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Leica Sofort 2June 13, 2024
Casio Duro MDV-106 Re-ReviewDecember 15, 2022
The Hype: Yoshida & Co’s Porter BagsAugust 26, 2025

Recent Articles

  • Did Apple’s iPhone 4 Just Kill the Flip?

    Janko Roettgers: Speaking of customers, one of Flip’s big selling points has always been its low price point; a dead-simple HD camcorder for less than $200 is hard to beat. However, the new Flip SlideHD costs around $280 for 16GB of memory. Apple announced today that the iPhone 4 will start selling at $199 for…

    Janko Roettgers:

    Speaking of customers, one of Flip’s big selling points has always been its low price point; a dead-simple HD camcorder for less than $200 is hard to beat. However, the new Flip SlideHD costs around $280 for 16GB of memory. Apple announced today that the iPhone 4 will start selling at $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB.

    I am in full agreement, the new iPhone is going to crush the Flip, why carry two devices when one can do it all? I always wanted a Flip, but HD video recording and editing on my next phone – well that is just ‘the bees knees’ now isn’t it.

  • 20 most stressed, 20 least stressed counties

    California leads the most stressed with 13 out of 20 counties being in the state. Ouch (though in fairness they probably have the most counties with populations over 25,000 in the U.S.).

    California leads the most stressed with 13 out of 20 counties being in the state. Ouch (though in fairness they probably have the most counties with populations over 25,000 in the U.S.).

  • Safari 5 Extensions

    Directory of extensions for the newly released Safari 5 – some great ones already. To enable extensions go to Preferences > Advanced and check the box that says show Develop menu, then click the newly revealed Develop menu and click on Enable extensions.

    Directory of extensions for the newly released Safari 5 – some great ones already. To enable extensions go to Preferences > Advanced and check the box that says show Develop menu, then click the newly revealed Develop menu and click on Enable extensions.

  • Cisco Licenses iOS Name To Apple

    That solves that mystery.

    That solves that mystery.

  • Foxconn to give Chinese workers another pay raise

    This is on top of the raise that they just got – good for them, they deserve it.

    This is on top of the raise that they just got – good for them, they deserve it.

  • Shanghai 1990 vs 2010

    Amazing what 20 years can do to a landscape.

    Amazing what 20 years can do to a landscape.

  • Full-body scanner debuts at Omaha airport

    This is going to be one of those pieces of technology where we have to decide whether we want security or privacy. Given 9/11 I am inclined to err on the side of security.

    This is going to be one of those pieces of technology where we have to decide whether we want security or privacy. Given 9/11 I am inclined to err on the side of security.

  • Safari 5 Now Available

    No keynote for this, but a very nice upgrade.

    No keynote for this, but a very nice upgrade.

  • Gruber’s iPhone 4 Impressions and Observations

    John Gruber: It’s mentioned briefly in Apple’s promotional video about the design of the iPhone 4, but they’re using a new production process that effectively fuses the LCD and touchscreen — there is no longer any air between the two. One result of this is that the iPhone 4 should be impervious to this dust-under-the-glass…

    John Gruber:

    It’s mentioned briefly in Apple’s promotional video about the design of the iPhone 4, but they’re using a new production process that effectively fuses the LCD and touchscreen — there is no longer any air between the two. One result of this is that the iPhone 4 should be impervious to this dust-under-the-glass issue. More importantly, though, is that it looks better. The effect is that the pixels appear to be painted on the surface of the phone; instead of looking at pixels under glass, it like looking at pixels on glass. Combined with the incredibly high pixel density, the overall effect is like “live print”.

    The fusing he is talking about is very welcome – I have had one spec of dust stuck in my screen for the past two months and it drives me crazy.

  • What I Got Right / Wrong With My WWDC Predictions

    Here is how well I did: iPhone HD / 4G Wrong Name Front facing camera – check Higher resolution rear camera w/ LED flash – check Higher resolution screen – check Base will be 32gb and upgraded version will be 64gb – nope Longer battery life – check Better 3g signal reception – pissobly, a…

    Here is how well I did:

    iPhone HD / 4G

    Wrong Name

    • Front facing camera – check
    • Higher resolution rear camera w/ LED flash – check
    • Higher resolution screen – check
    • Base will be 32gb and upgraded version will be 64gb – nope
    • Longer battery life – check
    • Better 3g signal reception – pissobly, a new antenna design was made to help this

    iChat Mobile

    Wrong Name

    • Video chatting on the iPhone – check
    • Carriers will determine if you can use it on 3G- check
    • AT&T will say no – TBD, but we know already
    • U.S. will only get Wi-Fi video chats – check
    • Require new MobileMe subscription (see below) – nope, better yet it is going to be an open standard

    iPhone 3GS

    This will drop to $99 replacing the iPhone 3G – check

    iPhone OS 4.0

    This will be out for iPhones – check. The iPad developer seeds will be made available for devs and will ship to the public in September – nope.

    Safari 5

    Nope

    • Faster than Chrome
    • More CSS3 and HTML5 support
    • Support for Bing search over Google
    • Auto Flash toggling so that it makes for a more ‘stable’ web browsing experience (think Click2Flash)
    • (long-shot) Ad blocking

    New MobileMe

    Nope

    • Free subscriptions with 1gb storage
    • Required for iChat Mobile
    • Wireless syncing for all
    • Dev access for cloud storage with iPhone apps.

    Mac Pro Refresh

    Nope

    Storage & speed bumps only.

    Macbook Air Refresh

    Nope

    • Screen resolution bump
    • Storage bump
    • Speed bump
    • Battery increased

    One More Thing: Apple TV

    Nope

    • Will run iPhone OS 4 TV
    • 16gb and 32gb SSD models
    • Will stream video and audio from new MobileMe service
    • iTunes Store on device
    • MobileMe syncing with computers
    • iPhoto slideshow syncing
    • App Store

    In other words I should stop trying.

  • WWDC Announcement: iPhone 3GS now $99

    Called that.

    Called that.

  • WWDC Announcement: iPhone 4

    Features so far: Thinnest iPhone yet 24% thinner than the 3GS – thinnest smart phone on the planet. Front facing camera. Noise cancellation. New Design (Gizmodo did have the actual design with the phone they bought). The metal band is actually 3 antennas (clever). 4x the pixel density called Retina display (326 ppi highest in…

    Features so far:

    • Thinnest iPhone yet 24% thinner than the 3GS – thinnest smart phone on the planet.
    • Front facing camera.
    • Noise cancellation.
    • New Design (Gizmodo did have the actual design with the phone they bought).
    • The metal band is actually 3 antennas (clever).
    • 4x the pixel density called Retina display (326 ppi highest in a phone ever for really sharp text). This is a game changer for app design, if you thought apps looked great on the iPhone already – you haven’t seen anything yet.
    • Existing apps will look better on this display without the developers having to do a thing. This will help the app developers take time to design for the new interface instead of doing a rush job.
    • Powered by the A4 chip (iPad chip) and if the speed of the iPad is any indication this thing should fly.
    • Improved battery life: 7 hours 3G talk, 6 hours 3G browsing, 10 hours WiFi browsing, 10 hours movies, 40 hours of music, and 300 hours of standby – all in all about 40% more talk time.
    • 32gb Max storage
    • Quad-band HSDPA / HSUPA
    • 802.11n WI-Fi (yes)
    • Three axis Gyroscope for better gaming (this is tied to the GPS to give developers 6-axis motion sensing – very cool)
    • All new camera: 5 megapixels with the same pixel density (this is good) and an LED flash. Tap to focus (like the 3GS) and backside illuminated sensor.
    • The iPhone can record HD video – I wet myself when I heard this. 720p @ 30fps. Record and edit on the phone LED flash will stay on to illuminate the scene. (this could kill the Flip Cam)
    • iOS 4
    • iBooks (as part of iOS 4, presumably available on all iPhones)
    • FaceTime – video calling. (what a great name) This is Wi-Fi only as I predicted it would be. This also does the video in either landscape or portrait, though I can’t imagine holding it in landscape to make the calls. Also Jobs demoed two people talking in sign language on the phone, which is, well just amazing. Working to get it over Cell networks (fat chance with AT&T) and you can switch between front and rear cameras automatically.
    • Comes in White and Black (I have been a White iPhone guy, but it doesn’t look so great to me this time around)
    • 16gb for $199 and 32gb for $299
    • AT&T will upgrade any customer whose contract expires in 2010.
    • Pre-order next week for June 24th launch

    More from Apple here.

  • WWDC Announcement: iBooks on the iPhone

    This was to be expected. Steve Jobs via GDGT: The same controls, the same highlighting, the same bookmarking, the same PDF reading. If you get a PDF in Mail, tap on that and you’ll go right to iBooks. And, of course, the iBook Store right on your iPhone. We’ll have it on the iPad, iPhone,…

    This was to be expected.

    Steve Jobs via GDGT:

    The same controls, the same highlighting, the same bookmarking, the same PDF reading. If you get a PDF in Mail, tap on that and you’ll go right to iBooks. And, of course, the iBook Store right on your iPhone. We’ll have it on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
    What can we do with all these products together? Well, the first is you can download and purchase a book to any of these products, and it’ll be wirelessly downloaded right to the device. Now, you can download the same book to all your devices at no extra charge.

    With place syncing just like Kindle – Amazon should be scared. There are now 100 million devices that can buy books from Apple, how many Kindles has Amazon sold?

  • WWDC Announcement: iPhoneOS Renamed: iOS 4

    This makes a lot of sense as the iPad running this OS lead to some confusion. iOS 4 however is a silly name (also I am hearing chatter that this name is already owned by Cisco, atleast the iOS part). We already know a lot about this next version of the iOS so here are…

    This makes a lot of sense as the iPad running this OS lead to some confusion. iOS 4 however is a silly name (also I am hearing chatter that this name is already owned by Cisco, atleast the iOS part).

    We already know a lot about this next version of the iOS so here are the key items:

    • Multitasking
    • Folders for storing groups of apps together (this is going to be very underrated, but really popular)
    • Unified email inbox – finally.
    • Threaded email conversations – yay!
    • Better enterprise integration – this will help Apple out on the biz side tremendously
    • Can now use Google / Yahoo / Bing as search engine, Google stays default
    • iAds looks great and is a great solution for Developers
    • Available on June 21st

    There is a lot more, but that is all that was touched on in the Keynote. Launching soon, no date given. (will update with links later)

  • WWDC Announcement: iMovie for iPhone

    Apple releases iMovie for the iPhone today an all new application. You can now record and edit HD video on the iPhone – more than just cropping the length of a movie. Features: Transitions Titles Add photos and audio from the iPhone’s library Geotagging Themes just like on the desktop version (only five – which…

    Apple releases iMovie for the iPhone today an all new application. You can now record and edit HD video on the iPhone – more than just cropping the length of a movie.

    Features:

    • Transitions
    • Titles
    • Add photos and audio from the iPhone’s library
    • Geotagging
    • Themes just like on the desktop version (only five – which is impressive and dissappointing at the same time)
    • Export to 360p, 540p, and 720p (HD).
    • Costs $4.99 in the App Store and the screen shot only shoes it with a rating of 4 stars (funny).

    Looks just about as full featured as the desktop version – no Final Cut, but beats the hell out of any other cellphone video capturing and editing. Simply put no other mobile device can touch this.

  • WWDC: iPad, iBooks, And App Store: The Key Stats

    Some staggering numbers here. A billion dollars paid to developers.

    Some staggering numbers here. A billion dollars paid to developers.

  • WWDC Announcement: iBooks App Updated

    iBooks now supports bookmarks, notes and PDFs. The addition of PDFs is great as the current Apps are not up to snuff for reading PDF files on the iPad.

    iBooks now supports bookmarks, notes and PDFs. The addition of PDFs is great as the current Apps are not up to snuff for reading PDF files on the iPad.

  • WWDC Keynote Live Coverage at 10a pst

    I will be posting on the announcements after they are made and I have time to cull together some info for you all on them. As such I will be delayed from everyone live blogging it and today will be an Apple heavy day (more so than normal). Here are live blogs to get play…

    I will be posting on the announcements after they are made and I have time to cull together some info for you all on them. As such I will be delayed from everyone live blogging it and today will be an Apple heavy day (more so than normal).

    Here are live blogs to get play by plays:

  • Malware found lurking in apps for Windows Mobile

    Elinor Mills: Scammers are distributing apps for Windows Mobile-based smartphones that have malware hidden inside that makes calls to premium-rate numbers across the globe, racking up expensive bills unbeknownst to the phone’s owner, a mobile security firm said on Friday. As Hans Gerwitz said on Twitter: This is why the App Store is curated.

    Elinor Mills:

    Scammers are distributing apps for Windows Mobile-based smartphones that have malware hidden inside that makes calls to premium-rate numbers across the globe, racking up expensive bills unbeknownst to the phone’s owner, a mobile security firm said on Friday.

    As Hans Gerwitz said on Twitter:

    This is why the App Store is curated.

  • iPad App Pricing

    If you ever wondered why iPad apps are more money, or why some people just don’t give it away for free, then you need to read this. Very true.

    If you ever wondered why iPad apps are more money, or why some people just don’t give it away for free, then you need to read this. Very true.