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The Year's Best Gadget Ideas
valdean writes "David Pogue, the influential personal technology columnist for the New York Times, has chosen what he calls '10 of the year's best small, sweet improvements in our electronic lives.' Rather than your average pseudo-commercial list of branded devices, it's a list of improvements. As Pogue puts it at the end of his column: 'Come New Year's Eve, raise one tiny toast to the anonymous engineers whose eccentricities or idealism brought these sparkling developments to life.' They are (sans explanation): the folding memory card, the voice mail VCR, the front-side TV connector, the bigger-than-TV movie, TV à la carte, the outer-button flip phone, the free domain name, the modular DVD screen, the family-portrait burst mode, and the hybrid high-definition tape.'"
Like on my 10-year-old Sony TV?
Yes, it's got squid in the name so geeky is definitely implied. But even more it handles those damned power bricks elegantly. I gave 'em out as Christmas presents and they seemed to be well received.
"Yes, you'll see ads on the screen (unless you pay for the adless version) - but plenty of people won't mind viewing them in exchange for a free, professional-looking Web presence." 1) That has been around for a while and 2) Thats not free - It's free from ads if you pay... oh wait... free??
Invexi - a Phoenix, AZ based web design and web development company.
I heartily agree with the Sandisk SD card with built-in USB. I have one on my keychain now, though I'd like a beefier holder. Better than your basic thumb drive, I can I also plug it in as-is into my PDA or camera. I can't imagine buying another SD card that wasn't one of these. No cable, no readers. Now I can put my keychain drive into my PDA to review a document or picture or movie. It's also smaller than most every thumb drive out there.
Lexar had their "jump drive" years back with USB on a CF card, but it took a cable to plug into a proprietary connector on the card's backside.
I buy 2-3 different cell phones per year
:-)
Why do you need 2-3 extra cell phones per year? Do you serve them with French fries and ketchup, feed them to your dog or what?
I have 2 cell phones, one is a spare: 6 years old and still works perfectly, the other is a PDA/phone that I use to do software development. Besides the obvious, placing and receiving calls, of course.
When either of them dies, I'll replace it with a similar one. Until battery capacity or energy efficiency improve considerably, I don't expect any sudden increase in important functionality in new phones.
The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
That's the technology he's talking about for doing HDTV rez on DV tape, it's called HDV. Now, they aren't kidding in that it really does store HDTV resolution on DV tape. However the problem is that they do it at DV data rate, 25mbps. That means, of course, higher compression.
One of the great things about DV is that it's barely comrpessed. So it survives editing very well, as well as multi-generational copies. That was the whole idea, a cheap digital format that would work as well or better than BetaCam. It does too, you can really do no shit, broadcast quality work with a good camera and normal computer.
Well HDV decided to go with MPEG-2 compression to get the higher rez in the same space. They couldn't do MPEG-4, too processor intensive. Ok so it works, but not that well. The image isn't as clear as the increase in resolution should yeild, but worse is that there are MPEG artifacts. That's not a huge deal if you are just going to play the tape back, but if you are going to go to computer, edit, and then back to some compressed format, it's a problem.
I'm not saying the format is worthless, but it gets rid of some of the coolest parts of DV. I'd much rather see a new HDTV tape format.
Keeping in mind that the title is "10 Greatest Gadget Ideas of the Year", you'd have to conclude this really was a terribly lame year. Let's go down the list:
1) [folding memory card] How about digital cameras taking USB memory sticks directly (I understand this would require a new physical spec, but wouldn't that make a lot more sense?)
2) [VM VCR] It would be nice if the link pointed to a Treo 700W. I agree that VM should appear like email with VCR like controls on a mobile device. But this is not a device I can go and buy today...
3) [front side TV connectors] Don't know what he's talking about; I've had front interfaces on my TV for years, but there must be something more to see for people that care to register.
4) [increased video resolution on digital cameras] Increased resolution is hardly a gadget idea, it's just an incremental improvement, as one might expect (after several years I might add). Fair enough 1024 is a pretty nice jump.
5) [downloadable video] We'll see how this _really_ pans out. It certainly isn't a bright or clever idea, it's all about (biz) politics.
6) [outer button flip-phone] Come freaking on. A bad UI design has been corrected.
7) [free domain name] Seriously. (a) who doesn't have $8/year to register the domain with registerfly or something and get a advertisement-free domain (b) is this really something new? I can hardly believe it.
8) [modular DVD screen] This is not a smart idea. If it hasn't been done before it is because it's just not going to last. Either the LCD is going to have to support a wild range of interfaces (VGA, S-Video, DVI etc etc) and hence would become much larger then it needs to be if it were driven directly by the hardware (direct digital). Or it could support just analog video say. Now the quality suck. So it could support just VGA. Now the driving logic in the devices needs to add VGA output. Well, it's just not going to happen. You're going to be buying this stuff from one vendor because it sounds great, and a year from now half of it won't work and the vendor has discontinued the idea.
9) [family portrait burst-mode] Let's grab the quote: the odds of somebody's eyes being closed increases geometrically with the number of people in the group. (emphasis mine). That's a hoot. But, sure I understand the problem. My camera from 2003 let's me take a bunch of pictures in a row. It's not a 2005 idea.
10) [HD tape] I guess... A great gadget because they DIDN'T change the physical format.
Very disappointing list to me. Surely there were better tech advancements than just this!
These are, vast majority, really good ideas for consumer devices. I concur with the NYTimes author, and I think that "slashdot.org" just woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, and came up with some weak arguments to boot.
Think about it... you criticize the SD card for not being a USB stick, but... why don't you use SD cards instead of USB sticks, if they have built-in USB interfaces? Smaller. Faster (on the SD side). Fits into more devices. Hmmm. Sounds like a reason to bitch to me.
I have had TV's with connectors in front, but it is unsightly and in the end I always go with the rear connectors. Nice job, HP. Of course the completely wireless (data, not power) hi-fi home theatre would kick more ass, but until then...
Camera whose self-timer takes multiple shots. Guess you missed the point. But cheers! A great idea!
Geometrically. You're the hoot, unless I'm missing something completely out of my league; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometrically
Bad UI on the phone is fixed? Great. Somebody willing to break the barrier deserves customers, and praise. I guess irrational bitterness gets high marks from Slashdot moderators... And another person commented on accidentally hitting buttons placing calls, but if the buttons only do ignore/fwd to voicemail, then hopefully there is no possibility of making an embarrassing call by touching these buttons accidentally. And need they beep?
Downloadable TV shows? I've been waiting for it ever since I left the TV era behind, every once in a while I'd like to check out a NOVA episode or something. Great idea, but only more reason for bitterness, apparently.
And remember, we never talk about true tech/sci advancements in consumer electronics. It's all about using current tech for a better experience. Dude, you must be having a really bad day! But cheer up!