14 posts tagged “blackberry”

Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday

The T612 from Altec Lansing is a set of stereo speakers (60 Watts RMS) with an iPhone/iPod dock, certifed for use with iPhones, which shields the speakers from radio interference from the GSM phone.  Henry Laporte has been using a radio clock as speakers which Jennifer got from Crate and Barrel.  Leo thinks that his kid should start learning about proper sound quality.  That's when the T612 came in.  Henry happens to be in the TWiT Cottage and can attest to the quality of the speakers, in answer to blatantly leading questions from Leo.  Totally unsolicited approbation, save for the $20 Leo hands over to Henry.

Leo also took with him to China another set of speakers from Altec Lansing, the inMotion iM4 which fold up neatly for travelling.



Gems from the Garbage Can
In Dick's neck of the woods, Thursday is big-furniture-put-out-day, and there are some great finds to be had.  Another member of the Laporte family, Eva, who used to live in Brooklyn, can attest to that as well.  Dick is still hoping that the pair of Altec Lansing 604 speakers (Episode 850), which his mother gave away years ago, might yet turn up one day, amidst the heap of unwanted, abandoned furniture.

This Is Why You're Fat
Depite Eva's help with his emails, and her very presence in the studio, Leo is still desperately searching for a letter to read.  Toyota Boy (Jayzee) comes to the rescue again, and points to the site This Is Why You're Fat, with user-submitted pictures of high-calorie, high-fat dishes, including in particular, the 30,000 calories sandwich.  Leo's answer to the question posed by the website is, he used to work at McDonald's.

Leo on McDonald's
Just before the show starts, Leo has an animated chat with Dick about his first job at McDonald's.  Courtesy of odtv.me, watch and listen to Leo's exposé on the shelf life of a hamburger.

Link: Palm

Leo comes up at the last minute with this gadget, a 7-day review unit of the Palm Pre.  The latest smartphone from Palm, revealed at CES 2009, is a touchscreen phone using what Palm calls the WebOS.  It has rounded edges and feels good in the hand.  The Pre is smaller than the iPhone (shorter in height but thicker), and the screen is slightly smaller than the iPhone's, with the same resolution.  The keyboard is a qwerty keyboard, rather like the one on the Centro, but the auto-correction is, for Leo, not as good as the predictive typing on the iPhone.  The Pre has a decent media player, and syncs with your iTunes library.  It can also sync with your Windows or Mac contacts, Google contacts (including contact pictures) and calendar, and even your Facebook contacts.

Applications take a little while to load, but what distinguishes the Palm Pre from the iPhone is multi-tasking.  Open applications are treated as "cards", which you can slide along and swoop out; and you get instant notifications from open applications for new emails and IM messages.  The new iPhone 3GS and iPhone software 3.0 have caught up with some of features of the Pre (and many other phones), such as MMS, 3.2MP camera, and cut and paste.  The iPhone will also have video capabilities including simple editing, which the Pre does not yet have.  Leo was originally going to get a Palm Pre himself, but has decided to get the iPhone 3GS instead, which by the time the show is aired, should have arrived, on Friday 19 June.  But if you're on Sprint, Leo can recommend the Pre as it has a future, and Leo is glad that the Palm Pre is around to keep Apple and Blackberry honest.

There are optional accessories for the Pre, including the Touchstone Charging Kit (pictured in the centre in the photo above), which attaches the Pre to itself magnetically, without cables.

After the Palm Pre review unit arrived, Leo did an unboxing session on TWiTlive, during which Leo tried out the Palm Pre and gave his first impressions.  The video is available at odtv, which is quite a long session.  I've taken extracts from the video, edited into 2 parts, which you can watch here.

Leo got the size of Palm's staff wrong, double-checks it on Wolfram-Alpha, and is amazed to learn that the revenue generated per employee of Palm and Apple is so much higher than TWiT.  Someone at TWiT is not pulling his weight, and that's Leo.

Leo is leaving for his China tour in a couple of days, and has some travel tips for foreign tourists.  The Chinese apparently don't speak Chinese at all.  Just say everything in English and put an "a" at the end.  If they appear not to understand it, just turn up the volume.  "I WANT-A SOME FOOD-A.  NO NOODLE-A.  GIVE ME A BIG-A MAC-A," Leo demonstrates.

Dave Kodama, a Caltech alumnus, is a DGW fan.  He and his wife have been subscribing to MAD since 1980 and he even had a shot of himself reading MAD with a friend, in a 1969 issue.  Dave notes that Leo is coming back home from China a few days too early, and will miss the longest solar eclipse in this century.  Dave himself will be near Shanghai for the event.  He and his wife have been early testers of electric cars, since 1996, including the GM EV1; and they will be trying out the Mini-E in (Episode 811) soon.  You can see Dave's astrophotography and his EV1 experience on his personal website.

Between the China land tour and the solar eclipse, Leo has chosen the tour.  Leo has seen an eclipse before and this time, he'll just draw the blinds and close his eyes.

 

At CES, Dick saw someone apparently smoking a cigarette and wondered why.  It turned out it was not a cigarette, but some kind of cigarette substitute or alternative.  You screw a fully charged battery to an atomiser, then at the other end, insert an NJOY cartridge.  You can start enjoying the cartridge.

Each cartridge consists of water, propylene glycol, a scent, and nicotine.  It gives the flavour of smoking to the smoker but without the smell of tobacco, as the "smoke" that comes out is an odourless mist.  One NPRO cartridge is the approximate equivalent of half a pack of cigarettes.

As the cartridge contains nicotine, it is not a smoking-cessation device, but just a cigarette alternative.

A New "Voice" for Dick
Dick has started using the new microphone (Heil PR-40 Studio Microphone) that Leo sent him.  "We can't improve the quality, so we improve the sound," says Dick.

Changes at Mad
Sadly, Mad has decided to publish the magazine quarterly, instead of monthly.  Circulation and ad revenue are down, and Time Warner has had to let 800 employees go.  You can read about the news on Dick's website.  When people heard the news, the most frequent inquiry was "What's going to happen to the What The Heck Is It game?"  Dick's income is going to drop a bit, but he may start doing the Daily Giz Wiz twice a day, or have lunch with Madoff.

A Leo Jingle
Geoff Smith has done a Leo Jingle (La, la, la, Leo, Laporte), and a "Insert Name Here" Jingle for MacBreak Weekly, which Leo plays on this show.

The Hi Phone
There are scams around selling people the Hi Phone, probably made by Tangerine.

Presidential Ties
President Obama is the first president to have his portrait taken by a digital camera.  The EXIF data of the photo shows that it was taken on a Canon EOS 5D-Mark II, on 13th January, the day Leo did his TTTT gadget of the day - the Canon EOS 5D-Mark II (Episode 742).  "Does Leo have ties to the President?" asks Nick from Columbus, Ohio.  Leo has heard rumours that the new administration may be appointing Dick as the new Gadget Tsar.  Dick says they haven't got round to it yet.  They've been too busy putting off the Digital TV transition.


Listen to Episode 754
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

As hinted at in Episode 673 and last week, Dick and Leo finally talk about T-Mobile's G1.  Made by HTC, the G1 is the first phone featuring Google's open-source smartphone operating system Android.

It has bluetooth, wifi, GPS (though not turn-by-turn), 512 MB built-in memory, although it has an microSD card slot and comes with a 1GB card; a back-lit qwerty keyboard (which is revealed by sliding out the screen) and a replaceable battery; a 3.2MP camera, but like the iPhone, it does not shoot video, and like the iPhone it does not support Flash on the internet.  Unlike the iPhone, it supports voice dialling and "cut and paste".

Physically, it weighs just under 6 ounces.  At the bottom is a panel of buttons: a big Menu button, underneath which at the centre is a trackball (for navigation and as a select button).  To the left of the trackball are the "Call/Send" button and the "Home" button; to the right of the trackball are the "Back" and "Hangup/Power" buttons.

On the left hand side of the phone is a Volume toggle, and on the right hand side the camera button.  For the earphones, unfortunately it's a microUSB connection and you'll need an adapter for your 3.5mm jack earphones.

The display is 3.2 inches at 480 x 320 resolution, with a capacitive touch-screen.  It does not support multi-touch, but does support long presses (through which you get a context menu including "cut and paste").  It has an accelerometer and is supposed to adjust itself to Portrait/Landscape mode, at least when the qwerty keyboard is open.

Since Android is open-source, many applications are expected to come out supporting the platform, and will not be filtered as in the case of the iPhone.  You can access the apps from the Android "Market", and Google will tell you in relation to each app what types of access the app may have on the phone - such as communications, your location and your personal information.

The phone comes with the standard Google apps, such as Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, and like the iPhone, offers a mobile version of YouTube.  If you don't use Gmail, there is another mail application.  Unfortunately, this other mail app cannot open attachments (which Gmail can by HTML conversion), nor save them.  The IM app supports major instant messengers such as AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo and of course Google Talk.  Like Google's desktop browser the Chrome, the Android browser is WebKit-based.  Another app that comes with the phone is AmazonMP3, with access to Amazon's DRM-free mp3 downloads - which only works with Wifi, and not 3G or Edge.  The phone also has its own music player software.

At the moment, the phone is available in T-Mobile stores only in cities which has T-Mobile's 3G coverage.

Favourite Episodes
In Episode 679, Dick and Leo were asked if they had a list of their 20 favourite/funniest episodes.  Ludwik Trammer of gizwizsearch can answer for them.  Search queries on his site show which episodes are most frequently accessed - 182 Titanium Spork, 465 Electron Echo Piano, 462 MP4 Watch, and of course 282 Toothpick Bird.

Ludwik also tells us that the accumulative length of all the DGW shows now exceeds 7 days.

One More Thing
Ludwik is going to introduce a new feature on his site.  In fact it is already operational.  Just go to his site and see if you can spot the difference.  Otherwise, just wait for an announcement through Dick and Leo in tomorrow's recording session, or in next week's episodes.

Video Podcasts To Wait
The last time Leo talked about video podcasts (with hopes of getting DGW on video) was Episode 671.  Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, Leo has decided to be a little more prudent, and maybe putting that on hold, although he may still put out a weekly "best of" video podcast.

Second Longest Episode
At 31:03, today's show is the second longest episode, just 12 seconds short of Episode 634, the Lexmark X9575 Professional.


Listen to Episode 686
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

Polaroid has been trying to find its place in the new world of digital photography.  Their latest attempt is the PoGo (Polaroid to Go), a portable bluetooth printer that connects to your mobile phones via bluetooth and makes 2" x 3" borderless prints.  The cellphone needs to support Bluetooth OBEX (Object Exchange) profile.  A list of compatible phones can be found on the Polaroid website.



You can also print directly from any PictBridge-enabled digital camera, by connecting the devices using a USB cable.

The print is made using Zink Imaging's Zink technology - Zero Ink - on Zink paper.  Each 2" x 3" photo paper contains 100 billion yellow, magenta and cyan dye crystals which are activated by heat pulses to generate the colours.  Since no ink is used, the prints come out as dry-to-touch prints.  They have peel-off sticky backs which can be used as stickers.  A modern version of Polaroid prints.

The dimensions of the PoGo 4.7" x 2.8" x 0.9", with a replaceable and rechargeable Li-ion battery.  Each charge can print up to 15 prints.  the advertised print speed is 60 seconds from send to share, though in practice it's likely to take longer.  You can get the PoGo photo paper in packs of 10 or 30, costing about $5 and $13 respectively.

One From the Gadget Warehouse
While rummaging through his treasure trove that is the Gadget Warehouse, Dick stumbled upon a Polaroid Instant Slide device, probably one of the 35mm Autoprocessors from Polaroid.



Mr Hulot's Holiday - It's Playtime !
Jacques Tati was a French comedian who made a few classic films including Mr Hulot's Holiday (Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot) and Playtime.

Here's the original French trailer for the film Playtime, where you can see a reflection of the Eiffel Tower on the door (or click this link):


For the scene in which what the lift (elevator) operator has to go through before he can get the lift to start, watch this clip (or click this link):

And for a rather interesting window cleaning scene, watch this clip (or click this link):


TWiT Nutwork on the PSP
Alex Rearick from Ohio learned about the "TWiT Nutwork" when the PSP gained RSS capability.  He listened to the back episodes, and enjoyed thoroughly the classic episode of the Key Buoy (Episode 149).  He's even got himself a GizWizBiz Cap.  New ones, with 30 hours of burn time, are available from Dick's website.

The Peek is a small, thin portable device that does nothing but email, not for the hardcore techie but aimed at those who find computers too complicated and just want to start using email.  It's a take-off of the Blackberry in design, with a qwerty keyboard and a thumbwheel at the top right.  If you use a web-based account (such as hotmail, gmail, AOL), all you need to do is key in your email address and password, and it will download your contacts for you.  If you use an email account provided by your ISP, you'll need to call Peek Support.  It supports up to 3 email accounts on one machine.

The backbone of the wireless service is provided by T-Mobile.  You do need to open an account with the Peek, for $20 a month.  It's a monthly subscription, and there's no need for a long-term contract.  Available in 3 colours (aqua, red and grey) at Target stores and GetPeek itself.

20 Funniest Episodes
Eric Whistler has gone back to some of the older episodes, including the classic Episode 182, the Spork.  Eric wonders if Dick and Leo have their favourite, say, 20 funniest episodes.  Difficult to pick, but Dick remembers fondly the Purseguard Ultra (Episode 406), and the Talking Photo Album (Episode 463) in which Leo had a Gracie Allen moment.

The Burns & Allen Show
Dick recounts moments from the Burns & Allen Show, and Leo plays a YouTube video of an "embedded" commercial for Carnation Milk, and forgets whether they've read a letter or not.

On 12 June 2001, Compaq announced the iPAQ Personal Audio Player PA-2 which included a 64MB memory card, with an extra card slot for MMC card expansion, about the size of a pager, weighing about 3 ounces and running on 2 AAA batteries.  It played MP3 and WMA files.  Transfer was via a USB port, and management was done via Windows Media Player or MusicMatch Jukebox.  Available from July 2001 onwards, it cost $250 back then.

This was the successor to the PA-1, weighing 4 ounces, which came out in 2000.  The PA-1 also came with 64MB, but on 2 separate 32MB MMC cards.

Dick thinks he got his PA-2 in October 2001.  On 22 October 2001, Compaq, having developed these flash-based portable players, decided to tread back, and announced the iPAQ Mini-CD Player PM-1, which Dick talked about on a previous Warehouse Friday, in Episode 140 - which used mini-CDs as the storage medium for MP3s (on the ground that CDs were much cheaper than flash memory).

On the very next day, 23 October 2001, Apple announced the 1st generation iPod for Mac, selling for $399, but with a capacity of 5GB, using a hard drive.  The 2nd generation iPod, with Windows support, came out in July 2002.  The rest was history.


The Phonemate Just in Case Beeper and More
The Just In Case Beeper (Episode 540) reminded Theodrake, aka Ed, aka Ed Bruce, of a portable electronic phonebook he had 25 years ago.  It could store at least 50 phone numbers and had a speaker on the back which you would hold up to the phone, and it would generate the tones to dial the number.  An auto dialer.


Listen to Episode 575
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

This is one of the first devices of the next generation weather stations.  Unveiled by La Crosse Technology at this year's CES, Weather Direct will be employed by La Crosse Technology in a number of their devices with prices ranging from $50 to $130.  Once you purchase a Weather Direct device, you pay a one-off fee to register online to specify the locations for which you want weather forecasts.  The device is connected to the internet via an ethernet port from which it fetches  and aggregates weather and other information from various sources including satellite assisted weather forecast systems and RSS feeds.

Succotash
Hear what succotash is from Dick and Leo.

Penguin Tea Timer
George from Ajax Ontario, Canada finds the Motorola Rokr S9 Bluetooth Headset (Episode 417) difficult to wear together with his sunglasses, and when the bluetooth is turned on, it seems to drain the phone battery much faster.  In the end, he has to return it.  He suggests that Leo cover the Penguin Tea Timer on TTTT, which lifts up the tea bag from your mug when the tea is sufficiently brewed.  Leo thinks it would be a good pal for the Toothpick Bird (Episode 282).  Amazon, on the other hand, suggests as a companion for the Penguin Tea Timer, the Hillary Nutcracker (see also Episode 404).

Listen to Episode 501
Go to TWiT
Read Dick's Write-Up

The Sony Ericsson W580i is one of the models of the Walkman Phone series.  The front panel features the music player controls which slides open to reveal the keypad.  Quad-band GSM for global roaming, built-in FM radio, 2MP camera, Flight Mode, built-in pedometer, stop watch, comes with a 512MB MS Micro card.  In Walkman mode, press and hold the Walkman key, shake the phone and it will select another song in your current playlist.  Shake Shuffle.

Cellphones on DGW
Dick says he rarely does cellphones, and Leo says Dick never does.  Apart from the Gadget Warehouse StarTAC (Episode 65), Dick has covered only 2 cellphones.  Both were LG phones, "The V" (Episode 9) and "The enV" (Episode 219).

Holiday Arrangements
Leo is off to Egypt to see the Pyramids over Christmas.  Dick and Leo will pre-record shows for the week of 17th December, and for the next 2 weeks, they will play the "Best Of" episodes prepared by George Wood.  That would give a whole new meaning to "Jingle All The Way".

Archos 605 Wifi
Keith has previously written to Dick and Leo about the Archos 605 Wifi but writes in again to refer to another feature, a podcast management software called Archos Link.  Dick and Leo think they have talked about the Archos 605 on the show, but they haven't, technically.  The 605 is from Archos' Generation 5 series while the AV700 (Episode 64), 604 Wifi (Episode 218), 404 Camcorder (Episode 262), and 704 Wifi (Episode 297) are from older series.