Flying the English Channel… via Jetpack
As mentioned in the video, his flight was a success.
Archive for Technology
Like Tiered Internet, Only it’s Tiered “Where you are now”
When I here stuff like this, I can’t help but get angry. The fact that these large companies think they can control everything on the products they sell to you drives me nuts. What makes me even angier, is that Apple gets away with it all the time and barely anybody notices.
Anyway…
Hands on time with Android
Interesting. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing if Android can take some wind out of the iPhone’s sails.
iPhone, Canada, July 11! Price?
Well, Apple’s WWDC event for 2008 has had it’s keynote now. As expected, the 3G iPhone has been unveiled. I must say, this phone does actually make the previous iPhone look kinda light in the features department. The wireless speed alone is a big difference, the GPS tracking should be awesome (doesn’t cost extra money to have like on my Moto Q). So July 11 should be a big day in Canada and elsewhere.
But aside from a release date from Apple (a search on Rogers’ reveals no matches whatsoever for “iphone”), there is no price information on the Canadian page. Two screenshots below show the differences between the US and Canadian pages.
US Page:
Canadian Page:
Also, there’s no info on data plan rates either. I find this interesting since it was heavily speculated that Canada may have been left out of the last round of iPhones due to Rogers’ data plan greed. But $199 sounds good to me.
At any rate, at least now there’s a date.
D-Link Introduces Ethernet-to-Coax Kit for Extending the Home Network Using Existing TV Cabling in the Home
Seriously, this is a great idea, and I can’t believe I didn’t think of it. It seems like it would also be a good way to roll out your wireless access points across the house too, if you have signal connection issues.
The D-Link Coax Ethernet Adapter Kit (DXN-221) is ideally suited for adding bandwidth-demanding applications such as high-definition (HD) media streaming, music sharing and online multi-player gaming to the home network. The DXN-221 comes with two adapters, each of which includes an Ethernet port as well as a Coaxial F-type connector for bridging the two adapters together. The adapters may also be purchased individually (DXN-220).Users can easily connect the D-Link Coax Ethernet Adapter to their existing router and then to an available coaxial outlet in the home, enabling network and Internet access to multiple rooms. A second adapter is added in another room to connect Ethernet-enabled devices like PCs and media players. The DXN-221 may be used in rooms with multiple devices by connecting a switch to the adapter to connect additional devices.
Bell has a video store now? Really?
Here’s just a snippet of the intro from Ars Technica. It’s an interesting post to read.
It’s hard to imagine a time at which touting your own downloadable video store makes less sense than when you’re on the hot seat for throttling all P2P traffic, much of which competes with Bell to offer video (including entirely legal BitTorrent downloads from the CBC).
Bell Canada opens online video store as P2P debate rages on
Tags: media, video, net neutrality, bell, p2p, traffic shaping
A Blu Xbox 360
Xbox 360 Blu-ray console shipping by September?by Thomas Ricker, posted May 2nd 2008 at 2:12AMFor all of Microsoft’s denial, the Xbox 360 Blu-ray console rumors just will not die. In fact, they are getting more and more specific. The Chinese language Economic Daily News is reporting that Pegatron, an OEM subsidiary of ASUS, has won the order from Microsoft to assemble the Xbox 360 with Blu-ray Disc ROM drive — shipments are expected to being in Q3 of this year. Now come on Microsoft, just come clean on the matter, we won’t tell anyone.
Xbox 360 Blu-ray console shipping by September? - Engadget
Honestly, even after getting burned by HD-DVD, I’d probably get one.
iPhone Confirmed: Now What?
So by now, everybody’s heard the news.
Phil made an interesting comment on one of my other posts. He said:
…Chances are a lot of Telus subscribers will ditch their CDMA phones in favour of the trendy iPhone, especially the young and fashionable population…
While I believe this is certainly a possibility, with all the news surrounding the next version of the iPhone (Engadget has a bunch of posts), how many people are really going to go for it? Perhaps many, since not everyone follows this type of thing in the media.
If Rogers negotiated a lucrative exclusivity deal, and their voice/data plan is actually good, then yeah, I think Rogers will be selling them hand over fist. I heard a rumour that a 5GB data plan might be an alternative to unlimited.
However, I believe Rogers will be Rogers and will be greedy. Any really good data plan will undoubtedly be quite expensive. That’s really the deal maker/breaker in the Canadian iPhone story. The monthly charges.
It will of course sell out when launched, it will get all the media attention, and I will see more of them and want one more.
Why Apple Dislikes Open Computer’s Existence
Here’s the price comparison from Daily Tech:
The numbers look too good to be true… A 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB of DDR2 667 memory, a 250 GB hard drive, DVD, and Integrated Intel GMA 950 Graphics, all for a lowly $399. To put this in perspective a Mac Mini with a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, equivalent memory, a 160 GB hard drive, DVD, and the same graphics processor, will cost you a hefty $949. Of course the $399 Mac came in a full-size case, and the Mac Mini came in a shrunken footprint, but obviously for some Mac users, the decreased size wasn’t worth $550.
So what does this tell us about Apple, Macs, and the industry? Well for one, there’s interest in an actual low-cost alternative to the Mac. The Mac Mini gets a lot of attention due to it’s form factor, but it was billed by Apple as the cheap alternative. The computer that was for people who wanted a Mac experience, without spending thousands of dollars.
Some would argue that these computers are a good thing, that they will increase the Mac platform’s spread in the computer world. And they probably would. I would even bet that it wouldn’t cut into Mac sales much, if at all. The people who buy Macs still want “a Mac”. This however would bring more people in, and probably convert them to full-blown Mac users eventually.
Apple however, I’d bet, isn’t interested in this scenario. I forget where this comes from, but someone speculated that Apple isn’t all that interested in increasing their marketshare in the PC/Windows dominated world. They have their little corner of the market, and they’re happy with it. Why not sell a “premium” product at a premium price? They even get to play by a lot of their own rules as a result. They are in essence a monopoly of sorts. Sure they compete against PCs, but not really.
Hopefully this product doesn’t die. I’ve been thinking hard recently of hacking a PC to run OS X. It’s a cheaper alternative to buying a Mac and running Windows on it via Bootcamp. My PC has far more power than any iMac, and probably competes with the Mac Pros on some benchmarks, and is half the price. Which is really why Apple doesn’t like this Open Computer. They don’t want to compete on price (they’d lose), and they don’t want more of the market. Simple as that.
Update
One problem with Apple’s dislike of this company… it doesn’t exists really… Oh well.
Update 2
I guess they do exists. Who can keep up with this? Oh right, Engadget
Blu-Ray Drive for Xbox 360?
There’s been a number of rumors re-surfacing in the last couple days about Blu-Ray drives coming to the Xbox 360. Microsoft said a few weeks ago after HD-DVD officially died that they weren’t talking with Sony about it. What that really means is “we’re thinking about it, and as of this moment we haven’t contacted anyone.” So are they going to do it? I think so.
I don’t think there’s any question that the future of the DVD/Blu-Ray is limited by digital downloads. We’re already seeing a number of services available that provide just this service. Microsoft’s Xbox Marketplace, iTunes Store/Apple TV, and the VooDoo box are a few. Plus you can watch so much online for free now straight from the internet browser. And of course, there’s still Video on Demand (VOD). VOD could be a real competitor if they’d just fix the quality issue.
Anyway, many have speculated that Microsoft won’t do a Blu-Ray (BR) drive because they want people to move to the download model. This is about half true in my mind. Yes, absolutely, they want people to do digital delivery. However, the Xbox division main goal is to sell Xbox 360 consoles and Xbox 360 games. Would adding a BR drive (either internal or as an add-on à la HD-DVD drive) be an added incentive to buy Xbox 360 consoles? I believe so. Many people bought a PS3 solely as a BR player. The PS3 continues to be one of the best and most flexible BR players available.
However, should Microsoft make such a drive available, it would surely sell at least as well as the HD-DVD drive did. All those early adopters are bound to jump on it since the format war is over. True, Sony would benefit from licensing fees, but at least Microsoft would get a cut on the players. It’s also another bullet point on the Xbox 360 box (BR capability), which would eliminate the major difference between PS3 and Xbox 360.
Plus, you can look at Microsoft’s track record with the Xbox 360. They’ve bowed to the community’s pressure on multiple occasions. The HD-DVD drive was in a way, bowing to consumer pressure. As was when Microsoft released Xbox 360 consoles with HDMI ports (their story before hand was that nobody needed HDMI). And perhaps less due to consumer pressure and more media pressure, the warranty extension to 3 years for all the red ringed consoles. Is there any reason to believe Microsoft won’t flinch and release an external BR drive? I don’t think so. The only reason in my mind that Microsoft hasn’t said there will be BR drives for the 360 is they may be waiting for the cost of the drives to get low enough to be able to offer an external drive at the $199 price point.