With Macworld out of the way (basic verdict: Phil Schiller did not bomb), a chunk of the crack All Things Digital squad is now winging its way both east and west to the annual gadgetopocalypse in Las Vegas, a.k.a. the Consumer Electronics Show. Despite the fact that the show is feeling the pinch of the economy–I was able to get a better room at a cheaper price last night, which was unheard of in the past–and that there are really no big products to speak of, except perhaps the new Palm (PALM) smartphone, CES is still one of the...
The Philippines has traditionally been a very working class contributor to the global technology sector. Some would say the industry here is built on two pillars: 1) outsourced product assembly and 2) tech support with American accents. Over the weekend, Inovent - a local industrial design firm - did a demo for a completely Philippine-made high definition iTV called Ilumina that runs on an open source brain. The company hopes that the product will serve as a catalyst for a local design and software community movement. PSFK asked Inovent founder Brian Quebengco and chief marketer Mark Ruiz to tell...
Despite what is for many in the US music industry a 4 day holiday break, Hypebot will publish throughout. Atlantic Records says that more than half its revenue is coming from digital sources. (International Herald Tribune) This is a milestone for a major label. Parent WMG only derives 27% of revenue from digital. Lisa Loeb records an exclusive EP for the LimeWire store. (press release) On eve if the US's biggest annual shopping day a new survey suggests a mixed forecast for consumer technology and media sales. (more) On its 25th anniversary, a look inside the ongoing success of folk...
Mary Lou Jepsen with XO Laptop, via Inhabitat GREENER GADGETS 2009 WHAT: The Second Annual Greener Gadgets Conference is a revolutionary event and exhibition promoting the importance of environmental stewardship in consumer technology innovation. This one day conference brings together electronics industry leaders, entrepreneurs, journalists and designers to address key green topics including sustainable design and lifestyles, product marketing, energy efficiency and more. The event also will feature the Greener Gadgets Design Competition, an awards program to recognize forward thinking and eco-conscious designers for their hard work, environmental awareness and creativity. Greener Gadgets offers an excellent platform for environmental...
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. What happens when the efficient menu-driven user experience of the BlackBerry meets the discoverable new user experience of finger-driven touch? The answer for the BlackBerry Storm has been that the BlackBerry experience wins, and who loses depends on what you were expecting from RIM's first departure from a physical keyboard. While adorned with a few on-screen buttons and simple gesture support, the Storm is much less of an iPhone-like experience than, say, the T-Mobile G1.The Storm's main advantage over other BlackBerry devices is that it has a larger...
Walter Mossberg, who has been reviewing technology since 1991 for the Wall Street Journal in his weekly "Personal Technology" column, is convinced the companies that succeed in this type of econaclypse, as AllThingsD has dubbed the economy, will be those that focus on innovation. "It has been my observation that while things do slow down in bad times, they don't stop," Mossberg said. Speaking to a packed room this week at the Dow Jones VentureWire Technology Showcase in Redwood City CA, Mossberg, the "Most Influential Computer Journalist" according to Time Magazine, described the trends that excite him right now as...
Filed under: GPSEach week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Often, a shotgun is used at the beginning of a dash, but not so in the world of connected GPS devices, where Telenav launched its Shotgun portable navigation device days after Dash decided to exit the hardware business with its pioneering Dash Express. Unlike Dash, Telenav was no newcomer to the guided navigation space, being a leading provider of turn-by-turn navigation services to cell phones. Its customers include Sprint and AT&T, and consumers can subscribe to the service directly through Telenav -- even if their carrier...
This is your guide to some of the best tech podcasts about Internet, computer software, gadgets, viral web videos, productivity and online culture. You can download these podcasts in iTunes, Adobe Media Player or any other feed reader that supports media enclosures. Podcasting Directory: The Top Tech Video Podcasts CNET Loaded – Natali Del Conte discusses the top technology news of the day in this daily video show. GeekBrief TV – One of the longest running video podcast on the web with host Cali Lewis. It’s all about gadgets and tech toys. Tekzilla – Veronica Belmont shares useful tips on...
Filed under: HandheldsEach week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Last week's Switched On delved into Celio's REDFLY, an austere smartphone accessory designed for enterprise users who manage their digital lives on their smartphones. REDFLY has faced scrutiny from the geek elite who have noted that, for about the same price as a REDFLY, one can get an independently functioning netbook that does so much more. A similar argument has also been levied at Peek, a wireless e-mail appliance that delivers only a part of what most smartphones can do. But the two products could hardly...
The fundamental proposition of consumer technology is as follows: the closer we are to using the gadgets featured in the last 10 years of crappy spy thrillers and action movies, the more progress we've made. That's how the Surface came to be, and how we've ended up with the fingerprint-grabbing, light-sensing LCD panel. AU Optronics has developed systems that can handle both without interfering with a panel's display capabilities. While this tech is unlikely to replace the dirt-cheap light sensors that manage screen brightness for a while, LCD fingerprinting could add an interesting security layer for increasingly common touchscreen devices,...
Filed under: LaptopsEach week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. A special note this week; this post marks the fourth year of Switched On columns for Engadget, and we'd like to give a big thanks to Ross for all his hard work and intriguing ideas. We're looking forward to the next four! -ed. Palm's abandoned Foleo had a split personality. It was positioned as a smartphone companion, but it was also a new platform. Consumers expected to pay less for the former and saw no need for the latter. But the idea of a small, inexpensive...
Filed under: Portable AudioEach week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. If Lala.com has its way, the Web song will do to the MP3 file what the MP3 file did to the CD. The maverick music website, which began as a CD trading site and moved into Internet radio, announced an ambitious plan last year to license the catalogs of the four major music labels as well as those of many independents. It would provide unlimited listening to its members in the hopes of stimulating buying. Listeners would pay only when they wanted to transfer music...
It's easy to mock Sony for its lumbering scale, extravagant products and slow development cycle. The thing is vast. It even has its own orchestra, comprising mostly of professional engineers. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Sony CEO Howard Stringer is candid about why the company is the way it is, and displays a wit and humility that might come as a surprise to those who wonder why Sony isn't more like Apple. "All big companies settle into vertical silos," he told Rose, recounting the difficulties of cutting fat at a Japanese company. "We have to go into the kind...
Woz, interviewed by London's Telegraph newspaper, has a just shocking prediction for the iPod: like every other item of consumer technology ever developed and sold, it will one day be an obsolete reflection of the time that produced it! "The iPod has sort of lived a long life at number one," he says. "Things like, that if you look back to transistor radios and Walkmans, they kind of die out after a while. "It's kind of like everyone has got one or two or three. You get to a point when they are on display everywhere, they get real...
