On Order: Sony PSP

I already have the Nintendo DS, Gameboy SP, Gameboy, Gamecube, Microsoft Xbox, Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation 2 (JAP) and now I can proudly say that I have a pre-order on the Sony PSP.

Despite getting the Nintendo DS just a few months ago in mid-December before going on my vacation to Asia I am more excited about the PSP. The DS is a great product with dual LCD screens, Wi-FI, touch screen and ability to play old Gameboy games, but it is somehow lacking in the coolness department. It is a bit too big with screen that are too small (although having 2 of them is quite fun). Perhaps the best thing about the DS has been the Picto chat through which any number of DS users can chat by typing and drawing on the touchscreen. Its an amazing feature to use when on trains and other public areas where other DS users usually found.

Although $250 poorer I am excited about the Sony PSP. It looks absolutely beautiful in only the way that Sony can produce exciting consumer electronics (Apple has a similar cool factor, but white can only be sooo cool before being kind of dorky). You can be sure that I will post a review as soon as I have a chance to test out the PSP.

GM announces new radios will have audio input jacks

[Click On Title For More Information]

The explosion in digital audio players like the iPod, Creative MP3 players and the like has created a vast market of aftermarket products designed to get them to work in cars. However, most of these are either new headunits that cost a lot and are difficult to install or adapters that lead to messy looks and poor audio quality. You would think that the leading auto manufacturers would have created a solution to this by now. BMW pushed their iPod adapter with great fanfare and some creative commercials, but it was an expen$ive option that only worked with the iPod.

But now good old Detroit comes to the rescue... partly. Playlistmag.com states that "General Motors has announced plans to introduce an auxiliary input jack and an auxiliary channel on new radios coming to the Chevy HHR and GM vehicles later this year. The auto maker said that the input jack will simplify connecting Apple iPods and other music players."



The photo released by GM shows that it takes a standard headphone jack. Now this is GREAT news! Instead of using some special adapter that only works with a few devices this should be able to work with anything using the typical 3.5mm jacks. Of course dock type connectors allow certain devices like the iPod to charge and be controlled via the cars built in controls, but personally I think that using this more general connector allows flexibility of devices. A great plus for those people who use other MP3 / audio devices.

Look for these to be standard equipment on certain GM models and probably a extra cost options on the rest of their lines if they turn out to be a popular feature.

Buy a T-Mobile Sidekick II and Make $75.01

Buy A SideKick II and Make $75.01!!!

Now this is a SUPER deal. I got mine for free after rebate a while back, but now I find out that you can MAKE money just by buying the Sidekick II. The Sidekick gets great reviews from everyone who uses it (although the reliability leaves something to be desired sometimes).

Its also popular among the Hollywood Starlet set and music/industry types. So if you want to be on top of what is the latest crazy buy one of these now and you will see how much attention it brings to your everyday life. Normal people will stop you just to ask what you are using and where they can get it.

Even Paris Hilton uses one as we all know now after all the news and pictures of her =p

Old School Car On the Way Home + Prize!

I was dropping a package off at the UPS store (returning my Oreck XL Air Purifiers to be exact) when I shopped this in front of me. Its quite rare that you see these old cars running on the road. Many reasons behind this, probably because they are hard to maintain and worth a lot of money so getting in an accident would be no picnic. Also look at the size of those tires! I am sure that many bikes today have larger tires than that. He was not going very fast but it sure was smelly behind the old Ford. But seeing it makes me think of how far we have come in the world and yet strangely how much the same everything is.

If you can tell what kind of car I am driving in this picture then you will get a prize...

A special Red Mudan Tea from China. Provided by

http://herbasia.com/black_red_mudan.html

My Latest Purchase - Shure E2c Earphones

Just got a great deal on these earphones. I needed a replacement for the stock ones on my 2G iPod. Although I like the white ones included with the iPod because they are "Apple Designed" they were not that good. Lots of noise and had to play it loud to hear anything. So when this deal came along to get these for 50% off I picked up a few. I purchased a total of 5 units of the Shure Ec2 and will sell 4 of them to pay for the 1 I am keeping. Not sure if I should pick up any of the higher end model E3c earphones, but might order a few to test out and resale.

Review upcoming when I receive them and get an opportunity to test them out :-)

Tivo + Comcast = Marriage that Saved Tivo

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A few months back all looked bleak for TiVo. The little company that could pioneered the DVR/PVR revolution (or should we say TiVolution). These devices include a hard disk drive and software that allows a consumer to pause, save, rewind, fast forward, schedule and generally improve the television experience. Back then Direct TV announced that it was ending its partnership with TiVo and putting out its own line of PVRs. That meant millions of potential customers gone. TiVo stock dropped and deathwatches were started all over the internet full of rumors of the end of the company.

But now the outlook is complete different. Comcast, the cable TV giant has partnered with TiVo for its services and software. Comcast is in the process of launching its own PVR, but its service has been plagued with reports of faulty software and hardware problems. So instead of trying to fix something they have no experience in, Comcast made the right decision and brought in TiVo. This will give them a huge boost as TiVo brings lots of experience and great products to bear and Comcast gives TiVo a potential customer based of 21 million cable television viewers. Now that is great news.

I use TiVo and love it. So this news is incredible. Read on at [BusinessWeek]

BlackBerry To Get AOL, Yahoo, AIM ... WoW

In a long overdue move RIM, the makers of the popular BlackBerry devices have announced that they have signed agreements to put Yahoo Instant messenger preloaded onto their devices. More importantly RIM announced it was in talks with AOL to put AOL's instant messenger services such as AIM and ICQ preloaded onto future devices.

While BlackBerries are the darlings of the corporate world due to their excellent e-mail services they have yet to really move outside of the corporate-business world. Consumer devices of this type (namely the smartphones, Sidekick II and such) live and die by their instant messaging programs and keyboards. While most phones have some limited IMing capabilities, they numberpads do not lend themselves to good typing.

For RIM to annouce this shows they are trying to expand their market outside of just the business world. And with all the bad publicity the Sidekicks have had lately, their timing could not be better.

[cNet.com] has a more detailed story.

Amazon UK Interviews J.K. Rowling

Magic, Mystery, and Mayhem: An Interview with J.K. Rowling

Divorced, living on public assistance in a tiny Edinburgh flat with her infant daughter, J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in stolen moments at a cafe table. Fortunately, Harry Potter rescued her! In this Amazon.co.uk interview, Rowling discusses the birth of our hero, the Manchester hotel where Quidditch was born, and how she might have been a bit like Hermione when she was 11.


Continue the interview at Amazon.com

Nokia Announces All Smartphones Will Include WiFi

Click on title for more details.

All smartphones produced by Nokia for the enterprise market will, within two years, support dual mode cellular and Wi-Fi capability, a senior executive at the company said, during a session looking into next generation phones at the CTIA Wireless expo, which kicks off officially Monday (March 14).

[MobileBurn.com] writes ...

Nokia will incorporate dual technologies in its future smartphones. In addition to cellular networks and connectivity, smartphones will also support Wi-Fi standards soon. This will undoubtedly improve the level of compatibility of smartphones with other business devices. Nokias commitment to Wi-Fi may boost the technology on mobile phones as well.

All smartphones produced by Nokia for the enterprise market will, within two years, support dual mode cellular and Wi-Fi capability, a senior executive at the company said, during a session looking into next generation phones at the CTIA Wireless expo, which kicks off officially Monday (March 14). Nigel Rundstrom, vice president of multimedia and channel management at the Finnish handset maker said “how and for what people will use Wi-Fi enabled pones is debatable, but Voice over IP is an obvious application", said Rundstrom.

The only question left at this time is how mobile operators will respond to this development.

Apple's BluePrint For Genius

Handling its own design work is one reason for best-sellers like the iPod and Shuffle. Steve Jobs is the other

"Designed by Apple in California."

The words are printed in such small type on the back of Apple's (AAPL ) tiny new iPod Shuffle MP3 player that you have to squint to read them. But they speak volumes about why Apple is standing so far out from the crowd these days. At a time when rivals are outsourcing as much design as possible to cut costs, Apple remains at its core a product company -- one that would never give up control of how those products are created.

Full Story At [Business Week]

Google's Monopoly On Adsense Over?
Interesting Article by Jay Currie over at techcentralstation.com

Google's website advertising program, Adsense, is about to have some fairly hefty competition. Yahoo is testing a "long tail" ad words scheme.

Markets thrive on competition and Google's first mover domination of the adwords market has been inviting a serious challenge for some time. A billion dollars a quarter is enough money to tempt new entrants.

Google and Yahoo and Microsoft already compete on search word advertising; but on the literally millions of websites which display "ad strips" Google has enjoyed an effective monopoly. Exploiting first mover advantage, Google has its Adsense code on everything from the New York Times to TCS (over to your right) and little blogs and websites which may get all of 20 hits a day....

Read Full Article Over at [TCS]

Kyocera Remixes The Slider, Adds New Phones
PhoneScoop News



Kyocera announced 4 new CDMA phones today at CTIA. All of the models are expected out in the third quarter.

- Slider Remix KX5: A Slider style phone that builds on the feature set of the KX2, adding music and a better screen. Features a 1.3 Megapixel camera with built in flash, a TransFlash slot and an mp3 player. Also features a new 262k color 176 x 220 screen.
- KX9: A entry-level clamshell phone with dual displays and BREW support.
- Topaz KX7 and Prisma KX17:Two low cost phones designed for emerging markets, namely Latin America and India. The KX7 is a clamshell model and the KX17 is a candybar with integrated antenna.

U.S. Election Coverage Unfair To Bush
Study by press watchdog affiliated with Columbia University



By Claudia Parsons

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. media coverage of last year's election was three times more likely to be negative toward President Bush (news - web sites) than Democratic challenger John Kerry (news - web sites), according to a study released Monday.

The annual report by a press watchdog that is affiliated with Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism said that 36 percent of stories about Bush were negative compared to 12 percent about Kerry, a Massachusetts senator.

Only 20 percent were positive toward Bush compared to 30 percent of stories about Kerry that were positive, according to the report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The study looked at 16 newspapers of varying size across the country, four nightly newscasts, three network morning news shows, nine cable programs and nine Web sites through the course of 2004.

Full Story From [Yahoo! News]