Morning!

Just came across this super post regarding Voice Enabling the iPhone!  To wit:

Wouldn’t it be nice to never dial a number again. What if you could just push one button and call all your friends by name? That in a nutshell is what Mobivox does. She’s a call assistant. “Hi Stuart. Who would you like to call?” My video examples below show how you can voice-enable the iPhone; in fact any phone and put all your friends on one button. Or simpler still [Read more]

Whenever you hear of Star Trek, you probably think of classic lines like "He’s dead, Jim (let’s blog about it!)" or "Beam me up Scotty!" or "Computer, compute to the last digit the value of pi" etc.

But were you aware that some of the technologies conceived for the series have actually come into being in some form or another?

[Read more]

If you are within a small distance of any teenager child, oh, say, 738 miles, you probably know about style and trend fashions. You simply just canNOT attend 10th grade without the latest Coach handbag - you know, the thing that’s about, hmmm, the size of a butter stick and costs $400 or so? And due to ingenuity, of course, fashion knockoffs are big business for anyone who wants to seize cache at a discounted price. (image from TopGear).
[Read more]

Sounds like an intriguing perk

to me!

…..An Apple iPhone or iPod Touch will become a central part of Abilene Christian University’s innovative learning experience this fall when all freshmen are provided one of these converged media devices, said Phil Schubert, ACU executive vice president.

At ACU - the first university in the nation to provide these cutting-edge media devices to its incoming class - freshmen will use the iPhones or iPod Touches to receive homework alerts, answer in-class surveys and quizzes, get directions to their professors’ offices, and check their meal and account balances - among more than 15 other useful web applications already developed, said ACU Chief Information Officer Kevin Roberts.

ACU’s innovative plans for this technology have attracted the attention of Apple executives and leaders at Ivy League universities. In fact, Roberts returned to Abilene Monday from Cupertino, Calif., where he was asked to present ACU’s creative vision for converged media devices at Apple headquarters to executives and to selected leaders from universities including Harvard, Yale, MIT, Duke, Stanford, Oxford, Princeton and UCLA, Schubert said….MORE….

I wonder what kind of deal Apple is giving them?

Anywhos, colleges nowadays are already taking advantage of the teaching opportunities such consumer electronics offer, for example:

• iPods at the Gate
• Stanford on iTunes
• University podcasts

I wonder when Princeton will follow?

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

ps - if you want your own iPhone goodie without paying a college tuition, check out:

PINK LEATHER WELLET CASE COVER FOR APPLE IPHONE 4 8G AU

OZ SELLA Black Case Cover w Kickstand &Clip for iPhone

3X SOFT POUCH Leather Case +Screen Protector for iPhone

100% Genuine iPhone Antenna Cover OEM NEW

Iphone Ringtones

NEW UNIVERSAL DOCK & REMOTE FOR APPLE IPOD IPHONE TOUCH

Silicon Case Protective Skin Cover for Apple iPhone RED

Silicon Case Protective Skin Cover for Apple iPhone BLK

I’ll never forget

the day I visited an Apple store in my local mall. Compared to other packed-to-the-brim shops, the store was notable by its HUUUUGE open spaces and how the the customers were talking with each other as they migrated to various parts of the stores.

When you think about products in the past, it was all about, well, the product. A computer (and accessories), a TV, a stereo system, a reclining bed, a refrigerator…all stand-alone products with perhaps accessories satelliting around them.

Not so any more! Think about buying a TV today. You can focus on the TV, the speakers, the surround sound, the furniture in which you’ll sit, the Wii that wants to be attached and the like.

People are moving not so much to buying individual products, but buying components for entire experiences. Relaxing at home! Playing a game! Listening to music!

The question is, how will retailers address this issue? There’s a super article you must read over here - it begins:

Those that are in those businesses, as we all know, like to operate on a pretty low operating margin when it comes to selling those 11 or five SKUs. It’s a complete reversal of activity, whereas we used to make a lot of money on lots of hardware, and we’d let the assortment sort of self-destruct over time. Now the consumers are choosing. They want five different gaming consoles, and that’s it. They want 11 iPods plus maybe three or four other MP3 players and that’s it.

The interesting elephant in this room is we’ve now talked more about things that aren’t TVs and computers for the first time in memory. Those are smaller economics and the honest truth is those are smaller businesses. These are smaller dollars, smaller margins, less service, less warranty and the dynamics of the industry are never coming back, at least not in the same way. It will be very different.

Dave Workman, PRO Group : When you look at the retail stores, the old school of retail was really product-centric. Now, with the Internet and excellent retailers like Amazon, the dynamic in the market is that if you are just dwelling on the product alone, there isn’t enough margin to keep a traditional brick-and-mortar retail operation in business. I think there will be a paradigm shift for retailers over the next five to 10 years, and those that will come out of this as successful retailers are those that move from a product-centric to an experience-centric merchandizing scheme.

Part of that is a smaller footprint because you don’t necessarily need the size that you needed before. It’s not about having 600 televisions necessarily and maybe all of the choices that are available everywhere, because the thing that Apple has figured out, and which has resonated so much with the consumer, is the experience at the Apple Store. It’s not a product showcase as much as it is an experience people continue to come back for and talk about…..MORE….

What do you think?

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

ps - speaking of entertainment:

New Premium 1.3 Gold HDMI Cable 3 ft for PS3 HDTV 1080p

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Picture the following

you have a digital camera and the potential for creating an Oscar worthy shot…if only you had the bazillion-dollar lighting rigs that the pros use! Oh the agony, as that perfect shot gets away!

But lo! Hope arises on the horizon! For the Digital Photography School blogged about 10 DIY lighting hacks for photography, and wow, they’re impressive! To wit:

Lighting can be the difference between a good shot and a great one.

Walk into most professional photographer’s studios and you’ll be confronted with truckloads of lighting equipment. To the average hobby photographer it’s enough to make your mind boggle - and for your stomach to turn as you think about the cost of it all.

Most of us can’t afford a full lighting rig - however what if there was a way to experiment with the type of lighting gear that pro photographers use without spending too much money? What if you could make it yourself….MORE….

It includes:

• 1. Multi-Super-SB-Ring Light
• 2. Poor Mans Ring Flash
• 3. Inexpensive Light Tent
• 4. Party Bouncer Card
• 5. Turkey Pan Beauty Dish
• 6. DIY Ghetto Flash Extender
• 7. Disposable Camera Flash Slave
• 8. Flash Mounted DIY Softbox
• 9. Flash Bouncers
• 10. Full Budget DIY Lighting Studio

You’ll get some great ideas there.

Want some digital photography ideas? Check out:

• DPreview.com
• DPreview Forums
• Free Online Library of DIgital Photography
• Photography on the Net

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

ps - some digital camera goodies:

MOULTRIE GAMESPY M60 6.0 MEGAPIXEL GAME CAMERA NEW

NEW COBRA DIGITAL DC150 RED 1.3 Megapixel 3-in-1 Squ…

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NEW Casio EX-Z200BK 10 Megapixel, 4x Optical Zoom, A…

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S750 7.2 Megapixel Brand New

NEW Digital Camera HP PhotoSmart R725 6.2 Megapixel

HP PhotoSmart M537 6.0 Megapixel BRAND NEW

NEW Aiptek Pocket DV5300 5 Megapixel Pocket Digital …

As you probably know

Apple released the iPhone 1.1.4 update. Yay!

Concerns were this morning that you could not update a jailbroken iPhone with this because your iphone would melt and then self-destruct into shiny little bits (okay, that’s a wee bit of an exaggeration).

However, The Unofficial Apple Weblog reports:

Our own Erica Sadun has confirmed that Zibri’s jailbreak does work with the 1.1.4 update, released today. We’re told that Nate True has tried it out with the new update installed, and that it does work.

So big news for jailbreakers — update away, because the jailbreak wasn’t one of the “bugs” fixed. Although if this update is, as we suspect, laying the groundwork for the SDK release, we may not have to worry about applications not working on the phone too much longer.

Update: While some users have upgraded with no problems, Zibri is asking that users not upgrade until the tool can be thoroughly checked with the new firmware. “People who donated will receive the next version a day before everyone else. Expect a new version in 2 days (3 days for non-donors),” he says….MORE….

Before you do ANYTHING, of course, I HIGHLY recommend you check out The Howard Forums take on it - 10+ pages of discussion and growing!

Here’s two more resources on the iPhone 1.1.4 update:

• iPhone 1.1.4 fixes Bluetooth, SMS ordering bugs
• ALERT: iPhone 1.1.4 can still be jailbroken; cannot be unofficially activated

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

ps - want iPhone goodies?

Apple iPhone 8gb UNLOCKED ANY GSM!! 2 MONTHS OLD!!!!!!

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Unlocked & Jailbroken iPhone 8 gb latest firmware 1.1.4

8GB iPhone plus case 2.0 firmware

Unlocked Apple iPhone 8GB ALL GSM 1.1.4 Firmware

Morning,

Check this out. Amazon.com now offers you a free 1 GB iPod Shuffle when you buy a 32 GB iPod Touch.

At first glance, you’d say, golly gee - gimme gimme gimme! Just read below:

Apple iPod touch 32 GB with Software Upgrade

Feature: … Includes five software applications: e-mail, maps, weather, stocks, and notes; 32 GB flash memory stores up to 7,000 songs, 40 hours of video, or 25,000 photos; Built-in Wi-Fi capability allows direct access to the Internet via Safari, YouTube videos, and the iTunes wireless store; Includes earphones, USB 2.0 cable, universal dock adapter, polishing cloth, iPod touch stand, and quick start guide; 1-Year Limited Warranty, 90-Day Single Incident Phone Support …more
Customer Reviews — [1] Rating: 5 Date: 2008-06-30 Summary: iPod Heaven … I’m very pleased with my 16GB iPod Touch. Being able to download music, movies and audiobooks while on the go is a great feature, thanks to Apple’s common sense approach to technology. …more
[2] Rating: 5 Date: 2008-06-29 Summary: touch ipod … Item was purchased for a 13 year old girl who’s previous ipod did not work. She loves the new one, and was able to figure it out without reading any directions. …more
[3] Rating: 5 Date: 2008-06-28 Summary: It’s awesome… once it worked!! … I received a brand new 16GB Apple iPod touch and was very excited to hook it up. I followed the instructions but after over an hour it still was as black and ‘dead’ as it was when I took it out of the box. After spending 40 min on the phone with Apple tech support they told me to bring it into the store. So off I went. The tech in the store went through all the same steps I did on the phone (which I told him but he apparentlhy wanted me to sit there for 30 min after he already read the on line report and heard my accounting) …more
Editorial Reviews — [1] … Product Description | .caption { font-family: Verdana, Helvetica neue, Arial, serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; } .caption2 { font-family: Verdana, Helvetica neue, Arial, serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: italic; } ul.indent { list-style: inside disc; text-indent: 20px; } iPod touch has always been an amazing iPod. With great new applications, now iPod touch is even better. Watch a movie you rented from iTunes. View rich HTML email with graphics and photos displayed inline. Open…more
[2] … Product Description | other bitrates supported * plays MP3, WAV, AAC, AIFF (uncompressed), Apple Lossless, and Audible files (formats 2, 3 and 4) * displays photos converted from JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF and PNG formats * plays video in MPEG-4 and QuickTime formats * built-in lithium ion rechargeable battery provides up to 22 hours music playback; up to 5 hours video playback * 32GB hard drive holds approximately: 40 hours of video, 20,000 photos, or 468 hours at 128 Kbps *…more

BRAND NEW ORIGINAL Apple iPod touch 32 GB

Feature: … BRAND NEW ORIGINAL Apple iPod touch 32 GB …more
Editorial Reviews — … Product Description | iPod touch has always been an amazing iPod. With great new applications, now iPod touch is even better. Watch a movie you rented from iTunes. View rich HTML email with graphics and photos displayed inline. Open PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel attachments. With Maps, find your location and get directions from there. See where you are on a map, a satellite image, or a combination of both. Make Web Clips for your Home screen so you can visit your favorite websites in just one tap.…more

And then you realize that the price last week was dropped to around $50-$70 for the 1 GB shuffles. And that the 32 GB iPod is close to $500. I’d reckon that’s not too much of a strain for Amazon.com to offer.

So! Spend close to $500 and get a $50 thingee for free.

What’s your take?

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

ps - look how they’re selling on eBay:

for APPLE iPOD TOUCH 8 16 32 GB COVER CASE TEXAS SKIN

NEW GREEN Leather Folio Case for 8GB 16GB 32 iPod Touch

APPLE Ipod Touch 32 Gb L@@K - I touch Domain Name

APPLE Ipod Touch 32 Gb L@@K - I touch Domain Name

APPLE Ipod Touch 32 Gb L@@K - I touch Domain Name

APPLE Ipod Touch 32 Gb L@@K - I touch Domain Name

APPLE Ipod Touch 32 Gb L@@K - I touch Domain Name

APPLE Ipod Touch 32 Gb L@@K - I touch Domain Name

APPLE Ipod Touch 32 Gb L@@K - I touch Domain Name

Picture the following

- you happily flung away $400 or so for a brand new shiny iPhone (wheeee!).

What on earth will you do if it gets stolen? Hmmmmm?

Why, you want to prepare for that by…..the iPhone Lojack! To wit:

…Way back, one of our readers begged for an iPhone LoJack solution. He wanted his iPhone to “call home” regularly in case of loss or, let’s be more realistic, theft. Over the past week, I finally had a chance to give this request some time, and I put together findme. It’s a command-line program that returns the location of the cell phone tower nearest to your iPhone. When run, it tells you the tower id, plus its latitude and longitude courtesy of Google Maps.

Still, how to get the location report to a place you can get it… but nobody else can… and without receiving a zillion SMSes? For this part of the puzzle, enter Twitter. Twitter dev Britt Selvitelle helped walk me through the setup for a private account that allows your iPhone to phone home but keeps the location data relatively secure.

To do this, create a new Twitter account just for your iPhone (it will need its own unique email address, separate from your main account, so have one handy). Open the Settings panel, and look for the “Protect My Updates” checkbox. It’s towards the bottom of the page, just above the Save button. Check this and click Save. With protected updates, only the Twitter users you approve will see the updates for this iPhone-only account (just you? you + spouse? spouse, kids, and “special friends?” Up to you).

After creating your phone’s Twitter account, you’re ready to set up your iPhone to tweet in on a regular basis. Here’s how.….MORE…..

What a brilliant idea! And it uses shell script! My life is complete!

But if you don’t worship and adore shell scripting and unix yourself, here are some resources to help you learn:

• Beginners iPhone Mod Guide
• iPhone Unix Help
• Help Unix

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

ps - nifty iphone goodies you crave?

Used Apple iPhone 8 GB 8GB UNLOCKED Any GSM SIM 1.1.4

Apple iPhone UNLOCKED NEW W CLEAR FILM COVER

Apple iPhone 8GB 1.1.4 Jailbreak Unlocked MINT

UNLOCK NEW IPHONE 8 16GB 1.1.3 1.1.4 SOFTWARE UNLOCKED

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UNLOCK NEW IPHONE 8 16GB 1.1.3 1.1.4 SOFTWARE UNLOCKED

New Unlocked 2008 GSM PDA Cell Phone ** DUAL SIM ** FM

Unlock Unlocked Apple iPhone Sim 8GB 16GB 1.1.2-1.1.4

Gosh, I miss

not being there this year. Apparently, it’s only gotten better and better. Witness:

….I was interviewing the CEO of a $100 million company recently when a nearby man got zapped with a Taser. The man, a Wall Street Journal reporter who had volunteered to be “Tased,” cried out in pain when the electrical dart hit him. He was lowered gently to the floor, then helped back to his feet when the effects wore off.

This happened minutes after I attended a press conference for a new Taser stun gun that has an MP3 player in its holster (yes, an MP3 player). At the press conference, Taser, Inc. also announced it’s rolling out a stylish leopard skin Taser. Company executives celebrated the introduction by donning leopard skin clothing. Also, a nice lady in leopard skin pants talked about how she’d once been kidnapped.

Welcome to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), 2008 edition. To those who’ve never attended, it may sound a bit surreal. But to CES regulars, it’s, well … fun, in an odd sort of way…..

…The flip side of this strangeshow is the breathtaking technology it delivers. Sony, for example, showed off an organic light emitting diode TV measuring a scant 3 mm thick. Texas Instruments (TI), meanwhile, demonstrated a “his and hers” TV technology, which allows two people to view completely different 3-D images while watching the same television at the same time. And a team composed of GM, Carnegie Mellon University and Continental Automotive offered rides in an autonomous truck known as “Boss.”….MORE….

What will they think of next?

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

ps - thinking Tasers are you?

Taser C2 LPM Lithium Power Magazine Battery IN BOX! NEW

Taser International

TASER International Gear Bag

Tactical Taser Holster-half the shipping cost as others

Tactical Taser Holster with two taser cartridge holders

1481 Taser Rocket Launch Set - Estes Model Rockets

Taser X26 Collectable Lapel Hat Pin Stun Gun Police

Taser X26 Manual

Estes Rockets Taser Launch Set Flying Model Rocket 1481