top executive of one of the most important industrial design firms in the world about his thoughts on Apple's design. After seing Objectified—and watching a legend like Dieter Rams glorifying Apple as the only consumer electronics company that counts when it comes to industrial design—I was expecting an ode to Jon Ive and his team. Instead, he replied:
They are great, but we [him and his colleagues in the industrial design world] think they are getting so boring. I mean, don't get me wrong, they got the use of aluminum perfected now... but what happened with the excitement that they used to generate with new materials? We all expect a lot more from Apple.
He is right. Their use of plastics in the iMac spread to every single consumer appliance out there. And Kara Johnson, materials expert from IDEO believes it'll be going out of style any day now (Maybe yesterday.) But now, even aluminum is the new beige. (Even if some experts believe there are few alternatives, there are a few.)
So yes, Apple should use new materials. Not for the sake of it, of course. They should use whatever materials fit the product technical needs. And for me, one of these needs as a consumer is that the product should look great at all times, and not just look great in the box or behind a store glass.
The need for new materials
The iPhone has this problem. It looks like crap with little use. They have tried to fix part of it with the oleophobic coating on the front glass—something that the HTC Hero also has—but the overall effect keeps being the same: Its back still looks cheap after some time.
One thing to note
For this reason we were all hoping for a matte back in the iPhone 3GS, but apparently Apple decided not to release it for one reason or the other.
I don't know and I don't care. What I do care about is that, after playing with the Hero, my iPhone now feels like cheap crap. And I don't even like Android.
Yesterday I held the new HTC Hero next to my iPhone. Not only the new Android handset has a surprisingly cool design—straight out of JJ Abrams' Star Trek or Kubrick's 2001—but it kicks the iPhone's plastic ass.
Simply put, the Teflon-coated back just feels and looks a lot better than the iPhone's—now crappy looking, I admit—plastic back. The Hero's polytetrafluoroethylene—the technical name for DuPont's Teflon—coating feels perfect in your hand. It doesn't appear to get any skin oil at all. No greasy fingerprints, just a perfect matte finish no matter how much I touched it.
It feels and looks like a white thermal tile out of NASA's shuttle.
The iPhone's plastic finish, on the other side, is a fingerprint magnet that looks as cheap as any Chinese knockoff after holding it for a few seconds. The Hero wins hands down on appearance, even while its front is too complicated for my taste. For a company like Apple—which takes such pride in their design and manufacturing—this is bad. For a consumer like me, this sucks.
"They are getting so boring"
Once upon a time Apple used to be innovators in the use of new materials. Those were the times in which they experimented with the iMacs and PowerMacs, which finished with the arrival of aluminum. Today, apart from the unibody manufacturing—which is just a form of aluminum manufacturing, a material that has been used forever in consumer products—their use of groundbreaking materials has stagnated.
I'm not the only one saying this. About a month ago Matt Buchanan and I asked the top executive of one of the most important industrial design firms in the world about his thoughts on Apple's design. After seing Objectified—and watching a legend like Dieter Rams glorifying Apple as the only consumer electronics company that counts when it comes to industrial design—I was expecting an ode to Jon Ive and his team. Instead, he replied:
They are great, but we [him and his colleagues in the industrial design world] think they are getting so boring. I mean, don't get me wrong, they got the use of aluminum perfected now... but what happened with the excitement that they used to generate with new materials? We all expect a lot more from Apple.
He is right. Their use of plastics in the iMac spread to every single consumer appliance out there. And Kara Johnson, materials expert from IDEO believes it'll be going out of style any day now (Maybe yesterday.) But now, even aluminum is the new beige. (Even if some experts believe there are few alternatives, there are a few.)
So yes, Apple should use new materials. Not for the sake of it, of course. They should use whatever materials fit the product technical needs. And for me, one of these needs as a consumer is that the product should look great at all times, and not just look great in the box or behind a store glass.
The need for new materials
The iPhone has this problem. It looks like crap with little use. They have tried to fix part of it with the oleophobic coating on the front glass—something that the HTC Hero also has—but the overall effect keeps being the same: Its back still looks cheap after some time.
One thing to note
For this reason we were all hoping for a matte back in the iPhone 3GS, but apparently Apple decided not to release it for one reason or the other.
I don't know and I don't care. What I do care about is that, after playing with the Hero, my iPhone now feels like cheap crap. And I don't even like Android.
If you want Windows 7 Home Premium for $50, or Pro for $100, you'll have to pre-order it. Here's a list of places where you can find it, starting at 12 midnight Eastern, 9pm Pacific tonight!
Remember, this is a limited-time offer, and it only applies to Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional—not Windows 7 Ultimate, which may be what you've been running in Beta or RC.
These retailers are also supposed to begin selling Vista systems tonight that will come with a free Windows 7 upgrade on October 22. In other words, buy it right now, use it right now, and upgrade in a few months for free. Just do yourself a favor and ask first, before plunking down cash, because though most manufacturers and retailers are on board (and why not?), some PC models may not come with the free upgrade.
Microsoft's own online store is also offering the pre-sale. If by some reason you go and the offer is sold out, we have something you can try. Go to the Microsoft store, click the OS version you want to buy, and click "Buy." Log in with your Windows Live ID (Microsoft Store, Hotmail, Messenger, Xbox LIVE, Zune or Passport accounts all apply) and enter this promo code:
WIN7PIFKYW2ZR0EDTEMG
Then follow the steps to complete the transaction.
The thing is, this code may not be of much help. Microsoft tells us that it lets 300 people get software through Sunday or Monday, even if the public allotment sells out. But we're also told there are a lot of copies out there for the discounted pre-sale. So please try to buy it first without using the code, leaving the 300 slots free to people who didn't act as fast as your PC-lovin' self. You can always copy it and quickly use it if you get rejected. But I don't think you're going to get rejected, especially not tonight.
If that's not wondrously clear, I apologize, though it's certainly not my fault. The good news is, you don't need a special code to get the special price. Not now at least.
The new CompactFlash adapter from Photofast can hold four 16GB microSD cards running in RAID. This makes the slower microSD format as fast as CompactFlash by striping data across all four microSD cards at once.
For those that don't need 64GB of storage, the CR-7100 will hold one 16GB microSD, while the CR-7000 holds one 32GB SD. The 7200 will be available for $30 and the 7100 and 7000 for $25, all in July. [Photofast via Akihabara]
A recent automatic update from Lenovo contains adware that subjects users to irremovable pop-up ads that advertise various accessories contained in the Lenovo website.
The ads pop up about once an hour, seemingly without regard to what other programs may be running, which sucks if you're in the middle of a presentation. Users have so far been unable to find a way to completely disable the various messages (the check box with "do not show this message again" doesn't always work). While the ThinkPad line has continued to be well engineered from a hardware standpoint, the packaged Thinkvantage software has gotten progressively worse with each new version. Utilities that were once useful, such as the back-up tool, have become bloated and dysfunctional. Hopefully Lenovo will take heed of customer complaints and discontinue the ads with the next update. [Slashdot]
James Dyson claims his 2.2lb DC31 handheld vacuum has the world's fastest motor "by a long stretch." Thanks to a new switched reluctance motor, it's capable of achieving 104,000 revolutions per minute.
To put that into perspective, the Dyson motor is "ten times as fast as a commercial aircraft, five times as fast as a Formula 1 engine and more than twice as fast as the most powerful industrial milling machines."
Yeah, careful—you could probably suck the family dog into this thing from across the room. Because this technology is scalable, it's looking more and more likely that Dyson could build that super electric engine he has been talking about lately. The DC31 will retail in two versions, the standard DC31 and the DC31 "Animal" for around $220 and $270 respectively starting next month in the UK. [Dyson and Telegraph via CrunchGear]
There have been plenty of cheap, crappy, plastic lightsabers for the Wii before, but now there are official cheap, crappy, plastic lightsabers for the Wii. Oh joy!
Coming this fall, you'll have the opportunity to spend your hard-earned dollars on the official Star Wars Lightsaber and Clone Trooper Blaster accessories for the Nintendo Wii.
No word on pricing, but they probably won't be all that expensive. After all, they're just hunks of plastic you clip over your controllers. [Kotaku]
477847010 |
|
Menu
Here's a nice one for Mac-using amateur musicians: Apogee's ONE is a multifunctional handheld device that features a built-in mic, preamp, and dedicated input/output. It works over USB and is designed for 
The late King of Pop pioneered 
Yesterday I held the new 
If you want 
The new 
A recent automatic update from Lenovo contains adware that subjects users to irremovable pop-up ads that advertise various accessories contained in the Lenovo website.
James 
There have been plenty of cheap, crappy, plastic lightsabers for the Wii before, but now there are official cheap, crappy, plastic lightsabers for the Wii. Oh joy!