Visions of sugar plums, MacBooks, PS3s and BlackBerrys are dancing through the Grouse's head as he unveils what he'd really like this holiday season
Posted 12.17.2008 at 2:39 pm
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Wireless Charging: WildCharge
Forget turtledoves and pied pipers piping—I want an end to the nightmarish cable salad of gadget adapters mushrooming out of the power strip behind my dresser. I’ve grown so accustomed to the luxuries of wireless Internet and phone that they aren’t even luxuries anymore. So, why not wireless power? Fortunately, a company called WildCharge has already developed an amazing system for juicing up gadgets sans cables. If you’re not familiar with the WildCharge, it’s a metallic pad roughly the size of a mousepad. When gadgets are placed on it their batteries magically recharge—again, completely without wires, save the one power cord from the pad to your electrical outlet. Problem? In order to charge, a gadget must wear a special sleeve fitted with four conductive nubbins. Slipping one on every time is really no less of an inconvenience than simply plugging a gadget in. Second problem? The special sleeves are currently only available for a handful of phones. An iPod Touch/iPhone sleeve reportedly exists, but I can’t find it for sale anywhere. I’m hoping some announcements at CES expand the compatibility base to include things like laptops and digital cameras, but what I’d really like to see is WildCharge connectivity (or something similar) built into my favorite gadgets straight out of the box. If I never buy another power strip again, it will be too soon.
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Um.....lame.
Even thought $399 is the cheapest price did you ever consider what you get for $399. It's like saying, omg, I found a brand new mac book pro for $400, but dang that's too much money. No it's not if you understand the principle of value vs. price.
Not only is the $199 360 a really bad deal, but so is the normal $399 priced 360. Go out and try buying an xbox with a hard drive, a blu-ray player, and a xbox live subcription.
399+399+50 = $848
You can get all that on a PS3 [and more! i.e. 9 core processor, 10 year life, interchangeable HD, internet browser, media center, home, bla bla bla] for $399.
Hum...sounds like a pretty freak'n sweet deal to me.
The question is, when will the rest of the world wake up?
Sincerely,
Santa Claus
oh yeah, and it plays games....
If your looking for a GAMES CONSOLE then you should buy 360 there aren't too many PS3 only blockbuster games that are worth spending $399 for the console. If you want an entertainment system then go ahead. But no matter how much SONY pay Hollywood to make it the industry standard they don't have a say in whether BLU-RAY or HD-DVD become standard. so really it's abit of a gamble in my books. Also at this current point in time, I'm not really bothered about seeing the sweat drip down the body's of the Spartans in 300 I just wanna watch the goddam movie.
My wish?
No more Apple.
It's not that I don't appreciate their overrated, under-featured, mediocre, propaganda-driven, brainwashing-reliant, shiny, flashy, fruit-labeled, market-saturating crap... actually, yes it is.
The stupid work deal is not Blackberry's fault. It's the way that corporate America thinks that they'll fight foreign competitiion -- by spending increasing amounts of time on what often amounts to management drivel. (six sigma, ISO 9000, Baldridge award -- the list goes on).
I'm retired now (yay), but I never begrudged working extra hours when there was some sense to it. However, that was not always the case.
Also, the technology complaint goes back to at least the laptop ( "The good thing about a laptop is that you can work on the plane -- the bad thing about a laptop is that you can work on the plane")
The gloss is great, let me say. I am a graphics designer - I have numerous laptops and PC's with those flat LCD screens. Granted, the Mac's flat LCD is nice, the glass and LED was one of the major reasons I bought the macbookpro, along with it's new shell. Haven't owned one is 10 years.
Overall, the screen is simply a breath of fresh air.