T E C H N O G A D G E T S ®
Taking The Geek Out Of Gadgets
Hurricane Names
0267 days
by admin
in Technogadgets®
Hurricane names are taken from six lists of names that rotate. Here are the lists of names. If a hurricane extremely destructive it’s dropped from the list. The names reflect the names that are common to the regions affected. Here’s a great Hurricane Irene video from NASA. IRENE
Deactivate Stolen Phones?
0273 days
by admin
in Technogadgets®
I’ve never had a good answer from cell phone companies as to why they won’t instantly turn a stolen phone into a paperweight. Each phone has an electronic serial number and the companies can use that ID to render the phone useless. Wiping a sim card clean, yanking the phone number, are all nice ideas but making the phone useless would be even better and help deter crime. Apparently, they do it in Europe and one US Senator is pushing for it here. He says it’ll help cut down on cell phone thefts. The Trib has the story.
Aerobatic Tumble
0276 days
by admin
in Technogadgets®
It’s Chicago Air and Water Show time again and it’s my favorite time of year! I’m an aviation enthusiast and love aerobatics. Being a reporter, I’ve been fortunate to fly with many different people over the years. I’ve done loops while standing on the wing of Gene Littlefield’s Stearman, four-point rolls in a Blue Angels F/A-18 and I’ve jumped with the Army’s Golden Knights. I just got the ride of my life from an aerobatic champion. Rob Holland introduced me to an Aerobatic Tumble and you’ll see it in this video, combining the view from wingtip and cockpit cameras.
Why Google Bought Motorola Mobility
0278 days
by admin
in Technogadgets®
It seems obvious. Motorola makes some good stuff, including Android phones. But patent protection is another important part of the equation, and you can read about it in the Market Oracle. I hope this move is a great one for Motorola Mobility and Illinois.
iPhone 5 and Android
1292 days
by Ed Curran
in Technogadgets®
It seems like everyone I know is sitting on their wallets, waiting for the iPhone 5. I know I am. It was rumored months ago that the newest iPhone would be revealed in September and ship in October. The latest reports still support that rumor although an end-of-September rollout remains a possibility. What’ll the new iPhone have? We can dream of better battery life due to an improved battery and a display that doesn’t eat so much power. That display will probably be larger than the current iPhone. The shape of the phone would be tapered, more like the profile of a MacBook Air, and the phone may finally include some kind of memory card. For those waiting for a slide-out keyboard, keep practicing on your touch screen because a hard keyboard seems unlikely. Better cameras are a must and maybe, just maybe, more than one version of the iPhone. A cheaper one, a smaller one, a simpler one, are possibilities that could help increase sales. It would also help to get the Apple operating system into more hands. That’s why an iPhone for Sprint could be in our future. Android has taken a lead over iPhone, in part, because everyone is sitting and waiting for iPhone 5. In fact, one analyst’s report says the iPhone 5 could double Apple’s share of the mobile market. Android also gets a boost because there are many different phones served by the Android operating system and because many different carriers use those phones. So, when you stack up the iPhone (essentially one phone on one system until the recent addition of Verizon) against all the Androids, it makes the iPhone’s sales performance even more amazing. But the most impressive thing is that Apple makes more profit off its mobile phones than all its competitors, combined. As TechCrunch reported “Apple now controls over 66 percent of all the profits amongst the major players in the mobile space. HTC, RIM, LG, Sony-Ericsson, Samsung Motorola, and Nokia combined for the other 33 or so percent of profits in the space (with a few of them: Nokia, Motorola, LG, and Sony actually losing money). Apple, the company “losing” the great mobile race to Android, is destroying all the Android manufacturers combined when it comes to profits.” Cha-Ching!
Skype on Facebook
0319 days
by admin
in Technogadgets®
Facebook and Skype have announced a partnership that’ll put a Skype button right on your Facebook page. Make a call, make a video call, it’s a connection that’s a bit overdue. When you look at the power of Skype, you can easily see why Microsoft dropped 8 and a half billion dollars in cash to make it their own. Skype lets you call others on the Internet for free, call phones for a very small amount, and make video calls. Skype CEO Tony Bates says video calling on Skype is huge…300 million minutes a month! Skype came to your computer about 8 years ago. Skype allows internet calls and video calls from your smart phone, and a few weeks ago they announced Skype coming to your TV thru a Comcast partnership. Bates says it’s their goal to put Skype everywhere you need it. Skype’s 170 million users will now be bolstered by a Facebook user base that’s grown so big, it’s hard to grasp…750 million people. The partnership will be a powerful alliance of the two….so expect even more video and calling services, thru Skype, on Facebook. SKYPE is a powerful tool for Microsoft and Facebook. SKYPE is more than a corporate name, it’s become a verb. Skype is the largest international calling provider in the world, commanding 25% of all the world’s international calling minutes! When they launched the iPhone app, they saw 4 million downloads, and 1 million video calls…in the first 24 hours.
Dot-Your Name Here!
0335 days
by Ed Curran
in Technogadgets®
ICANN, the governing board that manages the Internet, has approved the use of new Generic Top-Level Domain names. Soon, you’ll be able to buy the rights to any suffix you like, if you can afford the $185,000 price. Right now, web addresses end with .com, or .org, or twenty other suffixes. Domain names can also end with a country code. Did you know that bit.ly is using the country code for Libya? That catchy .tv suffix is actually the country code for the islands of Tuvalu, located about halfway between Hawaii and Australia. They got a lot of money to broker their suffix through a California company and they continue to get royalties. Under the plan just approved by ICANN, groups can apply for their own suffix. You can imagine the attractiveness of web addresses that end with a brand name. Easy to remember addresses like coupons.coke or travel.chicago or vote.idol. The application process begins early next year and will open the Internet to a slew of catchy and creative names. More on the story here. Start the process to get your own top-level domain from the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
Skype Video Calls On Comcast
0341 days
by Ed Curran
in Technogadgets®
It’ll come along later this year….Comcast subscribers will be able to make Skype video calls. It’ll involve a special box and a camera, and its high quality will also require a high definition TV. Comcast will allow you to take the video call, by flashing the incoming Caller ID on your TV, and you can take it while watching a TV show. Comcast says it’ll allow you to easily do Skype video calls on the biggest screen in your house. The other party can be using Skype on their computer, or iPhone, and they don’t have to have Comcast. Skype is the super popular VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service that allowed more than 200-billion minutes of free calls, paid calls and video calls in 2010. Why do you think Microsoft bought Skype for 8.5 billion dollars? You can read more about the new Comcast service here and here.
iCloud’s Sunny Future
0349 days
by Ed Curran
in Technogadgets®
When Apple gets it right, and they usually do, a whole tech category takes off. “The Cloud” and using The Cloud for your storage and access and syncing….is about to be embraced by everyone. Even those who didn’t know what The Cloud was. That’s because it’s now iCloud. The very best news about today’s announcements from Apple is what they were made by Steve Jobs. It’s wonderful to see him take the stage and we wish him well. Jobs knows how to mesh amazing devices into our lives. Often the first to be innovative….but not always. Let’s face it, before iPods there were MP3 players that did a nice job. Other folks made smart phones before the iPhone. Tablet computing is nothing new, until the iPad. Jobs is a genius, and you can watch his product introductions here.
Extreme Protection For Your iPad
0353 days
by Ed Curran
in Technogadgets®
It’s an extreme protection sleeve for your laptop, from the same folks that created the Extreme Sleeve for your iPad. They’re demonstrating the laptop sleeve by dropping it off a balcony. That’s pretty good protection for $80 (15″ version) from the folks at G-Form. I was especially impressed when they demonstrated their iPad sleeve by dropping a 12 pound bowling ball on it, and on a hardshell protector. Guess who wins? See the video below.