breadcrumbs

Conversation, My Aunt Fanny

A minute ago, on the GO Train home, I spotted what I can only assume is an irony-free Globe and Mail ad. The headline? "It's not just news. It's a conversation." Really? This from a newspaper that just required visitors to register. Those guys really ought to read The Cluetrain Manifesto. Especially the clue part.

Ogo Going To Be a No Go

AT&T has launched a new, instant-message-only handheld device called the Ogo. The unit is about the size of more tricked out gadgets like the Danger Hiptop. But, unlike the Hiptop, the Ogo's not a phone, or a calendar, or anything but a instant message clamshell for AOL, Yahoo, SMS and MSN messages. It also looks like it was designed by Bill Gates in a dark room. Sure, the device is on $99 US, but then, so are a lot of cellphones with extended plans, and they're, well, phones (plus they can do messaging). I would have thought the era of one trick ponies was over. Despite the Ogo, I still think it is.

Breast Enhancing Ringtone

Here's a story the World Weekly News (my favourite supermarket reading material) missed fabricating. A former cult member deprogrammer has invented a cellphone ringtone he claims can increase breast size. And, yes, it's selling like crazy in Japan. Question One. If you keep your mobile phone in your back pocket, does one butt cheek grow? Question Two. Okay, is this finally proof the world is about to end? BTW, if you want to hear the ringtone, listen up.

Ear Whacks

Oakley, the company that's made a generation of athletes look like houseflies, has just launched the Oakley Thump. The Thump is a pair of sunglasses with an MP3 player built right in. The lens flip up, if you just want headphones, the headphones flip up if you just want to hear ambient sounds (like the truck behind you), and you can take the whole pair off if you just don't want to look like a cyborg with a hearing problem, or maybe even that weird little villian in Diva. I can't get very excited about the Thump really (even if Lance Armstrong wore a prototype at the Tour De France). What makes more sense to me is to build in a Bluetooth receiver and provide a mini-plug Bluetooth transmitter folks can jack into their existing iPods, iRivers, or whatever. The Thump only has 128 Mb of on-board memory, and none of the minimalist design of the iPod. Plus, at $400 US, it could at least include a heads-up-display (HUD) that would show you the title of the tune being drilled into your skull. Oh, and this just in, the Burton Headphone Beanie, if you want to look like a wired hemp freak.

Meet the Beetles

Once again, good ol' Worth 1000 has the results of a great Photoshop contest. This time, contestants had to substitute an insect for an everyday item. My favourite is on the right. Check them out. I bet some will inspire industrial designs. Okay, not the hot slug on a bun, but some of the others for sure.

Requires Fuel Cell (Cow Not Included)

The folks at PowerPulseNews bring word that Nokia is testing a fuel cell powered Bluetooth headset. The headsets can run for 10 hours (vs. four hours for the rechargeable battery version). Fuel cells run on methanol. That means when the headset runs out of juice, you just squirt some in and you're off and running again. Right now, of course, the local 7/11 doesn't carry little bottles of methanol, but, if devices like this catch on (and they will), methanol will be as common as lighter fluid used to be. Of course, you will have to explain the clear liquid leaking from your ear.

Copy Cat

Spotted this t-shirt in downtown Hamilton yesterday (click on image for bigger version). Who says irony is dead?

The Future in Sunlight

While doing some information architecture work for Mohawk College here in Hamilton, I had the opportunity to spend the day working, wirelessly, in the college's new eLibrary. It's a wired solarium that sports blond wood, a fireplace and a coffee bar. And, when I was there, nearly a hundred students hunched over LCDs, laptops and javas, researching, writing essays and, sure, playing dumbass Flash games and reading about Paris Hilton's crush on the Olsen twins or something. It was a joy to behold. I'm sure other people my age might fondlly remember musty stacks and the soft turn of a well-thumbed classic. But me? Man, if post-secondary education had been like this when I was young, I'd still be in school. The kids around me were pumped, learning and working hard. And the technology? It was pretty much invisible to them. They were swimming effortlessly in a sea of ethernet cables, flash drives, Bluetooth and ad hoc networks. They deserve the future.

Blackberry Phones In

Remember a while back I said RIM (the creator of the Blackberry) might be getting out of the hardware business? Well, so much for that idea. The Waterloo-based company has just announced a new phone that might give the Treo 600 (and 610) a run for its money. It features the legendary Blackberry "push" email and, most interestingly, a new 20-character keypad which, coupled with SureType software, apparently allows for an easy and low-error typing experience even though most keys have dual functions. Right now the phone is only available via T-Mobile, a U.S. carrier, but Rogers makes Blackberries available up here in Canada, so it should only be six to eight months before we see it north of the 49th.

A Part of You Will Always Be With Me

A couple of days ago I expressed pity for guys in Hong Kong who have to resort to virtual girlfriends. Well, now my sympathy extends to Japanese girls who have been apparently been dropping their plastic for the Boyfriend Arm Pillow. It sort of looks like a Partial Boyfriend After Car Crash Pillow to me, but who can really divine the mysteries of Japanese retail?