If you have an addiction to the latest and greatest technology and a couple of thousand dollars just sitting around, have I got news for you, buddy! Techie geeks must be creaming in their collective cotton/polyester blend pants right about now. There have been MAJOR advances in the areas of multipurpose hand-held PDAs, computing, and digital photography in the last month, and Windows Vista- the new operating system that improves on Windows XP- is scheduled to be released just moments from now. It appears that now is the time that will be acknowledged as yet another SHIFT in how we view/use technology going forward.
Here's the skinny...
"Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during his keynote address at the annual Macworld Conference and Expo this past Tuesday in San Francisco. "It's very fortunate if you can work on just one of these in your career... Apple's been very fortunate in that it's introduced a few of these."
One of these was the advent of THE go-to mp3 player, the Ipod. People lost their minds when Apple told them that they didn't have to carry around all of their favorite musical CDs on the NYC Subway in a big knapsack, but that all of those CDs (or at least 5-40 GBs of them) could be attached to their beltloop via a small white box. That was part of the last technological shift. Now Apple does it again and helps us lighten our backpacks a little more. Never mind your Blackberry or your Treo, here comes the iPhone from Apple! Those of us who like to travel light but are constantly lugged down by what have become evil but NECESSARY electronics in our daily lives may heave a sigh of relief. Don't want to carry an ipod for music, a cell phone for communication, a decent digital camera for pictures and a laptop for email all at the same time? Fine, for $500 you can get all of those things in one device thats less than half an inch thin! The times they are a-changin', I tell you.
This past Tuesday, Apple Inc. (Apple's NEW company name) introduced not just another "smartphone" but a "brilliantphone"- and named it the iPhone. It is less than a half-inch thin — making it the thinnest phone on the market today. It comes with a 2-megapixel digital camera built into the back, as well as a slot for headphones and a SIM card. The phone automatically synchs the user's media — movies, music, photos — through iTunes on computers running either Mac OS X or Microsoft Corp.'s Windows. The device also synchs e-mail, Web bookmarks and nearly any type of digital content stored on a PC. It supports both W-Fi and Bluetooth technology so wires remain a thing of the past. So call your boy to tell him you're emailing him pictures you just took of your latest custom Air-Force 1's, all while listening to Digable Planet's "The Rebirth of Slick" through your bluetooth headphones. Then text everyone else in your phonebook to ask them if they'd like to receive the same, all while sipping on your grande white chocolate mocha latte at Starbucks. However, you may have to wait a little longer or switch your cell phone company, because right now the iphone is only available through a partnership with Apple and AT&T Cingular. T-Mobile customers get jacked once again. First the "chocolate", then the "blackjack", now the iPhone!!
TV killed the Video Star...
Everyone who calls themselves a techno-pimp has a flat screen TV. However, you can graduate from technopimp to TechnoMacDaddy courtesy of Sharp; they have introduced a 108-inch Aquos LCD television, making it the largest flat screen TV out there. This is for those of you who contend that size does indeed matter. Not sure of the price tag on this leviathan.
Once you get that installed, you have to think about what you're going to watch on it. Not content to rest on its technological laurels with the iPhone , Steve and company also give us Apple TV.
For about $300, The Applebox allows users to send any video downloaded on their computer to their television- It comes with a 40-gigabyte hard drive that stores up to 50 hours of video. It features an Intel Corp. microprocessor and can handle videos, photos and music streamed from up to five computers within the wireless range. Its a DVR that records content not from your cable company but from your computer!! Who knew?
Now if you want a tricked out computer on which to use your Apple TV, there is the Sony TP1- a rounded computer box (the size and shape of a hat box) that Sony is referring to as its "living room PC".
It has an Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of memory, a 300GB hard drive, expansion slots for an HDTV tuner, HDMI output, a wireless keyboard and mouse, remote control and it runs on the upcoming Windows Vista Home Premium operating system. The base configuration of the TP1 is expected to retail for $1,600 when it hits the market in March. I hope it comes in black. And then I hope I happen to stumble across $1600... The good news is, this is only one of a couple of products connecting the home network to the living room, as Netgear and Sling Media are also releasing products that make your computer and television interchangeable.
If there is other content that you can't download from the web or want directly from manufacturers and you can't quite make the call on the "beta vs. VHS"-ish debate surrounding the HD-DVD and Blu Ray controversy, LG Electronics may have the perfect solution. The company has just announced the launch of the world’s first Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD combination player.
The model BH100, dubbed "Super Multi Blue," will play discs in the Sony-led Blu-ray format AND it will also play discs in the rival HD DVD format, which is backed by a consortium headed by Toshiba Corp. Due to be released in February, the unit will run you around $2,000. But if you're a TechnoMacDaddy, you don't have to worry about that.
When you get all of these products to work together in your living room, you'll be a 21st century version of Eddie Murphy as lady's man and technofile Marcus Graham in 'Boomerang' (remember his tricked-out living room with the automatic fireplace?). Now you are ready for 2007 and beyond. And when you have company over to marvel at your Jetsons-type home setup, let them know that The REAL RE-Edit put you up on some s&^)(*t!!!
Peeping Toms get upgraded, too...
For budding paparazzi, Celestron has something that will start you off quite nicely; a new product that is part telescope, part digital camera and all slickness. The VistaPix IS70 is being marketed as a "refractor imaging spotter". In simple terms, this new device is a handheld spotting scope with a digital camera on the back. It has a 70mm lens that will get you 14 times closer to your subject matter. On the back is a 2-in. LCD so you can see what the lens is seeing. Plus, there’s a 3.1 megapixel digital camera to record that image for posterity. The camera itself has a 6X digital zoom, a continuous video capability and the ability to watch the output of your IS70 on a TV screen. All of this for about $479. The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas recognized the IS70 for excellence in design and engineering. Not a bad look, although I would hope for more megapixels in the next model so that all of those pictures of baby Suri you take from a 500 feet above the Cruise compound or those exclusive snaps of Jay-Z and Beyonce luxuriating on a yacht in St. Barts could net you some real ducats when you attempt to sell them to People magazine.
Stay ahead or fall behind!!!
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