Archive for the Tech Category

My Red Ring of DeathThis sounds like a no brainer for the good part of the population out there who have three things: a Netflix subscription, an Xbox 360 and a PC running Windows Vista. Luckily, we fall into that category and I’m going to try to get this setup in the next couple days, or possibly this weekend.

We already stream video content from the Mac to the Xbox 360 via Connect360.

Turn Your Xbox 360 into a Streaming Netflix Player

Garmin Edge 305I love my Garmin Edge 305 and love having it on my handlebars on ever ride, race and commute. It gives me all the standard cyclocomputer data like speed, distance, etc. but adds on a lot of extras including altitude, cadence, heart rate, etc.

But twice now (the first being here), I’ve had to do my Tuesday night group ride without because it wouldn’t power up. That first time, it actually did power up, though only to the splash screen, where it would tell me the battery was drained.

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iPhoneWe’re just days away from WWDC, whose keynote address is always a hotbed of Apple announcements by Apple’s number one – Steve Jobs. This year will be no different, with rumors swirling around mainly about the iPhone, the by far best phone I’ve ever owned.

If half the rumors popping up about the second version of the iPhone are true, plus the fact that we’ll be seeing new applications for all iPhones, things are about to get a lot better.

The article below at Lifehacker gives a glimpse at how the hotbed of new software is going to make the iPhone that much more useful in daily usage.

How Your Location-Aware iPhone Will Change Your Life

Personal Soundtrack T-ShirtWhile I would never buy this $40 t-shirt, it’s still a cool geeky setup, with built in sound effects. Check out the video on the page to see it in action.

It’s missing two things IMHO: crickets for all those daily shitty jokes around the office, and #2 – the ability to customize the shirt with your own songs, sound effects, etc. I wish you could play a sample of all the sound effects and music on the page below as well.

Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt

Edit: BTW, make sure you check the date of this posting.

Second Edit: Looks like their April Fool’s gag may end up being a real product with time.

When Sharper Image’s Ionic Breeze components first came on the scene, I wondered if and when we’d see the technology pop up in computers and related electronics. I don’t think it’d ever replace more traditional fans across the board, but I’d think there’d be some applications where it’d be preferred.

Tiny Torrents

Rumors have been flying throughout the last part of this week that now that the HD-DVD format has died, and Blu-Ray has become the clear winner, that the Xbox 360 will have a Blu-Ray player. Anyone else think this is a dumb idea? Not only was the HD-DVD player add-on ranked as one of the worst quality HD DVD players (and standard definition players), but you’re also tethering your high definition playback to a game console renowned for its less-that-stellar reliability. I’d love to have a Blu-Ra y player in the house, but not until the hardware comes down in price, the Blu-Ray spec is finalized, and the pricing of the media drops some.

Regardless, when the Keefer household does get its first Blu-Ray player, you won’t see it hooked to our Xbox 360.

Flash on the iPhoneThis article makes some good points about why the iPhone’s mobile Safari (WebKit) implementation will never support Flash.

I had always thought Flash’s omission was just a hardware limitation, issue, etc, but this article really points out that there’s a lot more to that limiting iPhone Flash support. Apple site itself has been devoid of any Flash technology since before the iPhone’s release.

Apple does really only want to support its own proprietary technologies whenever possible for starters, and on top of that it makes total sense that Apple would resent Flash over its own Quicktime and would not want to give Adobe an in on the mobile platforms that Apple itself has really advanced with the iPhone.

Flash on iPhone Political Calculus

Robo Lawn MowerThis is the kind of gadget that we all wished for as kids, mowing the lawn in the scorching heat of summer.

While their site needs a litle (a lot) of work, the concept and implementation of the technology seems spot on! They really have taken the Roomba vacuum robot concept and moved it up. Seems like it’s got the safety issues taken care of, along with the power to tackle a lawn. I can just imagine having this tucked in the corner of the back yard, it’s it’s little charger, springing to life as often as it needed to to keep the lawn looking good.

Robo Lawn Mower