Category Archives: Gadgets & Apps

All posts that don’t obviously fit in one of the sub-categories go here.

iPod Nano

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Walt Mossberg calls the iPod Nano “the best combination of beauty and functionality of any music player I’ve tested — including the iconic original white iPod. And it sounds great. I plan to buy one for myself this weekend.”

I’ve tried three or four cheap little MP3 players and they work, sorta okay… but I’ve had iPod lust since I saw the first one. And the new Nano is just too much temptation. And, yes, I know I can get more gigs for less money blah, blah blah. I’m paying extra for the cool.

Every day there’s more and more interesting new podcasts out there so it’s time to gear up. Review to follow.

Photo Story 3.0

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Photo Story is a nifty little program that turns images and sound into wonderful little videos. It used to be part of Microsoft Plus! and cost $20 but is now free. I’ve posted a couple of Photo Story files here at smays.com but this new version is the best yet. I grabbed some pix form KBOA830.com (the first website I did, back in the day) and tossed ’em in with some jingles that Jeff Wheeler saved. The 5 min video (3 meg .mov download) could have been better if I had taken the time to try to match images to audio but I didn’t (keep your Media Player at 320×240). It’s still a nice look/listen back to the golden days of KBOA. If you don’t have a copy of Photo Story 3.0… download it today.

Google Earth

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Just when I think the Web and computers can’t get any cooler, something like Google Earth comes along. WSJ’s Walt Mossberg wonders if it has any practical benefits but admits it’s damned cool.

“The program lets you view satellite and aerial photos of pretty much any spot on the planet. In big metropolitan areas in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe, you can locate, and zoom in on, individual buildings and houses, and see cars and trees. … The program rapidly fetches the images from the Internet and visually “flies” you from place to place around the globe. The process is so fluid it feels like a Hollywood stunt.”

The image above shows where I’m sitting.

Gnomedex: Day One.

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You’ve heard the old joke about the guy that robs a bus full of Japanese tourists but the police catch the guy within 10 minutes because they had more than 500 photos of the thief. That was the first day of Gnomedex 5.0. Almost 400 people in attendance. All online, blogging every word.

But not smays. My Thinkpad wireless refused to work which might have been a good thing since I could pay attention and not worry about blogging the event. Pretty big announcement by Microsoft on how they’re integrating RSS in IE 7 and Longhorn. Looked pretty cool to me.

My first Dell computer

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My 3-year-old Gateway started freezing up so rather than watch it suffer, I called Dell and told them to send me the biggest, badest box they had (listing the specs would be in bad taste). I unpacked but didn’t set-up and boot-up. It’s just sitting there. Untouched by viruses. Loaded with the very latest software. Perfect. Pristine. I almost hate to fire her up. Is there anything on this corporal plane closer to rebirth than a brand new computer?

Nokia 770

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This might be the way I’ll listen to Internet radio and consume Google news with my Cheerios. The Nokia 770, which will go on sale this fall for about $350, is a miniature tablet intended primarily for surfing the Web over a Wi-Fi connection. It’s designed for the casual Web browser, at home or at the nearest cybercafe. The tablet, which uses a 4.1-inch touch screen, can play videos and download music, photos and syndicated news from the Web. The rechargeable battery is good for up to three hours of browsing.

I can imagine myself turning this rascal on instead of booting up the Thinkpad.

Archos PMA430

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“The new Archos PMA430 is a 30GB multimedia player (music, photos, videos), an audio and video recorder, a PDA, a wireless Web browser, and a game machine. In fact, it’s everything but a cell phone and camera. At $750 street, the PMA430 costs as much as a notebook computer. But it does just about everything you’d want a multimedia computer to do, and you can slip it into a jacket pocket.”

–PC Magazine review

RadioDavidByrne.com

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“A friend who relocated to California from NY said she missed hearing all the odd variety of music that was played around the office here. I miss hearing what you all are listening to,” she wrote. This “radio” is my response. It will stream for a few hours and then it will recycle. Maybe it will run longer in the future. The artists played here are respectful of one another and gunplay is forbidden.”

David Byrne explains why he started his own Internet radio station. What an interesting idea. I confess I like most of the songs I’ve heard, even though I’ve never heard of any of the artists. Other Internet radio stations to which I would listen: Radio McVey, Virettarama.

Treo 650

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I paid about $500 for Barb’s Treo 600 a couple of years ago when they first came out. The Treo 650 is now the smartest of the “smart phones” and the 600 has dropped to about $300. Whatever value you choose to assign, it’s still the most expensive thing eaten by one of our pups.