Posts from — November 2008

With Thanksgiving swiftly approaching, it seems like the right time to start thinking about which new electronics and gadgets are going to be the “must haves” of the Holiday season.  According to a recent holiday electronics article, netbooks might be at the top of the list.

So, what’s a netbook?  The term refers to lightweight, low-priced notebook computers, usually $350-$500, designed for light duty.  Many Acer Laptops, and Asus notebooks fall into the netbook category.

The Acer Aspire notebook above includes a 1.6 GHz, 1GB RAM, a 120 GB hard drive, a webcam, and wireless capabilities.  There’s also a multi-card reader, and 3 USB ports.  Not bad for just over $375.  I found this Acer notebook at J&R.

Jumping on the netbook train, HP recently released 3 new netbook notebooks.  They are priced between $379 and $699.

If you want to add that Saturday afternoon gaming experience to your Monday morning office experience, here’s something to add to your collection of iPhone accessories.  Marware’s Game Grip fits both iPhones and the iPod Touch, for a a video game controller feel while playing iPhone games.  But is it useless foam, or finally a worthwhile iPhone gaming attachment? Gizmodo and CrunchGear seem to be voting “useless foam”.

The Game Grip includes silicone grips, a silicone cover for your iPhone, and a silicone cover and spacers for your iPod touch.  You can charge your gadgets with the Game Grip in place, and wear your earbuds or headphones.  The Game Grip is available for pre-order at Marware for $50.  Zowee, 50 clams?

Cruising the freeway with a dashboard GPS system can be a lot of fun until you have to pull a Russian roulette, Evil Knievel-inspired stunt to get your vehicle into the correct exit lane. Garmin apparently noticed this was an issue, because they’ve included lane assist with the release of the new Garmin Nuvi 785T.

The new Nuvi guides you into the correct lane while displaying realistic road signs as you approach interchanges and junctions on your route. As for other tech specs, the Nuvi 785T offers turn-by-turn directions, comes pre-loaded with City Navigator NT, and includes a “Where Am I?” emergency locate feature.

I especially like the Bluetooth compatibility feature on the Nuvi 785T. Link up with your mobile phone, and talk hands-free. You can find the Nuvi 785T at Tiger GPS.

Hey Garmin, since you’ve got lane assist figured out, can you help me with parallel parking?

Still haven’t picked up that Blu-ray disc player?  You might want to hurry (or not), because according to Robin Harris over at ZDNet, “Blu-ray is in a death spiral“, and will be little more than a “videophile niche in 12 months”. Here’s some of the interesting evidence Harris cites for the eventual demise of Blu-ray discs.

Upconversion DVD players:  With DVD players that up-play standard quality DVDs to near HD quality, the hype surrounding the viewing quality of Blu-ray discs is lost.

Licensing Fees:  There are whopping Blu-ray licensing fees implemented by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) for producers who want their productions available on Blu-ray.  $3K per project, plus additional annual fees.  That might be okay for a multi-million dollar film budget, but it’s not likely to be affordable for others.

Time Lost:  The HD DVD/ Blu-ray war took a couple of years to sort out…so all the while, technology was advancing, leaving Blu-ray a little outdated.

What do you think…is it the beginning of the end for Blu-ray discs, camcorders, and other gadgets? Hitachi doesn’t appear to think so.  They just released a new line of Blu-ray/DVD hybrid camcorders.