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Sprint: WiMax is ready for launch Jawbone old vs. new side-by-side Electronics-eating ants devouring Houston gadgets; Dallas next? New Jawbone from Aliph as arrived! Google Maps adds real estate listings, geo-tagged photos and Wikipedia entries Office 2007 add-on finds features fast Opera Mini 4.1: Better cellphone Web surfing Recent Comments
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May 16, 2008No. Not in Dallas. In the Washington-Baltimore area. Why should you care? Because Dallas and several other big cities are on the list to get the service next. A prolonged trial period in Washington led many folks to assume there was some big problem with Sprint's WiMax service, which will provide really fast Internet service anywhere a cellphone works. Sprint's rather technical announcement says that everything is working fine and commercial launch will come this year. Does that mean Dallas and other cities will follow soon behind? Who knows. The deal to combine Sprint and Clearwire into a nationwide WiMax provider may speed the process up or slow it down -- but at least the technology works.  Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Sprint: WiMax is ready for launch" is tagged: clearwire , Sprint , WiMax , xohm May 15, 2008I wondered yesterday whether Nissan's electric car would actually pollute less than gas-fueled cars or whether it would simply shift the scene of the crime from the car's tailpipe to the power plant's smoke stack. Reader Troy Matz was kind enough to point out in the comments section that Slate had already asked the same question and -- unlike you lazy correspondent -- gone to the trouble of digging up an answer. According to Slate's amusingly named Green Lantern column -- shedding light on environmental questions -- the reasonably Green Toyota Corolla kicks out 63 pounds of CO2 every 100 miles. A Tesla electric car kicks out 48. In other words, the electric vehicle or EV gives off substantially less carbon, but it's no perfect solution. How about other pollutants? EVs produce less methane, nitrous oxide, and assorted other greenhouse gases than their gas-powered counterparts. The one exception: sulfur dioxide, which is produced by coal combustion and can lead to acid rain. If the topic interests you, it's a good read throughout. Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Electric cars pollute less" is tagged: carbon , electric car , pollution
All I can say after wearing the new Jawbone for an hour is WOW...the comfort level is night and day compared to the old one...and I'm a big fan of the old one. I'm really liking it so far. If anyone has specific questions please leave a comment. Comments (0) Leave comment
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This sounds like a hoax, but the Associated Press is reporting on a species of ant called "crazy rasberry ants" that have appeared in the Houston area by the billions and that are apparently attracted to electronic devices: [T]hey, like some other species of ants, are attracted to electrical equipment, for reasons that are not well understood by scientists. They have ruined pumps at sewage pumping stations, fouled computers and at least one homeowner's gas meter, and caused fire alarms to malfunction. They have been spotted at NASA's Johnson Space Center and close to Hobby Airport, though they haven't caused any major problems there yet. Ladies and gentleman, we've just lost the picture, but what we've seen speaks for itself. Houston has been taken over -- "conquered", if you will -- by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth gadgets or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted newspaper personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Electronics-eating ants devouring Houston gadgets; Dallas next?" is tagged: ants , electronics , Houston
Anyone who knows me knows I love Bluetooth headsets. Currently I've been using an original Jawbone. I'm one of those annoying people who wears it most of the day. Today I got an email announcing the new generation Jawbone and telling me to look for one in the mail. Sure enough it's here. So I present the first look at the new Jawbone. I'll post some comparison photos after lunch. I'm sure a review will be forthcoming. One thing I will mention now that I've unboxed it and its charging...the charger is vastly improved. It's no longer fork-like. The new charing cable connects to the Jawbone magnetically. Comments (1) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "New Jawbone from Aliph as arrived!" has no entry tags.
If you're looking for a home in a certain location, you have a new search option: Google maps. Enter an address and click on the "show search options" link, which is right next to the "Search Maps" button. You can set whatever limits you want on size, price and other variables. Another improvement to Google Maps adds geo-tagged photos and Wikipedia entries that are associated with specific locations. To see these, click on the "more" button on the map -- it's right next to the "traffic" button. An entry from the blog Google Operating System has the explanation for all these improvements, direct from the source: As a Google employee recently said, "Google Maps is evolving from a driving directions and business search tool, to a comprehensive representation of all the world's information, on a map." Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Google Maps adds real estate listings, geo-tagged photos and Wikipedia entries" is tagged: google maps , real estate , wikipedia Personally, I think the "ribbon" interface that comes with some programs in Microsoft's Office 2007 makes it a lot easier to find formatting features, but folks who hate the ribbon now have another option. Cnet blogger Dennis O'Reilly raves about the new Search Commands download from Microsoft Office Labs: After you download and install the add-on, the Search Commands tab is added to the ribbon. Click it (or press the Windows key and Y) and type the name of the command you need. Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Office 2007 add-on finds features fast" is tagged: microsoft , office 2007 , ribbon May 14, 2008
If you've tried surfing the Web from your cellphone but given up in frustration, your problem is probably a lousy browser. Opera has just released a new version of its free mobile browser and it looks pretty nice. Check out the video above and the Opera Mini Web site. Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Opera Mini 4.1: Better cellphone Web surfing" is tagged: mobile phones , opera , web browsers
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn laid out his plans Tuesday, and the NY Times says he's put Nissan at the head of the pack of would-be electric car makers. Other automakers like Mitsubishi Motors and Fuji Heavy Industries are testing versions of electric cars, and General Motors and Toyota are working on battery-powered vehicles that have small gasoline engines for recharging. G.M. plans to start producing the Chevrolet Volt in 2010, while Toyota expects to offer a similar, so-called "plug-in" hybrid around the same time. I understand some of the enthusiasm about electric cars. Regular cars kick a lot of air pollution out onto city streets. Electric cars, on the other hand, emit nothing. Still, it's a mistake to call them zero-pollution cars. The electricity that charges them comes from power plants, and most of those emit carbon dioxide and other pollutants -- though they do emit it high into the air rather than on city streets where people inhale it. I've never seen anyone make a rough comparison of the total pollution that comes from a gas-burning car vs. an electrical one that gets its power from a coal-burning power plant. Perhaps power plants are so much more efficient that electric cars really would pollute less per mile than a comparable gas car. I sort of doubt it, though, not because I know anything about this specific case but because I've made the general observation that their don't seem to be many free lunches when it comes to consuming reasonably priced energy without pollution. Comments (3) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Nissan will sell all-electric car in two years" is tagged: alternative energy , electric cars
When asked whether they skip ads 100% of the time, 52% of men ages 55 to 64 said they do. By comparison, only 21% of males ages 12 to 17 report skipping ads 100% of the time. One theory is that old people are more focused on their TV watching, and skip the ads so they can get right back to their shows, whereas multitasking teenagers just flip on their iPods or Nintendo DSs when the commercials play. But I have another theory: The most tech-savvy teens -- those who would be most likely to fast forward through the ads on a DVR -- aren't watching television at all. All they're doing is listening to their iPods, texting their friends, playing video games and surfing the Web. Watching television just isn't part of the daily routine for kids addicted to more interactive forms of electronic entertainment. What do you think? Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Old people more likely to skip DVR ads than young viewers" is tagged: ads , DVR , old , skip , television , viewers , young
There seems to be an interesting technological split going on in America, to judge by two new reports on tech adoption rates. On the one hand, there's a federal survey that finds that 16 percent of households only use cell phones and have no landline at home, and another 13 percent mostly use cell phones at home but do still keep a landline. On the other hand, Dallas-based Parks Associates reports that 20 million U.S. households -- or about 18 percent -- have no Internet access at home. Of course, it's possible that some of those cell phone-only households have also opted to go without the Internet, and the federal report does say that low-income people are more likely to go without a landline. But I would guess that most of the cell-only people are finding some way to go online. Parks does note that the percentage of households without Internet access has dropped from 29 percent at the end of 2006, so the Internet curmudgeons are slowly venturing online, while the federal report says the percentage of cell-only users is climbing. So maybe this digital divide will go away in a few years, but it's worth keeping in mind that a large swath of America still has never sent an e-mail. Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Some households using cell phones only, others have never connected to the Internet" is tagged: adoption , cell phone , Internet , landline
Sorry it's a little fuzzy, but this was too funny to pass up. Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Singing the Vista blues - New Mac commercial" has no entry tags. May 13, 2008
So you laid down $2900 for the R2D2 DVD movie projector, and your pad is kind of pimped out. But it's not yet totally pimptastic. For that, you'll need to accessorize with the R2D2 ice bucket with Han Solo frozen-in-carbonite ice cube trays. Currently only available for pre-order from Amazon UK for about $33, but c'mon, there's no way this masterpiece doesn't make the Kessler run in less than 12 parsecs across the Atlantic to the man caves of American nerds. Via Gizmodo, which is oddly skeptical of the romantic prospects of any male who purchases this fine objet d'art. Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "The R2D2 ice bucket with Han Solo ice cube trays" is tagged: Han Solo , ice bucket , ice cube tray , R2D2 , vow of chastity
To celebrate the launch of Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope, the NY Times explores the differences between the new program and its principal rival, Google Sky. Both are free programs that let people explore the heavens as never before, but the Times finds that most people prefer Microsoft's program: There are many online astronomy sites, but astronomers say the Microsoft entry sets a new standard in three-dimensional representation of vast amounts data plucked from space telescopes, the ease of navigation, the visual experience and features like guided tours narrated by experts. Comments (1) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope vs. Google Sky" is tagged: astronomy , google , microsoft , sky , WorldWide Telescope
I think it's safe to say that this could cause some controversy. According to a report in Wired, researchers at Cornell University were the first in the world last year to genetically modify a human embryo, adding a green fluorescent protein to the embryo. The embryo was destroyed five days later. and is believed to be the first documented case of genetic modification of a human embryo: British newspaper The Times reports that [Cornell researcher Nikica] Zaninovic's feat was announced at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine annual meeting in 2007, but was only publicized recently when the United Kingdom's reproductive technology regulators reviewed the research. The House of Commons is about to consider legislation permitting this and other controversial reproductive technologies, such as the creation of chimeras -- human-animal hybrid embryos. The research raises a number of thorny ethical questions. Though adding a fluorescent protein was merely a proof-of-principle step, scientists say that modified embryos could be used to research human diseases. They say embryos wouldn't be allowed to develop for more than a few weeks, much less implanted in a woman and brought to term. I'm not sure why creating a glow-in-the-dark person is a major step in curing diseases, but what do I know? And regardless of your moral position on this issue, this sure sounds like the opening for an episode of the X-Files.
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Cornell University scientists genetically modify human embryo" is tagged: Cornell University , genetic modification , human embryo May 12, 2008
Nikko America is releasing a limited edition R2D2 DVD player with built-in projector. It's a DLP projector (thanks TI) that displays up to a 260" picture at 1500 lumens. All this can be yours for only $2900. There's a cool video of this thing in action on their website. Comments (2) Leave comment
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