Best New Technology

Don’t hate me for saying this, but I’ve never had a “proper job.” I waitressed for a while (aka: worst summer of my life), worked in my Dad’s factory for a week, and stacked shelves in a drugstore. I’ve also been a student and now I work from home in my pajamas. So this story doesn’t really apply to me, but I still thought it was interesting - maybe because I have sympathy for all you wage slaves who trudge to work and punch in at some ungodly hour of the morning.

The one advantage of old clocking in systems was that you could, in a pinch, get one of your friends to clock in for you (or at least, if you were a character on Laverne and Shirley you could).

But now an increasing number of places - from Dunkin’ Donuts to The New York City Parks Department - are installing biometric time clocks such as the one above, where employees must have their fingerprints scanned when they start and leave work.

According to USA Today, some employees are annoyed at this new development and say they feel spied on. But employers feel it boosts productivity, and consulting firm The International Biometric Group estimates that this industry will be worth more than $1 billion by 2011.

In other words, it may be just a matter of time before my freelance clients all send me some kind of monitoring device to make sure I’m not just LOLCat-ing my day away . . . (But seriously, how clever is this one?)

Picture via Super Warehouse.

“Can anyone not see a day when iTunes passes Wal-Mart? “ I wrote that last month in a post about iTunes playing second fiddle to Wal-Mart.  Today, the news comes that there is a change in the #1 position for music sales, and that leader is iTunes.  Apple sent out an email yesterday to employees that was promptly forwarded to our friends at ars technica.

A couple of things to watch out for here, one the data is based on a survey, not point of sale.  Two, 13 year olds and under don’t count. 

Much has been said about downloads vs. physical CD sales so I won’t belabor the point.  I think we can all rejoice in the fact that we are no longer forced to buy the fluff tracks just to hit that 12 or 13 song number.  An instrumental, really?  These “fast forward fodder” tracks will not be missed by me.

Read [ars technica]

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RIM has got to be feeling pretty good this morning.  Despite the competition from the plethora of smartphones on the market, the company managed to up its subscriber count by 2.2 million in the companies Q4 (ending March 1).  This is an impressive feat for 3 main reasons:

1. RIM did not introduce any new devices during this quarter.
2. The economy isn’t doing RIM any favors
3. The iphone still gets mentioned a bazillion times a day in free advertising (thanks in part to me)

The company reported sales of $1.88 billion, up 108% from last year (and continues better than expected results).  Still, RIM manages to add and expects to add another 2.2 subscribers in the first quarter.  And what’s more, it plans to do that without help from another major new device other than those already mentioned.

RIM is the smartphone market top banana with 41% of the market tied up.  It will be great to see how the maker reacts, if at all, to iPhones business-forward tweaking expect in “months”.

Read [CNN Money]

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I always check online store prices before heading out to a local retail store to buy that shiny new gadget I’ve been eyeing. Sometimes, things are just cheaper online. Thankfully, Amazon is making my shopping a little easier with its new text-messaging shopping service, called TextBuyIt. The new mobile service enables consumers to shop for products on Amazon by sending a text message through their cell phone. The service works in three simple steps:

1. Send a text message to 262966 (AMAZON) with the name of the desired product, ISBN, UPC number, or a search keyword.
2. Amazon will then reply to your text message with two search results including prices. You then reply back with your order choice—a ‘1’ or a ‘2’. If more results are desired, texting the letter “M” will return another pair of search results. Unfortunately, there are no images accompanying the search results (this is not MMS); however, you can view each item’s details by sending “1d” or “2d”, to see more information regarding the first or second listed item respectively.
3. Once the order is placed, Amazon will call to confirm or cancel the order. One approved, Amazon processes and ships the order.

The only restriction is that all users must have a registered Amazon account prior to ordering through the new service. It looks like Amazon was paying close attention to Verizon’s 20 billion text messaging announcement, trying to take advantage of the ever growing SMS market. Regardless, the service is supported by AT&T, Alltel, Boost, Midwest Wireless, Nextel Communications, Sprint PCS, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and Virgin Mobile.

Product [Amazon]

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Cricket Communications has introduced two new mobile handsets in its line up of CDMA AWS handsets, the Samsung MyShot (SCH-r430) and the Samsung Spex (SCH-r210). Designed specifically for the new AWS spectrum band, both phones however can still operate on PCS and cellular bands. Hence, making them work in all Cricket wireless markets. Cricket’s introduction of the two Samsung mobile phones earns the company the bragging rights of being the first to release the CDMA AWS devices to the mobile phone market.

Aside from being CDMA AWS handsets both the Samsung Spex and MyShot boast of distinct features that sets each other apart. The Samsung Spex is a slim and sleek mobile handset that offers an easy-to-use interface. Its features include Bluetooth, color display, speakerphone and personal tools (calendar, memo pad and more). In addition, the Spex also supports Cricket’s mobile services such as text messaging, mobile web, Cricket games and apps.

The Samsung MyShot on the other hand is packed with a 1.3-megapixel camera with self-timer, Bluetooth, voice recognition capability, web access, Cricket games and apps, text and picture messaging, speakerphone and the personal tools.

The Samsung Spex will retail for $119 while the Samsung MyShot will have a retail price of $149. Users can also choose to get a Cricket service plan starting at $35 a month which includes unlimited wireless calling all day, every day.

Via [PhoneScoop] Via [MobileTechNews] Read [Samsung]

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We have all become too comfortable with the idea of performing searches by entering a query in our favorite search engine, but Yahoo! is about to introduce a paradigm shift to the world by enabling users to use voice commands to search the web instead. Boerries, executive vice president of Yahoo’s Connected Life unit mentioned that “This is really a sea change. This is not about simple Web links any more.” Guess with more and more people surfing on their cell phones, it makes perfect sense to increase accessibility to web links on these handsets. Yahoo!’s latest oneSearch service will be the latest thrust from the Microsoft target in order to further gain market share that have eroded sharply since the emergence of Google. The idea of using voice commands to perform search is certainly novel, as it enables publishers to provide highly categorized information which enables them to have a greater say in what they want users to see, including greater control on its presentation.

In addition, Yahoo! also will enable oneSearch consumers to use voice commands for search services which currently are beyond existing mobile voice recognition systems or 411-based services. OneSearch aims to bring about a revolution, featuring “wide open” searches that encompass flight listings, locations, Web site names, restaurants, news or game times among others. Users will also be able to revert to type searches any time they like, and vice versa for greater flexibility. Not only that, the OneSeach service also offers alternative suggestions for similar sounding words.

Voice searches take around five seconds to process, where one to two seconds are used to recognize the search while the remaining seconds will return the relevant search results to the handset. The speed greatly depends on your network, so some slower networks might take up to 20 seconds for a search result to appear.

Source: Reuters

Hey guys, ThinkGeek is offering the Horntones, a car horn which can be customize using MP3s through an integrated USB port. You can assign up to 10 triggers to play your favorite tones, you can also assign the sounds into themes so you can easily find the right tones for the right situation. Cool… I can’t imagine if someone putting a horny tones…haha. It is priced at $300.
[ Source ]

Panasonic ain’t too shabby when it comes to plasma displays - after all, they’re the ones with the monster 150″ display at this year’s CES.This time, they’re bringing a new iteration of its plasma technology to cell phones, aiming to take on OLEDs as well as other display technologies found in handheld and mobile devices. Surprisingly, this new small sized plasma display sips a mere 1.5 volts of power and is pretty close in terms of thickness and weight when compared against other portable displays. Panasonic also claims that this display boasts richer color and contrast ratios than most LCDs. The first plasma-enabled Panasonic cell phone will be made available in Japan sometime in the near future. I wonder how much more of a premium we’ll need to pay for such technology.

Posted Apr 3rd 2008 1:26AM by Ryan Block
Filed under: cellphones

At AT&T’s press feast today, the focus was unquestionably the trial deployment of Microsoft’s Surface kiosks to stores later this month — the presence of Microsoft’s own Robbie Bach was testament to that fact. But there was more to the action by the time the show was over. Deployment of 3G and 4G services was a hot topic both during CEO Ralph de la Vega’s presentation and in the post-conference Q&A (one member of the press lamented the fact that AT&T’s BlackBerrys still lack HSDPA), and at one point he mentioned that all of the carrier’s smartphones would be 3G within a matter of mere “months.”

We figure that instantly thrusts several devices onto (and off of) AT&T’s roadmap in the very near future, including a 3G iphone and the blackberry 9000 we recently saw strutting its stuff. Of course, that would also preclude the just-introduced Palm Centro from hanging around for very long, since it tops out with EDGE speeds; last time we checked Garnet had a hard time handling HSDPA, so something’s got to give. We’re not writing the obit just yet — CEOs’ statements are often a mere shadow of reality, after all — but it’s certainly food for thought.

Miniature Pet Tree - A Real Plant On A Keyring
Put some serious photosynthesis in your pocket and get wholeheartedly back to nature with the help of this amazing tree on the end of a keyring. Yes. We’ll enunciate that one more time. It’s a keyring. With a real, live, growing miniature plant on the end of it. Surreal.

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